RUTHFULLY YOURS

Should AIPAC temper its opposition to Obama’s Iran deal in the name of “bipartisanship”?

One of the most diehard Obama loyalists in Chicago, Steve Sheffey, is unhappy that AIPAC chose to oppose the president’s Iran deal. Sheffey argues that since Democrats were on one side of this issue and Republicans on the other, AIPAC should have been neutral, and not come down for one side, especially of course the Republican side. We don’t know what Sheffey thought about AIPAC opposing President Reagan’s sale of AWACs to Saudi Arabia in the early 80s. Maybe he was too young to be writing partisan screeds back then. My guess is that for Sheffey, bipartisanship is good if it helps neuter opposition to anything Obama wants. When a Republican is in the White House, all bets are off.

Most telling in the article is Sheffey’s apparent need for a safe space at AIPAC conferences and probably a few trigger warnings from AIPAC leadership as well:

“In the past few years, the atmosphere at AIPAC meetings has become increasingly partisan. Democratic speakers get polite applause, if any, while Republican speakers get thunderous applause. Speakers whose views diverge from mine on other issues, such as Pastor John Hagee, and whose rationale for supporting Israel is troubling, seem too popular among too many AIPAC members. But I can live with that as long as their support for Israel does not require me to support the rest of their agenda.”

Vladimir Putin doesn’t seem to share President Obama’s definition of “smarter.” Ten days ago Mr. Obama declared that the Russian President’s military deployments in Syria were “doomed to fail” and the Kremlin was “going to have to start getting a little smarter.” Mr. Putin then began sending fighter jets, and now it looks like Mr. Obama is the one who has been taken to school.

That’s the only way to read Secretary of Defense Ash Carter’s call on Friday to Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu to explore what a Pentagon spokesman called “mechanisms for deconfliction” in Syria. In addition to the jets, Russia is sending T-90 tanks, howitzers, troop-transport and attack helicopters, a company of armed Marines, and further equipment to establish an air base near the coastal Syrian city of Latakia. Mr. Shoigu describes the build-up as “defensive in nature.”

Sure, as in Ukraine. Along with Iran, Russia is the Bashar Assad regime’s principal sponsor, providing weapons, diplomatic protection at the United Nations, and now direct military support. Mr. Putin sees an opportunity to rescue his client in Damascus, strengthen ties with Iran, establish a large military footprint along the eastern Mediterranean, further reduce U.S. influence, and create diplomatic leverage that he can use to ease Western sanctions imposed in response to his invasion of Ukraine. On present course he’ll accomplish all of the above.

U.S. to admit 85,000 in fiscal 2016 and 100,000 in fiscal 2017, says Secretary of State John Kerry

The U.S. will boost the number of refugees it accepts from around the world to 100,000 annually, up from 70,000 now, as part of an effort to help Europe cope with a migration crisis, Secretary of State John Kerry said.

The increase would include at least 10,000 Syrian refugees that the White House has proposed admitting to the U.S. next year, Mr. Kerry said. Beyond that, however, details were scarce.

Since 2011, the U.S. has taken in about 1,600 Syrians.

Some Republicans say the U.S. should concentrate its efforts on helping Syrians resettle in the region, rather than transport them far from home. Other critics have raised concerns about Islamic State or other militants outwitting the lengthy background checks each applicant undergoes to infiltrate the U.S. posing as refugees.

But Mr. Kerry said the U.S. move would be “in keeping with America’s best tradition as a land of second chances and a beacon of hope.”

Normalization of relations with Israel could bolster efforts to balance Iran’s growing regional clout.

“In the Middle East, everyone at some point realizes that there is a bigger enemy than the big enemy.” – Israeli official.

But in the Middle East, reason does not always overcome holiness.

Israel-bashing and the systematic fueling of anti-Semitic behavior have become a Turkish political pastime since Turkey downgraded its diplomatic ties with Israel in 2010. There has been, though, relative tranquility and reports of a potential thaw since June 7, when Turkey’s Islamist government lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since it rose to power in 2002.

In August, a senior Hamas official, apparently hosted for some time by an all-too affectionate Turkish government, vanished into thin air. Saleh al-Arouri, a veteran Hamas official and one of the founders of its military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was forced to leave Israel in 2010, after serving more than 15 years in prison. After his release, he was believed to be living in Istanbul. In August 2014, at a meeting of the International Union of Islamic Scholars in Istanbul, al-Arouri said that Hamas was behind the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank, an incident that triggered a spiral of violence in Gaza and Israel that summer.

Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, sentenced to be crucified, was accused of participating in banned protests and firearms offenses — despite a complete lack of evidence on the latter charge, and he was denied access to lawyers. Al-Nimr is also alleged by human rights groups to have been tortured and then forced into signing a confession while in custody.

Not only are the Saudi authorities preparing to crucify someone — in 2015 — whom they tortured into making a confession; they are preparing to crucify someone who was a minor at the time of arrest.

Alas not a week goes by without Saudi Arabia demonstrating to the world why they retain their reputation as one of the world’s foremost human rights sewers.

Crucifixion is a punishment which, it would appear, is not only Sharia-compliant but also — we must assume — Geneva-compliant.

At least 23 rock-throwing and Molotov cocktail attacks against Israelis had been perpetrated by Palestinians in different parts of the country as of 2 p.m. Sunday, the Israeli news site 0404 reported.

Among the violent incidents recorded during the first half of the day alone were an attack on an Israeli fire truck near the Jerusalem suburb of Betar Illit, carried out by masked perpetrators; a family car was pummeled with rocks near Beit Sahour, during an attack on several vehicles simultaneously – with a large rock landing next to a baby’s car-seat. Miraculously, no injuries were sustained in either attack, though damage was done to the vehicles. An IDF officer in the same area was wounded by rocks and rushed to the hospital with an apparent broken leg.

Due to the escalation of Palestinian violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a special security meeting on Sunday to reiterate his call on Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein to approve altering the rules of engagement for IDF soldiers and Israel Police confronting the phenomenon of rock-throwing.

One of the Glazov Gang’s most popular episodes was joined by Louis Lionheart, a Christian preacher who engages in open-air debates, dialogues and evangelism on 3rd. Street Promenade in Santa Monica, Ca. For information on his ministry visit his web site: TruthDefenders.com.

Louis came on the show to discuss Muslim Woman Attacks Christian Preacher, sharing the incident that occurred with him when he dared to tell the truth about Mohammed and Aisha. (Video clip of the assault is played in the program).

Louis also focused on The Battle Over Islam on the Streets of L.A., relating his overall experience of engaging Muslims about their religion on 3rd St. Promenade.

Did you miss this BLOCKBUSTER episode?

Here it is below:

As the week ended, Obama’s palace guard in the American media were demanding that every other Republican candidate distance himself from Donald Trump’s failure to correct, among thousands of attendees at his events, one who apparently is under the reprehensible illusion that the President is a Muslim.

Any candidate who plays this game with the Obamamedia is a fool. Assuming for the sake of argument that the questioner is genuine and not a plant (like, say, the 14-year old all-American schoolboy clockmaker who didn’t make a clock at all and is the son of a belligerent Muslim activist and perennial Sudanese presidential candidate whose brother runs a trucking company amusingly called Twin Towers Transportation), putting all of that to one side, there are several entirely reasonable responses one could make to the gentlemen of the press:

1) Unlike Hillary Clinton’s under-attended “rallies”, a voter doesn’t have to undergo a background check or sign a piece of paper pledging to support her in the election before being permitted into a Republican candidate’s presence. So at our campaign events there are all kinds of people with all kinds of views – and it goes without saying I won’t agree with them all. If you find that odd, maybe you’ve been covering Hillary too long.

The votes are in, and supporters of the Iran deal appear to have won a big victory in the U.S. Congress. The Corker-Cardin legislation set up a process whereby the Iran deal would be handled as an executive agreement rather than a treaty, and as a result, deal opponents would have needed two-thirds of both the Senate and the House of Representatives to secure a victory (meaning a rejection of the deal), through an override of an Obama veto of their initial rejection of the agreement.

How did the deal opponents do? In the Senate, 58 of the 100 senators announced their opposition to the agreement — all 54 Republicans and 4 Democrats. Some 42 Democrats announced their support for the deal. To protect President Barack Obama from the humiliation of having to veto an initial rejection of the agreement (his self-described signature foreign policy and second-term “achievement”), Democratic senators filibustered and refused to allow a vote on the deal itself. But in the vote on cloture — the attempt to cut off debate so that there would be a vote on the agreement itself, the 42 Democrats in the president’s corner held together and prevented that vote. Of course, every vote on the cloture resolution was the same as the announced support or rejection of the deal by senators before the discussions before the actual vote began. So it is not as if we did not know where every senator stood on the deal.

Brainsway’s Deep TMS therapy system helps treat PTSD, bipolar, depression and other conditions

The US Navy will be using an Israeli-developed transcranial magnetic stimulation system to treat patients with a range of psychological conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), stress, major depressive disorder, and others.

The Navy has ordered several Deep TMS therapy helmets made by Jerusalem-based Brainsway for use in several of its medical facilities to help treat sailors and their families, as part of a therapy plan that could include counseling, anti-depressives, and other therapies.

“Our validation as a supplier to the US Navy is an important stepping stone for our company into the US market,” said Brainsway CEO and president Guy Ezekiel. “The Navy provides health services to many service people and to their families at a large number of treatment centers, and we are proud to be a part of those services.”