Displaying the most recent of 90302 posts written by

Ruth King

Peace through Power, War through Weakness: A Tale of Two Middle East Policies : Andrew Harrod

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/peace-through-power-war-through-weakness-a-tale-of-two-middle-east-policies?f

“Strategic threats are growing longer and longer,” Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Captain Barak Raz stated with respect to the dangers facing his country.

Raz, the IDF Central Command’s former Judea and Samaria (West Bank) Division spokesperson, spoke during a Dec. 10, 2013, conference call discussing growing dangers to Western interests in the Middle East.

The conference call occurred in lieu due to inclement weather of a Capitol Hill panel sponsored by the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET), a pro-American and pro-Israeli Washington, DC think tank. Raz focused on Israeli policy vis-à-vis the Palestinians in the conflicted Judea and Samaria/West Bank. Lebanese Christian Middle East scholar Walid Phares, meanwhile, joined Raz to discuss the role of Iran’s nuclear weapons program in Middle Eastern security.

CLARE LOPEZ:Iranians: Geneva is ‘Treaty of Hudaybiyyah’

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/iranians-geneva-is-treaty-of-hudaybiyyah?f=puball

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the deal brokered in late November 2013 in Geneva between the P5+1 allows Iran to “continue its [nuclear] enrichment” activities. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says that the deal does not recognize a “right to enrich.” (Here’s the text of the so-called “Joint Plan of Action – http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/uploads/Documents/other/IranP5plus1jointplanofaction131124en.pdf – the Iranians are right.)

President Obama hailed the Geneva agreement as the most “significant and tangible” progress to date toward ensuring that Iran “cannot build a nuclear weapon.” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Marzieh Afkham said “There is no treaty and no pact.” (It’s a “letter of intent,” say the Iranians.) For his part, the Iranian negotiator, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, exulted that the document explicitly recognized the inclusion of an Iranian enrichment program in the final deal (it does).

There’s at least one major point of agreement, however, for both Americans and Iranians (although it’s doubtful the U.S. negotiating team actually understands what it means). That single point of agreement is about the temporary nature of the pact/letter/Joint Plan of Action: first it was going to be for six months, then it would be for six months after a few more details were worked out, then the technical discussions in Vienna collapsed on 11 December, then Secretary Kerry said the talks would continue in a few days. And then Mohammad Sadeq Al-Hosseini, formerly a political advisor to Iranian President Khatami and now a TV commentator, clarified everything.

Congressman Nadler Comes Clean By Marion DS Dreyfus

http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/12/congressman_nadler_comes_clean.html A 2-hour ‘listen’ and Q & A with Congressman Jerold Nadler, Dem., NY, Upper Left Side regular, occurred on the first day of winter 2013. The talk, one of two on the Iran nuclear issue, took place at the West 95th Street Ohav Tzedek synagogue, fondly referred to as OZ. Nadler would not discuss […]

Obama’s Podesta Hire : The New White House Adviser Isn’t There to Govern From the Center.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304020704579274660612130636?mod=Opinion_newsreel_4

One of President Obama’s political talents is his ability to portray any sort of trouble as something that only affects lesser mortals. This lets him appear to be gliding through his Presidency as if everything bad that happens is someone else’s worry, not to mention someone else’s fault. His end-of-year press conference on Friday was typical in that he batted away questions like a President whose job approval were 57%, not 42%.

Down in the polls? “I have now been in office five years—close to five years . . . I think this room has probably recorded at least 15 near-death experiences.”

ObamaCare woes? “The basic structure of that law is working despite all the problems—despite the website problems, despite the messaging problems. Despite all that, it’s working.”

Obama’s Misguided Obsession With Inequality: Robert Grady

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303773704579269990020773098?mod=hp_opinion He uses statistics that ignore taxes and transfer payments. Faster growth is what the poor really need. In his widely noted speech, President Obama said that “a dangerous and growing inequality and lack of upward mobility” is “the defining challenge of our time.” This belief makes Mr. Obama unique: Unlike the other presidents since […]

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL: MICHAEL ORDMAN

  www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com  http://blogs.jpost.com/users/just-look-us-now ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS   New wonder treatment.  Israel’s VBL Therapeutics has developed VB-201 – the first of a new class of oral anti-inflammatories called Lecinoxoids.  VB-201 has the potential to treat immune-inflammatory diseases such as Psoriasis, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis and more.  The US FDA has also granted fast-track […]

VALERIE JARRETT- THE SPINE OF OBAMA? JAN WILLEM VAN DER HOEVEN

Home They call her “the spine of Obama”, ‘his mentor’, the world’s most influential woman. She is without question the most influential power behind Barack Obama’s presidency. As Richard Miniter writes, in “Leading from behind:”   [H]e can confide in almost no one, because opening up would break the spell that he has managed to […]

Senator Tom Coburn Unveils his New Book – “Federal Waste Book 2013″: Veronique de Rugy

http://israel-commentary.org/?p=8180
Posts tagged ‘Tax Breaks for Brothel-Worker Breast Implants – for Starters!’ – See more at: http://israel-commentary.org/?tag=tax-breaks-for-brothel-worker-breast-implants-for-starters#sthash.0GdgDBwG.dpuf

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) will unveil Wastebook 2013, his annual report on egregious federal spending.

There are many problems with government intervention. It’s expensive, it introduces distortions into the market, and it’s often unfair. It can introduce major costs to people’s lives, as people have discovered when their insurance policies were canceled and they were forced to buy more expensive and sometimes less-comprehensive policies because of Obamacare.

But then there’s the fact that government spends a lot of money on ridiculous causes of which almost no one approves. Senator Coburn and his staff have produced their annual list of outrageous stuff that the government spends with your hard-earned money. This year, it adds up to $30 billion. Here are a few examples from last year:

BUS ATTACK IN ISRAEL THWARTED BY VIGILANT DRIVER

Israel Bomb Attack Thwarted by Vigilant Bus Driver A terrorist attack in Bat Yam, Israel was thwarted Sunday by a vigilant bus driver. The driver, Michael Yuger, was told by one of his passengers about a large suspicious black knapsack in the back of the number 240 bus he was driving. He immediately had all 15 […]

ANDREW McCARTHY: PUTTING JUDGES IN CHARGE OF NATIONAL SECURITY

http://www.nationalreview.com/node/366886/print I’m not big on bipartisanship. Too often for conservatives in Washington, it’s a euphemism for surrender, or at least the indulgence of ever-expanding government. But there are a few things we need a central government for, none more vital than national security. Because a political community’s most important decisions are the ones made about […]