RUTHFULLY YOURS

Twitter seems to be in partnership with the U.S. House of Representatives in its determination to culturally enrich America with Sharia speech restrictions.

Twitter seems to be in partnership with the U.S. House of Representatives in its determination to culturally enrich America with Sharia speech restrictions. On December 22nd I reported, in my Rule of Reason column, “A Congressional Overture to Censorship,” on House Resolution 569, submitted on December 17th to the House committee process, which in its content and intent, preempted Twitter’s January 1st, 2016, publication of its new rules that prohibit the promotion of hate content, “sensitive” topics, and the advocacy of violence globally. Ostensively, it is a stab at combating terrorists from using Twitter as a means of communication to its allies and its enemies, but it is too coincidental with both the Congressional resolution and the OIC’s Sharia compliance plans. Here is a copy and paste from Twitter’s support page.

What products or services are subject to this policy?

With the flood of refugees from the Middle East and North Africa overwhelming Europe, and with the Obama administration allowing large numbers to come to the United States, there is a justifiable fear that embedded in the ranks of the refugees are trained terrorists.

Until now, identifying embedded terrorists has been nearly an impossible challenge. People have called for better “vetting,” but to “vet” means to look back at people’s history based on their documentation. For most people, certainly for most Syrians, there is no “back” – even a legitimate passport can’t be verified with Passport Control in Damascus. With whom would one check local police, employment or education records?

Then add other, practical, problems. How do you interview a refugee when you have few officials who speak Arabic? And even if some know the language, how can a border control agent or a customs official determine whether the answers are truthful? How can the border control system deal with the extraordinary volume and process people who are disoriented, angry, and pressing to move on to more permanent quarters?

Netanyahu said he appreciated those in the Israeli Arab public who spoke out against the attack, serve in the IDF.

Israel cannot allow pockets of the country to have lax gun law enforcement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday evening, visiting the site of Friday’s shooting on Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Street.
Shortly after police publicized the name of the suspected gunman, 31-year-old Nashat Milhem of Arara, Netanyahu spoke out about the need to fight incitement and increase law enforcement in Israeli-Arab areas.

“There are many among Muslim Israeli citizens who have come out against the violence and are crying out for full law enforcement in their towns. At the same time, we all know that there is wild incitement by radical Islam against the State of Israel in the Arab sector. Incitement in mosques, in the education system, on social media,” he said, vowing to continue efforts to stop the incitement.

The prime minister said he is unwilling to have a state within a state in Israel, in which some citizens live in “enclaves with no law enforcement, with Islamist incitement and an abundance of illegal weapons that are often fired at happy events, weddings, and during endless criminal incidents.”

“That time is over,” Netanyahu declared.

If there is one proposition on which there is a consensus among Middle East experts—from academia to the media, and to politicians who echo them both—it is that the “root cause” of present problems in the region are the Western imperialists who imposed their will on its hapless indigenous peoples. According to this narrative, Western powers had been nibbling at the margins of the Ottoman Empire and seized on the opportunity offered by its siding with Germany in World War I. Secret agreements between imperialist powers determined new political boundaries without regard to the needs or interests of those who lived in the region, or to any promises made in the past.

The Tail Wags the Dog: International Politics and the Middle EastAug 11, 2015

by Efraim Karsh

As he did in his 1999 Empires of the Sand: The Struggle for Mastery in Middle East (written with his wife Inari), Efraim Karsh, professor emeritus of Middle East Studies at Kings College, London and currently professor at Bar Ilan University, again turns the conventional wisdom on its head. He writes that Britain, France, and Russia begged the Ottoman Empire to stay out of World War I, promising to ensure the Empire’s survival if it did. Moreover, Karsh insists “the depiction of Muslims as hapless victims of the aggressive encroachments of others, too dim to be accountable for their own fate, is not only completely unfounded but the inverse of the truth.”

MEDIA IGNORE THE FACT THAT AN ARAB JUDGE SENTENCED EX-ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER OLMERT

When international media reported at some length last week on the sentencing of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to 18 months in prison by Israel’s Supreme Court, almost no foreign journalist mentioned that the judge who announced the verdict, Justice Salim Joubran, from Haifa, is an Israeli-Arab member of Israel’s Supreme Court.

To mention this would, of course, draw attention to the fact that the “Israeli Apartheid” myth that many of their colleagues in the media promote, is just that – a myth.

Olmert is the first Israeli prime minister to be convicted of a crime. A lower Israeli court had sentenced him to six years in jail for two counts of bribery, but the Supreme Court overturned one of the convictions on appeal last week. (Olmert was found guilty of accepting a relatively small sum in bribes – certainly small compared to the bribery and corruption rife throughout much of the world, and even in some EU countries.)

A correspondent for the Israeli daily Haaretz wrote “Israel is the only country in the world where a president and a prime minister have both been sent to prison by a court, without a coup or revolution.”

https://pjmedia.com/trending/2016/1/2/palestinian-kids-have-a-new-favorite-game-stab-the-jew

More evidence that Palestinian children are the new Hitler Youth: a video has appeared on YouTube showing Palestinian kids in a refugee camp (Far’a near Jenin) playing a new game: stab the Jew.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has never been a man of peace. Even now, he continues calling for Jewish blood. Israel, however, has offered peace deal after peace deal – never even to receive even so much as a single counter-offer.

Sometimes, Abbas harps on Israel’s settlement policy as the sole reason for the absence of peace in the region. But before 1967 there were no settlements — and still no peace. What, then, was the PLO thinking of liberating? If you look at any current map of “Palestine” from the Palestinian Authority or Hamas, it blankets the entire country of Israel.

“For how long will this protracted Israeli occupation of our land last? After 67 years, how long?” — Mahmoud Abbas, saying recently that the “occupation” has existed since Israel’s creation in 1948.

One wonders if or when the U.S. administration and the Europeans might ever be serious about promoting real peace and prosperity in the disputed Palestinian territories. Sadly, the White House, in pinning all its hopes on Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, has just been trying to hook its cart to someone not only with a shelf-life that officially expired years ago, but who is also too corrupt to be of any help to his people.

Jewish and Christian clerics are fascinated with and entranced by the Islamic crocodile that smiles at them, unaware that sooner or later, the crocodile will attack and eat them, but not before drowning them in their own folly.

Writing as an atheist, I at first thought it would be difficult to comment on a specific part of Stephen Coughlin’s Catastrophic Failure: Blindfolding America in the Face of Jihad, which is Part XI: Interfaith Outreach (Appendix One, pp. 511-574). But Coughlin presents the subject in such clear terms that it was fascinating and definitely instructive to observe how the Islamic Movement ensnares Christians and Jews in “interfaith dialogue” for the Muslim Brotherhood’s own nefarious purposes. Much of the slithering methods of the interfaith dialogue promoted by various Islamic organizations, which can be viewed as a master template, can be seen in how Muslim “experts” in Islam are used to help American counter-intelligence formulate useless and vacuous analyses of threats by ISIS and al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, which is also exhaustively detailed by Coughlin in his book.

Readers and fans of my novels know that I can mock any religion, but refrain from such business in real life because all those religions but one are not out of kill, convert, or subjugate me. They leave me alone, I leave them alone. Except for Mormon and Jehovah Witnesses door-knockers, who are mostly unsolicited pests. They’re not on my doorstep for long.

The exception is Islam.

The biggest beneficiary of postmodernism – that is, the broad movement of denial of the value and efficacy of reason – aside from the Democrats, aside from the “trigger warning” and “safe place” addicts, aside from the advocates of open borders, aside from the advocates of moral relativism, aside from gun-control advocates, aside from Black Lives Matter, aside from the assailants on the First Amendment, and etc., is Islam. In the suffocating, mind-stunting miasma of postmodernist thought and practice in Western culture, the biggest victor is and will continue to be Islam.

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

A treatment for migraine. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Teva is partnering with Japan’s Heptares to develop small-molecule calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) antagonists discovered by Heptares for the treatment of migraine. Migraine affects 36 million people in the United States and 10% of people worldwide.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/teva-pharmaceutical-idUKnBw255141a+100+BSW20151125

Brain link to diabetic foot ulcers. Researchers at Ben Gurion University have discovered that sufferers of diabetic foot ulcers frequently also have substantially impaired cognitive function. Systemic vascular changes affect the whole body including the feet, heart and brain. The researchers propose new treatment strategies.
http://aabgu.org/diabetic-foot-is-linked-to-cognitive-deterioration/

Unique brain imaging study with UCL. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Teva has begun a unique study with University College London (UCL) to use PET scans of the brain in order to analyze the role of inflammation of the brain on dementia and other neuro-degenerative diseases.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/teva-pharmaceutical-idUKnBw195738a+100+BSW20151119?type=companyNews

Portable ventilator is saving lives. The Israeli-invented Pocket BVM (Bag Valve Mask) mini-ventilator has saved US soldiers in Afghanistan and is now being used to treat thousands of people at disasters, as in Nepal. It is also carried on many El Al planes. (See http://www.israelifirstaid.com/ for other Israeli medical equipment)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/the-israeli-invented-device-thats-saving-american-lives-in-afghanistan/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJKO8jgQvwY http://microbvm.com/home

Transforming patient care. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Zebra Medical Vision has signed a multi-year agreement with Dell Services to deliver its screening and diagnostic decision support platform to hospitals worldwide. Zebra’s systems can identify patients at early risk of osteoporosis, cardiac disease, liver disease etc.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/dell-services-selects-zebra-medical-140500442.html

An app to lower your stress level. (TY SDM) Israeli startup Eco-Fusion has developed Serenita – an app that measures and can lower your stress level. Cover your smartphone lens with a finger to measure heartrate, blood flow, and respiration. Serenita’s 5-minute personalized breathing exercise then visibly reduces your stress.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4735610,00.html http://www.eco-fusion.com/serenita/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PGP7n-Sb_U

Safer ingredients. Israel’s Frutarom has launched a new line of natural food extracts compatible with new EU regulations prohibiting polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and other contaminants in food supplements. Frutarom’s patented EFLA HyperPure technology purifies raw materials susceptible to contamination by PAHs.
http://www.frutaromhealth.com/2015/12/02/closing-the-safety-gap-with-new-efla-hyperpure-line/

I admire Josh Gelernter, but his prescription is shallow…when the world calls those who commit jihads against Israel “militants” and when headlines bruit senseless killings of civilians as Islamic jihad everywhere, but always omit those words when describing atrocities in Israel, and when they link barbaric attacks against Jews with “root causes and the occupation” and call every act of self defense by Israel “disproportionate”- it is hard to argue with words against vile anti-Antisemitism disguised as moral indignation…..rsk
Since last September, Israel has been suffering a wave of terrorist attacks that the press is calling the “Knife Intifada.” Palestinian terrorists have been murdering Israelis (and one teenage American tourist), mostly with knives, at a higher-than-normal rate — and the international consensus is that the murdered Israelis had it coming. Why? Because Israel is terrible at making its own case. Israel’s PR experts are as incompetent as its army is effective. Israel has allowed itself to become the bad guy in its daily struggle for survival.

Israel is losing the argument for its own existence.

Ezra Schwartz — the murdered American teenager — was shot to death while his car sat in traffic. He was from Massachusetts, and the New England Patriots wanted to memorialize him before a game, a week after every team in the NFL had memorialized the victims of the attacks in Paris. Evidently, the league’s front office had to approve the in memoriam statement, and someone decided the Patriots could say only that Ezra had been “gunned down nearly 5,500 miles from home, while studying abroad” — because saying he had been killed by a Palestinian terrorist in Israel would have been too controversial. It’s safe to say that if supporting Israel has become controversial among American football fans, something has gone very wrong.

The fact is, the case for Israel is simple. It could easily be made in a 90-second commercial, which Israel should be paying to air all over the civilized world.

The 90-second ad should start with a question: “Why do you hate Israel?”

“Because of the occupation of Palestinian Territories?”

“But in 2008,” it should say, “Israel offered Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas a deal in which a Palestinian State would be formed in the Gaza Strip and 93.7 percent of the West Bank. The missing 6.3 percent would be replaced by land swaps from Israel. Abbas turned the deal down, telling a reporter, ‘I did not agree. I rejected it out of hand.’