RUTHFULLY YOURS

Israel: An LED Light Unto the Nations

http://americanthinker.com/assets/3rd_party/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/03/israel_an_led_light_unto_the_nations.html
Angela Hasek is a junior majoring in Entrepreneurship at the University of St Thomas in St. Paul, MN.

Israel has many awe-inspiring qualities. Its people are tenacious and brave. Its history is unmatched in depth and significance. And its society reflects the values upon which Western civilization is built. But discussions of the Jewish State tend to surround its battle for survival – this is a mistake. We should remember that there is a great deal more to this country and that we have all benefited from its existence.

Israel is a democracy, a strong ally of the United States, and the Middle East’s one true oasis of religious liberty. I saw all of these qualities during my recent trip there with Christians United for Israel. But I saw one more that my generation in particular has embraced.

Since our founding, American culture has been closely associated with the entrepreneurial spirit. That is in many ways the underpinning of the American dream, and that spirit is growing. In fact, a September 2013 Rasmussen poll revealed that 60% of Millennials want to work for themselves. Not simply at one point in their lives, but within the next two years.

I have studied entrepreneurship throughout the world and, save America, no nation celebrates that spirit more than Israel — and the world is better for it. From advancements in medicine to the technology behind instant messaging services and cell phones, Israel has improved the quality of life for billions — many of whom may not even know it. Israel is credited with creating one of the first SanDisk portable storage devices. They are responsible for an invention called the MobileEye that detects pedestrians and keeps my family members safer on the road. In the medical field, one specific company Given Imaging, has created a variety of patient-friendly mechanisms that detect disorders of the GI tract.

I have seen firsthand what Israel is doing to make my individual life and the world a better place. And that progress is driven by Israel’s open entrepreneurial spirit. Israel feeds the hungry not just by giving them a basket of food but by teaching the world how to make the desert bloom. Israeli entrepreneurs have developed an app that can dramatically decrease the response times of fire and rescue personnel — not benefitting just themselves, but everyone.

http://www.nationalreview.com/node/373348/print

The National Debt Now Arguing that it will menace “the children” down the road masks its urgency.

Budget hawks and free-marketeers very badly need to retool their rhetoric on the dangers of government borrowing and America’s ever-deepening national debt — last clocked at $17.4 trillion.

“How dare we pass along our bills to our children and grandchildren . . . yadda, yadda, yadda . . . ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz . . . ”

Such ubiquitous references to indebted youngsters have grown hackneyed. These proverbial little boys and girls have zero practical impact on and limited emotional appeal to Americans who do not have and perhaps do not want offspring. Despite the widespread assumption that “everyone has kids,” tens of millions do not. Of the 226,249,370 adults between ages 18 and 88 in 2009, the latest year for which census data are available, 70,897,249 (31.3 percent) collectively had spawned a grand total of zero children — ever. While most of these voting-age Americans — enough to populate six Ohios — eventually will bear children (or have since this study), many others won’t.

Among those age 50+ in 2009, the Census Bureau’s most recent Survey of Income and Program Participation found that 7,354,970 (17.03 percent) of men and 7,558,026 (15.06 percent) of women never had reproduced. These 14.9 million Americans — nearly enough to inhabit three Colorados — have been childless for at least five decades and likely will remain so.

Thus, any given speech about “the children paying our debts” may stir parents and grandparents, but it will fall on at least 140 million deaf or disengaged ears.

(For further details on America’s childless-adult population, click here.)

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/373326/most-cynical-generation-jonah-goldberg

In case you hadn’t heard, young people these days — a.k.a “the Millennials” — are the most cynical and distrusting generation ever recorded. Only 19 percent think most people can be trusted. According to a big study from the Pew Research Center, they are less attached to marriage, religion, and political institutions than Gen Xers, Baby Boomers, and the other demographic flavors journalists love to use. They like their friends, their digital “social networks,” and their toys, and that’s about it. Not even a majority will call themselves “patriotic.” Probably more dismaying for liberals: Of any living generation, they are the least likely to call themselves environmentalists.

Now, I should say that I often find generational stereotyping pretty annoying. For instance, there was no “greatest generation.” Sure, there were a bunch of great Americans who stormed the beaches of Normandy. But is some guy who was in jail in 1943 for petty larceny deserving of special respect because he was born around the same time as a guy who won the Medal of Honor during WWII?

Honor, glory, and respect are earned individually, not collectively.

Politicians pander to young people, and lots of young people fall for it. And that speaks well of neither. Politicians pander to “youth” because it’s a time-saving way to trawl for votes and volunteer door-knockers wholesale. It’s the difference between using a gill net and a fishing pole. “You’re great because you were born more recently than other people” is the lamest form of flattery I can think of.

http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=10921

Senior Palestinian official Abbas Zaki said in an interview broadcast yesterday on official PA TV that Israelis “have no belief, no principles” and that they “are an advanced instrument of evil.” Therefore, “Allah will gather them so that we can kill them,” he explained:
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“These Israelis have no belief, no principles. They are an advanced instrument of evil. They say, the Holocaust, and so on – fine, why are they doing this to us? Therefore, I believe that Allah, will gather them so we can kill them. I am informing the murderer of his death.”
[Official PA TV, March 12, 2014]
Click to view

Zaki sitting in place of honor one seat from Mahmoud Abbas at Fatah event in 2011

Zaki’s public anticipation of the extermination of the Israelis is significant because, as Palestinian Media Watch has reported, he is a close associate of Mahmoud Abbas. He was sent to Syria as Mahmoud Abbas’ personal representative in October 2013, and he speaks at public events representing Fatah.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/missing-from-the-most-expensive-defense-program-ever-a-clear-purpose/article/2545575

Jed Babbin served as a deputy undersecretary of defense in the George H.W. Bush administration and is a senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research.

The F-35 should be known as the fighter that ate the defense budget.

It’s the most expensive defense program ever. So far the cost is about $400 billion to buy them and an additional $1 trillion to fly and maintain over its service life. And its costs are still climbing.

And that’s not the only problem. There’s a shocking statement about the F-35 by a man who needs to be taken seriously: Gen. Michael Hostage, the head of Air Combat Command. He’s responsible for ensuring the Air Force has the right aircraft for the right missions. He’s also responsible for air combat strategies and tactics.

In an Air Force Times interview published Feb. 2, Hostage said, “If I do not keep that F-22 fleet viable, the F-35 fleet frankly will be irrelevant. The F-35 is not built as an air superiority platform. It needs the F-22. Because I got such a pitifully tiny fleet, I’ve got to ensure I will have every single one of those F-22s as capable as it possibly can be.”

http://www.clarionproject.org/print/news/iraqi-cabinet-oks-law-allowing-child-marriage-marital-rape

Clarion Project’s new film, Honor Diaries, features nine women’s rights activists who expose the oppression of women in Muslim-majority societies. Watch a clip about the film narrated by the film’s producer Paula Kweskin and find out how you can help spread the word.

The new legislation, which institutes sharia law in family matters, will be sent to the legislature for approval.

Women in Iraq took to the streets on International Women’s Day to protest the recent decision by the cabinet to approve draft legislation to institute sharia law in Iraq based on Shiite jurisprudence.

The legislation would change Iraq’s current personal status law, which has been called the most progressive in the Muslim-majority Middle East countries. The current laws uphold women’s rights in the areas of marriage, child custody and inheritance.

The new legislation would permit marriage for girls as young as nine-years old. In the case of divorce, custody of any child over the age of two would automatically be given to the father. In addition, the new legislation allows marital rape, giving the man the right to sexual intercourse with his wife whenever he chooses. Overall, all marriages, divorces and inheritance cases would be legislated according to the Ja’afi interpretation of shariah law and administered by Shiite clergy members

Protesters took to the streets, shouting, “On this day of women, women of Iraq are in mourning.”

http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/03/13/israel-ranked-best-middle-eastern-country-to-live-in-as-a-woman/

The bar is set rather low in a region where stoning for adultery, “honor killings”, forced teen marriages, rape and enslavement are prevalent. What is curious is the number of women who join the BDS movement, frolic with terrorists, march and stomp and whine to bash Israel while ignoring what would happen to them among the true believers of Islam. Furthermore, they don’t lift a finger to support women’s rights groups who bravely confront the tyranny of Sharia….rsk

Israel was the ranked the best country in which to live as a woman in the Middle East and North Africa region, according to a 2013 report cited by The Huffington Post on Thursday.

Each year since 2006, the World Economic Forum has released its annual Global Gender Gap Report examining efforts to close the gap in four categories: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival and political Empowerment.

While raked first for its region, the Jewish state came in 53rd in the overall Gap Report for 2013, moving up three spots from its 2012 ranking.

Iceland took the top spot for the fifth year and Colombia was the biggest riser, moving up 28 places to rank 35th.

Out of the 110 countries that have been included every year, 95 have shown improvement over the last four years, The Huffington Post noted. Women are getting more opportunities than ever for economic participation, gaining greater access to education and are living longer and healthier lives. They are also playing a much larger role in the political decision making process, according to the report.

http://thefederalist.com/2014/03/13/war-stories-an-interview-with-david-mamet/

David Masciotra is a columnist with the Indianapolis Star. He has also written for the Daily Beast, the Atlantic, and Splice Today. He is the author of All That We Learned About Living: The Art and Legacy of John Mellencamp (forthcoming, University Press of Kentucky).

It has become nearly impossible to live in America without struggling against the inescapable dread that life has become overwhelmingly dull. The pervasive boredom of American life is largely a product of the predominant character of many American citizens – cowardice. The cowardly impulse manifests in many Americans finding perverse enjoyment in invented roles of victimhood, political correctness, and materialistic excess substituting for character and authenticity.

David Mamet, a Pulitzer Prize winning genius and giant of theater, film, and literature, has led a life of achievement in which he has made an immeasurable contribution to boredom relief in America. Recently, he has also generated his share of controversy by coming out as a conservative after many years of self-avowed “brain dead” liberalism.

The conversion announcement surprised many admirers of the Renaissance man, but some observers saw it coming for a long time, including political analyst and social commentator Shelby Steele, who said, “I think he (Mamet) has the same values today as he did before. He’s always been conservative without knowing it.”

When I had the pleasure of speaking to David Mamet on the phone recently, the perception that a gulf of dislocation separates Mamet’s early period of plays and film – Glengarry Glen Ross, American Buffalo, and The Verdict to name an illustrious few – from his current role as the rightward drifter in Hollywood, arose quickly.

http://nsroundtable.org/as-we-see-it/the-disease-and-the-antidote/

Jerusalem — Talking to Israelis feels a bit like talking to fans of Millwall FC. ‘No one likes us, we don’t care,’ sing Millwall fans. Israel is the undoubted Millwall of global affairs, loathed by almost every Westerner who considers himself decent and they’ve adopted a similar cri de coeur. ‘Europe doesn’t like us. Americans do not like us. We can live with this,’ says a kippah-wearing guy at the Western Wall. He sums up a sentiment I hear across this country.

If you were in Iran or North Korea, long-time chart-toppers in the international community’s gallery of rogue states, you wouldn’t bat an eyelid when a citizen expressed disgruntlement with the wicked West. But Israel? This tiny nation was for so long the West’s best bud in the Middle East; a bright democratic outpost in an otherwise autocratic desert. To hear Israelis speak ill of the West, to see them raise their eyes to the heavens at every mention of the United Nations or the European Union, feels weird.

Everywhere I go, people wonder out loud why the West, especially Europe’s chattering classes, hates them so. Israel is being treated like a ‘pariah state’, says Uri Dromi, executive director of the Jerusalem Press Club and former spokesman for the Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres governments.

‘Europe doesn’t like us,’ he says, and now I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard that said. Dromi has a striking theory as to why our governments are now so sniffy about his ‘shitty little country’ (remember that French diplomat in 2001?). It’s because, he says, we’ve had a hike in Muslim immigration which forces us to adopt anti-Israel postures in a bid to ‘quieten new arrivals’.

Report Card For Obama — on The Glazov Gang
The grades are in for ObamaCare and the administration’s handling of the economy and foreign policy.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/frontpagemag-com/report-card-for-obama-on-the-glazov-gang/