RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324577904578555721164926386.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopBucket

Speaking in Berlin on Wednesday, Barack Obama looked and sounded more like a dreary American technocrat than a citizen of the world.

Freddy Gray, writing at the Spectator magazine’s Coffee House blog on Wednesday:

Obama-love is not what it was. The man who just spoke against nuclear proliferation at the Brandenburg Gate today is quite obviously not the avatar of progress who appeared before adoring crowds near the same spot in 2008. . . .

And yet and yet, Obama still tries to present himself as a 21st century Camelot. His rhetoric has been toned down: today he looked and sounded more like a dreary American technocrat than a citizen of the world. But he continues to pose as a global dove and utters lofty phrases about creating a “world of peace with justice.” It’s just he sounds like he doesn’t believe it anymore—and, increasingly, neither do we.

Justin Welby’s grandfather fled from Germany; his father bootlegged alcohol, knew JFK and was engaged to Vanessa Redgrave; he worked in the oil industry before feeling a call to God after his daughter’s death in a car crash
http://www.timesofisrael.com/the-first-jewish-archbishop-of-canterbury-heads-to-israel/

ONDON – The father of the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, kept many secrets. Gavin Welby never told his son that he had an estranged older sister, or a first wife. He never told him his real birthdate, or the name under which he was born. And, it has emerged, he never told him that he was born a Jew.

“He told lots of stories but one was never really sure what was true and what wasn’t,” Archbishop Justin told The Daily Telegraph, which broke the news to him just days after he was appointed head of the Church of England in November 2012. “He drank quite heavily and, you know, he would say things sometimes when he had been drinking and you did not know what was true or not.

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“He wouldn’t talk about his family at all,” he said.

Naturally, the bombshell that the leader of 80 million Anglicans worldwide is a half-Jew has captured the imagination of Britain’s Jewish community. The Anglican Church, by contrast, has so far reacted apathetically, perhaps inured by previous examples of Jewish-Christian clerics such as Giles Fraser, until 2011 Canon Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral, who had a Jewish father; and Hugh Montefiore, a well-known bishop in the 1970s and ‘80s, who converted from Judaism in his teens.

But beyond the gossip element lie serious questions. Will Archbishop Justin be able to improve Jewish-Anglican relations, which have gone through a rocky patch over the last few months? And how will the revelations about his heritage affect his attitudes and worldviews?

With little track record to go on, observers are reluctant jump to any conclusions: “It’s very early days,” says Rev. David Gifford, CEO of the Council of Christians and Jews, noting that Welby was only installed in March.

Archbishop Welby, whose decade-long rise in the church is considered meteoric, has had limited experience working with Jewish groups, but activists speak positively of his relations with Jews in his former parishes and in the interfaith world.

They point to two hopeful early signs. The first is that the archbishop has chosen to visit Israel next week, which is considered very early in his tenure (he will also be visiting Egypt, the Palestinian territories and, briefly, Jordan). A visit to Yad Vashem may be particularly poignant as he recently discovered that he has relatives who perished in the Shoah. He will also engage with as-yet-unnamed “communities and leaders” and pay his respects to the patriarchs of the Jerusalem churches, in particular Jerusalem’s Anglican bishop, Suheil Duwani.
The Prince of Wales speaks with the Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Reverend Justin Welby following his Enthronement at Canterbury Cathedral. (photo credit: AP Photo/Chris Ison, Pool)

The Prince of Wales speaks with the Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Reverend Justin Welby following his Enthronement at Canterbury Cathedral. (photo credit: AP Photo/Chris Ison, Pool)

The other is that, completely regardless of his Jewish background, he appears to have long had an affinity for, and interest in, Jewish issues and in Israel.

According to the philo-Semitic Canon Andrew White, “Israel has no fear with him, nor does the Jewish community. He’s a friend, not an enemy.”

http://www.climatedepot.com/2013/06/19/obama-in-berlin-vows-us-will-do-more-before-it-is-too-late
Obama in Berlin vows U.S. ‘will do more…before it is too late’ to battle climate change: Warns of ‘more severe storms, more famine & floods, new waves of refugees, coastlines that vanish, oceans that rise’

Meanwhile: Earth undergoing global COOLING since 2002!

http://www.timesofisrael.com/tough-guy-de-niro-likes-tough-israel/
Tough guy De Niro likes tough Israel
American actor says Israelis need to be aggressive in their situation; visits Western Wall

American actor Robert De Niro praised Israeli aggressiveness during a talk at the President’s Conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday.

“I always enjoy coming to Israel. Israelis are warm, they’re energetic people. Forthright. Very smart. I always like smart people. They’re nice people, you know. Aggressive, and I respect that aggressiveness because you need it in their situation,” he said.

The statement was akin to praise from Caesar, coming from the man who has made a career out of playing aggressive tough guys in movies from “Taxi Driver” to “Meet the Fockers.”

De Niro, 69, is one of several high-profile guests who came to Israel this week to celebrate President Shimon Peres’s 90th birthday and participate in his annual Facing Tomorrow conference. He flew back to New York late Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, De Niro visited the Western Wall with his son Julian, 17, putting a note in the Jewish holy site. He also visited the Western Wall Tunnels.

The first official effort of the US to begin peace talks with the Taliban ended in disaster when the Taliban proclaimed itself a sovereign nation, enraging Karzai, who then called off bilateral security talks with the US.

http://www.jewishpress.com/news/taliban-pulls-a-fast-one-in-doha-claiming-rebirth-of-califate-humiliating-karzai/2013/06/20/

The Taliban surprised and angered the US and Afghanistan with a poster proclaiming its new office in Doha was for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, rather than a political office for peace talks. The move may have scuttled the talks.

Day One, dealing with the Taliban as if it is just another player on the world stage.

Whoops.

On Tuesday, June 18, the Taliban and the United States were set to engage in historic peace talks in Doha, Qatar, the goal of which is to begin to wind down the war that has been dragging on in Afghanistan. The U.S. is on the threshold of withdrawing from the region. The goal is to have Afghanistan and the Taliban work things out nicely together.

But the ceremonial opening of the office in Doha by the Taliban, was to have announced “the political office of the Taliban in Doha,” as had been agreed – or so the U.S. and Afghanistan had understood. Instead, it featured a large poster reading “the opening of the political office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in Doha.”

The difference is huge – the name on the poster is what the Taliban called Afghanistan during the era it was in control, between 1996 and 2001, and was popularly understood by al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorists to have been the nascent rebirth of the Global Califate.

In the State Department’s daily press briefing on Wednesday, this was the first item discussed by the Spokesperson, Jen Psaki. She explained that Secretary of State John Kerry had spoken with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who had immediately denounced the Taliban’s move as a deliberate provocation.

The Qatari government issued a statement clarifying that the name of the office is the Political Office of the Afghan Taliban and had the sign with the incorrect name in front of the door taken down.

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3768/indonesia-extremism Nations are falling like ten pins: not only Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, and nations throughout the Gulf, but also Turkey, Bangladesh, Tunisia and Egypt. Now bigotry is overwhelming the most populous but formerly moderate Muslim nation, Indonesia. Nations are falling like ten pins: not only Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, and nations throughout the Gulf, […]

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3778/arabs-of-israel The Arab citizens of Israel are not fighting for political rights, which they already enjoy — or there would not be so many Arab political parities or Arab Members of Parliament in the Knesset. Many Israeli Arabs, however, have lost faith in their representatives, particularly those who are trying to incite them against Israel. […]

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3771/violence-islamic-texts Islam forbids the killing of innocents. The key question, then, is what constitutes “innocence” in Islam? According to some Muslim authorities, to disbelieve in Allah is to be guilty of the crime of “committing disbelief…[which is] worse than slaughter.” Just being a Christian, a Jew or a pagan, is worse than murder. As soon […]

I am delighted when most people criticize President Obama’s policies….but Bill Clinton?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/26/clinton.interview/

Clinton praises Obama for tough stance on Iran….Sep. 26, 2009

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/white_house/july-dec04/clinton_7-07.html

ON JOHN EDWARDS:

JIM LEHRER: First, on the news, do you approve of John Kerry’s selection of John Edwards as a running mate?

PRESIDENT CLINTON: Absolutely I do. I think it’s a good choice. I think he brings energy, vitality. He was on the Intelligence Committee, which is going to be a very important issue for the next several years as we continue to deal with terror and other problems, with weapons of mass destruction. He’s come from a different culture. He speaks in a slightly different way. He’ll immediately add some credibility and appeal in places like my home state in Arkansas.

And I think they’ve got a lot in common, and the voters voted for both of them. They both took the chance and ran this year. So I think it will be good.

And the most important thing is it was obvious to me that by the time John Kerry made the decision, he was comfortable with it.

And my advice here almost seems naive I think to a lot of experts, but my counsel was always pick someone you’re going to proud of every day after you do it, because when you’re the challenger, the only presidential decision you get to make is your nominee. And if you like it, if you think this person could be a good President, I would like to work with this person or give this person a lot of responsibilities, it shows in your body language and just the cast of your head and the way you look and think and act for the whole rest of the campaign.

So I got that out of John Kerry yesterday. I feel good about it.

JIM LEHRER: A lot of people have compared John Edwards to you. They say your styles are similar, you come from the same part of the country. Do you see a lot of similarities?

PRESIDENT CLINTON: Well, I think there is some. We share a common culture, and there is some similarities in our roots, but he’s very much his own person and a distinctive person, and I spent most of my life in politics before I ran for national office. He spent most of his life in the private sector, and he has had a term, and I think quite a good term as a Senator from North Carolina.

But I think he’s his own man. As the people get to know him, I think they’ll find him fascinating in both the similarities and the important differences.

ON ELECTIONS IN IRAN IN 2005

http://www.larouchepub.com/other/interviews/2005/3206clinton_rose.html

“…..I know it is not popular for an American ever to say anything like this, but I think it’s true [applause], and I apologized when President Khatami was elected. I publicly acknowledged that the United States had actively overthrown Mossadegh and I apologized for it, and I hope that we could have some rapprochement with Iran. I think basically the Europeans’ initiative to Iran to try to figure out a way to defuse the nuclear crisis is a good one.

I think President Bush has done, so far, the right thing by not taking the military option off the table, but not pushing it too much. I didn’t like the story that looked like the military option had been elevated above a diplomatic option. But Iran is the most perplexing problem … we face, for the following reasons: It is the only country in the world with two governments, and the only country in the world that has now had six elections since the first election of President Khatami. [It is] the only one with elections, including the United States, including Israel, including you name it, where the liberals, or the progressives, have won two-thirds to 70 percent of the vote in six elections: two for President; two for the parliament, the Majlis; two for the mayoralities.

In every single election, the guys I identify with got two-thirds to 70% of the vote. There is no other country in the world I can say that about, certainly not my own.”

ON RWANDA: HIS SORRY APOLOGIES

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,234216,00.html

During President Clinton’s tour of Africa he apologised not once but twice: in Uganda he apologised for the slave trade; in Rwanda he apologised for western inaction in the face of the Rwanda genocide. (The only person who didn’t get an apology, as a number of American commentators remarked, was Paula Jones.)

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/we-should-be-shocked-at-the-american-tapping-scandal-and-shocked-that-obama-doesnt-seem-to-care

We Should Be Shocked at the American Tapping Scandal, and Shocked that Obama Doesn’t Seem to Care

You know all those bearded survivalist types holed up in places like Idaho with their paranoid anti-government conspiracy theories? Suddenly they’re looking rather less paranoid.

The rest of us, by contrast, are rushing to adjust our world view. The revelation that the U.S. Government systematically taps online communications challenges the way we think about freedom, the way we think about privacy, the way we think about the Internet and, not least, the way we think about America.

What has happened, briefly, is this. In 2007, Congress passed a law that allowed the National Security Agency to intercept foreign data – that is, communications between two non-American parties – without a U.S. Warrant. This power was said to be a necessity in the struggle against terrorism. (‘Necessity,’ said Pitt the Younger, ‘is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves’.) As invariably happens, the authorities gradually enlarged their remit. It now turns out that the NSA has been directly accessing data from Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, YouTube, Skype, AOL and Apple.

Most of the companies named have denied any knowledge or complicity – though those bearded Idaho types have been quick to point out that some of their denials refer only to not granting ‘direct’ data access to the NSA. Some conservatives mutter darkly about the long-standing cosiness between Google and the Democrats, who are supposed to have made great use of Google’s profiling techniques when targeting voters. Certainly the Obama administration has been unapologetic about the whole business.