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Why Was a Saudi Attacked by Palestinians? by Khaled Abu Toameh

Posted By on July 24th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14588/palestinians-assault-saudi-blogger

The main reason the Saudi blogger was assaulted and humiliated during his visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque was incitement.

It came mainly from the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), a group affiliated with Fatah, and that has been described by some in the West, and even in Israel, as “moderate” and “pragmatic.”

Spitting in the face of a Saudi blogger and cursing him as an “animal” and “Zionist” is not behavior conducive to luring cash from his state — or any other self-respecting entity — that refuses to be slapped in the face while providing handouts.

When Saudi blogger Mohamed Saud arrived at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on July 22, he apparently thought he would peacefully pray at the site before proceeding to tour the markets of the Old City of Jerusalem.

Moreover, Saud apparently believed that as an Arab Muslim, he would be warmly welcomed by his Palestinian brothers.

He was wrong.

The moment Palestinians noticed the Saudi blogger at one of Islam’s holiest sites, they demonstrated to him how they treat their Arab brothers.

Videos that surfaced on social media showed a number of Palestinians hurling insults and spitting at Saud. One Palestinian later threw a plastic chair at him as he left the compound.

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Greece’s New Government: Undoing the Damage of Years of Socialist Rule by Maria Polizoidou

Posted By on July 24th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14569/greece-undoing-damage

The new government took office with an apparent sense of genuine purpose… The new government has transferred the handling of illegal immigration from the auspices of the Ministry for Migration Policy to that of the Ministry of Citizen Protection, treating the issue as a national-security threat.

The Mitsotakis-led government is also reversing its predecessor’s course where foreign policy is concerned, stressing a desire to enhance Greek-American relations. One step in illustrating a closer alliance with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is the recognition of Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s transitional president in his battle against Nicolás Maduro. Another step is strengthening ties with Israel.

Greece now has a single-party government… which means that it will not be forced to compromise with Marxists and Social Democrats. This situation bodes well for the major economic and social reforms that Mitsotakis… was elected to undertake.

Mitsotakis deserves a chance at home and abroad to prove that opening up the economy while clamping down on forces that threaten Greek democracy can undo the damage done by years of socialist rule.

The July 7 elections in Greece have ushered in a new era of promise, with the victory of the center-right New Democracy Party leader, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, over the incumbent prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, head of the left-wing Syriza coalition.

The vote represented the Greek people’s frustration and disgust not only with the failures of the Syriza-led government, which wreaked havoc on the economy and state institutions, but with the accompanying widespread corruption and anarchy that overtook the country.

The new government took office with an apparent sense of genuine purpose, seemingly intent on exacting immediate change. The new Minister for Citizen Protection, Michalis Chrysochoidis, for example, set to work with the encouraging pledge to reform the police force. He announced that he would make law enforcement more efficient, through better recruitment policies, backup for anti-crime units and by enabling raids into virtual “no-go” zones, such as Exarchia, a hotbed of drug-dealers, anarchists and illegal immigrants.

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Thelma and Louise Go to Israel Prepare for a bumpy ride. Tlaib and Omar are in the Democratic Party driver’s seat. By William McGurn

Posted By on July 23rd, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/thelma-and-louise-go-to-israel-11563835181

The Democratic Party’s Thelma and Louise—Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar—are taking their act to Israel. In a great gift to Donald Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is going to let them in.

In Hollywood’s feminist buddy flick, Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon hit the road in a 1966 Ford Thunderbird convertible. They make bad choice after bad choice, defying authority and turning the tables on men who abuse or annoy them. They thoroughly enjoy every minute.

In the real-life Beltway version, the Michigander (Ms. Tlaib) and the Minnesotan (Ms. Omar) constitute half of “The Squad”—the four female House progressives who are defying the convention that freshman members of Congress are to be seen and not heard. Ms. Tlaib is the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress and speaks often of her grandmother in the West Bank. She has endorsed a “one state” solution under which Israel would cease to exist.

Ms. Omar came to America after fleeing Somalia. Her election marked several congressional firsts: the first Somali-American, the first naturalized citizen from Africa, the first nonwhite woman from Minnesota, and one of the first two Muslim women (along with Ms. Tlaib).

Part of their notoriety comes from their willingness to match President Trump’s outrages and raise them. More comes from their willingness to clap back at their own leaders, even if that means accusing Speaker Nancy Pelosi of racism. They remain largely unrepentant—and energized.

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Boris Johnson becomes UK prime minister amid Brexit, tensions with Iran and anti-Semitism in Labour

Posted By on July 23rd, 2019

https://www.jns.org/boris-johnson-becomes-uk-prime-minister-amid-brexit-tension

He has had warm ties with the British Jewish community and Israel stemming from his time as mayor of London, and later, as foreign secretary under former Prime Minister Theresa May.

Boris Johnson overwhelmingly was elected by his Conservative Party on Tuesday to become the next party leader and prime minister of the United Kingdom.

In his victory speech, Johnson, who defeated Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt in the party race, promised that he would “deliver Brexit, unite the country and defeat Jeremy Corbyn.”

Johnson, 55, who succeeded Theresa May, comes to power amid several crises wracking his country. He has to deal with a do-or-die Oct. 31 deadline to leave the European Union, known as “Brexit,” and the potential economic and political ramifications to arise from that. At the same time, he will need to push back against Iranian aggression, especially in the aftermath of the regime seizing two U.K.-owned oil tankers, as well as handle growing anti-Semitism in the country, especially within the rival Labour Party.

Earlier this month, Johnson warned Iran to “cease this madness” over violating the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, adding that he’s “prepared” to reimpose sanctions on the regime.

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Patriotism Wins in Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Backyard How to win a battle with the Left. Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on July 23rd, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274340/patriotism-wins-rep-ilhan-omars-backyard-daniel-greenfield

On June 17th, the St. Louis Park City Council voted 5-0 to get rid of the Pledge of Allegiance. On July 15th, just as the abolition was set to take effect, the Council voted 7-0 in a room crowded with American flags and red, white and blue signs, to bring the Pledge back. Outside a giant inflatable bald eagle kept watch.

It was an unlikely victory for patriotism in an implausible place.

St. Louis Park is a small Democrat city in Minnesota. Hillary Clinton beat Trump here 3-1. Rep. Ilhan Omar represents it in the House. The firm at the center of her tax and marriage scandal is based here.

Councilwoman Anne Mavity, who had called for the abolition of the pledge, insisted that the pledge didn’t reflect the city’s diverse values. As part of those diverse values, she had endorsed Rep. Omar.

“Omar,” Councilwoman Mavity had said, was a voice for an “unapologetic progressive agenda.”

Mavity never did apologize. But at least one member of the St. Louis Park City Council did.

“I’ve concluded that I made a mistake and I’m sorry and I’m asking for forgiveness,” Councilman Steve Hallifan conceded.

The Battle of the Pledge was won by a combination of committed local patriots, who came flying flags and eager to confront the councilmembers who had tried to sneak the issue past everyone by tying it together with a meeting time change and some other procedural minutiae, and by President Trump’s willingness to take on a local issue in a place most people outside Minnesota had never heard of.

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A Herd Has No Mind Of mob politics and the decline of reasoned discourse. By Kevin D. Williamson

Posted By on July 23rd, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2019/07/29/a-herd-has-no-mind/

Funny thing about my new book: I had begun shopping around the proposal for writing it long before my brief period of employment with that other magazine and the subsequent witless chimp-brained media freakout and Caffeine-Free Diet Maoist struggle session that followed and climaxed with my being fired by Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg on my third day of employment there and after a good deal of stink eye from some seething young woman with an unfortunate All-Lesbian World Bowling Champion haircut loitering glumly in the coffee room. I was, for a few days, a writer who was much more read about than read. After the ninth (or so) New York Times denunciation of my soul and my work, my professional dance card began to fill up with pleasing speed.

That’s the upside of being in the controversy business: I always get paid. Hooray for me.1

But why was I flogging this book way back before I got involved in what I must with some genuine disappointment characterize as only the second-most-infamous episode involving a shady right-winger and the Watergate complex?2 There were good reasons. A number of disturbing sociopolitical meltdowns combining deep stupidity with casual authoritarianism already had taken place: the firing of Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich for his views on marriage, and the IRS’s criminal leak of the National Organization for Marriage’s confidential tax documents in the service of a campaign to harass and attack its donors; the firing of James Damore for the crime of being stupid enough to believe that his po-faced ham-souled Caitlyn-haunted superiors at Google were being anything like halfway serious when they asked for dialogue about diversity in the firm; the campaigns against Bret Stephens and Bari Weiss at the New York Times; the “deplatforming”3 of conservatives and other nonconforming voices on social media; the violence and firebombings targeting unpopular speakers at Berkeley and other college campuses; and much more. The blackshirts and the American Association of Outrage Professionals were as creepily tumescent as Anthony Weiner cruising a Hello Kitty boutique, and there was outrage-porn aplenty, rampant, unapologetic, depraved — but my little book proposal was met with almost no excitement until I became, for a couple of weeks, the headline in the story.

I revisit that tawdry little episode in the book, to the extent that it is necessary to the story, but it isn’t a memoir. My subject is not the life and times of Kevin D. Williamson.4 My subject is what Coriolanus5 called “the beast with many heads” — mob politics, on social media and in what passes for real life, which increasingly is patterned on social media — and its effects on our political discourse and our culture. It is the most important political issue of our time. Discourse — the health and character of that discourse — is a force that exists above and outside the specific policy questions of the day; it is the master issue that will determine how every other issue is talked about and thought about — and whether those issues are thought about at all.

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The Economy, Father of Us All By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on July 23rd, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/07/the-economy-father-of-us-all/Good times immunize a president and make his over-the-top domestic enemies look irrelevant.

Each week we are warned of a recession. And each week the economic news “unexpectedly” and “surprisingly” improves or stays steady — in ways well aside from the staples of continued near-record-low peacetime unemployment (3.8 percent), near-record-low minority unemployment, booming annualized GDP (3.1 percent), and a record-high stock market.

In June, retail sales increased for the fourth straight month. The rate of Hispanic home ownership continues to increase. A quarter-million new jobs were created in June, with strong growth in construction and manufacturing. Record oil and gas production seems only to keep increasing. Strong wage growth of 3.4 percent continues.

The point is not so much “It’s the economy, stupid,” but rather that the economy is the font of all contemporary politics, and it adjudicates the parameters of presidential prerogatives.

In the standoff between the “Squad” and Donald Trump, near-record peacetime unemployment in general and in particular historic-low minority unemployment argue against the idea that Trump is racist.

Polls suggest that Donald Trump may well win a greater share of the minority vote than moderates John McCain and Mitt Romney — largely because of a raise in middle-class wages in a tight labor market, and new leverage of entry-level workers over labor-hungry employers. Do working-class blacks and Hispanics suffer then from false consciousness, and do they need tutorials from progressive grandees so they won’t be so incorrect as to appreciate having more jobs at better pay?  Racists do not craft economic policies that empower African Americans far more so than those promoted by the first African-American president.

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Tulsi Gabbard Breaks With 2020 Democrats, Says Decriminalizing Illegal Crossings ‘Could Lead To Open Borders’ By Tristan Justice

Posted By on July 23rd, 2019

https://thefederalist.com/2019/07/23/tulsi-gabbard-breaks-candidates-says-decriminalizing-border-crossings-lead-open-borders/

2020 presidential candidate U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) said she is “looking at” supporting other candidates in their calls to decriminalize illegal U.S. border crossings but that she is concerned such a policy would lead to open borders.

“That’s something that I’m looking at,” Gabbard told the hosts on ABC’s “The View” on whether she supports the policy. “I think decriminalizing could lead to open borders. We need safe, secure borders in this country.”

Rival 2020 candidate and former secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro was the first to advocate for the policy that the other Democratic presidential candidates rapidly adopted.

During the second night of last month’s presidential primary debates in Miami, nearly every candidate raised his or her hand when asked if they supported eliminating legal penalties for those who ignore U.S. immigration laws. The only candidates who did not raise their hand were U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and former Vice President Joe Biden, who raised his hand half-way in a gesture to the moderators to explain his stance on the issue.

Other prominent Democrats have come out to criticize the proposal. Former U.S. secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, who served under President Barack Obama, blasted the idea in the Washington Post as “tantamount to open borders.”

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Journalist Who Peddled Shoddy Kavanaugh Story Defends Al Franken-Mollie Hemingway

Posted By on July 23rd, 2019

https://thefederalist.com/2019/07/23/journalist-who-peddled-shoddy-kavanaugh-story-defends-al-franken/

Of all the people in the world who are in a position to write an article poo-poohing Al Franken’s problems or fretting about journalistic excesses, Jane Mayer may be the very worst choice.

A reporter known for slinging unsubstantiated allegations of improper behavior against conservatives has developed a sudden appreciation for due process and journalistic fact-checking. At least for Democrats. The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer published a robust defense of former U.S. senator Al Franken, who resigned under intense pressure in 2017 after eight women publicly detailed unwanted groping and kissing from him.

Mayer argues that the former Minnesota senator should not have resigned, since one of his accusers was conservative and was associated with political opponents of Franken. As for the other seven, Mayer suggests their complaints about unwanted kisses and groping didn’t rise to the level of seriousness that a Senate resignation would indicate. Yes, Mayer reports, he was known for the unsolicited kissing of women on the mouth, but, we’re assured, he is “a social—not a sexual—’lip-kisser.’” Well, there you go.

Mayer expresses concern that “in an era when women’s accusations of sexual discrimination and harassment are finally being taken seriously, after years of belittlement and dismissal, some see it as offensive to subject accusers to scrutiny. ‘Believe Women’ has become a credo of the #MeToo movement.” Franken learns that “being on the losing side of the #MeToo movement, which he fervently supports, has led him to spend time thinking about such matters as due process, proportionality of punishment, and the consequences of Internet-fuelled outrage.”

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Cory Booker Explains Why he Would Never Punch Trump By Jim Treacher

Posted By on July 23rd, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/trending/cory-booker-would-never-punch-trump-that-fat-old-body-shamer/

I’m old enough to remember when fantasizing about physically attacking the President of the United States was considered racist. Why, I’m so old that I can actually remember when late-night TV was worth watching! But neither of those things is true anymore, as you’ll see in this clip from last night’s Late Night with Seth Meyers.

Here’s ostensible presidential candidate Cory Booker talking about how he would never, ever punch Donald Trump, no matter how desperately he wants to:

.@CoryBooker: “My testosterone sometimes makes me want to feel like punching [Trump], which would be bad for this elderly, out-of-shape man that he is if I did that — a physically weak specimen.”

Let’s take a moment to imagine any Republican going on national TV and saying something like this about a Democratic POTUS. And let’s take another moment to contemplate the amusing idea of Cory Booker possessing testosterone.

Anyway, Booker would never punch Trump. That would be beneath him. But what’s wrong with getting a round of applause from a liberal NYC audience, and a warm, friendly smile from Seth Meyers, for talking about punching Donald Trump?

Plus, Trump is old and out of shape. What does Booker look like, a body-shamer?