FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Is Americans’ Love Affair With NATO Alliance Over? I&I/TIPP Poll Terry Jones

Posted By on October 30th, 2023

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/10/30/is-americans-love-affair-with-nato-alliance-over-ii-tipp-poll/

Whether it’s the Russia-Ukraine war, or the Israeli-Hamas war, NATO remains a big part of U.S. decision-making. Indeed, the U.S.-led postwar alliance has lasted 75 years, and it’s fair to say that nearly everything the U.S. does overseas involves NATO, directly or indirectly. But increasingly, average Americans are uneasy about the alliance, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.

A significant number of Americans, though not yet a majority, feel the burdens of the U.S.’ NATO leadership as unfairly distributed, according to the online I&I/TIPP Poll of 1,378 adults taken from Sept. 27-29

The first question was elemental: “Does the U.S. participation in NATO increase or decrease the likelihood of U.S. getting involved in a military conflict?”

A surprising plurality of 38% answered “increase,” while 15% responded “decrease” and 19% said “no impact.” Another 28% said “not sure,” making it the second-largest answer. The poll has a margin of error of +/-2.7 percentage points.

This was the rare question in which political affiliation didn’t make too much of a difference. While 34% of Democrats said NATO raises the chance of war, that response wasn’t too far below the Republicans (44%) or independents (38%).

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Iran’s Fellow Traveler in Mexico City President López Obrador seems to be playing footsie with Iranian allies. By Mary Anastasia O’Grady

Posted By on October 30th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/irans-fellow-traveler-in-mexico-city-obrador-latin-america-migration-3f551ffe?mod=opinion_featst_pos1

The high cost of declining American power in the world is being felt in the Middle East and Ukraine. But it doesn’t stop there. Iran is moving into the Western Hemisphere with no effective pushback from Washington. The latest trouble comes from the U.S.’s North American neighbor, Mexico.

In response to a U.S. request that Mexico set up migrant-processing centers funded by Washington, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said no earlier this month. Instead, he proposed a regional summit, excluding the U.S. and Canada, to discuss the migration crisis.

Last week, at the gathering with representatives of 10 Latin American governments, Mr. López Obrador gave President Biden the middle finger. Not literally, but the effect was the same.

A photo taken at the meeting features a smiling Mr. López Obrador with pro-Iranian dictators Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba and Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro alongside Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro, a former terrorist and a card-carrying Israel hater.

Honduras’s President Xiomara Castro, a Cuba sympathizer and wife of Manuel Zelaya, the former Honduran president who famously tried to extend his elected term with help from Hugo Chávez, was also in the picture. So too was Haiti’s acting Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

This gang of six, according to the Spanish daily El Pais, were the heads of state who drafted the communique that emerged from the AMLO-organized conclave held in the state of Chiapas. It blames U.S. sanctions against Cuba and Venezuela for the migration crisis and demands they be lifted unconditionally. The group also wants debt restructuring. Mr. López Obrador used the event to complain that the U.S. spends too much on defense and not enough to help its neighbors.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Biden’s Hamas conundrum The president’s continued reliance on his anti-Israel, pro-Iran officials is not merely a policy disaster. It is a political problem.Caroline B. Glick

Posted By on October 30th, 2023

https://www.jns.org/bidens-hamas-conundrum/

Since Oct. 7, American Jews have seen their civil rights trampled every day. Jewish students are subjected to constant intimidation, assault, battery and threats from Hamas supporters on campus. From coast to coast, the stories are depressingly similar. University authorities refuse to protect them from their pro-Jewish genocide peers.

Then, too, on Thursday, the New York Police Department told the Jews of Brooklyn to stay off the streets on Shabbat afternoon. Pro-Hamas will be demonstrating, and the police said that they will be unable to protect Jewish residents as the terror supporters march through their neighborhoods.

How is this happening? How is it that at a time of maximum peril, law-enforcement bodies are doing all but nothing to defend the Jewish community? Why is the FBI not arresting terror supporters as required under U.S. law? Why is the U.S. Justice Department not directing local authorities to defend the Jews?

A good place to begin to look for answers is the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. That powerful division is led by Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke.

Clarke’s appointment in 2021 caused an uproar in Jewish circles because she has a record of anti-Semitic activism and was an ardent supporter of the pro-Hamas, anti-Jewish Black Lives Matter movement.

In 1994, as the head of the Black Students Association at Harvard Law School, Clarke invited Wellesley College Professor Tony Martin to speak at Harvard. Martin had just written a Protocols of the Elders of Zion-style anti-Semitic book called The Jewish Onslaught.

Clarke defiantly defended Martin at the time and attacked the Jewish students who expressed concern about her move. She never apologized for her actions. Instead, ahead of her Senate confirmation, she told progressive, anti-Israel Jewish reporters and activists that she “regretted” the invitation. That was enough for them to declare that the allegation that Clarke remains hostile towards Jews is slander.

U.S. President Joe Biden has a problem. He staffed his administration at all levels and across departments with hardened ideologues, many of whom have records of hostility towards Jews and support for Hamas, Iran, and other terror groups and regimes. Under Biden, these officials have advanced his Middle East policies that until Oct. 7 were largely aligned with the interests of Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Muslim rioters search for Jews at Russian airport

Posted By on October 30th, 2023

https://twitter.com/clashreport/status%2Fworldisraelnews.com%2Fwatch-muslim-rioters-search-for-jews-at-russian-airport%2F

A lynch mob of Muslim rioters gathered at an airport in Makhachkala, in the Russian republic of Dagestan Sunday, with plans to assault Jewish passengers on an incoming flight.

The rioters chanted “Allahu Akbar,” while waiting for a flight from Israel to land at the airport.

In the wake of the riot, however, airport officials rerouted the Israeli flight.

Total chaos at Makhachkala airport now in Dagestan, Russia. Angry crowd in search of Israeli citizens breaks into every room, frightened airport workers try to lock themselves.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

ISRAEL AT WAR: BEYOND THE HEADLINES FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

Posted By on October 29th, 2023

Dear E-pals,

Israel defends and helps during the struggle between pure evil and a benevolent nation. Those who are not holding arms in dangerous areas, flying airplanes to quell enemy rockets and missiles, or patrolling seas teeming with enemy vessels, are busy 24/7 in labs performing research and development to help all mankind to a better future for all. Here are some heartwarming stories about courage and patriotism in time of war from Michael Ordman.  rsk

AMAZING ISRAEL BEHIND THE WESTERN HEADLINES FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

POSITIVE NEWS DURING A WAR
 
More heroes. Many examples of brave Israelis confronting Hamas terrorists. A wounded battalion commander rescued an abducted French tourist and carried on fighting. A brigade commander got into three separate tanks, one after another, and then ran over Hamas vehicles to reach the Sderot police station besieged by Hamas.
https://www.ynetnews.com/magazine/article/rkuxomwb6
 
The few against the many. Less than ten brave young men on Kibbutz Kerem Shalom held 100 Hamas terrorists at bay for more than 6 hours, despite being low on ammunition, until the Israeli Army came in and rescued them.  https://www.israelunwired.com/heartbreaking-story-from-a-hero-who-saved-his-kibbutz-in-southern-israel-from-hamas/   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s20ECtAf0GA
 
Bedouin bus driver saves 30. On Oct 7, Bedouin Arab minibus driver Youssef Ziadna went to pick up one of his regular customers at the outdoor party near Gaza and came face to face with Hamas’ brutal massacre. He then dodged bullets and drove off-road to rescue 30 Jewish Israelis and bring them to safety.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/378869
 
Protestors metamorphose. Organizations that only weeks ago were protesting on the streets are now helping victims of Hamas. Some 15,000 volunteers at the Expo Tel Aviv International Convention Center are distributing donated equipment and food, finding accommodation for evacuees, and much more.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-stunning-response-15000-volunteers-fill-leadership-vacuum-to-help-victims-of-hamas/  
 
Tons of aid arrive. An EL AL 787 Dreamliner that landed on Oct 23 in Ben Gurion Airport was filled with 22 tons of supplies donated to assist with the ongoing war effort. Jointly sponsored by the Phoenix Group and NY-based Amudim Community Resources, plus El Al, the cargo hold was full of medical aid and clothing.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/379006  https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-769687
 
Vegan meals for 6,000 IDF soldiers. Israel’s Redefine Meat is producing thousands of nutritious protein-rich vegan dishes each week to feed the many vegan / flexitarian IDF soldiers serving on the front lines. Redefine Meat’s head chef has enlisted vegan startups, 100 volunteers, and private chefs to work at his Tel Aviv kitchen.
https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/israel-hamas-palestine-war-food-tech-founders-feed-6000-vegan-meals-soldiers/
 
US firefighters respond. 23 American firefighters from the Emergency Volunteers Project (EVP – see here previously) left their homes to join the response effort in Israel. 60 more are on standby, ready to fly over at a moment’s notice. Many of those stationed in Ashkelon were hosted in Kibbutz Be’eri during a previous visit.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-firefighters-in-israel-worried-about-fate-of-beeri-families-who-hosted-them/
https://www.evp.org.il/
 
8-year-old meets family of soldier who donated his liver. An emotional meeting was held at Schneider Pediatric Hospital between transplant patient 8-year-old Refael who received a liver lobe and the family of its donor – soldier Amichai Rubin – who was killed on Oct 7.  https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/379213
 
My home is your home. The World Zionist Organization has launched a project whereby owners of empty apartments in Israel release them to the WZO for evacuees from southern and northern Israel. The WZO will be the guarantor. The project includes a website, contact details, and global adverts in many languages.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/379109
 
 
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Better cancer treatment. (TY OurCrowd) A trial of the PROphet blood test from Israel’s OncoHost (see here previously) has proved its accuracy and reliability in predicting the best treatment for metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. OncoHost has received orders from 29 US cancer centers since its 2023 launch.
https://www.prnewswire.com/il/news-releases/journal-of-pharmaceutical–biomedical-analysis-publishes-study-analytically-validating-oncohosts-prophet-test-as-a-decision-support-tool-for-metastatic-nsclc-patients-301964509.html   https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0731708523005721
 
Detecting too much calcium in the arteries. Israel’s Beilinson Hospital has completed a study of coronary artery calcium (CAC) levels using the HealthCCSng system from Israel’s Nanox.AI (see here previously) to review routine CT-scans. High CAC patients were referred to clinics for in-depth evaluation and treatment.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/377841   https://www.nanox.vision/ai
 
Partnering to develop IBD treatment. Israel’s Teva is partnering with France’s Sanofi (see also here) to develop and commercialize TEV 574, currently in Phase 2b clinical trials, for the anti-TL1A treatment of ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s Disease, two types of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-teva-teams-with-sanofi-on-inflammatory-bowel-treatment-1001459330
 
US approval for vision-correcting eye drops. The US FDA has approved the QLOSI eye drops, from Israel’s Orasis (see here previously), The prescription eye drops improve farsightedness (presbyopia) for up to eight hours without impacting distance or night vision. The treatment can benefit almost two billion sufferers.
https://nocamels.com/2023/10/eyedrops-that-temporarily-correct-vision-receive-fda-approval/
 
Sports tech to heal injured soldiers. The ElectroGear device from Israel’s Healables (see here previously) was designed to enhance performance and accelerate recovery among athletes. It is now being repurposed to treat pain and injuries suffered by IDF personnel. You can even help towards donating one to an Israeli soldier.
https://nocamels.com/2023/10/startup-repurposes-wearable-medtech-for-israeli-soldiers-in-battle/
https://electrogear.com/products/electrogear-military-hero
 
Treating war-related head trauma. Israel’s Sheba Medical Center is using innovative methods to treat the complex injuries suffered by those wounded by Hamas terrorists. One example is the AI systems from Israel’s Aidoc (see here previously), used to analyze brain aneurysms from gunshot wounds and rocket shrapnel.
https://nocamels.com/2023/10/israels-top-hospital-innovates-to-treat-war-related-head-trauma/
 
Using AI to speed up gene therapy development. Israel’s mana.bio harnesses the power of AI to significantly reduce development times for new nucleic acid therapeutics and vaccines. Mana.bio produces novel lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) that deliver RNA and gene therapies to specific tissues in the body near to the liver,
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/rjkyo2hzt  https://www.mana.bio/technology
 
Optimizing clinical trials. Israel’s PhaseV develops causal machine learning (ML) technology that optimizes clinical trial design and analysis. Its goal is to prevent bio-techs wasting money on failed or badly designed trials of new treatments.  It boosts clinical trial success rates while maximizing resource and time efficiency.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/skymnbhf6    https://phasevtrials.com/
 

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Hamas and the Ruse That May Be Its Last by Amir Taheri

Posted By on October 29th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20104/hamas-ruse

Hamas worked out a scheme to make Israelis focus on the West Bank and Lebanon as the two most immediate sources of threat while portraying Gaza as relatively calm.

Iran may have helped sell that narrative in a number of ways.

It is, perhaps, too early to have a full picture of what led to the recent Hamas attack on Israeli villages close to Gaza.

One thing, however, is certain: the attack came when and where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet least expected.

But why? One answer adopted by Netanyahu’s team is “a failure of intelligence services”.

However, that answer, even if it contains a grain of truth, could not divert attention from a bigger failure: the Israeli leaders’ inability to correctly analyze the intelligence at their disposal and, and having bought into what looks like a ruse by Hamas, to imagine a worst-case scenario.

It now seems probable that Hamas carefully prepared a scheme to lull the Israelis into slumber as far as a threat from Gaza was concerned.

Iran’s Major-General Yahya Safavi, who wears the lofty title of “senior military advisor” to “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei, says Hamas planned the attack over two years with a view to divert Israeli attention from Gaza and make a surprise attack possible. He does not say whether Iranians were involved in the planning but drops hints that they knew about the plot.

“The most important element was surprise,” he says.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

‘Just Blind Hate’: The Persecution of Christians, September 2023 by Raymond Ibrahim

Posted By on October 29th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20105/persecution-of-christians-september

[O]ne young seminarian, Brother Na’aman, 25, who was on the verge of completing his priesthood training, was burned alive. Police were contacted even before the attack, but came only after the terrorists had fled. — Morning Star News, September 8, 2023, Nigeria.

“They then proceeded to separate Christians from Muslims, apparently based on their names and ethnicity. They opened fire on the Christians, riddling them with bullets.” — acninternational.org, September 21, 2023, Mozambique.

“Today, I have nothing. I saw my house and my place of worship burn in front of my eyes. I was helpless. I saw my [Muslim] neighbours betray us. We have never done them any harm; we always respected them. Then why?” — Open Doors UK, September 6, 2023, Pakistan.

The following are among the murders and abuses inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of September 2023.

The Muslim Slaughter of Christians

Nigeria: As the genocide there of Christians continues, a Sept. 1 report found that “Of the 5,500 Christians who were killed last year because of their faith, 90 percent”—or about 4,950—”were Nigerian.”

On the night of Sept. 7, Muslims torched a Catholic seminary in Kaduna State. Although two priests managed to escape, one young seminarian, Brother Na’aman, 25, who was on the verge of completing his priesthood training, was burned alive. Police were contacted even before the attack, but came only after the terrorists had fled. “It is sad that killings and this type of evil against Christians are still going on in spite of our appeal and pleading to Nigerian government to take measures towards ending these attacks,” said the Rev. John Hayab, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Kaduna State Chapter Hayab. In a statement he elaborated:

“What is disheartening about this particular attack is the … Parish is located at the heart of Kamantan town…This causes us to wonder some more, ‘Where is the hope, how much more terrible could the situation get?…. [W]e invite the Governor of Kaduna State… [to]ensure that those responsible for the Kamantan evil night are apprehended and made to face the law. Security is everyone’s business; it is disappointing that this kind of unholy activity could be recorded at the heart of the… community, and the criminals will operate unchallenged.”

EDUCATION Comments turned off

On Scene at the Pro-Hamas Campus “Walkout”AT Berkeley Steven Hayward

Posted By on October 29th, 2023

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/author/steven

As noted earlier in the week, I was on campus at Berkeley yesterday to host a guest lecture at the law school from Hadley Arkes about his latest book Mere Natural Law (podcast forthcoming), but yesterday happened to coincide with the “National Walkout” in favor of Hamas called for on college campuses nationwide.

I decided to take in some of the scene down at Sproul Plaza, the main site for campus protest at Berkeley ever since the Free Speech Movement was born at that location back in 1964.

I’ll add that unlike Penn and other elite universities, a clear and unequivocal faculty statement against campus pro-Hamas protests has gained nearly 400 faculty signatures so far—over 10 percent of the faculty. Some excerpts:

Open Letter on Recent Events in Israel and Gaza to the UC-Berkeley Community

On the morning of October 7, Hamas terrorists launched a brutal and vicious attack, entering Israel from Gaza. In villages and towns near the Israel/Gaza border, they murdered by gun, knife, and fire more than 1,000 unarmed civilians, including babies, children, women, the elderly, and entire families, in their homes and on the street.

They went door-to-door annihilating whole families. They killed children in front of their parents and siblings. They abused women, and paraded their mistreated naked bodies. They massacred hundreds of young people attending a nature party in the desert. And they took captive over 150 children, infants, elderly in wheelchairs, women and men, to be used as human shields, and worse. . .

While we individually have many different views about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we emphatically agree with President Biden’s characterization of this murderous attack – the purposeful annihilation, rape, kidnapping, and execution of civilians – as a violation of every code of human morality.

Some in our campus community have described these massacres perpetrated by Hamas as “resistance” to be “celebrated” in a “freedom struggle.” This is repugnant and indefensible. For many of us, as we went on social media on Sunday night and Monday morning, it was shocking to realize that literally while Hamas terrorists were going house-to-house seeking to murder as many Jews as they could, some pro-Palestinian organizations on our own campus were gathering petition signatures for statements that celebrated these Hamas terrorists as freedom fighters and rejected any critique of their actions. . .

Unlike the Harvard faculty statement that was signed mostly by faculty from the hard sciences, many of the Berkeley faculty signatories are from the humanities and social sciences, and included the chancellor, Carol Christ, and (the very left) law school Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Analysis: ‘Reduction in US oil output under Biden from the Trump trend has cost the U.S. roughly $500 million a day’ By Marc Morano

Posted By on October 29th, 2023

https://www.climatedepot.com/2023/10/26/analysis-reduction-in-us-oil-output-under-biden-from-the-trump-trend-has-cost-the-u-s-roughly-500-million-a-day/

We’ve been warning regularly on these pages that the Biden war on American fossil fuels is not just an economic calamity, but a national security threat as well. We have known for fifty years that terrorist organizations like Hamas are primarily financed with petro-dollars.

Just as Biden has aided and abetted the Russian war machine in Ukraine, he has enriched Middle East oil-producing nations like Iran as well.

Our latest CTUP analysis finds that the reduction in US oil output under Biden from the Trump trend has cost the U.S. roughly $500 million a day. Much of that money has been transferred week after week from American producers to nations hostile to the U.S. and Israel.

Missing Under Biden:

This has helped fund the very missiles being fired on Israel.

Biden’s “green” energy policy is weakening America and strengthening our enemies making the world a much more dangerous place.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The death of Democrat Jewish innocence By Sally Zelikovsky

Posted By on October 29th, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/10/the_death_of_democrat_jewish_innocence.html
Having strived for centuries in America to be the best of good citizens, Jewish Democrats are discovering that their efforts are not appreciated, with dire consequences.

Jewish conservatives, while considered a bit of an oddity despite growing numbers, are commonly asked Why are so many Jews liberals?

From conservative luminaries like Norman Podhoretz and Dennis Prager to B-team influencers like me, Jewish conservatives have struggled to provide a satisfactory answer. Like any other group, we do not march in lockstep, certainly not when it comes to our religion and definitely not politically. Still, Jewish conservatives readily acknowledge that, like Black Americans, most of us tend to be liberal if not downright progressive and, regrettably, sometimes Marxist.

Books and articles have been written, and theories abound as to why this is, including, among others, the idea that Jews are liberal out of residual devotion to FDR and his pro-unionism; as pushback against the brutality they suffered under right-wing totalitarians like Hitler; and because, when Jews became secular, they replaced their religion with progressivism.

None of these quite hits the sweet spot, but they all resonate to some extent.