RUTHFULLY YOURS

Remember when she was inevitable? Ladbroke’s still rates Hillary Clinton a heavy favorite in 2016, paying 4 to 9 on a bet that she’ll take the Democratic nomination and 11 to 8—slightly more than even money—that she’ll be elected president. But if it were our intention to place a bet on Mrs. Clinton, we’d wait a while. Our suspicion is that the odds are about to lengthen.

“There’s plenty of bad news for [Mrs.] Clinton in last month’s Quinnipiac poll, the first national survey conducted since the November election,” observes the Washington Examiner’s Michael Barone. “Clinton runs 1 point behind Mitt Romney, 1 point ahead of Chris Christie, 4 points ahead of Paul Ryan and 5 points ahead of Jeb Bush, Rand Paul and Mike Huckabee. None of this can be blamed on low off-year turnout; the poll is of registered voters.” For what it’s worth, the Ladbroke’s Mrs. Clinton is having difficulties with retailing as well. Yesterday she spoke at Georgetown University, her husband’s alma mater. The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank notes that when she “spoke in the same place a year ago, the room was reportedly packed”—so packed, apparently, that Milbank couldn’t get in. She was there again in October, and the hall “again ‘was filled to capacity,’ the campus newspaper reported; some students lined up overnight and others were turned away.” (How Georgetown can afford all these pricey speeches we’ll never know.)

Yesterday, according to Milbank, “half of the 700 seats in the place were empty.” An optimist would say they were half-full, but we live in pessimistic times. “Roughly half a dozen people rose to applaud, and for a terrifying moment it appeared they might be the only ones standing. But slowly, lazily, most of the others struggled to their feet.” Really, “terrifying”? Ambassador Chris Stevens could not be reached for comment.

IBOLYA RYAN WAS AN AMERICAN TEACHER- YOUR MOTHER….

The suspect accused of stabbing an American teacher to death at an Abu Dhabi shopping mall was not working alone, Abu Dhabi police told ABC News.

The suspect was identified as Dalal al Hashemi, a 38 year-old UAE citizen of Yemeni origin, police said. She was arrested today in connection with the teacher’s murder and is also accused of planting a bomb in front of an Egyptian-American doctor’s home.

Police said they do not believe Hashemi, 38, was a so-called “lone wolf”. Authorities told ABC News that other people were arrested at Hashemi’s house, but their connection to the attack was not yet known.

Her home was described as a “base of operations,” but it was not clear what groups – if any – she may have been connected to.

The suspect accused of stabbing an American teacher to death at an Abu Dhabi shopping mall was not working alone, Abu Dhabi police told ABC News.

The suspect was identified as Dalal al Hashemi, a 38 year-old UAE citizen of Yemeni origin, police said. She was arrested today in connection with the teacher’s murder and is also accused of planting a bomb in front of an Egyptian-American doctor’s home.

Ibolya Ryan, a kindergarten teacher who was the mother of 11-year-old twins, was stabbed to death by someone wearing a black abayah, which covered the suspect from head to toe, including the stabber’s face.

PA Mufti demands bodies of synagogue murderers

Two weeks ago terrorists Ghassan and Uday Abu Jamal entered a synagogue in

West Jerusalem and attacked worshippers with guns, knives and axes. They murdered five and injured seven people, three of them seriously. The terrorists were killed in an exchange of fire with Israeli police that arrived on the scene.

Now the Palestinian Authority Mufti, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, demands that Israel transfer the bodies of the dead murderers, who he calls Martyrs (Shahids), a term of the highest honor in Islam. He explained: “It is the Martyrs’ right for us to pray for them” and also so their relatives “may hold the funeral rites required by Muslim Shari’ah”:

“At a press conference at the mourners’ tent in Jabal Mukkaber on Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014, [PA] Mufti of Jerusalem Sheikh Muhammad Hussein called on the occupation authorities to return the bodies of the Martyrs (Shahids) to their relatives and the members of their village quickly, so that they may hold the funeral rites required by Muslim Shari’ah. Hussein continued: ‘It is the Martyrs’ right for us to pray for them, and this is a right according to Shari’ah. Their relatives, friends and loved ones also have the right to see them one last time, and no one gains anything from keeping the Martyrs’ bodies.’”

[The Capital City, distributed with Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 2, 2014]The attorney of the murderers’ families blamed Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for the deaths of the “Martyrs” and said “an indictment must be submitted” against him:

Attorney Raed Bashir: “Given that the occupation forces are responsible for the deaths of eight people in the operation (i.e., the Jerusalem synagogue terror attack) – six settlers and the Martyrs Ghassan and Uday Abu Jamal – an indictment must be submitted against Prime Minister of the occupation Netanyahu, as he is responsible for the events in Jerusalem.”

The ashes of John Henry Patterson, a Christian Zionist whom Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu termed the godfather of Israel’s army, were interred along with those of his wife in an official ceremony Thursday at Moshav Avichail.

Lt.-Col. Patterson commanded the Jewish Legion which served with distinction in the Gallipoli and Palestine campaigns during World War I.

Patterson was also a friend of Netanyahu’s father, Ben-Zion Netanyahu, and the godfather of his brother Yonatan, who was named for the Irish-born Patterson.

Zeev Jabotinsky wrote about Patterson that ‘never in Jewish history has there been in our midst a Christian friend of his understanding and devotion.'”

Netanyahu initiated the move to bury the ashes of Patterson and his wife in Israel, near the men he commanded. According to his grandson, Alan, who attended the ceremony on Thursday, one of Patterson’s final wishes was to be buried in Israel close to his men.

“If we truly care about the poor (and we do), we need to educate people to the tragedy a UN climate treaty would be for developing nations.Poor countries need freedom, energy, prosperity and the rule of law just as much as wealthy nations do. That message needs to get out.That’s why we’re in Peru.” Craig Rucker Executive Director CFACT

In 2012, Typhoon Bopha struck the Philippines while CFACT was at COP 18, the UN climate conference in Doha, Qatar. Filipino negotiator Yeb Sano made a tear-filled speech pleading for a global warming treaty.

Last year Typhoon Haiyan dealt the Philippines a devastating blow around the time CFACT was working at COP 19 in Warsaw. Sano responded with a hunger strike that stole the show.
A young global warming campaigner named Adam Greenberg fasted along “in solidarity” with Yeb for 13 days during that Warsaw event. Now today in Lima, Martin Kopp, “climate justice advocate” for the Lutheran World Federation, Mohamed Adow of Christian Aid, and Laura Vargas of the Inter-Religious Council of Peru joined Adam to announce a project called, “Fast for the Climate” at a press conference at the Pentagonito. Sano joined in via a pre-recorded video.
“People are living and dying and suffering,” Greenberg said. “During COP 19 the Philippines were slammed by a typhoon. The price we’re paying is in human lives.”
Phillipines typhoon chart

It’s a tear-jerking narrative, yet the problem is that the scientific data shows that Typhoons Haiyan and Bopha were natural weather events with no meaningful connection to global warming. The IPCC was unable to state a serious short-term link between typhoons and climate. Similarly, Typhoon Hagupit, which is headed for the Philippines this weekend, is a product of natural weather variability.

Severe storms often form in Southeast Asia this time of year. They did so before the industrial revolution and will continue to do so whether you drive a car and air condition your home, or not.

The Obama administration is refusing to discuss reports that emerged early Thursday claiming that the White House is considering imposing sanctions on Israel for continuing construction on Jewish homes in Jerusalem.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf dodged several questions on Thursday when confronted with reports that the administration had held secret internal meetings to discuss taking action against Israel for its ongoing building in East Jerusalem.

The classified meetings were reportedly held several weeks ago and included officials from both the State Department and White House, according to the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, which first reported on the meetings.

The possibility of sanctioning Israel for its ongoing construction sends a signal that the Obama administration is willing to go further in its denunciations of Israel then any previous White House.

At the same time, the White House is vigorously pushing Congress against passing new sanctions on Iran.

When asked to address the reports Thursday afternoon, Harf declined to take a stance.

“I’m obviously not going to comment one way or another on reported internal deliberations,” she said. “We’ve made clear our position on settlement activity publicly and that hasn’t changed.”

When pressed to address whether the White House has reached a point at which it believes its harsh rhetoric against Israel is not enough, Harf again demurred, stating that she would not “address hypotheticals.”

A White House National Security Council (NSC) official also would not comment on the report when contacted Thursday by the Washington Free Beacon.

News of the supposed meeting leaked to the press though Israeli officials who were apparently apprised of the discussion.

Now almost everyone is talking about the Islamic State threats in Gaza against poets, writers and women. The leaflets mention the poets and writers by name — a move that has created panic. The leaflets also include an ultimatum to Palestinian women to abide by Islamic attire or face the Islamic State style of punishment — presumably being stoned to death.

Of course, all this is taking place while Hamas continues to insist that that the Islamic State is not operating in Gaza. Those who are taking the threats seriously are the writers and women whose names appeared in the leaflets.

Islamic State flags can already be seen at football stadiums, on windshields of vehicles, mosques, educational centers and wedding invitations.

It is also clear that if and when the Hamas regime collapses, the Gaza Strip will not fall into the lands of the less-radical Palestinians.

It is important to keep in mind that the counties in Europe now voting for a Palestinian state may effectively be paving the way for a takeover by Islamic State.

It is always dreamlike to see one Islamist terror group accuse the other of being too “lenient” when it comes to enforcing sharia laws. But it is not dreamlike when a terrorist group starts threatening writers and women.

That is what is happening these days in the Gaza Strip, where supporters of the Islamic State are accusing Hamas of failing to impose strict Islamic laws on the Palestinian population — as if Hamas has thus far endorsed a liberal and open-minded approach toward those who violate sharia laws.

President Erdogan builds an opulent palace for himself, part of a 20-year mess that is American Middle East policy

It’s after Thanksgiving, and so it bears mentioning that Turkey, under the direction of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, formerly that country’s prime minister and now its president, has apparently lost its mind. Erdogan, a proudly demagogic Islamist, thinks Muslims discovered America, centuries before Columbus got there. Further, he’s built a presidential palace four times the size of Versailles and 30 times the size of the White House.

Erdogan’s wildly inflated sense of his own importance underscores both the extent and the source of America’s Turkey problem: The Obama Administration, as well as the Bush White House before it, has failed to cut him down to size. The effects of treating Erdogan like a reasonable actor when he is clearly crazy are not only being felt by the people of Turkey, who have seen their democracy curdle into authoritarian one-man rule and their economic miracle turn into an oligarchical prison-house built on enormous mountains of debt.

One familiar target of Erdogan’s public abuse is Israel. And as things head south in Turkey, it is not surprising that the Turkish leader has moved from words to actions. Last week, Israeli authorities rolled up a Hamas cell on the West Bank that was plotting several major operations, including an attack on Teddy Kollek Stadium in Jerusalem. The Hamas cell takes its orders from Hamas commander Saleh al-Arouri, who lives openly in Turkey under Erdogan’s apparent protection.

Israeli officials are furious with Ankara. They’re complaining to both the United States and NATO about Turkey’s hosting Arouri, who proudly claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and murder of the three Israeli students this summer that led to 40-day-long war with Hamas in Gaza.

Ankara has formally denied the Israeli allegations: “Turkey holds dialog with Hamas,” said one Turkish official, perhaps referring to Arouri’s open presence in Turkey’s capital, “but would not under any circumstances allow a terror group to operate from its territory.” But that’s not true, say U.S. officials, who are less concerned with Hamas than with foreign terrorist organizations fighting in Syria. The White House has accused the Turks of giving safe passage to terrorists from both the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra. So, why not Hamas, too?

If you are mystified as to why the left strives so hard to make martyrs out of such unlikely role models as Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin, both killed in self-defense, just keep in mind Rahm Emanuel’s credo: “Never let a serious crisis go to waste.”

Within days of the shooting of Brown in August, a “Professor of Science and Education” named Christopher Emdin posted (and then updated in October) a piece for Huffington Post entitled “5 Ways to Teach About Michael Brown and Ferguson in the New School Year.” That article was given new life when a link to it was tweeted by the White House Am-Af Ed just after Thanksgiving. It included the acronym for “in case you missed it” – indicating that the administration thought the article’s content important and valid enough to bring to people’s attention once again.

What is Am-Af Ed? It is the U.S. Department of Education’s Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans, an Obama creation designed to improve educational opportunities for blacks in America. But of course, educational excellence doesn’t mean the same thing to the Alinsky protégés in the White House as it does to most Americans. To the radical left, education is about mobilizing, galvanizing, and deploying armies of social justice warriors.

The Am-Af Ed tweet also included Twitter links to: left-leaning PBS; Teaching for Change, whose motto is “Building Social Justice Starting in the Classroom”; and Rethinking Schools, whose mission is “social justice teaching and education activism… to build broad democratic movements for social and environmental justice.” See a pattern developing there?

Teaching for Change devotes an entire page to “Teaching About Ferguson” to help indoctrinators – I mean, educators – enable students to “be proactive in their own communities” – because apparently it’s less important to give students of color an education than it is to pump them up for community action. The page is replete with items about the history of racism in America, along with positive references to Malcolm X, radical historian Howard Zinn, and the Black Panthers. That would be the same Black Panthers whose recent plot to bomb the Gateway Arch and murder the Ferguson police chief and a St. Louis prosecutor was stalled because the racist thugs ran out of EBT credit. What a standard for academic excellence they set.

Israel’s 19th governing coalition collapsed this week after less than two years in office. It included two right-of-center parties totaling 43 seats (the Knesset has 120) and two ostensibly “centrist” (actually leftist) parties totaling 25.

In recent weeks the respective leaders of the two leftist parties, Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni, had been staging a palace revolt. They lashed out at the government and its leader, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, in ways only befitting a vituperative opposition. Lapid, the finance minister, refused to implement government policy and insisted on his own misguided, destructive plans.

It left the exasperated Netanyahu with no choice but to fire these two and, in effect, dissolve the government. New elections have been set for March 17.

Meanwhile three polls (summarized at the end of this analysis by Times of Israel editor David Horovitz) have indicated that, since the previous elections in January 2013, a lot has changed in Israel.

It was those elections’ right-leaning but equivocal results that gave rise to the dubious, rickety coalition that fell this week. But now all three polls tell the same story: the right will do much better in the new elections and be able to form a coalition without the “center” (or left), possibly with the ballast of ultra-Orthodox parties that are also right-leaning politically.

What changed?

Back in January 2013 things looked relatively quiet to Israelis. Successful terror attacks were down to very low levels. The November 2012 Gaza war had lasted only eight days with very few Israeli casualties. Iran was still under tough sanctions, creating hopes—illusions—that the West was serious about stopping its march to the bomb.

What a difference—at least, in perceptions—two years make.

While Israel won the 2014 Gaza war decisively, it had most of the country scurrying to bomb shelters for seven weeks and cost Israel 64 soldiers’ and seven civilians’ lives. In its aftermath, a wave of Palestinian terror attacks that started in September has killed 12.