FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

US needs a strategy for a realigned Middle East by Lawrence Haas

Posted By on June 4th, 2022

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/3510732-us-needs-a-strategy-for-a-realigned-middle-east/

As recent events make clear, the Middle East is increasingly becoming a bifurcated region, with Israel and its growing Sunni Arab allies on one side, and Iran and its state and terror-group allies on the other.

Gone are the days when the region was bifurcated in another way — between Israel and everyone else — and when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was considered the main obstacle to wider Arab-Israeli peace.

The realigned Middle East has major implications for efforts to resurrect the 2015 global nuclear agreement with Iran, which rested on naïve U.S. hopes that it would moderate the radical regime in Tehran and nourish warmer U.S.-Iranian relations. At this point, Washington, Jerusalem, and like-minded governments should prepare for life beyond that agreement — whether it ever comes back to life or not.

Consider what we’ve seen across the region just in recent days. For starters, Israel and the United Arab Emirates have just signed the first ever comprehensive free trade agreement between the Jewish state and any Arab nation, and it’s expected to greatly expand trade between these two nations in the coming years and also encourage Israeli companies to build manufacturing sites in the UAE.

The trade deal builds on the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords of 2020, which brought formal diplomatic relations between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco — and (preceded by Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994) increased the number of Arab states with formal ties to Israel to six.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

“Will He, or Won’t He?” Sydney Williams

Posted By on June 3rd, 2022

http://www.swtotd.blogspot.com/

The question in the title, of course, is aimed at Mr. Trump and the 2024 Presidential election. While I admire what Mr. Trump accomplished as President and for the way he battled media vilification, I find his ego, language and bullying offensive.

Obviously, no one knows the answer to the question, including, in all probability, Mr. Trump. The election is thirty months away, with midterms coming first. Mr. Trump will turn 76 on June 14 – granted he would be younger than was Mr. Biden in 2020, but no longer in the flower of youth, nor even in the comfort of middle age. Mr. Trump remains controversial and divisive – not the soothing, empathetic figure the nation needs when it is fraught with division as to who we are and what we stand for. (Is it really alright to let young men in high school who self-identify as women use girls’ showers? The condoning of deviant behavior in the name of social justice, no matter what the LBGTQ community may claim, is aberrant.)

Mr. Trump remains the dominant figure in Republican politics. A poll of potential Republican primary voters taken in March of this year by Morning Consult, a global decision intelligence company, gave Mr. Trump 55% of the vote, Ron DeSantis 12%, Mike Pence 10% and Nikki Haley 7%. Ohio’s J.D. Vance appeared to have been helped by Mr. Trump’s endorsement in the May 3rd Senatorial primary. Other Trump-endorsed candidates like Georgia’s Herschel Walker’s bid for the U.S. Senate and Arkansas’ Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s campaign for governor were successful. Yet Virginia’s gubernatorial election last November and Georgia’s primary on May 24th suggest Mr. Trump is not a fool-proof king maker. In fact, last week’s Harvard-Harris poll showed a preference for Mr. Trump had declined to 41% among Republican primary voters.

CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB Comments turned off

Harvey Weinstein Adviser Anita Dunn in Line To Become White House Chief of Staff

Posted By on June 3rd, 2022

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/antia-dunn-weinstein-biden/

Damage Control: Harvey Weinstein Adviser in Line To Become White House Chief of Staff

Anita Dunn, the senior Biden aide best known for providing “damage control” advice to disgraced Hollywood rapist Harvey Weinstein, is in line to take over as White House chief of staff after the midterm elections, NBC News reports.

Dunn is widely considered to be a “potential successor” to Ron Klain, the current White House chief of staff who several people close to Biden told NBC News was planning to “depart at some point after the midterms.”

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Biden Is No Friend of Israel by Con Coughlin

Posted By on June 3rd, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18584/biden-is-no-friend-of-israel

The real crime, one that represents a serious breach of the long-standing intelligence-sharing arrangements between the US and Israel, is that one of President Joe Biden’s senior officials has been willing to betray the trust of such a close ally.

At a time when tensions are already running high between Iran and the West over the stalled nuclear talks, there are quite justifiable concerns in Israel that the leak will prompt Iran to exact revenge by attacking Israeli targets, even if it later transpires that Israel was not responsible for the assassination.

The timing of the leak also indicates an underlying willingness on the part of the Biden administration to undermine Israel when, in public, the White House is seeking to portray itself as an ally of Israel, as indicated by its recent seeming decision not to remove the IRGC from the US list of designated terrorist organisations.

As for motivation, it is unclear if the leak was deliberate, to harm Israel, or from not fully appreciating the jeopardy it could potentially cause Israel, an act which would reflect the Biden administration’s profound lack of understanding as to what is at stake with the entire Iran issue.

Nothing better illustrates the Biden administration’s deep-seated antipathy towards the State of Israel than the leaking of highly classified material about the alleged role Israeli intelligence played in the assassination of a top-ranking Iranian terrorist.

For decades, Israel and the US have enjoyed a unique intelligence-sharing relationship whereby the two countries share the most sensitive material on their respective intelligence, security and military operations.

But the deep-seated bond of trust that forms the bedrock of this vital relationship has been seriously compromised as a result of the Biden administration’s egregious decision to leak details of Israel’s alleged involvement in the killing of Colonel Sayad Khodayee, a senior commander in the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC).

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Another Justice Department Fail: The Flynn Unmasking Classified information was leaked to the media by several Obama intelligence officials. But no one will be punished.  By Julie Kelly

Posted By on June 3rd, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/06/02/another-justice-department-fail-the-flynn-unmasking/

Barack Obama’s crusade to destroy Lt. General Michael Flynn began months before Election Day in 2016. Flynn resigned as Obama’s Defense Intelligence Agency director in 2014 amid clashes with his boss at the time, James Clapper, over the administration’s approach to the war on terror. In early 2016, Flynn, who had become an outspoken critic of Obama’s foreign policy, joined the Trump presidential campaign; a few months later, Obama’s FBI opened a counterintelligence probe into Flynn and three other campaign associates.

After Trump won, Team Obama accelerated its targeting of Flynn. Obama warned Trump during an Oval Office meeting shortly after Election Day not to hire Flynn, advice Trump promptly rejected. So, Obama set out to make Trump pay for his defiance.

The alleged details of discussions between Flynn, slated to serve as Trump’s national security advisor, and the Russian ambassador about U.S. sanctions against the Kremlin for “interfering” in the presidential election were leaked to the Washington Post a week before Trump’s inauguration.

Columnist David Ignatius first planted the idea that Flynn might have broken federal law by talking about sanctions in numerous phone calls. 

“According to a senior U.S. government official, Flynn phoned Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak several times on Dec. 29, the day the Obama administration announced the expulsion of 35 Russian officials as well as other measures in retaliation for the hacking,” Ignatius wrote on January 12, 2017.  “What did Flynn say, and did it undercut the U.S. sanctions? The Logan Act (though never enforced) bars U.S. citizens from correspondence intending to influence a foreign government about ‘disputes’ with the United States. Was its spirit violated?”

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

New election integrity fears: Georgia county ballot machines off by thousands when hand counted The first place candidate dropped to third place after the hand count By Madeleine Hubbard

Posted By on June 3rd, 2022

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/new-election-integrity-fears-georgia-county-ballot-machines-thousands

The Democratic primary for a Georgia county has been called into question after a hand count revealed the voting machines were off by thousands of ballots.

Marshall Orson, a Democratic DeKalb County school board member running for the county commission, asked the local elections board on Thursday to not certify the results as scheduled on Friday due to “numerous issues” with the race.

Orson asked for an “independent review” and a formal recount of the election in his letter to the board, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

“There is no rational basis for believing that there are not continuing issues with the results and the results should not be certified with the continuing existence of multiple substantive issues and concerns,” Orson wrote. “Doing so would pose a substantial risk not only to the confidence the public will have in the overall election results from this race but could extend to the entire primary as well as the general election.”

The initial Democratic primary results showed Orson winning for commission District 2 with Lauren Alexander in second place and Michelle Long Spears in third. This would have put Orson against Alexander in a runoff election.

However, Spears noticed that the results showed she received zero votes at most election precincts. 

The secretary of state’s office admitted late last month to making several programing mistakes in the ballot equipment that affected the final tally. 

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Yes, Biden Deserves Blame For Inflation By: David Harsanyi

Posted By on June 3rd, 2022

https://thefederalist.com/2022/06/01/yes-biden-deserves-the-blame-for-inflation/

From top to bottom, the Biden administration botched the inflation problem.

“So, while it’s true that inflation is a complex, multifaceted problem that isn’t entirely any person’s or administration’s or event’s fault, it is fair to say that the Biden administration, from top to bottom, was as wrong as an administration could be on the issue. They ignored it. They weren’t prepared. They exacerbated it. At the very least, Biden deserves a lot more credit for inflation than he does economic growth. If you’re going to take credit for the latter, you deserve blame for the former.”

Joe Biden has written an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal detailing his plan to fight inflation.

Well, perhaps the word “detailing” is too generous. The preponderance of the column features Biden taking credit for economic growth that can be attributed to the reopening of an economy that was shuttered by the governing class during Covid. Biden, of course, not only championed those closings, but was critical of Republican governors who opened their states before he deemed it appropriate.

But with midterms approaching, there’s been a concerted effort underway to exonerate the president, and thus Democrats, of any culpability for rising prices. Biden sycophant “Morning Joe,” for example, contends that anyone who blames the president for more than a “passing impact” on inflation is a “lying hack or an ignorant rube.” One wonders if that group includes former Obama adviser Steve Rattner, who argues that inflation has been driven by government putting “too much money in people’s pockets?” Or Obama’s one-time Director of the National Economic Council Larry Summers, who had been warning for more than a year that cash infusions would exacerbate inflation? Or Jeff Bezos, who correctly pointed out that the “administration tried hard to inject even more stimulus into an already over-heated, inflationary economy?”

Even if we were to concede that there is no good way to quantify exactly how much recent spending helped propel inflation — which is outpacing other Western nations — it’s clear that the Biden administration completely mismanaged what should have been a slam-dunk recovery.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

BU Professor Reveals This Week’s New Thing That’s Racist $58,000 to attend Boston University. And this is what you get. Robert Spencer

Posted By on June 3rd, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/06/bu-professor-reveals-weeks-new-thing-thats-racist-robert-spencer/

It costs $58,000 a year to attend Boston University, but don’t think that for all that money you’re going to get anything resembling, say, an education. No, Boston University today, like most other American colleges and universities, is dedicated to turning out thoroughly indoctrinated Leftists who will serve as reliable cadres in the fundamental transformation of American society that both Barack Obama and Joe Biden have promised us. That’s why BU employs someone such as Saida Grundy as an assistant professor: a racist apologist for rioting is just the kind of professor the universities want these days. Having one on staff is a big source of prestige.

This is clear from the fact that Grundy’s racist, pro-rioting remarks weren’t just statements she made as an individual, which BU tactfully ignored or even disavowed. Come on, man! This is 2022! On Wednesday, BU proudly tweeted video of Grundy speaking about the George Floyd riots, and saying:

If we’re gonna talk about George Floyd and really understand it, then we need to understand community reactions to it, and we often hear politicians, we hear civic leaders, from inside black communities and from outside of them as well. We hear President Biden say, “You know, I understand your frustrations but don’t destroy property.” Well, when you say that to black people who historically have been property, one of our greatest weapons against injustice was the looting of ourselves as property from the system of slavery. And what we see in communities is they’re reacting to the very racism of what we call property, right? So that’s why I think it’s very important for, you know, people who see reactions in communities to not judge and to not make assumptions about what is good and not good reactions. And not actually re-victimize communities by saying there’s an acceptable and a not acceptable way to react. Listen to them, and then we can say what these communities need.

ANTI-SEMITISM, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Open Season on the Jews of France Yet another French Jew is murdered in an anti-Semitic hate crime. Ari Lieberman

Posted By on June 3rd, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/06/its-open-season-jews-france-ari-lieberman/

In what has become a disturbing, and all too familiar occurrence in France, another elderly French Jew has been murdered in an unprovoked attack motivated by antisemitism. On May 21, an 89-year-old Lyon resident named René Hadjaj was defenestrated from the 17th floor of the apartment complex where he resided. The perpetrator has been identified as a 51-year-old male of Algerian origin named Rachid Kheniche. Hadjaj was said to have been wearing a kippah at the time of the assault.

French police were quick to dismiss the attack as a dispute between neighbors unrelated to antisemitism. However, watchdog groups quickly alerted French law enforcement authorities to Kheniche’s social media postings where he engaged in antisemitic rants. After viewing the postings, the French prosecutor’s office requested that judges presiding over the case include an antisemitic motive charge as an aggravating circumstance in killing of Hadjaj.

Hadjaj’s murder is eerily similar to the horrific April 2017 murder of Sarah Halimi, a 65-year-old French-Jewish retired doctor, who was severely beaten and thrown from her apartment to her death. In that case, the killer was a 27-year-old drug dealer and user named Kobili Traore. Halimi, who lived in the same apartment complex as Traore had previously expressed fear of her future killer after enduring his repeated antisemitic threats. During his assault against Halimi, Traore yelled Allahu-Akbar (God is Great) a common Islamist refrain. After killing her, Traore reportedly said that he had just killed The Shaytan, an Islamic reference to Satan.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

The Immigrant Population Is Growing Rapidly By Mark Krikorian

Posted By on June 3rd, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-immigrant-population-is-growing-rapidly/

The total foreign-born population reached a record 47 million in April, according to a new report by my colleagues Steven Camarota and Karen Ziegler.

While that’s the largest number ever recorded, and the total number of immigrants is important in itself, the simple fact of a record number is maybe the least interesting finding of the report; after all, a growing population of any kind sets a new record every year.

But the pace of that growth is remarkable. The report, based on the Census Bureau’s monthly Current Population Survey, noted that the 47 million number is half-again more than in 2000. Going back further, the total size of the foreign-born population has doubled since 1990, tripled since 1980, and quintupled since 1970. (The total U.S. population has grown only by about half since 1970.)

What’s more, the growth is accelerating. This total number of foreign-born (people living here who weren’t U.S. citizens at birth — legal and illegal, naturalized citizen, green-card, H-1B, whatever) has grown by 2 million just since Joe Biden was inaugurated in January of last year. And two-thirds of that increase under Biden are illegal aliens (1.35 million), which should be no surprise considering the ongoing dissolution of the border. (The Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics both state that illegal immigrants are included in their survey data, though some do get missed.)

In addition to the size of the foreign-born population, the percentage also matters. The foreign-born now account for one in seven U.S. residents (14.3 percent) — the highest percentage since 1910.