Friday, January 5, 2018

Bolton Coming! Presidential Voices and Sticks. Pathetic West. Finally The Clinton's Turn?


Skidaway Island Republican Club
Presidents’ Day Dinner
Monday, February 19, 2018
Special Guest
Ambassador John Bolton
U.S. Ambassador to U.N. during G.W. Bush Administration
Ambassador Bolton is currently a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a Fox News               Channel contributor and of counsel to D C law firm Kirkland & Ellis.

This event is selling out. Don’t miss out! Reserve now!
Plantation Club – The Landings
Member Bar: 5:30 PM – Dinner with wine 7:00 PM
Cost is $150 per person
Coat and tie requested
Advance reservations and payment required. Mail check to

 Mary Ann Senkowski, 8 Mainsail Crossing or contact at masenkowski@gmail.com  598-0493
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In my previous memo ,I mistakenly wrote Carter was Obama's Sec. of State when I meant to put Clinton. Several fellow memo readers brought this error to my attention. Thanks.
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Changes are in the air. (See 1 below.)
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I hear from certain liberal friends what a great president Obama was and what a disaster Trump is and will be even worse over time. I understand where they are coming from but basically disagree.

We once had a president who said 'speak softly but carry a big stick.'

Obama, to my mind, had a pip-squeak voice and carried nothing.  As for Trump, he has a "uge" voice and time will tell whether he has a stick at all.
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Feferman asks the same question going through my mind. (See 2 below.)
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The pathetic West. (See 3 below.)
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Trump, the unconventional and often brash president, is generally making logical and sensible decisions.I track those not his tweets and commentary. It gives me a much clearer insight into the man and his policies than the tripe I read from the biased mass media, the maudlin comments from up chuck Schumer and his ding bat associate, Rep. Waters.

America will never be great, never be respected if we continue to act like a patsy Obama pushover.

Obama allowed others to play him like the silver tongued fool he was expressing his contempt for the fact that we were  a strong nation. (See 4 below.)
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Is it the Clinton's turn finally? (See 5 and 5a below.)
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Dick
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1)Trump and Haley change the game for the Palestinians
Palestinians facing a new reality, and they don’t like it a bit. They are discovering that their old game doesn’t work with President Trump and Nikki Haley.

At last, the United States is calling an end to the decades-long game that the Palestinians have played with the US. They have been able to simultaneously extract hundreds of millions of dollars from the United States every year, while funding terrorists that kill Americans and Israelis. Only a “foreign policy expert” could believe that this is a wise policy, which is why it takes a man accustomed to accomplishing big things in the real world (as opposed to endlessly “advancing the peace process” to no effect) to call a halt to the madness.
President Trump signaled that the game is over two days ago:
 UN Ambassador Nikki Haley is not just on board, she is an effective advocate and trench warrior:
Responding to a reporter’s question on whether the US will continue to provide funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which provides aid to millions of Palestinian refugees, in light of a non-binding UN General Assembly resolution last month condemning the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Haley said Trump was prepared to cut aid to UNRWA if the Palestinians refuse to return to peace talks.
“I think the president has basically said that he doesn’t want to give any additional funding until the Palestinians are agreeing to come back to the negotiation table,” Haley said. “We’re trying to move for a peace process but if that doesn’t happen the president is not going to continue to fund that situation.”
 “The Palestinians now have to show their will — they want to come to the table. As of now they are not coming to the table but they ask for aid. We’re not giving the aid,” added Haley. “We’re going to make sure they come to the table and we want to move forward with the peace process.”
The implicit threats that the Palestinians have used all these decades to keep the money flowing are:
1.    The Arab and Muslim worlds will explode.
2.    If the Palestinian Authority falls, it will be replaced by Hamas and/or Hezb’allah, and the cooperation with Israeli security forces by PA forces will end.
As any skilled and artistic dealmaker would, President Trump has already addressed both of these threats. With Saudi Arabia more concerned about Iran than the Palestinians, there will be desultory fury whipped up, at best. The protests against the Jerusalem embassy move have not exactly plunged the world into chaos, after all. And Hezb’allah depends on Iranian funding and arms, and that may not be a secure support base, as Iranians threaten to topple the mullahs and complain bitterly about their wealth flowing outside their country. As for Hamas, their base of power in Gaza in awfully vulnerable, and could be wiped out if push really does come to shove. 
Most of the US aid to the Palestinians flows through UNWRA, the UN agency that operates as a de facto enabler of Palestinian radicalism. The US contribution overwhelms all other sources of funding.
 
Hat tip: Streiff, Red State
The status quo has not been working well for a long time. The PA is in a corner now, with few good options. 
Let the “experts” rant against this “escalation.” Politically, this is a loser, as Americans understand the idiocy of funding Palestinian terrorists. Diplomatically, it may downsize the careers of people who have “expertly” managed the “peace process” to no avail,  but that is a downside only for the individuals involved. 
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2)The People of Iran Are Watching the World

Bob Feferman
Bob FefermanBob Feferman is Outreach Coordinator for United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), a not-for-profit, non-partisan, advocacy group .

The pictures of the grassroots protests in Iran against the regime are both inspiring and heart wrenching. As of today, more than 20 protesters have been killed and hundreds have been arrested. The pictures also raise several questions. President Trump tweeted, “The world is watching”.  I would argue that Iranians are watching the world.  And the most important question is this: How will the international community respond to the legitimate demands of the people of Iran?
The facts is that since the signing of the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the people of Iran have not seen the expected benefits of relief from economic sanctions.
Unemployment among young people is high (estimated at over 30%), the prices of basic food staples are rising, and there is inflation.
There are basically three causes for Iran’s economic problems: widespread corruption, mismanagement of the economy and Iran’s reckless polices in the wider Middle East.
The slogans chanted in the streets of Mashad, Qom and Tehran tell it all. Protesters are shouting“Forget about Palestine, forget about Gaza, think about us”, “Death to Hezbollah“, and “Leave Syria alone, think about us instead”.
Putting it simply, the people of Iran, who are hungry for a government that meets their basic needs, are fed up with a regime that is obsessed with “exporting the Islamic revolution”.
For decades, Iran has spent billions of dollars funding terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. Last year, it was estimated that Iran spentmore than $800 million on Hezbollah, alone.
In addition to Iran’s financial support for Hezbollah, we have seen disturbing developments on Israel’s northern border.  Iran has been building factories for the production of long-range accurate missiles for Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria. There is no doubt that the target of these missiles will be Israel. And this comes in addition to the 120,000 rockets and missiles supplied by Iran to Hezbollah since the 2006 Second Lebanon War.
And then there is Iran’s pivotal role in Syria detailed in this report by the non-partisan advocacy group, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI).
Since the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, Iran has provided the Assad regime with massive financial support, an endless supply of ammunition and weapons and tens of thousands of fighters from its Revolutionary Guard Corps and from its loyal proxy, Hezbollah. In addition, Iran has recruited, trained and deployed thousands of loyal Shia militants from Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere to Syria.
And all this to prop up a brutal dictator, Bashar al-Assad, who is guilty of committing war crimes against his own people.
The cost for the people of Syria: nearly half a million dead and more than five million refugees. And who is footing the bill for all this? The people of Iran.
Experts estimate that since 2011, Iran has been spending between $6 billion and $35 billion per year in Syria.
Unfortunately, the international community has been sending Iran mixed messages on its support for terrorism and the Syrian regime. Since Iran is still designated as a state sponsor of terrorism, U.S. law forbids most American companies from returning to Iran. However, this is not the case for the rest of the world.
Following the signing of the Iran nuclear deal (the JCPOA) in 2015, hundreds of major multinational companies have sought to return to do business in Iran.
So here’s the catch: You can’t condemn Iran’s support for terrorism and the Syrian regime on one day, and sign lucrative business deals in Iran the next day. This irresponsible corporate behavior sends the Iranian regime the message that there is an economic reward for defying all norms of international behavior.
That is why the organization I represent, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), has been working hard to highlight the risks of doing business in Iran. Since the signing of the Iran nuclear deal, UANI has sent letters to hundreds of major multinational companies to highlight those risks.
According to the UANI website, “There remain serious legal, political, financial, and reputational risks associated with doing business in Iran, particularly in sectors of the Iranian economy dominated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which remains sanctioned by the U.S. Government and the international community as a terrorist organization…In light of such risks, it should be clear to all responsible companies that Iran is not genuinely “open for business.”
Through their grass-roots protests, the people of Iran are not only sending a message to their own government, they are also a sending a cry for help to the international community.
For too long, the world has turned a blind eye to Iran’s destructive behavior in the Middle East. For too long, the prospect of profits from business with Iran have come at the cost of the lives of tens of thousands of innocent victims of Iran’s violent proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Syrian regime.
While the world is watching, the people of Iran are watching us. The real question is: How will we respond?
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3)

The West should stop dithering and show its support for the protesters in Iran

By Natan Sharansky

In recent days, Iranian citizens from various places and diverse walks of life have taken to the streets in protest against their clerical rulers. Outside of Iran, meanwhile, we have seen experts in the world’s most powerful capitals insisting that their leaders should not get involved. The usual argument is that external support for the protesters will only harm their cause by tainting it with endorsement from the West.
As an opinion piece in the New York Times recently put it, the best way for the U.S. government to help the Iranian protesters is to “Keep quiet and do nothing.”
Fortunately, President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have already shown themselves unwilling to follow this advice. Even so, it is vital to understand why failing to support the protesters at this critical juncture would constitute a moral and strategic mistake — one of potentially historic proportions.
Consider what happened in 2009, when Iranians came out in large numbers to denounce their country’s rigged presidential election. The response they received from the American government was decidedly tepid. The priority of then-President Barack Obama was to reach an agreement with Tehran over its nuclear program, and he and his advisers feared that they would alienate the regime by vocally supporting its detractors.
Yet subsequent events have proved these views completely wrong. This policy of non-interference discouraged protesters and reinforced the regime at the very moment when the opposite could have led to genuine change.
My experiences as a political prisoner and my decades of involvement with democratic dissidents around the world have shown me that all democratic revolutions have some elements in common. It is the drive of ordinary citizens to free themselves from government control over their thought, speech and livelihoods — to shed the burden of having to conform in public despite their private misgivings and grievances against the regime — that has propelled dissidents and revolutionary movements around the world, from Communist Russia to the Arab Spring to today’s Islamic Republic of Iran.
Any regime that refuses to respect its citizens’ most basic rights, and especially the right to think and speak freely, can maintain its power only by intimidation and force. While some true believers may genuinely accept these official dogmas, others — I call them “double-thinkers” — question their government but are too afraid of retribution to publicly speak out against it. For these people, fear of the harsh consequences of dissent makes all the difference between silent critique and open protest.
Dissidents know the penalties of speaking out but are compelled more by the desire for freedom than by fear. They are willing to brave the consequences, including the loss of their livelihoods, physical freedom and even their lives, to gain the liberty to speak their minds. Revolutions take place when enough people simultaneously cross that fateful line between silent questioning and open dissent, between cowering in fear and standing up for freedom. Once they do so, the regime can no longer contain the upsurge of opposition and must either begin to liberalize or collapse.
This is why a policy of silence on the part of world leaders is so misguided. What matters to Iranians debating whether to cross this decisive threshold is how much they dislike their owngovernment, as well as their knowledge that the free world — those who share the basic principles for which they are fighting — stands behind them in their moment of truth.
The last time Iran stood on the brink of such a change, the Obama administration’s policy implicitly told Iranians that the United States did not stand behind them. By assuring Iran’s rulers that he preferred the status quo to any policy that would weaken or destabilize the regime, the president took the wind out of the protesters’ sails and gave courage to their oppressors. What could have been a moment of genuine liberalization gave way instead to another brutal government crackdown.
Now that history is repeating itself, the free world has a chance to avoid making the same mistake. Our leaders must not be misled by the argument that publicly siding with Iran’s dissidents will give the regime an excuse to blame the protests on foreign meddling or crack down even harder on dissidents. The government in Tehran will do these things no matter what, since a regime as threatened as Iran’s is right now will take any steps in its power to deflect and suppress opposition.
Yet, world powers should go even further than this. They should warn Tehran — and thereby reassure protesters — that it must respect its citizens’ rights if it wishes to continue receiving benefits from their countries. Articulating a clear policy of linkage would put pressure on the regime to make genuine changes and give hope to protesters that their sacrifices will not be in vain.
It is time for all those who value freedom to state clearly that the Iranian people — like all people — deserve to be free, and that when they fight for this right, those of us who already enjoy it will stand unequivocally by their side.
Natan Sharansky served nine years as a prisoner in Soviet Gulag for his human rights activities. He is Chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel.

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