What many Palestinians experience in a regular day. (See 1a below.)
===
Quid pro Quo Iranian style. (See 2 and 2a below.)
===
Allen West, next year's SIRC President Day Speaker, discusses Obama's Syrian plan. (See 3 below.)
===
Several days ago Obama, our diversity president, mocked Republican Candidates for their divergent views and pointed out if they could not handle CNBC moderators how could they hold their own with the likes of Putin, China etc.? (See 4 below.)
Carson responded: 'this from the man who ducks being interviewed by FOX 'and I would add this from the weak kneed "pusillanimous president" who draws lines and then caves.
Obama thinks he is so clever with his snide comments when, in essence, they serve to demonstrate how "pissy fanny" and small he really is.
God help America.
If, in fact, ISIS , or some other radical offshoot, did plant a bomb on the Russian plane, which was destroyed, I would look for Putin to get serious and lash out with an awesome bombing campaign and, by doing so, the comparison will further show how Obama's bombing attacks have been too restrained and thus, ineffective. Putin will, in my opinion, use this opportunity to demonstrate he means business, is the more serious and powerful and his response actions will show Obama to be the weakling we all have come to know he truly is.
On another note, eleven or more Republican candidates are unwieldy and winnowing down to the more serious has become an issue but eventually the Republicans will settle on someone who, hopefully, will be able to measure up to Hillarious, should she be the Demwit candidate.
At least this time, in the mix ,several matters were put to bed. A few of the Republican candidates took on the press and media, in a more effective manner, and showed for all to see their extreme bias. Their actions also uncovered the fact that the same media and press go soft on the Demwits in terms of their questioning.
Also, this crop of Republican candidates have displayed a considerable amount of diverse talents and because of the racial mix and gender a better team should be fielded than in the past.
Furthermore, an entire Cabinet was also probably revealed. Again, time will tell..
===
Ariel Solomon discusses "Cold War 2" and I continue to urge my memo followers to read Norman Podhoretz's book of several years ago "World War Four." (See 5 below.)
====
When bubbles burst they never do so in a pleasant fashion. (See 6 below.)
===
It is possible global activists might have fudged numbers? How could that be? (See 7 below.)
===
The mid year elections, this past Tuesday, opened the window a little bit thereby, providing a little light to shine through with respect to American voter frustration and anger. The turn out numbers were very low as usual so that has to be taken into account.
The Republican candidate in Kentucky won an upset for the governor's office and ran , apparently unabashedly, against Obama regarding coal, medical care and immigration etc. The Demwits were said to pour money into their candidate's campaign but he still lost.
The renegade sheriff in San Francisco was sent packing and even in Savannah a few office holders were turned out but most of the incompetent office holders were returned to continue the mismanagement of our city and county.
Ohio rejected narcotic usage and Houston decided women should have privacy in their bathrooms.
Perhaps one can draw a few conclusions but I do not discern a trend that threatens Hillarious' other than the fact that her distrust figures are very high and leaks suggest the FBI case against her is building.
I continue to believe this drama will play out in February or around that time,and I am of the view the FBI will have gathered enough evidence to make a case for obstruction of justice and violations regarding the mishandling of security documents. Then it will be up to the current Attorney General and Obama to determine whether to prosecute and this is where it all could hit the fan.
First, if Hillarious is indicted she would have to suspend her campaign leaving the Demwits with a choice between two B's - Bernie and Biden. I doubt , therefore, Obama will allow her to be indicted though there is no love lost between them. Furthermore, I do not believe the Attorney General would challenge him or resist his pressure. The public argument they would make would be based on the fact that there was not enough "overwhelming" evidence to obtain a conviction and , as we know from the Benghazi hearings, Demwits do not engage in wasting money because they are very penurious politicians.
So what would the FBI Chief do? How would he react? If he is an independent minded person and cares about the Bureau he leads, it is possible he, and possibly some involved Agents, might submit their resignations and then all hell would break loose!
The Clintons have demonstrated they have more lives than cats so nailing them can prove elusive. Regardless of which way this investigation blows the public seems to have voted and found Hillarious untrustworthy and not even likable and that could prove enough to doom her election..
Time will tell as usual!
===
Will Obama flood our nations with comparable s? (See 8 below.)
===
Ending on humor about how you might be a redneck.: (See 9 below.)
===
Offto Athens!
Dick
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1)
Israeli intelligence agencies: Relations with Palestinian Authority damaged, any quiet will be short-term
Israeli intelligence agencies say situation within Palestinian Authority — the weakened status of President Abbas, the emerging battle for his succession, and the sense of the PA’s diplomatic ineffectiveness — will not allow for the resumption of a long-term calm.
Israel’s intelligence branches are seeing a gradual decline in the intensity of the Palestinian terror wave, which despite continual stabbings has failed to ignite the wider public in the West Bank.
Some of the worrying trends noted at the beginning of the confrontation, such as spillover to Arab Israelis and escalation along the Gaza border, have meanwhile been halted. Still, intelligence officials have told the political leadership in recent days that even if relative quiet is achieved, it will be very hard to restore relations with the Palestinian Authority to where they were before the autumn outbreak.
The intelligence agencies agree that the internal situation in the Palestinian Authority — the weakening of President Mahmoud Abbas’ status, the emerging battle for his succession, and the sense of the PA’s diplomatic ineffectiveness — will not allow for the resumption of a long-term calm in the territories, even if the violence subsides for some time.
Security officials attribute the ebbing of terror attacks in East Jerusalem, where there has been one stabbing in the past two-and-a-half weeks after a string of terror attacks, to a combination of the lowering of tensions on the Temple Mount, understandings with Jordan and the effect of harsh police measures in East Jerusalem neighborhoods. The locus of conflict has migrated since mid-October to Hebron, where the majority of stabbing attacks has originated. Israeli officials are hopeful that the concentration of additional army troops in Hebron will gradually reduce the number of terror attacks in the area.
However, the intelligence services believe that even if the current round of violence subsides, it will return and escalate, probably within a matter of months. The level of frustration and anger among the Palestinian public, expressed in the disappointment with the PA’s functioning and the desire to confront Israel, remains high. And while a set of understandings between Abbas’ PA and Israel allowed for the decade-long maintenance of relative security and stability, that status quo has worn thin and it is very doubtful it can be rehabilitated.
The Palestinian public in the West Bank is already preparing for the day after the end of the 80-year-old Abbas’ rule. Accordingly, other senior PA officials are less prepared to maintain a high level of security coordination with Israel.
The Hamas leadership in Gaza continues to avoid opening a new front against Israel, according to intelligence officials, and is satisfied with allowing occasional violent marches toward the separation fence surrounding the Strip. Hamas military commanders in Turkey and Gaza continue to encourage terror from the West Bank in all its forms, attempting to organize shooting, bombing and suicide attacks. However, their success has been marginal, which is attributed to the damage inflicted on its military apparatus in the West Bank in recent years.
The crucial player is the Tanzim, Fatah’s field operatives in the West Bank. They have been described as the lever whose position will decide whether the violence escalates or calms down in the coming weeks. Tanzim members took an active part in demonstrations that ended in violent confrontations with army troops across the West Bank in October.
Abbas, who feared the consequences of such clashes, intervened late but in the end took action to restrain them. Tanzim members are in possession of many weapons, and some of these men are tied to the PA’s security apparatus or even on active service in them. Entry of the Tanzim to the forefront of the confrontations with the army could lead to a much greater use of firearms, as happened at the start of the second intifada in late 2000.
For now, despite the continued attacks and number of fatalities (11 Israelis and 69 Palestinians), the intelligence community does not describe these events as an Intifada. In contrast to what developed much earlier in the first two intifadas, there is still no guiding hand driving events from behind the scenes. The pool of perpetrators has no action plan or agreed upon goals. Moreover, the number of participants in incidents, aside from young stone throwers and knife-wielding assailants, is much lower in comparison with the two Intifadas.
1a)
Will the Real Palestinians Please Stand UpWhat is daily life like for regular Palestinians?
1a)
Will the Real Palestinians Please Stand UpWhat is daily life like for regular Palestinians?
Much of what you read in the mainstream media paints a picture of non-stop Palestinian suffering at the hands of Israelis. Many journalists seem to excuse even the most depraved acts as a natural consequence of unbearable suffering.
However, the reality is not what is reported in the media.
Watch this video by Corey Gil-Shuster in which Palestinians sitting in cafes, bowling alleys, and by swimming pools talk about how much they suffer. It is astonishing what they say.
The lesson?
When it comes to Israel and the Palestinians, don’t assume that the media is giving you the complete picture.
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2) Iran to Blockade U.S. Goods
In exchange for his putative approval of the Nuclear Iran Deal, Iran's Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khameini issued a directive to his government and people to blockade American goods.
In response to the Ayatollah's call for his nation to develop an "economy of resistance," Iran's Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade said it will block imports of American goods.
“We will implement the blockade on imports of American goods in a directive,” Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh said on Saturday, according to PressTV.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had asked citizens to "be watchful about irregular imports after lifting sanctions and seriously avoid importing consumer goods from the United States" in a post on his website on Sunday, according to The Associated Press. The AP also reported that US imports in Iran reached $140 million in the first half of this year, which was a huge leap.
Most of what Iran imports from the U.S. are medical devices, food and seeds, but the bulk of contraband cigarettes in Iran are U.S. brands. The ISNA news agency reported this spring that as many as 6 - 7 billion Marlboro cigarettes are smoked annually in Iran.
At the same time that the Iranian leadership is demanding that its citizens clamp down on importing U.S. goods, the U.S. and its international partners are about to lift financial sanctions on Iran in accordance with the Iran Nuclear Deal negotiated with the Islamic Republic by the U.S. and its P5+1 partners.
About the Author: Lori Lowenthal Marcus is the U.S. correspondent for The Jewish Press. A graduate of Harvard Law School.
2a)*
The U.S. and European nations must draft a letter promising to end all possibility of “sanctions snapback.”
2a)*
Will Iran Walk Away from Nuclear Deal?
The U.S. and European nations must draft a letter promising to end all possibility of “sanctions snapback.”
* The West must lift — not “suspend” — all sanctions immediately and permanently.
* The International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) must issue an irreversible declaration ending any future investigation into alleged military dimensions of Iran's nuclear programs.
* Iran will postpone any renovations at its heavy water (plutonium) reactor at Arak until the signatories of the JCPOA produce an alternative usage plan.
* Iran will not begin shipping out of country any of its enriched uranium unless the signatories agree to deliver uranium to Iran (albeit at a lower level of enrichment).
* Iran demands right to implement a phased plan of centrifuge expansion to 150,000 over a period of 15 years.
* No sanctions are to be leveled against Iran because of alleged support for terrorism or human rights violations.
* Iran must be free to explore all future advances in nuclear enrichment technology.
* Iran's leadership seems to have decided it will be able to endure a modified version of its “resistance economy,” and that widening fissures among the P5+1 signatories of the JCPOA can be exploited to end its isolation.
Rouhani, with Khamenei's endorsement, evidently calculates that Iran's economy will improve with or without the nuclear deal. Since taking office, Rouhani's cabinet has attempted to institute economic reforms designed to make Iran less vulnerable to sanctions. Rouhani, for instance, has dispensed with former President Ahmadinejad's populist polices of extensive cash grants and subsidies to provinces in rural Iran.
Additionally, Rouhani has re-empowered the Budget Control Office, which had been politically sidelined by Ahmadinejad. Rouhani has also reduced somewhat the galloping inflation of the Ahmadinejad era, which had reached about 30% [1] by appointing professionally qualified fiscal officers to monitor adherence to the government's five-year plan.
He also has sought to reduce corruption by discontinuing the practice of appointing unqualified cronies from the Basij militia and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) — a practice routine in Ahmadinejad's administrations.[2] Under his presidency, however, executions have skyrocketed to a degree that Amnesty International called “staggering,” especially in view of trials it calls “blatantly unfair.” In just the first months of 2015, accord to Amnesty International, nearly 700 people have been put to death.
The world powers are now experiencing what it means to negotiate with Persian theocrats. All is negotiable; nothing is ever finally decided. Words never commit one to action. Changing circumstances vitiate the substance of any prior commitment, leaving the door open to additional demands. Although the Islamic Republic insists that it be recognized as a normal member of the international community, it will continue to behave as if it is not bound by global norms.
Despite Iran's apparent acceptance of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA}, known as the “Iran Deal,” after the document's submission to the relevant state bureaucracies, these institutions have agreed to it only on a conditional basis. The JCPOA was approved by Iran's Consultative Assembly (Majlis), the Council of Guardians, the Supreme National Security Council and by the Office of the Leader. These seeming approvals can tempt those who desire the implementation of the nuclear deal to assume falsely that the bellicose rhetoric of Iran's leaders and the continued opposition to the JCPOA are just face-saving turns of phrase.
This same shallow mode of thinking assumes that last week's launch of an experimental ballistic missile by Iran was a bone thrown in the direction of hardliners who oppose the nuclear deal. Iran's leaders seem to have calculated that the missile test would not invite a reassessment by the P5+1 signatories, despite the fact that the launch was a clear violation of the JCPOA. Iran's leaders were proven correct: both Russia and China refused to condemn the missile test at the United Nations.
The publication of the letter of October 21 by Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, to Iran's President, Hassan Rouhani, leaves little doubt that Iran is now demanding fundamental changes to the JCPOA. The conditions spelled out by the Leader will derail the timetable for the document's implementation probably beyond President Obama's term of office. In part, Tehran most likely wants to embarrass the U.S. and President Obama personally by denying him a legacy-related political victory, just as Tehran apparently wants to embarrass them by arresting yet another American hostage two weeks ago, American-Iranian business executive, Siamak Namazi. The hostage count of Americans now imprisoned in Iran is now five: Namazi, Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, Pastor Saeed Abedini, former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati and Robert Levinson.
Khamenei's letter indicates that he will not approve implementation of the JCPOA unless the following conditions are met:
The U.S. and European nations must draft a letter promising to end all possibility of “sanctions snapback.”
The West must lift — not “suspend” — all sanctions immediately and permanently.
The International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) must issue an irreversible declaration ending any future investigation into alleged military dimensions of Iran's nuclear programs.
Iran will postpone any renovations at its heavy water (plutonium) reactor at Arak until the signatories of the JCPOA produce an alternative usage plan.
Iran will not begin shipping out of country any of its enriched uranium unless the signatories agree to deliver uranium to Iran (albeit at a lower level of enrichment).
Iran demands right to implement a phased plan of centrifuge expansion to 150,000 over a period of 15 years.
No sanctions are to be leveled against Iran because of alleged support for terrorism or human rights violations.
Iran must be free to explore all future advances in nuclear enrichment technology.
Iran's leadership seems to have decided it will be able to endure a modified version of its “resistance economy,” and that widening fissures among the P5+1 signatories of the JCPOA can be exploited to end its isolation. Rouhani, with Khamenei's endorsement, evidently calculates that Iran's economy will improve with or without the nuclear deal. Since taking office, Rouhani's cabinet has attempted to institute economic reforms designed to make Iran less vulnerable to sanctions. Rouhani, for instance, has dispensed with former President Ahmadinejad's populist polices of extensive cash grants and subsidies to provinces in rural Iran. Additionally, Rouhani has re-empowered the Budget Control Office, which had been politically sidelined by Ahmadinejad. Rouhani has also reduced somewhat the galloping inflation of the Ahmadinejad era, which had reached about 30% [1] by appointing professionally qualified fiscal officers to monitor adherence to the government's five-year plan. He also has sought to reduce corruption by discontinuing the practice of appointing unqualified cronies from the Basij militia and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) — a practice routine in Ahmadinejad's administrations.[2] Under his presidency, however, executions have skyrocketed to a degree that Amnesty International called “staggering,” especially in view of trials it calls “blatantly unfair.” In just the first months of 2015, accord to Amnesty International, nearly 700 people have been put to death.
The West must lift — not “suspend” — all sanctions immediately and permanently.
The International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) must issue an irreversible declaration ending any future investigation into alleged military dimensions of Iran's nuclear programs.
Iran will postpone any renovations at its heavy water (plutonium) reactor at Arak until the signatories of the JCPOA produce an alternative usage plan.
Iran will not begin shipping out of country any of its enriched uranium unless the signatories agree to deliver uranium to Iran (albeit at a lower level of enrichment).
Iran demands right to implement a phased plan of centrifuge expansion to 150,000 over a period of 15 years.
No sanctions are to be leveled against Iran because of alleged support for terrorism or human rights violations.
Iran must be free to explore all future advances in nuclear enrichment technology.
Iran's leadership seems to have decided it will be able to endure a modified version of its “resistance economy,” and that widening fissures among the P5+1 signatories of the JCPOA can be exploited to end its isolation. Rouhani, with Khamenei's endorsement, evidently calculates that Iran's economy will improve with or without the nuclear deal. Since taking office, Rouhani's cabinet has attempted to institute economic reforms designed to make Iran less vulnerable to sanctions. Rouhani, for instance, has dispensed with former President Ahmadinejad's populist polices of extensive cash grants and subsidies to provinces in rural Iran. Additionally, Rouhani has re-empowered the Budget Control Office, which had been politically sidelined by Ahmadinejad. Rouhani has also reduced somewhat the galloping inflation of the Ahmadinejad era, which had reached about 30% [1] by appointing professionally qualified fiscal officers to monitor adherence to the government's five-year plan. He also has sought to reduce corruption by discontinuing the practice of appointing unqualified cronies from the Basij militia and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) — a practice routine in Ahmadinejad's administrations.[2] Under his presidency, however, executions have skyrocketed to a degree that Amnesty International called “staggering,” especially in view of trials it calls “blatantly unfair.” In just the first months of 2015, accord to Amnesty International, nearly 700 people have been put to death.
The proponents of this so-called “resistance economy” in Iran seem to believe the country will be aided by increased trade with Russia and China and investment from other countries — including West European ones — that no longer feel bound by the U.S.-orchestrated sanctions regime. One prominent Iranian-born economist estimates that sanctions account for only about one-fifth of the downturn in Iran's economy during the last few years.[3] A more significant factor in the economy's downturn may be the continued decline in the price of oil, which accounts for the largest share of Iran's exports and hard currency earnings. Perhaps the change felt most keenly by the individual Iranian citizen has been the impact of the plummeting decline in the purchasing power of the Rial, which lost about 80% against the dollar in the last years of the Ahmadinejad presidency.[4]
It is probably safe to assume that the Western negotiators of the JCPOA have been introduced to the Middle East bazaar method of negotiation: After an agreement has been concluded, it becomes a basis for further demands.
If Iran succeeds in garnering the benefits of even partial relief of sanctions, and if it attracts additional foreign investment as well as increased international commerce, it will ignore the JCPOA altogether. The only improbable question is: Will Iran walk away before or after picking up its $150 billion?
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3)The Dark Specter of Vietnam
By Allen West
This past week President Obama stated that he would be deploying fifty US Special Operations troops to Syria. This appears to be a reaction; a response to the events that have dictated to the Commander-in-Chief what he must do. After the recent Taliban attack, brief seizure of the Afghanistan city of Kunduz, and the raid against two Al Qaeda bases in Kandahar province, we certainly know that combat operations have not ended. In both of those situations, US special operations forces were utilized.
Then there was the recent Iraqi Soldiers hostage rescue mission in which US Army Operations Detachment (Delta) was involved and MSG Joshua Wheeler lost his life. That is a clear indicator that combat operations have not ended in Iraq and we do have “combat boots” on the ground. The Obama administration struggled through semantic hoops to align the hostage rescue mission with “training, advising, and assisting” and not combat.
However, during a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee last week, US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said that we would begin conducting direct ground operations – combat. But anyone who has been deployed into a zone where there is an enemy shooting at you will tell you that you are in a combat zone. So history appears to be repeating itself or as the famed Yankee baseball player Yogi Berra would say, “it’s déjà vu all over again.”
This nation struggled with defining its involvement and operations in Vietnam. I will remember that time because my older brother, Herman West Jr., was a Marine infantryman there with Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Marines. He was wounded at a place that perhaps many in the Obama administration have never heard of, Khe Sanh. My brother was one of the lucky ones: he survived. Over 50,000 did not, and we see their names on a memorial in Washington DC. And so the dark specter of Vietnam rises up again as we witness the failure of strategic level policies in defeating the enemy – which begins with the inability to define the enemy and allocate the resources to soundly, defeat them.
What started as an “advisory” mission in Southeast Asia blew up into a full-scale combat operation. What eventually became known, as a loss was a battlefield where the American fighting man did not lose at the tactical level. We lost at the strategic level, and it appears that we may be heading down the same path. Just as with the defeat of the Viet Cong and NVA in the Tet Offensive, we had done so in Iraq. However, the winds of politics blew stronger. The media cast Tet as a loss for America, and in Iraq we withdrew our forces when the enemy had been vanquished from the battlefield.
Just as in Vietnam, when the enemy was given a new breath of air, so was a defeated Al Qaeda in Iraq enabled to reconstitute and reemerge as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. And here we are again, piece-mealing our forces onto a now very complex battlefield.
The intent is to conduct operations against ISIS, but now that we have Russian, Syrian, Iranian Quds Force, Hezbollah, and Cuban special operations forces in the battlespace are we entering into a proxy war? The Russian led alliance is conducting operations against the forces we are supposedly supporting in the fight against Bashar Assad, the fella who supposedly has to go. The arrayed forces under Russian air cover are assaulting the Syrian rebels we are supporting. Therefore, if we deploy our special operations forces into the Syrian area of operations, who are they training, advising, and assisting? If the answer is the Kurdish Peshmerga, that is understandable, though not palatable for Turkey. Then again, they are not exactly a trusted ally.
If not the Kurdish forces then are we to believe our venerable special operators are supposed to conduct foreign internal defense missions with the 4-5 bubbas remaining from the 54 Syrians who were trained with $45M taxpayer resources? And why would we place the A-10s and F-15s in Turkey and Jordan and not right there in Kurdistan? I admire the stand the Jordanians have made,, but is that the right deployment airfield?
In the military the modus operandi is that we receive guidance on task and purpose: what are the objectives, effects to be attained. From that point, the military planners develop the right force structure as part of the operations plan (OPLAN) that will be converted into an operations order (OPORD) once approved. So what is our plan?
We have some 2,500 combat troops on the ground in Iraq and we have not been able to degrade, defeat, or destroy ISIS. As a matter of fact, this past weekend ISIS made another advancement and is within 15-20 miles of the road that connects Damascus to Homs. So much for Vladimir Putin’s assertion that he is being effective against ISIS.
Let’s just ask ourselves, honestly: if President Obama had maintained the recommended residual force of 10-15K troops in Iraq, would we have this quagmire? There are more questions than answers when it comes to our strategic way forward in Iraq and Syria. My greatest concern is that once again the policy of the Obama administration is to put a band-aid on a sucking chest wound. It is the façade of doing something when in all actuality nothing will be done. We have asked for a conference to talk about what needs to be done in Iraq and Syria, and Iran has been invited to that table – funny, Israel has not been.
And it is Israel that is watching all this develop to their north.
Fifty US Special Operators, while brave and valorous, are not a strategy. Heck, at least Spartan King Leonidas had 300. The Spartan sacrifice led to an eventual victory. The dark specter of Vietnam reminds us of the result of nebulous strategy and mission creep – defeat.
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4)
An Idiot's Guide for the Media on How to Do Your Job Properly
Your job is to report facts, not reinforce a narrative. Really. The facts matter – they form the basis for judgments. So here are some facts for you, meticulously documented and updated (with details and graphs worthy of a data scientist) in a shared Google spreadsheet by Nehemia Gershuni-Aylho. According to his data, in the fifty days from September 11 through October 31, there have been 1,315 Arab Muslim attacks on Jews, including stabbings, bombings, rock-throwing, etc. That’s about 26 attacks per day resulting in the murder of 11 innocent Jews. Adjusted for the US population, that’s over 1,000 knife, bomb and other attacks per day that kill 440 people during fifty days of terror. How would the US react to that?
2) Remember that the weaker party can be wrong. Actually, when a Palestinian man stabs a 70-year old woman, he’s not even the weaker party. Sometimes Palestinians do indefensible things. Sometimes Israel is guilty of only trying to protect its citizens from insanely hateful violence. And as an honest reporter, you should try to show this.
3) Properly identify the terrorist and the victim when reporting on casualties, and describe the main causal sequence of events with relevant context. That’s how you avoid headlines like “Jewish man uses his neck to attack the blade of Palestinian’s knife.” The BBC’s distortions were actually not far from that when they effectively turned terrorists into victims. The BBC’s bias is so egregious that even its former chief complained.
4) Do your homework on this region. Learn its basic history so that you don’t moronically suggest (as the NY Times did) that Jews have no historical connection to the Temple Mount. Otherwise it looks like you’re trying to support Palestinian revisionism against basic facts and endless archaeological evidence (including what a 10-year old recently discovered).
5) Learn the history of this conflict enough to know that Pallywood has been actively deceiving journalists for at least 15 years now, in an effort to delegitimize Israel. Before publishing “information” fed to you by fixers and “eyewitnesses,” realize that even Amnesty International has admitted the unreliability of “eyewitnesses” in this conflict. The most galling Pallywood example from this latest round of Arab terrorism is the inflammatory lie – by “moderate” Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas – that Israeli forces had “executed” a 13-year old. The truth: he was treated in the same Israeli hospital caring for the boy he tried to murder.
Such lies can kill. Because when it comes to this conflict, Arab leaders know that violence replaces reason at the slightest provocation – like hooligans at a football game incited to attack the opponents of their beloved team. So inciting lies are very much a weapon. The media should know this and expose the falsehoods, rather than blindly proliferate them. Journalists should know that “reporting” inflammatory claims can produce mob violence, and should therefore be doubly careful about checking facts, unless of course their goal is to trigger riots (which do produce more sensational news stories).
6) Learn the history of this conflict enough to know that Arab Muslims have been killing Jews in this area for over a century, with shifting excuses over time.
7) Stop trying to use the latest of those shifting excuses to justify the unjustifiable (here, too, the BBC is an offender). No alleged grievance warrants randomly stabbing people in the street. The average Syrian is infinitely worse off than anyone in Gaza or the West Bank, but Syrian teens aren’t randomly stabbing civilians. Countless refugees from Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere have risked their lives for the hope of a better future in Europe. And yet there are virtually no Palestinians from the West Bank or Gaza among the millions desperate to reach Europe. So random stabbings don’t reflect some miserably unfair existence – they are the product of raw hatred and incitement.
8) Take note of nuances. Ninety-two Israeli Arab Muslims have committed terrorist attacks. They are not under occupation (and have better freedoms and living standards than most of the Arab world has). So clearly these attacks are not about any political dispute; they are driven by the same hateful incitement that rejects any state for the Jews.
9) Show cause and effect (ideally one before the other), and not just effect. When you show only Israeli responses to attacks, it makes Israelis look as if they wake up every morning asking how they can hurt Arabs. Israelis actually have better things to do with their mornings. Like cure cancer and stuff. But when people are trying to kill them, they understandably get a bit distracted. If the world could keep Israelis safer, cancer might get cured faster.
10) Articles should contain a logical subject and verb, preferably in a way that indicates who did what. According to CNN, Joseph’s Tomb spontaneously “catches fire.” CNN would rather change the laws of physics than blame Muslims for trying to burn a Jewish holy site. But there is a long list of non-Muslim sites that have been desecrated or destroyed by Muslims – from the Buddhas of Bamiyan razed by the Taliban to the countless monuments and churches destroyed by the Islamic State. History is also littered with Islamic conquests that converted non-Muslim holy sites into mosques.
11) Israeli lives matter. Getting both sides of the story means including photos and profiles of Israeli victims of Arab terrorism at least as often as you include photos and profiles of Arab attackers who were killed while trying to murder innocent Israelis. In case you’re not sure what it’s actually like to survive a stabbing attack, Kay Wilson’s TED Talk is a must-watch for some valuable context (and a reminder of what a life-affirming culture looks like, as opposed to the death cult trying to stamp it out).
12) Don’t be afraid to present Gazans as they present themselves (brandishing butcher knives and calling for Jewish blood). Show this Palestinian mother who celebrates that her child was killed trying to murder Israelis and who hopes that she and her other children all die for the same “cause.” Showing the Palestinian death cult of Jew-hatred that runs from crib to coffin might help observers understand why there’s still no peace.
Just for some context, when was the last time that you saw a video of a Jewish mother hoping that she and her children can all die for the sake of murdering some Germans to avenge the German Nazi murder of six million Jews (which seems a bit worse than praying on a contested holy site)?
13) If you want to falsify information to sanitize Palestinian terror, as NBC correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin did, try not to do so on live TV, because you’ll look really biased (and stupid).
14) It’s better to research whether the maps you display on your “news” broadcast were produced by anti-Israel propagandists BEFORE you broadcast them, because otherwise you’ll look as biased (and stupid) as NBC/MSNBC did.
15) To ensure that your reporting is fair and consistent, consider how a similar event was covered in other countries/contexts. For a strikingly convenient example, contrast how differently NBC News (again!) reports on airstrikes taking place in two neighboring Mideast conflicts, within just eight days of each other:
On October 3, NBC News used this headline to report that 60 Russian airstrikes in Syria killed 39 civilians: “Russia Launches New Wave of Airstrikes in Syria.” On October 11, NBC News used a much more personalized headline – with victim profiles – when reporting on one Israeli air strike that killed two civilians: “Israeli Strike in Gaza Kills Palestinian Woman, Child as Violence Continues.” So are two Gazan civilians more worthy of attention and sympathy than 39 Syrian civilians?
Ironically, despite your endless bias in favor of Palestinian terrorists, they thank you by posing as journalists in order to stab Israelis – a deceit that only undermines the trust that combatants have in the label “PRESS” and potentially endangers true war correspondents.
Each small instance of bias may seem like a mere “journalistic microagression” against Israel, but its cumulative effect is toxic and sometimes deadly. At best, the persistent anti-Israel bias poisons many millions – from voters to policy-makers – against Israel. Even worse, it can lead to anti-Semitic violence, by mobs and/or individuals thugs, as is so often the case in Europe.
You journalists are key to a fair and civilized world. Start acting like it.
Noah Beck is the author of The Last Israelis, an apocalyptic novel about Iranian nukes and other geopolitical issues in the Middle East.
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The US is facing a "Cold War 2.0" against Russia in places such as Ukraine, the Baltic states, and Syria as President Vladimir Putin’s government tries to establish an external security belt stretching from Iraq to the Mediterranean, a US-based expert told The Jerusalem Post. Such a security belt would pass from Iran to parts of Iraq and Syria, and form a barrier against Sunni Islamists, Ariel Cohen, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and the director of the Center for Energy, Natural Resources and Geopolitics at the Institute for Analysis of Global Security in Washington, told the Post in an interview on Tuesday. Cohen is in Israel for the Jerusalem Leaders Summit being held in Jerusalem this week, where Post editor-in-chief Steve Linde moderated a session on Tuesday. The security belt would be approximately at a distance of 1000 miles from Russia’s southern border. “Russia is in an alliance with the Shia because they are afraid of the Sunnis,” said Cohen, adding that it is a pragmatic relationship “where each side is using the other.” Asked if Russia’s military intervention in Syria would hamper Israel’s ability to attack by air, Cohen responded that Israel's reported recent strike against Hezbollah on Friday shows that it maintains its redlines and that it advised the Russians about what they are. Of course, noted Cohen, there is a real risk in Syria that “we could wake up one day with the headline that a Russian jet shot down a US or Israeli plane or vice versa.” However, Russia, the US, and Israel are prepared for such a scenario as they have created emergency lines of communication. Regarding US strategy in Syria, Cohen said that its idea of using proxies in Syria failed, and the only viable force in Syria is the Kurds. Speaking of the future of the Syrian civil war, the logical assumption is that there will be an agreement that paves the way for a transition from the regime of President Bashar Assad, he said. The other option is that the conflict there will expand between the Shia-Russian axis and the Sunnis. Regarding Turkey’s election results, which gave a victory to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist AK Party, Cohen said that “the US and Israel need to find ways to work with Turkey,” as its geopolitical importance and central geographic location dictates this. “It is clearly in Turkey’s interest not to continue this prolonged friction with Israel. The gain on both sides would be so much greater if both sides could work together,” he noted. On Turkey’s part, it is clear that its support of the regional Muslim Brotherhood project has failed. But, “if Erdogan’s government does not act pragmatically and its Islamist ideology becomes predominant, then all bets are off.” The erasing of borders in the Middle East could mean the historical conflict between Russia and Turkey could return, he added. “They have fought more than 20 wars in the past 300 years and Turkey has lost every time,” said Cohen, noting the exception of the Crimean War, where the Ottoman Empire was allied with France and Britain. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6)
Druckenmiller: Fed Bubble Will Not End Nicely (Dollar Photo Club)
Hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller warns that the Federal Reserve has inflated an economic bubble that is poised to burst.
The chief executive of Duquesne Capital said "the central bank has created a bubble of short-term investing through its near-zero interest rates and quantitative easing," CNBC reported. "All you do when you're doing this is you're pulling demand forward to today," Druckenmiller said Tuesday at the annual DealBook conference. "This is not some permanent boost you get. You're borrowing from the future. I think there's been such a misallocation of resources that this has gone on so long and unnecessarily (and) the chickens will come home to roost." "Druckenmiller didn't specify exactly how he thinks it all will end, but believes the Fed policies have not only encouraged risky behavior but also have added to income inequality problems by shifting wealth to asset owners," CNBC reported. "Over six years when you have zero rates and quantitative easing you move investors out the risk curve," he said. "You cause corporations to start acting in bizarre ways." He isn’t the only high-profile voice to warn of a bubble. The Federal Reserve has inflated an asset bubble and that will plague the stock market "disappointing returns," warns Marc Faber, publisher of The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report. "The Fed has basically created with their colleagues in Japan and at the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of England (BOE), they've created a colossal asset bubble. And the returns going forward will be disappointing." Global central banks have created easy liquidity in markets via zero interest rate policies, and sometimes negative-rate policies, as well as through asset purchases. In addition, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump recentlywarned The Hill of a looming economic recession because the stock market has entered into another bubble. “We’re in a bubble right now anyway,” Trump said, referring to social media companies that he says have initial public offerings worth “billions” but “haven’t even made 10 cents.” ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7 )
The Next Climate Scandal?House Republicans hunt for evidence that temperature records are politicized.
By HOLMAN W. JENKINS, JR.
With their latest subpoena to the Obama administration, House Republicans risk descending into a rabbit hole, albeit a useful one.
Lamar Smith, the Texas GOPer who runs the House science and technology committee, has been seeking, voluntarily and then not so voluntarily, emails and other internal communications related to a study released earlier this year by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The study, by adjusting upward temperature readings from certain ocean buoys to match shipboard measurements, eliminated the “pause” in global warming seen in most temperature studies over the past 15 years.
Let’s just say, without prejudging the case, gut instinct has always indicated that, if there’s a major global warming scandal to be discovered anywhere, it will be found in the temperature record simply because the records are subject to so much opaque statistical manipulation. But even if no scandal is found, it’s past time for politicians and the public to understand the nature of these records and the conditions under which they are manufactured.
Opinion Journal Video
Business World Columnist Holman Jenkins Jr. on the House investigation into the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s climate data. Photo credit: Getty Images.
This is where those who confuse science with religion, and scientists with priests, take umbrage. Unfortunately, NOAA has proved itself pliable to the propagandizing urge. Witness its steady stream of press releases pronouncing the latest month or year the “warmest on record.” It always falls to outsiders to point out that these claims often rest on differences many times smaller than NOAA’s own cited margin of error. Case in point: When President Obama declared in January that 2014 was the warmest year on record, it had only a 38% chance of being hotter (by an infinitesimal margin) than other hottest-year candidates 2010, 2005 and 1998.
It doesn’t help that NOAA’s sleight of hand here seems designed precisely to conceal the alleged “pause.” The inconvenient hiatus in global warming showed up just as temperature measurement became more rigorous and consistent; just as China overtook the U.S. as champion emitter; just as 30% of all greenhouse gases released since the start of the industrial revolution were hitting the atmosphere.
Presumably the hunt will now be on among House Republicans for evidence that NOAA scientists selected only those rejiggerings that would make the pause disappear. Good luck with that. Not only are the adjustments, corrections and interpolations eye-glazing—ground temperatures must be tweaked to offset growing urbanization, polar temperatures for the fact that we don’t have measurement data for long periods of history, etc. Past records must be assembled from measurements not under control of today’s researchers, using an uncertain mix of devices and practices. Where records don’t exist or are deemed inadequate, scientists incorporate what they call proxies.
Researchers will surely be prepared to justify each and every tweak, but it seems all but impossible to bias-proof the choice of which adjustments to make or not make. By the count of researcher Marcia Wyatt in a widely circulated presentation, the U.S. government’s published temperature data for the years 1880 to 2010 has been tinkered with 16 times in the past three years.
And, when all is said and done, it’s still not clear that assigning an “average” temperature for the planet for a year is a meaningful way to capture climate change. Or that claims to detect differences from one year to the next of 2/100ths of a degree are anything but exercises in false precision.
It would be astonishing if human activities were not having some impact on climate, but the question has always been how and how much. Evidence of climate change, of course, is not evidence of what’s causing climate change. Yet three certainties emerge from the murk: Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas; atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have increased significantly due to fossil-fuel burning; and the reward system in climate science is heavily tilted toward forecasts and estimates that see a large human effect.
Unfortunately, it’s also true that many of us cannot tolerate making up our minds under conditions of uncertainty. Uncertainty is especially the enemy of passion. That’s why so many who proclaim themselves “passionate” about global warming cannot string together two sentences indicating any understanding of the subject.
But let us end on an optimistic note. Progress comes from unexpected directions. In a new paper, Australian psychologist Stephan Lewandowsky, Harvard historian Naomi Oreskes and three co-authors chide climate scientists for adopting the term “pause” or “hiatus” in relation to global warming, saying it indicates a psychological susceptibility to the “seepage” of “memes” into their thinking.
As we are not the first to note, if the Oreskes et al. paper means climate activists are now prepared to acknowledge that climate scientists are subject to social pressures, this is perhaps the first breakthrough in decades.
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8) A Female Physician in Munich, Germany sends a message to the world . . . . . .
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9)--1. You take your dog for a walk and you both use the same tree.
2. You can entertain yourself for more than 15 minutes with a fly swatter.
3. Your boat has not left the driveway in 15 years.
4. You burn your yard rather than mow it.
5. The Salvation Army declines your furniture.
6. You offer to give someone the shirt off your back and they don't want it.
7. You have the local taxidermist on speed dial.
8. You come back from the dump with more than you took.
19. You keep a can of Raid on the kitchen table.
10. Your wife can climb a tree faster than your cat.
11. Your grandmother has "ammo" on her Christmas list.
12. You've been involved in a custody fight over a hunting dog.
13. You go to the stock car races and don't need a program.
14. You know how many bales of hay your car will hold.
15. You have a rag for a gas cap.
16. Your house doesn't have curtains, but your truck does.
17. You wonder how service stations keep their restroom's so clean.
18. You can spit without opening your mouth.
19.. You consider your license plate personalized..... Because your father made it.
20. Your lifetime goal is to own a fireworks stand.?? ??
21. You have a complete set of salad bowls and they all say "Cool Whip" on the side.
22. The biggest city you've ever been to is Walmart.
23. Your working TV sits on top of your non-working TV.
24. You've used your ironing board as a buffet table.
25. A tornado hits your neighborhood... And does $100,000 worth of improvements.
26. You missed your 5th grade graduation... Because you were on jury duty.
27. You think fast food is hitting a deer at 65.
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