A little humor male/sexist! (See 1 below.)
Meanwhile:
Uncle Warren has always hidden behind a facade of being benign, wearing rack suits and just being like you next door neighbor. Just like Wilkie was a barefoot Wall Street Lawyer.
As I wrote previously, even if Bibi did some things he should not have he will remain because he is the best Israel has going for it in terms of current leadership. (See 2 below.)
++++++++++++++++++++++ There is a time and place even for peace and now is not the time. (See 3 below.)
+++++++++++++++++++ Tillerson could be correct or he could be smoking some cannabis. You decide. (See 4 below.)
I actually believe this is true. (See 4a below.)
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Dick
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1)
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THE ADULT LEARNING CENTERREGISTRATION MUST BE COMPLETED
By February 28, 2018
NOTE: DUE TO THE COMPLEXITY AND DIFFICULTY LEVEL
OF THEIR CONTENTS, CLASS SIZES WILL BE LIMITED TO 8 PARTICIPANTS MAXIMUM .Class 1
Up in Winter, Down in Summer - How to Adjust a Thermostat
Step by Step, with Slide Presentation.
Meets 4 weeks, Monday and Wednesday for 2 hrs. beginning at 7:00 PM..Class 2
Which Takes More Energy - Putting the Toilet Seat Down, or Bitching About It for 3 Hours?
Round Table Discussion.
Meets 2 weeks, Saturday 12:00 for 2 hours.Class 3
Is It Possible To Drive Past a Wal-Mart Without Stopping?--Group Debate.
Meets 4 weeks, Saturday 10:00 PM for 2 hours.Class 4
Fundamental Differences Between a Purse and a Suitcase--Pictures and Explanatory Graphics.
Meets Saturdays at 2:00 PM for 3 weeks.Class 5
Curling Irons--Can They Levitate and Fly Into The Bathroom Cabinet?
Examples on Video.
Meets 4 weeks, Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours beginning
At 7:00 PMClass 6
How to Ask Questions During Commercials and Be Quiet During the Program
Help Line Support and Support Groups.
Meets 4 Weeks, Friday and Sunday 7:00 PMClass 7
Can a Bath Be Taken Without 14 Different Kinds of Soaps and Shampoos?
Open Forum ..
Monday at 8:00 PM, 2 hours.Class 8
Health Watch--They Make Medicine for PMS - USE IT!
Three nights; Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 7:00 PM for 2 hours.Class 9
I Was Wrong and He Was Right!--Real Life Testimonials.
Tuesdays at 6:00 PM Location to be determined.Class 10
How to Parallel Park In Less Than 20 Minutes Without an Insurance Claim.
Driving Simulations.
4 weeks, Saturday's noon, 2 hours.Class 11Learning to Live--How to Apply Brakes Without Throwing Passengers Through the Windshield .
Tuesdays at 7:00 PM, location to be determinedClass 12
How to Shop by Yourself.
Meets 4 weeks, Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours beginning at 7:00 PM.
2) No need to imagine life without Bibi
Lack of faith in institutions, electoral math and the absence of viable alternatives mean that Benjamin Netanyahu is going to remain prime minister for some time yet.
Lack of faith in institutions, electoral math and the absence of viable alternatives mean that Benjamin Netanyahu is going to remain prime minister for some time yet.
Most of the Israeli premier’s critics assumed that if the corruption charges that had been hurled against him in recent years stuck, he was finished. Now that the Israeli police have formally recommended that he be indicted on two separate accusations, they are cheering what seems like his imminent demise.
But as dismal as his situation seems, Netanyahu’s vow to stay in office isn’t the bravado of a desperate man. The betting here is not only that he will still be prime minister a year from now, but that he may be infuriating his foes from his current position for much longer than that.
How is that possible?
The answer lies in the law, the divisive nature of Israeli politics and electoral math.
The first reason is the simplest. Though a recommendation from the police that he be indicted sounds awful, it is meaningless unless it is followed by indictments.
The only person who can authorize them is Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit, who now holds the future of the country in his hands. Mendelblit is expected to take months before making a decision, meaning it is entirely possible that the spring will pass with Netanyahu’s fate still hanging in the balance.
The chorus of Netanyahu critics in the Israeli media believes that if Mendelblit is as honest as he seems, indictments must follow. They may be right, but it’s also true, as I noted last week, that there is less to the accusations than meets the eye.
The charge that wealthy supporters bribed him with 1 million shekels worth of cigars and champagne, and got favors in return, looks sleazy. But the loose connection between the favors and the gifts is more about bad optics than anything that could stand up in court. In the absence of direct proof of a quid pro quo arrangement, the gifts appear unseemly but hardly criminal. American observers should also note that even if what the police say was true, what Netanyahu did would not be illegal in the United States.
As for the charge relating to Netanyahu’s bizarre talks with a newspaper publisher, the claim that the discussion was illegal is risible. While Netanyahu’s taped comments, in which he promised to undermine Israel Hayom—a pro-Netanyahu newspaper owned by casino owner (and JNS donor) Sheldon Adelson—in exchange for a cease-fire from the highly critical Arnon Mozes and his Yediot Ahronot was a betrayal of a friend. The deal never happened and wouldn’t have been illegal anyway.
That means it is possible that Mendelblit will look at what is, at best, a shaky case on the bribes and a transparently weak one on the newspapers, and decide that there is no way either will ever bring a conviction. And so, he’ll refuse to indict.
But whether he does or not, the arbitrary reasoning in which unseemly behavior is being treated as criminal is part of the reason why Netanyahu believes his party will stand by him come what may.
One can argue that the right thing to do would be for Netanyahu to step down if he were indicted, even if the law would allow him to stay in office until he was actually convicted. But since Netanyahu and many of his supporters question the legitimacy of the prosecution, it’s almost certain that he will choose to fight rather than resign.
As is the case in the United States—where a bifurcated political culture has led to a situation where liberals and conservatives not only don’t read, listen to or watch the same media, but also don’t believe anything said by the opposing camp—the same is true in Israel. Likudniks believe, with good reason, that the media and much of the country’s intellectual, financial, legal and media establishments are hopelessly biased against Netanyahu and anyone from the right. Even if the case against the prime minister was stronger than the one assembled by the police, it’s entirely possible that the Likud wouldn’t depose the prime minister.
That’s why none of the three most likely potential successors to Netanyahu within the Likud—Yisrael Katz, Gilad Erdan and Gideon Sa’ar—will make a move against him until the moment he waves the white flag and resigns, assuming that ever happens (or that the party would ever accept a member of that trio as its leader). The same goes for the trio of right-wing coalition partners who may wish to someday lead the Likud or whatever party emerges to lead the nationalist camp after Netanyahu: Naftali Bennett, Avigdor Lieberman and Moshe Kahlon.
At the same time, the opposition to the Likud also remains weak. There is no general clamor for Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid or the Zionist Union/Labor’s Avi Gabbay to succeed Netanyahu. Indeed, polls taken following the police report show that if elections were held now, the same center-right coalition led by Netanyahu would prevail.
That means it’s entirely possible that Netanyahu will call for elections to be moved up (his current term won’t expire until the end of 2019) to sometime this year. His expectation would be that he’d win despite the police charges, and then—armed with the imprimatur of an election victory—be able to stay in office, even if Mendelblit indicted him, until the conclusion of a trial that would undoubtedly take years.
And so, Israel’s already nasty political culture will get even nastier in the coming months and years. But the notion that it will be impossible for Netanyahu to govern isn’t correct. As Americans have learned in the last year as President Trump had to cope with the burden of the Mueller probe into Russian collusion, democracy can function even under such difficult circumstances.
There is a chance, of course, that it won’t end well for Netanyahu. But for good or for ill, the end of his time as prime minister seems to be nowhere in sight.
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3) Why peace can’t be processed nowDecade after decade, one administration after another has set in motion what has been called a “peace process.” None has come close to ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Over the past year, President Trump has been hoping he might succeed where other have failed. He tasked trusted advisors, unburdened by the errors of past peace processes, to work on this “ultimate deal.” But the events of recent days should leave no doubt in his or anyone else’s mind: A Palestinian leader shaking hands with an Israeli leader on the White House lawn is inconceivable for the foreseeable future.
One of the reasons why became vivid last Friday night when Iranian forces operating from an airbase in Syria launched a drone into Israeli airspace. An Israeli Apache helicopter downed it. Israel then sent eight F-16s to destroy the Iranian command center in Syria. One of the jets was overwhelmed by what the Israelis describe as “massive Syrian anti-aircraft fire.” The pilots returned to Israeli airspace where they ejected. Both survived. Their plane crashed on Israeli territory.
No Palestinian leader condemned this provocation. No Palestinian leader has ever condemned Tehran, whose intentions toward Israel are openly annihilationist.
Hezbollah, Tehran’s proxy militia, has tens of thousands of missiles pointing at Israeli targets from Lebanon, a country it now effectively rules. Hezbollah is openly genocidal toward both Israelis and Jews. The Leader of the “Party of God,” Hassan Nasrallah, has said: if “the Jews will gather from all parts of the world into occupied Palestine … there the final and decisive battle will take place.”
Hamas, the major power in Gaza, and a not insignificant presence in the West Bank, holds identical views about Israelis and Jews. (See the Hamas Covenant.) Hamas believes that any territory ever conquered by Muslims cannot be surrendered to non-Muslims. These are not negotiating positions. They are a matter of ideology and theology for Hamas, as they are for Hezbollah and Iran’s theocrats. So for Hamas, peace with Israel is not an option.
Within this environment, it would require a Palestinian leader of enormous independence, charisma and courage to negotiate an end to the conflict. Mahmoud Abbas is not that leader.
Elected in 2005 to a four-year term as president of the Palestinian Authority, which (loosely) governs the West Bank, Mr. Abbas has remained in that post without benefit of re-election. In recent statements, he has made clear that he does not accept the basic premise of a two-state solution: two states for two peoples -- one of those peoples being the Jewish people.
He does not recognize that the Jewish people have a right to self-determination in any part of their ancient homeland. He recently said that Jerusalem “is Arab, Muslim and Christian” – conspicuously omitting Jerusalem’s Jewish roots.
It’s been years since Mr. Abbas has been willing to negotiate with Israelis. Instead, he’s taken part in a campaign to de-legitimize Israel. This includes UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which passed in late 2016 (because President Obama declined to veto it), and asserts that Israel has no rights in the eastern sections of Jerusalem – not even the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, not even Judaism’s holiest sites, the Western Wall and the Temple Mount. President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital has at least helped halt the momentum of this destructive narrative.
It’s important to understand: This de-legitimization campaign has the strategic intent of justifying attacks against Israel -- by Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas and others -- as “resistance” to an “illegitimate regime” that sooner or later is to be fatally poisoned by a cocktail of violence, economic warfare and diplomacy. So long as that goal appears even remotely realistic, no Palestinian leader can settle for less without painting a bullseye on his back. And no Israeli leader can contemplate serious compromises.
Mr. Abbas opposes “normalization” with Israel, effectively preventing Israelis and Palestinians from working together, getting to know one another, perhaps discovering they need not be enemies forever.
The BDS campaign – for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions – is an integral part of this “anti-normalization” effort. It also is an important cause of high unemployment and poverty in the West Bank.
Mr. Abbas is 82. At some point, he will leave the scene and a new peace process may be developed. But that will depend on who succeeds him. According to Palestinian Basic Law, Article 37, the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council is to “temporarily” assume the powers and duties of the PA president. Right now, that position is held by a Hamas official who, according to the Israelis, has been involved in “terrorist activities.”
After 60 days, there are to be “free” elections. Considering how long it’s been since there have been any elections in the West Bank and Gaza, how likely is that? And if -- as has been the pattern in the Middle East for countless centuries -- power is taken by force of arms instead, who is likely to prevail? Hamas? Hezbollah? Other jihadi groups?
For those in the Trump administration focused on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict the task now is to work with Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Arab partners, as well as any pragmatic elements within the Palestinian Authority, to determine whether it may be possible to develop a next generation of Palestinian leaders who are open to conflict resolution; who do not view peaceful coexistence with Israel as tantamount to defeat. The magnitude of this challenge, a prerequisite for any meaningful new peace process, cannot be overestimated.
Clifford D. May is president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a columnist for the Washington Times.
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4) Tillerson Says Kushner's Mideast Peace Plan Is 'Well Advanced'
Russia will take Israel's side in any conflict with Iran, a top diplomat told the press.
4) Tillerson Says Kushner's Mideast Peace Plan Is 'Well Advanced'
By BLOOMBERG, Nick Wadhams and Mohammad Tayseer
The Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan is “fairly well advanced,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday, as he sought to convince regional allies that the U.S. remains an honest broker despite recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
“It will be up to the president to decide when he feels it’s time and he’s ready to put that plan forward,” he said in Amman, Jordan of the long-anticipated proposal being worked out by PresidentDonald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt. “I will say it’s fairly well advanced.”
Kushner, left, and Tillerson in Washington. Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
The administration has so far been tight-lipped about the plan and Tillerson declined to offer details. Trump has said the framework being discussed is a “great proposal for the Palestinians and a “very good proposal for Israel.”
The ability of the U.S. to broker an accord that has eluded a succession of American presidents was thrown into question after Trump broke with decades of precedent in December and declared the U.S. was recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The administration later announced an accelerated timetable for moving the embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv by the end of next year.
Those decisions infuriated Palestinian leaders, who said they all but closed the door on peace efforts by reversing an understanding that the final status of Jerusalem — part of which the Palestinians also claim as the capital of any future state — would be left to peace talks.
Speaking in Amman alongside Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, Tillerson said Trump “remains committed to seeing a Middle East peace process go forward.” The issue is a tricky one for Tillerson himself because he has been largely sidelined by Kushner’s team as the proposal has been worked out.
“I have seen the plan, elements of the plan, it’s been under development for a number of months, I have consulted with them on the plan, identified areas that we feel need further work,” Tillerson said.
The U.S. further angered the Palestinians and Jordan when Trump slashed funding for UNRWA, the United Nations agency that assists Palestinian refugees — including the more than 2 million who live in Jordan. Tillerson left open the possibility the U.S. would restore previous years’ funding levels to the agency, though he said other donors need to step up and offer more money.
Safadi sought to highlight close ties with the U.S., focusing on a memorandum the two officials signed for more than $6 billion in American aid to Jordan over the next five years. He said Jordan’s position on Jerusalem was well-known — the kingdom was vehemently opposed to the Trump move — and again reiterated the need for a two-state solution as part of any Israel-Palestinian settlement.
“The challenge is how to move forward and how to make sure a difficult situation does not get worse,” Safadi said.
4a)
Russia: We'll Stand With Israel If Iran Attacks
Russia will take Israel's side in any conflict with Iran, a top diplomat told the press.
Leonid Frolov, Russia's Deputy Ambassador to Israel, said in an interview,
In the case of aggression against Israel, not only will the United States stand by Israel’s side — Russia, too, will be on Israel’s side. Many of our countrymen live here in Israel, and Israel in general is a friendly nation, and therefore we won’t allow any aggression against Israel.
He also expressed approval of Israel's decision to shoot down an Iranian drone over Israeli territory and then retaliate with airstrikes in Syria.
"We certainly support Israel’s right to defend itself, and the actions of Israeli pilots were entirely correct," he said. "We certainly regret that in this incident two Israeli pilots were injured. On behalf of the Russian embassy I am wishing a speedy recovery to the wounded pilots."
However, Frolov expressed doubt as to whether the Iranians had indeed launched the drone.
"One can accuse the Iranians of many things, but they’re not stupid," he stated. "They know what would happen if they sent a drone over to Israel. No one doubts that Israel has the capability to defeat Iranian military forces in Syria. But we don’t want to assume, without proof, that the Iranians in Syria are insane."
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