Number two daughter and husband, Amy and Steve, taken while on recent vacation.
And:
This is poignant:
My oldest grandson is going to a new city because of a significant promotion. He and his wife decided it was time to tell their daughter so they had a family meeting and said "we are moving to -------." Her response was "Can I come too?"
Brings tears to your eyes!
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Under current circumstances will the best for Israel be a unified government? (See 1 below.)
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My longtime friend and fellow memo reader takes a group to Lebanese Border under auspices of Honest Reporting. (See 2 below.)
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More hypocrisy from the left: https://www.nationalreview.
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Lindsey Graham calls on Trump to be as transparent as his office position allows: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/
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Weaponry insights. (See 3 below.)
And:
Has Iran been cheating all along? (See 3a below.)
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Giuliani Claims He Has Proof of Hunter Biden Laundering $3 Million
Axios: Pelosi Has Conceded That Impeachment Is Inevitable
Trump to Release Call Transcript With Ukrainian President
Katie Pavlich
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I have two thoughts about Democrat efforts to impeach Trump.
One, it is tragic to put Trump, his family and the nation through a political meat grinder ( is this the Democrat's idea of how to get rid of "farting" animals.") As Lewandowski said, Democrats hate Trump more than they love this nation.
When I I look at how radicals have taken over the Democrat Party, I can only say they will eventually get what they deserve for being unwilling to accept his 2016 victory and squandering an opportunity to work with Trump to resolve issues harming our nation, ruining our cities, allowing crime to fester, disease to spread, budget deficits to escalate, the rule of law to be crushed so people's reputations can be shattered. Democrats are proving, once again, win at any cost.
My second thought is I regret Trump has to suffer political slings and poisoned arrows because he deserves better as a human doing what he believes best for America. However, there is an upside.
The upside is he will not be impeached and will have the legal opportunity to issue subpoenas to one and all (including Hillary) and probably will help his re-election.
What radical Democrats don't realize is Trump has been playing them for irrational fools. He perceives they have become virulent,blind and hungry dogs and he keeps dropping food along a path that leads to no satisfactory end. He has encouraged them to dive into a pool from a high ladder in water measured in inches.
Let the "witch hunt" begin as the Nader's, Schiff's, Water's and their like minded dolts get what they deserve. Pelosi will rue the day she lost control.
The tragedy is putting our entire nation through trauma so Trump Haters can have their pound of flesh or maybe I should refer to this historical episode as "Bloomberg's Meatless Tuesday."
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1)
Netanyahu and Gantz talk unity at historic meeting, teams will meet
Netanyahu and Gantz have their first meeting in what could be a significant step toward a unity government.
By World Israel News Staff
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White party head Benny Gantz met at the request of President Reuven Rivlin at the President’s Residence on Monday evening.
At the end of the meeting, the teams of Netanyahu and Gantz issued a joint statement: “They talked about ways to advance the unity of Israel and agreed that the leaders of the two parties would meet tomorrow. The president invited the two to another meeting Wednesday evening at his residence.”
The meeting began at 8:00 p.m. and lasted for two hours. About an hour through, President Rivlin left the meeting to allow the two party leaders to talk alone.
After the meeting, Rivlin, who has made no secret of the fact that he wishes to see a national unity government formed, said:
“We took a significant step tonight, and now the first challenge is to build a direct channel of dialogue with trust between the parties. The nation expects you to find a solution and prevent another election, both at a personal cost and sometimes ideological. This is not the time for boycotts. A joint and equal government is possible. It can and should express different and varied voices in society.”
In referring to boycotts, Rivlin likely meant Gantz’s repeated promise during the campaign to never sit in a government together with Netanyahu, citing as the reason the pending corruption cases against him. A pre-indictment hearing regarding whether to move forward on those cases will begin on October 2.
Following the meeting, Netanyahu held a conference call with the leaders of the right-wing parties with whom he formed a technical bloc immediately following the elections to update them on the conversation with Gantz.
Netanyahu said that he stressed to Gantz that he represents all of the national camp and negotiates on its behalf. He told them: “I am committed to what I promised you.”
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2)
An exclusive opportunity to travel with HonestReporting to the Lebanese border, see the reality for yourself, and get answers to the difficult questions.
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Join us for an exclusive day of military & security
briefings with
IDF Major (Res.)
Elliot Chodoff
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A political and military analyst specializing in the Middle East conflict and the global war on terrorists, Elliot Chodoff is a major in the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) reserves and is a graduate of the Home Front Command Senior Commanders Course. He presently serves as the Commanding Officer of the Population Behavior and Information Unit of the Northern Region in IDF Home Front Command. He teaches and lectures on the topics of the Middle East Conflict; Terrorism and Responses; Military Thought and Strategy; the Military Aspects of International Conflict; Arab-Israeli Relations; the Sociology of Modern Israel and the History of Zionism.
During the day, we will explore significant topics such as:
· Ideological and security issues including Khomeinism, Iran and Hezbollah; the clash between Sunni and Shiite Islam, and ideologically motivated terrorism;
· The previous Lebanon wars: what went right; what went wrong; learning from the past;
· The present day situation, and possible solutions for the future.
During the day, we will:
· Travel to Misgav Am for a briefing and overview of the Ayun Valley;
· Experience everyday life on a kibbutz near the border;
· Visit significant sites along the Lebanese border;
· Meet residents living within range of rocket attacks.
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3)Why U.S. Patriot missiles failed to stop drones and cruise missiles attacking Saudi oil sites
The United States is sending American troops to the Middle East to provide better air and missile defenses after an aerial attack on Saudi oil targets last week. The raid began around 4 a.m. on the morning of Sept. 14, with explosions rippling across the Kurais and Abqaiq Aramco oil processing facilities inside Saudi Arabia as the sound of defensive automatic machine-gun fire rang in the air.
In theory, the oil facilities both lay under the defensive umbrella of Patriot PAC-2 surface-to-air missile batteries that the U.S. sold to Saudi Arabia to intercept aircraft and missiles up to 100 miles away. However, if Saudi radars detected the 18 triangular drones and seven cruise missiles (judging by recovered debris) that bombarded them last week, they did so too late. Instead, they were forced to fire sporadically with automatic weapons, which didn’t prevent widespread damage that temporarily disrupted shipments of 5.7 million barrels of oil daily — half of Saudi Arabia’s output.
Indeed, while the U.S. troops are intended to provide help against this type of threat — believed to have been launched by Iran — air attacks by low-flying drones and cruise missiles are exactly the types of systems the U.S. is having trouble defending against after years of focusing on longer-range threats.
Short-range air defense systems — or SHORADS in Army lingo — have existed almost as long as combat aircraft, and are used to protect vital bases and facilities, as well as troops on the front lines. In both the world wars, they consisted of heavy machine guns and rapid-fire cannons designed to rake warplanes as they swooped down to attack. During the Cold War, anti-aircraft artillery increasingly benefited from radar guidance, and were joined by heat-seeking missiles fired by vehicles or bazooka-like shoulder launchers.
However, after the fall of the Soviet Union, the U.S. Army sharply downsized its short-range anti-air capabilities in the belief that they were no longer greatly needed. They trusted that U.S. jet fighters could neutralize most enemy aircraft before they became a problem. Two threats that have grown significantly these days — drones and ground skimming cruise missiles — were minimal at that point: Armed drones were rare and expensive, and the Soviet Union was the only adversary that had many land-attack cruise missiles and it wasn’t expected that other countries, let alone terrorist groups, would develop them.
Instead, the Pentagon saw a need for medium- and long-range air defenses like the Patriot to protect against ballistic missiles that arc high up into the exo-atmosphere at immense speeds and long distances. That’s where they focused the military’s planning — to some success, as suggested by the Saudi-based Patriot battery’s record of intercepting dozens of high-flying ballistic missiles from Yemen in recent years.
But it turned out that the threat that has grown most rapidly in recent years comes not from manned aircraft, but the drones and low-flying cruise missiles that are proliferating rapidly across the globe due to exports from China, Israel and Russia.
Drones and missiles can be detected by radar, but they tend to have small radar signatures and can fly close to the ground, sharply reducing the detection range and thus opportunities to fire on them from far away. They also are easy to maneuver, allowing them to hit the coverage gaps between radars and Patriot batteries. And drones and cruise missiles are often cheaper than a $2 million or $3 million Patriot missile, meaning the supply of Patriots can be depleted much faster than the bevy of drones launching attacks.
That’s why short-range defenses that protect against targets within visual range are so important: Some targets aren’t likely to be consistently detected from far away, and long-range missiles are too expensive to use against certain cheap but numerous threats.
Even organizations like ISIS have cobbled together surveillance and combat drones. During the battle to liberate the Iraqi metropolis of Mosul in 2016-17, ISIS made extensive use of small grenade-bearing drones against Iraqi and U.S. troops.
There are some existing systems to handle these threats, but most rely on Cold War-era technology designed to shoot down airplanes and helicopters. The Saudi Abqaiq oil facility was guarded by a half-dozen Shahine short-range missile systems and radar-guided air defense cannons, but since neither of the old systems were designed for defense against drones or missiles, they did very little good.
To its credit, the U.S. Army has realized the dangerous new vulnerability and in the last few years has made deploying more SHORAD capabilities one of its six top modernization priorities. Among other ideas in development, by 2022 the Army will field a specialized wheeled armored vehicle with a missile-armed turret as well as a cannon specifically for providing air defenses that accompany troops moving forward in battle.
In the meantime, to fulfill a congressional mandate to obtain a stop-gap defense system against cruise missiles, the Pentagon announced plans in 2019 to take the rare step of purchasing arms not entirely American-made. The military purchased two batteries of the Iron Dome air defense system Israel developed with help from the U.S. to shoot down unguided rockets fired by Palestinian militants. However, the missiles used as interceptors still cost around $40,000 dollars each, while commercial drones may cost considerably less. Thus drones could potentially overwhelm existing defenses with sheer numbers.
Another option in development — by China and Russia as well as the United States — is the use of laser weapons that could burn drones or missiles out of the sky with a “shot” that costs virtually nothing (though the weapons themselves aren’t cheap). Lasers also boast very fast reaction times and a high degree of accuracy. On the downside, lasers lack a kinetic “punch” to jar an incoming missile off its trajectory if the laser’s heat doesn’t do the job; they can be degraded by foggy conditions; and they require a lot of power to work at longer distances.
Deploying more electronic warfare systems that can disrupt or even hijack the communications links between drones and their operators is another approach that has proven successful when tested in combat by Russia and the United States. Recently, U.S. Marines used a jeep-mounted jammer on the deck of a carrier to bring down an Iranian drone.
Short-range air defenses are not a magic bullet — and in fact work best when integrated with longer-range defenses. They can be overwhelmed or picked off by more advanced weapons, and may easily end up far more expensive than threats they are designed to counter. Furthermore, by their nature, short-range defenses cannot provide blanket protection for a region but must be deployed selectively to protect key facilities and vulnerable front-line combat units.
But even if there’s no such thing as a perfect defense, deploying new short-range air defenses will remain vital in the 21st century — not only to protect the lives of soldiers on the front lines or valuable military bases, but also to defend vital civilian infrastructure, as the recent attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil processing facilities vividly demonstrates.
3)he Iran Has Violated the Nuclear Deal Since Day One?
The Iranian Government has been advancing its nuclear program at a faster pace. Recently, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) declared that Tehran took the third step in increasing its nuclear activities by activating advanced centrifuges: 20 IR-4 and 20 IR-6 centrifuges.
The previous two steps that Tehran took included: increasing the enriched uranium stockpile beyond the 300kg cap, which was set by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and enriching uranium to levels beyond the limit of 3.67 percent.
As part of its rush to a nuclear breakout capability, the Islamic Republic of Iran is also expanding its research and development work beyond the limitations set by the JCPOA. Iranian nuclear agency spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi told a televised news conference, "We have started lifting limitations on our Research and Development imposed by the deal ... It will include development of more rapid and advanced centrifuges."
The ruling mullahs are claiming that Iran's recent moves and violations of the nuclear deal are the fault of the US government, because the Trump administration withdrew from the JCPOA, but the claim is a lie. New evidence shows that Iran's theocratic establishment was most likely violating the nuclear agreement since the day the Obama administration and Tehran struck the deal in 2015.
To clarify: Do you remember when the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Yukiya Amano immediately to inspect an "atomic warehouse" in Iran last year?
Netanyahu stated in his speech to the UN General Assembly that Iran had a "secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and material from Iran's secret nuclear weapons program." Tehran claimed that the warehouse, which is located in a village (Turquz Abad) in the suburbs of Tehran, was a place where carpets were cleaned.
At the same time, two non-partisan organizations based in Washington, DC -- the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) -- released detailed reports about Iran's undeclared clandestine nuclear facilities as well.
The IAEA first ignored the reports. This should not come as a surprise: the IAEA has a long history of misreporting the Islamic Republic's compliance with the deal and declining to follow up on credible reports about Iran's illicit nuclear activities. Iran's clandestine nuclear sites in Natanz and Arak were revealed by the opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
In any event, after a significant amount of pressure was imposed on the IAEA, and after the IAEA's chief passed away and Iran was reportedly able to moving the suspected materials out of the secret nuclear facility, inspection of the site was recently implemented.
What was the outcome? Even though the Iranian leaders had cleaned up the facility, the IAEA's inspectors were able to detect traces of radioactive uranium at the site. Israel's warning and other reports had proved accurate.
Now, Tehran is declining to answer the IAEA's questions about the secret facility. More importantly, one of the most basic requirements of the nuclear deal (while it lasted) was that Iran had to reveal its nuclear activities to the IAEA -- a condition with it even overtly failed to comply.
In other words, the detection of radioactive particles in Turquz Abad, Iran's reluctance to answer simple questions about the secret facility and non-partisan evidence about Iran's nuclear activities at the location, all point to the fact that Tehran was most likely violating the nuclear deal since it was reached.
Where, you may ask, are the strong advocates of the nuclear deal after the new evidence revealed that Iran has long been violating the nuclear deal and pursuing its nuclear ambitions? They are silent.
The international community would truly do itself a great service to recognize that the nuclear deal was nothing more than a pro-mullah agreement which provided Iran's ruling clerics with billions of dollars to pursue their anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-Iranian people and pro-terror activities, while simultaneously providing cover for Iran to pursue its nuclear ambitions.
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US foreign policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
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