Dignified Versus Animalistic. Bad Tasting Fruit Versus Poisoned Meat. Is Bennett Growing Into The Job?

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I have not listened to all of Judge Jackson's testimony but one cannot ignore the contrast between her dignified treatment by Republicans and the way former conservative nominees were treated, harassed and browbeaten by "outraged" Democrats. 

Judge Jackson is qualified based on her intelligence and demeanor and certainly should and will be approved.

Whether the questioning and her responses provides significant insight into her future rulings is another matter.

I fear she will be further to the left than I would prefer but Biden has the right to select whom he wishes notwithstanding the fact that he based his nomination on standards/criteria I found repugnant.

The Jackson procedure simply comes down to the fact that Republicans generally act in a respectful/civic manner and Democrats are prone to be more animalistic.

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I did! 

Voters thought they were trading bad tasting fruit and wound up with poison meat.

We all knew Biden was a little bit…umm…out there.

But no one thought he’d be crazy enough to try this.

Turns out, he is just that crazy.

And the bill is now going through Congress.

This could impact America in a way we’ve never seen before.

And not in a good way.

In a scary way.

Click here to find out what’s happening.

You’ll be glad you did.

Regards,

Roberto Rodriguez
Sr. Client Services, Palm Beach Research Group

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Is Bennett growing into the job? These are crucial times for Israel.

Bennett and Sisi first and last met in September of last year in Sharm el-Sheikh to discuss bilateral ties between the neighboring countries.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett made a surprise visit to Sharm e-Sheikh to meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (MBZ) on Monday.

The trilateral meeting is about “shared security interests, of which there are quite a few, in all their aspects,” a diplomatic source said.

The United Arab Emirates and Israel have opposed the US move toward removing Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from its list of foreign terrorist organizations.

Some in the UAE “are in great shock,” and they view the possibility of the IRGC’s designation being removed in the same way as Israel does, a source in Abu Dhabi said.

Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid released a statement on Friday saying they “find it hard to believe that the IRGC’s designation... will be removed in exchange for a promise not to harm Americans.... We believe the [US] will not abandon its closest allies in exchange for empty promises from terrorists.”

 PRIME MINISTER Naftali Bennett meets with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Sharm el-Sheikh in September.  (credit: Egyptian Presidency/Reuters)PRIME MINISTER Naftali Bennett meets with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Sharm el-Sheikh in September. (credit: Egyptian Presidency/Reuters)

It has been difficult for the UAE to work with the Biden administration on defense issues, and the relationship has deteriorated, the source added.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly canceled a planned trip to the UAE and Saudi Arabia. He is expected to visit Israel in the coming weeks.

MBZ and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman declined to take calls from US President Joe Biden to discuss energy issues stemming from US sanctions on Russia, over their dismay with US policy in the Gulf, The Wall Street Journal reported. Prior to that, the UAE and Saudi Arabia did not sign on to a US-backed UN Security Council resolution last month condemning Russia for invading Ukraine for the same reason.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been repeatedly targeted by the Iran-backed Yemeni Houthi rebels in recent months, and they were disappointed with the US response, which they view as too restrained. They are also concerned that the Iran nuclear deal the US is involved in negotiating does not address their security needs.

The US removed the Houthis from its list of foreign terrorist organizations last year.

Bennett also continued speaking out against the possible delisting of the IRGC, calling it “delusional” at a Yediot Aharonot conference.

The IRGC is “the biggest terrorist organization in the world, which is state sponsored, attacks the Emirates and others and tries to hurt Americans and Israelis,” he said.

At the same conference, Lapid said the US and Israel “have a complex dialogue... We don’t hide the fact that we have differences of opinion with the [Biden] administration.”

“We publicized our vigorous protest over the weekend,” Lapid said. “But what is more important... is that even if the US removes the designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization, for Israel, practically and on the security and military level, the IRGC is a terrorist organization, and we will continue to treat it as such.”

Bennett said Israel had success in campaigning against the closure of two International Atomic Energy Agency probes of possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program. IAEA Secretary-General Rafael Grossi did not agree to end the investigations as part of the Iran nuclear talks, in contrast to the IAEA’s behavior after the original Iran deal was signed in 2015.

Asked why he has been less vocal in his opposition to the Iran deal than his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, Bennett said it is clear the US wants a deal.

“The Americans are fully determined to sign an agreement,” he said. “They will sign the agreement... I fight when I can win and for an appropriate goal. The difference between 2015 and 2022 is not the agreement [with Iran] but what Israel will do. We are going from words to actions. This time, unlike in 2015, we made a massive move to build up our force... Iran sees that when it sends its proxies to attack us, there is a more forceful response.”

Israelis should “not have terrible anxiety” about Iran, Bennett said, adding: “There is reason to be concerned... we are on it.”

Speaking at the same conference, Defense Minister Benny Gantz stressed that the IRGC should remain on the terrorist blacklist and that Washington should not delist it.

“I want it to be clear: This is a terror organization, and as such, they should remain [on the list],” he said. “We need to coordinate our moves with the United States, as well as our positions, and we will continue to voice them unequivocally.”

The strategic relations between Jerusalem and Washington, as well as with other Western countries, “are not managed on Twitter,” but rather through face-to-face between officials, Gantz said.

“I am in contact with American officials, and I travel to all regional countries, some that we have relations with and even those that we don’t,” he said. “Iran is a global problem, a regional problem and a potential existential threat to the State of Israel, so we must not be first in line, but we must harness the world.”

According to Gantz, Israel is “mobilizing” neighboring countries for regional cooperation in the face of Iran’s aggression.

“We must put forth our intelligence capabilities, as well as offensive and defensive,” he said, adding that the deal set to be signed between Iran and Western countries is not a good one.

“This agreement is not good,” Gantz said. “It has holes in it, and we are making it clear during working groups with the Americans, and we need to make sure that in the coming years that we do everything we can to make up for the holes that exist [in the agreement].”

While Israel is not a party to the agreement being negotiated in Vienna, Jerusalem will not stop the ongoing dialogue with officials in Washington, he said.

“The prime minister said this, and so do I: We will keep our destiny in our hands and not in the hands of the fate of the world,” Gantz said.

The US and Iran have been indirectly negotiating in Vienna to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal for the past 11 months. The deal placed restrictions on Iran’s nuclear deal in exchange for the gradual lifting of sanctions. Most of those restrictions expire at the end of 2025.

In addition, in recent years, Iran has far surpassed the deal’s limit of 3.67% uranium enrichment, enriching to 60% – weapons-grade uranium is enriched to 90% – and has converted some of it to a format that is hard to dilute or transport.

In addition, critics of the Iran deal say lifting sanctions on the regime would allow money to flow to the IRGC and its proxies, while it does not limit their malign behavior in the region or Iran’s ballistic-missile program.

Bennett and Sisi met last September in Sharm e-Sheikh to discuss bilateral ties on security, geopolitical and economic matters between the neighboring countries.

It was the first public meeting in Egypt between an Israeli prime minister and an Egyptian president in a decade.

“We created a foundation for deep ties in the future,” Bennett said after the September visit.

A “very important” bond was created between the two leaders, a diplomatic source said.

One of the agreements discussed during the September meeting was a new flight route between Tel Aviv and Sharm e-Sheikh. The route is set to be inaugurated on the intermediary days of Passover, the Prime Minister’s Office said last week.

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I remain in total agreement with Kaufman:

Robert Kaufman on Conservative Versus Liberal Approaches to the Middle East

by Marilyn Stern
Middle East Forum Webinar

Robert Kaufman, Robert and Katheryn Dockson Professor of Public Policy at Pepperdine University, is a political scientist specializing in American foreign policy, national security, international relations, and other aspects of American politics. He spoke to a February 18 Middle East Forum Webinar (video) hosted by Clifford Smith, director of the Middle East Forum's Washington Project, about conservative and liberal approaches to the Middle East in the past and their impact on future policies.

According to Kaufman, "both parties had a pro-Israel element before 1968," although at the time, he noted, the Republican party had more reservations about aligning with Israel than the Democratic party. That has changed "substantially," with "inflection points" occurring during the Reagan and Carter administrations. Currently, the new meaning for "liberal" and "conservative" is such that the Republican party is increasingly pro-Israel, while the Democrats are increasingly anti-Israel.

Under the George W. Bush administration, the Republican Party's consensus view on Middle East policy that emerged was that "enemy number one is Iran, and the most reliable partner is Israel." In contrast, the Obama administration pursued a nuclear deal with Iran in a "misguided strategy," while crafting its foreign policy in the belief that the major problem in the Middle East was the Arab-Israeli conflict. The progressive wing of the Democratic party has pulled the party further to the left, casting blame on Israel and influencing domestic energy policy, which has a major impact on the party's Middle East policy.

Democratic strategy on energy has "no logic other than blind ideology in sacrificing energy independence on multiple fronts."

Under the Trump administration, the Republicans endorsed "unleashing the free market," which put the U.S. on track to being "a world's energy superpower." That contrasts sharply with the Biden administration, which returned to Obama's policies in prioritizing "the Green New Deal and climate change." Kaufman characterized the Biden administration's eagerness to re-enter the nuclear deal with Iran as "Obama 2.0." He said that Biden has empowered and emboldened both Russia's Putin and the Iranian mullahs by "filling [their] coffers" and making America once again dependent on "Middle Eastern regimes." The Democratic strategy, according to Kaufman, is one of "no logic other than blind ideology in sacrificing energy independence on multiple fronts."

In response to Smith's question about the complexities of dealing with "dictatorships and double standards" that operate in the Middle East, Kaufman noted Jeane Kirkpatrick's position: "When there is not a viable, democratic alternative" – admittedly a rarity in the Middle East – "an authoritarian regime that is pro-American, or at least not anti-American, is the lesser moral and geopolitical evil." Kaufman believes this is the most advantageous approach for American policy in the Middle East, because "these regimes have the capacity to reform," as did South Korea and Taiwan. While the Bush doctrine to transform the Middle East into democracies "proved to be a bridge too far" given the lack of U.S. political will, Kaufman contrasted that with Obama administration's "misguided" policy toward Egypt. That approach misread the Muslim Brotherhood, and Kaufman said he wasn't sure Obama "cared whether the election in Egypt that yielded the Muslim Brotherhood was like Nazi Germany in 1932" in having "one election for one time for the purpose of eliminating elections forevermore."

The Abraham Accords achieved under the Trump administration support Kaufman's endorsement of the "lesser evil" as the more appropriate approach to the Middle East, with "Saudi Arabia ... the lesser evil to Iran," given the Kingdom's "rapprochement" with Israel. John F. Kennedy expressed a similar view when he said about the Dominican Republic that "democracy was his first choice, but he would take a dictator if the more likely outcome of the choice before him was the third choice of the anti-American Soviet totalitarian." That same logic applies, he added, to the Middle East "with greater salience probably than any other region in the word."

In prioritizing Israel as America's ally, Trump "called the bluff of generations of Arabs" and the region "adjusted to the reality" of Israel's existence.

Trump's diplomacy in the Middle East is a "fundamental distinction that emanates from Reagan," although Reagan "did not bring it to full fruition." Trump "abandoned the idea of a disinterested mediator." By prioritizing Israel as an American ally, Trump "called the bluff of generations of Arabs, who warn that if you move the capital to Jerusalem, if you didn't focus on the Palestinians as the key variable of stability, you'd have absolute chaos."

Instead, the reverse happened: "By taking Jerusalem off the table," the region "adjusted to the reality." Kaufman called Trump's move of the embassy to Jerusalem a "reverse inflection point," the "opposite of Obama's cave-in" on Syria and Biden's "cave-in" on Afghanistan. By keeping his campaign promise, "Trump sent a signal – and a salutary one – to the rest of the world that he meant what he said and said what he meant." The beneficial consequences of moving the embassy extended well beyond the Mideast, Kaufman said. Putin did not make the move on Ukraine under Trump that he is poised to make under Biden, and China did not intimidate Taiwan by violating its airspace under Trump. In contrast, the "Obama-Biden cave-ins had negative repercussions, not just regionally, but globally."

Turning to Turkey, Kaufman recalled that Obama called Erdoğan his "favorite leader" and began his "infamous apology tour" in Turkey. When he took office, Obama believed "the fundamental problem in the world" was "the Arrogance of American Power." This explains his administration's soft policies toward Iran, Russia, and China, which rested on the conviction that we and our allies "had been the problem." The Biden administration is following Obama's approach, which Kaufman said "was delusional then and delusional now."

Kaufman is skeptical that the Biden administration will follow through with its tough stance, believing that "if there's teeth to the democratic disdain for Turkey," it's "more rhetorical than real." He sees Trump's Turkish policy as "one of the deficiencies of his otherwise relatively successful policy in the Middle East, compared to his predecessor." Trump "downplayed the significance of the regime type and ideology to an excessive extent," seeing the nation as a "counterweight" rather than grasping that "it's an adversary," "no longer an ally," and does not belong in NATO.

Kaufman worries about the "quasi-isolationist" faction of the GOP and its "sanguine assumption that history is demolished."

Even though Kaufman sees the Republican party as the "healthier of the two parties when it comes to conservative internationalism in general and applied to the Middle East [in particular]," he is concerned about a faction in the party that is "quasi-isolationist." He maintains that it is dangerous to assume that in lieu of "America's global responsibility," the Europeans or East Asians will form "an effective counterbalancing coalition." Kaufman believes both Republicans and, to a greater degree, Democrats, are ignoring what he calls "inflection points" that in the past "have aroused us from our slumber."

That slumber is self-evident to our enemies, says Kaufman, who see that "we can't defend our borders," that our cities are "descending into Hobbesian chaos," that we've "sacrificed being an energy superpower" and cut our defense budget.

With the absence of Democrats like "Scoop Jackson, Pat Moynihan, 'Fritz' Hollings," who the past formed "an effective bipartisan consensus," Kaufman does not see a "corrective mechanism" within the party's leadership. He hopes that, given three more years of Biden, the Republicans can regain control of Congress this November, and that the "Republican party [will] galvanize us to the urgency of conservative internationalism with all its implications."

Marilyn Stern is communications coordinator at the Middle East Forum.

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Hoover Daily:

Putin Misunderstands History. So, Unfortunately, Does The U.S.
by Niall Ferguson via Bloomberg

Biden is making a colossal mistake in thinking he can bleed Russia dry, topple Putin and signal to China to keep its hands off Taiwan.

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Pennsylvania US Senate race has an emerging Front Runner

By Salena Zito

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McCormick, who entered the race for Pennsylvania’s open Senate seat in mid-January, has shot from mere unknown to the top of the polls by traveling across the state in his charcoal pickup truck, meeting voters in every single county.

Click here for the full story.

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Russia launched hypersonic missiles due to a low stockpile, sources say

BY ALEXANDER WARD

This handout photo provided by the U.S. Navy shows a common hypersonic glide body launching from the Pacific Missile Range Facility, in Kauai, Hawaii, March 19, 2020, during a Department of Defense flight experiment. | Luke Lamborn/U.S. Navy via AP

The leading theory for why Russia launched hypersonic missiles into Ukraine last week is that it’s running out of precision-guided weapons to strike faraway targets, a senior U.S. defense official and a Western official familiar with assessments told POLITICO.

Russia said it shot Kh-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic missiles at a weapons depot in western Ukraine on Friday, though it remains unclear if that was actually the target. Still, President Joe Biden confirmed Russia’s use of the weapons Monday, stating the Russian military launched them “because it’s the only thing that they can get through with absolute certainty.”

That was the first known use of hypersonic missiles in war. Those weapons, which Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he was adding to his arsenal in 2018, survive atmospheric conditions at very high speeds and move in flight, making them extremely hard to shoot down.

The best explanation Western governments have for Putin's reach for the hypersonic missiles is that his stockpile is low after launching more than 1,100 missiles into Ukraine since Feb. 24, leaving it with fewer weapons to reliably hit positions deep in the country.

“We think that could be one reason,” the senior U.S. defense official told POLITICO. “They’re running out of material,” said the Western official. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive development.

There are other theories the two people noted, namely Russia seeking leverage at the negotiating table with Ukraine, the Kremlin messaging to the West not to interfere any further and, as Biden suggested, growing frustrations with the success of Ukraine’s air and missile defenses. “As all things with Russia, they could be signaling all of this even if the main reason they used the hypersonic weapon was because they had little else to shoot,” the Western official said.

Speaking Sunday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” news show, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Russia opted for the hypersonic missiles to gain momentum in its bumbling invasion. But he also hinted at another potential reason: A lack of available weaponry. “You kind of question why he would do this. Is he running low on precision-guided munitions?” Austin said.

As allies share information about the Russian attack — including where, precisely, the missiles hit — the answer to Austin’s hypothetical question appears to be “yes.”

“It’s really a significant sign of weakness,” the Western official said. “You only fire this thing if you’re desperate.”

The expectation is that Russia won’t launch many hypersonic missiles in the near term since they don’t have a lot of them. Instead, Moscow will likely drop more “dumb” bombs in the weeks ahead — almost certainly leading to more civilian casualties around Ukraine.

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