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CAN WE STILL ORDER BLACK COFFEE? ARE BROWNIES BEING TAKEN OFF THE SHELF? IS WHITE CASTLE CHANGING IT'S NAME? I'M SURE CRACKER BARREL IS SCREWED. CAN WE STILL PLAY CHINESE CHECKERS? IS THAT SEASON STILL CALLED INDIAN SUMMER? NO MORE ITALIAN SAUSAGES? HOW FAR DO YOU WANT TO GO WITH THIS FOOLISHNESS?
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Biden and Blinken Poke Israel in the Eye
It’s no secret that the Biden Administration is deeply disappointed that Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, and its coalition partners, won enough seats in the Knesset to assure Netanyahu of becoming Israel’s next Prime Minister. Netanyahu is seen by the Bidenites as too unyielding, insufficiently willing to placate either the Palestinians or, for that matter, the Americans. And the Bidenites have been poking Israel in the eye ever since the election. The latest manifestation of this is Tony Blinken’s decision to give the keynote speech at the annual meeting of the leftist Jewish group, J Street, which claims to support Israel (“Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace, Pro-Democracy” is its motto), but it appears to many observers that J Street’s support depends on the Jewish state agreeing to be squeezed back within the 1949 armistice lines.
Daniel Greenfield wrote about Blinken’s J Street appearance at Jihad Watch here. More on his appearance, and other Bidenite pokes in Israel’s eye, can be found here: “Welcome, Bibi: Blinken To Headline Anti-Israel J Street Conference,” by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, December 1, 2022:
…A State Department spokesman told the Free Beacon that Blinken’s engagement with anti-Israel groups like J Street is an “important part” of the agency’s mission.
“It is routine for the secretary of state to engage with different civil society groups representing a broad array of foreign policy interests, this is an important part of the State Department’s domestic outreach,” the spokesman said.
But everyone in Washington knows that this particular civil society group has only one issue – Israel – and only one desire, which is to force Israel to make territorial concessions for the sake of “peace” to those who would destroy it. J Street is not exactly a reflection of a large slice of “civil society.” It is supported by a few thousand contributors, but about half of its money comes from a handful of rich donors. These include George Soros (who wants the world to know that he contributes “only” 2.5% of the total), Bill Benter, the Skoll Global Threats Fund, and the Nathan Cummings Foundation, which have contributed each year between $200,000 and $400,000 apiece. In one year, a contribution of $811,697 came from a certain Consolacion Esdicul in Hong Kong, apparently solicited by Mr. Benter. And there are other donors who give at least $100,000 each year.
Contributions in 2022 to J Street have so far come to $3.26 million. Year after year, J Street’s founder and apparently permanent head, Jeremy Ben Ami, receives as his salary between 7% and 10% of the total contributions. J Street may not be good for Israel, but it has been very good for Jeremy Ben Ami.
While Blinken is not the first secretary of state to address a J Street conference—then-secretary John Kerry and then-vice president Joe Biden both spoke in 2016—the timing of his address is being viewed as highly symbolic. The Biden administration in December took the extraordinary step of launching a Justice Department investigation into the shooting of a Palestinian-American reporter by the Israel Defense Forces.
Israel in September conducted its own independent review in cooperation with the U.S. State Department, and U.S. lawmakers are accusing the administration—given the president’s support for an additional FBI investigation—of kowtowing to radical elements in the Democratic Party who seek to transform Israel into a pariah state.
The IDF conducted its own thorough investigation of the death of the Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh three months ago. It concluded that “most likely” she had been killed by an IDF soldier, but that there was no evidence of any intent to kill her. And indeed, Israel scrupulously tries to avoid civilian casualties; think of how it routinely warns civilians in Gaza to get away from buildings about to be targeted, by telephoning, emailing, and using the “knock-on-the-roof” technique, and giving them time to do so. It would make no sense for Israel to have targeted Abu Akleh; her death would then become a vehicle for anti-Israel propaganda, as indeed it has. After the IDF report was read by the administration, the Americans declared themselves satisfied. They agreed with both parts: first, that an IDF soldier’s bullet had “most likely” killed Shireen Abu Akleh; second, that there had been “no intent” to kill an innocent civilian. But having done so, and after more than a month had passed, all of a sudden the administration apparently changed its mind, and ordered the FBI to conduct its own investigation of Abu Akleh’s death – an insulting sign that it doesn’t trust the IDF’s conclusions. How the FBI will determine whether there was “intent” by the Israeli soldier to kill a civilian remains unclear. And who was behind the decision to “reopen” what had been a closed case? Those who are determined to throw a spanner in the works of America-Israel relations. Who might those be? Names, please.
One senior State Department official told the Free Beacon that “attending this J Street event is like a blatant and obvious attempt to stick Bibi [Netanyahu] in the eye.”
“Unfortunately,” said the source, who was not authorized to speak on record, “it has the effect of undermining our relationship with Israel, and thus U.S. national security.”
It may be momentarily pleasing for Blinken to stick it to the Israeli leader, but is it wise to antagonize a close ally whom we will undoubtedly need to help halt Iran’s seemingly inexorable march to manufacture a nuclear weapon? This isn’t statecraft, but petulance.
It’s not the first sign that the Biden administration is less than elated at Netanyahu’s reascension to power last month. Biden waited days to congratulate the newly elected Israeli leader, drawing accusations the president was trying to isolate Netanyahu’s conservative government before it even was seated.
This, too, was a kind of schoolboy tantrum, of the “I don’t want to play in your yard/I don’t like you anymore” variety. Biden, biding his time to make that phone call to Netanyahu, was semaphoring “I’ll show you, Bibi. I’ll keep you waiting for my call.” While every other world leader had telephoned Netanyahu to congratulate him, Biden let a week go by before calling. “Take that, Bibi,” Biden must have thought, but it was Biden who should have been embarrassed at this display of puerile pouting.
“The Biden administration is filled with partisans who hate Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu. They banned the use of the phrase ‘Abraham Accords,’ couldn’t bring themselves to have President Biden call Netanyahu to congratulate him until their silence became comical, and now they’re even unleashing the FBI,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) told the Free Beacon. “So of course Secretary Blinken is going to J Street, an anti-Israel activist group that also criticized the Abraham Accords, loathes Netanyahu, and regularly calls for investigations against Israel. It’s both disgraceful and predictable.”
Senator Cruz is exactly right. In the Biden administration, there are holdovers from the Obama administration, who still resent how Netanyahu fought back against Obama’s mistreatment of his country, including his giving a final finger to the Jewish state, when instead of vetoing UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which labelled Israeli settlements in the West Bank as “illegal,” Obama instructed our ambassador, Samantha Power, to vote to “abstain.” And they cannot forgive Netanyahu for addressing both houses of Congress on the threat from Iran, and his withering criticism of the Obama administration’s willingness to capitulate to Tehran in the 2015 Iran deal.
One former Israeli government official told the Free Beacon the administration is not even trying to hide its disdain for Netanyahu and his conservative coalition.
“This is simply bad diplomatic strategy,” said the source, who would only speak on background so as not to upset either government. “Speaking to J Street may displease the incoming Israeli government, but they’re hardly afraid of the lobby. This doesn’t send a message of strength but rather one of petulance. Secretary Blinken should know better.”
Nothing is achieved by this ill-considered appearance, as keynote speaker, by Tony Blinken at the annual meeting of the leftwing, Jewish, pro-Palestinian anti-Israel lobby that is J Street. Such a slap in the face won’t make Israel be more accommodating to the administration, but rather less, for Netanyahu and his colleagues will correctly interpret Blinken’s appearance at J Street not as one more of his engagements “with different civil society groups representing a broad array of foreign policy interests,” as the State Department spokesman smugly explained, but as one more deliberate slap at the new government in Jerusalem.
Blinken speaking to J Street will constitute the third such slap. The first, you will recall, was Biden’s puerile delay in calling Netanyahu to congratulate him on his victory. The second was the opening of an FBI investigation into the death of Shireen Abu Akleh long after the administration had proclaimed itself satisfied with the Israeli investigation and report.
And after that? It will be fascinating to see what further slights the Administration comes up with to punish our most loyal ally for daring to choose a leader whom the Bidenites detest. Too bad, Bidenites. Get used to that changing of the guard in Jerusalem. And if you just can’t? Then tant pis pour vous.
And:
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Why Are Black People Still Voting for Democrats? It's Magic! – PJ Media
Netanyahu officially asks President Herzog for extension to form government
In letter, PM-designate says he has reached agreements with some parties, needs more time for others.
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Sen. Manchin LOSING Power Quickly | ||||||||||||||||||||
Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) enormous... ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Democrats have truly gone off the deep end. They ignore everything that is going on and Republicans proved totally incapable of taking advantage. They had inflation, the cost of living, crime, gasoline all going up to historical levels. They had a botched Afghanistan rescue mission followed by Marine deaths, a total border and drug disaster and they could not offer any solutions to any of these occurrences. Every Biden decision , as has been true throughout his entire political career, has proven wrong and again Republicans could not get any traction. They spent their entire time bashing a president whom over 70% of the nation do not want him to run again and they could not tell voters what they wanted to do. McConnell gutted any opportunity to capture more Senate seats because he was busy protecting his own turf, so to speak. Many of the GOP candidates were inferior thanks to Trump's misguided influence. The entire vote gathering process had changed and Democrats were in control while Republicans were still functioning as always and thus, were being scooped. It is evident they need to dump Daniel and start fresh. Zeldin would be well suited to take the ball and run with it. He has articulated what is wrong and proposed practical solutions but they may not choose him or he may not want the job. Finally ,every societal entity is under attack with lunatic ideas from CRT to BLM, to sexualization and bizarre emphasis on mutilation of children and emphasis on hiring LGBTQ candidates as long as they were of color and you know the rest. Add to the above our return to energy dependence because of Biden's premature embrace of green impracticalities and you have gone full circle. The president who presides over this lunacy is himself compromised both mentally and physically. In fact, anyone with 20 20 eyesight cannot ignore anything I have written. I challenge anyone that I have not revealed facts. As a sovereign republic we are in serious decline and our adversaries are progressing while we are receding. In the past few weeks, Musk has validated what we all suspected. Democrats are in cahoots with social media billionaires and have been found blocking speech of those Democrats find to be in opposition to their views. The Democrat's contempt for the constitution appears blatant and thus, dangerous. Americans justifiably have lost total faith in their government and it's ability to function in a reliable manner. Even the military is subject to ideological threats bordering on the bizarre. "What the hell is going on?" is a rational way to end this essay. And: Twitter and Disinformation Wars Intelligence-agency meddling in elections is no Trump-era aberration. By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. Each day the world throws up a novel set of facts that beg to be understood on their own terms, and each day the press shoves them into a familiar formula. It ought to be with some chagrin, though, that where we once expected the press to keep the government honest, we’ve had to rely on civil servants like Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz and special counsel John Durham to do the job because, to put an indelicate point on it, the press has been part of the coverup. That coverup concerns perhaps the most important trend of our age—the entry of U.S. spy agencies and their disinformation as a factor in our domestic politics. Those who appreciate a complete record can now thank Elon Musk for releasing Twitter’s internal deliberations on the Hunter Biden laptop, which produced an unexpected hero in Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna. Twitter is seen, meanwhile, straining to justify its censorship under its “hacked materials” policy, despite having received no complaint from Hunter Biden or the Biden campaign that the material was either hacked or illegitimate (because, of course, it wasn’t). Just out of sight remains the elephant on the sofa, the intervention of Obama-era intelligence officials to promote the lie that the laptop was a Russian intelligence operation. Their intervention may well have changed the election, decided by a mere 44,000 votes in the Electoral College, less even than the 2016 margin, which was also influenced by a late intervention of the intelligence community in the person of then-FBI chief James Comey. In a practical sense, 2016 and 2020 are the same story. In 2016, protocol and procedure left the Obama Justice Department no way to finesse the Hillary Clinton email matter, until Mr. Comey invented a solution by citing secret “Russian intelligence” in a way that still frustrates accountability today. In 2020, intelligence veterans again used their presumed access to secret knowledge to protect Joe Biden from the laptop revelations. The story applies to 2017 and 2018, when the FBI and Robert Mueller used their control of secret information to hide for two years the fact that no real evidence of collusion existed. There’s a pattern here. You might tell yourself it’s a Trump-era aberration. Get ready to be disappointed. The genie won’t be stuffed back into the bottle, especially when no one is trying. Lately the media have sought to recover their virtue by acknowledging that the laptop exists, in the form of belated reporting from the Washington Post, the New York Times and CBS. Nowhere seen, though, is the journalistic curiosity to investigate the calculated effort at deceit, which eventually involved 51 former officials, how it came to be organized, by whom, etc. The reason is obvious. The press itself is implicated. Disinformation doesn’t have to be persuasive. It only has to confuse. In 1941 how did Stalin miss 151 divisions massing on his border? He didn’t. He was swamped with intelligence saying the Germans were about to invade—and also intelligence that the Germans thought Stalin was about to invade, and intelligence that the Germans were trying to trick Stalin into invading. This is your model of how disinformation operated in the laptop smokescreen too, which wasn’t even slightly credible to anybody who thought about it for a moment. But it worked and now will come the deluge. The technological moment guarantees it. The sudden, dramatic increase in the geopolitical stakes guarantees it. Our information environment will fill with the disinformation of intelligence agencies, ours included, which won’t be able to leave these opportunities alone. The alleged Russian meddling of 2016 was already a drop in the ocean compared with the flogging of Russian meddling by domestic agents trying to influence our politics. This column got interested in UFOs for one reason: the intelligence community report of June 25, 2021, when officials with access to classified information told us what they might believe about UFOs if they didn’t have access to classified information, a situation that can only lead to mischief, and has, which smarter officials, especially at NASA, are trying to fix. Our media needs to up its own game; from personal knowledge, public servants involved in exposing FBI misdeeds during the 2016-19 era and who are by no means Trumpistas are nevertheless appalled by the media’s refusal to acknowledge reality, and rightly so. Which brings us to Matt Taibbi, the independent reporter selected to receive the gift of the Twitter files. He never struck me as a journalistic lion, but I happily named him in several columns for being a rare scribe willing, amid the febrile, herd-like embrace of the Steele dossier, to say the emperor had no clothes. Mr. Musk would have done better to release the Twitter documents widely, not least to provoke a healthy variety of reactions. But at least he picked a reporter who has been generous in his contempt for Rachel Maddow, which ought to be a requirement for employment in the news organizations we’re going to need in the future, equipped with nonconformist spine and conviction. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Report: China has opened a police station – in Israel By World Israel News Staff, Beijing has opened up a police facility in Israel, part of a global network of stations aimed at monitoring Chinese citizens abroad, a watchdog group has reported. …..Ostensibly the police stations were opened to provide assistance to Chinese tourists or citizens living abroad and to maintain cultural ties between Beijing and the Chinese diaspora. CONTINUE +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Behind the Global Surge in Anti-Semitism Despite likely friction, relations between the U.S. and Israel have a strong foundation. By Walter Russell Mead It’s a busy time for news about Jews. In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu is assembling the most right-wing, pro-settlement government in the country’s history even as violence between Israelis and Palestinians surges. In the U.S., Donald Trump sat down to dinner with some of the country’s most unhinged anti-Semites. Like it or loathe it, the inclusion of pro-settlement and pro-annexation parties in the next Israeli government is a recognition of political reality. Israeli public opinion is increasingly influenced by Mizrahi or Middle Eastern Jews whose ancestors were driven from their homes in Arab countries because of the conflict. These Jews often feel no responsibility for or guilt about the plight of the Palestinians. That leaves many Israeli politicians less willing to give up the West Bank, which is a problem for the Biden administration and American Jews. Support for a two-state solution that protects Israeli security while securing self-determination for Palestinians unites the many Democrats who wish both Israelis and Palestinians well. And it is a position that allows liberal American Jews to reconcile their support for the Jewish state with a commitment to the human rights of all peoples, Palestinians included. The fading prospects of the two-state solution exacerbate the conflict between progressive and centrist Democrats over Israel policy while polarizing opinion among American Jews. The dwindling prospects also open the door to those hoping to delegitimize the Jewish state. If Zionism leads to an “apartheid state,” some progressives argue, the only moral choice is a single state where all the inhabitants of former British Palestine (modern Israel, Gaza and the West Bank) enjoy equal rights. Superficially appealing, the one-state solution is both wildly impractical and grossly unjust. More than a century of conflict hasn’t prepared two different peoples to live harmoniously in a single state. In addition, Israel, a regional superpower enjoying unprecedented friendly relations with the most powerful Arab states, won’t voluntarily surrender its sovereignty no matter how many American colleges pass boycott, divestment and sanctions, or BDS, resolutions. To argue that the Jewish state must continually earn the right to exist by satisfying its moral critics and political opponents is absurd. People criticize Chinese actions in Xinjiang and Tibet without saying that those misdeeds deprive the Chinese people of the right to a state of their own. The Palestinian plight is real and criticism of Israel is not unwarranted. Israelis and Palestinians should both think creatively and act wisely to address the human tragedy of Palestinian loss, but Israel’s legitimacy doesn’t need to be earned. The new anti-Zionism, however, is becoming entrenched among many American progressives. Depending on what policies Mr. Netanyahu’s cabinet adopts, the Biden administration could be moving toward battles with the new Israeli government more bitter than those of the Obama years. And on campus and elsewhere, individual American Jews are being challenged to earn their way into progressive respectability by dissociating themselves from the Jewish state and the Jewish national movement. But progressives’ anti-Semitism disguised as human rights activism is only one of the dangers confronting American Jews. Almost two-thirds of religious hate crimes reported in the U.S. are directed against a group representing 2.4% of the population. Race-baiting political agitators seek to mobilize this hatred to advance their careers. Jew-hatred has always existed in America. Equally at home in trailer parks and country clubs, it tends to peak at moments of social and economic stress. Today’s genteel anti-Semitism among upper-middle-class BDS proponents and the less subtle Jew-hatred among radical black and white nationalists matches the classical pattern well. American populism also has a long history of anti-Semitic rhetoric. William Jennings Bryan’s most famous speech climaxed in an anti-Semitic dog whistle: “You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.” Radio priest Father Charles Coughlin and others enlisted Jew-hatred in their populist appeals during the Great Depression. At present, the political prospects of the Jew-haters look weak. Most Americans staunchly reject the politics of racial and religious hate. The danger is less that a demagogue will ride Jew-hatred into the White House than that ugly rhetoric will inspire ugly deeds and that anti-Jewish hate crimes, like other hate crimes in our discordant era, will become more common and more serious. Anti-Semitic at home, radical populism is often isolationist abroad. Pat Buchanan used to argue that the American relationship with Israel is the result of Jewish control of the media and politics. “They” drag America into foreign quarrels that are none of “our” business. Even so, the U.S.-Israel relationship is likely to survive Mr. Netanyahu’s return to power. Expect friction between the U.S. and Israel over a variety of issues, the position of the Palestinians prominent among them—but the foundations of the relationship remain strong. Anti-Semitism has a long history in America, but that isn’t the whole story. American Jews today enjoy greater equality, acceptance and opportunity than any group of diasporic Jews in the past 2,500 years. Overcoming ancient prejudice is what a healthy America does. Arguments against anti-Semitism need to be made, and crimes of anti-Semitism must be vigilantly prosecuted. But the heart of the matter isn’t about winning the argument with Jew-haters. It is about making America work. Populist anti-Semitism exploded during the 1880s and early 1890s as economic difficulties rose. Positive leadership under William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt brought better times. Similarly, decades of prosperity after World War II marginalized anti-Semitism in American life—and reduced many other forms of prejudice. American Jews aren’t a foreign body in the U.S. They are an integral part of this ethnically and religiously diverse nation, and we stand or fall together. As Mr. Trump may be about to discover, politicians who fail to understand this great truth are unlikely to prosper for long. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ For the rock ribbed ideologues cutting the umbilical cord is impossible.+++ Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema leaves Democrat party but still caucuses with them. |
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