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By Matt Vespa
As for the Biden Administration, it has made matters worse by taking one side rather than being an unbiased arbiter.
The Palestinian leadership is interested in keeping this sore festering so they can continue their shake down efforts. They have made millions of dollars keeping the refugee situation alive. They have made more millions keeping the two state matter never ending.
Every time they have a reasonable offer they turn it down. They have been milking the West for decades. They want the whole loaf and that means the end of Israel. If the West was not so inclined towards antisemitism and being frightened by their Muslim invasion and own fecklessness they would have walked away from the Palestinians years ago.
Nothing good will come of Biden's constant stupidity, heavy handiness and lying.
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Amid Protests In Jordan That Include Calls Against The King And Support For Prince Hamzah, Journalists And Former Ministers Warn: The Sense Of Resentment Is Unprecedented; The Authorities Must Adopt A New Approach
By H. Varulkar and Z. Harel, MEMRI
In early December 2022, a wave of protests broke out in Jordan, following a government decision to raise the price of fuel, which aggravated the already serious economic crisis in the country. The protests took the form of demonstrations, a truck drivers’ strike, general strikes and riots, especially in the southern parts of the country. This protest wave differed from previous ones by crossing an important line: on December 15, during riots in the city of Ma’an in southern Jordan, shots were fired at the security forces, killing the district’s deputy police chief, ‘Abd Al-Razzaq Al-Dalabih. Several days later, on December 19, three more police officers were killed while arresting suspects in Al-Dalabih’s shooting. The suspects, one of whom was also killed during the raid, were caught with extensive weapons and ammunition. The regime referred to them as “a takfiri terrorist cell,” although their militancy was probably motivated by the economic crisis.
Alongside criticism against the government for the rise in prices, the protests also included criticism against King ‘Abdullah himself, and claims that he was responsible for the severe crisis in the country. Although criticism of the king and calls to limit his powers were heard in previous protest waves as well, they are still regarded as the breaking of a taboo and the crossing of a red line, and may therefore indicate a real threat to the stability of his regime. Another significant development in the current wave of protests is that the criticism against him was accompanied by suggestions for an alternative ruler: his half-brother Prince Hamzah, who has been under house arrest since being accused of an attempted coup against the king in April 2021. Expressions of support for Hamzah were heard in protests across the country and also on social media, with some presenting him as an alternative to the king, as stated, and calling on him to intervene in the Jordanian crisis.
Like in some of the previous protest waves, a conspicuous feature of the current one is that the criticism is being voiced, inter alia, by the Jordanian tribes, which have always been considered the main support base of the Hashemite regime. In recent years there has been a growing sense of resentment and frustration among the tribes, in light of their exclusion from the country’s power centers and due to shifts in Jordan’s social makeup. Jordanian officials visiting one of the mourning tents for the police officers killed in the riots were met with angry statements by local sheikhs complaining about the dire economic situation and the regime’s conduct.
At the same time, it is notable that the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood has so far refrained from joining the protests or fanning them, and has sufficed with urging the regime to heed the citizens’ suffering and address the economic crisis.
Another prominent expression of the dissatisfaction in the country and the king’s deteriorating position is a letter sent by Jordanian MP Muhammad ‘Inad Al-Fayez, Jordan’s former intelligence minister, to Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, urging him to suspend the economic aid to Jordan, since it ends up only “in the pockets of the corrupt gang of decision-makers” and is not used to help the Jordanian citizens. The letter, posted on Al-Fayez’s Facebook page, caused an uproar since it was perceived as a challenge to the regime and an expression of no-confidence in the king. Subsequently, presumably in response to the harsh criticism he incurred, Al-Fayez declared his loyalty to the king and announced his intention to resign from parliament.
The Jordanian authorities responded to the protests in several ways. The security forces tried to curb the riots in the various regions, while also arresting figures who were supporting the protests or fanning them, including political activist Khaled Turki Al-Majali, editor of the Kul Al-Urdun website, who was accused of spreading incitement and slander. Another figure arrested was Majed Al-Sharari, the former mayor of Ma’an and a powerful and popular figure in the city, who was among the leaders of the truck drivers’ strike and expressed support the protests. His arrest caused an uproar in the city, with residents petitioning for his release and calling for it at demonstrations and on social media. Another measure taken by the government was to block TikTok, on the grounds that it was being used to praise the violence and spread chaos in the kingdom.
According to reports, over the past two weeks the chief of the royal court Yousuf Hassan Al-‘Issawi held meetings with tribal representatives and with retired generals in various governorates and regions, apparently in an attempt to quell the rage. On December 31 the government fuel pricing committee announced an 8% reduction in the price of oil derivatives. On January 2, 2023, in a meeting with dignitaries in the Aqaba governorate, the king announced that he had directed the government to freeze the tax on kerosene for the winter so as to alleviate the burden on the citizens.
In light of the protests and harsh criticism of the regime, several former ministers and senior journalists published articles warning that the economic crisis has created an unprecedented situation and sparked unprecedented resentment against the regime even among its support base. They called on the Jordanian authorities not to ignore the significant change in the public mood, positions and discourse, but rather to meet the situation with new tools and approaches and enact reforms to stop the deterioration.
This report presents the criticism against King ‘Abdullah and the expressions of support for Prince Hamzah during the current wave of protests, as well as excerpts from the articles by the senior journalists and former ministers.
At Demonstrations And On Social Media: Criticism Of The King, Expressions Of Support For Prince Hamzah
The protest and criticism against the Jordanian authorities found expression in demonstrations on the street, as well as on social media, in particular on TikTok, Twitter and Facebook, under hashtags such as “Jordan Is Rebelling,” “Jordan Is Unwell,” “Trucker Drivers’ Strike,” “Strike of Honor” and “Free Majed Al-Sharari.” As in previous waves of protest, there has been personal criticism against King ‘Abdullah, who is seen as responsible for the dire economic crisis. A video from one of the protests shows participants chanting “Why beat about the bush? ‘Abdullah is responsible [for the situation],” and “We pledged loyalty to you, but reaped only trouble.”
Also conspicuous were expressions of support for the king’s half-brother Hamzah, who has been under house arrest for participation in an attempted coup against the king in April 2021.This support has been evident at the demonstrations and in social media posts tagged with the hashtags mentioned above or with “Prince Hamzah” and “the country wants Hamzah.” At a December 17 protest march in the Al-Tafaileh neighborhood in the capital, demonstrators called on Hamzah to intervene in the crisis, chanting “O Hamzah bin Al-Hussein, the country is in ruins, where are you?!”Another video, from a protest in the Tafila region, showed participants chanting “With spirit and blood we will redeem you, O Hamzah.”
The protest in the Tafila region
As mentioned above, Journalist and political activist Khaled Turki Al-Majali, editor of the Jordanian website Kul Al-Urdun, was arrested for messages he posted on Facebook. The posts that led to his arrest were the following. On December 17 he wrote: “Since Hamzah bin Hussein has given up the title of prince and his immunity. I believe that nothing in the constitution rules out appointing him to form a national reform government. I have no doubt that this would be the beginning of a national breakthrough. “The post elicited many responses, for example from retired general Muhammed ‘Autoom, who was active in the protest movement against the king, and who commented: “That is a creative opinion. [Hamzah] can solve the country’s chronic problems. We thank you for your suggestion.”
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Jordan’s King is Weak and Fragile, Still, Hamzah Has No Chance
JaFaJ
1. Summary: Jordan has been spiralling into unrest since early December. An ongoing national strike in protests of the King’s economic policies has blossomed into civil disobedience. In response, King Abdullah has recklessly dealt with those taking part in the strike (demonstrators), with the “heavy hand of oppression.” This has made the public more defiant and deepened the crisis. At the same time, some of the very few remaining loyalists to the King’s half-brother, Hamzah, have rekindled their hope of him replacing his brother as King. Still, Hamzah lacks any serious public support or access to either Jordan’s intelligence or army, therefore his chances of ever becoming King are null.
The King is Weak, Very Weak
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2. Since early December, Jordan has been on a national strike in protests of high fuel prices and including all public transportation and trucking vehicles. The strike has extended into private businesses and shops. The strikers were regularly engaged in peaceful demonstrations that spread across most of the country including the capital Amman. To add to the King’s woes, Jordan’s majority of Palestinian heritage is fully engaged in both the strike and the protests in Amman and Zarqa. This by itself poses a huge challenge to the King’s inherent policy of divide and conquer between Jordanians of Palestinian heritage and East Bankers.
3. The protesters were chanting the most dreadful chant the King could have heard “the People want to topple the regime.” While this call has not been the most used among protesters, insults and name-calling were aimed at the King and his wife.
4. In response to the protesters, the King has attempted to squash them using an “Iron Fist”. Videos circulating over social media clearly document the riot police beating up protesters in the streets and going as far as to wage collective harassment against entire blocks that appear to be connected to the protests. Videos also exhibit the King’s notorious gendarmerie throwing tear gas grenades at residential areas and homes, as well as arresting bystanders for no reason. This has resulted in an escalation by the protesters against the King’s character and the strike holding even stronger. The King’s crackdown on social media did not seem to help him, he ordered the blocking of the social media app TikTok and has been blocking and slowing the internet in order to stop Jordanians from spreading videos of the ongoing protests.
5. The King eventually agreed to marginally reduce fuel prices on New Year’s Eve, but that has not helped him as Jordanians are now publicly boasting “they have nothing to lose.” As a result, the strike is still holding strong, even as Jordan’s economy worsens day by day. In addition, Jordanians from all backgrounds have become unified against the King for the first time. Hence, the ongoing instability in Jordan is unlikely to end any time soon as the King is apparently powerless to redeem his image or defuse public anger against him.
6. With the situation worsening by the day and public consensus growing against King Abdullah, Western governments with highly vested interests in Jordan are now wondering about the country’s future. An American intelligence source has recently confided to an Arab Gulf Royal Family member “We wish for King Abdullah to bring peace to his kingdom, but we can’t see how he will be able to do this. We have given him all the help we could already, and he does not seem to be able to manage.”
Hamzah’s Few Remaining Loyalists Thrilled
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7. With the King being so fragile and hated by his subjects, some of the few loyalists to the King’s half-brother Hamzah, have recently rekindled their hope for him to become King. Hamzah, Abdullah’s half-brother whose mother is Lisa Al-Halaby, an American, better known as Queen Noor of Jordan. In April of 2021, Hamzah attempted a militarized coup in cooperation with some East Bank Bedouin radicals against his brother Abdullah. Since the attempt, Hamzah has been under Military Arrest and confined to his palace in Jordan. He is officially prevented from taking part in any political activities, while his two main co-conspirators (former Chief of the Royal Hashemite Court, Bassem Awadallah and Hashemite family member Hassan Bin Zaid), have both been sentenced to prison for engaging in acts of terror. Each was sentenced to fifteen years in prison under the Jordanian Counter-Terror Act.
8. Hamzah’s active loyalists count just a few dozen. A Jordanian intelligence major confirmed to JaFaJ that, “At best, Hamzah’s loyalists are less than 30 individuals and half of them are abroad. There’s nothing they can invoke or do”.
Hamzah Was More Dangerous Than Many Think
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9. Hamzah’s plot to take over the throne from his half-brother was violent in nature. According to JaFaJ sources, Hamzah recruited dozens of tribal figures to his side, promising them a garden of Eden once he gets rid of his brother. Further, he has recruited some violent and radical members into his plot. According to sources, this formed the basis of an investigation by the Jordanian Military Intelligence Department that was aimed at scaring Jordan’s Palestinian majority. The militiamen have been ideologically indoctrinated with hatred for Jordan’s Palestinian majority, under the claim “they have stolen Jordan from us,” and “We must universally strip them of their citizenships and turn them into residents in Jordan with no rights”.
10. Further, a senior source in the Jordanian military intelligence confirmed to JaFaJ that the “Hamzah group already had a terror checklist for the first week Hamzah was supposed to take over, with the target list including some Palestinian-Jordanian businessmen, social media figures and even facilities known to be associated with Jordan’s Palestinian majority.” For example, the Al-Wehdat Soccer Club Plot was designed to commit acts of race-fuelled terrorism against the Palestinians and their interests so they would submit to Hamzah as King. To implement his plot, Hamzah even recruited radical East Banker journalists and academics to assist him and aid in the indoctrination of his followers. This eventually materialized in uniting the radical group named “The Children of Jordan Abroad (CJA),” or “Abna Al Ordoun Fil Mahjar”.
11. The CJA’s members were brought together by Jordanian-Palestinian-American journalist, Muhammad Siyam. Siyam is a native of Bassem Awdallah’s home village near Jerusalem. In the plot, Hamzah enlisted Siyam’s help in crystalizing the group’s notions. The notions included the following: to replace Abdullah with Hamzah, to stop the opposition’s call for a regime change, and to “keep the regime and reform the nation,” all revolving around the slogan of “evolution instead of revolution.” Additionally, vilifying Israel and the United States were deemed to be “enemies of Jordanians because they want to hand Jordan to the Palestinians.” Lastly, it was designed to verify and attack the lead Palestinian opposition, Mudar Zahran as much as possible for being a Jordanian of Palestinian heritage.
12. Ironically, despite calling for military action against Jews and Israelis and seeking a militarized coup by which Jordan’s Palestinian majority would be compromised, the CJA did not register on the radar screens of security bodies in Europe and the United States where most of its radical members reside. Nonetheless, Hamzah’s terror plot for a Jordanian regime change surfaced only in January 2020, when German resident and member of the Jordanian Opposition Coalition (JOC) Mohammed Btaibet, first reported that one of the CJA’s key terror indicators raised red flags when the latter decided to visit Germany. The first red flag was Alaa Al-Fazaa. Al-Fazaa is one of the most outspoken figures of the terror group. Al-Fazaa was then residing in Sweden as a political refugee, where he was front and centre in the campaign against Abdullah and Jordan’s Palestinian majority. Al-Fazaa was also known then for calling for the death and destruction of the United States and Israel.
13. According to JaFaJ sources, the story started to unfold when Btaibet noticed that Al-Fazaa was using Twitter to call for murdering American soldiers. When he announced that he would be visiting the German city of Munster close to an American military base, Btaibet reported this to the German police and Mudar Zahran, the JOC’s leader. Zahran, in writing, passed the warning information to the US Defense Intelligence Agency. In the letter, Zahran warned them that radical Al-Fazaa was arriving in Germany and choose to stay near an American base. This happened just two days after his thousands of followers read on social media that he “would like to see 80 American soldiers killed.”
14. Being the first to report this to authorities, Btaibet was approached by German authorities and counterterrorism bodies, including those of Munster. The German Counter Terrorism Task Force, along with Munster Police and the US Defense Intelligence Agency as observers, met with Btaibet where he told them on the record of Hamzah’s terror plot to take over the throne in Jordan. This information was passed to other intelligence bodies in the US and UK, as well as the Jordanian Military Intelligence. According to confidential sources, they began monitoring Hamzah’s movements and communications in late January 2020.
15. During his discussions with authorities, Btaibet provided full accounts of Hamzah’s plot, including his intentions to carry out a coup and incite Jordanian tribes against the Palestinian majority. Btaibet warned that “Hamzah was plotting a coup and harboring Islamist radicals with a network that stretches across Europe and has connections inside the Jordanian army itself.” Btaibet’s warnings were not taken seriously by the Jordanian intelligence community, and in the beginning, they were not even aware of Hamzah’s plot.
16. This is when the American intelligence establishment began to monitor Hamzah and his actions. They even notified their Jordanian counterparts to observe Hamzah’s actions. This was confirmed by JaFaJ sources when the plot came out in April 2021. At the time, the Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi said in a televised press statement that, “Prince Hamzah had been under surveillance for a year.” The Guardian, a British daily paper, revealed in May of 2020 that “The American Embassy in Amman had revealed Hamzah’s plot to the Jordanian intelligence” was it not for the Americans finding out about the plot, the Jordanian intelligence establishment would not have taken any of Hamza’s activities seriously.
17. According to confidential JaFaJ sources, Btaibet also warned authorities that Al-Fazaa was leading a radical group in the West and provided the German authorities with a full account of the latter’s radical activities. The German counterterrorism police arrested Al-Fazaa along with two of his associates in Munster. Eventually, the other two were let go as Al-Fazaa remained in custody for questioning in the presence of German intelligence officers. American intelligence officers were also “observing.” After his detainment, Al-Fazaa provided a treasure trove of information about the terrorist Hamzah network in Europe and even admitted to his interrogators that he was working with Hamzah. He went as far as to tell them that they needed to contact specific Jordanian intelligence officers “to confirm that he is not a terrorist and was working with the Jordanian intelligence.”
18. Eventually, Al-Fazaa was later deported back to Sweden, where Mudar Zahran kept communicating with him. In Sweden, he spoke with Swedish Authorities, particularly the Ministry of Justice and the Swedish Intelligence. During the conversation, he urged them to seek the transcripts of the interrogation that he had with the Germans. Eventually, the Swedish obtained them and revoked Al-Fazaa’s refugee status.
19. Since then, Hamzah, Awadallah and Sheriff Bin Zaid have not been seen or heard from. Nonetheless, JaFaJ can confirm that Hamzah is no longer in Jordan. According to an American intelligence source, “Hamzah had no prayer in the first place, and his supporters have always been few. Now they are even fewer.” The source added that “Yes, Hamzah might have had some support within the rankings of the Jordanian security and military apparatus, but there were very few at best, numbering less than a dozen.” The source concluded by saying that “Hamzah is no longer a threat, nor has he ever been a viable alternative to the King.”
Hamzah Has No Prayer
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20. Despite the extensive effort by Hamzah’s remaining loyalists to portray him on social media as a leader, it is clear that Hamzah has no public support. The majority of Jordanians of Palestinian heritage have a sincere disdain for Hamzah and his mother because they symbolize racism and hatred toward Palestinians. Some of the most racist and anti-Palestinian East Bankers have been portraying Hamzah as the messiah who would “restore Jordan to Jordanians and kick out the Palestinians.” This by itself has made it impossible for Hamzah to secure any approval or any form of support from Jordan’s majority.
21. As for Jordan’s East Bankers, the majority of them have developed disdain and resentment towards the Hashemites. This has become the most apparent in the slogans and chants by the demonstrators. In them, the demonstrators do not exhibit any love for Hamzah, and the handful who do are suspected of being directly connected to Hamzah himself. According to a Jordanian military intelligence source, “some of them have received payment from Hamzah, therefore they do not represent the majority.” A major at the Jordanian General Intelligence Department confided to JaFaJ, “Hamzah has been under house arrest for almost two years now, so his so-called followers have not been able to stage a single protest in his support. This clearly shows us that he does not have any public backing”.
22. In addition, the Jordanian Major confirmed that, “Hamzah’s former loyalists within the Jordanian intelligence and military apparatus have been exterminated.” A Western military intelligence source stationed in Amman reported to JaFaJ that, “There were a few dozen officers in the army and the Mukhabarat [intelligence department] on Hamzah’s payroll, but they all have been exterminated.” The source continued by saying that “Our boys and the Britons military intelligence guys have exposed all of those and all of them have been fired from their jobs or forced into early retirement.
Conclusion
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23. As the unrest and demonstrations continue to grow larger in Jordan every day, and as the economic crisis deepens, the King’s recklessness handling of the situation is likely to threaten the political survival and stability of his regime. At this point, it is safe to say the next three Winter months will push the Jordanian people to their limits, and will harshly test the King and his regime beyond any threshold ever experienced, even to the breaking point. At the same time, the King is unlikely to risk passing the throne to his very unpopular Crown Prince, Hussein. [See JaFaJ report on this matter: https://www.jafaj.net/afraid-and-confused-jordans-king-embarks-on-a-public-relations-crusade/] Nonetheless, the King’s brother is not an option as successor because he lacks public support and has no access to the powers that be within the Jordanian military and intelligence.
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Biden seems to take pleasure going out of his way to offend. Under the influence of Obama and his left over surrogates is our government being seeded by radicals from the Middle East?
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Biden Renominates Board Member at Anti-Israel Group to Small Business Administration
By Alana Goodman
President Biden and Dilawar Syed / Twitter
The Biden administration will renominate a board member at an anti-Israel group to help lead the Small Business Administration, one year after the nominee was blocked by Republicans, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Dilawar Syed served on the board of Emgage Action—a group that describes Israel as an "apartheid state" and defends the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement—until at least 2021, when President Joe Biden nominated him as deputy administrator at the SBA, according to federal disclosure records.
Syed is one of 85 failed nominees whom the Biden administration is resubmitting for confirmation by the new Senate, the Journal reported on Tuesday.
Syed’s affiliation with Emgage raised concerns among Republican legislators and pro-Israel leaders, who blocked his nomination in September 2021. Since last February, Syed has served as a special representative for trade at the State Department, a position that doesn’t require Senate approval.
Emgage has accused the Jewish state of instituting a "racist, undemocratic Israeli apartheid rule that steals [Palestinian] land and destroys their homes to make way for illegal Jewish settlements" and said it "support[s] the right to boycott, divest, and sanction, as well as the Right of Return of Palestinians."
The group also lobbied against legislation that would penalize boycotts of the Jewish state and called the BDS movement a "constitutionally protected nonviolent response that seeks to end the occupation."
Syed told legislators during his unsuccessful confirmation process that he doesn’t support the BDS movement. But Republicans questioned his affiliation with Emgage and his refusal to commit to recovering $100 million in federal COVID relief funding that they say was illegally distributed to abortion provider Planned Parenthood.
Tom Jones, the founder of the American Accountability Foundation watchdog group, told the Washington Free Beacon in September 2021 that Syed’s involvement with Emgage, "paired with his lack of a commitment to recover PPP funds illegally allocated to Planned Parenthood, should immediately disqualify him as deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration."
Other failed Biden administration picks who will be renominated include former Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti as ambassador to India and Danny Werfel as IRS commissioner, according to the Journal.
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Israel spies using eavesdropping cows?
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Israel “trained cattle” to spy! - official PA daily reports
By Itamar Marcus
Village Elder invents Israeli spying cattle story and official PA daily reports it as factual:
“On the neck of each cow they hang a medallion with an eavesdropping and recording device on it, and sometimes cameras, in order to monitor every detail” in the village
After years of PA libels, you think you’ve read and heard it all but then the official PA daily reports that a Palestinian village Elder has encountered Israeli cows that are actually “recruited and trained” spies. In a statement to the official PA daily, Khirbet Yanun Village Elder Rushd Morrar said:
“These are recruited and trained cattle, as on the neck of each cow they hang a medallion with an eavesdropping and recording device on it, and sometimes cameras, in order to monitor every detail in Khirbet Yanun large and small.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 27, 2022]
To this the Elder added another libel: That “settlers release herds of wild boars” to destroy Palestinian crops. Morrar alleged that “the settlers’ crimes are diversifying and becoming sophisticated, and the means they employ in their war are unlimited.”
These statements bring to mind another outrageous animal libel exposed by Palestinian Media Watch, according to which “settlers” were accused of releasing a species of super rats immune to poison in the Old City of Jerusalem:
"One of the most amazing things that we've read during this month is that [Israeli] settlers have been bringing chests filled with rats and releasing them in the Old City's [Arab] neighborhoods; they breed and have become a major curse... the [Arab] residents' efforts to counter this infestation have failed, especially since cats run away from these rats because of their size and ferocity... All of the conventional efforts to kill them have not succeeded, because they seem to be immune to poison and they breed in the sewers. It is known that this female rat gives birth seven times a year, each time giving birth to 20 babies; which compels Jerusalem's [Arabs] today to face the dangers of [Israeli] settlement and the infestation of rats."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 18, 2008]
Other PA libels include the claims that Israel is planning to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque, that a Jew started the fire in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, that Israel murders innocent Palestinians and then places knives near the dead Palestinians to claim they are terrorists, that “Israel rewards their soldiers for killing Palestinians,” that Israel poisoned Palestinian wells, that Israel carries out “mass murder of Palestinians," and many others. Click to read other PA libels.
The following is a longer excerpt of the report on the village Elder’s
libel:
“Difficult living conditions and primitive lives, old mud homes, a school with a tin roof, a lack of communications lines or transportation, settlements surrounding in all four directions, recurring attacks, and forced expulsion – this is the situation of the 82 residents living in Khirbet Yanun, southeast of Nablus...
Khirbet Yanun Village Elder Rushd Morrar told [the official PA daily] Al-Hayat Al-Jadida: ‘With the start of the winter season, the suffering of the farmers in the Yanun village increases, because the settlers release herds of wild boars in the direction of the agricultural territories. The settlers’ crimes are diversifying and becoming sophisticated, and the means they employ in their war are unlimited – starting with direct acts of murder and ending with incidents of car ramming on the roads; starting with burning agricultural crops, uprooting trees, and stripping lands, and ending with releasing boars towards the farmers’ lands.’
Morrar thinks that the release of the boars towards the lands of Yanun is a weapon whose efficiency is certain. He said that the settlers started quietly using it years ago far from public attention, and that it is a guided weapon that does not cause damage to the settlers, due to the barbed wire fences surrounding their settlements from all sides.
He added: ‘One of the prominent expressions of the settlement enterprise in Yanun is the pasture settlement; the settlements’ cattle randomly invade the lands of Yanun and eat everything in their path. They do not distinguish between olive trees and oak trees. They belong to the guard of the Gidonim settlement (sic., mountain ridge). This has caused the destruction of the olive trees and ruined the season. They also attack the plastic greenhouses, and in the summer season [attack] the wheat and barley crops, and they ruin the harvest season.
He noted that these are recruited and trained cattle, as on the neck of each cow they hang a medallion with an eavesdropping and recording device on it, and sometimes cameras, in order to monitor every detail in Khirbet Yanun large and small.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 27, 2022]
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How Fusion Works And Why It’s A Breakthroughby Steven Koonin, Robert L. Powell via Wall Street Journal
American science scores a triumph, though it’ll be decades before it yields a viable energy source.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Hanson concurs with my view but expresses it better. Yes, radicals not only want to retain power to protect their ill gotten wealth but also want it in order to destroy our nation because America threatens their insane ideas. These elites want power to control the lives of those they look down upon and whose freedoms threaten them. +++ Did Someone or Something Seize Control of the United States? By Victor Davis Hanson What happened to the U.S. border? Where did it go? Who erased it? Why and how did 5 million people enter our country illegally? Did Congress secretly repeal our immigration laws? Did President Joe Biden issue an executive order allowing foreign nationals to walk across the border and reside in the United States as they pleased Since when did money not have to be paid back? Who insisted that the more dollars the federal government printed, the more prosperity would follow? When did America embrace zero interest? Why do we believe $30 trillion in debt is no big deal? When did clean-burning, cheap, and abundant natural gas become the equivalent to dirty coal? How did prized natural gas that had granted America’s wishes of energy self-sufficiency, reduced pollution, and inexpensive electricity become almost overnight a pariah fuel whose extraction was a war against nature? Which lawmakers, which laws, which votes of the people declared natural gas development and pipelines near criminal? Was it not against federal law to swarm the homes of Supreme Court justices, to picket and to intimidate their households in efforts to affect their rulings? How then with impunity did bullies surround the homes of Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, John Roberts, and Clarence Thomas – furious over a court decision on abortion? How could these mobs so easily throng our justices’ homes, with placards declaring “Off with their d–s”? Since when did Americans create a government Ministry of Truth? And on whose orders did the FBI contract private news organizations to censor stories it did not like and writers whom it feared? How did we wake up one morning to new customs of impeaching a president over a phone call? Of the speaker of the House tearing up the State of the Union address on national television? Of barring congressional members from serving on their assigned congressional committees? When did we assume the FBI had the right to subvert the campaign of a candidate it disliked? Was it legal suddenly for one presidential candidate to hire a foreign ex-spy to subvert the campaign of her rival? Was some state or federal law passed that allowed biological males to compete in female sports? Did Congress enact such a law? Did the Supreme Court guarantee that biological male students could shower in gym locker rooms with biological women? Were women ever asked to redefine the very sports they had championed? When did the government pass a law depriving Americans of their freedom during a pandemic? In America can health officials simply cancel rental contracts or declare loan payments in suspension? How could it become illegal for mom-and-pop stores to sell flowers or shoes during a quarantine but not so for Walmart or Target? Since when did the people decide that 70 percent of voters would not cast their ballots on Election Day? Was this revolutionary change the subject of a national debate, a heated congressional session, or the votes of dozens of state legislatures? What happened to Election Night returns? Did the fact that Americans created more electronic ballots and computerized tallies make it take so much longer to tabulate the votes? When did the nation abruptly decide that theft is not a crime, assault not a felony? How can thieves walk out with bags of stolen goods, without the wrath of angry shoppers, much less fear of the law? Was there ever a national debate about the terrified flight from Afghanistan? Who planned it and why? What happened to the once trusted FBI? Why almost overnight did its directors decide to mislead Congress, to deceive judges with concocted tales from fake dossiers and with doctored writs? Did Congress pass a law that our federal leaders in the FBI or CIA could lie with impunity under oath? Who redefined our military and with whose consent? Who proclaimed that our chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff could call his Chinese Communist counterpart to warn him that America’s president was supposedly unstable? Was it always true that retired generals routinely libeled their commander-in-chief as a near Nazi, a Mussolini, an adherent of the tools of Auschwitz? Were Americans ever asked whether their universities could discriminate against their sons and daughters based on their race? How did it become physically dangerous to speak the truth on a campus? Whose idea was it to reboot racial segregation and bias as “theme houses,” “safe spaces,” and “diversity”? How did that happen in America? How did a virus cancel the Constitution? Did the lockdowns rob of us of our sanity? Or was it the woke hysteria that ignited our collective madness? We are beginning to wake up from a nightmare to a country we no longer recognize, and from a coup we never knew. Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author of "The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won," from Basic Books. You can reach him by e-mailing authorvdh@gmail.com. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The GOP Looks Incapable of Governing - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics By Daniel J. Flynn Why, at this time, play such high-stakes poker? The Republican Party looks incapable of governing (they make for a great alternative to reality TV, though). The encore to the sore-loseritis of 2020 and snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in 2022 involves the House majority being unable to pick a speaker. Hakeem Jeffries now stands as the king vote-getter among the candidates, volunteer and conscripted, for speaker. Should the GOP choose, say, Steve Scalise instead of Kevin McCarthy, then maybe conservatives agree in hindsight that this all worked out in the end. But with Democrats in control of the Senate and the presidency, why, at this time, play such high-stakes poker? The upside of capturing the speakership for someone more palatable than McCarthy appears, at least at this time, much smaller than the downside of handing over the gavel to Hakeem Jeffries or — huh! — Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, or some other middle finger the Democrats insert, with the help of a handful of Republicans, in the very middle of the chamber. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-tragedy-of-kevin-mccarthy-house-speaker-election-vote-ballots-young-guns-policy-trump-midterm-11672830427?mod=opinion_lead_pos7 The Tragedy of Kevin McCarthy By Will Hurt Mr. McCarthy was a co-author, with future Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, of “Young Guns: A New Generation of Conservative Leaders” (2010), which criticized earlier Republicans, particularly on matters of the federal budget. They wrote that Republicans were “arrogant and out of touch” and suffered “failures from high-profile ethics lapses to the inability to rein in spending or even slow the growth of government.” Yet as a lawmaker, and in four years as minority leader, Mr. McCarthy showed no particular legislative interests and had no signature achievements. He would have been the perfect Republican National Committee chairman, a job that’s concerned only with building the party and winning elections. As a leader in Congress, he needed to demonstrate that he could effectively legislate and govern as well. Winning elections is the first step to good governance. Effective policy and legislation is the next. Too many politicians have forgotten over the past decade that good policy is good politics. An effective lawmaker or statesman has to focus on more than the X’s and O’s of elections. Mr. McCarthy repeatedly tried to placate bomb throwers in his own party, who were never going to be happy with anything less than complete capitulation. He bent over backward to please a vocal minority while taking for granted that the reasonable majority of his party would remain loyal. He even exhibited such on the eve of the speakership vote. Instead of staying firm and backing the wishes of the rational wing of the party, he caved in to the demands of his opposition on issues like making it easier to “vacate the chair”—the legislative process to remove the speaker. He was willing to weaken the speakership to win it. If he’d spent more time working with rational lawmakers to get like-minded candidates elected, he wouldn’t have ended up in this position. The most glaring example of his appeasement: On the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021, Mr. McCarthy reportedly spoke honestly to President Trump about the rioters in the Capitol: “They’re trying to f— kill me!” A few weeks later, to get back into Mr. Trump’s good graces, he changed his tune and went to Mar-a-Lago “to make peace with the ex-president,” as he told his colleagues. Mr. McCarthy was only one of many Republicans who hitched their wagons to Mr. Trump. But the former president has repeatedly shown that he is a loser with a base that never grows, and that trusting him is a fool’s errand. By following him, Republicans lost the House in 2018, the White House in 2020, and the Senate in 2020 and again in 2022. He was a major contributing factor in preventing a red wave last year. The result was a House majority so slender that a few extremists had the power to deny the speakership to the man Mr. Trump once called “my Kevin.” Mr. Hurd, a Republican, represented Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, 2017-21. He is author of “American Reboot: An Idealist’s Guide to Getting Big Things Done.” +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Prejudiced/hateful BS is not news even when it comes from women. This is particularly so when: "The New York Times calls it “the most important political TV show in America.” +++ ‘The View’ is the biggest source of misinformation in America By Kelly Jane Torrance "The View" reportedly delivered 36 legal notes in 2022 alone."The View" reportedly delivered 36 legal notes in 2022 alone. ABC via Getty Images Barbara Walters died last week at 93, but the legendary journalist’s legacy lives on: “The View,” the daytime-TV talker she created in 1997, is the most-watched — and most-talked-about — show in its genre. Some legacy, though: What Walters envisioned as “women of different generations, backgrounds and views” discussing “the topics of the day, mixing humor with intelligent debate,” devolved after she departed as co-host in 2014 into a four-against-one daily catfight with few laughs and even fewer smarts. The New York Times calls it “the most important political TV show in America.” If so, America is in trouble — because “The View” is the biggest source of misinformation in the country. More than 2.4 million people watch “The View” every day — and are less informed for it every day. The show’s moderator is one of its worst offenders. Whoopi Goldberg made headlines last year by declaring “the Holocaust isn’t about race.” Her co-hosts gave her little pushback. Sara Haines added a “No” in agreement while Joy Behar asked her what it was about. “This is white people doing it to white people. So, this is y’all go fight amongst yourselves,” Whoopi said. Sunny Hostin remained silent, and the show’s producers — recognizing a train wreck — played exit music and broke to a commercial. Walters created "The View" in 1997. Barbara Walters died last week at 93.Disney General Entertainment Con Goldberg apologized, but she confirmed her insincerity last month, repeating her claims and telling The Times of London of the outrage, “You would have thought that I’d taken a big old stinky dump on the table, butt naked.” Actually, that’s not a bad description of an average day on “The View.” Show clips regularly go viral — because the hosts are cringingly crazy. NewsBusters’ Nicholas Fondacaro crunched the numbers and found the show delivered 36 legal notes in 2022 alone. The list, which he provided exclusively to The Post, includes apologies and clarifications on everything from claiming Ivanka Trump was at the Capitol Jan. 6 (she wasn’t) to complaining Russian soprano Anna Netrebko hadn’t denounced the Ukraine war (she had) to insisting Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh were “credibly accused” of “sexual harassment and sexual assault.” Notice a pattern there? There’s no “intelligent debate” on “The View,” as Walters intended — just reckless lies about people on the right. Thomas’ wife Ginni was the most frequent target of misinformation, resulting in five legal notices alone. The hosts repeatedly said she led a mob to storm the Capitol — though she was never there. But the co-hosts couldn’t even resist undermining the corrections. Goldberg interjected during readings, “What else is she going to say?” and “Y’all know that’s not true!” After Behar tied Rep. Elise Stefanik’s supposed “racist theories” to the Buffalo mass shooter, Hostin had to deliver a correction. (Hostin herself equated parents attending school-board meetings with the Buffalo killer.) “Oh, please!” Behar said as she read it. “It’s in writing!” Ana Navarro insisted — and the show still bills her as a “conservative,” though the CNN pundit voted against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and for President Joe Biden. The other “conservative” co-host, Alyssa Farah Griffin, gets regularly piled on, as Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Jedediah Bila and Meghan McCain were in their show stints. In a recent discussion of women in the workplace, Griffin said women can also “be each other’s worst enemies.” Navarro interrupted her with the snide “That’s what happens when you work with Kellyanne Conway.” The show proved Griffin’s point: “I can’t really get a word in without you attacking me, so I wouldn’t say this is a totally different environment of women supporting each other.” Heck, Hostin disparaged a huge group of women just before the midterms. Noting a poll found a shift to Republicans among white suburban women, she declared, “It’s almost like roaches voting for Raid.” The liberal audience loved it. Griffin objected it was “insulting to the voter”; Hostin responded by shouting over her. “They’re voting against their own self-interest!” Sunny knows best, I suppose. Behar took it further and slammed every GOP voter. “You’re not voting for Republicans, you’re voting for a cult. It’s a cult — remember that.” There isn’t enough ink to list all the show’s misinformation. Sometimes it’s the focus of a segment. Sometimes simply in passing, as when Hostin shockingly said she was wrong for calling Donald Trump an “illegitimate” president, and Behar stopped her. “You were not wrong!” When Walters stepped back, the show moved from ABC’s entertainment unit to ABC News — mind-boggling. Of course, “The View” is neither. We know from the Twitter Files that the FBI bombarded the social-media company with fact-checks and complaints to try to quash “misinformation.” If it really want to make a difference, they should assign an agent to watch “The View.” Kelly Jane Torrance is The Post’s op-ed editor. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Caroline Glick at her best:+++
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