But it’s still supported by so many Americans.

By Dennis Prager, FPM

Four months ago, I wrote a column titled “The Worldwide Lockdown May Be the Greatest Mistake in History.” I explained that “‘mistake’ and ‘evil’ are not synonyms. The lockdown is a mistake; the Holocaust, slavery, communism, fascism, etc., were evils. Massive mistakes are made by arrogant fools; massive evils are committed by evil people.”

Regarding the economic catastrophe in America and around the world — especially among the world’s poor who are dependent upon America and other first-world countries for their income through exports and tourism — I wrote, “It is panic and hysteria, not the coronavirus, that created this catastrophe.”

Read more…

By Raymond Ibrahim, AM THINKER

Today in history, on September 8, 1380, Russia began its long march to liberation from the Tatar yoke, by way of a battle that is as important to Russian history as the battles of Tours and Vienna are to the West.

Although pagan when they conquered Russia around 1240, by 1300, the Mongols were thoroughly Islamized.  Arabic was adopted; “the entire Muslim religious establishment of qadis, muftis, and the like arose in Sarai, the Golden Horde’s capital on the lower Volga”; and “sharia, Muslim religious law,” reigned supreme.  “With this the Russo-Tatar conquest society entered the mainstream of Medieval Christian-Muslim frontier life” — that is, it entered into a familiar paradigm of enmity and war, punctuated only by vast sums of gold and slaves flowing from Russia to the Horde.
Read more…

T. Belman. This is an enormous setback for Trump’s plan to bring peace to ME. We are back to square one. It is also a setback to the prospect of Israel extending sovereignty to 30% of Judea and Samaria with Trump’s approval. Now we have to wait to see if a peace Treaty with UAE is signed. It seems to be that it is being delayed.

It is more important for Israel to extend sovereignty than to have peace treaty with Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman speaks to Trump, says kingdom wants to see a solution based on the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.

By Elad Benari, INN

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz told US President Donald Trump on Sunday there would be no normalization with Israel without Palestinian statehood, Reuters reported, citing the kingdom’s state news agency.

The leaders spoke by phone following the historic US-brokered accord last month under which the United Arab Emirates agreed to become the third Arab state to normalize ties with Israel after Egypt and Jordan.

Read more…

By Christine Douglas-Williams , JIHAD WATCH

Macron is entirely correct. Too many countries have grown accustomed to being delicate with Islamic sensibilities and have allowed Islamic special interest groups to terrorize their societies by defaming and demonizing critics of Islam and those who offend the religion, and even moving toward criminalizing such criticism. Canada’s “anti-Islamophobia” Motion M-103 is a shameful example of that.

Macron’s comments follow the republication of Muhammad cartoons by Charlie Hebdo. Meanwhile, France foiled “at least 6” jihad attacks in recent months,  and French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said that “radical Islamic terrorism still posed the biggest security threat to France,”  and that fighting “against Islamist terrorism is a high priority of the government.”

Read more…

By Amb. Alan Baker, JCPA

Screengrab of a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Seattle linking its rhetoric to Israel. (YouTube)¹

• Western intellectual discourse regarding anything connected to Israel has been taken hostage by pseudo-intellectual, radical extremists who use distorted information, flawed facts, “progressive” language, and accepted buzzwords.
• The ideological goal of dismantling Israel is evident in a July 9, 2020, article published in a radical and leftist Australian literary journal “Overland,” entitled “Fighting against a Racist’s Peace: What It Means to Oppose Annexation.” The author is Tasnim Mahmoud Sammak, a Ph.D. candidate at Melbourne’s Monash University. Her ultra-radical language indicates a thought process based on misconceptions and flawed assumptions. The abundant use of extreme, radical, leftist buzzwords indicates an inherent lack of seriousness and lack of intellectual honesty.

Read more…

As a country already in talks to join the EU, Serbia specifically is “expected to align progressively” with EU foreign policy positions, he added.

By Lahav Harkov, JPOST
SEPTEMBER 7, 2020 16:01

GERMAN FOREIGN Minister Heiko Maas (right) takes over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union from Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic-Radman during a symbolic handover in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin last week.
(photo credit: HANNIBAL HANSCHKE/REUTERS)

Opening embassies in Jerusalem runs counter to Brussels’ expectations for Kosovo and Serbia, which seek to join the European Union, EU External Affairs Spokesman Peter Stano warned on Monday.

“Any steps that could call into question the EU’s common position on Jerusalem are a matter of serious concern and regret,” Stano said.
Read more…

The effort to stop President Trump is growing comical.

By Victor Davis Hanson , AM GREATNESS• September 6, 2020

One always expects the media surprise leak of a purported hidden scandal as a presidential campaign winds down. Remember the last-minute “discovery” of George W. Bush’s undisclosed 24-year-old DUI arrest in 2000? Or the October 7, 2016 effort of the Washington Post to publish the hoarded 11-year-old “Access Hollywood” tape, just two days before Donald Trump’s second debate with Hillary Clinton?

We should expect lots of these “bombshells” and “walls are closing in” pseudo derailments. Except Trump has been the most widely investigated, probed, attacked, and smeared president in history. And so the scandal-field has pretty well been picked over, as those fired like Omarosa Manigault Newman, Anthony Scaramucci, John Bolton, and others have long ago more or less lectured us that Trump is nuts, crazy, dangerous, stupid, ignorant, and so forth.

Read more…

as he moves to suspend indoctrination in schools and govt. agencies

By Thomas Lifson, AM THINKER

Democrats have made implicit promises to the radicals whose active support they need that they will back aggressive compulsory brainwashing sessions demonizing Caucasians and the American founding as fundamentally and inherently racist. A memorandum from OMB director Russell  Vought 3 days ago began the pushback and laid a trap for them:

The President has directed me to ensure that Federal agencies cease and desist from using taxpayer dollars to fund these divisive, un-American propaganda training sessions. Accordingly, to that end, the Office of Management and Budget will shortly issue more detailed guidance on implementing the President’s directive. In the meantime, all agencies are directed to begin to identify all contracts or other agency spending related to any training on “critical race theory/ “white privilege,” or any other training or propaganda effort that teaches or suggests either (1) that the United States is an inherently racist or evil country or (2) that any race or ethnicity is inherently racist or evil. In addition, all agencies should begin to identify all available avenues within the law to cancel any such contracts and/or to divert Federal dollars away from these un American propaganda training sessions.

Read more…

With Arab neighbors more worried about Iran than Israel, is Tehran losing the battle for influence in the region?

By Farnaz Fassihi and David D. Kirkpatrick, NYT

Iran’s foreign minister flew to Beirut last week to bolster Lebanon and Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia and political group that plays a powerful role in the government. Both the militia and the government had been caught in a ferocious public backlash over the explosion that destroyed much of the city.

But almost as soon as he had landed, the foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, was blindsided by a new affront to Iran: a deal between two of Tehran’s chief regional rivals, Israel and the United Arab Emirates, to open formal diplomatic ties.

Read more…

Open letter from some 90 doctors and researchers, including Nobel laureate in Chemistry, urges Israel to adopt Swedish model and try to reach herd immunity while shielding elderly

TOI STAFF  Today, 

A father seen with his kids at home after the cabinet voted not to open schools in hot zones, in the northern Israeli city of Tiberias, September 1, 2020. (David Cohen/Flash90)

Dozens of doctors and scientists have launched a campaign urging the government not to impose a new lockdown, claiming that fears over the coronavirus pandemic are overblown and that the economic damage from such a move will prove too high a cost to bear.

Among the approximately 90 doctors and researchers to sign an open letter warning against a general closure are Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner Michael Levitt and the directors of the emergency wards or coronavirus wards of several hospitals.

Read more…

The Jewish state is about to play a much bigger role in the region’s energy trade and petroleum politics.

By Jonathan H. Ferziger, FOREIGN POLICY

A dhow sails past a crude oil tanker near the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi, on Oct. 22, 2019. KARIM SAHIB/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

A desert oil pipeline that Israel once operated as a secret joint venture with Iran could be a major beneficiary from the Trump-brokered peace deal with the United Arab Emirates. With the UAE formally scrapping the eight-decade Arab boycott of Israel—and other oil-rich Gulf neighbors likely to follow suit—the Jewish state is on the cusp of playing a much bigger role in the region’s energy trade, petroleum politics, and Big Oil investments.

Read more…

Liberals who tolerate no bigotry from conservatives will excuse antisemitic leftists who call for the destruction of Israel. Op-ed.

By Matthew M. Hausman, INN

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

Upon awakening in the morning, an observant Jew’s first thought is supposed to be directed toward G-d with the recitation of Modeh Ani , the prayer expressing thanks for the return of the soul to the body. Thereafter and throughout the day, observant Jews conduct their lives according to the commandments set forth in the Torah and values elucidated in sacred literature.

Knowing the laws regarding prayer, kashrut, charity, interpersonal and professional conduct, and how mitzvah observance relates to the proper functioning of society, reminds Jews of their relationship with G-d and His involvement in their daily lives. This reinforces the belief that G-d is continually engaged with the world and that every Jew has the innate ability to communicate directly with Him without need for intermediaries.

Read more…

By Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, JCPA

• For the first time, there is a “warm peace” between Israel and an Arab state, where both sides see the mutual advantage from their scientific, economic, cultural, and strategic cooperation.
• In contrast, Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinians maintained “cold relations” with Israel that were meant to extract the maximum concessions from Israel while minimizing normalization with it.

Read more…

This content is taken from the The University of Nottingham’s online course, The Politics of Economics and the Economics of Politicians. Join the course to learn more.

View course

Parallel to the incredible economic developments China has experienced over the past few decades have only been limited political reforms. In this article, Sir Vince Cable explores the question of whether China is a Capitalist or Communist country.

Deng was a committed Communist ever since he joined the party (in France) as a young man. Although he steered China to be a market economy he never ceased to uphold Communist party rule – and he is credited with having backed the Tiananmen Square ‘massacre’ to ensure that the party’s authority and monopoly of power. Indeed, he survived as one of Mao’s top generals and closest party associates by either participating in or turning a blind eye to Mao’s purges and mass killings.
Read more…

By Andrea Widburg, AM THINKER

I shouldn’t have to say this, because it ought to be obvious about all adults, but I believe in reality. Reality says that some boys and girls grow up feeling disconnected from their bodies. In the 1970s, the almost trendy “disconnection” was anorexia, which saw young people, mostly girls, believe that their healthy bodies were fat and then starved themselves to death. Society viewed that as a problem. However, at the dawn of the third decade of the 20th century, the trendy form of body dysphoria is “transgenderism” — and the left is urging society to embrace this dangerous madness.

Young people, often encouraged by their teachers, their peers, or even their parents, announce that they’re in the wrong body and that their body should be that of the opposite sex. Boys who are boys down to the last atom of their DNA announce that they’re girls, while girls with strictly female DNA insist that they’re boys.
Read more…

By Noel S. Williams, AM THINKER

As several links to maps and indexes herein demonstrate, there is overwhelming evidence of an inverse relationship between divisive diversity mandates and happiness, the pursuit of which is one of our unalienable rights.

As evidenced at the “big tent” RNC, diversity is laudable when there is broad compliance with core convictions — and necessary in our vibrant country.  Some of the most telling testimonials were delivered by minorities who appreciate our munificence and want to keep America — America.  By contrast, radical leftist multiculturalism, adorned with diversity platitudes, eviscerates our foundational principles, erodes trust, and engenders unhappiness.  When there is no consent on our unifying ideals, social cohesion unravels and law and order is usurped by a “might makes right” brutal state of nature.  Something the otherwise dumb street mobs appreciate instinctively.
Read more…