By Shane Savitsky, AXIOS

Photo: Adrian Bretscher/Getty Images

Former Trump administration chief strategist Steve Bannon was charged on Thursday with fraud by federal prosecutors in New York and taken into custody.

The state of play: Bannon, along with three others, allegedly defrauded donors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars for their own profit with a crowdfunding campaign called “We Build the Wall” that raked in over $25 million.
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By Byron York, JWR

The news is filled with reports of President Trump’s “assault” on the U.S. Postal Service. Democrats and some in the media say the president is deliberately slowing mail delivery and crippling the Postal Service so that it cannot handle an anticipated flood of voting by mail in the presidential election.

Barack Obama said Trump is trying to “actively kneecap” the Postal Service to suppress the vote. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called the House back into session “to address the sabotage of the Postal Service.” What is going on?

A look at the facts simply does not support the Democrats’ allegations.

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By Victor Davis Hanson, JWR  August 20, 2020

President Trump recently ordered a 12,000-troop reduction in American military personnel stationed in Germany. That leaves about 24,000 American soldiers still in the country.A little more than half of the troops being withdrawn will return home. The rest will be redeployed to other NATO member nations such as Belgium, Italy, and perhaps Baltic and Eastern European countries.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is said to be furious. She claims the redeployments will “weaken the (NATO) alliance.” German commercial interests chimed in that the troop withdrawals will hurt their decades-old businesses serving U.S. bases.

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Netanyahu denies he okayed the sale as part of normalization with Abu Dhabi, but it is the US which must decide if it undercuts the Israeli military edge it vowed to uphold

By Judah Ari Gross, TOI 19 August 2020,

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands in front of an F-35 fighter jet at the Israeli Air Force’s Nevatim base in southern Israel. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

The already crowded and dangerous skies above the Middle East appear poised to host even more advanced aircraft after the United States reportedly agreed to sell F-35 fighter jets and unmanned aerial vehicles to the United Arab Emirates, a move that Washington had apparently shied from due to concerns about maintaining Israel’s “qualitative military edge” in the region.

The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, which first reported on the deal Tuesday, said the sale of the F-35 and advanced drones, and Israel’s dropping of any objections to it, was a condition of the emerging normalization agreement between Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi that was brokered by Washington.

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‘Let’s stop being stuck in conflicts of the past,’ White House adviser says in interview, but adds president ‘will be tough’; move comes as Washington works to snap back sanctions

By TOI STAFF

US President Donald Trump’s White House senior adviser Jared Kushner at a press briefing in the White House in Washington, August 13, 2020 (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

The United States is willing to enter peace negotiations with Iran if US President Donald Trump is reelected in November, top White House official Jared Kushner said, as Washington tries to snap back UN sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, said the US president would be willing to meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and other leaders, in an interview with Voice of America conducted Tuesday and published Wednesday.

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T. Belman. What is remarkable about her primary victory is that she doesn’t pull any punches when attacking Islam and she is opposed so many institutions and companies intent on cancelling her. Yet she won big.  This proves that there is a hunger out there for people who don’t cower before BLM or Islam.

By Grant Baker, AM THINKER

On Tuesday, August 18, independent journalist Laura Loomer, 28,  won the Republican primary for the West Palm Beach congressional district in Florida.

Immediately after the results were announced, Trump tweeted his support for the young firebrand, giving his full endorsement for the general election.  If Loomer wins in November, she will be the president’s congressional representative.  President Trump officially moved his residence from Manhattan to his Palm Beach Mar-a-Lago property in October 2019.

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LAURA PROVES THAT ONE CAN TELL THE TRUTH AND STILL WIN. THERE IS NO NEED TO BE POLITICALLY CORRECT.

Says country committed to peace based on the Arab Initiative.

By Lahav Harkov, JPOST

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal Bin Farhan al-Saud attends the Conference on Disarmament at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, February 24, 2020.  (photo credit: REUTERS)

Saudi Arabia maintains its policy of not making ties with Israel official until there is peace with the Palestinians, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan said on Wednesday.

Bin Farhan’s remarks were the first comments from a Saudi official on Israel and the UAE’s normalization agreement announced last week.

“Saudi Arabia affirms its commitment to peace as a strategic option based on the Arab Peace Initiatives,” he said.

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https://www.facebook.com/YishaiFleisher/videos/303744424410550

Isolationists among both Democrats and Republicans want to withdraw from foreign entanglements. That would make the world much less safe.

By Jonathan Schanzer and Mark Dubowitz, FDD

U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper announced on July 29 that 11,900 U.S. military personnel will be leaving Germany, reducing the United States’ footprint there from 36,000 to 24,000 soldiers. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is weighing a similar drawdown from the 28,500 U.S. troops currently stationed in South Korea. And that may be just the beginning. According to Richard Grenell, the former U.S. ambassador to Germany who briefly served as acting director of national intelligence this spring, the goal is to “bring [home] troops from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, from South Korea, Japan, and from Germany.”

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By J.B. Shurk, AM THINKER

Voters face a choice in November between two American futures.  Bernie Sanders has made it clear that Joe Biden is merely a means for Democrats first to regain power and then to radically shift the United States left toward a socialist vision that would have been unthinkable in America just a short time ago.  Americans seem to understand that this election is unlike anything we’ve seen because Donald Trump’s America and Joe Biden’s America are so diametrically opposed.

What is not discussed enough is what hangs in the balance for the rest of the world.  The first-term foreign policy successes of President Trump have been entirely ignored by the press, but the geopolitical order is starkly different from when he first took office.

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The last piece of the puzzle is now visible. If it fits, Israel could become a nation like the others, at last

By Conrad Black, NATIONAL POST

Jared Kushner speaks during a meeting with leaders of Israel and UAE announcing a peace agreement to establish diplomatic ties with Israel and the UAE, in the Oval Office of the White House on Aug. 13, 2020 in Washington, DC. DOUG MILLS-POOL/GETTY IMAGES

The announcement on Thursday of the finalization of talks to normalize and tighten relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates is an important step toward general Arab acceptance of the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state. Often forgotten in the endless and bitter wars and arguments over Israel’s status is the fact that it was specifically set up by a unanimous vote of the founding members of the United Nations on the motion of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s ambassador, seconded by U.S. President Harry Truman’s ambassador, at a time when they already agreed on little else, that Israel was being established from the League of Nations mandate as a homeland for the Jews.

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T. Belman. I disagree with Kedar. First Trump announced that he expected the signing to be in 3 weeks. That puts it around Labor Day. Secondly the Jewish vote is insignificant. The vast majority of Jews will still vote Democratic.

In general though, the break throughin the ME will help Trump get reelected.

Click Here To Watch This Is The Real Reason Why The UAE Made Peace With Israel

Mordechai Kedar discusses the real reason the peace agreement with the UAE is happening now. While many people believe this agreement is a huge deal – it may not be a altruistic as the administration is making it out to be.<
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By Dmitri Shufutinsky, BESA       August 18, 2020

Hassan Rouhani and Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, photo via Wikimedia Commons

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: In an extraordinary breakthrough, the United Arab Emirates and Israel have agreed to establish open diplomatic relations after years of secret contacts. Other than the Palestinians, Turkey and Iran are the biggest losers from this development.

The historic normalization agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that was revealed by President Donald Trump on August 13, 2020 is a revolutionary event in modern Middle Eastern history. While it could potentially save the increasingly endangered governments of PM Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump, the deal has two more significant elements. First, it heralds the end of the “Palestinian cause” and its stranglehold on the prospects for Middle East peace; and second, it is probably the beginning of the end for Turkey’s and Iran’s imperial projects in the region.

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The BDS and The Palestinians’ Alliance with BLM

By ACD  Tuesday, August 18th, 2020 @ 3:03PM

Since the founding of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in 2013, the delegitimization (DLG) network against Israel and its activists have embarked on a propaganda campaign that draws parallels between police violence in the US against African Americans and violence against Palestinians by the Israel Police and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). This fictitious parallel is part of a strategic attempt by the delegitimization network to entrench itself and the BDS movement as a focal point of the progressive movement.

Intersectionality posits that no form of discrimination is distinct from another. This includes discrimination that emanates from capitalism, white supremacy, government, prison and justice systems, the police force, colonialism, gender hetero-normativity, and other institutionalized norms.

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MEMRI

Two unusual articles published this year on Saudi websites called to amend scribal errors in the Quran, and also to reexamine religious texts in light of modern perceptions, so as to make them more readable and adapt them to the present age.

An article published January 10, 2020 by Saudi journalist Ahmad Hashem on the “Saudi Opinions” website pointed out that the Quran as it is known today was written down after the Prophet’s lifetime, in the period of the third caliph ‘Uthman bin ‘Affan (ruled 644-656) using the ‘Uthmanic script, which is named after him. Since this writing system is a human invention, argues Hashem, there is no reason to sanctify it, as many Muslims do. In fact, he says, it is time to correct some 2,500 errors of spelling and grammar that were made by the scribes in that period and remain part of the Quranic text to this day. He  presents numerous examples of such spelling mistakes, and calls to rewrite the words in their present-day standard form, so as to “make the text more readable for [present-day] Muslims and more linguistically correct.”
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By Alex Kimani , Oilprice.com– Aug 17, 2020, 7:00 PM CDT

Booms and bust cycles are very much a part of investing in the fossil fuel sector. In previous energy downturns, prices frequently experienced serious slumps, but oil and gas companies mostly kept faith in their biggest asset: Oil and gas reserves buried deep in the ground. But things are markedly different this time around.

Faced with pandemic-driven demand destruction and a relentless call for climate-conscious and ethical investing, oil executives are resigning themselves to the uncomfortable fact that a significant amount of their vast oil and gas reserves will end up totally worthless.

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T. Belman. Currently the Trump Plan as tabled is only a vision. A Memorandum of Understanding as mooted is not a contract and is not binding. That being the case it wouldn’t protect Israel from a Democratic Administration. The best best protection for Israel would be for her to extend sovereignty prior to Nov 3/20 with Trump’s acquiescence if not backing.

Thus far, despite both Israeli and American interest in the “deal of the century” remaining on the table, there is nothing that obligates future administrations to abide by the content of plan.

By Ariel Kahana, ISRAEL HAYOM

The US administration is examining the possibility of issuing a document that would commit future governments to President Donald Trump’s peace plan, Israel Hayom has learned.

The idea has been presented to senior White House officials and is under discussion.

At this stage, it is still unclear how understandings between Israel and the US about the Trump plan would be made binding. One possibility would be to issue a memorandum of understanding that would state that would state that the Trump plan is the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Another option would be to issue a binding document in the style of the Bush Letter, which promised that settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria would never be evacuated.
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By Jeff Ballabon, TOWNHALL Aug 18, 2020 12:01 AM

It’s hard to miss the stakes for America in November’s election. President Trump and the GOP base inhabit a starkly different world than do Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and progressive Democrats.  That difference transcends mere policy debate; America’s political parties operate on different moral planes.

In no foreign context is that moral divergence clearer than the Middle East.  Two recent events illuminate the gap:  The Biden-led 2020 Democrat Platform, and the UAE/Israel pact that President Trump brokered.  The election will determine whether the Middle East continues on the path towards stability and prosperity that President Trump has set or returns to the brutal carnage President Obama helped facilitate.

The Democrats’ platform reflects Joe Biden’s central role in shaping Obama Administration foreign policy.  In its section on the Middle East, the 2020 platform reiterates the Obama worldview, takes pride in Obama’s achievements, and promises to build upon them.

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