By MARTIN SHERMAN

Even a cursory analysis of the “Commanders for Israel’s Security” plan, perversely titled “Security First” will reveal that it is not a security plan composed by military experts, but a political manifesto drafted by amateur politicians

It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism, while the wolf remains of a different opinion. – R. Inge, dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral, 1915.

The most righteous of men cannot live in peace if his evil neighbor will not let him be– from Wilhelm Tell Act IV, Scene III, by Friedrich von Schiller, 1804.

“When somebody says they want to kill you, you should believe him.” An unnamed Holocaust survivor, commenting on the lessons he had learned from his experiences during World War II.
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T. Belman.  When J-Street was created in about 2008, it proclaimed itself pro-Israel by redefining the term. It was created and financed by George Soros who wanted to counter the influence of AIPAC.  It purported to speak for American Jewry.  Thereafter the main stream media gave 4 times the coverage that it gave to AIPAC. This was the beginning of the cancel culture.

by Dr. Eric R. Mandel, MEPIN

President Donald Trump, near an Israeli flag at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem-(photo credit: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)

The term “pro-Israel” has become has become a lightning rod, due in part to President Donald Trump’s many self-described pro-Israel statements and actions, and the scorn many people have for just about anything he says or does.

Writing in Haaretz, Jonathan Tobin said, “Democrats and never-Trump former Republicans argue that even if you support the president’s policies, they are bad for Israel… the association with Trump is tarnishing the Jewish state… [yet] if Democrats are increasingly divided on Israel, this is a trend that long predates Trump and was largely weaponized by Barack Obama’s feud” with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the Iran nuclear deal.

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BY Dean Cheng, Senior Research Fellow, Asian Studies Center
Dean brings knowledge of China’s military and space capabilities as a research fellow on Chinese political and security affairs.

Aerial photo taken on July 27, 2020 shows floodwater being discharged from the Three Gorges Dam in central China’s Hubei Province.Xinhua News Agency / Contributor / Getty Images

KEY TAKEAWAYS

As if 2020 has not been sufficiently crisis-laden for the People’s Republic of China, it now faces the potential for major catastrophe due to massive rains.

The massive runoff into the Yangtze has led to concerns that the Three Gorges Dam will be overstressed beyond its capacity to withstand the inflow.

The flooding of the Yangtze will have enormous effects in China and beyond, especially since the threat of dam collapse coincides with several other domestic crises.

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SHURAT HADIN

Facts About the Beirut Explosion

As the Lebanese people struggle to recover from the catastrophic deaths and destruction wrought by the Beirut explosion, more questions than answers continue to arise. The official story, that in 2013, Lebanese port officials impounded a Moldovan flagged ship bound for Mozambique, laden with explosive chemicals, does not address other facts which have emerged and must be investigated:

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Eighty-one percent of black Americans said they would prefer if police spend the same amount of time or more time in their neighborhoods

By Spencer Landis, DAILY CALLER

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Eighty-one percent of black Americans said they would prefer if police spend the same amount of time or more time in their neighborhoods, according to a Gallup survey released Wednesday.

The survey, which also includes responses from other racial and ethnic groups, indicates that 20% of black respondents said they want an increased police presence, 61% want the same presence, and 19% want less.

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People are looking for crisis leadership that comprehends the dangers, is prepared to deal with them, and most importantly realizes that America is worth defending.

By Richard Higgins, AM GREATNESS

The Republic is in grave danger.  There, I said it.

Does anyone really doubt it? America is stumbling and the vultures are circling. What is the nature of these perils that afflict us?

America sits atop a global system created at the outset of the 20th century. That century saw the United States elevated to the status of global imperial power, having been victorious in two world wars and the beneficiary of an international monetary system that, post World War II, provided for a vast global, if not regional, peace. Sure, there was a Cold War with the Soviet Union and other limited wars, but no true great global war in which the entire geo-political order came into question.

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President Trump needs a ‘war-time consigliere’ to step up, and soon

By Leo Hohmann

There is an iconic scene from the 1972 film The Godfather that someone high up in the Trump administration needs to revisit.

It goes something like this:

The aging godfather, Vito Corleone, passed the torch to his youngest son Michael, who takes power just as the Corleones see their business devolving into a nasty turf war with competing New York mob families. They must come to grips with the new reality on the ground and adopt a sense of urgency, or else pack their bags and get out of town.

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Laura Loomer came striding into the political arena because she is concerned at the American drift to a place she rebels against.

By Barru Shaw, INN

A Jewish warrior is looming large in President Trump’s home district in Florida.

Laura Loomer came striding into the political arena because she is concerned at the American drift to a place she rebels against. She decided to take a stand. In fact, she has taken several stands as an angry individual who has attracted media attention.

Loomer was angry at the staged assassination of President Trump in a Central Park leftist adaption of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in which the Roman emperor was replaced by a lifelike Donald Trump. The bloody mock assassination of Trump on stage incensed Laura Loomer.
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Palestinian Authority stuck in a jam on how to help terrorists and their families.

By Hugh Fitzgerald, FPM

As is well known, the Palestinian Authority rewards terrorists, if alive, and their families, if they are dead, by paying stipends to them for whatever murderous acts against Israelis those terrorists have manage to carry out. This “Pay-For-Slay” policy has outraged Israel, which in 2019 started to deduct the amounts the P.A. allocates to this program from the tax revenues collected on its behalf by Israel. For a few months, the PA rejected any of those tax revenues from which the “Pay-For-Slay” amounts were deducted, but it finally relented and again chose to accept the taxes collected by Israel, minus the amounts that Israel calculates the PA continues to spend on the Pay-For-Slay Program.

The Pay-For-Slay Program thus remained in place. But the Israelis then went through the courts, where a recent victory may make it impossible for the Pay-For-Slay program to continue. The story is here.

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We say Never Forget and Never Again?  How many members of an organization like BLM need to be anti-Semites before you walk away?

By Diane Bederman INN   , 07/07/20 

Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan – courtesy of Nation of Islam

Just before he was beheaded, Daniel Pearl said: “My mother is Jewish. My father is Jewish. I am a Jew.”

I was out the other day and heard this most upsetting statement: ‘You don’t vote for a political party just because of the way they treat Jews.’

Have we still not learned that if it isn’t good for the Jews, it isn’t good for anyone?

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By Lee Brown, NY POST August 5, 2020

Smoke is seen after an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, yesterday.TALAL TRABOULSI via REUTERS

Officials revealed Tuesday that the blast that killed at least 100 — and left up to 300,000 homeless — appeared to have been sparked by ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse since it was confiscated in 2014.

There were repeated warnings to the dangers of storing it — including one that it could “blow up all of Beirut” — but “nothing was done,” official sources told Reuters, calling it “negligence.”

The timeline and size of the cargo suggest it was taken from the MV Rhosus, according to the Associated Press, as well as Lebanon’s LBCI, citing sources at a Supreme Defense Council meeting.

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The Trump administration has realized that in order to wound Hezbollah on a profound level the organization must be disjoined from the Lebanese economy, with an emphasis on the country’s banking system.

By Dr. Udi Levy, ISRAEL HAYOM 08-02-2020

Hezbollah supporters march in Beirut | File photo: Reuters/Aziz Taher

Tensions along the northern border over the past week have reminded Israel and the international community of Lebanon’s existence.

Lebanon is facing an economic and social crisis, perhaps the most acute has experienced in recent decades. For the most part, this crisis was not caused by the coronavirus pandemic and its economic ramifications. Rather, it is mostly the result of an American strategy of all-out economic warfare against Iran and its proxies. The Trump administration has realized that in order to wound Hezbollah on a profound level the organization must be disjoined from the Lebanese economy, with an emphasis on the country’s banking system.

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Humanitarian group estimates over 4,000 injured, says toll could rise as rescue operations continue in devastated neighborhoods

By AGENCIES  Today, 10:16 am

A general view of the scene the day after an explosion hit the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon, August 5, 2020. (Bilal Hussein/AP)

BEIRUT — Residents of Beirut awoke to a scene of utter devastation on Wednesday, a day after a massive explosion at the port sent shock waves across the Lebanese capital, killing at least 100 people and wounding thousands.

Smoke was still rising from the port, where towering grain silos had been shattered. Major downtown streets were littered with debris and damaged vehicles, and building facades were blown out. At hospitals across the city people had been waiting all night for news of loved ones who had gone missing or were wounded. Others posted requests for help online.

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The economy is in a tailspin, COVID-19 has taken away remittances the country needs, and Beirut is effectively defaulting on bonds, the study notes.

By Seth Frantzman, JPOST

A Hezbollah flag flutters in the southern Lebanese village of Khiam, near the border with Israel, Lebanon July 28, 2020
(photo credit: REUTERS/AZIZ TAHER)

Lebanon is in the midst of a financial crisis which may not be possible to solve. It has racked up staggering debts and could need $93 billion to bail it out, according to a new report by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. The economy is in a tailspin, COVID-19 has taken away remittances the country needs, and Beirut is effectively defaulting on bonds, the study notes.

Written by lawyer and economics writer James Rickards, with a foreword by FDD’s chief executive, Mark Dubowitz, and senior vice-president for research Jonathan Schanzer, the new report presents a sobering picture of the challenges facing Lebanon. These are difficulties that are tied directly to the role of Hezbollah in looting the country and hijacking it. If a bailout doesn’t take into account extracting concessions from Hezbollah or the role it plays in the country this “risks transferring billions to a global terrorist organization and perpetuating one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history,” Schanzer and Dubowitz note.

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By Adnana Buamer, ME MONITOR

The Israeli right is preparing to present a plan to overthrow the Jordanian king after annexing the Jordan Valley in the West Bank to realise the dream of Jordan being converted to Palestine. They aim to establish a confederation between the PA and “Palestinian Jordan” because the Israeli right is interested in annexing the West Bank without the millions of Palestinians within it. Forcing them to head to Jordan.

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper revealed in late December the Israeli right-wing’s approaches and plans, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This is based on the claims that Israel has major plans for Jordan, but these plans do not include the same king. This is evidenced by several articles and reports written by right-wing Israeli writers this month who all present similar justifications and results, the main of them all is to destroy the peace treaty with Jordan.

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By Suleiman Al-Khalidi

AMMAN (Reuters) – Jordanian security forces on Tuesday used tear gas to disperse stone-throwing demonstrators it blamed for disrupting public services during a protest demanding the release of leaders of the opposition-run teachers union, state media said.

A government source said seven security forces were injured in the protest in the southern city of Karak, with violence breaking out for the first time in an escalating crisis between the authorities and the union that has become a leading source of dissent.

The government on July 25 closed the offices of the 100,000 strong union and suspended its activity for two years, in one of the largest crackdowns on a major dissident group in recent years.
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