By Victor Davis Hanson, TOWNHALL
Red- and blue-state America was already divided before the coronavirus epidemic hit. Globalization had enriched the East Coast and West Coast corridors but hollowed out much in between.
By Daniel John Sobieski, AMERICAN THINKER
Does the Wuhan virus, which arguably escaped from a Chinese virology lab, supersede the rights guaranteed to American citizens under the U.S. Constitution? The owners of a New Jersey gym think not. They want to earn a living and pursue their American dream, and like most business owners and their customers are not stupid, suicidal, or children. They are American citizens watching their unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness being ripped away by dime-store Napoleons who see this pandemic as a chance to pursue the liberal progressive dream of controlling every aspect of our lives.
Atilis Gym in Bellmawr, New Jersey reopened on Monday morning in defiance of Governor Phil Murphy’s Coronavirus lockdown order.
“We think so far, this has been just a gross violation of constitutional rights,” said Atilis Gym co-owner Ian Smith in an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson. “The 14th Amendment states that no state shall pass any law that infringes upon our rights as citizens, and we’ve been forced into our homes. Enough is enough.”
By Victor Rosenthal
Annexation. The word is spat out with such vitriol that one would think that what is contemplated is mass murder. From Mahmoud Abbas to Jordan’s King Abdullah, to the European Union, to Justin Trudeau, the condemnations, warnings, and threats continue to flow. And of course, Joe Biden had his say.
A few words about the reality behind the so-called “annexation.” To start with, nothing is being annexed. It is the reasonable position of the Israeli government that it is sovereign in Judea and Samaria according to international law; and you can’t annex something that already belongs to you. But wait, you say, virtually the entire world disagrees, as is pointed out ad nauseum by sources like the BBC and the NY Times. Unhappily for them and the Palestinians they empathize with, international law is neither a popularity contest nor subject to a majority vote in the UN General Assembly. It is quite possible that the Government of Israel is right and “virtually the entire world” is wrong. This isn’t an article about that, but if you are interested, here is a good one.
Read more…
By David M. Halbfinger and Adam Rasgon, NYT Published May 19, 2020
JERUSALEM — Raising the stakes over Israel’s drive to annex land the Palestinians have long claimed, President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority on Tuesday angrily declared it free of its commitments under the Oslo peace process, including security understandings that have protected Israelis and preserved the authority’s political hold over the occupied West Bank.
For a change, several senior Palestinian officials insisted, Mr. Abbas was not making a mere threat.
“The Palestine Liberation Organization and the State of Palestine are absolved, as of today, of all agreements and understandings with the American and Israeli governments,” Mr. Abbas declared in a speech in Ramallah after a much-anticipated meeting of officials of the authority, the P.L.O. and Fatah, the political faction that dominates them both. Those understandings, he said, include all security agreements.
Mr. Abbas said his move was a response to the new Israeli government’s push to annex large portions of the West Bank.
by Rami Dabbas, ALGEMEINER
I like to deal in truth and reality, so here are some facts: Israel has never been called “Palestine,” at least not as a national political entity. And up until 1,420 years ago, there was no significant Arab population in this land — the ancient history of this land is demonstrably Jewish, Aramaic, and Syriac.
One need only consider the many “Palestinian” towns and villages that still carry Aramaic, Hebrew, and Syrian names.
Another truth is that Islam occupied the Levant by force, and imposed its own religion and culture in an effort to erase the region’s true Judeo-Christian heritage.
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The problem with Israel’s “cold peace” with its neighbors isn’t the lack of symmetry in the treaties, but rather that Jordan and Egypt are using the agreements to deter Israel from acting in its own best interest.
By Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen, ISRAEL HAYOM
In Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi’s swearing-in speeches, they both declared their loyalty to the path of peace.
“I am committed to doing everything possible to promote diplomatic solutions and making peace,” Gantz stated, while Ashkenazi said, “President Trump’s peace plan is a historic opportunity … it will be promoted, responsibly and in coordination with the US, while keeping peace agreements in place.”
If it weren’t for the unusual political context, in light of the dispute over Israel applying sovereignty to Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley, the discussion about peace agreements would be nothing more than a standard message. But given warnings from King Abdullah of Jordan and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas against Israel’s planned moves, and given the internal debate in Israel about the issue, their words take on a special meaning, a king of commitment to making Israeli steps toward sovereignty conditional upon regional consent.
Ted Belman responds in red to Solow’s blog entry in TOI.
The imposition of West Bank annexation without Palestinian consent would set a precedent that could damage Israel’s long-term interests.
The only precedent it would set is “It’s our land, always was and always will be.” That would secure our long term interests.
No solution should be imposed on anyone or by anyone in the Israeli-Palestinian arena.
Nonsense. The Palestinians have no right to the land or to a state other than Jordan
As I have underscored for 15 years, “The is no diplomatic solution.” The only solution is a solution that gets imposed.
Alexander Fraser Tytler
The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.”
What is the explanation behind the Western European disaster in the management of Covid-19, as compared to Eastern Europe and Israel?
By Giulio Meotti, INN
It is a mystery of the collective psyche. There must be an inner mechanism underlying the political ruling class. Otherwise, what is the possible explanation behind the Western European disaster n ithe management of Covid-19, expecially if you compare their experience with Eastern Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Israel and other Western countries?
France, Spain, Belgium and UK had the catastrophic Italian example in front of their eyes.
Still, French President Emmanuel Macron went to the theater to see “Par le bout du Nez”. It looked like a chapter in Manuel Chaves Nogales’ book, “The Agony of France”, where he says that while German soldiers marched through the streets of Paris, the French swarmed outside the cinemas, “in time for the aperitif in the bistro”.
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IGNORE THE DROOLING MEN IN THE AUDIENCE AND THE ONE IDIOT JUDGE.
Controversy rages around this drug since Trump spoke about it after a series of positive reports from various global locations. Op-ed
By Barry Shaw, INN 19/05/20 18:00
Hydroxychloroquine, marketed under the name Plaquenil, is a drug used to prevent malaria. It is also a pill used for patients with rheumatoid arthritis and also lupus. It has been on the market since the 50s.
But, for months, private doctors have been prescribing HCQ for patients in the early stages of the Wuhan virus with what they report as great success.
Controversy began to rage around this drug when President Trump began to speak about HCQ following a series of positive reports from doctors in a number of global locations.
Adverse effects were discovered when treating hospitalized patients suffering in advanced stages of the virus disease, including those on ventilators, with HCQ alone or in combination with other drugs.
T. Belman. It is due to this retreat, that the US is moving to make Israel stronger . This entails ending the Arab Israel war and fixing Israels borders to include the Golan and the Jordan valley.
By Dr. Spyridon N. Litsas, BESA
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The American turn toward Jacksonian isolationism could ultimately put it in the difficult position of having to exercise hard power to fill the very gap it created. As rogue elements take the opportunity left by the American retreat to try to impose their maximalist goals on the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean, American foreign policy finds itself at a historic crossroads with little time left in which to act.
The end of the Cold War, for reasons that had to do with American exceptionalism and also with Washington’s pragmatic decision not to pursue the chimera of global domination, did not result in the systemic transition from a bipolar to a stifling unipolar international balance of power. On the contrary: the US favored the unfolding of a new systemic structure in which Russia, China, and India were to play a major role in both international politics and international trade.
In our topsy-turvy world, we must question motivations and vaccinations by those who have openly admitted they seek world domination.
by Tabitha Korol
Billionaire Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft Corp., is called entrepreneur, normal guy, and Potential Savior of the World. Gates’s raison d’etre, however, is his father’s globalism, to have one world under one master because most humans are superfluous “reckless breeders,” the concept behind Planned Parenthood, supported by Melinda Gates. He believes in Lebensunwertes Lebens, life unworthy of life, the term I chose judiciously because of the Gateses’ eugenicist ideology of population control. The family legacy is domination and control of the world’s systems, including technology, medicine, and agriculture. The foundation has provided unbidden contraception to 120 million women across the globe, which is social engineering and authoritarian eugenicist thinking. The basic premise is that it is easier to eliminate the poor and suffering than it is to eliminate the sources of poverty and suffering. Click here for more on the notorious Gates family.
Only about 15% say they prefer Israeli citizenship, compared to 52% who answered similarly when questioned on the matter in polls conducted by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy between the years 2010-2015
By Nadav Shragai, ISRAEL HAYOM 05-11-2020
An elderly Palestinian man performs the Friday prayer during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, at the Mount of Olives with a backdrop of the Old City of Jerusalem | Photo: AFP/Ahmad Gharabli
A revolutionary shift in the political preferences of east Jerusalem residents: Only about 15% of people asked in a recent poll now said they prefer Israeli citizenship over Palestinian citizenship, compared to 52% who said they would rather be “Israeli” and not “Palestinian” when questioned on the matter in polls conducted between the years 2010-2015.
The new surveys, which point to the dramatic conclusion, were conducted by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in conjunction with Palestinian pollsters, under the directorship and supervision of Dr. David Pollock throughout 2018-2019 and in the first two months of 2020. The results were presented during an online event sponsored by the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, which helped Pollock during his time and work in Israel. Pollock has surveyed the views of east Jerusalem Arabs since 2010.
The annexation of lands in Judea and Samaria is not contrary to international law
by Michael Calvo, GATESTONE INSTITUTE • May 19, 2020 at 5:00 am
Pictured: The Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, at the edge of the Judean Desert. (Photo by Hazem Bader/AFP via Getty Images)
By John Horvat II, AMERICAN THINKER
In the fight against the coronavirus, most governments, including some state governments in the U.S., have enacted the Chinese lockdown model for industry. The plan shuts down all “nonessential” activities, lays off workers and expands government benefits and control of society. These massive one-size-fits-all programs deliver predictably inhuman and inflexible results, typical of communist governments.
The problem is that the coronavirus crisis is a human problem. Human problems demand human solutions. Treating human problems in a global, mechanized way treats people like mass-produced goods. It destroys those organic solutions that arise when people employ the original and proportional means that are part of their human nature. Governments need to work with nature, not against it. The Chinese model is an example of how not to deal with a crisis.
The German Model of Lockdown
T. Belman. Glick writes “It is possible that one day, with his back to the wall, Abdullah will abrogate the treaty. It is equally possible that one day he will be overthrown and that the successor regime will abrogate the peace treaty with Israel.”
I agree that it is likely he will be overthrown but not by a hostile sucesssor regime but by the friendly Jordanian Opposition Coalition headed by Mudar Zahran.
Abdullah will not cancel his kingdom’s peace deal with Israel because the peace treaty guarantees the survival of his regime.
By Caroline B. Glick, ISRAEL HAYOM
Should Jordan’s King Abdullah have veto power over Israel’s plan to apply its sovereign laws to its cities, towns and villages in Judea and Samaria and to the Jordan Valley, in accordance with the Trump peace plan? Monday morning, senior leaders of the Blue and White party began making noises to that effect.
In an interview with Germany’s Der Spiegel last Friday, King Abdullah threatened, “If Israel really annexes the West Bank in July, it would lead to a massive conflict with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.”
News updates Monday morning reported that “senior officials” from Blue and White were working to condition Israel’s implementation of the sovereignty plan on securing prior approval from Jordan.
T. Belman. I don’t like the title or the sub-title. If Israel can’t handle threats from Jordan, then they can’t handle any threats. Israel can’t allow itself to be intimidated by such threats. Abdullah’s bluff must be called. So far Israel has tolerated Abdullah’s threats whether relating to the temple mount or the Jordan Valley or the two state solution. Jordan is not about to follow through on the threats. It can’t afford to. The same goes for Egypt. Besides, Trump won’t stand for it.
Can Israel take advantage of a “historic opportunity” while preserving Israel’s peace treaties?
By Herb Keinon, JPOST
Benny Gantz, head of the Blue and White Party, visits Kibbutz Kfar Aza near the Gaza Strip on March 13 with party candidates Gabi Ashkenazy and Moshe Ya’alon
Israel-watchers abroad looking for cues as to whether the new Netanyahu-Gantz government will extend Israeli sovereignty over large swaths of the West Bank got little clarity from Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi’s maiden speech on the world stage on Monday.
For Ashkenazi, in a changing of the guard ceremony at the Foreign Ministry with Israel Katz, sent mixed messages.
