Canada: 300 university academics sign anti-Israel open letter to Prime Minister Trudeau about Gaza  

BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS, JIHAD WATCH

About 300 university academics from around the country have signed an open letter calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to keep his word and ensure there is an independent investigation into the Israeli army’s use of force against Palestinians in Gaza…Two Liberal MPs — Robert-Falcon Ouellette and Marwan Tabbara — hand-delivered the letter to Trudeau.

Why are these politicians promoting the Palestinian cause when they should be busy representing Canadians? The Islamic supremacist political agenda has seeped like poison into Western countries, aggressively manipulated by Muslim Brotherhood interests, Iranian proxies and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

The open letter asked: “How many Palestinians need to die or be maimed for life before we wake up and take action?” Yet the letter doesn’t mention the fact that a Hamas official admitted that 50 of the 62 Palestinians reported killed during Gaza border riots were members of Hamas, “bringing the total number of known members of terror groups among the fatalities up to 53.”
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July 14, 2018 | 3:44 pm | 1 Comment »

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Affirmative Action on the ropes  

A lawsuit against Harvard threatens to expose what “diversity” really means.

By Bruce Thornton, FPM

A case is currently under litigation that however it is decided, will likely reach the Supreme Court. There the diversity industry may face a challenge that brings the institutional racism of affirmative action and its baleful effects to an end.

In 2014, an organization called Students for Fair Admissions sued Harvard University for excluding Asian students who were far better qualified than other applicants who had been admitted. Last November the Justice Department opened an investigation into Harvard’s admission practices, and is threatening to sue the university, throwing its support behind the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs have viewed admission records through discovery, and want them publicized because the evidence for arbitrary and discriminatory evaluations is so obvious no trial is necessary. More recently, the Trump administration has rescinded Obama’s 2011 rule advising universities to use race as a criterion in admissions.  Finally, the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy creates an opening for a Constitutionalist judge who will not, as Kennedy has serially done, subordinate the law to politics or social engineering.
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July 14, 2018 | 3:38 pm | 1 Comment »

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Gaza Flare-up: Israeli Army Strikes Hamas Targets; Dozens of Rockets Launched at Israel  

In biggest attack since the 2014 war, the Israeli army says it struck 60 targets, including Hamas’ Beit Lahia battalion headquarters ? Hamas launches dozens of rockets at Israel ? Rocket explodes near Israeli town

Israel’s army renewed air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Saturday after 31 rockets were fired from the Strip overnight, the military said. The army targeted militant sites belonging to Hamas. No injuries were reported, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.

Dozens of rocket sirens sounded in southern Israeli communities near the border, including the areas of Sha’ar Hanegev, Eshkol and Ashkelon. Alarms continue to be heard of at this hour.

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July 14, 2018 | 3:24 pm | Comments »

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Column One: A glimps at Europe’s true face  

The time has come for Israel to finally stop taking European rhetoric seriously.

By Caroline B Glick, JPOST
Mogherini and Ahmed Aboul Gheit
EUROPEAN UNION foreign-policy chief Federica Mogherini welcomes Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit ahead of a meeting to discuss the Middle East peace process on February 26th in Brussels.. (photo credit: REUTERS/FRANCOIS LENOIR)

Due to an unusual conflation of events, over the past two weeks we’ve caught a rare glimpse of the face of European foreign policy. We shouldn’t let it pass unremarked.

Last Friday, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini presided over a curious summit in Vienna. In the same hall where she and her colleagues concluded the nuclear deal with Iran three years ago, Mogherini and her comrades tried to concoct ways to save the deal by undermining American power and defying its decision to abandon the deal.

Mogherini was joined in her efforts by the German, French and British foreign ministers. Sitting opposite them were Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, and the Russian and Chinese foreign ministers. Together they brainstormed ways to undermine the economic sanctions the US will begin implementing next month against Iran and anyone from anywhere that trades with Iran.
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July 13, 2018 | 1:42 pm | 2 Comments »

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With Trump as president, why isn’t Netanyahu building more settlements  

“Not one single brick” was Netanyahu’s slogan for whenever settler leaders urged him to approve new construction, a reference to a phrase he heard from Obama in one of their first meetings.

By Yaakov Katz, JPOST

THE NEWLY built settlement of Amihai seen from the vinyards of Meshek Achiya just north of the Shilo

 THE NEWLY built settlement of Amihai seen from the vinyards of Meshek Achiya just north of the Shiloh Valley July 12, 2018 . (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)

Tucked among rows of luscious vineyards and olive trees, a new settlement has come to life in the West Bank. It is called Amihai and it is the first Jewish community to be built and approved by Israel in Judea and Samaria in the last 25 years.

For now, Amihai is still under construction. Built after the evacuation last year of the illegal outpost of Amona, the residents live in 36 temporary trailer homes as they await construction of the permanent structures the government promised to build for them just below the settlement of Shiloh, once upon a time the home of the Mishkan, the Israelites’ ancient tabernacle.

The vineyards are owned by Meshek Achiya, a winery and olive press that manufactures award-winning olive oil and has established a name for its high-quality products not just in Israel, but also throughout Europe and the Far East. What about boycotts, I asked the CEO during a recent tour of the area. Boycotts don’t affect us, he replied. The olive oil is simply too good for consumers to pass on.
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July 13, 2018 | 1:30 pm | 5 Comments »

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Anti-Semitism is the West’s self-destruction  

Hating Israel is really Western hate for its own self. An insidious campaign of political correctness and moral relativism has conquered our intellectuals, our media, our academia, our politics and our society. 

By Giulio Meotti, INN

Hate for Israel is the Western hate for itself.

What makes Israel’s treatment unique today is that every Israeli action is subjected to an unprecedented level of control in slow motion. But Israel’s story and the reasons for what occurs are overthrown by lies. Israel is a victim not only of Islamist terrorism but also of a fallacious and mendacious narrative now widely accepted as an incontrovertible truth.

Western culture, which is going to be radically secularized, looks with indifference, perplexity or hate at the Jews of Israel clinging to their identity, their land, their tradition.

Jews in Europe are also being abandoned. Toulouse, the Southern French city where Islamists massacred three Jewish children, is home to an anti-Semithic imam who preaches for Israel’s destruction in its mosques and nobody seems to care.
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July 13, 2018 | 1:11 pm | 8 Comments »

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Israel’s Active Defense Campaign in Syria: The Next Phase  

BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 892, July 12, 2018

By Yaakov Lappin

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Tehran’s recent decision to attempt direct clashes with Israel resulted in a resounding defeat on May 10, when the IDF destroyed 50 Iranian military targets in Syrian territory. Iran is now shifting gears back to its traditional proxy approach. While it appears reluctant to mobilize Hezbollah against Israel right now and risk a full-scale regional war, it is continuing to work on securing a military position in Syria to use for future aggression. Israel must maintain its flexibility and responsiveness in order to prevent the creation of a second Iranian mass missile front on the border.

Judging from international media reports, Israel’s campaign to keep Iran out of Syria has entered a new phase.

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July 13, 2018 | 10:00 am | Comments »

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Trump Must Not Capitulate to Putin  

REMEMBER THIS IS WRITTEN BY SUSAN RICE AND PUBLISHED BY NYT

There is so much to lose and so little to gain for the United States in the Trump-Putin summit next week.

Image
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives at Qingdao, China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit on June 8.CreditDu Yang/China News Service, via VCG, via Getty Images

If a typical American president were to meet with the Russian president, even in the context of the current deeply fraught relationship, it could be an opportunity to discuss important issues of mutual concern, to air differences and seek common ground. But, precisely because President Trump is anything but typical — including in that his campaign is under investigation for possibly coordinating with Russia to win the presidency and that he consistently lauds Vladimir V. Putin while denigrating our closest allies — his coming summit with Mr. Putin in Helsinki is a dangerous and counterproductive undertaking. The risks are many and the benefits, if any, are difficult to discern.

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July 13, 2018 | 8:28 am | 3 Comments »

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Trump: Brexit plan ‘will probably kill’ US trade deal  

BBC

Blenheim PalaceImage copyrightREUTERS
Image captionBlenheim Palace is the ancestral home of Sir Winston Churchill

Donald Trump has said the UK will “probably not” get a trade deal with the US, if the prime minister’s Brexit plan goes ahead.

He told The Sun the PM’s plan would “probably kill the deal” as it would mean the US “would be dealing with the European Union” instead of with the UK.

Downing Street has not yet reacted to Mr Trump’s remarks.
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July 13, 2018 | 7:52 am | 1 Comment »

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Political Intermarriage and the Birth of the New Democrat Party  

by Linda Goudsmit, PUNDICITY

Intermarriage is not always a matter of race or religion – sometimes it is a matter of politics. In 2008 Barack Hussein Obama officiated at the wedding of the Democrat party and Socialism. In this case the bride and groom came from very different family backgrounds with diametrically opposed world views and political perspectives.

The bride’s family, Constitution, was 242 years old and deeply committed to individualism, equality, liberty, and limited powers of government. The groom’s family, Socialism, came to America in 1877 deeply committed to collectivism and centralized government powers. The young lovers ignored the differences and their families’ objections to the marriage in their determination to make their union work for themselves and their children. What happened?

The marriage enjoyed the sweetness of honeymoon oblivion for awhile but soon it became apparent to both bride and groom that the Constitution and Socialism families were divided along foundational lines and compromise was not an option. As with so many racial and religious intermarriages the problems did not become apparent until the children were born. The husband and wife began to argue about what to teach the children.
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July 13, 2018 | 7:39 am | Comments »

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The Nation-State Law rises again  

By Vic Rosenthal

Five years since its initial introduction by MK Avi Dichter, the Nation State Bill is being hotly debated in the Knesset once again.

Israel’s Declaration of Independence announced the creation of “A Jewish state in Eretz-Israel,” and added,

The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

These principles are generally referred to by saying that Israel is a Jewish and democratic state. The democratic part is further explicated by several Basic Laws including those that describe the details of Israel’s political democracy, and which guarantee individual rights, liberty, and dignity.
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July 13, 2018 | 7:34 am | Comments »

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INTO THE FRAY: The “pussification” of the Israeli right  

By MARTIN SHERMAN

Astonishingly, having been proved entirely justified in its condemnation of the dangerous defects of the “Left’s” political credo, the “Right” proceeded to embrace it

Pussification: The act or process of pussifying…

Pussify: To make weak and effeminate – Collins online dictionary

In the day-to-day political discourse, the current Netanyahu-led coalition is frequently referred to as the “most Right-wing” ever in Israel’s political history.

This is, of course, totally absurd.

The extinction of the “Right” as we once knew it

Indeed, the “Right”, as it once was on the eve of the Oslo process, is totally extinct in terms of the substantive content of its then-political credo.
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July 12, 2018 | 9:49 pm | 43 Comments »

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Bennett pushes compromise to preserve Israel’s Jewish status  

Current draft of nation-state bill faces objections over clause allowing exclusion of non-Jews from Jewish communities • Education Minister Bennett suggests making it possible to earmark areas for ?the construction of Jewish-only communities instead.

By Mati Tuchfeld and Gideon Allon, ISRAEL HAYOM


Habayit Hayehudi Chairman Naftali Bennett ?, Photo: Oren Ben Hakoon

Education Minister Naftali Bennett on Wednesday suggested a compromise that may facilitate the vote on the highly contested nation-state bill, which currently faces legal criticism over an article Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit has deemed discriminatory.

The nation-state bill aims to anchor Israel’s status as a “Jewish state with a democratic regime,” rather than a “Jewish and democratic state.” If passed, it will require the state to preserve the country’s Jewish character and protect state symbols and sacred Jewish sites according to Jewish tradition. If enacted, it will become one of Israel’s basic laws, which have been recognized by the courts as a de facto constitution.

The already controversial legislative proposal sparked a political firestorm earlier this week after Mendelblit ruled that Article 7b in the bill, which allows Jewish communities to legally exclude non-Jews, is discriminatory and should be removed.
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July 12, 2018 | 3:51 pm | 5 Comments »

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Balancing dangers and opportunities  

By Isi Leibler, ISRAEL HAYOM

The speed of recent changes is breathtaking.

On the negative side, an escalation in anti-Semitism has reduced the quality of life for most Jews. Most European governments do not conceal their contempt for Israel, and their foreign policies and U.N. voting records display an absence of moral compass.

Nothing illustrates this better than their reaction to Israeli self-defense against incursions by Hamas terrorists and rocket attacks. To depict Israel’s efforts to defend itself from violent mobs as a disproportionate response to “peaceful demonstrators” is obscene. No country would have shown as much restraint.

The behavior of the ailing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his acolytes has descended to levels of anti-Semitism that would have made the Nazis proud.
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July 12, 2018 | 3:16 pm | Comments »

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The hypocrisy of intersectionality and the Jewish question  

Today’s young adults have gone from being liberal to becoming the most illiberal, closed-minded, and intolerant people in the community. They exist, you see, on a higher moral plain than the rest of us. They know better.

By Barry Shaw, INN

Today’s young adults have gone from being liberal to becoming the most illiberal, closed-minded, and intolerant people in the community. They exist, you see, on a higher moral plain than the rest of us. They know better.

People with strategic antennae can detect a throwback to the Soviet inspired canard of “Zionism is Racism.” This radical left-wing anti-Israel trope raised its ugly head way back in 2001 at the UN World Conference Against Racism in South Africa where thousands of anti-Israel demonstrators and groups hijacked the event to target the Jewish state with phony propaganda including apartheid accusations.

Sadly, despite being beaten down in the United Nations, this same anti-Zionism has breathed new life and is active today on the campuses and streets of America and Britain, reaching out into support for Hamas and Hezbollah.
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July 12, 2018 | 1:22 pm | 4 Comments »

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Trump’s Beleaguered European Allies  

By Conrad Black, NATIONAL REVIEW

President Donald Trump meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during the NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium, July 11, 2018. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Many of the president’s EU counterparts are in deep water politically.On the heels of my misguided intuition, expressed on another site last week, that Judge Coney was the president’s most likely selection for the Supreme Court vacancy, the president should be (but won’t be), commended for choosing the least controversial candidate, Judge Brett Kavanaugh. The nomination of Kavanaugh, a Bush appointee and friend, may be taken as (but again probably won’t be) a conciliatory gesture to traditional Republicans. Whatever appearances, conservatives are placated, moderates have nothing to complain about, and an obviously highly qualified candidate is unlikely to be seriously damaged by the Democratic kamikaze attacks, which did not await the banal formality of having the name of the justice-designate before hurling themselves at the unnamed choice. Assistant Democratic Senate leader Dick Durbin bravely advised the most vulnerable Democrats up for reelection to the Senate, those in states that went heavily for Trump two years ago, to sacrifice themselves, take one for the (shrinking) team, and fight the president’s nominee. There is no indication at this point that Trump needs any Democrats to get Judge Kavanaugh confirmed, or that some of the more vulnerable Democrats can win reelection, whatever their selfless histrionics over this issue.
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July 12, 2018 | 9:09 am | 3 Comments »

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Ban the Muslim Brotherhood  

Desantis Hearing Establishes the Muslim Brotherhood Must Be Designated as a Terrorist Organization – the Sooner, the Better

CSP

WASHINGTON, D.C.— It is no longer a question of whether the United States will designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization. It is only a matter of when and how.

That’s the principal take-away from a congressional national security panel this morning that addressed “The Muslim Brotherhood’s Global Threat” and what the US should do about it.

“This hearing is an opportunity to discuss what the United States’ next step should be in combatting the Muslim Brotherhood’s threat,” said Congressman Ron DeSantis (R-FL), chairman of the Subcommittee on National Security of the House oversight committee.

“The Muslim Brotherhood is a militant Islamist organization with affiliates in over 70 countries,” DeSantis said. “There’s no question that the Muslim Brotherhood’s affiliates are involved in terrorism.”
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July 12, 2018 | 7:10 am | 3 Comments »

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Jewish Democrats contend with a wave of progressives who criticize Israel  

By Charles Dunst, JTA

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

NEW YORK (JTA) – After Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shocked the political world by defeating longtime New York Rep. Joseph Crowley in a Democratic primary last month, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez quickly aligned himself with the former political outsider, saying on a radio show that “she represents the future of our party.”

If so, that future appears to include the kind of sharp criticism of Israel once considered taboo in both major parties.

Ocasio-Cortez ran on a platform of Medicare for all, fully funded public schools and a universal jobs guarantee. But she has also been critical of Israel, calling its military’s killing of Palestinian protesters in May a “massacre.”
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July 12, 2018 | 7:00 am | 3 Comments »

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