The Left has written its values into our laws.

By Daniel Greenfield, FPM

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…”

The First Amendment assumes that the proper sphere of government is policies, not values. And so it protects the right of political participation and prohibits a state church that would define values.

The government had the right to decide to go to war with France. It did not have a right to decide what you should believe. Politics extended into the realm of policies, not beliefs.

But as religious belief declined, politics replaced it as the repository of moral and ethical values. This transformation began on the left. The left was the least religious in the traditional sense. And the most likely to build up an ideology of secular values with which to displace traditional religious values.

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T. Belman. And remember the anti Israel resolutions they passed in their convention in 2012,

Now we’re told that some racism and supremacism is perfectly okay.

By John Pezzaro, FPM

Riddle: What does a Democratic National Committee member say the moment he wakes up from a sound sleep?

Answer: The same thing he says during all his other waking hours, and the same thing DNC members have been saying for many decades: “Conservative racists and white supremacists are lurking everywhere…. Yeh-yeh-yeh … everywhere, everywhere.”

Consider the DNC’s latest pathetic ad campaign, which reads: “If Trump wants us to believe he does not support white supremacy, tell him to fire the enablers of white supremacy working for him in the White House.” What’s remarkable is that while the imaginary “white supremacy” of Trump’s aides and advisers makes Democrats squawk with fiery indignation, the DNC not only countenances a number of very real, impossible-to-miss racial supremacists of its own, but it actually celebrates and honors them.

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T. Belman. After al Sisi refused to meet with Kushner following on the heels of US withhold aid, Trump call him and gave him assurances. It would appear that the State DEpt is following Obama’s policy here, but Trump isn’t.

By Shoshana Bryen, AMERICAN THINKER

In his televised address on the future of American operations in Afghanistan, President Donald Trump took a sharp turn from his predecessors.

• I share [the American people’s] frustration over a foreign policy that has spent too much time, energy, money, and most importantly lives, trying to rebuild countries in our own image, instead of pursuing our security interests above all other considerations.
• Ultimately, it is up to the people of Afghanistan to take ownership of their future, to govern their society, and to achieve an everlasting peace. We are a partner and a friend, but we will not dictate to the Afghan people how to live, or how to govern their own complex society. We are not nation-building again. We are killing terrorists.
• We will no longer use American military might to construct democracies in faraway lands, or try to rebuild other countries in our own image. Those days are now over. Instead, we will work with allies and partners to protect our shared interests. We are not asking others to change their way of life, but to pursue common goals that allow our children to live better and safer lives. This principled realism will guide our decisions moving forward

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By Tom Cicotta, BREITBART

An overwhelming 85 percent of Americans say freedom of speech is “more important than making sure no one is offended by what others say,” according to a poll published by Rasmussen Reports on Wednesday.

A new poll released by Rasmussen Reports on Wednesday revealed that over 85 percent of American adults believe that the right to free speech is “more important than making sure no one is offended by what others say.” A mere eight percent said they believe that guarding against personal offense is more important than protecting free speech.

73 percent also agreed with the famous line often attributed to Voltaire: “I disapprove of what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it.” Another 10 percent disagreed with that statement, and 17 percent said they are undecided.

The poll reveals that there is bipartisan agreement with regards to freedom of speech. Despite overwhelming support for speech rights, Democrats are slightly less supportive as a group of protecting speech for those they disagree with than are Republicans.

Additionally, 47 percent of respondents said they believe that most college administrators and professors are more interested in getting students to toe a specific political line rather than to participate in a free exchange of ideas.

WHAT? DID I HEAR THAT RIGHT?

Comments come as US delegation arrives in region to jump start talks amid Palestinian grumblings about lack of clarity

By Erik Cortellessa, TOI

WASHINGTON — Committing to the two-state solution would bias Washington in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, a US official said Wednesday, as a high-level delegation arrived in the region to try and jump start talks amid Palestinian protests over a lack of clarity from the White House.

“We are not going to state what the outcome has to be,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. “It has to be workable to both sides. That’s the best view as to not really bias one side over the other, to make sure that they can work through it.”

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By Peter Chowka, AMERICAN THINKER

Sean Hannity rose to the challenge of confronting the MSM’s fake news Wednesday night and dealt a serious blow to the lies, misrepresentations, and omissions of the nation’s press. The vehicle was the opening monologue on his nightly Fox News show. Using a mixture of facts based on real video clips and humor, Hannity stood out once again as a defender and practitioner of fair and balanced reporting.

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BLOOMBERG

Since retired Marine Corps General John Kelly started as White House chief of staff last month, President Donald Trump has added a routine caveat before approving proposals advisers place before him: Check with “The General” before moving ahead.

It’s a marked departure from Trump’s instinct to manage around Kelly’s predecessor, Reince Priebus. When making a decision, one aide recalls, Trump often would caution, “Don’t tell Reince.”

Trump’s appointment of Kelly has imposed new order on a White House that had been riven with infighting among warring camps. But it hasn’t been the political lifeline Republican allies had hoped for, as Kelly has so far been unable to perform one of the chief of staff’s most basic duties: to stop a president from following his worst instincts. Read more…

By J.R. Dunn, AMERICAN THINKER

The John Brown Clubs are gun clubs for leftists affiliated with Redneck Revolt, an outfit in turn affiliated with Antifa (they marched with the other Antifa gangs in Charlottesville). Redneck Revolt was founded to agitate among rural working-class whites across the country, the people left behind by the attempt to shift the United States into a hierarchal meritocracy. This effort reveals considerably smarter thinking than that of Obama, the coastal elites, or for that matter, Kevin Williamson and Bill Kristol.

The John Brown Clubs were founded to exploit working class interest in firearms, and to provide training and familiarization to the more effete levels of the “resistance.” Those of a certain age will recall the “Gay Communist Gun Club,” one of SNL’s funnier skits. That, in a nutshell, and with a large helping of divisive racial politics, is what the Brownies are.

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By Janet Levy, AMERICAN THINKER

The Muslim Brotherhood has penetrated every one of our national security agencies, including our intelligence agencies, according to retired Navy admiral James “Ace” Lyons, former commander of the U.S. Pacific fleet.  Adm. Lyons made this startling declaration Jan. 16, 2015 during a conference sponsored by the Center for Security Policy, a conservative Washington, D.C. think-tank.

In the two years since, no action has been taken to reverse this dangerous situation.  Empowerment of individuals of questionable loyalties within our intelligence community continues unabated, as does a counterfactual view of Islam and thwarting of terrorist investigations.  Our government routinely targets and cashiers productive, legitimate counter-terrorism experts and fails to label terrorist organizations as such.  U.S. intelligence failures and feckless politicization have gone on for years, rendering our protections against terrorism ineffectual and putting our country at grave risk. Read more…

By Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen, BESA

BESA Center Perspectives No. 568, August 24, 2017

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: In making decisions, the national leadership has not only the legal authority to ignore expert recommendations but also a solid conceptual basis for doing so based on broader considerations that transcend advanced knowledge.

The decision by PM Netanyahu and the Israeli cabinet to adopt the police recommendation for the installation of metal detectors at the gates to the Temple Mount following the murder of two police officers at the holy site sparked a wave of media criticism, which gained rapid momentum as the Palestinians responded to the decision with violent protests. The question heard more and more was how the prime minister could have ignored the warnings of the Shabak (Israel Security Agency) and the IDF against the detectors’ placement. It was as if a contractor had ignored an engineer’s recommendation for the quantity of iron that was needed for the casting of a roof.

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T. Belman.  See Alan Dershowitz: Liberals have a special obligation to condemn bigotry of the Left published earlier.

So Dershowitz is arguing that the Right should condemn the Right, ie KKK, Nazis and white supremacists and the liberal left should condemn bigotry and violence on the left. But until such time as the liberals and Democrats and MSM step up, Trump must do it. But they are more interested in attacking Trump than the bigots on the left and even the right.

Also Dershowitz makes a number of dubious contentions, too numerous to refute in this preface, which undermine his recommendations. Note my comment in red within the article.

He complains that Trump said too little too late but I don’t recall any leaders of the Democratic Party or Dershowitz saying as much and as soon, regarding the violence from the left. To the contrary, many validated it.

Finally, when there was racist violence during Obama’s presidency, he always  took the side of the blacks even before the facts were clear, He was criticized for being divisive. If you read Trump’s first statement, it is clear that he stressed unity and not division, for this reason. This was a good thing and done on purpose. But everything he does will automatically be criticized.

President Trump must stop being even-handed in his condemnations.

By Alan Dershowitz, JPOST

ll decent Americans have an obligation to condemn the violent bigotry of the Nazi and KKK demonstrators in Charlottesville or wherever else they spew their poisonous and threatening rhetoric. But President Donald Trump has a special obligation to single out for condemnation, and distance himself from, individuals and groups that claim – even if falsely – to speak in his name, as the racist provocateurs in Charlottesville did. Read more…

T. Belman. Not a chance in hell they will do this. They will lose control of education and censorship and propaganda, They would no longer be able to partake in the gravy train. Israel would stop payments to terrorists. What about their embassies around the world.

By Adam Rasgon, JPOST

The Palestinian leadership in Ramallah is considering dismantling the Palestinian Authority, if there is no political horizon to establish an independent Palestinian state, Ahmad Majdalani, a confidant of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, said on Wednesday, a day before senior Trump administration officials are due in Ramallah.

“This option is being discussed and considered seriously. We are studying its political, legal, administrative implications,” Majdalani told The Jerusalem Post in a phone interview. “If there is no political horizon, we are not going to be agents of the occupation – we are not going to help General Poli.”

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Lod court to decide whether Jewish arson suspect’s confession was made under torture or is acceptable in court.

By Chana Roberts, INN

The Lod Distict Court is expected to decide in the coming weeks whether the confessions and testimonies of the Duma suspects can be accepted or are invalid due to torture.

On Wednesday night, Kan 11 reported that the defense claim that Amiram Ben-Uliel’s confessions were made under torture, and therefore cannot be accepted in court.

Transcripts of the Shabak (Israel Security Agency) interrogation show the suspect “confessed” under torture, after then-Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein approved the measure. Read more…

By Isi Leibler

Unless the US is willing to bite the bullet and finally confront Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority, the mission to the region by US representatives Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt to “restart the peace process” on behalf of President Donald Trump may prove to be highly counterproductive.

Abbas is coming to the end of his reign. A brutal and corrupt dictator, he is determined that his legacy be that of an embattled “freedom fighter” committed to reversal of the “Nakba,” his ultimate objective being the restoration of Arab hegemony from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. His means to achieve this necessitate the dismemberment of the Jewish state in stages through terrorism and international pressure. Read more…

By Daniel Pipes, WASHINGTON TIMES

Ruthless modernizers: Iran’s Reza Shah (L) visited Atatürk in 1934.

News that Iran’s and Turkey’s governments reached an accord on Idlib, a Syrian town now the focus of American interests, brings relations between the two of the largest and most influential states in the Middle East momentarily out of the shadows.

Their rivalry goes back a half-millennium, included eleven wars, and now remains, in the words of the Washington Institute’s Soner Cagaptay, the region’s “oldest power game.” What does the recent accord signify and how will their competition influence the region’s future? Read more…

Iran threatens to annihilate Israel, it arms terrorist groups and sponsors global terrorism, PM Netanyahu says in meeting with Russian President Putin • Netanyahu: Iran’s accelerated efforts to gain a military foothold in Syria reflect its aggression.

By Shlomo Cesana and Eli Leon, TOI

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu embarked on a short visit to Russia on Wednesday, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two leaders, who met at the Black Sea resort town of Sochi, discussed regional security issues, mainly Iran’s increased presence in Syria and Lebanon, Israel’s neighbors to the north.

Several senior defense officials joined Netanyahu’s trip, including Mossad Director Yossi Cohen, Director of Military Intelligence Maj. Gen. Herzl Halevi and newly appointed National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat. Environmental Protection Minister Zeev Elkin is part of the delegation, as well.

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