How bad is the Iran deal? Let’s count the ways  

By Amir Taheri, NY POST

A fatwa that doesn’t exist, a wish list that no one signed, a resolution that contradicts the wish list, a protocol that no one has seen…

These are the elements with which President Obama claims he has concocted a strategy to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions and stop it exporting murder and mayhem.

Supposedly issued by Iran’s “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei, the fatwa declares nuclear weapons as “illicit” (haram) in Islam.
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September 7, 2015 | 1:18 pm | 3 Comments »

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Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States Amidst Falling Oil Prices and Regional Upheavals  

INSS Insight No. 744, September 7, 2015
Yoel Guzansky , Shmuel Even Yoel GuzanskyShmuel Even

The drop in oil prices of 55 percent over the past year stems from a classic supply and demand imbalance. While demand grew at moderate rates because of slow economic growth or economic stagnation in many parts of the world, supply grew at a much faster rate. More specifically, supply in the United States has grown and OPEC output – which includes the large Arab oil producers, Iran, and other nations – has exceeded demand.

In August 2015 the OPEC basket price averaged about $45 a barrel, compared to $100 a barrel at the same time last year. According to the OPEC newsletter of August 11, 2015, in order to satisfy the global demand for oil and liquid gas – a total of 92.7 million barrels per day (bpd) – the organization’s members had to produce only 29.2 million barrels bpd (given that the supply of oil outside of OPEC is 57.5 million bpd and the production of liquid gas by OPEC is 6 million bpd). However, in practice, oil production by OPEC members in July was 32.5 million bpd, i.e., a 12 percent production surplus.
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September 7, 2015 | 11:34 am | Comments »

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Western Civilization: The Final Frontier?  

By Clarice Feldman, AMERICAN THINKER

Remember the emotional gambits used to sell ObamaCare? I do. I still laugh at the nonsensical stupidity of some of them — like appealing to our heartstrings with examples like the woman who claimed she’d been forced to wear her dead sister’s dentures. Or Sandra Fluke’s soulful appeal for her coed friends who didn’t have a spare $9 a month for birth control pills.

Fall for tales like this in haste. Repent at leisure.

The president has just rewritten ObamaCare regulations to now require insurers cover (very expensive) transgender operations.
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September 7, 2015 | 7:23 am | 3 Comments »

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Harry Reid confirms Senate Democrats will filibuster Iran nuclear deal  

Jerry Gordon.

There he goes again. Senator Democrat minority leader Harry Reid is doing the President’s bidding. He’s launching a filibuster denying an up or down vote on the Iran nuclear deal that Americans by a 2 to 1 majority in leading polls taken urge the Congress to reject. In our NER round up piece put up last night, we noted this comment from Alan Dershowitz in a NewsMax TV interview on the Stan Malzberg Show:
“During the Malzberg interview, Dershowitz criticized the President’s handling of negotiations and treatment of Israel. He drew attention to the likelihood the Senate Democrat minority might filibuster the vote on the Iran deal. With sufficient votes in hand that might stymie a cloture vote thereby preventing an up or down vote on rejection of the Iran deal. Dershowitz said:

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September 6, 2015 | 5:19 pm | 2 Comments »

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Very Good News Israel  

In the 6th Sept 2015 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include:
 
·         IBM Israel has developed an app that can identify sufferers of ADHD.
·         Israel is providing an extra $230 million for Arab-Israeli integration.
·         IsraAID is heading to Greece to help with the influx of migrants.
·         Intel’s new Israeli-developed Skylake microchip goes public.
·         An Israeli-app can keep track of your most important possessions.
·         The largest exit ($900 million) for an Israeli medical device company.
·         An Israeli Paralympic rower won gold at the World Championships.

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September 6, 2015 | 3:43 pm | 2 Comments »

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Danon should tell the UN to put up or shut up  

By Joel Golovinsky, JPOST

danonDanny Danon, our new ambassador, will have a lot to do before he takes his seat at the General Assembly. He will have to be briefed by the Foreign Ministry about his responsibilities and authority, and the chain of command. He will have to learn UN protocol and procedures, meet the permanent staff in his delegation and choose new staff members.

He will have to move into the ambassador’s residence, learn how it runs, how receptions and events are planned. He will have to meet with the Israeli officials in New York and Washington and with UN officials from the secretary-general on down.

All this is not easy, and since Danny Danon is an ambitious man and would like to hit the ground running, I have drafted his first speech before the plenum. I cannot compel him to use it, of course, but it would be good if he did: MR. PRESIDENT, eminent colleagues. I address you for the first time with humility and with great respect for the knowledge, skill and experience present in this august body.
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September 6, 2015 | 10:22 am | 13 Comments »

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WHY DID OIL-RICH ARAB COUNTRIES ABANDON MUSLIM REFUGEES?  

And where is the Arab action to rescue fellow Muslims and Arabs from the claws of ISIS?

By Nonie Darwish, FPM

The world is often lectured to about the urgency of respecting Arab and Islamic brotherly love, but where is the Arab action to rescue fellow Muslims and Arabs from the claws of ISIS?

Where are Arab feminists, especially those who demonstrated against France for banning the hijab? They are silent and doing nothing to rescue thousands of women that are victims of Islamic jihadist rape and enslavement. The only compassionate women helping women in the Middle East are the Christian mother Teresas and Kayla Muellers of the western world.
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September 6, 2015 | 7:27 am | 2 Comments »

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The Truth About Congressional Pro-Israel Theater  

By: Daniel Greenfield

Here is how the pro-Israel theater works.

Every other country has its American embassy in its capital. Except Israel. Every few years, Congress would bring up a bill or a resolution calling or even mandating that the embassy be moved to Jerusalem. Even politicians not known for their great love of the Jewish State would vote for it.

Some like Biden or Kerry would even sponsor them.

The bill would have a loophole allowing a president to waive it in the interests of national security, which he always did, even when he had promised to move the embassy to Jerusalem in his campaign.
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September 6, 2015 | 7:19 am | 1 Comment »

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Zionism—What Is It? Why Is It Getting Trashed?  

T. Belman. No praise for Zionism can overcome the fact that Zionism is swimming upstream.  When Europe is trashing their culture and opening their doors to embrace millions of Muslims how can anyone make the case for Zionism which goes against the grain.  American Jews also reject Zionism and prefers their progressive values. Herzog and others in Israel are now arguing that Israel should take in Syrian refugees. The left reject the exclusivity of Zionism and prefers to be progressive and universal. Zionism looks selfish. This is a huge problem for Zionists.

By P David Hornik, PJ MEDIA

Among “elite” circles Zionism is a dirty word these days. When American Jewish reggae star Matisyahu was barred from performing at a Spanish music festival, it was on grounds that he was a “Zionist.” It was only after the Spanish government condemned this blatant case of discrimination that the festival reinvited the singer.

Blackballing Zionism, though, is not only a European phenomenon. Republican pollster Frank Luntz has been warning Israel that it is rapidly losing support among Democratic “opinion elites.” Almost half of them, he says, consider Israel a racist country. And as The Times of Israel reports:

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September 5, 2015 | 6:47 pm | 52 Comments »

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Time is running out for Israel  

By Ted Belman

The train has left the station. Israel prefers defense to offense. It in no way has proposed an alternate plan that would take the wind out of the two-state-solution and the demonization of Zionism and Israel, sails. To make matters worse Netanyahu has bowed to the pressure and has instituted a construction freeze even in Jerusalem.

As of 30 October 2014, 135 (69.9%) of the 193 member states of the United Nations and two non-member states have recognised the State of Palestine. Many of the countries that do not recognise the State of Palestine nevertheless recognise the PLO as the “representative of the Palestinian people“. On 29 November 2012, the UN General Assembly passed a motion changing Palestine’s “entity” status to “non-member observer state” by a vote of 138 to 9, with 41 abstentions.[3][4][5][6]
UN expected to easily pass resolution allowing Palestinian flag to fly at New York HQ
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September 5, 2015 | 12:24 pm | 11 Comments »

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The Curse of the Obama Doctrine  

By David Rothkopf, FOREIGN POLICY

The Middle East is the place that introduced us to the idea of known unknowns and unknown unknowns. But even in a region that’s now swirling with more uncertainty, mystery, and doubt than ever before, there are nonetheless a few key known knowns. Examining them produces a picture of a deeply unsettling and dangerous tomorrow. It also reminds us that at a time of justifiable celebration in the White House over the Iran deal the president will likely leave behind a map of the region in which that victory is surrounded everywhere by defeats and setbacks whose negative consequences may only grow worse.
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September 5, 2015 | 11:17 am | 3 Comments »

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Saudi Arabia: Iran deal will contribute to Middle East security and stability  

REUTERS

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir speaks during a news conference in Amman, Jordan

Saudi Arabia is satisfied with assurances from US President Barack Obama about the Iran nuclear deal and believes the agreement will contribute to security and stability in the Middle East, a senior Saudi official said on Friday.

Saudi King Salman met with Obama at the White House on Friday to seek more support in countering Iran, as the Obama administration aimed to use the visit to shore up relations after a period of tensions.
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September 5, 2015 | 9:23 am | 1 Comment »

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On peace and realism  

By David S Weinberg, ISRAEL HAYOM

This week, a nighttime Israeli security raid in Jenin went down bad, and the elite police anti-terrorist unit got into a firefight. One of our commandos was wounded, perhaps by friendly fire, and the wanted terrorist slipped away.

We only heard about this raid because of the trouble it ran into. Most arrest raids on terrorists don’t make the news, Israeli or Palestinian, even though they take place every day and every night, 365 days a year, across the West Bank.
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September 4, 2015 | 2:37 pm | 4 Comments »

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Oy Jerusalem  

By Yoram Ettinger, ISRAEL HAYOM

While the Jewish state enjoys a robust Jewish demographic tailwind of fertility and immigration, Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, is burdened with a Jewish demographic headwind of emigration, which is eroding the current 66% Jewish majority.

The growing, youthful Jewish emigration from Jerusalem is driven by the scarcity of jobs as well as costly and limited housing. It was triggered — beginning in the 1990s — by Israeli prime ministers who relegated Jerusalem to a lower national priority, in sharp contrast to their predecessors.
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September 4, 2015 | 2:24 pm | 1 Comment »

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Column One: A glorious defeat  

By Caroline Glick, JPOST

Some times you have to fight battles you cannot win because fighting – regardless of the outcome – advances a larger cause.

Israel’s fight against the nuclear deal the major powers, led by US President Barack Obama concluded with Iran was such a battle.

The battle’s futility became clear on July 20, just six days after it was concluded in Vienna.

On July 20, the US administration anchored the deal – which paves the way for Iran to become a nuclear power and enriches the terrorism-sponsoring ayatollahs to the tune of $150 billion – in a binding UN Security Council resolution. Once the resolution passed, the deal became unstoppable.
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September 4, 2015 | 9:10 am | 19 Comments »

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Into The Fray: The Iran deal – More shameful than Munich  

By Martin Sherman, JPOST

No  British Government ever will, and ever can, risk the bones of a British grenadier… I did not believe that any sensible man in Germany wished for a new partition of Poland

– Nobel peace laureate Sir Austen Chamberlain (half-brother of Neville), on the Polish Corridor, February 16 and March 31, 1925.

How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas masks here because of a quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing.

– Neville Chamberlain on the Czechoslovakia crisis, September 27, 1937

The enemy did not reckon with my great strength of purpose. Our enemies are worms. I saw them in Munich.

– Adolf Hitler, address to generals, August 22, 1939
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September 4, 2015 | 8:53 am | 2 Comments »

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Iran funded Hamas military summer camps for UNRWA students  

HELP FUND A FILM TO EXPOSE THE IRAN TERROR CONNECTION.

By David Bedien, Israel Behind the News

Sept. 2, 2015 marked the first day that we viewed the footage that our crew filmed of this summer’s Iranian funded Hamas military camps for UNRWA students.

The footage portrays the  human face of Iran’s conventional terror threat:

  1. Girl counselors interviewed about training young females to destroy Israel, and liberate both Palestine and Jerusalem, passionately speaking about an uncompromised ‘right of return’ to “their homes” that their grandparents left in 1948.
  2. Armed and uniformed boys interviewed as they march in goose-step in a quasi-military procession  in Gaza.
  3. Boys and girls brandishing the massive weaponry received from Iran.
  4. Hamas leaders rallying throngs of youngsters who scream in unison to renew the PLO war to liberate Jerusalem and all of Palestine, and   describe Jews as pigs who must be & thrown out of a Moslem entity.
  5. UNRWA students parading with huge signs for “right of return” and takeover of Al Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem.

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September 4, 2015 | 4:44 am | Comments »

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Israel passes law forbidding media bias  

Public Broadcast Law passed overnight includes section that forbids being one-sided or interjecting personal views.

By Gil Ronen, INN

The Knesset passed the Public Broadcast Law before dawn Thursday in the final readings. The law, which replaces the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) with a new corporation and would force it to streamline its operations, was passed after the government agreed to delete a clause that calls on IBA immediately begin slashing NIS 10 million ($2.57M) from its budget every month.

Instead of implementing the clause – which would have cost 430 jobs – the government and labor unions will negotiate over how many of the current IBA employees will migrate to the new broadcasting corporation that will replace the IBA. Another key section in the law abolishes the infamous annual Television Tax that Israelis in possession of television sets have had to pay for decades.
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September 4, 2015 | 4:26 am | 3 Comments »

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Who killed the Dawabshes, and why doesn’t the Shabak want to know?  

by Vic Rosenthal

Someone burned a baby and his father to death and severely injured two other members of the Dawabshe family a little more than a month ago on July 31, in the Arab village of Duma, southwest of Shechem (Nablus).

Beginning on the morning after the murders, as the investigation was just beginning, Israeli officials and media began claiming that the perpetrators were “Jewish terrorists.” The murder was conflated with the vicious knife murder of a 16-year old girl and the wounding of several others by a crazed ‘religious’ fanatic at the Jerusalem Gay Pride parade the same night. Two examples, it was said, of how we are the same as Arab terrorists. Two examples of our depravity as a culture.
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September 4, 2015 | 4:24 am | 4 Comments »

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