The Last Lion Remembered

By Victor Davis Hanson, NRO

Winston Churchill never once flinched in the face of the Third Reich.

Fifty years ago this Saturday, former British prime minister Winston Churchill died at age 90.

Churchill is remembered for his multiple nonstop careers as a statesman, cabinet minister, politician, journalist, Nobel laureate historian, and combat veteran. He began his career serving the British military as a Victorian-era mounted lancer and ended it as custodian of Britain’s nuclear deterrent.

But he is most renowned for an astounding five-year-tenure as Britain’s wartime prime minister from May 10, 1940, to June 26, 1945, when he was voted out of office not long after the surrender of Nazi Germany.

Churchill took over the day Hitler invaded Western Europe. Within six weeks, an isolated Great Britain was left alone facing the Third Reich. What is now the European Union was then either under Nazi occupation, allied with Germany, or ostensibly neutral while favoring Hitler.
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Europeans feel their skin crawl in the presence of the sort of Jews who represent the future of the Jewish people

By David P. Goldman (Spengler), PJ MEDIA

Why do Europeans feel such revulsion toward Jews? At a certain level, to be sure, European leaders deeply regret the new persecution of Europe’s Jews. Many share the sentiment of European Commission Vice-Chairman Frans Timmermans, who warned yesterday that an exodus of Europe’s Jews would call into question the premises of European society. Last September, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel told a rally in Berlin that it was the duty of every German to fight anti-Semitism. Nonetheless even the best-intentioned Europeans feel their skin crawl in the presence of the sort of Jews who represent the future of the Jewish people: those who follow Jewish tradition, raise Jewish families, and embrace the cause of Zionism. Europeans adore secular Israelis who wallow in existential doubts, for example, the novelist Zeruya Shalev, a bestseller in Germany and the winner of any number of European literary awards. I’ve never read Shalev, but then again, I don’t like fiction. Jews like Naftali Bennett, Israel’s economy minister and leader of the Jewish Home party, give them the creeps.
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T. Belman. I thought “Je suis Charlie” meant we were defending free speech. Yet the response in France and elsewhere is to penalize free speech.

By Deborah Weiss, FPM

[After discussing the Hedbo killings, the largest march in France ever and the no show of Obama, the author continues.]

But don’t worry; the US is on top of things: it will be holding its previously cancelled (or “indefinitely postponed”) summit on “Countering Violent Extremism” (CVE). The agenda makes no mention of Islamic terrorism or Islamic extremism, even with questionable qualifiers. If the summit’s definition of “extremism” bears any resemblance to the application of the term used by the Homeland Security Advisory Committee, then no doubt the roundtable targets will be the Tea Party, neo-Nazis, and other “right-wing extremists.”

Don’t be surprised if the administration reaches out to CAIR and other Muslim Brotherhood front-groups to stamp out this scourge. After all, as Eric Holder has repeatedly stated…. urrr…stuttered, “[W]e are at war with those who would commit terrorist attacks and who could corrupt the Islamic faith in a way that they do, to try to justify their terrorist actions. So, that is who we are at war with.”
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A study in the dangers, and absurdities, of censorship

By J. Hoberman, TABLET

While Charlie Hebdo returned to Parisian newsstands with a defiant image of a contrite Mohammad emblazoned on its cover, Timbuktu, a much-praised, Oscar-nominated movie by the internationally known Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako was unceremoniously yanked out of a theater in the Paris suburb, Villiers-sur-Marne.

The district, which has a large North African population, is the birthplace of Hayat Boumeddiene, the fugitive companion of the perpetrator of the Hyper Cacher massacre Amedy Coulibaly. The town’s mayor Jacques-Alain Bénisti (a member of the Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement) first called the movie, which he had not seen, “an apology for terrorism” and then had it removed Friday from the Cinema City Casino because he feared that young people might take the jihadists for a model.
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Ted Belman. This means that Yishai could join Likud giving it an extra 2 or 3 seats. Netanyahu could go with them or Bayit Yehudi. Probably Bennett prefers that Yishai and Netanyahu get together so his party can remain independent.. On the other hand Yishai could also join with Bennett. Maybe Ben Ari can join Bennet who will agree to red lines. Its getting interesting.

Rabbi Lior gets negative message from Yishai, whose sources fear ‘extremist’ stigma in apparent desire to compromise for coalition spot.

By Yishai Karov, Ari Yashar

Despite repeated calls to run on a joint list so as to ensure both ideological religious nationalist parties can pass the recently raised threshold, Yachad – Ha’am Itanu chair Eli Yishai has apparently refused to run with Dr. Michael Ben-Ari’s Otzma Yehudit.
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The Jews are entitled to settle in the disputed territories: entitled legally, historically and morally.

By Melanie Phillips, JPOST

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has announced a “preliminary examination” into “the situation in Palestine.” This has understandably provoked a furious response by the Israeli government.

The ICC prosecutor chose to accept the UN General Assembly’s bogus and politically motivated designation of Palestine as a non-member “state.” And Israel’s reputation is besmirched by the opening of an inquiry into it by an ICC which was set up to prosecute war criminals.

It is intolerable that the ICC has first of all accepted that “Palestine” is a state, and second that it may put Israelis in the dock while they are the victims of true war criminals, the Palestinians.
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T. Belman. The Administration is acting like we betrayed a friend. On the contrary, the administration has proved in a number of ways that they are not our friend. Israel owes them nothing.

JPOST

No indication of Netanyahu’s visit or even the invitation by US house speaker John Boehner was mentioned in a recent meeting with the Israeli ambassador, a US source says.

Following Wednesday’s announcement that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been invited to speak to Congress about Iran without first consulting President Barack Obama’s administration, US sources warned Thursday that the breach of protocol could have lasting effects for the Israeli premier, according to The Washington Post.

“Neither [Speaker of the House of Representatives John] Boehner nor Netanyahu gave the administration any notice of his planned visit, and some US officials were warning that the breach of traditional diplomatic protocol could have lasting consequences for the Israeli leader,” The Washington Post reported.
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NATIONAL SECURITY AND CONSERVATIVE LEADERS CONGRATULATE GOV. JINDAL FOR HIS LEADERSHIP IN COUNTERING THE GLOBAL JIHAD MOVEMENT AND SHARIAH

(Washington, DC): Dozens of national security professionals and conservative thought leaders have signed a letter to Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana congratulating him on his recent remarks to the Henry Jackson Society in London, during which he forthrightly identified the threat posed by the Islamic jihadist movement and the shariah doctrine it seeks to impose globally, and the fundamental incompatibility of that doctrine with American Constitutional freedoms.

The letter, organized by the Center for Security Policy, states in part:

“We want to congratulate you for your recent remarks at the Henry Jackson Society in London in which you exhibited exemplary clarity of thought, commitment to truth and dedication to our Constitution and the freedoms it guarantees.  The fact that you are being severely, and reprehensibly, attacked for doing so in connection with the central threat of our time – the Islamic supremacist doctrine of shariah and the global jihad being conducted to impose it on all of us – is an indictment of your critics, not of you.  To the contrary, such criticisms should be regarded as a badge of honor.

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US Secretary of State John Kerry had stated that an Israeli intelligence official said a tougher sanctions bill at this time would be “like throwing a grenade into the process.”

By Herb Keinon, JPOST

In an extremely unusual step, the Mossad issued a statement on Thursday denying the intelligence agency was lobbying US lawmakers against stiffer Iran sanctions and saying that such legislation may lead to a collapse of talks with the Islamic Republic.

The statement came as the climax to a bizarre series of events that ended with Mossad head Tamir Pardo contradicting a public statement made by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

The incident started when Speaker of the House John Boehner invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a special joint session of Congress to speak about the Iranian threat and apparently back tougher sanctions, something many in the Republican-led Congress are supporting.
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Israel is Getting it Together

In this week’s blog, I will illustrate how the Hebrew word “beyachad” (together) typifies the Israeli approach to innovating a better world.

Israel and the US continue to move closer together economically. The Israel-US Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation recently approved $8.3 million in new funding for 11 projects where US and Israeli companies are working together.  Next, the new Israeli branch of US technology innovator Bell Labs is promoting itself as a new avenue for Israeli PhD graduates to pursue research careers in Israel.  Then, American Internet and media giant AOL announced that it is investing $5million in a joint US-Israeli video research project at the Technion-Cornell Institute.  AOL already has an Israeli R&D center.  And finally, US camera-maker Kodak is looking to acquire Israeli tech startups to help rebuild the company as a leader in digital printing.

Many countries realize that they need to get together with Israel if they are to tackle water scarcity and wastewater problems.  The University of Chicago has sought out Israel’s Ben-Gurion University to help develop radical new approaches that may one day rejuvenate the world’s water-starved regions.  Scotland’s BDS idiots must be “drowning their sorrows” following the successful UK pilot project of the recycling technology from Israel’s Applied CleanTech for wastewater – at Scottish Water!
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After 20 years of enduring vilification for reporting Hamas-PA armed collusion, documentation emerges.

By David Bedein, INN

This week, the respected Jerusalem Center forPublic Affairs, the JCPA, issued a policy paper which documented how the PSF, the Palestinian Security Forces, which reports to the PalestinianAuthority, has been consistently arming the Hamas and other terror groups for the past 15 years, despite public statements of the Israeli military establishment, which has consistently reported for all of these years that the PA was fighting Hamas and other terror groups

The report can be perused at: http://jcpa.org/article/hamas-arafat-intifada/

Except that our agency broke this story, almost 20 years ago, and we paid quite a price for it, with the credibility and integrity of our office called into question.

Here is the background: With the genesis of the Oslo process, the question of how the nascent Palestinian Authority would deal with Palestinian entities which did not approve the Oslo accord became a focus for the press.
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T Belman. I agree with Waldman in essence but disagree when he says in the US “the only allowable public position for a politician to take is that we support whatever the Israeli government wants to do.” Whether that is true is debatable but in practice the US Administration doesn’t back the government of Israel’s position whether coming from the left or right, but instead bully’s Israel into doing what it wants.

By Paul Waldman, WaPo

When House Speaker John Boehner invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress without bothering to let the White House know, as is normal practice when dealing with foreign leaders, he no doubt thought he was getting a little sauce for the gander.You want to find ways to get Republicans mad, President Obama? Okay, how about if I invite the leader of one of our closest allies here to basically lobby against your position on Iran? How do you like that?

Boehner was right on that score: President Obama doesn’t like it very much. Neither did Nancy Pelosi, who blasted Boehner’s move this morning as “inappropriate,” adding: “It’s out of the ordinary that the Speaker would decide that he would be inviting people to a joint session without any bipartisan consultation.”
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T. Belman. This is scary as hell. Clinton has no accomplishments on her resume and many blackmarks. Just like Obama. What is with the American public. Clinton is no friend of the Jews or Israel.

By Jeremy Diamond, CNN

Washington (CNN)Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton isn’t just the prospective Democratic frontrunner — she’s favored over every top potential Republican candidate, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll released Thursday.

Clinton beats out five potential Republican candidates in head-to-head matchups by double-digits, according to the survey of 843 registered votes, conducted after reports emerged that Mitt Romney was phoning donors, supporters and former staffers and considering a third presidential run.

Mitt Romney may be rushing the field and fraying former Gov. Jeb Bush’s prospects of locking up the establishment money, but the former GOP presidential nominee loses to Clinton by a wider margin than Bush in the poll’s hypothetical matchups. Romney falls 15 points behind Clinton while Bush also loses, but by 13 percentage points.
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Ted Belman. I was thinking the same thing. At a minimum, all bus drivers should carry guns.

MK Feiglin Blog

“If two armed and trained citizens had been on the bus yesterday in Tel Aviv, the terror attack would have ended in a completely different way –  or it wouldn’t have happened at all,” said MK Moshe Feiglin after Wednesday’s terror attack in which 10 were wounded, three seriously. “But Israel’s policy is to reduce the number of citizens licensed to bear arms as much as possible. The main excuse is the murders that have been perpetrated by owners of licensed guns. But the truth is just the opposite. In 2013, 13 murders were perpetrated with licensed firearms. 12 of those murders were carried out by security guards or police. Their weapons belonged to the organization for which they worked or to the State! They weren’t privately owned at all,” Feiglin said.

“How many tractors running people over, knife-wielding terrorists or other murderers and robbers have been neutralized by responsible citizens bearing licensed firearms?” Feiglin asked.  “So if weapons-bearing citizens help to secure the public domain, shouldn’t the State encourage responsible citizens to practice shooting and carry weapons? Why does it do just the opposite?
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T. Belman. So what if Jeb Bush has Jewish friends, his families ties to the Saudis and their record on Israel are not encouraging. The Bush letter of ’04 doesn’t cut it for me. Christie, because of his ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, should be dismissed out of hand. Romney, of course has a good relationship with Netanyahu, if only we knew what Netanyahu will settle for. The key issue here is what policy is pro-Israel these days. How about a paradigm shift from the 2SS.

Gov Pence when asked about what he thought US policy should be vis a vis Israel and he said what his policy would be, namely to back Israel in what ever policy she thought best. Works for me.

By Ditriy Shapiro, TOI

WASHINGTON (Washington Jewish Week) — The key consideration for Jewish Republicans in what appears to be a burgeoning race for the party’s presidential nod is electability, top party donors said.

Whereas in the past, a donor’s closeness to a particular candidate or his embrace of a favored policy may have been key, Jewish Republicans said, the main goals now are defeating Hillary Rodham Clinton, seen as the likely Democratic nominee, and reversing course on Obama’s Israel policy.

Gary Erlbaum, a real estate executive who in 2012 backed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, said the growing consensus among potential donors was that sticklers for ideological correctness were not attractive.
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Alan Koven: But of course there is nothing you can do…right? That is unless it happens to one of your kids and grand kids. More and more colleges are giving in to BDS. These kids are feeling the pressure and Jewish groups like open Hillel, JStreet and B’tselem are backing them. They are Jewish kids disenfranchised from Israel and Judaism. It’s only a matter of time before Canada and America become overrun and we may have no place to run.

Ted Belman. The trouble with this scenario is that Iran should be the one to want the negotiations, not the US or be more fearful of their end than the US. The US or Israel could always bomb them.

Is Mossad showing their leftist slant again.

Israeli intelligence officials have apparently come around to the same view shared by both the Obama administration as well as American spy agencies.

JPOST

Israel’s political leadership is in disagreement with top members of its intelligence services over the benefit of more Congressional sanctions on Iran as negotiations over its disputed nuclear program continue, Bloomberg News is reporting on Thursday.

The rift is so severe that it compelled the Mossad to contradict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and directly warn US Congressional officials that more sanctions against the Islamic Republic at this juncture could effectively spell the end of negotiations, according to Bloomberg. Read more…

By Richard Baehr, ISRAEL HAYOM
[..]
The president reportedly let forth a charming piece of slander directed at Menendez and others who are with him ?in backing new sanctions:

?”According to one of the senators and another person who was ?present, the president urged lawmakers to stop pursuing ?sanctions, saying such a move would undermine his authority ?and could derail the talks. Mr. Obama also said that such a ?provocative action could lead international observers to blame ?the Americans, rather than the Iranians, if the talks collapsed ?before the June 30 deadline.?

“The president said he understood the pressures that senators ?face from donors and others, but he urged the lawmakers to ?take the long view rather than make a move for short-term ?political gain, according to the senator. Mr. Menendez, who ?was seated at a table in front of the podium, stood up and said ?he took ‘personal offense.’?
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By NYT

BUENOS AIRES — Intercepted conversations between representatives of the Iranian and Argentine governments point to a long pattern of secret negotiations to reach a deal in which Argentina would receive oil in exchange for shielding Iranian officials from charges that they orchestrated the bombing of a Jewish community center in 1994.

The transcripts were made public by an Argentine judge on Tuesday night, as part of a 289-page criminal complaint written by Alberto Nisman, the special prosecutor investigating the attack. Mr. Nisman was found dead in his luxury apartment on Sunday, the night before he was to present his findings to Congress. Read more…