Zelensky says Ukraine shot down 16 of the 18 missiles
Macgregor said the opposite is true. The 18 missiles were very successful.

by Alisha Rodriguez, REPUBLIC BRIEF    May 17, 2023

A project run by The Center for Tech and Civic Life, a nonprofit organization that controvertibly utilized Mark Zuckerberg’s money to increase Democratic voter turnout in the 2020 election, is buying space for regional election offices to store voting equipment and ballots.

The Alliance for Election Excellence (AEE), led by Tiana Epps-Johnson and the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), started with almost $100 million in April 2022 and is responsible for providing private funding for the nation’s election infrastructure. According to reports, the CTCL disobeyed local election officials and used mail-in voting in the 2020 campaign to boost turnout in districts that were virtually entirely Democratic. The CTCL allegedly used hundreds of millions of dollars from the founder of Facebook’s Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to get mail-in votes before the election, demonstrating the partisan conflict of interest by supporting the conversion of many election offices to vote-by-mail.

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The Christie’s auction had drawn criticism because it featured gems from the estate of a woman whose husband bought businesses from Jews pressured to sell because of Nazi persecution.

By Zachary Smal, SHURAT HADIN May 15, 2023

The jewelry sale was controversial because the fortune that helped to purchase items, such as this Bulgari colored diamond and emerald bracelet, was built in part on the discounted purchases of Jewish businesses. Credit…Christie’s, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Criticism from historians and Jewish organizations did little to dim the sale at Christie’s of jewels bought with a fortune built in part atop profits made from the Aryanization of Jewish businesses during the Holocaust.

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By Olesya Astakhova, REUTERS   and Parisa Hafezi

MOSCOW, May 17 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday oversaw, via video-link, the signing of a deal to finance and build an Iranian railway line as part of an embryonic international North–South Transport Corridor.

The Rasht-Astara railway is seen as an important link in the corridor, intended to connect India, Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan and other countries via railways and sea – a route that Russia says can rival the Suez Canal as a major global trade route.Report an ad

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Republicans and Democrats have run their course. Throw the bums out. All of them.

By Dan Gelernter, AM GREATNESS  May 15, 2023

I said before the 2022 midterms that our choice of candidates doesn’t matter—and the elections won’t matter—unless we address voter fraud. That remains the case today, as we look forward to the next presidential election.

Democrats have known for a long time that voters by and large do not want them running the country. Voters don’t want to live in a feudal oligarchy where they work their entire lives to subsidize a jet-setting elite who tell them they can’t own gas stoves or prevent drag queens from visiting their children in school. And while it was enough, for a time, simply to lie about what they intended to do, Democrats discovered that it was more effective in the end to disconnect voters from the process of choosing who runs the government.
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Why the Deafening Silence from Antisemitism Envoy Deborah Lipstadt?

Zionist Organization of America President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:

On Monday, the United Nations General Assembly hosted a “Nakba 75” orgy of lies that demonized Israel’s existence as a “catastrophe” and falsely accused Israeli Jews of every imaginable evil. The scene was reminiscent of the Nazi Germans’ vile anti-Jewish libels and “the Jews are our misfortune” displays. It is sickening and obscene that our U.S. tax dollars are paying for the United Nations to promote extreme anti-Jewish and anti-Israel hate and libels.
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T. Belman.  This push by Biden is more about blocking China’s expansion in the Middle East than on getting a peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia. He knows that if he doesn’t do it, Trump will in ’24.

Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan was a debacle. China’s brokered deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia further diminished Biden. Winning back Saudi Arabia into the American Camp is of huge strategic importance. It will restore American influence in the entire Arab world. Benefiting Israel is the least of his concerns.

The Obama/Biden Iran card has been upended by the new China, Russia and Iran axis warranting increased involvement in the ME, rather than diminished involvement as has been touted.

Two US officials say the White House wants to make diplomatic push for Saudi-Israeli peace deal in the next six to seven months.

Israel National News     May 18, 2023, 4:03 AM (GMT+3)

The White House wants to make a diplomatic push for a Saudi-Israeli peace deal in the next six to seven months before the presidential election campaign consumes President Joe Biden’s agenda, two US officials with knowledge of the issue told Axios’ Barak Ravid on Wednesday.

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T. Belman. This is a good article except he makes it sound like Israel is only a dependent of the US.  He totally ignores the benefits the US gets from partnering on innovation particularly, military innovation.

A corollary to this is that the US certainly doesn’t want Israel partnering with China. Furthermore if China dominates the ME, it will dominate Africa.

Israel at 75 Is Threatened but Strong
It can no longer take its relationship with the U.S. for granted, but it may not need to.

By Walter Russell Mead, The Wall Street Journal May 15, 2023

It’s been 75 years since the Jewish community in British Palestine rejected a last-minute plea from the Truman administration and declared independence as the last British forces left the embattled land. It wasn’t the most auspicious moment. One day earlier, the strategically located Gush Etzion bloc of Jewish agricultural settlements fell to Arab assailants following a bitter siege.

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T. Belman. Fitzgerald is more optimistic than I am.  The Democratic Party tolerates the antisemitic remarks by members of the Squad, and supports the Palestinians who want to kill us. Muslim immigration continues to increase as does antisemitism in the US. The Dems may support military aid to Israel but it the Israel in their image, not the Israel that Israelis voted for.

Is anti-Israel sentiment in Congress the wave of the future?

by Hugh Fitzgerald, FPM   17.5.23

Representative Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) has promised to “kill” any resolution in the House that attempts to place conditions on aid to Israel, including such demands on Israel as ending all new settlement building in Judea and Samaria. Gottheimer is a liberal Democrat and one of many who are unswerving in their support for Israel, giving the lie to those who claim that Israeli can no longer count on the support of liberal Democrats. More on his statement can be found here: “US Lawmaker Pledges to ‘Kill’ Growing Efforts to Condition Aid to Israel,” by Andrew Bernard, Algemeiner, April 26, 2023:

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By Andrea Widburg, AM THINKER

Image: The Altar of Mount Ebal (Joshua’s Altar) by Hoshvilim. CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of the important things to remember about Biblical archeology is that our modern understanding keeps changing as the earth keeps disgorging materials hidden for millennia, and new technologies allow us better to understand those discoveries. That’s the case with a Bronze Age tablet that reveals something consistent with one of the Bible’s oldest and most consequential narratives.
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The Caroline Glick Show

T. Belman. While we are on the subject read;

Bomb Gaza. Win the War.

Don’t muddy the waters.

by Dr. Eric R. Mandel, MEPIN

Image from tweet made by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs Twitter account @francediplo_EN.

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By Mark Sleboda, REAL POLITICK   MAY 16

AUDIO

• US Disinfo (Pentagon Leaks) vs Russian Psy Ops ({Prigozhin) = Farce
• WaPo deletes part of Zelensky interview from website after his paranoid tantrum
• Russian missile strikes in Kiev takes out US-supplied Patriot air defense system (CNN reports Biden admin officials now admitting it was “damaged”)
• Bakhmut update

Washington has recently received evidence and video recorded confessions in the aftermath of the detained Jordanian parliament member, proving that Jordan's kinglet has been DIRECTLY involved in supporting terrorism…https://t.co/RgWXPCi9FL@tedcruz@mdubowitz pic.twitter.com/U4WtLqnuIB

— Mudar Adnan Zahran ???????? ????? (@Mudar_Zahran) May 16, 2023

'Saudi's rapprochement with Iran 'has no impact on a bilateral Saudi-Israeli relationship'

In an exclusive interview, @USAmbIsrael discusses Iran, judicial reform, Abraham Accords, and more

Tune in: 8 pm Israel time, 1 pm US EST on #TheRundown with @calev_i24 pic.twitter.com/L6XICDLaBW

— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) May 16, 2023

Coalition and Opposition reach agreements on future of reasonableness standard and the status of ministerial legal advisors.

Israel National News      May 17, 2023, 7:49 AM (GMT+3)

Negotiating teams from the Opposition and Coalition who have been meeting at the president’s residence for talks aimed at reaching an agreement on judicial reform have made significant progress towards a deal, according to a report Wednesday morning.

A report by Reshet Bet said that the two sides have reach an accord over two key issues: the future use by courts of the reasonableness standard, and the status of ministerial legal advisors.

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One of the architects of judicial overhaul warns that the government won’t survive if reform isn’t passed.

Israel National News    May 16, 2023, 11:55 AM (GMT+3)

MK Simcha Rothman with Justice Minister LevinYonatan Sindel/Flash90

Chairman of the Knesset’s Constitution Committee MK Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionist Party) called on the government Tuesday morning to move forward with the judicial reform plan, even if no deal can be reached with the Opposition regarding a compromise.

Speaking with Radio 103FM, Rothman blamed Opposition lawmakers for the deadlocked talks, adding that while he hopes an agreement is reached, the government must move forward with the overhaul regardless of the outcome of the talks.

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T. Belman. This is another example of the left refusing to accept the results of the last election. It will go to any means to prevent the passing of the budget this month. I expect the protests to increase over the next two weeks to make it every so difficult for this government to rule.

“If passed, the Arnona Fund law would appropriate between 10% to 28% of commercial property taxes raised by municipalities, with higher income communities paying a higher rate, to support a fund which would subsidize lower income communities to encourage them to build more housing units.”

This transfer of funds from the rich communities to the poorer ones is a good policy.  It will lower the cost of housing for all and will serve to decentralize Israel and support the outlining communities which everyone in Israel wants.

Schools shuttered in dozens of cities and municipal services frozen in ongoing strike protesting new city tax redistribution plan.

Israel National News     May 16, 2023, 9:45 AM (GMT+3)

A strike launched Monday in protest of the government’s new city tax redistribution plan continued in major cities and towns across Israel Tuesday, leaving schools closed and municipal services out of commission.

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