TFIG

By Janet Levy, AM THINKER  8.5.23

What is a Woman?  You can no longer answer the question with alacrity.  In a 2022 documentary of the same name, when Matt Walsh poses that question to someone identifying as a gay male, he is told, “You should be asking a woman.  I don‘t know; I‘m not a woman.  Only women can define what a woman is.”  Not missing a beat, and putting the absurdity into sharp relief, Walsh rejoins by asking, “Are you a cat?” and following up the “No” with “Do you know what a cat is?”  The interviewee flees.
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By Jan Jekielek and Bill Pan, EPOCH TIMES   May 9, 2023

Former President Donald Trump raises his fist while walking to a vehicle outside of Trump Tower in New York on Aug. 10, 2022. (Stringer/AFP via Getty Images)

There isn’t anything for former President Donald Trump to worry about with a potential lawsuit coming from a Georgia district attorney, although he might have more serious trouble with some of his other cases, said Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz.

Speaking to EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” program on May 8, Dershowitz was asked about the $250 million civil fraud lawsuit brought by New York’s Democrat Attorney General Letitia James, who accuses Trump and three of his children of overvaluing the family’s real estate assets by billions of dollars. This case, according to Dershowitz, will likely be resolved by settlement.

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The verdicts and rhetoric surrounding J6 trials are leading to one goal: the arrest and prosecution of Donald Trump.

By Julie Kelly, AM GREATNESS     8.5.23

In 2002, David Frum, chief speechwriter for President George W. Bush, coined the phrase “axis of evil” to describe the despotic regimes of North Korea, Iran, and Iraq during the nascent stages of the global war on terror.

Today, Frum is warning the country about a different axis of evil that he believes similarly threatens the security of America and perhaps even the world: Donald Trump, the Oath Keepers, and the Proud Boys.
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Achieving a remodeled status quo would require on the part of the Palestinian, Jordanian, and Israeli parties, support from the respective religious leaderships, and active, ongoing public encouragement through the media in order to counteract those elements that would inevitably seek to obstruct such a project.

By Alan Baker , ISRAEL HAYOM     05-08-2023 12:17

As appalled as one may feel by the questionable manner in which Minister for National Security Itamar Ben Gvir comports himself in his day-to-day activities and statements, there is one aspect upon which he is right.

This is his oft-repeated and legally-sound claim, from long before he became a minister, that the right of worship – including by Jews – is an internationally recognized universal right that should be applied equally, and without discrimination on Temple Mount, to worshippers of all religions.

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T. Belman. What a ridiculous excuse.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s defense establishment kept the security cabinet out of the loop due to their lack of experience in defense and the possibility that intelligence may be leaked

By Jonathan Lis, HAARETZ        May 9, 2023 3:07 pm IDT
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other security establishment heads at the security cabinet meeting earlier in April.Credit: Amos Ben Gershom / GPO

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has avoided convening the security cabinet in advance of the commencement of the IDF’s “Operation Shield and Arrow,” which began during the early hours of Tuesday morning with a series of airstrikes in the Gaza Strip after consultations with senior defense officials and with the approval of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.

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by Jonathan Spyer, The Jerusalem Post  May 5, 2023

In a briefing to defense reporters in mid-April, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant noted that under his stewardship, Israeli attacks on Iranian infrastructure had significantly increased. “Since I took office,” Gallant said, “in the first quarter of 2023 we doubled the rate of attacks in Syria.”

Israel’s current actions in Syria take place in the context of a rapidly shifting regional strategic picture, in which the imperative of facing down an emboldened Iran is becoming both increasingly urgent and increasingly complex.
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Home Front Command instructs residents of communities near border with the Gaza Strip to remain in shelters until further notice.

By Elad Benari, INN   9.5.23

The IDF overnight Monday announced the beginning of Operation Shield and Arrow, as part of which the IDF and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) targeted the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization’s Northern Gaza Division Commanding Officer, responsible for the rocket fire toward Israel in the past month; a senior operative and coordinator of terrorism in Judea and Samaria from Gaza; and the Secretary of the Military Council.

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Mark Sleboda, REAL POLITICK  MAY 8

https://marksleboda.substack.com/p/kiev-brags-about-global-genocidal?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email#details

• Kiev Regime Main Intelligence Directorate Head Budanov Straight Up Tells Western Media He Is Killing and Will Kill Russians All Over the World, they nod sympathetically.
• Prigozhin’s Performance Comes to an End and Suddenly Prigozhin Has Plenty of Shells and Wagner’s Mopping Up of Bakhmut Will Continue
• Kiev Regime’s Offensive About to Begin, Russian Drones & Missles Hammer Staging & Logistics Points, Military Sitrep
• More grain deal jabber

T. Belman.  Freedom of speech is indispensable to a democracy. Suppression of speech is indispensable to a totalitarian state. Of course it is ludicrous to compare them on the question of freedom. Democracies are more free. Perhaps they should be compared on how successful they are. Then the question is what constitutes success.

There is no pure democracy. Every country has a mixture of democracy and elitism, i.e., bottom up and top down. Or a mixture of socialism and capitalism.  Every law that is passed curbs freedom.

By Alex Wu, EPOCH TIMES   7.5.23

Police attempt to stop journalists from recording footage outside the Shanghai Pudong New District People’s Court, where Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan is set for trial in Shanghai on Dec. 28, 2020. (Leo Ramirez/AFP via Getty Images)

China joined other communist states—Vietnam and North Korea—at the very bottom of the latest Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) World Press Freedom Index released on May 3, which was World Press Freedom Day.

China ranked in 179th place on this year’s index of 180 countries and regions, one spot above North Korea and one place lower than Vietnam. It fell four places from its ranking last year.

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T. Belman.  Its good that Israel didn’t back down.  It forced the EU to show its true colours. Once again Europe is outlawing Jews. Once again it has shown its disrespect for democracy and for Israel.

They suck up to Iran and China and piss on Israel.

European Union snubs National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, cancelling Europe Day event after he was selected to represent Israel.

Israel National News       May 8, 2023, 2:58 PM (GMT+3)

Itamar Ben-GvirAvshalom Sassoni/Flash90

The European Union announced Monday that it has cancelled plans to mark Europe Day in Israel, after the Israeli government selected National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit) to represent the Jewish state.

In a statement released by the European Union’s mission to Israel, the EU said it would not “offer a platform” to someone with values antithesis to those of the 27-member union.

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This combination picture shows Jordanian MP Imad al-Adwan, reported by Jordanian media to have been arrested at the Allenby Bridge border crossing, and handguns allegedly seized from him on April 23, 2023 (Jordanian media; courtesy)

A Jordanian parliamentarian arrested by Israeli authorities last month for attempting to smuggle over 200 firearms into the West Bank was released on Sunday to face trial back home.

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Title 42 made it possible to turn away people at the southern border and expires on Thursday

By Michelle Hackman, WSJ   8.5.23

When he ran for president, Joe Biden promised to restore America’s commitment to welcoming people fleeing persecution after Donald Trump spent four years restricting it. Two years into his presidency, Mr. Biden is instead doing the opposite by crafting a new system designed to limit the waves of asylum seekers pressuring the southern border.

Mr. Biden’s reversal reflects a broader political shift. In the three years that the U.S. employed Title 42, the pandemic-era measure that made it possible to turn away people seeking asylum at the southern border, lawmakers in both parties have grown increasingly comfortable with a future in which the decades long right to cross America’s border to seek refuge from persecution is no longer sacrosanct.

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Xi has put the Chinese state back together again but the balance between orderly process and proactive enterprise still needs reconciled

By Francesco Sisci, ASIA TIMES        MAY 8, 2023

When President Xi Jinping came to power at the 2012 Party Congress, he had to face serious and systemic challenges to the structure of the Chinese state.

Simply speaking, these challenges were branded “corruption.” But it was far more than corruption; it was the complete disruption of the decision-making process of the state coming after years of festering of long-existing problems.

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‘There is a range of possible responses, starting with not attending the event at all to participating fully while ignoring Ben-Gvir and his speech. All options are on the table,’ a European diplomat explains

By Amir Tibon, HAARETZ

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir last week.Credit: Ilan AssayagEuropean Union ambassadors to Israel will hold a special meeting on Monday to decide together on a response to the participation of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir as Israel’s representative to Tuesday’s Europe Day event.

Ben-Gvir announced Sunday morning that he insists on speaking at the event marking the establishment of the EU, despite opposition to his far-right stance, and that he intends on expressing criticism of the EU’s line on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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Ben-Gvir called the move a ‘strategic mistake.’

By Nitsan Keidar, INN     May 7, 2023, 11:28 AM (GMT+3)

Israel released today (Sunday) the Jordanian member of parliament Imad al-Adwan, who was suspected of smuggling weapons into the country via the Allenby crossing, political sources confirmed.

Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir attacked the release, saying that: “the decision to release the terrorist who tried to bring here hundreds of weapons that will be used for terrorist attacks and acts of crime in the heart of the State of Israel is a strategic and moral mistake.”

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T. Belman.  This is not a legal ruling, it is a political ruling.  As such it is for the Knesset to decide when to follow the law.

In deciding to block the eviction of Khan al-Ahmar, Netanyahu discovered that he’s lucky he hasn’t managed to destroy the High Court of Justice just yet

By Jonathan Lis,  HAARETZ   8.5.23

The Palestinian village of Khan al-Ahmar.Credit: Ohad Zwigenberg

The Justices of the High Court of Justice handed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a significant lifeline on Sunday, helping him dodge a powerful diplomatic landmine.

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by Bassam Tawil, GATESTONE •  May 8, 2023

Hamas security forces carry out an exercise simulating the murder of detainees, near Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip on October 13, 2022. (Photo by Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images)

• The failure [to report the deaths of two men in Hamas custody] underscores what appears their total lack of concern for the human rights of Palestinians living under the rule of Hamas….
• The media seem more worried about the human rights of Palestinian terrorists than the rights of victims of Palestinian terrorists.
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Mudar Zahran gave an interview with Adam King on INFOWARS about two weeks ago. Start at 24 min:

THE AMERICAN JOURNAL [2 of 3] Tue 4/18/23 • ADAM KING, DAVID HAKIMIFAR, DON HATELEY, MUDAR ZAHRAN

By Don Feder, WASH TIMES – – Saturday, May 6, 2023

Anniversaries are opportunities to put historical events in perspective.

May 16 is the 80th anniversary of the fall of the Warsaw Ghetto, where a few hundred poorly armed Jewish fighters held off 3,000 SS troops for almost a month.

Finally, the only way the Nazis could end the uprising was to burn down the ghetto block by block. More than 13,000 died, about half of them burned alive or suffocated by smoke. The survivors were taken to death camps.
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