Calls with Middle Eastern heads of state represent how Vladimir Putin continues to view the Middle East as a key player in Russia’s policy goals.

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN, JPOST   29.6.23

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IRANIAN PRESIDENT Ebrahim Raisi and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet in Tehran last month. Raisi plans to visit New York next month to address the UN General Assembly, despite US sanctions.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin spoke with the President of Iran and the President of the UAE in the wake of the Wagner rebellion last weekend. The Russian leader’s decision to phone leaders in the Middle East illustrates how important the region remains, not just for Russia, but for the world in general.

This is in contrast to some policy analysis that suggests the Middle East is no longer of interest in the West and that the US and others are shifting away from the region after decades of involvement. While it may be true that some think tanks in the US or commentators no longer see the Middle East as a major area to focus on, reality illustrates why it matters.

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The Kremlin assured nations in Africa and the Middle East that it would manage Wagner forces, which have spread Russian power at little cost to Putin

By Benoit Faucon, Joe Parkinson and Drew Hinshaw, WSJ

In the hours after Yevgeny Prigozhin’s army of ex-convicts and mercenaries halted their advance on Moscow, the Kremlin set out to seize full control of the global empire built by the notorious military entrepreneur.

T. Belman. Is discretion the better part of valor in this case.  Bibi didn’t want radical reform anyway.

What, pray tell, is “nationalistic terror”?

Surrender’: Coalition MKs up in arms after PM says he’s dropped ‘override’ clause

Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu vows to advance revised judicial overhaul legislation, agrees settler violence can be termed ‘nationalistic terror,’ denies he wants to dissolve the PA, and says he still expects an invite to the White House

Haaretz< 29.6.23

Anti-judicial overhaul protest in Tel Aviv, earlier this year.Credit: Tomer Appelbaum

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that he would push forward with his planned judicial reform without its most controversial aspect, a provision that would allow the national legislature to overturn Supreme Court rulings.

“I threw that out,” Netanyahu said of the override clause. When asked if he would promote a revised version of the clause requiring a super majority, the prime minister said no – “it’s out.”

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By J.B. Shurk, AM THINKER

Generally speaking, central banks are empowered to control the supply of money by employing a number of tools that include buying government debt, selling government bonds, adjusting reserve requirements, and setting official interest rates.  Operating under various legal mandates to sustain an overall healthy economy, central banks ostensibly pursue policies that will produce relatively low inflation, steady economic growth, and low public unemployment.
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Following reports that judicial reform will no longer include Override Clause, Jerusalem Min. Porush clarifies: Our party will not accept this.

Israel National News    29.6.23

Jerusalem Minister Meir Porush (United Torah Judaism) has clarified that his party will not accept the Override Clause being taken off the agenda.

Porush’s statement follows remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he told the Wall Street Journal that the clause is no longer part of the judicial reform and will not be advanced

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T. Belman.  I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Why is Bibi kissing Biden’s ass rather than busting his balls for interfering in our internal affairs?

Despite not being invited to WH, Prime Minister Netanyahu says he and Biden have a ‘close friendship.‘

Israel National News  Jun 29, 2023, 9:11 AM (GMT+3)

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, published Thursday, discussed the rocky relationship between him and the current American administration under President Joe Biden.

“I’ve known President Biden for over 40 years, it’s been a close friendship. We don’t always agree, and we often disagree, but it’s instructive to say I think he’s self-described Zionist, pro-Israel, and I don’t think that’s an inaccurate description. Although, as in any family, we can disagree and often do, I have no doubt about his sentiment, and I trust that that will continue. And I can also tell you that in the times of the Obama administration when Mr. Biden was Vice President, he often served as a channel to try to find a middle ground during times of intense conflict, so friendship is not a question.”

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Past, present and future of the secular-haredi and religious Zionist divide.

By Howard Rotberg, INN 28.6.23

Anti haredi demnstrationYossi Zeliger/TPS

The special privileges that seem to be given to the haredim, especially the waiver of military service and the supremacy of Torah study over work is in some measure one of the issues in the protests we have seen in Israel over the last few months. Secular Jews of Israel sense that their power is diminishing as the population of Haredim and Religious Zionists grows at a faster rate. Haredim and the secular must make a priority of bridging their divide.

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CROSSROADS TONIGHT

When former President Donald Trump challenged the results of the 2020 elections, one of the main debates that boiled to the surface was who decides the laws on the elections. Republicans argued that this legal authority falls on the state legislatures, and that these elected officials are the ones who make the laws and decide which electors get to cast the final votes in the Electoral College. Democrats argued that this power was shared—that state courts and state governors should be able to exercise their own authority and challenge the decisions of the state legislatures.

The Supreme Court settled a key piece of that debate Tuesday. And under the law of the land, the state legislature is not the sole body that determines how our elections are run. WATCH HERE

TIERNEY’S REAL NEWS   JUN 28/23

Do you get it now?

Want more illegal aliens? Engineer a housing crisis, tell people to come and leave the border open.

Want more money to launder? Engineer a climate crisis, heat up the air to cause weather chaos & then hire arsonists to burn down our forests and make the air so hazy people can’t breathe and are willing to fund BlackRock’s ESG nonsense!
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By Nan Jacques Zilberdik, PMW | Jun 28, 2023

• 63-65% of the dead terrorist “Martyrs” are from Fatah, “most are [PA] Security Forces officers” – Director of Palestinian Center for Strategic Studies
• Fatah: “More than 355 of our prisoners are from the Palestinian [PA] Security Forces – in other words, the PA’s soldiers”
• Fatah repeats statistics about dead terrorist “Martyrs”: “Two thirds belong to the Fatah Movement and the PA”
• Fatah is directing the terror: “The armed resistance in the West Bank, the Fatah Movement is the one that is leading it”
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How the U.S. is working to constrain Israel before announcing its new Iran deal

BY MICHAEL DORAN, TABLET

Last November, after 22 months of failed negotiations with the Iranians, President Joe Biden said the Iran nuclear deal was “dead.” In recent weeks, however, he has revived discussions with Tehran in a bid, reportedly, “to reduce tensions.” But that phrase hides more than it reveals. While Biden and his team claim to be working to halt the advance of the Iranian nuclear weapons program, their unstated goal is to constrain Israel, permanently.

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CAROLINE GLICK SHOW

Andrew Benjamin reminded me of her and sent me an email thread which follows.

Mike Wallace came prepared for this interview and asked hardball questions. Ayn Rand stood her ground unapologetically and explained her philosophy as no one else could.

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T. Belman. That’s a veiled threat. If you go ahead with unilateral Judicial Reform, you can kiss normalization goodbye and forget about cooperation on Iran. The US isn’t about to change her policy on Iran in order to stop Judicial Reform and normalization should help the US too. Either they want it for their own good or not. They will not normalize to do us a favour.  The same goes for Saudi Arabia..  Its in their interest to normalize with Israel even if the US doesn’t give them what they are asking for.

Ambassador Tom Nides says he believes Netanyahu would rather focus on normalization with Arab countries than on the judicial reform.

Israel National News

US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides said on Tuesday that he does not believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will move forward with the entire judicial reform plan unilaterally because the public reaction will be “dramatic”, as he put it.

Nides’ comments were made in a virtual briefing to the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA). They come after the Knesset resumed the advancement of the government’s planned judicial reforms, a move implemented after the opposition froze the negotiations on the issue that were taking place at the President’s Residence.

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SCOTT RITTER did his homework.

By Tom Ozimek, EPOCH TIMES

Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses the nation in Moscow on June 26, 2023. (Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)

Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged in a televised address that the leaders of the Wagner rebellion would be brought to justice, in Putin’s first public comments since the mutiny by the mercenary group ended in an uncertain truce on June 24.

Putin’s remarks on June 26 were his first since a fiery speech several days ago while the apparent rebellion was still playing out and in which the Russian leader called the Wagner chief’s actions a “stab in the back” and pledged to crush what he described as a “rebellion.”

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Amb. (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative” June 27, 2023,

Notwithstanding the current tension between the Administrations of the US and Israel, and while there is an erosion in Israel’s high favorability among Americans (according to Gallup: Israel’s favorability – 68% compared to 71% in 2022; Palestinian Authority’s – 26%), the US-Israel defense and commercial cooperation keeps expanding.

This expansion responds to mutual threats and challenges, such as Iran’s Ayatollahs, Sunni Islamic terrorism, the vulnerability of all pro-US Arab regimes, and the need to bolster the US’ global, technological competitive edge. Facing these threats and challenges, the US is leveraging Israel’s unique defense and commercial capabilities, which have contributed to the US economy and defense – in dollar terms – more than the annual US “foreign aid” to Israel.
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T. Belman.  After years of fighting against electoral fraud in the courts, without much success, and election reform in the State legislatures, again, without success, Trump is left with no alternative.  And remember, these tactics are not mutually exclusive. He must do. both,

Col Macgregor in one of his videos, said about election fraud that  its not like you can pass federal law and correct the situation because according to the constitution, each state must set its own rules, That, compounded by RINOS, is the problem

After years of attacks on early voting, Trump follows other Republicans in suggesting party should embrace tactic

By Alex Leary and Eliza Collins, WSJ  15.2.23

Donald Trump’s criticism of mail-in voting helped chip away at GOP faith in early voting, polls show. PHOTO: GAELEN MORSE/REUTERS

After years of assailing early voting, Donald Trump is having a change of heart.

The 2024 presidential candidate remains critical of various forms of early voting, advisers say, but his campaign is nonetheless mounting an effort to pursue such votes after Democrats excelled at doing so in recent elections. His team is studying state laws governing absentee and mail-in voting as well as ballot collection, called “ballot harvesting” by critics, in which third parties gather and turn in votes, people familiar with the effort said.

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Charlie Kirk Show

A massive new report by NBC exposes the disastrous state of the GOP get-out-the-vote effort, which is low on manpower and rife with inefficiency and outright fraud. If this doesn’t change, the party will be crushed in 2024. So what do we do, right now, to keep that from happening? Charlie talks to Scott Presler and Tyler Bowyer about this crucial topic, and concludes with an exciting announcement of Turning Point Action’s planned work in the key swing state of Wisconsin.