A catalogue of the failures of the various Palestinian factions can be found here: “Palestinian Society Sinks into Shambles,” by James Sinkinson, JNS.org, August 10, 2023:

…Last May, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) spent days bombarding Israel with rockets, forcing the Jewish state to retaliate. Hamas refrained from fighting, yet did not prevent PIJ from attacking Israel—demonstrating the Hamas rulers were either unwilling or unable to curb rival terrorists.

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MK says government should apologize only for IDF Chief of Staff Halevi remaining in role, has a ‘duty to fully condemn’ warnings about army readiness being impaired

By TOI STAFF      Today, 10:23 am

Likud MK Tally Gotliv speaks attends a Knesset State Control Committee meeting, in Jerusalem, on August 15, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Renegade Likud MK Tally Gotliv on Wednesday slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for defending Israel Defense Forces officials and the security establishment, and justified recent attacks by lawmakers on the military.

Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant issued a joint statement Tuesday rejecting the mounting rebukes of IDF brass expressed by lawmakers, confidants of the the premier, right-wing media, and others, after defense officials repeatedly voiced concern over damage to the military’s readiness caused by some reservists’ refusals to carry out their duties in protest of the coalition’s judicial overhaul legislation.

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Reserves airmen reportedly explain colleagues’ refusal to serve to defense minister during visit to southern base meant to patch up ties between the government and air force

By TOI STAFF     Today, 2:26 am

Tomer Bar, left, and Yoav Gallant speak to members of the Air Force at Ramon air base on August 15, 2023. (Defense Ministry)

Pilots in the Israeli Air Force reserves reportedly warned Tuesday that they may not be willing to carry out attacks on behalf of Israel should it slide into authoritarianism, expressing sympathy for colleagues who have suspended volunteer duty to protest the government’s designs on the judiciary.

The pilots made the comments during a meeting with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as he sought to bridge a growing divide between the government and military, the Ynet news website reported.

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BREAKING STORY

ARAB NEWS 16.8.23

DUBAI: The Jordanian army on Wednesday downed a drone loaded with explosive materials (TNT) coming from Syrian territory, the Jordan state news agency said.

“A drone loaded with TNT explosives originating from Syrian territory was intercepted.” said an official statement from the General Command of the Jordanian Armed Forces.

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It turns out the percentage of the globe that burns each year has been declining since 2001.

By Bjorn Lomborg, WSJ     31.7.23

Smoke and flames near Houston, Canada, July 10.

One of the most common tropes in our increasingly alarmist climate debate is that global warming has set the world on fire. But it hasn’t. For more than two decades, satellites have recorded fires across the planet’s surface. The data are unequivocal: Since the early 2000s, when 3% of the world’s land caught fire, the area burned annually has trended downward.

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By Petr Svab, EPOCH TIMES 15.8.23

News Analysis

The indictment of former President Donald Trump in Georgia over his efforts to reverse the results of the 2020 election lacks evidence that he harbored the criminal intent necessary to be convicted.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis laid out her case on Aug. 14, detailing how President Trump and his alleged co-conspirators claimed fraud in the 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere, how they arranged for an alternative slate of electors in Georgia and several other states, and how they tried to use this strategy to delay the counting of electoral votes by the vice president on Jan. 6, 2021.
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An Orthodox Jew, ex-Obama chief of staff has extensive ties to Israel, has been critical of Netanyahu

By JACOB MAGID, TOI 13 August 2023,

Former US treasury secretary Jack Lew speaks at the panel “Reforming the Euro Area: Views from inside and outside of Europe,” during the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings, in Washington, April 19, 2018. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Former US treasury secretary Jack Lew is a leading candidate to become the next US ambassador to Israel, two sources familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel on Sunday.

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‘People need to learn that the days of Chinese rapid growth—debt-fueled as it was—are basically over,’ says one analyst

By Terri Wu, EPOCH TIMES        August 15, 2023

Chinese laborers work at a construction site at sunset in Chongqing, China, on Mar. 6, 2005. (China Photos/Getty Images)

China has slid into deflation after months of disappointing export, manufacturing, home sales, and youth employment results. This has led to louder calls for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to roll out stimulus measures to kickstart the sputtering economy.

The world’s second-largest economy has been struggling for months, failing to achieve the post-pandemic boom that many had anticipated. The latest July data release showed exports posting its sharpest year-on-year drop since before the pandemic, and imports at five straight months of decline. Factory-gate prices fell for the 10th consecutive month, while new home sales saw its most significant monthly drop since July 2022.

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By Mark Swanson, NEWSMAX    |   Monday, 14 August 2023 11:51 PM EDT

Former President Donald Trump released a lengthy statement late Monday night, shortly after the Fulton County District Attorney’s office returned a 13-count indictment against him for allegedly trying to overturn 2020 election results in Georgia.

Trump’s statement:

“Justice and the rule of law are officially DEAD in America.

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Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola

https://rumble.com/v34fn1p-australian-senator-gerard-rennick-grills-evasive-pro-vaccine-pro-pfizer-doc.html

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

• August 3, 2023, the Australian Senate held a COVID hearing. Sen. Gerard Rennick asked Dr. Krishan Thiru, Pfizer’s Australian medical director, to explain the mechanism of how the mRNA COVID shot causes myocarditis. Thiru, however, kept talking in circles rather than answering the question
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GATEWAY PUNDIT

Guest post by David and Erin Clements

A growing majority of Americans know the 2020 election was fraudulent. Many analysts who have been studying election integrity have concluded that there had to be a two-way connection between local election electronics (electronic poll pads, tabulators, election management systems, voter databases, etc.) and a centralized data collection system responsible for monitoring and manipulating the election. Fingers have rightly been pointed at all-inclusive election management software, the Albert Sensor system, Scytl and Edison, and the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC).

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The new understandings could cement Iran’s stature as a nuclear threshold state with an American stamp of approval.

 By  Meir Ben Shabbat, ISRAEL HAYOM /a> 08-14-2023

This past May, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant revealed that Iran had accumulated enough uranium enriched to 60% and 20% purity for five nuclear bombs. He further said that “the Iranian nuclear program has reached its most advanced stage ever.” When policymakers speak about the emerging understandings between Iran and the US, they have to take into account those two facts above everything else. These include Israeli officials as well as the members of the Biden administration, congress members and senators, and US public opinion influencers.

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T. Belman.  The US is no longer covering for Abdullah

Human rights groups call it draconian

By Omar Akour, WaPo    August 12, 2023

AMMAN — The King of Jordan approved a bill Saturday to punish online speech deemed harmful to national unity, according to the Jordanian state news agency, legislation that has drawn accusations from human rights groups of a crackdown on free expression in a country where censorship is on the rise.

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Col Douglas Macgregor

This is a good summary of the stupidity of the West.

T. Belman. The adoption of liberal values by Jews in Israel and more so, in the US, has eroded our belief in ourselves and in our right to our homeland.

As in the United States, Israel’s mainstream media outlets favor the political left. That’s why they’re trying to crush “Channel 14,” which favors Netanyahu and judicial reform.

By Jonathan S. Tobin, INN<

As different as the United States and Israel are, the events of the last several months have shown that the political and media cultures of the two nations are growing more and more alike. Nothing demonstrates that better than the current campaign to silence Israeli television’s Channel 14.

A free and politically diverse press is essential to democracy. Thomas Jefferson famously wrote that if given the choice between, “a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

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‘Haredi parties have never submitted a bill on religious matters, other than when Supreme Court forced Knesset to intervene,’ Min. Malkieli says.

Israel National News    Aug 14, 2023, 3:53 PM

Religious Affairs Minister Michael Malkieli (Shas) has said that the criticism constantly leveled at the haredi community is rooted in the haredi parties’ support of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I don’t remember periods in which we were not fried, other than if we joined a left-wing government. With them, the media would not attack us, because it’s all about ‘anyone other than Netanyahu,'” Malkieli told Kol Hai Radio.

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