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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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. Read more…
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
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.
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.
T. Belman. In essence, this is what the left in the US did in 2016. Rather than accept the outcome of an election, which is what a democracy requires, they trash the outcome and make it difficult for the winner to govern.
Police use pepper spray as demonstrators burn tires, attempt to block road; minister seems to accuse force of intentionally slow response, rails at AG for opposing judicial shakeup
Opponents of the government’s judicial overhaul plans protest outside Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s home in Modiin, June 27, 2023. (Jonathan Shaul/Flash90)
Hundreds of protesters against the government’s judicial overhaul staged a fiery demonstration Tuesday morning outside Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s home, as they vowed to ramp up protests over the advancement of a bill to curb the High Court of Justice’s power to review government decisions.
Even if the anti-Israel activists are made aware that Palestinian students living under the Palestinian Authority are being hauled off and tortured by their own leaders, they are not likely to speak out because there is no way to blame Israel or hold it responsible.
The Palestinian Authority crackdown on students is also being ignored by the international media and human rights organizations that regularly attack Israel but indefatigably refuse to see any wrongdoing on the part of Palestinians. Many foreign journalists covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict make it their business actually to hunt for any story that reflects badly on Israel.
(JNS) This June, I was privileged to hear an American lieutenant-general studying at the Israel Defense College speak about American patriotism and the lack thereof. He said he was saddened that he recently read that less than a third of young Americans are proud to be citizens of the United States.
Indeed, a March poll taken by The Wall Street Journal revealed that only 23% of Americans aged 18-29 say patriotism is important to them. Of all adults, only 38% said, “Patriotism was very important, down from 70% in 1998.” Americans place “low importance on these values, many of which were central to their parents’ lives.”
“To turn against Israel, to join our ideological opponents and political enemies castigating Zionism – is a sign of Jewish illness:” Important speech of Rabbi Ammi Hirsch >> pic.twitter.com/zhmraNWnhv
Some time over the last two decades, it has become fashionable to bash Israel. This Reform Rabbi’s speech will most definitely get under the skin of anyone who’s idea of being Jewish is to side with those who are working every day to destroy the State of Israel.
T. Belman. Given the PA pay for slay policy, why is Bibi supporting it financially. The more they rebel, the more they will be crushed. At least he said that a Palestinian State west of the Jordan R.
Yoni ben Menachem was wrong about who will lead the PA.
T. Belman. Every time Israel is naughty and moves the settlement project ahead or fights terror, the US is sure to denounce her. The more they denounce us the more the more their denunciations are meaningless. Their bark is worse then their bite. So keep irritating them.
CJV, largest rabbinic public policy forum in the world, strongly condemns Biden admin for not inviting Min. Smotrich and Ben Gvir to July 4th fete at US Embassy.
The Coalition for Jewish Values, consisting of over 2000 Orthodox rabbis in the US, with branches in Israel, Europe and Oceania, came out strongly against the Biden Administration’s decision not to invite right-wing party Ministers Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionism) and Itamar Ben Gvir (Otzma Yehudit) to the annual July 4th celebration to be held at the US Embassy in Jerusalem on July 3rd.
Nobody in Russia understands what the war in Ukraine is about. And now, nobody knows if that war is coming to them.
By Lucian Kim, a global fellow with the Wilson Center in Washington and NPR’s former Moscow bureau chief.
I intended to post the whole article but first I wanted to read or watch a few others. One of the reasons I didn’t like the article was because I noticed many articles from the west that suggested variants of the same thing, namely that this is the beginning of the end to Putin’s reign.. I didn’t see it that way. As always, I found Col Macgregor believable. The meaning of Prigozhin’s short-lived mutiny in Russia. It’s the best but you won’t like the interviewer and Russian Rebellion & the Ukraine War w/Col Doug Macgregor
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Credit: President.gov.ua via Wikimedia Commons.
(JNS) It was just another day at the United Nations. But, instead of its usual business being simply more evidence of the way the virus of anti-Semitism has injected itself into just about everything that within its purview, it recently supplied us with an additional insight. A vote in one of the General Assembly’s committees provided proof that the idealization of the embattled government of Ukraine is somewhat disconnected from reality.
Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and Yariv Levin (R)Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday night met with Justice Minister Yariv Levin (Likud), Minister in the Justice Ministry Dudi Amsalem (Likud), and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer (Likud) to discuss continued efforts to advance the judicial reform.
Channel 12 News reported that in the current meeting, it was decided to focus only on reducing reasonability. Only after this step has been completed will additional steps in the reform’s legislation be discussed.
Fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Photo credit: REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed
Ehud Yaari’s “How Israel Lost the Syrian War” in The Jerusalem Strategic Tribune provides unequaled insight into Israel’s and other states’ actions during the Syrian civil war. He describes Israel’s tactical successes, noting that IRGC Leader Suleimani’s “original plan [to set up a major new rocket and missile front aimed at Israel] for now is on hold,” and that Israeli intelligence believes that Israel has taken down 80-90% of Iran’s military presence threatening Israel in Syria. Yet, he goes on, Assad’s survival, “closely allied with Iran, amounts to nothing short of an Israeli strategic failure.”
