By Thomas Lifson, AM THINKER

The shocking announcement that China had brought together bitter rivals Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia to resume diplomatic relations in a deal negotiated in Beijing is a stunning defeat for America, threatening the basis of our Middle Eastern and world diplomatic power.

Iran and Saudi Arabia announce the resumption of diplomatic ties in Beijing

If, as it appears, Saudi Arabia is no longer a reliable ally that can be counted upon to keep the Armageddon-mongering mullahs in Iran at bay while warming up to Israel, then the entire power calculus of the Middle East is shattered.

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By Raymond Ibrahim, AM THINIKER

What’s worse: physical evil from an open enemy or clandestine evil from a supposed friend?

One need look no farther than to Islam and the so-called “left” — in this case, the U.S. Department of Education — to appreciate the distinction.
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Kim Iverson, 8 minutes.

Scott Ritter. At his best. He explains Bukhmut and Georgia in great detail. Georgia will not join the war against Russia as America wants.  He referred to the Kissinger quote: “Its bad to be an American enemy. Its fatal to be an American friend.” Ask the Afghans, ask the Kurds. Ask the Israelis. Ask the Germans. Ask Ghadaffy. Ask the Ukrainians.

He also said that the G7 is on a downward trend whereas BRICS is richer and on an upward trend.  Everyone, including Saudi Arabia, is joining BRICS which is wealthier than the G7 Nations.

He also explains where China stands. China can be the peace broker here just as they were between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

By Maurice Hirsch, Adv., Palestinian Media Watch   | Mar 13, 2023

A comparison of the aid provided by the United States to the Palestinians over the period 2011 through 2022, with the number of people murdered as a direct result of Palestinian terror provides a glaring insight: US aid to the Palestinians fuels terror, not peace.

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Likud MKs tell PM coalition is losing the argument on the judicial reforms, needs to moderate reforms and deal with right-wing minister.

Israel National News    Mar 13, 2023, 8:57 PM (GMT+2)

There are growing concerns in the Likud party that the efforts to pass Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s judicial reforms as well as the behavior of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir could cause the government to fall.

Channel 12 News published quotes from the Likud faction meeting Monday in which party MKs demanded that the judicial reforms be moderated or even halted in order to create the opportunity for dialogue with the opposition on the reforms.

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Why is Yisrael Beytenu presenting bill for sovereignty, when Netanyahu has promised it multiple times?

By Shimon Cohen, INN

In January of this year, it was announced that Likud MK Danny Danon was drafting a plan to apply Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley, a key campaign commitment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prior to national elections in recent years. However, this Wednesday it will be Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party placing a bill to apply sovereignty over the Jordan Valley before the Knesset. Undeterred by the results of a ministerial committee vote rejecting his bill, Liberman has vowed to move ahead and is scathing in his criticism of the Likud-led coalition for failing to do so.

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M ben Menachem. Under historically normal banking conditions and regulations, banks operate under a system called “Fractional reserves banking” — which means that a bank must retain a percentage of their depositor’s cash at hand at all times, and can only invest or lend out the remainder.  Historically, for the past several decades, this reserve has been about 9%.  That is, they were allowed to invest or lend 89% of the cash entrusted to them.  On 15 March 2020, the new Biden Admin changed this policy to 0%.  As far as I am aware, this was unprecedented.  It took just the relatively ‘mild’ pressure of rate hikes to cause banks to begin to collapse, as anyone with ANY knowledge and experience predicted.  In other words, the Biden admin caused this, knowingly and with maximum malice aforethought.

A Black Weekend for Israeli High-tech After SVB Collapse:  Sagi Cohen and Corin Degani, Haaretz, Mar 12, 2023

Bank Tank: SVB Debacle Presents Painful Lessons For Israeli High-Tech: Sophie Shulman, C Tech, Mar.12, 2023

Israeli Institutional Investors Exposed to SVB: Roi Weinberger, Globes, Mar. 12, 2023

The Collapse of Silicon Valley Bank: Causes and (Possible) Consequences:  Andrew Stuttaford, National Review, Mar. 11, 2023

If the democratically elected government of Israel capitulates on judicial reform now, other than agreeing to cosmetic compromises, know that the putsch will not stop with judicial reform. Op-ed.

By Rabbi Prof. Dov Fischer, INN

I have written previously regarding the judicial-reform issues for which there is no room to compromise. That article is foundational to my legal and Judaic thinking on the matter, as I contemplate some of the compromises now floating around. For example:

1. A judiciary must be fair and balanced. The current Israeli Supreme Court is corrupt and imbalanced, and has been since Aharon Barak took off his mask and made it into a tyranny of the Left thirty years ago. Therefore, because politics is cyclical, one approach to getting a more balanced court is the American way: to allow elected governments to select the judges. That way, when Democrats and the Left are elected, their president and senate select and confirm their judges, and then the Republicans and the Right get their chance to balance it all when they win. It keeps bouncing back and forth in cycles.

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 By Victor Davis Hanson, AM GREATNESS

Another couple of weeks, another bout of madness from Joe Biden and his team. Of recent Biden delusions, consider:

Biden went off in one of his impromptu Corn Pop, or “beat-up-Trump-behind-the-bleachers” fables. These often slurred and nearly unintelligible tales characteristically virtue signal Biden’s own victimhood and “courage.”

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By Pamela Geller – on March 12, 2023

Support the farmers. America seems to have lost its appetite and love of freedom. And the American media have censored and ignored this massive freedom movement.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators rallied in Prague to protest inflation and the government’s support for Ukraine.

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Must-see TV: 

By Thomas Lifson, AM THINKER

My hat is off to Mark Levin for his opening statement in Sunday’s edition of Life, Liberty and Levin. While Mark’s show is always worth watching, this particular segment is clearly in the must-see category for anyone concerned about the totalitarian turn Democrat party (world’s oldest political party) has taken.

CONTINUE

T. Belman. Any harm Israel may suffer will be due to the hysteria the Left has orchestrated and not the actual legislation. What is being proposed by this government is to change the Court from a liberal one to a conservative one, which is what Pres Trump did in the US by appointing 3 Conservative judges. i.e., the law remained the same. Only the deciders were changed. Also, the override law as proposed brings Israel closer to the British parliamentary system in which Parliament is supreme.

The proposed Judicial Reform will make Israel more democratic, not less.

Among signatories to letter are former US Treasury undersecretary Jeffrey Goldstein; missive says planned legislation will also make Israel harder to defend on international stage

By TOI STAFF  

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads a cabinet meeting on the state budget, at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on March 12, 2023. (Marc Israel Sellem)

Over 250 US-based financial investors warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his government’s planned judicial overhaul could chill new infusions of cash into Israel, the latest signal of potentially devastating economic fallout should the controversial legislation go through.

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In response, the attorney-general said that it was not possible to examine his request for self-representation against all petitions filed against him or his office.

By ELIAV BREUER, JERUSALEM POST STAFF

LEFT: Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara RIGHT: National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir

Israel’s Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara responded on Monday morning to National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir‘s call to be able to represent himself during court proceedings, after he said on Sunday that he could not trust Baharav-Miara to represent him fairly.

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T. Belman. Ury is an ex-pat Canadian who made aliya before I did. He is very smart, knowledgeable and passionate.  He has studied Israel’s role in promoting the pandemic and vaccines and came to his conclusions after much consideration.

By Ury Weiss

Scott, these wild riots organized by these traitors are getting in high gear. There were already street shootings in Tel Aviv similar to the old wild west. Now we have confirmation that these riots are being sponsored by the Marxist Biden regime in the USA.

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The Israeli president’s attempt to broker a compromise by appeasing the “resistance” is a waste of time. The protest movement aims for a complete halt to the legislative process and fall of the Jewish state’s democratically elected government.

By Ruthie Blum, INN     12.3.23

(JNS) Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s latest plea for judicial-reform compromise was more than merely impassioned. Indeed, his speech to the nation on Thursday evening was downright angry, and with good reason.

As he pointed out in his concise address—delivered with a cracking voice and grim facial expression—he spent the previous 10 weeks “working around the clock, meeting with everybody, including with those who don’t agree with [him], even those who refuse to admit it.” He also mentioned the “harsh and hurtful” criticism he’s received for his efforts, though he claimed to take it “with love.”

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By Richard McDonough, AM THINKER

Because of lies … in legacy media — lies which I and millions of others believed — half of our nation’s electorate was smeared and delegitimized, and I myself was misled. It damages our nation when legacy media put words in the mouths of … former Presidents, and call them traitors or criminals without evidence.  … The Democrats in leadership … have cherry-picked, hyped, spun, and … appear to have lied about aspects of January 6, turning a tragedy for the nation into a politicized talking point aimed at discrediting half of our electorate.

–Liberal journalist, feminist, and Gore and Clinton campaign advisor Naomi Wolf after watching videos of the Capitol riot released by Tucker Carlson, March 10, 2023
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich arrive at a cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on February 23, 2023. (Alex Kolomoisky/POOL)

WASHINGTON — Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich landed in Washington on Sunday morning, where he was to speak later in the day at the Israel Bonds conference, an appearance clouded by the controversy caused by his remarks earlier this month calling for a Palestinian town to be “wiped out.”

Hundreds of American Jews are expected to protest outside the Grand Hyatt Hotel where Smotrich will be the keynote speaker at the evening gala of Israel Bonds, which sells Israeli government bonds to investors abroad.

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