This is the history of the transformation of a tiny area occupied by Zaporozhian Cossacks into the largest country in Europe after Russia, larger than France or Germany. How did Ukraine pull off an expansion of this magnitude without a single conquest?

By Alexander G. Markovsky, AM THINKER

The starting point of the history of Ukraine began is 1654 when Bohdan Khmelnitsky, a Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host, leader of Cossacks living beyond the Dnieper Rapids, petitioned Russian czar Alexey to accept the Zaporozhian Host into Russia. The land inhabited by the Cossacks (the orange area on the map) was part of what Russians called the Wild Fields, or “u kraine,” which means in Russian “at the edge.” The term originated in the 12th century to describe lands populated by half-savage tribes on the outskirts of Russia.
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Likud MK presents battle over judicial reform as one of haves vs. have-nots. “They’ll give us some things, but they won’t let us rule.”

Hezki Baruch, INN      Feb 14, 2023,

MK David (Dudi) Amsalem (Likud) has launched a verbal tirade against the opposition parties and those demonstrating on the streets to protest the government’s proposed judicial reforms.

“Left-wingers are the most violent, deceitful thugs in the country, and we are going to push these legal reforms through to the end,” Amsalem said. “That is the task of this government.”

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by Judith Bergman, GATESTONE  •  February 14, 2023

Chinese President Xi Jinping welcome’s Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou in Beijing on May 28, 2019. (Photo by Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images)

• The Global Gateway project was launched in December 2021. Meanwhile, China’s BRI was launched in 2012 and has spread all over the globe, especially to Africa, Latin America and Asia, where it has gained China vast influence. The Communist Party newspaper China Daily recently claimed that in 2022 alone, China had signed new contracts with BRI countries worth nearly $100 billion.

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Interview on RT’s show Modus Operandi with Manila Chan 12/02/23

MARK SLEBODA, REAL POLITICK

RT Modus Operandi: – Ukraine flooded with weapons 13 Feb, 2023

It was an honour and a pleasure to be invited on Manila Chan’s new show on RT – Modus Operandi, for a discussion of the Western arms supply to the Kiev regime in its proxy war on Russia.
RT Modus Operandi: Ukraine flooded with weapons 13 Feb, 2023

_{Gallup’s 2022 World Happiness Report proves that while Israel is thriving, its enemies are among the world’s most miserable.}

By Charles O. Kaufman February 13, 2023

(JNS / Bnai Brith) Israel, home to 53% of world Jewry, is a happy place. Yet you wouldn’t know it if you believed the headlines about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government or saw the latest anti-Israel resolution at the United Nations and the current wave of Jew-hatred propagated by American celebrities.

After all, between the International Court of Justice, Whoopi Goldberg, Kyrie Irving and Kanye West, antisemitism appears to be off to a good start in 2023.

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Will It Help Putin?

DOUGLAS MACGREGOR
THE BALLOONS AREN’T A THREAT
US IS ALIENATING ITS PUPPETS
OLIGARCHS ARE RULING THE US AND EVERYONE IS IN ON THE TAKE.

T. Belman. Like I said, the chances of reaching a consensus are nil. The Left would rather continue the fight then make a deal. They will bank on being victorious in the next election. But they are fighting a loosing battle. The electorate will penalize them for their intransigence rather than applaud them.

‘We will fight until we are victorious,’ vows Opposition Leader Yair Lapid at demonstration outside of Knesset against judicial reform plan.

Israel National News    Feb 13, 2023, 2:06?PM (undefined)

Roughly sixty thousand demonstrators gathered in central Jerusalem Monday afternoon to protest against the Netanyahu government’s judicial reform plan.

The demonstrators rallied outside of the Knesset, leading to heavy traffic and packed light rail trains in the center of the capital.

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How The EU Ignores Hamas’ Crimes

by Bassam Tawil, GATESTONE  •  February 13, 2023

Head of the European Union’s mission to the West Bank and Gaza Strip Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff (R) visits the illegally-built Palestinian community of Khan al-Ahmar near Jerusalem, on January 30, 2023. (Photo by Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images)

• What is even more painful and humiliating for the Palestinians, is that EU officials who regularly visit the Gaza Strip intentionally ignore the suffering of the Palestinians living under Hamas.
• On February 2, fifteen EU Heads of Mission visited the Gaza Strip without saying a single word about any of the victims of Hamas’s crimes and human rights violations.
• Read more…

by Michael Freund, Jerusalem Post, February 11, 2023

At first glance, the aliyah figures for 2022 would appear to provide ample reason to rejoice.

After just 28,601 immigrants arrived in Israel in 2021, the number who made the move last year more than doubled, surging to an astonishing 74,915, according to Jewish Agency statistics.

That is the highest figure since 1999 and is nearly equivalent to the number of those who chose to make Israel their home in the previous three years combined.
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Muggers of Israel threaten “do what we say, even if it is against your best interests, or we will damage your economy etc.”

By Daniel Winston, INN

The local and global hysteria over Israel’s pending judicial reform is just the latest in a miserable line of muggings of Israel by our friends and family. Muggers are usually portrayed as using the line: “Your money or your life.” Ours are using a similar trope: “Do what we say, even if it’s against your own interests and the will of the Israeli electorate, or we will cause damage to your economy.” It’s a bit longer, but the explicit threat is just as clear. Let’s look at a few of these assaults, and then at what we can say to our muggers who always tell us that despite the violence which they are clearly perpetrating, they actually have our best interests at heart.
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By BRAD SALZBERG, Cultural Action Party Of Canada Newsletter

“In 2021, 57% of the residents of the metropolitan area of Toronto belonged to a visible minority group, compared with 13% in 1981.”

Some may recall the headline of an article in the Globe & Mail which read like this:

“Toronto, Ontario Transfers To Minority White City”

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Ritter makes the point that the US constantly lies to Americans and the World.
Ergo, it can’t be trusted.

T. Belman. I see nothing anti-democratic about the coalitions proposed judicial reforms.

Afterwards, The coalition said they were willing to talk about the five points and then postponed the vote for a week.

Gantz and Lapid both said they are willing to talk about Herzog’s five points, providing there is “real dialogue”.

New poll: Majority of Israeli public wants to stop judicial legislation

I think it would be a good thing to yield a little in order to arrive at consensus.  I am guessing that the coalition won’t yield enough to get a consensus in which case it will make some minor changes and not get consensus.

President says current plan would have ‘negative impact on Israel’s democratic foundations’; floats 5 principles as basis for reform, pleads with government to delay legislation

By JEREMY SHARON, TOI 

President Isaac Herzog delivers a message to the nation from his office in Jerusalem, February 12, 2023. (Screenshot/ Kan)

In an impassioned and heartfelt speech Sunday night, President Isaac Herzog called for compromise over the government’s plans to radically overhaul the judicial system, warning of what he said was imminent conflict and even potential bloodshed.

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“Come navigate the fine line between legal activism and material support for terrorism.”

by Daniel Greenfield, FPM

David Boim was only 17 years old when he was shot and killed while waiting at a bus stop north of Jerusalem. The American teenager’s parents, Stanley and Joyce, have spent a quarter of a century since trying to bring Hamas, the Islamic terror group behind the attack, and its funders in the United States to justice. Their lawsuits have targeted, among others, the Holy Land Foundation which was found in federal court to have provided “material aid to Hamas” in what became the largest terrorism financing prosecution case in the United States.

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Israeli aid team forced to return to Israel after receiving intelligence of an immediate threat to their safety in Turkey.

Arutz Sheva

Due to a significant security threat on the Israeli rescue and relief mission in Turkey, and following a joint situational assessment with the heads of the IDF Home Front Command and Search and Rescue Units which took place on Saturday night, United Hatzalah CEO Eli Pollack and Vice President of Operations Dov Maisel instructed the head of United Hatzalah’s rescue mission Major (res.) Yossi Cohen to end the mission and return to Israel as soon as possible.

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After 7 years, living under horrific conditions as a Moslem in a village north of Ramallah, Efrat (not her real name) escaped with her kids.

By Sheri Oz, INN    Feb 12, 2023,

After seven years living as a Moslem in a village north of Ramallah, and seven months in a battered women’s shelter in Israel, Efrat (not her real name) is returning to Judaism, bringing her three young children back into the fold with her. She is one of four women who escaped from the Palestinian Authority (PA) a few weeks ago.

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By Andrea Widburg, AM THINKER

Winston Churchill offered two brief, brilliant definitions of socialism: (1) “Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.” (2) “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” In other words, unhappiness is socialism’s lifeblood. It needs unhappy people to be the revolution’s foot soldiers and, after the revolution, its praetorian guard. Viewed that way, it makes sense to learn that a University of Michigan survey revealed that the larger the campus’s “diversity, equity, and inclusion” program, the more unhappy students were.
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