By Jack Phillips, EPOCH TIMES    12.1.23

The Arizona Court of Appeals agreed to expedite consideration of Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s lawsuit alleging that the 2022 election was flawed.

In a brief order, issued on Jan. 9 and made public the next day, the court ordered a reset of “the matter for conference on February 1, 2023,”  and agreed with Lake’s arguments that her challenge should be handled as a “special action petition.” The court date was reportedly scheduled for March.
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The entire documentary on the Roman Siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD. This massive battle is one of the most stunning of all antiquity. On display were impressive siege works and feats of bravery on both the Roman and Jewish sides as they fought mercilessly over every inch of Jerusalem. Fighting would even make its way up the the inner sanctums of the Temple Mount and witness the destruction of the Second Temple.

Israel should implement policy change in a concentrated fashion and plow through the chorus of international criticism.

By  David M. Weinberg, ISRAEL HAYOM   8.1.23

The unjustified wild reaction to Minster of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir’s important 13-minute ascent to the Temple Mount this week tells us one thing: The world holds Israel and especially Israel’s new government in complete contempt. It thinks it can dictate to Israel how it should administer the holiest place (to Jews) in the world, how it should define who is a Jew, where Israelis should and should not live or “settle,” when the Israeli police and army can open fire against terrorists, and more. The world (including much of the Jewish world, which leans powerfully left-progressive) is going to object to almost every policy for which the new Israeli government was elected.

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By Barbara Kay, EPOCH TIMES 10.1.2023

Cancel culture is in its own way democratic. Woke mobs—social media jackals or institutional flacks—don’t care whether their target for immolation is male or female, famous or obscure, a leading intellectual light or a plodding time-server. All their targets have in common is an audience. A classroom, a Twitter account, a pulpit. The pilot light of their righteous wrath never sleeps. Perceived thoughtcrimes are their tinder.

Targets run the gamut from weak to strong. The weak are limited in resources and support systems. Resistance seems futile. When they feel the heat, they confess to non-existent sins, hoping for mercy. Who can blame them?

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By MARTIN SHERMAN 

By its reticence to engage in a decisive offensive against its despotic adversaries, Israel is continually backing away from conflicts that it can win, while risking backing itself into a conflict that it cannot… 

If you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. —Winston S. Churchill, in “The Gathering Storm“.

…the proposition that democracies are generally at peace with each other is [so] strongly supported… [it] has led some scholars to claim that this finding is probably the closest thing that we have to a law in international politics—Profs. Zeev Maoz & Bruce Russett, in International Interactions, Vol. 17, No. 3, 1992,  pp. 245-6.
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T. Belman. Its clear to me that finally we have a government in Israel that will not be intimidated by treats from the US or EU particularly in regard to Area C. Watch for demolitions to increase and for settlement construction to increase. Law and order will be restored regardless of their criticism. The power balance between the Knesset and the Supreme Court will be shifted to where it belongs. The US will not be allowed to open a Palestinian Consulate in Jerusalem. The US will have to take it and lump it.

The US has never been weaker. She has lost Saudi Arabia and is losing NATO and the EU. She won’t dare to amend our relationship because she needs us too much.

Yuli Edelstein and Tom Nides speak about settlements, Iran and bilateral ties.

Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chair Yuli Edelstein and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides meet in Jerusalem on Wednesday. Source: Courtesy of the Knesset.

(January 11, 2023 / JNS) The chair of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee told U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides that settlement expansion would continue, despite Washington’s objections.

Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, the former Knesset speaker who now heads the pivotal committee, held an introductory meeting with Nides on Wednesday.
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By Zachary Stieber, EPOCH TIMES  10.1.23

A nurse holds a syringe that contains a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in Seattle, Wash., on June 21, 2022. (David Ryder/Getty Images)

Officials in Washington state recorded jumps in post-vaccination infections, hospitalizations, and deaths in mid-2021, according to newly disclosed internal emails.

Fifteen percent of COVID-19 cases and 25 percent of COVID-19 hospitalizations from July 1 to July 20, 2021, were vaccinated—up from 2 percent between February and June that year, Chris Spitters, the health officer for the Snohomish County Health District, wrote in one of the messages. A fifth of the deaths attributed to COVID-19 were vaccinated.
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The prime minister has unleashed his justice minister to neutralize the High Court, the only effective brake on government excess, and secure him unbridled power

By DAVID HOROVITZ, TOI      Today, 6:40 am  

Incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) with incoming Justice Minister Yariv Levin in the Knesset on December 13, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Yariv Levin has been formulating proposals to curb the powers of the High Court of Justice for 20 years, he told the nation last week. And for most of those 20 years, though Levin was a loyal and respected colleague in their Likud party, those revolutionary plans placed him at odds with Benjamin Netanyahu, a longtime outspoken defender of the independence and authority of the court.

Returning to office on December 29, however, Netanyahu signaled that the path was clear for Levin to introduce his long-conceived judicial revolution by appointing him as justice minister. And just six days later, Levin unleashed his proposed onslaught.

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T. Belman. That’s EU chutzpah.

24 European Parliament members wrote to the EU’s Commission for Crisis Management following Israel’s intention to demolish dozens of houses in the West Bank villages of the Masafer Yatta area that were built with financial aid from the European Union or its member states

By Jonathan Lis, HAARETZ

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An Israeli army soldier stands guard as Israeli machinery demolishes a Palestinian house, in Masafer Yatta near Hebron, in the West Bank, July 25, 2022.Credit: MUSSA ISSA QAWASMA / REUTERS

T. Belman. Basically, the US, on behalf of the Arabs wanted a do-over. The Arabs wanted to undo Israel’s victory.  This was apparent in the wording of Res 242 which included this recital “Emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war … ” even though Israel was allowed to stay in possession of the territories until she had an agreement on “secure and recognized boundaries” and even though the US said that the parties themselves must negotiate the peace agreement.  The Roger’s Plan was the State Department’s Plan. No matter who was president, except for Trump, all other president’s toed the line. Even so, the Arabs didn’t want to negotiate (remember the three no’s of the Khartoum Conference) and demanded that the US pressure Israel to agree to give back the territories. This Plan had subsequent iterations in the Reagan Plan, the Oslo Accords and the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002.

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Israel Foreign Ministry

A number of meetings of the Cabinet were devoted to the change of the American Government’s policy. Ambassador Yitzhak Rabin was asked to return home for consultations. At the conclusion of the Cabinet session on 22 December, the following statement explained the reasons for Israel‘s rejection of the Rogers Plan:

At the Cabinet’s special session, the Foreign Minister reviewed the talks he had with the Secretary of State and other representatives of the U.S. Government. Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S., Yitzhak Rabin , reported on the latest developments in the policy of the U.S. concerning Middle East questions.
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by Stephen M. Flatow / JNS.org

Hamas supporters take part in a rally celebrating the 30th anniversary of the group’s founding, in Gaza City on Dec. 14, 2017. Photo: Reuters / Mohammed Salem.

JNS.org – Numbers don’t lie, but what diplomats sometimes do with numbers is another story.

US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides recently gave a fascinating interview to the Jewish weekly newspaper Hamodia. At one point, interviewer Sara Lehmann asked him about a recent poll by prominent Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki and his Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research that showed “72% support among Palestinians for terror organizations.”

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What do people want to hear more about, disease-bearing agents in livestock or a call, as far-fetched as it is, to arrest leaders of the opposition?

By HERB KEINON, JPOST

The Negev Forum meets for a working groups meeting in the UAE.(photo credit: UAE FOREIGN MINISTRIES)

Far from the feverish political debate in Israel and all that talk of civil war and sedition, 20 senior officials from various Israeli ministries flew to Abu Dhabi at the beginning of the week for the third follow-up to last year’s Negev Forum that brought the foreign ministers of Israel, the US, Egypt, Bahrain, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates to Sde Boker.

The Abu Dhabi meeting took place despite regional concern about the new right-wing government in Jerusalem, despite the Jordanians opting – again – not to take part, and despite last week’s visit by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to the Temple Mount, a visit that triggered condemnations from all the Arab partners to the Abraham Accords.

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https://rumble.com/v24mqk8-mit-professor-retsef-levi-talks-about-the-israeli-vaccine-safety-study.html

E. Markus. This is a great but long summary of what was and is going on …the major take from this is two fold. ….the MoH of Israel knew how toxic this “vaxx” was and suppressed that data ….and it established causality to the vaxx specifically for death and disability.

One other point …hat tip Peloni ….the rollout of this vax to children in Israel came out just after this reporting was known to the MoH and proceeded in spite of the now reported toxicity of this jab …..Israeli Ministry and Elites made the decision to kill and maim the young deliberately- a true Nuremburg crime.

Here you go ….long but mesmerizing

Despite what some may like to believe, terrorism and extremism pose real threats to Canada and are not figments of my imagination

By Raheel Raza,  Special to National Post    11.1.23

A recently released report by Prof. Jasmin Zine, titled “The Canadian Islamophobia Industry: Mapping Islamophobia’s Ecosystem in the Great White North,” purports to provide insights into “how Islamophobia manifests and is purveyed” in this country. In reality, it paints a skewed picture of anti-Muslim bigotry in Canada, and tars wide swaths of people, including Muslims like myself, as racists.

In her report, Zine details what she calls the “Islamophobia industry,” which is enabled by “self-proclaimed Muslim dissidents, reformers and ex-Muslims,” who “act as instigators and propagators of anti-Islamic narratives as well as validating and authorizing the circulation of these tropes.”
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Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative”  January 10, 2023<
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Saudi order of priorities

*The State Department and the Western foreign policy establishment have contended that the Palestinian issue features prominently on the Saudi order of national priorities. Therefore, they have maintained that a substantial enhancement of Israel-Saudi cooperation – and certainly, the attainment of an Israel-Saudi Arabia peace treaty – would be preconditioned upon substantial Israeli concessions to the Palestinians, including the establishment of a Palestinian state.
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