Why Arabs are saying now, NO NATO before Abdallah is gone
MUDAR SENT ME THIS VIDEO TODAY. IT WAS DONE 18 MONTHS AGO. STILL RELEVANT..
MUDAR SENT ME THIS VIDEO TODAY. IT WAS DONE 18 MONTHS AGO. STILL RELEVANT..
In a new book, authors Tony Shaw and Giora Goodman examine the history of modern Israel’s representation in cinema — with all its ups and downs

Detail from photograph of Gal Gadot posing for Moses Pini Siluk as Wonder Woman for Israeli Sheva Leylot magazine years before snagging the role in the film. (Moses Pini Siluk)
Israel plays a larger-than-life role on America’s silver screen. From big-budget epics such as Paul Newman’s 1960 hit “Exodus” to Adam Sandler’s raunchy “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan” in 2008, Hollywood films about the Jewish state can evoke a cluster of competing reactions.
I understand why people hate all things Russian right now. But our literature did not put Putin in power or cause this war.

About the author: Mikhail Shishkin is a Russian-Swiss writer and the author of more than a dozen books, of which the novels Maidenhair and The Light and the Dark and the short-story collection Calligraphy Lesson appear in English.
Culture, too, is a casualty of war. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, some Ukrainian writers called for a boycott of Russian music, films, and books. Others have all but accused Russian literature of complicity in the atrocities committed by Russian soldiers. The entire culture, they say, is imperialist, and this military aggression reveals the moral bankruptcy of Russia’s so-called civilization. The road to Bucha, they argue, runs through Russian literature.
T. Belman. At first the climate crises denoted rising oceans and now the big scare is burning forests. Is there any truth to either? Even if true, will banning of fossil fuels make a significant difference.
According to sources in Israel’s firefighting service, the organization lacks hundreds of millions of shekels in personnel and equipment needed to effectively deal with the anticipated fires
By Lee Yaron, HAARETZ 25.7.22
Firefighter battling flames in the Jerusalem hills in 2021.Credit: Ohad Zwigenberg
The climate crisis is expected to cause an increase in massive wildfires in Israel, particularly in populated areas, which will constitute “immediate danger to life and property,” according to a special climate crisis committee of the Israel Fire and Rescue Services. The frequency and intensity of the fires may cause the collapse of the firefighting system, which will be unable to cope, warns the committee.

Former Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon | Photo: UNTV via AP
At the end of 2016, as former US President Barack Obama’s final days in office were drawing to a close, Russia promised to use its UN veto on behalf of Israel, former Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon reveals in his book In the Lion’s Den: Israel and the World.
In addition to Resolution 2334, Obama and then-US Secretary of State John Kerry had also authored a resolution called “Parameters for Peace,” which had never been publicly discussed and laid out Obama’s parameters for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

A 2019 Apartheid Week demonstration by BDS
In Israel recently, I was chatting with friends who are Zionist thought leaders. The next day one of them met with a leadership group to discuss how to combat the BDS movement, which denies the Jewish people the right to a homeland, and like the UN, holds Israel to an unrealistic standard that isn’t applied to any other country.
My advice is to go on the offensive, as you will continue to lose the argument playing defense all the time. This is not a revolutionary thought, but many Jewish organizations only sheepishly defend Zionism lest they offend its critics. It would be helpful if their focus expanded from the despicable antisemitic right and targeted the progressive anti-Zionist far-left, arguably the more dangerous threat.
T. Belman. The focus should be on whether to keep Area C or give it away . It should not be about Bibi or the economy.
By SIMON DAVIES and JOSHUA HANTMAN, TOI 24 July 2022,

Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu tours the Malha Mall in Jerusalem as he kicks off his election campaign for Israel’s 25th Knesset on June 30, 2022. (Screenshot/Facebook)
The state of the Israeli election campaign: Poll of polls, July 24, 2022, showing the number of seats parties would be expected to win if the election was held today, based on a weighing of the latest opinion polls.
At their core, election campaigns are about defining the choice facing voters.
By Daniel Greenfield, 24 Jul 09:57 PM

Peak TV, a stunning era during which Big Tech and traditional studios entered into a furious competition to make a bewildering amount of content, is dead. The 559 scripted shows from last year represent a historic hubris that everyone, especially investors, is recovering from.
That was the year that Netflix announced that it was spending $18 billion on content.
In the aftermath, Netflix lost subscribers for the first time and expects to lose millions more as its stock fell 35%. The dot com giant lost, but so did its rivals. Disney+ lost billions, HBO Max is cutting back programming, and so are most others, including the ‘N’ in the FAANG oligarchy.
By Amb.(ret.) Yoram Ettinger, INN 25.7.22

EttingerHezki Ezra
(JNS) “Israel did not grow strong because it had an American alliance. It acquired an American alliance because it had grown strong,” said Professor Walter Russell Mead, a leading historian of American foreign policy. He was right.
In 1948, Israel was misconstrued by the U.S. State Department as a burden upon the U.S. It believed the newborn state would be too feeble to withstand an all-out Arab military offensive, jeopardize U.S. ties with the Arab World and potentially turn pro-Soviet.
By Jay Nordlinger, NATIONAL REVIEW July 24, 2022

United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland (Denis Balibouse / Reuters)
You will enjoy my latest Q&A, which is with a brainy, interesting, consequential guy: Hillel Neuer. He is the executive director of UN Watch, in Geneva. He is also the founding chairman of the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy.
By the way, the concept of democracy is suddenly controversial, where I live. In our podcast, I ask Neuer what he means by “democracy.”
T. Belman. I totally support Schedule F for removing civil servants who don’t support Trump’s agenda. By working against Trump they are thwarting the will of the people. They have no right to do so and must be removed. Nothing less will drain the swamp.
Just yesterday, Axios carried a piece provocatively entitled “A radical plan for Trump’s second term.”
The following are key excerpts from the article:
The heart of the plan is derived from an executive order known as “Schedule F,” developed and refined in secret over most of the second half of Trump’s term and launched 13 days before the 2020 election. (snip)
Read more…
T. Belman. Why aren’t the news stories about what Israel is doing to stop this theft more prominent. That’s because Israel is doing nothing about it. Just the opposite, Benny Gantz is encouraging the take over. I blame Bennet for all this. Preserving our control over Area C should have been central to the Coalition Agreement.
By Aryeh Savir, Tazpit News Agency 24.7.22
(Illustrative) Farmers working in the fields of moshav Nehalim in central Israel. Nehalim, Dec 27, 2020.
A new initiative launched by the Palestinian Authority (PA) seeks to encourage Arab farmers to engage in the illegal takeover of Israeli lands in Area C in the Jordan Valley by providing them with a free tractor license for two years.
The PA’s Ministry of Transportation and the governor of Tubas in the Jordan Valley announced this weekend the new benefit, which provides an incentive for the illegal takeover of land in Area C, which is under full Israeli control as per the Oslo Accords.
T. Belman. My father in law was close with Kurt and so on a number of occasions our paths would cross. I had no idea how prominent he was. Occasionally he would donate to Israpundit and I appreciated it.
A LIFE WELL LIVED
By David M. Weinberg, ISRAEL HAYOM 07-24-2022

Kurt Rothschild, who passed last week at age 101, was one of the sharpest, most indefatigable, and loyal soldiers the Jewish People was blessed with over the past century. Hundreds of Jewish communal and Torah-educational institutions around the world benefitted from his leadership and philanthropic activism.
Kurt was a diminutive and ultra-modest man, but a giant in stature; beloved and broadly respected like few other men in today’s Jewish world – no exaggeration! He was a model of respect for all Jews and towards all Jews, the deepest believer in Klal Yisrael – the unity of the Jewish People.