[See Also: Ethiopia starts generating power from River Nile dam]

[By Connor Dilleen], MARITIME EXECUTIVE

Countries across the Middle East are facing a bleak future of declining rainfall, diminishing surface- and groundwater supplies, and increasing desertification.

Since 1998, the region has faced the worst drought conditions in 900 years; it is home to 10 of the 17 countries that are currently facing ‘extremely high’ water stress. Soaring temperatures across the region—average summer temperatures are predicted to rise by 4°C by 2050 even if global rises are limited to 2°C—are increasing evaporation of surface water, forcing an over-reliance on aquifers and groundwater supplies that are already at risk of over-exploitation.

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Another surreal — and pathetic — attempt to steal Israeli greatness.

By Hugh Fitzgerald, FPM   May 19/22

Palestinian-Jordanian-American real estate tycoon Mohamed Hadid — best known as the father of models Gigi and Bella Hadid — claimed on May 7 that former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir was a “proud Palestinian” and that her comments about Palestinian identity proved that there was “religious coexistence and tolerance” in “Palestine” until Zionism came along to spoil it. The report on this latest absurdity by Hadid, who shares the virulent anti-Israel views – expressed in tweets, and through the Instagram accounts of his catwalk-strutting daughters – can be found here: “Mohamed Hadid: Golda Meir ‘proud Palestinian,’ shows coexistence before Zionism,” by Michael Starr, Jerusalem Post, May 9, 2022:

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Cuneiform tablets, jewels, and 1,800 coins, including one bearing the name of Shimon Bar Kochba, found in antiquities trader’s house in Modiin

By Ruth Schuster, HAARETZ      May 19/22

Ancient coins.Credit: Yoli Schwartz<
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A vast cache of antiquities looted from sites in the West Bank was revealed on Thursday by the Israel Antiquities Authority.

While antiquities theft is common in Israel, and thieves and traders are often caught, this was a big catch.

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by Abraham Cooper, ALGEMEINER

The Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Room of the Palace of Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland. The room is the meeting place of the United Nations Human Rights Council. Photo: Ludovic Courtès via Wikimedia Commons.

Despots and tyrants always insist on following the “rule of law.” In the 20th century, leaders of the Soviet Union dispatched tens of millions of enemies — real and imagined — to the Siberian Gulag or to firing squads, after delineating the law or code that had been violated.
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Israeli soldiers have been blood libeled by the Palestinians and the world press for allegedly shooting a Palestinian female Al Jazeera journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, during protests in Jenin on May 11, 2022.

The Israelis have no record of any shots being fired at the journalist and have asked that the bullet that killed Shireen to be turned over to a joint Israeli-Palestinian forensic group for examination.

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By Galia Lavi, INSS

Special Publication, May 18, 2022

January 24, 2022 marked 30 years since the start of diplomatic relations between Israel and China. Over these three decades the relations between the parties have experienced ups and downs. Israel sees China as a rising power with enormous economic potential, yet there are differences between the countries, particularly over China-Iran cooperation and China’s voting pattern at the UN, which does not always support Israel’s interests. In recent years, the relations have likewise been affected by the competition between the great powers. Against this background, and to mark 30 years of diplomatic relations, the Chinese Ambassador to Israel Mr. Cai Run was interviewed. The Ambassador referred to present and future opportunities and challenges before the two countries.^[1]

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T. Belman. The fact that it is now a partnership doesn’t prevent the US from busting our balls over settlement construction, the division of Jerusalem and treatment of the Palestinians.

It should be noted that the $38 Billion 10 year commitment comes out of the Foreign Aid budget. Thus our detractors are quick to point out that Israel is the largest recipient of US foreign aid when in reality it should be seen as part of the defense budget. As such it represents less that 0.5% of the US defense expenditure.  Besides this partnership earns huge dividends for the US.

The “patron-client” relationship between Israel and the US is now a partnership, like the planned joint simulation drill against Iran. Op-ed.

By Lenny Ben-David, INN  18.05.22 07:00

U.S. Air Force and Israeli Air Force F-35s in a joint exercise in 2020. Source: U.S. Air Force

(JNS) Following the death of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in a firefight between the IDF and Palestinian terrorists in the ‘West Bank’ town of Jenin, Israel’s detractors in Washington rushed to declare without evidence that Israel was guilty of her “murder” and demanded American sanctions on Israel.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) tweeted, “Apartheid Israel receives unconditional funding” from the United States “with zero accountability.” Tlaib’s congressional colleague, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who has been criticized for previous antisemitic statements, proclaimed, “We provide Israel with $3.8 billion in military aid annually with no restrictions. What will it take for accountability for these human rights violations?”

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By Avi Goldwasser and Charles Jacobs   Spring, 2022

“What physicians say about consumptive illnesses is applicable here: that at the beginning, such an illness is easy to cure but difficult to diagnose; but as time passes, not having been recognized or treated at the outset, it becomes easy to diagnose but difficult to cure.”
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

This is not the country we grew up in. The Jewish community is under siege. According to the FBI, Jews are the primary targets of hate crimes in America. An analysis of their reports reveals that a Jew is twice as likely to be a victim of a hate crime as a black person or a Muslim, ten times more likely than an Asian or a Latino, and twenty times more likely than a non-Hispanic white.
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Be careful when you don’t have a sufficiently positive view of Islam.

By Robert Spencer, FPM

The freedom of speech is under attack everywhere, and it’s not clear which side Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Trump-endorsed candidate for a Senate seat from Pennsylvania, is on. We have the Disinformation Governance Board, the Jan. 6 Committee, ongoing claims that Trump supporters are all “white supremacists” (and “white supremacists” are the nation’s biggest terror threat), and rampaging social media censorship. In that environment, it’s crucial for all candidates, especially America-First candidates, to affirm their support for free speech. Instead, Oz has just called for his primary opponent to be barred from the race, not for any criminal activity or, say, dual citizenship in a hostile nation (Oz is a Turkish citizen), but for something she said in 2015.

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By Thomas Lifson, AM THINKER

Sundance is raising the alarm that John Durham is not going to prosecute FBI and DOJ officials for their role in perpetrating the Russia Hoax.  Opening arguments were presented Tueaday in the trial of Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussman for lying to then-FBI general counsel James Baker, claiming that he wasn’t working for the campaign when he brought charges of ties between Donald Trump and Russia to the FBI.

Sundance writes:

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Netanyahu’s party to propose deporting terrorists’ families, jail terms for flying the Palestinian flag or burning Israel’s, stripping citizenship for demonstrating during war

By SHALOM YERUSHALMI, TOI 

Then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, speaks with MK Miki Zohar during a Likud faction meeting in the Knesset, January 25, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Likud party will focus its next election campaign on attracting far-right voters, with proposed legislation targeting nationalist elements within the Arab Israeli community, The Times of Israel has learned.

It will be a draconian campaign by opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s party, designed to translate the rage over recent terrorist attacks — some committed by Arab Israelis — and rioting in Jerusalem and elsewhere, into votes at the ballot box.
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By Stephen Kalin,  WSJ     May 17, 2022

JENIN, West Bank—Two decades after Israel invaded a sprawling refugee camp here with tanks and helicopters and flattened homes in response to the second Intifada, the area is re-emerging as a stronghold of Palestinian militancy.

Four of the assailants who killed 19 Israelis in terrorist attacks since March were from the Jenin region, in the far north reaches of the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967. The Israeli military has responded by conducting deadly raids into the city, surrounding villages and the adjacent refugee camp, which is under nominal Palestinian Authority control, to arrest people they say helped carry out those attacks.

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by Burak Bekdil, GATESTONE  •  May 18, 2022

• President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is trying to turn what appears to be the most strategic move in NATO’s history into carpet-trading at Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar.
• “The Russian-Kurdish nexus has been a recurring feature of Middle Eastern geopolitics for more than two hundred years, since Catherine the Great commissioned the publication of a Kurdish grammar in 1787.” — Michael A. Reynolds, The National Interest, March 1, 2016.
• Read more…

According to Ra’am MK Walid Taha, “the government has internalized the new rules of the game” in dealing with Israel’s Arab society.

By World Israel News Staff

The Islamist Ra’am (United Arab List) party announced Sunday evening that following negotiations with the government, it has received permission for construction in unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev in southern Israel, Hebrew news sites reported.

According to agreement, it will be possible to build an additional housing unit or expand to 70 square meters without a demolition order or fine.

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Incident came as IAF fighters departed area after alleged strike last week and they were not in danger; move could signal a significant shift in Moscow’s ties with Israel.

Times of Israel,  MAY 17, 2022

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Russian S-300 air defense missile systems drive during the Victory Day military parade marking 71 years after the victory in WWII in Red Square in Moscow, Russia, on May 9, 2016. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

Russian forces opened fire on Israeli jets with advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles as they allegedly attacked targets in northwestern Syria last week, Channel 13 news reported Monday, in what could signal a significant shift in Moscow’s attitude to Israel.

According to the unsourced report, the incident occurred on Friday as the Israeli air force bombed several targets near the city of Masyaf in northwestern Syria.

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In this week’s edition of “Mideast News Hour,” Caroline Glick calls Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett a “sociopath” and says his leadership is responsible for the current decline in national security.

BY JNS.ORG

(May 16, 2022 / JNS) In this week’s “Middle East News Hour,” Caroline Glick is joined by Amnon Lord, senior columnist at Israel Hayom and one of Israel’s foremost experts on the Israeli left. Caroline and Amnon discuss the Palestinian and international community’s use of blood libels to demonize Israel and legitimize the mass murder of Jews, in the context of the death of Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin last week.

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Interior Minister fears that the law will be rejected by the Supreme Court and the prosecution will not defend it.

By Ben Ariel, INN

Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked is backing down from her intention to pass the law revoking the citizenship of terrorists, the Israel Hayom website reported on Monday.

Shaked backed down from the law, which had already been registered, after a conversation between her associates and the Ministry of Justice revealed that the law would not stand the test of the Supreme Court.

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T. Belman.  UNBELIEVABLE. Luckily the King doesn’t call the shots.

By Daoud Kattab, MEDIALINE

US President Joe Biden and Jordan’s King Abdullah met in Washington for the second time and Jordan’s role in Jerusalem’s holy sites was high on the agenda

T. Belman. Not only must we have total victory in Gaza we must seek victory in Israel and Judea and Samaria. We must curtail and criminalize any speech likely to incite. We should have zero tolerance for violence. We must outlaw the Arab Naqba and and promotion of the Arab narrative which has no foundation in truth. We must get tough with the Arabs in the Galilee and the Negev.

There is no place in Israel for Palestinian nationalism. It must per suppressed.

After recent terror attacks, Members of Knesset call for Israel to create new policies and spirit to defeat its enemies.

ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS

On Monday, Members of Knesset from both the coalition and opposition called for the State of Israel to develop new policies to defeat its enemies, or its future might be challenging. The Members of Knesset, with senior military and security leaders, heads of NGOs and academics, came together for the opening of the Knesset Israel Victory Caucus (KIVC), in coordination with the Israel Victory Project of the Middle East Forum. Read more…

JORDAN: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE: The Jordan Option Revisited

By Dr. Mordechai Nissan