New Chicago mayor has promised to target businesses and the wealthy to pay for his social programming

Posted on April 7, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

WIREPOINTS
What has Chicago done?
Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
April 5, 2023

…What Chicagoans voted for on April 4 was someone more extreme and exactly opposite of what the city needed. To reduce Chicago’s nation-high homicide rate, Chicago needed a new mayor willing to take on Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s unwillingness to prosecute dangerous criminals. A mayor willing to challenge Judge Tim Evans’ decarcerationist agenda. A mayor willing to jam shut the system’s revolving door for criminals. Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson won’t do any of that. Instead, look for him to embrace the policies of Foxx and Evans. In his own words, he’s for defunding the police and defends looting as “an outbreak of incredible frustration and anguish” tied to “a failed racist system.” Watch for police morale to fall further, for criminals to be emboldened and for crime to continue to spike in Chicago. READ MORE

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Hezbollah had earlier stated support for Palestinians amid unrest at Al-Aqsa Mosque, but is said to deny involvement in assault, which comes as Israelis celebrate Passover

Posted on April 6, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
34 rockets fired from Lebanon at Israel in worst barrage in years; Hamas blamed
Emanuel Fabian
April 6, 2023

Thirty-four rockets were fired from southern Lebanon on Thursday afternoon, with 25 intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system over northern Israel, the military said. At least three people were injured and several buildings were damaged. In the evening several mortar shells impacted near the northern town of Metula, not causing any injuries or damage. Israel blamed Lebanon-based Hamas forces for the afternoon attacks, with Israeli official sources saying it would not have been carried out without Hezbollah’s consent. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is currently in Lebanon. READ MORE

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The Israeli Air Force on Thursday night also destroyed two tunnels coming out of Gaza,

Posted on April 6, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
IDF strikes multiple Hamas targets, tunnels in Gaza
April 7, 2023

Israeli fighter jets attacked Hamas targets in Gaza, including an underground weapons production site and three above-ground sites, early on Friday morning according to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.  During this activity, Israeli forces also attacked a Hamas tunnel, the IDF reported. Israeli Defense Forces conducted an attack on the Gaza Strip even earlier on Friday morning, at 4:30 a.m., in response to rocket fire from the region on Wednesday and Thursday. The IDF destroyed a heavy machine gun on Friday morning that was used to shoot at Israeli aircraft overhead as well as Israeli territory…The attack was carried out using a remotely-operated aircraft. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL IDF strikes Hamas ‘infrastructure targets’ in southern Lebanon Loud explosions heard in southern Lebanese town of Tyre; IDF says Israel will not let Palestinian terror group operate from Lebanon, holds country responsible for rocket attacks

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Washington has a vested interest in justice for the American victims of the blast and in spurring an overhaul of Lebanon’s broken political system

Posted on March 31, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

THE NATIONAL INTEREST
With Eyes on Israel, Biden Ignores Judicial Crisis in Neighboring Lebanon
Natalie Ecanow
April 1, 2023

If President Joe Biden is worried about the implications of judicial reform in the Jewish state, with its long traditions of civil debate and compromise, he should be much more concerned about Lebanon, where a U.S.-designated terrorist organization has already eviscerated the rule of law, Talking to reporters this week, Biden implored Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu to compromise on his proposals for overhauling the Israeli judiciary, lest he plunges his country into enduring chaos. Biden and his top advisers have exerted continual pressure on Netanyahu’s government regarding the judicial overhaul, even though it is a matter of Israeli domestic politics. Meanwhile, enduring chaos has already arrived in next-door Lebanon, where a Hezbollah-aligned government continually subverts the rule of law and the prerogatives of the judiciary. READ MORE

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Ken Levin: There is no precedent in Western democracies for a court to assert whatever authority it chooses over any aspect of a nation’s political life without any checks or balances

Posted on March 31, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

FRONT PAGE MAG
Was Moshe Landau a Fascist?
Kenneth Levin
March 31, 2023

…The limits on the judiciary typically include its only being able to invalidate a law on the basis of the law’s being a violation of the constitution. Further, if the court invalidates a law as unconstitutional, it is possible to amend the constitution to counter the court’s decision. Also, in most democracies, the legislature and/or the executive branch plays some role in selecting justices, representing another constraint on the court vis-a-vis other governmental branches. In addition, courts typically only take on cases in which the petitioner has some standing – that is, is personally affected by the issue at hand. Also, courts only address cases that are deemed judiciable, where the legal questions are amenable to being resolved by the court rather than by some other arm of government. None of these constraints exists in Israel in the wake of Barak’s expansion of the authority of the Supreme Court. Israel has no constitution. READ MORE

NATIONAL REVIEW Is Democracy Really Dying in Israel? The international community has raced to scapegoat the proposed judicial reforms and Bibi, their primary proponent, as the source of unrest. The reality is that Israel’s emerging chaos is a product of individuals spreading mistruths about the nature of the proposed judicial reforms. At best, such mistruths stem from a genuine ignorance of Israel’s political system. At worst, they are part of a larger campaign to destabilize Bibi’s government and obstruct the right-wing coalition’s ability to govern.

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Anti-Israel groups unite to fight IHRA definition

Posted on March 31, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

ALGEMEINER
‘Political Warfare Against Israel’: 60 NGOs Sign Letter Opposing UN Adoption of IHRA Antisemitism Definition
Andrew Bernard
April 4, 2023

60 human and civil rights organizations on Tuesday released a joint open letter urging the United Nations not to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. Signatories to Tuesday’s letter include the Palestinian NGOs al-Haq, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, and Defense for Children International – Palestine…Professor Gerald Steinberg, the founder of NGO Monitor, a group that supports the adoption of the IHRA definition, told The Algemeiner that the letter, which was also signed by Human Rights Watch (HRW), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and B’Tselem, is an act of “political warfare against Israel and against the right of the Jewish people for self-determination.” READ MORE

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Ambassador Michael Oren Situational Briefing on judicial reform, domestic and international implications

Posted on March 31, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

MIRYAM INSTITUTE
Ambassador Michael Oren Situational Briefing on judicial reform, domestic and international implications
March 30, 2023

In this episode of the podcast, Benjamin Anthony is joined by Ambassador Michael Oren, who served as Israel’s Ambassador to the United States of America from 2009-2013. Dr. Oren addressed himself to the fallout of the recent attempt at judicial reform, the security and diplomatic implications emanating from that attempt and the question of whether or not judicial reform is needed, in any form whatsoever. In this fascinating discussion, Amb. Oren draws upon his unique insights and experiences to talk about the seemingly strained relations between Israel and the U.S., the significance of in-person White House meetings that have so far eluded Prime Minister Netanyahu in his current term and his view of President Joe Biden, the Democratic party in the U.S. and the future challenges facing Israel and its citizenry.

Subscribe to The MirYam Institute Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast

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The Biden administration would do well to understand that those who want to kill the Jews also want to see dead the friends and allies of the Jews.

Posted on March 31, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

GATESTONE
Biden’s Anti-Israel Policy Empowers Iran, Palestinian Terrorists
Bassam Tawil
April 4, 2023

US President Joe Biden appears more worried about the Israeli government’s plan for judicial reform than the growing support among Palestinians for terrorism against Israel…We did not see Biden raise any objection over the Palestinians’ “Pay for Slay” policy, which rewards terrorists and their families for the murder of Jews. We did not see Biden raise any objection over the Palestinian leaders’ glorification of terrorists, who are being celebrated as “martyrs” by a majority of Palestinians. We did not see Biden raise any objection over the thousands of Palestinians who regularly take to the streets to celebrate the murder of Jews in terror attacks perpetrated by Palestinian terrorists. READ MORE

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Italian historian Carlo Vecce set out to debunk rumors of Leonardo da Vinci’s foreign origins, but a newly discovered document changed his mind

Posted on March 31, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

TABLET MAG
Leonardo da Vinci Was Jewish
Marc Weitzmann
April 3, 2023

In all likelihood, Leonardo da Vinci was only half Italian. His mother, Caterina, was a Circassian Jew born somewhere in the Caucasus, abducted as a teenager and sold as a sex slave several times in Russia, Constantinople, and Venice before finally being freed in Florence at age 15. This, at least, is the conclusion reached in the new book Il sorriso di Caterina, la madre di Leonardo, by the historian Carlo Vecce, one of the most distinguished specialists on Leonardo da Vinci. The official version of da Vinci’s birth is that it was the fruit of a brief fling between the Florentine solicitor Piero da Vinci and a young peasant from Tuscany called Caterina, of whom almost nothing was known. READ MORE

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“A Pew Center poll revealed that 59 percent of Israelis are happy with their country, versus, for example, 33 percent of Americans (not to mention depressed Europeans)”

Posted on March 31, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

ARUTZ SHEVA
Israel has taught the West that life is beautiful even at the foot of a volcano
Giulio Meotti
April 5, 2023

…It’s 2023 and Israel has never been healthier despite its internal conflicts. This small piece of land slightly larger than Lombardy is the only state whose existence is openly questioned, in the south it has Hamas, in the north Hezbollah and in the middle the Palestinian Arabs, increasingly eager to stab and shoot the Zionists. On the left the only peaceful border: the Mediterranean, where many since 1948 would like to roll over all the Jews. Yet, Israel, in the aftermath of a new wave of terrorism and protests never seen in its history, looks blissful. Israel no longer has existential enemies. Tsahal [IDF] is the most powerful army in an arc that goes from Marrakesh to Bangladesh. READ MORE

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