“This string of em­bar­rass­ing fail­ures has con­firmed the ad­min­is­tra­tion’s de­ter­mi­na­tion to down­grade the Mid­dle East as a strate­gic pri­or­ity. But the Mid­dle East re­fuses to stay quiet”

Posted on November 4, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

WALL STREET JOURNAL
Iran’s Mullahs Throw Biden a Lifeline
Walter Russell Mead
November 7, 2022

Joe Biden is a lucky man. The hero­ism of the Ukrain­ian peo­ple saved him from a Russ­ian vic­tory. Now the peo­ple of Iran, led by their women, are of­fer­ing him a his­toric op­por­tu­nity to weaken Rus­sia, re­duce long-term Amer­i­can vul­ner­a­bil­i-ties in the Mid­dle East, and even re­turn a sense of cau­tion and so­bri­ety to Chi­nese for­eign pol­icy. Like many great op­por­tu­ni­ties, it comes un­ex­pect­edly. The Mid­dle East has been a dreary place for Team Biden. The fail­ure to en­list the Ira­ni­ans in a re­newed nu­clear deal, the sham­bolic Afghan with­drawal, the em­bar­rass­ing fist bump with a price-hik­ing Mo-hammed bin Salman, Ben­jamin Ne­tanyahu’s elec­toral vic­tory: Noth­ing in the Mid­dle East has gone Joe Biden’s way. READ MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

“Sometimes, such as in the Al Sharpton-incited 1991 Crown Heights pogrom that killed Yankel Rosenbaum, this antisemitism bursts out into the open and has lethal consequences”

Posted on November 4, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

NEWSWEEK
It’s Time to Talk About Antisemitism in the Black Community
David Marcus
November 4, 2022

There is no more dangerous third rail in American politics and journalism than antisemitism in the black community. It is an issue that has mostly simmered in obscurity for decades for the very simple reason that it can be ugly to talk about. But we have to talk about it. With rapper Kanye West‘s recent anti-Jewish rantings, with basketball star Kyrie Irving sharing antisemitic movie trailers, and, most importantly, with Haredi Jews now routinely assaulted in places like Brooklyn, New York, silence is no longer an option. The question is how to best combat the antisemitism that has lurked, not so secretly, within hate-spewing figures such as Louis Farrakhan and noxious organizations such as the Black Hebrew Israelites. READ MORE

NEW YORK POST Amazon is still selling anti-Semitic film promoted by Kyrie Irving
Amazon is still peddling the controversial anti-Semitic film that landed Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving in hot water. The film, which is based on a 2015 book of the same title, promotes anti-Semitic tropes and bogus claims, including one which says the Black Hebrew Israelite community are the true descendants of biblical Israelites.The movie also alleges a global Jewish conspiracy to oppress black people and that Jews were partially to blame for the African slave trade.

Candace Owens breaks her silence on Ye and the Jewish Community
“There are currently very high tensions between Black and Jews”

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

“The next time the Palestinians wring their hands about Israeli elections, the international community might remind them that it is Palestinian terrorism that drives the Israeli ballot-box results”

Posted on November 4, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

GATESTONE
Palestinians Vote For Terrorists, Then Claim Israelis Are ‘Extremists’
Bassam Tawil
November 7, 2022

Even before the final results of the latest Israeli general elections were announced, Palestinian leaders and officials were quoted as expressing deep concern and fear that the outcome of the vote would lead to increased tensions and violence between the Palestinians and Israel. Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh was quoted as saying that the results of the election “confirms” that the Palestinians have no partner in Israel for peace.” The Palestinians, who keep complaining about the rise of the right-wing parties in Israeli elections, are the ones who brought the terrorist Hamas group to power. In 2006, a majority of Palestinians voted for Hamas, whose charter openly calls for the elimination of Israel. Since then, Hamas has carried out countless terror attacks, killing and injuring thousands of Israelis. READ MORE

ALGEMEINER CNN Takes Down ‘Palestine’ Reference Following Watchdog Action While Palestinian Authority (PA) chief Mahmoud Abbas might call himself the president of “Palestine,” most mainstream media outlets have rightfully refrained from recognizing Ramallah’s claim of independence. After all, the territory under Abbas’ control currently does not meet the formal criteria for statehood, as outlined in international law.

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

Spielberg’s star-studded autobiography is its acclaimed director’s genesis story “full of references Diaspora Jews will love”

Posted on November 4, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Spielberg’s very Jewish memoir film ‘The Fabelmans’ is one of the best of his career
Jordan Hoffman
November 10, 2022

…“The Fabelmans,” in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on November 11, followed by the rest of North America the upcoming week, represents [Tony] Kushner’s fourth collaboration with Spielberg — but the first time that the legendary director has taken a co-writing credit. Indeed, throughout his vast career, Spielberg has almost always delegated the business of getting the words on the page to someone else. But this time he isn’t focusing his camera outward to benign space aliens or an adventuresome archeologist, or even toward Normandy Beach or Polish concentration camps, but inward — not only to the peculiar history of his own family, but also to his growth as an artist and a person. It is a remarkable work of cinema, one of the best movies of the year, and unlike anything else in this innovator’s incomparable career. READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“For nearly half a century #ThomasFriedman has publicly attacked every Israeli government, whether it was right-wing, left-wing or somewhere in between”

Posted on November 4, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Thomas Friedman, an equal-opportunity Israel-basher
Stephen M. Flatow
November 6, 2022

Longtime New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman warned this week that, as a result of the Nov. 1 Israeli election, “the Israel we knew is gone” and the Jewish state is “entering a dark tunnel.” If you’d never read an article by Friedman before, you might assume that it was the rightward turn by Israeli voters that set the columnist against the Jewish state. You would think, in other words, that Friedman’s ire is Israel’s fault. You would be wrong. Very wrong. The truth is that Friedman’s hostility towards Israel has nothing to do with the reelection of Benjamin Netanyahu as Israel’s prime minister or the center-right governing coalition he is about to form. READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

Hebron Mayor comments lead to unconfirmed scenes of ostensible violence against canines on social media; he later says he wasn’t being serious

Posted on November 4, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Hebron mayor elicits outrage after offering $5 for anyone who kills a stray dog
Jack Mukand
November 5, 2022

The Palestinian mayor of Hebron, Tayseer Abu Sneineh, has sparked outrage after offering a bounty for the killing of stray dogs in his city. During an interview with a local radio station on Wednesday, Abu Sneineh announced, “Whoever kills a stray dog or delivers to us a stray dog that’s been killed, we are willing to reward him with 20 shekels ($5.6) for each dog delivered to us.” Abu Sneineh, who has lived much of his life outside of Hebron — in Jordan and in an Israeli prison, for his participation in a 1980 Hebron attack — went on to say in the interview that he had drawn inspiration from Jordan. READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East | Tagged | Leave a comment

“Engaging the partisan brain shuts down conversation. It widens gulfs, rather than narrowing them. If solving problems is your goal, you’ll want to avoid creating more distance between you and your interlocutor”

Posted on November 4, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

FOUNDATION AGAINST INTOLERANCE & RACISM
How to have political disagreements without ruining relationships
Julian Adorney
November 7, 2022

If you’ve lost a friend or a loved one to political disagreements, you’re not alone. A 2021 study by the American Enterprise Institute showed that a full 15% of adults have ended a friendship over politics. Many more Americans have friendships or relationships with loved ones that are on the ropes due to political disagreements. But there is a way to have political disagreements that build your relationships with your loved ones rather than erode them. It’s not always easy in practice, but it is simple in concept: First, state your values, but don’t attack the other person’s values. Second, reframe the discussion as a search for ways to fix societal problems. Let’s say that you’re a conservative, and your mother-in-law is a progressive who supports the application of critical race theory in schools and educational materials. She asks you, “How can you oppose teaching anti-racism in schools? I guess you just don’t care about ending racism.” READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East | Leave a comment

“The elections that have just taken place in Israel and the United States each boiled down to a contest between dragons and dragon-slayers”

Posted on November 4, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Dragons and dragon-slayers in Israel and America
Melanie Phillips
November 10, 2022

…In America, both the Democrat and Republican camps believe the other is the dragon to be slain. President Joe Biden says Republicans are “neo-fascists” and a threat to democracy. The Democrats smear all who oppose “progressive” shibboleths—critical race theory, LGBTQ rights, relaxation of immigration controls—in the same way. For their part, Republicans view the Democrats and their left-wing program of coercing conformity to anti-Western identity politics as an existential threat to America’s historic culture and core values. In this week’s midterms, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who won a landslide victory for the GOP in which even the hitherto Democratic bastion of Miami-Dade turned red, emerged as the Republican party’s chief dragon-slayer—and has possibly dealt a fatal blow to Donald Trump’s aim of securing the party’s next presidential nomination. READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Politics | Leave a comment

“With all the ballots tallied following Israel’s national election on Tuesday, Netanyahu will control not just the largest party in the Knesset, but is poised to return to power leading a 64-strong majority bloc of his religious and right-wing allies in the 120-member Knesset”

Posted on November 3, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
Israel voted for Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir. Let them govern
Editorial Board
November 3, 2022

Israel went to the polls on Tuesday and in rather uncharacteristic fashion rendered a clear decision: Benjamin Netanyahu. No hung jury this time, no tie, no waffling: The country wants Netanyahu back as the head of a very right-wing and religious government. The nation has spoken, and now it is time to honor its decision. What does that mean? It means letting Netanyahu form a right-wing, very religious coalition. That is what the people want, that is what they voted for…Netanyahu’s first order of business, as well as that of his potential partners, needs to be to recognize the fears and concerns among many of the country’s Arabs, women, members of the LGBTQ community and secular citizens, and to assuage those fears. READ MORE

FRONT PAGE MAG Daniel Greenfield: Right Wins, Left Loses in Israel As of now, with over 90% of the votes counted, Meretz and Balad aren’t making it into the Israel Knesset. Meretz, a radical leftist party, not even sitting in the Knesset is historic. Labor, the establishment leftist party, took another severe electoral beating. At 4 seats, it’s one of the smallest parties in the Knesset and barely made it past the electoral ‘threshold’.

TIMES OF ISRAEL Conceding defeat, Lapid wishes Netanyahu luck ‘for the sake of the Israeli people’ As the final thousands of votes were being tallied Thursday evening, Prime Minister Yair Lapid called opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu to concede the race and congratulate him on his election victory. “The State of Israel is above any political considerations,” Lapid said in a statement. “I wish Netanyahu good luck for the people of Israel and the State of Israel.” Lapid’s office said the outgoing prime minister told Netanyahu he has instructed all branches of his office to prepare for an orderly transfer of power.

 

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“The prospect of not only a victory for Netanyahu and Likud, but the formation of a government with a prominent role for the Religious Zionist Party and one of its controversial leaders, Itamar Ben-Gvir, is enough to set the hair of Democrats and the foreign-policy establishment on fire’

Posted on November 3, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
Biden shouldn’t try to ‘save’ Israeli democracy
Jonathan S. Tobin
November 3, 2022

…But the rise of Smotrich and Ben-Gvir is a natural consequence of the failure of the current government to adequately address the rise in Palestinian terrorism. It also reflects the growth of the religious population and the collapse of credibility of those parties that championed outreach to the Palestinians over the course of the last two decades as the Oslo peace process proved to be a disaster. In contrast to the overwhelmingly liberal bent of American Jewry, Israeli Jews are more likely to be proudly nationalist and have fewer illusions about the Palestinian desire for peace. They are sympathetic to leaders who are unashamed about their desire for Israel to be a Jewish state rather than a non-sectarian nation in which Jewish peoplehood and religion are downplayed. READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment