“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

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“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.

 

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“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

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“20 Democrats, including Rashida Tlaib, urge US to exclude Israel from Visa Waiver Program”

Posted on November 3, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
20 Democrats say keep Israel out of Visa Waiver Program
November 3, 2022

As the United States appears to be close to adding Israel to the list of countries in the Visa Waiver Program, 20 progressive Democrats in Congress are trying to prevent it. The group, led by Reps. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Oct. 27 that said that Israel should be kept out of the program because of “ethnic-based discrimination” and racial profiling. The letter, which was leaked to Jewish Insider, argued that Israel does not meet the criteria of the program because of “discriminatory restrictions” for entry into Judea and Samaria. READ MORE

NEW YORK POST Antisemitism watchdog: AOC’s ‘obsession’ with Israel is ‘shameful’ A nonpartisan antisemitism watchdog group has condemned Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) for criticizing the top pro-Israel lobbying group for opposing a progressive congressional candidate in Pennsylvania. “AOC’s ongoing obsession with both AIPAC and the Jewish state is shameful,” Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism, told the New York Post on Tuesday.

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“Through terror proxies in Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, the Palestinian territories, and beyond, Iran is behind almost every war and ongoing military conflict in the Middle East”

Posted on October 28, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

NEWSWEEK
America and the World Must Stand with Iran’s Freedom Revolution
Caroline Glick
October 25, 2022

What is happening in Iran is a revolution, not a protest movement. If the Iranian people overthrow the theocratic regime that has ruled their country since 1979, their achievement will be the single most significant event in the Middle East in generations. Consider the stakes. The ayatollahs’ regime is the world’s greatest state sponsor of terrorism. The regime funds, arms, trains, and directs terrorist organizations and cells in nearly every country in the world. Iran apparently passed the nuclear threshold this year, which means the ayatollahs are now capable of developing nuclear weapons at will. READ MORE

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“Israel did not fight its many wars out of allegiance to the microchip. Judaism is the basis for the past, present and future Jewish state”

Posted on October 28, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
Israel isn’t the Start-Up Nation. It’s the Jewish state
Benjamin Anthony
November 2, 2022

…Contrary to the beliefs of many, Israel was not founded in response to the Holocaust. Its existence surely serves as a bulwark against another Holocaust but the Holocaust is not the reason for Israel’s existence. Opening the door to such a narrative is an error. The forebears of today’s Israeli soldiers yearned for Zion centuries before the names Auschwitz, Goebbels, Goring or Adolf Hitler were etched into infamy. Tragically, with the passage of time and the passing of survivors, there will soon rise a generation of society with a vastly reduced memory of the Holocaust. Predicating Israel’s existence upon a phenomenon so fleeting within the memory of mankind would be misguided, therefore. Neither Israel’s past nor future can be reduced down to the horrific actions of another people. READ MORE

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UN Human Rights Council “Commission of Inquiry” is funded “for the express purpose of demonizing and delegitimizing Israel in perpetuity”

Posted on October 28, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

WASHINGTON TIMES
United Nations goes DEFCON 3 on Israel
Clifford D. May
October 25, 2022

…The so-called U.N. Human Rights Council’s…Commission of Inquiry (COI) is going on offense against the Middle East’s only surviving and thriving Jewish community…On Thursday, the COI released its second report — one was not enough! — assigning culpability for last year’s 11-day war between Israel and Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood faction that holds power in Gaza and is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, and other nations. The report urges U.N. members to prosecute Israeli officials for alleged violations of “international humanitarian law.” What does the report say about Hamas and the more than 4,000 rockets it fired at Israelis, its routine use of Palestinian civilians as “human shields,” and the support it receives from Tehran? Not a word. READ MORE

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“A comparison to coverage at other media outlets exposes CNN’s strenuous efforts to create the false impression that raging Israeli soldiers are killing peaceful Palestinian civilians”

Posted on October 28, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
CNN protects the Lion’s Den
Tamar Sternthal
October 28, 2022

CNN is highly diligent when it comes to tracking the Palestinians’ most deadly days. Last month’s headline was “At least 4 Palestinians killed, dozens wounded in one of year’s deadliest Israeli West Bank raids.” On Wednesday, CNN conscientiously kept up the count, with the headline “Six killed by Israeli forces in the deadliest day for Palestinians this year.” It’s dramatic and newsworthy information. And it’s also highly misleading if certain contextual information – such as the fact that those killed were terrorists – is ignored or downplayed. Indeed, when it comes to the identity of the Palestinian casualties, the news network’s reporting is suddenly not so fastidious. To the contrary, the same journalists who so carefully report the numbers of Palestinian casualties also bury their violent activity. READ MORE

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“Antisemitism destroys non-Jews, their societies and the antisemites themselves. Or, to put it another way, antisemitism leads to suicide as well as homicide”

Posted on October 28, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

PRAGERS COLUMN
Kanye West, Antisemitism and Candace Owens
Dennis Prager
November 1, 2022

Let’s begin with an indisputable fact. What Kanye West, aka Ye, is saying about Jews is antisemitic. Why? Because “the Jews run everything” is pure libel. That’s why Jews are not paranoid in being deeply troubled by such sentiments. If widely believed, they will almost inevitably lead to persecution of Jews. Now, let’s turn to the matter of Candace Owens. For the few who do not know who she is, Candace is a brilliant and charismatic black woman with a very large following. The Left hates her because she is a black conservative and, even worse, a supporter of former President Donald Trump. In the eyes of the Left, including the current president of the United States, Trump supporters (often referred to as “MAGA people”) are either out-and-out fascists or “semi-fascists. READ MORE

COLUMBUS DISPATCH Why didn’t Adidas dropped Kanye West sooner ? A German company founded by a former member of the Nazi party, Adidas had an especially strong reason to drop Ye earlier than other companies. Adidas faced mounting pressure from the Anti-Defamation League and other organizations to drop Ye, given its Nazi past.

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“As the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in two affirmative action cases, Harvard’s president virtue-signals in an email blast”

Posted on October 28, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

CITY JOURNAL
Preening Over Preferences
Heather Mac Donald
October 31, 2022

…Harvard has little interest in diverse “economic . . . backgrounds” when it comes to race, contrary to Bacow’s email. Ever since a disastrous experiment in the late 1960s when Harvard did admit lower-income blacks (these admits bombed spectacularly), it has shifted its focus to middle-income and wealthy blacks, privileging the children of well-to-do blacks far ahead of the children of poor blacks. It is not “different circumstances” that Harvard seeks, but different skin color. Such skin color can serve as a proxy for different lived circumstances only under the assumption that racism is so ubiquitous in contemporary America that it disfigures the experience of the children of investment bankers. That assumption of systemic racism is now the controlling creed in academia…Nearly three-quarters of all Americans, including a majority of minorities, oppose using race in college admissions, according to a 2022 Pew Research survey.  READ MORE

WALL STREET JOURNAL Why Randi Weingarten Supports Harvard’s Discrimination Racial preferences help offset the inequities in K-12 education that teachers unions have created.

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