“If you’re going to die on the street, San Francisco is not a bad place to do it. The fog keeps things temperate. There’s nowhere in the world with more beautiful views”

ATLANTIC
How San Francisco became a failed city, and
how it could recover

Nellie Bowles
June 8, 2022

…During the first part of the pandemic, San Francisco County lost more than one in 20 residents—myself among them. Signs of the city’s pandemic decline are everywhere—the boarded-up stores, the ghostly downtown, the encampments. But walking these streets awakens me to how bad San Francisco had gotten even before the coronavirus hit—to how much suffering and squalor I’d come to think was normal. Stepping over people’s bodies, blurring my eyes to not see a dull needle jabbing and jabbing again between toes—it coarsened me. I’d gotten used to the idea that some people just want to live like that. READ MORE

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The poll of 519 respondents representing a statistical sample of the adult Israeli population and has a margin of error of 4.3%

JERUSALEM POST
Public prefers an election over new, or same, government
Gil Hoffman
June 10, 2022

More Israelis prefer to have their fifth election in three and a half years, rather than the current government continuing, or the formation of a new government from within the current Knesset, according to a Panels Research poll taken Wednesday for the Maariv newspaper. Thirty-nine percent of respondents said they preferred to have a new election, 28% said they want the current government to continue, 19% want a new government in the current Knesset, and 14% said they do not know. Among those who would vote for parties in the opposition if an election would be held now, 68% prefer an election, 24% a new government without going to the polls, 1% the current government, and 7% do not know. READ MORE

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Iran enriching up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% of weapons-grade, claims its nuclear aims are “wholly peaceful”

REUTERS
Iran expanding nuclear work, switching off cameras amid IAEA censure
Francois Murphy
June 8, 2022

Iran has begun further expanding its underground uranium enrichment and said on Wednesday it would switch off two of the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s cameras, as the watchdog’s 35-nation board overwhelmingly passed a resolution criticising Tehran. Only Russia and China opposed the resolution submitted by the United States, Germany, France and Britain saying the Board of Governors “expresses profound concern” that uranium traces found at three undeclared sites remain unexplained due to insufficient cooperation by Iran. It also calls on Tehran to engage with the watchdog “without delay”. READ MORE

DAILY BEAST Playing with Fire: This Could Be the Next Big War That Grips the Entire World
The ongoing war between Israel and Iran across the Middle East came out of the shadows and into the open long ago. But now, on the back of several suspected Israeli attacks inside Iran itself, the deadly contest threatens to escalate—possibly beyond the region.

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Chariots of Fire brought the Israeli military to a new standard, as troops practiced responding to emergency events

JPOST
The IDF drills for a devastating war on home soil and away
Anna Ahronheim
June 4, 2022

It was a drill on a level that the IDF had never carried out before. Thousands of troops, and hundreds of aircraft and navy vessels all trained together in going to war against Israel’s enemies, on all fronts and in all dimensions, including a strike in Iran. Chariots of Fire brought the Israeli military to a new standard, as troops practiced responding to emergency events in multiple theaters simultaneously while under heavy rocket fire from all borders – especially from the North. The Israeli army expects the home front to be bombarded with 1,500 rockets a day until the last day of the war. The attacks would wreck the country, with dozens of buildings and sites destroyed and hundreds killed and wounded. READ MORE

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Israeli relations improving with Greece, Saudi Arabia and….Pakistan ?

ALGEMEINER
In Second Visit to Israel, Greek Military Chief Touts Strong Bonds
June 8, 2022

Israel welcomed the chief of Greece’s armed forces with an honor guard on Wednesday, amid increasingly close ties between the Mediterranean nations. Gen. Konstantinos Floros, head of the Hellenic National Defense General Staff, was greeted by IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi, ahead of discussions regarding the situation in Ukraine and security developments in the eastern Mediterranean. Floros also visited to the IDF’s Intelligence Corps’ Unit 9900, which is responsible for aerial and satellite imagery. READ MORE

ISRAEL HAYOM Saudi Arabia moves closer to forging ties with Israel The Wall Street Journal claims Riyadh is engaging in “serious talks” with Jerusalem about establishing business ties, and bolstering security coordination.

HAARETZ Thanks to Saudi Arabia, Pakistan’s Recognition of Israel Is Now Inevitable Pakistan can’t afford to remain the last Sunni Islamist bastion resisting Saudi normalization with Israel. But the country’s rulers, both political and military, want safeguards against a frenzied domestic backlash

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“The real crime, one that represents a serious breach of the long-standing intelligence-sharing arrangements between the US and Israel, is that one of President Biden’s senior officials has been willing to betray the trust of such a close ally”

GATESTONE
Biden Is No Friend of Israel
Con Coughlin
June 3, 2022

Nothing better illustrates the Biden administration’s deep-seated antipathy towards the State of Israel than the leaking of highly classified material about the alleged role Israeli intelligence played in the assassination of a top-ranking Iranian terrorist. For decades, Israel and the US have enjoyed a unique intelligence-sharing relationship whereby the two countries share the most sensitive material on their respective intelligence, security and military operations. But the deep-seated bond of trust that forms the bedrock of this vital relationship has been seriously compromised as a result of the Biden administration’s egregious decision to leak details of Israel’s alleged involvement in the killing of Colonel Sayad Khodayee, a senior commander in the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). READ MORE

ISRAEL HAYOM Melanie Phillips: Why the US won’t stop appeasing the Palestinians There is also a lethal refusal to face reality in the Middle East that has characterized American administrations, as well as governments in Britain and Europe, for many decades

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“With its elisions, manipulations, and tendentiousness, Rep. Tlaib’s House resolution reads as if it was written by a Palestinian propagandist from the 1950s or 1960s”

WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Democrats go to war against Israel
Alex Joffe and Asaf Romirowsky
June 2, 2022

…The Democratic Socialists of America [DSA] believed Democrat Jamal Bowman’s increasingly heated attacks on Israel were not extreme enough to make him a good socialist. A staffer wrote of the list of “demands” the DSA had presented Bowman with and explained that the congressman was complying, first by opposing a resolution supporting peace between Israel and its neighbors and then promising that the next time we have something like a standalone Iron Dome vote” on funding for Israel’s ability to defend its civilians from air attacks, “you will see Rep. Bowman vote no.” READ MORE

JEWISH INSIDER Tlaib, Ocasio-Cortez, McCollum target Israeli eligibility for Visa Waiver Program Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) is soliciting signatures from House colleagues on a letter arguing against Israel’s inclusion in the Visa Waiver Program. In the letter, which was obtained by JI, the Michigan congresswoman pushes back on ongoing talks between Israel and the Biden administration over the program, which allows foreign citizens to enter the U.S. for 90 days without applying for a visa.                  

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#BrookeGoldstein on ILTV: Is the #BDS movement still relevant? #EndJewHatred

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“Uvalde students were calling 911 and begging for help. The officers stayed outside for almost an hour during the mass shooting”

WALL STREET JOURNAL
The Uvalde Police Scandal
Peggy Noonan
June 2, 2022

The great sin in what happened in Texas is that an 18-year-old with murder in his heart walked into a public school and shot to death 19 kids and two teachers. The great shock is what the police did—their incompetence on the scene and apparent lies afterward. This aspect has rocked the American people. Uvalde wasn’t an “apparent law-enforcement failure.” It is the biggest law-enforcement scandal since George Floyd, and therefore one of the biggest in U.S. history. Children, some already shot, some not, were trapped in adjoining classrooms. As many as 19 cops were gathered in the hall just outside. READ MORE

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Joshua Katz’s mother-in-law’s writes a manifesto

SPECTATOR
In defense of Joshua Katz
Kari Jenson Gold
June 4, 2022

Last July 17, my daughter, Solveig Gold, married (then) Princeton professor Joshua Katz. It was a glorious, indeed transcendent (as one friend put it) celebration of the glory of God and the power of love — attended by a large gathering of the canceled, the not-yet-canceled and a lucky few who are seemingly uncancellable. Last month, as the world now knows, he was fired. If you haven’t yet read Solveig’s piece in Bari Weiss’s Substack, put mine aside and read hers first. It is beautiful and inspiring. Mine, by contrast, is merely mad as hell. READ MORE

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