More than 1,000 Israeli Arabs have volunteered to serve in the IDF in the past year

Posted on January 10, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

BRIDGES FOR PEACE
IDF Sees Record Number of Israeli Arab Conscripts
by Yoav Zitun
January 4, 2021

More than 1,000 Israeli Arabs have volunteered to serve in the IDF as conscripts or reservists in the past year, and most after the coronavirus crisis began in March 2020, the military’s Manpower Directorate said Sunday. The number of conscripts from the Arab sector is more than twice that of previous years, and includes Muslims from areas such as Taibe, Qalansuwa and East Jerusalem, Bedouin from the Galilee and Christian Arabs from the north. Alongside the overall increase in the number of new Israeli Arab troops, the number of those enlisting for combat roles has also increased. Some 450 new soldiers enlisted as scouts and fighters in the Bedouin patrol unit…READ MORE

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The UN so often libels Israel, they deserve a Top Ten list

Posted on January 10, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

UN WATCH
The U.N.’s Top 10 Worst Anti-Israel Actions of 2020
January 13, 2021

10. UN’s ECOSOC Singles Out Israel for “Violating Women’s Rights”: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Belarus were among member states of the UN’s 54-nation Economic and Social Council that voted to single out Israel as the only country in the world to be rebuked this year for allegedly violating women’s rights. The UN resolution accused Israel of being a “major obstacle” for Palestinian women “with regard to the fulfillment of their rights” and “their advancement, self-reliance and integration in the development of their society.” UN Watch’s protest sparked outrage in Uruguay, one of the countries that supported the resolution, and this led to the country’s foreign minister apologizing for the vote—and actually firing his director-general. Since then, Uruguay has changed a number of its UN votes in favor of Israel. BUT WAIT, THERE ARE NINE MORE

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Low-information Sarah Silverman opines on Israel and BDS

Posted on January 10, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

ALGEMEINER
Jewish Comedian Sarah Silverman Explains Why She’s ‘Not Against BDS,’ Accuses Israel of Occupation in New Podcast Episode
by Shiryn Ghermezian
January 11, 2021

Jewish comedian and actress Sarah Silverman supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement as long as it protests Israel’s government and its “occupation,” and not the country’s citizens, she said Thursday. During the Jan. 7 episode of “The Sarah Silverman Podcast,” the show’s host, 50, told her listeners, “I’m fine with BDS, as long as it’s clear that you are boycotting a government and not a people. When that line gets muddy, that’s when it’s a little scary as a Jew. Silverman, who lists her Twitter location as the “state of Palestine,” then citied the boycott movement against the South African apartheid in the 1980s, saying, “I think divesting from South Africa made a real difference in ending apartheid. READ MORE

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“Twitter is destroying American freedom to enrich itself”

Posted on January 10, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

THE FEDERALIST
Twitter Is The Enemy Of The American People
by David Marcus
January 9, 2021

On Oct. 18, 2020, Twitter banned the account of Dr. Scott Atlas for defending President Donald Trump’s position on mask mandates. In his tweet, he cited scientific studies, and the tweet contained absolutely no false information. Also in October, Twitter banned the account of The New York Post for accurately reporting on a story about Hunter Biden’s laptop. Today we know these were just the first salvos in this evil company’s assault on American liberty. For all its talk about safety, community, and the health of discourse, we see today that Twitter acts in favor of one interest and one interest alone: its own, even when it means destabilizing the American people. On Friday, the company permanently banned Trump from its platform and began a purge of conservative voices. READ MORE

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#Illinois Speaker #MikeMadigan: “Polling in 2019 showed a stunning 71% of voters statewide disapproved of the speaker”

Posted on January 10, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

ILLINOIS POLICY
Madigan’s reign ends as longest-serving legislative leader in U.S. history
by Austin Berg
January 13, 2021

Exactly 50 years after first taking his seat in the Illinois House of Representatives, today marked the end of the longest reign of any legislative leader in American history. Mike Madigan was denied a 19th term as House speaker. He has held that post for 36 of the past 38 years…This momentous day in Illinois state politics should not be just about a new face. It should be about a new way of doing the people’s business. Commonsense ethics reforms, bringing democracy to the Illinois House through rules reform, and passing pension reform that protects Illinoisans reliant on social services, workers’ retirement security and taxpayers’ pocketbooks all remain as critical today as they were yesterday – no matter who is speaker. But make no mistake: Madigan’s removal from power was a necessary first step to transforming Illinois into a beacon of prosperity that shines across the Midwest. READ MORE

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Trump also “destroyed any chance of a political future, all on a single Wednesday afternoon”

Posted on January 10, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

WALL STREET JOURNAL
Trump Erases His Legacy
by Kimberley A. Strassel
January 7, 2021

…It didn’t have to be this way. The president had every right—even an obligation, given the ad hoc changes to voting rules—to challenge state election results in court. But when those challenges failed (which every one did, completely), he had the opportunity to embrace his legacy, cement his accomplishments, and continue to play a powerful role in GOP politics. Mr. Trump could have reveled in the mantle of the one-term disrupter—the man the electorate sent to Washington to deliver the message that it was tired of business as usual. He could have pointed out just how successful he was in that mission by stacking his cabinet with reformers, busting convention, and overseeing policy changes that astounded (and delighted) even many warrior conservatives. READ MORE

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“Israel now has to reckon with Trump’s legacy and his massive footprint in the Middle East”

Posted on January 7, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
Will US-Israel relations go down in flames with the Trump presidency?
by Lahav Harkov
January 7, 2021

Watching the riots in Washington from Israel, a couple of Israeli flags could be seen in the crowds. There were only a couple out of thousands of American flags, Confederate flags, Gadsden flags and others. But the Israeli flags were there, on the TV screens of people across the world watching the scenes unfold on cable news. The storming on the Capitol and the unfounded claims that the election was “stolen” from departing US President Donald Trump have nothing to do with Israel. But Israel will have to reckon with Trump’s legacy and his massive footprint in the Middle East. Looking back at the past four years, Trump checked one policy after another off of Israel’s wishlist. READ MORE

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“CAIR isn’t the only unindicted co-conspirator Illinois politicians will join at the banquet”

Posted on January 7, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

INVESTIGATIVE PROJECT ON TERRORISM
Illinois Democrats Line Up to Help CAIR Fundraise
by Steven Emerson
January 4, 2021

In yet another example of political expediency overcoming better judgment, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and other top Democrats are all slated to speak Jan. 17 to help the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) Chicago chapter raise money during its annual banquet. CAIR, as we have reported many times, has roots in an American-based Hamas-support network, a conclusion reached by the FBI and upheld by a federal judge. CAIR was “a participant in an ongoing and ultimately unlawful conspiracy to support a designated terrorist organization,” federal prosecutors wrote in 2007, “a conspiracy from which CAIR never withdrew.” READ MORE

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A new biography of Iranian terror chief Qassem Soleimani, “whose hatred of Israel was obsessive”

Posted on January 7, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

TABLET MAGAZINE
The Life of Iran’s Most Celebrated Mass Killer
by Peter Theroux
January 7, 2021

Late in Arash Azizi’s fluent and groundbreaking new biography of the late Qassem Soleimani, The Shadow Commander: Soleimani, the U.S., and Iran’s Global Ambitions, the author tells us that the summer before Soleimani was killed, “Israel’s former prime minister Ehud Olmert spoke of his old adversary Soleimani in a radio interview: ‘There is something that he knows, that he knows I know, that I know he knows, and both of us know what that something is.’ He paused for a moment and added: ‘What that is, that’s another story.’”…Shaped by the consequences of the Iranian revolution, bin Laden and Soleimani became new-style heroes of anti-American jihad running vivid but divergent public relations campaigns. READ MORE

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“While Trump did call on the protesters to cease and desist, he also incited their actions during his remarks at the rally”

Posted on January 7, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
Trump Rings in the Era of “Total Political Correctness”
by Caroline Glick
January 8, 2021

…Trump told them Biden stole the election and that with the Republican loss of the Senate, America was going to the dogs. He also told them to march to the Capitol. True, as the lack of police presence outside the Capitol building indicated, there was little concern that the Trump supporters would behave violently. Trump probably didn’t think they would. But, by lighting matches in a barn, Trump burned down his own legacy. He won’t be remembered for lowering taxes and rebuilding the U.S. economy or for bringing peace to the Middle East. He will be remembered for sending his supporters to the Capitol where they rioted. READ MORE

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