With Israel having one of the highest daily infection rates per capita in the world, there are only two nations where Israelis can currently travel without being forced into quarantine upon arrival or return

Posted on September 17, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Tens of thousands take advantage of flights to flee Israel’s closure
by Staff
September 19, 2020

Tens of thousands of Israelis are taking advantage of the opportunity to flee Israel’s new national lockdown and to enjoy a more relaxed holiday season abroad. Despite the national closure, which began Friday and is expected to last at least three weeks in its most stringent form, the government decided earlier this week that any previously scheduled flights for the coming weeks will take place as planned. According to a Channel 12 report Saturday, some 15,000 flew out in recent days, with 7,000 more expected to travel over the course of the Friday-Sunday Rosh Hashanah holiday, and another 40,000 set to depart over the next two weeks. READ MORE

JNS Israelis brace for High Holidays in shadow of second lockdown The Ministry of Health says 5,238 new cases have been confirmed between Thursday and Friday, setting yet another negative record. Restriction on movement is somewhat relaxed from 500 yards from one’s home to 1,000 yards. Israel is facing a national three-week lockdown slated to go into effect at 2 p.m. Friday (Israel time), as the government seeks to curtail the spread of the virus that has continuously grown in numbers.

ISRAEL HAYOM Israel’s population hits 9.2 million on eve of Rosh Hashanah According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, 88.8% of the population is satisfied with their lives. During the past year, 49,410 couples got married and 170,000 babies were born.

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , | 1 Comment

“Until recently, it was unimaginable to see Arabs openly admitting that they had been mistaken in their belief that Israel was the enemy of the Muslims and Arabs”

Posted on September 17, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

GATESTONE
Arabs: Israel Is Not Our Enemy
by Khaled Abu Toameh
September 17, 2020

…It is remarkable to see how an increasing number of Arabs are airing their views regarding Israel and the Palestinians in the public sphere. The message coming from these Arabs: “We helped the Palestinians for many years; we gave them money; we gave them weapons, and some of us even fought wars with Israel because of them. In the end, we discovered that our Palestinian brothers are ungrateful, obstinate, lack good leadership and are refusing to move on with their lives.” The Arabs are telling the Palestinians: “You no longer have a veto on peace with Israel.” READ MORE

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

Shortly after explosion at Iranian nuclear enrichment facility—destroying 3/4 of the compound—“Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi hinted at Israeli involvement”

Posted on September 17, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
Goal of Natanz explosion was to send ‘clear’ message to Iran
by Yonah Jeremy Bob
September 17, 2020

An explosion two months ago at a key Iranian uranium enrichment facility in Natanz was meant to send a message of determination to stop the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, The Jerusalem Post has learned. The purpose of the attack was to send an unambiguous deterrent message that progress toward a nuclear weapon beyond certain redlines would not be tolerated. In addition, the Post has confirmed foreign reports that the explosion was caused by physical sabotage. READ MORE

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

In case you missed this week’s US Holocaust Memorial Museum annual Chicago event, view it here

Posted on September 17, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

Tuesday’s luncheon was the first ever “virtual” event and this year the Museum honored my friend Mally Rutkoff for her years of service to the organization. The featured speaker was Former White Nationalist  R. Derek Black who was raised in a prominent White Supremacist family and spent his teenage years helping his father expand the world’s first online racial hate community, Stormfront. In the video link below, you’ll hear his amazing firsthand account of how he came to renounce the White Supremacist movement and philosophy he was raised in. It’s a moving story, very much worth a few minutes of your time. His story begins at 20:30.

Please consider making a gift to the Museum to help them in their vital work. Thanks to a generous donor, any gifts that have increased from your 2019 donation will be matched dollar for dollar and gifts made at the same level as last year will be matched $0.50 on the dollar. To contribute to the USHMM, click here. For more information on the Museum, contact the Midwest Regional Office at 847.433.8099 or midwest@ushmm.org.

Posted in Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Council on Foreign Relations to host Iranian Foreign Minister “days after Iran tortured and executed popular Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari over his participation in a peaceful protest”

Posted on September 17, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

FREE BEACON
U.S. Think Tank Under Fire for Hosting Top Iranian Official
by Adam Kredo
September 15, 2020

A U.S. think tank is under fire from the Trump administration and its allies in Congress for hosting Iran’s chief propagandist in an upcoming event that legal experts say runs afoul of American sanctions laws. The Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan U.S. think tank that employs numerous former government officials, is scheduled to host next Tuesday Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif, the regime’s top spokesman and architect of the landmark nuclear accord, for a virtual conversation on the Zoom meeting platform. READ MORE

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

How Trump used Putin to achieve his campaign promise of “no more endless wars”

Posted on September 17, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

ASIA TIMES
Donald Trump’s lonely victory in the Middle East
by David P. Goldman
September 17, 2020

…But Trump did not lean on Turkey. Nor did he leave the field open to Iran. On the contrary: He let Russia contain Turkey’s ambitions in Syria by containing the Sunni jihadists backed by Ankara. That was a courageous thing to do in the midst of a witch-hunt against supposed “collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia, a charge concocted out of thin air by Trump’s political opponents. As Trump told a September 3 campaign rally, “If I get along with Russia, is that a good thing or a bad thing?” To get US troops out of the Middle East, there is no choice but to get along with Russia. One might mention China as well…READ WELL

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

“It took only two weeks for the UAE to change their textbooks to accept and embrace Israel as part of the Middle East – but Palestinian media and schools still teach that Jews are the usurping outsiders who will ultimately be banished”

Posted on September 17, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

ELDER OF ZIYON
Hey Palestinians – you could have had peace with Israel 20 years ago and chose terror. Actions have consequences.
September 18, 2020

Hey Palestinians: You keep whining about how the Abraham Accords ignore you. That’s wrong. It treats you exactly how you deserve – as an entity that has, through your own actions and rejectionism, made your cause irrelevant. You could have been the ones on the White House lawn signing a genuine warm peace with Israel, multiple times, since 2000. Instead, you chose to adhere to your “principles” of destroying the Jewish state – through terror, through alliances with the worst human rights abusing states, through demographics of “return.” Israel’s desire for peace with Palestinians is no less than its desire for peace with the rest of the Arab world. READ MORE

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

Princeton president admits his university is racist; Department of Education responds, if so, school may have run afoul of anti-discrimination laws

Posted on September 17, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

POLITICO
Education Department investigates Princeton for admitting ‘systemic racism’ on campus
by Michael Stratford
September 17, 2020

The Trump administration has opened an investigation into Princeton University over the school president’s recent statement that students there face “systematic racism” and that racism is “embedded” in the structures of the university. Education Department officials notified Princeton this week that they are examining whether the university’s “admitted racism” means that it made materially false statements when it for years assured the public and the federal government that it doesn’t discriminate based on race…The Education Department demanded that Princeton produce a range of records about its nondiscrimination policies, among other things, within 21 days and also agree to make university officials available for a transcribed interview. READ MORE

Posted in Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

#BLM “in essence, a racist, anti-capitalist, and anti-democratic movement that should be exposed and fought”

Posted on September 17, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

BEGIN-SADAT CENTER
Repairing the World by Embracing Antisemites: American Jews and Black Lives Matter
by Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld
September 17, 2020

In a recent public letter permeated with distortions published in The New York Times, 600 Jewish signatory organizations identified themselves with Black Lives Matter (BLM). This decentralized movement was founded by Marxists and had in its original platform expressions of extreme anti-Israel incitement. BLM is a racist, anti-capitalist, anti-democratic movement that should be exposed as such and fought. It intends nothing good for Jews or Israel, regardless how many Jews proclaim their allegiance to it. READ MORE

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

“History is in the making in Washington today, and not only for the Middle East. What we are witnessing is the construction of a bridge between the three monotheistic religions”

Posted on September 13, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
The Abraham Accords and a changing Middle East
by Fiamma Nirenstein
September 15, 2020

Whether we call it peace or normalization isn’t very important: The agreements being signed today between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, along with US President Donald Trump’s guarantee, mark a historical transition that not only reflects the great changes underway within Arab societies, but also upends old dynamics and can change the world. It’s very difficult to recognize the deal for what it is, because Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu don’t enjoy the support of the international press. Moreover, the Palestinians received what was for them a totally surprising refusal from the Arab League to their request to condemn it. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL Peace agreements suggest UAE, Bahrain are now less pro-Palestinian than Europe It’s official: The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are now less pro-Palestinian than the Europeans. Officials and analysts familiar with Jerusalem’s clandestine relations with several Arab states have long argued that they don’t really care so much about the Palestinians anymore. In public statements, however, all Arab governments stuck to their dogma and reiterated the need for a Palestinian state based on the 1967-lines…Incredibly, the agreements the State of Israel signed Tuesday with the United Arab Emirates and with Bahrain do not echo such calls.

FORWARD I was set to vote for Biden. Then Trump made peace in the Middle East It was supposed to be a simple election. Deep into July, or “month four” on the new COVID-19 calendar, I thought the choice had become clear: This would be a referendum on President Trump’s atrocious handling of a devastating pandemic and a chance for Joe Biden to show that he can return the country to something resembling normal. As a college senior at Yeshiva University, I’m not a typical Democratic voter, but I stood with the 70% of my fellow millennials who wanted Trump out.

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