Israeli breakthrough using lasers to thwart aerial attacks

Posted on August 20, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

ALGEMEINER
New Innovative Israeli Laser Defense System Downs Dozens of Gaza Incendiary Balloons
by Benjamin Kerstein
August 20, 2020

In a major technological development, a new Israeli laser defense system has downed over two dozen incendiary balloons launched from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Such balloons have caused massive fires in southern Israel during the dry summer months and caused millions of dollars in damage. The Israeli news site N12 reported that on Wednesday the “Lahav Or” (“Blade of Light”) laser system intercepted 32 balloons. A Border Police source told N12 that the system had a 90% rate of successful interceptions. READ MORE

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Have you heard the one about the Israeli Prime Minister and the UAE ambassador who end up in the same Georgetown restaurant ?

Posted on August 20, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

NEW YORK TIMES
A Dinner and a Deal
Hosted by Michael Barbaro, produced by Michael Simon Johnson, Eric Krupke and Rachelle Bonja, and edited by Lisa Tobin
August 18th, 2020

In March 2018, Mark Landler — then a White House correspondent at The New York Times — attended a dinner party hosted by the United Arab Emirates’ ambassador, Yousef al-Otaiba, at a Washington restaurant. There he witnessed a chance encounter between the ambassador and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel — one the ambassador asked to keep private…Well, so it was March of 2018. My recollection was it was kind of a rainy night. And it was a dinner at a restaurant called Cafe Milano, which is in Georgetown. LISTEN TO THE 30 MINUTE PODCAST OR READ TRANSCRIPT

AG disclaimer: This podcast contains what appear to be factual errors (and questionable analysis) but interesting anecdotes.

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“The Arabs, and much of the rest of the world support the Palestinians because they wield the veto”

Posted on August 20, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
Is the Palestinian Veto Alive or Dead?
by Caroline Glick
August 21, 2020

Since Israel was established, the Palestinian veto doomed all efforts to forge peace between the Arab world and the Jewish state. The Palestinian veto rests on a toxic proposition that Israel’s right to exist is contingent on its satisfaction of Palestinian claims against it. So long as the Palestinians say they are unappeased, Israel cannot expect the Arab world to either recognize or live at peace with it. The very existence of the veto has ensured that the Palestinians will never be satisfied with any Israeli concession and will never agree to peaceful coexistence with the Jewish state. READ MORE

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Michael Oren: Setting aside a focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the main impediment to peace, to work on the region’s other priorities, marks a fundamental shift that just might work

Posted on August 20, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Stunning Israel-UAE deal upends the ‘rules’ about peace-making in Middle East
by Michael Oren
August 14, 2020

The impending peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates is more than just a stunning diplomatic breakthrough. It represents a fundamental shift in the paradigm of peace-making. For more than 50 years, that paradigm has been based on seemingly unassailable assumptions. The first of these was that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the core dispute in the Middle East. Resolve it, and peace would reign throughout the region. The premise was largely dispelled by the Arab Spring of 2011 and the subsequent civil wars in Syria, Libya, Iraq, and Yemen. READ MORE

FORBES U.S. Sale of F-35 Stealth Fighters to the UAE Could Be a Middle East Game Changer The U.S. may sell F-35 stealth fighters to the United Arab Emirates, according to Israeli media. If true, it would be Washington’s reward to the UAE for that Persian Gulf nation’s recent decision to normalize relations with Israel.

MEMRI Kuwaiti TV Host: Palestinian Rejection of UAE Peace Agreement with Israel is a Historic Mistake

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Commander of the Israeli Air Force, Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin, said the joint flyby over Dachau symbolized the promise for a future

Posted on August 20, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

CBN NEWS
‘Never Again’: Israeli Jets Enter German Airspace for First Time With Flyover of Dachau Camp
August 19, 2020

Israeli and German air force jets flew side-by-side over the former Dachau concentration camp on Tuesday as a tribute to the Jews and other victims who were murdered there during the Holocaust.The moving flyby was one of several exercises marking the first time Israeli jets have ever entered German airspace. The historic moment was captured on camera. “On behalf of the German Air Force, it is an honor for me to welcome the Israeli Air Force entering German airspace for the first time in history,” Luftwaffe Commander, Lt. Gen. Ingo Gerhatz said. READ MORE

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“Leftists eager to silence #ADL for speaking out against anti-Semitism cancel a liberal group that dropped bipartisanship to help Democrats”

Posted on August 20, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
The ADL is targeted for not being woke enough for extremists
by Jonathan S. Tobin
August 18, 2020

...In a supreme irony, leftist anti-Semites have chosen to target the ADL, and not more centrist or conservative Jewish entities, as part of an effort aimed at canceling the group. A coalition of organizations has joined together behind a campaign called “#DropTheADL” which has put together an indictment of sins all intended to prove that it is guilty of not being a true “ally” of “progressives.” The signatories to this document are a ragtag collection of far-left extremist groups. Many of them are themselves guilty of anti-Semitism and efforts to delegitimize the State of Israel, as well as to mark out Jews for shunning and hate. READ MORE

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“Not coincidently, all three of Dershowitz’s false accusers have the same lawyer, with a long history of ethical violations”

Posted on August 20, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
Dershowitz, the #MeToo Movement and the Rule of Law
by Isi Leibler
August 20, 2020

On Friday, August 14, The Jerusalem Post Frontlines section featured a massive two-page article by David Brinn about allegations leveled against American lawyer and legal scholar Alan Dershowitz. As I read it, my thoughts reverted to the ordeal endured by US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh when the Me Too movement attempted to smear him over alleged sexual assault without a scintilla of supporting proof. I was traumatized watching the Senate hearing, which made McCarthyism pale in comparison. READ MORE

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Academia’s monolithic belief in systemic racism will further erode American institutions and the principles of our civilization

Posted on August 20, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

CITY JOURNAL
Conformity to a Lie
by Heather Mac Donald
Summer 2020

…What if the racism explanation for ongoing disparities is wrong, however? What if racial economic and incarceration gaps cannot close without addressing personal responsibility and family culture—without a sea change in the attitudes that many inner-city black children bring with them to school regarding studying, paying attention in class, and respecting teachers, for example? What if the breakdown of the family is producing children with too little capacity to control their impulses and defer gratification? With the university now explicitly committed to the racism explanation for all self-defeating choices, there will be little chance of changing course and addressing the behaviors that lie behind many racial disparities. READ MORE

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“A startling investigation into how a cheap, well-known drug became a political football in the midst of a pandemic”

Posted on August 20, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

TABLE MAG
Hydroxychloroquine: A Morality Tale
by Norman Doidge
August 14, 2020

…We live in a culture that has uncritically accepted that every domain of life is political, and that even things we think are not political are so, that all human enterprises are merely power struggles, that even the idea of “truth” is a fantasy, and really a matter of imposing one’s view on others. For a while, some held out hope that science remained an exception to this. That scientists would not bring their personal political biases into their science, and they would not be mobbed if what they said was unwelcome to one faction or another. But the sordid 2020 drama of hydroxychloroquine—which saw scientists routinely attacked for critically evaluating evidence and coming to politically inconvenient conclusions—has, for many, killed those hopes. READ MORE

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“Move comes after the U.N. Security Council rejected an effort by the US to extend a weapons embargo on Iran last Friday”

Posted on August 16, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

THE HILL
Trump announces ‘snapback’ of sanctions on Iran
by Laura Kelly and Morgan Chalfant
August 19, 2020

President Trump announced Wednesday evening that his administration would notify the United Nations of plans to restore “virtually” all sanctions on Iran. “Today, I am directing the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to notify the U.N. Security Council that the United States intends to restore virtually all of the previously suspended United Nations sanctions on Iran,” Trump said during remarks at a press briefing. “It’s a snapback, not uncommon.”…Trump told reporters Saturday that snapback sanctions could come as soon as this week. READ MORE

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