“Much as West Germany and East Germany reunified at the end of the Cold War, it is well past the time to reunify Judea and Samaria with the rest of Israel”

Posted on June 25, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
It’s not “Annexation.” It’s Reunification.
by Gerard Filitti
June 28, 2020

As Israel prepares to extend its rightful sovereignty over Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”), we bear a historic – and moral – responsibility to accurately call this event what it is: Reunification. Israel is reuniting families, communities, and the Jewish people. It is reuniting with its history, which stretches back thousands of years. It is reunifying the traditions and culture that have survived and even thrived through adversity, animosity, and the horrors of countless wars. Judea and Samaria have always been part of Eretz Israel. READ MORE

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“You wouldn’t know it from the popular press, but the Trump administration’s campaign of “maximum pressure” against Iran is working”

Posted on June 25, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

NEWSWEEK
The Fruits Of ‘Maximum Pressure’: An Increasingly Isolated Iran
by Ilan Berman
June 25, 2020

…Iran, by rights a bona fide energy superpower, has seen its global oil trade dry up over the past year as a result of American pressure. As recently as 2018, according to official figures compiled by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Iran generated more than $60 billion in annual revenue from the sale of oil abroad. But last year, as Iranian officials have disclosed, that figure dwindled to just $8 billion as a result of U.S. sanctions—thereby robbing the country’s clerical regime of funds it desperately needs in order to stay afloat.The problems for Iran don’t stop there. American sanctions are also profoundly chilling foreign investment in the Islamic Republic. READ MORE

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“Jewish organizations want to oppose racism, but the push to endorse a group tainted by anti-Zionism and radical demands is a mistake”

Posted on June 25, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Should Jewish groups make their peace with Black Lives Matter?
by Jonathan Tobin
June 23, 2020

For Jewish organizations, the problem is that in 2016, BLM issued a platform that specifically denounced Israel as “an apartheid state” that was committing “genocide” against Palestinians. Given that many of those associated with the founding of the movement were linked with an intersectional movement that falsely asserts that the Palestinian war on Israel is linked to the struggle for civil rights in the United States, it was hardly a surprise. That platform has now disappeared from the Internet. BLM wisely seeks to avoid talking about Israel, even if many of its leaders are still BDS advocates. The website for the BLM Movement now makes no mention of Israel [though even today, many leading proponents of BLM express anti-Israel sentiment]. READ MORE

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“To preserve our democracy, we must resist the mob. That begins with understanding the gravity of the threat and standing up to it”

Posted on June 25, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

REAL CLEAR POLITICS
Defund the Thought Police
by Charles Lipson
June 24, 2020

Due process is not the strong suit of mobs. Neither is nuance, open discussion, or disagreement. These inherent defects should be painfully obvious as mobs pull down statues, seize sections of cities, and demand the public approach them on bended knee, literally. Anyone who dares push back, perhaps with a mild tweet saying “All lives matter,” faces immediate censure. If the mob is successful, any offenders will lose their jobs. Feckless employers are all too eager to appease the mob and hope it turns on another target. In this perilous environment, the most frenzied voices do more than dominate the public square. They monopolize it by silencing dissent. READ MORE

FRONT PAGE MAG If You’re White, You’re Racist. Period. Just a few days ago, in the thick of the current race war, [Robin DiAngelo, Author of White Fragility] was interviewed by an inanely fawning Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show. Her message: all whites are indeed eternally guilty, for they’re all racists, and all “people of color” are their eternal victims. Don’t think you can escape the racist label by saying “I judge people by what they do, not who they are” or “I don’t see color; I see people.” DiAngelo doesn’t buy into the idea of colorblindness.

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“The purpose of these diplomatic efforts was to reach an agreement on the nature and scope of the response from Sunni Arab countries, chief among them Egypt and Jordan, which have peace treaties with Israel – if and when Israel applies sovereignty”

Posted on June 21, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
‘Jordan, Egypt will make only symbolic condemnation of sovereignty’
by Daniel Siryoti
June 23, 2020

…Senior Arab diplomatic officials, along with senior defense and intelligence officials in Egypt and Jordan, confirmed to Israel Hayom on Monday that over the past several weeks – ahead of the planned implementation of Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria and Jordan Valley – intensive diplomatic activity was taking place between Israel and moderate Arab countries…”There is complete synchronicity between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and King Abdullah. The national and security interests of Egypt and Jordan are the top priority for both leaders, even at the expense of Palestinian interests,” a senior Egyptian official tells Israel Hayom. READ MORE

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Letter to Netanyahu, signed by 120 out of 198 House Republicans, supports annexation

Posted on June 21, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

HAARETZ
Majority of House Republicans Sign Letter Endorsing Israeli Annexation
by Amir Tibon
June 23, 2020

A majority of Republican members of the House of Representatives have signed a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endorsing Israeli annexation of settlements in the West Bank. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California was one of 116 of the 198 Republican House members signed the letter. It praises the Middle East plan presented by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, and blames the Palestinian leadership for choosing to reject it. It also says that its signatories support Israel’s “right to sovereignty and defensible borders.” READ MORE

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“Tel Aviv University think tank: Libels blaming Jews and Israel for pandemic are spreading, as crisis sparks new iterations of old hatred”

Posted on June 21, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
COVID-19 fueling worldwide wave of anti-Semitism, researchers find
by Stuart Winer
June 23, 2020

A report published Tuesday by a Tel Aviv research group found that the coronavirus pandemic has become a vehicle for an intense and exceptional wave of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionist propaganda that accuses Jews and Israel of either causing the virus or standing to benefit from it. The pandemic has “unleashed a unique worldwide wave of antisemitism,” researchers at the Kantor Center at Tel Aviv University said. “The new wave of antisemitism includes a range of libels that have one common element: The Jews, the Zionists and/or the state of Israel are to blame for the pandemic and/or stand to gain from it,” they wrote. READ MORE

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Eliot Engel beaten by progressive Jamaal Bowman, “endorsed by progressive leaders like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez”

Posted on June 21, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

BREITBART
RJC: Eliot Engel‘s Loss Marks Rise of Anti-Israel Forces in Democratic Party
by Joel B. Pollak
June 24, 2020

The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) declared Wednesday that the defeat of Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) in his primary by left-wing challenger Jamaal Bowman marked the rise of anti-Israel forces within the Democratic Party. Engel, who has served in the House of Representatives for more than 30 years, is the Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He had shifted left on Israel in recent years: like the rest of his party, he failed to attend the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, for example. Yet he had been viewed as one of the last pro-Israel holdouts in his party. Now all that is over. Engel lost to Bowman by a massive margin on Tuesday. Given the district’s partisan makeup, Bowman is sure to win in November. READ MORE

FORWARD A top pro-Israel congressman lost his primary. Was it a fluke or a harbinger?
With over 33,000 in-person votes cast in New York’s 16th District, containing parts of the Bronx and Westchester County, progressive challenger Jamaal Bowman was beating Engel 61%-35%. If elected, Bowmaan will join the small but growing group within the Democratic caucus willing to put conditions on assistance to the Israel Defense Forces.

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Annexation opponents “give the false impression that Israel would be seizing areas to which Israel does not have the legal right. In fact, there was never a Palestinian-Arab state or a right to one in these areas”

Posted on June 21, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
American Jews support Israeli sovereignty and for good reasons
by Morton A. Klein and Mark Levenson
June 20, 2020

Poll after poll shows that Israelis overwhelmingly support applying Israeli sovereignty to Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley. American Jews support applying sovereignty too. Record numbers of American Jews (over 120,000 people) voted in the recent 2020 World Zionist Congress elections in the US, and the majority voted for the organizations that favor sovereignty (usually explicitly)…Sovereignty provides Israel with defensible orders, enables Israel to avoid the frightening prospect of an indefensible 9-mile-narrow waistline, and provides stability and normalcy to the lives of the 500,000 Jews currently living in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley. Opposing sovereignty ultimately means ethnically cleansing 500,000 Jews from their existing homes in the Jewish homeland, and subjecting the rest of Israel to non-stop rocket attacks. READ MORE

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With lockdown, Chicago Jewish Day School pivoted to remote learning, providing more than four hours of live, online instruction daily

Posted on June 21, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Amid the pandemic, Jewish day schools survive (and even thrive)
by Faygie Holt
June 19, 2020

On a recent June night, 25 people, primarily young children, sat on their couches and watched as a puppeteer explained how he creates his puppets and how they could build their own with materials they have one hand. In another “room,” about a dozen people watched as an artist explained how he uses paints to create depth and design. Welcome to the annual end-of-year art celebration at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Md. Traditionally held in person, this year’s event—like events at schools around the country—took place online with the “rooms” separate live video streams that families could tune into. READ MORE

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