They don’t have time for AIPAC but Sanders, Buttigieg, Biden and Warren attended #JStreet confab either in person or by video

Posted on February 23, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Has J Street become US Jewry’s Democratic kingmaker on Israel?
Interview by Eric Cortellessa
February 21, 2020

…It’s not clear how many [Democratic candidates] will attend this year’s [AIPAC policy conference]; a source with the pro-Israel lobby said it was still “finalizing” its speakers for the confab and would be announcing them over the few days. Still, no other Israel-related gathering over the last year and a half has garnered as much attention from the 2020 Democrats. J Street, it appears, is playing an outsized role in setting the agenda on Middle East policy in this year’s Democratic primary. As [Jeremy] Ben-Ami explained in a recent interview with The Times of Israel, “We hold our conferences as a way to project political power.” READ MORE

THE HILL AIPAC hits back at Sanders over ‘odious’ criticism: ‘Truly shameful’ The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) fired back at Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Sunday night after he said he would not attend the organization’s annual conference and accused it of providing a platform to leaders who “express bigotry and oppose Palestinian rights.” In a statement AIPAC posted to Twitter, the pro-Israel group said Sanders “has never attended our conference and that is evident from his outrageous comment.”

JNS More than 345 rabbis sign letter to frontrunner Sanders for harsh words on AIPAC “As strong supporters of the U.S.-Israel relationship and AIPAC’s role in advancing it, we reject Senator Bernie Sanders’ outrageous comment accusing AIPAC of fostering bigotry,” begins the letter.

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A former Brigadier General of the IDF: “The claim that Israel’s adversaries are deterred is utterly unconvincing”

Posted on February 23, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

MIRYAM INSTITUTE
Deterrence is only as strong as the force you are willing to use
by Shmuel Tzuker
February 23, 2020

The question of how one measures the military strength and the deterring power of a country is up for debate. Are strength and deterrence measured though the size of weapons arsenals, jet fleets, or tank formations? Past experience tells us that possessing major military capabilities is an insufficient indicator of strength, or of a country’s ability to deter determined enemies. The real test of strength comes from the willingness of decision makers to activate the capabilities that they have at their disposal. Under this criteria, Israel’s recent history of its dealings with adversaries leaves disturbing questions unanswered about Israeli deterrence and strength. READ MORE

NATIONAL INTEREST Israel’s New War Plan for Iran (And More): Stealth F-35I Fighters and Lots of Tech Israel rolled out a new plan this month to take advantage of Israel’s technological edge, blending them with the best weapons systems like the F-35i and using it with extreme effectiveness against enemies. The plan, named Momentum, has been in the works for a year and was rolled out in February 2020 to prepare Israel to confront Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and other threats over the next decades.

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“If you don’t genuinely have to fly—don’t do so,” the ministry said in a travel warning that also advised canceling or delaying all upcoming international conferences and gatherings in Israel itself

Posted on February 23, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Israel becomes first country to advise against all travel abroad over coronavirus
February 27, 2020

Israel’s Ministry of Healthy urged Israelis on Wednesday to reconsider traveling abroad entirely as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus outbreak. “If you don’t genuinely have to fly—don’t do so,” the ministry said in a travel warning that also advised canceling or delaying all upcoming international conferences and gatherings in Israel itself. The ministry additionally encouraged refraining from travel to “events of a religious character at which people from many different nations gather together,” a probable reference to the Hajj pilgrimage in July, and expanded a previous travel warning for northern Italy to the entire country, reported The Times of Israel. READ MORE

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Bernie Sanders: “And let me tell you this also, and I feel strongly about it, as somebody who’s Jewish, and knowing how much our people have suffered over the years”

Posted on February 23, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH PRESS
Bernie Articulates Nightmare Middle East Vision: US Must Support Hamas, Tehran
by David Israel
February 19, 2020

…This line, folks, is taken directly from the PLO propaganda manual about the Jews who survived the Holocaust in Europe only to come home to Israel to start tormenting the “indigenous people.” Because the Jews suffered in the past, goes this deeply anti-Semitic logic, then all suffering endured by their Arab neighbors is by default the Jews’ fault. There are no other factors: tyrannical regimes, terrorist gangs usurping the hard-earned pennies of the working population, tribalism, illiteracy, Arab on Arab violence, the domination of women – none of that catches Bernie’s attention. Trust him, as a Jew himself, when he tells you: it’s the Jews. READ MORE

NEW YORK POST Israeli foreign minister rips Sanders for ‘horrifying’ comments about Netanyahu Israel’s foreign minister slammed Bernie Sanders on Wednesday for his “horrifying” comments about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jerusalem during the latest Democratic debate. The Vermont senator called Netanyahu a “reactionary racist” Tuesday night in South Carolina and said he’d consider reversing President Trump’s move of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to the capital city.

JNS Will Bernie turn Jews into Trump supporters? Not even the victory of a Socialist backed by a coalition of Israel haters will persuade liberal Jews to abandon their party, let alone vote for a president they hate.

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“Anti-Semitic Belgium parade features costumes of Jews with insect bodies”

Posted on February 23, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Carnival that showed Jews as vermin ‘not anti-Semitic,’ Jewish Belgian MP says
by Raphael Ahren
February 25, 2020

This week’s carnival procession in the Belgian town of Aalst, which featured Nazi uniforms, costumes of Jews as vermin and several other anti-Semitic tropes, was widely condemned by Jewish groups, Israeli officials and even the government in Brussels. But Michael Freilich, the only Orthodox Jew currently serving in Belgium’s national parliament, on Monday dismissed most of the criticism, saying the event was not entirely anti-Semitic…Freilich, an Antwerp-based freshman lawmaker for the center-right NVA party, even compared the Aalst carnival to Israeli Purim parades, positing that it was always possible to find a few bad apples who make fun of minorities. READ MORE

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“The intelligence the U.S. gains from Israel is greater than what could be procured with “five CIAs””

Posted on February 23, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Israel saved many American lives in Vietnam
by Spyridon Mitsotakis
February 23, 2020

On a recent trip to Israel, I had an opportunity to visit a Soviet-built Syrian base in the Golan Heights. Amid the stone and concrete fortifications, my guide explained that during the 1967 Six-Day War, many of the Arab armies had panicked and abandoned their posts. They left their Soviet-supplied equipment behind. Consequently, the Israelis were able to capture the most state-of-the-art Soviet military technology intact — the very same equipment that American soldiers were facing in Vietnam. And Israel was more than happy to share what they had with the United States. READ MORE

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Set in New York in 1977, “Hunters” follows a band of Nazi hunters who find out hundreds of Nazi officials living in the US are plotting to establish a “Fourth Reich”

Posted on February 23, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

NEW YORK POST
Auschwitz Memorial slams Amazon’s ‘Hunters’ over ‘human chess’ scene
by Noah Manskar
February 24, 2020

A memorial to one of the most infamous Nazi death camps slammed an Amazon TV series this week for depicting a made-up “human chess” game during the Holocaust. The Auschwitz Memorial said the sadistic scene in the Al Pacino-led Amazon Prime drama “Hunters” belies the real horrors of the massacre of 6 million Jews during World War II. “Inventing a fake game of human chess for @huntersonprime is not only dangerous foolishness & caricature. It also welcomes future deniers,” the memorial said on Twitter Sunday. “We honor the victims by preserving factual accuracy.” READ MORE

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Obama administration whistleblower dies under suspicious circumstances; mainstream media ignores story

Posted on February 23, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

SACRAMENTO BEE
Federal whistleblower, a longtime DHS official, found dead of gunshot in California
by Michael McGough and Jason Pohl
February 25, 2020

A former longtime Department of Homeland Security official, described as a whistleblower who penned a book criticizing the Obama administration’s handling of terrorism, was found dead Friday morning in Amador County, authorities said…Haney in May 2016 released a book titled “See Something, Say Nothing: A Homeland Security Officer Exposes the Government’s Submission to Jihad,” which alleged inaction against terrorism on the part of the Obama administration. A DHS officer for 15 years, Haney also spoke during a Senate judiciary subcommittee hearing in June 2016 that centered on the use of the term “radical Islam,” archived C-SPAN video shows. READ MORE

DAILY MAIL DHS whistleblower who criticized the Obama administration’s handling of Islamic terrorism is found dead on a road side with a ‘self-inflicted gunshot wound’ Haney said the devastating 2016 Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting and 2015 San Bernardino terror attack could have been prevented if DHS took the right precautions. In a 2015 interview with Fox News, Haney said his and other DHS employees efforts were stalled after they were accused of unfairly targeting Muslims.

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“Israel’s two most formidable adversaries have both come up short in their quests for regional domination, and Israel is reaping the rewards of their losses”

Posted on February 20, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
The massive – but reversible – defeats of Iran and Turkey
by Caroline Glick
February 21, 2020

Two weeks ago, Netanyahu held a previously unannounced meeting in Uganda with Sudanese President Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan. Instant commentaries presented the meeting as a salutary side product of the Trump plan. But the truth is much more significant. The sight of the two leaders sitting next to one another smiling made heads explode from Tehran to Ramallah. The Netanyahu-Burhan meeting was no mere byproduct of a peace plan. It was a long-planned and hoped-for result of a set of policies, that aided by good fortune felled a cataclysmic blow against Iran and its terrorist proxies in Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. READ MORE

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“Syrian journalist refutes claim that Israel thwarts democracy in Arab countries, praises the Jewish people”

Posted on February 20, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

ARUTZ SHEVA + MEMRI
Syrian journalist: Jews ‘make miracles out of the impossible’
by Elad Benari
February 20, 2020

The Qatar-based Al-Jazeera network recently hosted a debate about Israel and the Arab countries. Syrian journalist Thaer Al-Nashef, who took part in the debate, said that the claim that Israel is thwarting democracy in the Arab countries is completely unfounded, arguing that all of the dictatorial and authoritarian Arab rulers had been a product of their own Arab societies. Al-Nashef mocked the conspiracy theories that Israel grooms Arab citizens to become leaders of their countries, and said that Israel is not responsible for the progress or backwardness of Arab societies. Rather, he said that Arabs are responsible for their own development and that they might learn something from the Jews and their ability to “make miracles out of the impossible.” READ MORE

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