#SachaBaronCohen “thinks misleading information on social media is ruining society. That’s a bit rich, coming from him.”

Posted on November 21, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

REASON
Sacha Baron Cohen’s Anti-Facebook Rant at the ADL Summit Was Pure Moral Panic
by Robby Soave
November 22, 2019

Sacha Baron Cohen, the comedian and satirical actor, lashed out at Facebook and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, during his remarks at the Anti-Defamation League’s anti-Semitism summit on Thursday. “I believe it’s time for a fundamental rethink of social media and how it spreads hate, conspiracies, and lies,” Cohen said. Cohen is best known for portraying the fictional characters Borat, Ali G, and Bruno. Each of them indulges a similar shtick: Tricking famous people into outrageous interviews in order to humiliate them. It’s thus a bit hypocritical for Cohen to be so worked up about Zuckerberg’s refusal to purge misleading content from his platform. READ MORE

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“There are two times in my life the hair on my arms has stood up,” Dodgers general manager Al Campanis once recalled. “The first time I saw the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and the first time I saw Sandy Koufax throw a fastball”

Posted on November 21, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

REAL CLEAR POLITICS
When Koufax Made a Pitch for Jews Everywhere
by Carl M. Cannon
November 19, 2019

Fifty-three years ago today, the most famous rabbi in America announced his retirement. He had been suffering for years from arthritis and the pain became just too debilitating, he explained. People mourned the announcement. At 30 years old, he seem too young to be hanging it up. Then again, Sandy Koufax wasn’t really a rabbi. He was a major league baseball player — perhaps the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time — and an icon to Jewish kids (and not only kids) all over this country. READ MORE

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WATCH: IDF Confuses Syrian Missile System and Returns the Missiles to Sender

Posted on November 21, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

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#Netanyahu: “Coming as it does now, indictments raise obvious parallels with the efforts by Democrats to impeach Netanyahu’s political ally, President Donald Trump”

Posted on November 21, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Are Netanyahu’s indictments the same as the push to impeach Trump?
by Jonathan S. Tobin
November 21, 2019

…In both cases, a conservative leader is being pursued on what their foes purport are corruption charges, but which their supporters believe is a thinly veiled attempt to criminalize political differences. Detractors of both Netanyahu and Trump believe that the investigations into their respective behavior are a defense of ethics, government accountability and democracy itself. Their supporters feel that the charges, even if they were true, are infractions that are too trivial to be prosecuted and are, in any case, flimsy excuses cooked up to discredit a politician that they weren’t otherwise able to defeat at the polls. READ MORE

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IDF “pursuing active campaign of removing threats as it detects them, relying on intelligence and precision firepower to deal with ongoing Iranian challenges from Syria”

Posted on November 20, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
By striking in Syria, Israel sends clear message to Iran that it will not be deterred
by Yaakov Lappin
November 20, 2019

Israel launched a broad wave of precision airstrikes early on Wednesday morning, hitting dozens of Iranian and Syrian military targets, and sending a very strong message that Israel is rejecting Iran’s attempt to force new “rules of the game” against it. Most of the Iranian military targets that were hit were situated within Syrian military bases, underlying the Iranian tactic of embedding and disguising its threatening presence within the Syrian Arab Army. According to international media reports, 23 people, including 16 “foreigners”—an apparent reference to Iranian operatives—were killed in the strikes. READ MORE

THE DRIVE Video Appears To Show Syrian SAMs Flying Into The Ground During Israeli Raid The Syrian government claimed that their air defenses shot down the majority of Israeli missiles before they struck their targets, a highly predictable and dubious statement to say the least. In fact, a video shows what appears to be Syrian surface-to-air missiles flying directly into the ground shortly after launch.

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Blue and White leader Gantz fails to form coalition

Posted on November 20, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

ARUTZ SHEVA
Gantz returns mandate to president
by Gary Willig
November 19, 2019

Blue and White leader Benny Gantz returned the mandate to form the government to President Reuven Rivlin Wednesday evening, signalling the end of his attempts to form a coalition. Both Gantz and incumbent Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu have failed to form a government more than two months after the last elections. Members of the Knesset will now have the opportunity to recommend a candidate for prime minister over the next three weeks, However, a third round of elections appears likely. READ MORE

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“The claim that Israeli settlements are illegal was flimsy in 1978 and is ridiculous in 2019”

Posted on November 19, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

WALL STREET JOURNAL
Pompeo Busts the ‘Occupation’ Myth
by Eugene Kontorovich
Novenber 19, 2019

Is­raeli set­tle­ments in the West Bank do not vi­o­late in­ternational law. That is now Amer­i­ca’s of­fi­cial view, an­nounced Mon­day by Sec­re­tary of State Mike Pom­peo. The his­toric de­ci­sion re­pu­di­ates the con­clu­sions of a 1978 State De­part­ment mem­o­ran­dum. For decades, Israel’s detractors have appealed to consensus, asserting that settlements are illegal because the entire international community agrees they are illegal. As with Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, the Trump administration has refused to be cowed by a hollow consensus. By dissenting, the U.S. has destroyed both the consensus and the frail arguments that relied on it. READ MORE SUBSCRIPTION CONTENT

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“Approval of bill by Netanyahu comes following change in US stance regarding the legality of Israeli settlements in the West Bank”

Posted on November 19, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
Netanyahu approves Jordan Valley Annexation bill after US changes policy
by Lahav Harkov, Tovah Lazaroff
November 19, 2019

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave his approval on Tuesday to advance a bill that would have Israel apply sovereignty to the Jordan Valley, after the US State Department reversed its stance of viewing Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria as illegal. Netanyahu called US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s decision “historic” during a visit the day after the announcement to the Gush Etzion region. The UN and others condemned Pompeo’s statement. Likud MK Sharren Haskel proposed the annexation bill weeks ago, but decided to fast-track it in light of the change in US policy. READ MORE

From Jerusalem U, the first of a five-part series on The Israeli Settlements:

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“Trump’s extraordinary gesture of support for Israel and the rights of the Jewish people was evident in the historic statement. The US has rightly concluded that falsely calling settlements illegal is not helpful for peace”

Posted on November 18, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
Pompeo’s statement on Israeli settlements is a diplomatic turning point
by Caroline Glick
November 18, 2019

Monday will long be remembered as a turning point in Middle East history. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s statement Monday that Israeli settlements are not illegal per se is the most significant shift in U.S. Middle East policy in the past generation. Jerusalem’s status as Israel’s capital has been a matter of U.S. law since 1996. There was little interest in Washington in recent years in pressuring Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights. But the issue of the legality of Israeli settlements has been the defining issue of much of the international discourse on Israel for a generation. READ MORE

JNS Jewish, Israel-related groups react to US announcement on settlements The responses were characteristically similar, with conservative groups lauding the long-desired position and liberal entities against what they feel is placing an obstacle on peace.

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“U of Toronto Graduate Student Union opposes campus kosher food as ‘pro-Israel’”

Posted on November 18, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Are Jews welcome at the University of Toronto?
by Michael Saenger
November 18, 2019

On November 14, the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union, a group to which I once belonged, declared that it would not support the availability of kosher food on campus, ostensibly because kosher food was requested by Hillel, which supports Israel…It is more with a sense of sadness than rage that I say that the Graduate Students’ Union’s decision is, simply put, a purely anti-Semitic gesture, with a reference to Israel operating as a weak and transparent excuse. READ MORE

COMMENTARY A New Strategy on Campus: Blame the Jews In a riveting and sad New York Times op-ed, Blake Flayton, a student at George Washington University and a “gay abortion rights advocate and environmentalist,” explained why his fellow progressives call him a “baby killer” and “apartheid enabler.” Like 95 percent of Jews, according to Gallup, the op-ed’s author has a “favorable” view of Israel.

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