“A tiny robotic spacecraft from Israel just inserted itself into orbit around the Moon in a critical maneuver that sets the vehicle up for a landing on the lunar surface next week”

SPACE.COM
Pioneering Israeli Lunar Lander Arrives in Orbit Around the Moon
by Mike Wall
April 4, 2019

Israel just became the seventh nation to orbit the moon. After slowly spiraling away from Earth for the past six weeks, an Israeli spacecraft known as Beresheet slipped into orbit around the moon today (April 4). This was a historic achievement for the little robot, but it paves the way for something truly epic: a lunar touchdown attempt a week from now. If Beresheet succeeds on April 11, it will become the first Israeli craft, and the first privately funded vehicle, ever to land softly on the surface of the moon. READ MORE

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“Special negotiator for hostages and prisoners of war Yaron Blum says it was thanks to prime minister’s special relationship with Putin that Israel succeeded in bringing Zachary Baumel’s remains home”

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
‘We must act tirelessly to bring captives, missing home’
by Ariel Kahana
April 5, 2019

Yaron Blum, special negotiator for hostages and prisoners of war at the Prime Minister’s Office and a former senior Shin Bet security agency official, said it was “a great privilege” to be involved in the efforts to return the remains of Staff Sgt. Zachary Baumel to Israel, 37 years after he was killed in Battle of Sultan Yacoub in the 1982 Lebanon War. According to Blum, it was thanks to precise intelligence and Russia’s assistance that the State of Israel was able to bring Baumel’s remains to Israel for burial…Blum rejected criticism over the timing of the move. To say it is “because of the elections – that is just nonsense.” READ MORE

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Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari: “I see that Arab nations today tend toward reconciliation with Israel”

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
‘The Arabs have realized Israel cannot be destroyed’
by Eldad Beck
March 29, 2019

…”In the past, contact with Israel was considered treason, and today there is no mass opposition to it. And the Arabs have been convinced that Israel exists, that it cannot be destroyed by force and that it is preferable to negotiate with it.  For 70 years, the Arabs tried every means of violence against Israel and saw that it only grows more powerful as they grow weaker.” “One more thing,” Al-Ansari adds, “Arab states spend vast sums of money on arms, at the expense of the advancement of their societies. Had they invested these billions of dollars on development, the state of the Arab societies would be better. READ MORE

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“Recent news reports have confirmed the long-established fact that the SPLC regularly engages in defamation of its political opponents”

PJ MEDIA
Sen. Tom Cotton Demands IRS Investigation into SPLC’s Tax-Exempt Status
by Tyler O’Neil
April 2, 2019

On Tuesday, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) sent a letter to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) demanding an investigation into whether or not the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) should lose its tax-exempt status. His letter comes after weeks of turmoil with the SPLC struggling with scandals of alleged racism and sexism. The organization fired its co-foundersaw its president and other leaders resign, and lost a prominent member of its board…Cotton notes that “the SPLC has accrued more than $500 million in assets. According to the group’s most recent financial statement, it holds $121 million offshore in non-U.S. equity funds.” READ MORE

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“Even as Joe Biden, Kirsten Gillibrand, et al. are embarked on “apology tours,” to beg forgiveness for various centrist “blots” on their records, they’re all flocking to pose with someone who has never apologized for a single misdeed”

NEW YORK POST
It’s sad to see 2020 Dems kissing Sharpton’s…ring
Post Editorial Board
April 3, 2019

If he beckons, they all come — the Democratic presidential field, that is, to bow down and pay homage to Al Sharpton. No fewer than 12 members of the 2020 pack will show up this week for the four-day National Action Network convention, where The Rev is holding court. That Sharpton — with his decades-long dubious record of racial incitement, demagoguery, corporate shakedowns, tax liens and other fiscal shenanigans — can summon Democrats like lemmings with the snap of his fingers is a deeply depressing sign of how low that party has sunk. READ MORE

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“Statements by the UK and the EU about what Israel should or should not do must now be viewed for what they are; nothing more than the bleating of a shepherd-less flock utterly oblivious to it’s own lack of direction”

TIMES OF ISRAEL
The Heights Of European Audacity
by Benjamin Anthony
April 3, 2019

…Just last week, nearly three years on from the referendum, Prime Minister May’s Brexit deal was again rejected by parliament – for the third time!…Well Britain and Europe, here’s your chance to show us just how simple what you’ve been calling upon Israel to do actually is. We are waiting to be regaled by your élan. Or might it just be the case that your failure to perform that which you continue to demand of Israel is due to matters being slightly more complicated than your own silly soundbites would have people believe?…Israel’s leadership ought to look at this band of European jesters and remind both sides of the Brexit fiasco of some basic realities when next they come to opine on our future. READ MORE

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“U.S. officials say recognition of Golan is key to fight against Iran terror”

FREE BEACON
U.S. Eyes New Front to Combat Iran in Golan Heights
by Adam Kredo
April 1, 2019

The Trump administration’s recent recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the contested Golan Heights territory is part of a larger effort by the White House to open new fronts in efforts to combat Iranian militants and terror proxies in the region, according to U.S. officials familiar with the decision…Behind the scenes, U.S. officials acknowledge that the decision to formally recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights is due in no small part to Iran’s efforts to station militant fighters and terror proxy groups such as Hezbollah on the Jewish state’s borders. READ MORE

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“AIPAC should be holding Booker accountable and using its vaunted influence to persuade him to fulfill the promises he made, and continues to make, to support Israel rather than pander to far-left elements of the Democratic Party”

ALGEMEINER
Voting Against Israel Doesn’t Stop AIPAC From Supporting Cory Booker
by Shmuley Boteach
April 2, 2019

More recently, Cory failed another test [following Bookers support for the Iran Deal]. In February, the Senate voted 77-23 to extend an existing loan guarantee program with Israel, authorize security assistance to Israel over a 10-year period, make it illegal under Federal statute to boycott Israel, and grant Federal protection to state and local governments that refuse to invest in or contract with companies that boycott Israel. Cory voted with the minority…Cory faced and failed a third test after Ilhan Omar’s antisemitic remarks. READ MORE

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“A giant billboard was unveiled this week outside the offices of The New York Times that accuses the paper, its editors and staff of fomenting anti-Israel sentiment through its news coverage”

JNS
Massive billboard outside ‘New York Times’ office accuses paper of anti-Israel incitement
April 2, 2019

At the center of the billboard is an evocative image of a Molotov cocktail whose wick is lit by a flaming New York Times article with the headline: “Israel Bulldozes Democracy.” Around the incendiary device, which is a favorite weapon of Hamas rioters, it says: “While Hamas firebombs Israel … ‘The New York Times’ inflames with biased coverage.” Andrea Levin, executive director of CAMERA, which created the massive 35-foot billboard, says that the Molotov cocktail in the advertisement is a symbol with a double meaning. READ MORE

ALGEMEINER The New York Times Is Enthralled by Hating Israel By now the enduring motto of The New York Times – “All the News That’s Fit to Print” – is understood to mean all the news that fits its 120-year-old narrative of hostility to Zionism before 1948 and relentless criticism of Israel ever since. The most recent illumination of Times discomfort with the Jewish state came in its Sunday Magazine [How the Battle Over Israel and Anti-Semitism Is Fracturing American Politics]

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“Once the authoritarian, antisemitic and anti-American government of Iran possess a nuclear bomb, no amount of actions will be able reverse the catastrophe”

GATESTONE
Stop Iran From Going Nuclear
by Majid Rafizadeh
March 30, 2019

…Those who promote the idea of taking a gentler stance on Iran and its nuclear program argue that Iran is not pursuing any illicit nuclear activities because the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has verified that. The IAEA, however, was not allowed to inspect or monitor Iran’s military sites where nuclear activities were most likely being carried out. Among the many concessions that the Obama administration gave the Iranian government, one was accepting the Iranian leaders’ demand that these military sites would be out of the IAEA’s reach. READ MORE

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