“One Labour insider says that because of top aide Seumas Milne, if the party came to power ‘Israel would have to assume diplomatic relations were unofficially null and void'”

Posted on August 14, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
The man behind the curtain in Corbyn’s Oz: A virulently anti-Israel spin doctor
by Robert Philpot
August 14, 2018

In the court of Jeremy Corbyn, few wield more power and evoke stronger reactions than Seumas Milne. The British Labour party leader’s director of communications and strategy, Milne is a hardline and uncompromising left-winger, and a fierce opponent of Israel. If Corbyn makes it to Downing Street, his most senior aide is likely to act as an outrider, reinforcing and encouraging an anti-Zionist agenda that will be unprecedented in a West European state…Milne’s hostility to Israel and his hard-left politics are not a matter of mere speculation. READ MORE

I24NEWS Netanyahu, Corbyn clash amid Munich wreath-laying dispute Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday slammed UK’s Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for his attendance at a memorial honoring the terrorists behind the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre after photographs surfaced days ago.

NATIONAL REVIEW Jeremy Corbyn, Anti-Semite He has a long history of honoring and supporting those who libel Jews, deny the Holocaust, and vow to destroy Israel.

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“The JCPOA was such a wonderful gift given by the Obama administration to Iran that even after the re-imposition of the sanctions, Iran prefers to stay in the deal than to leave it”

Posted on August 14, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM CENTER FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS
The Iranian Regime is in Deep Trouble
by Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser
August 12, 2018

The re-imposition of the first round of sanctions by the Trump administration proves much of what we already knew regarding Iran’s future policies and the confrontation over its nuclear project: 1) It demonstrates that US administration is true to its word and fulfills its campaign commitments when it comes to acting in the interests of the US and global security. 2) The impact on the Iranian economy, which already is in tatters, is going to be harsh and the efforts of Iran and Europe to mitigate it are doomed to fail. This is because the “blocking statute” that the EU has announced in response does not have the power to prevent any reasonable company from cutting its economic relations with Iran…READ MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Purpose of Israel’s Nation State Bill was “to codify into Israel’s Basic Laws — akin to a constitution — aspects of Israeli identity long taken for granted by Israelis and outsiders alike”

Posted on August 13, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

NEW YORK TIMES
The Jewish State’s Nation-State Bill Non-Scandal
by Bret Stephens
August 10, 2018

Anyone who follows the news from Israel knows that the Knesset last month passed legislation that takes the Jewish state a step closer to apartheid and outright theocracy. For instance, the bill explicitly authorizes Jewish-only communities and requires secular courts to adopt Jewish ritual law in certain cases. It also promotes the settlements. Actually, the nation-state bill, as the legislation is known, does none of that. Nearly all of its most controversial provisions were stripped from it before passage. But you’d be forgiven for assuming otherwise based on the reaction to the bill — reaction that is far more revealing than the bill itself. READ MORE

YNET NEWS Palestinians push initiative to remove Israel from UN Israeli officials are rolling up their sleeves as Palestinians attempt to remove or suspend Israel from the United Nations over the contentious Nation-State Law, in a similar move to one imposed on Apartheid-era South Africa.

JNS Israel’s Arabs must make a choice The difference between the noble protest against the nation-state law by the Druze and the mean-spirited one by some Israeli Arabs is that the former desire with all their hearts to be part of us, while the latter, who suffer from primeval hatred and envy, want to destroy us. 

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish | Tagged | Leave a comment

From Asian Games to Israel: We like your software but your athletes, not so much

Posted on August 13, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
No Israeli athletes allowed, but Moovit app chosen for Asian Games in Indonesia
by Shoshanna Solomon
August 13, 2018

Even though Israel has been banned from the Asian Games since 1981, an Israeli transit app will help teams and fans get to their sports destinations on time, using public transportation. The crowdsourced public transportation app Moovit, created by an Israeli startup of the same name, has been chosen as the official mobility app for the Asian Games, also known as Asiad, to be held August 18-September 2 in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia…Israelis competed in the Asian Games  from 1954 to 1974, but were banned by the Olympic Council of Asia in 1981. Palestine, however, is on the roster. READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish | Tagged , | Leave a comment

“Meanwhile, our newspapers are silent, ignoring what is one of the greatest stories of our time, the new French anti-Semitism”

Posted on August 12, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

ARUTZ SHEVA
I do not want to live in a Europe where Jews flee
by Giulio Meotti
August 11, 2018

…We have imported from the Middle East, here in our once beautiful Europe, the anti-Semitic Islamic hatred, leaving a supremacist and aggressive counter-society growing within our own. And now we pay the consequences, after our elites have caressed and milked this slime of violence…The Islamists who attacked a church in Rouen, slaughtering Father Hamel at the foot of the altar, are the same ones who attack the synagogues, houses and schools of the Jews, killing them (already 13 victims). The same Europe, shamefully silent on its own internal anti-Semitism, is mute about Hamas firing rockets on the synagogues and the houses of the south of Israel. READ MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Jewish | Tagged , | Leave a comment

AIPAC, ADL behind Senate bipartisan effort addressing terror groups

Posted on August 12, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
U.S. Senate urged to push bill targeting Hamas, Hezbollah use of human shields
by JTA
August 12, 2018

AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Anti-Defamation League are urging United States lawmakers to co-sponsor a bill targeted at terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah for their use of human shields. The Senate bill, introduced last week by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., would sanction those who use civilians to shield themselves while carrying out attacks. It singles out Hamas and Hezbollah as egregious violators. Three Democrats and 12 Republicans have sponsored the bill thus far, but a statement Friday by the Anti-Defamation League — a relatively liberal nonpartisan group — could drive up Democratic co-sponsorship. READ MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Yes, there was the longstanding presumption that “white” is the “norm” or “default” American race, but there was also a deeper question of the nature of white culture. What is it, exactly?”

Posted on August 12, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

NATIONAL REVIEW
The Great White Culture War
by David French
August 8, 2018

…To understand different outcomes of the white culture war, consider California and Texas. Both states are firmly majority-minority. Yet the leaders of both states are still disproportionately white and male; they’re just culturally very different kinds of white males. Conservative white Americans eagerly move to majority-minority Texas. Those same people would be far more reluctant to live in majority-minority California, because of its profoundly different treatment of religious freedoms, gun rights, and of course tax rates. READ MORE

WALL STREET JOURNAL Is Liberal Racism a Horse of a Different Color? Bigotry is bigotry, whether systemic, as at Harvard, or idiosyncratic, like Sarah Jeong’s Twitter feed.

Posted in Politics | Leave a comment

“There’s an old adage that there are no atheists in a foxhole. Let me add a corollary to that adage — there are no pacifists in a bomb shelter. The urge to strike back at your attacker is instinctive”

Posted on August 9, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Musings from a bomb shelter
by Mark Werner
August 9, 2018

Most Americans have never had the experience of being wakened in the middle of the night by a Tzeva Adom (“Code Red”) siren, rushing to the closest bomb shelter, and hiding in the shelter while listening for the explosion of a Palestinian missile. I recently had this experience and am writing to share it with non-Israelis. Together with nine other Sar-el volunteers, for three weeks this summer, I was stationed on an IDF base in fairly close proximity to the Gaza Strip…At 10:30, the Tzeva Adom sirens jolted us awake. Danielle ran down our corridor, banging on our doors: “Code Red Alert! Missile attack! Get to the bomb shelter fast!” READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Standard and Poor’s upgrade “very significant achievement for Israel’s economy, which is estimated to grow 3.3% by 2021”

Posted on August 9, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

THE TOWER
Following Moody’s, Standard and Poor’s Gives Israel an Improved Credit Rating
by Staff
August 6, 2018

For the second time in two months, an international credit rating agency has raised its assessment of Israel’s economy, as Standard and Poor’s raised Israel’s credit rating to -AA, Ynet reported Saturday. In July, Moody’s raised Israel’s outlook of Israel’s economy from “stable” to “positive.” This means that in the next year to year and a half, the agency could raise Israel’s rating from A1 to Aa-. The reasons given for upgrade were the fiscal discipline exercised by  Israel’s government, as well as its recent strong economic growth. READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East | Tagged | Leave a comment

With the birth of Israel “suddenly the Jews, about whose inordinate power bigots had fantasized for 2,000 years, had some real power to defend themselves”

Posted on August 9, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

THE FORWARD
Sorry, Liberals: Anti-Zionism Is Anti-Semitic
by Petra Marquardt-Bigman
August 7, 2018

…The truth is, there is no difference between the two. For anti-Semitism did not stop evolving with the Nazis. Jew-haters everywhere consider Israel to be the Jew of nations, representing all that is evil and must therefore be shunned and eradicated. The far right gets this — in fact, it’s why they find common cause with the left. White supremacists have embraced Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the British Labour party; according to David Duke, former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, Corbyn’s election as party leader was “a sign that people were recognising ‘Zionist power’ and ‘Jewish establishment power’.” READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish | Tagged , | Leave a comment