“Journalist David Patrikarakos’s new book, ‘War in 140 Characters,’ claims that in the war over online dominance, Israel must think like David, not Goliath”

Posted on January 7, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
When a Gazan girl and Israeli officials battle head-to-head for social media
by Tracy Frydberg
January 6, 2018

…This anecdote among with many others is told in the new book, “War in 140 Characters: How Social Media is Reshaping Conflict in the Twenty-First Century” by journalist David Patrikarakos. The book is a fast-paced read exploring the power of the individual in shaping the narrative of war online. Patrikarakos spoke with The Times of Israel about his new book and what the increasingly challenging media war will mean for Israel in future conflicts.  “What we’re seeing now is that war is the practice of politics itself,” Patrikarakos says. “[Hamas is] not trying to achieve a military victory.  It can’t have one. What it wants to do is try to goad the Israelis into action and display its suffering to the world, get more sympathy, get more condemnation of Israel…READ MORE

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More than 100 University of Chicago faculty members come out opposing Obama Library site

Posted on January 7, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

WASHINGTON TIMES
University of Chicago faculty tell Obama to move ‘socially regressive’ library
by Bradford Richardson
January 9, 2017

More than 100 members of the University of Chicago faculty are asking the Obama Foundation to move the proposed library honoring the 44th president to a new location because the plan as currently constituted is “socially regressive.” The Obama Presidential Center will not provide the “promised development or economic benefits” to surrounding neighborhoods, the professors write and could cost more than $100 million in state funds. “We are concerned that these are not the best ways to use public funds to invest in the future of Chicago,” the letter reads. READ MORE

FREE BEACON Obama Presidential Center Panned as ‘Socially Regressive’

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“Even the liberal Chicago Tribune calls Democrat-controlled Illinois one of the most corrupt states in the union”

Posted on January 7, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

AMERICAN THINKER
Land of Lincoln: The third-world casa on the prairie
by Timothy Birdnow
January 7, 2018

In a recent blog post here at American Thinker, Thomas Lifson chronicles the tale of Harvey, Illinois, a failing community where government officials have stolen everything not nailed down.  Now, having exhausted all sources of revenue, the municipality is facing insolvency. Well, why wouldn’t the people in charge of Harvey take liberties with the public treasury?  The state legislature just broke the Illinois bank in a recent spending bill, setting the example for these minor potentates. Apparently, the state legislature imbibed a bit too much eggnog over the holidays, passing over 200 new laws to drive away businesses, steal the residents’ money, and yoke as many yokels as possible. Here are some of the lowlights…READ MORE

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“Breaking a major taboo in the Arab world, famous Egyptian academic Saad Eddin Ibrahim went to Tel Aviv this week to give a lecture. He knew it would be controversial”

Posted on January 6, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

THE NEW ARAB
‘Traitor to Palestinian struggle’: Egyptian academic Saad Eddin Ibrahim causes uproar after Tel Aviv visit
by Roger Hercz
January 3, 2018

Egyptian academic Saad Eddin Ibrahim caused controversy after giving a lecture in Israel. The 79-year old sociologist was received on Tuesday as a rock star in the packed auditorium at Tel Aviv University. Around 600 people turned up to hear him, but soon it transpired – not everyone was happy. Ibrahim was in Israel to participate in a two-day academic conference about Egyptian society, with his topic of discussion titled: “Lesson from 100 years of changes in Egypt”. A long list of Israeli and other foreign academics participated in what was described as an international conference. READ MORE

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Heard in Manhattan: “Hurry up, Jew. I got places to be” [VIDEO]

Posted on January 5, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

TABLET MAG
Heiress Arrested for Upper East Side Anti-Semitic Incident
by Liel Leibovitz
January 4,2017

This is why we never go to the Upper East Side: Heiress Jacqueline Kent Cooke, the daughter of former Washington Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke, allegedly uttered anti-Semitic statements at a restaurant on New Year’s Eve before assaulting a man with her fancy glass purse. According to the Daily News, she turned herself in at the 19th precinct station house and was arrested. The incident reportedly began as Cooke was waiting to retrieve her coat after dinner at Caravaggio, the kind of sparklingly goyishe restaurant you’d never find across the park. Ahead of Cooke were Matthew Haberkorn, 52, a lawyer from San Francisco, his wife, four daughters, and 77-year-old mother. They were putting on their coats when the heiress, allegedly inebriated, lost her temper. READ MORE

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One of the many crises Iran faces: “The country has used up 70% of its groundwater and its literally drying up major rivers to maintain consumption”

Posted on January 5, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

PJ MEDIA
The Norm Is NOT Democracy — the Norm Is Extinction
by David P. Goldman
January 3, 2018

Before we wax too eloquent about the democratic aspirations of the great Iranian people, we should keep in the mind that the most probable scenario for Iran under any likely regime is a sickening spiral into poverty and depopulation. Iran has the fastest-aging population of any country in the world, indeed, the fast-aging population of any country in history. It has the highest rate of venereal disease infection and the highest rate of infertility of any country in the world. It has a youth unemployment rate of 35% (adjusted for warehousing young people in state-run diploma mills). And worst of all, it has run out of water. We might be observing the birth of Iranian democracy in the protests of the past few weeks, but it is more likely that we are watching the slow-motion train wreck of a once-great nation in all its gory detail. READ MORE

TABLET MAG The Ayatollah Empire Is Rotting Away: Regime clerics steal everything, including the pistachio nuts

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“This week, the Tamimi clan from Nabi Saleh beset Israel once again”

Posted on January 5, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
Facing a Tamimi government
by Caroline B. Glick
December 28, 2017

..Ahed Tamimi, the family’s teenaged golden girl, and her mother, Nariman, once again posted videos of themselves slapping and cursing hapless IDF soldiers. The photogenic Ahed has been doing this number since she was a little girl. There are two components of the Palestinian war to annihilate Israel: terrorism and propaganda. The two are integrally linked. The ties are nowhere more apparent than in the actions of the Tamimi family. Six weeks after Israel signed the Oslo Accords with the PLO on the White House lawn on September 13, 1993, Chaim Mizrahi from Beit El went to buy eggs from a farmer in Ramallah, as he had every week for years. Two of Ahed’s cousins, Said and Nizar Tamimi, were there. They stabbed Mizrahi, stuffed him in the trunk of his car and burned him alive. READ MORE

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Is this factually correct? “The more cultures in a multicultural society, the more cultural diversity, the better”

Posted on January 5, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

GATESTONE
Mass Migration: Uninvited Guests
by Philip Carl Salzman
December 31, 2017

…Refugees and immigrants bring their own cultures, their own assumptions, beliefs, values, fears and hopes from their homelands. One cannot just assume that they wish to integrate or assimilate into the Western culture. Willingness to assimilate might well vary from individual to individual, and from culture to culture….A society can only function smoothly if there is a large degree of agreement and commonality regarding to what language people shall speak, what rules they should follow in dealing with one another, and how government is to be established. Where is it written that all cultures are necessarily compatible with one another? READ MORE

FRONT PAGE MAG Muslim Migrants’ Jew-Hatred

GATESTONE If You Hate America, Why Not Go Back to Your Country?

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Jewish | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Perhaps not for long: “US is the PA’s largest international donor, providing over $700 million in indirect aid to the PA and to UNRWA in 2016”

Posted on January 4, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

ALGEMEINER
Trump Administration’s Warning of Aid Cut to Palestinians Is Response to PA Intransigence, Experts Say
by Staff
January 3, 2018

Warnings from the Trump administration of a cut-off in American financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority serve notice on Palestinian leaders that Washington expects a fundamental shift in their approach to peace talks with Israel, experts and policy analysts said on Wednesday. In an early morning tweet on Wednesday, Trump declared that the US gives Palestinians “HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and gets no appreciation or respect. They don’t even want to negotiate a long overdue peace treaty with Israel … with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?” READ MORE

GATESTONE Palestinians: Where Have They Gone?

JEWISH NEWS SERVICE Why Trump’s Palestinian aid cut threat makes sense

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“59% of the tourists who visited Israel in 2017 came for the first time”

Posted on January 4, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

GLOBES
Record 3.6m tourists visit Israel in 2017
Michal Raz-Chaimovich
December 27, 2017

An all-time record 3.6 million tourists visited Israel in 2017, 25% more than in 2016. The Ministry of Tourism believes that incoming tourism contributed NIS 20 billion to the Israeli economy. The country from which the largest number of tourists to Israel come is the US – over 700,000 tourists, 21% more than in 2016. Russia was in second place with 307,000 tourists, a 26% increase. The increase in tourism from Russia is attributable to the growth in routes and flights from Russia to Israel, some of which are run by low-cost airlines, and the exclusion of Turkey from the Russian tourist map in recent years. READ MORE

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