Los Angeles slashed fire and other basic services after Mayor Karen Bass awarded fat contracts to government workers

Posted on January 10, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

CITY JOURNAL
L.A.’s Total Leadership Failure
Steven Malanga
January 10, 2025

The devastating wildfires in Los Angeles have spotlighted questionable state and local government policies in California that may have contributed to the blazes and left areas like Hollywood vulnerable due to insufficient firefighting resources. Mayor Karen Bass’s budget cuts to the city’s fire department, enacted just months ago amid warnings about the city’s deteriorating finances, stand out as a striking example of misplaced priorities. The cuts stemmed from a budget crisis triggered by her administration’s decision to reward city employees with rich contracts and benefits—even as it dismissed worries that the reductions would hurt services. “Predictions that city services will be impossible to deliver,” deputy mayor Zach Seidl told the press, “are simply false.” Few public statements have aged as poorly—or as hauntingly—as this one. READ MORE

Posted in Politics | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Hillel Neuer: UNRWA is no longer a humanitarian agency — it has become a full-fledged partner to terrorist organizations like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad”

Posted on January 9, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

NEW YORK POST
UN watchdog group urges dismantling of UNRWA for ‘enabling crimes against humanity’
Carl Campanile
January 6, 2025

A United Nations watchdog group says the infamous UN relief agency that provides $1.5 billion a year to Palestinians should be disbanded for colluding with terrorists and “enabling crimes against humanity.” “The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is neither independent nor neutral,” says a scathing new report by the Swiss-based group UN WATCH. “UNRWA’s senior management not only employs individuals tied to Hamas terrorism but also allows terrorist groups like Hamas to influence and obstruct critical agency decisions and policies. READ MORE

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

Nearly all House Republicans, several Democrats back legislation punishing the ICC for going after Netanyahu and Gallant

Posted on January 9, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
US House votes to sanction ICC over Israel arrest warrants
Jacob Magid, Reuters Staff
January 10, 2025

The US House of Representatives voted on Thursday to sanction the International Criminal Court to protest its decision to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister over Israel’s campaign against the Hamas terror group in Gaza. Lawmakers voted 243 to 140 in favor of the “Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act,” which would urge sanctions on any ICC official or entities backing The Hague who advance “any effort to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute any protected person of the United States and its allies.” The sanctions include blocking or revoking visas and prohibiting US property transactions. READ MORE

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

Canadian Jews angered by Trudeau’s lack of action against soaring post-October 7 antisemitism, failure to support Israel during war, threats to arrest Netanyahu

Posted on January 9, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
‘Deep disappointment’ with Trudeau, Canadian Jewish leaders say
Dave Gordon
January 6, 2025

Canadian Jewish leaders reacted almost immediately—many with sighs of relief—to Justin Trudeau’s announcement on Monday that he will resign as prime minister after his party replaces him in a March 24 vote…Guidy Mamann, president of the Toronto Zionist Council…told JNS that the Canadian Jewish community was “appalled” when Trudeau said that he would arrest Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to face prosecution for what Mamann said are “specious war-crimes allegations.”…Joe Oliver, a Canadian finance minister under then Prime Minister Stephen Harper, told JNS that Trudeau, whom he has criticized in newspaper columns, has a “lack of moral clarity about Israel’s defensive war against genocidal terrorism.” READ MORE

FORWARD What the election of Pierre Poilievre would mean for Canadian Jews and Israel The Conservative politician poised to replace Justin Trudeau as prime minister of Canada took a hitchhiking trip through Israel in his youth, has referred to Canadian Jews as “the true Indigenous people,” condemned campus protests against the Gaza war as antisemitic and is staunchly pro-Israel. “The Jewish people are the only people I know of who, in the same language, worship the same faith on the same land in the same country as they did 3,000 years ago,” Pierre Poilievre, the leader of Canada’s Conservative Party, said at an Orthodox Montreal-area synagogue last March.

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

“By accepting Palestinianism and supporting the Hamas narrative, the Pope is siding with the enemies of Christianity, the enemies of Judaism and the enemies of decency”

Posted on January 9, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

GATESTONE
Pope Francis Violates Catholic Teaching by Bearing False Witness Against Israel
Alan M. Dershowitz
January 7, 2025

…Much more seriously, Pope Francis has joined the chorus of blood libelers who have accused Israel of genocide, writing: “According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide.” This indictment is totally false as a matter of fact, law and morality. The Vatican knows what genocide is. It perfected this crime against humanity during the Crusades, the Inquisition and the priest-inspired pogroms that led to the Holocaust. Genocide requires an intent to destroy an entire religious, racial or ethnic group, without exceptions. It does not include acts of self-defense, such as those engaged in by the Israel Defense Forces following the massacres of October 7, 2023. READ MORE

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

“The idea is to hit the Iranians in a very severe manner that will paralyze them and create the conditions for a new nuclear deal on Trump’s terms, which will be very close to the terms sought by Israel”

Posted on January 9, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

FREE BEACON
Former Israeli Military Officials Float Audacious Plan To Strike Iran in Final Days of Biden Presidency
Andrew Tobin
January 9, 2025

Two prominent Israeli national security analysts have proposed that the Jewish state go it alone with major attack on Iran in the final days of Joe Biden’s presidency. Kobi Michael and Gabi Siboni, both former senior Israeli military officials, argued in a policy paper published last month that only a series of airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear, military, economic, and government infrastructure can prevent the regime from rebuilding its regional terrorist network, which Israel has degraded over 15 months of war. Israel should start the attack just ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, according to the analysts—thereby minimizing the risk of diplomatic retaliation by Biden and forcing the hand of the president-elect. READ MORE

FOREIGN AFFAIRS The Iran Opportunity It is hard to think of a country that has lost as much influence in as short a time as has Iran. Until recently, it was arguably the most important regional actor in the Middle East, more influential than Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, or Turkey. Yet in a matter of months, the edifice of Iranian influence has come crashing down. Iran is weaker and more vulnerable than it has been in decades, likely since its decadelong war with Iraq or even since the 1979 revolution. READ MORE

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

Lebanon’s new president: “My era will include the discussion of our defensive strategy to enable the Lebanese state to get rid of the Israeli occupation and to retaliate against its aggression”

Posted on January 9, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Israeli FM congratulates Lebanon’s new president, Joseph Aoun
January 9, 2025

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Thursday congratulated Lebanon’s army chief Joseph Aoun on becoming president, after more than two years of a presidential vacuum in the politically unstable Arab state…The minister’s message came after more than a year of war between Israel and Hezbollah, which ended with a ceasefire agreement signed between Israel and Lebanon on Nov. 26…In a speech addressing the nation, Aoun said that this was a “new era” in Lebanon, pledging to stir it away from its economic and political woes, CNN reported. He promised to “monopolize weapons” in the country, making a clear reference to the Iranian-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah. As for the Jewish state, he said, “The Lebanese state—I repeat the Lebanese state—will get rid of the Israeli occupation. READ MORE

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

Anti-masking laws worked against the KKK. They’ll work against today’s criminals and bigots, too

Posted on January 8, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

FREE PRESS
Ban Masking Now
Ilya Shapiro
January 6, 2025

…“Wearing a mask for the purpose of committing crimes against innocent New Yorkers or for the purpose of intimidating and harassing Jewish students on college campuses should be strictly prohibited by state law,” [Congressman Ritchie] Torres posted Thursday on X. As it happens, New York State had the oldest anti-masking law in the nation but repealed it during the pandemic. Torres is correct in calling for its reinstatement. He’s also right to connect the state legislature’s failure to do so to the abuse of Jewish college students by pro-Hamas fanatics. The State Assembly considered two bills to bring the ban back last year, but didn’t act amid pushback from left-wing groups. Despite the state’s dithering, it has become obvious that the repeal of anti-masking laws has had disastrous consequences for cities like New York. READ MORE

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

“The unchecked spread of antisemitic narratives under the guise of academic freedom, diversity initiatives, and political activism signals a dangerous shift”

Posted on January 5, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

FUTURE OF JEWISH
The Antisemitic Virus Infecting America’s Education System
Toni Airaksinen
January 5, 2025

In recent years, America’s education system has increasingly become a battleground for ideological conflict, where antisemitism is no longer a fringe sentiment — but a rising force within academic institutions. From university lecture halls to diversity offices, the normalization of rhetoric that delegitimizes Israel and marginalizes Jewish students has revealed a troubling trend. Professors openly celebrate acts of terror, campus officials perpetuate harmful stereotypes, and faculty members penalize colleagues for defending Israel or expressing Zionist views…Through a series of alarming incidents, this analysis aims to uncover the systemic failings that allow antisemitic rhetoric to thrive and the consequences for Jewish students and faculty who dare to dissent. READ MORE

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

Islam must never be to blame. And leftists would sooner submit to torture than admit that the problem is not white supremacists, but Islamic supremacists”

Posted on January 5, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

FRONT PAGE MAG
Even After New Orleans, the Left Won’t Name the Ideology Behind the Attack
Mark Tapson
January 3, 2025

…I don’t have a degree in criminology or a special Taylor Swift bracelet from the New Orleans FBI, but to me, all that sounds suspiciously like Jabbar’s motive could – hear me out, now – be classified as Islamic terrorism. But if you think the Left will acknowledge the threat of Islamic “radicalism” to this country, then you have been living under a rock since the Jimmy Carter era. Check out the reports on Jabbar from the Left-dominated media. Most headlines refer to him as “New Orleans Attacker” or “Army vet” or maybe “Texas man.” You will not find one that states right there in the headline that he was an “ISIS Devotee” or even “Devout Muslim,” much less anything labeling him an “Islamic terrorist,” even an alleged one. Again, I’m no criminal psychologist, but I feel safe saying that Shamsud Din Jabbar did not attach an ISIS flag to his truck and mow down as many New Years revelers as possible – men, women, and children – and then open fire on cops because he was a “devout” Army veteran or Texas man. READ MORE

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