Keeping Tlaib and Omar out of Israel is the right thing to do

Following the news that Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar would be "visiting" Israel this month, the Israeli government initially considered allowing them to enter, but now, they've wisely decided against it:

Israel is to bar US Democratic congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from entering the country over their support for the BDS boycott movement.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the move, which reversed an earlier pledge to permit entry to the politicians, on Thursday afternoon.

“Israel's law prohibits the entry of people who call and operate to boycott Israel, as is the case with other democracies that prevent the entry of people whose perception harms the country,” he said in a statement.

“Only a few days ago, we received their [Ilhan Olmar and Rashida Tlaib] visitation plan, and it became clear that they were planning a campaign whose sole purpose was to strengthen the boycott and negate Israel's legitimacy.”

David Friedman, the US ambassador in Israel, welcomed the decision.

“This trip, pure and simple, is nothing more than an effort to fuel the BDS engine that Congresswomen Tlaib and Omar so vigorously support.”

The reason it's best not to allow them entry is because they could possibly incite violence and other bad news that Israel could do without. There can be no doubt the two of them would meet with terrorist conductors like Mahmoud Abbas and also the Hamas, and that too can be dangerous. Donald Trump himself urged Israel not to grant them entry:

It would show great weakness if Israel allowed Rep. Omar and Rep.Tlaib to visit. They hate Israel & all Jewish people, & there is nothing that can be said or done to change their minds. Minnesota and Michigan will have a hard time putting them back in office. They are a disgrace!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 15, 2019

Definitely correct. Keeping Omar and Tlaib away from Israel is for the best. But, we have to hope the majority of Michigan and Minnesota voters won't be fooled by those two again, and will avoid casting ballots for them in the next Congressional election.

With Shaked now leading the URWP, let's hope they have a meaty campaign in store

Well, it looks like Ayelet Shaked's going to be leading the merger of smaller right-wing parties:

The leaders of the United Right and New Right factions reached a final agreement Monday afternoon on a united list for the upcoming elections in September. The agreement was reached after hours of non-stop negotiations.

They may also be bringing Otzma Yehudit and another faction called Noam into the mix. For now, let's hope the party, as it currently stands as the only one this election headed by a woman, will be maintaining a meat-and-potatoes campaign on whatever relevant issues are involved. Unity is good, but so too is a solid platform for their electoral campaign.

Meretz throws Ehud Barak a lifering with a merger as his party's prospects sink

The anti-Zionist, anti-religious Meretz party is forming an alliance with Ehud Barak as his reception began to slip following the news he'd associated with Jeffrey Epstein, all for the sake of toppling Benjamin Netanyahu:

In a dramatic reshuffle on the Left, the far-left Meretz and former Prime Minister Ehud Barak's Israel Democratic Party will be running on a joint ticket in the Sept. 17 election under the name Democratic Union, with Labor MK Stav Shafir as No. 3, the party leaders announced Thursday morning.

According to the agreement reached between the parties, Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz will hold the No. 1 slot on the list, followed by Shafir. Barak will be placed 10th at his own insistence, according to a statement released by the faction Thursday. He will, however, be guaranteed the first pick of ministerial posts if the party enters the government.

Former GOC Northern Command Maj. Gen. Yair Golan, who recently joined Barak's party, was allotted the third slot on the list, with former Meretz leader Tamar Zandberg placed fourth. The top 10 places also reserve two other slots for candidates from Barak's party.

Shafir decided to leave Labor after she failed to convince new Labor chairman Amir Peretz to run on a joint ticket with Meretz and Barak.

What's really disturbing is whether there's a segment of the public out there who're willing to vote for them despite the Epstein scandal. And whether they'll succeed in wiping out the Labor party all for the sake of this. It's a valid worry, and for now, it unmasks Meretz as not true to any claim they make that they're in favor of women's rights, when they're willing to associate with somebody whose own connections are that repellent.

This is decidedly atrocious news, proving how morally bankrupt the left is, and not true to their slogans at all. And what "democratic" values do they actually uphold? None that I can think of.

New Wolverine anthology story puts him in the middle of 9-11

Almost 2 decades after the tragedy of September 11, 2001, Marvel's written up a story in the 2nd volume of Marvel Comics Presents seemingly tying Wolverine's history to the era of the World Trade Center's destruction:

In The Vigil, Wolverine has been fighting the demon Ron Killings once per decade, every decade since the 1940s. The story, originally ostensibly in continuity though seeming less so considering the major changes made to Wolverine’s history, including getting a bunch of X-Men killed in the 90s and having a daughter (with a woman he met as a child – yuck), not to mention the fact that the stories play out in real time, not Marvel time. In any case, in Marvel Comics Presents #7, The Vigil gets to the 2000s, and since The Truth appears at some of the most terrible moments in human history, it seems natural to assume that this decade’s appearance will be at the World Trade Center attack on September 11th, 2001.

And here's a panel from the interiors:

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A followup to an earlier story set during WW2 in this anthology, and I wouldn't be shocked if there was no mention of Islam's role in the modern tragedy, one more reason why this is bound to be as awkward as it was to put the Marvel universe in the middle of 9-11, as J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada did in the notorious Spider-Man issue 36 from late 2001.

As I asked once before, and will again, is the The Truth supposed to represent a leftist idea of what amounts to facts? Quite possibly. Which'll confirm Marvel's still nailed on injection of leftist politics into their books, subtle or otherwise. Something we could do without.

And the idea of Wolvie leading to the deaths of several other mutants and possibly having sex with an underaged girl...ugh. That's not making things any better either.

Britain's baby boom, courtesy of migrants

Jolly ol' England's experiencing a huge baby boom, brought to them by the Muslim migrants their political establishment covets so much:

English schools will need to find almost 420,000 extra school places over the next decade, due in part to a baby boom among migrant mothers.

The Department for Education has reported that, while its latest projections suggest that “Direct immigration of pupils born outside the UK has a very small effect on the school age population” compared to the birth rate, the birth rate “is in turn affected by any increase in the number of children born to non-UK born women (who overall tend to have higher fertility rates).”

A document explaining underlying methodology of the new figures explain that “Changes in the population who are of school age is largely driven by an increase in the birth rate rather than direct immigration,” for the most part, but “that birth rate is in turn affected by any increase in the number of children born to non-UK born women (compared to those born to non UK-born women).”

[...] The Tory Party pledged to reduce net immigration “from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands” ahead of the last three general elections, but non-EU immigration — the only type of immigration the British government can largely control — has in fact reached a 15-year high.

Over 250,000 reportedly arrive every year. That's got to account already for at least a few million already. And the way they're going, it's clear they don't have any intention of turning things around.

Ehud Barak continues his plummet to irrelevancy

David Weinberg's written about Barak's continuing shamelessness as he avoids hard questions about his own conduct, including his associations with Jeffrey Epstein, and his past record of blunders that resulted in his becoming the shortest serving prime minister in Israel:

Barak is promoting his political comeback with near-messianic zeal, preening self-confidence, sky-high arrogance, and the most violent political language heard in this country in decades.

In dozens of speeches across the country and in aggressive social media posts, Barak has been savaging Prime Minister Netanyahu and anybody to the right of him as “dark and dangerous ultra-nationalists who are undermining the foundations of Zionism and Israeli democracy.”

Barak talks madly about the “shattering of Israeli democracy” (nonsense, Israeli democracy is robust!), and the “darkest days Israel has known” (another absurd claim).

Worst of all is his frequent use of the “f” and “a” words – fascism and apartheid – to describe the policies of his conservative opponents.

In one speech I heard, Barak hurled the epithet “fascist” at Netanyahu three times and “apartheid” at right-wing West Bank policies another three times. He then accused all Israelis to his political right of wearing Nazi-style “selection eyeglasses," which is a disgusting political slur whether used by an anti-Semitic non-Jew or a born-again wannabe Israeli leader.

Barak delivers all this dreadful demagoguery alongside incessant use of the epithet “messianic” in describing policies of the right-wing. This, of course, is supremely ironic, since the only messianism that exists in abundance in Ehud Barak’s presence is his own messianic self-assurance.

Barak’s wild exaggerations and exceedingly belligerent characterizations are shocking. His vehement denigration of others and unrestrained use of near anti-Semitic and pseudo-BDS language about Israel and Netanyahu is unacceptable.

In fact, Barak’s demonizing language is the type of speech that would undermine any democracy. In other words, Barak is guilty of the accusations he throws at anyone who dares to disagree with him. And this makes a mockery of his pompously named "Israel Democratic Party."

The way these demagogues use positive words for the sake of negative goals is also extremely galling. At 77 years old, he should be retiring already, not wasting his time in politics. A most disgraceful man indeed.

What if the psychiatric "experts" hired in the Halimi case aren't "independent"?

JNS ran an article about the abominable continuation of the French courts' avoiding the issue of anti-semitism in the murder of Sarah Halimi by a Muslim. And among the things discussed, I noticed they said:

Two of the three independent psychiatric experts commissioned by the investigation said that marijuana nullified the man’s judgment and therefore his criminal responsibility. The third judge expressed a partial abolition of culpability.

I have to wonder: is it possible these weren't really "independent experts" at all, but rather, at least 2 people specially hired to give a false verdict to suit the judicial system's positions? I'm sure if one "follows the money", they'll find somethng very fishy indeed about how politics are operated in France, and even Britain. This is also a system that's let rapists off the hook because the culprits were Muslim, so it's not only Jews who're the victims here, of course, but also women.

One of the most offensive things about European political conduct is the tendency to waste taxpayers' money, and there can be no doubt the problem is around cases like these somewhere, where it ends up in the wrong hands, for all the wrong reasons.

Ehud Barak photographed visiting Jeffrey Epstein in early 2016 as 4 women arrived as well

Barak may have claimed he didn't visit the criminal businessman Epstein while any women or girls were around. But as the following information makes clear, this was hardly the case:

Ehud Barak, head of the Israeli Democratic Party, was caught on camera entering the Manhattan townhouse of Jeffery Epstein with his face hidden, on the same day that a large group of women were seen entering the sex offender's home, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday.

Epstein was convicted of soliciting a teenage girl for prostitution in 2008 and was indicted last week in connection with allegations that he was involved in the sex trafficking of dozens of minors in New York and Florida between 2002 and 2005.

The photos were taken in January 2016, after Epstein arrived in New York from an overseas trip, according to the Daily Mail. At least four young women were seen going into the home within a matter of hours.

At the time, the Daily Mail reported that the four women included friends of Epstein Sue Hamblin and Jennifer Kalin as well as Russian model Lana Pozhidaeva. The fourth women, who remains unidentified, was seen joining Epstein on a trip to Teterborough Airport in New Jersey, where Epstein keeps his plane.

When the photos were taken, the identity of the man seen walking into the house was uncertain, but the Daily Mail has now confirmed that it was Barak. He admitted to the Daily Beast that it was him, but claimed that the visit was innocent.

"I was there, for lunch or chat, nothing else. So what?" said Barak. "I never attended a party with him. I never met Epstein in the company of women or young girls."

Barak told the Daily Beast that he covered his face because of the January New York weather. "It was so cold, the Middle Easterner had to put on a hat."

Gee, why didn't he raise the hood on his coat as well as wear a windbreaker over his face? Sorry, but something about this just doesn't compute. He remains as shameless as he was years ago. And just recently, Breitbart reported:

Senior officials in the opposition Labor and Meretz parties have said that Ehud Barak’s ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein have severely impacted the chances of their parties merging with Barak’s Israel Democratic Party, a TV report said Friday.

According to leaked conversations, the officials said that any association with the hedge-fund manager, who is suspecting of sex trafficking, would harm their parties’ stated aims of fighting corruption, Channel 12 reported.

They have decided to wait until party lists are finalized before making any mergers with the Israel Democratic Party, the report said.

It may be safe to assume they realize it'd look bad at this point if they tried joining forces with Barak. But that's a mighty odd thing to say, that they'd wait until internal Knesset slates are finalized before they "merge" with a party run by such an awful man. If they understand the seriousness of the accusations, surely they don't understand it'd be a major embarrassment and potentially damaging if they formed ties with a man who should be retiring already?

Barak's really stooped very low, and I've got an awful feeling we'll be hearing even worse allegations made against him soon enough.

French judge uses cannabis smoking as excuse for actions of Sarah Halimi's Muslim murderer

France's disastrous judicial system struck again, as another judge continues to resort to excuses for the sake of a violent man:

Lawyers acting for the family of a French Jewish widow murdered in her own home during a frenzied antisemitic assault have vowed to appeal the ruling of a Paris court that will potentially allow her accused killer to be released without trial.

Last Friday, the judges in charge of the preliminary investigation into the murder of Sarah Halimi — a 65-year-old former teacher who was severely beaten and then tossed from a third-floor window on April 4, 2017, by 27-year-old Kobili Traore, her neighbor in a Paris public housing project — ruled that Traore could not be held criminally responsible for his actions because he had been smoking marijuana heavily in the hours before the killing.

In other words, he's saying even drug abuse alone is not a serious issue, and that addicts cannot be held accountable for any violence they may or may not have committed because of its influence. Furthermore, if he really was under the influence, how could he even have climbed into her apartment window that easily? Yet more excuses by somebody who's clearly not interested in justice, no matter the victim's background.

In addition, according to a source close to the case who was quoted by the leading news outlet Le Figaro, the preliminary judges also dismissed the contention that Traore’s crime was aggravated by his violent antisemitism.

Which is nothing more than another excuse for ignoring antisemitism, plain and simple. The judicial system is clearly a horrible mess, and badly in need of serious repairs, as much as anything else.

In an editorial published on the CRIF website on Monday, the organization’s president, Francis Kalifat, derided the notion of Traore’s diminished criminal responsibility because of his chronic use of marijuana.

“What is this new rule that makes a murderer who voluntarily took drugs unfit to stand trial, when a driver who caused an accident after using the same drug would be treated with greater severity?” Kalifat asked pointedly. “Who are we kidding?”

As Kalifat noted in his editorial, however, despite its shocking nature, Friday’s decision by the court was not unexpected.

“This ruling comes as no surprise because, since the beginning of this case, we have witnessed delays in trying to present this murderer as insane,” Kalifat wrote.

Meanwhile, the BNVCA — a Paris-based group that works with victims of antisemitic attacks — had warned over a month ago that Traore would escape a criminal trial.

It's been clear since the start they intended to go that way because of how demonic their own minds are. I should hope they're enlisting the Simon Wiesenthal Center along with other reliable sources to speak out against this.

The failed indictments against Lieberman

The Times of Israel has a long article about attempts to investigate and prosecute Avigdor Lieberman in the past for potentially corrupt activities, allegedly because of shady figures doing surveillance against legal officials:

One autumn day in 2010, Avia Alef, then head of the economic crimes department in the Israeli state prosecutor’s office, met a friend for lunch at the elegant Zuni restaurant in central Jerusalem. Alef and her friend found a quiet table on the second floor of the restaurant where they could talk. A few minutes later, a steely-gazed man with Slavic features sat down a few tables away, ordered only coffee and began watching them intently. When Alef and her friend left the restaurant, the man got up and left as well.

“Are you being followed?” Alef’s friend asked her. “I think so,” she answered, trying to calm the somersaults in her stomach.

Alef, who had at that point served as a government prosecutor for over 20 years, had come to expect such ominous intrusions into her privacy. They had started when she began investigating alleged financial improprieties connected to Moldova-born lawmaker and Yisrael Beytenu party head Avigdor Liberman.

“We were harassed, followed, surveilled and had our work obstructed on a regular basis,” Alef, who was involved in investigating Liberman from 2005 to 2012, told The Times of Israel.

In fact, all of the police officers and prosecutors working on the case experienced similar and other troubling incidents, Alef said. Police would go question a witness, only to learn that Liberman or one of his representatives had reached him first and coordinated or tried to coordinate testimonies. When prosecutors sent a request for judicial assistance to the government of Belarus, the Israeli ambassador there opened the diplomatic mail pouch and instead of passing on the request, informed Liberman of the letter’s contents.

Read the rest of the article, because what's told is very disturbing and alarming, how justice may have been obstructed for the sake of a pretentious man who's not the altruistic figure he'd like everyone to think he is.

Dan Crenshaw's the Best!

This guy is the best!

Here, "Dan Crenshaw, Patriot."

pic.twitter.com/SE3g5QCiIJ

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) July 4, 2019

He lost an eye in combat in Iraq. He normally wears a patch, but as you can see, he did some ultimate trolling for Fourth of July. What a guy!

Paris's Jerusalem Square inaugurated

Well here's something to be happy about - the new Jerusalem street in Paris has been made official:

Despite a pro-Palestinian demonstration, the “Place de Jérusalem” plaza was inaugurated in Paris, at the initiative of Mayor Anne Hidalgo.

“In this sad period of recrudesce of racist and antisemitic acts, recalling the ties that unite the city of Paris and the Jewish community is essential,” Hidalgo wrote to the president of the Central Consistory of France, Joel Mergui. The Consistory is the body that represents French Jewry in matters of religion.

“For this reason, your proposal for devoting a square to Jerusalem in the capital seems very sensible, also in order to remember the friendship and the unity between the city of Paris and the State of Israel,” she added.

Upon the approval of Hidalgo’s proposal, Danielle Simonnet from the far-left party La France Insoumise proposed an amendment, requesting that the street sign reads “Place de Jérusalem – with the wish that it becomes the future capital of two states.”

Simonnet’s proposal was rejected, which sparked a large protest from pro-Palestinian associations.

Dozens of people protested against the move, including the Association France Palestine Solidarité, which invited supporters to join the demonstration under the name “No to the confiscation of Jerusalem!”

Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion participated in the inauguration event in Paris, following the invitation of Hidalgo.

The plaza, located at the intersection of Rue de Courcelles and Boulevard of Reims in the central 17th Arrondissement, is also the site of the future European Center of Judaism (ECJ), which is currently under construction.

It may not be an embassy move, but as something on their turf, it's certainly a good start in recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capitol. Especially considering that Jerusalem itself has a Paris Square downtown, and if Israel can recognize Paris as the French capitol, then reciprocation must obviously be the answer.

This is a definite step in the right direction, and with the Jerusalem mayor himself attending. And it's good they didn't allow anti-Israel protestors or the communist Unbowed party to have their awful ways. This is a most vital moment in history, much like the US embassy's move to the capitol.

Mohammed Morsi dies in court

The former Egyptian "president" who briefly held the spot during the so-called Arab Spring died of a heart attack during a court trial:

Egypt's former president Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader who rose to office in the country's first free elections in 2012 and was ousted a year later by the military, collapsed in court during a trial and died Monday, state TV and his family said.

The 67-year-old Morsi had just addressed the court, speaking from the glass cage he is kept in during sessions and warning that he had "many secrets" he could reveal, a judicial official said. A few minutes afterward, he collapsed in the cage, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

Morsi was a longtime senior figure in Egypt's most powerful Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood. He was elected in 2012 in the country's first free presidential election, held a year after an Arab Spring uprising ousted Egypt's longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak. His Muslim Brotherhood also held a majority in parliament.

The military, led by then-defence minister Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, ousted Morsi after massive protests against the Brotherhood's domination of power. El-Sisi was subsequently elected president and has waged a massive crackdown on Islamists and other opponents since.

It was miraculous the populace rose up against Morsi, thwarting the Muslim Brotherhood's potential rise to more power. Much like Mubarak, Morsi deserved all the failure he got. Good riddance to such a horrible pest.

New Knesset elections have to be held, now that Avigdor Lieberman sabotaged the ability to form a coalition

This is not good, no matter how you look at things. Coalition negotiations failed, so new elections will be held in September:

Israel is heading to elections again after Netanyahu and his Likud party have failed to put together a viable coalition.

After receiving an extension from President Reuven Rivlin, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu failed to form a coalition of 61 Knesset members needed to establish a government.

While 65 members of Knesset recommended that Netanyahu be entrusted with the formation of the new government after winning the April elections, he was unable to bridge the differences among his potential coalition partners.

Israeli lawmakers took the unprecedented step of dissolving the Knesset, throwing the country back into another election season just weeks after a national election.

After a 12-hour debate, lawmakers approved a measure by a vote of 74 to 45 to dissolve the 21st Knesset and hold new elections on September 17. The Likud-sponsored bill was supported by fellow right-wing parties Yisrael Beitenu, United Torah Judaism, Shas and the Union of Right-Wing Parties as well as two Israeli Arab parties, Ra’am Balad and Hadash Ta’al.

As one of the only acts of the 21st Knesset, the decision to dissolve the parliament came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was unable to form a governing coalition.

The failure largely came as a result of an impasse between former defense minister and Yisrael Beiteinu party leader Avigdor Lieberman and the ultra-Orthodox parties – Shas and United Torah Judaism over a military draft bill.

It's clear that, even if a coalition had been formed, it would've collapsed soon after, because Lieberman was making such a bizarre fuss over this whole issue, and come to think of it, the Haredi parties too. A real shame this had to happen, and we have to hope the Likud can do as well in this next election as it did in the past month.

Victims of Poway and Pittsburgh synagogue shootings part of Memorial Day focus

The victims of the antisemitic shooting in San Diego's Poway neighborhood and Squirrel Hill in Pittsburgh were at the center of focus for this year's Memorial Day for victims of terrorism:

Tributes to the 12 Jews killed in the synagogue shootings of October 2018 in Pittsburgh and April 2019 in the San Diego-area city of Poway took center stage today during The Jewish Agency for Israel’s memorial service for Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s annual day of remembrance for fallen soldiers and victims of terror attacks.

The special guests from Pittsburgh at Wednesday morning’s ceremony at the Jewish Agency Courtyard in Jerusalem included Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh President and CEO Jeff Finkelstein; and Marnie Fienberg, the daughter-in-law of Joyce Fienberg, who was murdered in the Pittsburgh synagogue attack. Fienberg lit a memorial torch together with Chairman of The Jewish Agency for Israel Isaac Herzog, who personally invited her to attend the service.

"On this day, the Jews of the Diaspora unite in grief with all the residents of the State of Israel. And here, too, in Israel, we are united in grief with the Jewish families in the Diaspora, those who lost loved ones in terrorist acts and those whose children chose to wear their olive uniforms and gave their lives, protecting Israel,” said Herzog at the ceremony. “Zionism and our shared fate have been sanctified with their blood. Lone soldiers, Jewish volunteers from all over the world, and new immigrants who sacrificed their lives and fought shoulder to shoulder since the beginning of Israel's independence. Their beating heart is in each and every one of us, whether a citizen of the state or a Jew in the Diaspora."

According to The Jewish Agency, more than 200 Jews have been murdered in anti-Semitic incidents and terrorist attacks across the Diaspora since the State of Israel achieved independence in 1948, with the 11 victims of the shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue and the victim of the shooting at Chabad of Poway joining that list this year.

“The anti-Semites don’t care about our labels, to them we’re all Jews,” said Finkelstein. “And to all of us, the work we do with the Jewish Agency and Federations has to be focused on building Jewish unity, because together we can defeat evil. Am Yisrael Chai.”

Some reports have indicated that antisemitic attacks increased this year in the US, and what if Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib's vile rhetoric had anything to do with it? The Democrats certainly have blame to shoulder as they continue to project their own vicious rhetoric onto Trump instead of confronting the antisemitism problem within their own ranks.

French millionaire widower leaves nearly 15 million in donations for victims of terrorism

An amazing story of a late millionaire who donated to a noble cause:

A French widower with no children left about $14.5 million to the state of Israel to assist families who lost loved ones serving in the military or to terrorism.

Nicolas Bauman died in 2009; most of the inheritance was transferred to Israel last week, Keren Kayemet L’Israel-Jewish National Fund announced on the eve of Yom Hazikaron, or Israel’s Memorial Day.

The fund for bereaved families established in Bauman’s will will operate for 10 years under the trustee management of the Ministry of Justice Administrator General and KKL-JNF.

Bauman's done a very good deed, and for this, his memory should forever be honored.

Arab students at Jerusalem college vandalized IDF memorial

A memorial wall for murdered soldiers at the Jerusalem college was vandalized by Arabic students:

Arab students at a Jerusalem college vandalized a memorial for fallen IDF soldiers ahead of Israeli Memorial Day, which begins Tuesday night.

Candles lit in memory of fallen IDF soldiers at a memorial corner in David Yellin College of Education in Jerusalem’s Beit Hakerem neighborhood were extinguished by Arab students, who also scrawled ‘Ramadan Kareem’ (Happy Ramadan) over the memorial.

The student union condemned the incident, saying in a statement “The Student Union came up with the idea for a memorial wall with the goal of providing a place to remember those who fell in the various wars, and to allow students to write the names of their loved ones and light candles in their memory.”

“Unfortunately, a person or persons decided to mock the importance of the wall and to deface it in a premeditated fashion. We obviously strongly condemn this act, and the issue has been turned over for serious action to the administration and dean of students.”

It should, most crucially of all, be reported to police. Such vandals cannot be allowed to continue dwelling in the vicinity of memorials.

First ever US delegation attends March of the Living in Poland

For Holocaust Memorial Day, the USA administration's sent its first official delegation to participate:

The first-ever delegation of U.S. ambassadors to the March of the Living, an annual Holocaust commemoration in Poland, received a warm welcome from participants at an opening ceremony Wednesday evening.

The Trump administration sent a sizable delegation, led by U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who was joined by: U.S. Ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher; U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell; U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Callista Gingrich; U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and Lichtenstein Ed McMullen; U.S. Ambassador to Spain Duke Buchan; Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism Elan Carr; and Chairman of the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad Paul Packer.

This is another significant milestone in the Trump administration's achievements. It's another something to congratulate them for.

If Naftali Bennett's career is over, he may deserve it

World Israel News has an analysis of now former Israeli government education minister Bennett's fortunes following the catastrophe of his "New Right" party, which did not make it over the threshold for the Knesset:

Those dreams may have ended with what is turning into his biggest misstep. In December, Mr. Bennett unceremoniously dropped the Jewish Home party, which he led, in order to found the New Right party.

The Jewish Home is still angry, justifiably so as Mr. Bennett left the party in disarray. In a sign bad blood still exists, senior Jewish Home members on election day disseminated video clips of Mr. Bennett four years ago telling voters to choose Jewish Home. Mr. Bennett complained to the Central Elections Committee, which ordered Jewish Home to cease and desist.

The Jewish Home party only survived the elections because it combined with still smaller religious-Zionist parties.

The bigger problem for Mr. Bennett is that he burned bridges with his national religious base, which is likely to view any political comeback by Mr. Bennett with a jaundiced eye after his shattering act of disloyalty.

More to the point, the voting public is furious because Bennett's laughable maneuver cost them thousands of votes at the ballot box:

Mr. Bennett had hoped the soldiers’ vote, which is counted later, would put him over the top. It did not. The New Right came up 1,461 votes short. No party has missed the threshold by such a small number.

The more important number is 138,491 — those who believed in the New Right and saw their votes wasted. They’ll think twice before signing onto any Bennett ticket in the future.

My sister is one of those people who had her vote wasted by a man whom I've come to view as an utter disgrace. To make matters worse, he even - at least initially - resorted to the classically cheap notion of trying to siphon voters from Likud, proving he lacked faith in his ability to convince voters on the left to try him out. After all the hard work Netanyahu did to get Jerusalem and the Golan Heights recognized by the US, and they return the favor by making it sound like he's suddenly going to turn traitor overnight?!? That was degrading. It goes without saying if Bennett hadn't split up, there might've been another seat or two won for the right-wing bloc, and he just had to ruin everything.

And while Ayelet Shaked may not be innocent in all these mistakes either, she did do a positive job as justice minister, and now Bennett cost her a Knesset seat too. She may be able to rejoin the Likud, where she once worked, and even work as a non-parliament minister, but it still doesn't excuse the damage Bennett's wrought. Therefore, I honestly think it best for him to retire, and his grave errors serve an important lesson why you don't just simply divide the right, period, and you also don't act desperate for a neighboring party's votes instead of convincing the other side of the spectrum to try your platform.

Why younger Israelis lean more right-wing

Here's an article explaining why younger generations of Israelis are supporting conservatives more than in countries like the US and/or UK:

According to the 2018 Israeli Democracy Index (an annual study by the Israeli Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan Israeli think tank), approximately 64 percent of Israeli Jews aged 18-34 identify as right wing, compared to 47 percent of those 35 and older. An Israeli Democracy Institute survey conducted just one week before Tuesday’s election likewise found a direct correlation between age and support for Prime Minister Netanyahu: 65 percent of Israeli Jews aged 18-24, and 53 percent of those 25-34, favored Netanyahu winning re-election, while 17 percent and 33 percent, respectively, preferred his more centrist rival, Benny Gantz.

“There are young people who like Netanyahu’s ideology,” Eli Hazan, a Likud campaign spokesman, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “They see the diplomatic achievements of Netanyahu and believe in him. Those are the facts and that’s the reality.”

[...] The trend might have to do with the events that shaped their formative years. An 18-year-old Israeli wasn’t alive during the heyday of the peace process in the 1990s, nor when the Israeli left last won an election, in 1999.

Young Israelis grew up during the second intifada, which saw hundreds of Israelis killed in suicide bombings. The aftermath of the 2005 disengagement from Gaza, which occurred when this group was between 4 to 20 years old, has led many young Jewish Israelis to resent any leader who is willing to cede any more land currently under Israeli control. Since some of this group has served in the army, successive wars in Gaza have only hardened that perception.

“They were born after the Oslo process started, they were exposed to the bloodshed during the second intifada, they are coming right after military service,” Hermann told JTA.

Hazan, the Likud spokesman, said that “people who grew up in the middle of the Al-Aqsa intifada don’t trust the Palestinians, don’t believe in peace. They really want there to be peace, but there is no partner.”

For younger religious Zionist voters in particular, the disengagement, which displaced some 8,000 Jewish settlers, “was considered an absolutely devastating moment that they’ve vowed never to return to,” Dahlia Scheindlin, an Israeli political analyst and a public opinion expert, told JTA.

“The general narrative is, we gave up this land, they sent rockets in return,” Scheindlin said. “The national religious have considered it a national trauma ever since then.”

[...] Right-wing parties have also attracted young voters because they prefer the same platform: social media. Netanyahu, who is famously averse to speaking with the Israeli press, is most comfortable tweeting and posting videos to Facebook. Those happen to also be networks popular with young Israelis.

And there you have it. These are some of the most valid reasons anybody in Israel today prefers the right to the left.

Netanyahu wins his 5th electoral victory

97 percent of votes have been counted so far, and while the Likud and the Blue & White party are tied at 35, the right-wing has a majority, ensuring Benjamin Netanyahu his 5th term as prime minister, and 4th consecutive one since a decade ago:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clinched a clear victory early Wednesday morning in Israel’s general elections.

With some 97 percent of votes in Tuesday’s contest counted, his Likud party was tied with Blue and White, but his right-wing/ultra-Orthodox bloc held a decisive lead and Netanyahu was thus safely en route to forming a majority governing coalition.

With more than four million votes counted as of 9 a.m., Likud had snagged 26.27% of the vote, or 35 seats in the 120-seat legislature — the party’s best result since the 2003 election (when it won 38 seats under Ariel Sharon), and its best under Netanyahu.

Likud’s main rival in the election, the Blue and White party led by Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, won 25.94% of the vote, which would also give it 35 seats, but had insufficient support from other parties to prevent Netanyahu staying in power for what will be a fifth term.

The left-wing is 10 seats behind, and since there's even leftists who don't want to work with the Arabic parties (though they may not be willing to join a coalition regardless), that's one more reason why Gantz won't be able to form a government. Besides, most importantly, he's never served in public office before, and so, he's untested and thus unreliable.

Maybe most interesting about this election is the Labor party's plummeting to a single digit, their lowest number to date:

The historically dominant Labor Party crashed to sixth place with 4.46% (six seats), the party’s worst showing in its 71-year history.

Yep, and a lot of leftists abandoned them for the sake of Gantz's pretentious cobbling together of a political faction with Yair Lapid, himself a crummy politician, who's since suggested he's not really opposed to the Haredi parties, as he too actually hoped to court them.

On the right side of the spectrum, Naftali Bennett's "New Right" failed so far to win any Knesset seats:

In a shock development, the New Right party, led by Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked, appeared to have failed to cross the electoral threshold of 3.25%, garnering just 3.14% of the vote, thought it held out hopes that soldiers’ votes could lift it above the threshold; those final votes should be tallied by early Thursday morning.

I get the feeling he alienated some voters with his dreadful campaigning, and splitting from Union of Right-wing Parties obviously didn't help. He honestly struck me at times as a very fishy character, and so, if his career in politics is over, who knows? He may have asked for it. He may have had good intentions, but he sure didn't know how to convey them well, and his approach may have even alienated some Haredi voters who decided to just vote for the 2 Haredi-led parties as well as Likud, as they'd be the safe choices.

So anyway, this is relieving news, and now, we'll see if Netanyahu keeps his promise of seeing to it Judea/Samaria are given valid status they deserve.

Update: here's a columnist at Israel HaYom summing up that Labor's fiasco is chairman Avi Gabbay's fault.

Election results are hopefully better in some ways, if not all

I'd voted early in the morning, then waited all day long for the results of the Israeli election, realizing it may not turn out well. But now, here come the results as reported on Bloomberg, and while Benny Gantz's party may have more according to these exit pollings, the Likud does seem to have a majority coalition available.

Well I sure hope this is about what's estimated. It doesn't look like Gantz and Yair Lapid will be able to form a coaltion. It most certainly does, however, look like the Labor party did terribly, brought down to a single digit of 8 or 9 seats. Here's more on INN about Channel 13's results:

An exit poll published by Channel 13 News showed the Likud and Blue and White parties tied at 36 seats while the right-wing bloc won 66 seats in total.

According to the poll, the Labor, Shas, Hadash-Ta'al and United Torah Judaism parties would each receive seven Knesset seats, while the United Right, New Right, Kulanu, Meretz, and Yisrael Beiteinu parties would receive four seats each.

The results on the different channels are conflicting, however. But if this is any indication, the results are a relief for the most part.

Update: the Kulanu and Shas parties will give their recommendations to the president that Netanyahu form the next government.