Senior Gantz advisor made obscene social media comments about Trump

Some horrifying data's turned up, showing that Ronen Tzur, a prominent advisor to leftist Benny Gantz who's accompanying him on his trip to the White House, made numerous social media posts against Donald Trump in the past few years:

A senior adviser to Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz, currently accompanying Gantz on a visit to Washington, D.C., to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump, has likened Trump in the past to Nazi leader Adolph Hitler and insinuated that he colluded with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has also suggested that Trump play Russian roulette with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

In August 2017, Tzur tweeted: “Barack Hussain Obama left, Donald Adolf Trump arrived. Dying to see who comes next.”

Similarly, in March 2016, Tzur tweeted: “Donald’s next book: Mein Trump,” playing on the spelling of Trump’s name (in Hebrew, “p” and “f” are represented by the same letter).

In September 2017, during attempted negotiations between Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, Tzur tweeted, “It seems right to me to suggest a compromise between Trump and Kim Jong: Russian roulette with two bullets. What will be will be.” [...]

The Likud Party responded in a statement:

“Political ignorance and irresponsibility on the part of Benny Gantz to bring with him the White House his personal adviser Ronen Tzur, who called the U.S. President ‘Donald Adolph Trump’ and posted a long series of tweets against him on social media. Let’s hope Gantz’s irresponsibility does not hurt Israel’s national interests vis-à-vis the U.S. government.”

Tzur's attempted to do damage control, but it's just so offensive, his efforts to backtrack are for naught. The POTUS would do well to confront both Tzur and Gantz about the noxious statements made by the former when they arrive at the Oval Office. Tzur's proven an utter embarrassment and atrocity, totally bad for Israel.

History of the Bundy affair in Nevada

The Ammo website's got some history of the Cliven Bundy affair that took place in the state of Nevada back in 2014, at the time the leftist Obama administration was around. Worth reading.

CBR sugarcoats the most politically developed member of Batman Inc.

In another of CBR's dreary lists, they bring up a precursor to Geoff Johns' Islamic creation for the Green Lantern books who was introduced by UK writer David Hine a decade ago to serve as a cast member in a Batman spinoff called Batman Incorporated:

One of the most unique and underutilized members of Batman Inc who could use more storylines going forward is Nightrunner. Real name Bilal Asselah, the young boy is a French-Algerian living in Paris when he and his friend are injured when caught in the crossfire between protestors and the police.

After his friend passes away, Bilal becomes the vigilante hero Nightrunner, sworn to uphold Batman’s ideology of defending what’s right no matter a person’s race or religion. A skilled free runner and parkour expert, Nightrunner assisted Batman in taking down a child-slavery ring in Paris, joining Batman Inc in the process.

Wanna bet that slavemongering operation wasn't managed by Muslims? It's shameful CBR's fawning over these politically motivated embarrassments, most of which they all but moved away from in the past few years, but I'm sure they wouldn't have an issue boomeranging on if they think Marvel can get away with it. The way the character's made out to look most righteous despite having a bad religion ascribed to him, "no matter the race/religion" of others, is head-shaking. It's honestly offensive to make a character look almost like a saint based on his ideological/religious background, because all humans, no matter their race/religions, are prone to err and do bad things.

As mentioned, most of this propaganda was eventually abandoned by DC, but has since been replaced in some way or other by more, and come to think of it, if they think they can get away with it, they're sure to bring back any and every bad element they've created since.

Yair Lapid's Knesset faction signed letter accusing Donald Trump of "racism" in 2015

Breitbart reported that 5 years ago, members of Yaid Lapid's Yesh Atid party, now joined with Benny Gantz's party, signed a disgusting letter railing against Trump:

Members of the Knesset for the ruling Likud party’s main challenger, Blue and White, signed a letter in 2015 aimed at pressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel a meeting with then-presidential hopeful Donald Trump.

The letter in question, a copy of which was rehashed on Twitter by Netanyahu’s son, Yair, demanded the Israeli prime minister cancel a December 2015 meeting with Trump over the latter’s “disgraceful racism” with his so-called “Muslim travel ban” campaign promise.

“Trump this week declared that all Muslims must be banned from entering the U.S.,” the letter stated.

“In light of such a shameful, racist declaration, which received harsh condemnation in the U.S. and around the world, it is unthinkable to consider that the meeting go ahead as planned.”

“We call on the prime minister to publicly condemn the statement and cancel the meeting with Trump until there is a retraction,” the letter concluded.

At the time, 37 MKs signed the letter, the majority of whom were in the opposition.

One of the signatories was Israel’s former health minister, Yael German, today a Blue and White MK.

Six Yesh Atid MKs signed the letter against Trump, including Aliza Lavie, Mickey Levy, Yael German, Karin Elharar, Haim Yellin, and Yaacov Peri. Peri stepped down from the Knesset amid allegations of misconduct, Yellin resigned from political life after not making it into the 21st Knesset under his new party Labor, and Lavie also left politics.

Now this is simply disgusting, and notably fails to distinguish between religion and race, all out of desperation to find something to condemn Trump for. If this awful party is ever elected to lead a government, it'll be an embarrassment to have them speaking with Trump, assuming they're even willing to. The Yesh Atid party really is far more of a disgrace than previously thought.

Lara Logan Plans Comeback on Fox News’ Streaming Service

This woman is a beacon of truth and moral clarity, and of course it was too much for the MSM establishment hacks at CBS.

Flashback to 2012, "Lara Logan Speaks Truth to War on Terror."

And today, at LAT, "A combative Lara Logan plans a comeback on Fox News’ streaming service. Can she succeed?":

“Originally we thought Fox Nation would be purely an extension of the opinion brand of Fox News...The vast majority of the material that we’re doing now doesn’t have any political persuasion at all.”https://t.co/MlsQ6vssck

— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) January 6, 2020

NEW YORK  —  Veteran foreign correspondent Lara Logan keeps a video of her Texas Hill Country home on her iPad. It shows the sunlight streaming through large trees on the five-acre property with only the sounds of chirping birds and an occasional truck passing by.

Logan, who risked her life being embedded in war-torn regions, has no desire to leave the bucolic domicile, even as she starts rebuilding her career as the host of a new documentary series — “Lara Logan Has No Agenda” — debuting Monday on the Fox News-operated streaming service Fox Nation.

“I don’t want to leave my children,” Logan, 48, said in a recent interview at a studio at Fox News headquarters in midtown Manhattan. “I don’t want to move to New York or Los Angeles. I live in a small town. I’m very happy there.”

No one would blame the former CBS News star for seeking some serenity after a turbulent decade. In February 2011, she was sexually assaulted on the streets of Cairo’s Tahrir Square while covering the celebration of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation.

Two years later, a serious mistake in a “60 Minutes” report that questioned the Obama administration’s response to the September 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, led to a diminished role for Logan on the venerable newsmagazine program. She took a significant cut in her $2-million-a-year salary, and her contract with CBS was not renewed in September 2018, a stunning downfall for an award-winning journalist and sought-after TV news talent.

But the South Africa native’s combination of grit, charisma and candor has kept her in the spotlight. She resurfaced in February in a 3 ½ hour interview on the podcast of her friend, former Navy SEAL Mike Ritland, in which she described the news media as predominantly left-leaning.

“The media is mostly liberal everywhere, not just the U.S.,” Logan said. “We’ve abandoned our pretense, or at least the effort, to be objective today.”

Right-wing websites and commentators latched onto her remarks, which went viral online. Invitations came from Fox News for her to appear as a guest with its President Trump-supporting prime-time hosts, who nightly accuse mainstream media outlets of liberal bias.

A noodle soup without the soup? A chef doubles down on a sidelined dish.

Her segments were well-received by the Fox News audience, and host Sean Hannity even lobbied his bosses on the air to hire her. Logan’s newest assignment eventually followed.

Logan insists her remarks were not an attempt to position herself a politically partisan pundit for a polarized media age. Her commitment to Fox News is limited to her four-episode series. “I’m not trying to be an opinion person,” she said.

Logan believes viewers who stream her new program will see that it adheres to its “No Agenda” title, despite its association with the conservative-leaning network.

“I can’t control the media landscape,” Logan said. “What I can control is the work that I do. I’m going to do that the same way here the way I did it at ‘60 Minutes.’ To date nobody has tried to make me do anything other than that. Nobody.”

The first episode of “Lara Logan Has No Agenda” looks at immigration enforcement, largely from the perspective of U.S. border agents who work along the Rio Grande. But she also devotes significant time to depicting the dangers that undocumented migrants face, and avoids taking a side in the heated political debate surrounding the issue...

RTWT.

Supreme court appears to be backing away from undermining Netanyahu

It looks like the uproar over Avichai Mandelblit's intention to indict Netanyahu over petty issues has paid off, and he too seems to be backing away so far. The Jerusalem Post reported on what happened at a hearing to discuss the prime minister's eligibility to form a coalition post-election:

A hearing was held before the High Court of Justice on Tuesday morning to discuss a petition asking that the court rule that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, under indictment on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, cannot form the next government. The hearing ended with no immediate decision.

Although the High Court announced that it would decide on the matter at a later point, the overall feel of the justices’ questions to the lawyers was that they would very much prefer to stay out of the issue. [...]

Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit had made it clear before the hearing that he is not interested in personally being the hand that forces Netanyahu out of office.

He has made legal arguments protecting Netanyahu from being forced out on multiple legal grounds of attack, while postponing indefinitely analyzing whether the prime minister can form a new government now that he has been indicted for bribery.

Mandelblit has ruled that the issue can be kicked down the road because it is only theoretical.

Until Netanyahu is actually in a position in which he has the support of 61 MKs – something that may never happen, and in any event is more than three months away given that a third election is imminent – Mandelblit said that there is no reason to rule on it.

It certainly looks so far like they've taken notice of public reaction to what transpired in the past month or so, and realize it would actually harm their own image and help Netanyahu more. This is thankful news. A columnist for the Post said:

Attacks on Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit and the High Court of Justice have worked their magic. We may never know what Mandelblit and the High Court really think about whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is eligible to form the next government, as they probably will never tell us.

Some will be overjoyed by the result. They will say that Mandelblit and the High Court get involved in too many issues beyond their purview and that whoever leads the nation should be left to the will of the voters.

They might be right. Maybe the High Court should not force a prime minister to resign, leaving such issues to the voters, and maybe Netanyahu is innocent of the charges against him.

But what was striking about Tuesday’s hearing before the High Court was that neither the Attorney-General’s Office nor the High Court justices appeared interested in those fateful issues that will shape the nation’s future.

Rather, they were interested in esoteric and formalistic legal arguments about timing, jurisdiction and procedure.

Mandelblit has taken the position that until he must rule on whether Netanyahu is eligible to govern, he would prefer not to. Translation: He is really hoping Netanyahu does not get the support of 61 MKs after March 2 so he never has to give an opinion.

Although the High Court sort of flirted three times over recent weeks, and even Tuesday, with trying to get Mandelblit to reveal his position, they seem to have picked up on his bottom-line message: “Let’s stay out of this” more than anything else.

Based on the startling contempt Mandelblit put on display, and all he did to undermine the government so far, it won't be shocking if it turns out he intends to vote for Benny Gantz's farce of a party to boot. For now, if anything's apparent:

Although it was never 100% clear in the attorney-general’s legal briefs, and it took around 90 minutes of arguments on Tuesday to clarify, the real reason finally became clear as day.

Mandelblit is terrified of the consequences for his office if he intervenes.

A lawyer from his office talked to the High Court on Tuesday about the intensity of public attacks on the High Court over the last week for even daring to hear the issue of Netanyahu’s eligibility. He warned the entire legal establishment could be on the chopping block if there was a wrong move, and they would be accused again of a coup against the executive branch.

This is a radical change from the High Court’s previous readiness to, for good or bad, follow its conscience and address the fateful issues at hand.

It's certainly a positive development, but nevertheless, this should come as a crucial issue in the coming election in March. Mandelblit and those leftists he's serving caused a lot of problems that could've been avoided, and this calls for some serious reforms in the judicial system.

Geula Cohen, RIP

A most admirable woman who'd fought for Israel's independence in the 1940s passed away at age 94:

Former MK and Israel Prize Laureate Geulah Cohen passed away on Wednesday evening at the age of 94.

She will be laid to rest on Thursday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. at the cemetery on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.

Cohen served in the Knesset for nearly 20 years as a member of the Likud and Tehiya parties.

In 1942, she joined the Lehi underground movement. A radio announcer for the group, she was arrested by the British military authorities in 1946 while broadcasting in Tel Aviv. She escaped in May, shortly before her trial, but was recaptured by a group of Arabs.

On June 6, 1946, Cohen was sentenced to seven years in prison after being charged with being in possession of a wireless transmitter, four pistols and revolvers and ammunition. She was imprisoned in Bethlehem, but escaped from jail in 1947 and returned to the underground movement.

She served in the Knesset for almost 19 consecutive years. During her time in the Knesset, she was a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, and her greatest achievement was the enactment of the "Basic Law on Jerusalem", which was enacted in 1980 with a sweeping majority.

The law states that "united Jerusalem is the capital of Israel." Together with Knesset Member Moshe Shamir, Cohen also worked to enact the "Golan Law".

During the days of the fight against the displacement of the residents of the community of Yamit in the Sinai, she moved to Yamit to assist the residents. Along with MK Edna Solodar she founded the Lobby of MKs for Jonathan Pollard in 1987, and both became the first to visit Pollard and his wife in the US prison and brought up in the Knesset in 1990 the demand to grant them Israeli citizenship - a demand that was answered only five years later.

In December 1994, when the murders increased in the Hevron area, she moved to Kiryat Arba to be with the local residents.

A woman with a very impressive record, she should serve as an inspiration for everyone who cares about Israel, independence and freedom.

The forgotten history of the Fast & Furious gun scandal

The Ammo website has some history of the details surrounding the Fast & Furious gun running scandal that may have begun during George W. Bush's term of office and became particularly notorious under the Barack Obama administration. A case that shouldn't be forgotten.

Saudi student in Pensacola murders 3 people at naval base

A Saudi student who may have gotten his entry visa during Obama's administration caused tragedy in Florida:

At least three people were killed and multiple others were injured in a shooting at a naval base in Pensacola, Florida, on Friday morning, the US Navy said.

The shooter at Naval Air Station Pensacola has been confirmed dead, the Escambia County Sheriff's Office and the Navy said.

"Active shooter is deceased. One additional fatality has been confirmed. Unknown number of injured people being transferred to local hospitals," said a Navy tweet.

A spokeswoman with nearby Baptist Health Care said the hospital had received five patients.

A US official said on Friday afternoon that the shooting suspect was an aviation student from Saudi Arabia. Authorities are investigating if the shooting was terrorism-related, according to The Associated Press.

Donald Trump's already condemned the shooter and offered condolences to the victims. This is why entries from a horror zone like Saudi Arabia have to be stopped.

Update: additional reports state that 6 more Saudis were arrested for interrogation following the tragedy.

2 members of Lieberman's party want a right-wing government

Avigdor Lieberman's facing pressures within his own party to cut out undermining the formation of a government:

Lawmakers from the secular rightist Yisrael Beytenu party are pressing party chairman Avidgor Liberman to help Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu form a narrow right-wing government if talks for a unity government fail, Channel 12 reported Tuesday afternoon.

According to the Channel 12 report, senior Yisrael Beytenu members, including MK Oded Forer and MK Hamad Amar, are pressuring party chairman Avidgor Liberman to join a narrow rightist government led by Binyamin Netanyahu, rather than let Israel go to its third general election in a year, if unity talks between the Likud and the Blue and White party fail to achieve a breakthrough.

“The State of Israel cannot bear a third election in one year,” the two MKs are reported as saying to Liberman. “There is a country here to run. Blue and White said that they’d put ‘Israel ahead of everything else’, but they are turning down every offer.”

“The time has come to make them pay a price. Blue and White and Yair Lapid need to know that if they continue to refuse [offers for a unity government], then the alternative will be a narrow right-wing government in order to prevent new elections.”

Well that's pretty amazing somebody's willing to talk the sense that should've been brought up before. I don't think Blue & White even cares if there's to be a 3rd election, and Lieberman probably doesn't either. They're just undermining stability, much like attorney-general Avichai Mendelblit is, and if these members of Lieberman's party really care, they'll break off from what's clearly a party centered around one man only, and join up with the rest of the right instead. This whole charade's gone too far already. It's time for it to stop.

Bennett, as defense minister, approves new Jewish neighborhood in Hebron

This is amazing. In his new role as defense minister, Naftali Bennett's taken a positive step for enabling Jews to live in more of Hebron again:

Defense Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday ordered the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories and the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria to notify the Hevron municipality of the planning a new Jewish neighborhood in the historic Jewish marketplace.

In accordance with the Minister's directive, the Civil Administration will send a letter on the matter to the Hevron municipality.

The decision is expected to end years of legal and political battles over the fate of the marketplace, which has sat abandoned for decades even after Jews began to return to Hevron following the 1967 Six-Day War.

The new neighborhood will create a territorial continuum from the Cave of the Patriarchs to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood and double the number of Jewish residents in the city.

This is certainly a step in the right direction. Ayelet Shaked followed up with this:

New Right chairman MK Ayelet Shaked praised Defense Minister Naftali Bennett's decision on Sunday to approve Jewish construction in Hebron and spoke about efforts to prevent a third election campaign. [...]

Regarding Defense Minister Naftali Bennett's decision to approve Jewish construction in Hebron, Shaked said. "I spent two years of my life as justice minister, together with Liberman as defense minister. We presented a professional legal opinion, the Attorney General approved it and Naftali Bennett made a courageous decision and sent a letter to the Hevron municipality, informing them that the protected housing has expired."

"Attorney General Mandelblit is an expert on international law and this was the joint work of the Defense and Justice Ministries. In light of the strong legal opinions of the Defense and Justice Ministries. I believe the matter will pass in court. We carried out very serious legal work. There is no reason for the Supreme Court to invalidate it. The Supreme Court today is more diverse and conservative and it's indisputable that this is private Jewish land."

Shaked explained that Jewish construction in Hebron's wholesale market complex is the closing of a circle. "The land of those killed during the Hevron massacre in 1929 has been in the hands of the mayor of Hevron, a murderer, until now." [The mayor of Hevron, Tayseer Abu Shneineh, is one of four Palestinian terrorists who was convicted for killing six Jews in a Hevron alley in 1980, including 2 US citizens and one Canadian. He was sentenced to life in prison but released in a subsequent prisoner exchange.]

"Now Bennett took this land from the hands of a terrorist and will establish a Jewish neighborhood there," Shaked concluded.

On this, she's hit some positive stride. This is real justice for Israel.

British prison and legal system released terrorist who went on to murder 2 people at London Bridge

The disastrous justice system in the UK struck again, and allowed an ostensibly convicted terrorist to exit prison, where he soon went and murdered at least two people by the London Bridge:

Details are emerging on London Bridge killer Usman Khan, a convicted terrorist who was freed from prison on an electronic tag and apparently attending a prisoner rehabilitation event when he struck, killing two.

Khan was imprisoned for his part in a plot to bomb the London Stock Exchange and pubs in Stoke, as well as planning to establish a terrorist training camp in Pakistan, in 2012, and originally serving an indeterminate sentence for public protection (IPP) — meaning he could have been kept behind bars as long as the relevant authorities deemed him too dangerous to release.

However, Court of Appeal judges led by Lord Leveson quashed his IPP in 2013 and swapped it for a fixed term of 16 years, with eligibility for release on licence at the halfway point — as is standard in the British criminal justice system.

The culprit was tackled with a narwhal tusk by a nearby chef, but it still doesn't change the fact that more defenseless victims lost their lives, and the UK doesn't look to be changing their ban on firearms for self-defense either. If they don't change the laws soon, chances are they never will.

French prosecution pathetically drops murder charge against Sarah Halimi's murderer

The prosecutor in charge of the Sarah Halimi murder has demonstrated just how bad people like him are for the job:

A French prosecutor has dropped charges against the killer of Jewish kindergarten teacher Sarah Halimi after experts ruled he had suffered a massive psychotic episode by smoking cannabis.

Ms Halimi, who was Orthodox, was killed after Kobili Traoré broke into her council flat in eastern Paris on April 4 2017.

Witnesses said the 65-year-old was beaten and called a “demon” by her attacker, who recited Koranic verses as he threw her off her balcony.

In an appeals court hearing on Wednesday Traoré admitted killing Ms Halimi, saying he was not aware of his actions on the night of the murder and did not recognise when he broke in.

“I felt persecuted. When I saw the Torah and a chandelier in her home I felt oppressed. I saw her face transforming,” he said.

But in a rare turn of events, French prosecutors were divided on how to proceed.

Local prosecutors in Paris initially argued that Kobili Traoré should be put on trial for his actions. But they were opposed by the more senior procureur général, which argued Traoré should be hospitalised.

This is telling something too. Atop that, they even buy into his "defense" at complete face value, and clearly because they planned it.

Francis Szpiner, another Halimi family lawyer, said the case was setting a historic precedent: “You’re saying that people can walk free after carrying out criminal action just because they were allegedly not aware of the effects of drugs or other substances?

“Will this also apply to drunk drivers who kill children on the road?”

The court will rule on December 19 on whether Traoré should face trial.

If they fail even that, they've only perpetuated the French justice system as one of the poorest on earth. They've also let rapists off the hook over these shoddy excuses, and this case too sets a most horrific precedent.

Avichai Mandelblit predeterminedly decides to indict Netanyahu on petty charges. It's Mandelblit who should resign

The undeserved attorney-general in Israel has decided, in what's clearly a case of already making up his mind where he stands, to indict the prime minister over trumped up accusations:

PM Netanyahu will stand trial in three corruption cases, Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit decided on Thursday.

In all three cases in which he is a suspect – Cases 1,000, 2,000, and 4,000 – Netanyahu will be indicted for fraud and breach of trust (under Israeli law fraud and breach of trust is one count).

The Likud already expected this:

MK Miki Zohar (Likud) responded to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit's decision to indict Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday evening.

"The first emotion that comes up for me is great sadness. I'm pained that the prime minister has received such a "wonderful gift" from the state for dedicating the best years of his life for it."

"We knew it all in advance. We knew the Attorney-General wouldn't withstand the pressure exerted on him. We knew that Shai Nitzan fought with all his might to file serious indictments against the prime minister at any price."

"We won't be silent, we won't concede," Zohar concluded.

It's clear the so-called attorney-general is unsuited to the job he's in, and should resign. He's an otherwise dishonest man with no appreciation of any of the positives Netanyahu worked hard to bring about during his career, and therefore, he doesn't deserve the job or the pay coming with it.

It's said Netanyahu can seek immunity in the Knesset, but if there's no majority to work on the concept, it won't be possible. This is hugely regrettable this has to take place at a time when Israel is facing far more serious issues such as Iran's nuclear weapons and the terrorists in Gaza.

Gantz fails to form government, blames parts of his own party for failure

Leftist Benny Gantz failed to form a coalition within the required Knesset deadline, and has given the mandate back to president Reuven Rivlin. But what's really fascinating is that now, he's blaming some notable parts of his own party for the failure, as much as he is prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Gantz was even willing to form a minority government propped up by the Islamic party:

Blue and White leader Benny Gantz has reportedly accused the right-wing flank of his party of thwarting a bid to form a minority government bolstered by the predominantly Arab Joint List, and said his partnership with Yair Lapid reduced the chances of a unity government with Likud.

“Because of Yoaz [Hendel] and Tzvika [Hauser], I am not prime minister, and because of Lapid, the chances of unity dropped,” Gantz was quoted by Channel 12 as telling associates on Wednesday on two occasions.

Gantz on Wednesday night informed President Reuven Rivlin he had failed to form a governing coalition, paving the way to a likely third round of elections in under a year. The centrist leader conceded defeat in a phone call with the president after unity talks with Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu broke down.

Liberman hasn't proven any better so far, and if anybody's still willing to vote for him after all the trouble he's caused, they'll be perpetuating a bad situation at a time when the Hamas and Islamic Jihad are proving a local threat.

The Blue and White leader had openly sought a unity government with Likud. Reports indicated Gantz’s party had also explored the possibility of a minority government propped up by outside support from the Joint List of Arab-led parties.

But according to Channel 12, Blue and White MKs Hendel, a former Netanyahu aide, and Hauser, a former cabinet secretary who also served under the Likud leader, reportedly warned they would oppose such an arrangement.

The report also said the hawkish Liberman was not willing to join such a coalition due to his acrimony toward the Arab lawmakers, but would have abstained in no-confidence votes, effectively keeping it afloat. But Hauser and Hendel’s votes were needed to have an edge over Netanyahu’s 55-MK bloc of right-wing and religious political allies.

Gantz was also quoted as attributing the failure to his collaboration with Lapid, without elaborating.

Basically, an impossible alliance. It'll remain to be seen if and how much longer they continue together, because they don't work well together at all, and nobody should delude themselves into thinking this is a great party formation. Why, who knows if Gantz even wanted to form a government for real?

With Gantz’s declaration of failure, the country’s year-long spiraling political chaos entered uncharted territory, formally laid out in law but never before exercised: Israeli lawmakers now have 21 days during which any 61 Knesset members can back any MK as prime minister, including Netanyahu or Gantz. If that doesn’t occur, Israel will go to unprecedented third elections in under a year, likely in mid-March.

I do hope it doesn't have to happen. But if it does, it's also because of all the infighting on the right, which Naftali Bennett for one, led to. Now that they may have joined up with the Likud, it's to be hoped he's repenting and neither he nor Ayelet Shaked will ever try those offensive tricks of theirs ever again. We'll see how things turn out in the next month.

Historic declaration by Trump administration: Israeli villages in Judea/Samaria are not illegal

Secretary of state Mike Pompeo made a very significant announcement in Israel's favor:

In a historic reversal of US policy, the Trump administration announced on Monday that it does not view Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal. The policy change was announced by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington.

“After carefully studying all sides of the legal debate, this administration agrees with president Reagan,” Pompeo said in reference to Ronald Reagan’s position that settlements were not inherently illegal. “The establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not per se inconsistent with international law.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Pompeo, saying “the United States adopted an important policy that rights a historical wrong when the Trump administration clearly rejected the false claim that Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria are inherently illegal under international law.

“This policy reflects an historical truth – that the Jewish people are not foreign colonialists in Judea and Samaria. In fact, we are called Jews because we are the people of Judea.”

One of things that makes this important is that it helps deal a rebuttal to the European Union court that recently declared that all Israeli products from Judea/Samaria must be labeled as such, which only served the purpose of the BDS movement. This US declaration, however, handily deals a blow to that offensive position in Europe, along with the BDS movement itself. Why, it even leaves Benny Gantz with far less of a platform, if he believes in negatives for Israel.

Mike Evans wrote about this historic moment:

Why is this a big deal? This is a major blow to the BDS movement, which calls to “boycott, divest and sanction” the State of Israel, in addition to being a snub to the recent call by the European Court of Justice to label products from Jewish businesses in Judea and Samaria. The court ruled that: “Foodstuffs originating in the territories occupied by the State of Israel must bear the indication of their territory of origin.”

Well now it won't be so easy, and the US did state they were deeply concerned about a week ago. Following this news, Netanyahu approved a bill for annexing the Jordan valley today:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave his approval on Tuesday to advance a bill that would have Israel apply sovereignty to the Jordan Valley after the US State Department reversed its stance of viewing Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal. [...]

Likud MK Sharren Haskel proposed the annexation bill weeks ago, but decided to fast-track it in light of the change in US policy.

“The bill has the prime minister’s full backing,” Haskel said. [...]

Haskel submitted a request to exempt her bill to annex the Jordan Valley from the mandatory six-week waiting period for any new legislation so that it can go to a vote in the plenum next week. The request will be subject to a vote in the Knesset Arrangements Committee, led by Blue and White MK Avi Nissenkorn while his party’s leader Benny Gantz has the mandate to build a government.

Haskel called on Blue and White, Yisrael Beytenu and Labor-Gesher to join the Likud’s efforts to annex the Jordan Valley, “in light of the one-time-only chance that we have before us” with US President Donald Trump’s administration.

“I call on them to stand behind their promises and words, and vote together with the Likud on applying sovereignty,” Haskel said. “There is no reason that this important bill won’t pass in the plenum with an 80-MK majority.”

It'll certainly be interesting to see if Benny Gantz's party is willing to support this, along with Liberman's party, and Labor. They'd do well to support the bill, if they really want to prove they respect history and safety for Israel.

Update: Caroline Glick also praised the announcement.

UK Labour member resigns over Israel-bashing writing

A member of the UK Labour party quit after it was revealed she'd compared Israel to child abusers:

A member of Britain’s Labour party resigned on Wednesday after it emerged that she had equated the actions of Israel to those of a child abuser, reports the Jewish Chronicle.

According to the report, Labour leaders called Kate Ramsden for an inquiry, after the party found a post on her blog written in 2014 that seemed to compare the brutality against the Jews during the Holocaust to the way that Israel treats the Palestinians. [...]

Despite the blatant anti-Semitic post, leaders of Labour agreed to keep Ramsden on the ticket as long as she deleted the post. However, after the post became public knowledge she was forced to resign, the report discovered.

I'm sure they'd still rather keep her around, despite how vile her comments were. And no doubt, there's more reprehensible people in the party who'll remain, so long as they refrain from writing the kind of slop she did. Exactly why the Labour party is such a bad omen.

Careful attention still needs to be given to how Gantz and Yisrael Beiteinu conduct affairs with Joint Arab List

In the first of two concerning articles, it's reported that Benny Gantz's Blue & White party may invite the Arab parties for discussions, now that Benjamin Netanyahu's had to hand back the mandate on forming a government to the president, and it now passes over to Gantz:

Blue and White intends to invite representatives of the Joint Arab List to the coalition negotiations as well, according to Kan Reshet Bet, citing officials close to Blue and White leader MK Benny Gantz.

It should be noted that Blue and White emphasizes that members of the party's coalition negotiations team intend to first invite members of the Likud negotiating team for talks, but that afterward, members of all parties will be invited. It is estimated that Gantz will not settle for this invitation, but will try to hold a one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu to examine the possibility of joining a unity government.

This will be the first time in some 20 years that members of the Joint List are invited to the coalition talks. However, Kan Reshet Bet noted, MK Gantz does not explicitly guarantee that members of the Joint List will be part of a government headed by him, should one be established.

Doesn't matter. They'll still prove extremely dangerous, and are. It's just like such awful people to be willing to do whatever's possible to form a government solely for the sake of ousting Netanyahu, and implementing potentially damaging policies.

In the second, a member of Avigdor Lieberman's party isn't ruling out cooperating with the Joint Arab List:

MK Oded Forer of Yisrael Beytenu does not rule out his party's cooperation with the Joint Arab List in establishing the next government.

In an interview with Kalman-Lieberman on Reshet Bet, Forer said that "The question we will be asking, and will not stop asking, is what the basic principles of the government are."

A better question is, what are this party's own principles? They sure don't seem like much of anything, that's for sure, and as a result, they can't be trusted either.

If Mendelblit chooses to indict Netanyahu over petty issues, he'll be destroying democracy

Caroline Glick spoke of how the leftist-run prosecution in Israel is utterly obsessed with getting rid of Netanyahu at the expense of democracy:

The ongoing criminal probes against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are reaching their climax. After conducting a marathon four-day pre-indictment hearing for Netanyahu earlier this month, Israel’s Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit reportedly intends to complete his review of the state prosecution’s cases and decide whether to indict Israel’s longest-serving prime minister by the end of next month. The main charges against Netanyahu relate to his associations with media owners.

For three years, illegal leaks from the investigations have dominated the news. The key question – indeed, just about the only question – that has been endlessly discussed is whether or not Mendelblit will end Netanyahu’s political career by indicting him on corruption charges.

The importance of this question is self-evident. On the one hand, we have a democratically elected leader. On the other hand, we have unelected state prosecutors who wish to oust him from power by indicting him.

For nearly a year, Israeli politics have been in a state of chaos because of the criminal probes. The probes played a central role in the April Knesset elections and arguably were the primary reason that Netanyahu failed to form a coalition despite his electoral victory. Today the probes and Mendelblit’s deliberations are the primary reason that no one can form a government in the wake of last month’s repeat elections. If Israel holds a third election in the coming months, the probes will again be the central issue determining both the result and the ability of whoever wins to form a government. The center-left Blue and White party is using the probes as an excuse to refuse to join a coalition government with Netanyahu.

While the probes’ impact on Netanyahu’s political future is a key question, and on the composition of the next government is certainly a big deal, neither of these issues is the central matter than hangs in the balance as Mendelblit holds his deliberations.

If Israel’s attorney general relies on these probes as a means to end Netanyahu’s career, he will do far more than overthrow a political leader. He will embrace a legal doctrine that rejects the very essence of democracy.

Read the entire item.

Ambassador Friedman says uprooting is inhumane

USA ambassador David Friedman's made an important statement in an interview with Israel National News that Benny Gantz and even the Meretz party would do well to ponder, as it happens to be in the favor of everyone who believes in Israel's safety and not in segregation:

What can you tell us about the future of the settlements in Judea and Samaria under the plan?

“That is a very important part of the plan. I don’t want to get too into it, but I’ll tell you something which I’ve said on numerous occasions: Having seen the experience of the evacuation of Gaza, I don’t believe that there is a realistic plan that can be implemented that will require anyone, Jew or Arab, to be forced to leave their home. That would be recipe for disaster It almost caused a civil war on much, much less aggressive circumstances in Gaza, compared to Judea and Samaria. So we are not of the view that any forced evacuations are achievable. And I say that for both Jewish and Arab perspectives."

And how about construction? Is there still discussion and coordination over the years or are we only waiting for this deal?

We have discussion and coordination, but the facts speak for themselves. We have not been critical of settlements in any absolute sense. We've expressed our views in the past and have been consistent in those views. But the surest way to resolve all these issues is to come up with a structure that the state of Israel can agree to, where everybody knows, and we don't have these quarterly or monthly issues about settlements.

No uprooting?

No. It's frankly an inhumane process - speaking about Jews or Arabs. It failed in 2006, produced an extreme adverse reaction among Israelis. I think it's a failed policy, and not something that we would advance.

And if Gantz and other leftists like him are smart, they won't do it either if they're chosen to form a government, mainly because they will not have the support of the USA for any such vile steps, and unlike times past, this time can lead to trouble for them. It's also vital to note that the State Department recently dropped "palestinian territories" from its website listings, and for good reason. There's no need to keep perpetuating lies that have practically come at the USA's expense as much as Israel's and many other countries around the globe.

Friedman's willingness to speak up on a crucial subject like this is commendable, and very helpful to all in Israel who support historical birthright and unity.

Media profiteers sensationalize mass shootings

Here's an eyebrow raising article on Ammo's website about how the mainstream media's been profiteering from mass shootings, which it portrays in an otherwise sensationalized way, and it goes without saying that's extremely offensive, and does a terrible disfavor to victims of violent crimes.

A jihadist in Berlin was released from custody after threatening a synagogue with a knife

In contrast to the case of a German gunman who tried to attack a synagogue in Halle, a Syrian immigrant who yelled phrases typical of jihadists was released in Berlin after posting a threat at a local synagogue:

Berliners have expressed disbelief after a Syrian migrant who stormed a synagogue with a knife yelling “Allah hu Akbar!” was freed from jail only a day later.

The incident occurred at a synagogue in the middle of Berlin on a Friday. Syrian migrant Mohammed M., 23, climbed over a security fence armed with an eight-inch-long knife and stormed the building while yelling “Fuck Israel!” and “Allah hu Akbar!” before security guards pepper-sprayed him, Bild reports.

Police subsequently arrested the 23-year-old, but he was released the next day. According to a police spokesman, the local prosecutor did not consider the man was sincerely trying to hurt anyone, just trying to threaten them.

It's really no shock that a government and authorities who consider "right-wingers" more of a threat than Islamofascists would do such a thing. There's really no point in expressing disbelief. Nor is it shocking they would think that somebody carrying a sharp weapon doesn't pose any kind of felony violation. That's just why Europe is so overrun now with jihadism and antisemitism.