Why did the FBI prevent visual coverage of the Bill Clinton - Janet Lynch meeting? - Clarice Feldman

by Clarice Feldman

Original Title: Maybe It's Time to Stop 'Thinking about Tomorrow'

As far back as January, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey said the evidence already on the public record made clear an indictment was warranted

With the investigation into his wife’s wrongdoings while Secretary of State drawing to a close (she was questioned yesterday for 3½ hours by the FBI, which usually is done at the end of an investigation) Bill Clinton hopped aboard a government plane on the tarmac in Phoenix. Aboard that plane was Attorney General Loretta Lynch, tasked to decide on whether to indict Hillary. The meeting stirred up a raft of speculation about the odorous half-hour discussion they held in private and her continuing role in the matter.

For example: How is it that Lynch and Bill Clinton were both in Phoenix on the tarmac at the same time? The most credible accounts I can find indicate they both flew there separately. She was in Phoenix to give a speech on the administration’s (unprecedented) intrusion into local police operations aka “community policing”. His presence there was never credibly explained. Yes, there were reports he was there to play golf but it was over 100 degrees and he is in poor health so that seems unlikely.

How did he know she was there? Again there’s been much speculation and various notions advanced, but I think the most likely account indicates they were about to depart in separate planes when his Secret Service detail learned from her FBI security team that she was on the tarmac waiting clearance to take off.

Why was there so little coverage of this? ABC’s Christopher Sign, who broke the story, was there as part of an assignment to cover luminaries coming to Phoenix and he learned of their presence, but the FBI forbade him from filming or photographing Bill Clinton’s entry into Loretta’s plane and his later departure from it or even using his cell phone. He alone broke the story and there was no visual to accompany it or other reporters at the scene.
As Daniel Greenfield notes:

When you have the FBI running around warning, no photos and no cell phones, those are specific instructions. 
That means that they had orders to prevent any evidence of the chat from coming forward and those orders would have come from Lynch or one of her aides as Bill Clinton and his people have no authority to order the FBI to do anything. Which means that Lynch knew the meeting was wrong and tried to prevent it from coming to light. And you don't do that for a chat about the grandkids.
Which means that Lynch is also lying. 

Why did the FBI agents on the tarmac ban recording the meeting and under what authority? I cannot think of an answer to this. Someone ought to ask their boss, James Comey, who is heading up the investigation into Hillary Clinton. When the FBI can ban newsmen from documenting what occurs in public and using cell phones to report the meeting we are in a strange new place. And when they are covering up for a universally condemned conflict of interest, it seems worse.

We are told that FBI agents are “livid’ about the meeting, which to our eyes signals corruption of the investigative process. 

Herridge said that, according to a well-placed FBI source, the agents are not just upset about the poor optics of the meeting.
She explained that Bill Clinton is a potential witness because the FBI is separately investigating corruption allegations against the Clinton Foundation. 

So why and on whose authority did they contrive to keep it secret? My guess is that Lynch ordered that.

What was this secret half-hour chat about? Lynch said it was “primarily” about their grandchildren and golf. If you believe this, you are one of the few who do. (By the way, Lynch has no grandchildren and she doesn't seem to be a golfer.)

What are the consequences of this? Caught out and her explanation largely discounted, Lynch first said she would “likely” accept whatever recommendation career prosecutors and the F.B.I. director make about whether to bring charges related to Hillary Clinton’s personal email server, a Justice Department official said.

But this was quickly walked back:

Attorney General Lynch reserves the right to overrule the recommendation of career prosecutors and the FBI in the Hillary Clinton email probe. This official says the probability she would overrule is “very, very low,” but it is not zero. In other words, Lynch is not “recusing herself,” as has been rumored, and she is not committing herself to the FBI’s recommendation. Despite the “furor,” nothing has changed. And, for the record, you can be sure that “very, very low” will be just high enough when the time comes. 

Is this straddle in accord with her responsibilities as attorney general? I have to agree with the Wall Street Journal that it is not. 

Yet her Clintonian answers show as much bad judgment as the original meeting. She is now passing the buck to career officials while still retaining the ability to overrule them. This is trying to have it both ways. She knows there will be a political price to pay no matter what the decision. Her ethical straddle allows her to say she had nothing to do with a decision not to indict while retaining the authority to overrule an FBI recommendation to indict.
Whether to indict a presumptive presidential nominee is a momentous decision that deserves to be made by officials who are accountable to the voters. Such decisions are the reason we have an Attorney General appointed by an elected President.
Ms. Lynch has only two honest choices: Do the job she was appointed to and make the decision -- or formally recuse herself from the case and delegate the decision to the next highest ranking official at Justice. 

The “job she was appointed to do” doesn’t seem a hard one legally -- only politically. As far back as January, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey said the evidence already on the public record made clear an indictment was warranted:

The FBI’s criminal investigation of messages on the server initially related solely to Mrs. Clinton’s possibly unlawful mishandling of classified information. The investigation has now metastasized to include “the possible intersection of Clinton Foundation donations, the dispensation of State Department contracts and whether regular processes were followed” as Fox News’s Catherine Herridge reported Jan. 19, quoting an intelligence source.
Which is to say, the FBI wants to know whether those messages, combined with other evidence, show that donors to the Clinton Foundation received special consideration in their dealings with the agency Mrs. Clinton headed.
Whatever the findings from that part of the probe, intelligence-community investigators believe it is nearly certain that Mrs. Clinton’s server was hacked, possibly by the Chinese or the Russians. This raises the distinct possibility that she would be subject to blackmail in connection with those transactions and whatever else was on that server by people with hostile intent against this country.
No criminality can be charged against Mrs. Clinton in connection with any of this absent proof that she had what the law regards as a guilty state of mind -- a standard that may differ from one statute to another, depending on what criminal act is charged.
Yet -- from her direction that classification rules be disregarded, to the presence on her personal email server of information at the highest level of classification, to her repeated falsehoods of a sort that juries are told every day may be treated as evidence of guilty knowledge -- it is nearly impossible to draw any conclusion other than that she knew enough to support a conviction at the least for mishandling classified information. 

How far reaching is the FBI investigation? As Mukasey notes, it has gone beyond the email controversy according to some accounts and into the corruption of the Clinton Foundation. Among other things, it concerns the charges that she and her husband bestowed favors on big donors -- including foreigners and foreign governments into the Clinton Foundation, a foundation Charles Ortel has demonstrated is a major “charity" fraud -- and then she tried to hide email evidence of this wrongdoing.  

Indeed, the entire Clinton family participated in this fraud. Chelsea Clinton, who famously said she never cares about money, is its vice chair. And this week we learned that her husband, father of Clinton’s grandchildren, might be linked not only indirectly to the foundation’s graft, but as well a recipient of confidential information about Greece’s financial situation which Hillary received as secretary of state and conveyed to him (for his hedge fund’s use) utilizing Bill as the conduit.

In 2012, Mezvinski, the husband of Chelsea Clinton, created a $325 million basket of offshore funds under the Eaglevale Partners banner through a special arrangement with investment bank Goldman Sachs. The funds have lost tens of millions of dollars predicting that bailouts of the Greek banking system would pump up the value of the country’s distressed bonds. One fund, exclusively dedicated to Greek debt, suffered near-total losses.
Clinton stepped down as secretary of state in 2013 to run for president. But newly released emails from 2012 show that she and Clinton Foundation consultant, Sidney Blumenthal, shared classified information about how German leadership viewed the prospects for a Greek bailout. Clinton also shared “protected” State Department information about Greek bonds with her husband at the same time that her son-in-law aimed his hedge fund at Greece.
That America’s top diplomat kept a sharp eye on intelligence assessing the chances of a bailout of the Greek central bank is not a problem. However, sharing such sensitive information with friends and family would have been highly improper. Federal regulations prohibit the use of nonpublic information to further private interests or the interests of others. The mere perception of a conflict of interest is unacceptable.
Through its press representative, Eaglevale declined to comment for this story. Clinton’s campaign press office did not respond to a request for comment.
A former Goldman Sachs broker himself, Mezvinsky formed Eaglevale Management with two ex-Goldman Sachs partners in October 2011. As a “global macro” firm, Eaglevale’s strategy is to seek profit opportunities in politically volatile situations. Mezvinsky set up several funds in the Cayman Islands, a secretive tax haven, with Goldman Sachs serving as Eaglevale’s prime broker and banker. The giant brokerage firm has a checkered history of manipulating the value of Greek debt to the detriment of Greece.

And it wasn’t the only known instance of Clinton using her government position to further her son-in-law’s business. 

The emails show that Clinton did at least one official favor for her son-in-law. In August 2012, she forwarded Deputy Secretary Thomas Nides an email from Mezvinsky lobbying on behalf of his former Goldman Sachs colleague, Harry Siklas.
Siklas and Goldman Sachs were invested in a deep sea mining venture called Neptune Minerals. Siklas asked Mezvinsky to broker a talk with Clinton about “current legal issues and regulations” on deep sea mining. Clinton ordered Nides to “follow up on this request.”
Nides replied, “I’ll get on it.”

Theodore Dalrymple, the penname of a British psychiatrist, explained how communist societies work and it fits the Clinton tactics of blatantly lying about their conduct and enmeshing others to become complicit in their evil.

"In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil, and in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. 

Looks like Loretta Lynch, about whom to date there was no hint of scandal, has now allowed Bill Clinton to force her to “assent to obvious lies" and become just another of the Clinton’s “emasculated liars”. Will the FBI and career attorneys at the Department of Justice also join this society, or do the right thing and recommend Hillary’s indictment?

Clarice Feldman

Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/07/maybe_its_time_to_stop_thinking_about_tomorrow.html

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Hamas On Campus - David Horowitz

by David Horowitz

Where is the concern about American college campus groups that support terrorists?

 
From Huffington Post

With ISIS and other Islamic terror groups blowing up innocents in cities all over the world, one would think there would be more concern about groups that support terrorists and are active on American college campuses. One of the principal culprits, Students for Justice in Palestine, a supporter of the terrorist army Hamas, is a presence on approximately 200 college campuses. SJP was founded by UC Berkeley lecturer Hatem Bazian in 2001, during the notorious Second Intifada, infamous because it introduced suicide bombings as a terrorist weapon of choice. At the time, Hatem Bazian achieved his own notoriety when he called for an Intifada in the United States.

Despite its name, Students for Justice in Palestine is not concerned with justice for the million Palestinians who suffer under the Hamas terror regime, or with the Hamas theft of hundreds of millions of humanitarian aid dollars diverted to the construction of terrorist tunnels into Israel. Its sole concern is to spread Hamas propaganda to delegitimize the Jewish state and call for its destruction.  Among its other activities, SJP is the chief campus sponsor of resolutions to boycott Israel as part of the so-called BDS campaign, which is also funded and orchestrated by Hamas. Among its slanders is SJP’s claim that Israel “brutally slaughtered over 2,500 Palestinian civilians” in the Gaza war, ignoring the fact that Hamas started the war with 4,000 unanswered rocket attacks into Israeli cities or that Israel’s military policies are the most protective of civilians in the world. SJP’s unvarying theme is that Israel’s Jews are land-stealers, baby killers and racists – libels that have led to an epidemic of hostile attacks on Jewish students on American campuses.

Because I have conducted a poster campaign to expose these outrages and confront the perpetrators, I have been attacked by a Huffington Post blogger under the tongue-in-cheek title, “A Special Thanks to David Horowitz From A Student for Justice in Palestine” (7/1/16). The writer, Gabby Aossey, a senior at UC San Diego, describes me as “a self-proclaimed racist and bigot.” Who exactly proclaims themselves racists and bigots? As evidence of this preposterous assertion, Aossey, offers my opposition to the Islamic terrorist network.  This is the standard trope of Hamas supporters who cynically confuse the opposition to Islamic terrorism with anti-Muslim bigotry. I have written millions of published words, yet neither Aossey nor other apologists for Islamic terror have been able to cite a single sentence of mine that can be construed as anti-Muslim.

Not even the premise of Aossey’s blog can withstand scrutiny. She claims that my anti-Hamas/anti-SJP posters on her campus created sympathy for her cause. ‘The support for SJP, and the named students of San Diego State University (like UCSD one of my target schools), was boosted by the community inside and outside of the college atmosphere; Jewish Voice for Peace and local San Diegan ministers denounced the pro-Zionism and pro-Israel organizations that take part in childish finger-pointing.” Aossey doesn’t specify which ministers, but Jewish Voice for Peace – a well-known organization of Jewish Israel-haters – is perhaps the oldest and most visible ally of SJP on campuses across the country. I had nothing to do with their support for SJP’s anti-Israel agendas.

My goal in putting up posters targeting SJP on campuses like UC San Diego and San Diego State has three goals: First, to counter the mis-education of students like Gabby Aossey who falsely claims that Israel is a majority Muslim state and illegally occupies Arab land; second, to counter the Jew-hatred that these libels inspire; and third, to question why university funds are being used to support hate groups against Jews. The reaction of members of these Hamas-support organizations has been to accuse me and other critics of being racists and “Islamophobes.”

Coincidentally, Hamas-supporter and SJP founder, Hatem Bazian, is the head of the “Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project” – an official program of UC Berkeley, which recently issued a “report” identifying me as part of the “inner core of an “Islamphobia network” that includes Fox News as part of the “outer core.” Evidently any fear of terrorist armies, like Hamas, and their support groups like SJP, is phobic and has no basis in fact. Tell that to the parents of 13-year old Hallel Ariel, an American Jew living in Israel, who was murdered in her bed by a Palestinian terrorist last week.

David Horowitz

Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/263381/hamas-campus-david-horowitz

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Israeli sovereignty for Ma'ale Adumim - Uzi Baruch

by Uzi Baruch

Ministers and MKs pledge to support bill extending full Israeli sovereignty over Maale Adumim.

Time for sovereignty

Yoni Zilberman

 

In the background of a wave of terrorist attacks, Ministers, municipal leaders and members of the Knesset Lobby for the Land of Israel met tonight (Sunday) to begin a campaign to extend full Israeli sovereignty over Ma'aleh Adumim.

Among the participants was Ma'aleh Adumim Mayor Benny Kashriel, heads of the Knesset Land of Israel Lobby, MKs Yoav Kish (Likud) and Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home), Ministers Ze'ev Elkin (Likud), Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) and Haim Katz (Likud), and MKs Robert Ilatov (Yisrael Beytenu), Mickey Levy (Yesh Atid), Elazar Stern (Yesh Atid), Shuli Mualem-Refaeli (Jewish Home) and Eli Cohen (Kulanu).

The attendees signed a 'Declaration of Sovereignty of Ma'ale Adumim,' in which they undertake to act through any and all democratic means to pass legislation that will apply full Israeli sovereignty over Maale Adumim, even in the face of international opposition.

The declaration states, in part: "We the undersigned view Israeli sovereignty over Ma'ale Adumim as part of an Independent Israel, regardless of any political agreements, as a correct step, which is Zionist, necessary and responsible. The nations of the world should accept [this decision] with understanding. But even if it provokes international opposition, the State of Israel should do so because it is her right and her duty.

We hereby declare our support for the plan, Israeli [sovereignty for] Ma'ale Adumim, and show our solidarity with the call, that 'It's time for sovereignty' and [to express] our commitment to achieving the plan to apply Israeli sovereignty over Ma'ale Adumim. This is the correct and necessary move."

Mayor Benny Kashriel said, "Ma'ale Adumim is an integral part of the State of Israel as Rabin stated in 1974, as well as the Prime Ministers who followed him. Ma'ale Adumim will be the first step in applying the law [of the State of Israel] to the rest of Judea and Samaria. We are on a campaign which is not easy, but a large majority of people are ready to struggle for [applying Israeli] sovereignty so that Ma'ale Adumim will be an integral part of Israel."

Chairman of the Israel Lobby, MK Yoav Kish said, 'We are applying appropriate and necessary pressure so that [Prime Minister] Netanyahu will take this step. It is clear to everyone that Netanyahu is under pressure but it's time to put everything aside and to say in a clear, sharp voice that Ma'ale Adumim is an Israeli city in every respect.

The message is obvious, the Land of Israel belongs to us, and today we are applying that sovereignty to Maale Adumim. This is the first step and I am proud to be at the forefront of the struggle. In two weeks time the bill will be presented and we intend to submit the proposal already in the present session of the Knesset."

MK Bezalel Smotrich, the head of the Israel Lobby clarified, "We are now marking the goal with the understanding that policy debate does not bring us anywhere. We have to bring the debate to a resolution and the starting point is to apply sovereignty over Ma'ale Adumim.

''The sky will not fall, just as the sky did not fall when we extended [Israeli] sovereignty over Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. This step is correct in terms of nationalism and Zionism but is also correct in terms of security" said Smotrich.

Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze'ev Elkin stressed that "especially at this time, when a young girl was murdered in her sleep simply because she was Jewish, the only answer to terrorism is [continued] construction and applying [Israeli] sovereignty.

"They don't want us here? Not only are we staying, but we will also build and also extend sovereignty to here in Maale Adumim. Today I signed the declaration of Land of Israel Lobby to apply sovereignty over Ma'ale Adumim and I pledge to continue to work so that it is carried out," added Elkin.

Welfare Minister Haim Katz said, "It is about time, after 40 years, to come and declare that Ma'ale Adumim is an integral part of Israel. I pledge and  guarantee my support to extend sovereignty to Ma'ale Adumim. This is the correct and necessary Israeli move. I will be a partner, an activist and messenger until we achieve the desired result."

Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel gave a message to members of the Security Cabinet. "I call on the cabinet ministers to make serious decisions as the cabinet should. They must make the decision to have sovereignty over Ma'ale Adumim as [the verse] states, 'We should go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it' (Bamidbar 13:30).


Uzi Baruch

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/214435#.V3l0WqKzdds

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Israeli Settlements: A Policy Worth Pursuing - Jacob Bernstein

by Jacob Bernstein

The Palestinians have been offered their own state at least three times, in 2000, 2001, and 2008, and each time it was the Palestinians who refused to take the offer of most of the land they claimed they wanted, and live in peace with Israel.

Israel has recently decided to allocate millions of dollars to the construction of settlements in Judea and Samaria. Of course, this has produced anger among those who believe in the “two-state fantasy” of an Arab state and a Jewish state peacefully and cooperatively living side by side. As the fantasists see it, those darned Israelis are always such a nuisance -- building homes in their ancestral land, shattering the dreams of a people who are not a people, and throwing the Middle East into chaos once again. If the Israeli right wing that governs the country was not so closeminded and would just give peace a chance and the Jews and the Palestinians could be the best of friends.

However, in the real world, people know, or should know, that none of these things are true.  The Palestinians have been offered their own state at least three times, in 2000, 2001, and 2008, and each time it was the Palestinians who refused to take the offer of most of the land they claimed they wanted, and live in peace with Israel. Further, it is not Israel that has thrown the Middle East into chaos, but Islamist extremism in the region, especially from the Shia Islamists in Iran. Also, the much-vilified Israeli settlements are not an impediment to peace in the region, but are a necessity for Israel to provide security and protect its Jewish heritage and identity.

The idea that building homes is the cause of this conflict is ridiculous, because there was conflict even before there was any Israeli construction in Judea and Samaria. When the Arabs refer to “occupation,” most often they mean Jewish “occupation” of the entire land of Israel. The evidence lies in not just their words and chants of “from the river to the sea,” but also in their actions, especially pre-1967, before Israel took Judea and Samaria from the invading Jordanians. History has demonstrated that the Palestinian Arab population has never been willing to agree to peace as long as there would be a Jewish state next to the Arab state. When Israel was first created and allotted a sliver of land, it was attacked by five Arab armies vowing to drive its residents into the Mediterranean. And since then, whenever Israel offered generous peace proposals, meeting almost all of the Palestinian Arab demands, the offers were still rejected because they required recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.

Settlements in Judea and Samaria actually are vital to Israeli national security. If “Palestine” were created in Judea and Samaria, it would likely become another hotbed for terrorists, like in Gaza. This is incredibly dangerous, as there would be parts of Israel only nine miles wide but still containing the vast majority of the Israeli population which would be trapped between Arab terrorists and the sea. The settlements in Judea and Samaria were established to widen Israel’s narrowest width, which ensures Israel will have a route to the Jordan Valley if Israel is forced to fight a war to the east. Further, Judea and Samaria are positioned on a formidable mountain range, towering over central Israel. Without Israeli control or presence there the IDF would not be able to prevent Arab Katyusha rocket fire that has in range over 70% of Israel’s population and 80% of her industrial base.

Advocates of Israeli withdrawal argue that Israel cannot control entire swaths of land with such a large number of Arabs because if Israel were to annex Judea and Samaria and grant citizenship to the Arab residents, the Jewish character of the State would be destroyed. However, this is not true. There will still be far more Jews in Israel than Arabs, despite overcounting of the Arab population, if the Arabs remain in Judea and Samaria after an Israeli annexation. In fact, contrary to conventional wisdom, the birth rate among Jews is growing and close to surpassing that of the Arabs, so as time goes on, the numbers will continue to favor the Jewish majority.

The other benefit of increased settlement activity in Judea and Samaria is that it reconnects the Jews to more of their homeland. Many of the ancient holy cities and sites in the heart of the Israelite kingdoms are located in Judea and Samaria. Tel Aviv just does not bear the same religious significance as areas like Nablus, where Joseph’s Tomb is located, and the Cave of the Patriarchs in the city of Hebron. Currently, Jews do not have full rights to access all of their own places of worship because of the large Arab presence in Judea and Samaria. The settlements seek to continue to re-establish the Jewish people as a nation on their historical land, hence they are not just a matter of security policy, but also security of heritage, and that is the entire reason for the Jewish State of Israel.

So when we read articles detailing how Israel will allocate more funds to the construction of settlements, we should not lament the destruction of the peace process and the two-state solution. What has killed the peace process has been Arab intransigence and incitement against Jews, and not Israeli settlements. In fact, these settlements are necessary to provide greater security for Israel from the hostile Arab population. True supporters of Israel should rejoice as settlement building strengthens Israel’s defenses and allows Zionism to flourish so that Jews can return to all of their homeland and rebuild what was laid to waste thousands of years ago.

Jacob Bernstein is an intern at the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET)

Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/07/israeli_settlements_a_policy_worth_pursuing.html

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Israel’s Diplomatic Spring - Caroline Glick

by Caroline Glick

The time has come to recognize the Jewish State's new geopolitical position.

 
Originally published by the Jerusalem Post. 

We are living at a time when preconceived notions are crashing down one on top of the other.
We thought that nothing would ever change in the Arab world. But the Arab world hasn’t merely changed, large portions of it have collapsed. And regimes that have so far survived are beating a path to Israel’s door.

We thought that American dominance in the Middle East would last forever. And today the US is withdrawing. Its withdrawal may be short-lived, or it may stay out for the foreseeable future. Whatever the case, Russia is already picking up the pieces.

That would be shocking enough. But even worse, as it has withdrawn, the US has turned a cold shoulder to Israel and its Sunni allies in a bid to build an alliance with Iran.

We thought that the European Union was the rising world power. We thought the euro was the currency of tomorrow.

Instead, Britain decided to bolt the EU and the euro zone is a disaster zone. European economic growth is sclerotic. European societies are coming apart at the seams under the crushing weight of failed monetary policies, over-regulation and mass emigration from the ruins of the Arab world. 

Now we are witnessing the collapse of yet another preconceived notion.

For more than 20 years – indeed, since the initiation of the phony peace process with the PLO in 1993 – the who’s who of Israel’s chattering classes have told us that our growing diplomatic isolation is the result of our failure to make peace with the PLO. Everything will change for the better, immediately, they tell us, the minute we give up Jerusalem, expel hundreds of thousands of Israelis from their homes in Judea and Samaria, and hand security control of the Jordan Valley over to someone else.

But amazingly, despite the fact that there is no peace process, rather than suffering from diplomatic collapse, it is springtime for Israeli diplomacy as governments around the world seek out closer ties with the Jewish state.

And they aren’t coming to us, despite our supposed moral failings. They are coming to us because they admire us.

Exhibit A: Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Last week Putin delivered an address before the All Russian Historical Assembly about the importance of teaching Russian history to Russia’s citizens.

Putin used Israel as a model for how historical knowledge empowers a nation.

Putin said, “Israel... relies and develops its identity and brings up its citizens with reliance on historical examples.”

Putin’s use of Israel as a positive role model showed that Putin’s sudden courtship of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not solely the product of strategic and economic interests.
He happens to admire Israel.

Next week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will embark on a five-day visit to Africa. During the trip he will visit Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia.

He may meet with additional heads of state during one of his stops. Netanyahu’s visit marks the first prime ministerial trip to Africa since Yitzhak Rabin visited in the early 1990s.

Africa isn’t Russia. But it is an important arena.

For nearly a century and a half, Africa has been the playing ground of world powers. In the 19th century, the European powers divided it up among themselves. In the Cold War, the newly independent states of Africa were sucked into the superpower competition as the US and the Soviet Union competed for turf through their African proxies.

Since the end of the Cold War, both world powers and regional ones have been drawn to Africa who view it as a convenient economic and strategic stomping ground.

Over the past decade and a half, China has emerged as the dominant economic player in Africa.

The Chinese move from state to state, building infrastructure in exchange for mining and petroleum contracts.

The US has opted not to challenge China’s economic dominance in Africa. The US’s nonchalance is either a function of indifference or of ignorance of the toll that China’s economic behavior will eventually take on US companies in Africa.

Case in point is Gabon. The West African nation is an oil power. According to business sources in Gabon, President Ali Bongo Ondimba is a pro-Western Muslim. He is interested in expanded trade ties to the US.

Ondimba’s electoral opponent, Jean Ping, a former senior UN official and former foreign minister, is oriented toward China. Yet, the US is allegedly supporting Ping over Ondimba due to dissatisfaction with the latter’s human rights record. If Ping is elected in August, US oil companies in Gabon are liable to see their contracts challenged.

Human rights and democracy promotion are major themes of US policy in Africa. Since the 1998 al-Qaida bombings of the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, counterterrorism has also been a major concern. During his presidency, George W. Bush established the US military’s Africa Command to run US operations in the continent.

However, as part of Obama’s policy of winding down the US’s war against terrorism, and following the US’s contribution to the overthrow of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, the US has constrained its operations. Its minimalistic approach to fighting Boko Haram in West Africa and al-Qaida offshoots in East Africa makes clear that the US’s strategic disarray, after seven-and-a-half years of the Obama presidency, has not left Africa unaffected.
World powers are not the only players in Africa.

Regional powers are also on the scene. Iran, for instance, views Africa as a theater for expanding its influence over the Middle East. Last month The Wall Street Journal reported on Iran’s growing missionary presence in West Africa.

Iran and Hezbollah are running Islamic centers in Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania and Cameroon, and they’re getting results. Whereas in 1980, a Pew Survey showed no adherents to Shi’ite Islam in Africa, today, 12 percent of Nigeria’s 90 million Muslims are Shi’ites. So are 21% of Muslims in Chad, 20% in Tanzania, and 8% in Ghana.

Much of the missionary work is being handled by Lebanese expatriates in West Africa. Many of these former Lebanese are suspected of having close ties to Hezbollah. Indeed, earlier this year, the US Treasury Department named three Lebanese nationals living in Nigeria as Hezbollah operatives.

During Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s tenure as Iranian president, Tehran expended enormous resources expanding and deepening its presence in Africa.

Among the fruits of his efforts was the Eritrean regime’s agreement to allow Iran to operate a naval base in the Horn of Africa. Iran’s cooperation with Sudan, and its use of Sudanese territory to ship advanced weapons to Gaza, reached new heights.

Iran’s Africa strategy took a major hit earlier this year, however. Owing to massive Saudi pressure, and, in all likelihood, massive payoffs, Sudan, Comoros, Somalia and Djibouti cut diplomatic ties with Iran in January. Sudan even joined Saudi Arabia in its campaign against Iran in Yemen. Eritrea reportedly permitted the Saudis to launch operations in Yemen from its territory.

This then brings us back to Israel, and Netanyahu’s visit to Africa.

In recent years, Israel has also been expanding its relations with African nations. Even South Africa, Israel’s greatest antagonist in Africa, indicated earlier this year that its hostility isn’t all-consuming.

In March, Foreign Ministry director-general Dore Gold paid a prolonged visit to South Africa where he was the guest of his South African counterpart.

South Africa aside, African nations from all over the continent view Israel as a rich source of technology and security expertise they are keen to tap.

They also view Israel as a rising economic power.

With an average economic growth rate of 6%, Africa is also an attractive market for Israeli companies across a swath of industries.

The most practical lesson from power politics in Africa is that for Africans, nothing is a done deal.

African states can cooperate simultaneously with competing outside powers and everyone benefits.

For instance, according to reports, Eritrea allows Iran, Israel and Saudi Arabia to operate on its territory simultaneously. In other words, there is no reason to ever consider anyone in anyone’s pocket, and no reason not to ask for what we want. We may get it.

In recent years, Israel has done this to our advantage in the diplomatic realm, long thought to be a lost cause.

Last September, a draft resolution at the International Atomic Energy Agency calling for Israel to open its nuclear sites to UN inspectors came up for a vote. It was defeated due to opposition from African states.

So, too, in late 2000, a draft UN Security Council resolution recognizing “Palestine” was defeated because Nigeria and Rwanda chose to abstain from voting. The African representatives’ action caught supporters of the resolution by surprise.

The Israeli leader most responsible for those successes was then-foreign minister Avigdor Liberman.

During his tenure at the Foreign Ministry, Liberman conducted two prolonged visits to Africa during which he visited seven countries, including Nigeria and Rwanda.

There is every reason to expect that during Netanyahu’s visit to Africa, Israel will expand and deepen its ties with Africa still further. And at some point, those deepened ties will result in further African support for Israel at the UN.

This returns us to our shattered accepted wisdom about Israel’s diplomatic isolation.

The view that Israel’s diplomatic fate is directly tied to its willingness to give up Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem is based on the Eurocentric view that the EU is the most important player in the diplomatic arena and that Israel cannot be successful unless Brussels supports us. For Israel’s elites, the fact that the EU is hostile to Israel is taken as proof that we are morally compromised and don’t deserve its support.

But as Israel’s diplomatic rise in Africa, Asia, Russia and beyond makes clear, the Eurocentric view is wrong. Israel needn’t waste its time and energy trying to appease the Europeans. Not only is it an exercise in futility, given Europe’s boundless and unhinged hostility. It is also unnecessary, given Europe’s economic weakness and political decay.

Due to our elite’s continued allegiance to the Eurocentric view, scant media attention has been paid to Israel’s diplomatic blossoming. Much of the public is unaware that far from being isolated, Israel is enjoying a diplomatic rise unseen since the end of the Cold War.

The time, however, has come for us to recognize the change. For the faster we come to terms with our new position, the faster we will maximize its potential.

Caroline Glick is the Director of the David Horowitz Freedom Center's Israel Security Project and the Senior Contributing Editor of The Jerusalem Post. For more information on Ms. Glick's work, visit carolineglick.com.

Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/263367/israels-diplomatic-spring-caroline-glick

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Cabinet approves new counterterrorism measures - Shlomo Cesana, Mati Tuchfeld, Efrat Forsher, Lilach Shoval, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

by Shlomo Cesana, Mati Tuchfeld, Efrat Forsher, Lilach Shoval, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

Series of deadly terrorist attacks see ministers approve cutting tax funds given to PA, imposing a closure on Hebron, and revoking thousands of work permits • "Payouts to terrorists and their relatives constitute an incentive to murder," PM's office says.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu [Archive] Photo credit: Oren Ben Hakoon

The Diplomatic-Security Cabinet convened a special session on Saturday night in which it approved a series of new measures meant to quell the recent surge in Palestinian terrorism. 

The meeting was called in the wake of the brutal murder of Hallel Yaffa Ariel, 13, who was stabbed to death in her Kiryat Arba home on Thursday, and a deadly shooting on Route 60, in the South Hebron Hills, Friday, in which Rabbi Michael Mark, 48, a father of 10 and the director of the Otniel Yeshiva was killed. Mark's wife and two of his children were wounded in the attack.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman met prior to the cabinet meeting to formulate the steps to be presented to the ministers. 

The measures approved Saturday including imposing a closure on the city of Hebron, which is home to some 700,000 Palestinians; revoking the work and travel permits granted to some 2,700 residents of the Palestinian village of Bani Naim, east of Hebron, the home of the terrorist who murdered Ariel; and increasing military deployment in Judea and Samaria.

Since the recent wave of terrorism erupted last fall, the greater Hebron area has proven to be a hotbed of radical terrorist activity, as the majority of its residents are Hamas sympathizers. 

Additional measures included approving the construction of 42 housing units in Kiryat Arba; launching investigations into the extended family of each terrorist, including wide-scale arrests; repealing the mitigations granted to Palestinians ahead of Eid al-Fitr ("festival of breaking of the fast"), which marks the end of Ramadan; and suspending the return of terrorists' remains.

The cabinet also decided to reduce the monthly transfers of taxes collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, effective immediately. The amount deducted from approximately $130 million monthly will correspond with the stipends the PA pays the families of Palestinian terrorists jailed in Israel and those who were killed while carrying out attacks.

"Incitement and payouts to terrorists and their relatives constitute an incentive to murder," the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.

According to Israeli Intelligence, the PA's payments to the families of deceased and jailed terrorists amounted to some $24.3 million a month in 2015.

Should Israel deduct the sum in full, it would potentially‮ ‬constitute a cut of between 16% and 18% of the tax revenue transferred to the Palestinian Authority every month.

A Palestinian official slammed the decision. "The decision to freeze a part of the tax revenues is a theft and piracy of money that belongs to the Palestinian people," Wasel Abu Youssef, of the Palestine Liberation Organization, told Reuters.

Meanwhile, the escalation in terrorist activity has strained the relationship between Netanyahu and Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett further.

Prior to the cabinet meeting, Bennett released a list of counterterrorism measures he demanded the cabinet approve, saying "viral terrorism can't be stopped by a simple closure." 

Bennett's plan included demand to arrest, jail or expel terrorists' families, based on any statement of support for attacks; the immediate razing of thousands of illegal Palestinian buildings across Judea and Samaria, which have already been slated to be demolished; disrupting internet access, and especially access to Facebook, in the Hebron area; arresting known Hamas operatives in Judea and Samaria; and re-arresting Palestinian prisoners released as part of the 2011 Schalit deal if there is clear indication they violated the terms of their release over the past two years.

Other demands Bennett presented including preventing the Palestinian Authority from paying stipends to terrorists' families; approving the construction of two new neighborhoods in Kiryat Arba; halting Palestinian traffic on Route 60, launching a limited counterterrorism operation across Judea and Samaria; and allowing the IDF to operate freely in Area A and Area B.

Under the 1993 Oslo Accords, Area A is under full Palestinian civil and security control, while Area B is under Palestinian civil control and shared Israeli-Palestinian security control. 

Kiryat Arba Deputy Mayor Yisrael Bramson on Saturday criticized the cabinet's decision to approve construction in the town as "a bluff. This construction was approved months ago and it's already underway."

Shlomo Cesana, Mati Tuchfeld, Efrat Forsher, Lilach Shoval, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=34715

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Preventive, not punitive measures - Yoav Limor

by Yoav Limor

The problem is that Israel cannot deal terrorism a clear-cut, one-time decisive blow. All it can do is use the tried and true carrots-and-sticks approach: penalizing terror sympathizers and rewarding those who fight it and, in the absence of a diplomatic horizon, waging a war on Palestinian incitement.

As hard as it is to admit, the options available to Israel in the wake of last week's deadly terrorist attacks in the Hebron sector are limited. In the absence of a direct link between incidents, or a clear directing hand to target, all Israel can do is spare no effort to thwart new terrorist attacks during the last leg of Ramadan.

Since Friday, the IDF has focused its activity on Hebron, the epicenter of last week's terror surge. Hebron has always been a hotbed of radical terrorist activity in Judea and Samaria. The combination of a religious, Hamas-affiliated town and the constant friction between Jews and Palestinians has proven volatile time and again, inspiring countless terrorist attacks, each sprouting its own string of copycats. 

This was most likely the case last week as well, as there is seemingly nothing linking the bloodthirsty youth who stabbed to death Hallel Yaffa Ariel, 13, in her home in Kiryat Arba on Thursday and the terrorist cell that gunned down Rabbi Michael Mark on Friday, other than their desire to exploit the volatile atmosphere.

The steps taken by the military since Friday seek to separate Palestinian civilians from terrorists and zero in on targets, thus foiling future attacks. Disrupting Hebron's routine is also meant to rattle the situation on the ground in a way that could produce new and valid intelligence that would further facilitate counterterrorism measures.

This is doubly important ahead of this week's Laylat al-Qadr ("night of power") and Eid al-Fitr ("festival of breaking of the fast"), which mark the end of Ramadan. These two festivals have always been volatile, and having an armed terror cell, which has already crossed the psychological threshold of killing Jews, running around free, will only make it doubly tense. 

Contrary to what some politicians would have you believe, IDF activity in Hebron is not punitive in nature. Israel has gone to considerable lengths to ease the Palestinians' lives during Ramadan, a move backed by -- until last Thursday -- an ebbing wave of terrorism.

Still, Ariel and Mark's horrific murders meant that the public is not interested in statistics indicating an overall decrease in terrorist attacks. The public expects the government to take serious countermeasures. 

The problem is that Israel cannot deal terrorism a clear-cut, one-time decisive blow. All it can do is use the tried and true carrots-and-sticks approach: penalizing terror sympathizers and rewarding those who fight it and, in the absence of a diplomatic horizon, waging a war on Palestinian incitement. 

The various suggestions made over the weekend by government ministers, such as the expulsion of terrorists families or blocking access to social media in Palestinian cities, fail to meet legal and practical standards, and all they do is inflame the situation. It seems unlikely that extensive settlement construction will follow either, as Israel has no interest in evoking harsh international criticism.

As things stand, Israel will continue its painstaking war on terror, focusing on counterterrorism measures aimed first and foremost at preventing any escalation from igniting the southern sector. 

Friday's rocket fire at Sderot -- the handiwork of a radical, Gaza Strip-based Salafi group -- is seen by defense officials as an anomaly that does not indicate Hamas is gearing up for a fresh confrontation with Israel. 

This was, however, a very close call, as the rocket hit a child care center, which was empty at the time. Had that not been the case, things could have spiraled out of control very quickly.

Operation Protective Edge, waged in Gaza in 2014, was the result of a security escalation that culminated in the abduction and murder of three Israeli teens. While the current situation on the ground in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip is different, the volatile potential remains the same, and it is this potential that the military's actions in Hebron seek to defuse.

Yoav Limor

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=16577

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Terror in America: What Happened Just Last Week - Clarion Project

by Clarion Project

Last week Americans were charged or indicted in Islamist terror cases in three separate states: Arizonia, Massachusetts and Arkansas.

Daphne Ann and Alan Lewis Crawford (Photo: video screenshot)

Massachusetts

Alexander Ciccolo, 23, who went by the name of Alexander Ciccolo (Photo: Northern Berkshire District Court)Ali Al Amriki, was indicted for a plot to bomb a state university. His father, a Boston police captain, said his son -- a convert to Islam -- wanted to join the Islamic State.

Ciccolo also received four guns from a witness cooperating with the Western Massachusetts Joint Terrorism Task Force. Prosecutors say the witness spoke with Ciccolo about his plans, inspired by the Islamic State, to use improvised pressure cookers as bombs.





In recorded conversations, he said he was planning to fill the pressure cookers with nails, ball bearing and glass and set them off in a crowded place on campus – perhaps a cafeteria. Prosecutors also noted that Ciccolo was seen buying a pressure cooker similar to those used by the Boston bombers.

Ciccolo, who was arrested last July and held without bail, was charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and attempting to use weapons of mass destruction.

Arizona
Mahim Khan (Photo: Maricopa County Sheriff's Office)An 18-year old Arizona man was arrested on terrorism charges. Mahim Khan, from Tucson, stands accused by the FBI of plotting acts of terror against government buildings in two counties.

Other than announcing that Khan’s plans did not involve targeting Fourth of July activities, no other details were available. For the time being, the court records of Khan’s initial appearance have been sealed.

Khan lived with his family in a gated community  in north Tucson close to the Catlina Foothills.






Arkansas
A woman in Arkansas was indicted on first-degree terrorism threatening for making an online threat to kill another individual as well as the individual’s family with a firearm, a federal charge. 

Daphne Ann Crawford, 29, a convert to Islam who also goes by the name of Umm Ammara Khalid and was arrested along with her husband, Alan, also a convert. They were also found to be in possession of drugs and firearms, including three AR-15 assault rifles, a 12-gauge shotgun, six handguns and close to 2,000 rounds of ammunition, including 721 rounds for the assault rifles.

Events leading to the arrests unfolded after the Crawfords got into an argument at a restaurant with the staff. A customer posted a comment on Facebook about the incident to which Crawford replied by sending a picture of her husband dressed in Middle Eastern clothes and holding an assault rifle.

The picture was accompanied by a threat to shoot the customer and the customer’s family.

Last December, the couple made headlines when they were escorted out a mall for filming the entrances and exits to the mall. It is against the policy of the mall to video inside the premises. At the time, Alan Crawford told a local station, KFSM. "Co-exist. Spread love not hate," Crawford said. "This is what this world is about. Whether you are Christian, Jewish, atheist, I don't care. Spread love not hate. I don't care what religion you are. Killing someone for your religion is wrong, completely wrong."


Clarion Project

Source: http://www.clarionproject.org/news/terror-america-what-happened-just-last-week

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Elie Wiesel: A giant passes, and a well-connected leftist disgraces himself - Thomas Lifson

by Thomas Lifson

If you want to understand how the evil that Wiesel documented lives on, consider one Max Blumenthal, son of Hillary confidante and operative Sidney Blumenthal

Most readers of American Thinker grasp the greatness of Elie Wiesel, the man who survived the Holocaust as a teenager and became humanity’s most eloquent spokesman for the indomitable human spirit, as he became the greatest witness to the operation of industrial genocide, a unique and unprecedented atrocity. If you do not know much about him, and have only a minute or so to “get” him, take a look at some of his memorable words here, at Brainyquote.

If you want to understand how the evil that Wiesel documented lives on, consider one Max Blumenthal, son of Hillary confidante and operative Sidney Blumenthal, and left wing journalist. This is the heart of evil that lives within the Democrat-progressive machine:

The acorn does not fall far from the tree.

Thomas Lifson

Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/07/elie_wiesel_a_giant_passes_and_a_wellconnected_leftist_disgraces_himself.html

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Bangladesh: ISIS pays Italy back for role in Libya - debkaFile

by debkaFile

Inside Libya, the fighting continues unresolved for lack of air support. The US, Italy, France and the UK cannot agree on which of them will supply air cover for the ground forces battling for Sirte and which will assume command.

The Islamic State struck the West again on June 1, when it activated a local Bangladeshi cell for a murderous, hostage-taking attack on the Artisan Bakery and O’Kitchen Restaurant, a favorite haunt of foreign visitors near the diplomatic zone of Dakha, the capital. A large contingent of Italian businessmen dining there that night was specifically targeted by ISIS in revenge for the Rome government’s military intervention in the campaign to eject the Islamists from Libya.

debkafile intelligence and counter terror sources note that the long Islamist arm reached into the Indian subcontinent, 7,000km away, to settle its score with Italy, rather than sending its killers by the obvious route from the ISIS capital Sirte in Libya to Italy across 1,200km of Mediterranean Sea. This tactic saved them the risk of running the gauntlet of the Italian Navy boats which are fanned out across the Sidra Gulf to staunch the flow of migrants (an important source of income for ISIS) and intercept terrorists heading for attack in Europe.

Bangladesh is the world’s second largest manufacturing center after China for the major Western fashion houses, netting each year 26.5 Billion USD, 75 pc of its foreign currency earnings. Among the important Italian fashion houses manufacturing in Bangladesh are Prada, Milan, and Benetton.

Italian special operations contingents are the largest Western force operating on several fronts in Libya since early January. They are fighting to capture the key port town of Sirte together with British and US special forces and alongside local Libyan forces.

On April 29, debkafile reported: “ISIS fighters smashed a force of Italian and British Special Ops troops on Wednesday, April 27 in the first battle of its kind in Libya. This battle will result in the delay of the planned Western invasion of Libya, as the encounter proved that European forces are not ready for this kind of guerilla warfare. The sources also said the planners of the invasion were surprised by the high combat skills of the ISIS fighters.”

The Bangladesh attack was therefore not the first contretemps suffered by Italy in its fight on Islamist terror.

Inside Libya, the fighting continues unresolved for lack of air support. The US, Italy, France and the UK cannot agree on which of them will supply air cover for the ground forces battling for Sirte and which will assume command.

In early June, overall command of the campaign was given to NATO. That decision did not break the allied impasse either, because its members remained at loggerheads over respective air force contributions, provision of the logistic intelligence required for aerial operations and, lastly, funding.

Due to insufficient air cover, western and Libyan special forces are stuck in the parts of Sirte they have captured, but cannot advance towards the city’s center or root out the ISIS fighters.

The fact that ISIS was able to operate a terror cell in far-away Bangladesh to strike a counterblow in the battle in Northern Africa, testified to the global scope of the terror organization’s command and communication reach.

Just like the November 2015 Paris attacks, the terrorists were in telephone contact with their masters in the Middle East, once in a while sending pictures of the victims they murdered inside the restaurant.

In the attack, the terrorists killed 9 Italian businessmen, 7 Japanese businessmen, one US citizen, 3 local citizens, and one Indian.

The hostages were executed by beheading with machetes.

The counter terrorism sources report that, just as in the terror attacks in Brussels, Paris and Istanbul, the attackers in Dhaka were previously known to local security and intelligence agencies, at least five of the seven terrorists were known to the Bangladesh security agencies, who claimed they were unable to stop them.


debkaFile

Source: http://www.debka.com/article/25521/Bangladesh-ISIS-pays-Italy-back-for-role-in-Libya

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