ACTION

Thursday ~ The Front Page Cover

Posted by Rudy Tirre on December 17, 2015 at 8:20am
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened"
. 
Featuring:
Answering John hanoi-Kerry
Caroline B. Glick
.
"Know who you are standing with"
"Show me your friends and I'll show you your future"
~~~lll~~~
.
 CNN changes rules to admit Rand to main debate 
Time: “[Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul] has struggled in the polls and among donors, and seen his support erode even further amid renewed concerns over the threat of terrorism following the Paris and San Bernardino attacks. In recent days, as it became clear Paul was unlikely to make the debate stage, his campaign began a social media push to call on the network to change its rules to allow his participation, just as the network did for former HP CEO Carly Fiorina before its September debate. In the end, the network announced that Paul would be allowed to participate in the main stage, stating Paul was ‘showing viability’ by polling at 5% in a Fox News Iowa poll released Sunday morning, but it did not explain—as it did in the case of Fiorina—how it let Paul, whose polling average considered by the network is below the required 4% in the state, on stage.”  -Fox News
.
.
 WITH YOUR SECOND CUP OF COFFEE  
Today in 1799, George Washington breathed his last breath, dying (most likely of quackery) at his beloved estate, Mount Vernon, at the age of 67. Washington only had about two-and-a-half years of his long-awaited retirement before he met his end. During his many years away from home at war and as president, Christmas was one part of life at Mount Vernon for which Washington yearned most – understandable given how he spent some Christmases. What would Christmas look like to our nation’s first president? Much of it would look familiar today, including a church service and large gathering of family and friends. The Washingtons loved to entertain and Christmas was no exception. The day typically included a feast followed by the seasonal activity of foxhunting. Something that would have been missing? St. Nicholas paying a visit and a glittering evergreen tree. Both would not be popular in America until the first large wave of German immigrants reached our shores in the mid-1800s. 
 -Fox News
.
.
 WATCHDOGS BARK OVER HILLY’S HELP FOR SON-IN  - LAW’S BIZ 
Fox News: “A conservative watchdog group will call for a federal investigation Monday into Hilly Clinton’s actions toward a deep-sea mining company tied to her son-in-law, according to a published report. According to Time magazine, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), plans to file a complaint with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics alleging that Clinton gave Neptune Minerals ‘special access to the State Department based upon the company’s relationships with Secretary Clinton’s family members and donors to the Clinton Foundation.’
          “The complaint comes two weeks after emails released by the State Department show that Clinton, now the Democratic presidential front-runner, ordered a senior State Department official to look into the request from Marc Mezvinsky. Mezvinsky, a partner in a New York hedge fund and the husband of Clinton’s daughter Chelsea, had received an email in May 2012 from investor Harry Siklas asking if he could help set up contacts with Clinton or other State Department officials.”   -Fox News
.
.
 FUNDING BILL UNDER THE GUN, AGAIN  
Time is again running short as lawmakers try to hammer out a long term spending deal and avert a new government shutdown deadline of Wednesday midnight. Riders to the $1.1 trillion spending bill that would fund the government through the Fall of 2016 continue to be the sticking point. With both parties looking to tout those riders as policy victories in 2016, pressure is building on new rail yard master Speaker Paul Ryan to get the omnibus legislation out of the station without leaving disgruntled passengers, especially among the Republican conference, in the process.
          The Hill: “The House could vote Wednesday at the earliest if the catch-all spending bill, known as an omnibus, is made public on Monday in order to meet a rule that all legislation be made public for three calendar days before a vote. But the House won’t have its first votes of the week until Tuesday night — an indication that the omnibus might not be released until as late as possible. The Senate will likely have less than 24 hours to pass either the omnibus bill or yet another stopgap measure to avoid a government shutdown Wednesday night…. The spending bill is also expected to be linked to a major package renewing expiring tax credits, with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) saying that negotiations would likely extend through the weekend.” 
 -Fox News
.
.
 Chinese Submarine Practiced Missile Attack on USS Reagan  
{Bill Gertz} ~ A Chinese attack submarine conducted a simulated cruise missile attack on the aircraft carrier USS Reagan during a close encounter several weeks ago, according to American defense officials... The targeting incident near the Sea of Japan in October violated China’s 2014 commitment to the multinational Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea, known as CUES, designed to reduce the risk of a shooting incident between naval vessels, said officials familiar with details of the encounter they described as “serious.” A section of the non-binding 2014 agreement states that commanders at sea should avoid actions that could lead to accidents or mishaps. Among the actions to be avoided are “simulation of attacks by aiming guns, missiles, fire control radar, torpedo tubes or other weapons in the direction of vessels or aircraft encountered.” Why mention this. The pres of America will look the other way.
.
 What About Iran's "JCPOA"?  
{Lawrence A. Franklin} ~ Iran is cheating already -- or is it? Iran has not signed anything, so presumably it cannot be cheating on something it never agreed to – as predicted on these pages half a year ago... The self-appointed P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany), elected by no one but themselves, should be embarrassed to find that they have made a deal with no one but themselves. The lavishly touted and lavishly dangerous "Iran Deal" not only paves the way for Iran to have nuclear weapons, as it was planning, anyway; it also rewards Iran's repeated violations of the Non-Proliferation Treaty -- which it did sign -- with up to $150 billion. With a punishment like that, we should all start violating commitments. Iran's recent missile tests have, been undermining the rationale of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which the P5+1 signed with itself. If Iran is concerned that its missile tests might have violated multiple UN Resolutions, a paltry detail such as that clearly has not bothered anyone before, so why should it bother anyone now?       http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7056/iran-jcpoa-violations
.
 Gowdy OBLITERATES 2nd Amendment Restrictions...  
{gopthedailydose.com} ~ Trey Gowdy PERFECTLY executes the END ALL question to the argument against not allowing people randomly put on the government’s no-fly list to purchase firearms…it’s FLAWLESS!... Trey Gowdy made a phenomenal point about the Second Amendment without having to argue. Which, if you’ve ever had the misfortune of arguing with a leftist, is a great way of making your point. Make a leftist defend why they support anything by asking questions. Put them on defense exactly as Gowdy did here. He didn’t get on a soapbox, he didn’t tell her she was an idiot (well, not overtly), he didn’t call her a racist, sexist, bigot, homophobe. He asked her what other Amendments a citizen would have to petition the government for to get back. It brilliantly illuminated how government abuses people’s Second Amendment rights and the slippery slope which could lead to the restriction of the other rights.
.
 Iran Rattling Saber After Nuclear Deal  
{restoreamericanglory.com} ~ Did you ever make peace with someone only to find out they were bad-mouthing you behind your back?... Most of us leave these petty squabbles behind when we trade high school for adulthood, but we remember the lessons well. When an individual is saying one thing to your face and something else when you aren’t around, that individual is not to be trusted. You can’t always map human behavior one-to-one with the machinations of nation states, but it makes for an interesting way to view the nuclear deal between Iran and the United States. After lengthy negotiations in which the U.S. apparently gave in to Iranian demands again and again, the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader has shown no interest in pursuing a real diplomatic relationship with the West. Unlike that slimy character you might have known in high school, though, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei isn’t bothering to hide his true feelings about the United States. In an unverified tweet, Iran’s spiritual commander said, “US president has said he could knock out Iran’s military. We welcome no war, nor do we initiate any war, but…” To finish the thought, Khamenei included a picture ostensibly showing President nObama holding a gun to his own head. Written on the picture is the conclusion of the quote: “…if any war happens, the one who will emerge loser will be the aggressive and criminal U.S.”       http://www.restoreamericanglory.com/freedoms/iran-rattling-saber-after-nuclear-deal/
.
 Misinformation on guns: Keep it coming, nObama  
6H0oMJDNBYF995aEpMfRCD8EmZaq7DEWpM8vaUYm8E17nYo1y4iKTcu1CXjTKmUPl8tZE3K8K0PHRgqc-CuPFqCZoNKOq4qD1uvMAtd_V0k=s0-d-e1-ft#%3Ca%20rel%3Dnofollow%20href=http://www.wnd.com/files/2014/02/David-Limbaugh_avatar.jpg" width="68" height="68" /> {David Limbaugh} ~ The nObama administration is not only at odds with America, as founded, but also woefully out of touch with ordinary Americans, and it is deceitful or delusional (or both) on guns... President nObama twisted himself into a pretzel to deny that the San Bernardino, California, massacre was committed by Islamic terrorists. Even as facts accumulated – making the obvious undeniable – he continued to cling to the preposterous narrative that it was workplace violence. It’s those high-stress jobs, you see, that cause otherwise peaceful people to fire up their time machines and go back to buy weapons to kill dozens of people who have nothing to do with their workplace grievances. In the first place, these liberals have never been able to refute the axiomatic truth that making our gun laws more restrictive would not have prevented the various mass shootings they invariably use to launch new salvos against gun ownership. So the fact that they even raise the issue after these incidents is obscenely dishonest, opportunistic and hyper-partisan.
.
 Syrian Refugees Trashing Germany  
{Trey Sanchez} ~ A recent video has emerged showing exactly what Syrian refugees are leaving behind on the roadways in Germany... Look at the sides of the Autobahn which are literally littered with trash stretching up and down the roadway:Photos from previous months have circulated online that not only shows similar debris, but  also new, and very usable, items like diapers and baby strollers. As evidenced in the pictures, they have been left on buses and on the streets.
.
 nObama to expand modern-day slave trade with TPP  
{Kit Daniels} ~ Not long after the White House invited Thailand to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the AP reported the country was relying on slave labor to ship shrimp to the U.S... And it’s unlikely Thailand’s billion-dollar slave industry would prevent it from joining the TPP considering that nObama previously removed an anti-slavery provision from the TPP and also allowed Vietnam to join the partnership despite its flourishing slave trade. “For… 16 hours, No. 31 and his wife stood in the factory that owned them with their aching hands in ice water,” the AP revealed. “They ripped the guts, heads, tails and shells off shrimp bound for overseas markets, including grocery stores and all-you-can-eat buffets across the United States.” “After being sold to the Gig Peeling Factory, they were at the mercy of their Thai bosses, trapped with nearly 100 other Burmese migrants.”
.
 nObama disrespects Jew and Israel at WH Chanukah party  
{Jeff Dunetz} ~ Last Wednesday’s White House Chanukah party was different from the usual fare. President nObama used the event to disrespect Israel and the Jewish people... by bringing in a BDS-supporting reform rabbi to give a politicized speech before she changed the words of one of the traditional Chanukah blessing. The President’s choice for making the Chanukah candles-lighting blessings at the gala, Susan Talve gave a candle-lighting “speech,” calling for justice for the Palestinians, invoking the Muslim deity Allah  and black lives matter. Talve called terrorism something that should be dealt “with with peace and understanding.” Talve is more than just a rabbi in ordained by the Reform Movement, but she is also a board member of the organization, “T’ruah” which calls itself “The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights.”  T’ruah is a leftist group which, among other things supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. It takes the same “Israel is always wrong” position that U.S. President nObama takes.
.
 NATO Weapons Make Boko Haram World’s Deadliest Terror Group 
{Warren Mass} ~ The Nigerian Boko Haram terrorist group was responsible for 6,644 deaths in 2014, compared to 6,073 attributed to ISIS, making it the deadliest terrorist group in the world last year... And, in what has become a disturbingly familiar pattern in the rise of terrorist organizations, Boko Haram’s growing strength is a direct consequence of NATO’s war on Libya. This information about the relative deadliness of Boko Haram and ISIS was part of a report recently released by Global Terrorism Index, a project of the Sydney, Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). The results were cited in an article by freelance writer Dan Glazebrook originally published by RT on November 27 and reprinted with permission the next day by the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.  In his article, Glazebrook observed that when Boko Haram began its terrorist operations in 2009 (the group was founded in 2002) it had very little in the way of sophisticated arms. Glazebrook quoted from a 2014 article by Peter Weber in The Week that traced the improvement in Boko Haram’s weaponry, which had “shifted from relatively cheap AK-47s in the early days of its post-2009 embrace of violence to desert-ready combat vehicles and anti-aircraft/ anti-tank guns.”        http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/foreign-policy/item/22141-nato-weapons-helped-make-boko-haram-worlds-deadliest-terror-group?utm_content=Rudy%20Tirre&utm_source=VerticalResponse&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=Read%20on%2E%2E%2E&utm_campaign=NATO%20Weapons%20Helped%20Make%20Boko%20Haram%20World%E2%80%99s%20Deadliest%20Terror%20Groupcontent
.
 Two Glaring NYT Displays of Ignorance About CAIR in One Day  
{Steven Emerson} ~ America's "paper of record" might be well served to spend some time reviewing actual records... A day after the Investigative Project on Terrorism published exclusive stories detailing the Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood ties at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) from the moment of its birth, and the radical, pro-jihad views of a longtime national board member, the New York Times gave CAIR two free passes. First, it invited CAIR-San Francisco director Zahra Billoo to write a column lamenting an increase in anti-Muslim threats and attacks in recent weeks. IPT readers know that Billoo has a long record of radical statements, including accusing U.S. soldiers of engaging in terrorism in 2012. Last year, she compared the Israeli army to ISIS, and she heads the chapter which posted an infamous "wall of resistance" poster sowing fear and suspicion among Muslims against federal law enforcement.
.
.
Answering John hanoi-Kerry
Caroline B. Glick
.
{jewishworldreview.com} ~ On Saturday, US Secretary of State John hanoi-Kerry gave a speech before the Brookings Institute’s Saban Forum.
.
hanoi-Kerry focused on the Palestinian conflict with Israel and sought to draw a distinction between the two-state policy model, which he supports, and the one-state policy model, which he rejects.
.
To justify his rejection of a policy based on Israeli sovereignty over areas beyond the 1949 armistice lines, hanoi-Kerry raised a series of questions about what a one-state policy would look like.
.
I answered all of his questions, as well as many others, in great detail in my book The Israeli Solution: A One- State Plan for Peace in the Middle East.
.
I will do so again here, albeit with the requisite brevity.
.
But before discussing the specific questions hanoi-Kerry raised with regard to the one-state model, it is important to discuss the nature of the policies hanoi-Kerry described in his speech.
.
hanoi-Kerry argued Israel should deny civil and property rights to Jews beyond the 1949 armistice lines, and ignore the building and planning laws of both Israel and the military government in Judea and Samaria in order to allow unrestricted Arab construction in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.
.
Such steps, he argued, will advance the cause of peace because they will pave the way for an Israeli withdrawal from the vast majority of these areas. Such a withdrawal in turn will bring about the desired two-state solution.
.
Since the two-state solution is supported by the whole world, hanoi-Kerry argued that once Israel withdraws from the areas, it will gain the support of the world, peace with its Arab neighbors as well as the Palestinians, and become more prosperous and happy than it is today. It will also secure its democracy.
.
On the other hand, hanoi-Kerry argued, if Israel respects the civil and property rights of Jews and continues to enforce the law toward Arabs as well as Jews, and if it eventually applies its laws to any or all of Judea and Samaria, Israel will enter a state of perpetual war with the Palestinians and the wider Arab world. Israel will cease to be a democracy. Israel will be impoverished.
.
Israel will be isolated internationally even more than it is today.
.
If hanoi-Kerry’s options were real options, then Israel would have a clear and easy choice, just as he argues it has.
.
But unfortunately, they aren’t real options. They are fantasies.
.
Today Israel has three options. As hanoi-Kerry advocates, it can withdraw from Judea and Samaria and partition Jerusalem. But if it does so, there is no reason to believe that the outcome will be a Palestinian state, let alone peace.
.
Rather, it is far more likely that an Israeli withdrawal will lead to the establishment of a second independent Palestinian enclave that the Palestinians and the international community will insist is still under occupation, just as the Palestinians and the international community insist that Gaza remains under Israeli occupation 10 years after Israel vacated the Gaza Strip entirely.
.
Without Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, Israel will become a strategic basket case in an increasingly chaotic region. It will invite aggression from the Palestinians and from the east that it will be hard pressed to defend against.
.
Just as Israel is condemned for every action it has taken to defend against Palestinian aggression from Gaza, so it will be condemned for the actions it will be forced to take to defend itself from Palestinian aggression in Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and beyond.
.
In other words, the so-called “two-state solution” is a recipe for war and expanded international isolation for the Jewish state.
.
The second option for Israel is to maintain the status quo. Today, Israel shares governing power in Judea and Samaria with the PLO. Sometimes the PLO cooperates with Israeli security forces, and sometimes it cooperates with terrorist groups.
.
The PLO rejects Israel’s right to exist. It uses every available platform to undermine Israel’s legitimacy and wage economic and political war against the Jewish state.
.
The advantage of the status quo is that under it, Israel has security control over Judea and Samaria. Consequently, it is able to prevent Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem from becoming strategically indistinguishable from Gaza, where Hamas is now openly collaborating with Islamic State forces in Sinai.
.
Israel’s third option is to apply its laws over all or parts of Judea and Samaria. The first benefit of this option is that it maintains Israel’s ability to defend itself against security threats emanating from the Palestinians and from the east.
.
Beyond that, under Israeli law, the civil rights of Palestinians and Jews in Judea and Samaria will be vastly improved. Israel’s liberal legal code is superior to both the military code governing the Jews and the Palestinian Authority’s law of the jackboot which governs the Palestinians.
.
Whereas the status quo invites and engenders politicization of Israel’s military commanders who serve as the governing authorities of the areas, the third option would end the politicization of the IDF. Generals would take a backseat to elected leaders and government ministries. Police would be responsible for law enforcement. Rather than deploy regular and reserve units to dispel rioters, police, who are better trained for such events, would be judiciously deployed in areas where they are most needed. The IDF’s operations would be limited to counterterrorism.
.
None of Israel’s actual three options will necessarily enhance its international standing. This is the case because, as we have seen, Israel’s international standing has little to do with anything Israel does.
.
But then again, by exhibiting strength, and forcefully asserting its rights, Israel may find itself winning the respect of some foreign governments that currently view it is weak and open to blackmail.
.
This brings us to hanoi-Kerry’s questions about a one-state model.
.
hanoi-Kerry asked, “How does Israel possibly maintain its character as a Jewish and democratic state when from the river to the sea there would not even be a Jewish majority?” The answer is easily. Israel will retain its strong Jewish majority, and its commitment to democracy, after it applies its laws to Judea and Samaria.
.
hanoi- Kerry asked, “Would millions of Palestinians be given the basic rights of Israeli citizens including the right to vote, or would they be relegated to a permanent underclass?” The answer is yes, they would be given the basic rights of Israeli citizens, including the right to vote, and no, they would not be relegated to a permanent underclass.
.
hanoi-Kerry asked, “Would the Israelis and Palestinians living in such close quarters have segregated roads and transportation systems with different laws applying in the Palestinian enclaves?” The answer is, no.
.
hanoi-Kerry asked, “Would anyone really believe they were being treated equally?” The answer is that, as we have seen repeatedly, no matter what Israel does, and no matter what the Palestinians do, people like hanoi-Kerry will always claim that Israel is mistreating the Palestinians.
.
hanoi-Kerry asked, “What would the international response be to that, my friends, or to a decision by Israel to unilaterally annex large portions of the West Bank?” The answer, again, is that the international response to such a move would be about the same as the international response to the continuation of the status quo or to an Israel withdrawal. To wit, the response will be hostile to Israel.
.
hanoi-Kerry asked, “How could Israel ever have true peace with its neighbors, as the Arab Peace Initiative promises and as every Arab leader I have met with in the last year reinforces to me as recently as in the last month that they are prepared to do?” The answer is that Israel can have true peace with the Arab world when the Arab world accepts the legitimacy and permanence of the Jewish state.
.
hanoi-Kerry asked, “How will Arab states make peace... if there is no chance for a two-state solution?” The answer is that they will make peace when they decide they want peace and they rid their societies of Jew hatred.
.
hanoi-Kerry asked, “How will the Arab street in today’s world let... the two-state solution go by?” The answer is that the Arab street doesn’t believe in the “two-state solution.” The Arab street wants the dissolution of Israel.
.
Finally, hanoi-Kerry asked, “And wouldn’t Israel risk being in perpetual conflict with millions of Palestinian living in the middle of a state?” The answer is that Israel is at risk of perpetual conflict with the Palestinians and the Arab world as a whole for as long as the Arabs hate Jews. The millions of Palestinians living within Israel’s borders constitute a far smaller strategic danger to Israel than the millions of Jew-hating Arabs, who have terrorist armies, perched on its international borders.
.
At the outset of his remarks, hanoi-Kerry explained that as far as US Middle East policy is concerned, “Our goal, our strategy is to help ensure that the builders and the healers throughout the region have the chance that they need to accomplish their tasks.”
.
Sadly, this is neither a goal nor a strategy. It is the sort of platitude you’re likely to find inside a Chinese fortune cookie.
.
If hanoi-Kerry is interested in an actual strategy, he can fork out a few bucks and buy my book.
.
E-mail me when people leave their comments –
Follow

You need to be a member of Command Center to add comments!

Join Command Center