Thursday, January 26, 2017
Here are your Dry Bones updates for winston@winstonglobal.orgDry Bones by Ya’acov Kirschen: “You Can’t Blame Them.”
Nope, you can’t blame them.
B”sd
Dear Family & Friends
What can I say tonight? Notice the Map above of the 2500 new housing units planned by Israel announced today. Story tomorrow.
Today’s stories below do speak for themselves. I’ll just add that we had a sprinkling of rain today. Weather forecasts colder, more rain, some snow for Shabbat.
All the very best, Gail/Geula/Savta/Savta Raba x 2/Mom
Our Website: WinstonIsraelInsight.com
1.Day 1 by Daniel Greenfield
2.Obama released millions to PA hours before leaving office
3.‘Netanyahu is ruining the chance of a lifetime’
4.Trump Must Reverse Obama’s ‘Disconnected’ Iran Nuclear Policy
5.American writer suspended over offensive tweet on Trump’s son
6.Senate committee approves Tillerson for Secretary of State
7.‘Trump has already sent embassy architects to Jerusalem’
8.Irish university cancels conference on Israel’s legitimacy
9.UN Security Council Members Trash Quartet Roadmap & 2-State Solution
10.Dystopian vision of George Soros, billionaire funder of the Left
1.Day 1 by Daniel Greenfield  Posted: 23 Jan 2017 02:00 AM PST In the first days of 2017, Washington D.C. was empty. It was a city holding its breath. Secret Service police officers in balaclavas waited at the White House as a black SUV carrying departing staffers passed. It had not been so long ago that they came into the city as if they owned it & the entire country. Now the same men & women who ran & ruined lives of millions were scrolling through job postings on their smartphones. They watched Obama speak from faded screens at sports bars & they cried.
They knew it was coming. Day 1.
The parties and the protests are underway. Hundreds of thousands of Americans & anti-Americans have converged on the city: Tea Party housewives from Milwaukee suburbs & snarling Marxists from the ANSWER coalition, small businessmen from Houston & Berkeley J20ers outshouting the schizophrenic homeless panhandlers at Union Station.
While Trump & Pence are at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Black Lives Matter will be howling abuse at D.C.’s black police officers at Metropolitan Police Headquarters. As Trump takes his oath of office, the Future is Feminist Counter-Inaugural Action will try to disrupt the event with their “bodies.” As Trump speaks to unify America, Leftist protesters plan to smoke pot on the National Mall.
They can’t stop what’s coming. And they know it. The crying Obama staffers loading boxes into their cars & the Marxists biting their lips as they color in their signs on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial feel it. The pundits of the Post, the non-profit parasites & the entire cocktail party circuit can sense it.
Day 1 is more than just a day. It’s the end of an era. It’s the end of Obama.
Berlin, November, 1989. Moscow, August, 1991. Washington D.C., January, 2017. That’s the closest you can come to describing it. It’s the fall of an evil empire. There are breaths of fresh air as the cleansing rain washes away 8 years of oppression, lies & corruption into the sewers of the city.
Day 1.
Trump has executive orders ready to go. While the ceremonies run their course, real change is already underway. The parade that matters is the slow march of Obama’s minions leaving & Trump’s people coming in. The transition began as a trickle, a few here & there, but is swiftly becoming a takeover.
The “landing team members” have moved in. Obama’s people are moving out to be replaced by “beachhead teams”. What started with dozens & then hundreds will become thousands. These clashing armies wear uniforms of black suits & skirts. They wield smartphones & task lists. They run the country.
That’s what the “peaceful transition of power” touted by Obama really means. A force of men & women the size of a small army will depart & another will arrive & take their place. They will do it without a shot being fired. The transition will not be entirely peaceful. The mobs of protesters will see to that. The boycott of the inauguration by House Democrats is a rejection of that transition of power.
The roadblocks, barricades & fences are there to block the radical Left’s plots to physically shut down the inauguration. Meanwhile their political allies in Congress are building roadblocks & barricades to jam up Trump’s nominees in endless committee sessions & hearings.
They can’t stop Day 1. But they are doing everything that they possibly can to slow it down.
Their battle plan is to confirm as few of Trump’s people as possible. The longer it takes to get new leaders into place, the longer it will take those leaders to bring in new people to make reforms. The endless hearings aren’t just political theater. They are an organized effort by the Left to retain control of the government for as long as possible while tangling Trump’s agenda in red tape right from the start.
The protesters & the politicians have the same agenda. They want to stop reform from Day 1.
Walk past the White House, a modest building, serene & gracious with all the attention of the world on it, over to the monstrosity that Mark Twain once dubbed “the ugliest building in America.”
The Eisenhower Executive Office Building, that pile of Second Empire mansard roofs & porticoes, which looks as if Napoleon III had set up shop in the heart of our national government, is where the patriots struggling to overthrow another progressive unconstitutional emperor will mobilize.
Forget the balls. The truly fancy footwork will happen as Trump’s beachhead teams try to take over parts of the government. The real protests won’t be the freak shows with giant signs, mock heads, pink costumes & joints. It will be a grim battle fought in the under-city of the bureaucracy.
It will be an unrelenting battle that will go on for years.
While Trump takes his oath of office, moving trucks will be transporting the Obama occupation out of the White House. The first of the moving vans has already come & gone. When all the moving trucks have transported away the last of the occupation, a new wind will blow through the White House.
Despite the roadblocks & the sabotage, Day 1 is coming. Team Trump is ahead of schedule & under budget. A fifth of the funds are even being returned. When all the t-shirts are sold & the flyers are carried away in trash bags, there will be a new government.
For the first time in 8 years, it will be an American government.
That is what Day 1 really means. Not an era, but an error has ended. Day 1 means the restoration of freedom & the end of tyranny. It means security at home & respect abroad. It means change.
There were those who celebrated & those who mourned the fall of the USSR. So too there are those who celebrate & those who mourn the end of Obama. The tears of Leftist hipsters crying over Obama are no different than those of the old women holding up Stalin’s portrait on May Day in the Red Square.
As the day ends with the Liberty & Freedom Ball, millions will celebrate because these words have meaning once again. They will celebrate because they have been liberated & now they are free.
Day 1 means many things to many people. Most of all it means that millions have reason to hope.
After midnight, in the last days of the last year, I stood at the Lincoln Memorial. Though millions visit it, the vast space was empty. The first Republican president watched over Washington D.C. in silence.
Or almost empty.
A large rat scurried down the steps and vanished into the shadows. Mr. Lincoln watched it go. As he now watches Obama depart.
(This article was originally published here at Front Page Magazine.) |
Day 1 by Daniel Greenfield
2.Obama released millions to PA hours before leaving office
Officials tell AP: Obama defied Republican opposition and quietly released $221 million to the PA in the final hours of his administration.
Obama and PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas meet in Washington in 2014 – Reuters
Former U.S. President Barack Obama defied Republican opposition and quietly released $221 million to the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the final hours of his administration, officials told The Associated Press on Monday.
Republican members of Congress had been holding up the money to the PA, but a State Department official and several congressional aides said the outgoing administration formally notified Congress it would spend the money Friday morning, just before Donald Trump became president.
More than $227 million in foreign affairs funding was released at the time, including $4 million for climate change programs and $1.25 million for UN organizations, according to AP.
The Obama administration had for some time been pressing for the release of the money for the Palestinian Authority, which comes from the U.S. Agency for International Development and is to be used for humanitarian aid in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, to support political and security reforms as well as help prepare for good governance and the rule of law in a future Palestinian state, according to the notification sent to Congress quoted by the news agency.
The official and the aides spoke to AP on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Last March it was reported that members of Congress were delaying a payment of $159 million in aid allocated for the PA in an effort to pressure the PA to relaunch negotiations with Israel.
That was not the first time that the United States’ aid to the PA has made headlines in recent years. Washington has several times cut – and subsequently resumed – the financial aid to the PA.
Previously, this issue made headlines was when the PA unilaterally applied to join the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Obama administration indicated at the time it was reviewing its annual $440 million aid package to the PA because of the decision.
Republican Senator Rand Paul later introduced a bill that would immediately halt aid to the PA until it halts its effort to join the ICC.
In September of 2011, a $192 million aid package was frozen by Congress after the PA submitted a failed unilateral bid for United Nations membership.
In April of 2012, Obama bypassed a Congress block and signed a waiver declaring that aid to the Palestinian Authority is “important to the security interests of the United States.
Obama released millions to PA hours before leaving office
3.‘Netanyahu is ruining the chance of a lifetime’
Senior Israeli official tells Arutz Sheva Prime Minister is on verge of missing an historic opportunity for Israel. By Uzi Baruch, 23/01/17 09:34
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – Hadas Parush/FLASH90
Senior Israeli officials are warning that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is on the verge of missing the chance of a lifetime for Israel, calling the inauguration of President Donald Trump a unique opportunity.
On Sunday, the Security Cabinet voted unanimously to delay discussion on the proposed annexation of Maaleh Adumim, a city of 40,000 residents just east of Jerusalem, until after the Prime Minister meets with Trump in February.
Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) slammed the decision on Monday, calling it a “mistake”, and urged the government to push the measure forward immediately.
“We are a sovereign state and not the 51st star on the American flag,” Ariel told Army Radio. “We need to annex Maaleh Adumim because it is ours. The citizens living in Judea and Samaria deserve the same rights given to residents everywhere else in the country.”
A senior cabinet official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arutz Sheva Monday that Israel was about to miss a historic opportunity.
“We’re missing our chance,” the senior official told Arutz Sheva. “The bottom line is, Netanyahu doesn’t intend to seriously change [his policies], despite the new government in the US.”
According to the official, the Trump administration has reached out to Israel with an unprecedented offer of cooperation.
“Netanyahu is spoiling an opportunity that only comes once in 50 years,” the official said. “We’ve never had this kind of chance before. The Trump administration says to us: ‘Tell us what you want’ – they’re waiting for us [to respond]. But instead of moving away from the idea of two states, Netanyahu continues to act out of weakness and fear.”
The Prime Minister spoke with President Trump Sunday evening in a phone call that lasted less than 30 minutes.
During the call, President Trump invited Netanyahu to meet with him in Washington DC next month.
‘Netanyahu is ruining the chance of a lifetime’
4.TRUMP MUST REVERSE OBAMA’S ‘DISCONNECTED’ IRAN NUCLEAR POLICY
by Mark Langfan, 24/01/17 00:15
Infographic on good vs bad Iran deal – The Israel Project
Beyond the rhetoric of “tearing up” or “abiding by” Obama’s Iranian Nuclear deal, lies the question of what President Trump should actually do with it. The fact is that the Middle East is on fire. And, it’s on fire mostly as a result of Obama’s Iran deal.
What’s the connection? Because in order for Obama to “make” the deal (that was never signed by anybody, and is “voluntary”), Obama agreed to “disconnect” all of Iran’s conventional warfare Middle-East actions from its nuclear dossier. In effect, Obama put the nuclear cart before the conventional warfare horse.
Iran is exhibiting purely malign motives and actions in its conventional action, so how can it ever be trusted when it comes to nuclear actions? Obama used the pretext of the Iran deal to ignore all of Iran’s genocidal actions after the deal was struck. Hence, President Trump shouldn’t start by tearing up Obama’s deal, he should first reverse all the conventional regional policies that have let Iran turn the entire Middle East into a towering inferno.
First of all, box Iran out of Syria & buy the Sunnis into Syria. Trump needs to triangulate Putin, Erdogan & the Sunni countries to stabilize Syria & to box Iran out of Syria. In 2013, General Mattis testified that if Assad falls, it would be the “biggest strategic setback in 25 years” for Iran.
What was General Mattis referring to that was “25 years” ago in 1988? Operation Praying Mantis was the American armed attack on Iranian oil facilities and military facilities on 18 April 1988 in response to Iran’s mining the Straits of Hormuz. Also, Syria is the driver of the Muslim refugees to Europe. Stabilize Syria and you stabilize the Muslim refugee “soft” invasion of Europe. Hence, it is in Russia’s, Turkey’s, America’s, the Sunnis, Europe, and the Israelis’ best interests to stabilize Syria and lock Iran out of the Levant. Stabilize Syria and Trump will actually earn the Nobel Prize.
Second, partner with the Saudis to eradicate the Shiite Houtis from Northern Yemen, and destroy al Qaeda in Eastern Yemen.
The weakest link in the Iranian malignant chain of evil is Yemen. President Trump should enforce a solid impregnable weapons blockade of Yemen against Iranian weapons. Obama has been letting the Saudis struggle and bleed in Yemen.
To America, an Iranian Yemen would mean Iranian control of the Bab el-Mandab Straits that exit the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean. This choke-point transits 3 million barrels of oil a day. This would mean that in addition to the Straits of Hormuz that transit 17 million barrels, Iran will control the additional 3 million. Not only that, with both the Bab el-Mandab & Hormuz Straits under Iranian control, the Iranians could paralyze any emergency defense of Saudi Arabia from Iranian attack.
Third, expose Iran’s game of using the sectarian Shiite Flag to divide and conquer the Arabs to enable the Iranians to steal the Arab “Black Gold Triangle” oil resources.
President Trump has to simply tweet that Iran is playing the Sunni and the Shiite Arabs for fools by instigating their intra-Muslim genocide. President Trump can earn the high praise of the McCain/Graham contingent of the Republican party and the world by exposing Iran as the purveyor and instigator of intra-Arab genocide, as well a bring peace to Iraq & Syria. By raising the Arab flag, President Trump can drain Iraq of its Iranian & al Qaeda sectarian swamp & bring peace to the area.
Fourth, openly support Iranian democratic forces and demand the release of the imprisoned Iranian presidential candidates that Obama has allowed to remain imprisoned.
Unless and until the Iranian theocracy is displaced by a non-sectarian government, the world will suffer from Iran’s malignant actions. President Trump should correct Obama’s tragic mistake of ignoring the forces of democratic change in Iran. Obama’s Iranian policy was ludicrous on its face: by appeasing the Iranian mullahs, and ignoring the home-grown democratic Iranians he thought he would bring positive democratic change to Iran. That’s like saying that by appeasing Hitler with 150 billion dollars and betraying a nascent German democratic revolution, Roosevelt would have empowered the liberal Germans to overthrow Hitler.
Every one of Obama’s catastrophic regional conventional Iranian policies must be reversed. Otherwise, Iran will continue to set the Middle East, and beyond, afire. President Trump must void Obama’s Iranian policy of sanctioning Iran’s malignant regional mode of conventional warfare and his past attempts to curry nuclear favors with a genocidal Iranian Shiite regime bent on regional and global hegemony.
The writer is Chairman of Americans for a Safe Israel (AFSI) and specializes in security issues, has created an original educational 3d Topographic Map System of Israel to facilitate clear understanding of the dangers facing Israel and its water supply. It has been studied by US lawmakers and can be seen at www.marklangfan.com.
Trump Must Reverse Obama’s ‘Disconnected’ Iran Regional Policy
5.American writer suspended over offensive tweet on Trump’s son
Saturday Night Live writer Katie Rich suspended indefinitely after offensive tweet about Trump’s 10-year-old son causes an uproar. BY Arutz Sheva Staff, 24/01/17 02:08
President Trump and his son Barron – Reuters
Saturday Night Live writer Katie Rich has been suspended indefinitely from the popular television show following an inappropriate tweet about President Donald Trump’s son Barron, TVLine.com reports Monday. NBC, the network which airs the program, and the show itself have yet to officially comment on the matter, but the report noted that Rich’s name did not appear in the credits for this week’s episode.
Rich’s tweet, which she has since deleted, predicted that Trump’s ten-year-old boy “will be this country’s first home-school shooter.”
Following the uproar over her comments, Rich took to Twitter on Monday to apologize for the joke, writing, “I sincerely apologize for the insensitive tweet. I deeply regret my actions & offensive words. It was inexcusable & I’m so sorry.”
One of those who spoke out against Rich’s tweet was former first daughter Chelsea Clinton.
“Barron Trump deserves the chance every child does — to be a kid,” Clinton wrote.
Saturday Night Live repeatedly irked Trump in recent months with its sketches featuring actor Alec Baldwin as Trump.
Trump has fired back at the show on Twitter, calling it “unwatchable” and “totally biased.”
American writer suspended over offensive tweet on Trump’s son
6.Senate committee approves Tillerson for Secretary of State By Ben Ariel
Senate Foreign Relations Committee votes in favor of sending Rex Tillerson’s nomination as Secretary of State to the full Senate. 1/24/17 01:08
Rex Tillerson – Reuters
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Monday voted in favor of sending the nomination of former ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State to the full Senate with a recommendation of approval.
The vote was 11-10, according to CNN.
Earlier on Monday, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) announced that he would support Tillerson, removing the last significant stumbling block to the nomination.
A similar announcement came on Sunday from Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who confirmed they would vote in favor of Tillerson after previously expressing concern over his ties to Russia.
A final confirmation vote on the Senate floor is expected next week, leadership aides from each party told CNN.
During the vote, Rubio said that he still had reservations about Tillerson, but looked favorably on Tillerson’s support for NATO & his recognition that “Russia’s claims on Crimea are illegitimate.”
He came around to supporting the nominee because “given the uncertainty that exists both at home and abroad about the direction of our foreign policy, it would be against our national interests to have this confirmation unnecessarily delayed or embroiled in controversy,” Rubio said.
The Democrats, who voted unanimously against Tillerson, catalogued a series of concerns, including his stance on Russia, human rights, and how long he would recuse himself from decisions that could affect Exxon, according to CNN.
During his confirmation hearing, Tillerson had faced a grilling about his close ties to Russia and whether his business experience could translate into diplomatic skills. His answers about human rights riled both Democrats and Republicans like Rubio, who told the businessman in his confirmation hearing that U.S. foreign policy needs a “moral clarity” he wasn’t hearing.
At that hearing, Tillerson expressed support for Israel while blasting the Obama administration for its attitude toward the Jewish state, particularly its decision not to veto UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which criticiz