12/31/16

Democratic Congressman Lacy Clay Hangs Black Lives Matter Painting In US Capitol

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton | Right Wing News

This is beyond offensive. Democratic Missouri Congressman Lacy Clay chose the painting below as part of the United States Congressional Art Competition. The so-called artist is David Pulphus and it is meant to depict the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, where a police office shot Michael Brown. That officer wound up moving and ending his career over this even though he did nothing wrong. Brown charged him and he did what he was trained to do. Black Lives Matter and the left immediately began to push the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!” lie. That never happened, but tell a lie often enough and you’ll get a good number of useful idiots to believe you.

Pulphus paints the officers as pigs in his artwork. Two of the officers carry guns while protesters march towards them carrying signs that read “history,” “stop killing” and “racism kills.” It’s all kinds of wrong. It’s full of cop-hatred and racism, not to mention pent up violence. And my personal opinion is it just sucks as art. I guess I just don’t get BLM nuance. Pulphus’ artwork won first place in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, so his painting now hangs in a tunnel between the Capitol building and the Longworth House Office Building. It should be in the trash.

From Young Conservatives:

The police have been demonized by the media and the left in this country over the last few years.

There is no question about that.

Some radical groups, like Black Lives Matter, have even called for the murder of police officers.

It’s been scary to watch.

You wouldn’t expect politicians and educated leaders to buy into the nonsense.

But that’s exactly what has happened.

Check out the picture that was approved to hang in the United States Capitol building.

From BizPac Review:

A Missouri congressman has approved a painting that depicts cops as pigs to hang in the U.S. Capitol building.

The painting, done by David Pulphus, shows the unrest in Ferguson, Mo. after a police officer shot Michael Brown, reports the Independent Journal Review.

And the Democratic Congressman who approved the painting? He’s a piece of work himself. Rep. William Lacy Clay, Jr. is supported by the Communist Party USA and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. He’s part of the Progressive Caucus and the Black Caucus. Clay is a Marxist and a racist, so it figures he would be all in on this painting. He is a strong supporter of Black Lives Matter as well.

Clay praised the painting as a “colorful landscape of symbolic characters” in a press release. “The painting portrays a colorful landscape of symbolic characters representing social injustice, the tragic events in Ferguson and the lingering elements of inequality in modern American society,” the press release stated. Do tell… so you call cop-hatred colorful? Not everyone shares those sentiments… “Unfortunately, many people of influence have taken part in promoting offensive and inaccurate caricatures of the very people who do the most to protect our families,” Washington GOP Rep. Dave Reichert, a former police officer, told the Independent Journal Review.

A senior Republican congressional aide also blasted the artwork in a scathing statement provided to IJR:

“That a sitting member of Congress thought it was a good idea to honor the depiction of police officers as pigs — in the U.S. Capitol of all places — is reprehensible. I feel incredibly sad that the officers working nearby have to see this on the wall. These officers protect this congressman, his staff, and his office every day, never knowing if it may be their last. Meanwhile, he’s encouraging teenagers in his district to treat police officers as animals. It’s disgusting, and he should be ashamed. This hate masquerading as art needs to be taken down now.”

Naturally, Clay could not be reached for comment. He’s all for others threatening police officers, but when it comes to standing on his convictions, Clay seems to be more missing in action than activist at times. Clay also reportedly called the piece of art the “most creative expression that I’ve witnessed over the last 16 years” during remarks on the House floor.

It’s a massive disgrace that a painting depicting cops as pigs is hung in our Capitol. I’m fairly certain that if President-elect Trump has anything to say about it, that painting will be deep-sixed as it should be.

12/31/16

Louie Gohmert Joins With Ted Cruz: Defund the UN… Slams Obama for Anti-Israel UN Attack

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton | Right Wing News

God bless Louie Gohmert. The conservative Texan Congressman is not only a principled man… he has a spine made of titanium. Gohmert is never afraid to speak his mind and did so on the Sean Hannity show concerning Barack Obama and John Kerry betraying Israel at the United Nations. This is how it is done… magnificent and well said. Slow clap.

Gohmert is now working on a bill to take away funding from the UN until they rescind their resolution on Israeli settlements and he noted that “they don’t need our help to be anti-Semitic.” He also wants to make it a crime to use any government money to recognize Palestine as an independent country or state. Amen to that… twice. He also bluntly stated that the Obama administration favors “the bullies over the victims. … Look at it, who have they given more money than anybody? Iran.” Exactly right. Obama hearts Islamic terrorist thugs over the Jewish state and America. Muslims of a feather. There, I said it.

From Western Journalism:

Between Friday’s stab-in-the-back betrayal of one of the country’s closest allies and Wednesday’s insult-to-injury speech by Secretary of State John Kerry, President Barack Obama’s foreign policies are careening to the end of his term like a runaway train.

But a conservative Texas congressman wants to put on the brakes.

Rep. Louie Gohmert, the veteran Republican representative from the Lone Star State and an outspoken conservative leader in Congress, told Fox News’ Kimberly Guilfoyle this week he’s joining with conservatives in the Senate by preparing a bill to cripple the United Nations by cutting off U.S. money for it.

After Friday’s passage — with the approval of the Obama administration — of a Security Council resolution that brands Israeli an international criminal for building housing on its own territory, and Secretary of State John Kerry’s attack Israel for allegedly blocking the peace process, Gohmert said it was time to bring both the United Nations and the Obama White House to heel.

The bill he’s preparing, he said, has twin goals.

“One, we don’t give a dime to the U.N. until they rescind that resolution,” Gohmert said. “And people say, ‘oh, they’ll never do that.’ Fine, they don’t need our help to be anti-Semitic.

“The other is … making it a crime to use any government money to recognize Palestine as an independent country or state, because that’s what I keep hearing is going to be the next shoe to drop.”

Louie Gohmert has joined forces with another feisty Texan, Ted Cruz, to go after defunding the UN. Obama is trying to set America on fire on his way out of the White House. Attacking Israel in this fashion and stabbing them in the back is the most shameful act yet, in a long, long line of shameful acts. Cruz excoriated President Obama and his administration for its cowardice and proposed a unique retribution for the UN once President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

Cruz sharply criticized Obama and stated that we should “reconsider financial support for the nations that supported this resolution” and that it may be time to “significantly reduce or even eliminate US funding of the United Nations.” Agreed. And we should expel Palestinian diplomats as well. I notice that Obama is hot for the Russians, but does not mention the Palestinians, who are terrorists, at all.

“For eight long years, the Obama administration has worked systematically to undermine the nation of Israel,” Cruz wrote. “They actively worked to defeat Prime Minister Netanyahu, and illegally used US taxpayer funds to do so. Never has there been a more anti-Israel administration, and today’s United Nations vote is the culmination of their systemic agenda to weaken Israel and strengthen its enemies. Every Obama foreign policy official should be ashamed of today’s UN resolution, and any official who disagrees with or hopes to avoid the anti-Israel legacy of this administration should resign on principle today,” he continued.

More from Cruz: “I also emphatically second the call of my colleague Sen. Lindsey Graham that the consequences of this disgraceful UN resolution should be severe,” Cruz said. “I look forward to working with Sen. Graham, and with the incoming administration of President-elect Trump, to significantly reduce or even eliminate US funding of the United Nations, and also to seriously reconsider financial support for the nations that supported this resolution. For those who have put your name to this despicable attack on Israel, you did so with full knowledge of the consequences of your actions. And for those who acquiesced or facilitated the UN resolution- — especially President Obama, Secretary Kerry, and Ambassador Power- — history will record your abiding and shameful legacy undermining our friend and ally Israel,” Cruz added.

Gohmert and Cruz are right… cut off funding for the UN and anyone who supports their hatred of Israel. Stand by Israel for real and hit these anti-Semitic bastards where it hurts. In their wallet. Since the UN seems to hate Israel and America so much, cut off the $3 billion we give them directly every year and in fact, cut off the $8 billion we give to them and connected organizations annually. That money can be used on our southern border and to bring jobs back to our country. Make America great again… defund the UN.

12/30/16

Obama’s “Evidence” Against Russia Falls Flat

By: Cliff Kincaid | Accuracy in Media

The Democrats have been saying that there’s proof that the Russians hacked into Democratic Party computers for the purpose of obtaining and planting information that would help elect Donald J. Trump as president. But the proof wasn’t provided when President Obama issued an executive order and announced the expulsions of Russians from the U.S., and sanctions against Russian officials.

Still, our media were almost unanimous in saying that President Obama has proved his case and that Trump was out-of-step with what the evidence clearly showed.

For his part, Trump seemed in no hurry to come to any rash conclusions, saying he would meet with “leaders of the intelligence community” next week in order to be “updated on the facts of this situation.”

The facts were certainly in short supply when the media jumped to conclusions about the “evidence” released by the Obama administration.

A big question was timing. Kevin D. Freeman, an expert on economic and financial warfare between nations, has commented that the evidence indicates that the Obama team disregarded the threat of Russian hacking in the past “because they were confident that Secretary Clinton would win.” He called that “stunning.”

According to this line of reasoning, the Obama administration decided to blame the Russians only after Trump won the election, perhaps for the purpose of complicating the foreign relations priorities of the President-elect.

Whatever the motivation, the Obama administration’s “Joint Analysis Report” on alleged “Russian malicious cyber activity” is very weak and vague in key respects.

It would have been nice if reporters had read the pathetically thin report before concluding that there was substance to it, and that Trump was somehow derelict in not accepting what Obama had to offer.

Only four-and-a-half pages of the 13-page report purport to examine alleged Russian hacking activities. The rest of the report gives advice on how to provide security for computer networks.

It looked like the report was padded in order to make it seem more authoritative than it really was.

A separate White House press release went into some more detail, alleging that “the disclosures of alleged hacked e-mails on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks are consistent with the Russian-directed efforts.” But being “consistent with” is not proof.

WikiLeaks released the emails from the account of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. The website DCLeaks.com was responsible for the embarrassing disclosures from within the George Soros network of organizations.

The new Obama report, described as “the result of analytic efforts between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),” includes a “DISCLAIMER” stating that it is “for informational purposes only,” and that the DHS “does not provide any warranties of any kind regarding any information contained within.”

It sounded like the kind of warning that comes with a possibly defective product.

There’s no question that the Russians engage in cyber warfare. But the “facts” in the Obama report seemed unusually vague. It states that “The U.S. Government confirms that two different RIS [Russian civilian and military intelligence Services] actors participated in the intrusion into a U.S. political party,” but doesn’t even mention the Democrats.

The term “confirms” sounds authoritative. But how the “facts” were confirmed and by whom was not explained. The report, however, does include some fancy color diagrams and a list of names under which the Russian hackers supposedly operated.

The report says this alleged Russian campaign, designated as “GRIZZLY STEPPE,” was an activity by Russian civilian and military intelligence services and was “part of an ongoing campaign of cyber-enabled operations directed at the U.S. government and private sector entities.”

If it was ongoing, why did it take so long for Obama to take action?

The report refers to one alleged Russian campaign that had “compromised the same political party,” again without saying it was the Democrats, and “was able to gain access and steal content, likely leading to the exfiltration of information from multiple senior party members.” The fancy term “exfiltration” means the unauthorized transfer of data from a computer. “The U.S. Government assesses that information was leaked to the press and publicly disclosed,” the report states, without saying who in the press was given the information and who or what leaked it.

“This activity by RIS is part of an ongoing campaign of cyber-enabled operations directed at the U.S. government and its citizens,” the report states. “These cyber operations have included spearphishing campaigns targeting government organizations, critical infrastructure entities, think tanks, universities, political organizations, and corporations leading to the theft of information.”

The term “spearphishing” refers to emails that appear to be from individuals or businesses that a person knows, but which are actually from criminal hackers. The recipient is fooled into resetting a password on the account, enabling the hackers to extract credit card and bank account numbers, passwords, and other personal or financial information.

This appears to be what happened in the case of Clinton campaign chairman Podesta.

“Russia’s cyber activities were intended to influence the election, erode faith in U.S. democratic institutions, sow doubt about the integrity of our electoral process, and undermine confidence in the institutions of the U.S. government,” the White House claimed. “These actions are unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”

But Obama’s “evidence” raises questions about the worth and value of the intelligence agencies that apparently provided it.

No wonder Trump wants to wait and see.


Cliff Kincaid is the Director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism and can be contacted at [email protected]. View the complete archives from Cliff Kincaid.

12/30/16

The Times Struggles with Lessons from 2016 Election Debacle

By: Roger Aronoff | Accuracy in Media

Back in August, during the heat of the election, New York Times columnist Jim Rutenberg suggested that reporters could abandon their objectivity and engage in “oppositional” journalism, because then-candidate Donald Trump was “an abnormal and potentially dangerous candidate.” Now, as Trump’s inauguration approaches, Rutenberg writes that “what” the mainstream media “did right” during the election “has been less appreciated than it deserves.” The column is titled, “Lessons From 2016 for the News Media, as the Ground Shifts.”

“Faced with a precedent-shattering candidate who made false assertions at a rate none had seen before—one considerably higher than that of his opponent—reporters became more assertive in directly calling out falsehoods,” he writes. While Rutenberg is attempting to explain to the media the lessons of 2016, his lessons are not well-founded and are as partisan as those found in his column last summer.

Trump’s “false assertions” have generally been fairly minor and petty—or exaggerated by the media. For example, the linked Washington Post article claims that “anyone could find that the majority of Mexican immigrants are not, in fact, criminals and rapists.” But as James Simpson exposed in a special report for Accuracy in Media, illegal immigrants are committing disproportionately large numbers of crimes, including homicide and rape.

In contrast to Trump, Hillary Clinton’s lies are an attempt to cover for malfeasance, scandal, and corrupt conflicts of interest. She is the only U.S. secretary of state to have used a private, unsecure email server to conduct classified business for the Department of State. Yet she lied, repeatedly, about sending or receiving classified information through that server. She even lied about FBI Director James Comey’s email investigation in an interview she had with Fox News’ Chris Wallace—despite the fact that Comey’s comments were public and critical of her actions. And she lied when she suggested that what she did was no different than what Colin Powell did when he was secretary of state for George W. Bush.

In addition, Hillary Clinton’s connections to the Clinton Foundation while she was secretary of state reveal that she used her influence to benefit donors to the foundation time and again, raising the issue of pay-for-play, which her campaign vigorously denied. The Associated Press reported that “More than half the people outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state gave money—either personally or through companies or groups—to the Clinton Foundation.”

We have cited numerous examples of Hillary mixing her State Department business with donors and benefactors of both the Clinton Foundation, and the Clintons personally. Those include the Uranium One deal and the Skolkovo deal, both of which also benefitted Russia’s strategic interests. In arguing what the media did right, Rutenberg linked to a single New York Times article about the Uranium One deal, written a year and a half before the election, to show that the media had “dug into the interests of the Clinton Foundation’s foreign donors.” They didn’t dig very deep.

In addition, we have documented Hillary’s many lies about Benghazi, including who she blamed for the terrorist attack on the Special Mission Compound and CIA Annex that killed four Americans; what she told the family members when their loved ones’ bodies arrived back in the U.S.; what she knew about the flow of arms to al-Qaeda related groups in Libya, and whether or not she was aware of any of the hundreds of requests for additional security.

Trump must work to eliminate even the appearance of conflicts of interest. His supporters knew that they were voting for a businessman with vast holdings and interests worldwide, as Trump pointed out during his brief press availability with Don King on December 28, but it is nonetheless incumbent upon him to find a way to avoid profiting from decisions made by anyone in the U.S. government.

While The Washington Post’s analysis may have over-estimated the nature and quantity of Trump’s lies, the nefarious quality of Mrs. Clinton’s attempts at defensive cover-ups outweigh the caliber of any lies or inaccuracies from Trump.

In his lessons, Rutenberg continues to cite the “anger” of voters as a factor in Trump’s win. He writes that the mainstream media “generally failed to appreciate the power of the anger that ultimately decided the presidency.” In addition, he writes, the media were “overly hooked on polling that indicated a Hillary Clinton glide path, overly reliant on longtime sources…and too disconnected from too many workaday Americans.”

However, rather than ignore the alleged power of anger in this election, the media routinely sensationalized and emphasized the hate that Trump was supposedly fostering at every possible occasion. In fact, Politico reported the day before the election that “Trump stokes voter anger in final stretch,” describing Clinton in turn as giving “sunny platitudes.” A Daily Beast column stated that “Trump Will Go Away, but the Anger He’s Stirred Up Is Just Getting Started.” These are just a couple of the articles penned by a mainstream media obsessed with ensuring that Trump didn’t win.

“It’s our right and need to know about civic matters, fully, fairly and accurately, that is the public virtue in journalism and the sine qua non of democracy,” writes Patrick Maines, president of The Media Institute, for The Hill. “Although virtually all of the MSM violated this boundary in their frantic support of Clinton, some were worse than others.”

“But the very worst of the MSM in this regard were not the TV networks, broadcast or cable, but the two newspapers that dominate the news business, the New York Times and the Washington Post,” Maines asserts.

Rutenberg writes that the mainstream media “repeatedly underestimated Donald Trump, not to mention Bernie Sanders.” In reality, the mainstream media actively worked to stop both of these candidates. For example, a WikiLeaks email suggests that Donna Brazile, interim chair of the Democrat National Committee, leaked a CNN town hall question to Hillary Clinton and a question asked during the primary. “At the time of the debate and town hall, Brazile was a CNN contributor and vice chair of the Democratic National Committee,” reports Business Insider.

But the media complicity doesn’t end there. We have reported extensively on the corruption of the Democrat-Media Complex and how it assiduously worked to undermine Donald Trump and elevate presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

“Of course, where one stands on press bias so often depends on where one sits politically,” writes Rutenberg. “Talk with a Clinton aide and you’ll inevitably hear that unfair news coverage was a big reason for her loss.”

The media’s double standard against Trump in this election became obvious to anyone who was paying attention. No amount of equivocation could have disguised how these powerful media manipulators worked hand-in-glove with Democrats in an attempt to swing this election.

Here are some lessons the media should learn. Report the news objectively, become less reliant on polls, confine your opinions and support for your candidates to the editorial and op-ed pages. Then the voters will decide on their own who to vote for, and the news media might gain some badly needed respect.


Roger Aronoff is the Editor of Accuracy in Media, and a member of the Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi. He can be contacted at [email protected]. View the complete archives from Roger Aronoff.

12/29/16

The Russian Dachas in Maryland and Long Island

By: Denise Simon | FoundersCode.com

This 45 acre compound in Maryland was purchased in 1972. This is used as a safe hour and listening post along with database and communications systems.

WashingtonLife: Russian Ambassador Yuri Ushakov and his wife Svetlana continue the Russian tradition of summer escapes and family bonding on Maryland’s Eastern Shore

Russians cherish the dacha, a word meaning summer house or cottage. During summers and weekends, millions of them leave the stress of congested city life for the solace of a cabin or house in the countryside. “It’s a Russian tradition,” explains Yuri Ushakov, ambassador of the Russian Federation. “You will find Moscow empty on Saturdays and Sundays, even in winter. A dacha is a good place to spend time outdoors with family and friends.”

Since arriving in Washington eight years ago, the Ushakov and his wife Svetlana Ushakova have kept up this tradition on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. They spend nearly every weekend and longer stretches during the summer at the embassy’s three-story brick dacha fronting the Chester River. While the 1920s Georgian-style house doesn’t exactly look Russian, it offers the couple the same pleasures as their dacha outside of Moscow, especially the chance to spend time with their 10-year-old grandson Misha, grilling shashlik (Russian shish kebob), with friends, or relaxing in the bania, Russian for steam room.

“Because we have such a hectic life in Washington, we need a place to hide for awhile,” says Ushakova on a recent tour of the dacha, accompanied by Simon, her west highland terrier. “This is the best spot for really being alone with your family. Of course, we entertain friends, colleagues and officials here but not as much as we do in the city. We prefer to host small gatherings where you can really talk, exchange opinions and enjoy each other’s company.”

Strolling the grounds of this park-like setting, lushly planted with magnolias, cypress and boxwood, it’s easy to understand why these diplomats treasure their getaway. It is located right on the waterfront with all the amenities of a resort. Within a short walk from the main house are a swimming pool and cabana, tennis court and waterfront dock. While the 57-yearold ambassador’s wife likes the seclusion of the pool near the river, her husband, a fit 60-yearold, prefers swatting balls on the tennis court, boating on the river or cycling around the grounds with his grandson in tow. The couple can also be found browsing the antique shops in nearby Centreville, Chestertown and Easton, looking for the porcelains that Ushakova collects or the old books treasured by Ushakov, who also collects red wine.

Some of the finds from those trips, along with a phone from a Soviet submarine, adorn the one-room “hunting lodge” where the couple hosts special visitors. “No one really hunts but that’s what we call it,” Ushakova says with a laugh. This shingled shed with its outdoor fireplace, one of many outbuildings on the property, is tucked off the tree-lined lane leading to the house. Inside, a long wooden table under timber ceiling beams and glass beer steins hanging from a rack create the feeling of a rustic pub. A colorful mural of Russian and American sailors clinking their beer glasses decorates the back wall; the Russian wears a naval hat inscribed with “Ushakov.”

The lodge is one of several recent renovations to the sprawling estate once known as Pioneer Point Farm. The current 45 acres originally belonged to a 700-acre land grant from Britain in the 1600s. In 1702, the farm was purchased by Richard Tilghman and remained in his family until 1925 when it was sold to John J. Raskob, an executive with Dupont and General Motors. Tombstones dating from the early 1800s still remain on the property, but the first wood-framed dwelling on the estate is long gone. Raskob built the current brick mansion where the front door knocker, inscribed with “Hartefield House,” bears the only witness to that original home. For his 13 children and their friends, he also constructed an equally grand, neighboring brick house, which is now being restored by the Russian government.

After Raskob died, the estate was sold to a succession of owners in the decades following World War II. The Soviet government purchased the two houses and surrounding land in 1972 and later obtained more acreage after a land swap with the State Department, which in return received property in Moscow. The deal, however, wasn’t initially well received by the locals who were worried about suspicious foreigners. “It was during the Cold War and people around here were afraid that the Russians would bring their battleships,” Ushakova says. “But then they realized that it wasn’t so bad because Russians started coming to the local shops to buy food and everything. They realized that there was no danger and saw that we took care of the house and property. Moreover, they realized that the Russians were friendly and hospitable.”

For more than two decades, the Eastern Shore property served as a dacha for Anatoly Dobrynin who was the Soviet ambassador during the Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan administrations until he returned to Moscow in 1986. Dobrynin preserved the Flemish-bond red brick and ornate painted ironwork of the Raskob mansion and kept many of the furnishings that came with the house. Fourteen rental cottages, some built in Finland and shipped to the site, were added for embassy staff.

Much of the original flavor of the house remains intact. The formal living and dining rooms flanking the wide center hall retain their teak floors, oriental carpets and impressive crystal chandeliers. An archway on one side of the living room leads to the walnut-paneled library where built-in shelves hold many of the ambassador’s favorite books. Off the other side, a glass-enclosed porch overlooks a brick-walled courtyard where a fountain gurgles quietly. A two-story screened porch, set behind the rear colonnade of the house, provides a river view between nearly century-old boxwoods.

As an offshoot of the embassy, the dacha is frequently used for official functions. Every May, the entire staff is invited to celebrate Victory Day, a Russian holiday commemorating World War II, and on Labor Day, the Sailing Club of the Chesapeake arrives to enjoy an annual fete. “The main mission for us has been to keep the house and grounds alive,” Ushakov says.

On weekends, the couple prefers hosting smaller gatherings and house parties of no more than 10 people. Menus include fish freshly caught from the Chesapeake and salads tossed with lettuces, cucumbers and tomatoes picked from the vegetable gardens on the property. “People can relax and open up in way that they never do in the city,” Ushakova says. “A dacha is not just about entertaining. It’s about uniting people in a very spiritual way because here you are in harmony with nature. That’s why the dacha is so powerful for Russians.”

A painted mural of toasting Russian and American sailors decorates the rear wall of the rustic hunting lodge, a former outbuilding converted by the ambassador and his wife for entertaining.

****

NYT’s: The Soviet compound on Dosoris Lane, was the idea of Walter Green, chairman of the Harrison Conference Services, the parent concern, who invited his neighbors for the early-morning get-together.

Mr. Belonogov brought along two Soviet trade aides, Yuri D. Sherbena, president of the Amtorg Trading Company, and Dimitry A. Solovykn, deputy president of the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Trade and Economic Council, and said that a number of Soviet products, including textiles, nickel, plywood and fertilizers, could be marketed here effectively.

Calling it ”most urgent” to start to move in the armaments race, Mr. Belonogov said: ”The more arms at our disposal, the less secure we are. Arms today are more sophisticated. As a result, all are becoming hostages of military technology.”

The chief delegate escorted the businessmen -all presidents or chief executive officers of major Long Island concerns – and a few journalists around the mansion, which was built by George DuPont Pratt, an heir to the Standard Oil fortune, in 1913. The Soviet Government bought the 49-room mansion and its 36 acres of choice property in the 1940’s, around the time of the formation of the United Nations, as a facility for its staff at the world organization, then headquartered at Lake Success.

Today, the compound, called Killenworth, is used as a weekend retreat for members of the Soviet Mission to the United Nations.

Austere and sparsely furnished, the mansion has only a few of the lush trappings associated with turn-of-the-century elegance on the North Shore. The chapel still has all its original woodwork and decorations, and the mansion’s fireplaces work, Mr. Belonogov noted. Many of the sconces, chandeliers and some furnishings remain intact from the early days. The rest, with modern plumbing and electricity, is basically functional.

”The property is very picturesque,” Mr. Belonogov said, ”and two families live here on a permanent basis. There is a swimming pool and facilities for sports.”

The businessmen did not get a chance to explore the grounds, which include a rose garden and Roman and Greek-style statuary, because of inclement weather, but the landscape appeared well gardened, lush and verdant, with bursts of early spring flowers.

Mr. Green of the Harrison center said he expected to have additional meeting with diplomats and business leaders.

Among those who toured the Soviet compound were Martin Hills, president of Venus Scientific; Mervin H. First of RFI; Daniel M. Healy, managing partner of Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co.; Harry Mariani, president of Villa Banfi; W.F. Kenny of Meenan Oil; Douglas Maxwell of Powers Chemco; Sal J. Nuzzo of Hazeltine;, Aneen Solomon of Jack LaLanne Management, and Harold Lazarus of the School of Business of Hofstra University.

***

Or is it this one?

A House of Intrigue and, the Neighbors Say, Espionage

The house in the foreground, on Fieldston Road in the Bronx, was long rumored among neighbors to be used by the government to spy on the taller building behind it, which is used to house Russian diplomats.

The house in the foreground, on Fieldston Road in the Bronx, was long rumored among neighbors to be used by the government to spy on the taller building behind it, which is used to house Russian diplomats.Credit Ángel Franco/The New York Times

In real estate, the saying goes, location is key, and it is certainly true for the little white house at 5437 Fieldston Road in Riverdale.

In a world without global tensions and nuclear showdowns, this modest, single-family house in the Bronx might have enjoyed a perfectly neutral existence.

Instead it became infamous locally, gaining a reputation as a spy house because it is separated by a fence from the Russian Federation, which opened in 1974 as a diplomatic residence.

This unassuming house provided perhaps the best physical vantage point to the 20-story building on the property, which lies between Mosholu Avenue and Fieldston Road near 255th Street and is encircled by an imposing, spike-tipped fence.

Shortly after the Russian compound opened, the house was bought by a corporation, Van Cortland Realty, whose ownership was difficult to discern. Neighbors say they can never remember anyone living there – even up to the present day.

The property was maintained by a landscaper, and junk mail and circulars were presumably collected periodically, although none of about a dozen neighbors interviewed can recall how.

“I call it the mystery house,” said Mike O’Rourke, 86, who has been a doorman at Fieldston Manor, across the street from the house, for 20 years.

“I’ve never seen anyone go in or out,” Mr. O’Rourke said.

Herminio Sanes Jr., the superintendent at Fieldston Manor, said most neighbors assumed it was used by federal agents as a surveillance house to watch the Russian compound, which is now operated by Russia’s mission to the United Nations.

“Everyone always said it was an F.B.I. house,” said Mr. Sanes, who added that the most activity he ever spotted near the property were repair crews that seemed to constantly tend to the phone lines near the house.

“We used to always see men working on the telephone poles, and we used to say, ‘How many times can they possibly fix these lines?’” Mr. Sanes said.

But it appears this house of intrigue may be reborn as a house of worship. According to New York City finance records, the house has been purchased for $400,000 by the Talner Congregation Beth David. The congregation hopes to demolish the house and build a synagogue, according to New York City Department of Buildings officials.

Congregation officials did not return messages requesting comment, but Susan Goldy, a local real estate agent helping the congregation find temporary rental space, said she had discussed the sale with a congregation member.

“The congregation basically doesn’t even know who they bought the house from,” Ms. Goldy said. “The inside of the house looked as if it had never been lived in, and the lawyer for the seller who handled the closing never explained who the real owner was, beyond the corporate name.”

Two officers from Van Cortland Realty, a holding company that bought the house shortly after the compound opened, and which has a business address in Ellicott City, Md., near Washington, did not return phone calls.An F.B.I. spokesman in New York declined to comment about neighborhood rumors regarding the house. Officials of Russia’s United Nations mission also did not respond to a request for comment.

So while the truth of the 5437 Fieldston Road may never be known, its history as a local legend with spy-novel status seems worth summarizing.

In the early 1970s, as the Russian compound was being built, the modest house was sold several times between real estate holding companies.

Cold-war-spy story lines flew about the house, which looked about as nondescript as a man in a tan overcoat and sunglasses reading a newspaper in a spy movie.

Its vantage point overlooked huge satellite dishes mounted on a lower floor of the Russian Federation building. The blinds on the windows that faced the federation building always seemed closed.

Neighbors theorized that the house was used for camera surveillance and to monitor phone lines at the Russian Federation, but no one ever seemed to come or go. After snowstorms, the front of the house would remain covered in smooth white snow, with no footsteps, sometimes for weeks until the snow melted.

“It was well known that it was a government house, one of the agencies,” said a longtime resident on the block who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is a retired deputy inspector with the New York Police Department and he did not feel comfortable being revealed speaking about the topic.

Several residents of Fieldston Manor said it was common knowledge that F.B.I. agents worked out of an apartment in the complex that faces both the house and the compound.

“A lot of us spoke to the agents, and they did not hide who they were,” said William Nage, 60, a retired interior designer.

Workers would show up so often to climb a utility pole outside the house and work on the lines, it became a running joke among residents.

“We used to say, ‘At least we probably have better television reception than anyone else,’” Ms. Goldy said.

And even after the breakup of the Soviet Union, the house remained empty yet well maintained, Mr. O’Rourke said.

As he spoke he stopped a passing resident and asked, “What do you know about that white house across the street?”

“Oh,’’ the resident replied nonchalantly, “that’s a government house.”

12/29/16

Obama, from Hawaii Issued Formal Sanctions Against Russians

By: Denise Simon | FoundersCode.com

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released a Joint Analysis Report (JAR) that details Russian malicious cyber activity, designated as GRIZZLY STEPPE. This activity by Russian civilian and military intelligence services (RIS) is part of an ongoing campaign of cyber-enabled operations directed at the U.S. government and private sector entities.

DHS recommends that network administrators review the Security Publication for more information and implement the recommendations provided.

Barack Obama says US shutting down two Russian compounds in Maryland and New York and declaring 35 Russian intelligence operatives “persona non grata.”

Issuance of Amended Executive Order 13694; Cyber-Related Sanctions Designations

12/29/2016

Today, the President issued an Executive Order Taking Additional Steps To Address The National Emergency With Respect To Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities.  This amends Executive Order 13694, “Blocking the Property of Certain Persons Engaging in Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities.”  E.O. 13694 authorized the imposition of sanctions on individuals and entities determined to be responsible for or complicit in malicious cyber-enabled activities that result in enumerated harms that are reasonably likely to result in, or have materially contributed to, a significant threat to the national security, foreign policy, or economic health or financial stability of the United States.  The authority has been amended to also allow for the imposition of sanctions on individuals and entities determined to be responsible for tampering, altering, or causing the misappropriation of information with the purpose or effect of interfering with or undermining election processes or institutions.  Five entities and four individuals are identified in the Annex of the amended Executive Order and will be added to OFAC’s list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN List).  OFAC today is designating an additional two individuals who also will be added to the SDN List.

Specially Designated Nationals List Update


The following individual has been added to OFAC’s SDN List:  

ALEXSEYEV, Vladimir Stepanovich; DOB 24 Apr 1961; Passport 100115154 (Russia); First Deputy Chief of GRU (individual) [CYBER2] (Linked To: MAIN INTELLIGENCE DIRECTORATE).

BELAN, Aleksey Alekseyevich (a.k.a. Abyr Valgov; a.k.a. BELAN, Aleksei; a.k.a. BELAN, Aleksey Alexseyevich; a.k.a. BELAN, Alexsei; a.k.a. BELAN, Alexsey; a.k.a. “Abyrvaig”; a.k.a. “Abyrvalg”; a.k.a. “Anthony Anthony”; a.k.a. “Fedyunya”; a.k.a. “M4G”; a.k.a. “Mag”; a.k.a. “Mage”; a.k.a. “Magg”; a.k.a. “Moy.Yawik”; a.k.a. “Mrmagister”), 21 Karyakina St., Apartment 205, Krasnodar, Russia; DOB 27 Jun 1987; POB Riga, Latvia; nationality Latvia; Passport RU0313455106 (Russia); alt. Passport 0307609477 (Russia) (individual) [CYBER2].

BOGACHEV, Evgeniy Mikhaylovich (a.k.a. BOGACHEV, Evgeniy Mikhailovich; a.k.a. “Lastik”; a.k.a. “lucky12345”; a.k.a. “Monstr”; a.k.a. “Pollingsoon”; a.k.a. “Slavik”), Lermontova Str., 120-101, Anapa, Russia; DOB 28 Oct 1983 (individual) [CYBER2].

GIZUNOV, Sergey (a.k.a. GIZUNOV, Sergey Aleksandrovich); DOB 18 Oct 1956; Passport 4501712967 (Russia); Deputy Chief of GRU (individual) [CYBER2] (Linked To: MAIN INTELLIGENCE DIRECTORATE).

KOROBOV, Igor (a.k.a. KOROBOV, Igor Valentinovich); DOB 03 Aug 1956; nationality Russia; Passport 100119726 (Russia); alt. Passport 100115101 (Russia); Chief of GRU (individual) [CYBER2] (Linked To: MAIN INTELLIGENCE DIRECTORATE).

KOSTYUKOV, Igor (a.k.a. KOSTYUKOV, Igor Olegovich); DOB 21 Feb 1961; Passport 100130896 (Russia); alt. Passport 100132253 (Russia); First Deputy Chief of GRU (individual) [CYBER2] (Linked To: MAIN INTELLIGENCE DIRECTORATE).

The following entities have been added to OFAC’s SDN List:

AUTONOMOUS NONCOMMERCIAL ORGANIZATION PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION OF DESIGNERS OF DATA PROCESSING SYSTEMS (a.k.a. ANO PO KSI), Prospekt Mira D 68, Str 1A, Moscow 129110, Russia; Dom 3, Lazurnaya Ulitsa, Solnechnogorskiy Raion, Andreyevka, Moscow Region 141551, Russia; Registration ID 1027739734098 (Russia); Tax ID No. 7702285945 (Russia) [CYBER2].

FEDERAL SECURITY SERVICE (a.k.a. FEDERALNAYA SLUZHBA BEZOPASNOSTI; a.k.a. FSB), Ulitsa Kuznetskiy Most, Dom 22, Moscow 107031, Russia; Lubyanskaya Ploschad, Dom 2, Moscow 107031, Russia [CYBER2].

MAIN INTELLIGENCE DIRECTORATE (a.k.a. GLAVNOE RAZVEDYVATEL’NOE UPRAVLENIE (Cyrillic: ГЛАВНОЕ РАЗВЕДЫВАТЕЛЬНОЕ УПРАВЛЕНИЕ); a.k.a. GRU; a.k.a. MAIN INTELLIGENCE DEPARTMENT), Khoroshevskoye Shosse 76, Khodinka, Moscow, Russia; Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, Frunzenskaya nab., 22/2, Moscow 119160, Russia [CYBER2].

SPECIAL TECHNOLOGY CENTER (a.k.a. STC, LTD), Gzhatskaya 21 k2, St. Petersburg, Russia; 21-2 Gzhatskaya Street, St. Petersburg, Russia; Website stc-spb.ru; Email Address [email protected]; Tax ID No. 7802170553 (Russia) [CYBER2].

ZORSECURITY (f.k.a. ESAGE LAB; a.k.a. TSOR SECURITY), Luzhnetskaya Embankment 2/4, Building 17, Office 444, Moscow 119270, Russia; Registration ID 1127746601817 (Russia); Tax ID No. 7704813260 (Russia); alt. Tax ID No. 7704010041 (Russia) [CYBER2].

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Putin’s Perfect Storm:

One announcement came from Berlin. Another came from Washington. And they came weeks apart.

German intelligence warned in late November that Russia had launched a campaign to meddle in upcoming elections to the Bundestag. And in early December, the CIA said it concluded that Moscow had already interfered in the U.S. presidential election.

In any other year, either of these claims would probably have been astonishing, sensational, and even mind-blowing.

Not in 2016.

This was the year such things became routine as the Kremlin took the gloves off in its nonkinetic guerrilla war against the West.

It was the year Russia’s long-standing latent support for the xenophobic and Euroskeptic far right became manifest, open, and increasingly brazen.

It was the year cyberattacks moved beyond trolling and disruption and toward achieving specific political goals.

It was the year long-cultivated networks of influence across the West were activated.

It was the year the Kremlin expanded its disinformation campaign beyond Ukraine and the former Soviet space and aimed it at destabilizing the West itself.

It was the year Moscow turned Western democracy into a weapon — against Western democracy.

And most importantly, with the West suffering from one of its worst crises of confidence in generations, 2016 was the year Moscow began to see results.

It was the year of the perfect storm, when the Western angst and malaise from the 2008 financial crisis, the eurozone crisis, and the migrant crisis crested and dovetailed with a concerted Kremlin campaign to undermine Western institutions.

And with the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom, with the election of Donald Trump in the United States, with one pro-Moscow candidate or another likely to win the presidency in France, and with antiestablishment populism on the rise throughout Europe, this perfect storm has produced a markedly more favorable environment for the goals of Vladimir Putin’s autocratic regime.

It has left the independence of countries seeking to escape Moscow’s orbit — like Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova — more precarious than at any moment since the Soviet collapse.

Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, wrote recently in The Atlantic that the Kremlin has launched “an opportunistic but sophisticated campaign to sabotage democracy and bend it toward his interests, not just in some marginal, fragile places but at the very core of the liberal democratic order, Europe and the United States.”

“We stand now at the most dangerous moment for liberal democracy since the end of World War II,” Diamond added.

An Early Harbinger

The warnings that 2016 would be different came early, in January, when Moscow escalated its information war against the West with the infamous case of Lisa F. in Germany.

By relentlessly pushing a false story that an ethnic-Russian teenage girl was sexually assaulted by migrants in Berlin at a time when Germans were getting increasingly nervous about the mounting migrant crisis, the Kremlin appeared to be actively attempting to undermine the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Incited by Russian-language media reports, thousands of Russian-speaking protesters took to the streets carrying banners with slogans like “Our Children Are In Danger.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov gave the “scandal” an official stamp, accusing the German authorities of “sweeping problems under the rug.”

The story was soon proven false, but the damage was done — and a message was sent that the Kremlin intended to play hardball.

And play hardball it did, with a dizzying and almost nonstop barrage of hacking, doxing, fake news, support for fringe political forces, and other mischief.

The most high-profile example of this, of course, was the emerging consensus that Russia hacked the U.S. presidential election with the apparent goal of harming Hillary Clinton and/or helping Trump.

But while the hacking of the U.S. election garnered the most attention and headlines, it was far from the only case of Russia seeking to destabilize Western democracies.

“Putin is not done yet. He seeks to promote anti-establishment candidates in next year’s elections in the Netherlands, France, Italy and Germany,” Michael Khodarkovsky, a professor at Loyola University Chicago and author of the forthcoming book Russia’s Twentieth Century, wrote in The New York Times.

And Then We Take Berlin

In a letter to EU foreign-relations chief Federica Mogherini, 51 lawmakers from the European Parliament warned that more than $200 million of Russian black cash has been laundered through Europe and “there is information that shows that the money has been used to influence European politics, media, and civil society.”

In the United Kingdom, Russia’s propaganda machine worked overtime to cheerlead for the Brexit campaign and its leader Nigel Farage.

In Italy, Kremlin-funded news outlets RT and Sputnik fed a barrage of fake news to a network of websites run by the far left Five Star Movement, spreading Euroskepticism, and anti-Americanism, and undermining a constitutional referendum that led to Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s resignation.

The Kremlin also continued to support Marine Le Pen, leader of the anti-immigrant National Front in France which was granted a 9 million euro loan from a Russian bank in 2015.

And Le Pen’s likely opponent in the second round of next year’s presidential elections, former prime minister Francois Fillon, is also openly pro-Moscow.

And in December, the ruling United Russia party signed a cooperation agreement with Austria’s far-right Freedom Party.

“Despite being much weaker than the Soviet Union, Russia today nevertheless has a greater ability to provoke mischief than the communist empire ever did, while western debates on how to contain (or engage) Russia have an air of helplessness,” political analyst Lilia Shevtsova wrote in The Financial Times.

The legacy of 2016 is a weakened, divided, and disillusioned West; and an emboldened Kremlin.

“If December 7, 1941, is a date which will live in infamy,” Brian Frydenborg wrote on the blog War Is Boring, in reference to the attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the United States into World War II, “then 2016 is a year which will live in infamy.”

12/29/16

GW Bush Doing the Work Kerry Should on N. Korea

By: Denise Simon | FoundersCode.com

Sometimes when a panel is mobilized that includes media, negotiators, diplomats and legislators, interesting facts emerge. Such is the case where President George W. Bush convened a panel at the George W. Bush Institute on the matter of North Korea. Going beyond the proven human rights violations by the Kims, there is more to understand when it comes to relationships including the DPRK, China, Japan, S. Korea, Taiwan, Iran, Syria and more.

There is a U.S. citizen currently in prison doing slave labor in N. Korea but John Kerry voids his failure to get Otto Warmbier released. Kerry deferred the process to former governor Bill Richardson and there has been no progress.

The DPRK is in fact developing technology and weapons systems that are not only being tested but being sold to rogue nations for revenue purposes.

GW Bush has reached out to North Koreans that have escaped and made their way to the United States in a manner where they provide information and continued work for the benefit of Congress, the State Department, diplomatic objectives and policy to address the Kim regime going forward.

This is a fascinating discussion where real truths are revealed pointing to labor, human rights violations, military and nuclear operations, trade and more. North Korea is stacking missiles on launch pads and working on miniaturized nuclear weapons. The objective is to reach the United States. What has John Kerry done for deterrents? Nothing….

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North Korea’s Rockets and Missiles

Space/2013: North Korea’s missile program is shrouded in secrecy, which helps the outlaw nation keep the rest of the world guessing.Still, Western experts have learned a fair bit about Pyongyang’s stable of rockets and missiles over the years by analyzing test flights, satellite photos and other data. Here are five of the most interesting things they’ve figured out.

FIRST STOP: Soviet Origins of Missiles

Soviet Origins

The Hermit Kingdom’s missile program is based primarily on Soviet Scuds, which apparently entered the country via Egypt in the 1970s. North Korea was building its own Scud version, called the Hwasong-5, by the mid-1980s, and moved onto bigger and more powerful missiles after that. [North Korea’s Missile Capabilities Explained]NEXT: Poor Accuracy

Poor Accuracy

North Korea’s missiles have lousy accuracy compared to those developed by the United States, experts say. Pyongyang’s Hwasong line, for example, can reach targets a few hundred miles away, but with an accuracy of just 0.3 miles to 0.6 miles (0.5 to 1 kilometer).A missile called the Nodong can fly 620 miles to 800 miles (1,000 to 1,300 km), but its estimated accuracy is even worse — 1.8 to 2.5 miles (3 to 4 km). Such missiles can’t reliably hit military targets, but they can certainly strike larger targets such as cities.

NEXT: Iran’s Help

Cooperation with Iran

North Korea has apparently cooperated extensively with fellow pariah nation Iran on rocket and missile technology. For example, the third stage of Pyongyang’s Unha-2 rocket is very similar to the upper stage of Iran’s Safir-2 launcher, physicists David Wright and Theodore Postol noted in a 2009 report.NEXT: Satellite Success

Satellite Launch Success

North Korea joined the ranks of satellite-launching nations last December, when its Unha-3 rocket launched a small satellite to Earth orbit.This breakthrough came after three consecutive failures — one in 1998, one in 2009 and another in April 2012. North Korean officials didn’t always admit to these mishaps, however. For example, they claimed that the Kwangmyongsong-1 (“Bright Star 1”) satellite reached orbit in 1998 and broadcast patriotic songs into space. [Unha-3 Rocket Explained (Infographic)]

NEXT: Nuclear Warheads Possible

Nuclear Warheads Possible

North Korea has been ratcheting up its bellicose rhetoric lately, threatening to launch nuclear strikes against Washington, D.C. and other American cities.While the rogue nation’s nuclear-weapons program is thought to be at a relatively primitive stage, Pyongyang may indeed already possess warheads small enough to be carried large distances by a ballistic missile, experts say. “Having something that’s around 1,000 kilograms, or maybe somewhat smaller than that, unfortunately does not seem impossible,” Wright told SPACE.com. “We don’t really know, but I think you have to take seriously that they could well be there.”

Most analysts doubt, however, that North Korean missiles are powerful enough to deliver a nuclear weapon to the American mainland. The tough talk from Pyongyang is primarily bluster aimed at wringing concessions out of the international community and building support for young leader Kim Jong-Un at home, they say.

12/29/16

Obama’s Treachery Exposed

By: Joan Swirsky | Canada Free Press

After watching all the pomp and circumstance of the presidential inauguration of January 20, 2009, I remember turning to my husband Steve and saying: “The sole mission of Barack Obama and his henchmen is to destroy Israel.”

Steve reminded me that there was a mountain of domestic issues awaiting the new, far-left regime, and I agreed. And sure enough, Mr. Obama and his minions proceeded to wreak havoc on job creation and on the American military, inflict strangulating regulations, amass crushing national debt, foist horrific healthcare and education systems on our citizens, and seed every government department with operatives from the Nazi-inspired terrorist organization Muslim Brotherhood, and then hand over control of the Internet to the United Nations—the most corrupt, tin-pot-dictator-driven, anti-American, anti-Semitic, American-resource-draining cesspool in our country.

But all that still left them plenty of time to enact a foreign policy that genuflected to our enemies and spit in the face of our most faithful allies, most particularly Israel.

Writer Mona Charen has said that Mr. Obama has a “genocidal hostility toward Israel.” As if to reinforce that opinion, he just engaged in his longtime habit of spitting on Jews—and also Christians—by launching his poison dart on December 23rd, right in time for Chanukah and Christmas.

After the first vote proposed by Egypt to condemn Israeli “settlements”—meaning housing on Israeli land—was canceled after President-elect Trump intervened, the vote was rescheduled in the United Nation’s Security Council when New Zealand (10,000 miles from Israel), Malaysia (where the official religion is Islam), Senegal (which is 90-percent Muslim), and Venezuela (so impoverished that people are now scrounging for toilet paper) reinstituted the anti-Israel measure, and the United States, reversing decades of U.S. policy, refused to veto it.

Resolution 2334 demands that Israel “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the [so-called] occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.” It also advised all states “to distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967”—what former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called “Auschwitz borders.”

Despite White House denials that it had anything to do with creating the Resolution, there is no doubt that this sneak attack was hatched and orchestrated directly from the Oval Office and involved Mr. Obama himself, Secretary of State John Kerry, Susan Rice, and other of his Jew-hating acolytes. Israel says it has “iron-clad evidence” of direct involvement, and leaked documents already confirm that claim.

TEAM OF JEW HATERS

Samantha Power is Obama’s Ambassador to the U.N. and it was she who delivered the curare-tipped pronouncement to not veto the vote. Her involvement is rich with irony, wrote Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, author of The Israel Warrior: Standing Up for the Jewish State from Campus to Street Corner (2016), For the duration of the seemingly endless Syrian civil war [Power] has figuratively fiddled while that country burns. Now, with one foot out the door from a tenure that has all but obliterated her once formidable reputation as an anti-genocide activist, she’s decided to kick Israel in the teeth. Earth to Samantha: 500,000 Arabs died in Syria. Do you really think the problem in the Middle East is Jews building extra bedrooms in communities in Beit-El? You couldn’t pass even one United Nations Security Council Resolution condemning Russia, Syria, and Iran for the slaughter in Syria. But you passed this motion condemning peace-loving Jews who live in the ancient Biblical lands of Judea and Samaria?”

Power, as far back as 2002, advocated an end all U.S. military aid to Israel and wrote of her willingness to “alienate a domestic constituency of tremendous political and financial import [American Jews]…” She also advocated, Ed Lasky writes, “that America send armed military forces,” “a mammoth protection force” and an “external intervention” to” impose a settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.” Nice.

Power joins a long list of Jew haters that Mr. Obama has surrounded himself with. This is the short list and does not count the teeming swamp of anti-Semites like Israel-loathing Islamist professors Rashid Khalidi and Edward Said and others going back to his childhood:

  • The “court Jews” who sold their souls to the devil in exchange for the seductive allure of access to power. One of many examples is Rahm Emanuel, who curried favor as White House Chief of Staff for his figurative 10-minutes of fame and effectively sold out his Israeli-born father and the land his father heroically fought for in the early years of Israel’s existence.
  • Robert Malley, longtime security adviser to Mr. Obama and now his new ISIS czar, is a fan of Hamas and Hezbollah, and has often called for an end to all aid to Israel. Wikipedia says he’s the son of Simon Malley, an Egyptian-born Jewish journalist, and Barbara Silverstein, a New Yorker who worked for the U.N. delegation of the Algerian National Liberation Front. Both loathed Israel and apparently passed their toxic DNA onto their son.
  • Dennis Ross, Mr. Obama’s former special adviser for the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia, which included Iran, participated in 12 years of failed Israeli-Palestinian “peace” efforts. He once suggested a plan that translated today would mean listening to the 22 hostile states that surround Israel and saying “majority rules!”
  • George Soros, the Hungarian-born Jewish multibillionaire, has devoted his entire life to far-left causes. Perhaps as a dress rehearsal for bringing down big bad America, he was responsible for breaking the bank of England and also implicated in the Asian financial crisis that broke the bank of Thailand et al. He has also founded and funded numerous groups that work unstintingly to bring about Israel’s destruction. He is known as Obama’s “puppet master,” meaning that his money essentially calls the shots on both America’s domestic and foreign policies. According to Richard Poe’s book, The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party, the Soros cabal is really “a network of radicals dedicated to transforming our constitutional republic into a socialist hive.” Read about the vast scope of the radical organizations Soros funds here, and why he is considered the “godfather of the left” here.
  • Hillary Clinton, says Dick Morris, has had “relationships with terrorists [that] began in the mid-1980s when she served on the Board of the New World Foundation—which gave funds to the Palestine Liberation Organization [when] the PLO was officially recognized by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization.” As a lackey of and putative heir to Obama’s, ahem, legacy, Hillary’s rancid relationship with Israel is well known.
  • Susan Rice, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. and current National Security Advisor, advocated ending all U.S. military aid to Israel and has inspired dozens of articles with titles like these in CommentaryMagazine.com: “Susan Rice Is Doing Something at the UN: Targeting Israel” and “What Was Susan Rice’s Embarrassing Anti-Israel Tirade Supposed to Accomplish?
  • Lee Hamilton, former Indiana congressman, whom Ed Lasky calls the eminence grise of Obama’s Mideast policy and who has suggested that the U.S. should pressure Israel to surrender the Golan Heights and leave the West Bank, said not a word about dismantling Hamas or Hezbollah!
  • Zbigniew Brzezinski, an Obama advisor and longtime Israel loather, suggested that the Obama administration should tell Israel that the U.S. will attack Israeli jets if they try to attack Iran.
  • John Brennan, former Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and current head of the CIA, suggested that Mr. Obama & Co. “reach out” to Hezbollah. He has also said that jihadists and Islamists are not enemies of America because jihad is a holy struggle…”
  • Valerie Jarrett, Iranian-born Muslim and Senior Advisor to Obama, is described in a riveting article by Karin McQuillan in American Thinker as the power behind both Obamas. McQuillan also elaborates on Barack Obama’s envy problem, which is central, I believe, to his Jewish problem. More on this below.
  • And of course John Kerry, who on Wednesday, speaking directly for his boss, spent over an hour on TV engaging in egregious historical revisionism and fairytale bromides to essentially inflict a two-state solution on Israel, with partners who to this day do not—and have sworn they never will—accept a Jewish state in their midst. My favorite line was Mr. Kerry saying that Israel could be Jewish or democratic, but not both. Duh.

EYES AND EARS…THE OLD RELIABLE STANDBYS

Why was I was confident that Obama’s burning mission—his obsession—was to destroy Israel?

The first reason is that I trust what I see and hear.

Who can forget Mr. Obama’s claim that in the 20 years he sat in the pews of “Reverend” Jeremiah Wright’s “church,” he heard not one of the uncountable instances of virulent anti-American and anti-Semitic rants. But unless he was clinically deaf, of course he both heard and tacitly agreed with Wright—especially when it came to the Jews.

Impossible to forget the interview with George Stephanopoulos when Mr. Obama referred to “my Muslim faith”—which he did not correct but his host rushed to correct. I’m Jewish and I can promise you of the 14 million Jews in the world, not one would ever refer to “my Buddhist faith,” just as not one of the 1.3-billion Christians in the world would ever refer to “my Zoroastrian faith.” Plain and simple, it appeared that Mr. Obama experienced what old Sigmund would call a Freudian slip, i.e., when you accidently blurt out the truth.

In addition to his psychological inability to utter the words “Islamic terrorism,” Mr. Obama has consistently lectured us about Islam’s immense contribution to America (my history teachers strangely omitted this revelation). We know he was raised in his formative years in Indonesia, attended a Muslim madrassa, and even recalled as an adult that “the sweetest sound I know is the Muslim call to prayer.” Of course, he also said that, “Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation” and, speaking at the U.N., “The future must not belong to those who slander the Prophet of Islam.” That may play well in Indonesia, but it’s completely alien to those of us who believe in free speech.

Two other indelible events were when the Prime Minister of Israel came to the White House in 2010 and was left waiting for over an hour when Mr. Obama abruptly ended their meeting to eat dinner, sending the PM out the side door, and when he intrusively meddled in an Israeli election (while pontificating that there should be no meddling in the election that just repudiated his entire tenure in office). Just as indelible was the sight of Mr. Obama literally bowing deeply at the waist to the theocratic leader of Saudi Arabia and despots just like him.

We have good evidence that the Saudis paid for Mr. Obama’s education at Harvard Law School. And that the Saudis, until the Iran deal went through, were sworn enemies of Israel. Could Mr. Obama have orchestrated U.N. Resolution 2334 to please his moneybags benefactors?

But most compelling is what the book Mr. Obama studied, the Koran, says about Jews, none of it good. For instance: “Oh Muslim…there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.”

This is a man who may call himself a Christian—in spite of the fact that when he spoke at Georgetown University, the nation’s oldest Catholic and Jesuit school—he had the school cover up the name of Jesus Christ with black cloths—but it is clear that his heart and soul and politics lie squarely in the Muslim world—the world that loathes both Jews and Israel.

As I said, eyes and ears.

BEHAVIOR

The second reason for my conviction that Mr. Obama’s mission was to destroy Israel derived from two powerful lessons I learned from being a psychotherapist for over two decades. The first, simply stated, is that you are what you do. Not how you describe yourself or your lofty plans, but what you actually do in this life. Your behavior.

Everything I’ve observed about Mr. Obama’s behavior—what he does—from the anti-Israel, Jew-hating people he associated with in his past, to the anti-Israel, Jew-hating people he’s chosen for high positions in his administration, to the pastor whose pews he sat in for 20 years (with ears wide opened), to his indefensibly rude and contemptuous behavior toward the Prime Minister of Israel, to his anti-Israel benefactors—not only the Saudis but George Soros—to his latest treachery at the U.N., strengthens my conviction.

Finally, what I learned is that the strongest human emotion is not hatred, not anger, and not vengeance, but jealousy! When you peel back the layers of emotion—whether it’s in the commission of a crime like theft or even murder or hatred of Jews and Israel—jealousy is almost always the animating force.

Mr. Obama and his minions see the pathetic lack of creativity, of innovation, of an elevated standard-of-living, and of progress in the community of Arabs as maddening.

First, they were humiliated when at the founding of Israel in 1948 , powerful Arab armies attacked the fledgling state and were annihilated by the bedraggled survivors of the Holocaust,

Second, the arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat decided in the late 1960s to name the disgruntled Arabs “Palestinians,” effectively relegating them to perpetual victim status and allowing the world to watch them accomplish little more than sending their children on suicide-bombing missions and then naming a street after them and collecting a stipend for their “sacrifice.”

Third, to this day they remain pathetically dependent on another ineffectual U.N. agency—the United Nations Relief and Works Agency [UNRWA], which has exploited them in the same way that Democrat politics have kept African-Americans in abject poverty for over 60 years, with high crime rates and inferior education, while promising them the moon.

When Mr. Obama & Co. contrast this embarrassing history with the jaw-dropping evolution of the Jewish state—its trailblazing technology and medical innovations, its symphonies, sports teams, booming economy and military might—it’s infuriating to them. They get angry, crazed with anger, murderous with anger.

But under the fury is jealousy. They can’t help it. What you see is the anger because anger feels good and jealousy feels bad. It’s that simple.

MR. OBAMA’S IMPOTENCE

In the case of the latest punishing U.N. resolution, however, it is pure conceit on the part of Mr. Obama & Co. to imagine that it will make any difference at all.

First and foremost, the powerful State of Israel does not take its marching orders from anyone except its democratically-elected officials, certainly not from a body like the U.N. that has seen fit to condemn Israel dozens of times while true monster states only once or not at all. In less than a month, Israel will have a true friend in the White House with President-elect Trump, Vice President-elect Pence, and virtually all of Mr. Trump’s cabinet and staff choices.

Personally, if I could offer Mr. Trump one suggestion, it would be to throw the entire, utterly useless, money-wasting United Nations out of the United States! This is exactly what Fox News commentator Charles Krauthammer suggested the other night, to send this feckless excuse for an organization to Zimbabwe, and as for the “good real estate in downtown New York City…Trump ought to find a way to put his name on it and turn it into condos.”

Vic Rosenthal, aka Abu Yehuda, describes yet more impotence. Is the resolution binding? No. Does it make settlements illegal? No. It is a Chapter VI resolution, defined as a “recommendation.” Does it make settlements illegal? No. It just asserts that they are, but the legal case is weak. Does it mean that Israel is “occupying Palestinian territory? No…that is just the U.N.‘s opinion. In fact, there is no such state or territory or entity called “Palestine” and declarations by the U.N. can’t make it so.

How bad is this for Israel? It has no significance in international law, it will not cause Israel to withdraw from the territories, and it might even spur Israel to build more in the territories and Jerusalem or even extend Israeli law to parts of Judea and Samaria. [Read the entire riveting article to see that every attempt by Mr. Obama to “put it” to Israel is the very definition of impotence].

WHAT NOW?

Writer and editor Ruth S. King says that her “proposal for a daring act by Israel [is to] leave the United Nations. Pack up, close the Permanent Mission to the United Nations and find real jobs for all the bureaucrats, pseudo diplomats and ancillary staff.”

Writer Victor Sharpe asks: Is there any light in this bleak picture? He cites Professor Barry Rubin, director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center: “Israel is not going to allow a president with no credibility, who clearly doesn’t understand what’s at stake, fails to support his Arab allies, is soft on his Iranian and Syrian enemies, doesn’t learn from his past errors, is sacrificing U.S. interests in the region, and pays no attention to what’s happening in Egypt, to determine its future.”

Lt. Col. Ralph Peters sums up Mr. Obama’s Middle East policy quite nicely: “Praise Islam, ignore Christians, blame Jews.”

It is fitting to end with the prescient words of Mark Twain (aka Samuel Clemens), the great American writer who penned the following words in 1899 in Harper’s Magazine:

“The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away. The Greek and Roman followed, made a vast noise and they are gone. Other peoples have sprung up, and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out and they sit in twilight now or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal, but the Jew. All other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?”

12/29/16

A Saga of Bitterness and Hope

Arlene from Israel

Regrettably, I encountered a transmission problem of significant proportions when I sent out my last email posting, “Anger, and Not Panic,” written in response to the Security Council Resolution 2334 which passed because of Obama’s decision to abstain.  It was a brief piece, providing reassurance as to the limits of the damage from this perfidy.  But somewhere between one-third and one-half of my readers never received it.

The problem is not solved, although I hope it will be by some time next week.  Know that I am doing my best and mighty frustrated.

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I will not resend that email because I want to move on. It can be found on this site.

But I do highly recommend an analysis that has just come out from Alan Baker, Director of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center and the head of the Global Law Forum.  I think you will find this article highly informative and considerably reassuring.

http://jcpa.org/dangers-un-security-council-resolution-2334-2016/

Credit: JCPA

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The bitterness?  It’s palpable. There’s a sense of betrayal, of being knifed from multiple directions.

That is because of Obama’s stance, which is a reversal of US policy and former commitments. In his 2011 address to the UN he said repeatedly that a genuine peace can be achieved only via direct negotiations between Israel and the PA. “Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the United Nations,” he declared.  This rather confirms that his motivation for his current stance is not “peace” at all, but sticking it to Israel.  Not that this comes as a surprise.

And because no other nation on the Council stood with Israel (I’ll come back to this).

And because the resolution itself is so shockingly one-sided – lacking perspective and anything resembling justice, relying instead on a gross distortion of historical reality:

[] It refers to all Israeli presence beyond the Green Line as “a flagrant violation of international law.”  This means the Kotel and Har HaBayit and much, much more, including the Mount of Olives, where Jews have been buried for 3,000 years.

[] It refers to all territory beyond the Green Line as “occupied Palestinian territory” and demands that Israel cease “all settlement activity” – which is Israel’s “legal obligation.”

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These are facts that refute the position of this resolution:

[] The British Mandate for Palestine of 1922, passed unanimously by the League of Nations, was an article of international law.  It recognized the Jewish historical connection to the land, and conferred upon Britain responsibility for establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine.  Britain was to “encourage…close settlement by Jews on the land.”  (This was in ALL of Palestine.)

[] The partition plan of 1947, which proposed dividing Palestine into two states carried no weight legally because it was merely a recommendation by the UN General Assembly.  In any event, the Arabs rejected it.  The Mandate stood.

[] Israel declared independence on a portion of Palestine in 1948. The remainder remained unclaimed Mandate land.  There is a principle in customary international law that when a new state is founded, its borders follow the borders of the administrative entity that existed prior.

[] As soon as (actually, even before) independence was declared, the Arab states declared war.

When the War of Independence was over in 1949, armistice lines were drawn.  THIS was the Green Line. To Israel’s east, the armistice line was between Israel and Jordan.   There was no mention of “Palestinians.”  The armistice agreement signed between Israel and Jordan stated specifically that the armistice line (i.e. the Green Line) was only a temporary line that would not prejudice a permanent border, to be determined via negotiations.  At that point, Jordan occupied Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem illegally – it acquired the area in an offensive war and its occupation of the area was recognized by only two states in the world.

[] During the Six Day War of 1967, Jordan broke its armistice with Israel by joining in attack.  By the end of the war, Israel had liberated Judea and Samaria, and east Jerusalem.  This was Mandate land.  What is more, Israel’s right to it was strengthened by the fact that it was secured in an defensive war.

[] Within months, the Security Council had passed Resolution 242. It did NOT call for Israel to return to the Green Line.  It recognized that this line did not constitute a secure border for Israel, something to which all nations are entitled.  It said that the final border would be determined via negotiations.  Again: the negotiations were to be with Jordan; there was no mention of “Palestinians.”

[] In 1994, Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty. The border determined by this treaty followed the border of the Mandate. In the area of Judea and Samaria, this is the Jordan River.

[] In 1995, the Interim Accord of Oslo was signed (and was witnessed by US President Bill Clinton). It divided Judea and Samaria into three administrative areas.  Area C is under full Israeli civil and military control.  There is NOTHING in Oslo that prohibits Israel from building in C.

Under Oslo – which actually does not speak specifically of a Palestinian “state” – a final status resolution was to be determined by negotiations between Israel and the PA.

As Dore Gold, President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs notes, The Palestinians themselves agreed in the 1995 Interim Agreement that the issue of Israeli settlements in the West Bank should be addressed as an item for negotiation between the parties.

http://jcpa.org/israeli-settlements-become-legally-contentious-issue-un/

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Please note that in none of the above is there a legal prohibition on Israeli building in Judea and Samaria, or now, at a minimum, in Area C.

There is absolutely no indication in “international law” that Israel belongs only behind the 1947 armistice line.  Be aware that the Palestinian Arabs and their supporters invoke “international law” as it suits them.

There is no international law that prohibits an Israeli presence in any part of Judea and Samaria, that is, that determines that it is all “occupied Palestinian land.”

The Palestinian Arabs have done a superb job of promoting falsehoods that are now adopted by a bulk of the world’s nations, without regard for justice or historical reality.

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A quick word about Israel’s alleged “occupation” of Judea and Samaria.  First, a nation cannot “occupy” its own land, and this is Israeli land according to the international law of the Mandate.

Occupation occurs only when the army of one sovereign state moves into the territory of another sovereign state.  But Judea and Samaria was not the territory of any other sovereign state: Jordan was there illegally.

The Geneva Convention does not apply to this situation, although is sometimes claimed.

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I spoke above about Obama’s reversal of US policy, and his decision to abstain.  But, as has now been revealed, he actually helped to craft the resolution and pushed it vigorously behind the scenes.

Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer has told CNN that there is solid evidence of Obama’s orchestration of the resolution.

“We will present this evidence to the new administration through the appropriate channels. If they want to share it with the American people they are welcome to do it.”  As Dermer put it, Obama was behind the “ganging up” on Israel at the Security Council.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/222310

According to Netanyahu spokesman David Keyes, the solid information comes from Arab countries and others in the international community.

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On Sunday night, Netanyahu went to the Kotel to light the second Chanukah candle. Standing there, he declared:

I ask those same countries that wish us a Happy Chanukah how they could vote for a U.N. resolution which says that this place, in which we are now celebrating Chanukah, is occupied territory.

The Western Wall is not occupied.  The Jewish Quarter is not occupied.” (Emphasis added)

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/western-wall-not-occupied-netanyahu-says-un-resolution-we-were-here

Credit: prime minister’s office

Our prime minister is very very angry, and with excellent reason.  Yesterday, he declared that Israel will not “turn the other cheek.”

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US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro was called in for a 45 minute dressing down by Prime Minister Netanyahu.  I wish I could have been a fly on the wall for that meeting.  Other ambassadors were also called in, but Netanyahu met only with Shapiro, because of the expectations of US friendship that had been so severely dashed.

Credit: matzav

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As to the other nations on the Security Council: five permanent members, China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and ten non-permanent members elected for two-year terms by the General Assembly: Angola, Egypt, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal, Spain, Ukraine, Uruguay, and Venezuela…

The four that sponsored the resolution after Egypt withdrew were Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal and Venezuela. Israel does not have diplomatic ties with Venezuela or Malaysia. The ambassadors to New Zealand and Senegal were recalled for consultations.

The situation with Senegal was particularly disappointing.   Israel has been providing agricultural technology to small farmers, and through Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation 4,000 farms were being supported.

Netanyahu has now ordered a cut-off of all assistance to Senegal, as well as the cancellation of the upcoming visit of the Senegalese foreign minister.  The message: you cannot accept Israel’s outstretched hand, gladly taking the assistance offered, and then actively promote a resolution that is destructive to Israel.

Similarly, has assistance to Angola been terminated.

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As to the other nations, some were a lost cause, of course.  But in other instances, a different response might have been expected.

Theresa May, new prime minister of the UK, speaks in very pro-Israel terms, at least part of the time.  The UK, as a permanent member of the Council, could have cast the necessary veto, but voted for the resolution. Netanyahu has now cancelled a planned meeting with May at the sidelines of the Davos World Economic Forum. May declares herself “disappointed.”

And the Ukraine, which is traditionally considered a friend of Israel, voted for the resolution anyway.  Netanyahu has now cancelled the visit of Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, who was due here next week. Ukrainians at first were miffed about this cancellation, and expressed surprise at Netanyahu’s anger. “The text of the resolution is balanced,” said the Ukrainian foreign ministry, which subsequently spoke about expectation that warm ties would endure.

(It is being charged, by the way, that V.P. Biden placed a call to the Ukraine that “encouraged” support on the resolution.)

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Netanyahu has been criticized in some quarters for what is seen as an over-reaction.  I see it otherwise.  Time to hold our heads up in an attitude of self-respect: Don’t claim friendship with us and knife us in the back when it suits.  Some of Netanyahu’s positions will undoubtedly mellow over time, but it’s not bad to deliver a new message now.

Look at this: Ukrainian MP Alexander Feldman, who is Jewish, has announced on his Facebook page that he intends to submit a bill for moving the Ukrainian embassy to Jerusalem.  He hopes this will bring the Ukrainian-Israeli relationship to a whole new level.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/222380

Doesn’t mean this proposal will succeed – it flies directly in the face of the resolution. But would Feldman even have suggested this if not for Netanyahu’s anger?

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Netanyahu is also evaluating Israel’s relationship with the UN.

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Defense Minister Lieberman has instructed COGAT [Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories] to have no interaction with the PA except on security matters.  See more on what this entails here:

http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/defense-minister-liberman-orders-cogat-to-cut-non-security-ties-with-pa/2016/12/25/

The simple fact of the matter is that the PA is behind this resolution. Their current gloating is obscene.  This has been their intention all along: to achieve ends without negotiations and without compromise.

This is a cartoon that Fatah put on its Facebook page after the resolution passed.  The Arabic is the list of nations that supported the vote.  It suggests an international endorsement of terrorism.

https://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=19588

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Lieberman also had something to say about France: The French, ludicrously, are planning a “peace conference” on January 15, five days before Obama leaves office. He has called it a “modern day Dreyfus trial. There’s only one difference, this time, instead of the defendant being one Jew, it will be the entire nation of Israel and the State of Israel.

This summit’s entire purpose is to undermine the State of Israel’s security and tarnish its good name.” (Emphasis added)

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4898780,00.html

(The Dreyfus affair, at the end of the 19th century, was a French scandal during which an innocent Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew, was convicted of treason. Anti-Semitism was at work in France then, and now.)

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My readers can rest assured that Israel has no intention whatsoever of halting building in Judea and Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem.  Quite the contrary.

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As I complete this and prepare for transmission, I am aware that Secretary of State Kerry is scheduled to give a speech outlining his vision of a “comprehensive peace” between Israel and the PA.  I’m sure it will be chock full of untenable ideas and outright lies that seek to further the damage to Israel.  There is nothing but nothing he could say that would be constructive or original.  How much damage this will do remains to be seen.  I must deal with this in my next posting.

Recently, Kerry sent out a “Happy Chanukah” message.

One blogger replied, “Go choke on a latke.” On that note, I close.

12/29/16

Ted Cruz: History Will Remember Obama and Kerry as Enemies of Israel

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton | Right Wing News

This is a clear example of why I supported and still do, Senator Ted Cruz. He held nothing back and lambasted both Barack Obama and John Kerry as shameful bitter clingers that betrayed Israel and stabbed her in the back, ambushing her at the UN like the cowards they are. Obama’s legacy will be one of treasonous diplomatic terrorism against Israel.

From Obama’s beginning, he has done his level evil best to destroy every underpinning that the principles of America have been set on. He has opened up a monstrous sinkhole of chaos underneath the very foundation of this country and has done a great job at trying to drop us into that abyss. Israel is our oldest and most steadfast ally. We share many things in common and both our countries have been a force for good in this world. Obama wants to destroy both Israel and the US. He is weakening Israel, so the Arab jackal states surrounding her can tear her to shreds. That will never happen and President-elect Donald Trump will stop much of this when he comes into office in just three weeks. Israel said this morning that they have waited 3,000 years… they can wait 30 more days and Trump is telling them to hold on, he’s coming.

From the US Senate/Ted Cruz:

“Like bitter clingers, President Obama and Secretary Kerry are spending every last minute of this administration wreaking havoc domestically and abroad. With their last breath in office, they have struck at Israel, through the United Nations and through today’s disgraceful speech.

“These acts are shameful. They are designed to secure a legacy, and indeed they have: history will record and the world will fully understand Obama and Kerry as relentless enemies of Israel. Their actions were designed to weaken and marginalize Israel, and to embolden its enemies.

“Today’s speech — like Kerry’s 2014 remarks likening Israel to an apartheid state — will enflame rising anti-Semitism in Europe. It will encourage the mullahs who hate Israel and hate America. And it will facilitate ‘law-fare,’ growing legal assaults on Israel through transnational legal fora.

“Kerry’s speech drew a stunning moral equivalence between our great ally Israel and the Palestinian Authority, currently formed in a ‘unity’ government with the vicious terrorists of Hamas. Secretary Kerry declared the Hamas regime in Gaza ‘radical,’ in the same way he declared the duly-elected government of Israel ‘extreme.’ He declared vicious terrorism sponsored by Hamas equal to Israeli settlements in West Bank. And he equated Israel’s celebration of its birth with the Palestinian description of this event as the ‘disaster.’ His speech attempted to lay out an historic and seismic shift towards the delegitimization of our ally, Israel, and the further empowerment of the Palestinian Authority.

“Kerry’s central conclusion, that ‘Israel can either be Jewish or democratic, it cannot be both’ is an inanity that passes as profound only in Ivory Tower faculty lounges. There are roughly 50 majority-Muslim countries in the world. There is one — only one — Jewish state. And yet, for Kerry and Obama, that is too much. The Israeli Knesset has 17 elected Arab members. It has Muslim members and Christian members. In contrast, one searches in vain for Muslim countries that have elected Jewish representatives.

“It is a sign of their radicalism and refusal to defend American interests, that Obama and Kerry choose to attack the only inclusive democracy in the Middle East — a strong, steadfast ally of America — while turning a blind eye to the Islamic terrorism that grows daily.

“America is an unshakable friend of Israel, and we are horrified at what has transpired this week.

“I believe Obama’s and Kerry’s shameful conduct will backfire. That it will be short-lived, and will inspire a bipartisan repudiation of their radical anti-Israel agenda.

“All Americans who understand the value of the U.S.-Israel alliance must immediately and unequivocally reject their false and dangerous narrative, and reassert our fundamental commitment to Israel’s security. Thankfully, Congress and the incoming administration can and I hope will take decisive action to intercept the administration’s final and desperate Hail Mary, and that should begin with eliminating U.S. funding to the U.N., unless and until this disgraceful resolution is reversed.

“I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle as well as the incoming administration to chart a new path forward based on America’s national security interests and clear-eyed reality, not on the Obama administration’s globalist agenda and wishful thinking.”

Obama, Kerry, Biden and others plotted this betrayal well in advance of the UN convening. Israel has a ton of proof of it and it will come out, I have no doubt of that. Kerry’s speech yesterday was the most shameful display of betrayal of an ally that I have ever witnessed in my lifetime, it was a sheer gift to the Islamists. I agree with Cruz, this will backfire on Obama and will strengthen support of Israel here in the US. I think it will also cause a major reassessment of the UN, with defunding and possibly withdrawal from their ranks altogether.

The “moral equivalence” that Palestine-defenders like John Kerry use to bludgeon Israel with while ignoring the evil pressed against them on all sides by Islamists who want to annihilate them is simply jaw dropping. This brazen (but inevitable) betrayal of Israel is the most shameful act to come from Obama in a long series of shameful acts. For eight long years, Obama has treated Israel like dirt, but that is about to change.

Ted Cruz said this when the resolution was first passed: “Every Obama foreign policy official should be ashamed of today’s U.N. resolution, and any official who disagrees with or hopes to avoid the anti-Israel legacy of this administration should resign on principle today.” That’s exactly right. The US should expel Palestinian diplomats and immediately cut off funding to the UN. We should also scale back ties with foreign nations that voted in favor of the controversial measure. A full investigation should be launched into the actions of Barack Obama, John Kerry and others over this horrific move.

With a Trump administration in place, we need to take a forceful stand against any and all that try to deligitimize Israel. Our response should be swift and forceful and it should be made clear that ANYONE out there that tries to attack the Jewish State will need to answer to the United States.