by Hugo Spaulding, Daniel Pitcairn, and Daniel Urchick
Turkey sharply escalated Russian-NATO relations on November 24 by downing a Russian Su-24 bomber near the Turkish-Syrian border. Turkey reported that the Russian bomber had violated Turkish airspace and ignored repeated warnings before Turkish F-16s shot the aircraft down. Syrian rebels killed one Russian pilot, and a subsequent search-and-rescue mission in northern Syria resulted in the death of a Russian marine and the destruction of a Russian helicopter. Russia is likely to take escalatory measures to project force against NATO's southern flank in response to Turkey's actions. Russia has already announced the deployment of its most advanced S-400 air defense system to the Russian airbase in Latakia and the resumption of fighter jet escorts of its bombers, a practice reportedly halted in the wake of an October 20 memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Russia also announced that its flagship missile cruiser near the Syrian coast would "destroy" any aircraft threatening posing a threat to its warplanes. The first downing of a Russian plane by a NATO member since the Korean War represents a direct challenge to the great power image President Putin seeks to cultivate and is likely to accelerate Russia's intervention in the region.
The expansion of Russian military activity in the region underscores Russia's primary grand strategic objective, to assert itself as a great power rival to the U.S. and a direct rival to NATO. Russia's escalation, which increased sharply after the ISIS attacks in Paris on November 13, accelerated further with the transit of long-range strategic bombers around Western Europe's coast and the launch of cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea on November 20. This escalation signaled Russia's intent to challenge Western states while it claims to conduct counterterrorism operations. The U.K. scrambled jets as Russian long-range bombers passed near its airspace and has reportedly been conducting joint search operations with Canada and France for a Russian submarine, though it is unclear that the submarine is destined for Syria. Russian long-range bombers and cruise missiles from the Caspian disrupted air traffic in Iraq, including U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition flights out of Iraqi Kurdistan. Russia also disrupted air traffic into and out of Lebanon over the Mediterranean.
As Russia projects aggression against its opponents, it continues to pursue deeper ties with its new regional partners, namely Iran and Egypt. Russia loosened a ban on the export of nuclear equipment and technology to Iran and signed an agreement to help build Egypt's first nuclear power plant. Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Iran for the first time since 2007 to meet with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who called for "closer interaction" with Russia to counter the U.S. in the Middle East. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu later met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo, where he said Russia was ready to "closely cooperate" against ISIS's affiliate in the Sinai Peninsula. Russia's efforts to expand its partnerships with Iran and Egypt are a key component of its intervention in the Middle East which aims to project Russian military power at the expense of U.S. influence in the region. Russia views France as both a potential partner and rival to its military intervention. France confirmed that its newly deployed Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier began deconflicting operations with Russian naval assets near the Syrian coast. Russia seeks to draw France and some U.S. regional partners into its proposed alternative counterterrorism alliance without sacrificing its freedom of action in Syria. French President Francois Hollande signaled that he would be unwilling to partner with Russia if Russia continues to strike non-terrorist targets on behalf of the Syrian regime ahead of his meeting with Vladimir Putin on November 26.
There is little doubt that the leader of the greatest nation on the face of the Earth, the United States of America, could learn much from the leader of one of the smallest nations on the face of the Earth, Israel.
There is little doubt that Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, not only can explain free market economics, but that he understands exactly what is occurring in the Middle East. And, has proven he can implement policies, with his strongest ally, the United States of America, to keep his nation and people safe among bloodthirsty nations that would like nothing better than to annihilate the State of Israel.
Here is a video of Netanyahu speaking at the American Enterprise Institute …
Netanyahu on economics …
So how do I explain the idea of free markets and their centrality in today’s world? And so, three weeks later, I did a press conference and I said, I want to fall back on my first day in basic training in the Israeli paratroops.
The commander put us in a straight line and he said, you are now going to take a race. But it’s a special kind of race. Each man looked to his right; you are the first man, he pointed to me. Put the guy to your right on your shoulders, and the next guy did that, and then the guy after him did that. And I got a pretty big guy. He was heavy. The next guy was the smallest guy in the platoon, and he got the biggest guy on his shoulders. And the third guy was a big guy, and he got a small guy, and so on. And then the commander blew the whistle. I barely managed to move forward. The next guy, the guy next to me, the small guy with the big guy on his shoulders, collapsed. And the third guy took off like a rocket and won the race.
And I said, in the modern economies, all national economies are pairs of a public sector sitting on the shoulder of the private sector. In our case, the public sector became too big, too fat. (Applause.) And we’re about to collapse. So we have to put the fat man on a diet and we have to strengthen the guy at the bottom, give him a lot of oxygen in his lungs. That means lowering tax rates. And, third, we have to remove the obstacles, the barriers to the race, barriers to competition.
By the way, this became known as the fat man/thin man thing, and taxi drivers could repeat it. But, effectively, we ended up doing exactly that.
We constrained the growth of public spending. We lowered tax rates. I had a big argument about that. They said who’s this guy “Laufer”? I said, no, no, it’s not “Laufer.” His name is Laffer. And we actually tried it. And it works. It worked for us, big time. (Applause.)
And we instituted a lot, a lot of reforms. I mean, even earlier, as prime minister in my first term, I removed, you know, all constraints on foreign currency exchange. And that was supposed to collapse our economy. And, of course, everybody was warning me that a mountain of money will move. It did – into the country, you know.
An elegant and understandable explanation of why a growing public sector, including its corrupt public employee unions, will eventually collapse the private sector.
Netanyahu on the Palestinian issues …
The reason, first of all, the conflict that we have in the Middle East is multiple. It used to be said that the core of the conflict, in the singular, in the Middle East is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Well, that went by the window. When you see Iraq collapsing, Syria collapsing, Yemen collapsing, Libya collapsing and everything else in turmoil, nothing to do with us.
The core of the conflicts in the Middle East is the battle between modernity and early, primitive medievalism. That’s the core of the conflicts. (Applause.)
The core of the specific conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is the persistent Palestinian refusal to recognize a Jewish state in any boundary. This is why this conflict persisted for 50 years before there was a state, before there were territories, before there were settlements.
If that were the core of the conflict, the settlements, why did it take place when my grandfather landed in Jaffa in 1920? Jews were murdered then for what? There was no West Bank. There were no settlements. Now, that continued in 1921, 1929, 1936, 1939, 1948. What was that all about? Nineteen sixty-seven, for nearly half a century we were being attacked because there was a persistent refusal to accept us in any boundary.
Well, we got into these territories as a result of the conflict. And what Arab propaganda has done by endless repetition is to turn the result of the conflict into its cause.
Now, how do you know that that’s the case? Because we left Gaza completely, every last centimeter, and they’re still firing rockets at us from Gaza. And when you ask them, why are you doing this? Is it to liberate the West Bank? And they say, yeah, sure. That too, but no. It’s to liberate Palestine, you know, Acre, Haifa, Jaffa. They always get back to Jaffa.
So now I turn to the other guys, to the Palestinian Authority and not to Hamas. At least they don’t practice violence, which is important. And I say, well, what about you? Are you willing to recognize the Jewish state? Are you willing to recognize the fact – you’ll have a nation-state for the Palestinian people.
How about a nation-state for the Jewish people? I mean, after all, we’ve only been there almost 4,000 years, and we recognize there’s two peoples there. We’re willing to make the deal. Are you willing to make the deal? Are you willing to recognize the Jewish state?
Because there’s no point in making another Palestinian state, another Arab state that will continue the battle from improved lines against the Jewish state. Are you willing to end the conflict, give up the claim of the so-called right of return? Make peace.
And you know what happens when you ask them that? They move. They say, oh, we’re willing to recognize Israel. I didn’t ask Israel. I said are you willing to terminate all claims to the Jewish state? You won’t get Jaffa. You won’t flood us with refugees. Are you willing to do that? And the answer is they’re not. We will have peace when the Palestinians will accord us what they ask us to accord them.
We’re willing to have – let them have a state of their own. They have to reconcile themselves to the fact that we have a state of our own and it’s here to stay. That is the core of the problem. (Applause.) In the Middle East, modernity against medievalism, Israel and the Palestinians, the persistent refusal to recognize a Jewish state in any boundary. I hope that changes.
Again, an elegant and understandable explanation of why there cannot be any peace between Israel and the Palestinian state. Unfortunately, President Obama, and now John Kerry, keep demanding that Israel cede ground to the Palestinians – but have never gotten beyond a simple declaration that the Palestinians are willing to recognize Israel as a sovereign state and give up their ambitions to occupy Israel in the future.
What is going on now …
President Obama certainly needs something from the American Jews: support for the progressive socialist democrats in the upcoming 2016 presidential election cycle.
After disrespecting Benjamin Netanyahu and the State of Israel for the entirety of his presidency, Jews are starting to notice that Obama’s worldview is not only pro-Muslim, pro-Palestinian, anti-Jew, but also bad for the economy and the safety and security of the United States.
Obama is also having a difficult time convincing his core constituency, the Blacks, that they have not been disrespected, disadvantaged, and murdered in the inner cities under democrat governance. That their jobs are flowing to illegal aliens. And, that any promise President Obama makes is as big a lie as “If you want to keep your doctor, you can keep your doctor. Period.”
So how else can you explain the release of a man fairly convicted for selling out his nation to convey classified information to Israel. Yes, we spy on them and they spy on us. But, there are consequences to being a traitor.
Jonathan Pollard, American Who Spied for Israel, Released After 30 Years
For 30 years, Mr. Pollard was at the center of a profound struggle between Washington and Jerusalem, one that shadowed American presidents and Israeli prime ministers since Ronald Reagan was in the White House. The Americans called him a traitor. The Israelis deemed him a soldier, to some a hero. At times, both made him a diplomatic bargaining chip.
The only American ever sentenced to life in prison for spying for an ally, Mr. Pollard was freed on parole to an uncertain future.
“After three long and difficult decades, Jonathan has been reunited with his family,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said in a statement from Jerusalem. Noting that he had “raised Jonathan’s case for years” with American leaders, Mr. Netanyahu added, “May this Sabbath bring him much joy and peace that will continue in the years and decades ahead.” <Source>
The only thing that could have convinced President Obama to release Pollard is he needs the disaffected Jews to overlook ant-Jewish behavior and return to the fold. In fact, it appears that Obama is hedging his bet for round two – keeping Pollard from traveling to Israel, where he is regarded as a hero by many – until Obama is ready to make secondary demands.
Bottom line …
Watch Netanyahu’s speak. This is what a patriot sounds like when he is defending his nation and his people; both militarily and economically. Men and women serve openly side-by-side in the Israeli defense forces. There are no social experiments involving gays and transgenders. The Israelis need everyone pulling together to face existential threats. They take care of their own people. They try to unite rather than divide.
Israel is perhaps one of the only places where leaders are not deified and vociferously questioned by a tough media and an even tougher public. Israel is the only place where you have arguments for argument’s sake and eleven opinions are likely to come from ten people in the same room. But, in the final analysis, they act together. They have learned that people, Israelis and Arabs alike, will do bad things on occasion; commit heinous acts. But they do not let that define them as a people and their leaders do not exploit the tragedy and crisis for domestic political gain.
If we continue under the progressive social democrats into pursuing President Obama’s divisive and transformative politics, we are doomed as a nation. Or as my best friend Al is wont to say, “We are so screwed.”
by Ingrid Carlqvist • November 23, 2015 at 5:00 am
Stockholm opened what is believed to be the world's first rape clinic for men. More and more men are being subjected to homosexual rape in multicultural Sweden. 370 sex crimes against boys and men were registered in 2014, although the actual number of incidents is thought to be significantly higher.
Sweden's strategy seems to be to keep the borders open and then redistribute the asylum seekers to EU countries that have an immigration policy completely different from Sweden's open borders and generous welfare benefits. Whether other EU countries want to relieve Sweden's burden remains to be seen.
Police documents show that 70% asylum seekers whose applications are rejected ignore the decision and stay illegally in Sweden.
The councilman argued that one should be able to talk about everything, so long as it is true. Two days later, he was forced to apologize and stress that he is not a racist.
Swedish authorities care more about the murderer's future in his native Eritrea than they do about the risk that he will kill more Swedes.
Weapons smugglers have figured out a way to drive through customs checkpoints without being pulled over. The customs officers have orders never to stop cars with more passengers than there are customs officers present, according to the Lokaltidningenweekly newspaper.
The young men raped the girl, beat her and half-strangled her. The men, because they were believed to be under 18, were sentenced to juvenile detention. In six to nine months, they will be cruising Stockholm by night again.
On October 13, three men were arrested as suspects in an August 24 hand grenade attack against police. Left: A police van is riddled with shrapnel (left) from the hand grenade attack. The four policemen in the vehicle at the time could have been killed if the van had not been armored. At right, the Malmö police bomb squad disarms a hand grenade found in Landskrona, on September 22.
On October 6, the radio program P4 Halland reported that an imam in Halmstad called homosexuality a "virus." In a video posted on his mosque's YouTube channel, the imam talked about raising children. He said that parents need to make sure their children have good immune systems, as there are many viruses floating around in society -- one of them being homosexuality. The lecture was held in association with the Sobriety Movement's Educational Activities (Nykterhetsrörelsens bildningsverksamhet). Its members immediately terminated their collaboration with the mosque.
The Paris attacks have prompted calls for a stronger military response to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. But restraint may be the better course of action.
The enemy France and Europe are struggling against is far closer to home.
Brought to you by IBM
Government Analytics Forum 2015
Last May, experts from the data analysis community gathered to share best practices for driving mission objectives with informed decisions. View replays of the keynotes, breakout sessions and product demos, streamed straight to your laptop!
The U.S. military is working to refine and improve a multi-sensor device that could one day deploy to detect suicide vests.
Brought to you by IBM
Government Analytics Forum 2015
Last May, experts from the data analysis community gathered to share best practices for driving mission objectives with informed decisions. View replays of the keynotes, breakout sessions and product demos, streamed straight to your laptop!
The Louisiana Governor's Mansion flipped to the Democrats just four years after Bobby Jindal won re-election against a Democrat who only got 17% of the vote with Jindal winning every parish. There are some lessons national Republicans should take away.
First, candidates matter. David Vitter was a terrible candidate. He threw Bobby Jindal under the bus to show Louisiana that he too was tired of Jindal. The state party did not take so kindly to Vitter's scorched earth policy against Republicans. But then there were the prostitutes. Oh, and there was the abortion.
Sometimes Donald Trump would be better served by being quiet. Because his inability to self-edit his stream of consciousness leads to those cringe-worthy moments when he says things that are scary if he believes them and equally scary if he doesn’t believe them.
Maybe John Weaver is a political genius and we just can’t see it. Maybe his plan – which always consists of running against conservatives – will one day earn someone the Republican nomination for President. Thus far, though, the results have been pretty abysmal.
This week, Belgium raised their terror alert and the Prime Minister gave a speech on increasing security. Today, the city of Brussels is locked down and troops are patrolling the streets in response to what is being called a “precise” threat.
Here is the Donald Trump quote in question: “I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down. And I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering…” And that seems to be a pretty straightforward quote, there.
One of the critical battles going on beneath the radar is the battle between Ben Carson and Ted Cruz for the Evangelical, and I’d say conservative Catholic, vote. While Trump is trolling everyone in sight to earn free media and Marco Rubio is picking Jeb Bush’s moldering bones, Ted Cruz and Ben Carson have been carrying on a polite, gentlemanly, and low key war. The winner of this fight could very easily become the nominee.
This leaves Republicans burdened with being the realistic, bubble popping party. Republicans, for the most part, are the ones who understand that just because something sounds nice and warm, doesn’t mean it’s realistic to implement. So they have to fight not only for their own policies, but against these empty “feel-good” statements, against the media spins, and against the demonization of them for daring suggest it would be beneficial to all of society for people to take a little more responsibility for themselves.
The majority of the M Generation bases everything on the emotions of the moment, not facts. But you already know this because you’ve observed what is happening at Mizzou, Amherst, and other institutions of “higher learning” across the nation. College kids, who stomp their feet at so-called “oppression,” can’t bear an environment of differing viewpoints. Do they actually believe the “Coexist” bumper stickers on their Priuses?
There is probably no one currently running for president who can out-pander Hillary Clinton. This is to be expected. When your entire life is a testament to the power of the lie, pandering comes naturally. One of the most amusing things she does is un-corking her half-assed imitations of regional accents.
