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REVEALED: Killer of 4 at Florida Naval Station was Saudi National; Terror Connection Probed

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It appears that the shooter that claimed the lives of four people at a Florida Naval station in Pensacola was an aviation student from Saudi Arabia. AP reported that authorities are investigating if the shooting was related to terrorism. Photo Credit: Google Maps

It appears that the shooter that claimed the lives of four people at a Florida Naval station in Pensacola  was an aviation student from Saudi Arabia. AP reported that authorities are investigating if the shooting was related to terrorism. It marked the second shooting at a military facility this week. A gunman began shooting just a few days ago at a Pearl Harbor station.

Edited by: TJVNews.com

Sources identified the shooter, who was killed in the incident, as Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani.

The FBI was the lead agency in charge of the investigation as of Friday afternoon.

Military from around the globe attend the Naval Air Station in Pensacola.

It all began on Friday morning at 6:50 am when the shooter opened fire in a classroom at the air station. In addition to the four people who were killed, many people were wounded including the assailant.  

Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan said four people had been killed and that the two sheriff’s deputies who were the first to respond, including one who killed the shooter, were wounded but expected to recover, according to an AP report.

One of the deputies was shot in the arm and the other was shot in the leg and was in surgery, Chief Deputy Chip Simmons said during a morning news conference. 

“Walking through the crime scene was like being on the set of a movie,” Sheriff Morgan told reporters.

Morgan said eight people were taken to Baptist Health Care in Pensacola, and one of them died

According to information provided by its web site, the Naval Air Station in Pensacola employs more than 16,000 military and 7,400 civilian personnel, as was reported by AP. The Pensacola air station is one of the most historic bases in the country and plays a major role in the economic prosperity of the surrounding area.

It’s home to the Blue Angels flight demonstration team, and includes the National Naval Aviation Museum, a popular regional tourist attraction, as was reported by AP.

The base was still on lockdown at about 10 a.m. and was to remain closed for the rest of the day, with only essential personnel allowed to enter. Pensacola Mayor Grover C. Robinson also asked residents to avoid the area around the base as investigators swarmed the scene.

AP reported that Escambia County Commissioner Jeff Bergosh, who works at the Naval Air Station as a civilian contractor, told the Pensacola News Journal he was in line to go through the gate Friday morning when it was shut down due to the active shooter report.

“There’s probably been 100 or so various law enforcement vehicles zooming down the wrong side on Navy Boulevard,” Bergosh told the newspaper. “There’s been ambulances, fire trucks. It’s my understanding there’s multiple causalities.”

President Donald Trump has been briefed on the shooting and is monitoring the situation, the White House said.

Vice President Mike Pence tweeted: “Saddened to hear of the horrible shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola & continuing to monitor the situation. Praying for the victims & their families & we commend the first responders for their swift action in taking down the shooter & getting those on base to safety.”

 

NYC’s Most Expensive Commercial Streets & Neighborhoods in 2019 Would Surprise You!!

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Commercial space in prestigious areas like FiDi, Hudson Yards, or the Plaza District regularly ask potential tenants more than $100 per square foot. Photo Credit: 19Dutch.com

New York City has historically been known to fetch among the highest prices for commercial real estate across the globe.  That’s not to say it’s overpriced. There is undeniably incalculable value added by being in a prime location. The Big Apple is certainly a prime setting, a place to see and be seen, to wheel and deal, more so than any other City in America.  This is true for businesses and offices as well as homes and residential buildings.  

By Ilana Siyance

Today, businesses continue to pay a premium for an address in the Big City.  Commercial space in prestigious areas like FiDi, Hudson Yards, or the Plaza District regularly ask potential tenants more than $100 per square foot. The only question remains, which NYC streets and neighborhoods are fetching the highest prices for commercial space in 2019. A recent blog in Metro Manhattan by Alan Rosinsky sought to answer this question.  Based on commercial real estate sales data from NYC Department of Finance , in the five boroughs of NYC from January 2019 till October, a list was compiled revealing the 30 most expensive streets, as well as the 30 most expensive neighborhoods in NYC. The list found the locations with the highest Median Sale Price for NYC streets and neighborhoods that had at least 10 commercial sales transactions so far this year.

First let us peek at the Priciest Commercial Streets in NYC.   The number one most expensive street in NYC is none other than Manhattan’s Third Avenue.  The Median Sales Price was $12,092,588, as calculated from the 10 sales on the street between January and October 2019.  The total sales volume for the period was $715,746,114. The largest transaction was Chetrit Group’s $422 million purchase of the Midtown Manhattan building at 850 Third Avenue in January.  The 21-story, 617,000 Square foot building on 51st street and third was previously owned by China’s debt-ridden HNA Group. Another heavy-duty deal was 60 Guilders and RCG Longview’s $212.5 million purchase of the renovated 19-sory student housing building at 1760 Third Avenue, from The Chetrit Group. 

The second most expensive street in NYC was Manhattan’s Lexington Avenue.  The street boasted a Median Sales Price of $9,335,312 for commercial transactions.  There were 10 sales recorded for the year so far, with total sales volume of $379,769,138.  The largest transaction in the area was the $180 million purchase of 360 Lexington Avenue by Savanna at the end of the summer.  Manhattan’s First Avenue was named the third most expensive street in NYC. There were 11 sales recorded for the period with a Median Sales Price of $8,000,000.  

As expected, the City’s most expensive streets are in Manahattan.  However, Brooklyn seems to be catching up. Manhattan was home to 9 of the 30 most sought after streets for the year, but Brooklyn topped that with 13 of the most expensive streets based on this year’s sales.  NYC’s fourth priciest street is in Brooklyn– namely Flatbush Avenue. The street fetched a median sale price of $5.6 million for commercial properties, recording 13 transactions with total sales volume of $191,040,950. That means than in 2019, commercial buyers paid a higher premium for Flatbush locations than Fifth Avenue or Broadway.  Brooklyn’s busy street is developing fast. The priciest exchange was the $100 million sale of 270 Flatbush Avenue, which is yet to be built. 

Last in the Top five is Queens’ Northern Boulevard with a Median Sales Price of $4,550,000, for 12 sales.  The biggest transaction there was the sale of the $40 million retail building at 51-30 Northern Boulevard. The former Sports Authority Store there will be turned into a high school.  Queens grabbed a total of seven spots in the top 30 list for the most expensive commercial streets. The combined commercial sales volume for the borough on this list was $863 million in 2019.  

Manhattan’s prized Fifth Avenue took the sixth spot on the list.  The Median Sales Price for transactions was $4,222,500, despite the high total volume of $3,010,590,975 on the 18 sales in 2019.  Seventh place on the list was Brooklyn’s President Street, with Median Sales Price of $3,050,000 in 16 transactions.  

Eighth place was 4th Avenue, also in Brooklyn.  Median Sales Price was $2,950,000 over the 16 transactions.  Other notable streets to make the top 30 list from Brooklyn include:  Brooklyn’s Broadway (#11), Nostrand Avenue (#13), Coney Island Avenue (#16), Atlantic Avenue (#17), Amity Street (#21), Bedford Avenue (# 22), 6Th Avenue (#23), Fulton Street (#26), Kings Highway (#29), and Greene Avenue (#30 on the list).

Number Nine on the list is Queens’s 31st Street, with a Median Sales Price of $2,850,000 for the 10 transactions.  Other hot streets on the top 30 list in Queens included: Steinway Street ( spot #18), Queens Boulevard (# 19), Prince Street (#20), Roosevelt Avenue (#24), and Union Street (#25).  

Rounding off the top ten of the list of NYC’s most expensive streets was Manhattan’s Charlton Street with a Median Sales Price of $2,788,914 for the 13 transactions.  Other hot streets in Manhattan included: Madison Avenue (#12), Leonard Street (#14), West 87Th Street (#15), and of course Broadway (down to spot # 27, with Median Sales price of $1,400,000, despite high sales volume of $476,502,007 in 21 transactions.)

The Borough of Bronx did make an appearance on the list, though Staten Island did not.  East Tremont Avenue landed was ranked as #28, with a median sale price of $1.2 million for 10 commercial sales in 2019.  

 

That brings us to the list of the Most Expensive Commercial Neighborhoods in NYC, based on sales data from the DOF dated January to October 2019.  In this list, Manhattan regains its rightful place at the top. Manhattan hogged 19 of the top 30 spots in the list, as compiled by Metro Manhattan.  In fact all the top 11 most expensive neighborhoods were in Manhattan. The top neighborhood was, of course, Manhattan’s Financial District. It blew away all the competition with Median Sales Price of $43,850,000 in 10 transactions.  Second place on the list is Manhattan’s Fashion District, with a Median Sales Price of $12,499,570, over 27 recorded transactions. The other top ten commercial neighborhoods on the list, in order include: Midtown Cbd, Upper East Side (79-96 streets), Greenwich Village-West, Greenwich Village-Central, Little Italy, Upper East Side (59-79 streets), East Village, and Chelsea neighborhoods respectively.  

The Bronx’s Mount Hope/Mount Eden neighborhood stole spot #12, with Median Sales Price of $5,812,000 over 11 transactions in the neighborhood.  Manhattan neighborhoods continue to dominate the list till the Bronx’s Mott Haven/Port Morris takes spot 18. 

Queen’s Bayside neighborhood was named # 19 on the list with a Median Sales Price of $3,750,000 over 12 transactions. Bayside was the only Queens neighborhood on the list, led by the $12.2 million sale of the Bayside Tennis Corporation at 34-28 214th Place.

Six Brooklyn neighborhoods made the top 30 list. Carroll Gardens took the 22nd spot with a Median Sales Price of $3,700,000 in 17 transactions.  The neighborhood of Gowanus was ranked # 23, with a Median Sales Price of $3,425,000, over 20 transactions with a total sales volume of $177,085,207 for the neighborhood in 2019.  Flatbush-Central made the list as # 25, with 46 transactions in the neighborhood, at a Median Sales Price of $207,529,331. Other Brooklyn neighborhoods to make the most expensive list include: Park Slope (# 27), and Boerum Hill (#30).

Art Basel Miami Draws Chic Global Crowd; Avantgarde “Banana in Duct Tape” Sells for $120K

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At the upper crust Art Basel Miami exposition that draws the world’s crème de la crème of art collectors and aficionados it appears that a banana which had been duct-taped to a wall has been sold to a buyer for staggering $120,000. Photo Credit: Art Basel

Seems like odd things sell like hotcakes at contemporary and avantgarde art shows and it appears that old fruit will cost art collectors a pretty penny. 

Edited by: TJVNews.com

At the upper crust Art Basel Miami exposition that draws the world’s crème de la crème of art collectors and aficionados it appears that a banana which had been duct-taped to a wall has been sold to a buyer for staggering $120,000. Another interesting feature of the annual art confab is that children are selling their paintings for up to $75,000. Not bad for a kid with a paint brush.

A New York Post article indicated that the banana that was duct taped to a wall and presented to the world as a classic example of rare and unique art was the brainchild of respected Italian artist, Maurizio Cattelan who bought  the fruit at a supermarket and taped it to a white wall at the Perrotin Parisian gallery during a VIP preview party, according to Artnet.com. 

A collector from France purchased the unusual piece which was titled, “Comedian” for its $120K listed price, according to the Post article.  A second edition later sold at the same price to yet another French collector. A third version is selling for $150K although Cattelan, has intentions of selling it to a museum, according to the NY Post. 

Speaking to Artnet about the genesis of the banana piece, Cattelan said that he had been working on it for a year. Originally, the artist had attempted to construct a banana out of bronze and resin, according to the NY Post report and then he came up with a unique idea of how to proceed with it.  

“I couldn’t figure out how to finish it,” Catalan mused. “In the end, one day I woke up and I said, ‘The banana is supposed to be a banana.’ ”

As to buyers of Cattelan’s work receiving instructions on what to do with the piece of art when it inevitably begins to rot, there were not given by the artists, nor were buyers advised on how to display it in the appropriate manner in which this kind of art deserves.   

The Post reported that a gallery owner named Emmanuel Perrotin said that he will be throwing out the rotting banana unless a buyer wants it for the price he is asking.

About three years ago, the Guggenheim Museum in New York City featured an 8-karat solid-gold toilet that Cattelan made. In some circles, he is considered an artist with a predilection towards being a prankster of sorts.  The Post reported that Cattelan rejected the idea that “Comedian” was simply a joke. 

Children as young as age seven are featuring their works at Art Basel for tens of thousands of dollars.

Some examples include:

Aelita Andre, a 12-year old expressionist prodigy priced one of her works at the event for $75,000, according to the NY Post.

Elisabeth Anisimow, 13, sold a piece for $12,500 that she created when she was only 11 years old, as was reported by the Post.

A work made out of candy wrappers with the words “Sweet Like Candy” sold for $1500. 

The painting, “Waiting for Departure,” depicts two World War II-era children next to a suitcase.

The Post also reported that 15-year old Isabella Koopman — who goes by “Koops” — walked off with $10,000 in sales for four of her colorful collages.

American Dream Mall Ushers in the Holiday Season in Style

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Real estate developer Eskander Ghermezian, Jewish Voice publisher David Ben Hooren, Bergen County Executive James J. Tedesco and Bahman Ghermezian. Photo Credit: Jewish Voice Photography

The holiday season officially kicked off at American Dream Mall in the Meadowlands complex on Thursday, December 5th with festive activities for the entire family including free photos with Santa, face painting, a winter market and more.

Edited by: TJVNews.com

American Dream is a retail and entertainment complex that has over 450 stores. Big SNOW is the third venue to open at American Dream. The mega-mall in the Meadowlands opened its doors Oct. 25 but only the Nickelodeon Universe theme park and The Rink, an NHL regulation-sized skating rink debuted. The rest of the opening stages will take place in early 2020.

American Dream was the brainchild of Canadian real estate developers Eskandar, Nader, Raphael and Bahman Ghermezian who are of Iranian-Jewish origin.  

The Big SNOW American Dream also opened on Thursday, welcoming Santa Claus himself as one of the attraction’s very first visitors. 

The Big SNOW American Dream also opened on Thursday, welcoming Santa Claus himself as one of the attraction’s very first visitors. The media was allowed inside the 16-story, 180,000 square-foot indoor ski and snowboard park for a first look before the public slid down the slopes later on Thursday.

The media was allowed inside the 16-story, 180,000 square-foot indoor ski and snowboard park for a first look before the public slid down the slopes later on Thursday.

According to an NJ.com report this is the first real snow indoor ski and snowboard venue in North America. To make it feel like winter the whole year through, the Big Snow will be regulated at about 28 degrees. The below freezing temperature keeps the slopes covered in 5,500 tons of snow, with an average depth of 2 feet, according to the NJ.com report.

Big SNOW has a ski chalet-themed retail store, three slopes of varying difficulties, four lifts, a freestyle terrain park for snowboarders and a Terrain Based Learning area for beginners, the trademarked teaching tool of SNOW Operating, which runs Big SNOW and Mountain Creek, as was reported by NJ.com

NJ.com reported that skiing novices can rent equipment, ski jackets and pants for $69.99 for a two-hour session or more for a three-day session, and experienced skiers and snowboarders can bring their own and just buy an access pass for $34.99. There’s pricing for kids, too, and even child care for parents who want to ski without kids in tow.

The media kick-off event featured appearances by New Jersey native and Olympic gold medalist mogul skier Donna Weinbrecht, World Champion and Olympic Gold Medal ski racer Lindsey Vonn, Burton Snowboards Global Team Rider and US Olympic Gold Medalist Red Gerard and Global Team Rider Ben Ferguson.

SNOW Operating’s owner, Joe Hession said the indoor ski facility continues his mission to get more people sliding on snow.

PHOTOS WITH SANTA

American Dream’s Events Court is transformed into a winter wonderland this holiday season. When you and your family visit American Dream between December 5 – December 24 you will receive a complimentary 5×7 print + digital photo with Santa. Photos with Santa are available at your convenience, with no appointments needed. Suggested donations benefiting Make-A-Wish® New Jersey, our holiday non-profit partner, are encouraged. A complete listing of Santa’s schedule for the holiday season is available at www.americandream.com/event/santa. Santa is bilingual and is fluent in English and Spanish.

 

CELEBRATE WITH COCA-COLA

 

Coca-Cola’s celebration of the season comes to life at American Dream this Saturday, December 7 and Sunday, December 8. Coca-Cola has created an immersive snowscape environment, including a gif booth where guests will sled down a mountain, complete with Coca-Cola branded winter gear. Guests can enjoy new Coca-Cola Cinnamon and Sprite Winter Spiced Cranberry flavors after they ‘ride’ down the mountain.

 

WINTER MARKET

The Winter Market at American Dream will debut this December and offer guests the opportunity to shop for unique gifts for loved ones, as well as sample snacks that will tease their appetites. Vendors include A’Jar Sweet Cream Factory, Bang Cookies, Italian Alps Gelato, Grisini Coffee, Ladurée, Pandora, Robin Ruth, Sleet & Sole, The New Stand and Unique Flowers.

 

FESTIVE FACE PAINTING

Enjoy festive face painting during the weekend at American Dream. Face painters will be in the Tree Court and Nickelodeon Universe every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from December 6 – December 22, as well as Monday, December 23 and Tuesday, December 24. Hours will be posted on www.americandream.com.

 

CHANUKAH CELEBRATIONS

 

Celebrate Chanukah at American Dream. Join us for a special Chanukah Skate at The Rink on Sunday, December 22 from 5:00PM – 8:00PM, with DJ Jon spinning and a menorah lighting at 6:00PM. The community will gather to celebrate the last night of Chanukah on Sunday, December 29 from 5:30PM – 6:30PM, with a menorah lighting in the Events Court at 6:00PM.

 

SOUNDS OF THE SEASON

American Dream will welcome local schools and community groups performing holiday hits throughout the winter wonderland. Enjoy performances several times throughout the afternoon on Saturday, December 7, 14, 21 and on Sunday, December 8, 15, 22.

 

WEAR THE SEASON WITH WHOOPI

Wear the season in Whoopi Goldberg’s amazing, amusing, limited edition Christmas and Chanukah sweaters. Holiday sweaters are available for sale in Whoopi = American Dream, open through January 2020. While you’re there, check out Whoopi’s new book ‘The Unqualified Hostess’ for inspiration and tips for all of your holiday soirees.

Billionaire Steve Cohen Swings High in Potential Buy of 80% Stake in NY Mets

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Billionaire Steven A. Cohen is quite possibly in the process of buying a huge stake in the New York Mets. (Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Billionaire Steven A. Cohen is quite possibly in the process of buying a huge stake in the New York Mets. This has not been completely confirmed yet, but sources indicate Cohen would take over, after the Wilpons continue their position for five more years. In the past, when the Wilpons were under pressure from having investments in Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, Cohen had actually attempted to buy the Mets, a buy that was very much of interest to him.

By: Romy Ronen

Cohen purchased a 4% stake in the Mets in 2012 for $20 million. Bloomberg News reported he plans to up that stake to 80% of the team. If these reports are, indeed, true, and the deal is in the works, then the Mets would gain a sum total of $2.6 billion in value, as Cohen would obtain approximately 80%. The Mets have had their fair share of financial struggle, and this majority stake would not only help the Mets, but encourage the already discouraged, devoted fans who have been quite frustrated with the franchise itself.

New York Mets fans appear to be psyched up by Cohen’s interest in buying a significant stake in the National League club as they hope that a guy like Cohen could turn the team into a post season contender for the Fall Classic. The Mets have only made the playoffs just twice in the past decade.

If Cohen does purchase the Mets he would be the wealthiest owner across all the major sports leagues, according to a December 5th report in the Hartford Courant. The 63-year-old hedge fund manager is chairman and CEO of Point72 Asset Management in Stamford and lives in Greenwich, the report continued.

With Forbes estimating his net worth at $13.6 billion, that places Cohen in the sport of the second richest person who resides in Connecticut. The Hartford Courant article said that the only person ahead of Cohen in terms of wealth in Connecticut is yet another hedge fund manager, Ray Dalio who is worth an estimated $18.7 billion.

The Hartford Courant report that on a national scale that gauges wealth, Cohen has a ranking of number 35 and is higher of the Forbes 400 list than such prominent billionaires as George Soros who is estimated to have a net worth of $8.6 billion, filmmaker George Lucas who has a net worth of $6.2 billion, fashion designer Ralph Lauren who has a net worth of $6.3 billion and Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys football team who has a net worth of $8.6 billion.

Cohen grew up to a Jewish family in Great Neck, New York. His father worked in the garment district, his mother was a piano teacher. He had a relatively normal upbringing, focusing on hobbies like poker. Cohen was known as the kid who “took risks.” And most of all, he grew up rooting for the Mets. “It has always been a dream of mine to be a majority owner of a Major League Baseball franchise,” Cohen wrote in a note to investors Wednesday reviewed by Bloomberg News, as was reported in the Hartford Courant. The note reassured investors that Cohen would remain focused on “my first passion” of investing, but also said that “I look forward to seeing you at Mets games.”

He is now considered to be one of the biggest billionaires, hedge fund managers, philanthropists, and art collectors of our time. He is dedicated to the Robin Hood Foundation, serving his role as board of trustees. Most of his other philanthropy work has been geared towards helping veterans with PTSD through health centers and bioscience.

He has a massive art collection with pieces by Monet, Manet, Pollock, Hirst, Picasso, Warhol, and the list goes on. His reportedly $1 billion collection of art includes Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti’s “L’Homme au doigt” or “Man Pointing” that was purchased at a 2015 auction for $141.3 million, which broke the record for the most ever paid for a sculpture, according to the report in the Hartford Courant.

In 2013, Cohen bought Pablo Picasso’s “Le Reve” of “The Dream” from Las Vegas casino owner Steve Wynn for a staggering $155 million, which also shattered the record in terms of being the most money paid by a US collector for a piece of art.

On the bizarre and quite unusual side, the Courant also reported that Cohen owns a 14-foot shark preserved in formaldehyde and a self-portrait sculpture of a human head made from the artist’s own frozen blood.

As a renowned philanthropist and benefactor of the arts, Cohen gave $50 million to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

In 1986, he was charged with insider trading regarding shares of RCA. When under interrogation, he repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right. In 2013, he was charged with insider trading again, pleading guilty, and paying $1.8 billion in fines in one of the biggest cases against a hedge fund. In addition to insider trading, Patricia Cohen, his ex wife, confirmed Cohen’s illegal insider trading so that he could push the beginnings of S.A.C. Capital. Cohen was not proven guilty, even with federal prosecutors inserting wires and devices in his phone to track his supposed wrongdoings. Cohen’s firm even withstood a sex discrimination lawsuit that claimed it was underpaying female employees and condoning crude behaviors.

Buying 80% of the Mets would have Cohen swinging high; as a kid who always took risks, this would be a big one, one that would take off a new rocket of opportunity, wealth, and growth in a sky of past scandal and scheme.

Iran Waging ‘Shadow War,’ Seeding Iraq with Short-Range Missiles

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Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks to air force staff in Tehran on February 8, 2019. Handout via EPA

“Tehran is engaged in a shadow war, striking at countries in the Middle East but thinly disguising the origin of those attacks to reduce the chance of provoking a response,” say the sources.

By: WIN Staff 

As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to warn Tehran that the Jewish State has a “long arm” to strike wherever the Islamic Republic’s forces are mobilized, the latest report on just how aggressive the Iranians have become was published Wednesday in The New York Times.

“Iran has used the continuing chaos in Iraq to build up a hidden arsenal of short-range ballistic missiles in Iraq, part of a widening effort to try to intimidate the Middle East and assert its power, according to American intelligence and military officials,” says the paper.

As far back as August, Israel was being “blamed” for a series of airstrikes on Iraqi territory.

Top U.S. and Israeli officials are said to have been meeting on a regular basis on the Iranian issue. It was a key issue discussed when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks on Wednesday with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“The Israeli-American policy is key to that effort that serves the purposes of many, many countries in the region,” said Netanyahu, accusing Iran of  having “staging grounds against us and the region from Iran itself, from Iraq, from Syria, from Lebanon, Gaza, and Yemen and we are actively engaged in countering that aggression.”

The Iranian buildup “comes as the United States has rebuilt its military presence in the Middle East to counter emerging threats to American interests, including attacks on oil tankers and facilities that intelligence officials have blamed on Iran,” reports The Times.

“Since May, the Trump administration has sent roughly 14,000 additional troops to the region, primarily to staff Navy ships and missile defense systems.”

“But new intelligence about Iran’s stockpiling of missiles in Iraq is the latest sign that the Trump administration’s efforts to deter Tehran by increasing the American military presence in the Middle East have largely failed,” reports the newspaper, citing intelligence officials as saying that “the missiles pose a threat to American allies and partners in the region, including Israel and Saudi Arabia, and could endanger American troops.”

Iraqis “do not want to be led around on a leash by the Iranians,” Rep.Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said in an interview with the Times. “But, unfortunately, due to the chaos and confusion in the Iraqi central government, Iran is paradoxically the best poised to take advantage of the grass-roots unrest.”

Iranian officials did not return a request for comment, says the Times.

The military and intelligence officials at the center of the newspaper’s report say that “Tehran is engaged in a shadow war, striking at countries in the Middle East but thinly disguising the origin of those attacks to reduce the chance of provoking a response or escalating the fight.”

“If the United States or Israel were to bomb Iran, its military could use missiles hidden in Iraq to strike back against Israel or a gulf country,” the report says.

Short-range missiles have a range of just over 600 miles, meaning that one fired from the outskirts of Baghdad could strike Jerusalem, notes the Times.

“People are not paying enough attention to the fact that ballistic missiles in the last year have been placed in Iraq by Iran with the ability to project violence on the region,” according to Slotkin, an expert on Shiite militias who recently visited Baghdad to meet with Iraqi and American officials, says the paper.

Slotkin is said to have pressed Iraqi leaders on the threat from Iran, telling them that if Iran launched a missile from Iraqi territory, it could threaten the American training effort in Iraq and other support from the United States.

The United States is concerned about potential Iranian aggression in the near future, John C. Rood, an undersecretary of defense, told reporters on Wednesday, according to the Times, but he provided no details about what prompted the concerns.

While decades of international sanctions have weakened the Iranian military, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) says that Tehran has invested in its domestic infrastructure, allowing it to continue to develop capable cruise and ballistic missiles.

“Iran will deploy an increasing number of more accurate and lethal theater ballistic missiles, improve its existing missile inventory and also field new land-attack cruise missiles,” warns Christian Saunders, Senior Defense Intelligence Analyst for Iran at the DIA.

Aside from its missiles, “another point of concern to the United States and our allies is Iran’s rapid progress in advancing its UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] capabilities,” says Saunders.

In June, Iran shot down a U.S. Navy high-altitude drone, firing a surface-to-air missile in the area of the Strait of Hormuz. (World Israel News)

Read more at: worldisraelnews.com

Does Corey Johnson Have What it Takes to Quit Vaping before Flavored Ban Goes into Effect???

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New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson was able to quit his pack a day smoking habit in 2010 when preparing for the NYC Marathon and he is currently prepping to quit vaping and is considering entering the race again. Photo Credit: Twitter

New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson was able to quit his pack a day smoking habit in 2010 when preparing for the NYC Marathon and he is currently prepping to quit vaping and is considering entering the race again, The NY Post reported.

By: Justin Credible 

“I realized I wasn’t actually going to be able to meet that goal unless I quit smoking, so I was running like 30 to 40 miles a week, and that’s what kept me off cigarettes for a year,”  he told the NY Post.

The 37-year-old pol admitted he uses nearly an entire mint-flavored Juul pod a day — equivalent to just under a pack of smokes, the Post reported. 

“What kept me off of cigarettes for a year was my marathon training and then afterward feeling good. And then I fell off the wagon and starting smoking again and smoked until May of this year,” he told Post reporters.

Since May he has been vaping the popular Juul brand e-cigarettes. Johnson is giving himself until July to quit vaping. A controversial NYC ban on flavored vape brands goes into effect at that point.

“NY Nanny state politics strikes again, adults won’t be able to enjoy flavored vape, but NYC happily allows illegal immigrants into the City, breaking literal federal law. NYC politics is bordering on psychotic , they make a lame excuse that  flavored vape is marketed towards minors, there is no evidence this is true, New Yorkers who don’t rebel, deserve what they get, total tyranny and a new black market in flavored vape”, Jared Evan a libertarian leaning political analyst told TJV recently.

Meanwhile Corey Johnson, is against the next step, banning menthol cigarettes. Career charlatan, anti-Semite and tax evader, Al Sharpton and Johnson both stand against the menthol ban. 

“The menthol cigarette ban proposal  is simply out of control, sadly I have to agree with Sharpton on this, he mentioned Eric Garner who was killed by police during that whole incident while  he was selling loose cigarettes, Sharpton is correct, this will create a huge black market, but why Sharpton has any political clout is beyond reason & why does Corey Johnson need Sharpton to explain his to him? “Jared Evan went on in a rant to TJV reporters.

Corey Johnson who is seriously considering a run for mayor, recently stepped to plate for former Mayor Bloomberg, after de Blasio attacked “Mike” Bloomberg.

“There, I think, is typically a level of graciousness that occurs,” Johnson said at a news conference., covered by leftist leaning NY. Daily News “Now that may change when someone decides to run for president. “When Mayor de Blasio was running for president, I didn’t see Mayor Bloomberg criticizing him.”

 

Pelosi Directs Democratic Leaders to Draft Articles of Impeachment Against Trump

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi holds her weekly press conference on Capitol Hill Thursday. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi directed Democratic leaders on Thursday to “proceed with articles of impeachment” against President Trump, declaring that he has “abused the power of his office.”

By: Ken Bredemeier

Pelosi, in a brief but dramatic statement, contended that the Republican U.S. leader had defied the norms of presidential conduct, violating his sworn obligation to uphold the U.S. Constitution by asking Ukraine to launch an investigation of one of his chief 2020 Democratic challengers, former Vice President Joe Biden, to help him as he runs for re-election.

“The facts are uncontested,” Pelosi said. “The president abused his power for his own personal political benefit at the expense of our national security.”

Pelosi asked Congressman Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, where impeachment hearings started Wednesday, and other Democratic committee chairs to draft the impeachment articles.

While Pelosi mentioned no timetable, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives could vote to impeach Trump before the Christmas holiday recess at the end of the month. That would set the stage for a January trial in the Republican-majority Senate, where Trump’s conviction and removal from office remains unlikely.

Trump, on Twitter, reacted defiantly to Pelosi’s statement, saying, “The Do Nothing, Radical Left Democrats have just announced that they are going to seek to Impeach me over NOTHING.”

Trump contended that he had “two totally appropriate (perfect) phone calls” with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in one of which he asked for the investigation of Biden, his son Hunter’s work for a Ukrainian natural gas company and a debunked theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election Trump won, not Russia, as the U.S. intelligence community concluded.

His request came at a time he was temporarily withholding $391 million in military assistance Kyiv wanted to fight pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country, although in September he released the aid without Ukraine opening investigations of the Bidens.

Trump said the House move toward his impeachment “will mean that the beyond important and seldom used act of Impeachment will be used routinely to attack future Presidents. That is not what our Founders had in mind. The good thing is that the Republicans have NEVER been more united. We will win!”

White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham tweeted, “Pelosi & the Democrats should be ashamed. @realDonaldTrump has done nothing but lead our country – resulting in a booming economy, more jobs & a stronger military, to name just a few of his major accomplishments. We look forward to a fair trial in the Senate.”

Pelosi said Trump withheld the military aid Kyiv wanted and a “crucial Oval Office meeting” sought by Zelenskiy “in exchange for an announcement of an investigation into his political rival,” Biden, who is leading Democratic rivals for the party nomination to run against Trump in next November’s national election.

Pelosi, against more vocal Trump foes in the House, had for months voiced reluctance to pursue Trump’s impeachment. She expressed fears that his impeachment would be a politically losing pursuit, since the Republican majority in the Senate has shown no indication it will turn against Trump and vote for his conviction to oust him from the White House. While a small number of Republican senators have criticized Trump’s request to Zelenskiy, it would take at least 20 Republicans to turn against Trump to convict him.

But Pelosi, citing young America’s Declaration of Independence from Britain in 1776, on Thursday said Trump’s “actions are in defiance of the vision of our founders – and the oath of office that he takes – to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

“Our democracy is what is at stake,” she said. “The president leaves us no choice but to act because he is trying to corrupt, once again, the election for his own benefit. The president has engaged in abuse of power, undermining our national security and jeopardizing the integrity of our elections.”

“In America,” she said, “no one is above the law.”

Pelosi’s nationally televised statement came a day after three U.S. constitutional scholars told Congress that the U.S. leader committed impeachable offenses by pushing Ukraine to open investigations to benefit him politically. An expert called by Trump’s Republican backers, however, argued there is a “paucity of evidence” to impeach Trump.

The Judiciary panel’s hearing was part of the House Democrats’ effort  to impeach the country’s 45th president, only the fourth time in the country’s 243-year history that a U.S. leader has faced a formal impeachment proceeding. Articles of impeachment would first be considered by the 41-member Judiciary panel, where Democrats hold a 24-17 majority.

Two former U.S. presidents — Andrew Johnson in the mid-19th century and Bill Clinton two decades ago — were impeached but not convicted by the Senate and removed from office, while a third — Richard M. Nixon — resigned in 1974 in the face of certain impeachment. (VOA)

Impeachment Star Witness Pamela Karlan Forced to ‘Apologize’ for Mocking Barron Trump

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Constitutional scholar Pamela Karlan of Stanford University testifies before the House Judiciary Committee in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill December 4, 2019 in Washington, DC. This is the first hearing held by the Judiciary Committee in the impeachment inquiry against U.S. President Donald Trump, whom House Democrats say held back military aid for Ukraine while demanding it investigate his political rivals. The Judiciary Committee will decide whether to draft official articles of impeachment against President Trump to be voted on by the full House of Representatives. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

By: Joshua Caplan

Stanford Law School professor Pamela Karlan said she “apologized” Wednesday evening for invoking President Donald Trump’s 13-year-old son, Barron Trump, to criticize the president during the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on impeachment — adding that she hopes the president apologizes for his past actions.

Karlan quickly changed topics during questioning from Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ) to walk back an out-of-nowhere jab at the president’s son earlier in the hearing. “While the president can name his son Barron, he can’t make him a baron,” she had quipped to Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX). After being called out for the play on words, she took on a more conciliatory tone — while maintaining that the president remains in the wrong for unrelated actions.

“I want to apologize for what I said earlier about the president’s son,” she said. “It was wrong of me to do that. I wish the president would apologize, obviously, for the things that he’s done that’s wrong, but I do regret having said that.”

The play on words drew swift backlash from the White House and Republican lawmakers. Less than an hour before she revisited her statement, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) entered into the record a social media post from Barron’s mother, First Lady Melania Trump, saying Karlan “should be ashamed” of the stunt.

Karlan stood out from even her fellow Democrat-called witnesses with fiery, combative testimony from the start of the hearing — ostensibly a session to discuss legal theories on the constitutional grounds for impeaching a U.S. president. She scolded House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Doug Collins (R-GA) in her opening statement, answering a perceived slight that ultimately was not accurate.

The professor has previewed the unhinged style of her congressional testimony in past discussions of the president. During a panel discussion in 2017, Karlan delivered a series of monologues reviling Trump’s “outrageous” behavior both before and after he was elected, repeatedly saying that he “worries” her, questioning whether he is able to tell the difference between truth and falsehood, and admitting she could not bring herself to walk past the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC — instead choosing to change course and cross the street.

FEC records indicate Karlan donated $1,000 to the presidential campaign of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) earlier this year. When Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) asked her about this donation, Karlan became indignant, invoking foreign intervention in American elections. (Breitbart.com)

Queens Residents Shocked by “F—K White People” Racist Graffiti

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The spray-painted graffiti, written in black and underlined with red, was discovered on the sidewalk in front of a home on 151st Avenue near 81st Street in the neighborhood of Lindenwood on Thanksgiving morning, the Post reported. Photo Credit: streetadvisor.com

By Jared Evan

 A special message was left in front of a Queens home on Thanksgiving morning, “F@CK WHITE PEOPLE”, was found spray-painted on the pavement, the N.Y Post reported. 

The spray-painted graffiti, written in black and underlined with red, was discovered on the sidewalk in front of a home on 151st Avenue near 81st Street in the neighborhood of Lindenwood on Thanksgiving morning, the Post reported. 

On a nearby tree the words “F@CK WHITE” and another message stating just the “F-word” was found spray painted as well.

It’s not safe. We’re afraid,” said Lina Bachour, 38, who lives at the home where the “F–K WHITE PEOPLE” graffiti was scrawled in front of, told the NY Post.

Authorities are not sure, if this message was directly targeted to anyone, the Post reported

“This is horrible,” he said. “There are no words to share my disgust right now. It is definitely a hate-crime, especially what they wrote on the [sidewalk], another resident on the block, Barry Rachnowitz, told the NY Post. 

Rachnowitz continued saying: “can’t understand how someone can have so much hate in their heart towards a stranger … Hopefully the person will be caught and punished.”

This appears to be a current trend. Most hate related crimes overall in America are usually against Jews, however anti Caucasian hate incidents are becoming commonplace. 

In Los Angeles, several years back, , there was a rash of hate messages directed towards an art gallery in a Latino neighborhood, including the spray-painted message “f@ck white art”, the LA Times reported. 

Radical left-wing politics were apparently the motivation behind these hate messages. Local communist activists in L.A often decry “gentrification”. The left leaning independent news journal The Guardian reported at the time:

 “A coalition of community leaders and leftwing militants has mobilized over the past year to protest, confront and in some cases intimidate galleries whom they fear will pave the way for development that will push out residents and erase a cradle of Chicano identity”.

One must wonder if the Queens incident is also based on far-left indoctrination as well. 

It’s horrendous that something of this caliber would be posted on a fence on a holiday,” said Marcel. “It’s such a tight-knit community and to have somebody vandalize someone’s personal property, especially with these hate messages is disgusting.”, local PJ Marcel told The Post as he scrubbed off the messages.

On the other hand, since the election of Donald Trump there has been an explosion in fake hate crimes, framed to make Trump supporters look like violent racists. The most famous case being actor Jesse Smollett, who fabricated a story of two men in Trump MAGA hats beating him up. The well reported story was totally fabricated. 

Another example of fake hate crime took place in Michigan. 

A Muslim woman at the University of Michigan received national attention from national outlets like The Washington Post in November 2016 after she claimed a drunk 20-something man threatened to light her on fire if she didn’t remove her hijab. The university condemned the “hateful attack,” which turned out to be a hoax, Daily Caller revealed. 

 

Bloomberg Rolls Out Progressive Ideology in 2020 Run; Receives a Poll Bump

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In the huge Morning Consult tracking poll, Bloomberg’s up to 5.3 percent. Last week in the same survey he was at 2.4 percent. Similarly, in the HarrisX/Hill poll, he’s doubled his support from three percent two weeks ago to six percent now, NY Magazine reported. Photo Credit: Wikipedia

By: Jared Evan 

Former New York City Mayor and 2020 presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg has let voters know, he is a progressive dedicated to gun control, climate change and income inequality, a pollster for the former mayor announced on conservative talk radio station AM9970 “The Answer”, and he has seen a small bump in the polls

In two new national polls appearing this week, Bloomberg is experiencing a jump in support. In the huge Morning Consult tracking poll, Bloomberg’s up to 5.3 percent. Last week in the same survey he was at 2.4 percent. Similarly, in the HarrisX/Hill poll, he’s doubled his support from three percent two weeks ago to six percent now, NY Magazine reported.  

The presidential hopeful has blanketed all forms of media, from cable and local television to social media, with millions upon millions of dollars in advertising. 

 “Guns, certainly,” Doug Schoen told host John Catsimatidis on “The Cats Roundtable” on AM 970 New York in an interview that aired Sunday. “He has had great success passing anti-gun violence legislation in the state legislatures.”

 Bloomberg began showing his true colors when it comes to the 2nd amendment after the horrific Sandy Hook shootings. Bloomberg  wasted no time after the shootings to further his case for his gun control ideology.  

Bloomberg and his group “Mayors Against Illegal Guns”/ Every Town  became more vocal  after the Connecticut school massacre.

Bloomberg and other mayors in this group went on MSNBC and others  challenging then President Obama and congress to take action.  He wanted and still desires  a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips and an end to gun-show purchases without background checks. 

Bloomberg’s critics believe what is sold as a “common sense” gun control is often the first step to a total incremental ban. 

Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which Bloomberg started in 2006 with former Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, signed up more than 700 mayors; it lobbies for gun-control legislation, including banning gun sales to people on terrorist watch lists, USA Today reported. 

The same year, Bloomberg organized a sting operation in Southern states against firearms dealers who sold guns to customers who couldn’t pass background checks. 

Bloomberg set up a super PAC, Independence USA, with almost $10 million. The group targeted races in the November 2012 election.

Bloomberg is a Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on Climate. A major component of his 2020 presidential run will be on Climate Change. His campaign sounds very similar to most of the other Democrats currently running. 

“Ultimately he needs to tell the story of how he’s created thousands of jobs, and what we need to do as a country to reduce income inequality,” Schoen told 970 AM radio.  “Because while we have very high employment, the gap between the rich and the poor has gotten greater. And I think people really require opportunities that close that gap.”

 

 

The UN Holds Event Commemorating Jewish Refugees from Middle East & North Africa

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On Wednesday at the UN headquarters in New York, the Israeli Mission to the UN held an event to commemorate the Jewish refugees from North Africa and the Middle East, in coordination with JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa). This public event was heavily attended by ambassadors from around the world, UN officials, and members of the community, and featured speeches by Elan Carr, the US State Department’s Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating anti-Semitism and Sarah Idan, the former Miss Iraq, among others.

Edited by: TJVNews.com

The event was held one day after the annual UN General Assembly plenary session that commemorates the passage of Resolution 181 “Partition Plan” on November 29, 1947. The day features resolutions that highlight the Palestinian refugees, but ignore the Jewish refugees.

Special Envoy Carr stated that “in order to fight antisemitism whether it be in Europe or anywhere else, it has to be acknowledge that antizionism is antisemitism.” He continued “Jew hatred is Jew hatred whether it is focused on the Jew down the street or the Jew in the diaspora or the Jewish state.”

In her remarks, Sarah Idan spoke about visiting Israel following the revocation of her Iraqi citizenship after she posted a photo taken with Miss Israel.

She went “to learn more about this tiny country that so many Arab states see as an enemy and threat. I was very surprised and especially touched by the experience of visiting the Babylonian Heritage Museum on Or Yehuda – which serves as a center to honor the heritage and history of Iraqi Jews. I was born in Baghdad…and felt very connected to the Iraqi Jews I met in Jerusalem who welcomed me with open arms and with so much love, even though my country treated them unfairly. I was overwhelmed when I saw pictures of Iraqi government stamps on their passport saying “one-way exit – not allowed to return”. I told them I was utterly ashamed.”

In her comments, she also stated that antisemitism served as a cause of the Jewish refugees: “Sadly 3,000 year chapter of Jewish life in Iraq, along with the larger Middle East and North Africa came to an abrupt and traumatic end – and much of this is the result of antisemitism.”

Nathaniel Malka spoke on behalf of JIMENA: “Without remembrance, there cannot be truth; without truth, there cannot be justice; without justice, there cannot be reconciliation; without reconciliation, there cannot be peace. We are here today for remembrance. We recall the history of my ancestors and the rest of the million Jews who left North African and Middle Eastern lands under duress in the last century. Let me wish you all strength in your work toward reconciliation, enabled by the justice required for it, determined with truth and built over the remembrance we undertake today and increasingly all the other days of the year.”

Intel in Negotiations to Buy Israeli Chipmaker, Habana Labs, in Possible $2B Sale

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According to published reports, American technology titan Intel Corporation is engaging in advanced stage talks to purchase Israeli startup Habana Labs. Calcalist reported that Intel might be planning to dole out anywhere between $1 billion to $2 billion for the Tel Aviv based startup.

Edited by: TJVNews.com

According to published reports, American technology titan Intel Corporation is engaging in advanced stage talks to purchase Israeli startup Habana Labs. Calcalist reported that Intel might be planning to dole out anywhere between $1 billion to $2 billion for the Tel Aviv based startup.

The JPost reported in August 2017 that Intel purchased the Jerusalem-based vision technology company Mobileye for a record $15.3b., the largest sale or “exit” of an Israeli company to date.

Intel Israel commenced operations in 1974 and is a development and manufacturing center of Intel Corporation. As a leading technology company in Israel and in the world, Intel develops and manufactures integrated and connected digital technology and computing platforms. Although Intel is known primarily for development of semiconductors, they engage in other aspects as well. In recent years, they have evolved from a company that served primarily the personal computing industry to becoming a company that drives the largest data centers in the world, connecting millions of mobile installations and Internet of Things devices, as well as providing information systems protection for organizations and governments.

They employ nearly 13,000 workers in the country, exporting products worth $3.9b. in 2018 and procuring local materials and services worth $1.7b., primarily from peripheral areas, according to the JPost report.

In January, Intel announced plans to invest approximately $10.9b. in the company’s Israel-based operations to construct a vast production facility in Kiryat Gat. The 370,000 sq.m. expansion is expected to add 1,000 new employees to Intel’s existing workforce, as was reported by the JPost.

If Intel and Habana end up closing the deal and it goes through, this would be Intel’s second largest acquisition in Israel, according to the Calcalist web site.

Founded by David Dahan and Ran Halutz in 2016, semiconductor manufacturer Habana Labs is the developer of powerful AI processors, optimized for training deep neural networks and artificial intelligence systems, and for deployment in production environments, as was reported by the JPost. Last year, Intel Capital which is the investment arm of the US firm invested as part of a $75 million series B funding for the startup. Until now, Habana has raised approximately $120 million, according to Start-Up Nation Central. 

According to the Times of Israel, the startup’s first processor, Goya, is already being sold to customers worldwide, and the firm in June this year introduced its Gaudi AI training processor solution.

The company designs the chips and outsources their manufacturing. It has offices in Tel Aviv and San Jose, California; Beijing, China; and Gdansk, Poland ; and employs 150 people worldwide, according to company data.

Trump Accuses Canada’s Trudeau of Being ‘Two-Faced’

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<> on February 13, 2017 in Washington, DC.

President Trump accused Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of being “two-faced” after Trudeau and other NATO leaders appeared to have been gossiping about him.

By: Patsy Widakuswara

A recording of a reception Tuesday night in London’s Buckingham Palace shows Trudeau huddling with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Britain’s Princess Anne, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rute and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Trudeau was overheard apparently commenting on Trump’s lengthy impromptu exchange with journalists, during which Trump said Trudeau was perturbed over his remarks that Canada is not fulfilling its NATO financial commitments.

Shortly after Trump’s comments about Trudeau, he tweeted NATO has made “Great progress” since he won the presidency nearly three years ago.

Earlier Wednesday, NATO leaders gathered at a golf resort outside of London to present a united front amid bitter differences over terrorism, Turkey and increased burden sharing with the United States.

The 29 leaders, including Trump, posed for a traditional “family” photograph before retreating for the planned three-hour meeting. The leaders released a statement afterwards promising to focus more attention on the challenges posed by Russia and rising superpower China.  

“Our solemn commitment as enshrined in Article 5 of the Washington Treaty that an attack against one Ally shall be considered an attack against us all,” the statement said.

On the sidelines of the meeting Wednesday, Trump held bilateral talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The White House said “the two Presidents discussed the importance of Turkey fulfilling its alliance commitments, further strengthening commerce through boosting bilateral trade by $100 billion, regional security challenges, and energy security.”

A day earlier, leaders had gathered for informal meetings to mark the 70th anniversary of the alliance’s founding, but the day was overshadowed when tensions between Trump and Macron broke out in full public display.  

In an almost 40-minute session with journalists, the two leaders clashed on a number of issues including burden sharing within NATO, terrorism, Turkey’s invasion in northern Syria, and the U.S. withdrawal from an arms treaty with Russia.

The two leaders met hours after Trump criticized Macron for his recent statement describing NATO as experiencing a “brain death,” due to diminished U.S. leadership. Trump called it a “nasty statement.”  

As the two sat down for talks, Trump warned that NATO member countries who do not meet NATO’s guideline of spending 2% of GDP on collective defense could be dealt with “from a trade standpoint” referring to tariffs on products, including French wine.

This prompted Macron, who is currently contributing 1.9% of France’s GDB towards NATO’s defense, to push back.

“It’s not just about money,” Macron said. “What about peace in Europe?” he asked Trump.

“It’s impossible just to say we have to put money, we have to put soldiers, without being clear on the fundamentals of what NATO should be,” Macron said.

Trump and Macron argued about how to deal with Islamic State after the October withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria, a move Trump made without consulting the alliance. The withdrawal paved the way for Turkey to launch an offensive against the U.S.-allied Kurdish militia in northern Syria and triggered fear among allies of a potential IS resurgence.

In response to a question on whether France should do more to take Islamic State fighters captured in the Middle East, Trump asked Macron if he would like “some nice ISIS fighters.”

Macron countered that the main problem is IS fighters in the region. Referring to the abrupt U.S. withdrawal from northern Syria, Macron said “you have more and more of these fighters due to the situation today.”

Macron is “more on the side of those who want to actually face up to the crisis and talk about it,” said Hans Kundnani of Chatham House. He is the sort of “disruptive factor” compared to other leaders who may choose to paper over disagreements, Kundnani said.

The summit came as Trump faces an impeachment investigation back home. He repeated his criticism Tuesday of Democrats who control the House of Representatives, saying it is unfair to hold hearings while he is attending the summit.

Trump is not the first U.S. president to attend a NATO summit under the cloud of impeachment. In 1974, Richard Nixon went to NATO’s 25th anniversary meeting in Brussels while the U.S. House of Representatives was concluding its impeachment inquiry. Nixon stepped down a few weeks later. (VOA News)

 

Camelback Resort Announces Biggest Upgrade in the History of Camelback Mountain

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Powder chasers and novices alike can look forward to improved conditions and a longer season at Camelback Resort in the Pocono Mountains with a large investment into snowmaking and grooming operations for the 2019/2020 season. Photo Credit: poconomountains.com

377 New Energy-Efficient Snowmaking Initiative Underway
Opening Day Set For Friday, Dec. 6

Edited by: TJVNews.com

Powder chasers and novices alike can look forward to improved conditions and a longer season at Camelback Resort in the Pocono Mountains with a large investment into snowmaking and grooming operations for the 2019/2020 season.

Camelback Resort has invested in 377 new energy-efficient snow guns, which has replaced and exceeds older technology guns. Leveraging the latest in snow gun technology improvements, Camelback Resort will be able to make and distribute significantly more and better snow, while saving energy.

Camelback Mountain will open daily for the season on December 6th. The Ski mountain will be open from 9a.m. to 4p.m. through December 13th and then will move to full time hours with night skiing starting December 14th. Snowtubing will be open regular operating hours. Visitors can look to a season with more snow, more trail counts, improved trail conditioning, and a better experience than ever before.

“This is the single biggest upgrade in the history of Camelback Mountain,” said Brian Czarnecki, President of Camelback Resort. “ The new snow guns will not only significantly improve conditions and our guests’ experience, they use a quarter of the amount of compressed air, notably lessoning our impact on the electrical grid.”

The 377 snow guns were selected to best suit Camelback Mountain’s unique runs and terrain and include 196 tower guns, 86 boom tower guns, 94 Vipers, and a Halo Fan. Advanced nozzle configurations designed specifically for Camelback Mountain allows for increased snow operations in marginal temperatures, advanced flow distribution, and a more consistent snow texture.

In terms of energy efficacy, the new snow guns use three quarters less compressed air than older models. In seasons past, operations team could only run 70 snow guns using 28,000 CFM during marginal temperatures. With these improvements, Camelback Resort will be able to operate 280 low-energy guns utilizing the same CFM. With the addition of more snow, Camelback has also added a second PistenBully 400 snowcat to the fleet of six groomers.

Last winter, Camelback expanded their terrain with a new trail, Basilisk, bringing trail count to 39 – the most trails in PA. The trail is defined by its long, winding banked turns; resembling a gigantic snake. This boardercross style trail is rated double diamond and is intended only for experts due to its drops and narrow turns.

Visit skicamelback.com to purchase season passes.

Camelback Resort continues to reinvent itself since opening in 1963 with 14 trails and 3 lifts serving 41,656 skiers. Today, Camelback serves more than 1.6 million outdoor enthusiasts and visitors annually with 39 trails, 16 lifts and USA’s largest snowtubing park (with an out-of-this-world “Galactic” light experience) Camelback Mountain Adventures (featuring PA’s only mountain coaster and North America’s longest twin 4,000-foot Zip-Flyers), Camelbeach Waterpark (PA’s largest outdoor waterpark) and Camelback Lodge & Aquatopia Indoor Waterpark, voted USA Today’s #1 Indoor Waterpark. For more information, visit: www.camelbackresort.com

Survival of Anti-Semitism in the Modern World

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In the premodern era, during the centuries when Europe was devoutly Christian, and religious devotion – specifically, to the story of Jesus as god and redeemer – was the defining feature of Western civilization, the greatest crime imaginable was deicide. The guilt for this ultimate evil – the negation of the sacred theme of the era – was duly laid upon the Jews, who were despised as “Christ-killers.” Photo Credit: theholocaustexplained.org

By: Alex Lopitan
(with editing and additions by Clifford A. Rieders)

The sociological literature is replete with attempts to understand the insufferable propensity for anti-Semitism to survive the ages, whether the enlightenment or modern times. Anti-Semitism has not been confined simply to the West but has been manifested in Islamic culture as well. Anti-Semitism resembles a tide, it may rise or fall, but it inexorably flows through the cycles of human existence.

The purpose of this exposition is to examine not necessarily the history of anti-Semitism or even its specific roots, but rather persistent themes that keep the disease current.

This article will attempt to look at anti-Semitism in both Western (Christian) as well as Muslim culture. The historical narrative does not necessarily mean that all of these current forms of anti-Semitism are extant today in every denomination. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that what is past is prologue1 and the present cannot be understood without an examination of the historical narrative.

Anti-Semitism as manifested by anti-Israel bias accouched in the nomenclature of Middle Eastern politics is percolating throughout colleges, the media and political institutions. There is an odd unholy alliance between traditional anti-Semitism of the Western variety and attempts to portray Israel as an illegitimate repressive regime. This paper will explore some of the themes which enabled the transformation of traditional anti-Semitism into the anti-Israel variety.

The Jewish Boogeyman throughout History

The Jew has served, and continues to serve, the role of embodiment of the deepest fears and hatreds of gentile civilization – as a means of defining its core values by projecting the perceived greatest threat to those values onto an external group. The need of all civilizations to constantly reinforce their values by detesting and rejecting an imagined collective enemy of them explains the endurance of anti-Semitism throughout the ages, and the transformation in the civilizational values, the zeitgeist, across time.

In the premodern era, during the centuries when Europe was devoutly Christian, and religious devotion – specifically, to the story of Jesus as god and redeemer – was the defining feature of Western civilization, the greatest crime imaginable was deicide. The guilt for this ultimate evil – the negation of the sacred theme of the era – was duly laid upon the Jews, who were despised as “Christ-killers.”

Shakespeare, The Tempest Act 2, Scene 1.

In the contemporary era, religious devotion has lost its importance to Western life to the point that most of Europe is effectively post-Christian. The new prevailing ideology (whose inferiority to Christian religious devotion is perhaps best evidenced by the fact that it has already weakened and decayed after much less time than its religious predecessor) is secular post-enlightenment humanism. In this value system, man stands as heroic, self-justifying center of an (implicitly or explicitly) godless world, and in such a world, the most abominable crime imaginable accordingly shifts from deicide to genocide. Ergo: the contemporary Jew is accused of conducting a “genocide” of the Palestinians.

Interestingly, while the value system and the specific accusation shift, it is not only the underlying theme of viewing the Jews as the archetypal violator which remains unchanged. Much of the imagery and propaganda associated with this historical libel also remains essentially the same. Hence, the image of the martyr Jesus, the gentle lamb sadistically crucified at the behest of the bloodthirsty Jews, is perpetuated in the medieval blood libels with their lurid stories of innocent children slaughtered and boiled, and now in the contemporary blood libels of Palestinian children massacred by the merciless Jew. Even a few of the iconic images from anti-Semitic reporting (e.g. the teddy bear on a heap of rubble from a bombed-out Palestinian house, the father clutching his son as he crouches to avoid gunfire) have been exposed as being false just like the bloodied corpse of “little St. Simon” the murdered Christian boy.

It is not difficult to see the psychological significance behind the continuing use of such motifs of lamb-like innocence and martyrdom contrasted with bestial savagery – this is classic and perhaps eternal drama which humans replay to reaffirm the goodness of their own values and the wickedness of threats to them. What changes are the values themselves, and thus what the gentile and Jew are seen to represent – but the basic duality and its associated imagery has remained largely unchanged through the march of history.

As a supplementary point: we also see an ironic continuity in the use of the word “Palestine” as a slur from when it was first invented by the emperor Hadrian as the new name of Judea, to the present day. In both the ancient and modern eras, it is a name based on a consciously fraudulent invocation of a non-existent ethnic group that is intended to maliciously deny the Jewish connection to the land as a punishment for attempts by the Jews to assert their right of self-determination (all the way from the Bar Kokhba Revolt to Israel’s wars of the 20th Century). Just as Hadrian neither knew nor cared about the Philistines for whom he renamed the land “Palestine” – all that mattered was that they were the enemies of the Jews – so too do modern progressives neither know nor care about the Arabs currently living in Eretz Yisrael. Rather, their sole function in progressive ideology and polemics is to serve as a means of denying the right of Jews to self-determination in their land, and as a malicious negation of Jewish history.

Original Sin, “Privilege” and their Absolution.

The concept of original sin – of a fundamental wickedness or brokenness that taints all of human existence – runs deep in Western thought and civilization. Augustine’s Confessions may be considered an early expression of this concept, to which the great theologians of the Protestant Reformation (Luther, Calvin, etc.) added new power. In the Christian conception, original sin referred to the fact that all humans ever born are inherently shared and deformed by the consequence of the Fall of Man. While the Catholics and Protestants differ in their view of how, exactly, man must face original sin (salvation through Grace and works, for the former, or through Grace alone, for the latter), they of course are united on a few key points: 1) original sin is a universal human problem; 2) God alone, through the sacrifice of Jesus, offers means for man to overcome original sin and gain salvation. Prayer, introspection and confession are critical components of man’s acceptance of God’s saving power.

In the contemporary era, we find the concept of original sin recycled in secular post-enlightenment form. Since our era is no longer defined by Christian (or any sort of traditional universalist) faith, but is increasingly being Balkanized into groups defined by narrow identity politics, original sin no longer presents itself as a universal problem but rather as a racial and class problem. Its new name is “privilege,” and it asserts itself in the same terms as original sin, but attaches itself to people more selectively – Whites, men, cisgendered, wealthy, etc. Just as one might protest against the notion of original sin by saying “I may be a descendant of Adam and Eve who ate the forbidden fruit, but I myself have committed no sin – I have harmed no one nor disobeyed God – why am I guilty?”, one might protest against the notion of “privilege” by saying “I may be White, I may be a cis-hetero man, but I have not discriminated against anyone, or held anyone in contempt for their background, or used my position to abuse the less fortunate – in fact, I myself have had to overcome such-and-such obstacles and have hardly had an easy or privileged life – why am I guilty”? In both cases, the answer emphasizes that the taint of original sin/privilege has nothing to do with the individual’s condition or merits, and cannot be escaped or denied because it is intrinsic to life. Attempting to deny or minimize the guilt, in fact, is itself seen as a grave sin and reflection of insufficient piety (or “wokeness” as we would now call it).

Premodern men, confronted with the burden of original sin, would have gone to church to pray to God for mercy; would have confessed their own personal sins (a reflection of their taintedness by the original sin) to the parish priest; or would have joined in public rituals of atonement. What about contemporary man, who lives in a secular civilization? We have our own churches and expiatory chants and rituals – the meetings and discussion circles where company or organization or political leaders confess their role in perpetuating “unsafe environments,” the ritual, Red Guard-style denunciations of campus administrators (like when the Dean of Harvard Law attended a meeting of the black students association, her head bowed, as the students forced her to confess her role in perpetuating “white supremacism”), the public confession from Beto O’Rourke that he carries white privilege, and implicit attempt to gain absolution,

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not from God (since privilege unlike original sin, no longer reflects the God-man relationship, but rather the relationship between different groups of men in a godless world), but from the racial constituencies whose forgiveness and acceptance now replaces that of God.

The requirement in some colleges about having a group of Freshman read from a prepared script with respect to “privilege” is a perfect example of the new liturgical forms that this contemporary religion takes – our new prayers and rituals of collective confession and absolution. Additional anecdotal evidence concerns those who have been pressured to attend a “town hall meeting” (latter-day auto da fe) where the leadership stood before the congregation of employees, confessed that they were mired in sins of privilege and insensitivity to race, and then listened to a ritualized, frenzied denunciation of employees in the crowd. This represents yet another pathetic and pernicious attempt of a godless civilization to grapple with the enduring concepts of sin and expiation even as it formally rejects and scorns such “outdated” ideas.

The unique sinister feature of privilege, of course, is that it no longer relates to the human race at large, which is mired in sin and needs salvation, and to a universal God who offers it, but rather, in our human-centered world, to relations between human groups (the guilty/privileged ones who need salvation and the guiltless/unprivileged ones who grant it), we end up with no real path to absolution, since the sort of absolution we instinctively crave is not human-based but transcendent. We still desire to face our sense of existential unease and guilt, yet we no longer believe in the sort of transcendent reality that could offer us an answer. Instead, we end up fanning ugly racial divisions and resentments which can be more easily harnessed to serve specific, prepackaged political ends. Universalist religious doctrines do not serve negative purposes as well. Think of the 2008 election, where an inexperienced Senator with nothing but gratingly superficial oratorical gravitas and a package of common platitudes managed to generate unprecedentedly passionate and messianist electoral fervor – in part because so many affluent Whites (the most piously privilege-conscious demographic) saw voting for him as a long-desired means of expiating their original racial sin.

Climate Change and Armageddon

The notion of a final judgment and cataclysmic end of the world, a last reckoning, a desperate acceleration towards the End of Days, is of course a cornerstone of Christian theology, though it has its roots in the dire, poetic warnings of the great Jewish prophets like Jeremiah that the sins of the people would bring catastrophe upon the world. However, our era no longer believes in God who judges the sins of man and directs the course of history and human affairs, having rejected theological concepts in favor of scientism. Thus, the enduring, deep-seated attachment to the concept of Armageddon, and to the need for a final reckoning where man faces the full consequences of his sin, is now expressed in the shrill hyperbole and dire warnings about “climate change.” Even the very notion of the planet getting progressively hotter until life cannot be sustained is a thinly-veiled repackaging of the obsession with the

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files of Hell in which sinners will burn. Of course, in the traditional theological view, this heat and hell were punishment for sins against God. Now that Western culture does not believe in God, we are uncomfortable even using the word “sin”. Western culture has simply transferred that concept to the more acceptable humanist/scientist notion of carbon emissions, which have become man’s universal crime that will bring about the new Final Judgment – Armageddon for the post-enlightenment secular bourgeoisie.

This also ties into the enduring concept of an intrinsic filthiness and shame in the human condition, an extension of original sin, with which Protestant theologians in particular were obsessed (for a later popular reference to this theological trope, think of the use of “wretch” in Amazing Grace). We humans are mired in sin and are disgusting merely by existing, and even in our most mundane activities – to an Augustine or a Luther or a Calvin, that might be understood in terms of our sexual desires, our excretion of waste (Luther was obsessed with that especially), our propensity for deceit and faithlessness, our indolence, greed, etc. – the sins which propel us towards Divine judgment and doom. To a contemporary viewer, this miring in sin is reflected in the fact that we release carbon and inflate the global population figures – sins which propel us towards Planetary (Gaia?) judgment and doom.

The logical extension of this deep sense of intrinsic guilt can be seen in the statement by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that she would not want to have children in light of how humans are destroying the planet, or Bernie Sanders’ call for mass abortions to stop overpopulation. Such hysterical denunciations of humanity itself are not so unlike the fatalist calls of the Cathars for everyone to stop procreating, since the birth of a new generation merely perpetuated the evil of the human race. Polls have shown that a significant proportion of Western youth are deeply anxious about their role in climate change and the prospects for the planet. We are seeing a new form of Catharism sweep our civilization as it swept 13th Century France, for the psychological undercurrents of such movements are not nearly as ephemeral as their specific religious/political manifestations.

Consider, too, that “climate change denial” has become the “ultimate” charge leveled in the same righteous horror with which a premodern Christian might accuse someone of atheism.

The author is a strong proponent of environmental protection. However, one need not believe in imminent global climate cataclysm to oppose the dumping of industrial waste into our water, the darkening of our air with smog, the poisoning of our soil, the wastefulness and dangers of mass consumption of low-quality meat pumped with superbug-promoting antibiotics, etc. The fact that any discussion of environmental protection in our era invariably ignores these practical bread-and-butter issues in favor of Jeremiah-style bombast about planetary doom and collective human guilt which will incur a terrible punishment – this itself reveals that environmentalism is really just the new, convenient façade or packaging for a theological and collective-psychological theme which has found continuity and new power in our era even as its premodern form and context has vanished.

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IV. Traditional, Theological Islamic Anti-Judaism

Islam essentially accepted the traditional Catholic doctrine of supersessionism (i.e. that the coming of Jesus and founding of the Church meant that Judaism had been completed, and that those who remained Jews were clinging to an obsolete, null-and-void covenant), and simply applied the same notion to Christianity itself, holding that while Christianity had been the most authentic (albeit still very corrupted) form of Divine worship for its first six centuries of existence, Muhammad’s final revelations, and the religion of Islam, superseded it.

The Islamic notion of supersessionism is, in fact, even harsher than the Christian analog, for while the Christians viewed pre-Christian Jews as faithful to a perfect covenant (one that was simply awaiting completion in Jesus), Islam views both the Tanakh and the Christian bible, and the faiths they inspired, as intrinsically corrupted due to deliberate tampering by their adherents. Thus, Islam claims not only to be the final revelation, but the only one ever observed in pure, unadulterated form. This uniquely venomous Islamic theological tenet was recognized by the Chazal, as well, who, though they of course despised Christian trinitariamism while admiring Islam’s strict monotheism, nonetheless forbade Jews from studying Torah with Muslims while permitting it with Christians – the reasoning being that the latter accept that the Torah was a legitimate Word of God, while the former do not, instead holding it to be a bastardized version of Divine revelation. Islamic contempt for its traditional arch-rival, Christianity, is evident throughout Islamic history – from the most civilized periods

trough the most degraded. Islamic scholars generally show little interest in understanding its details and internal divisions, and content themselves with a supreme confidence that it is a doomed and superseded faith. This leaves Judaism in an even more unfavorable position in Islamic thought – it has the double stigma of being a corrupted faith superseded by another corrupted faith which was itself finally superseded by the one true faith. The Islamic slander of its predecessor faiths thus laid the foundation for a tradition of Islamic anti-Judaism.

The Diffusion of Modern European Racialized Anti-Semitism and Fascism to the Islamic World

As in premodern Europe, traditional Islamic anti-Judaism was not primarily racial but rather theological. This changed when 19th and 20th Century European racialism and fascism diffused to the Islamic world. Fascism broadly appealed (and still does appeal) to Islamic peoples, especially Arabs of the era, who yearned to cast off the humiliation of their centuries-long subjection to foreign powers (Ottoman and Western colonial) and regain the national unity and global prestige and vast territory they once ruled in the days of the Umayyads and Abbasids. The German unification, ending centuries of fragmentation and weakness under Bismarck’s iron will, and the subsequent resurgence of Germany under fascist rule after the humiliation of the Versailles Treaty, thus resonated powerfully with the Arabs, as did the scapegoating of the Jewish race as a source of their troubles. The Nazis devoted considerable

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resources to propaganda efforts in the Arab world, hoping both to weaken Franco-British rule and to affect a slaughter of the local Jews. Though they failed on both counts, the legacy of both direct and indirect fascist influence on the Arab world is profound. Apart from the pogroms unleashed on the local Jewish communities by fascist-inspired Arab regimes (e.g. the Farhud in Iraq under the brief anti-British rebellion, the 1945 Tripoli pogrom, etc.), looking in the Levant alone, we see the stamp of Hilterism on the entire “Palestinian” movement, whose ideological and political founder, Amin al-Husseini, had multiple audiences with Hitler and other senior Nazis, visited extermination camps, and openly attempted to implement the Final Solution in British Palestine under a fascist irredentist banner of “Greater Syria.” Al-Husseini’s nephew was none other than Yasser Arafat, and from there we can trace the entire form of the “Palestinian” project as nothing more than a neo-Hitlerist war on the Jews. Beyond the borders of Israel, the effects of Nazi ideology can be seen everywhere from the Ba’ath regimes of Syria and formerly Iraq and Lebanon (all modeled on the ‘national socialist’ system of Germany), as well as the profoundly influential thought of Sayyid Qutb, the godfather of contemporary Islamism, who wrote about Jews in Hitlerist terms which have been faithfully reproduced by so many subsequent Arab regimes (including that of the neo-fascist Nasser, who had Qutb hanged as a threat to his own secular power base). This Nazi-inspired race-hatred of the Jewish people, as well as the older form of Islamic contempt for the Jewish religion were intensified by a contemporaneous development, namely:

VI. The Modern Zionist Movement and the Success of the Jewish State

As noted above, integral to Islamic theology is a deep contempt for Judaism, because it is seen both as a corrupted, falsified religion in and of itself, and as a doubly superseded religion. This smug contempt turns very readily to burning hatred, however, when the followers of such a despised faith prove able not only to survive for millennia after their “replacement” by the “final revelation,” but to return to their ancestral land – long since incorporated into Dar al-Islam – and found there, against all odds and after vanquishing half a dozen much larger Arab armies – a state which goes on to become by far the most prosperous and powerful in the region. To a smugly confident, boundlessly arrogant religion like Islam, such an occurrence is an absolute indescribable humiliation, and a threat to Islam’s own claimed finality and supremacy.

Traditional Christian anti-Semitism was, too, an expression of deep insecurity and embarrassment at the persistence of a religion that was to have been superseded. Given the even more grandiose theological claims of Islam as compared with Christianity, combined with a resurgence of the Jewish people in Eretz Yisrael far more dramatic and decisive than anything we achieved in Christendom, the resulting intensification of Islamic anti-Semitism was much more pronounced. Combine this with the flood of national-irredentist-racial notions entering the Islamic consciousness from Europe and you end up with a psychotic cocktail of humiliation, rage and lust for vengeance.

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One implication of this, I would argue, is the tragic error we see played out not only in Israel but throughout the West, in thinking that we can assuage Islamic fury by being kinder, more sensitive, by emphasizing democracy and due process, by going out of our way to avoid offending Muslims, by offering every Muslim butcher in Jerusalem and New York and Paris and London a fair trial, by denouncing “Islamophobia” in the same breath as we denounce Islamic crimes, by allowing openly Islamist-supremacist parties to operate in the Knesset, etc. We like to pretend that this is all a sign of our “strength” and refusal to be “brought down to their level” by the terrorists.

We do not uniformly appreciate the depth of Muslim humiliation and rage, not to mention contempt for Western civilization. This attitude does not placate Muslims, but rather emboldens the radicals. “Look at these contemptable Kafirs!” they say. “They have all this money and technology and power – they could wipe us off the face of the earth in fifteen minutes if they really wanted to. Instead, we can butcher their soldiers, their women and children on the streets, in the subways, in their homes and synagogues and churches and publishing houses and markets and schools. We can spit on them, insult them, republish Nazi cartoons of them, call their ‘Trinity’ paganism and say that their Rabbis drink children’s blood, and not only do they not take revenge – they go on their hands and knees and apologize for offending us! Truly, Allah has implanted in them the most servile, sheep-like souls to remind His faithful Muslims that these Kafirs are weak and doomed.”

If I were Muslim, I think I might have a hard time accepting the need for Islam to reform if I looked at the West and saw such weakness and decadence. The irony is largely because of our persistence concerning the “virtues” of tolerance and forbearance.

VII. Precis

The substitution of “the eternal Jew” for demonic figures in Christianity and Islam may help explain why there is less anti-Semitism in the Buddhist, Hindu, Shinto and Confucian tradition. Without expanding into a new realm of investigation, the Eastern concept is based less on the Zoroastrian battle between lightness and darkness and more on the nature of what Judaism understands as “enlightenment.” When Moses on Mount Sinai asked to see God, he hears the thirteen attributes of kindness and love rather than being exposed to any war between demons and gods. When Moses comes down from his forty days on Mount Sinai, the people seek karen orr, rays of enlightenment. The perfection of the soul in Judaism and the Eastern traditions is more about an individual’s internal struggle and less about the identification of evil forces.

Hopefully this essay will be a starting point for a discussion concerning how Israel has become a substitute for traditional anti-Semitism.