A deal to end USA military aid to Israel

Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump made a deal to stop USA army aid to Israel by the end of the year:

President Donald Trump said he has made a deal with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that will see the U.S. "cut off" military aid to Israel this year because Republicans "suffer the slings" from Democratic candidates over the issue.

"Bibi Netanyahu and I have made a deal that – we give Israel $4 billion a year – and we made a deal months ago that we're stopping, and ... they're fine with it because, you know, they’ve become a very successful country. They don’t need it, and we won't be paying any more," the president said in an interview on Fox News. "So it's just a wasted thing because we've already agreed that by the end of this year, we won't be paying Israel."

Trump did not provide specifics on the forms of military aid that will end, nor how it will be ended.

It's okay, since Israel's government had decided earlier to manufacture some of their own weapons for defense, rather than rely almost entirely upon the USA military's own output. And who knows, there could be an advantage in all this, so provided Israel can develop its own weapons, this is no big deal at all.

Does the Vatican consider Islam an acceptable successor?

Robert Spencer points to how the Italian Catholic management appears to be promoting Islam as acceptable, right down to how they're claiming the Koran is the "word of God":

Vatican News, which describes itself as “the news portal of the Holy See,” ran the story in Italian: “Countering the walls of prejudice: CEI and PISAI present ‘Fact Sheets for Understanding Islam.’” CEI is the Italian Bishops’ Conference, and PISAI is the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies. So what we have here is the spectacle of the Vatican and the Italian bishops taking it upon themselves to teach the world about Islam. Don’t hold your breath waiting for al-Azhar to issue fact sheets for understanding Christianity, and that’s likely just as well. The Holy See’s Islam material looks to be as biased, misleading, and inaccurate as anything one can imagine coming out of al-Azhar about any non-Islamic Faith. [...]

Secure in his righteousness, Zuppi continued: “Ignorance should have no place in our schools, yet, unfortunately, it often ends up setting the agenda. As a result, people feel entitled to pass judgment on others without truly knowing them. These fact sheets on Islam, created jointly by Catholics and Muslims, therefore serve as a powerful antidote to both violence and ignorance.”

Violence? Who is committing the violence here? Only Muslims, not Catholics. Yet the fact sheets don’t seem to spend any time telling Muslims not to be violent. Instead, “the eleven fact sheets go beyond common stereotypes.” That’s a relief! “The material begins with ‘What is Islam?’ and ‘A Brief History of Islam,’ covering faith and theology, the Quran as the revealed word of God, the emulation of the prophetic model, and acts of worship (‘ibāda’).”

Wait a minute. The Qur’an as “the revealed word of God”? Surely they’re teaching young Catholics that Muslims believe the Qur’an to be the revealed word of God, not that the book itself is actually the revealed word of God? That seems likely, but nowadays the spirit of ecumenical openness has become so all-pervasive that one cannot be sure without further clarification from the Vatican or the Italian bishops, and that was not forthcoming. Would anyone really be surprised if far-left, pro-mass migration bishops and other high Catholic Church officials endorsed the Qur’an as the “revealed word of God”?

After all, there is one notable precedent. Back in September 2014, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who at that time was Archbishop Emeritus of Washington and had not yet been disgraced, appeared to have converted to Islam, beginning an address with the Qur’anic salutation “In the name of God, the Merciful and Compassionate,” and asserting that “Catholic social teaching is based on the dignity of the human person… [and] as you study the holy Koran, as you study Islam, basically, this is what Muhammad the prophet, peace be upon him, has been teaching.”

If anything, this reminds me of when another writer at Front Page said the Catholic bishops council today would be opposed to developing a movie based on Betty Mahmoody's terrifying experiences in Iran, and if the information obtained this time says anything, one can only wonder if the Vatican considers the Religion of Peace a worthy successor/replacement for what they practice now?.Also note how no verses from the Koran/Hadith are quoted here, and that should make clear something's horrifyingly wrong with the picture.

It's clear the Vatican lost their way, and aren't qualified to comment on serious issues at all.

Europe needs to reconquer itself

Some history of the Islamic conquests of Europe in past centuries that can serve as important food for thought on if and how Europe can retake what it's lost in modern times: Undoubtedly, the specter of the memory of colonization weighs heavily on the European mind.

Recalling the doings of France in North Africa and Greater Syria, England in Egypt, the Middle East and India, Italy and Germany in Africa, the Netherlands in East Asia, Belgium in Africa and even Sweden has been a political and cultural heritage that has plagued their consciences, or, to borrow an image from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem: as an albatross about their neck hung.

The shame, uneasiness and desire to come to terms with that period and those deeds most probably have served as a rationalization for so many politicians, public servants, intellectuals and cultural artists who have either welcomed or approved of the demographic alteration of major European countries over the past half-century.

Whether it be a subservient attitude on the one hand, and on the other, an almost complete ignoring of the undeniable results of such laxness regarding the open-borders policies these countries have practiced, we are witnessing another stage of the ongoing conquest of Europe by the Third World, and foremost, by Islam.[...]

Islamic marauding forces reached and occupied parts of southern France during the 700s after the Umayyad Caliphate’s conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. Arabs and Berbers crossed the Pyrenees Mountains into southern Gaul. Narbonne fell to Muslim forces in 719 or 720 and served as the primary military base for Islamic forces in France for nearly 40 years.

Nîmes and Avignon were also captured. Toulouse was besieged but held. Muslim forces marched more than 400 miles to fight at Tours in 732, though they were defeated on the way by the leader of the Franks, Charles Martel. It was Martel’s son, Pepin, who ended the Muslim presence in France in 759. France had been reconquered.

The better-known Spanish Reconquista, in which Christian kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula gradually reclaimed control of Muslim-ruled lands known as al-Andalus, took centuries—from 718 to 1492. In 1492, the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella captured the Emirate of Granada and expelled and banished the Jews of their realm.

We can only hope the horror story now occurring in modern times will be reversed one day. But that also depends on how much anybody, even in Israel, is willing to help out.

Trump willing to broker a national unity government arrangement for Israel

President Trump's indicated he's willing to offer assistance in setting up the next government in Israel:

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in “pretty good shape now” after defying election projections and indicated he would consider helping broker a national unity government as Israel’s political factions struggled to assemble a governing majority.

Netanyahu’s Likud emerged as Israel’s largest party, while his governing coalition performed considerably better than several major polls had projected, strengthening the prime minister’s political position but leaving him short of the 61 seats needed to form a government. [...]

Asked whether he might become involved in efforts to establish a Netanyahu-led unity government, Trump said he had not previously considered the possibility but did not rule it out.

“I will take a look,” he replied. [...]

Separately, an American official told i24NEWS that Trump might wait several weeks before attempting to bring Netanyahu and opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot together, potentially inviting both men to his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.

I'm okay with it. After all, serious damage was done during this election when you look at how much the Arab/Islamic parties got, and now, it's important to work together in order to improve anything.

Since we're on the topic, Netanyahu's also said that the election was stolen by the Arab/Islamic parties:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party complained on Wednesday that this week’s tumultuous election was “stolen by Arab parties that support terrorism and the elimination of the Jewish state.”

Netanyahu posted a statement formally attributed to his Likud party that said the election was distorted by “serious criminal offenses of bribery, threats, violence, forgeries, and the use of prohibited software to mobilize voters.”

Likud said it was referring the case to the police and the Shin Bet security service, as well as Israel’s Central Elections Committee, backed up by “hundreds of testimonies and pieces of evidence regarding election theft in many Arab polling stations.”

The party said its evidence included “thousands of envelopes with cash and Ra’am slips, threats and violence against polling station members, multiple voting behind the curtain, voting with double identities, discrepancies between the number of envelopes and the number of voters, the use of prohibited mobilization software, and more.”

“This is a serious blow to Israeli democracy and the voting rights of Israeli citizens. The law enforcement agencies must act with an iron fist and in an immediate manner,” the statement said.

Likud issued another statement on Thursday referring to its election theft charges as the “Ra’amgate Affair,” a play on the name of the Arab-led Ra’am Party.

“This is an attack on democracy whose purpose is to lead to a foreign takeover of the Knesset, the Islamization of Israel, and the overthrow of right-wing rule in order to lead to retreat and defeat of the IDF in all arenas — and primarily Iran,” the second statement said.

Likud said a political “earthquake” was touched off on Thursday when the chair of the Central Elections Committee, Justice Noam Sohlberg, asked Shin Bet to investigate allegations of “foreign entities acting against Israeli interests” in the election.

There was a discussion on Channel 14 the other evening as to whether a Muslim mayor could one day be elected in Jerusalem, and that would be awful. That's why this investigation should be conducted, if the system is to ever be mended, because we can't have it being conquered via Trojan horses in politics.

Flavio Bolsonaro flees Brazil to USA

In another sad sign of how bad the situation is in the neo-communist regime Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva set up in Brazil, now Jair Bolsonaro's son Flavio has had to flee to the USA:

Flavio Bolsonaro, the Brazilian senator who lost Sunday's presidential election, has left for the United States instead of complying with a Supreme Court order to surrender his passports, two sources told Reuters.

His destination, arrival time, and asylum plans were unclear. The Trump administration has previously alleged that Flavio's father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, was a victim of judicial persecution.

Leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has accused Washington of colluding with the Bolsonaros to restore them to power. The departure threatens to deepen the rift between the Americas' two biggest countries by population.

Trump said Monday that Brazil's vote "looked like another rigged election," without mentioning the departure.

Bolsonaro and family have now been given visas in the USA:

Flávio Bolsonaro, defeated by Lula in Sunday's election, and his family have been granted US visas, according to a senior State Department official, after leaving Brazil for the US on Tuesday.

Two close allies told The Washington Post he feared arrest within the week, as he faces investigations over ties to a banker accused of misconduct and a man suspected of laundering money. By early evening, he was in the US, one said, without saying where. [...]

According to a confidant who advises the Bolsonaro family, Bolsonaro was terrified by the order to surrender his passports, issued in a criminal inquiry over alleged money laundering. The order bore the signature of Alexandre de Moraes, a Supreme Court justice who had presided over the case of Jair Bolsonaro.

When horrors like these happen, it's clear democracy is collapsing in Brazil, and we can only hope Trump's administration will do something to turn the tide. Lula da Silva is definitely a most repellent man, and is clearly setting up a communist dictatorship there.

Were Arab parties embraced while Haredi parties were demonized?

That's according to this op-ed following the sad results of the current election:

No one yet knows the actual election results, but one thing is already certain: Arab voters turned out in enormous numbers, with their parties projected to win a record number of Knesset seats. It is easy to understand the enthusiasm that has swept through the Arab public, particularly the Bedouin community.

Their leaders openly discuss their national aspirations. Mansour Abbas has spoken of the autonomous Bedouin regions he would like to see established in the Negev and Galilee. He has also declared that his party would work to prevent the demolition of illegally constructed homes in the Negev, while he and his fellow candidates refuse to recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization.

But what drove voters to the polls was not necessarily those positions themselves. Rather, it was the support and legitimacy these aspirations received from leaders of the left-wing bloc, who made no secret of their desire and plans to rely on Arab parties to establish a minority government. Once the left gave those aspirations the green light, Ra'am and Joint List voters developed an appetite for political influence.

While these dangerous aspirations were granted unjustifiable legitimacy, another community was subjected to extreme demonization: the ultra-Orthodox. They became the punching bag of the left and of many who made the country's fate dependent on drafting ultra-Orthodox men into the military immediately.

The possibility of conducting a difficult but essential dialogue with a community that is an integral part of Israeli society and the Jewish people became virtually impossible. Yet relying on those who refuse to condemn Hamas somehow became acceptable.

If you listen to what Yair Golan's saying, yes, he chillingly wants that kind of reliance, and it's awful to think of what it'll lead to. But this still misses a valid query: did the Haredi riots of past months have anything to do with the results this time? There were several riots by leftists in areas like Tel Aviv, but some could understandably argue the Haredi riots were what drew vital attention away from more pressing matters like the Arab/Islamic parties spoken about here, and the anti-Israel positions they espouse. They potentially endangered innocent lives on the highways, not the least being children themselves who were likely to be in danger of vehicles. And of course, there have been other terrible deeds the Haredi community did that could've angered the public to the point where they might vote for left-wing parties, even though said parties seem willing to do business with the Haredis, so long as it seemingly doesn't affect them.

It's regrettable the article doesn't dwell properly on any bad deeds the Haredi community and their Knesset representatives did, because how are we supposed to forgive if we don't know what specific fences need mending? Making matters worse is that, if this article says something, the Haredi community didn't vote as much as the Arab/Islamic community did in the election, and for all we know, it could've been because their spiritual leaders told certain clans they shouldn't.

Downplaying the mistakes made by Haredi clans won't solve the problem, and it's sad the writer of this item doesn't actually focus on any said mistakes, since again, without that discussion, how are we to solve anything? We can only hope for now that the Haredi community's worst representatives will be willing to mend fences.

Knesset election result looks like a deadlock again

A number of years after Avigdor Liberman caused a deadlock with his defection to the left, now it looks like there's another one resulting from this year's Israeli election:

Polling stations across Israel closed at 10 p.m. Tuesday, and television networks released their exit polls for the 26th Knesset election following a day marked by particularly high voter turnout and intensive efforts by political parties to mobilize their supporters.

At the heart of the political battle are three crucial questions: Can the Right secure a majority, will the anti-Netanyahu bloc be able to form a government, and how will voting in the Arab sector affect the balance of power?

The exit polls offer an initial picture of the distribution of seats in the 120-member Knesset. But even after the official results are released, expected on Nov. 4, the road to forming a government remains long.

President Isaac Herzog will have until Nov. 11 to task a candidate with forming a government, and that candidate will not necessarily be the leader of the largest party.

If so, that's got to be the bad part of this. The Arab sector certainly influenced this result, and not for the better, though it makes clear much of the Arabic population here doesn't support the leftist parties anymore.

Update: here's more on the results.