Dr. Patrick Slattery’s News Roundup
A service of DavidDuke.com
From The Times of Israel
Assad says he’ll keep pressing for Syria peace
Syrian president meets with UN envoy, condemns ‘massacre by terrorists’ of dozens of civilians in Aleppo
June 16, 2015, 6:19 pm
DAMASCUS — Syrian President Bashar Assad and UN peace envoy Staffan de Mistura agreed Tuesday to continue talks to find a political solution to the ongoing conflict, Syria’s state news agency reported.
At the end of their meeting, Assad and de Mistura “agreed… to find a successful political solution in Syria and to return security and stability throughout Syria,” SANA said.
The agency said de Mistura briefed Assad “on the results of his consultations in Geneva with Syrians who represent various sides of Syrian society.”
On May 5, de Mistura launched a fresh round of consultative talks in Geneva with regional and local stakeholders in Syria’s conflict, including Iran, in a bid to kickstart political negotiations on the crisis.
Participants have included government officials and members of the opposition-in-exile National Coalition, as well as representatives from regional countries, policy experts and civil society groups.
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From Ynet News
Israel and Hamas in indirect talks for long-term truce
The Jewish state and Islamist group have been exchanging ideas through European envoys in an attempt to reach a long-term truce. According to an AFP report, Israel and Hamas have been holding indirect contacts on cementing a long-term truce in the Gaza Strip, sources in the Islamist movement said Tuesday.
The contacts have gone through a number of Arab and European channels in a bid to firm up an informal ceasefire agreement that took hold last August, ending a 50-day war in Gaza.
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From The Times of Israel
Donald Trump announces 2016 presidential bid
Property tycoon criticizes US foreign policy, promises to make America ‘great again’ if he gets nomination
June 16, 2015, 7:43 pm
Property tycoon Donald Trump, one of America’s most flamboyant and outspoken billionaires, threw his hat into the race Tuesday for the White House, promising to make America great again.
The 69-year-old long-shot candidate ridiculed the country’s current crop of politicians and vowed to take on the growing might of China in a speech launching his run for the presidency in 2016.
“I am officially running for president of the United States and we are going to make our country great again,” he said from a podium bedecked in US flags at Trump Tower on New York’s Fifth Avenue.
The tycoon strode onto the stage after sailing down an escalator to the strains of “Rockin’ In The Free World” by Canadian singer Neil Young after being introduced by daughter Ivanka.
His announcement follows years of speculation that the man known to millions as the bouffant-haired host of American reality TV game show “The Apprentice” would one day enter politics.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Fatah official: Palestinian unity government on verge of collapse
(JTA) — The Palestinians’ unity government forged last year between Hamas and Fatah will dissolve within the next 24 hours, a senior Palestinian official said.
“The government will resign in the next 24 hours because this one is weak and there is no chance that Hamas will allow it to work in Gaza,” Amin Maqbul, secretary general of the ruling Fatah movement’s Revolutionary Council, said Tuesday, according to the French news agency AFP.
The unity government has been stymied by disagreements over the governance of Gaza, which has essentially remained under Hamas control and been in disarray since the Israel-Hamas war last summer.
An unidentified Palestinian government source denied to AFP that dissolution was imminent. The source did confirm, however, that the idea had been under discussion for weeks, since a government delegation was forced to abort a late April trip to Gaza because of a dispute with Hamas over salaries for government workers there.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush both say Israel ties will improve in their presidencies
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton both said they would improve relations with Israel while formally announcing their presidential runs.
“I will rebuild our vital friendships,” Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, said Miami in Monday, formally launching his bid for the Republican nomination. “That starts by standing with the brave, democratic State of Israel.”
Republicans accuse President Barack Obama of distancing the United States from Israel.
Bush has garnered many of the Jewish donors who backed his brother, President George W. Bush.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Ex-envoy Michael Oren: Obama abandoned ‘2 core principles’ of U.S.-Israel alliance
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israel’s former ambassador to Washington accused President Barack Obama of abandoning “core principles” of the U.S.-Israel relationship.
Michael Oren in an Op-Ed appearing Tuesday in The Wall Street Journal said Obama abandoned the principle of keeping disagreements private and of “no surprises” between the countries.
Oren, who served as ambassador from 2009 to 2013, faulted the Israeli government for announcing settlement building at inopportune times, but said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not personally responsible for the missteps.
“But Mr. Obama posed an even more fundamental challenge by abandoning the two core principles of Israel’s alliance with America,” Oren wrote, adding that Obama was not anti-Israel and bolstered the security relationship.
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From PressTV
Palestine hunger striker says determined to continue protest
A Palestinian prisoner who is on hunger strike for over a month in an Israeli prison has vowed to resist the torture he is facing in jail and continue his protest.
“The more [the Israelis] torture me, the stronger and more determined I become,” said Khader Adnan, who was on the 42nd day of his hunger strike against the Israeli practice of administrative detention, on Tuesday.
Administrative detention is a sort of imprisonment without trial or charge that allows the Israeli regime to incarcerate Palestinians for up to six months. The detention order can be renewed for indefinite periods of time.
Andan’s message was conveyed by Jawad Bulous, the chief lawyer of the Palestinian Prisoners Society, who visited him at Israel’s Assaf Harofeh medical center.
The 37-year-old prisoner, who is a father of six, was abducted on July 8, 2014 and was sentenced to administrative detention for the 10th time in his life. Palestinian officials say he has lost a considerable amount of weight and is suffering from arrhythmia.
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From PressTV
Palestinian government to resign in next 24 hours: Abbas
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has announced that his government will be dissolved within the next 24 hours, Fatah officials say.
“Within 24 hours the Palestinian government will resign,” several senior officials of Abbas’ Fatah movement quoted him as saying at the 15th Fatah Revolutionary Council conference held in the West Bank city of Ramallah late on Tuesday.
The inability to exert authority in the besieged and war-torn Gaza Strip has been cited as the main point of dispute between Fatah and Hamas and the reason for the resignation of the first Palestinian unity government, forged by the two rival movements in June 2014.
“The government will resign in the next 24 hours because this one is weak and there is no chance that Hamas will allow it to work in Gaza,” Amin Maqbul, the secretary general of the Revolutionary Council, which serves as the Fatah’s legislative body, told AFP.
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From Russia Today
Sunday Times levels copyright charges at Greenwald after he debunks Snowden report
Published time: June 16, 2015 16:53The UK newspaper Sunday Times is accusing US journalist Glenn Greenwald of copyright violations after he debunked the paper’s report on Russian and Chinese spies allegedly accessing Edward Snowden’s NSA leaks.
Greenwald, who was the first to contact Snowden after he left the US with his data trove, slammed the Sunday Times report which cited unnamed UK officials as saying Britain had to pull back its agents from China and Russia because those two countries had cracked Snowden’s documents.
From Ynet News
French immigration to Israel surges in summer 2015
FIve months after Paris terror attack targeting Jews, 25 percent more French Jews moved to Israel in early 2015 than in the same period in 2014 The number of French Jews who have made, or are making aliyah to Israel between January and August 2015, is 25 percent higher than that same period. The number of immigrants from France rose from 4,000 in 2014 to 5,100 in same period in 2015. The numbers where submitted to Immigrant Absorption minister Ze’ev Elkin by the Heads of French Jewish organizations.
In the wake of the January massacre at a kosher market in Paris, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Europe’s Jews to make aliyah to Israel. The Immigrant Absorption Ministry estimates that by the end of 2015 the number of immigrants from France will reach 9,000, compared to 7,200 in 2014.
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From Ynet News
63% of haredi households earn less than NIS 8,000
Survey commissioned by Kol Chai Radio reveals only 46% of ultra-Orthodox men work for a living compared to 76% of women; in two-thirds of haredi households, total income is lower than one Israeli worker’s average salary. The monthly income of 63% of households in Israel’s ultra-Orthodox sector is less than NIS 8,000 (about $2,081), according to figures released by the Seker Kahalacha research institute. One of the reasons is that 54% of men in haredi households do not take part in supporting their families.
The survey commissioned by haredi and national-religious radio station Kol Chai Radio.
According to the figures, only 46% of haredi men work for a living (83% as hired employees and 17% self-employed), compared to 76% of haredi women (57% as full-time hired workers, 31% part-time and 12% self-employed).
From Ynet News
UK’s Prince William praises Jewish unity
Duke of Cambridge tells British Jews during charity event, ‘Your commitment and loyalty to one another, and to society more widely, is ultimately what keeps you strong.’ Britain’s Prince William praised the Jewish community’s unity last week during his first-ever speaking engagement at a Jewish event, the European Jewish Press reports.
Addressing 1,500 guests on the occasion of the Jewish Care’s 25th anniversary dinner in London, the Duke of Cambridge said: “During a year when many in the Jewish community have had cause to feel under threat, for no reason other than simply the fact of your Jewishness, your unity is all the more precious. Your commitment and loyalty to one another, and to society more widely, is ultimately what keeps you strong.”
He added that British Jews deserved “particular praise” for caring for one another and for their generosity throughout history.
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Perhaps the world’s conspiracy theorists have been right all along
We used to laugh at conspiracy theorists, but from Fifa to banking scandals and the Iraq War, it seems they might have been on to something after all, says Alex Proud
Conspiracy theories used to be so easy.
You’d have your mate who, after a few beers, would tell you that the moon landings were faked or that the Illuminati controlled everything or that the US government was holding alien autopsies in Area 51. And you’d be able to dismiss this because it was all rubbish.
Look, you’d say, we have moon rock samples and pictures and we left laser reflectors on the surface and… basically you still don’t believe me but that’s because you’re mad and no proof on earth (or the moon) would satisfy you.
It’s true that there was always the big one which wasn’t quite so easily dismissed. This was the Kennedy assassination – but here you could be fairly sure that the whole thing was a terrible, impenetrable murky morass. You knew that some things never would be known (or would be released, partially redacted by the CIA, 200 years in the future). And you knew that whatever the truth was it was probably a bit dull compared to your mate’s flights of fantasy involving the KGB, the Mafia and the military-industrial complex. Besides, it all made for a lot of very entertaining films and books.
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
‘Orange is the New Black’: The best Jewish moments from the new season
Cindy’s one-liners
Since the quality of food at the Litchfield prison has hit rock bottom now that it is all pre-packaged, kosher is the only decent option. When Cindy asks for a kosher meal and is accused of not being Jewish, she replies, “You think you know my life? Shabbat Shalom, bitch!” That’s just the start of some great lines from Cindy in her quest for edible food, including “Shanah tova and hava nagila. It is good to be chosen,” “Jesus ain’t the messiah. He ain’t come yet,” and (in response to someone asking if a seat is taken), “Yeah. We’re saving it for Elijah.”
Caputo stands up to Danny
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From Russia Today
Moscow will respond to NATO approaching Russian borders ‘accordingly’ – Putin
Published time: June 16, 2015 21:17
If NATO threatens Russia’s territories Moscow will respond to the threat accordingly, said President Vladimir Putin. This comes after he announced Russia’s strategic forces will be getting over 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles in 2015.
“If someone threatens our territories, it means that we will have to aim our armed forces accordingly at the territories from where the threat is coming. How else could it be? It is NATO that approaching our borders, it’s not like we are moving anywhere,” Putin said speaking at a joint media conference with Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto in Moscow on Tuesday.
He said at the moment he sees no threat in the alliance’s activities, since the missile defense system wide deployment is a bigger threat.
“I’d refrain from whipping up emotions. Of course, we will analyze everything but so far I see nothing that might prompt us to [take responsive measures],” he said. “What worries us more is the anti-missile defense system that is being deployed – that is a significant thing of strategic importance.”
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From The Times of Israel
Syrian Druze have more to fear from Nusra than Islamic State
The besieged minority worries that rebels will fill a vacuum if the regime collapses in their region
June 16, 2015, 6:42 pm
One of the pillars of the secretive Druze religion is hafiz al-ikhwan – to be your brother’s keeper. Perhaps this is the reason Israeli Druze in the Galilee and Golan mobilized so quickly to raise awareness of the fate of their Syrian brethren, under the gun of advancing jihadi rebel group.
Yet, despite various reports published in Israel and throughout the Western world over the weekend focusing on the threat from Islamic State, a careful analysis of developments on the ground indicates the 450,000 or so Druze in the southern Daraa province, informally called Jabal al-Druze or Mount Druze, are not in any immediate danger from IS.
This does not by any means imply that Druze have no cause for concern. The threat is not necessarily from IS, but from the al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria which until now has been often considered more tolerant toward minorities than Islamic State.
But last week’s massacre of some 25 Druze by Nusra gunmen in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib has become a watershed moment for Israel’s community.
The local Nusra governor Abu Muhammad al-Tunisi (who is actually Libyan) seized the home of a local Druze family in the village of Qalb Lawzeh, leading to a shootout in which two dozen people were killed.
From The Times of Israel
Jerusalem festival won’t screen film on Rabin’s killer
Culture Minister Regev threatened to pull funding if Yigal Amir biopic featured, prompting organizers to pull it from lineup
June 16, 2015, 6:26 pm
The Jerusalem International Film Festival on Tuesday decided not to publicly screen a film based on the life of Yigal Amir, the assassin of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, after Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev threatened to pull its funding. It will still be screened for judges as an entrant in the festival’s documentary competition, however, organizers said.
“Beyond the Fear,” an Israeli-Russian-Latvian co-production that humanizes Amir — depicts the development of his relationship with Larissa Trimbobler (the couple married in prison a decade ago) and the bedtime stories he shares with their son over the phone. It was set to be screened for the public, but will now only compete in the Israeli documentaries category during the July festival in the Cinematheque theater.
According to the Ynet news website, Regev on Tuesday issued an ultimatum to the festival organizers, warning them not to screen the film for the public or the Culture Ministry would withdraw its financial support. She said later she was gratified by the organizers’ decision.
“I welcome the decision of the festival management to accept my suggestion not to screen the film about Yigal Amir during the festival. With that, I urge the public to stay away from watching the film even when it’s screened outside the festival,” she said.
