Dr. Patrick Slattery’s News Roundup
A service of DavidDuke.com
From The Times of Israel
Rand Paul blames Republican hawks for rise of Islamic State
As foreign policy takes center stage in conservative party’s primaries, GOP leaders debate interventionist legacy
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul is blaming his own party for the rise of the Islamic State group.
The senator from Kentucky said Wednesday that the Republicans’ foreign policy hawks “created these people.” That assertion led potential 2016 rival Bobby Jindal, Louisiana’s governor, to say Paul was unqualified to be president.
The Islamic State group, also referred to as ISIS, has seized one-third of Iraq and Syria and in recent days made gains in central Iraq.
“ISIS exists and grew stronger because of the hawks in our party who gave arms indiscriminately,” Paul said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” He continued: “They created these people. ISIS is all over Libya because these same hawks in my party loved — they loved Hillary Clinton’s war in Libya. They just wanted more of it.”
Foreign policy has emerged as a central debate in the 2016 Republican presidential primary.
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From The Times of Israel
Rivlin: Academic boycott a major threat to Israel
Warning it will soon be too late, university heads ask president for diplomatic assistance in combating sanctions
Amid an increasing number of divestment drives and calls to cease cooperation with Israeli academics on campuses worldwide, President Reuven Rivlin said Wednesday that an academic boycott poses a “first-rate strategic threat” to Israel.
Meeting with Israeli university officials in his Jerusalem residence to discuss the repercussions of the boycott drive, Rivlin said the world’s attitude toward Israeli academia had shifted.
“I didn’t think Israeli academia would face any real danger, but the atmosphere around the world is changing, and creating a situation in which it is impossible to deal with the issue as anything but a first-rate strategic threat,” he said.
Withholding promotions, significantly decreasing cooperation with Israeli enterprises and the rejection of Israelis’ submissions by leading academic journals are among a wide-ranging list of ramifications that Israeli researchers already face, according to the officials.
“The snowball can still be stopped, but we’re heading into the final hour,” University Heads Committee Chairman Prof. Peretz Lavie told Rivlin. “We must mobilize and stop the process in European countries and in the US.”
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From The Times of Israel
Former NY GOP governor Pataki enters race for president
Long shot Republican nominee points to successful 11-year career at the helm of the Empire State
CONCORD, New Hampshire (AP) — George Pataki, the former three-term New York governor, announced Thursday that he’s joining a crowded Republican field for the 2016 presidential contest, after flirting with the idea of running in both 2008 and 2012.
Clearly a long-shot, Pataki has cited his electoral success in a heavily Democratic state — he knocked off the late liberal icon Mario Cuomo to become governor in 1994 — and ability to work with Democrats as among his strengths.
In a video posted Thursday morning on YouTube, Pataki says the U.S. needs to recapture the spirit of unity among all Americans that spread through the country after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. He was in his second of three terms as governor when the attacks struck New York and Washington, and Pataki highlights his role in New York and the country’s recovery in the video.
“We are all in this together. And let us all understand that what unites us is so much more important than what might seem superficially to divide us,” Pataki says in the video which includes a logo that reads, “Pataki for President.”
Pataki says, “If we are to flourish as a people, we have to fall in love with America again.”
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From The Times of Israel
Rick Santorum announces second White House run
Staunch social conservative seeks a place at the table in race dominated by economics and foreign affairs
CABOT, Pennsylvania (AP) — Conservative culture warrior Rick Santorum launched a 2016 White House bid on Wednesday, vowing to fight for working-class Americans in a new election season that will test his influence — and focus on social issues — in a changing Republican Party.
The former Pennsylvania senator may have exceeded his own expectations by scoring a second-place finish in the race for the Republican presidential nomination four years ago. Yet as he enters a more powerful and diverse 2016 field, he may struggle even to qualify for the debate stage in his second run.
“I am proud to stand here, among you and for you, the American workers who have sacrificed so much, to announce that I am running for president of the United States,” the 57-year-old senator said, flanked by factory workers and six of his seven children in a cinderblock warehouse near his western Pennsylvania hometown.
“The last race, we changed the debate. This race, with your help and God’s grace, we can change this nation.”
Santorum opens this political season as a heavy underdog in a race expected to feature more than a dozen high-profile Republicans — most of them newcomers to presidential politics. He is among the nation’s most prominent social conservatives, having dedicated much of his political career to opposing same-sex marriage and abortion rights, while advocating for conservative Christian family values.
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From The Times of Israel
Sen. Graham vows he’d bid to halt funding for UN over Palestine state resolution
Presidential hopeful says possible UN report likening crimes against children by Israel and Boko Haram would be an ‘outrage that would not go unanswered’
A senior United States lawmaker and presidential hopeful on Wednesday threatened a “violent pushback” against any country that would support a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for Palestinian statehood. He also warned that a possible UN report likening alleged crimes against children by Israel and Boko Haram was an “outrage that would not go unanswered.”
Speaking in Jerusalem, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) also said he would work to suspend US funding to the UN in retaliation for such a resolution, and vowed there would be bipartisan opposition in Congress against UN action of this kind.
France has repeatedly announced its intention to propose a Security Council resolution that calls for the rapid creation of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital. It is expected to present such a resolution in the coming days.
“If there’s an effort by any nation to have the Security Council define the terms of the peace process, there will be a violent backlash from the United States Congress in a bipartisan fashion,” Graham told reporters at a press conference.
“I am here to reinforce to our Israeli allies that there would be Republican and Democratic support to stop [such a resolution],” he said, referring to “the French effort or some other nation’s effort to take over the peace process.”
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From The Independent
From Russia Today
Islamist militants capture last Syrian govt stronghold in Idlib province
Islamist militants have claimed full control over the strategic Syrian city of Ariha, with government forces admitting withdrawal from their last stronghold in Idlib province after heavy clashes with al-Qaeda affiliated groups.
Ariha, once a city of some 40,000 people and up until now the last remaining under government control in the Idlib province, bordering Turkey, has fallen to the rebels, Syrian television reported citing army sources.
“Units of our armed forces evacuated their positions in Ariha and withdrew to defensive positions in the vicinity of the city after battles it fought facing large number of Nusra terrorists,” the army source was quoted as saying.
A conglomerate of extremist Islamist fighters called the Jaish al Fateh (Conquest Army) claimed full control of the city. The core of the fighting force was al-Nusra Front, an offshoot of al-Qaeda.
READ MORE: US begins training Syrian fighters in Turkey to combat ISIS – report
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From The Times of Israel
In al-Nusra Front’s Syria, no room for religious minorities
A rare interview with Islamist group leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani reveals the danger awaiting Syria’s non-Muslim groups after Assad falls
Ahead of his rare interview on al-Jazeera Wednesday evening, Arab newspapers were speculating that Abu Mohammed al-Golani, head of al-Nusra Front, would publicly annul his allegiance to al-Qaeda and its leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
That did not happen. In fact, the 50-minute interview — aired on a program ironically named “Without Borders” — revealed just how ideologically close Golani and Zawahiri are. The Al-Nusra jihadist group continues to receive its strategic directives from Zawahiri, Golani acknowledged, specifically in the organization’s focus on toppling Assad rather than launching attacks against Western targets.
Created in January 2012, Al-Nusra refused to be co-opted by the more radical Islamic State, composed primarily of foreign fighters. In April 2013, Golani defiantly pledged his allegiance to al-Qaeda and Zawahiri, rebuffing the merger declared by IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Al-Nusra’s treatment of Syria’s religious minorities took center stage in the interview Wednesday. In order to receive protection in the future Islamic regime, Assad’s Alawite brethren — who adhere to a syncretistic offshoot of Shia Islam and comprise some 10% of the country’s population — will not only have to disavow the president and drop their arms, Golani said, but also to “correct their doctrinal mistakes and embrace Islam.”
“By doing so they will become our brothers and we shall protect them as we protect ourselves,” asserted soft-spoken Golani, filmed from behind with a thick black cloth covering his head and a Nusra Front flag adorning the coffee table before him. “We believe they are mistaken.”
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From The Times of Israel
Palestinians happy to see Tony Blair go
PA officials say outgoing Mideast Quartet envoy was ‘totally biased’ in Israel’s favor
May 28, 2015, 10:14 pm
RAMALLAH (AFP) — Tony’s Blair resignation as Middle East peace envoy has been widely welcomed by Palestinians who say his term was useless, and even some Israelis agree he failed to accomplish much.
For the past eight years the former British prime minister had been tasked by the Mideast Quartet to help mediate a peaceful settlement to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Quartet — the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States — had appointed him to support the Palestinian economy and institutions in preparation for eventual statehood.
But the Quartet’s goal of a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel has not been met, and talks between the two sides have been frozen since April 2014.
Palestinians accuse Blair of siding with Israel at their expense, and unleashed a torrent of criticism against him.
From PressTV
Pro-Palestinians want Israel kicked out of FIFA
Pro-Palestinians have staged a rally in the Swiss city of Zurich to call on football’s governing body, FIFA, to expel Israel from world soccer tournaments.
On Thursday, the protesters gathered outside the venue for the 65th FIFA Congress, waved pro-Palestine banners and flags, and shouted, “We want justice! We want freedom!” and “Free, free Palestine!” as delegates turned up for the event.
“We gathered here today to call for the expulsion of Israel from FIFA, because of Israel’s Zionist and racist policies towards the Palestinian people,” a pro-Palestinian demonstrator, identified only by his first name, Ahmed, said.
He added, “We want freedom for Palestine. We want the Israeli army out. We want them to stop building settlements in Palestine, and we want them to get rid of the racist separation wall in Jerusalem (al-Quds), and we want all the Palestinian refugees to be able to return to Palestine.”
Palestinian Football Federation President Jibril Rajoub also said, “This protest shows that the world is fed up with the naughty Israeli attitude against the international laws, the FIFA laws, and the human rights law. I hope that FIFA will realize how Palestinian athletes suffer, and I hope they will help them to achieve their rights to play this game, develop it, and promote it.”
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that if FIFA votes Friday in favor of the Palestinian motion to outs Israel out of the world soccer governing body, the decision would ultimately “destroy” the organization.
“The attempt to hurt Israel politically will destroy FIFA, because it will start with Israel… and then the next,” he said on Thursday.
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From Russia Today
Japan military may support foreign forces abroad for first time in 70 years
Japan does not rule out sending its military to provide logistics support to the forces of the US or other allied countries, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said.
Abe spoke at a meeting of a special security committee in Japan’s lower house of parliament discussing a new bill regarding the expansion of the authority of Japan’s armed forces. The bill, which is now being reviewed in the country’s parliament, will allow Japanese forces to get involved in military action abroad.
READ MORE: Japan to join US-Aussie military drills in July
Since Japan’s defeat in World War II, its military was limited to acting only in so-called emergency circumstances within the country or its immediate neighbouring areas. The new law could allow it to deploy armed forces outside the country, to support “friendly countries,” which include the US.
Under the new bill, three conditions will be required for the use of force abroad: There has to be a clear danger to survival of the nation, there are no alternative means, and the use of force must be limited to the minimum necessary level.
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From The Times of Israel
Indicted former FIFA official blamed ‘Zionism’ for undoing in 2011
Ex vice president of world soccer body Jack Warner, arrested as part of massive raid Wednesday, previously pointed finger at Israel after bribery scandal with Qatari official
Former FIFA vice president Jack Warner, arrested in Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday on bribery charges as part of a massive bust of top soccer officials, previously blamed “Zionism” for a bribery scandal which saw him forced from the world soccer body in 2011.
Warner surrendered to authorities late Wednesday in his native Trinidad and Tobago after his name appeared on a list of nine current or former FIFA officials and five business executives who “abused their positions of trust to acquire millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks,” according to US Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
Warner resigned from FIFA in 2011 after the organization opened an ethics investigation into the vice president for receiving cash “gifts” from former Asian Football Confederation chief Mohammed Bin Hammam, ahead of the organization’s elections for president.
After FIFA handed Qatar’s Bin Hammam a lifetime ban from the soccer governing body for his role in the affair, Warner lashed out at the soccer body for what he said were various shortcomings, and vowed to bring down FIFA head Sepp Blatter.
“I will talk about the racism that is within FIFA. I will talk about the levels of religious discrimination which I sought to correct. I will talk about the Zionism, which probably is the most important reason why this acrid attack on Bin Hammam and me was mounted,” Warner wrote at the time in a 1,400 word letter to the Trinidad Guardian.
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From The Times of Israel
Vatican: Irish gay marriage vote a ‘defeat for humanity’
Papal seat calls on church to engage in soul-searching after Catholic-majority country votes to legalize homosexual unions
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican’s secretary of state has called the Irish vote to legalize gay marriage a “defeat for humanity,” evidence of the soul-searching going on in Catholic circles after the predominantly Roman Catholic country overwhelmingly rejected traditional church teaching on marriage.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin said he was saddened by the landslide decision, in which more than 62 percent of Irish voters said “yes,” despite church teaching that marriage is only between a man and woman.
In comments to reporters Tuesday evening, Parolin referred to remarks by the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, that the results showed the church needed to do a “reality check” since it clearly wasn’t reaching young people with its message.
“I don’t think you can speak only about a defeat for Christian principles, but a defeat for humanity,” he said.
The Catholic Church in Ireland has lost much of its moral authority following widespread sex abuse scandals and a general secularization of society. Martin himself called the vote part of a “social revolution” that required the church to look at whether it had “drifted completely away from young people.”
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From The Times of Israel
When does ‘anti-Israel’ become anti-Semitic on campus?
With ever sharper anti-Zionist rhetoric de rigueur at colleges today, Jewish students are taking the heat — and putting out fires
jweekly.com — Liana Kadisha, a senior at Stanford University, says some Jewish students on her campus feel they have to hide who they are. The 22-year-old knows of several who tuck their Star of David necklaces inside their shirts, self-conscious about drawing attention to their Jewish identity.
That’s not the only worry for Jews at the bucolic Palo Alto campus.
Last month, Molly Horwiz, a Jewish candidate for the Stanford student senate, found herself grilled by members of a campus club who questioned her ability to think independently because of her “Jewish identity,” she said. Days later, vandals painted swastikas on a Stanford frat house.
Those incidents followed a student senate debate over an Israel divestment resolution in February. The bill passed on a second vote, after failing in a first round.
“The night of the first vote, one of the pro-divestment students got up and shouted ‘Long live the intifada’ and stormed out of the room,” Kadisha recalled. “That was extremely disturbing.”
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