CFR’s Martin Indyk Slams Trump: Soon He May Be Asking ‘Why Are We Giving Israel So Much Money?’
By Chris Menahan
Martin Indyk, two-time US Ambassador to Israel and current Distinguished Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, attacked President Trump on Twitter Wednesday for saying Israel will be okay despite the US pulling out of Syria because we give them “billions of dollars.”
“This cavalier attitude is deeply worrying,” Indyk said. “Ignores the role of US as force multiplier for Israeli deterrence. From here it’s a short step to Trump asking: why are we giving Israel so much money?”
Here’s Trump’s full comments as reported Thursday by the Times of Israel:
Speaking with reporters, Trump was asked about criticism that the move could put Israel in jeopardy by allowing Iran to expand its foothold in Syria.
“Well, I don’t see it. I spoke with Bibi,” he said, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I told Bibi. And, you know, we give Israel $4.5 billion a year. And they’re doing very well defending themselves, if you take a look.”
“So that’s the way it is,” Trump said, according to a White House transcript.
“We’re going to take good care of Israel. Israel is going to be good. But we give Israel $4.5 billion a year. And we give them, frankly, a lot more money than that, if you look at the books — a lot more money than that. And they’ve been doing a very good job for themselves,” he added.
Here’s some of the top responses to Indyk’s tweet:
Indyk has a rather fascinating history according to his Wikipedia page (click through for source links):
In 1982, Indyk began working as a deputy research director for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel lobbying group in Washington.[4][5] From 1985 Indyk served eight years as the founding Executive Director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a research institute specializing in analysis of Middle East policy.[6]
[…]He served as special assistant to President Bill Clinton and as senior director of Near East and South Asian Affairs at the United States National Security Council. While at the NSC, he served as principal adviser to the President and the National Security Advisor on Arab–Israeli issues, Iraq, Iran, and South Asia. He was a senior member of Secretary of State Warren Christopher’s Middle East peace team and served as the White House representative on the U.S. Israel Science and Technology Commission.
He served two stints as United States Ambassador to Israel, from April 1995 to September 1997, and from January 2000 to July 2001. He was the first and so far, the only, foreign-born US ambassador to Israel.
He has served on the board of the New Israel Fund.[7] Indyk currently serves on the Adivsory Board for DC based non-profit America Abroad Media.[8]
On July 29, 2013, Indyk was appointed by President Barack Obama as Washington’s special Middle East envoy for the resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.[9] Both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas favored his appointment.[10] He resigned from this position June 27, 2014, returning to the Brookings Institution as its vice president and director for foreign policy.[11][12]
Controversy
In 2000, Indyk was placed under investigation by the FBI after allegations arose that he improperly handled sensitive material by using an unclassified laptop computer on an airplane flight to prepare his memos of meetings with foreign leaders.[13][14][15] There was no indication that any classified material had been compromised, and no indication of espionage.[16]
Indyk was “apparently … the first serving U.S. ambassador to be stripped of government security clearance.”[16] The Los Angeles Times reported that “veteran diplomats complained that Indyk was being made a scapegoat for the kinds of security lapses that are rather common among envoys who take classified work home from the office.”[16] Indyk’s clearance was suspended but was reinstated the next month, “for the duration of the current crisis,” given “the continuing turmoil in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza [Strip] and for compelling national security reasons.”[16]
Criticism
Receiving donations from Qatar
In 2014, Indyk came under scrutiny when a New York Times investigation revealed that wealthy Gulf state of Qatar made a $14.8 million, four-year donation to Brookings Institution, in order to fund two Brookings initiatives,[17] the Brookings Center in Doha and the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World.[18] The Times investigation found that Brookings was one of more than a dozen influential Washington think tanks and research organizations that “have received tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments in recent years while pushing United States government officials to adopt policies that often reflect the donors’ priorities.”[17] A number of scholars interviewed by the Times expressed alarm at the trend, saying that the “donations have led to implicit agreements that the research groups would refrain from criticizing the donor governments.”[17]
The revelation of the think tank’s choice to accept the payment from Qatar was especially controversial because at the time, Indyk was acting as a peace negotiator between Israel and the Palestinians, and because Qatar funds jihadist groups in the Middle East and is the main financial backer of Hamas, “the mortal enemy of both the State of Israel and Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party.”[19] Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal, who directs Hamas’s operations against Israel, is also harbored by Qatar.[17] Indyk defended the arrangement with Qatar, contending that it did not influence the think tank’s work and that “to be policy-relevant, we need to engage policy makers.”[17] However, the arrangement between Qatar and Brookings caused Israeli government officials to doubt Indyk’s impartiality.[20]
Soros ‘person of the year’ indeed: In 2018 globalists pushed peoples’ patience to the edge
By Robert Bridge
Since 2015, the proponents of neoliberalism have been pushing ahead with their plans for open borders and globalist agenda without the consent of the people. The last 365 days saw that destructive agenda greatly challenged.
In light of the epic events that shaped our world in 2018, it seems the Yellow Vests – the thousands of French citizens who took to the streets of Paris to protest austerity and the rise of inequality – would have been a nice choice for the Financial Times’ ‘person of the year’ award. Instead, that title was bestowed upon the billionaire globalist, George Soros, who has arguably done more meddling in the affairs of modern democratic states than any other person on the planet.
Perhaps FT’s controversial nomination was an attempt to rally the forces of neoliberalism at a time when populism and nascent nationalism is sweeping the planet. Indeed, the shocking images coming out of France provide a grim wake-up call as to where we may be heading if the globalists continue to undermine the power of the nation-state.
It is no secret that neoliberalism relentlessly pursues a globalized, borderless world where labor, products, and services obey the hidden hand of the free market. What is less often mentioned, however, is that this system is far more concerned with promoting the well-being of corporations and cowboy capitalists than assisting the average person on the street. Indeed, many of the world’s most powerful companies today have mutated into “stateless superpowers,” while consumers are forced to endure crippling austerity measures amid plummeting standards of living. The year 2018 could be seen as the tipping point when the grass-roots movement against these dire conditions took off.
Since 2015, when German Chancellor Angela Merkel allowed hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants into Germany and the EU, a groundswell of animosity has been steadily building against the European Union, perhaps best exemplified by the Brexit movement. Quite simply, many people are growing weary of the globalist argument that Europe needs migrants and austerity measures to keep the wheels of the economy spinning. At the very least, luring migrants with cash incentives to move to Germany and elsewhere in the EU appears incredibly shortsighted.
Indeed, if the globalist George Soros wants to lend his Midas touch to ameliorating the migrant’s plight, why does he think that relocating them to European countries is the solution? As is becoming increasingly apparent in places like Swedenand France, efforts to assimilate people from vastly different cultures, religions and backgrounds is an extremely tricky venture, the success of which is far from guaranteed.
One worrying consequence of Europe’s season of open borders has been the rise of far-right political movements. In fact, some of the harshest criticism of the ‘Merkel plan’ originated in Hungary, where its gutsy president, Viktor Orban, hopes to build “an old-school Christian democracy, rooted in European traditions.” Orban is simply responding to the democratic will of his people, who are fiercely conservative, yet the EU parliament voted to punish him regardless. The move shows that Brussels, aside from being adverse to democratic principles, has very few tools for addressing the rise of far-right sentiment that its own misguided policies created.
Here it is necessary to mention once again that bugbear of the political right, Mr. Soros, who has received no political mandate from European voters, yet who campaigns relentlessly on behalf of globalist initiatives through his Open Society Foundations (OSF) (That campaign just got some serious clout after Soros injected $18bn dollars of his own money into OSF, making it one of the most influential NGOs in the world).
With no small amount of impudence, Soros has condemned EU countries – namely his native Hungary – for attempting to protect their territories by constructing border barriers and fences, which he believes violate the human rights of migrants (rarely if ever does the philanthropist speak about the “human rights” of the native population). In the words of the maestro of mayhem himself: “Beggar-thy-neighbor migration policies, such as building border fences, will not only further fragment the union; they also seriously damage European economies and subvert global human rights standards.”
Through a leaked network of compromised EU parliamentarians who do his bidding, Soros says the EU should spend $30 billion euros ($33bln) to accommodate “at least 300,000 refugees each year.” How will the EU pay for the resettling of migrants from the Middle East? Soros has an answer for that as well. He calls it “surge funding,” which entails “raising a substantial amount of debt backed by the EU’s relatively small budget.”
Any guesses who will be forced to pay down the debt on this high-risk venture? If you guessed George Soros, guess again. The already heavily taxed people of Europe will be forced to shoulder that heavy burden. “To finance it, new European taxes will have to be levied sooner or later,” Soros admits. That comment is very interesting in light of the recent French protests, which were triggered by Emmanuel Macron’s plan to impose a new fuel tax. Was the French leader, a former investment banker, attempting to get back some of the funds being used to support the influx of new arrivals into his country? The question seems like a valid one, and goes far at explaining the ongoing unrest.
At this point, it is worth remembering what triggered the exodus of migrants into Europe in the first place. A large part of the answer comes down to unlawful NATO operations on the ground of sovereign states. Since 2003, the 29-member military bloc, under the direct command of Washington, has conducted illicit military operations in various places around the globe, including in Iraq, Libya and Syria. These actions, which could be best described as globalism on steroids, have opened a Pandora’s Box of global scourges, including famine, terrorism and grinding poverty. Is this what the Western states mean by ‘humanitarian activism’? If the major EU countries really want to flout their humanitarian credentials, they could have started by demanding the cessation of regime-change operations throughout the Middle East and North Africa, which created such inhumane conditions for millions of innocent people.
This failure on the part of Western capitals to speak out against belligerent US foreign policy helps to explain why a number of other European governments are experiencing major shakeups. Sebastian Kurz, 32, won over the hearts of Austrian voters by promising to tackle unchecked immigration. In super-tolerant Sweden, which has accepted more migrants per capita than any other EU state, the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats party garnered 17.6 percent of the vote in September elections – up from 12.9 percent in the previous election. And even Angela Merkel, who is seen by many people as the de facto leader of the European Union, is watching her political star crash and burn mostly due to her bungling of the migrant crisis. In October, after her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) suffered a stinging setback in Bavaria elections, which saw CDU voters abandon ship for the anti-immigrant AfD and the Greens, Merkel announced she would resign in 2021 after her current term expires.
Meanwhile, back in the US, the government of President Donald Trump has been shut down as the Democrats refuse to grant the American leader the funds to build a wall on the Mexican border – despite the fact that he essentially made it to the White House on precisely that promise. Personally, I find it very hard to believe that any political party that does not support a strong and viable border can continue to be taken seriously at the polls for very long. Yet that is the very strategy that the Democrats have chosen. But I digress.
The lesson that Western governments should have learned over the last year from these developments is that there exists a definite red line that the globalists cross at risk not only to the social order, but to their own political fortunes. Eventually the people will demand solutions to their problems – many of which were caused by reckless neoliberal programs and austerity measures. This collective sense of desperation may open the door to any number of right-wing politicians only too happy to meet the demand.
Better to provide fair working conditions for the people while maintaining strong borders than have to face the wrath of the street or some political charlatan later. Whether or not Western leaders will change their neoliberal ways as a populist storm front approaches remains to be seen, but I for one am not betting on it.
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Islamic State Flag Found Near Suspected Sabotage on Railway – German Police
By Ben Warren
An Islamic State (IS) flag was discovered near a damaged overhead power cable on a Berlin railway track, according to German police.
Leaflets in Arabic were also found and authorities are investigating if the propaganda is related to the apparent sabotage.
“Since the beginning of the investigation, several pieces of evidence have been secured,” said police.
Additionally, a torn steel cable was found at the scene of Sunday’s suspected attack on the tracks.
Given the possibility of this being a terrorist attack, federal police have taken over the investigation to officially deduce any “political motivations” linked to the findings.
Correspondingly, in October, German authorities discovered a threatening letter written in Arabic alongside mangled steel cables that were stretched across the tracks of a high-speed railway line between Nuremberg and Munich.
As of this writing, it is unclear if the two incidents are connected.
Maine Governor Writes ‘Stolen Election’ on Note Certifying Democrat’s Election Win
By Kathrine Rodriguez
Outgoing Maine Gov. Paul LePage decided to troll a Democratic candidate who won a House race on Friday by writing the words “stolen election” on an election certificate certifying the win.
LePage, in one of his final acts as Maine’s governor before his term ends, confirmed Democrat Rep.-elect Jared Golden’s election win on Friday, but not before scribbling a few words noting how he felt about the election:
Golden won the election to Maine’s 2nd congressional district after two-term incumbent Rep. Bruce Poliquin (R-ME) conceded on December 24, ending a legal challenge contesting the election results.
The controversy in the congressional election stemmed from Maine’s “ranked choice” voting system, which allows voters to rank their candidates in the order they prefer.
But if neither candidate wins the majority of votes, the votes are tallied a second time and voters’ second and third-choice preferences are added to the voting total.
In this case, Poliquin initially led the race by 2,000 votes but was short of winning an outright majority. Golden then leaped ahead of Poliquin in the polls after election officials tallied voters’ second preferences from ballots listing two independent candidates as the first choice in the recount.
Golden won 50.5 percent of the vote while Poliquin pulled in 49.5 percent of the vote after the recount, the Portland Press-Herald reported.
Poliquin called the move unconstitutional and took the matter to court. He asked the court to hold another election or declare him the winner.
LePage is stepping down as governor in January due to term limits. Janet Mills, a Democrat who served as Maine’s attorney general, will replace LePage in January.
The outgoing governor told reporters in November he would be getting out of politics and relocating to Florida to take advantage of the state’s low taxes.
EUROPEAN NEWS European civilization is at great risk and the process sped up in recent years – Douglas Murray
Interviewed by Echo TV, British author and journalist Douglas Murray warned again about the future of European civilization.
“I think that our future is at risk. It is obvious, and this process has been going on for a very long time, and it just sped up in recent years.
“And, I think it has come about more in the absence of mind, in the absence of preparedness, than as a part of a bigger plan. Our civilisation is at great risk,” the author of The Strange Death of Europe said.
Douglas says that although a lot of writers disagree with his conclusions about Europe’s future, it’s his task to write the truth.
“My view is that the general public is like me. They are able to see things with their own eyes. They do not need to be told what they should be seeing, because they open their eyes and they can see.
“There are some people who would like to stop that and they would like us to not see things. Nevertheless, I think that the general public and I are able to say honestly what we see,” he says.
According to Douglas, Western Europe made a “colossal mistake” by inviting guest labourers since the 1950s.
“Since the 1950s, Western European countries, from Germany to other places, have been inviting guest laborers in order to rebuild their societies after the Second World War. In my book I show that they did not fully understand this process.
“For example, in her 2010 Potsdam speech, Angela Merkel said that they had thought that the guest laborers would eventually go home.
“Now, I have to say that it is very unlikely that a person who came from a very poor country would return to his or her country of origin after having experienced life in a rich country. As I said, even Angela Merkel admitted that they were wrong to believe that, and Western European societies had to catch up in this regard.
“For example, they had to face that entire families would immigrate and that a chain of migration would start.”
Watch the full interview below, it starts around 10:30 minutes.
BIG LEAGUE NATIONAL SECURITYMexican Suspect in Double Homicide Entered U.S. on H-2B Visa
By
A Mexican national suspected in a double-homicide in Mexico was admitted to the United States via a H-2B worker visa, according to a Friday Breitbart report.
“On September 27, Jose Froylan Garcia Melendez was admitted to the U.S. on an H-2B visa,” the report said. “The following day, after Melendez was rewarded the visa, Mexican officials notified the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to make them aware that the national was wanted in Mexico for double homicide.”
More than 60,000 H-2B visas are doled out to low-skilled workers annually, snatching those jobs from American citizens and allowing major corporations to cut down on the cost of their labor. The program exists because establishment Republicans and some Democrats often bend a knee to big business donors who grease the candidates’ palms on the campaign trail with the intention of being repaid once our esteemed elected officials are sworn into office.
These visas are for jobs outside of the agriculture industry, meaning that these immigrants are not coming to America to “do jobs that Americans won’t do,” as is often the pitch, like picking vegetables on farms.
Trending: CONFIRMED: The Government CAN Build The Wall With Brian Kolfage’s GoFundMe Money
“Two days after his admission to the U.S., Melendez was arrested by ICE agents while at work in Weems, Virginia for immigration violations,” the report said. “The next day, Mexican officials issued Melendez’s arrest warrants, formally charging him with the double homicide.”
Fortunately, this time around the visa program did not result in physical harm to any American. But it begs the question: if we absolutely must replace American workers with cheap foreign labor, is it unreasonable to request of our elected officials that they do not import suspected murderers?
Women’s March Organizers Cancel California Rally Due to “Overwhelmingly White” Participants
December 29, 2018
This is rich.
California organizers canceled the women’s march in Eureka on January 19th because too many of the participants who signed up are white.
White women need not apply.
The press release stated the organizers will take time for more outreach:
“Up to this point, the participants have been overwhelmingly white, lacking representation from several perspectives in our community. Instead of pushing forward with crucial voices absent, the organizing team will take time for more outreach. Our goal is that planning will continue and we will be successful in creating an event that will build power and community engagement through connection between women that seek to improve the lives of all in our community.”
It’s that time of year again!
This is the third annual pussy hat march where angry gelatinous women will peel themselves off their couches just to scream at the sky and call for abortion on demand.
The Women’s March is less about empowering females and more about ‘social justice’ — it’s just another radical left-wing group masquerading as a women’s movement.
Pro-life and or Christian women need not apply — the Women’s March was led by hijab-clad, America-hating Palestinian radicals such as Linda Sarsour and Rasmea Yousef Odeh — Odeh is a convicted terrorist who was deported to Jordan after lying on her citizenship application in order to avoid jail time in the US.
The founder of the Women’s March recently called for hijab-clad Sharia law advocate Linda Sarsour and Farrakhan supporter Tamika Mallory to step down for their anti-Semitic and homophobic rants.
At the time of this publication, the Women’s March in Washington DC on January 19th is still on the schedule.
“On January 19, 2019, we’re going to flood the streets of Washington, D.C., and cities across the globe. The #WomensWave is coming, and we’re sweeping the world forward with us,” the Women’s March said on their official website.
WATCH: UNHINGED LEFTIST HAS MENTAL BREAKDOWN, REFUSES SERVICE TO TRUMP SUPPORTER IN VAPE SHOP
Vape shop has since fired the irate employee
DECEMBER 29, 2018
Viral video out of Atlanta, Georgia shows a crazed soy-addict have a mental breakdown and refuse to serve a Trump supporter because he was wearing a MAGA hat and a Trump shirt.
The video was shared Friday on Facebook by Ian Furgeson, who said, “this guy just went nuts” at him.
WATCH:
We need the same regulations on tobacco and vaping to apply to all soy-based products to prevent incidences like these in the future!
‘Journalists come down’: Yellow Vests chant ‘fake news’ outside French TV station (VIDEOS)
Dozens of Yellow Vest protesters have descended on the headquarters of France’s BFM TV channel accusing the station of broadcasting “fake news” and calling for the resignation of President Emmanuel Macron.
The demonstrators arrived at the offices in Paris around an hour after the gathering was announced on Facebook. There was already a heavy police presence at the building in the city’s 15th arrondissement when the crowd formed.
One of the protesters told RT France that BFM TV spreads false information about the movement, alleging that the channel purposefully underplays the size of its demonstrations.
AFP is reporting that “several hundred” Yellow Vests gathered outside the headquarters and Police used tear gas grenades on the crowd after the protesters lobbed projectiles in their direction.
The group reportedly chanted “journalists come down”, “fake news” and “Macron out”.
Riot police also fired tear gas during clashes in Rouen in Normandy and in Nantes in western France on Saturday, which is the seventh week of the mass rallies that have divided the country since the movement sprang up in November.
ALSO ON RT.COMTear gas fired as Yellow Vests and police clash in French city of Rouen (VIDEOS)
Official turnout numbers have dropped significantly on earlier weeks but organizers say the dip is due to the holiday season. The protesters say the movement will continue to grow in 2019 and plans are underway for New Year’s Eve protests.
The rallies initially began as a demonstration against fuel hikes but have since morphed into a broad rejection of Macron’s policies. On Thursday a group of about 40 Yellow Vests tried to storm the medieval fort of Bregancon that serves as the president’s official summer retreat.
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