Biden campaign disavows Linda Sarsour after she speaks at Democratic convention forum

 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/285564

Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, disavowed Palestinian Arab-American activist Linda Sarsour after she appeared at an online meeting of Muslims who will be campaigning for Biden for president.

“Joe Biden has been a strong supporter of Israel and a vehement opponent of anti-Semitism his entire life, and he obviously condemns her views and opposes BDS, as does the Democratic platform,” Andrew Bates, a Biden campaign spokesman, said in a statement Tuesday to CNN, referring to Sarsour’s embrace of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel. “She has no role in the Biden campaign whatsoever.

 

Yamina MK: What is the price we paid for normalizing ties?

 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/285580

 MK Ofir Sofer (Yamina) spoke at the Knesset on Wednesday and wondered what is the real price Israel was required to pay as part of the peace agreement with the United Arab Emirates.

"Peace with the UAE is important but is also very disturbing," Sofer said.

White House adviser Jared Kushner, continued Sofer, “has been saying in a clear voice that the issue of the sovereignty is completely off the table and there is already a map for a Palestinian terrorist state. That is very disturbing.”

 

A self-described 'proud Islamophobe' banned from social media just won a GOP nomination

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/19/politics/laura-loomer-donald-trump-florida/index.html

 If you've paid attention to the rise of the radical right on the internet over the last few years, you know the name Laura Loomer.

Loomer is one of the most high-profile figures of this movement -- and one of its most controversial. She has described Islam as a "cancer on humanity" and said that Muslim candidates should not be allowed to hold office in America. She has called herself a "proud Islamophobe."

That behavior has led to Loomer being banned from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram -- not to mention ride-sharing services Uber and Lyft. (She tweeted in 2018 that "someone needs to create a non Islamic form of Uber or Lyft because I never want to support another Islamic immigrant driver.")

 And as of Wednesday morning, Loomer is the Republican nominee in Florida's 21st District, which happens to include President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.

 She won a six-way primary for the right to face Rep. Lois Frankel (D) in the general election, raising more than $1 million thanks to support from conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, pardoned Trump ally Roger Stone and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz. Loomer campaigned as the Trumpiest candidate in the field, touting her belief in the President's "law and order" message. (Loomer is very unlikely to come to Congress; the 21st District is strongly Democrat.)

Trump rewarded that support with a tweet touting Loomer's win on Tuesday night.

"Great going Laura," he wrote. "You have a great chance against a Pelosi puppet!" He also retweeted several accounts congratulating Loomer on her victory, including that of Marjorie Taylor Greene, the GOP nominee in Georgia's 14th district who has publicly supported the QAnon conspiracy theory and expressed a number of anti-Islamic views.

 

Team Trump Activist Whose Brother Died at Sandy Hook Breaks With POTUS Over Laura Loomer

 https://www.newsweek.com/parkland-trump-supporter-breaks-president-over-hoaxer-laura-loomer-1526093

A gun-rights advocate who recently announced he had joined President Donald Trump's 2020 campaign team appeared to split with the president Tuesday over his support for Laura Loomer, who claimed victory in her Republican congressional primary in Florida.

Tweeting out against Trump's endorsement, JT Lewis, a gun rights advocate who lost his brother in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, said he believed Loomer has no place in the GOP.

"Laura Loomer is a Parkland and Sandy Hook hoaxer. She has no place in the Republican Party I know!" Lewis wrote on Tuesday.

 Loomer has worked with Infowars, which has spread false claims about the shooting, asserting it was a hoax, in addition to making similar claims about the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida.

McEnany defends Trump’s congratulatory tweets for candidates with history of racist remarks

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/19/mcenany-defends-trumps-tweets-candidates-racist-remarks-398571

 President Donald Trump has recently come under fire for backing far-right House candidates with histories of racist remarks. But White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Wednesday defended Trump’s support, saying the president hadn’t done a “deep dive” into the candidates’ pasts.

Trump congratulated Laura Loomer, an internet personality and self-described Islamophobe, on Wednesday for winning the Republican nomination in Florida’s 21st Congressional District. He also voiced his support last week for Marjorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon conspiracy theorist caught making racist rants, who secured the party’s nomination in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District.

Dershowitz: Is the ‘Black Lives Matter’ Platform Antisemitic?

 https://www.algemeiner.com/2020/07/09/dershowitz-is-the-black-lives-matter-platform-antisemitic/

 In 2016 I wrote an op-ed demanding that Black Lives Matter rescind the portion of its platform that describes Israel as an “apartheid state” involved in “genocide … against the Palestinian people.” I pointed out that the platform refers to no other country but Israel, despite the egregious records of many foreign countries with regard to police brutality. It is now four years later and these provisions of the platform remain intact. Defenders of Black Lives Matter argue that the inclusion of this critique against Israel in not antisemitic; it is merely anti-Zionist.

A Person does not need to succeed in making all Jews religious to be b'chezkas Moshiach

 

וְאִם יַעֲמֹד מֶלֶךְ מִבֵּית דָּוִד הוֹגֶה בַּתּוֹרָה וְעוֹסֵק בְּמִצְוֹת כְּדָוִד אָבִיו. כְּפִי תּוֹרָה שֶׁבִּכְתָב וְשֶׁבְּעַל פֶּה. וְיָכֹף כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל לֵילֵךְ בָּהּ וּלְחַזֵּק בִּדְקָהּ. וְיִלָּחֵם מִלְחֲמוֹת ה'. הֲרֵי זֶה בְּחֶזְקַת שֶׁהוּא מָשִׁיחַ. (אִם עָשָׂה וְהִצְלִיחַ וּבָנָה מִקְדָּשׁ בִּמְקוֹמוֹ וְקִבֵּץ נִדְחֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל הֲרֵי זֶה מָשִׁיחַ בְּוַדַּאי. וִיתַקֵּן אֶת הָעוֹלָם כֻּלּוֹ לַעֲבֹד אֶת ה' בְּיַחַד שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר כִּי אָז אֶהְפֹּךְ אֶל עַמִּים שָׂפָה בְרוּרָה לִקְרֹא כֻלָּם בְּשֵׁם ה' וּלְעָבְדוֹ שְׁכֶם אֶחָד):

Now, if a king should arise from the House of David who is versed in Torah and engages in Commandments, as did David his forefather, in accordance with both the Written and the Oral Torahs, and he enjoins all of Israel to follow in its ways and encourages them to repair its breaches, and he fights the Wars of G-d¹²⁸I.e. he defends Israel., then he may be presumed to be the Messiah. If he succeeds in his efforts and defeats the enemies around and builds the Sanctuary in its proper place and gathers the dispersed of Israel, he is definitely the Messiah.

ערוך השולחן העתיד הלכות מלכים סימן פא ו. כתב הרמב"ם, ואל יעלה על דעתך שהמלך המשיח צריך לעשות אותות ומופתים ומחדש דברים בעולם או מחיה מתים וכיוצא באלו, אין הדבר כך וכו', ועיקר הדברים כך הן שהתורה הזאת חוקיה ומשפטיה לעולם ולעולמי עולמים ואין מוסיפין עליהם ולא גורעין מהן, ואם יעמוד מלך מבית דוד הוגה בתורה ועוסק במצות כדוד אביו בתורה שבכתב ובתורה שבע"פ, ויכוף כל ישראל לילך בה ולחזק בדקה וילחום מלחמת ד' הרי הוא בחזקת מלך המשיח, ואם עשה והצליח ובנה מקדש במקומו וקבץ נדחי ישראל הרי זה משיח בוודאי, ויתקן את העולם כולו לעבוד את ד' ביחד שנאמר: כי אז אהפוך אל עמים שפה ברורה לקרא כולם בשם ד' ולעבדו שכם אחד עכ"ל. והדברים מובנים אל מה רימז, ובירושלמי דמע"ש פ"ה אומר דבניין בהמ"ק קודם למלכות בית דוד ע"ש, והנסתרות לד' רק אנחנו מחוייבים להאמין בביאת משיח ובבניין בהמ"ק בב"א.

'Devastating': Revelations From Senate Intel Report | Morning Joe | MSNBC

Netanyahu slams reports of 'secret clause' to sell UAE F-35s and drones as part of peace deal

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/18/politics/netanyahu-secret-weapons-deal-uae/index.html

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed reports the US will sell stealth fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates as part of the agreement to normalize relations between Israel and the Gulf nation, tweeting that they are "completely fake news."

Netanyahu was responding Tuesday to a report in one of the country's leading newspapers alleging the existence of a "secret clause" in Israel's deal to normalize relations with the UAE -- one that would allow the UAE to buy billions of dollars in advanced military hardware from the US, including drones, F-35 stealth fighters and other weaponry.

The story raised hackles in Israel because of the potential threat to Israel's military superiority in the region. Israel has long opposed sales of strategic weapons systems to other countries in the Middle East and repeatedly raised concerns about the possibility in the weeks before the normalization deal was reached. 

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who'd only just been released from hospital following back surgery, decided the story warranted a press conference. He said the proliferation of the F-35 was "not good for Israel," adding: "We need to talk to the Emiratis, to the Americans, and make sure our security interests are being upheld."

The reports triggered widespread reaction for several reasons.

First, there's the way the UAE-Israel deal was done. Unusually for an agreement of this nature, Netanyahu kept his foreign minister and defense minister (who just happen to be from rival parties) in the dark, telling Israeli media he did so at the request of the US.

 The third reason the story has caught hold may be an August 14 interview that US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman gave to NPR. Asked if the UAE-Israel deal would mean Abu Dhabi would now get hold of advanced American weaponry, he replied, somewhat cryptically: "The more the Emirates becomes a friend of Israel, becomes a partner with Israel, becomes a regional ally of the United States, I think obviously that alters the threat assessment and could work out to the Emirates' benefit on that issue."

A U.S. Sale Of F-35 Stealth Fighters To The UAE Could Be A Middle East Game Changer

 https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelpeck/2020/08/18/why-america-selling-f-35-stealth-fighters-to-the-uae-could-be-a-middle-east-game-changer/#654ee08b183b

  "The peace agreement with the UAE does not include any clause of this kind, and the U.S. has made clear to Israel that it will always ensure that Israel has the qualitative advantage," said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

In a world turned upside down, it would be no surprise if the Trump administration had secretly agreed to sell F-35s to the UAE as an incentive for a peace deal. Nor would it be surprising if Israel, despite the obligatory public protests, ultimately accepted the F-35 sale.

 

 

U.S. to sell F-35 jets to UAE as part of secret clause in Israel ties agreement

 https://www.ynetnews.com/article/S15zntKGP

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is set to sell F-35 fighter jets and advanced drones to the UAE in a secret clause that was part of the agreement to establish diplomatic ties between Israel and the Gulf nation.

The clause lifts long-standing Israeli opposition to the sale of the strategic weapons systems to other countries in the region, according to U.S. and Emirati sources.

UAE source: Netanyahu knew about U.S. deal to sell arms to Emiratis

 https://www.ynetnews.com/article/S15zntKGP

 A senior source in the United Arab Emirates said Tuesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knew about the clause in the normalization deal that would see U.S. sell F-35 fighter jets and advanced drones to the Emiratis, potentially undermining Israeli military superiority in the region.

The establishment of full diplomatic relations between Israel and the UAE was announced last week and Ynet's sister publication Yedioth Ahronoth reported early Tuesday that Emirati Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed conditioned the agreement with Israel on the multi-billion-dollar arms sale.

Reported deal to sell UAE F-35 jets edges in on US promise of Israeli dominance

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/reported-deal-to-sell-uae-f-35-jets-edges-in-on-us-promise-of-israeli-dominance/

The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, which first reported on the deal Tuesday, said the sale of the F-35 and advanced drones, and Israel’s dropping of any objections to it, was a condition of the emerging normalization agreement between Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi that was brokered by Washington.

 

 

The UAE and F-35s story isn’t over just because Israel doesn’t like it

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/the-uae-and-f-35s-story-isnt-over-just-because-israel-doesnt-like-it-639173

The controversy over the possibility that the United Arab Emirates could purchase F-35 jets has continued despite a very firm denial by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And that’s because, well, Netanyahu doesn’t really have the final say here.

 Following reports that such arms purchases will be part of the peace deal between the UAE and Israel, the Prime Minister’s Office released an unusually detailed statement, including a timeline of the multiple times that Netanyahu and Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer raised their objections to the F-35 being sold to any other country in the Middle East, even if it has a peace treaty with Israel.

 An unnamed UAE diplomat told Kan’s Amichai Stein on Wednesday that it expects Israel not to "oppose or prevent" any deals between Abu Dhabi and the US "if and when" they take place. Plus, the diplomat said, their view is Israel and the UAE face the same threats - meaning, Iran - and such sales will be good for both of them.