Defense minister: It’s not good for Israel if other countries get F-35

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/defense-minister-its-not-good-for-israel-if-other-countries-get-f-35/

 Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Tuesday warned that the proliferation of the F-35 fighter jet was “not good for Israel,” following reports that the United States would sell the advanced aircraft to the United Arab Emirates.

“It’s not good for Israel that the plane is going around in other places. We need to talk to the Emiratis, to the Americans, and make sure that our security interests are being upheld,” Gantz told reporters in a press conference. 

 On Tuesday morning, the Yedioth Ahronot daily reported that the White House had agreed to sell the fifth-generation aircraft to Abu Dhabi as part of an emerging normalization agreement between the UAE and Israel. The US had long refused to sell the advanced stealth fighter jet to the Emiratis in large part because it would threaten Israel’s so-called “qualitative military edge” in the Middle East.

Trump administration pushing for sale of F-35s to UAE

 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/285585

The Trump administration has accelerated a push to sell the F-35 stealth fighter and advanced armed drones to the United Arab Emirates, American officials familiar with the discussions told The New York Times on Wednesday.

Administration officials in recent weeks gave a classified briefing about the F-35 to the Emirati military despite some concerns among National Security Council staff about the wisdom of disclosing details on one of the Pentagon’s most advanced weapons to a foreign government before a decision about a potential arms sale has been completed, according to the report.

 American officials deny that the new push to sell the advanced weapons is a direct reward for the Emirati role in the diplomatic breakthrough, announced by President Donald Trump last week, where the Emirates would become just the third Arab nation to recognize Israel.

However, officials do not dispute that the new momentum on the arms sale — after years of stalled requests by the Emirates to buy the fighter jet — is linked to the broader diplomatic initiative.

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Karl Rove condemns QAnon as 'a group of nuts and kooks,' says Trump 'ought to disavow them'

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/karl-rove-trump-disavow-qanon-nuts-kooks\

 President Trump should disavow QAnon conspiracy theorists, Fox News contributor Karl Rove stated bluntly on "Special Report" Wednesday.

 "I don't know much about the movement other than I understand they like me very much, which I appreciate," Trump said earlier Wednesday in response to a question at a White House news briefing.

 But I don't know much about the movement -- I have heard that it is gaining in popularity and from what I hear, these are people that, when they watch the streets of Portland, when they watch what happened in New York City in just the last six or seven months ... these are people that don't like seeing what's going on in places like Portland, and places like Chicago and New York ... and I've heard that these are people who love our country and they just don't like seeing it."

"Big mistake," Rove said of the president's response. "This is a group of nuts and kooks and he ought to disavow them. They might like him, but they like him because they think he is fighting an incredible war against forces of [pedophilic] evil, and it’s just ridiculous --

 The baseless theory centers on an alleged anonymous, high-ranking government official known as “Q” who shares information about an anti-Trump “deep state” often tied to satanism and child sex trafficking.

  disavow them, get done with it."

The Senate just dropped a massive Russia bombshell (and most people missed it)

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.