A housekeeping note: I am working on an upgrade of my website, and so my associated email address is temporarily down. Just know that I have not received any messages sent since my last posting.
Hopefully, this situation will be rectified quite soon and nothing will have been lost.
~~~~~~~~~~
What causes us to grieve is the horrendous state of affairs in America.
Should Biden end up becoming president (something that I absolutely do not consider a “done deal” at this point), there would be no reason to be reassured as to the direction he would take. The more we learn about what he is planning, or is being pushed to do, the more horrific it sounds.
Apparently he wants to return to the disastrous Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), negotiated during Obama’s administration. We should not be surprised. But this plan has a sunset clause that ultimately provides Iran – which overtly threatens Israel – with a pathway to legally developing nuclear weapons.
Nikki Haley, former US Ambassador to the UN, says resumption of the Iran deal would be “a devastating, massive step backwards.”
Israel and Sunni Arab states (most notably Saudi Arabia) are presenting a united front in opposition and have sent Biden strong signals in this regard. Last I heard, however, Biden was planning a meeting with international participants (all or primarily European) to discuss Iran, but Israel was not to be included.
These are countries that are inclined to go easier on Iran for reasons of trade. Prime Minister Netanyahu is the primary – and best informed – opponent of Iranian nuclear ambitions. If Biden excludes him, this tells us a great deal.
Biden should not imagine that the US would not also be at risk in the face of a strengthened Iran.
~~~~~~~~~~
And then we have Susan Rice, who was first Ambassador to the UN and then National Security Advisor in the Obama administration. Biden has selected her to head the White House Domestic Policy Council.
Rice is bad, bad news. No, she is more: she is dangerous. Writes David Marcus in the NY Post (emphasis added):
“In his latest effort to refill the swamp with Obama administration lackeys, President-elect (sic) Joe Biden has tapped former National Security Adviser Susan Rice…
“Really, Joe?
“Rice…is a veritable poster child of Obama-era corruption.“
https://nypost.com/2020/12/10/by-tapping-susan-rice-biden-embraced-worst-corruption-of-obama-years/
FrontPage Magazine provides a very extensive list regarding Rice’s actions and recommendations over the years. I can only mention a few here (emphasis added):
[] While serving in the Clinton administration, she was key in convincing Clinton not to get involved in the Rwanda genocide, in which 800,000 people were massacred in 100 days. Although fully aware of how extensive the Rwandan carnage was, she persuaded the administration to…purge Rwanda-related memos of such terms as “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing.”
[] In 2011, she stated: “For more than four decades, [Israeli settlement activity] has undermined security … corroded hopes for peace … [and] violate[d] international commitments.”
[] In 2012, she provided a false assessment of the deadly terror attack against a US diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. “…she claimed, falsely [in numerous news interviews], that according to the ‘best information at present,’ the deadly attack in Benghazi was not a premeditated assault but rather a ‘spontaneous reaction’ to “a hateful and offensive video…”
See more: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/12/susan-rice-discover-networks/
~~~~~~~~~~
Yet in spite of the fact that a prospective Biden administration is inordinately worrisome, there is another, larger, reason to grieve: America is falling apart in essential ways.
I want to make it as clear as I can that the fact that the issue of voter fraud has not been decisively resolved does NOT mean there was no fraud. My position on this has not changed, and I advise all readers who imagine they can convince me otherwise to please refrain from writing to me once my email is up again. I said it before, and I say it again here: I have seen enough evidence, in terms of videos and testimony to be convinced that this is the case. And new evidence continues to surface.
~~~~~~~~~~
An audit was done of the Dominion Voting System in Antrim County, Michigan. A forensic report was released on December 14. It says (emphasis added):
“We conclude that the Dominion Voting System is intentionally and purposefully designed with inherent errors to create systemic fraud and influence election results. The system intentionally generates an enormously high number of ballot errors. The electronic ballots are then transferred for adjudication. The intentional errors lead to bulk adjudication of ballots with no oversight, no transparency, and no audit trail. This leads to voter or election fraud. Based on our study, we conclude that The Dominion Voting System should not be used in Michigan. We further conclude that the results of Antrim County should not have been certified.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Nevada Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) records suggest that nearly 4,000 legal and illegal aliens cast votes in the 2020 general election, according to a sworn affidavit filed with a state court. The affidavit, filed under penalty of perjury, was by Jess Kamzol, an expert who had been engaged by the Republican Party.
As part of legislation enacted by the state’s Democrats, the DMV automatically registers to vote every person who obtains a driver’s license. In Nevada, both legal and illegal non-citizens can obtain driver’s licenses and identification cards.
However, legally, only citizens are entitled to vote. The action of the DMV in sending out ballots to everyone with a driver’s license subverted legal process.
Kamzol secured the records of non-citizens listed with the DMV via subpoena, and matched these names against Nevada’s voter files. He determined, with “high to mid-high confidence,” that 3,987 non-citizens had voted, and said the matches were significant enough to merit further investigation.
~~~~~~~~~~
“Former Clinton-era investigator Ken Starr testified in front of a Senate panel that Pennsylvania’s last-minute changes to election laws before the November 3 election were violations.
“‘The principle here is … [the] Constitution is very clear that it is the prerogative of state legislatures to determine what these rules and laws are,’ Starr told the Senate Homeland Security Panel. ‘And that was, I must say, flagrantly violated in Pennsylvania, and perhaps elsewhere as well.’” (Emphasis added)
~~~~~~~~~~
Although there are only about three weeks until the electors vote, Trump’s legal teams are hard at work and say there are still avenues for success. There remains a great deal to investigate, and a great many charges to be brought.
Every American citizen should want an honest outcome to the election, should be eager to see matters pursued to resolution. And that’s the point: there has been no resolution.
Of particular concern has been the enormous reluctance of the courts to consider cases.
A refusal to hear a case is not the same as a ruling that the case has no merit. Do not confuse the two.
In some instances it is very likely that local judges are simply part of a corrupt Democratic machine. And I have no doubt but that there is fear on the part of some with regard to making the “wrong” position in a Democratic stronghold: Fear regarding career advancement, and a great deal more.
More significantly, the US Supreme Court is demonstrating an enormous reluctance to deal with a situation that might be perceived as political.
This was the assessment of former Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, after the Court refused to hear a petition from the State of Texas backed by 17 other states; the Court argued that Texas did have not have standing. Two Justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, said Texas did have standing, and Dershowitz agrees with them.
Said Dershowitz, ”The majority [of the Court]…said, ‘We’re not going to hear the Texas case. We’re not going to get involved in this election.’
”I think this sends a message. It’s not a legal message, but it’s a practical message: the Supreme Court is out of this game.”
~~~~~~~~~~
But the American people must have some sort of resolution if they are to move ahead as one people!
If not resolved, this situation threatens to generate divisiveness unlike anything that has been seen in the country in over a century: for a significant portion of the electorate will feel cheated and disenfranchised.
I am not naïve. I understand that the issues are complex and that there is always the possibility of some fraud, especially in local elections. For years jokes were made about the dead people who voted in Chicago.
But this is different.
“Leave us out of it” is not an adequate response from the nation’s highest court. There has been scant courage to address the tough issues just when courage is desperately needed.
If there has been wide scale fraud perpetrated in this election, and there is no honest avenue for redress on behalf of the victim of that fraud, then what?
Then America is at risk of becoming a banana republic in which honest elections are rare to non-existent. That’s what.
What succeeded once without repercussions would be attempted again.
~~~~~~~~~~
However…what I am learning now is that, while redress will not come to Trump via the judicial system, there is yet another possible avenue.
In seven swing states, two sets of electors have been selected. One set is via the voting, which on the books favored Biden. The other set, Republican, has been selected by the legislatures in those states. Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s lead lawyer, spoke about the legislatures’ role weeks ago. The Constitution says the state legislatures have responsibility for determining electors. In these swing states, on Monday, dual electors went to their state capitals to cast votes.
These contested dual electors will go on to Washington to cast their votes on January 9; nothing is final until then. What will follow is a little known Constitutional process, in which Vice President Pence and Congress will be involved.
See a video with Representative Anthony Kern, a Republican member of the Arizona House of Representatives representing District 20, who explains the process as it can be expected to unfold.
Please stay with him to the end of the five minute video, as he speaks also about the time he took to seek out evidence, which for him confirms the fact that there was electoral fraud.
~~~~~~~~~~
Here in Israel, an election seems more and more imminent. Unless a budget is passed by midnight next Tuesday night, we automatically go into election mode. This can be prevented by Likud and Blue & White, if they choose to act. There is much expressed desire to prevent the election, but words won’t do it and I’m not seeing the necessary action.
~~~~~~~~~~
And so, we are in to election mode, with, for example, Avigdor Lieberman, head of Yisrael Beitenu, proposing a bloc with Naftali Bennett, head of Yamina; Gideon Sa’ar, whose party is apparently called New Hope but may be renamed; and Yair Lapid, head of Yesh Atid.
I doubt this would fly. Lieberman’s goal is to take down Netanyahu without need for the ultra-Orthodox parties, to which he is hostile. We’ll be seeing many similar proposals.
Speaking of Gideon Sa’ar’s party, Yafit Shasha-Biton has just announced that she is leaving Likud (which she came to via Kahlon’s Kulanu) to join Sa’ar. Shasha-Biton made a name for herself serving, as the JPost’s Herb Keinon put it, as “the people’s corona virus campion.” She was the head of the Knesset corona virus committee and stood up to Prime Minister Netanyahu as well as the corona cabinet when she deemed regulations to be unreasonable. Now she has a well-established name and is sought after.
~~~~~~~~~~
As our government and Knesset watch the political indecision in the US, they understand that it is critical to move ahead on certain matters with uncommon speed, so that they might be resolved before January 9. This is in case Biden does become president (a prospect not greeted with any gladness in most quarters here).
The most important news in this regard right now is legislation for regulating – formally legalizing – some 65 young unofficial settlements (often referred to as outposts) in Area C of Judea & Samaria.
The legislation is a private bill (i.e., not promoted officially by the government) advanced by the Knesset Land of Israel Caucus, co-chaired by Bezalel Smotrich (Yamina) and Haim Katz (Likud). The outposts would be recognized as new settlements or as neighborhoods of existing settlements. Their status would be one of communities awaiting full legalization, which is a process that takes years. In the interim, they would be hooked up to utility grids, and their residents would be able to apply for mortgages. These communities would expand the Israeli footprint in Area C, and I heartily applaud this.
The legislation must go through three reading, and ways are being sought to expedite the process, for if no budget is passed, the Knesset will disperse next Tuesday night.
Yamina, Likud, Shas, United Torah Judaism, and Yisrael Beitenu support this move. Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn (Blue & White) is opposed.
~~~~~~~~~~
It is good news that last week President Trump announced that Israel and Morocco have agreed to normalize relations. As has been the pattern, the president sweetened the arrangement by recognizing Morocco’s sovereignty over the Western Sahara. That sovereignty has been challenged by the Polisario Front, which represents the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in exile in Algeria.
Morocco and Israel have long shared warm religious and cultural ties. The Jewish community of Morocco dates back to the time of the destruction of the Temple 2,000 years ago. Today, a small Jewish community remains.
~~~~~~~~~~
On December 12, Israel signed a full normalization agreement with the Kingdom of Bhutan, a Buddhist kingdom on the Himalayas’ eastern edge, wedged between India and Chinese-occupied Tibet. It is a reclusive kingdom eager to preserve tradition. The constitutional monarchy is famous for a national policy that eschews materialism and instead seeks “gross national happiness.”
Israel has been providing Bhutan with agricultural assistance for some time. The signing ceremony took place in New Delhi, India, at the Israeli embassy, with the Israeli and Bhutanese ambassadors to India.
~~~~~~~~~~
© Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by independent journalist Arlene Kushner. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.
