Bill Murray and Punxsutawney Phil in “Groundhog Day.” Like the film, each US administration reenacts the same failed “Palestinian Peace Plan”
Groundhog Day! Time for another US plan for Palestine peace at Israel’s expense!
Columnist Caroline Glick writes in the Jerusalem Post that the US is repeating the attempts of past administrations to undermine Israel by forcing it into an unwanted peace settlement with Palestinians who deny Israel’s right to exist:
“…Trump’s plan will be based on the assumption that for peace to be concluded between Israel and the PLO , a Palestinian state must be established on land now controlled by Israel.
“Trump’s plan will reportedly also discuss the partition of Jerusalem and address the Palestinian claim that the 450,000 Israelis living beyond the 1949 armistice lines in Judea and Samaria must be expelled from their homes and communities for peace to be achieved….
“Trump’s team is led by his senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and run by his chief negotiator, Jason Greenblatt….
“If Greenblatt and Kushner compose a ‘peace plan’ that satisfies the State Department and its governmental counterparts, and if Trump adopts it as his official position, they will guarantee that he will fail to advance the cause of peace; will harm Israel; will empower the PLO; and diminish the US’s standing as a power in the Middle East.”
500 US special-ops military posted to Somalia
Meanwhile, Politico reports:
Map of Somalia (500 US special ops) and Yemen (Saudi air force)
“The number of U.S. military forces in Somalia has more than doubled this year to over 500 people as the Pentagon has quietly posted hundreds of additional special operations personnel to advise local forces in pockets of Islamic militants around the country, according to current and former senior military officials.
“It is the largest American military contingent in the war-torn nation since the the infamous 1993 ‘Black Hawk Down’ battle when 18 U.S. soldiers died.”
The US suppression of the ISIS caliphate had widespread domestic and international support. But does the US really want to pursue every insurgent group in the Eastern hemisphere at the request of any government that asks for help? Is this in the national interest?
Saudi Arabia too
Saudi Arabia seems to have caught the failing-interventionist bug as well. An article in Middle East Forum titled “Saudi Arabia’s Strategic Miscalculation in Yemen” provides the background.
Missile defense update
The national interest of the US, as well as its allies, indisputably requires a robust missile defense. US ground-based systems are probably better than critics are saying, according to an article in The National Interest (“Why America Must Improve Its Missile Defense Systems”). But the US needs to
- improve reliability,
- increase numbers,
- improve sensor systems, and
- “pursue defensive options other than Ground-Based Midcourse Defense.”
Are you next, Mr. President?
Why are some Democrats so down on Gropergate Senator Al Franken, even hinting that he should resign?
Publications on the right side of the spectrum are puzzled at the attacks on Senator Al Franken coming from the usual amen chorus on the left. The American Thinker has an interesting thought on what this might be about. Could it be, the publication asks, that creating a media furor against unwanted male horseplay at the expense of females — with Franken today’s scapegoat for launching the meme — will turn to President Trump as its next and far more important victim?
The importance of recognizing a deadly sign
Albert DeSalvo, the “Boston Strangler,” suspected for the murder of 13 Boston women, 1962-1964
“Which domestic abusers will go on to commit murder?” an important article in The Washington Post asks and then answers: the strangler. Recognition of this fact could have prevented a number of mass murders, including the recent mass murder of twenty-six churchgoers in New Mexico by Devin Patrick Kelley:
“Strangulation inhabits a category all its own in domestic violence as a marker of lethality. A kick, a punch, a slap, a bite — none of these, though terrible, portend homicide like strangulation does. And while the link between mass shooters and domestic violence is increasingly recognized in the public arena, articles and op-eds, strangulation as a specific sign of lethality in the context of domestic violence remains largely unknown.
“The U.S. Sentencing Commission recognized strangulation as a marker of dangerousness in a 2014 report and recommended increased prison time — up to 10 years — for those convicted of it. Indeed, 45 states now recognize strangulation as a felony. New Mexico, where Kelley was convicted, is not one of them.”
Click here to go to yesterday’s Founders Broadsheet (“Free trade popularity growing in both parties”)
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