Trump Freezes Obama's $221M Gift To 'Palestine'..What It means

President Trump took quick action to freeze President Obama's $221 million dollar  gift to 'Palestine' courtesy of the American taxpayers.The money was a last minute payout  from President Barack Hussein Obama to Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority in the last hours before President Trump's swearing in on January 20th. Apparently someone leaked this to someone in President Trump's circle, because he was about to act immediately.

Two congress members, Ed Royce of California, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Kay Granger of Texas, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee — had placed holds on it over moves the Palestinian Authority had taken to seek membership in international organizations as well as their incitement to violence against israel. Such holds are usually respected, but President Obama decided not to do so. This would have been added to the $250 million the PA received from the US government.

What happened instead is that newly sworn in President Trump froze the funds.  PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah was told by the U.S. State Department  that the funds were subject to an intensive review and that he should  not expected the money in the immediate future.

 
'Aiyee! No baksheesh? What will the Rais say?'



President Obama giving more more money to Hamas and the kleptocrat dictatorship of Mahmoud Abbas than any previous U.S. President was obviously a case of ideology rather than any attempt at peace. He simply wore a mask for 8 years to try and hide it.Any president actually interested in negotiations for peace would  have  used the money as an incentive to Abbas to negotiate and make meaningful concessions, since unlike the U.S. relationship with Israel, America gets absolutely nothing of value from 'Palestine.'

Instead  Obama gave them everything they wanted and more, including a key abstention at the UN with a resolution Secretary of State John Kerry helped write. And cynically, he gave it to them when it would no longer harm him or his party's nominee politically. His goal was obviously not peace, but Israel's surrender...from day one.

 

Perhaps President Trump actually showing 'Palestine' that there will be real consequences for their violence, incitement and refusal to negotiate realistically with Israel might just result in peace. We'll see.

Britain Suspends Aid to Palestinians Over Terrorism Funding

Britain's The Sun is reporting that the UK has suspending millions of pounds in foreign aid payments to the Palestinian Authority because of 'serious allegations' that the money is being used to fund terrorism.

Britain's International Development Secretary Priti Patel has ordered a freeze pending an investigation, after furious British MPs demanded action following revelations that UK aid supposedly paying for civil servants in Gaza was being transferred to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Aside from funding “salaries” for families of suicide bombers, convicted vehicle terrorists and knife wielding killers attacking Israelis, various 'operations' are being bankrolled.In one instance, a Hamas master bomber was allegedly given £100,000 by the PLO.

The Department for International Development has admitted previously that the PLO makes “social welfare” provisions for terrorist prisoners and their families but at th etime, denied that UK funds are being used this way.

But according to The Sun, the Department has finally conceded that many of the so-called civil servants were actually involved in terrorism,or as the Department put it, ' doing other jobs' while receiving UK taxpayers’ funds.

The decision affects £25 million in cash is being withheld this year – a third of the total aid sent to the Palestinian Authority. While the majority supposedly goes to charities in the region, there have also been repeated instances of these funds being diverted as well since a lot of these charities employ local Arabs as staff members and any real accounting is difficult.

The Palestinian Authority is perpetually asking for more donor aid, claiming to be broke. Yet Mahmoud Abbas continues to spend six percent of the PA’s annual budget to pay $4.5 million a month to jailed terrorists, another $6.5 million to their families, $1.2 million to Sufa Arafat as a 'pension' so she can live a luxurious lifestyle in the ritziest part of Paris and $16 million on a brand new presidential compound. And that doesn't count Abbas's annual salary of $12 million, or the money he and his Fatah cronies siphon off the aid money for themselves.*

Senate Republicans introduced legislation just days ago to cut off all financial aid to 'Palestine' until the Secretary of State certifies that the Palestinian Authority is no longer using aid money to reward and finance terrorists.

Good luck with that, since Abbas has admitted he's repeatedly lied about the matter!

Still these are positive steps, particularly with the UK. Can it be that the world's oldest running con game is finally starting to come to an end?

We'll see.



*Both Mohammed Rashid, Arafat's former finance chief and Mahmoud Dahlan, former PA security chief have publicly accused Abbas of embezzling $3.1 billion U.S.

For Israel, Signing Obama's New Us-Israel Arms Deal Was A Mistake

After a long negotiation, Benyamin Netanyahu signed a new MOU with President Barack Hussein Obama on a military aid package for U.S. military aid to Israel over the next ten years.

While it was touted as 'an unprecedented increase it military aid' to Israel, in reality, it was a decrease, and one with stringent and dangerous conditions that Netanyahu should have rejected outright.

Before we get to the details, let me dispose of some nonsense coming from figures on the Israeli  left like Israel's former Labor Prime Minister, Ehud Barak,  that Israel would have gotten a better deal if Netanyahu hadn't opposed Obama's Iran deal and made that 2015 speech to a joint session of Congress to try and head it off.

President Obama has made it clear from the beginning of his presidency that he loathes Israel and wanted to 'create distance' between the U.S. and Israel to appease the Muslim world. End of story.

Nothing Netanyahu could have done short of surrendering to all of Obama's demands, creating 500,000 Jewish refugees and moving Israel to unsafe borders would  have changed that, and President Obama would still have insisted on appeasing Iran with farcical Iran deal whether Netanyahu had stayed home and kept his mouth shut or not. Providing billions of dollars to Israel's most genocidal enemy and giving them a clear path to nuclear weapons was something Obama was always going to do, just like his efforts to empower Islamists in the region that ended up destabilizing the Middle East was always something he was going to do.

That, of course is one huge reason  for rejecting the agreement.  The Israelis should never have taken seriously any offer coming from President Obama, let alone signed on. This was just a convenient political smokescreen in an election year designed to appear to counteract  Obama's progress in making U.S. support for Israel a partisan issue, and what will likely be a U.S. abstention or perhaps even a vote in favor of a biased UN resolution. That resolution will be written to abrogate U.S. signed treaties like the Road Map and Oslo which call for direct negotiations between Israel and PLO and substitute a UN diktat, gifting the Palestinian Authority everything it wants without negotiating anything, at least on paper.  And yes, Barack Hussein Obama was always going to do that eventually too, when the opportunity arose, in this case after the 2016 elections. He is simply not to be trusted in any regard where Israel is concerned and neither is the current Democrat nominee, Mrs. Clinton. To be sure, such a UN resolution would never be accepted by the Israelis, but it would provide additional strain on the U.S.-Israel relationship, something President Barack Hussein Obama has had as a policy goal since he took office.

Netanyahu accepted this for a couple of reasons, both political rather than strategic. He didn't want to face political pressure at home for 'ruining the relationship with America' (the Israeli press has its strident leftists, just like America) and he was likely hoping to throw a bone to Obama in hopes he could mollify him during his last few months in office. So at best, this new agreement was  a calculated risk, but we'll see.

So that disposed of, let's look at the deal itself. It allocates $3.8 billion a year in military aid to Israel for a period of ten years, up from $3.1 billion per year. That's an increase of $700 million dollars per year, but it's not the increase it would seem to be. For one thing, arms costs have risen by between 20-25% since the last U.S./Israel arms agreement was signed. Subtract that percentage  from the new  the new amount, and you'll see it amounts to hardly any increase at all, and will likely even be a substantial decrease in ten years. This is especially relevant because this agreement forbids Israel from asking for more, no matter what. It also takes congress out of the equation, where Israel's real friends live and puts this in the hands of the White House.

This amount also includes funds for Israel's missile defense. which Congress funded separately as an additional appropriation of approximately $500 million on an annual basis. So this actually amounts to another cut in this supposed 'increase' in aid. This is especially bad in view of the fact that Congress had already decided to appropriate $3.4 billion of regular foreign aid, plus an additional $600 million for missile defense in 2017, or $4 billion in total. Obama, of course would never have signed off on that but at least it should have been a starting point, especially since Obama and Secretary of state John Kerry promised Israel 'unprecedented aid' after shoving through the Iran deal.

This ain't that, not by a long shot.

The only provision for any increase at all would be if Israel is involved in a war. That decision on whether Israel is at war would be dependent on President Obama or perhaps (G-d forbid) a President Clinton, herself no fan of Israel. Remember than President Obama was the only U.S, president since Israel became a U.S. ally to actually cut off arms shipments to Israel during a shooting war. This part of the deal actually legitimizes that kind of action.

Then there are the various other restrictions. Right now, Israel is allowed to spend 25% of the aid it receives in Israel with Israeli defense companies, while 75% must be spent in the U.S. That restriction, by the way, is unique to Israel. Here's just one example. Egypt receives $1.5 billion in military aid from the U.S. every year. They can spend it however and wherever they choose. After the breach between Obama and the al-Sissi government over Obama's pique over the removal of the president's Muslim Brotherhood favorite Mohammed Morsi from power, Egypt got its $1.5 billion after some song and dance. But the arms they bought with it were Russian.

The new deal mandates that 100% of U.S. aid to Israel be spent in the U.S. in the final five years of the proposed deal. Ironically, the 25% Israel now spends with Israeli defense companies like Rafael actually benefits the U.S. because it usually ends up being used for R&D, something that has produced a number of products that benefits our military like the unique light weight super strong helmet that has become standard issue for our troops.

There's another even more insidious problem with this. What if a future U.S. president for whatever reason decides not to sell arms to Israel any more? The most crucial need in a modern military to keep it up and running, especially in wartime is spare parts - airplane tires, nuts and bolts, engine parts, tank treads, electronics, repair kits, things like that. In 1967, France's Charles DeGaulle, who had been Israel's chief arms supplier decided to curry favor with the Arab world by suddenly cutting off all arms shipments to Israel on the eve of the Six-Day-War, even shipments Israel had already paid for. One of the miracles of the Six -Day-War is that it only took six days...had it lasted much longer, Israel would have had crucial problems finding spare parts. This new deal has that same risk built into it.

As I've pointed out before, the U.S. - Israel alliance is heavily weighted in America's favor, one of the only agreements of this type that is.  Israel actually provides goods, services and other considerations worth far more than the aid money it receives.

Rather than accept what Obama offered, perhaps Israel should have held out not for more money but for the ability to spend what it gets  where it wants  just like a lot of other countries do. Foreign aid totals about 1% of the U.S budget. The aid Israel will get under this new deal is less than 20% of it's overall defense budget and while that's not insignificant, it isn't overwhelming either.

Israel might be far better off not receiving these funds and charging the U.S. the going rate for those services it provides like other countries do. The going price for  hosting America's Middle East Strategic arms depot per year alone  would provide Israel with as much or possibly more money than this  aid package does based on what similar bases cost us. They could then invest that in Israeli companies to enable Israel to become self sufficient in  building their own weaponry without the necessity of depending on a foreign country for spare parts or shipments of armaments at crucial times. A few years ago, this wouldn't have been a problem but post-Obama and with the creation of Israel as a partisan issue for the Democrats, it is now.

If Israel is going to accept the funds, it should spend as much as possible on machinery and technology for its domestic arms companies that will eventually enable this kind of self-sufficiency.

Seeing how the first truly anti-Israel president in history has behaved, Israel needs to learn the lesson that a client state status has its risks. Things change. While there's an excellent  chance the relationship between Israel and America  would be vastly improved with Donald Trump and Mike Pence in office, it's far better to take precautions and opt for self sufficiency and independence, just in case.

-Selah-

So, Why Not Dump Israel ?

Why all this fuss about Israel? Aren't they nothing but trouble for America?

To hear a lot of what's going around these days, Israel is at the heart of the problems we have with the Muslim world, and things would be just fine if we became more 'balanced'...or translated, became more pro-Arab and curtailed our support for those pushy, stubborn Jews. Besides, aren't they an ungrateful ally? Certainly President Obama, John Kerry and a lot of others in Washington say things like that all the time. Although they dress it up a little, that is essentially what they believe. Israel is a problem, not an asset.

ISIS, terrorism against the west, Iran's belligerent behavior, the problems in Egypt, Iraq, Syria, and especially with Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are all mostly Israel's fault. And murdering Jews is just a natural reaction to 'occupation', although no one's country is being occupied in any usual sense of the way the word is used. Gaza is an example of how bizarre and distorted the idea of Israel's 'occupation has become.

Israel pulled every Jew living in the area out, with effusive guarantees from the EU ,UN and the Bush Administration that it would never be allowed to become a security problem for Israel. Yet the Jewish State is still regularly referred to as 'the occupying power' by the UN and the so-called International Community.And that 'occupation is based on Israel's blockade of Hamas that even the UN called fully legal, a blockade that was only necessary because of the failure by these other entities to honor those those same security guarantees made to Israel to get them to pull out of Gaza in the first place! You literally can't make this stuff up.

Just as an aside, one reason many Israelis aren't the least bit interested in giving up any more land no matter what the UN or anyone else says is precisely because of what happened with Gaza. Why make themselves even more vulnerable for guarantees that won't be kept and demonization as 'occupiers' even after they've left?

Another homily heard often is that Israel can't survive unless it retreats to what people call the 'pre-1967' borders.' That seems fair, doesn't it?

What isn't said much is that those were never borders at all, but simply cease fire lines from 1948 between countries still then in a state of war. Going back to those ceasefire lines would push Israel into an indefensible enclave,turn half a million its citizens into refugees, divide its capitol and make the Jewish holy sites in Jerusalem and Hebron off limits forever to Jews. And it would also give up high ground within easy missile and artillery range of its airports and the country's most populated areas to people who make no mistake about being genocidal when it comes to Israel's Jews.

 

That, after all is what President Obama, the UN and the EU are saying with their insistence on a two state solution based on those 1948 ceasefire lines, and it actually appears that the Obama Administration is willing to sign on to or at least abstain from vetoing a new UN resolution sponsored by France to insist on exactly that.

But hey, isn't that Israel's problem, not ours? So what?

Let's take an objective look. What difference does what happens to Israel make to us here in America? Why should we care? Why is what happens to Israel important to the US? If Israel somehow ceased to exist, would it matter to America? I mean, we give them all that aid money. Why not spend it at home? And who knows, maybe if we weren't giving all that aid to Israel, we might not have all those problems with the Muslim world!

There's a very well organized, well funded effort going on now to convince people of exactly that. Could they be right? Let's find out.

And to do that, let's put aside any of those slooshy considerations of fairness, justice, religion or humanitarian principles and go for the cold, hard, self-serving realpolitik mindset to find out if what happens to Israel is important to the US:

Wouldn't America be more secure if we weren't supporting Israel?

Like it or not, Israel occupies some very strategic real estate in the Levant. It is in a position to safeguard NATO's soft underbelly, especially significant since most of the NATO countries lack any significant military component...and also would have a significant political problem convincing their electorates to support any kind of military action anyway, given whom their electorates increasingly are composed of these days.

As tired of the Middle East as many Americans are, this is an increasingly strategic part of the world where whatever allies we might have had or thought we had among the Sunni Arab states are either alienated, ultimately untrustworthy or weak. Israel is none of these things, and unless you're like John Kerry or our president and are convinced that Iran is now going to be just a peace loving pussycat and ISIS isn't really a major problem, the value of having a strong ally in the region with a powerful military and superior HUMINT on the ground is obvious. Here's a few examples of how that's worked in the past and how it continues to work now:

• Israel pushed the Soviets out of the Middle East during the Cold War  and provided America a first hand look at the latest Soviet weapons and technology...all without the cost of a single American soldier. When the then new Soviet Mig 21 was knocking our pilots out of the air in Vietnam, it was Israel who bribed an Iraqi pilot to bring one to Israel, which they turned over to the United States so we could figure out its weak points and stop the carnage.

• Israel saved literally thousands of American lives by taking out Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor at Osirak. Yes, they did it for their own reasons, but if not for that, the casualty lists from the first Gulf War ten years later would have been very different if it could have even been fought at all. And just imagine what would be going on now in Syria if Israel hadn't knocked out the nuclear facility Basher Assad got from North Korea back in 2007 over the Bush Administration's objections... and ISIS or some other bad actor got it's hands on it?

• Israel has a first class intelligence service in the Mossad and its native Arabic and Farsi speakers contribute immeasurably to US intel by adding to its access in the region and by adding the dimension of `HUMINT'-human intelligence - on the ground. General George Keagan, former head of U.S. Air Force Intelligence, once stated in Congress that "Israel is worth five CIAs," based on the value of intelligence passed to America. Essentially, Israel is a security bulwark and a vital window on America's enemies in the region...unless, of course you agree with President Obama that everything's just wonderful when it comes to countries like Iran and we can rely on Iran's self inspections when it comes to their nuclear weapons program.

• Israel is one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world. It has been and continues to be a major partner of the US in weapons technology in numerous joint projects and the US has access to the fruits of some of the most sophisticated technological installations in the world at Tel-Aviv University and the Technion, Israel's MIT. A lot of those projects have saved US lives and enhanced our own military. Numerous Israeli innovations are now commonly used by our troops on the ground. For example, there's the lightweight helmet Israel developed that's more bullet resistant than the one we had. Our troops use it. There's advanced anti anti tank systems, the Green Pine radar, the AGM-142 Have Nap (AKA the Popeye Missile), the Marine Corps Laser Range Finder made by Israel's Elbeit Systems, the SIMON breach rifle grenade...again, it's a pretty long list.

• Israel also hosts America's Strategic Arms Depot free of charge on its territory, so that American troops can deploy in the region quickly and have their armor, supplies, arms and equipment ready and waiting for them when they get there if we have to deploy our troops there in a hurry. The US arranged that after the First Gulf War, when we had to hire merchant ships to get the stuff over there because we lacked merchant marine capacity. It amounts to a base on foreign territory that America gets for free, and without having to deploy any US troops. Going price for that? Based on what other bases cost us, around $4-5 billion per year....a lot more if you include the cost of stationing personnel there. And that's assuming we could find another reliable country in the region we could trust to let us do it. For instance, we have bases in Bahrain, KSA and Turkey, but those countries have all imposed restrictions on our deploying US forces there or using them for military operations at one time or another.
  
  And Israel's one of the few allies we have who routinely makes its facilities available to US forces when needed, its ports, airfields and air space. That also comes in quite handy.
  

So all things considered, I'd have to say it looks like American security is actually enhanced because of our relationship with Israel, not the other way around.


But what about all that money we give Israel?

'Give' Israel? By law, almost all of that $3.5 billion Israel receives has to be spent here in America, a restriction not many US aid recipients, Pakistan ($5-7 billion) and Egypt ($1.5 billion) for example are subject to. Israel means jobs and prosperity for America's defense industry.

Again, you also have to consider the value of the Strategic Arms depot, free use of Israel's facilities,and HUMINT and the value of all those joint weapons projects. That all adds up to a lot more money than Israel gets in aid from the US.

And here's another aspect to be considered. This partnership allows the US to pressure Israel's defense companies to withdraw from lucrative contracts around the world. One recent example is the $13 billion Polish missile defense contract. The Poles really liked David's Sling, developed by Israel's Rafael and they also had their own issues with Obama, so they were ready to accept Rafael's bid and buy. The US pressured Rafael to withdraw its bid so Raytheon could get the contract. That's by no means the only time this has happened.

All this adds up to Israel being one of America's few foreign policy bargains. The aid is less than one tenth of one percent of the Federal budget and the US receives far more in return than it shells out.

OK, so Israel's a bargain. But maybe we should just get out of the Middle East altogether. We'd have much better relations with the Muslim world if we did that and didn't support Israel, wouldn't we? And wouldn't that stop terrorism against the U.S.?

Is that really how it would work? President Obama and two successive Secretaries of States, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry have operated on that principle for the last 7 years. President Obama famously said he wanted to create 'distance' between America and Israel, and no objective observer can doubt that he's succeeded to a large degree. The EU has followed the same policy to an even greater extent for some time. How has that worked out? Is the EU experiencing peace, tolerance and kumbaya from their own Muslim populations let alone groups like ISIS? Are we?

If Israel were to magically disappear tomorrow, would ISIS, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Taliban, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, Jaish Islami, al-Nusra and all the rest go out of business?

Even after getting $150 billion in cash, the sanctions watered down and eventually ended and getting literally everything they wanted at the negotiating table on their illegal nuclear program, is Iran less aggressive or more aggressive towards the U.S.? Did President Obama's decision to create that distance between America and Israel, ignore the Green Revolution and the Iranian government's hideous crackdown on dissidents seeking democracy lead to a less belligerent Iran? Have the Iranians even stopped the massive public chants of 'death to America' or referring to America as the Great Satan?

The answers are obvious. Iran is far more aggressive, hostile and belligerent towards America than they've ever been, even to the point of refusing to cooperate with America against a common enemy in ISIS. There's no reason at all to think this behavior on Iran's part would change one iota if America completely cut off all ties with Israel. Actually, with Israel weakened or even removed as a check to Iran's ambitions, Iran's hostility and warlike behavior would probably even increase. In any event, if things got that hot the Israelis might very well resort to some drastic means to win out...and we might not like the results.

Another thing about cutting all ties with Israel has to do with how it would affect the geo-political balance. Most Israelis understand that the chief benefit of their relationship with the U.S. is not financial but American back up strategically and in international forums like the UN. If that ends, as President Obama and Secretary Kerry have hinted, how would that affect America?

Israel has very good strategic and trade ties with China, and fairly decent strategic relations with Russia. Wouldn't  America cutting strategic ties be an incentive to Israel to form stronger ones with them? How would that affect the U.S.? And how would the spectacle of America dumping a long time ally affect how other U.S. allies looked at their own relationships with America?

Another allegation that's fairly common these days in DC is that al-Qaeda and ISIS use Israel as a recruiting tool. To a certain extent that's true to a degree now, but it's also true that neither group used 'Palestine' as a marketing tool until after it became a common talking point in certain circles emanating out of the White House and in media outlets like the NY Times. Osama bin-laden and al-Qaeda didn't even mention 'Palestine' until years after 9/11 and ISIS was far more interested in Basher Assad and the corrupt, oppressive Shi'ite dictatorship we put in power in Iraq. For that matter, ISIS wasn't even particularly hostile to the US until President Obama started bombing them.

Any casual examination of history shows the fallacy of abandoning a loyal, powerful ally to appease an enemy, especially during wartime. Nor would it meaningfully improve relations between the US and the Arab world. The proof of that is to examine the US relationship with the Arab World before we became one of Israel's main allies in 1970, after the `67 Six-Day War. President Dwight Eisenhower and John Foster Dulles pursued a pro-Arab, cool to Israel policy as part of their Cold War strategy to keep the Soviets out of the Arab world. As even Eisenhower admitted, it failed utterly.

Getting rid of what the Muslim world refers to as the Little Satan would just weaken the Big Satan, America and deprive us of one of our strongest and most valuable allies. And a victory over the hated Jews would only embolden America's enemies.

Take Israel out of the equation and America would manage. So undoubtedly would Israel without America as an ally. But nothing would change except we would have weakened ourselves to the delight of our enemies.

-Selah-

Obama Secretly Suspends Military Aid To Egypt

In the latest vestige of his tantrum over the deposing of his Muslim Brotherhood friends, President Obama has decided to secretly suspend U.S. military aid to Egypt.

The leak came from Democrat Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont who was once actually kicked off of the Senate foreign Relations committee when he was caught leaking classified intel, but who somehow still remains a U.S. senator.

According to David Carle, a spokesman for Leahy, President Obama still lacks the stones to officially label Morsi's ouster a coup, but is cutting off Egypt's aid anyway.

“After sequestration withholding, approximately $585 million remains unobligated. So, that is the amount that is unobligated,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday. “But it would be inaccurate to say that a policy decision has been made with respect to the remaining assistance funding.”

But two administration officials told The Daily Beast that administration lawyers decided it was best to observe the law restricting military aid on a temporary basis, as if there had been a coup designation, while at the same time deciding that the law did not require a public announcement on whether a coup took place.

“The decision was we’re going to avoid saying it was a coup, but to stay on the safe side of the law, we are going to act as if the designation has been made for now,” said one administration official. “By not announcing the decision, it gives the administration the flexibility to reverse it.”

Several parts of the aid are now temporarily on hold, including the disbursement of the $585 million of $1.3 billion in fiscal 2013 foreign military financing still not delivered to the Egyptian military, the delivery of Apache helicopters that the Egyptian government has already paid for, and the depositing of economic support funds for programs that would directly benefit the Egyptian government, despite official administration denials, the administration officials said.


In other words, they had to scramble for some kind of explanation once Senator Leahy let the cat out of the bag.

Just another example of President Obama ignoring congress when he wanted to send his Muslim Brotherhood buddies military aid and ignoring congress again once the Brotherhood was out of the picture.

In reality, this is a ridiculous decision that will pretty much end any influence we have in the region. Egypt will have no problem obtaining Russian armaments, as I pointed out earlier.

Which leads to a question. How many huge screw ups, scandals and serious errors in judgement is a president allowed? Does he get extra leeway because of a subservient press or party affiliation? Or do the American people just get to live with the consequences?

Clueless As Usual - McCain And Lindsay Graham Meet With Muslim Brotherhood In Egypt

The Daily Beast has what it says is an exclusive on Senators McCain and Graham holding forth upon their return from Egypt, where they met with the members of the new Egyptian interim government including Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi and military leader Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi,who ousted Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Morsi from power.

And of course, with whom McCain and Graham refer to as 'senior-level Muslim Brotherhood people'.

According to the pair, the 'high level people' requested they be anonymous,but are demanding that Morsi and the other Brotherhood leaders be released and not tried, and that Morsi and the Islamists be returned to power.

“We told [the Muslim Brother leaders] that in our view, the best way to resolve this issue was to renounce and condemn violence, that they should be willing to negotiate if some of the brotherhood were released from prison,” McCain said. “We were not negotiating, we were just saying what we thought had to be done to get back to the negotiating table.”

“The situation is very difficult here,” he said. “The two sides are polarized, and the Morsi supporters are still demonstrating, and the military and the new government are keeping a lot of the Muslim Brotherhood leadership in jail without communication in unknown places. It’s not a good situation, and we’ve recommended that some of them be released as a goodwill gesture. The only way this will get resolved is if both sides are willing to make some concessions.”

And the threat the two senators are holding over al-Sissi to try and force him to negotiate? Officially calling what happened in Egypt a coup and using it to withhold the $1.5 billion in military aid we give them.

“We told [General al-Sisi] exactly how a lot of members of Congress felt and we want to see negotiations and some release of political prisoners,” he said. “He did not say whether he would or he wouldn’t.”

President Obama tried the same threats and was told to go pound sand. And with the GCE countries including the Saudis stepping in over $13 billion in aid Egypt needs to keep going during the transition, I'm surprised al-Sissi even wasted time listening to these buffoons.

This is the same not-so-dynamic duo whom were perfectly willing to send Morsi and the Islamists F-16s and ignore the Brotherhood's repression and political prisoners they were holding.

Even our State Department and the notoriously clueless John Kerry, our Secretary of State have avoided threatening the Egyptians at this point, trying to hold on to whatever little influence we have with them after President Obama's epic fail in trying to save the Muslim Brotherhood government he helped install in power.

The two senators claim they weren't sent by the president, but they arrived after a two hour special meeting with Obama and - just by coincidence, y'know - at a time when our Deputy Secretary of State William Burns is trying fruitlessly to bust the Islamists out of jail and back into power. They even met with Burns, in an obvious attempt to play good cop/bad cop with al-Sissi that failed miserably.

The Brotherhood in Egypt are attempting to wage guerrilla war in Egypt against the army with riots and sabotage, and as I predicted they're being crushed, in spite of Obama's efforts to salvage them.

Let's parse what's really going on here.The Morsi regime managed to win an election and gain power thanks to President Obama's assistance, but became vastly unpopular once the Egyptians realized what Brotherhood rule actually meant. They were becoming increasingly friendly with our enemies in Iran, were destroying even the mild liberties associated with Egypt's former constitution, and were openly aiding and abetting terrorists in the person of Hamas, the Brotherhood franchise in Gaza.

They are a genocidal and ruthless organization who stand against everything America ought to stand for, and their tactics differ from those of al-Qaeda only when it comes to timing and application. Both groups take their inspiration from al-Banna and Qutb, and both favor an Islamic caliphate. That was something our president and his allies were willing to help them put together in Libya, Egypt, Syria and the Arab-occupied parts of Palestine in the mistaken idea these people can be 'worked with', especially if the Obama Administration continues its work of destroying our current alliance with Israel.

Our two Senators are obviously part of this group, and you might recall McCain's outspoken championing of Hillary's Muslim Brotherhood connected aide Huma Abedin, these senators voting to confirm Chuck Hagel and Samantha Power to sensitive national security posts and McCain's push to arm the al-Qaeda and Brotherhood rebels in Syria, among other things.

The Egyptian military were the spear point of a reaction against that, a part of the real issue in the Middle East these days, the proxy war between the Sunnis led by Saudi Arabia and the Shi'ite bloc led by Iran that has come to a head in Syria.

The Brotherhood and Hamas were also ousted from Qatar, one of their major financial supporters as a new Emir took over, yet another sign that the devil's bargain between the Brotherhood and Arab autocracies like the Saudis may be coming to an end.

As for McCain and Graham, the less said about them the better. They long ago passed the point of farce and are now are an actual problem, one I hope the people of Arizona and South Carolina resolve at the next opportunity to boot them out.

SecState Kerry's New Priority - Unblocking $700M In Aid For The Palestinians

Our new Secretary of State is already hard at work.

America is $16 trillion in debt, but Secretary Kerry has his marching orders from President Obama..the Arabs who identify themselves as Palestinians must receive their jirzya:

Secretary of State John Kerry is working to try to free up almost $700 million in aid for the Palestinians which has been held up in Congress, a top U.S. official said Monday.

"The secretary feels extremely strongly that it is time now to get this support to the Palestinian Authority," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

The department was working with Congress "to get appropriated money released for the Palestinian Authority because we think it's very, very important that they remain effective in supporting the needs of the Palestinian people."

Some $495.7 million was set aside for the Palestinian Authority in the fiscal year 2012 which ended on October 1, while another $200 million for this fiscal year was notified to Congress last week.

The money is earmarked for specific things in the Palestinian budget such as security as well as administrative costs.

However, an additional $100 million has been released, but can only be used on narcotics and law enforcement.

The reason holds have been placed on the funds by Congress was because Mahmoud Abbas, the unelected dictator of the Arab occupied parts of Judea and Samaria (AKA The West Bank)chose to defy the U.S. and break the Oslo Accords and the Road Map agreements the PLO signed on to by unilaterally going to the UN General Assembly and have statehood declared.

Needless to say, President Obama has never seen it necessary to have the Palestinians pay a price for their actions, and he isn't going to start now. And Secretary Kerry is a willing helper.

It shouldn't be unnecessary, but I'll point out that this money, once it gets in the PLO's hands, can be used for anything..to fund Hamas, to personally enrich well connected PLO bosses, to pay for Sufa Arafat's $100,000 per month 'allowance' in Paris, to pay the monthly salaries of convicted terrorists incarcerated in Israeli jails or simply diverted to the right foreign bank accounts.

That's exactly where most of the money the PA has received over the years has gone before, which is why they're in such dire financial straits now. The usual donors are big on promises but see no future in continuing to throw their money down the PA rat hole.

In that, people like the Saudis are a lot smarter than the Obama Administration.

Let's hope Congress stands strong and keeps our wallet closed.

Proof The Germans Are Smarter About Egypt And Islamists Than Obama - Morsi Goes Home Empty Handed

 

As you may remember, aside from empowering the Muslim Brotherhood in their takeover of Egypt, the Obama Administration is actually funding the party, continuing Egypt's $1.5 billion in military aid, (which the Egyptian military uses in part to fund the civilian businesses it owns) gifting Egypt over $1 billion in debt forgiveness and lobbying the IMF on Egypt's behalf to grant the Islamist government a badly needed loan.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Morsi's remarks that have recently surfaced referring to Jews as 'the descendants of apes and pigs' along with a few other choice epithets haven't fazed the Obama Administration one bit, although there are still members of Congress putting as hold on a shipment of F-16s and Abrams tanks the Obama Administration wants to send Morsi's way.

Not so in Germany.

Morsi went there seeking direct aid from Germany, as well as $324 million in debt forgiveness. The German response ? Nein, although Chancellor Merkel, practical hausfrau that she is at heart,  did give him some advice on fixing Egypt's problems:

 "What matters now is that the work that needs be done, gets done," she said. Against the backdrop of turmoil in Egypt, the chancellor told Morsi that sturdy economic development contributed to political stability.

The Germans, for reasons that can be easily imagined are extraordinarily sensitive to manifestations of Jew hatred that recall the bad old days, and Morsi's rants guaranteed him a frosty reception in Germany.

Morsi, for his part, claims the remarks were taken out of context, a pretty obvious lie since  his  remarks were videotaped, happened on multiple occasions and we're talking about a direct Qu'ran quotation. What was good enough for President Obama and Secretary Clinton simply didn't fly with the Germans. As a matter of fact, Germany recently declared a new travel warning, advising Germans to stay away from the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo, one of the most popular tourist sites in the country. Or at least, it used to be.

Chancellor Merkel also advised Morsi to work more closely with the Egyptian opposition to make the country more democratic and to modify the Islamist 'constitution' to guarantee more protection for civil liberties and more rights for non-Muslims and women.

I doubt that will happen, particularly if one of Morsi's long time associates who left the Brotherhood is right about whom Morsi really is.

The Ikhwan, the Muslim Brotherhood has a long history of using deception to fool its enemies.

Greece, Italy, Portugal, Ireland Who? EU Gifts Egypt's Islamist Regime $6.5 Billion In Grants

Believe or not, fiscal crisis or not, the EU is itching to fund the Islamist government in Egypt:

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, visiting Cairo, said on Sunday the European Union and other financial institutions had offered Egypt over 5 billion euros to support Egypt's democratic transition.

"The European Union and associated financial institutions have offered an amount of more than 5 billion euros, or more than $6.5 bln, in grants, concessional loans and loans for a period of 2012 and 2013 to support Egypt's democratic transition," Rompuy told reporters

Well, I'm sure that makes the Greeks, Italians, Irish, Spaniards and Portuguese feel all warm and cozy inside...as well as the citizens of the other EU countries now suffering under harsh austerity budgets.

Unbelievable.

The Muslim Brotherhood, Not Morsi Is Calling The Shots In Egypt

The German publication Der Spiegal is noteworthy for having some of the best coverage on the Middle East. As they report, it's not Mohamed Morsi who's in charge but his superiors in the Muslim Brotherhood. Here's a slice:

"The Muslim Brotherhood feels that it has reached its goal of finally being able to implement the ideals of its founder, Hassan al-Banna. They've been preparing for this for 84 years," says Cairo political scientist Siad Akl. "That's why they won't give up power that quickly."

For many Egyptians, the rioting of the last few weeks is proof that it isn't the president but the Brotherhood that is pulling the strings -- and that it has no scruples about pushing the country to the brink of civil war, if necessary.

In late November, the US newsmagazine Time named President Morsi the most important politician in the Middle East. But very few people believe that the ponderous engineer is actually the most powerful man in the country. There are likely two other men who make the decisions: Mohammed Badie, the head of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Khairat El-Shater, its first candidate, who was excluded from the election for formal reasons and is in charge of organization and financial affairs for the Brotherhood.

At the moment, state-owned television is probably the best place to see who is in charge in Egypt. Almost every week, it broadcasts encounters between the president and important dignitaries. Morsi often meets with Badie, greeting him by kissing his hand. It's a gesture meant to express obedience, and it shows that the oath of allegiance Morsi, like all members of the Brotherhood, once swore to the movement and its leader still applies.{...}

El-Shater, meanwhile, is the chief strategist of the Muslim Brotherhood, meaning he is nominally responsible for all political maneuvers the Brotherhood has employed to control the revolution since Mubarak's overthrow. They include the deal with the former military leadership that enabled both sides to save face, depriving the top military officials of some of their power while simultaneously preserving all of their privileges.

And his relationship with Morsi? El-Shater was once Morsi's direct superior. "Internally, the current president was seen as nothing but his errand boy," says a former member of the Brotherhood. "Morsi can't make any decisions on his own," confirms Amr al-Laithi, one of nine presidential advisors who resigned in recent weeks in protest against Morsi's dictatorial behavior. According to al-Laithi, everything -- every word, every proposal -- has to be approved by the Brotherhood's second-in-command. It isn't El-Shater who calls the president, says al-Laithi, but the president who calls El-Shater. The experts who are supposed to advise the president on key issues are all members of the Brotherhood, says al-Laithi, adding that he resigned when he realized that he had no say whatsoever.

Read the whole thing.

When the referendum adopting the Islamist 'constitution' is put before the Egyptian public on December 15th, it will almost certainly pass. Then we'll see the real face of the Arab Spring.

And, meantime the Obama Administration plans to send Egypt 20 F-16s on the American taxpayer's dime, believe it or not:

Key lawmakers expressing concerns about the Obama administration's plan to send 20 F-16 fighter jets to Egypt, where new President Mohamed Morsi's allegiances are as uncertain as his grip on power.
Under a foreign aid deal signed in 2010, when Morsi's U.S.-friendly predecessor Hosni Mubarak was in charge, the U.S. is giving the planes to Egypt's air force, which already has more than 200 of the aircraft. The first four jets are to be delivered beginning Jan. 22, a source at the naval air base in Fort Worth, where the planes have been undergoing testing, told FoxNews.com. But the $213 million gift is raising questions on Capitol Hill as Morsi is under fire for trying to seize dictatorial powers and allegedly siccing thugs and rapists on protesters.

Florida Rep.Vern Buchanan, who recently called for ending foreign aid to Egypt altogether, said the Muslim Brotherhood-backed Morsi government has been sending increasingly troubling signals to Washington, and giving it state-of-the-art fighter jets is a dangerous idea.
“American tax dollars must not be used to aid and abet any dictatorial regime that stands with terrorists,” Buchanan said.


Rep. Mac Thornberry, (R-Texas), vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told FoxNews.com Egypt is a wild card under Morsi.

“At this point, we don't know where Egypt is headed," Thornberry said. "We should be cautious about driving them away, but we should also be cautious about the arms we provide.” {...}

The U.S. government ordered and paid for the fighter jets for Egypt's military back in 2010. But since Mubarak's ouster, the democratically elected Morsi has sent mixed signals about whether he wants an alliance with Washington, even meeting with leaders in Iran earlier this year.


Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, (R-Fla.), who chairs the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, recently criticized U.S. military aid to Egypt:

“The Obama administration wants to simply throw money at an Egyptian government that the president cannot even clearly state is an ally of the United States,” Rep. Ros-Lehtinen said.


If Egypt receives those planes, want to bet they'll eventually be used against Israel?And perhaps even against our own forces?

France Struggling Financially, But The Palestinians Will Still Get 10 M Euros In Jirzyah

 

Absolutely astounding.

France is financially struggling to make ends meet, the Socialist government has raised taxes to an unprecedented 75% and essentially declared war on private enterprise,  whole sectors of France's entrepreneurs and professionals are fleeing the country and fellow eurozone nations are desperately in need of bailouts.

La solution, according to the French government? Voila, gift 10 million Euros to the failed Palestinian kleptocracy of Mahmoud Abbas!

Yes, Fatah's unelected prime minister SalamFayyad and the Council General of France Frédéric Desagneaux signed the paperwork today in Ramallah:


"In this challenging times for the Palestinian Authority, this budgetary assistance is a new proof of the French support to the Palestinian institutions as well as to the action undertaken by Prime Minister Fayyad under the authority of President Abbas," Frédéric Desagneaux said.

"As it has been recently said in New York, France shares the analysis of the international financial institutions and the United Nations according to which the Palestinian Authority remains, despite its current financial difficulties, ready to establish a functioning State," he added.

Why do France and others who continue to support this scam still feel you can have a functioning state that still can't manage to support itself after receiving the highest amount of foreign aid per capita of any developing 'nation' in history?

Très simple, mes amis.

France has a restive population of Muslims, and their votes were decisive in putting French President Hollande and the Socialists in office according to most analysts. So this is a way for the French government to appease not only with demographic but to score points with other Israel hating members of their constituency on the left.

The French government is fully aware that a good portion of this money will be diverted, and that 'Palestine' is far from performing as a functioning state in the usual sense of the word.

But they'll come across with the jirzyah. As one frequent contributor to these pages has reminded us, it doesn't have to make common sense, just political sense.

Clinton Waives Terrorism Restrictions On Aid To Give Pakistan $2 Billion

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton informed congress today that she is bypassing legal restrictions that would have blocked some $2 billion in U.S. economic and military aid to Pakistan.

Disbursing the funds, she said in an official notice, is “important to the national security interests of the United States.”

Clinton informed Congress that she was waiving provisions of the 2009 Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act and the State Department’s 2012 budget requiring that she certify that Islamabad has met certain conditions before some $2 billion in economic, military and counter-terrorism assistance can be disbursed.

Pakistan was required to have made progress in “ceasing support, including by any elements within the Pakistani military or its intelligence agency, to extremist groups,” especially those that have attacked U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.

Islamabad also was required to have made progress toward stopping al Qaida, the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani network and allied Pakistani extremists “from operating in the territory of Pakistan” and staging attacks in neighboring countries. It also must move toward shutting down “terrorist” bases in the tribal areas and other parts of its country.

For the first time, the Obama Administration refused to certify that Pakistan had met these requirements hence the need for Mrs. Clinton to issue a formal waiver. Pakistan has always gotten certified before by the Obama Administration, ludicrous in view of what is going on there with its aiding and abetting of our enemies. The failure to certify must mean things are falling apart so bad that even this administration can't see covering for Pakistan any more.Far easier to just issue the waiver and see to it that the jihadis get their jirzyah.

Because that's what this is, monetary tribute. We need Pakistan's help in trying to get the Taliban to come to a peace agreement with us so we can bug out. And we need to grease palms to make sure Pakistan allows supplies for our troops in Afghanistan to land at the port of Karachi and then get trucked into Afghanistan via the Torkhum pass.

After Osama bin-Laden was assassinated, part of the fallout was that the enraged Pakistanis refused to let supplies go through their territory anymore. A number of trucks already waiting at the border were destroyed by the Taliban with lots of casualties and a huge loss of material.

It was only a few months ago that the Pakistani government again allowed shipments to go through.

We'll likely keep buying them off until we leave. Or grow a spine.

Obama Monopoly: Burn An American Embassy, Collect $450 Million!

 

I'm not kidding in the least.

Just days ago, our Cairo embassy was invaded and sacked by a mob while Egyptian security ttood by and watched. None of the perpetrators have been arrested and Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi took almost a week before issuing a pro forma grudging apology.

None of that matters.  President Obama wants to give his Muslim Brotherhood pals a special jirzyah of nearly half a billion dollars:

The Obama administration notified Congress on Friday that it would provide Egypt's new government an emergency cash infusion of $450 million, but the aid immediately encountered resistance from a prominent lawmaker wary of foreign aid and Egypt’s new course under the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood. 

The United States Agency for International Development notified Congress of the cash infusion on Friday morning during the pre-election recess, promptly igniting a smoldering debate over foreign aid and the administration’s handling of crises in the Islamic world.

An influential Republican lawmaker, Representative Kay Granger of Texas, immediately announced that she would use her position as chairwoman of the House appropriations subcommittee overseeing foreign aid to block the distribution of the money. She said the American relationship with Egypt “has never been under more scrutiny” than it is in the wake of the election of President Mohamed Morsi, a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Keep in mind that this is on top of all the aid we already give Egypt's Islamists.

This money is in addition to $1 billion worth of debt forgiveness, a $60 million 'investment fund' for Egyptian businesses that will mostly end up in the regime's pockets or go to well connected family with government granted monopolies, plus US intervention in getting Egypt a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, which is also primarily funded by the American taxpayer. Oh, and let's not forget an additional $1.3 billion in military aid, to help Egypt defend itself from all it's many enemies. Or more accurately, to build up its military for an attack on what Egypt considers its primary enemy, Israel.

Let's hope Rep. Granger sticks to her guns on this one., although the last time this happened President Obama used one of his famous executive orders to override a congressional hold on questionable aid to his Islamist friends.

Actually, we've been down this road before.


 


President Eisenhower tried it with Egypt's Gamal Abdul Nasser back in the 1950's,  when he likewise tried improving our relations with the Arab world by giving Egypt massive amounts of US economic and even military aid. You may remember, at that time the U.S. was not providing aid to Israel at all.

The idea President Eisenhower had was that he would bribe Egypt and other Middle East countries to keep the Soviets out, keep the Suez Canal open and the oil flowing. The Eisenhower Administration even gave  Nasser $3 million bribe to join a proposed Middle East Defense Organization along the lines of NATO; Nasser took the money, but then refused to join and the whole idea collapsed.

In the end,  Nasser simply played Eisenhower and his secretary of state John Foster Dulles against the Soviets as long as the money held out, and Egypt became a Soviet Client state when Eisenhower finally got tired of Nasser's lies and duplicity and refused to fund the Aswan Dam project.

For that matter, President Carter behaved similarly with Iran's Khomeini, figuring that his help in pressuring the Shah, getting Khomeini  permission to return to Iran with his followers and the promise of massive US aid  were going to buy America a friend. As you know, that did not end well.

Barack Obama isfollowng the same path, just to a more clueless degree. He idealizes Islamists like Mohammed Morsi and Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan and  imagines that by bribing the Islamists and distancing America from its ally Israel, the Islamists are going to turn into  America's friends and end their  idea of a new Caliphate.

As usual, the Islamists will take the infidel's money as long as he's stupid enough to keep handing it out, but in the end, Islam and hatred of the west trump everything else.

The appeasement mentality never really changes - just the names of the players do.

Obama Administration Using Taxpayer Dollars To Outsource English Speaking Jobs Overseas.

There's a great deal of bombastic rhetoric coming from President Obama these days about 'standing up for the middle class'.

Most Americans understand that this president's policies have killed jobs, run up massive debt and skyrocketed the price of food and energy.

But it's now surfaced that not content with that, the Obama Administration has been spending our tax dollars in well funded efforts to directly aid outsourcing overseas and eliminate jobs here in America:

While the president has been urging “insourcing,” the government has been sending money to the Philippines to train foreign workers for jobs in English-speaking call centers.

According to New York Democratic Rep. Tim Bishop and North Carolina Republican Rep. Walter Jones, this is unacceptable and “shocking.”

The pair are calling on the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to immediately suspend what is known as the Job Enabling English Proficiency (JEEP) program.

According to Jones’ office, in 2010, after the two men compelled USAID to end a similar training program in Sri Lanka, the agency assured the congressmen that they would “conduct a review to ensure the project will not take any jobs away from Americans.”

In a letter to the USAID administrator, Rajiv Shah, Bishop and Jones expressed their displeasure at learning of the effort they thought the agency had explicitly promised against.

“I believe it was reasonable to conclude from that statement that your agency’s outsourcing training program was terminated, particularly in light of President Obama’s ‘insourcing’ initiative announced earlier this year,” the pair wrote. “Therefore, I was shocked to learn that USAID has used taxpayer dollars to invest in outsourcing training programs in the Philippines at the expense of American workers.”


There are over 4.5 million Americans who now have jobs in call centers here in America. I guess this president thinks of them as 'The Rich' who don't really deserve to be working anyway.

This needs to be publicized widely and made into a major issue by the GOP.

USAid is also the agency responsible for sending millions of tax dollars to the 'Palestinians' in Gaza and in the Arab-occupied areas of Judea and Samaria (AKA The West Bank. And this president deems that use of your tax dollars so important that he and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton actually did something unheard of in Washington and overrode a congressional hold on $1.5 billion in jirzya for their 'Palestinian' friends.

SecState Clinton Announces National Security Waiver On US Aid To Egypt

Late Friday, when no one was paying attention, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton informed Congress that she had issued a national security waiver on US aid to Egypt. So it's official now - Egypt will get its $1.5 million in military aid.

I've already discussed the problems with that here.

The arms will eventually get into the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood, and some of them will likely end up in the hands of Hamas.

But of course, what's important to the Obama Administration is appeasing Islamists at every turn.

One argument that's been made in favor of the military aid is that if we curtailed it, our relationship with Egypt would essentially be over.

So what? What kind of 'relationship' do you think we have with a government that held U.S. citizens for a $5 million ransom?

For all we know, unblocking the aid might very well have been part of the deal for their release.

Obama Administration To Use Gay Rights As A Condition for Foreign Aid

Yes indeed.

So, I would expect all aid to the 'Palestinian Authority' and pretty much all of the Muslim World to be suspended immediately.

And of course, the Administration will do an about face and immediately grant this man asylum.

Ri-ight.

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Hamas Agrees To Accept The Obama Administration's Money

You'll remember that I reported on a dispute between Hamas and our State Department over millions in aid money we're giving them.

The dispute wasn't over Hamas' genocidal agenda, their firing rockets at Israeli civilians on almost a daily basis or their being an officially named terrorist group but over bookeeping - because Hamas insisted on auditing the books of the NGO's we're using to funnel the jirzyah to them.

Well, the dispute's been solved. Hamas is no longer insisting on checking the books and the American money is now flowing again.

Thanks to the Obama Administration, your tax dollars are funding millions in aid to Hamas, so Hamas can spend its money on the War Against The Jews and staying in power...thus aiding and abetting terrorism against Israel, who are supposed to be our ally.

And our State Department is bending over backwards to make it happen.

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An Astounding Story About US Aid To Hamas

There's an astounding story I stumbled across today in Pravda-On-The Hudson regarding a threat by the US and other western donors to curtail the hundreds of millions in aid they spend in Gaza.

Now, let's recap for a moment. Gaza is ruled by Hamas, a group with an openly genocidal agenda that is still officially named as a terrorist group in both the EU and the US. They're currently firing rockets at Israeli civilians on almost a daily basis, and have been holding an Israeli hostage, Gilad Shalit, for over five years without allowing Red Cross or any other access and are backed by our enemies in Iran.

You think that it's because of these violent acts and gross violations of civilized norms that the US State Department and other western donors are threatening to cut off the aid?

Nah, all that stuff's fine with them. The threat to cut off aid is coming solely because Hamas wants to audit the books of the organizations funneling the jirzyah to them!

Tensions have been simmering for months over Hamas’s relations with nongovernmental organizations of a number of countries operating in Gaza as the authorities have sought to increase surveillance over the groups. Early this year, Hamas asked all such groups to register with the central government, pay a fee and submit financial reports.

Those requests, while resisted, were ultimately agreed to by most groups, officials at Gaza-based charities said. But in June when the demand came that the groups also permit Hamas officials to audit their books, the objections grew markedly. Though Hamas did not explain the reason for its demand, many governments are suspicious of foreign funding of charities fearing money can be diverted to political, or intelligence gathering, activities.

For American organizations, United States policy forbids direct contact with Hamas, labeled by the State Department as a terrorist group. As a result on-site audits by Hamas officials would lead to suspension of activity, American officials said. The United States accounts for a large share of the money foreign governments spend on humanitarian assistance in Gaza.

The hypocrisy of this is staggering. US law forbids direct contact with Hamas, yet your tax dollars are funding millions in aid, which allows Hamas to spend its money on the War Against The Jews and staying in power...thus aiding and abetting terrorism against Israel, our supposed ally. As the article notes, they even allow these groups to pay a fee for the privilege of operating in Gaza directly to the Hamas government.

But the US State Department is upset and threatening to curtail the aid because Hamas wants to look at the books!

Other than that, directly supporting a terrorist entity is apparently just fine with them.

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Sec. Clinton Blasts House Bill With Aid Requirements for Egypt, Lebanon, Pakistan, 'Palestinians'

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is livid over a proposed House bill out of committee that would impose strict new requirements on U.S. foreign aid to Egypt, Lebanon, Pakistan, Yemen, and the Palestinian Authority.

Th Secretary of State wrote In an angry letter she wrote to members of the House Foreign Affairs committee, Clinton claimed the bill “would be debilitating to my efforts to carry out a considered foreign policy and diplomacy, and to use foreign assistance strategically to that end.”

Mrs. Clinton actually threatened to lobby the president to veto the bill if it's passed.

So, what are these horrific restrictions she's so upset about?

For example, as one condition to continue to get the billions in baksheesh they receive from us, the Pakistanis would need to prove that they are assisting in an US investigation on who gave sanctuary to Osama bin Laden.

The committee’s chairman, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), said in her opening statement Wednesday that the measure would send a clear message to the country in which Osama bin Laden hid for years without detection.

Pakistan, she said, is “on notice that it is no longer business as usual and that they will be held to account if they continue to refuse to cooperate with our efforts to eliminate the nuclear black market, destroy the remaining elements of Osama Bin Laden’s network, and vigorously pursue our counter-terrorism objectives.”

“I think the prospect of a cutoff of assistance will get their attention and that the games being played with our security will finally stop,” she added.

Lebanon will not receive any US aid if a Hezbollah member occupies a top government or policy post (they dominate the cabinet).The 'Palestinian Authority' must terminate incitement against Israel in the media and in the schools, cooperate with Israel on security matters,attain statehood via negotiations with Israel rather than an end run to the UN. And the 'Palestinian' Authority must not allow members of Hamas, a recognized terrorist group, to be part of its government directly or indirectly. In other words, in order to get the $510 million of our tax dollars President Obama has set aside for them, The 'Palestinian Authority' must simply abide by the agreements it signed, the Oslo Accords and the Road Map.

The Egyptians would be required to keep the peace with Israel and the other provisions of the Camp David Accords, while Yemen would have to be be free of human rights abuses. And the flow of US foreign aid to all of these countries could only continue if the Obama administration was able to certify that no members of terrorist organizations groups or their sympathizers were serving in their governments. The countries also have to meet certain anti-corruption standards.

The Republican in the House said the bill would serve U.S. national interests while scaling back overall spending. “In this difficult geopolitical and economic climate, the American people deserve a policy that is based on American principles, looks out for American interests, and wisely invests American dollars,” Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), chairwoman of the Appropriations subcommittee on State-Foreign Operations, said Wednesday. In other words, foreign aid ought to be reserved for our friends, or at countries that serve our interests, not our enemies. What a concept, eh?

Both Granger and the committee’s ranking Democrat, Nita Lowey (D-NY)favored attaching strings to aid for Pakistan and the other Middle Eastern countries named.

Brad Goehner, a spokesman for Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the chairwoman of the House committee, told the Post that the letter was “disappointing, particularly given the current debt crisis, that the Obama administration is fighting to keep sending taxpayer money to foreign organizations and governments that undermine U.S. interests.”

I have to admit, I can't imagine why Mr. Goehner would be disappointed at this late date after watching this president and his team operate for over two-and-a-half years.

It's worth taking a look at how this has played out in real life so far.

Both Lebanon and the 'Palestinian' Authority have received billions in US military aid, going back to the Bush Administration. Lebanon's went to the Shi'ite dominated army which is now fully integrated with Hezbollah, while a lot of the shiny new equipment the US equipped Mahmoud Abbas' forces with ended up in the hands of Hamas after Fatah was chased out of Gaza.

Just this May, the United States along with Qatar and the World Bank pledged to give billions of dollars in aid that we don't really have to Egypt and Tunisia in order to keep the two countries economies afloat.

As part of the measures, Obama promised of $1 billion in debt relief to Egypt, and offered an additional $1 billion in loans.

Those pledges were unfortunately given before anyone really knew what was going to happen in either country. In Egypt, the situation is extremely unsettled and the likely rulers when it all sorts itself out will be the Muslim Brotherhood as Egypt becomes President Obama's Iran. And the money they're being given isn't going to change the fact that Egypt has a population of 80 million people it has no ability to feed.

As for Tunisia, it has a much better chance of economic recovery, but the political sitution doesn't auger well for it being a democracy. In fact, in new ‘democratic’ Tunisia, one of the first acts of the Commission of Political Reform was to pass laws ensuring that all ties to Israel will be severed permanently. Tunisia's tiny Jewish community, one of the few left in the Arab world, are already in the process of leaving.

The bill will likely pass the House, but probably not the Democrat majority senate without some moderation, and even then President Obama is not likely to sign it. But I have to applaud Congress for finally at least trying to draw the line at funding hostile countries with money we can ill afford unless they agree to perform in accordance to our national interest.

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Obama's Bringing Hamas To America..On Our Dime

Apparently President Hope n'Change is lying through his pearly whites about our economy being in crisis.

Our president just signed an executive order appropriating $20.3 million of your tax dollars for `migration assistance to the Palestinian refugees and conflict victims in Gaza.' It was signed on January 27th and appeared in the Federal Register on February 4th.

This is designed to allow hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza to resettle in the United States,the same people who voted Hamas into power en masse. And I'll guarantee you that a number of Hamas operatives will slip in as part of the group. The order not only provides free airplane tickets but provides for food and housing allowances, something no other immigrants get.

President Obama's decision, according to the Register, was necessitated by "the urgent refugee and migration needs of the victims" and he considers this "in the national interest."

Not one major media outlet is publicizing this.

We will see more of this... because part of Obama's strategy involves pandering to the Muslim world and importing the sort of immigrants who will fundamentally change the electorate.

Oh, here's something else we'll be seeing a lot more. I hope the 78% of American Jews who voted for President Obama take note..not only is the enemy now inside the gates, but you cast your ballots for someone with an agenda of increasing their numbers.

In the end, what matters is not whether Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim or not,but what he's prepared to do to appease them.

And at who's expense.


UPDATE: A certain internet commentator who will be nameless (because I appreciate much of her work) is putting out the idea that this is just financial aid to Gaza, rather than immigration assistance. I would point out that President Obama's executive order clearly makes reference to migration aid.

And given the general attitude and probable goals of this White House, I have no doubt that's exactly what it's going to be used for. Nor should anyone else.