Wednesday, March 20, 2024
Huge Headache Ben & Jerry's getting the boot from parent after years of political controversy
Multinational conglomerate Unilever, the owner of some 400 brands, announced Tuesday it is spinning off its ice cream business — including major names like Ben & Jerry's, Breyers, Magnum, Popsicle and Klondike — after more than a century.
The consumer goods giant said the move was part of a growth strategy that would create a leaner business. At the same time, by shedding Ben & Jerry's, Unilever is ridding itself of a longtime headache.
Since its founding in 1978, Ben & Jerry's has been known for its left-leaning advocacy, and the Vermont-based ice cream maker was able to maintain an independent board of directors to continue its progressive activism even after it sold to Unilever in 2000.
But in recent years, the unique structure of the deal that allowed Ben & Jerry's to wade into controversial issues without interference has pulled Unilever into the fray, too.
Candace Owens endorses outlandish antisemitic conspiracy theory alleging Jews are ‘drunk on Christian blood'
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Candace Owens, a prominent figure at the Daily Wire, recently expressed support for an ancient conspiracy theory alleging that Jewish religious leaders engage in the ritualistic consumption of Christian blood.
Owens, who has been increasingly critical of Israel and the Jewish community, has sparked controversy with her remarks.
In a public spat with fellow commentator Ben Shapiro, Owens made remarks interpreted as antisemitic. She declared, "You cannot serve both God and money," a statement widely viewed as an antisemitic shot at Shapiro.
Owens has further stoked tensions by attributing the rise in antisemitism to "political Jews" and suggesting a conspiracy involving a "small ring" of Jewish individuals in Hollywood and Washington, DC.
She concluded, "All of us Black, Spanish, Jewish, Chinese, Japanese, all Americans should want answers because this appears to be something that is quite sinister."
BBC’s anti-Israel bias becoming very dangerous
Story by Danny Cohen
BBC News is plunging new depths when it comes to its reporting of the Israel-Hamas war. In doing so, it is bringing shame on a publicly-funded organisation.
Earlier this month, BBC News CEO Deborah Turness was asked in Parliament about a column I had written for this newspaper about the anti-Israel bias of journalists working for its heavily promoted BBC Verify brand. An investigation had found that a source used by the BBC for its Gaza coverage was a journalist who apparently worked for a news agency associated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, which is committed to Israel’s destruction. The journalist’s social-media timeline also contained anti-Semitic material.
When challenged on this at a House of Lords committee, Ms Turness’s response was very revealing. First, she dismissed the reporting because it was “positioned in a hostile media outlet” – The Telegraph. This is a remarkable thing to say. It suggests that the BBC’s approach is to ignore legitimate criticism if it does not like where it comes from.
The idea that you can dismiss evidence of journalistic malpractice because it is in a newspaper you don’t like reveals institutional arrogance and political bias. It enables the BBC to remain immune to criticism rather than act to remedy the problems with its reporting of the war.
Even worse were the BBC News CEO’s claims of transparency. Ms Turness told the Committee that the BBC is “very clear about where it sources” its reporting from and that the BBC had been “transparent in our account and in our journalism”.
Meshiginar Deri Asks Hostage Delegations to Wait Till After Shabbos
DIN: Personally the entire staff of DIN is against "Hostage Negotiations" even on a regular Sunday! "Hostage Negotiations" is not going to end this war it will only prolong it! But the fact that Deri wanted Israel to wait till after Shabbos shows you the total disconnect between Chareidim and the rest of the Jewish people. I will bet that if the hostages were "Shomer Shabbat" he would have told the government to NEVER stop negotiating. Besides, Deri's statement is a huge Chillul Hashem!
Shas Party leader Aryeh Deri sparked controversy over the weekend by reportedly asking members of the War Cabinet to delay the departure of an Israeli delegation for hostage negotiations in Qatar until after Shabbos.
In response, opposition and Yesh Atid Party leader Yair Lapid tweeted a link to a Hebrew media report of Deri’s alleged demand along with the caption: “If this isn’t pikuach nefesh, then what is?”
For his part, Yisrael Beiteinu Party chief Avigdor Liberman tweeted: “Deri, what is more pikuach nefesh than returning the kidnapped?”
Liberman included a quote from Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De’ah 252:3: “Every moment that one delays unnecessarily the ransoming of a captive, it is as if he were to shed blood.”
Tefillos for Yigal Calek, Famed Founder of London School of Jewish Song
The famed composer and director of the London School of Jewish Song, Yigal Calek, is in need of rachamei Shomayim. His name for Tehillim is Yigal Yisrael ben Blima Gittel.
During the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, Yigal led London School of Jewish Song. The Israel-born mechanech had a flamboyant style and exceptional ear for music that propelled his young proteges into stardom across the Jewish world.
Curiously, although Yigal is undoubtedly an innovator, he is also deeply traditional. Thus, while his songs have always been very much in tune with modernity and the zeitgeist, they are nonetheless firmly embedded in the music of the Jewish yesteryear.
Audiences flocked to the choir’s concerts in London, Paris, Yerushalayim, New York and Los Angeles – among countless other cities – and the albums became the musical backdrop for that generation.
That generation all hummed Yigal’s tunes, used them for tefillos, danced to them at weddings, and played the LPs until the scratches rendered the records unplayable.
Yigal, as is well known, has always been a demanding, exacting perfectionist. His rehearsals famously lasted for hours. Every note had to be perfect, every harmony flawlessly synchronized. But it was all worth it in the end. The results were stunning, and the audience appreciation gushing.
And so it continued for a few more years, until eventually Yigal disbanded his choir and turned to other things. From time to time he would reappear with a new group to belt out a few hits in a tribute medley at a variety concert, but that was it. The London School of Jewish Song was no more.
More recently, Yigal has suffered some very difficult health issues and word went around that he needed tefillos: Yigal Yisrael ben Blima Gitel. And so it was that a few of the old choir “boys” decided to arrange an evening of song and nostalgia to cheer his spirits. On the last night of Chanukah in 2021, the impromptu gathering took place – just a couple of dozen guys around a table at someone’s home in Golders Green. Most of them are already grandfathers, all of them were there to cheer up their childhood hero.
Watch the clip below:
Despite War, Israel Ranks 5th in World Happiness Report
Despite five months of war with Hamas, Israel ranked fifth in the 2024 World Happiness Report, which was released on Wednesday.
The annual report ranked the happiness of 143 countries based on life evaluation, positive emotions, and negative emotions, among other factors.
Anat Panti, a happiness policy researcher at Bar-Ilan University University in Ramat Gan, explained,
“Even this year, which was one of the most difficult in the country’s history, Israel is ranked in the top five of the international happiness index. The reason for this lies in the fact that life satisfaction, the index by which the level of happiness is measured, is a stable index over time and refers more to the characteristics of the country itself such as the strength of the economy, the degree of social involvement, and the health services in the country, than to fleeting feelings.”
Finland was ranked as the happiest country for the seventh consecutive year. Israel finished behind Denmark, Iceland and Sweden.
Afghanistan edged Lebanon as the least happy country.
“In order to give a more accurate picture of the state of happiness in all countries, the editors of the report refer to the average life satisfaction in the last three years when calculating the ranking. Therefore, Israel’s ranking in fifth place in the happiness report marks the stability in life satisfaction in Israel over the last few years, and not only in this one,” Panti explained.
“For example, even during the Corona period, which was traumatic all over the world, it was still possible to see that the top ten of the global happiness ranking includes more or less the same countries every year.”
The annual report is based on data from US market research company Gallup, and analyzed by international experts led by the University of Oxford.
In addition to self-assessed evaluations of life satisfaction, analysts also assess each country’s healthy life expectancy, freedom, GDP per capita, social support and more.
Unbelievable: Fani Willis Said that Jesus Told Her to Go After Trump!
The Georgia criminal defense attorney who alleged an “improper” relationship between Fani Willis and Nathan Wade called out the Fulton County District Attorney over a speech she made claiming “Jesus” told her to prosecute Trump.
Ashleigh Merchant, who filed a bombshell motion alleging Willis’ relationship with Wade, whom she appointed special prosecutor on the case, appeared on Megyn Kelly’s show Tuesday where she told the host that she “still [hasn’t] gotten over the church remarks.”
“When someone says that Jesus himself told them to prosecute this case, how do you defend against that?… That’s insane. I’ve never dealt with that… Nobody says this. This doesn’t happen. People don’t take to the pulpit,” Merchant told Kelly.
Merchant filed the suit against Willis on behalf of her client, GOP political operative Mike Roman.
Only in New York Can a Landlord Get Arrested For Changing the Locks While the Squatters Remain
A New York City property owner recently ended up in handcuffs following a fiery standoff with a bunch of squatters she has been trying to boot from her family’s home, tense footage of the ordeal shows.
Adele Andaloro, 47, was recently nabbed after she changed the locks on the $1 million home in Flushing, Queens, that she says she inherited from her parents when they died, ABC’s Eyewitness News reported.
“It’s enraging,” the homeowner said of the squatter saga. “It’s not fair that I, as the homeowner, have to be going through this.”
Andaloro claims the ordeal erupted when she started the process of trying to sell the home last month but realized squatters had moved in — and brazenly replaced the entire front door and locks.
Request passports and ID’s (te’udot zehut) online
The Knesset plenum approved the Interior Minister's proposal to allow citizens to submit online requests for biometric passports, without needing to go to the Population and Immigration Authority.
On Tuesday the Knesset plenum accepted Interior Minister Moshe Arbel's proposal for passport reform, enabling the issuing of passports and identity cards (te’udot zehut) online.
The proposal was approved by a temporary order for six months and can be extended by another six months.
The new process will go into effect on April 31st and will allow any citizen over the age of 18, who has a biometric identification document and whose fingerprints have been stored in the biometric database, to submit a remote application and receive an identity card (te’udat zehut) which will be valid for up to five years.
The new procedure will not apply to those who have never issued biometric passports and IDs, nor to children under the age of 18.
In addition passports may be issued online only if they have expired within the previous six months or are valid for a year ahead, as well as for those who are in Israel at the time of submitting the application.
Interior Minister Arbel said, "This is a dramatic step initiated by the Interior Ministry and the Population and Immigration Authority, to meet the needs of citizens and provide a solution for a large sector of the population, who will not have to go to the official offices and will be able to order a passport or identity card (te’udat zehut) without leaving their home. We have set a goal to improve services to the citizens of Israel and I am pleased to take another step forward to achieve this national goal."
WSJ: “Biden Treats Israel Like An Enemy, Working For ‘2-State’ Solution: Michigan & Nevada”
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| The TWO Gangsters |
In an article in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Democrats Turn Against Israel,” its Editorial Board excoriates President Joe Biden for turning on Israel in order to “cater to the anti-Israel left without alienating the bulk of U.S. voters who would find it unconscionable to turn on the Israeli people in wartime.”
“The joke around Jerusalem is that while Mr. Biden once worked to help Israel after Oct. 7, he’s now working on the ‘two-state solution’: Michigan and Nevada. Israelis notice that the President rarely speaks of defeating Hamas anymore. Instead, he bashes Israel under the cover of bashing its Prime Minister.
What Henry Kissinger once said about Israel having no foreign policy, only domestic politics, Israelis are now saying about America. How else to explain Mr. Biden’s “red line” on Rafah, Hamas’s final stronghold?
Last Monday’s release of a U.S. intelligence assessment casting doubt on the political viability of Mr. Netanyahu’s wartime leadership and predicting “large protests” against him was highly unusual. That’s how the U.S. once treated enemy dictatorships, not allied democracies.
Mr. Biden has also endorsed Sen. Chuck Schumer’s extraordinary declaration last week that Israelis must depose the elected Mr. Netanyahu. Other Democrats are piling on.
Even more serious are delays in U.S. weapons transfers, leaked threats to cut off arms, and sotto voce Biden Administration efforts to discourage other countries from exporting weapons to Jerusalem. Ammunition supplies are a major concern, but Israel’s existential nerve has been touched, and it doesn’t need a timid Biden Administration to give it the green light on Rafah. Israel is now producing more of its own munitions, and the mood is that it will fight with its fingernails if it has to.
Mr. Netanyahu doesn’t treat the U.S. as an unapproachable black box, which spits out a presidential policy and that’s final. He knows U.S. public opinion can be influenced to constrain the President’s power. If Mr. Biden thinks he’s the only one with leverage here, in advance of a U.S. election, he’s wrong.
Behind this spat is the dawning of knowledge in Israel that perhaps the U.S. can’t be relied on. As a Thursday column in the Yediot Ahronot newspaper notes, “Even if the radical wing does not take over, it is already a permanent force that no Democratic Party leader can ignore.”
There is more hope in Israel for a Trump Administration, but also wariness. For now the Republicans who would abandon Ukraine still speak up for Israel. Will that always be true?
At present the U.S. doesn’t appear willing to help Ukraine stave off defeat or Israel clinch victory. The world is watching, and the key for the Middle East isn’t to see that Israel can compromise with the Palestinians, but that it can carry U.S. support all the way to victory against Iran-backed terrorism.”
Newsweek: “Israel Did More To Prevent Civilian Casualties Than Any Other Nation, Including U.S.”
A Newsweek article by John Spencer, the chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute (MWI) at West Point, asserts that “Israel has taken more measures to avoid needless civilian harm than virtually any other nation that’s fought an urban war.”
Spencer added that “in fact, as someone who has served two tours in Iraq and studied urban warfare for over a decade, Israel has taken precautionary measures even the United States did not do during its recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
“I say this not to put Israel on a pedestal or to diminish the human suffering of Gazans but rather to correct a number of misperceptions when it comes to urban warfare.
Biden''s Top Official Uses Antisemitic Propaganda to Slam Israel ..
A senior White House advisor falsely accused Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu of interfering in U.S. politics. It was an egregious claim, and according to Breitbart’s Joel Pollak, it reeked of antisemitism.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan made the antisemitic claim Monday in a White House press briefing. He provided no evidence of his claim that Israel interfered in American politics, and admitted that it had nothing to do with the question he had been asked.
Sullivan was asked to respond to Netanyahu’s claim that he had the support of the majority of the Israeli people in his plans to attack Rafah.
He replied: “Well, first of all, inherent in the question is a kind of an interesting irony, which is you have the prime minister speaking on American television about his concerns about Americans interfering in Israeli politics, and then your question is should Americans be speaking into Israeli politics, which in fact we don’t do nearly as much as they speak into ours.”.
He then conceded, “But that’s not a constructive answer to your question, just an observation.”.
Pollak wrote: “The Anti-Defamation League has specifically identified the claim that Israel or Jews control American politics as a form of antisemitism, common in anti-Israel propaganda in the Middle East.”
He added, “There is no known example of Israel interfering in an American election — and certainly no Israeli leader has ever demanded that the U.S. replace its president, as President Joe Biden did last week with regard to Netanyahu.”
Netanyahu’s observation about having the overwhelming support of the Israeli people is backed by polls. One survey found that 75% of Israelis support an attack in Rafah.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Left appears to have turned on Willis. Like rats deserting a sinking ship
Many of us were demoralized by Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee’s decision on Friday to allow District Attorney Fani Willis to continue prosecuting the RICO case against former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants. McAfee ruled that Willis may carry on as long as she fires ex-lover Nathan Wade, whom she hired as the special prosecutor in the case in November 2021. Wade resigned from the position on Friday
Throughout McAfee’s 23-page ruling, he sharply criticized both Willis and Wade for their questionable testimony and their “bad choices.” Yet, he concluded, “Georgia law does not permit the finding of an actual conflict for simply making bad choices — even repeatedly.”
He wrote that his decision is “by no means an indication that the Court condones this tremendous lapse in judgment or the unprofessional manner of the District Attorney’s testimony."
Hundreds of Hollywood stars unite to denounce Oscar winner's controversial speech
Top Hollywood stars like Debra Messing and Julianna Margulies are among over 450 Jewish individuals in the entertainment industry denouncing "The Zone of Interest" director Jonathan Glazer's controversial Oscars acceptance speech about the Israel-Hamas war.
"We refute our Jewishness being hijacked for the purpose of drawing a moral equivalence between a Nazi regime that sought to exterminate a race of people, and an Israeli nation that seeks to avert its own extermination," an open letter first reported Monday by Variety read. "Every civilian death in Gaza is tragic. But Israel is not targeting civilians. It is targeting Hamas. The moment Hamas releases the hostages and surrenders is the moment this heartbreaking war ends. This has been true since the Hamas attacks of October 7th."
The signatories continued, "The use of words like ‘occupation’ to describe an indigenous Jewish people defending a homeland that dates back thousands of years, and has been recognized as a state by the United Nations, distorts history. It gives credence to the modern blood libel that fuels a growing anti-Jewish hatred around the world, in the United States, and in Hollywood. The current climate of growing antisemitism only underscores the need for the Jewish State of Israel, a place which will always take us in, as no state did during the Holocaust depicted in Mr. Glazer’s film."
Alongside Messing and Margulies are actors Michael Rapaport, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tovah Feldshuh, Lisa Edelstein and Brett Gelman, top producer Amy Pascal, and filmmakers Eli Roth and Rod Lurie.
What will happen if Trump can’t post $454M bond in his civil fraud case by Monday’s deadline?
New York Attorney General Letitia James will be free to start going after Donald Trump’s prized properties should the former president fail to make the deadline to post the $454 million bond in his civil fraud case.
Trump, 77, on Monday filed papers in an appeal court case seeking to get out of having to post the bond as he fights the massive judgment from February — which accrues $112,000 in interest daily.
The presumptive Republican 2024 presidential nominee had approached over 30 firms to secure the bond — to no avail — and he’s facing “insurmountable difficulties” getting the financial backing, his attorneys wrote in the filings.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ordered the hefty judgment against the real estate mogul in February after a three-month trial in which the AG’s office argued Trump exaggerated his net worth by billions a year on financial statements to get better loan and insurance terms.
Trump has said he plans to fight Engeron’s decision, but he must either put the full judgment amount in escrow or secure a bond to show he’s good for the money if he loses his appeal.
“If you’re trying to appeal a financial penalty, the courts want to make sure if you lose at the end of the day you can pay the penalty,” said Kevin J. O’Brien, a former prosecutor and current defense attorney in New York, adding it was “standard procedure.”
“This is an attempt to keep appellants honest,” O’Brien explained.
“The real difficulty is the size of the judgment is so huge.”
The bond would require Trump to post 120% of what he owes with collateral — amounting to $557.5 million, according to his lawyers.
Trump previously sought to lower the bond amount to $100 million and is now seeking to get out of paying the bond altogether.
O’Brien said that if Trump can prove to the court that he is likely to ultimately win his appeal, he “might have an argument” to get the bond amount lowered.
Could Trump sell off or mortgage his properties?
Schumer just guaranteed Netanyahu’s re-election
There is a basic law in physics that every action has an opposite and equal reaction. I don’t think that Senator Schumer was a standout in physics. His critique of the Prime Minister created a firestorm still going strong. I don’t think he anticipated the degree and level of the reaction.
Chief Rabbi Lau implicitly responds to Chief Rabbi Yosef
Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau implicitly responded today (Monday) to the statements his Sephardi counterpart Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef made that haredim should consider leaving the country if they are drafted as other Israeli citizens are into the IDF or national service.
During the funeral of Captain Daniel Perez, who was killed by Hamas terrorists on October 7 and whose body has been held by the terrorist organization ever since, Rabbi Lau said, "We have a wonderful generation, a generation of soldiers, a generation of dedicated people, a generation of those who stand up and do everything to protect the people, to protect the Torah and protect the land."
Later in his speech, he referred to what Rabbi Yosef said: "There is no contradiction between these three. They are three that stem from one place. The people of Israel, the Torah of Israel, the Land of Israel."
A week ago, Rabbi Yosef said in relation to the draft law, “There are Yeshiva students who go to reserves. Not everyone merits to learn Torah. Everyone merits to be a student, and Torah students are exempt from army service under any circumstances, no matter what. If they force us to go to the army, we will all leave Israel. We will buy tickets and leave. There can be no such thing.”
“All the secular community understands this, and they need to understand that without Torah, without study halls, without yeshivas, there will be no existence and no success for the army. The soldiers succeed in the merit of those studying Torah. Everyone needs to say this with pride - we are studying Torah, and it is the Torah that protects us.”
Brilliant : Ben Gvir dedicates an entire speech in the Knesset Mocking Lapid
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Monday mocked opposition leader Yair Lapid and his history of making contradictory remarks, as he responded in the Knesset plenum to a motion of no confidence submitted by the opposition.
"I understand that I have to respond here to the motion of no confidence of opposition chairman Yair Lapid, but I have a small problem, MK Lapid, I don't know which of your two left hands to respond to, the daytime Lapid or the nighttime Lapid," said Ben Gvir.
Ben Gvir added, "Purim is not for another few days, but for the chairman of our opposition, the entire year is a costume party. Do I have to answer here to the Lapid who supports a Palestinian state, or to the Lapid who is against a Palestinian state? And is the Lapid who supports a Palestinian state the daytime Lapid? Or is that the nighttime Lapid?”
He continued, "Mr. chairman of the opposition, which Lapid should I respond to - the Lapid who said that the Palestinian Authority should rule Gaza the day after Hamas? Or to the Lapid who said that the Palestinian Authority should not rule Gaza the day after? What is Lapid's position during the day, and what is Lapid's position at night?"
"I truly, Mr. chairman, do not know which Lapid to respond to, the Lapid who said that the gas agreement - the agreement to surrender to Hezbollah - is an agreement that keeps the confrontation with Hezbollah at bay? Or to the Lapid who attacks the government for its security policy in the north? And on this, I do not know which position belongs to the daytime Lapid, and which to the nighttime Lapid," he continued.
He then asked Lapid, "MK Lapid, perhaps you happen to know which Lapid was the one who brought in thousands of workers from Gaza to please Hamas? The daytime Lapid or the nighttime Lapid? Or maybe you can tell us, who is the Lapid who attacked Gantz for entering the government, then offered to enter the government himself instead of Ben Gvir... Who was the daytime Lapid and who is the nighttime Lapid? I really don't know who to respond to, to the Lapid who supported the mass refusal to enlist in the army and the risk to the country’s security just a few months ago, or to the Lapid who is now preaching to the haredim about serving in the army?!"
Ben Gvir addressed those present in the plenum and said, "Perhaps someone here among the members of the Knesset knows whether the Lapid who headed the government for a year and a half and did not work to recruit haredim was the nighttime Lapid, while the Lapid who now submitted a bill to recruit all the haredim was the daytime Lapid, or was it exactly the opposite? For example, was the Lapid who said he landed a helicopter with smoke grenades in Lebanon, the nighttime Lapid or the daytime Lapid? Who was the Lapid who said that you don’t have to be an economist to be Finance Minister, and then said that the Finance Minister must be an economist, the nighttime Lapid or the daytime Lapid?"
He then turned to Lapid again, "Mr. chairman of the opposition, I really want to respond to the motion of no confidence that you submitted, but now we are at dusk, and there is a difficult problem here - which Lapid should I respond to - the nighttime Lapid or the daytime Lapid. Sometimes, a difference of a few minutes does wonders. I'm sure, Mr. chairman of the opposition, that you have an excellent answer. It just depends, of course, on what time of the day it is."
Ben Gvir and Smotrich : "If murderers are released, we will leave the government"
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said in closed conversations that they would resign from the government if terrorist murderers were released from Israeli prisons, Channel 13 News reported on Monday.
Their comments came as the Israeli delegation, led by Mossad chief David Barnea, departed for Qatar for negotiations on a hostage release deal.
On Sunday night, the Political-Security Cabinet approved the departure of the Israeli delegation to Doha.
The Cabinet gave the Israeli delegation a general mandate and authorized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to discuss tactical details.
On Saturday, the Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper reported that the first stage of the currently proposed deal would include a 42-day ceasefire, which in the second stage would become permanent.
Hamas is demanding that in the first stage, displaced Gazans would be allowed to return to the northern Gaza Strip and to allow for aid to reach the north and for there to be freedom of movement.
The newspaper also reported that Hamas is demanding the release of 50 terrorists, 30 of whom are serving life sentences, for every living Israeli female soldier, woman, child, elderly, and sick person in captivity.
At the beginning of the second stage, Hamas demanded the declaration of a permanent ceasefire before any prisoner swap that would include the male soldiers in captivity. In the third stage, the terror organization demands the reconstruction of the entire Gaza Strip.
Hey Biden.... Listen to your own speech in 1992 ...
In March 1992, in a speech at that year’s AIPAC conference, then-Senator Joe Biden slammed then-President George H.W. Bush for pressuring Israel.
Biden opposed steps by the Bush administration to condition loan guarantees to Israel on halting settlement construction in Yehudah and Shomron and holding peace talks with the Palestinians, even co-sponsoring a bill to force Bush to make the guarantees unconditional.
“Why is there any incentive for the Arabs to make any compromise in the peace talks, why if they know that they must only wait – for the US to do their bargaining for them,” Biden said. “Why would they compromise? Why would they be reasonable?”
“The absurd notion that publicly vilifying Israel will somehow change its policy – who do we think we’re dealing with? What makes us think that even if the administration is one hundred percent correct on the policy, what makes them think that in the midst of an election campaign, in the midst of a so-called peace talk, that we can publicly vilify a nation.”
“And think that any leader will say: ‘Now I will yield before the world and G-d because I have been told. What do we think we’re doing?”
“Now folks, think about this. Why? What is the purpose of doing what’s done? These are smart women and men who are putting together this policy. What is the purpose? Do you think that [Yitzchak] Shamir, in the middle of an election campaign, will say, ‘Mea culpa, I’m sorry, I’m really sorry. I changed my mind. Re-elect me.”
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