Come shopping with me! A Jerusalem grocery store where Americans like to shop. Walk with me, Steve Martin

Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog: Americans see Putin as “clear & present danger” to U.S. security

New post on Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog Exclusive poll: Americans see Putin as “clear & present danger” to U.S. security, but say President Trump must do “much more” to keep U.S. and allies safe. Here’s the inside story. by joelcrosenberg (Washington, D.C.) -- An exclusive new survey reveals a majority of Americans are increasingly concerned by the threat Russian President Vladimir Putin poses and worried that President Donald Trump is not doing enough to keep the nation and our allies safe. My publisher and I commissioned the survey, which was conducted by John McLaughlin of McLaughlin & Associates, who has done polling on behalf of a number of U.S. and foreign clients, including President Trump. McLaughlin polled 1,000 likely U.S. voters regarding three specific questions related to Russia, Putin and President Trump. The answers are particularly interesting in light of recent developments. For example, Putin’s recent State of the Union address was his most belligerent in 18 years. He bragged about Russia’s nuclear arsenal and complained that no one was listening to his claims of achieving nuclear superiority. He even showed a video of animated, simulated Russian nuclear missiles headed toward Florida. This made national and global headlines and raised fresh questions of just how dangerous the Russian leader is. What concerns me is that only 34.5 percent of Americans said they were convinced the president truly understands the magnitude of the threat Russia poses and is doing enough to counter the threat. On the other hand, 51.9 percent said they were not convinced that the President fully understands the threat and they want Trump to do “much more." Thirteen percent weren’t sure. When broken down by political affiliation, the survey showed 77.5 percent of liberals, 26 percent of conservatives and 61 percent of moderates said they were not convinced Trump understands the Russia threat and is taking appropriate action. Three examples come to mind of things President Trump should be doing but isn't: IMPOSE SANCTIONS ON RUSSIA -- Congress overwhelmingly passed bill last year to impose sanctions on Russian officials, but thus far President Trump still hasn’t taken action. It is time to impose sanctions on Russia for their increasingly aggressive behavior, including unsuccessful efforts to subvert U.S. elections and invasion of multiple countries. INCREASE NATO TROOP LEVELS IN THE BALTIC STATES -- At the moment, there are fewer than 5,000 NATO troops in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the three NATO allies that lie right on the Russian border and feeling increasingly at risk of Russian subversion or outright invasion. President Trump could and should be sending more U.S. forces, tanks and other heavy equipment and ammunition to the Baltics to create a speed bump big enough Putin wouldn't feel tempted to cross. So far, he has not, nor has he pressed other NATO countries to do enough. SPEAK OUT AGAINST PUTIN -- The President has no hesitancy to Tweet criticism of everyone from the leaders of  North Korea to Alec Baldwin to his own Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Why then is he so quiet about Putin? I see no convincing evidence at this point that his silence has a criminal or corrupt motive. But it is odd and unsettling to many Americans, give what a grave and growing threat Putin is. Given Russia’s history of invasions, aggression and interferences, the poll found that 72.5 percent agreed that Putin and the government of Russia pose a "clear and present danger to the national security of the United States, our NATO allies in Europe and our Mideast allies, such as Israel." Most officials in Washington are focused on the threats posed by North Korea, Iran, ISIS and al Qaeda, but as serious as those threats are, leaders must not ignore how grave a threat Putin poses to the U.S. and our NATO and Middle Eastern allies. Indeed, found that fully 60.5 percent worry Putin could be planning other military attacks – perhaps the invasion of a small NATO country, or a Middle Eastern country – because he thinks the international community is not really willing to stop him.  Look, the national security team President Trump has put into place – from Vice President Mike Pence to Defense Secretary James Mattis to CIA Director Mike Pompeo, among others – are first-rate professionals. They clearly understand the threat and the stakes. But President Trump and Congressional leaders in both parties must urgently work together to develop and lay out for the American people a comprehensive and bipartisan strategy to counter the Russian threat and dramatically strengthen the NATO alliance. The poll results reinforce the theme of my newest political thriller, The Kremlin Conspiracy, specifically that the threat of evil should not be underestimated. The book tells the story of a fictional leader in Moscow who fashions himself a 21st century Czar, all while the American President and his team are distracted by domestic political troubles and rising tensions in North Korea and Iran. The plot of The Kremlin Conspiracy could be described as “ripped from tomorrow’s headlines.” In the novel, the fictional President of the Russian Federation is plotting a lightning-fast military attack to re-conquer the three Baltic States — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — once enslaved by Moscow during the Soviet era. Given that all three countries have been NATO members since 2004, the move risks triggering a nuclear war with the U.S. and NATO alliance. This week, foreign ministers of all three Baltic nations are in Washington, laying the groundwork for an April 3 summit between President Trump and the presidents of the Baltic States to discuss the Russian threat and urge the U.S. to pre-position more troops and equipment in the region to create a credible deterrence to Putin. As I've often said, "To misunderstand the nature and threat of evil is to risk being blindsided by it.” What if our leaders in Washington are so focused on the threats emanating from North Korea, Iran, ISIS, and China—true threats, all—that they are blindsided by a Russian tyrant plotting the collapse of NATO? I pray this is only the stuff of a high-octane political thriller. But with every day that passes, I fear it may be more fact than fiction. For full results of the poll and more information about The Kremlin Conspiracy, pleasevisit JoelRosenberg.com. —————————————- To order a copy of The Kremlin Conspiracy — now available in hardcover, e-book and audio formats — please click here, or order from any of your favorite general market or Christian bookstores. To order copies of the new mass market paperbacks of the J.B. Collins novels — my most recent trilogy of novels about ISIS plotting attacks on the U.S., Israel, Jordan and Egypt — please click here. Learn all about The Joshua Fund’s Holy Land tour in July and the 2018 Epicenter Prayer Summit in Jerusalem — come meet Israelis and Palestinians and pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the region! —————————- Would you like to make a secure, tax deductible investment in The Joshua Fund (www.joshuafund.com)? This is the non-profit organization that my wife, Lynn, and I founded in 2006 to educate and mobilize Christians to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus, to care for the poor and needy in Israel (both Jews and Arabs) with food and other humanitarian relief, care for Holocaust survivors, care for Syrian and Iraqi refugees, and strengthen the Church in the epicenter. The Joshua Fund is a member in good standing of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. Please click here to learn more. Thanks so much! Subscribe (free) to the RSS feed (click here) and receive every new posting on this blog directly via email. joelcrosenberg | March 8, 2018 at 2:56 am | Categories: Epicenter | URL: https://wp.me/piWZ7-8F0

Ben Shapiro explains perfectly why Americans should care about Israel - Israel Video Network

Ben Shapiro explains perfectly why Americans should care about Israel

Why should Israel matter to the U.S.? Why are Judeo-Christian values so important to western civilization? Ben Shapiro breaks it down. Click here to forward this email to your friends.

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Click here to watch: Daniel Pipes just offered $1 million to "Palestinian refugees" with one big catch Exposing the #1 UNRWA lie.

Enrich Your Day

Click here to watch: A short, inspiring Tu B’Shvat video! From Adam & Eve to Steve Jobs!

A song written for the heart will go straight to your heart

Today's Music feature - You don't have to understand Yonina's original song "Halev (The Heart)" to be deeply impacted by it.

We invite you to send us any videos you think will help us connect people to Israel and the Jewish People. We love your feedback and read it everyday. Looking forward to hearing from you! If you received this email from a friend and wish to subscribe - Just click here. Shalom from Jerusalem!  Avi Abelow avi@Israelvideonetwork.com

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Washington D.C. Is Essentially Just A Gigantic Money Machine - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

Washington D.C. Is Essentially Just A Gigantic Money Machine Posted: 19 Jul 2017 Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG If you have ever wondered why our leaders in Washington D.C. seem to act so strangely, the truth is that it almost always comes down to just one thing.  It has been said that “money makes the world go round”, and that is definitely true in Washington.  This year the federal government will spend more than 4 trillion dollars, and that represents well over one-fifth of our national GDP.  With so much money coming in and so much money going out, the stakes are incredibly high, and that is why so much money is poured into political campaigns on the national level. And it shouldn’t surprise anyone that those that live the closest to this gigantic money machine have benefited greatly.  Forbes just released their brand new rankings for 2017, and they found that five out of the top 10 wealthiest counties in the entire country are suburbs of Washington D.C.… Virginia’s Loudoun County holds the title of the nation’s richest county with a median household income of $125,900. While nearly 10,000 residents commute to the District, according to Forbes, about 11,700 businesses employ 161,000 county residents, with Dulles International Airport, Loudoun County Public Schools and the Department of Homeland Security leading that charge. The nearby city of Falls Church, Fairfax and Arlington counties in Virginia and Howard County in Maryland also lead the nation based on wealth. In general, salaries for federal workers are significantly higher than in the private sector, and benefit packages are usually much better. But in addition to having a very high concentration of federal workers, the D.C. area is also home to hordes of lawyers, lobbyists, defense contractors and other government vendors.  Big government means big business for those guys, and business has been very good in recent years… The federal government has a lot to do with this: The Capitol and the economy orbiting around it (including lawyers, defense contractors, computer engineers along the Dulles Corridor, and doctors near NIH) attract college graduates who reliably contribute to six-figure households. Crucially, there was a $1.7 billion increase in lobbying between 1998 and 2010, as Dylan Matthews explained. With each $1 million of lobbying “associated with a $3.70 increase in the D.C. wage premium,” the money pouring into Washington wound up in the pockets of its residents. This certainly isn’t the limited government that our founders intended. So where did we go wrong? One of the big turning points came in 1913.  That is the year when the Federal Reserve and the modern version of the income tax were established.  The Federal Reserve was designed by the elite to get the federal government very deeply into debt, and an income tax was needed to help service that debt and to help pay for the much larger government that the progressives were wanting. Back then, D.C. was nothing like it is today.  In fact, even in the 1970s there were still large farms inside the Beltway.  But the federal government just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and now it is a four trillion dollar monstrosity. What I believe we should do is to dismantle as much of that monstrosity as we possibly can.  Instead of asking which government agencies we should close, I believe that we should be asking which government agencies we really need to leave open. A great place to start would be by abolishing the Federal Reserve, the IRS and the income tax.  Those institutions are at the very core of the Washington money machine, and so it would essentially be like tearing the heart out of big government. And don’t worry, the federal government would still have plenty of money coming in.  The individual income tax only accounts for about 46 percent of all federal revenue, and theoretically we could still have an absolutely enormous federal government without an income tax.  I once wrote an article that listed 97 different ways that various levels of government get money out of us each year, and so getting rid of the federal income tax would still leave 96 ways for the politicians to extract money from us. As I remind my readers so frequently, the greatest period of economic growth in U.S. history was when there was no income tax and no central bank.  But I know that a lot of people out there love the 1.33 percent average yearly GDP growth rate that we have been experiencing over the past decade and would have a really hard time giving that up. Unfortunately, it would actually be a very tough transition to a much more limited federal government because so much of our society is geared around the enormous money machine in Washington.  In 2018, more than a billion dollars will be spent on the mid-term elections, and most of that money will be going to incumbents that are committed to maintaining the status quo. If we ever want things to really start changing in Washington, we have got to start sending people there that haven’t been bought off by the big money interests. In my congressional district there is no incumbent running in 2018, and nobody else in the race is nearly as conservative as I am.  But since I can’t be bought by the special interests, I am going to have to rely on grassroots support. Donald Trump showed us that anything is possible in American politics.  When Jeb Bush decided to run for president, he had an extremely long list of endorsements and a hundred million dollars behind him, and he still got trounced by Trump because Trump had a much stronger message. If we stand united, we can take our government back and there won’t be anything that the establishment will be able to do about it. But if we sit back and do nothing, the cesspool of corruption in Washington D.C. will just continue to get deeper and deeper. Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

REPORTS: Trump Furious With Palestinians, May Pull Out of Peace Process - Israel Today

REPORTS: Trump Furious With Palestinians, May Pull Out of Peace Process

Sunday, June 25, 2017 |  Israel Today Staff

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Topics:

America

The international mainstream media painted last week's meeting between Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and US President Donald Trump's senior advisor and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as "productive."

Apparently, that description wasn't entirely accurate.

The London-based Arabic-language daily al-Hayatinstead called the meeting "tense," and said it ended with a serious rift between the Americans and the Palestinians.

According to Palestinian officials who spoke to the newspaper, Trump is now considering pulling out of the Mideast peace process altogether.

The Jerusalem Post quoted an American administration official as saying that was "nonsense," though he did not refute other details of the al-Hayatreport.

Abbas is said to have been outraged when Kushner entered the room and conveyed Israel's demand that he stop using international financial aid to pay salaries to terrorists sitting in Israeli jails.

Kushner also reportedly insisted that Palestinian officials halt all incitement against Israel, and expressed disappointment that Abbas had failed to condemn last week's deadly terrorist stabbing in Jerusalem, which took the life of a young female Border Police officer.

Al-Hayat wrote that Abbas fired back by accusing Kushner of "taking Israel's side," and was adamant that paying salaries to convicted terrorists was part of his "social responsibility."

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