07/12/2021 NEWS AM - Top 8 CRAZIEST Israeli Weapons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_miOkjE3CBs Always cutting edge! "Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true." -- Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American author, philosopher, awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom Read the Prophets & PRAY WITHOUT CEASING! That is the only hope for this nation! Please Pray that the world would WAKE UP! Time for a worldwide repentance! Remember ALL US soldiers fighting for our freedom around the world These Pray for those in our government to repent of their wicked corrupt ways. Folks Pray for EL – Had clot embolized to brain – successful ‘clot buster’ but long road to go. In Pray for BB – Severe West Nile Fever –still not mobile- improving! Prayer- Pray for RBH – cancer recurrence Check often Pray for DH – Mother removed self from hospice but doing poorly. They Pray for GB – bad reaction from Cancer drug Change! Pray for Ella – Child with serious problems NOTE: Our prayer list was getting very long and there will little follow up. If you have people you want to have on the list please resubmit since we are revising it now– rdb]

Pray that The Holy One will lead you in Your preparations for handling the world problems. – Have YOU made any preparations? Genesis 34:11And Shechem said to her father, and to her brothers, Let me find favor in your eyes, and what you say to me I will give. 12Heap on me ever so much bride-price and gift, and I will give as you say to me; but give me the girl for a wife. 13And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor, speaking with deceit because he had defiled their sister Dinah.

Tucker Carlson on the November 2020 election. He lays much of the problem out with a promise of more to come. Start at 18 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOH8z4Vjt3A&t=1081s This is well worth the listen.

Dr David Martin | Dr Reiner Fuellmich - July 9, 2021 German Corona Committee Testimony https://www.bitchute.com/video/dgvS4IGWkkAH/?fbclid=IwAR0aa_wY1T869yhy1gzu L0videL5YG-DtfXqtfRCPIDVpdZlAtyndlsmiLE The is absolutely shocking and Explosive! Proof – Corona was made and patented 20 years ago as was A treatment. This is the epitome of criminal behavior. This mandates a legal action against CDC and NIH! rdb

UAE to open Israel embassy in Tel Aviv on Wednesday President Herzog to attend ceremony, which comes weeks after Lapid inaugurates missions in Abu Dhabi and Dubai By Lazar Berman Today, 9:34 pm The United Arab Emirates will open its embassy in Israel on Wednesday, with President Isaac Herzog attending the historic event. The embassy will be situated in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange building, also known as the Bursa. The ceremony, hosted by UAE’s ambassador to Israel, Mohammad al Khaja, will include a reception, flag raising, ribbon-cutting ceremony, and VIP tour. In late June, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid officially inaugurated Israel’s consulate in Dubai, calling it a center of dialogue and cooperation. He had opened Israel’s embassy in Abu Dhabi the day before, hailing the “historic moment” as a time “we chose peace over war.” While in Abu Dhabi, Lapid went out of his way to thank former prime minister and political rival Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he called “the architect of the Abraham Accords and who worked tirelessly to bring them about.” He also expressed his gratitude to former US president Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden. The UAE was represented at the Dubai ceremony by Emirati Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence Omar Sultan Al Olama. MORE- https://www.timesofisrael.com/uae-to-open-israel-embassy-in-tel-aviv-on-wednesday/

Bennett taps former senior Mossad official as his new national security adviser Eyal Hulata, 45, spent 23 years in spy agency; PM praises his ‘experience, performance, and understanding of Israel’s strategic challenges’ By Emanuel Fabian Today, 8:28 pm

Eyal Hulata in an undated photograph. (courtesy)

Prime Minister Bennett announced Sunday the appointment of Eyal Hulata as the head of Israel’s National Security Council. Hulata, 45, served in Israel’s Mossad spy agency for some 23 years, including in senior positions. During his service, he headed the spy agency’s department for strategic planning and its technology unit. Also during his time in the Mossad, Hulata was awarded the Israel Defense Prize for unspecified actions. “In light of his years-long experience, performance, and understanding of Israel’s strategic challenges in the security and diplomatic spheres, Prime Minister Bennett chose to appoint him,” a statement from the prime minister said. Hulata lives in the central city of Kfar Saba, with his wife and three children. He holds a PhD in physics from Tel Aviv University, a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University, and is a graduate of the IDF’s Talpiot program at the Hebrew University. Hulata will succeed Meir Ben-Shabbat, who announced earlier this month that he would be stepping down from the role.

Israeli National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat during a ceremony at Ben Gurion Airport prior to visiting Bahrain to sign a series of bilateral agreements between Jerusalem and Manama, October18, 2020. (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL via FLASH90)

After the new government was sworn in last month, Bennett asked Ben-Shabbat to stay on until he selected a replacement. The new appointment is pending government approval. Ben- Shabbat will meet with Hulata for an “orderly transition process,” the statement added. Bennett was in the past highly critical of the NSC’s performance during the 2014 Gaza war, saying it did not fulfill its role of providing varied options for the cabinet to consider. https://www.timesofisrael.com/bennett-taps-former-senior-mossad-official- as-his-new-national-security-adviser/

Bennett more American than Netanyahu as PM? - why it matters Only three PMs out of 13 have lived in US for extensive periods - Meir, Netanyahu, and Bennett. By TOVAH LAZAROFF JULY 11, 2021 22:52

PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Education Minister Naftali Bennet(photo credit: SASSON TIRAM,REUTERS)

Can Prime Minister Naftali Bennett become the new face of Israel to the United States, effectively stripping his predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu of the unofficial title he has held for almost four decades? There have been only 13 prime ministers during Israel’s 73-year history. Only three of them – Golda Meir, Netanyahu and Bennett – had lived in the US for extensive periods, including as children. Both Meir and Netanyahu graduated from American high schools and received higher level degrees in the US. Meir and Bennett possessed and then relinquished US citizenship. All three had experience working there. It’s a history that allows for a linguistic and cultural fluency, which gave the trio an immediate advantage when dealing with Israel’s key ally. Netanyahu, a graduate of MIT, added tremendous oratory skills that made him the county’s most known advocate dating back to the 1980s when he was Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, continuing with his stint as prime minister in the 1990s. It was a skill Netanyahu banked on during his 12-year tenure as premier that ended this year and which he campaigned upon, leaving the impression that his absence would create a deep void in Israeli-US relations – particularly given his strong ties with US politicians, including US President Joe Biden, whom he known for almost four decades. The mythic vision of Netanyahu is that of a prime minister who can stand firm in defense of Israel’s key existential and policy interests, while at the same time wooing American politicians. It was a spell made more powerful by Netanyahu’s ability to use the language of American democracy to defend right-wing Israeli policies. This dance was perceived to be so magical, that no other Israeli leader could be expected to follow. Initial signs, however, show that Bennett, whose parents hail from the Golden State of California, could outshine Netanyahu in this one specific arena. During his short time in office, Bennett has already discredited Netanyahu’s warnings that he cannot stand firm against Washington. Less than a month in office, Bennett has already let the US know he opposes its return to the Iran deal. He has linked the rehabilitation of Gaza with the return of the remains of the two soldiers and the two civilians held hostage there. It’s a stand Netanyahu never made – and one which the Biden administration disapproves of. Bennett has gone head-to-head with the Biden administration on the issue of home demolition. He knocked down the home of a Palestinian-American terrorist indicted for killing 19-year-old Yehuda Guetta, ignoring a direct US request not to take such a punitive measure. Bennett didn’t back down from this position, even after the State Department attacked him for it. Over the Biden administration’s objections, he has continued the policy of demolishing illegally built Palestinian structures in Area C of the West Bank and agreed to legalize the Evyatar outpost. These West Bank steps are an extension of his predecessor’s policies and in keeping with Bennett’s, which are to the Right of Netanyahu. BUT BENNETT balanced those negatives with some positives. He was careful to bend in the direction of the Biden administration by taking steps on behalf of regional peace, with a series of gestures to repair Israel’s relationships with Jordan, which had gone cold under Netanyahu. He agreed to execute two major deals: one to almost double the amount of water Israel sells to the Hashemite kingdom and the other to increase Jordan’s ability to trade with Palestinians in the West Bank by expanding the export limits. The Biden administration issued an immediate statement of gratitude. In the last two weeks, Bennett didn’t just show the White House that he would take steps for peace: He also let Biden and the American public know that their history was his history and their values were his values. Bennett is the first Israeli prime minister to have American parents and a family with US roots that go back more than a century. When he spoke last week at the US Embassy’s American Independence Day event, he made sure to mention that his family came to California during the Gold Rush. Nor were his family strangers to 20th century US history. Bennett also dropped the story of how his father Jim was arrested at a civil rights protest, when he attended a sit-in at a California hotel that refused to hire African-Americans. It was a story likely to endear him not just to Biden but also to left-wing Americans, including US Jews. In Israel, he might be on the Right, but in the American sphere, he is one of them. It wasn’t only that story that painted this picture. Bennett underscored his value of diversity, noting accurately that his coalition had both Jews and Arabs. Lastly, he emphasized the significance of maintaining bi-partisan support for Israel, indicating that he was a prime minister who wanted to work with all of the American public, not just some of them. It was the kind of speech that Netanyahu could not have given, nor did he need to, when former US president Donald Trump was in office, when those points were on the back burner. NETANYAHU’S STRONG ties with Trump yielded enormous results for Israel, particularly the Right. Trump relocated the US Embassy to Jerusalem and recognized the city as Israel’s capital. He legitimized settlement activity and published the peace plan that placed those communities within Israel’s final borders. Under Trump’s tenure, the US scrapped the Iran deal and imposed crippling sanctions on Iran in an attempt to halt its drive to produce nuclear weapons. Most significantly, Trump brokered the Abraham Accords by which four Arab nations agreed to normalize ties with the Jewish state. These incredible achievements were due in large part to Netanyahu’s diplomatic skills. They came at the cost, however, of weakening ties between US Jewry and Israel, many of whom felt that Netanyahu had caved in to Trump on the issue of antisemitism on the Right. The US-Israel bond also frayed, as Israel was increasingly seen as a partisan issue rather than a bi- partisan one, with Trump accusing American Jews who supported the Democratic Party of being disloyal to Israel and the Jewish people. It was classic Netanyahu not just to dismiss those issues, but to turn the personal chemistry between him and Trump into the larger narrative of how he, and he alone, would be a unique asset to the State of Israel with any US president. The reality was actually the opposite. Eight of his 12 consecutive years in office – two-thirds – were marked by tensions between him and former US President Barack Obama. Even Israel’s former president Reuven Rivlin, who had never lived in the US, had a better understanding of how to speak with Obama than Netanyahu did. Netanyahu never swayed Obama to drop his objection to settlement activity or his support for the pre- 1967 lines. Nor did he convince him of the dangers of an Iran deal. There was the time he insulted the US with an announcement of Jewish building in east Jerusalem during a Biden visit to Israel, when he was America’s vice president. Then there was Netanyahu’s appeal to the US Congress to defy the will of President Obama by opposing the Iran deal, an act that made him persona non grata in the White House. Had Hillary Clinton won the presidency in 2016 instead of Trump, Netanyahu’s track record with respect to the US would have been vastly different, with tensions between the two countries increasing rather than decreasing. MORE- https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/bennett-more-american-than-netanyahu-as-pm-why-it- matters-673546 [It will be interesting to follow the relationship of the leftist US Jewish population with Bennett. If Bennett actually stands up for Israel I fear that he will fare little better with that group than Bibi. – rdb]

Israel vows to keep razing terrorists’ homes, as victim’s father pans US rebuke Minister says Biden administration’s criticism won’t make Jerusalem change policy; family of Yehuda Guetta to file suit demanding seizure of killer’s assets in US, West Bank By TOI staff Today, 11:14 am

Palestinian man walks past a building that belonged to Muntasir Shalabi, accused of killing an Israeli student in a May terror attack, after it was demolished by Israeli forces in the village of Turmus Ayya near Ramallah in the West Bank on July 8, 2021 (JAAFAR ASHTIYEH / AFP)

Israel won’t stop demolishing homes of accused terrorists to appease Washington, a minister said Saturday, as the father of a terror victim expressed “shock” at the recent US criticism of the razing of his son’s killer’s home. “We are doing what’s good for the State of Israel,” Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel of the New Hope party told the Kan public broadcaster. The administration of US President Joe Biden last week leveled rare criticism at Israel for the razing of the home of a Palestinian-American suspected in a deadly West Bank shooting attack in May, marking a likely point of friction amid efforts between Washington and Jerusalem to rehabilitate ties. Following Israel’s punitive demolition of Muntasir Shalabi’s home on Thursday, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, had raised concerns over the matter with their Israeli counterparts. “We attach a good deal of priority to this, knowing that the home of an entire family shouldn’t be demolished for the action of one individual,” Price said. Home demolitions are a controversial punitive measure that the Israeli security establishment maintains can deter future terror attacks. The demolition came despite a number of legal challenges against the decision. Shalabi is accused of killing Israeli student Yehuda Guetta and injuring two others in a shooting attack. “The new government’s policy is clear regarding violations of sovereignty and treatment of terrorism,” Hendel said on Sunday. But he added the disagreement wasn’t causing a rift between the countries. “Sometimes we will disagree with the American administration, but on most issues, we will be on the same page,” he said. “What I am hearing is that the American administration wants to cooperate with the new government in Israel.” Meanwhile, Guetta’s family has slammed the Biden administration over its statement, and said it would file lawsuits in Israel and in the US demanding that Shalabi’s assets be seized, including the land where his home had stood. “This will be an unprecedented process that will teach terrorists and their handlers that there is no corner of the world where we won’t reach them, and that terror victims will continue pursuing them forever,” said Nitsana Darshan-Leitner of the Shurat HaDin legal aid group, representing the family.

Yehuda Guetta, 19, was killed in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank (courtesy)

“Any terrorist should know that there is a high cost to murdering a Jew,” she added. “That even if they don’t care about their life, we will take control of something more important to them.” Guetta’s father, Elisha, said the family was “shocked that the US is condemning the demolition of [the home of] my son’s murderer and is supporting a terrorist who arrived from the US to carry out a vicious shooting terror attack against innocent Jewish students. “It would be expected that the US, which has often been the victim of terrorism, would stand with terror victims rather than with their murderers,” he added.

Muntasir Shalabi, suspect in a May 2, 2021, West Bank drive-by shooting, in an undated photo (Courtesy)

Explaining the lawsuit, Elisha Guetta added: “The Americans’ approach forces us to search for every way to prevent the next murder. And if that is done by seizing his land, that’s what we’ll do.” The lawsuit will also be filed by the family of Benaya Peretz, who was seriously injured in the same attack. The plaintiffs intend to gather information about Shalabi’s assets in the US and the West Bank to include them in the lawsuit. Shalabi and his family hold US citizenship. https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-vows-to-keep-razing-terrorists-homes-as- victims-father-pans-us-rebuke/ [The current administration’s State Department and in fact the entire group has a blatantly anti-Israel approach which the demon-rats can deny but can’t hide. For years the leftists have had little but criticism for Israel and the US leadership in both the government and the US Jewish community try to inflict their own ethos onto Israel but are too comfortable to go and live there and see what it is like. – rdb]

After Ra’am demand, government moves Bedouin agency to Welfare Ministry Move follows Islamist party threat to not cooperate with coalition until further notice By TOI staff Today, 7:33 pm

A view of houses in the unrecognized Bedouin village of Sawaneen in Israel's southern Negev Desert, June 8, 2021. (HAZEM BADER / AFP)

Government ministers voted Sunday on a motion to move the Authority for Development and Settlement of the Bedouin in the Negev from the Economy Ministry to the Welfare Ministry, in a move designed to placate the Ra’am party. The Islamist party said Sunday that it was halting its parliamentary cooperation with the coalition — denying it a majority, at least temporarily, at a critical time in which the government must muster a Knesset majority to pass the state budget. However, the coalition party did not publicly specify the reasoning for the move. News outlets quoted sources saying Ra’am was voicing general frustration about the government’s treatment of the party, arguing that it had made the most concessions and reaped the smallest gains, particularly regarding its demands on construction permits for its Bedouin constituents in the Negev region. “We’re promoting the government more than it promotes us,” a source was quoted as saying by the Walla news site. “We are paying a price for all that we’re doing to keep the coalition intact, but are not receiving anything in return.” Later Sunday, ministers voted by phone on the bill to move the Bedouin agency from the Economy Ministry to the Welfare Ministry, after the Islamist party threatened to absolve itself of parliamentary cooperation if the move was not approved by the end of the day, Channel 13 reported. A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said that the move is an implementation of the coalition agreements. It was not immediately clear if Ra’am was withdrawing its protest against the government as a result of the vote. The Islamist party is also said to be angry at the government for aggressively pushing the extension of a law barring Palestinians with Israeli spouses from getting citizenship — a law that some of its members supported recently but which fell due to the objection of the opposition and a rebel member of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party. Ra’am MK Mazen Ghanaim also said that the party would bolt the coalition if Israel were to strike in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. “Gaza, Lebanon, and the Muslim and Christian holy places [in Jerusalem] are red lines,” Ghanaim told the Kan public broadcaster’s Arabic-language radio, Makan. “There is no love affair between Mansour Abbas and the new government,” Ghanaim said, saying the fate of the government is yet to be seen, but he views Prime Minister Bennett as just as bad as his predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu. The Bedouin Authority was established in 2007, to assist with the development and settlement of the Bedouin in the Negev, including the establishment of residential neighborhoods on state lands for the population. https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-raam-demand-government-moves-bedouin-agency-to-welfare-ministry/ [The obstreperous character of Ra’am and its people will ultimately bring down this coalition. These folks are really not good at compromise at all. – rdb]

With new Pfizer deal, Israel to restart vaccinations after 24-hour break Immunocompromised Israelis will soon be able to receive a third booster dose; 6 people in Israel have died of COVID in the past week By Amy Spiro Today, 9:51 pm The Health Ministry said Sunday evening that it would resume administering the first doses of the Pfizer vaccine on Monday morning, after they were halted for 24 hours following concerns of a looming shortfall. The current stockpile of Pfizer vaccines in Israel is set to expire on July 31. Therefore, the Health Ministry originally said it would pause administering first doses after July 10, since there would not be any non-expired vaccines available for the second dose three weeks later. But Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced Sunday morning that he had brokered a deal with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla to bring forward the next shipment of vaccines from the company to August 1. “Together with existing stocks, this ensures – from this moment – a continuous inventory of vaccines in the State of Israel,” Bennett revealed at the start of Sunday’s cabinet meeting. “I would like to emphasize: There are vaccines for everyone!” Bennett called on anyone who has yet to be vaccinated — “mainly young people but older people as well” — to do so as soon as possible. The prime minister has been urging teenagers, the least-vaccinated age group in Israel, to get the shot, as cases continue to rise and the Delta variant takes hold. Nachman Ash, the new director-general of the Health Ministry, told Channel 12 News that Israel has approved giving a third booster COVID shot to those who are immunocompromised, echoing earlier comments by Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz. Ash said that the “tens of thousands” of Israelis who are eligible for the third dose will be able to schedule an appointment with their HMO in the coming days. He added that the ministry “is considering” a booster dose for all those over age 60, but the decision is unlikely to come soon. The Health Ministry has also recommended administering the shot to some children under age 12 with serious preexisting conditions. The recommendation has yet to be fully approved by the government; the Pfizer vaccine currently has FDA emergency approval only for those over age 12. MORE- https://www.timesofisrael.com/with-new-pfizer-deal- israel-to-restart-vaccinations-after-24-hour-break/

COVID-19 not connected to bats, Israeli biologists say Researchers at Tel Aviv University’s Bat Lab attempt to rehabilitate winged creature’s much-maligned public image By MAYA MARGIT/THE MEDIA LINE JULY 11, 2021 22:12 The bat shivered in fear as it hung precariously from Maya Weinberg’s gloved hand. “His name is Zorro and he is less than a year old,” said Weinberg, a veterinary doctor and PhD candidate at Prof. Yossi Yovel’s Bat Lab. Located in Tel Aviv University’s I. Meier Segals Garden for Zoological Research, the Bat Lab hosts an eclectic range of Israeli biologists that specialize in groundbreaking research. As biologists, a cameraman and others crowded around to get a better look, Zorro’s trembling grew more violent. Weinberg gingerly put him back into the welcoming dark confines of a small carrier sitting on the nearby counter, away from prying eyes and the laboratory’s bright neon lights. At the Bat Lab, Israel’s real-life Bat-men (and Bat-women) conduct research into a wide variety of bats, the only mammals capable of flying. There are more than 1,400 species of bats worldwide; most are nocturnal and rarely come into contact with humans. Some are beneficial to their environments, since they eat a lot of insects and even help to disperse seeds and pollinate flowers. Since the COVID-19 pandemic these unique winged creatures’ public image has taken a massive hit. So far scientists have not been able to find any evidence linking bats to the virus, but the connection has proven to be nearly impossible to dispel. “Up until now there is no evidence to show a connection between bats and COVID-19,” Weinberg told The Media Line. “This idea bordered on conspiracy.” “The way in which the scientific community echoed this theory was simply outrageous,” she argued. “It has done great damage to bats around the world, especially in China, where it damaged public perception of bats, which was already poor to begin with.” A recent study led by Weinberg and Tel Aviv University postdoctoral researcher Dr. Kelsey Moreno could have far-reaching implications for discovering the origins of COVID-19. The study, which was recently published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Science, found that sick bats maintain social distancing, possibly to prevent the spread of mass contagion in their colonies.

Maya Weinberg, doctoral candidate at Tel Aviv University, holds up Zorro on July 7, 2021. (Photo credit: Maya Margit/The Media Line)

In order to observe their behavior, researchers monitored two colonies of Egyptian fruit bats: one living in captivity in an enclosure and the other living in its natural environment. Researchers injected a bacteria-like protein into several bats in each colony, which simulated an immune response that generated symptoms of illness. “We were very surprised to see that sick bats actively social distance,” Weinberg said. “We thought that the group would be the one to stay away from the sick bats – but instead it was the sick bats that actively stayed away from others in the colony. This is really not a typical behavior for a wild animal, which will generally attempt to hide its illness.” Though the origins of COVID-19 virus remain a mystery, some have speculated that a scientist in China who was studying coronaviruses in Wuhan may have leaked the strain, thereby causing a worldwide outbreak. The Wuhan Institute of Virology is notably located near the outbreak’s earliest known epicenter, but Beijing has vociferously denied this theory. However, Weinberg believes it is possible that a scientist who ventured deep into China’s wild to collect virus samples may have unwittingly unleashed it. “As long as we maintain distance from bats and allow them to remain in their secluded natural habitats … then we won’t expose ourselves to pathogens for which we have no defense,” she stressed. Other biologists at the Bat Lab are examining the biomechanics of bats, including their use of echolocation and sonar beams. Doctoral candidate Ofri Eitan and his team are conducting behavioral experiments with bats inside an anechoic chamber, a room that is designed to absorb reflections of sound. “In this flight room we use two methods that can help us understand the sensory behavior of bats,” Eitan told The Media Line. “These two techniques are motion tracking and the recording of the echolocation of bats.” The room is fitted with 50 ultrasonic microphones and a system that tracks the bat’s motion as it flies. The goal is to observe the animal’s sensory behavior and gain a deeper understanding of how bats perceive their environments. Eitan echoed Weinberg and stressed that bats were not connected to the pandemic. “We’re trying to educate people and to show [them] that bats are much more incredible creatures than they thought,” he said. Adi Rachum, who is studying for a master’s degree, is in charge of the Bat Lab’s imprinted colony, where dozens of fruit bats come and go as they please. Rachum and other students regularly feed the bats fresh fruit, providing them with an incentive to keep returning. The room is dark, humid and resembles a cave. The goal is to mimic the animals’ natural environment as closely as possible while also allowing scientists to conduct research. There are several cameras spread throughout the cave, including a live feed that is accessible online 24/7. “I put a chip on every bat that we release,” Rachum told The Media Line as she held a bat up for inspection. “It doesn’t hurt them and it helps us to definitively identify them, which in turn helps with our research.” Weinberg, a doctor of veterinary medicine who has specialized in bats for the past 12 years, hopes that the lab’s ongoing, pioneering research will eventually help to convince people that the winged creatures are not to be feared. “They’re a very gentle, sociable and communicative animal,” she said. “I worked with many different animals before arriving at bats. When you see how unique they are and learn the facts, then you look at them differently.” https://www.jpost.com/health-science/covid-19-not-connected-to-bats-israeli-biologists-say-673548 [Perhaps they will be able to exclude the Bat to human conjecture very soon and lay the blame where it belongs, on American funded Chinese research. The perhaps those responsible for millions of deaths can get their reward. – rdb]

Israel to withhold nearly NIS 600 million from PA over terror payments Security cabinet votes to freeze transfer of some tax revenues collected for the Palestinian Authority to offset funds paid out to terrorists and their families By Judah Ari Gross and TOI staff Today, 6:17 pm The security cabinet voted on Sunday to withhold nearly NIS 600 million ($184 million) from the Palestinian Authority to offset funds that it paid to terrorists and their families in the past year. According to a report presented to the security cabinet by Defense Minister Benny Gantz and prepared by the Defense Ministry’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing, the Palestinian Authority transferred NIS 597 million ($182.82 million) in “indirect support for terror in 2020.” “In light of this report, these funds will be frozen from the monthly payments that Israel transfers to the PA,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement. This is not the first time the security cabinet has held back some tax funds it collects for the Palestinian Authority to penalize it for payments to imprisoned terrorists and the families of dead attackers. In November, the cabinet voted to hold back approximately NIS 600 million out of a transfer of around NIS 2.4 billion over the so-called “pay to slay” payments.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett leads a cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on July 11, 2021. (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL)

Palestinian officials have indicated over the past year that they are considering reforming the controversial PA policy of paying salaries to Palestinians convicted by Israel of security offenses and terrorism. The prisoner issue has long hampered the PA’s diplomatic efforts in Washington, and Israel has repeatedly invoked the terror funding to criticize Ramallah in international forums. [I wouldn’t hold my breath on this issue. They will simply lie to the US and do it anyway. – rdb] Senior Palestinian officials told The Times of Israel in December that a fresh willingness to alter the way it pays stipends to Palestinian security prisoners, as well as the families of terrorists and others killed by Israelis, is aimed at laying the groundwork for the new diplomatic push. The administration of US President Joe Biden, who took office in January, has repeatedly urged the PA to halt its policy of “providing compensation for individuals in prison for acts of terrorism.” But just a month ago, PA President Mahmoud Abbas reportedly approved a payment of more than $40,000 to the family of Muhannad Halabi, who killed two Israelis in a 2015 stabbing attack in Jerusalem and was then shot dead by security forces. In March, a Palestine Liberation Organization official told The Times of Israel that Ramallah may have paid as much as NIS 600 million ($181 million) in 2020 in salaries to Palestinians imprisoned by Israel for security offenses and their families. https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-to-withhold-nearly-nis-600-million-from-pa-over-terror-payments/

Amid calm on Gaza border, Israel expands fishing zone, imports and exports Move comes amid international pressure to increase assistance to the Strip, follows meeting between Israeli, Egyptian foreign ministers; Qatari envoy reaches Gaza on Sunday night By Judah Ari Gross Today, 10:35 am Israel on Monday announced a series of relief measures for the Gaza Strip, expanding the coastal enclave’s fishing zone and approving additional imports and exports as relative calm persisted along the border. The move came amid growing international calls for additional humanitarian assistance for the beleaguered enclave, which saw a large-scale conflict between Israel and the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups in May that caused massive destruction to parts of the Strip. Following the 11-day battle, Israel announced it was instituting a new policy vis-à-vis Gaza, significantly limiting what types of aid could enter the enclave until two Israeli civilians and the remains of two fallen Israel Defense Forces soldiers are returned from Hamas captivity. Only food, medical supplies, fuel, animal fodder and “raw materials for critical industries” have been allowed into the territory. Other items, such as frames to rebuild greenhouses destroyed by IDF bombings, are still being barred from entering, a UN official told The Times of Israel, lamenting that Jerusalem had a “very narrow definition of what constitutes humanitarian assistance.” Qatari envoy Mohammad al-Emadi also arrived in the coastal enclave on Sunday night, Palestinian media reported. The continued channeling of Qatari money into Gaza — some $360 million was pledged for 2021 — is a sticking point in the ongoing negotiations. Overall exports from the Gaza Strip were also down 90 percent, the UN official said, noting that only small amounts of agricultural exports and textiles are being allowed out of Gaza but that those goods are barred from entering Israel — a main source of income for the enclave’s export economy. However, the Rafah and Salah a-Din crossings to Egypt have remained open for goods and pedestrians in recent weeks, though the extent of this was not immediately clear. On Monday, Israel’s military liaison body to the Palestinians, known as the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, announced that it was easing those measures somewhat. MORE-https://www.timesofisrael.com/amid-calm-on-gaza- border-israel-expands-fishing-zone-imports-and-exports/

Meeting with Egypt’s FM, Lapid focuses on Israeli captives in Gaza In Brussels, diplomats discuss restarting peace talks with Palestinians, ahead of FM’s address to EU counterparts By Lazar Berman Today, 9:12 pm

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid meets his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry in Brussels, July 11, 2021. (Gabi Farkash, GPO)

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid met with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry in Brussels Sunday evening, on the sidelines of the European Union Foreign Affairs Council meeting. During the hour-long talk, the two diplomats discussed Israel-Palestinian relations, with Shoukry stressing the need to launch peace negotiations and break the impasse between the sides. Lapid and Shoukry also focused on the halting attempts to find a mechanism for rehabilitating the Gaza Strip, following the May conflict between Israel and terror groups in the enclave. Lapid, flanked by Foreign Ministry Director-General Alon Ushpiz and his foreign policy advisor Yair Zivan, stressed the issue of Israeli prisoners in Gaza. Two Israeli civilians and the bodies of two Israel Defense Forces soldiers are currently being held in Gaza. Avraham Avera Mengistu and Hisham a-Sayed entered the Strip of their own accord, and their families say they suffer from mental illness. Hamas is also holding the bodies of Oren Shaul and Hadar Goldin, two IDF soldiers who were killed in the Strip during the 2014 Gaza war. The ministers also discussed cooperation against the threat of terrorism.

Clockwise from top left: Oron Shaul, Avera Mengistu, Hadar Goldin and Hisham al-Sayed. (Flash 90/Courtesy)

The new Israeli foreign minister also gave an interview to an official Egyptian media outlet. An interview by a senior Israeli official in an outlet affiliated with the regime has not occurred in recent years, and indicates an openness by Cairo to having official Israeli positions presented directly to the Egyptian public. On Monday, Lapid will address 26 European Union foreign ministers in the EU Foreign Affairs Council, the first Israeli to do so since Tzipi Livni in 2008. Lapid will seek to reboot relations with Europe, diplomatic sources told the Times of Israel. He will meet with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Sunday night. Lapid will have a private meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday, in addition to bilateral talks with several of his European counterparts. The meeting with Egypt’s top diplomat comes six weeks after Lapid’s predecessor, Gabi Ashkenazi, was in Cairo for the first visit by an Israeli foreign minister in 13 years. Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke on the phone last month and agreed to meet. Egypt has been mediating talks in Cairo between Israel and Hamas since the end of the 11-day conflict in Gaza in May. The talks to find a new arrangement on the rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip have bogged down, with some officials even warning that the sides are heading down a path toward another conflict. Both parties have dug in their heels during the negotiations. Israel has kept a close eye on goods entering the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing, where only limited humanitarian essentials, such as food, medicine and fuel, have been allowed in, and almost all exports have been barred. Defense Minister Benny Gantz has also led a policy conditioning the rehabilitation of the Strip on the return of a pair of Israeli civilians and the bodies of two fallen IDF soldiers being held by Hamas. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar claimed victory over Israel and has not indicated a willingness to make the concessions Israel wants. على هامش زيارته الحالية إلى بروكسل.. وزير الخارجية #سامح_شكري يلتقي نظيره اإلسرائيلي يائير البيد ويؤكد على ضرورة التحرك العاجل نحو حلحلة الجمود الراهن بين الجانبين الفلسطيني واإلسرائيلي وصو اال إلى إطالق yairlapid pic.twitter.com/QaFO5Y859Qمفاوضات سالم عادلة وشاملة. @ — Egypt MFA Spokesperson (@MfaEgypt) July 11, 2021 Israel is also insisting on a change to the manner in which hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid from Qatar is funneled to the Gaza Strip on a monthly basis. It says it will no longer allow the entrance of unmonitored cash that is given to tens of thousands of impoverished families in addition to Hamas civil servants. Israel is instead demanding a new mechanism facilitated by an international observer such as the UN, which would see funds diverted away from the terror group entirely. https://www.timesofisrael.com/meeting-with-egypts-fm-lapid-focuses-on-israeli- captives-in-gaza/

PA’s Abbas calls to congratulate Israel’s new president Isaac Herzog says he hopes to assist in peace efforts; Palestinian leader underlines need for ‘practical steps on the ground’ Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas phoned Israel’s new President Isaac Herzog to congratulate him upon entering office. “I spoke this evening with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who called to congratulate me on entering my new role,” tweeted Herzog. “I thanked him and stressed that it is my intention to continue to maintain ongoing contact with him as past presidents have.” Herzog, whose role is mostly ceremonial, added that he hopes “to assist in advancing relations and with hopes for peace between two nations living side by side.” Abbas’s office confirmed the phone call, adding that the two heads of state discussed the tensions between Israel and the Palestinians. “The president stressed the need to bring about a comprehensive truce in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem,” the Palestinian Authority Presidency said in a statement carried by the official WAFA news agency. According to the statement, Abbas also told Herzog of “the need to take practical steps on the ground to create the conditions for achieving a just and comprehensive peace.” Former opposition leader Herzog took office as president last week, succeeding Reuven Rivlin, for a seven-year term. Abbas is currently in Istanbul on a three-day visit to Turkey. On Saturday, Abbas met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss Turkish-PA relations as well as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “It will not be possible to establish lasting peace and stability in the region as long as Israel’s policies continue,” Erdogan said Saturday, according to the Anadolu News Agency. According to WAFA, Abbas “briefed Erdogan on the recent talks held with the US administration” about the two- state solution, as well as “respecting the historical status quo in the Al-Aqsa Mosque.” MORE- https://www.timesofisrael.com/pas-abbas-calls-to-congratulate-israels-new-president/

Amid mysterious explosions, Iranian ex-MP claims Mossad behind all attacks Former head of parliament’s security and foreign affairs committee says no ‘serious thought’ given to how to cope By TOI staff Today, 10:30 pm A former Iranian lawmaker blamed Israel’s Mossad spy agency for a series of alleged attacks in the country, Iran International TV reported Sunday. Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh said that “no one has given a serious thought to the problem,” of the attacks in the country, according to the UK-based network. Falahatpisheh previously headed the parliament’s committee for national security and foreign affairs. Falahatpisheh also said Israel “is the Islamic Republic’s rival in security and intelligence,” according to the broadcaster, which quoted an interview he gave Sunday to the Etemad newspaper. Last month, another former minister who served as an adviser to the former president Hassan Rouhani said senior officials in Tehran should be afraid due to the “infiltration” of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, the London-based Persian- language Manoto news site reported. Former minister of intelligence Ali Younesi said the “authorities of the Islamic Republic should be concerned about their lives; the Mossad has infiltrated various parts of the country,” according to the report.

Ali Younesi, aide to President Hassan Rouhani. (YouTube screenshot)

The statements came amid a number of cyberattacks and mysterious explosions, fires, and mishaps that have plagued the country in recent months. On Friday, Iran’s railroad system came under cyberattack with hackers posting fake messages about alleged train delays or cancellations on display boards at stations across the country, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. On Monday, an explosion at a state-owned warehouse outside of Tehran caused a major fire at the site. Tehran has yet to provide details on the location and cause of the blast. Last month, a massive fire broke out at the state-owned Tondgooyan Petrochemical Co. oil refinery, which serves Tehran. A blast was believed to have struck a pipeline for liquefied petroleum gas at the facility. No additional information was provided. While many of these have been blamed on foreigners, much is believed to be a result of Iran’s failing infrastructure, which has been hard hit by years of mismanagement and made worse by sanctions. However, numerous explosions have also been reported over the past few years in complexes vital to Iran’s nuclear program and its energy and military sectors The most recent such incident was a drone attack last month that reportedly damaged an Iranian nuclear facility in Karaj, said to have been used for assembling centrifuges for uranium enrichment. https://www.timesofisrael.com/amid-mysterious- explosions-iranian-ex-mp-claims-mossad-behind-all-attacks/ [Iran is in deep financial trouble and with their inflation and other problems they have to have infrastructure difficulties because most of their available budget is spent on arms. However, that doesn’t preclude extra-Iranian influences. – rdb]

US alarmed as Saudi lawsuits threaten to expose secrets Issued on: 11/07/2021 - 04:36Modified: 11/07/2021 - 04:34 Riyadh (AFP) Two lawsuits pitting Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler against a former intelligence czar threaten to expose highly sensitive US government secrets, prompting Washington to consider a rare judicial intervention, documents show. The cases in US and Canadian courts centre on corruption allegations levelled by state-owned Saudi companies against Saad Aljabri, a former spymaster who long worked closely with American officials on covert counterterrorism operations. That marks the latest twist in a long-running feud between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and Aljabri. Aljabri's patron, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef (MBN), is currently in Saudi detention after being deposed as heir to the throne in a 2017 palace coup. The legal drama sheds light on Shakespearean rivalries in the top echelons of the Saudi royal family, but Washington fears that a bitter courtroom showdown risks exposing sensitive information related to its covert operations. A rare US Justice Department filing in a Massachusetts court in April noted Aljabri's intention to "describe information concerning alleged national security activities". "The (US) government is considering whether and how to participate in this action, including if necessary and applicable, through an assertion of appropriate governmental privileges," the filing said, without elaborating. In a second filing a month later, the Justice Department asked the court for more time as national security matters require "'delicate' and 'complex' judgements by senior officials". The filing said the government was prepared to "provide further information" to the court in secret. Legal experts have said Washington could invoke the "state secrets privilege", which would allow it to resist a court-ordered disclosure of information deemed harmful to US national security. The CIA declined to comment to AFP. The Justice Department, which experts say only rarely intervenes in civil lawsuits, did not respond to a request for comment. - 'Vendetta' - Last year, Aljabri alleged in another lawsuit that MBS sent "Tiger Squad" assassins to kill him in Canada, where he lives in exile, while detaining two of his children to pressure him to return home. The feud took a new turn this March when state-run company Sakab Saudi Holding accused Aljabri of embezzling $3.47 billion while working at the Ministry of Interior under MBN. It urged the Massachusetts court to freeze his $29 million Boston property assets. This came weeks after multiple state-owned companies sued Aljabri in Toronto on similar allegations. A Canadian court subsequently announced a worldwide freeze of Aljabri's assets. While denying any financial wrongdoing, Aljabri's legal team says he is caught in the rivalry between MBS and MBN, who has not been publicly seen since his detention in March 2020. State-run Sakab, which court filings say was established in 2008 by MBN, was part of a network of front companies to provide cover for clandestine security operations with the United States. In order to prove his innocence, the court would need to probe Sakab's finances, including how they were used to "finance sensitive programs" operated in partnership with the CIA, the US National Security Agency and the US Defense Department, said a filing by Aljabri. "Dr Saad would never expose covert counterterrorism projects that saved thousands of lives, including Americans," a source close to the former spymaster told AFP. "Unfortunately, MBS's blind vendetta against Dr Saad has cornered him in a position where he is compelled to do so in order to defend himself in court." - 'Endanger lives' – MORE- https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210711-us-alarmed-as-saudi-lawsuits-threaten-to- expose-secrets?ref=tw [HUMMMM? So just what was this fellow doing with he US “intelligence” groups and how did he get that much moolah. Considering everything that has been going on it might be most important for all of that information to be open to the public. The US government has much to mush ‘top secret classified info”. – rdb]

Defense lawyer injects reality into feds' Capitol-protest prosecution 'It's such a scintillating read that it could be a movie' By Bob Unruh Published July 11, 2021 at 11:49am Federal prosecutors appear to be moving toward a close encounter with reality in their attempts to prosecute some of those who were at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 when some protesters turned into rioters and broke windows, doors and did other vandalism. But others were there, and did not vandalize anything. Some, in fact, entered the building in front of police officers who held doors open. Still, federal prosecutors have arrested hundreds of people who were identified by videos made on that day, or were turned in by their neighbors. Some have been behind bars ever since as prosecutors add new paperwork to their court files regularly, some have been charged, and a handful have reached agreements, generally for punishments including probation. But a new report from PJMedia now reveals how the foundations for some cases is shaking. The report profiled the case involving Thomas Edward Caldwell, whose lawyer now has asked a federal judge to move the case out of "Trump-hating" Washington, D.C. He was the first protester to be arrested after the events that included a police officer shooting and killing an unarmed woman. The report said, "The coverage of his arrest set the tone for media coverage of all other arrestees in the Department of Justice's 'shock and awe' plan to root out alleged 'white nationalist' militancy." But Caldwell's lawyer, Attorney David W. Fischer, is raising some serious concerns. He wants the case moved to the Western District of Virginia where "there are fewer people who 'despise many things that traditional America stands for' and who have less 'petulant intolerance for those with differing views,'" the report explains. After all, only 5% of Washington residents voted for Trump, and many believed the debunked claims by Democrats, pushed for years during Trump's presidency, that he colluded with Russia. Caldwell, a 20-year Navy veteran, is accused of conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding, entering and remaining in a restricted area, and tampering with documents or proceedings. But his lawyer has submitted to the court that he is not a "white supremacist," did not suggest "gassing" members of Congress and did not lead Oath Keepers, since he's not even a member. "The motion for the change-of-venue is a near-complete takedown of the efforts undertaken by federal investigators and prosecutors to poison the jury pool and media coverage, which, let’s be honest, isn’t hard. It’s such a scintillating read that it could be a movie," PJMedia said. The report went on: "The defense motion claims that prosecutors 'knowingly disseminated false and incendiary claims' that Caldwell and others planned to sack the Capitol and 'execute' people when they had no evidence for it – not even after conducting a 'cyber colonoscopy' on cell phones and computers. There was no 'plan,' Caldwell’s attorney claims. That allegation was based on 'a rumor started by government bureaucrats attempting to cover up their incompetent leadership.'" Prosecutors have, in his case, made claims, and then backed away, several times. Among the more egregious statements was that Caldwell and others were trying to trap and kill members of Congress, that he was on an "execution squad." Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin also gave a "reckless" interview about the case that implied sedition charges could be coming, the report said. Among many others, those "prosecutorial whoppers" mean the case needs to be moved, the defense contends. Further, the defense explained it would be impossible to find a neutral jury in Washington for a number of reasons listed by Fischer: MORE- https://www.wnd.com/2021/07/defense-lawyer-injects-reality-feds-capitol-protest-prosecution/ [It is the demon-rats and the DOJ, FBI and CIA that need to be investigated and prosecuted. – rdb]

FBI goes ‘American Stasi’ with tweet encouraging family members to rat each other out for ‘extremism’ 11 Jul, 2021 15:56 The FBI has asked Americans to examine their own family members for signs of “homegrown violent extremism,” and report them. The call for snitches comes as the FBI turns its surveillance powers on regular Americans. “Family members and peers are often best positioned to witness signs of mobilization to violence,” read a tweet from the FBI on Sunday. To help prevent “homegrown violent extremism,” the agency advises Americans to visit its website, “to learn how to spot suspicious behaviors and report them to the FBI.” Family members and peers are often best positioned to witness signs of mobilization to violence. Help prevent homegrown violent extremism. Visit https://t.co/bql36iSbig to learn how to spot suspicious behaviors and report them to the #FBI. #NatSecpic.twitter.com/ZwJp5h5bWD — FBI (@FBI) July 11, 2021 The link provided by the FBI brings visitors to a 2019 document listing “mobilization indicators” that may suggest an individual is preparing to engage in terrorism – for example, “preparing and disseminating a martyrdom video,” “communicating directly with violent extremists online,” and “preparing to travel to fight with or support terrorist groups.” The indicators and imagery used in the document suggest that its focus was on radical Islamic terrorism, but the FBI, along with the rest of the US security apparatus, has in recent months has turned its surveillance powers on white, conservative America. Since the pro-Trump riot on Capitol Hill in January, FBI Director Christopher Wray has testified before Congress that the anti-government sentiment responsible for the affray has been “metastasizing” in the US for years, and that “the problem of domestic terrorism ... is not going away anytime soon.” Former Assistant Director Frank Figliuzzi was more explicit last month when he called for the arrest of high-level Republicans to “really tackle terrorism, this time domestically.” MORE- https://www.rt.com/usa/528936-fbi-family-extremism-stasi/ [The DC snoops need to be completely disbanded. The oversight committees need to do their job and literally completely reign this vile critters in and start jailing those who are overstepping their boundaries starting with Clapper, Comey and McCabe – rdb]

Confirm-your-Amazon-order scam goes big-time Identified as one of the largest ripoffs on the planet By WND News Services Published July 11, 2021 at 1:00pm By John. F. Wasik Real Clear Investigations The email smelled as bad as week-old fish: It was a screenshot of a $1,000 cellphone I had supposedly bought on Amazon. I quickly checked my Amazon account. No purchase was recorded. Then I checked my credit card account. Ditto. This was clearly a scam and the real action was the “Amazon” order number and phone number, with a Philadelphia area code, included on the email. I dialed the number. The man who answered sounded unprofessional but he was all business: He immediately wanted to know my credit card information to “verify.” I asked him how he got my email. Agitated, he repeated his demand for a card number. When I told him I knew he wasn’t legit, he hung up. Turns out, I had been caught up in one of the largest ongoing scams on the planet. It’s estimated that hundreds of millions of potential marks are targeted by the confirm-your-Amazon-transaction ruse each month by email or robocall, according to YouMail, a phone security company. Although media attention focuses on high-tech operations, such as the recent spate of ransomware attacks on big enterprises, these consumer-based scams appear far more ubiquitous and are less sophisticated than the headline-grabbing cybercrimes. They illustrate how cons preying on people’s trust have evolved from one of the oldest tricks in the book — brand fraud — which used to mean knockoff Rolexes, Louis Vuitton handbags and, much earlier, cattle rustling. Caveat emptor, pilgrim. Now, after the global coronavirus pandemic made people more homebound, scammers have turned to trusted brands including Amazon, Apple, and warehouse retailer Costco as decoys in their relentless quest. The torrent of fake online inquiries and offers reached spectacular levels during the last year when millions were stuck at home and ordered online. Costco, for example, is falsely cited in at least 13 different scams targeting online shoppers. Cybercriminals have used a number of methods to gain customer information including a fake customer satisfaction survey promising “exclusive awards of up to $500,” giveaways, free HDTVs, and a “2% reward redemption” and “overcharge reimbursement.” The retailer provides screen shots of the fraudulent offers on its customer service website. “It is an unfortunate fact of the Internet that at any given time there are numerous illegitimate pop-up ads, surveys, websites, emails, social media posts and advertisements that purport to be from or authorized by Costco,” the company states on its website. “Unsolicited electronic communications from Costco do not ask for your personal information.” Scammers are also invoking smaller trusted names. Mary Johnson, an analyst for the Senior Citizens League, found that her name was used as a decoy in one scam. “The emails were impersonating me, using a fake phone number,” she said. “These scamsters are getting extremely brazen. I can’t say if the scammer who was impersonating me was part of an Amazon scam. I only know that a scammer had contacted a supporter of The Senior Citizens League, and that individual’s daughter contacted me to check out the phone number used.” Traditional cons have long played on people’s desire to be the lucky one in the crowd who gets something for nothing, and so these clickbait frauds often invoke key words such as “exclusive,” “survey,” “reward,” “redeem” and “gift cards.” The swindles fall into broader consumer theft categories of identity theft, fake prizes/sweepstakes, Internet merchandise and “spoofing.” Swindlers often use a technique called “pharming” that directs Internet traffic from a legitimate site to a look-alike homepage explicitly designed to grift personal account information, Social Security numbers, PINs and addresses. The scammers don’t require much more than cheap router to blast out emails and robocalls – it costs $100 to $200 to make 1 million calls – and the unauthorized use of corporate logos. These frauds are part of an unrelenting, metastasizing cybercrime trend that targets consumers, businesses and government 24/7. And there’s plenty to be worried about: Online consumer threats rose 82% in 2020, according to Atlas VPN, a cybersecurity firm. Apple’s website warns consumers about fake calls or emails that pretend to alert potential victims through “pop-ups and ads that say your device has a security problem.” They may also issue bogus warnings of an “iPhone calendar virus,” “iCloud locked email,” or a “breached” account, according to scam-detector.com. Despite the variety of approaches, the core emotional trap of these scams typically is to scare and implore you to call, click or email to quickly reveal account information. Criminals may even send fake texts with the same intent, a practice known as “smishing.” They may also pretend to be from Apple, Costco or other large retailers. Although exact numbers are difficult to come by – since the majority of these come-ons are never reported – it was clear that scamsters took advantage of the blizzard of online commerce during the pandemic lockdown. Plugging "Amazon" into the Better Business Bureau Scamtracker site, which tracks complaints made to the organization, shows reported scams more than doubling between March 14, 2020 through June 14, 2021 from the comparable period starting in 2019 -- the rise coming roughly from the start of the pandemic to the reopening date for most businesses and organizations. This is just a tiny sampling of the larger problem, though: Online purchase scams made up 38.3% of all scams reported to the BBB site in 2020, up from 24.3% in 2019. Fraud merchants have gotten more creative over the past year in bamboozling Amazon customers. There are several variations of these swindles out there now, according to scam-detector.com: Free gifts. These fake offers range from PlayStations to “massage guns.” Gift cards. They may be falsely tied into Amazon Prime or the company’s anniversary. Locked Account. The ruse is similar to other scams that claim to freeze your account. They get you to call out of fear. They even may state that your “Amazon Prime Account was breached.” Login attempts, shopping credits, reviews. Again, no one from Amazon will call you on these illegitimate messages. Many of the scams can be spotted by scrutinizing for misspellings. Shipping. The scammer will steal an order and ship you an empty box or an email with an incorrect shipping address with a phishing link. Confirm a Recent Transaction. This is the one I mentioned above. You call and they want to steal your personal information. The swindles are a numbers game. Even though the vast majority of people do not take the bait, even a tiny fraction of hundreds of millions is still large. Since consumers do so many transactions online, it can be hard for distracted shoppers to keep track of their online retail orders, even those made by people using their stolen information. John Breyault, vice president of public policy telecommunications and fraud for the National Consumers League, said that three Amazon-linked scams his organization hears from consumers often about involve “clicking on [email phishing] links, compromised accounts and updating payment information.” The Federal Trade Commission has frequently warned against the scams – and is empowered to police them – but they are too numerous to crack down on or shut down. Keep in mind that, like similar swindles falsely invoking the IRS, Medicare or Social Security, giant retailers and government agencies seldom call you directly unless you call them first. The FTC did not respond to a request for comment. (RealClearInvestigations filed a Freedom of Information Act request for specific reports on these retail scams. The FTC’s FOIA system noted that the request was “closed” without delivering any information requested.) All government watchdog agencies have been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of scams, many involving relentless robocalls and even fake unemployment claims. MORE- https://www.wnd.com/2021/07/confirm-amazon-order-scam- goes-big-time/ [This problem is enormous! I get probably 1 - 3 of these scam emails and many more scam texts or phone calls most every day. If you don’t personally know the person calling or texting or on the email, ignore them. Many of the emails will have fake logos on them. If you get something and think it might be from a company you deal with, go on line and look up the company phone number and call them or better yet go to your credit card or receipts to find the number to call. – rdb]

Man vandalizes Hunter Biden art gallery by spray-painting ‘Daddy’, assaults gallery employee, gets arrested 11 Jul, 2021 16:00 A man has been arrested in New York after being accused of vandalizing Hunter Biden’s art gallery and assaulting an employee who attempted to stop him. Rodrick Webber, 47, allegedly spray-painted the word “Daddy” on a wall inside the New York City art gallery. Webber later revealed to investigators that he was trying to write the phrase “Daddy is a war criminal” on the wall, in reference to Hunter Biden’s father, President Joe Biden. Webber could not finish his message as he was approached by a gallery employee who attempted to stop him, and who was then allegedly assaulted. The vandalism reportedly damaged a painting worth over $14,000, though none of Biden’s paintings were ruined. Biden’s fall show will reportedly be bringing in figures as high as $500,000. The upcoming show has faced scrutiny from critics, who have described the costly art show as an ethical issue for the administration, especially considering past allegations of corruption against Hunter Biden. In response to the controversy, the White House helped draft an agreement with the gallery keeping all buyers anonymous, even from the artist himself – a move that has only earned further criticism and concern. “The president has established the highest ethical standards of any administration in American history, and his family’s commitment to rigorous processes like this is a prime example,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement. [That is a huge pile of manure – rdb] Webber said his protest had nothing to do with Hunter Biden’s art, and everything to do with his father’s alleged “war crimes.” The man told the New York Post that he was also suspicious of the prices Biden’s artwork is demanding. “While Hunter Biden and his artwork is, you know, it’s not bad, it’s curious to me that it’s raising prices of half a million dollars just out of the blue. It says to me that there’s some kind of malfeasance there,” he said. In a previous social media post, Webber accused the art gallery hosting Hunter Biden’s work of supporting a “war crime family.” Webber also appeared to defend the physical incident with the gallery worker, saying, “his big a** girthy body was on top of me.” According to Webber, the employee actually assaulted him and he is open to filing a civil suit in the future. The alleged vandal has been charged with criminal mischief and assault. https://www.rt.com/usa/528937-hunter-biden- paintings-vandalized/ [This is simply one more “Bi-dumb” scam to feed more moolah to their family. – rdb]

Commentary: Defund the NEA Rob Jenkins Posted: Jul 11, 2021 12:01 AM America’s big teachers’ unions have essentially declared war on parents—and not just conservative, Christian parents: on all rational, fair-minded parents who are not completely on board with hateful, racist Critical Race Theory and other radical ideologies being pushed by the far-left unions. And that includes many minority parents. In a statement last week, the National Education Association declared CRT “reasonable and appropriate” and vowed to “fight back against anti-CRT rhetoric.” Well, okey-doke. If it’s a fight they want, I say we give it to them. Meanwhile, the American Federation of Teachers has for months been at the forefront of efforts to keep schools closed and force masks on those children who do attend in person. AFT officials even helped formulate the CDC’s “guidance” on school masking and reopening. Now they’re among the groups pushing experimental vaccines for young children, who are already at lower risk from COVID than vaccinated older adults. Sadly, these latest salvos from the unions are hardly surprising, nor are they anything particularly new—just a little more brazen than usual. Perhaps union leaders feel emboldened by the spectacle of so many decent people behaving like lemmings for the past 16 months in the face of authoritarian government overreach. Nothing entices incipient totalitarians out of their closets quite like watching their fellow travelers succeed. Indeed, K-12 education has always been one of those annoying professions where practitioners tend to feel superior and behave arrogantly—kind of like medicine, except physicians can at least lay claim to highly specialized knowledge and skills. Your doctor may actually know more than you—although, in the wake of so much stupid COVID advice, we have to wonder—but your child’s teacher almost certainly does not. Yet she will probably act like it, if for any reason you have to interact with her. Having seen four children through public school, I can attest to that. Most teachers are utterly convinced they know far more about what’s good for your child than you do—and administrators are even worse. Not all teachers are like that, of course. Nevertheless, this mindset is endemic within the profession. Collectively, they literally consider your children to be theirs, believing they know better how to raise them and, as representatives of the state, have more right to do so. Unions are merely the embodiment of that attitude. Again, this is not meant to paint all teachers with a broad brush. The unions do not represent all of them. Many, as I wrote several weeks ago, are our allies in this fight—and that probably includes quite a few who are actually on the unions’ membership rolls. For that reason, I call on all teachers of good will to prove they are truly allies of parents and students—to join our side, the side of justice and truth, in this war their unions have declared. And there is one key action they can take immediately that will make all the difference: They can resign from the union and stop paying dues—or refuse to join if they haven’t already. Because the best way to ultimately defeat the teachers’ unions, I’m convinced, is to cut off their funding source. Without the millions they rake in each year from members’ dues, they have no money to carry out their hideous, anti-American, anti-child agenda. Nor, if their membership rolls dwindle sufficiently, can they claim to represent any significant majority of teachers. I understand that, in many states, teachers are more or less “forced” to join a union. But did you know that’s illegal? In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees that unions could no longer force workers to pay dues. That means, even in non-right-to-work states, teachers don’t have to join the union if they don’t want to. Note, by the way, that this ruling applies specifically to public-sector unions. Yes, local school systems, individual administrators, and even their peers might exert various forms of pressure on teachers to join. But according to SCOTUS, legally, the choice is still theirs. For teachers in right-to-work states—which is say, mostly Red states—leaving (or refusing to join) the union should be easier. I know first-hand that a lot of teachers join just for the perks, like insurance and free legal representation in case they’re sued. Fortunately, there are non-partisan alternatives to the NEA and AFT that offer many of the same benefits, such as theAssociation of American Educators. The bottom line, teachers, is this: Either you’re for us or you’re against us. Either you agree to teach the truth about America’s history while promoting equality and understanding or you prefer to teach dishonest, divisive CRT. Either you want to see our children’s beautiful, precious faces each morning, or you insist on hiding them behind a filthy piece of cloth. Either you believe in educating kids in core academic subjects, or you wish to see them indoctrinated into a far-left worldview. There can no longer be any middle ground. You must choose a side. If you continue to support the NEA or the AFT with your dues, then you have made your choice. And we will treat you accordingly. Meanwhile, if you choose correctly, and it doesn’t seem to work out—if you lose your job or get forced out of your school—well, take courage. I have a feeling there will be a great need for good teachers in the hundreds of small, private schools and home-study groups that will soon be springing up across the land as parents do THEIR part to defund the NEA—by removing their children from the public schools. After all, fewer students equals fewer dues-paying teachers. https://townhall.com/columnists/robjenkins/2021/07/11/defund-the-nea- n2592338

China: Fragile Giant I’ve made many visits to China over the past thirty years and have been careful to move beyond Beijing (the political capital) and Shanghai (the financial capital) on these trips. My visits have included Chongqing, Wuhan (the origin of the coronavirus outbreak), Xian, Nanjing, new construction sites to visit “ghost cities,” and trips to the agrarian countryside. My trips included meetings with government and Communist Party officials and numerous conversations with everyday Chinese people. These trips have been supplemented by reading an extensive number of books on the history, culture and politics of China from 3,000 BC to the present. This background gives me a much broader perspective on current developments in China. In short, my experience with China goes well beyond media outlets and talking heads. An objective analysis of China must begin with its enormous strengths. China has the third-largest territory in the world, with the world’s largest population (although soon to be overtaken by India). China also has the fifth-largest nuclear arsenal in the world, with over 280 nuclear warheads. This is about the same as the U.K. and France but well behind Russia (6,490) and the U.S. (6,450). China is the largest gold producer in the world at about 500 metric tonnes per year. Its economy is the second-largest economy in the world — behind only the U.S. China’s foreign exchange reserves (including gold) are the largest in the world. By these diverse measures of population, territory, military strength and economic output, China is clearly a global super- power and the dominant presence in East Asia. Yet, these blockbuster statistics hide as much as they reveal. China’s per capita income is under $12,000 per person compared to per capita income of about $64,000 in the United States. Put differently, the U.S. is only 38% richer than China on a gross basis, but it is 500% richer than China on a per capita basis (of course the massive economic fallout from the coronavirus will have an impact). China’s military is growing stronger and more sophisticated, but it still falls short against the U.S. military when it comes to aircraft carriers, nuclear warheads, submarines, fighter aircraft and strategic bombers. Most importantly, at under $12,000 per capita GDP, China is stuck squarely in the “middle income trap” as defined by development economists. The path from low income (about $5,000 per capita) to middle-income (about $10,000 per capita) is fairly straightforward and mostly involves reduced corruption, direct foreign investment and migration from the countryside to cities to pursue assembly-style jobs. The path from middle-income to high-income (about $20,000 per capita) is much more difficult and involves creation and deployment of high-technology and manufacture of high-value-added goods. Among developing economies (excluding oil producers), only Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea have successfully made this transition since World War II. All other developing economies in Latin America, Africa, South Asia and the Middle East including giants such as Brazil and Turkey remain stuck in the middle-income ranks. China remains reliant on assembly-style jobs and has shown no promise of breaking into the high-income ranks. To escape the middle income trap requires more than cheap labor and infrastructure investment. It requires applied technology to produce high-value added products. This explains why China has been so focused on stealing U.S. intellectual property. China has not shown much capacity for developing high technology on its own, but it has been quite effective at stealing such technology from trading partners and applying it through its own system of state-owned enterprises and “national champions” such as Huawei in the telecommunications sector. But the U.S. and other countries are cracking down on China’s technology theft and China cannot generate the needed technology through its own R&D. In short, and despite enormous annual growth in the past twenty years, China remains fundamentally a poor country with limited ability to improve the well-being of its citizens much beyond what has already been achieved. And that has serious implications for China’s leadership… China’s economy is not just about providing jobs, goods and services. It is about regime survival for a Chinese Communist Party that faces an existential crisis if it fails to deliver. It’s an illegitimate regime that will remain in power only so long as it provides jobs and a rising living standard for the Chinese people. The overriding imperative of the Chinese leadership is to avoid societal unrest. If China’s job machine seizes, as parts of it did during the coronavirus outbreak, Beijing fears that popular unrest could emerge on a potentially scale much greater than the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. This is an existential threat to Communist power. President Xi Jinping could quickly lose what the Chinese call, “The Mandate of Heaven.” That’s a term that describes the intangible goodwill and popular support needed by emperors to rule China for the past 3,000 years. If The Mandate of Heaven is lost, a ruler can fall quickly. Even before the crisis, China has had serious structural economic problems that are finally catching up with it. China is so heavily indebted that it’s at the point where more debt does not produce growth. Adding additional debt today slows the economy and calls into question China’s ability to service its existing debt. China also confronts an insolvent banking system and a real estate bubble. Up to half of China’s investment is a complete waste. It does produce jobs and utilize inputs like cement, steel, copper and glass. But the finished product, whether a city, train station or sports arena, is often a white elephant that will remain unused. The Chinese landscape is littered with “ghost cities” that have resulted from China’s wasted investment and flawed development model. Essentially, China is on the horns of a dilemma with no good way out. China has driven growth with excessive credit, wasted infrastructure investment and Ponzi schemes. The Chinese leadership knows this, but they had to keep the growth machine in high gear to create jobs for millions of migrants coming from the countryside to the city and to maintain jobs for the millions more already in the cities. The two ways to get rid of debt are deflation (which results in write-offs, bankruptcies and unemployment) or inflation (which results in theft of purchasing power, similar to a tax increase). Both alternatives are unacceptable to the Communists because they lack the political legitimacy to endure either unemployment or inflation. Either policy would cause social unrest and unleash revolutionary potential. China also has serious demographic challenges that will limit future growth… In 1980, China instituted a one-child policy in an effort to control population growth. But the 1980 announcement was really a matter of formalizing an existing policy. The Chinese have a cultural preference for boys over girls. So, when the one-child policy was implemented, the Chinese used pre-natal tests to determine sex and then aborted the girls. At a more crude level, families kept buckets of water next to birthing beds so that if a girl was born she could be drowned immediately. It is estimated that between 20 million to 30 million baby girls were killed this way, resulting in an equivalent surplus of men over women. These excess men will never find wives in China. Since women can be selective about husbands, it follows that the 30 million excess men will be the least talented and poorest in Chinese society. This cohort is highly prone to antisocial behavior, including alcohol and drug abuse and violence. The demographic time bomb is now detonating. The missing children from thirty or forty years ago are the missing prime age workers of today. The Chinese economy grew strongly from 1995 to 2010, mainly because of a rural-to-urban migration and the rise of assembly-style manufacturing jobs. Now the migration is over, the assembly-style jobs are moving to Vietnam and India, and China’s lack of high-value- added technology has left it stuck in the slow-growth middle-income trap. China might have overcome this through the sheer weight of low-wage workers, but they don’t exist. China will lose over 100 million workers in the next ten years due to aging, retirement and the absence of working-age replacements. China is now trying to undo the demographic damage with a new “three-child policy.” But, it’s too late. Demographic disasters take thirty years or more to create and they can take thirty years or more to cure. For the next thirty years, China’s worker shortage will be a drain on growth. Regards, Jim Rickards https://dailyreckoning.com/china-fragile-giant/

THE SHORASHIM BIBLICAL GIFT CATALOG 005 http://mad.ly/7f9f64?pact=20013931524&fe=1 Support Shorashim! ARUTZ SHEVA Passengers to Miami ordered to keep hands on their heads Citing a security threat, aircrew ordered passengers on American Airlines flight to keep their hands on their heads for an entire hour. Arutz Sheva Staff , Jul 11 , 2021 7:32 PM Passengers on a recent flight to Miami, Florida were ordered to raise their hands and keep them on their heads for roughly an hour prior to landing, due to a possible threat to security, witnesses reported. All passengers on last Wednesday’s American Airlines Flight 2289 from Los Angeles to Miami were instructed by the flight crew to keep their hands on their hands and not to film the incident with their cameras, passengers said. “Passengers were ordered to put their hands on their heads for 45-60 minutes before landing,” one passenger, Chris Nguyen, tweeted. “Strangely, passengers were repeatedly told not to film on the plane.” The flight crew did not elaborate on the reasons for the unusual instructions, merely saying there was a “possible security threat”. After the plane landed, armed police officers boarded the aircraft and made an arrest. In a statement to The Independent, American Airlines confirmed the incident, but declined to specify the nature of the security threat. “On July 7, American Airlines flight 2289, a Boeing 777-300 operating from Los Angeles (LAX) to Miami (MIA), was met by law enforcement upon landing at MIA due to a possible security threat on board.” “Passengers were deplaned and bused to the terminal, and the aircraft was inspected by authorities. Safety and security is our top priority and we apologize to our customers for any inconvenience this caused.” https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309649 [That must have been a MOST interesting flight. I am surprised that half the passengers were not hysterical. – rdb]

Israeli Bedouin transferred information to Iranian intelligence Bedouin from the Negev arrested after he allegedly gave information to Iranian agent. Arutz Sheva Staff , Jul 12 , 2021 2:13 PM | updated: 2:18 PM An Israeli Bedouin man handed over information to Iranian intelligence officials recently, Israel security authorities revealed Monday afternoon. The suspect in question, identified as Yakub Abu al- Kayen, a Bedouin from the town of Hura in southern Israel, was arrested on June 10th after he allegedly illegally transferred information to Iran. According to Israeli security officials, Abu al-Kayen made the transfer via a Lebanese-Iraqi proxy. Investigators found that Abu al-Kayen – who has close ties to several prominent figures in Israel – was in contact with Khaider al-Mashhadani, an agent for Iran’s intelligence gathering efforts. Abu al- Kayen briefly ran for the Knesset on former Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon's 'Telem' list, which later dropped out of the race. While in contact with al-Mashhadani, Abu al-Kayen is said to have kept Iran up to date on recent events in Israel. The two were also reportedly involved in joint business ventures. Though Abu al-Kayen was initially unaware that al-Mashhadani was working on behalf of Iranian intelligence, once he realized whom al-Mashhadani was working for, Abu al-Kayen was not deterred from continuing to work with the Iranian agent, and even sought a meeting with al-Mashhadani's handlers, though the meeting was never held. On Monday, Southern District prosecutors filed espionage charges against Abu al-Kayen in the Southern District Court in Beersheba. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309690

Trump-appointed Social Security chief defies Biden, vows to stay Andrew Saul, Social Security Administration Commissioner installed by Trump and fired by Biden, vows to stay in the post. Ron Kampeas, JTA , Jul 12 , 2021 7:12 AM The Social Security Administration Commissioner who President Joe Biden fired last week, claimed the move was illegal and vowed to stay in the post. Saul, a businessman who has donated heavily to Jewish causes, gave the comment to The Washington Post on Friday. Biden said the Trump-appointed official was thwarting changes that Biden wanted at the agency. The government is able to cut off access to computer networks, so it’s not clear what options Saul has. Democrats, government unions, and advocates for the disabled and the elderly had all pressed for the removal of Saul. “Since taking office, Commissioner Saul has undermined and politicized Social Security disability benefits, terminated the agency’s telework policy that was utilized by up to 25 percent of the agency’s workforce, not repaired SSA’s relationships with relevant Federal employee unions including in the context of COVID-19 workplace safety planning, reduced due process protections for benefits appeals hearings, and taken other actions that run contrary to the mission of the agency and the President’s policy agenda,” the White House said in a statement to the Post. Saul said he had made the administration more efficient and had stemmed what he said was an abuse of work from home policies. “I quite frankly feel I’m doing an excellent job there," he said. His term was due to last through 2025. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, said the firing “politicized” the agency. Saul, also a major donor to the Republican Party, was a classmate of Donald Trump at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. MORE- https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309668 [Good for him. It is time for more people to buck the interlopers. – rdb] To be removed from this News list, Please click here and put "Unsubscribe" in the subject line.                        