01/17/2021 NEWS AM Shuli Rand & Motty Steinmetz Tzama https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMGsMZxoAdU

Psalm 63 My soul thirsts for you how much you have flesh in the land of Zion and tired without water

"Political tags -- such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth -- are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire." -- Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer Source: The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

Read the Prophets & PRAY WITHOUT CEASING! That is the only hope of this nation! Plead for Grace and Mercy

Please That the world would - W A K E U P. remember Time for a worldwide repentance! these folks in prayer- Check ALL US soldiers fighting for our freedom around the world, Pray for those in our often – they government to repent of their wicked corrupt ways. Pray for WS – Passed away – pray for family change Pray for DN and his mother. Doing much beter Pray for RP – Question of cancer undergoing workup -is doing well. Still confused as to source Pray for LAC – recurrent cancer getting treatment Pray for Ella – emotionally disturbed abused child and brother with ? heart problem Pray for JN – Neuro disease Pray for MS – Job issues and change Pray for BB – Severe West Nile Fever –still not mobile- improving! Pray for RBH – cancer recurrence Pray for Felicia – post op problems – continuing Pray for SH and family – lady’s husband passed away and she is in Nursing home. Not doing well. Pray for MP – Very complex problems Pray that The Holy One will lead you in Your preparations for handling the world problems. – Have YOU made any preparations?

Genesis 14:8And the king of Sodom goeth out, and the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Admah, and the king of Zeboim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar; and they set the battle in array with them in the valley of Siddim, 9with Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goyim, and Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar; four kings with the five. 10And the valley of Siddim is full of bitumen-pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah flee, and fall there, and those left have fled to the mountain. 11And they take the whole substance of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the whole of their food, and go away; 12and they take Lot, Abram's brother's son (seeing he is dwelling in Sodom), and his substance, and go away.

ETBPF has a new venue called Discord. It is a private web site where we are posting news and the daily news posting and you can respond with posts if you want. This ‘app’ can be used almost like facebook and twitter but without the intervention. We are just starting it and a bit slow to learn how to use it but it helps keep us off the Big Guys. It is a freebee and private. We have set levels of access to make sure only real responsible people are able to access. You can look at and join by going to: https://discord.gg/4576x47ezN

‘Inoculate for corruption’ — anti-Netanyahu activists rally for 30th week Thousands gather in Jerusalem, Caesarea, and around the country to demonstrate against the prime minister on trial By TOI staff Today, 11:03 pm

People protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside his official residence in Jerusalem, on January 16, 2021 (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Thousands of protesters gathered outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem Saturday night for the 30th week of demonstrations against the premier over his indictment on graft charges and handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. A group of demonstrators marched from the Chords Bridge at the main entrance to the city down Jaffa Street on their way to Paris Square, adjacent to the Prime Minister’s Residence. Smaller protests were also held outside Netanyahu’s home in the coastal town of Caesarea and at highway overpasses and junctions across the country. המחאה נגד נתניהו: מפגינים צועדים מגשר המיתרים בכניסה לירושלים לכיוון כיכר pic.twitter.com/9MmdLp07qi )צילום: יוני לוי( SuleimanMas1פריז@ kann_news) January 16, 2021@) כאן חדשות — As Israel continues its massive vaccination campaign against coronavirus, in Caesarea demonstrators rallied under the tagline “Inoculation needed for corruption.” Demonstrators have been holding regular protests for months against Netanyahu, demanding he resign over his trial on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. They have also criticized his government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Netanyahu denies wrongdoing and claims the indictments are part of an effort by political rivals, the media, police and prosecutors to remove him from office. On Tuesday, the High Court of Justice heard a petition against controversial legislation granting the government emergency powers to limit protests during the COVID-19 pandemic. The law was approved in September amid a nationwide surge in coronavirus cases. It forbade Israelis from traveling more than a kilometer (0.6 miles) from home to protest and required protesters to demonstrate in socially distanced capsules, effectively stifling mass rallies outside Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem, the epicenter of an ongoing popular effort against the premier over his indictment on graft charges and handling of the pandemic.

People protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside his official residence in Jerusalem, on January 16, 2021 (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

A petition was filed against the legislation and in October the High Court ordered the government to explain why the law shouldn’t be thrown out. After the law was passed, Netanyahu said the restrictions were driven by safety concerns as the country battled a runaway pandemic, but critics and protesters accused him of tightening the lockdown to muzzle dissent. However, the protest ban appeared to have only further motivated demonstrators, with tens of thousands rallying in socially distanced protests throughout the country while it was in effect. The government didn’t reimpose the ban as part of renewed lockdown measures currently in force. https://www.timesofisrael.com/inoculate-for-corruption-anti-netanyahu-activists-rally-for-30th-week/ [ I still think you need to look at who is funding the demonstrators because with all this going on someone has to be in charge and coordinating everything and I have a great suspicion as to who that would be. – rdb]

Arab mayors to meet with Netanyahu on community violence; some call for boycott Municipal heads said to agree limited delegation will take part in Sunday’s video conference call on killings; but critics say PM using it for election campaign By TOI staff Today, 6:14 pm Arab Israeli municipal leaders met Saturday to discuss an upcoming video conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as some called to boycott the meeting. The video conference meeting, scheduled for Sunday, is to focus on violence in Arab Israeli communities. The talks come as Netanyahu seeks the support of Arab voters ahead of the March 23 Knesset elections, in a marked reversal from his Likud party’s previous unfounded claims of electoral fraud in Arab communities and repeated attacks on Arab lawmakers. The talks were initiated by Modiin Mayor Haim Bibas, head of the Federation of Local Authorities and a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, and Ar’ara Mayor Modar Younis, chairman of the committee of Arab municipal chiefs. Bibas is pushing to use 15 percent of the budget earmarked for the development of Arab communities to fund a plan to combat violence and crime in those communities, which last year saw a record number of homicides. Those who called to boycott the meeting included the mayors of Kafr Kanna, Sakhnin, Arraba, Kaukab Abu al-Hija, and Tira, who argued Netanyahu was seeking to use the meeting for political ends. “For thirteen years Bibi didn’t do anything,” Shfar’am Mayor Orsan Yassin was quoted saying by the Walla news site, using Netanyahu’s nickname. “The meeting with him is part of an election campaign and I’m not part of it.” The committee decided a limited delegation would take part in the meeting with Netanyahu, according to the news site. Ahead of Saturday’s talks, a number of mayors issued statements saying they would boycott the meeting with Netanyahu. “If the purpose is electioneering, I won’t be part of the exploitation of the blood of our youngsters as part of electioneering,” Kafr Kanna Mayor Yousef Awawdi said. Sunday’s meeting follows Netanyahu’s rare visit Wednesday to Nazareth, during which he pledged to pass a wide- ranging plan to combat violence and organized crime in Arab communities “very soon.” In opinion polls, Arab Israelis have consistently pointed to solving the violence in Arab communities as their highest priority — the murder rate has gone up nearly 50 percent in four years. During the visit, Netanyahu said a 2015 video broadcast in which he urged Likud voters to go vote because “the Arabs are voting in droves” had been twisted by his political opponents. “They twisted my words,” said Netanyahu, claiming that “my intention was not to protest against the fact of Arab citizens voting in elections,” but rather “to protest against their voting for the [Arab-majority] Joint List party.” MORE - https://www.timesofisrael.com/arab-mayors-to-meet-with-netanyahu-on-community-violence-some-call-for-boycott/

Coronavirus: Antibodies may not stop transmission of virus, study finds "We will have to keep wearing masks for the younger population and those who are not vaccinated." By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN JANUARY 16, 2021 16:05 People who have previously been infected with coronavirus and who are themselves protected by antibodies could still carry the virus and infect others, according to a study conducted in England. The study, called “SARS-COV-2 Immunity and Reinfection Evaluation” (SIREN) and conducted between June 18 and November 24, also found that while reinfection is possible, it appears to be rare, at least for the first five months after becoming sick. The study was first published at the end of last week. It was written about in the peer-reviewed journal The BMJ and the science journal Nature, among other publications. Of the participants in the study who had already fallen ill (around 6,600), only 44 (less than 1%) were reinfected with the virus. In other words, immune response from a first infection reduced the risk of contracting the virus again by 83%. Of the roughly 14,000 people who had not been previously infected in the study, 318 tested positive for the virus (2.3%). The researchers do not know how long the protection lasts beyond the time frame of the study. Moreover, those who were reinfected did not usually suffer from serious illness. Only about 30% of the people with possible reinfection reported any symptoms, compared to 78% of those who contracted the virus for the first time. But, as noted, sometimes those who had recovered and were then reinfected had high viral loads, meaning there was still a high chance that they would transmit the virus to others. Last week, during a ceremony marking the vaccination of Israel’s two millionth citizen, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had several talks with the health minister and other professionals to bring the green passport plan to fruition as soon as possible, “which will allow us to start bringing life back to normal.” But he said, “even when we do, we will have to keep wearing masks for the younger population and those who are not vaccinated.” The study was not meant to give insight into the effects of the vaccine. Also, the researchers noted that the goal was not to assess whether symptoms were better or worse during the second infection, and this question requires further evaluation. The subjects were mostly young and middle-aged females who anyway tend to have less severe symptoms than the elderly. Finally, the study was conducted mostly before the British mutation, which could change the dynamics of its results. Some have suggested that the existence of mutations would lower the effectiveness of the immune response, but more research would be required. This is not the first study published on reinfection. A separate study that was published in November, also in England, found that people who had the virus are highly unlikely to contract it again for at least six months after the first infection. https://www.jpost.com/health-science/coronavirus-antibodies-may-not-stop-transmission-of-virus-study-finds-655635 [Most interesting. Considering the fact that by and large this is NOT a lethal virus unless you have comorbidities and advanced age they are spinning wheels and spending fortunes on all kinds of studies trying to figure out what is going on with the virus and yet expect everyone to line and take a jab of an experimental drug when they are healthy and it may not do what they keep saying it will??? – rdb]

Israel edges closer to 4,000 coronavirus deaths Cabinet to convene only on Wednesday to decide on extending lockdown. By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN JANUARY 16, 2021 22:27

Jerusalem streets during coronavirus lockdown in Israel, January 2021 (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)

More than two million Israelis have been vaccinated - 205,000 with both doses - but still the Health Ministry plans to push to extend the lockdown by another week. The cabinet will convene on Wednesday to discuss the Health Ministry’s proposal; the ministry claims that another week is needed to get the reproduction rate down to one. The reproduction rate (R) is the number of people a sick person infects. Blue and White and haredi (ultra-Orthodox) ministers, however, are reportedly against the plan. Blue and White wants a commitment that haredi schools will be closed and the haredim want their schools to open. Blue and White ministers also want to make a final decision based on how many at-risk people have been vaccinated with both doses by the end of the week. Recall, the lockdown started on Thursday, January 7 at midnight and is due to be lifted this coming Thursday, January 21, at the same time, meaning whatever decision is made on Wednesday will be finalized at the last minute. Meanwhile, the number of new cases per day remains high and the death toll is climbing. On Saturday night, Israel edged closer to 4,000 people dead from the virus. With 44 people dead over the weekend, the death toll was 3,943 at press time. After four days in a row of more than 9,000 new cases per day, the Health Ministry reported Saturday night that only 8,013 new cases were verified on Friday. However, as opposed to the more than 120,000 people screened on weekdays, only 95,581 people were tested Friday and the percentage of positive cases climbed from 7.7% to 8.6%. There were 1,082 people in serious condition, among them a 30-year-old woman who is 31-weeks pregnant with her fifth child. She was rushed from her Jerusalem home to Beilinson hospital in Petah Tikvah early Friday after her condition took a turn for the worse. She was ultimately intubated. On Saturday night, the hospital said that the mother’s situation remained “unstable and life-threatening.” Doctors were weighing whether to deliver the baby. [They ultimately did a C-section – rdb] Moreover, four more cases of the South African variant were discovered in Israel, the Health Ministry reported Saturday night. In total 12 cases have been discovered in the country. According to the testing done in the country’s central laboratory, the four cases were brought into the country via travelers returning from the United Arab Emirates who tested positive for coronavirus upon arrival at Ben-Gurion Airport. Last week, the Health Ministry announced that it was recommending that anyone returning to the country from Brazil enter quarantine in a coronavirus hotel after a new mutation was discovered to be emanating from that country. Prof. Eran Segal, a computational biologist with the Weizmann Institute of Science, posted on Twitter on Friday about a new outbreak in Manaus, Brazil, where according to serological tests 75% of the population had already had the virus, which should have meant the majority of the population is immune. [Sounds like herd immunity to me. Wonder how many died before that was achieved. If they were elderly there is a fair chance of it, if not elderly then they were probably minimally affected. – rdb] “There is concern that this is a result of the Brazilian strain spreading there that may have managed to elude antibodies from people who recovered from the previous strain,” Segal wrote. “Worrying, but not yet clear.” The various mutations worry health officials when it comes to lifting the lockdown, though most research has so far indicated that the Pfizer vaccine is effective against them. Nonetheless, several countries, including the United Kingdom, France and Denmark, have acted in recent days to reduce the number of infected people entering their countries by requiring negative coronavirus tests and isolation. Israel has yet to make such a move, but Channel 12 reported Saturday night that the prime minister was considering moving forward a plan to require all returnees - Israelis included - to bring with them a negative coronavirus test that was taken no more than 72 hours before arrival. The hope is that these measures will be short lived, as more Israelis vaccinate. [Perhaps you should call the WEC and Gates and Fauci to answer that question. – rdb] Speaking to Channel 12 over the weekend, former coronavirus commissioner Prof. Ronni Gamzu said he believes “we are in the final stages of the coronavirus.” His words echoed those of Segal, who has been advising the government through the pandemic. Segal wrote on Twitter Friday that the number of coronavirus patients over the age of 60 who become seriously ill has declined by about 25%. He also said that cities with higher vaccination rates have fewer critically ill patients, too. “This may be the effect of the vaccines,” he wrote, “although we have reached such a percentage in the past so there may be other explanations.” In addition, he said in Twitter posts on Friday that there does seem to be a halt in morbidity. But he said Israel would have to wait a few more days to see that the infection rate stabilizes and even begins to decline before making any decisions based on this data. The ministry is also weighing what specific criteria to use this time around to determine when Israel should exit the lockdown. As noted, it seems clear that the reproduction rate will need to be one or less. However, the health teams will also be looking at the number of serious cases - rather than total cases per day - and, of course, the rate of vaccination. Israelis as young as 45 will be eligible to receive the coronavirus vaccine beginning this week, the Health Ministry announced Friday. Eligible Israelis can contact their health funds to schedule an appointment. During a visit to the Arab town of Sakhnin on Saturday, coronavirus commissioner Prof. Nachman Ash called on the community to go and get the jab. MORE - https://www.jpost.com/health-science/coronavirus-serious-cases-in- israels-60-population-on-the-decline-655659

Joint Israeli-Palestinian NGO brings young entrepreneurs together Tech2Peace is barreling ahead with plans to double the size of its intensive tech seminars in 2021 despite crippling pandemic; from Nakba to Holocaust, no topic is off-limits for participants when they are 'already becoming friends' The Media Line | Published: 01.16.21 , 09:08

tech2Peace seminars in the Arab town of Jisr az-Zarqa (Photo: Courtesy)

A worldwide pandemic has failed to put a damper on an initiative that aims to bring together young Israeli and Palestinian entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts. Joint Israeli-Palestinian NGO Tech2Peace is barreling ahead with plans to double the size of its intensive tech seminars in 2021. Health restrictions and lockdowns notwithstanding, over the past year 60 people took part in the organization’s program, which not only provides participants with valuable tech skills but also promotes peace through dialogue. Tomer Cohen, the 28-year-old co-founder and co-executive director of Tech2Peace, calls it a “very weird mixture of high-tech workshops alongside dialogue.” “Half of the time it’s about high-tech,” says Cohen. “Every participant chooses his or her own track – if it’s programming, mobile app development, etc; the other half of the time it’s about dialogue.” Following their pilot seminar in the southern town of Yeruham in 2018, the venture received the Israeli Hope prize, an award launched by President Reuven Rivlin worth NIS 10,000 ($3,100). Over the years, tech giants like Google and Microsoft have worked together with Tech2Peace to help provide advanced technological training. During Tech2Peace’s intensive seminars, no topic is off-limits for Israeli and Palestinian participants. “When they’re already becoming friends, we start to talk about the most painful experiences: about Nakba, [Israel’s] Independence Day, the Holocaust, checkpoints and everything,” Cohen says.

Tech2Peace Co-founder & Co-executive Director Tomer Cohen (Photo: Courtesy)

For many of those taking part, he says, it is the first time that they get to meet the so-called “other side.” “Even though those communities live so close to each other, they are so divided,” Cohen says, noting that the program also encourages long-term business partnerships. Participants come from all walks of life: secular, religious, refugee camps, peripheral towns and major cities. More than 150 people have so far graduated from the program and recently demand has greatly increased. The COVID-19 pandemic, which upended so many learning programs around the globe, failed to slow Tech2Peace down, Cohen noted, as organizers turned to holding seminars outdoors in order to observe health regulations and maintain social distancing. Adnan Jaber, 25, is one of the program’s successful graduates. Jaber, who grew up in East Jerusalem, called the experience “unique” and said that he was inspired to sign up during his last year of studies at the Arab American University, located in the Palestinian city of Jenin. “I was a tech student and wanted to get a job in high-tech in Tel Aviv,” says Jaber, now a board member at Tech2Peace. “I wanted to better develop my tech skills and also I’m from Jerusalem and [was always curious] to know about the other side.”

Adnan Jaber and Almog Elharar in the first Tech2Peace seminar (Photo: Courtesy)

Since then, Jaber also has launched his own startup: a smartphone application called “Yalla Reyada” that aims to help individuals achieve their fitness goals. “I like to call myself a social entrepreneur. I love sports a lot,” he says. “If we want a better future in this region for both [Israelis and Palestinians], I think there must be collaborative businesses together. That’s how people can get along and trust each other more.” While Tech2Peace hopes to bridge the divide between Israeli and Palestinian youth, the NGO does not advertise itself as presenting a solution to the conflict. Rather, the goal is to establish a vibrant and long-lasting tech community that its leaders hope will grow significantly in the near future. “In five to 10 years, one of them is going to be a mayor of a town in Palestine or in Israel and it’s already going to make a huge change because we target those very talented leaders,” co-founder Tomer Cohen says. https://www.ynetnews.com/article/SyzLTbq0w [This is one of the most innovative programs for promoting education and intermingling of the two different sides of society that I have seen. Many of the programs have targeted children which may work but it depends totally on the flexibility and attitude of the parents. IF they come into this program they are more self-motivated and better able to see the positive outcome. – rdb]

Distrust, division and doubt cloud Palestinian election call Poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research shows that majority of Palestinians believe if Hamas won the election, Abbas' Fatah would not accept the result, while Hamas would reject a Fatah victory Reuters | Published: 01.16.21 , 18:42 Beset by political infighting, split between three territories and distrustful of their institutions, many Palestinians are sceptical that their first national elections in 15 years will bring change - or even happen at all. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday that parliamentary and presidential elections would be held later this year in a bid to heal long-standing divisions. His main rival, the militant Islamist group Hamas, welcomed the move.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with head of Palestinian election committee (Photo: Reuters)

The announcement is widely seen as a gesture aimed at pleasing U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, with whom the Palestinians want to reset relations after they reached a low under Donald Trump. But a December poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found 52% of Palestinians think elections held under present conditions would not be fair and free. If Hamas won, 76% thought Fatah - the party led by Abbas - would not accept the result and 58% believed Hamas would reject a Fatah victory.

Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar

"We have taken an important step but we still have a long way to go," said veteran West Bank political analyst Hani al-Masri. "Great obstacles remain and without overcoming these obstacles the whole operation will be doomed to fail." Palestinian observers said those hurdles include disagreements within Hamas and Fatah - long the dominant faction in the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization. It is unclear what mechanism would be put in place to ensure a free election, whether international observers would take part and whether Abbas, aged 85 and in poor health, would run. The United States, Israel and European Union would likely refuse dealings with any Palestinian government that included Hamas, which is designated by the West as a terrorist group. POWER STRUGGLE Israeli officials did not immediately comment and it was unclear whether Israel would permit election activity to take place in East Jerusalem, as it did previously. Palestinians want to hold the elections there, as well as the West Bank and Gaza.

Declaration which calls for national election "We have other alternatives, and what is important is that people from Jerusalem can take part in the election," Hanna Nasir, chairman of the Palestinian Central Election Committee, said on Saturday. The last parliamentary ballot, in 2006, ended in a surprise win by Hamas in their first-ever national elections, creating a rift with Fatah that plunged into civil war when Hamas seized control of Gaza the following year. Gaza is now a Hamas stronghold, while Abbas's power base is in the West Bank. The two groups have failed to achieve lasting reconciliation, and previous pledges to hold elections went unfulfilled. Rights groups have accused both of suppressing political opposition. Abbas said the parliamentary election will be held on May 22 and the presidential vote on July 31. He won in 2005 but his term was only meant to last four years. Many ordinary Palestinians are sceptical. "They will find a thousand reasons to call it off; Israel, the resistance, power-sharing, anything. I don't have any hopes," said one Gaza man, who asked not to be named because he was breaking a coronavirus lockdown. Zuheir al-Khatib, a 57-year-old doctor from Bethlehem, was more optimistic. "This is a 100% good decision, merited for over 15 years, if not more, we are supposed to be initiating a state and thus should have democracy," he said. https://www.ynetnews.com/article/S1ghV9xkd

Iran says ballistic missiles destroy target 1,800 km away in anti-warship drill Said to have range that could hit Israeli targets, missiles fired at ‘hypothetical hostile enemy ships’ in Indian Ocean By Agencies and TOI staff Today, 2:13 pm Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps conducted a drill on Saturday launching anti-warship ballistic missiles at a simulated target in the Indian Ocean, state television reported, amid heightened tensions over Tehran’s nuclear program and a US pressure campaign against the Islamic Republic. Footage showed two missiles smash into a target that Iranian state television described as “hypothetical hostile enemy ships” at a distance of 1,800 kilometers (1,120 miles). The report did not specify the type of missiles used. That range could put the missiles in striking distance of Israeli targets. Iran’s armed forces chief of staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri was present on the second day of the drill, alongside Guards chief Major General Hossein Salami and aerospace commander Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh. The IRGC is designated as a terrorist group by the US. Using “long-range missiles for maritime targets indicates that if the enemies… show any ill will towards our national interests, maritime trade routes or territory, they will be targeted and destroyed by our missiles,” Sepahnews quoted Bagheri as saying. “We do not intend to carry out any attack,” he said, adding that the exercise showed Iran’s readiness to defend itself “with all its strength” against any aggressor. Meanwhile, the Iranian Air Force chief, Brigadier-General Aziz Nasirzadeh, said Saturday that Tehran had plans to unveil “new drone achievements in the near future,” according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. On Friday morning, the Guard’s aerospace division launched several surface-to-surface ballistic missiles against simulated enemy bases, state TV reported. MORE - https://www.timesofisrael.com/irans-revolutionary-guard-conducts-long-range- anti-warship-missile-drill/

E3: Iran making uranium metal, a nuke component, has ‘grave military’ potential Britain, France and Germany say Tehran has ‘no credible civilian use’ for the material, which it says it is now researching in breach of nuclear deal By Agencies and TOI staff Today, 4:16 pm BERLIN, Germany — European powers on Saturday voiced deep concern over Iran’s plans to produce uranium metal, warning that Tehran has “no credible civilian use” for the element. “The production of uranium metal has potentially grave military implications,” said the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany, the so-called E3, in a joint statement. Uranium metal can be used as a component in nuclear weapons. Iran had signed up to a 15-year ban on “producing or acquiring plutonium or uranium metals or their alloys” under the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed in 2015 with world powers. “We strongly urge Iran to halt this activity, and return to compliance with its JCPOA commitments without further delay if it is serious about preserving the deal,” said the ministers. Their call came after Iran told the UN nuclear watchdog on Wednesday that it was advancing research on uranium metal production, saying it is aimed at providing advanced fuel for a research reactor in Tehran. The landmark 2015 deal between Iran and the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France, and Germany to curb Tehran’s nuclear ambitions has been largely in tatters since US President Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018 and reimposed harsh sanctions. The Iranian government has signaled a readiness to engage with President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office on January 20 and who has expressed willingness to return to diplomacy with Tehran. The Iranian breaches have included exceeding the stockpile limit on enriched uranium, enriching beyond the permitted purity level, and using more advanced centrifuges than permitted under the deal. Iran recently informed the International Atomic Energy Agency of its plans to increase enrichment to 20 percent, a technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.

A graphic shows the scientific process of uranium enrichment to weapons- grade level (Phil Holm/AP)

A decision to begin enriching to 20% purity a decade ago nearly triggered an Israeli strike targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities. The tensions only abated with the 2015 deal, which saw Iran limit its enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Tensions have increased since the assassination in late November of Iranian nuclear physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. In the aftermath of the attack, which Iran blamed on Israel, hardliners in Tehran pledged a response and Iran’s parliament passed a controversial law calling for expanded nuclear activity and for an end to IAEA inspections. The law also demanded Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization “operate a facility of metal uranium production” within five months. Iran says all of its breaches of the 2015 deal’s limits are reversible, but insists that the US has to come back to the deal and lift sanctions first. European nations have warned that Iran’s moves risk “compromising the important opportunity for a return to diplomacy with the incoming US administration.” Earlier this week the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog said that there were “weeks” left to salvage the nuclear deal. Rafael Grossi, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said at the Reuters Next conference that Tehran was advancing “quite rapidly” toward enriching uranium to 20 percent, as it has announced it would, in breach of the accord. He said the IAEA has assessed Iran will be able to produce some 10 kilograms a month. https://www.timesofisrael.com/europe-iran-producing-uranium-metal-may-indicate-grave-military-implications/ [If you didn’t think this was a big deal you need to reassess the situation because it is HUGE. – rdb]

Report: Biden team already holding talks with Iran on US return to nuclear deal Channel 12 says officials in the incoming administration have updated Israel on the deliberations, as wary Jerusalem pushes for a broader accord By TOI staff Today, 9:13 pm Officials in the incoming Biden administration have already begun holding quiet talks with Iran on a return to the 2015 nuclear deal, and have updated Israel on those conversations, Channel 12 News reported Saturday. The network gave no sourcing for the report, and no details on what was allegedly discussed. US President-elect Joe Biden has indicated his desire to return to the accord, while Israel is pushing for any return to the deal to include fresh limitations on Iran’s ballistic missile program and support for terror and destabilization around the world. On Wednesday, Walla News reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is assembling a team to strategize for the first talks with the Biden administration on Iran’s nuclear program. The team will include officials representing national security elements, the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry, the military, the Mossad spy agency, and the Atomic Energy Commission, the report said, citing unnamed sources in the Prime Minister’s Office.

US President-elect Joe Biden speaks at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del., Friday, Jan. 8, 2021 (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) [LOL! Did you get the name of the VENU for his speech? So very appropriate for those on the left. – rdb]

Netanyahu is considering appointing a senior official to head the team and to serve as an envoy in talks with the US on the Iranian nuclear program, the report said. A possible candidate to head the team is Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, the report said. Channel 12 reported Saturday that Cohen was in Washington this week to meet with officials in the outgoing and incoming administrations. US President-elect Joe Biden is expected to take a more conciliatory approach to Iran than the Trump administration and has said that if Iran returns to the terms of the 2015 nuclear agreement, he too would rejoin, removing the crushing economic sanctions that have wreaked havoc on the Iranian economy over the past two years. The US president-elect has indicated that he wants to negotiate more broadly with Tehran if Washington returns to the deal, notably over its missiles and influence across the Middle East. Iran has said it could welcome the return of the Americans to the agreement, but only after they lift sanctions. It has rejected negotiation on other issues. Former US president Barack Obama, with Biden as his vice president, signed the Iran nuclear deal with world powers in 2015. The Trump administration withdrew from the accord in 2018 and pressured Iran with crippling economic sanctions and other measures. Obama signed the agreement despite fierce protest from Israel, and had a rocky relationship with Jerusalem and Netanyahu, while the premier and Trump have been in lockstep on most Middle East policy issues. The prospect of the US reengaging with Tehran has drawn warnings and alarm from Netanyahu and his allies. Last week, speaking alongside US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in Jerusalem, Netanyahu warned against the US rejoining the nuclear agreement, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). “If we just go back to the JCPOA, what will happen and may already be happening is that many other countries in the Middle East will rush to arm themselves with nuclear weapons. That is a nightmare and that is folly. It should not happen,” Netanyahu said. Likud MK Tzachi Hanegbi said Wednesday the incoming US administration must not “appease” Iran, and warned Tehran the Jewish state will not tolerate its military presence in Syria or its development of nuclear weapons. In one of the most forceful statements recently made by an Israeli official, Hanegbi, considered an ally of Netanyahu, threatened that Israel could attack Iran’s nuclear program if the United States rejoined the nuclear deal. MORE - https://www.timesofisrael.com/report-biden-team-already-holding-talks-with-iran-on-us-return- to-nuclear-deal/

France says Iran building nuclear weapons capacity French FM warns Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ tactics only increased risk posed by Tehran; comments come after Iranian announcement of advancing research on uranium metal production By TOI staff Today, 1:56 pm France’s Foreign Minister Jean Yves Le Drian on Saturday said that Iran was aiming to acquire nuclear weapons capacity with its breaches of the 2015 nuclear agreement, and only a full return to that deal could prevent Tehran from achieving its goal. Speaking to the Journal du Dimanche newspaper, Le Drain accused the outgoing United States leadership of exacerbating the crisis with Iran and pushing Tehran to advance its nuclear program.

The Bushehr nuclear power plant outside the southern city of Bushehr, Iran. (AP Photo/Mehr News Agency, Majid Asgaripour, File)

“The Trump administration chose what it called the maximum pressure campaign on Iran. The result was that this strategy only increased the risk and the threat,” Le Drian said. “This has to stop because Iran and – I say this clearly – is in the process of acquiring nuclear [weapons] capacity,” he warned. [France – the land of the eternal white flag of surrender. What a bunch of pathetic trolls. They stand for nothing. – rdb] Le Drian said it was urgent to “tell the Iranians that this is enough” and to try to bring both Iran and the United States back into the accord.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, and his Lebanese counterpart Nassif Hitti, hold a news conference following their meeting at the Lebanese foreign ministry in Beirut, Lebanon, July. 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

The landmark 2015 deal between Iran and the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France, and Germany to curb Tehran’s nuclear ambitions has been largely in tatters since US President Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018 and reimposed harsh sanctions on the Islamic Republic. The Iranian government has signaled a readiness to engage with incoming president Joe Biden, who takes office on January 20 and who has expressed willingness to return to diplomacy with Tehran. MORE - https://www.timesofisrael.com/france-says-iran-building-nuclear-weapons-capacity/

Massacre ‘of 750’ reported in Aksum church complex, Tigray, Ethiopia by Rebecca Paveley 15 January 2021 The Chapel of the Tablet, St Mary of Zion, Aksum, in Tigray

REPORTS of a massacre of 750 people in the cathedral complex that reputedly houses the Ark of the Covenant have emerged from the Tigray region of Ethiopia. Accounts have come from those who fled the town of Aksum and walked more than 200km to the regional capital, Mekelle. The massacre was first reported in dispatches from the Belgium-based NGO European External Programme with Africa (EEPA). The area is sealed off to journalists, but many reports of massacres have nevertheless emerged, some of which have been documented by Amnesty International. The former BBC World Service Africa editor and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, Martin Plaut, said that those who escaped the Aksum massacre had reported that the attack began after Ethiopian federal troops and Amhara militia approached the Church of St Mary of Zion. Up to 1000 people were believed to be sheltering in the church complex. One of the chapels, the Chapel of the Tablet, is believed by Ethiopian Christians to contain the Ark of the Covenant, which is hidden from the view of everyone, apart from a single priest who never leaves the compound. Mr Plaut said: “People were worried about the safety of the Ark, and when they heard troops were approaching feared they had come to steal it. All those inside the cathedral were forced out into the square.” EEPA’s latest dispatch on the situation in Tigray, on Tuesday, reports that 750 people were shot in Aksum, although this has not been verified. It says that the massacre was carried out by Ethiopian federal troops and Amhara militia. The Church is not thought to have been damaged, and Mr Plaut said that the Ark is likely to have been hidden before troops arrived, although it has not been possible to confirm this. The Ark is believed by Ethiopian Orthodox Christians to have been hidden in Aksum by Menelik I, the son of King Solomon of Israel. The kingdom of Aksum was one of the four great powers of the ancient world, and the town of Aksum is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. MORE - https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2021/15- january/news/world/massacre-of-750-reported-in-aksum-church-complex-tigray-ethiopia

Hundreds of Christians flee after Muslims threaten to torch neighborhood Furor erupted when Facebook allowed a now-deleted post By Bob Unruh Published January 16, 2021 at 1:25pm Hundreds of Christians were forced to flee their homes in Pakistan after a Facebook post triggered offended Muslims to threaten to torch the neighborhood. Raja Waris, a pastor in the Charrar neighborhood of Lahore, shared a post he found on Facebook that Muslims considered blasphemous, according to the American Center for Law and Justice. He was arrested and taken into custody after violent mobs threatened arson to the Christian community. "This incident is a symptom of a long history of violence that has taken place against Christians and other minorities in Pakistan. The United States Department of State has listed Pakistan as a country of particular concern for persecution of religious minorities," the ACLJ said. The ACLJ, which has offices working on behalf of religious freedom around the world, said the exact content of the post is unknown, as it was removed after the violent threats. "Even after Pastor Waris apologized and removed the post, he and his family had to go into hiding to flee more violent threats against their lives. Hundreds of Muslims continued to demand Waris' beheading. When the mobs grew even more violent and threatened arson, the Christians fled the neighborhood and sought shelter," the ACLU said. A short time later, Waris was taken into custody and police filed a blasphemy case against him. "However, we have also heard that negotiations between the Muslim community leaders, the Christians leaders, and the relevant government officials are ongoing. That shows that there is hope that the government will do the right thing, and the government and both communities’ leaders might be able to resolve the matter and dismiss any charges against the pastor," the ACLJ said. The situation remains volatile, with some who fled having returned to their homes. "Christians are frequently falsely accused of blasphemy against Islam and sentenced to 10 years for hurting religious feelings, life imprisonment for desecrating the Quran, or a mandatory death penalty for defiling the name of the Prophet Muhammad," the organization said. "Anyone who is being tried under these laws is almost never granted bail. While no one has officially been executed under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, violent rioting mobs often gather and threaten to kill the alleged blasphemer. Several of such mobs have destroyed and set on fire entire Christian neighborhoods and have killed many." https://www.wnd.com/2021/01/hundreds-christians-flee-muslims-threaten-torch-neighborhood/ [People need to wake up and be very aware that there is a tremendous amount of Christian persecution in multiple areas around the world mostly by Islamic groups and if things don’t change in the US of A it will be here as well. We are already seeing lots of anti-Semitic issues flying around and you need to remember that the old adage is first the Saturday people and then the Sunday people. It isn’t just the islamics who hate Jews and Christians it most anyone with a socialist communist bent. – rdb]

55 People Died in US After Receiving COVID-19 Vaccines: Reporting System By Zachary Stieber January 16, 2021 Updated: January 16, 2021 Fifty-five people in the United States have died after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, according to reports submitted to a federal system. Deaths have occurred among people receiving both the Moderna and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, according to the reports. The reporting system, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), is a federal database. The system is passive, meaning reports aren’t automatically collected and must be filed. VAERS reports can be filed by anyone, including health care providers, patients, or family members. VAERS reports “often lack details and sometimes can have information that contains errors,” according to the reporting system’s website. Still, reports on VAERS represent “only a small fraction of actual adverse events,” the site states, though underreporting is believed to be less common for serious events. In some cases, patients died within days of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. One man, a 66-year-old senior home resident in Colorado, was sleepy and stayed in bed a day after getting Moderna’s vaccine. Early the next morning, on Christmas Day, the resident “was observed in bed lying still, pale, eyes half open and foam coming from mouth and unresponsive,” the VAERS report states. “He was not breathing and with no pulse.” In another case, a 93-year-old South Dakota man was injected with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Jan. 4 around 11 a.m. About two hours later, he said he was tired and couldn’t continue with the physical therapy he was doing any longer. He was taken back to his room, where he said his legs felt heavy. Soon after, he stopped breathing. A nurse declared a do-not-resuscitate order. Moderna and Pfizer didn’t respond to requests for comment. Abigail Capobianco, a spokeswoman for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), told The Epoch Times via email, “Any reports of death following the administration of vaccines are promptly and rigorously investigated jointly by FDA” and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Officials at the agencies work with health care providers to obtain medical histories and clinical follow-up information and conduct a clinical case review, she said, adding, “It is important to note that it is generally not possible to find out from VAERS data if a vaccine caused an adverse event.” Health officials on the VAERS website caution that a report to the system doesn’t prove a vaccine caused the adverse event, and that no proof that the event was caused by the vaccine is required in order for the system to accept the report. MORE -https://www.theepochtimes.com/55-people-died-in-us-after-receiving-covid-19-vaccines-reporting- system_3659152.html

Australia ends local COVID vaccine trials due to HIV false positives 2020-12-11 Australia on Friday abandoned the development of a domestically-developed COVID-19 vaccine after several participants in early-stage trials returned false-positive HIV test results. The vaccine being developed by the University of Queensland and biotech company CSL "will not be able to proceed based on the scientific advice, and that will no longer feature as part of Australia's vaccine plan," Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters. Coronavirus digest: BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine endorsed by US panel for emergency use The CSL said that while there were no serious adverse effects seen in the Phase 1 trial of 216 participants, data showed antibodies that had developed interfered with HIV diagnosis and led to false positives on some HIV tests. As a result, the vaccine developer said, after consultation with the Australian government, they had decided to not proceed to phase 2 and phase 3 trials. How did this happen? The university's researchers included small amounts of HIV protein as a "molecular clamp" as part of the vaccine's design. "Although the university's researchers have confirmed the protein fragment poses absolutely no health risk to people who have taken the vaccine, they have identified a partial antibody response to it among trial participants," Health Minister Greg Hunt said. "This has the potential to interfere with some HIV screening tests that look for these antibodies - leading to a false- positive test result," he said. CSL stressed that no participant had contracted the HIV infection. MORE - https://www.msn.com/en- za/news/other/australia-ends-local-covid-vaccine-trials-due-to-hiv-false-positives/ar-BB1bQ1wC [Well isn’t that just really special AND considering the fact that this is still an experimental drug process they don’t know that they won’t perhaps develop HIV in the future. NEVER EVER forget that this is an EXPERIMENTAL therapy that is being used and you are part of an experimental trial and will be followed for a couple years and your indemnity for untoward effects and problems and death is handled much differently in a court of law since you sign a permit to allow them to inject you. If you don’t read that you are most foolish. – rdb]

State school standards banish lessons about World War I, II, Holocaust, Civil War New priorities include 'awareness' of LGBTA+ community, 'systemic racism' By Bob Unruh Published January 16, 2021 at 8:29pm New standards proposed by the Minnesota Department of Education would banish lessons about World War I, World War II, the Holocaust, the Civil War, the American Revolution, communism, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Replacing those significant history topics will be "systemic racism," how democracy has "excluded certain groups," an "awareness" of "the LGBTQ+ community" and how the disenfranchisement of freed blacks during Reconstruction connects to "persistent discrimination and inequity" today. John Hinderaker at the Powerline blog explained that under Minnesota law, the state's Department of Education establishes standards for K-12 public schools in a number of categories. "The benchmarks for each category are revised by committee every 10 years," he wrote. "This year, the Social Studies standard is being revised. The committee undertaking the revision, as you would expect in the Tim Walz administration, is hard left." He said the first draft was "shocking" and thousands of comments from citizens expressing concern have been dismissed out of hand. The new standards call for students to describe "the tactics used by the United States government to claim indigenous and Mexican land, including but not limited to an analysis of the ideology of Manifest Destiny and its relationship to whiteness, Christianity, and capitalism; and analyze the strategies used by Native Americans and Mexicans to respond to U.S. settler colonialism." Hinderaker said there are "an extraordinary number of benchmarks devoted to the history of Native Americans, who comprise between 1 and 2 percent of Minnesota's population." "So, under the Walz administration and for years to come, school children will be kept in ignorance of our history, and taught to hate America." He noted "thousands of normal Minnesotans registered their opposition to this hijacking of American history." "More than 5,000 used Raise Our Standards MN to send a letter to the committee, objecting to these anti-American features of the draft standards. As it turned out, this represented more than 80% of the comments the committee received." The state committee, however, allowed no substantive discussion of the objections. Doug Paulson, the state's director of academic standards accused citizens who expressed opposition of using "white supremacy language." Hinderaker said it's "classic of leftist bureaucratic arrogance: they undertake to promulgate a new set of benchmarks pursuant to a statute, they solicit public comments per the statutory requirement, and then ignore the public's views and proceed with their far-left agenda." A second draft of the proposal is scheduled to be released by Feb. 17. https://www.wnd.com/2021/01/state-school-standards- banish-lessons-world-war-ii-holocaust-civil-war/ [Sorry folks but these people need to be taken to the woodshed and given ‘the lesson of their lives’. – rdb]

Privacy group urges lawmakers to cancel 'consent searches' 'Since you've got nothing to hide, you don't mind unlocking your phone?' By Bob Unruh Published January 16, 2021 at 8:07pm A privacy organization has launched a campaign to encourage state lawmakers to crack down on "consent searches" of smartphones and other electronic devices because of their threat to privacy. The Electronic Frontier Foundation explained how a typical search takes place. "You’re driving home. Police pull you over, allegedly for a traffic violation. After you provide your license and registration, the officer catches you off guard by asking: 'Since you’ve got nothing to hide, you don’t mind unlocking your phone for me, do you?' Of course, you don’t want the officer to copy or rummage through all the private information on your phone. But they’ve got a badge and a gun, and you just want to go home. If you’re like most people, you grudgingly comply." That "ploy," EFF said, is used thousands of times a year to "evade the Fourth Amendment’s requirement that police obtain a warrant, based on a judge’s independent finding of probable cause of crime, before searching someone’s phone." The solution, EFF said, is for legislatures and courts to take action. "In highly coercive settings, like traffic stops, police must be banned from conducting 'consent searches' of our phones and similar devices," the organization said. And there should be limits on them even in less-coercive settings. "Police must have reasonable suspicion that crime is afoot. They must collect and publish statistics about consent searches, to deter and detect racial profiling. The scope of consent must be narrowly construed. And police must tell people they can refuse," said EFF. "Consent searches" have been carried out aggressively, the report said. In Illinois, for all traffic stops in 2015-2018, 85% of white drivers and 88% of minority drivers granted "consent." "Why might people comply with search requests from police when they don’t want to? Many are not aware they can refuse. Many others reasonably fear the consequences of refusal, including longer detention, speeding tickets, or even further escalation, including physical violence. Further, many savvy officers use their word choice and tone to dance on the line between commands—which require objective suspicion—and requests—which don’t," EFF said. The report said smartphone searches sometimes cover everything on the device. And a study found that 2,000 law enforcement agencies in all 50 states had purchased technology that does a "forensic" search. The Supreme Court has ruled that an arrest alone does not relieve police of the duty to obtain a warrant before searching a phone. Such "consent" searches should be barred, EFF contended, during traffic stops, sidewalk detentions, home searches, station house arrests and other encounters in which a person does not feel free to leave. The limits need to come from courts and legislatures, EFF said. https://www.wnd.com/2021/01/privacy-group-urges- lawmakers-cancel-consent-searches/ [This is simply a giant step of Big Brother. This needs to stop. This is simply the actions of a police state. – rdb] "If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual. " -- Frank Herbert (1920-1986) American science fiction writer Parler CEO John Matze, Family Forced Into Hiding Due to Death Threats, Security Breaches: Filing By Zachary Stieber January 16, 2021 Updated: January 16, 2021 Parler’s CEO has gone into hiding with his family after receiving death threats, according to a new court filing. CEO John Matze “has had to leave his home and go into hiding with his family after receiving death threats and invasive personal security breaches,” the filing in Parler v. Amazon states. Parler sued Amazon Web Services (AWS) after the company refused to continue working with the social media company. Parler went offline on Monday as a result and continues to be offline. Amazon asked the court on Tuesday to redact names, job titles, and descriptions from court documents. “Redaction of the employee identifying information is necessary to protect their safety and security and to prevent potential harassment,” Amazon said. “These employees’ safety concerns are well-founded in light of significant and repeated threats of physical violence against AWS, its facilities, and its employees in the wake of AWS’s decision to suspend its cloud hosting agreement with Parler.” The motion included screenshots of posts that appeared to be from Parler in which users threatened to carry out violence against Amazon workers, executives, and facilities. District Judge Barbara Rothstein, a Carter nominee, granted the motion. She said AWS and its employees “have demonstrated a well-founded concern for the safety and security of their employees based on threatening and violent content.” In Parler’s new filing, lawyers said the company’s employees have been harassed and threatened. “Many Parler employees are suffering harassment and hostility, fear for their safety and that of their families, and in some cases have fled their home state to escape persecution,” Parler said, before noting that Matze himself has gone into hiding. “Recognizing the highly charged nature of this public and polarizing dispute, Parler wishes to protect the privacy of those employees, whether of Parler or Amazon, whose names or personal information appear in documents on which Parler relies,” the filing stated. Matze told Fox News this week that he’s been targeted by a hacker group called UGNazi. “They published my street address, they threatened to come through my front door,” he said. The group didn’t respond to an inquiry. Matze said he and his family went into hiding and weren’t sure when they’d return home. “It’s probably leveled me out,” Matze said. “If I was at home right now I think my stress levels would have been like three times higher… at least there is that saving grace.” https://www.theepochtimes.com/parler-ceo-john-matze-family-forced- into-hiding-due-to-death-threats-security-breaches-filing_3659107.html [Big tech and their minions have become mob overlords and need to be put out of business. – rdb]

What is Civilization Jihad? https://player.vimeo.com/video/174076001

Commentaries: OPEN Letter to the President By J.B. Williams|January 16th, 2021 Dear President Donald J. Trump, First and foremost, I want to thank you for setting your entire personal and professional life aside to enter national leadership in an effort to “Make America Great Again” by putting America first for the first time in decades. You made many promises in seeking the Presidency and you worked around the clock to keep all of them. You brought to bear, the incredible talents of your entire family in pursuit of an honorable goal, on behalf of all Americans and I thank you and your family for the many sacrifices you have made. That said, I want you to know that more than 80-million patriotic Americans stand the ready to fight for you and our Constitutional Republic. Every American knows that the 2020 elections were rotten with fraud all across the country. Many won’t admit it and others boldly support the fraud, as the end justifies any means for the enemies of America. Every American also knows that if this fraudulent election is allowed to stand, and Biden and Harris are inaugurated on January 20, 2021, elections and political party functions are entirely irrelevant to our future. We know that the Department of Justice has hidden massive evidence of political crime and corruption in the DNC and RNC ranks. We know that the FBI has done the same, as has the mainstream media, making it impossible for the voting population to have any idea who or what they voted for. You cannot surrender to this evil cabal. If you do, you will not just be surrendering yourself and your family, but over 80-million Americans, our Constitution and Bill of Rights and the entire American way of life. You will be surrendering everything, for all of us. You simply cannot do that! I write this open letter just five days before the worst presidential candidates in 244-years of American history are scheduled to be inaugurated and seated in the Oval Office, as hardcore socialists control the People’s House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, with zero checks and balances. Your surrender at this moment in history, will be the end of our Constitutional Republic and every American will live under Marxist boot in less than 100-days from January 20th. Further, this evil cabal will never allow you and your family to simply ride off into the sunset peacefully. If you have learned nothing else over the past five years, you should have learned these two things with absolute certainty… Our enemies will not be satisfied with simply removing you from office by fraudulent elections. They want to crush you and your family permanently and make an example for the world to see what happens when anyone steps forward in an effort to right the American ship. Our enemies will stop at nothing to accomplish that! As I see it on your behalf, you, your family, and our country, have no chance of survival if you do not drop the hammer on our enemies before January 20th. The only chance any of us has is to fight with everything we have. This evil cabal simply cannot be allowed to win, not now, not ever. Last, you cannot drop the hammer after noon on January 20, 2021. If you drop the hammer before that hour, you will do so with the power and weight of the Presidency and the office of Commander-in-Chief. At 12:01 PM January 20th, you will become a citizen just like the 80-million ready to fight for you, with no more power or authority than any of the rest of us. You MUST “drain the swamp” before noon on January 20th, or it’s too little too late for America. So, I ask and plead with you to NOT surrender all of us and the future of freedom and liberty. I know that you have the evidence to take down most if not all evildoers in our country. I can see that you have positioned to do that as peacefully and safely as possible. The hour has arrived when you must make the most difficult decision of your life…Yet…is there really any choice in the matter? This is the hour, you have the ball, it’s your call, and the clock is rapidly running down. It’s now or never Mr. President… now or never. Thank you again and may God bless you and this nation in this most dangerous hour. https://newswithviews.com/open- letter-to-the-president/

And…. US Media: 'Telling China's Story Well' by Judith Bergman January 16, 2021 at 5:00 am One of the foremost tasks of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under Xi Jinping is, at his directive, to "tell stories about China well and spread China's voice well; enable the world to see a multidimensional and colorful China; present China as a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and an upholder of international order". When the coronavirus pandemic broke out in December 2019 in Wuhan and the Chinese authorities allowed it to spread to the rest of the world, "telling China's story well" suddenly became an acute concern. It was necessary to save the regime's face, deflect blame and seek to portray China as heroically battling the pandemic, instead of the reality of having caused it. China went into an even more energetic propaganda mode than usual, seeking to control the narrative about the virus at every turn. One efficient way to deflect blame is to change the topic, blame someone else, or preferably both. That is what China set out to do in multiple ways with a large-scale disinformation and propaganda effort. The CCP, however, could not rely on Chinese state media alone to do the job. It needed international cooperation. "If foreign audiences know that a piece of information comes from an official Chinese media source, they are likely to interpret it as 'propaganda' rather than 'news,'" wrote China expert Anne-Marie Brady in 2015. Chairman Mao Zedong's strategy of "making the foreign serve China" remains an important tool in the CCP's propaganda toolbox. Fortunately for the CCP, China could rely on large segments of mainstream US media to help it with at least one central element of its multifaceted propaganda effort that has not received much attention thus far: Changing public discourse about China's role in the spread of the virus to one of Westerners "fueling racism" against Asians because of the virus. Starting in early February, Chinese state media published a barrage of articles seeking to deflect public discourse from focusing on what China had done to make sure that the virus would not spread inside China but would be exported to the rest of the world. China's state media began by pushing a narrative of Westerners exploiting the coronavirus to fuel racism. It helped, of course, that this was the kind of narrative that many naïve Westerners were only too willing to help disseminate, perhaps unaware that they were doing Communist China's bidding. Global Times, a mouthpiece for the CCP, started the propaganda campaign on January 31, 2020 with an article, "Racism shows ugly side as China fights coronavirus" -- nearly two months before U.S. President Donald J. Trump, in a March 17 tweet, called the disease the "Chinese virus". The piece accused the West of engaging in "'yellow peril' mythology" and went on to portray China as heroically battling the disease, while the Western media was supposedly caught up in racist "hysteria" and "racialization" of the pandemic. Global Times followed up on February 2 with "Virus unleashes racism in Western societies", which accused Western media's coverage of the virus being made in China as racist: "Amid a crucial period of fighting the novel coronavirus, some Western media outlets -- with a deep-rooted racist mind-set -- have lost their objectivity and rationality, issuing biased reports that would create panic among people and that may thus trigger more serious social problems". The Xinhua News Agency, the official state-run press agency of China, followed up with a piece on February 7, "Racism worse enemy than epidemic" and another on February 11, "Racism a disease more difficult to eradicate" and yet another the next day, "Western media should quit racist reporting as China fights epidemic". China could rely on two factors in distributing this narrative of the "virus fueling racism" in the US. First, there is the assured traction that the mere mention of racism immediately gets in the US for multiple reasons, chief among them the primacy of identity politics in public discourse. Second, the media conglomerates that own the major television networks in the US are deeply involved in business dealings with China and are therefore loathe to upset Beijing in any way that might jeopardize their access to the Chinese market of 1.4 billion potential customers. The willingness of the media conglomerates to kowtow to the CCP has been abundantly demonstrated in the past decades by the Hollywood studios that these media conglomerates also own. The kowtowing of the studios comes in various forms of submission to CCP censorship and includes co-productions and partnerships with Chinese state- operated enterprises, such as that of Walt Disney Studios and Shanghai Disneyland Resort, which is majority-owned by Shanghai Shendi Group, a conglomerate of three companies owned by Shanghai's government. According to an August 2020 report, Made in Hollywood, Censored by Beijing, by American PEN: "The Chinese Communist Party... holds major sway over whether a Hollywood movie will be profitable or not— and studio executives know it. The result is a system in which Beijing bureaucrats can demand changes to Hollywood movies—or expect Hollywood insiders to anticipate and make these changes, unprompted—without any significant hue or cry over such censorship," Here is an extremely brief overview of some of the television networks owned by the media conglomerates: Warner Media, which owns the Warner Bros film studios, owns CNN worldwide in addition to a host of entertainment and sports networks. NBC Universal, which owns Universal Studios, owns a host of TV channels, among them NBC, CNBC, and MSNBC. ViacomCBS, which owns Paramount pictures, owns the CBS TV network, including CBS News, CBS Sports, Comedy Central and MTV. The Walt Disney Company, which owns Walt Disney Pictures, 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, Marvel and Lucas Film, owns the ABC news channel in addition to a host of entertainment channels. Several of those television networks distributed China's propaganda message about Westerners fueling racism so well that Global Times put together a video highlighting just how well they had done. In a tweet on March 23, just six days after Trump called the virus "the Chinese virus" for the first time, Global Times played a video with clips from American television networks accusing Donald Trump of racism. The first clip was of ABC White House reporter Cecilia Vega, who asked Trump on March 18, "Why do you keep calling this the Chinese virus? Why do you keep doing this, a lot of people say it is racist?" "Because," Trump replied, "it comes from China. It is not racist at all". Next up on the Global Times video was a clip of Richard Engel, chief foreign correspondent of NBC news, who said in a similar vein: "It is easy to scapegoat people and this is what has always happened when there have been pandemics... This is a virus that came from the territory of China, but came from bats. This is a bat virus, not a China virus". NBC news also ran a lengthy article about the exchange between Vega and Trump, in which NBC never once addressed China's responsibility for the spread of the virus, and instead quoted multiple sources saying that Trump was fueling racism. The Global Times video also contained a clip with CNN anchor Chris Cuomo saying: "The word coronavirus crossed out and changed to Chinese -- who does that help? We don't need an enemy. We have one: The virus... This isn't about China. It is about us". The clips played by the Global Times provided textbook examples of American media hard at work, wittingly or not, helping the CCP to shape public opinion in the US. The Global Times video amplified the CCP message even further with quotes from Hillary Clinton, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and celebrities, all parroting the CCP narrative. The CCP's use of the racism argument as an early element of its coronavirus propaganda campaign came to fashion public discourse about the virus significantly in the US, Europe and beyond. The CCP evidently knew the West well enough to calculate that framing the debate in terms of racism would be a highly successful strategy that would play into the divisive issue of identity politics in the US and Europe. The CCP could not have done it, however, without the media's lack of critical judgment of China's behavior, as well as the media's utter lack of interest in the CCP's quest for global domination and, according to FBI Director Christopher Wray, its willingness to achieve it "by any means necessary." Judith Bergman, a columnist, lawyer and political analyst, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute. https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16885/us-media-china and…. Censorship in America: A historical Perspective By Guest Writer|January 16th, 2021 by Caren Besner “As long as I don’t write about the government, religion, politics, and other institutions, I am free to print anything.” Beaumarchais In 1982, seventy years after the fall of Saigon, General William Westmoreland, the former US Commander in SE Asia declared: “Vietnam was the first war fought without censorship. Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind.” Censorship in America is not a modern phenomenon. During the early days of the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln shut down all pro-secession newspapers in the state of Maryland and even had known pro-Southern state legislators thrown in prison. Had Lincoln not acted as he did, Maryland would have joined the Confederacy and the position of the nation’s capital at Washington DC would have become untenable. The history of the US would have been very different. Censorship really came of age during WWII when military censors routinely opened and read letters sent by US servicemen to loved ones back home. Some of this mail survives to this very day, their blackened or cut out sections attesting to the effectiveness of the military censor. During the first and second Gulf Wars, information was disseminated to the media through controlled briefings. The lesson of Vietnam had been learned: images of dead and mangled bodies are not conducive to maintaining public support during wartime. The lesson yet to be learned is that censorship can be used, but only in times of war and even then, only on a very limited basis. Some two and a half centuries ago, the great English poet and critic Samuel Johnson wrote: “Every society has a right to preserve public peace and order, and therefore has a good right to prohibit the propagation of opinions which have a dangerous tendency … No member of a society has a right to teach any doctrine contrary to what the society holds to be true.” This argument is inherently flawed. It presumes that the ideas held by the controlling elites are always correct. Every single totalitarian ruler from Hitler and Stalin to Mao and Saddam Hussein would agree. So too, would religious extremist groups such as ISIS and the Taliban, who not only executed anyone who disagreed with them, but in the process, also destroyed priceless historical artifacts all in the name of religious and ideological purity. During the early days of the Third Reich, the Nazis made a very public spectacle of the burning of books; heaping on the flaming pyre any writings which did not conform to their ideals. Among them was the works of the great 19th century German philosopher Heinrich Heine who wrote: “Wherever books will be burned, men also, in the end, are burned.” History has proven how prophetic those words were. The Communists achieved their goals not through a display of arson, but by sentencing to prison or exile anyone who did not conform, including Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who wrote of these times in “The Gulag Archipelago.” Make no mistake; censorship of thought, ideas, and speech are the hallmarks of a totalitarian state and will inevitably lead to tyranny and oppression. Given the growing power of mainstream media and especially big tech, our ability to access accurate information, our freedoms and ultimately our democratic institutions, are all in peril. In today’s age of information, more people get their news from the Internet than from newspapers/periodicals. The situation becomes even more acute given the anonymity of the Internet executives and their algorithm writers. This concentrates enormous power in the hands of big tech, who use censorship as a means to advance an ideological and political agenda. Defenders of these practices claim that they are protecting the public from harmful ideas; yet the censorship is invariably one-sided. It is always Republican or Conservative voices who are silenced or deleted. This is reverse McCarthyism and is nothing less than the weaponization of the means to access and disseminate information. It is an abrogation of the right of free speech in order to advance a radical agenda, and thanks to Section 230, they have complete immunity to do exactly as they wish. This is a far more insidious form of censorship than anything previously because it is silent and unseen. There is no public display of burning books and no Gulag Archipelago (as of yet), to which dissidents can be exiled. The burning book has been replaced by the deleted post as the weapon of choice for the ideological censor of today. Years ago, the late Hubert Humphrey once stated: “Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of dissension, discussion and debate.” It is sad to note how far we have strayed from this simple rule. In the light of history, one cannot help but wonder what Heinrich Heine would say if he were alive today. Although one cannot say with absolute certainty, it might be something like this: “Wherever posts will be deleted, people also, in the end, are deleted.” A long time ago, Thomas Jefferson warned the American people: “When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.” As of this writing, more and more Americans are beginning to fear their own government. https://newswithviews.com/censorship-in-america-a-historical-perspective/

Prayer for the IDF - Mi Sheberach, Yaakov Shwekey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJEpLklULs0

THE SHORASHIM BIBLICAL GIFT CATALOG 005 http://mad.ly/7f9f64?pact=20013931524&fe=1 Support Shorashim! ARUTZ SHEVA Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau tests COVID positive, feels well Rabbis Lau tests COVID positive after 2nd vaccine dose, shows no symptoms. Arutz Sheva Staff , Jan 16 , 2021 10:39 PM

Rabbi Lau vaccinated at Ichilov hospital TPS / Eitan Elchadrez

Former Chief Rabbi of Israel and Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, Yisrael Meir Lau tested COVID positive after 2nd vaccine dose and shows no symptoms. Yedidya Lau, Rabbi Lau's grandson, says his grandfather tested COVID-19 positive this weekend, after receiving the second vaccination. "Thank G-d, he feels excellent at home with no symptoms. He was infected from grandmother, the Rebbetzin, who was exposed earlier this week. Complete health for everyone with G-d's help." Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council, winner of the Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement and Rabbi of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Rabbi Israel Meir Lau received the second dose of the vaccine for the virus. He was apparently infected by his wife who was tested earlier this week. The rabbi said that his condition is good and he has no symptoms. Upon receiving the vaccine, Rabbi Lau called on the entire haredi community to get vaccinated. "Everyone should come and get vaccinated - there is no fooling around in such things. Once there is this cure it should be used. We must thank everyone who gave their hand to apply this medicine to the masses of the House of Israel. “It is a pity that one has to get jabbed to feel the brotherhood and unity of all parts of the people, all of us together. There's no difference here; Neither Right nor Left; Neither religious nor less so; Neither a Jew nor an Arab nor any other community - we've had a common enemy in these 9 months," he added. Kan News reporter Moav Vardi responded to the news of Rabbi Lau's diagnosis and wrote: "The existing vaccine for corona should not protect against infection with the virus, but against the development of a serious disease (the vaccine has not been tested in trials to protect against infection). Thanks to the great vaccine Lau may not develop a serious illness. [Really? I am not sure that will be consistently born out by the past history of mrna virus experiences. – rdb] "Besides, the effectiveness of the vaccine is 95%. That means 5% of vaccine recipients will not be protected from the virus." https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/295013

Chinese health experts call to suspend Pfizer vaccine in elderly after Norwegian deaths Experts: Death incidents in Norway prove mRNA COVID-19 vaccines' efficacy 'not as good as expected'. Arutz Sheva Staff , Jan 16 , 2021 10:26 PM Chinese health experts called on Norway and other countries to suspend the use of mRNA- based COVID-19 vaccines produced by companies such as Pfizer, especially among elderly people, due to the vaccines' safety uncertainties following the deaths of 23 elderly Norwegian people who received the vaccine, reports Global Times. Deaths among elderly after the first COVID-19 vaccine dose have risen to 29 in Norway, reports Bloomberg. The latest figure adds six to the number of known fatalities in Norway, and also lowers the age group thought to be affected from 80. Until Friday, Pfizer/BioNTech was the only vaccine available in Norway, and “all deaths are thus linked to this vaccine,” the Norwegian Medicines Agency said in a written response to Bloomberg on Saturday. “There are 13 deaths that have been assessed, and we are aware of another 16 deaths that are currently being assessed,” the agency said. All the reported deaths related to “elderly people with serious basic disorders,” it said. “Most people have experienced the expected side effects of the vaccine, such as nausea and vomiting, fever, local reactions at the injection site, and worsening of their underlying condition.” The New York Post cited health officials who reported twenty-three people died in Norway within days of receiving their first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, with 13 of those deaths, all nursing home patients, apparently related to the side effects of the shots. The number has been updated to 29. A Chinese immunologist told Global Times the new mRNA vaccine was developed in haste and had never been used on a large scale for the prevention of infectious disease, and its safety had not been confirmed for large-scale use in humans. The death incidents in Norway also proved that the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines' efficacy was not as good as expected, experts said. MORE - https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/295012

Lapid and Liberman, stop inciting; the haredim are our brothers Yamina Chairman MK Naftali Bennett rejects Liberman's 'almost anti-Semitic' video against haredi public: 'It's an attempt to garner votes.' Naftali Bennett , Jan 16 , 2021 7:55 PM The repulsive — almost anti-Semitic — video by Evet Liberman against the haredi public is an attempt to garner votes. Are there any problems? Unequivocally. But this does not solve problems in the haredi public. The Lapid and Liberman attacks over the years have failed to recruit a single haredi; On the contrary — they have only slowed down their integration into the economy. The haredim are our brothers. It is no coincidence that as soon as I became Education Minister, I abolished discrimination at the Education Ministry that deprived haredi children of the right to summer camps. Is there a problem that large parts of the haredi sector are not integrated into the Israeli economy? Yes. Unequivocally. This is a problem that first of all affects tens of thousands of haredi families themselves. We have to take care of it. As Economy Minister, I worked extensively on the matter. Do some of the circles in haredi society behave as a kind of "state within a state"? Yes. We have all experienced this in the last year conspicuously. It must not be allowed to continue. How do you deal with it? Not with incitement, but with common sense and fairness. In the government that I, with G- d's help, will establish, we will promote our "From Division to Integration" program that will lower the exemption age to 21 and free many in the haredi sector to acquire a quality profession at a young age. Those who choose will continue to learn in the Beit Midrash, but all others will be able to go out and acquire a quality profession. Who opposes this initiative? The extremists on both sides: Lapid and Liberman because of populism, alongside certain extremists who want to prevent the choice of young people to go out at the age of 21 to acquire a profession. We will take care of every citizen in Israel, along with equal enforcement for every citizen. We care about you citizens, and we know how to fix it, out of the box. One should unite, not divide. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/295006

Huldai: I will open Tel Aviv cultural institutions in 10 days Tel Aviv mayor says he will open city's cultural institutions to all who have received 2 vaccine doses. Arutz Sheva Staff , Jan 17 , 2021 10:03 AM Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Hudai announced Sunday morning that in ten days he will open the city's cultural institutions to anyone who has received two doses of the coronavirus vaccine. "In ten days we will open the cultural halls, there is a large crowd of vaccinated people with green passports," Huldai stated in an interview with the "Kalman Lieberman" program on Reshet Bet. He said, "There is no reason why those who have been vaccinated should not be able to go to the Cameri Theater. We shouldn't wait for Netanyahu to open it the day before the election." Addressing the Health Ministry's expected opposition to the move, Huldai said: "The Health Ministry will not call me or tell me anything. In the State of Israel, you need to take the initiative. If I had been sitting and not initiating all the time, I would not have gotten anywhere." "Tel Aviv is the capital of culture. When I make a decision, I make a decision for the people of Israel and for an industry of 150,000 people who today are collapsing under the burden," he stressed. He dismissed the possibility of an alliance between his 'Israelis' party and the Blue and White party led by Benny Gantz. "Benny Gantz is a burden and not an asset. I say this publicly." https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/295033 Show your certificate of vaccination or NO GO. – rdb] To be removed from this News list, Please click here and put "Unsubscribe" in the subject line.                        