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Florida Bills Seek to Require Two-Thirds Majority for Passage of Sales Tax Referendums

A constitutional amendment adopted by voters in November requires a two-thirds majority of legislators in both chambers to approve a new state tax or a tax increase.

Meanwhile, taxpayers in 56 of Florida’s 67 counties, and in 19 school districts across the state, are paying $4.3 billion annually in "local option" sales tax levies to build schools, widen roads or finance mass transit projects.

Eight of 11 such "local option" sales tax increases were approved in referendums in 2018.

Florida Republicans say it is just too easy for local governments and school districts to persuade local taxpayers to tax themselves for projects and services they rarely need and often can’t afford.

Two advancing bills seek to apply the same two-thirds adoption threshold that state lawmakers must secure to "local option" sales tax referendums and to prohibit "local option" sales tax referendums from being placed before voters in "special elections."

Senate Bill 336, sponsored by Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, was approved Wednesday by the Senate Finance & Tax Committee in a 6-2 vote.

SB 336 would require any referendum to adopt or amend a "local-option" sales-tax increase appear only on November general election ballots.

The bill was approved on Feb. 13 by Senate Ethics & Elections Committee in a 5-2 vote. It now goes before the Rules Committee, the last stop before being presented for a chamber vote.

In discussing SB 336 Wednesday before the Senate Finance & Tax Committee, Brandes noted the Florida League of Cities and Florida Association of Counties were not opposed to the bill.

"It always warms my heart to have the counties and the cities join me on a piece of legislation," he quipped. "It happens so rarely these days."

Brandes said the bill could be tweaked to add a requirement that projects to be funded by "local option" sales tax hikes have clearly stated termination dates rather than "temporary" increases that "last three decades."

This bill "provides needed accountability and transparency," said Americans For Prosperity-Florida Policy Director Chris Hudson, noting that Voluisa County is spearheading a half-penny sales tax extension that will be presented to voters in a May 21 special election that few taxpayers will know about and even fewer will turn out for.

Municipalities and school districts should not fear the measure, Hudson said.

"If their arguments are sound, then they should have no problem getting people to vote for it," he said.

House Bill 5, sponsored by Rep. Nick DiCeglie, R-Indian Rocks Beach, also requires any "local option" sales tax referendum to levy a sales tax to be presented to voters only during general elections, but also requires approval by two-thirds of voters.

HB 5 was approved by the Local, Federal & Veterans Affairs Subcommittee in a 9-3 vote on March 5 and by the House Ways & Means Committee, 12-5, on March 12.

It awaits a hearing before the State Affairs Committee. The panel meets Thursday but as of Wednesday afternoon, HB 5 was not on the agenda.

In previous committee hearings, HB 5 proponents have argued this bill is necessary because special interest groups that want to tap into "local option" sales tax revenues to secure funding for projects know its odds of passing are better when placed before voters in a single-issue "special election" that usually draw sparse turnouts.

House Republicans say more than a simple majority should be required to approve a tax hike. Of the eight sales-tax measures approved by voters in November, only three passed with more than two-thirds of the vote, they note.

Also during committee discussions, opponents have cited the bills as yet another example of the Legislature imposing state preemption on local governments, claiming it degrades local governments’ constitutional capacity for home rule, committing the same "overreach" Tallahassee lawmakers frequently accuse Congress of.

Critics maintain that the Legislature’s funding decisions often force local governments and school districts to ask voters to approve measures that fill in the gaps, especially when school boards must meet security demands ordered by lawmakers last year following the Valentine’s Day Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting.

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Mississippi Heartbeat Bill Victory

Mississippi Heartbeat Bill VictoryJACKSON, MS – Governor Phil Bryant signed a “heartbeat” abortion ban into law today at a ceremony at the Mississippi State Capitol, making this the largest state to ban abortion once a fetal heartbeat can be detected.

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FEC Complaint: Bernie Breaking Federal Law by Employing Foreign National

The Bernie Sanders presidential campaign is violating federal election law by employing foreign nationals in advisory campaign positions, according to a newly filed complaint to the Federal Election Commission obtained exclusively by the Free Beacon.

The complaint points to the employment of three individuals, including Maria Belén Sisa, an illegal immigrant from Argentina who is in the United States under the protections of DACA and has been named deputy national press secretary for Bernie 2020. Sisa, who collected a salary from the Bernie 2016 campaign and also made financial contributions to it, recently made headlines when she questioned whether American Jews, including her own boss Sanders, were loyal to the United States.

Both the work for the campaign and contributions are "direct and serious violations" of federal election law, the complaint argues.

Foreign nationals are prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in the decision-making process of any person with regard to election-related activities, according to the FEC. Included in this group of foreign nationals are all immigrants not lawfully admitted as permanent residents.

The complaint, filed on Thursday afternoon by the Coolidge Reagan Foundation, argues that Sisa’s current position on the campaign, due to its strategic nature, is a clear violation of this prohibition.

"Senator Sanders and Bernie 2020 is permitting a foreign national, Ms. Sisa, to serve in an advisory position which allows her to directly or indirectly participate in the decision-making process of persons with regard to election-related activities in violation of FEC regulations," it argues.

The complaint also points to the 2016 campaign, which employed Sisa as well as two other foreign nationals, Erika Andiola and Cesar Vargas, in advisory campaign positions, it says.

Like Sisa, both Vargas, the campaign’s national Latino outreach strategist, and Andiola, its press secretary for Latino outreach, were salaried employees of Bernie 2016. They were also both well-known immigration activists open about their status as Mexican immigrants and DACA recipients.

"Due to the high profile of Cesar Vargas, Erika Andiola, and Maria Belén Sisa as leading activists in the undocumented community, there is reason to believe that respondents are ‘foreign nationals’ within the meaning of 52 U.S.C. § 301219b)(2), and in violation of 11 C.F.R. § 110.20 (i) and A.O. 2004-26, directly or indirectly participated in the decision-making process of persons with regard to the election-related activities of Bernie 2016," the complaint says.

"There is reason to believe, having previously employed Ms. Sisa, that Bernie 2020 is currently, and knowingly, permitting a ‘foreign national’ … to directly or indirectly participate in the decision-making process of persons with regard to the election-related activities of Bernie 2020."

The complaint calls for an "immediate investigation" of both campaigns and for action to be taken to halt the violations.

"The Commission should determine and impose appropriate sanctions for any and all violations," it says. "Further, the Commission should enjoin respondents from any future violations and impose any necessary and appropriate remedies to ensure respondents’ future compliance with the Federal Election Campaign Act."

CRF Complaint to FEC on Ber… by on Scribd

Shaun McCutcheon, who filed the complaint for the Coolidge Reagan Foundation, said he expects any foreign nationals employed by the campaign to lose their job if the FEC finds it was in violation of the law.

"The involvement of foreigners, especially with all that went on during the 2016 election, can’t be allowed in our elections," McCutcheon said.

The Sanders campaign paid a $14,500 fine to the FEC last year after it was caught accepting foreign contributions from the Australian Labor Party during the 2016 Democratic primary.

Former president Barack Obama’s actions on DACA did not give recipients a path to obtaining permanent residence in the United States.

The Sanders campaign did not respond to request for comment on Sisa’s immigration status.

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How many illegal aliens are being released every day? A lot.

Yesterday, John looked at the general collapse of Democratic talking points regarding the crisis on the border. We have unfortunately reached the point where too many Democrats in Congress are willing to either ignore or defy the data being provided by CBP and the flood of illegal immigrants that are maxing out our detainment facilities. But what happens when there are no more beds to spare and detention centers are full? The illegal aliens are assigned a court date and set free in the interior of the United States. In case you weren’t sure how often that’s been happening lately, the figure is roughly 100,000 in just the past three months. (Washington Times)

ICE has had to turn loose more than 100,000 illegal immigrant family members over the past three months, a top official said Thursday, setting them free in border communities as the surge of people coming to the U.S. overwhelms the system.

That works out to more than 1,000 family members being cut loose every day, stressing not only Homeland Security but also the charities that are trying to help them, and the local infrastructure — including bus stations — that are trying to help them.

The numbers are so high that deportation officers are being taken from other duties such as scouring prisons and jails for criminal migrants and instead are being sent to the border to grapple with the new arrivals.

Those aren’t politicians generating these numbers. They’re immigration enforcement officers. And if they’re pulling in resources from other states to deal with the situation on the border and still cutting loose up to 1,000 people per day, there’s a serious crisis going on that needs to be addressed.

And yet, we have Democrats and their allies in the press still repeating their talking point about how overall illegal immigration is at “historic lows.” Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Times took the unusual approach of saying the illegal crossings had hit the highest rate in a decade, while still calling the numbers historic lows… in the same article.

So what does it mean when that many illegal aliens are released in the country’s interior? I’ve often heard panelists on CNN saying it’s not that much of a concern and quoting a figure of 90% or more of those released showing up for their court dates. But we know where that number comes from. It’s a valid figure, but it only applies to those who are petitioning for asylum. Of course they’re going to be far more likely to show up. They’re already working inside the system and hoping for legal residency status.

But what about those without asylum claims who are facing deportation hearings? A study of data covering the past twenty years shows that 37% of foreign nationals not in detention failed to show up at their hearings and their cases were disposed of in absentia. That’s nearly four in every ten. So if we’ve released roughly 100,000 in just the past few months and those historical averages hold true, you can see what the real issue is here.

We seriously need to take the politics out of this discussion and work on actual solutions. Yes, we still need more qualified judges handling cases in our immigration courts. The average judge currently has a backlog of more than 1,500 cases in progress. And we need to expand and upgrade our detention centers. But more than anything else, we need to stem the tide of incoming illegal aliens to give the entire system some breathing room.

In other words, build the damn wall already.

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Attorney Who Fought to Keep Sex Trafficker and Clinton Friend Jeffrey Epstein’s Case Sealed Worked for Mueller and Comey

Guest post by Joe Hoft

Newly uncovered documents from pedophile multi-millionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking case in Florida show that corrupt former FBI Directors Robert Mueller and James Comey worked with the attorney that stepped in at the last minute to hide the identity of someone powerful and rich involved in the case.

We reported in 2016 before the election that Bill Clinton took numerous trips on Epstein’s ‘Lolita Express’ to Epstein’s private “Orgy Island” where underage girls as young as 14 were prostituted for Epstein’s rich and famous clients like Clinton, Kevin Spacey and Prince Andrew.

The Clintons partied with Epstein while Donald Trump had him kicked out of Mar-a-Lago for hitting on a teenage girl.

Now, thanks to Internet sleuth, author and producer, Mike Cernovich, we know more about Epstein’s child sex case held in Florida.

Cernovich requested documents on the Epstein case months ago.  He recently received some information back from the courts and we now know that – the lawyer working to keep the records of the case sealed worked for former FBI Directors James Comey and Robert Mueller.

If it’s creepy, sick, dishonest and criminal, you can bet money that the Clintons, James Comey and Robert Mueller are involved!

The post Attorney Who Fought to Keep Sex Trafficker and Clinton Friend Jeffrey Epstein’s Case Sealed Worked for Mueller and Comey appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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After uranium incident, Trump’s move to upgrade security ties with Brazil looks prescient

President Trump’s powwow with Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro was a fairly good one, setting the stage for upgrading security ties between the two giants. Now, an attempted theft of uranium in Brazil by armed gunmen demonstrates in spades why that’s a good idea.

Here’s the Reuters report of the incident:

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Armed men shot at members of a convoy transporting uranium to one of Brazil’s two working nuclear power plants on a coastal road in Rio de Janeiro state on Tuesday, police and the company managing the plant said.They said the truck carrying the nuclear fuel and its police escort came under attack when it was passing by the town of Frade, about 30 km (19 miles) from Angra dos Reis, where the reactor is located.

Policemen guarding the convoy returned the attackers’ fire, police said. They said there were no injuries or arrests and the armed men fled.The case is redolent of similar attempted robberies on Mexican medical trucks carrying nuclear supplies.

The case is redolent of similar attacks on medical trucks in Mexico carrying nuclear supplies – in 2013, 2015 (the BBC linked report says there were two unspecified incidents in 2014, as well), 2017, and 2018. Many of these cases have been dismissed as the work of clown-thugs who had no idea what they were taking, mainly just wanting to steal the truck. Often, it’s perfectly true. Some cases have been solved, or rather, solved well enough; others have not, or possibly, not been covered by the press. These kinds of robberies have also happened in the U.S. And Canada, according to this report, has reported 17 such thefts. VICE News reports that nuclear thefts are more common than anyone thinks, citing IAEA data.

But the Brazil case is interesting, because the country does seem to be a target, raising the possibility that terrorists might be looking for some dirty bomb supplies.

Why do I think that? Because, well, Hezb’allah has a lot of reported “bases” up north in Venezuela and elsewhere in the region. They might even have some in Brazil. What do they do? Why would a Middle Eastern terrorist group need  a base, or spend money on such ‘bases’ in this hemisphere? According to Stratfor:

South America is a strong base of operations for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has had a presence in the continent dating back to the 1980s. The group established finance and logistical networks, which it used to facilitate two bombings in Argentina in the 1990s. The first bombing in 1992 targeted the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 people and injuring 242 more. A second bombing in 1994 bombing targeted the Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA), a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, killing 85 and injured over 300. Since then, Hezbollah has shifted its operational focus from terror attacks to criminal activity to raise money, entering South America’s lucrative drug-trafficking business and dealing primarily with cocaine and heroin. Previously, we explored what Hezbollah now does in South America, and where it does it. 

Now there’s this sudden robbery attempt of nuclear supplies, in a nation with a large Hez’ballah presence in the country’s tri-border area, and another large Hez’ballah presence up north in Venezuela, and yet another in Colombia. Maybe it was thugs. Maybe it was local terror group, such as the disgruntled holdouts from Colombia’s FARC. Maybe it was Hezb’allah.

The Reuters report is a bare bones story, but it highlights the nature of the security issues, and why an alliance with the states might be helpful in sweeping Hez’ballah, or whoever is doing this, if the purpose is a dirty bomb, out. Brazil is a country still digging out from the rubble of extended socialism and all the lawlessness and terror-coddling that fosters, and now has a sharp new president very clear about his opposition to all of it. A U.S. security alliance with him would make sense. This report from Politico demonstrates the Trump administrations ferocious determination to get rid of Hez’ballah using every means necessary from the resources of the U.S. government. Politico of all places writes:

The renewed focus on Hezbollah’s presence and operations in Latin America is long overdue. Hezbollah’s last attempted international terrorism plot was in Peru, where a Lebanese Hezbollah operative, Mohammed Amadar, arrived in Peru in November 2013 and married a woman of dual Peruvian-American citizenship two weeks later. The U.S. connection got the attention of the FBI’s Miami Field Office. Shortly thereafter, Amadar moved to Brazil, living in Sao Paulo until he returned to Lima in July 2014. Peru’s anti-terror unit questioned him upon his arrival at the airport, put Amadar under surveillance, and arrested him for planning attacks on Jewish and Israeli targets that October.

Hezbollah today is deeply invested in operations in South America. One of the most prominent operatives behind the AMIA bombing has now risen up the ranks of the organization and is personally overseeing Hezbollah operations in the region. 

It actually leaps out at me now that Trump has allied up with Bolsonaro on security. Combining U.S. and Brazilian resources and sharing intelligence on terrorist operations with dirty bomb dreams such as Hezb’allah, who are reportedly “up to no good” in the hemisphere, is a potential game-changer.

Now read this report from Susan Crabtree of Real Clear Politics, who covered the actual Trump-Bolsonaro meeting:

 

Beyond all the colorful mutual admiration, the real magnitude of the historic meeting should not be lost, especially when it comes to advancing U.S. security interests, regional experts stress.

Brazilian political leaders have long held the U.S. at arm’s length, harboring deep anti-imperialist suspicions since a 1964 coup, supported by the U.S. government, overthrew then-President Joao Goulart. The suspicions remained even after the country’s shift to democracy in the mid-1980s.

But Bolsonaro eschewed that past, pledging a new “chapter of cooperation” and a grand new alliance between the two most populous nations and largest economies in the Western hemisphere. He and Trump promised to work together to improve trade, oppose socialism and other leftist movements, and specifically to confront the political crisis in Venezuela.

Trump and Bolsonaro also signed an agreement with U.S. companies on technical safeguards to allow commercial satellite launches in northern Brazil. Bolsonaro even stopped by CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., to discuss “international themes in the region,” according to his son, Eduardo, a Brazilian lawmaker accompanying the president on his first overseas trip.

And it may have implications for the fate of Venezuela. Besides being a failed state and socialist hellhole, it’s also a Hez’ballah playground with a mafia-like criminal ruling coterie premised on the Hez’ballah specialty of drug-dealing. That’s what’s holding the Maduro regime together and keeping its military leaders loyal – it’s the prospect of drug money, along with the support of distant imperial powers such as China, Russia, Iran and Cuba.

Trump has stated that he’s after the Maduro dictatorship to get out and allow Venezuela’s legitimate leader, Juan Guaido, to govern. He also said he hasn’t unsheathed his sharpest sanctions weapons against the Maduro regime, which, surprise, has been bruited about earlier as putting the country on the state sponsor of terrorism list.

Is there a plan with this new security alliance with Brazil? Does Trump know what he’s doing? Sure looks like it. Together the two giants and their Latin American allies can squeeze kill-minded terrorists with dirty-bomb dreams, – and their hosts — right out of the hemisphere.

 

 

President Trump’s powwow with Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro was a fairly good one, setting the stage for upgrading security ties between the two giants. Now, an attempted theft of uranium in Brazil by armed gunmen demonstrates in spades why that’s a good idea.

Here’s the Reuters report of the incident:

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Armed men shot at members of a convoy transporting uranium to one of Brazil’s two working nuclear power plants on a coastal road in Rio de Janeiro state on Tuesday, police and the company managing the plant said.They said the truck carrying the nuclear fuel and its police escort came under attack when it was passing by the town of Frade, about 30 km (19 miles) from Angra dos Reis, where the reactor is located.

Policemen guarding the convoy returned the attackers’ fire, police said. They said there were no injuries or arrests and the armed men fled.The case is redolent of similar attempted robberies on Mexican medical trucks carrying nuclear supplies.

The case is redolent of similar attacks on medical trucks in Mexico carrying nuclear supplies – in 2013, 2015 (the BBC linked report says there were two unspecified incidents in 2014, as well), 2017, and 2018. Many of these cases have been dismissed as the work of clown-thugs who had no idea what they were taking, mainly just wanting to steal the truck. Often, it’s perfectly true. Some cases have been solved, or rather, solved well enough; others have not, or possibly, not been covered by the press. These kinds of robberies have also happened in the U.S. And Canada, according to this report, has reported 17 such thefts. VICE News reports that nuclear thefts are more common than anyone thinks, citing IAEA data.

But the Brazil case is interesting, because the country does seem to be a target, raising the possibility that terrorists might be looking for some dirty bomb supplies.

Why do I think that? Because, well, Hezb’allah has a lot of reported “bases” up north in Venezuela and elsewhere in the region. They might even have some in Brazil. What do they do? Why would a Middle Eastern terrorist group need  a base, or spend money on such ‘bases’ in this hemisphere? According to Stratfor:

South America is a strong base of operations for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has had a presence in the continent dating back to the 1980s. The group established finance and logistical networks, which it used to facilitate two bombings in Argentina in the 1990s. The first bombing in 1992 targeted the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 people and injuring 242 more. A second bombing in 1994 bombing targeted the Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA), a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, killing 85 and injured over 300. Since then, Hezbollah has shifted its operational focus from terror attacks to criminal activity to raise money, entering South America’s lucrative drug-trafficking business and dealing primarily with cocaine and heroin. Previously, we explored what Hezbollah now does in South America, and where it does it. 

Now there’s this sudden robbery attempt of nuclear supplies, in a nation with a large Hez’ballah presence in the country’s tri-border area, and another large Hez’ballah presence up north in Venezuela, and yet another in Colombia. Maybe it was thugs. Maybe it was local terror group, such as the disgruntled holdouts from Colombia’s FARC. Maybe it was Hezb’allah.

The Reuters report is a bare bones story, but it highlights the nature of the security issues, and why an alliance with the states might be helpful in sweeping Hez’ballah, or whoever is doing this, if the purpose is a dirty bomb, out. Brazil is a country still digging out from the rubble of extended socialism and all the lawlessness and terror-coddling that fosters, and now has a sharp new president very clear about his opposition to all of it. A U.S. security alliance with him would make sense. This report from Politico demonstrates the Trump administrations ferocious determination to get rid of Hez’ballah using every means necessary from the resources of the U.S. government. Politico of all places writes:

The renewed focus on Hezbollah’s presence and operations in Latin America is long overdue. Hezbollah’s last attempted international terrorism plot was in Peru, where a Lebanese Hezbollah operative, Mohammed Amadar, arrived in Peru in November 2013 and married a woman of dual Peruvian-American citizenship two weeks later. The U.S. connection got the attention of the FBI’s Miami Field Office. Shortly thereafter, Amadar moved to Brazil, living in Sao Paulo until he returned to Lima in July 2014. Peru’s anti-terror unit questioned him upon his arrival at the airport, put Amadar under surveillance, and arrested him for planning attacks on Jewish and Israeli targets that October.

Hezbollah today is deeply invested in operations in South America. One of the most prominent operatives behind the AMIA bombing has now risen up the ranks of the organization and is personally overseeing Hezbollah operations in the region. 

It actually leaps out at me now that Trump has allied up with Bolsonaro on security. Combining U.S. and Brazilian resources and sharing intelligence on terrorist operations with dirty bomb dreams such as Hezb’allah, who are reportedly “up to no good” in the hemisphere, is a potential game-changer.

Now read this report from Susan Crabtree of Real Clear Politics, who covered the actual Trump-Bolsonaro meeting:

 

Beyond all the colorful mutual admiration, the real magnitude of the historic meeting should not be lost, especially when it comes to advancing U.S. security interests, regional experts stress.

Brazilian political leaders have long held the U.S. at arm’s length, harboring deep anti-imperialist suspicions since a 1964 coup, supported by the U.S. government, overthrew then-President Joao Goulart. The suspicions remained even after the country’s shift to democracy in the mid-1980s.

But Bolsonaro eschewed that past, pledging a new “chapter of cooperation” and a grand new alliance between the two most populous nations and largest economies in the Western hemisphere. He and Trump promised to work together to improve trade, oppose socialism and other leftist movements, and specifically to confront the political crisis in Venezuela.

Trump and Bolsonaro also signed an agreement with U.S. companies on technical safeguards to allow commercial satellite launches in northern Brazil. Bolsonaro even stopped by CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., to discuss “international themes in the region,” according to his son, Eduardo, a Brazilian lawmaker accompanying the president on his first overseas trip.

And it may have implications for the fate of Venezuela. Besides being a failed state and socialist hellhole, it’s also a Hez’ballah playground with a mafia-like criminal ruling coterie premised on the Hez’ballah specialty of drug-dealing. That’s what’s holding the Maduro regime together and keeping its military leaders loyal – it’s the prospect of drug money, along with the support of distant imperial powers such as China, Russia, Iran and Cuba.

Trump has stated that he’s after the Maduro dictatorship to get out and allow Venezuela’s legitimate leader, Juan Guaido, to govern. He also said he hasn’t unsheathed his sharpest sanctions weapons against the Maduro regime, which, surprise, has been bruited about earlier as putting the country on the state sponsor of terrorism list.

Is there a plan with this new security alliance with Brazil? Does Trump know what he’s doing? Sure looks like it. Together the two giants and their Latin American allies can squeeze kill-minded terrorists with dirty-bomb dreams, – and their hosts — right out of the hemisphere.

 

 

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Trump’s endorsement of Israeli sovereignty over Golan Heights a vote for reality

Yesterday, President Trump pulled off one of his trademark policy surprises via Twitter, and characteristically managed to outrage all the right people.

The president recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights almost 52 years after that nation acquired control over the vital escarpment overlooking much of Northern Israel during the Six-Day War.

 

 

In that armed conflict, Israel was defending itself against the combined forces of its Arab neighbors Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, who were seeking annihilation of the Jewish State.

The key fact is that control of the Golan Heights means control over the northern part of Israel, for it provides an ideal gun platform from which to shell Israel. The view from the Heights is breathtaking, showing how much territory is a sitting duck for any hostile power, for example the ruthless Assad regime of Syria that still claims sovereignty over the gun platform.

Photo credit: Yuri Loginov

Photo credit: Masterpjz9

The ability to claim legitimacy among Arabs by shelling Israel would be a lure for any renegade Arab dictatorship that cannot be dismissed. Israel must control Golan in order to survive. That is reality. All of the objections are based on theory, airy grand theory. President Trump’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty merely recognizes Israel’s right to survive.

Yet outrage is common among foreign diplomats, American pundits, and lovers of the United Nations. Because, you see, according to the United Nations Charter, territory should not be legitimately acquired by war. However, Professor Eugene Kantorovich (hat tip: Legal Insurrection) points out the error of this view in the case of defensive wars:

The widely-repeated view that recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights would be contrary to international law is based on one fundamental assumption: that at least since the adoption of U.N. Charter, international law prohibits any acquisition of foreign territory by force. While such a formulation of the rule is largely accurate, it omits crucial exceptions quite relevant to the case of the Golan Heights.

Whatever the current status of an absolute prohibition on territorial change resulting from war, there was certainly no such blanket prohibition in 1967, when the territory came under Israeli control. At the time, international law only prohibited acquisition of force in illegal or aggressive wars. This is evident from the source of the prohibition in the UN Charter, post-Charter state practice, and the understandings of international jurists at the time. There is simply no precedent or authoritative source for forbidding defensive conquest in 1967.

By reversing previous American policy denying Israeli sovereignty, President Trump thumbed his nose at the UN-as-world-government crowd and acknowledged the fundamental right of a sovereign nation to survive. Ultimately, the theorists of world governance by the UN seek to endow that body with life-and-death control over nation states.

Despite Twitter not being exactly an official organ for proclaiming US government policy,Israel’s PM Netanyahu leaped at the opportunity to thank Trump:

 

 

With Netanyahu facing voters in two weeks, and embroiled in an alleged scandal, this huge victory from trump has upset his political enemies, who have been already tasting the joy of his prospective defeat.

Democrats, who have now become hostile to Israel and Jews, and whose declared presidential nominees are all boycotting the AIPAC meeting for the first time ever, now have an issue  on which they can express their new open opposition to the Jewish state.

Yesterday, President Trump pulled off one of his trademark policy surprises via Twitter, and characteristically managed to outrage all the right people.

The president recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights almost 52 years after that nation acquired control over the vital escarpment overlooking much of Northern Israel during the Six-Day War.

 

 

In that armed conflict, Israel was defending itself against the combined forces of its Arab neighbors Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, who were seeking annihilation of the Jewish State.

The key fact is that control of the Golan Heights means control over the northern part of Israel, for it provides an ideal gun platform from which to shell Israel. The view from the Heights is breathtaking, showing how much territory is a sitting duck for any hostile power, for example the ruthless Assad regime of Syria that still claims sovereignty over the gun platform.

Photo credit: Yuri Loginov

Photo credit: Masterpjz9

The ability to claim legitimacy among Arabs by shelling Israel would be a lure for any renegade Arab dictatorship that cannot be dismissed. Israel must control Golan in order to survive. That is reality. All of the objections are based on theory, airy grand theory. President Trump’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty merely recognizes Israel’s right to survive.

Yet outrage is common among foreign diplomats, American pundits, and lovers of the United Nations. Because, you see, according to the United Nations Charter, territory should not be legitimately acquired by war. However, Professor Eugene Kantorovich (hat tip: Legal Insurrection) points out the error of this view in the case of defensive wars:

The widely-repeated view that recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights would be contrary to international law is based on one fundamental assumption: that at least since the adoption of U.N. Charter, international law prohibits any acquisition of foreign territory by force. While such a formulation of the rule is largely accurate, it omits crucial exceptions quite relevant to the case of the Golan Heights.

Whatever the current status of an absolute prohibition on territorial change resulting from war, there was certainly no such blanket prohibition in 1967, when the territory came under Israeli control. At the time, international law only prohibited acquisition of force in illegal or aggressive wars. This is evident from the source of the prohibition in the UN Charter, post-Charter state practice, and the understandings of international jurists at the time. There is simply no precedent or authoritative source for forbidding defensive conquest in 1967.

By reversing previous American policy denying Israeli sovereignty, President Trump thumbed his nose at the UN-as-world-government crowd and acknowledged the fundamental right of a sovereign nation to survive. Ultimately, the theorists of world governance by the UN seek to endow that body with life-and-death control over nation states.

Despite Twitter not being exactly an official organ for proclaiming US government policy,Israel’s PM Netanyahu leaped at the opportunity to thank Trump:

 

 

With Netanyahu facing voters in two weeks, and embroiled in an alleged scandal, this huge victory from trump has upset his political enemies, who have been already tasting the joy of his prospective defeat.

Democrats, who have now become hostile to Israel and Jews, and whose declared presidential nominees are all boycotting the AIPAC meeting for the first time ever, now have an issue  on which they can express their new open opposition to the Jewish state.

via American Thinker Blog

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