usan Sandler, the daughter of billionaire banking giants Herb and Marion Sandler, announced Monday that she is investing $200 million in “racial justice groups” as part of an effort to build a liberal infrastructure in states “undergoing rapid demographic change” such as Texas, Florida, and Georgia. The move from Sandler, a longtime donor to Democratic candidates and groups, is the start of a transition away from the short-term world of supporting campaigns to a long-term effort at building power, according to the Times.
The source of Sandler’s cash injection is her parents’ subprime mortgage company, Golden West Financial Corp., which was sold to Wachovia Bank in 2006 for a reported $25 billion. The couple built its fortune by offering millions of adjustable-rate mortgage loans to individuals, many of whom couldn’t afford them and eventually defaulted on their homes.
While the Sandlers came away with billions of dollars, many blame the loans they offered for causing the burst of the U.S. housing bubble and resulting financial crisis of 2007. The defaulted loans cost Wachovia billions of dollars, forcing it to merge with Wells Fargo, which eventually agreed to pay a $50 million settlement to borrowers who were misled by the Sandlers.
BREAKING: The Afghan government and the Taliban begin direct talks to end nearly two decades of conflict in talks brokered by the United States. @BehildIsrael.org
Following the historic agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kosovo has announced the normalization of ties with Israel; Both Kosovo and Serbia are set to move their embassies to Jerusalem.
As of Friday, both Kosovo & Serbia announced their intentions to move their embassies to Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. Furthermore, on Friday, Kosovo announced that it will be normalizing its diplomatic ties with Israel. This is significant as Kosovo is a Muslim-majority country, and the first of such to move its embassy to Jerusalem.
After the announcement, President of Kosovo Hashim Thaçi took to Twitter stating, “I welcome the announcement of Israeli PM @netanyahu about the genuine intention to recognize #Kosovo and establish diplomatic relations. Kosovo will keep its promise to place its diplomatic mission in #Jerusalem.”
Following the news, US President Trump also tweeted, “Another great day for peace with the Middle East – Muslim-majority Kosovo and Israel have agreed to normalize ties and establish diplomatic relations. Well-done! More Islamic and Arab nations will follow soon!”
Kosovo’s decision follows the recent move by the UAE to normalize diplomatic ties with the Jewish State. And given the recent trip by US officials to the Middle East and what we’ve now witnessed with Kosovo and Serbia, it’s likely that more countries are soon to follow.September 5th, 2020|News copied from BeholdIsrael.org
Will NFL End Zones Have ‘End Racism’ Written on Them? The NFL plans to display some new writing in both end zones for the 2020-2021 season. According to the Associated Press, “NFL end zones will be inscribed this season with two slogans: ‘It Takes All Of Us’ on one end line, ‘End Racism’ on the other. Additionally, similar writing will be allowed on team members’ helmets.
Asymptomatic cases “not the major drivers” of pandemic, scientists claim
Earlier this month, a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine announced findings that asymptomatic patients were, in both relative and absolute terms, unlikely to infect close contacts.
If you get COVID-19, you don’t want to be admitted to a hospital, warns a research paper published by the American Journal of Medicine. In fact, therapy at home or out-patient treatment could prevent thousands of hospitalizations and deaths, article by Peter McCullough, M.D., a cardiologist at Baylor, and 18 other researchers who mostly are…
BRENDAN DALY, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR FOR NANCY PELOSI AND A POLITICAL APPOINTEE OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, IS A REGISTERED FOREIGN AGENT WHO PROVIDED THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY’S PREMIER STATE-RUN MEDIA OUTLET CHINA CENTRAL TELEVISION NETWORK WITH “STRATEGIC COUNSEL” AS IT EXPANDED INTO THE UNITED STATES, THE NATIONAL PULSE CAN REVEAL.
And Israel starts to play the game on Mideast terms, leveraging its position for favorable outcomes Ryan Jones article from Israel Today
For decades the Palestinian nationalist cause has held the interests of the rest of the Arab world hostage. Everything was seen through the lens of “justice” for “Palestine,” but on such impossible terms that mutually beneficial partnerships had to be abandoned for the sake of toeing the party line.
To be sure, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are still employing the same rhetoric, stating that their decision to normalize relations with Israel is first and foremost a move to save the two-state solution and future Palestinian independence.
But as suggested yesterday by Dr. Anat Berko, a former Member of Knesset and counter-terrorism expert, the reality is that a growing number of Arabs states are tired of having their national interests play second fiddle to the Palestinian cause. (See: Saudi Arabia Turns Against the Palestinians and Arab States Quietly Back Israeli Annexation)
“The Emirates did not slink into an agreement with Israel, but released themselves from the Palestinian ‘occupation’ of their national interests,” said Dr. Berko in a Facebook response to the bellyaching of Arab Member of Knesset Jamal Zahalka over the UAE announcement. “The Arab states,” added Berko, “are simply tired of waiting on the Palestinians to agree to some arrangement that doesn’t include the destruction” of Israel. She also noted that the Palestinians had made a major strategic error in aligning with Iran and Iran-backed proxies, which are the mortal enemies of the UAE and other Sunni Muslim states.
A convenient excuse?
As for the UAE, what does an independent Palestinian state do for them? Sure, they might genuinely want to see that eventual outcome, but there’s no point allowing the lack of a Palestinian state at this time to prevent them moving forward with a partnership that will greatly benefit both them and Israel.
That’s why, despite the UAE’s official statements, I agree with Dr. Berko that this decision was much more about regional stability, mutual economic benefit and allying against the Iranian threat than an act of service to the Palestinian cause.
Remember that in making this decision, the UAE abandoned all previous preconditions for peace set by the Arab world.
Israeli settlements remain in place in the “West Bank”;
The entirety of Jerusalem is firmly under Israeli control; and
No political party in Israel (except perhaps the Joint Arab List) is even entertaining the notion of a Palestinian “right of return.”
In effect, the UAE got nothing in return for agreeing to peace besides the vague (and perhaps temporary) promise that Israel won’t carry out an annexation that most believe wasn’t going to happen anyway. Oh, and it also got the aforementioned benefits of partnership with Israel.
Perhaps “stopping the annexation” was just a convenient excuse to finally make a diplomatic move the UAE has wanted to make for some time?
Christian Conservative Coalition 