Happy 🇺🇸biker, Muslim-Jewish work 3+ decades, fmr USG HmldSec-CT guy, served in both D&R admins, MB=ok ISIS=bad, RINO Republican to FarRight,❤Islam & USA.
I’ve been telling my American 🇺🇸 Jewish friends for decades that Israel’s cheapening the value of non-Jewish Palestinian 🇵🇸 lives will eventually lessen the value of Jewish Israeli 🇮🇱 life in the eyes 👀 of the world. Working for the emancipation of 5.2 million occupied Palestinian civilians is the only path to safeguarding and regionally integrating #Israel. All Netanyahu has to offer Jews and the world is endless wars. #Iran
If you read one article today, it should be former CIA analyst Paul Pillar’s alarm bell of how the Senate wants to force the US to share sensitive intel with Israel at the expense of the US itself.
“In intelligence, Israel is more of an adversary than an ally. Being an adversary in intelligence means indulging in the hostile act of espionage. Israel has a long record of conducting that type of hostile act against the United States.”
https://t.co/KpdR33YrTw
Three notable findings from Channel 12's weekly poll released Thursday night (June 11):
• A plurality of Israelis (39%) believe Prime Minister Netanyahu should have struck Lebanon harder earlier, despite warnings from President Trump.
• By a striking 69%-21% margin, Israelis say they do not trust Trump to safeguard Israel's interests in Washington's negotiations with Iran. This challenges the assumption that Israeli views of Trump are always favorable on security related issues. Moreover, it comes at a time of tension between Trump-Netanyahu. Therefore, there are more questions about whether Trump would back Netanyahu in the elections, and whether it would would automatically translate into political gains for Netanyahu.
• Gadi Eisenkot continues his steady rise. Months ago, he was middling in the polls. Yet, he has surged and gained roughly one Knesset seat per week since late April. He now polls at 20 seats, tied with the Bennett-Lapid alliance (down from 28 not long ago), while Netanyahu stands at 22.
If this trend continues, Eisenkot could overtake both Netanyahu and the Bennett-Lapid alliance, emerging as the frontrunner for prime minister.
Inflation has overtaken wages for the first time in 3 years.
That means Americans’ incomes are shrinking in real terms, largely because of the Iran war.
My @Morning_Joe Chart.
This is an absolutely major story and almost no Western media covered it: India's water minister CR Patil said on Tuesday that "it is certain, not a single drop of water will go (to Pakistan) in the coming years."
Patil said that India is "actively working on it" after "directives" from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
As a reminder, Pakistan's dependence on water from India is close to total: the country is essentially built around the Indus river system, all of whose rivers flow through India before entering Pakistan.
The Indus system irrigates 80% of Pakistan's farmland, generates a third of its electricity, supplies its major cities with drinking water, and sustains the livelihoods of some 240 million people.
So, essentially, no water from India = annihilation of Pakistan as a state.
Pretty damn consequential, all the more given we're talking about 2 nuclear powers here. And all the more because, understandably, Pakistan's formal position is that water diversion would constitute "an act of war" (https://t.co/WLoDpGzc2W).
Unfortunately, Patil's statement isn't just talk: India already set up the legal framework to make this possible. Last year, they unilaterally suspended the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, despite the treaty containing no withdrawal clause.
It used to be the one piece of India-Pakistan relations that worked, and had survived multiple wars and over six decades of hostility. Now India is saying officially that it will "never be restored" (https://t.co/2SnUNevFbX).
The one mitigating factor here is physics: you don't just "turn off" a major Himalayan river system. Diverting rivers of this magnitude means building massive storage and canal infrastructure in Himalayan terrain: projects measured in years.
But India IS ACTUALLY BUILDING that infrastructure: for instance it just approved in May the building of the so-called "Chenab–Beas Link Tunnel," an 8.7km ₹2,352 crore (~$280M) tunnel designed to divert water from the Chenab basin into India's Beas river system. The Chenab is one of the main tributaries of the Indus - and one of the three "western rivers" (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab) allocated to Pakistan under the 1960 Indus Water Treaty.
Which means that, unfortunately, Patil's "not a single drop of water in the coming years" looks like a roadmap: the infrastructure to strangle Pakistan's water supply is being approved and tendered in plain sight.
This is also a story about selective media coverage and double standards: I'm willing to bet that 99% of people in the West have never heard of any of this.
Now make this thought experiment: imagine China announced it was building infrastructure to cut off every drop of water flowing to India and its ministers proclaimed on television that "not a single drop" would cross the border. It would be wall-to-wall coverage, sanctions packages, and a thousand op-eds about Beijing "weaponizing water."
Heck we don't need to imagine because the simple fact of China merely building a hydropower dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo (the upstream Brahmaputra) generated exactly the wall-to-wall alarm I'm describing, even though China threatened nothing and even though Indian officials said the threat is a "myth" given the fact that the river gathers most of its volume inside India from monsoon rains (https://t.co/GBgBybBPoE). Malign intent was still presumed from the act of construction, because it's China.
In India's case, the intent couldn't possibly be clearer: it's proclaimed by ministers on the record, and backed by India's actions. But because they're a courted Western partner, what they're doing - arguably the most extreme form of economic warfare imaginable, directed at a nuclear state - largely gets silence.
Src for screenshot: https://t.co/qav4muNkij
🚨BREAKING: A U.S. citizen was riding his bike in Laredo, Texas… when Border Patrol agents pulled alongside him and illegally tried to block him in.
When he kept riding, they chased him down, physically grabbed him by the arm, and immediately started demanding identification and asking where he was from.
He told them he born in Laredo, Texas.
But that was not good enough.
The agent asked, “What high school did you go to?”
He answered that, too… and they still kept demanding ID, over and over again.
The Fourth Amendment exists for a reason. In America, law enforcement don’t get to randomly stop people, physically grab them, and demand identification because they feel like it.
Being on a bike isn’t a crime.
You also don’t have to carry an ID on you unless you are operating a motor vehicle… which he was not.
So, demanding an ID, without probable cause, is illegal.
And the cherry on top? When the man went to use his phone, an agent tried to stop him by grabbing it… apparently unaware the entire encounter was already being recorded by his glasses.
If Border Patrol can stop an American born citizen riding his bike, demand his papers, and put their hands on him without stating a lawful reason… every American should be paying attention.
💥#Breaking: For the first time since the Oslo Accords, the IDF has established a permanent outpost in Area A, which is under full Palestinian Authority control. It's near the Jenin refugee camp, whose residents were evacuated in January, 2025. Annexation by military encroachment
🚨🇮🇱🇵🇸 While the Trump administration - along with governments across Europe and the Middle East - is focused on the escalating crisis with Iran, the Israeli cabinet is expected to approve on Thursday a plan to fund the de facto establishment of 61 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to a draft government decision I obtained.
🚨🇮🇱🇵🇸 Why it matters: A source familiar with the proposal said the government is expected to allocate more than $350 million over several years to move 61 newly authorized settlements from paper to reality.
🚨🇮🇱🇵🇸 The plan would fund temporary residential compounds, public buildings and infrastructure even before formal planning procedures are completed, marking one of the most significant settlement expansion moves in decades.
🚨🇮🇱🇵🇸 The proposal is being championed by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. The timing is significant: the government is seeking to approve the funding before a possible vote to dissolve the Knesset and trigger new elections - a scenario that could make large-scale budget allocations substantially more difficult.
🚨🇮🇱🇵🇸 Between the lines: Many of the settlements included in the proposal are located in strategically sensitive areas, including along Highway 90 in the Jordan Valley, in the South Hebron Hills, and in locations designed to create territorial continuity between existing settlements. Such a move further undermines the prospect of a future Palestinian state.
🚨🇮🇱🇵🇸 Rather than merely granting formal recognition to new settlements, the government would begin simultaneously funding housing, infrastructure and public services for dozens of communities - a move that could significantly reshape the map of the West Bank over the coming years.
🚨🇮🇱🇵🇸 Zoom in: Under the plan, the government would finance temporary settlement sites that include mobile homes, public facilities, community infrastructure and support services.
🚨🇮🇱🇵🇸 The proposal would also fund development work for the permanent settlements expected to follow, including roads, utilities and other core infrastructure.
🚨🇮🇱🇵🇸 The significance of the proposal lies not only in the number of settlements involved, but also in the government's decision to begin physical implementation before completing the full statutory planning process.
🚨🇮🇱🇵🇸 The proposal follows a government decision approved last week that allocated roughly $35 million for planning and regulatory work related to the same settlements. The new proposal moves beyond planning and into implementation.
🚨🇮🇱🇵🇸 In practice, it would allow the government to establish temporary settlement sites while planning procedures are still underway, creating facts on the ground that could later evolve into permanent settlements.
🚨🇮🇱🇵🇸 The big picture: The move comes amid a broader effort by the Israeli government to strengthen its hold over Area C of the West Bank and accelerate settlement expansion.
🚨🇮🇱🇵🇸 It also follows a series of cabinet decisions over the past year authorizing dozens of new settlements, representing the largest wave of settlement approvals in years.
#TexasSenate
Politico: Federal judge blocks Texas AG Ken Paxton’s suit accusing ActBlue, the Democratic fundraising platform, of violating Texas’ Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
Judge says Paxton acted in retaliation for (and in an attempt to suppress) ActBlue funding for James Talarico’s Senate campaign.
Link to ruling: https://t.co/185EHxxdfV
For many years, I took barbs for refusing to call Israel's policy in East Jerusalem "ethnic cleansing". After all, there were 60,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem in 1967, and 400,000 today. Occupation sucked, and included war crimes, but it wasn't ethnic cleansing.
That has changed now.
There are 3 Palestinian neighborhoods, all of whose residents are being or are about to be displaced: Batan al-Hawa and al-Bustan in Silwan, and Um Haroun in Sheik Jarrah. The latter two are being razed, or will be razed in the near future.
And immediately to the east, the Bedouin hamlet of Khan al-Akmar, adjacent to E-1, is about to be expelled, part of an attempt to "cleanse" Area C between East Jerusalem and the Jordan River valley of its Palestinian residents.
Regrettably, I can think of no other term to use other than "ethnic cleansing".
WOW, Trump administration has launched a probe into Iran war critic Trita Parsi and is considering to cancel his Green Card and deport him out of the country, The Free Press reports
Texas has replaced California as the state with the most Fortune 500 capital. 💰
Texas’ 57 Fortune 500 companies made roughly $2.8 trillion in revenue last year, compared to California’s 56 companies and roughly $2.7 trillion revenue.
New York comes in third with 53 companies and $2.2 trillion.
https://t.co/81xtLGBJ3B
BREAKING: President Trump says he directed the US Military to execute a “secret mission” in the Strait of Hormuz which resulted in over 100 million barrels of crude oil crossing through Hormuz.
This is an astonishing turnaround in public opinion, one of the legacies of Bibi Netanyahu. And because it is most evident among younger Americans, it is not yet fully felt in the political system.
🔥Bottom Line on the Hormuz Crisis:
🚨Neither Iran nor the Trump administration is rushing to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while the economies of the Arab countries are shattered and other countries suffer.
🚨The longer it stays shut, the faster alternatives on both supply and demand sides will develop — making the region less relevant forever.
🗝️Question is: Who is the ultimate winner?
💥Ending a week in which Netanyahu made a consigliere head of the Mossad & forced Likud legislators to document themselves illegally voting his personal lawyer State Comptroller, and a mob aligned with his coalition tried to lynch a Supreme Court Justice, his "ultra-orthodox Jewish" gangs are trying to invade a Jerusalem police station on the holy Sabbath.
Scooplet: I've learned that Spanish, French, British and Canadian Jewish communities have contacted officials at the State Department to explore the possibility of their members immigrating to America under refugee or other protected status avenues.
This is due to the rise of often violent antisemitism in their home countries.
A State Department official confirmed the information. There is no indication that the department has moved forward on the requests, or what position it might hold.
Amb. Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, declined to comment directly on the information that I received.
“It is the government’s responsibility in those countries to make certain that the Jewish community has safety, security and the ability to practice their religion free from any type of harm,” he told me. “The U.S. government demands it.”