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GOD BLESS AMERICA
Sunday, January 31, 2016
The U.S. Should Keep the Cuba Embargo in Place
A year has elapsed since normalization talks were divulged between the United States and Cuba, and the prophetic words of Cuba’s dissidents reverberate within the current, grim reality of a nation in shackles. Pro-democracy activists “are totally against the easing of the embargo… the government will have more access to technology and money that can be used against us,” declared Ángel Moya, a former political prisoner, one year ago.
Sonia Garro, a member of the Ladies in White, having served almost three years in prison at the time of her release, expressed: “A country that violates the human rights of its people shouldn’t have sanctions lifted. Here there is no freedom of speech, there is no freedom of anything. This will give them more leeway to continue operating with the same impunity that they have always operated with.”
On Sept. 25, 2015, Cuba’s foremost dissidents sent a letter to the U.S. Congress: “The lifting of the embargo, as proposed by the [Obama] administration will permit the old ruling elite to transfer their power to their political heirs and families, giving little recourse to the Cuban people in confronting this despotic power.”
Clamors for the embargo’s lifting persist despite the fulfillment of dissident and exile warnings that diplomatic recognition of the Castro regime would strengthen the oppressors and crush popular dissent. The removal of what little trade sanctions remain is legally and morally unjustified.
President Obama’s negotiations with the dictatorship were conducted sans the legitimizing presence of Cuba’s pro-democracy groups and civil society. The darkly covert negotiations were also in direct violation of U.S. law as outlined in the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996 (Helms-Burton Act). The embargo should not be lifted until the requisite conditions in the Helms-Burton Act are honored by the Castro regime.
Situating the embargo in its proper context, Cuban activist Rosa María Payá wisely observes: “The cruelest embargo, and the one that depends only on Cubans to maintain or eliminate it, is the one maintained by the Havana regime against the rights of our citizens.”
While contravening U.S. laws and basic diplomatic rules of engagement, Obama, for the past year, has been rewarding the intransigent dictatorship with undeserved unilateral concessions. In turn, Castro apparatchiks have indicated their steadfast refusal to concede not one “iota” or “millimeter” in favor of measures leading to true reconciliation.
The oft-repeated rhetoric that the embargo has “exacerbated the hardships” of the Cuban people is untrue. The Castros' totalitarian system of governance, which has created economic, sociopolitical and spiritual impoverishment, is the veritable culprit, not the embargo. Fifty-five years of global trade with Cuba refutes allegations of enforced isolation. Given Castro’s propensity to default on loans, the embargo has actually saved U.S. taxpayers millions of dollars by denying the corrupt regime easy credit.
Sadly and devastatingly, opportunistic global capitalists, looking for profits, perpetuate the exploitation of the Cuban people. Foreign companies are provided Cuban workers by the state. The Castro regime deducts 80 percent of the average employee’s wages, and pays the remaining 20 percent in worthless Cuban pesos. Doing business in Cuba entails striking a nefarious bargain with Castro’s monopolies, GAESA, ETECSA and ALIMPORT, which control the Cuban economy. The Castro elites hoard the foreign revenue, acquire debts and incur national insolvency. These tactics financially ruin the nation, but in no way does it affect the rulers’ accumulation of personal wealth.
The fruits of Obama’s U.S.-Cuba policy has been an “annus horribilis” of over 8,600 short-term arbitrary detentions, weekly beatings of peaceful protesters, extrajudicial killings, long-term incarceration of political opponents, and a migratory crisis involving a number of Latin-American nations. The Cuban government has demonstrated a clear unwillingness to embrace free markets or incorporate judicial safeguards for business investments. The political opposition, fully cognizant that commerce without civil liberties is meaningless, seeks a restoration of their political rights and civil liberties.
The voices of Cuba’s dissidents and exiles, ignored and marginalized, must be respected and acknowledged. The Stalinist purveyors of misery and death must face justice for their homicidal and economic crimes. Only then will Cubans move forward with renewed hope and optimism forging a path to the progress and prosperity so cruelly swept away in the Castroite madness that engulfed Cuba in 1959.
I STAND WITH GOD AND ISRAEL ETERNALLY
The Namer armored personnel carrier. (Flickr/IDF)
Israel Unveils Armored Vehicle Equipped with Anti-Missile System
Israel’s Defense Ministry unveiled the first of its Namer armored troop carriers that will be equipped with the Trophy anti-missile system.
The Namer vehicles themselves have been in service since 2008.
“At the end of a series of tests that are taking place in these days, we will begin serial installation of the system on additional vehicles. As such, we will implement MoD (Ministry of Defense) policy of equipping every Namer that leaves the production line with the only operational active defense system in the world,” said Brig. Gen. Baruch Matzliah, director of the ministry’s Tank Production Office.
“Namer with Trophy will provide the highest level of protection to war fighters of the Israel Defense Forces, and will grant them security and a significant edge on the field of battle,” Matzliah added.
The Trophy system, developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, was already installed on the less-expensive Merkava MK 4 battle tanks to protect infantry soldiers against Palestinian attacks during the 2014 Gaza war. The anti-missile system is designed with a 360-degree protection against multiple launchings, while maintaining “a pre-defined safety zone for friendly dismounted troops,” the Defense Ministry said.
By: JNS.org
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Nuclear Deal Accelerated Iran’s Nuclear Activities, Iranian Official Says
AEOI head Ali Akbar Salehi. (PressTV)
Iran’s nuclear program has only slowed – not stopped – since the signing of the nuclear accord, and in some aspects has even grown, an Iranian official said.
The head of Iran’s nuclear agency stated that the volume of nuclear material in Iran possession has increased significantly since the implementation of the nuclear deal the Islamic Republic signed with world powers in July, while the program’s development has merely slowed down, and not stopped completely.
Commenting during a meeting of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations on Wednesday, Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Agency of Iran (AEOI), said the nuclear negotiations had been led in a path so as to leave the major components of Iran’s nuclear program intact.
“Exploration, extraction, enrichment, research reactors, and research and development are the major components of the nuclear program; the nuclear accords did not completely stymie the program, and we have only slowed down in terms of progress,” Salehi told the meeting of experts, Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported.
“In other activities, we have even accelerated the pace, including in the volume of nuclear material which was 550 tons before, and now we have 770 tons of nuclear material; this is a fact known to the IAEA [the UN Atomic energy agency]. With heavy water, we secured the project along with R&D, extraction and exploration. These provide testimony to the fact that allegations of complete suspension of nuclear activities are baseless,” he added.
He emphasized that through the process of the nuclear deal Iran has “also secured the UN Security Council’s acknowledgement and recognition of Iran’s nuclear program.”
“We believe that Iran is fully entitled to enrichment rights according to articles of the IAEA and NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty]; a major drive behind pressures on Iran was to prevent enrichment and heavy water production; they believed Iran should not have been active in these areas; however, we were active in both paths, since we were not sure that which one would lead us to nuclear fuel sooner,” Salehi concluded his speech.
The top Iranian official made his statements only days after world powers lifted sanctions on Iran, a major stage in the full implementation of the nuclear deal.
Israel fears that Iran’s nuclear development has not been stopped by the accord, and that it has, at the most, only been slowed down, as Salehi has confirmed.
By: United with Israel Staff
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Palestinian Stone-Throwers Jailed for 15 years Over Car Crash That Killed Toddler
Palestinians throw rocks at Israelis. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
Five Palestinian stone-throwers were convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years in prison last week for their involvement in the death of 4-year-old Israeli girl Adele Biton in February 2015, two years after she was seriously injured in a terrorist attack on her family’s car.
The Palestinians—who were minors at the time of the attack—were convicted as part of a plea bargain approved by the Samaria Military Court. Each of the defendants was ordered to pay the Biton family $7,500 in restitution. On March 14, 2013, they caused a gruesome car crash after stoning Israeli vehicles traveling on Route 5 in Samaria.
Biton’s mother, Adva, was driving her three daughters home when their car collided with a truck as a result of the stoning attack. Adele was critically wounded, while her mother and two sisters were moderately wounded. The toddler was hospitalized for many months before eventually being brought home. She suffered from multiple complications as a direct result of her injuries, and died from a lung infection in February 2015.
The sentence “offers us no comfort” and the five Palestinians “should have gotten a life sentence or a death sentence,” Adva Biton told Israel’s Channel 2.
By: Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org
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Palestinian terrorist, on PA payroll, shoots, wounds 3 IDF soldiers
A Palestinian terrorist shot and wounded three IDF soldiers on Sunday, as Palestinian attacks become more sophisticated and potentially lethal.
By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News
A Palestinian terrorist shot and wounded three IDF soldiers who were manning a security checkpoint near the Israeli community of Beit El, in the Binyamin region, on Sunday.
Initial reports indicate that the terrorist arrived at the checkpoint by car. He exited the vehicle and shot at the IDF unit, hitting three troops.
The soldiers responded by shooting and killing the terrorist, who was identified by Palestinian sources as Amjad Abu-Amer, 35, from the Shechem (Nablus) area.
Abu-Amer served as a policeman in the Palestinian Authority (PA). According to one report, he served as a bodyguard for the PA’s General Attorney. It is suspected that the weapon used in the attack was the one issued to him by the PA.
Two IDF soldiers were seriously wounded; one sustained a gunshot wound to the neck and another was shot in the hip, medical officials stated. A third soldier sustained light wounds to his legs.
All victims were evacuated to hospitals in Jerusalem.
Israel has been contending with almost daily, knife, fire bomb and rock attacks perpetrated by Palestinian terrorists for the past four-and-a-half months, but recently the terrorists have escalated their actions and have been carrying out more lethal shooting attacks, such as today’s attack.
This incident is the latest in a long series of Palestinian terror attacks, which have claimed the lives of 29 victims and wounded over 290.
Israeli Mining Company Discovers Rare Minerals Near Haifa
(Illustrative photo. Shutterstock)
Shefa Yamim, an Israeli exploration and mining company, announced that it has discovered rare minerals near Israel’s port city of Haifa. The corundum stones contain a variety of rare minerals, including Moissanite and tistarite.
A report prepared by geologist William Griffin of Australia’s Macquarie University examined the mineral samples of corundum stones sent to him by Shefa Yamim, which found the stones in several sites in the Kishon River. The corundum stones contain a variety of rare minerals, including Moissanite and tistarite.
“Until now, [tistarite] has been found on a single meteorite that came from outer space; this has been the first find in nature of this mineral, whose source is deep inside the Earth,” Shefa Yamim said,Haaretz reported.
Almost half of the components found inside the corundum stones are not yet identifiable. Shefam Yamim’s shares went up 6.5 percent on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange following the company’s announcement on the mineral.
By: JNS.org
Do You Support Israel?
Want to do something important for Israel? Make a donation to United with Israel, and help to educate and inspire millions around the world to support Israel too!
Now more than ever, Israel needs your help to fight the battle of public opinion. Israel's enemies are using social media to incite brutal terror against innocent civilians. We need your help to fight back! Every day, we teach the truth about Israel to millions of people around the world.
In addition, United with Israel contributes to vital causes like building bomb shelters to protect Israeli citizens. Donations from true friends of Israel like you make this possible, so please show your support today!
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