The AIPAC policy conference in Washington began today on a defensive note, with the Israel lobby organization's chief executive saying that Israel's friends face a terrible new challenge, "the scurrilous charge of dual loyalty" and declaring, "The intense hatred of Israel is now creeping from the margins to the center of our politics."

Howard Kohr addressed thousands at the Washington convention center after several non-Jewish warmup speakers pronounced, "I'm an American and I stand with Israel."

AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) is plainly responding to the decision by several Democratic presidential candidates to sidestep the conference as well as the controversy over Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar's statement last month that some American supporters of Israel don't know where their allegiance lies.

The theme of Kohr's angry speech was that it is American as apple pie to support Israel, and building an even stronger relationship between the countries will make both countries better.

It won't be "full and thorough" and Democrats will continue to look for political payoff from Russia-gate, writes Patrick Lawrence.

Last week gave us mounting indications that Robert Mueller has finished his two-year probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 elections and is about to issue his long-awaited report.

But those who hope to read the results of the "full and thorough investigation" promised when Mueller was appointed special counsel should adjust their expectations. After spending upward of $12 million, Mueller is almost certain to hand Attorney General William Barr a light-on-evidence document that dodges many more questions than it resolves. Neither is it clear whether the AG will make all, part, or none of the Mueller report public.

There are two certainties we can rely upon as we await Mueller's final word, none a cause for relief.

• The special counsel's office did not undertake a credible investigation of the two core charges related to the 2016 elections - that Russian intelligence hacked Democratic National Committee email servers while colluding with Donald Trump as he sought the presidency. Mueller failed to call numerous key witnesses, and failed to pursue alternative theories, a duty of any investigator in Mueller's position. These omissions are more or less fatal to the legitimacy of Mueller's work.
• Among the mainstream Democrats who have incessantly hyped the "Russia-wrecked-our-elections" story, there is no remorse for the damage it has done to our governing institutions, our foreign policy, and our national security. Russia-gate has consolidated Cold War II. The chance to rebuild mutually beneficial relations with Moscow has been damaged.

Last few weeks have seen the Iranian diplomats and top officials engaging in a lot of diplomatic activity in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq and Syria, marking a systematically built web of relations that Iran is building as part of a policy based upon what its supreme leader recently described as 'resistance.' The emphasis on 'resistance' is meaningful in that it highlights the intensity of the situation as well as an Iranian resolve to tackle the way the Saudis and the Emiratis are, through the use of their money, trying to re-establish their presence in both countries to potentially base themselves closer to Iran.

The Iranian supreme leader made it clear when Syria's Assad visited Iran three weeks ago that the war in Syria was a manifestation of that very resistance against the US and its allies, and that their defeat has made them hatch new conspiracies, adding that "the issue of the buffer zone, which Americans seek to establish in Syria, is among those dangerous plots that must be categorically rejected and stood against."

The president of Venezuela has accused Juan Guaido of plotting to kill him, after the opposition leader's aide was arrested as an alleged terrorist and charged with recruiting foreign mercenaries to carry out attacks and sabotage.

"American imperialists want to kill me. We just exposed the plan that the devil's puppet [Juan Guaido] personally directed to kill me," President Nicolas Maduro told his supporters on Saturday, claiming his government has "evidence" on the opposition's alleged criminal activities.

Roberto Marrero, chief of staff to the US-backed opposition leader Guaido, conspired with his boss to finance terrorist acts in Venezuela, Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez told the nation on Saturday, accusing the arrested members of the opposition of trafficking hitmen from Central America.

"Assassins and paramilitaries have been recruited using large amounts of money so that they can be sent to Colombia to receive training," he said. "Marrero was involved in contracting people from Guatemala and Colombia to comply with the recruitment and training plan for assassins."

Information gathered from Marrero's cell phone indicates that the opposition was planning to put together eight to 10 hit teams, each comprising at least eight mercenaries, to carry out assassinations, sabotage and acts of terrorism against government institutions in Venezuela.

Immigrants from the three Central American nation's sourcing many illegal border crossers sent a record amount of money home last year, bringing the total this decade to $120 billion.

Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador all said that natives in the United States sent over $17 billion home last year alone. Since 2009, legal and illegal immigrants from those three nations have shipped $120 billion home, according to an immigration expert citing United Nations and Latin American banking data.

And newly released Central American bank data said that the record breaking has continued this year.
The so-called "remittances" have been in the focus of some immigration reform advocates who want to tax the transfers. Proponents said that a tax on the money, some of which is collected under the table and outside payroll taxes, could help pay for President Trump's proposed border wall with Mexico.

Romania will move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila announced at the AIPAC summit in Washington on Sunday, in a controversial move that goes against the rest of the European Union.

Speaking at the Israel lobby group American Israel Public Affairs Committee's (AIPAC) conference, Dancila said Romania intends to relocate its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which she referred to as Israel's capital, in a move that follows the US' controversial decision to do so last year.

Pakistan has welcomed a message from India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling for the cessation of violence and for a terror-free atmosphere, after weeks of clashes between the nuclear-armed rivals at their border in Kashmir.

"It's time that the people of the sub-continent work together for a democratic, peaceful, progressive and prosperous region, in an atmosphere free of terror and violence," Modi was quoted as saying by the Prime Minister Imran Khan late Friday, after Islamabad received the greetings from New Delhi on the eve of Pakistan's National Day.

Prime Minister Khan welcomed Modi's desire to turn a page on the conflict, noting that the time has come for the rivals to begin a "comprehensive dialogue" to resolve the tensions and to "forge" a relationship of peace and prosperity.

Hostilities between India and Pakistan flared up last month when Indian forces conducted an air raid against suspected terrorist camps in Pakistani territory. That operation came in presumed retaliation for a deadly suicide-bomb attack on an Indian paramilitary police convoy in the Kashmir region.

Millions have signed a request for Britain to stay in the EU as people march for the voters' right to have the "final say" on Brexit, with London's mayor among them.

The petition asking Britain to "remain in the EU" gained more than 4 million signatures on Saturday morning, making it the most popular petition ever submitted to the Parliament website, local media reported.

It's not immediately clear, however, if all the signatories are genuine British citizens, since 'confirmation' of citizenship is made simply by checking a box. The petition has surpassed the 10,000-signature threshold required for the government to "respond" to it, as well as the 100-thousand threshold to force Parliament to "consider" it.

Quelle surprise. After more than two years looking for a non-existent needle in an ever-expanding haystack, Chief Hunter of the Needle, Special Counsel Robert Mueller, has finally declared that he hasn't been able to find it. This ought to come as no surprise, because as we know non-existent needles don't exist. Except, of course, in the minds of hundreds of foolish Democrat politicians and their dutiful stenographers in the mainstream media, or Global Pravda as it is known on this blog.

The fascinating thing about it all is that it wasn't hard to grasp that the needle didn't exist. It was obvious from the start. Here's what I wrote back in November 2017, almost 18 months before Robert Mueller finally gave up his pointless hunt:

Imagine a Convention of Village Idiots holding a never-ending hunt for a non-existent needle in an ever-expanding haystack. Every once in a while one of them finds a twig, or an old sock, or a marble, and with a look of sheer delight on their face they look up and squawk, 'I've found it'. And all the other VIs gather round to marvel at the needle, and the news is published in the press across the country that they've got it, and there is much rejoicing. Until that is, someone points out that what they've found is not a needle at all, but a twig or an old sock or a marble, and before you know it they've quietly put it to one side, and resumed the hunt.

The Convention, which sometimes goes by the name Russiagate, has been going on for more than a year now, and despite its participants claiming on multiple occasions to have found the needle, sadly for them they've still to locate it. You might think that after still not finding it after this long, they'd be discouraged enough to give up, go home, and tend to their gardens, or some other such useful endeavour. But not a bit of it. The fact that they keep finding things in the haystack that aren't needles only convinces them that there must be a needle in there somewhere. And so with a squawk of excitement and a cry of "On with the hunt", off they go again looking for it with more enthusiasm than ever, ready to unearth yet more non-needles.

What have they actually found? Well, there was the indictment of Paul Manafort. Surely that was a needle, wasn't it? Well, only in the same way that a needle resembles a brick, the charges against him being utterly unrelated to Russia, but instead about dealings he had in Ukraine years before Donald Trump ever announced he was standing for election. How about the indictment of George Papadopolous by the Mueller inquiry? Well, given that the charge against him is again nothing to do with collusion with Russia, but rather about lying to the FBI, that's not very needle-like either, is it?

Somehow though, supposedly serious and powerful people have believed in the non-existent needle with a zeal that might be commendable if it were ever used to do some actual good. As it is, their evidence-free fanaticism has simply shown them to be on the Dark Side of the Moon, many sandwiches short of a picnic, and certainly an indictment short of collusion. The question is why? Chiefly a couple of reasons:

With Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe wrapped up, one can't blame the liberal media for trying to keep the 'Russian Collusion' narrative on life support. Enter the latest Russian agent: Grease star John Travolta.

The Hollywood star's recent trip to Russia - a PR jaunt to a country fascinated by aging celebrities - didn't escape the eagle-eyed Russia sleuths over at the Daily Beast. "Why is John Travolta palling around with Putin's cronies in Russia?" the liberal news site asked on Saturday. Raw Story later picked up and rewrote the story.


The Pulp Fiction star's transgressions included meeting with "elite members of President Vladimir Putin's court," having his picture snapped by Russian paparazzi, and praising Russia's culture of "music, ballet, and avant-garde artists." He also chatted with Kremlin press spokesman Dmitry Peskov about the "Russophobic moods" of American authorities and reportedly said that "ordinary Americans" hold a positive attitude towards Russia, seemingly despite the best efforts of US media.