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Watch C.P.A.C. Orlando live & replays here; Sen. Josh Hawley: Biden's denying Israel's pipeline to Europe (though permitting Putin’s exclusive pipeline) emboldened Russia in Ukraine

by C. A. Bridges, Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Conservative Political Action Conference: The U.S.' most conservative political candidates and activists are gathering in Orlando for a conference to energize their supporters and hone campaign strategies.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis addresses the crowd at the Conservative Political Action Committee
(CPAC) in Orlando, Florida on Feb. 24, 2022. 
(photo: Fox News)

Here's what you need to know about CPAC 2022:

When is CPAC this year?

CPAC 2022 runs from Thursday, Feb. 24, to Sunday, Feb. 27. Events run all day, every day, beginning with a 7:30 Catholic Mass by Father Frank Pavone.

Click here for the schedule of speakers.

What are some of the topics at this year's CPAC?

Along with speeches from governors, senators, representatives, former President Trump and other GOP leaders, the conference is loaded up with special topics. Just some of the items are the agenda include: Domestic Terrorists Unite: Lessons from Virginia Parents; School Boards for Dummies; How to Talk to Your Neighbor Without Starting a Backyard Brawl; Obamacare Still Kills; The Truth about January 6th; Making Middle East Peace Great Again; Lock Downs and Mandates: Now Do You Understand Why We Have a Second Amendment; Put Him to Bed, Lock Her Up and Send Her to the Border; Why the Working Class Hates the Democrats; Fire Fauci; and The Moron in Chief.

CPAC will finish off Sunday afternoon with a live performance by Lee Greenwood.

Where can I watch CPAC?

The easiest way is to go to the CPAC 22 Florida site, where a live stream is on the home page.

CPAC also will be livestreamed on Fox Nation throughout each day of the conference. Fox Nation is a paid site, but they're offering a 30-day free trial with the code CPAC.

Some conservative YouTube channels such as Right Side Broadcasting also are streaming it live. Here you can watch live via this playlist of their videos - beginning with full first days (Day 2 follows Day 1, followed by individual sessions - commencing with the 5th clip (advance via upper right).




On Cable TV (and online), C-SPAN will be providing some roundup CPAC coverage for major speeches. CPAC Day 1 (starting at 1:20 p.m. E.T. Thursday) | CPAC Day 2 (starting at 11 a.m. Friday) | CPAC Day 3 (starting at 3:15 p.m. Saturday) | Former President Trump speaks at CPAC (starting at 7 p.m. Saturday) 

Some events that are open to the public, such as the keynote address, may be broadcast on media outlets.

Will President Trump be at CPAC this year?

Former President Donald Trump is expected to deliver the keynote speech at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 26.

Frenemies? Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis eye each other warily before 2024 presidential race

Leading in Florida: New poll has Florida Gov. DeSantis topping Trump in a 2024 Florida primary matchup

Will Ron DeSantis be at CPAC this year?

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will be speaking at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 24.

Painting the town red: How Ron DeSantis is trying to turn Tallahassee Republican

CPAC 2022: Rivalry between Trump and DeSantis in the spotlight as CPAC returns to Orlando

Read Tweets by CPAC



Democrats' gift to power-mad Putin - at the expense of Israel & US' European allies

US Amb. to Israel Thomas Nides joined by Rep. Nancy Pelosi, and Rep. Adam Schiff (part of a delegation of a dozen congressional lawmakers visiting Israel) declared "US remains ironclad ...
in our support of Israel's security and its regional stability" (AP Photo: Wed 16 Feb 2022)

CBN News reports:

"The visit comes amid tense negotiations in Vienna between world leaders and Iran to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which restricted Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. The deal collapsed in 2018 after former US President Donald Trump unilaterally abandoned it.

Since then, the US has reimposed sanctions and Iran has dramatically ramped up its nuclear activities, amassing a stockpile of enriched uranium that goes well beyond the limits set by the original nuclear deal.

While the US and Israel agree that Iran should never become a nuclear power, they have deep differences over how to stop Iran’s nuclear program.

Israel opposes the nuclear agreement, arguing that it doesn’t go far enough to restrain Iran’s nuclear ambitions or address Iran’s missile capabilities and support for terror groups in the region. Meanwhile, the US wants to renew and expand the original accord to address Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

Israel has said it is not bound by the nuclear agreement and has threatened military action against the Islamic republic. Iran insists its nuclear program is only for civilian purposes.

During her visit, Pelosi also reiterated the Biden administration’s commitment to Palestinian statehood, which is opposed by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett."

Concomitantly on Feb 16, '22, Abby Liebing, Associate Reporter for Western Journal, reported

As tensions between Russia, Ukraine, the U.S. and NATO continue, it is affecting the Mediterranean world as well as Europe’s energy sector. The U.S. is pulling its support for an Israeli underground natural gas pipeline that would run from the eastern Mediterranean to Europe.

Many are predicting this will simply cause more problems in the region. Moreover, this decision from the Biden administration undercuts Israel, one of America’s most steadfast allies.

Pres. Donald Trump's administration supported the EastMed Pipeline, but the Biden administration has environmental and economic concerns about the project, Reuters reported.

The proposed pipeline would have given Europe an alternative to its heavy dependence on Russian gas. It would have conveyed about 10 billion cubic yards of Israeli and Cypriot natural gas to Europe via Greece and Italy each year, according to The Hill.

Recently, Europe has been suffering from an energy crisis, which has led to soaring natural gas and electricity prices. Since Russia is Europe’s main supplier, the current geopolitical tensions with Ukraine and the U.S. have given Moscow the ability to further spike prices.

Now, the Biden administration has effectively ended all hopes for the EastMed Pipeline.

Analyst Ariel Cohen called this a “strategic mistake.”

“This is a disastrous decision that imperils European security and opens the door for further Russian energy hegemony in European gas markets,” Cohen wrote for The Hill. “It should be reversed.”

While the U.S. cited economic and environmental concerns in its opposition to the pipeline, Israeli outlet Haaretz pointed to the Biden administration’s fear of Russia as the real heart of the issue.

“A pipeline that will bring Israeli gas to Europe could anger Russian President Vladimir Putin, who would lose some of his customers. Even though the amount of gas that Israel could supply to Europe is minuscule compared to the needs of countries on the continent, a project of this nature would influence the arm-wrestling between Moscow and Washington,” Haaretz reported.

Some are accusing Biden of trying to appease Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as well as Putin.

Erdoğan has always maintained that Israel should have to sell its gas to Europe through Turkey, according to the Gatestone Institute. The EastMed Pipeline would have bypassed Turkey.

“The Americans do not want the pipeline because Ankara might get angry,” said Theofrastos Andreopoulos, a defense analyst.

Meanwhile, Russia is interested in dominating the European energy market.

Democratic lawmakers have actually supported Nord Stream 2, a Russian gas pipeline to Europe, and stopped Republicans from imposing sanctions that would have hurt it.

For this, Republicans have condemned Democrats and the Biden administration.

“The reversal on the EastMed pipeline becomes only more hypocritical and offensive given the fact that President Biden continues to clear the path towards completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline,” GOP Reps. Gus Bilirakis of Florida and Nicole Malliotakis of New York wrote in a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The Biden administration’s decision to kill the Israeli pipeline, which would have countered Russia’s energy dominance in Europe, will simply make security issues in the region worse — at the worst possible time.


Candidates at the R.J.C. Forum - impressions from two conservative analysts, one Gentile, one Jewish

by Scott Jacobs, Senior EditorAt its Annual Leadership Meeting in November, the Republican Jewish Coalition presented an opportunity for prospective donors to acquaint themselves with the prospective candidates for state and national office.

Sen. Ted Cruz confers with attendees, including Franco-American journalist Guy Milliere (pictured left of Cruz), at Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas
We chronicled the assessment of two socio-political analysts, Guy Milliere, an expat French political and legal scholar who writes about the threats to Western Civilization in Gatestone Institute. Also, Kenneth Abramowitz, an American biotech market analyst with expertise in global socio-political affairs. 


Guy Milliere interview video


Guy Milliere: I think it was a great event especially now because we start to have hope after the nightmare of the elections of 2020. I could see that many Republican politicians have real hope and they are right. I think that in 2022 it could be a landslide for for Republicans because Biden is creating disasters everywhere inside of the United States, in Afghanistan, in the Middle East with what he is doing about Iran, and I think that it's very scary to see what he is doing. And personally, I'm afraid of what he still can do before the election of 2022! And I could say that there were great speeches - the best speech (according to me) was a Ted Cruz speech because he was very powerful and he explained the situation in the Middle East very well.

He explained, too, why Donald Trump was bold, courageous to do what he did - because he had many obstacles in front of him - but he decided to do it anyway. And he explained very clearly that it was Donald Trump himself (against many other people in his administration) who decided to withdraw from the Iran Deal and who decided to install the American Embassy into Jerusalem!  And he explained very well that doing
that pushed Arab countries to decide to have a better relations with Israel. 

So, it was the elements that led to the Abraham Accords so it was a very good speech! I would say that this morning, Gov. Ron DeSantis gave a good speech, too. He spoke about what he did in Florida and he did many good things!  I think that he's one of the best - maybe the best governor in the United States right now! He also spoke about the Middle East but he spoke mostly about what he did and I think that it's becoming- you have the election of 2024 very soon.

Kenneth Abramowitz
 
Question: The Republican Jewish Coalition is having its first conference since the passing of benefactor, Sheldon Adelson. There were tributes to him here, but the Jewish community is still divided. In fact if anything, it's adversarial between the left and the right. What took place here that was encouraging to you?

Ken Abramowitz: Well, it was encouraging to see almost 700 people come together after CoVid -  and trying to leave CoVid behind - it was a relatively uniform, flat base of people. We, remember about 30 percent of Jews are Republicans so only that 30 showed up the other 70 percent who are Democrats did not show up. Therefore, it was a unity of purpose for a Republicans and it was great to see.

Question: You mentioned 30 are Republicans (or at least is how the vote for the presidential election went). Yes, that's the number that I saw in the newspaper of the percentage who voted for President Trump. Now, I heard in Virginia it went up 10 points to closer to 40 percent for Youngkin that in Florida. At the last election for President Trump, it was around 45 percent. 

I keep watching the number to see if it gets over 50 it should actually be the opposite and the Jews should be voting 70 for republicans / 30 for democrats so that should flip over time because that's roughly what the percentage is in Israel and so we in America should approach the 70 / 30 split between what's called right-wing. I just call it normal versus left-wing which I call abnormal. 

Question:  Were there highlights of this conference to you in terms of takeaway and the the impact that it might have on either the Jewish vote or the disproportionate Jewish donation to the Republican cause:

Abramowitz: Well, we all have to become more educated in a democracy. Democracies function based on people who are educated who make who elect people who can represent them well. So we collectively just had a good education for 700 people who can now go home to their children grandchildren to their relatives to their friends and be better communicators than they could have been before! 

Question: There didn't seem to be a groundswell of support for a Trump re-election at this convention. What was your sense of it? Well, the Trump issue didn't come up that much because Trump wasn't here. Hhe was here by video but not here in person and the speakers really didn't address that sensitive issue of were they pro-Trump, sort of pro-Trump, not pro-Trump and so it didn't come up as an issue really. I think if people didn't want it to come up as an issue, personally, it should have been more of an issue but - again as as the Republicans want to appeal to a broader base of Independents. 

I think there's anxiety by the politicians that if they become too pro pro-Trump so to speak then independents might they might lose some independence so it's a political game that's played.

Former Vice-President Mike Pence spoke here. He has been out of the public eye largely - and made a strong showing in a way that might have positioned him for a possible primary run for president in 2024. 

Question: What was your sense of that well we had a number of potential candidates for president and of course the biggest issue is President Trump going to run. And then, the secondary issue is if he doesn't run, who will he anoint or appoint or bless so to speak - and the two best candidates are Ron DeSantis, who was here, and former Sec'y of State Mike Pompeo, who is not here.

And then there's a whole variety of  other candidates who want to have the blessing of Trump or not the blessing of trump and want to run so pompeo would be in that category along with Nikki Haley would be in that category of people who are on the outs with Trump because they they misunderstood January 6th and they blame Trump for January 6 when it was really Nancy Pelosi who should be blamed for January 6. 

The insurrection was not an insurrection it was the demonstration but but the the chaos that did result was due to the FBI working with the Capitol Police working with Nancy Pelosi to create chaos and then blame President Trump.
(Continues in video)
 
Question: If people wanted to follow more of your writings or thinking, where would they find you? 
 
Abramowitz: I have two websites two public service websites: https://SaveTheWest.com which gives a full understanding of national security challenges and Citizens for National Security which gives a military-focused analysis of our challenges. Both of them will are designed to educate the public about issues. They're really educational organizations to help Americans learn what they're not going to learn on biased television news shows.