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September 2020

Congressmen and Women for Hamas Rashida Tlaib and ‘useful idiots’ on parade at anti-Israel AMP conference. Joe Kaufman

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/09/congressmen-and-women-hamas-joe-kaufman/

As Progressives continue to make the vilification of Israel a core issue for the Democratic Party, members of Congress continue to line up to embrace the hate. On Tuesday, September 15th, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) will be sponsoring an online virtual advocacy event (‘Palestine Advocacy Days’) featuring at least five US Representatives. But this is not just an exercise in demanding “Palestinian rights” or supporting the toxic BDS calls for boycotting Israel. AMP is rooted in Hamas, and its leadership does not shy away from its roots, so having numerous Congressmen and women involved in this type of event is beyond outrageous.

Created in 2006. AMP was the byproduct of now-defunct groups that made up the US Palestine Committee, a terror umbrella organization led by then-global head of Hamas, Mousa Abu Marzook. As such, the group celebrates violence against Israelis. During its January 2018 ‘JERUSALEM IS A RED LINE’ rally, AMP repeatedly led chants of “Long live Intifada” – Intifada meaning Palestinian violent uprising. AMP’s Chairman, Hatem Bazian, who also founded Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), notoriously called for an American intifada, at an April 2004 rally in San Francisco. Citing uprisings in “Palestine” and Iraq, he asked, “How come we don’t have an intifada in this country?”

One AMP board member, Salah Sarsour, allegedly had involvement with Hamas, itself. According to a December 1998 Israeli Police memo, Salah’s brother Jamil Sarsour, in the course of an interview, claimed that Salah was involved with Hamas and did fundraising for Hamas via the Palestine Committee’s Holy Land Foundation (HLF). Jamil also claimed that Salah had plotted an attack on Israel, as revenge for the September 1998 killing of Salah’s friends – Hamas military wing Qassam Brigades leaders and brothers, Imad and Adel Awadallah – by Israeli soldiers. Previously, Salah had spent eight months in a Ramallah prison.

AMP is a part of the US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO). Sitting on the board of USCMO is Mazen Mokhtar, a former US-based administrator for qoqaz.net, a now-defunct al-Qaeda recruitment/financing site. Mokhtar, who has spoken at AMP events, has called Hamas acts “heroic” and suicide bombings “an effective method of attacking the enemy.” Also on the board is Siraj Wahhaj, a Brooklyn, New York imam who was cited by the US government as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Wahhaj has been linked to the bomb maker of the attack, Clement Rodney Hampton-El, and has praised the spiritual leader of the attack, Omar Abdel Rahman.

U of Chicago English Dept Won’t Accept Anyone Unless They’re in Black Studies Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2020/09/u-chicago-english-dept-wont-accept-anyone-unless-daniel-greenfield/

The cultural revolution decimating academia and turning it into a hollow shell for radical indoctrination only grows more crudely shameless with each cycle.

It’s not enough to just jettison Shakespeare or rename buildings. No, you will only be allowed to work with Black Studies.

A memo from what used to be the University of Chicago English Department.

For the 2020-2021 graduate admissions cycle, the University of Chicago English Department is accepting only applicants interested in working in and with Black Studies. We understand Black Studies to be a capacious intellectual project that spans a variety of methodological approaches, fields, geographical areas, languages, and time periods.

Considering U of C’s influence in this area, that’s significant.

Bloomberg’s Florida Purchase Campaign-finance laws magnify his influence in the 2020 election.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/bloombergs-florida-purchase-11600126292?mod=opinion_lead_pos2
Well the gnomish Bloomberg did buy himself a third term as mayor of New York City….rsk

If Joe Biden carries Florida in November, he ought to make Mike Bloomberg Secretary of the Treasury. The billionaire certainly will have earned it, with an 11th-hour cash infusion of $100 million to help Mr. Biden in the state.

Florida is a must-win for President Trump, and Mr. Bloomberg’s infusion comes amid the Cook Political Report moving the race from “leans Democratic” to “toss up” and polls showing Mr. Biden underperforming among Hispanic voters. Florida is a big state with multiple and expensive media markets. Mr. Bloomberg’s money will go via his Super PAC Independence USA and other Democratic groups toward television and digital advertising in English and Spanish.

It’s all perfectly legal so long as Mr. Bloomberg doesn’t coordinate with the Biden campaign. By announcing the $100 million campaign publicly, Mr. Bloomberg is letting the Biden campaign know it can take millions it might have otherwise spent in Florida and redirect them to other battleground states.

Biden of the Climate Apocalypse He gives a speech on wildfires and never mentions better forest management.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-of-the-climate-apocalypse-11600126352?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

Sometimes we wonder if Joe Biden writes anything in his public remarks other than the words “here’s the deal.” An example is the Democratic nominee’s big speech Monday on the West Coast wildfires in which he never mentioned the need for better forest management.

The younger Joe Biden would never have allowed that kind of political malpractice. But his handlers let him deliver a lengthy speech that blamed the fires, Hurricanes Laura and Sally, flooding on the coasts, a windstorm in the Midwest, and the hot summer, among other events, on “the fury of climate change everywhere—all this year and right now.” It’s as if he saw the apocalyptic climate-change melodrama of some years back, “The Day After Tomorrow,” and decided to become Dennis Quaid.

If that seems glib, how else to describe a speech that claims to revere science but is utterly detached from it? On the wildfires, Mr. Biden’s failure to mention the need to clear dry and diseased fallen trees defies what has gradually been recognized as a necessity even on the environmental left.

Decades ago the forestry consensus changed from active management to letting nature take its course. Controlled burns that once cleared rotting underbrush stopped. Logging that thinned forests declined amid green political opposition. One unintended result, especially in dry summers or extended drought, were millions of acres of brush that become fuel for raging fires. Add the spread of housing into more distant suburbs, and the risks to people and property have grown.

Yes, Biden Called Trump’s Travel Restrictions Xenophobic By Isaac Schorr

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/yes-biden-called-trumps-travel-restrictions-xenophobic/

Biden campaign national press secretary TJ Ducklo had a disastrous interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier on Thursday in which Ducklo appeared to be as eminently unprepared as your typical Trump White House surrogate, and grew increasingly agitated as the segment progressed. After Baier played clips of two experts that Biden has relied upon downplaying the coronavirus in late January, Ducklo claimed that “the vice president was not against the travel ban” placed on China by President Trump on January 31. Baier pressed Ducklo on this point, repeatedly asking if Biden was for the travel restrictions. Ducklo refused to answer directly, instead saying that Biden was “not against” them and offering to send Baier “fact-checks.”

More interesting than Ducklo’s substandard performance was this offer. The day after Trump announced the travel restrictions on China, Biden tweeted that “We are in the midst of a crisis with the coronavirus. We need to lead the way with science — not Donald Trump’s record of hysteria, xenophobia, and fear-mongering. He is the worst possible person to lead our country through a global health emergency.”

CDC Moving Ahead with Critical Race Theory Trainings Despite Trump Order By Mairead McArdle

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/cdc-moving-ahead-with-critical-race-theory-trainings-despite-trump-order/

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention appears to be moving forward with critical race theory trainings for employees despite an executive order from President Trump ordering federal agencies to end such taxpayer-funded training programs.

Trump issued an executive order earlier this month requiring federal agencies to “cease and desist from using taxpayer dollars to fund these divisive, un-American propaganda training sessions” and directing the Office of Management and Budget to issue guidance on implementing the order.

Nevertheless, the CDC is debuting a 13-week critical race theory program that aims to address the country’s “white supremacist ideology.”

The training series, dubbed “Naming, Measuring, and Addressing the Impacts of Racism on the Health and Well-Being of the Nation and the World,” will feature an American Public Health Association presentation from instructor Camara Phyllis Jones, a physician and civil rights activist.

The program will teach CDC employees how to “identify three levels of racism” and “examine the mechanisms of systemic racism.” The first three sessions focus on “racism, sexism, and other systems of structured inequality,” and instruct trainees how to “address institutionalized racism.”

A Pilotless Pilot Program By Seth J. Frantzman

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/09/a-pilotless-pilot-program/

Israel–U.S. drone cooperation could revolutionize what soldiers carry into battle.

The U.S. and Israel reached a new milestone in defense cooperation this month as Israel’s Ministry of Defense announced that an Israeli start-up named Xtend would be part of a pilot program with the U.S. Department of Defense to use its Skylord drones. The program will initially include several dozen of the small drone systems, which are designed for air defense against drone or other threats.

If this all sounds a bit futuristic and confusing, using drones to confront other drones, it is because the current threats that we face from drones and other types of enemy innovations are increasing daily. Xtend’s innovation is in using augmented reality, basically wearable goggles like the ones hi-tech gamers use, to guide the drones to find and destroy threats. Imagine soldiers guarding the perimeter of a base and being alerted to a terrorist drone threat, like the kind ISIS used in the battle for Mosul. Now, instead of taking cover or plinking away with rifles at a hard-to-hit small drone, the soldier can put on virtual-reality glasses and guide their own drone in for the kill.

The Combating Terrorist Technical Support Office at the Department of Defense is supporting this project. It is part of a much wider ecosystem of defense and research-and-development cooperation between Israel and the U.S. For instance, the military is evaluating Israel’s Iron Dome defense system, which can be used against rockets and other threats. Americans have been killed this year in Iraq by pro-Iranian groups firing rockets at bases where soldiers are housed. An Iron Dome–style system could help protect them. Similarly, American tanks use the Trophy defense system developed by Israel. The technology goes both ways: Israel is among the most active users of the American-made F-35.

Son of Murdered French Holocaust Survivor Mireille Knoll Blasts French Judiciary for ‘Unconscionable Treatment’ of Jews

https://www.algemeiner.com/2020/09/14/son-of-murdered-french-holocaust-survivor-mireille-knoll-blasts-french-judiciary-for-unconscionable-treatment-of-jews/

The eldest son of the Holocaust survivor who was brutally murdered during an antisemitic assault in her Paris apartment castigated France’s judiciary for its alleged indifference to violence against Jews in an emotional speech in the French capital this past weekend.

Allan Knoll — whose 85-year-old mother, Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll, was stabbed and then burned to death in March 2018 by two intruders who believed that because she was Jewish, she would be hiding large amounts of cash — addressed a small rally on Sunday in the Place de la Republique in Paris.

The demonstration was organized by “The Group Against Silence,” a collective of activists that is campaigning for justice in the case of Sarah Halimi — a 65-year-old Jewish widow who was slain in her Paris apartment by an antisemitic assailant eleven months before Mireille Knoll suffered a similar fate.

But while Knoll’s accused killers will face trial, the individual charged with Halimi’s murder — 29-year-old Kobili Traore — was excused from a criminal trial last December after a court in Paris deemed that his ingestion of cannabis on the night of the killing had rendered him temporarily insane.

Questions for American Jewish leaders about the Israel-UAE deal Democracy demands US Jewish groups ask members what they think before taking drastic new positions, like UAE peace trumps sovereignty.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/287256

Whenever there is a major diplomatic development involving Israel, news reporters call the presidents of various American Jewish organizations for their comments. Naturally they are tempted to immediately respond. But the statements some Jewish officials issued in response to the Israel-United Arab Emirates deal remind us that caution is often the more prudent course.

Of course, leaders of Jewish organizations have a practical need for the public’s attention. Getting quoted in a newspaper is critical to fundraising. It demonstrates to potential donors that their particular organization is significant and valuable. It’s the donations that keep our many Jewish and Zionist organizations alive. That’s what pays for the salaries and the per diems and more.

Still, although Jewish leaders may have their reasons for rushing, to give statements and issue press releases, it’s fair to ask whether it is appropriate for a leader of a American Jewish organization to take a public stance on a major controversial issue without consulting the members of that group. Especially when it involves taking a stance that differs significantly from the traditional positions taken by that organization.

Consider the decision to suspend declaring sovereignty over any part of Judea-Samaria, in exchange for diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates.

This question might not apply to the various left-of-center American Jewish organizations. They have always been strongly opposed to Israeli sovereignty in the territories, so the leaders of their groups are on safe ground with their constituents on that issue. It’s hard to imagine any members of J Street or Peace Now opposing the statements which their leaders made in support of the Israel-UAE agreement. The very essence of the agreement is the fulfillment of the classic slogan that Peace Now dreamt up in the 1970s, “Peace is better than an undivided Land of Israel.”

Judge Rules Pennsylvania Governor’s Shutdown Orders Unconstitutional By Jack Phillips

https://www.theepochtimes.com/judge-rules-pennsylvania-governors-shutdown-orders-unconstitutional_

A federal judge has struck down Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s CCP virus restrictions that required people to stay at home, put limits on gatherings, and ordered “non-life-sustaining” businesses to stay shut down.

U.S. District Judge William Stickman IV on Sept. 14 sided with plaintiffs that included drive-in movie theaters, hair salons, farmers markets, and several GOP officials who sued as individuals. Butler, Greene, Fayette, and Washington counties were also listed as plaintiffs.

Stickman’s judgment stipulates that “the congregate gathering limits imposed by defendants’ mitigation orders violate the right of assembly enshrined in the First Amendment,” the “stay-at-home and business closure components of defendants’ orders violate the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” and “the business closure components of Defendants’ orders violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

The judge, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, argued that the actions taken by Wolf and Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Rachel Levine, who are both Democrats, “were undertaken with the good intention of addressing a public health emergency,” but that “even in an emergency, the authority of government is not unfettered.”