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Ruth King

ADL’s ‘Brief History on Anti-Semitism’ A shameful cover-up. Christine Douglass-Williams

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/06/adls-brief-history-antisemitism-focuses-christians-christine-douglass-williams/

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) first published its “Brief History on Antisemitism” in 2013, but it is newly relevant amid the dramatic recent upswing in antisemitic attacks all over Europe and North America. The ongoing united efforts to delegitimize the Jewish state and support a Palestinian “resistance” that has sought to annihilate Israel from the day of its founding have been relentless, and have gained new impetus in recent weeks. Unfortunately, the ADL plays it safe in its history, ignoring Iran’s hatred of Jews, Arab nationalism and the alliance of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem with Hitler during the Holocaust.

This is unfortunate on many levels. The ADL has been foundational in advocating for American Jewry, and its influence extends beyond American borders. According to its website, “the ADL was born at a time when American Jews—both new immigrants and generations-long members of our society—were experiencing deep-seated bigotry.”

Founded in 1913 by the Independent Order of B’nai Brith, the ADL split from B’nai Brith to become an independent organization committed to combating antisemitism. In 2018, it rebranded itself more broadly as an “anti-hate” organization, often taking up the cause of controversial groups and entering into what has become known as the culture war, eliciting criticism in the war of ideas, often from both sides of the right-left divide and anything in between.

Robert Spencer recently noted that ADL called accurate reporting of Muslim responses to coronavirus “anti-Muslim bigotry.” “Anti-hate” today is synonymous with opposition to racism. Opposition to “hate” is based on a notion of whites oppressing non-whites. Those who subscribe to this way of thinking also classify Islam as a “race,” so that when Islamic doctrines and practices are scrutinized and criticized, the offender is deemed to be “Islamophobic.” Similar brandings include “racist,” “white supremacist,” “xenophobic,” “bigoted,” “intolerant,” and the like. The two “safe” groups to criticize are Christians and Jews, who are both largely viewed by Westerners as “white.” Jews are now facing global abuse at levels reminiscent of the Nazi era, but it’s not generated by Christians; rather, it emanates from the Palestinian jihad against the Jewish state of Israel, backed by powerful Islamic powerbrokers — an “unsafe” longstanding issue that the ADL avoids –  failure of nerve that many share.

The predominantly “unsafe” groups to criticize are black and Islamic. Certainly not all Muslims are antisemitic, but Islamic antisemitism is a powerful, united global influencer leading to an increasingly violent new outbreak of antisemitism, as the Palestinian “resistance” is used and recycled as a social justice cause embraced by the anti-racism industry.

Refuting the ‘Disproportionality’ Libel Against Israel Crystallizing the Jewish State’s right to self-defense. Richard L. Cravatts

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/06/refuting-disproportionality-libel-against-israel-richard-l-cravatts/

Seeming to give credence to Orwell’s observation that “Everyone believes in the atrocities of the enemy and disbelieves in those of his own side, without ever bothering to examine the evidence,” the world’s attention has turned once again to the clash between Hamas and Israel, as the Jewish state launched its defensive air offensive into Gaza to suppress a deadly barrage of 4360 rockets that killed 10 civilians in Israel and injured 330 others. And, predictably, as the body count rose on the Palestinian side, the moral arbiters of acceptable political behavior began condemning the Jewish state for its perceived abuses in executing its national self-defense.

Forgetting that Israel’s current campaign was necessitated by ceaseless rocket and mortar assaults on its southern towns from Hamas-controlled Gaza, international leaders and diplomats initiated their moral hectoring of Israel as it attempted to shield its citizens from harm.  Five so-called experts from The UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), led by Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk, released a statement which suggested that “This most recent violence has a depressingly familiar pattern to it.” And what was the familiar tragedy? Not that Hamas had tried to murder Israeli civilians with no justification, but that “Israel and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza exchange missiles and rockets following dispossession and the denial of rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, with Israel’s far greater firepower inflicting far higher death tolls and injuries and a much larger scale of property destruction.” [Emphasis added.]

In addressing a special session of the 47-member UN Human Rights Council, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet was similarly condemnatory of Israel’s military behavior. While begrudgingly admitting that Hamas’s “indiscriminate” firing of thousands of rockets constitutes “a clear violation of international humanitarian law,” Israel’s response was equally questionable, especially the targeted strikes on buildings that were said to house terrorists and armaments. “Despite Israel’s claims that many of these buildings were hosting armed groups or being used for military purposes,” Bachelet noted, “we have not seen evidence in this regard.” And then, in creating a moral equivalence that is unsurprising when Israel is involved, she solemnly announced that Israel, too, may be condemned for its military misbehavior, that “If found to be indiscriminate and disproportionate,” Israel’s defensive “attacks might constitute war crimes.”  [Emphasis added.]

The words “indiscriminate” and “disproportionate” are the most insidious refrains, uttered only when Israel’s enemies are killed (certainly not when Jews are murdered), and suggesting that Israel’s military response is too aggressive, that the force and effect of the sorties into Gaza are beyond what is permitted under human rights law and the rules of war.

Rutgers University Apologizes for Condemning Jew-Hate Administrators surrender to “Students for Justice in Palestine.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/06/rutgers-university-surrenders-anti-semitic-pro-joseph-klein/

Anti-Semitic attacks against Jews in the United States have surged since the latest war between Israel and Palestinian terrorists in Gaza erupted last month. People of good will, regardless of their religion, ethnicity, or background, would condemn such hate crimes because they represent a dark blot on our common humanity. New Jersey’s Rutgers University-New Brunswick did just that at first and condemned anti-Semitism – the world’s oldest continuing form of bigotry. But in a blink of the eye Rutgers’ high-level administrators bowed to pressure from the anti-Semitic Rutgers Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and apologized for having done the right thing. We are living in a sick society when a major public university cowers to anti-Semites and walks back its clear condemnation of anti-Semitism that has exploded to the surface once again.

On May 26th, the chancellor of Rutgers University-New Brunswick, Christopher J. Molloy, and the provost, Francine Conway, released a statement declaring, “We are saddened by and greatly concerned about the sharp rise in hostile sentiments and anti-Semitic violence in the United States.” The statement condemned other forms of bigotry as well, but its focus on anti-Semitism enraged the hate-filled Rutgers branch of the Students for Justice in Palestine. They demanded an apology from the university’s administration for daring to express compassion and concern for Jews being harassed – even beaten – simply because they are Jews. It is no surprise that SJP is serving as the propaganda arm on U.S. campuses for both the Hamas terrorists and the pro-Palestinian mobs who are largely responsible for the most recent hate crimes against Jews in the United States.

Indeed, caravans of pro-Palestinians launched unprovoked attacks on Jews in New York City, Los Angeles, and places in between. The Jew-haters have been out in force in New Brunswick where the Rutgers campus that Chancellor Molloy and Provost Conway represent is located. Rutgers Hillel has reported that ”in New Brunswick in recent weeks, identifiably Jewish students have been verbally assaulted” and that some of them have had their car tires slashed. AEPi House, a Jewish fraternity, had been previously vandalized on Holocaust Memorial Day.

Friday’s Jobs Report May Blow Up Biden’s Presidency By Rick Moran

https://pjmedia.com/uncategorized/rick-moran/2021/06/02/fridays-jobs-report-may-blow-up-bidens-presidency-n1451467

Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release May’s jobs report and it’s expected to be “unexpectedly” bad.

Employers are still desperate for workers but workers are taking their own sweet time getting back to work. The rate of people leaving unemployment is falling and a top Fed official is warning that the job numbers may look “odd.”

Lingering restrictions on some businesses in some states — bars and restaurants, especially — are putting the brakes on the economic recovery. It’s like putting the gas pedal to the floor while engaging the emergency brake. And some economists expect it to show up in Friday’s report.

Where are all the jobs, Joe? Whatever happened to “Build Back Better”?

April’s jobs report was a disaster. Instead of the million jobs created that were expected by economists, only 266,000 positions were filled. And March’s numbers — a robust 916,000 new jobs — were revised downward to 770,00.

The economic recovery is sputtering and it could spell big trouble for Biden’s inflationary agenda.

Politico:

Democrats have downplayed the concerns, maintaining that the path back to full employment was always going to be winding and stacked with challenges. And economists are predicting the report will show 630,000 jobs were created in May, a robust number. But while Biden has been polling strongly on his handling of the economy, a second straight month of slower-than-expected job creation could embolden critics of his multitrillion-dollar infrastructure spending plans and raise fears that the labor market is facing a long road back to normal.

At the very least, weak numbers will blow up Biden’s agenda in the near future.

“There is growing anxiety about inflation, the economy overheating, unemployment not coming down fast enough and businesses that can’t find jobs,” said Brian Riedl, a former economic aide to Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and other GOP lawmakers. “Another bad jobs report may further the narrative of a White House overextending itself on stimulus and in over its head.”

For May’s numbers, most economists are cautiously optimistic, predicting up to 630,000 new jobs created. That’s a nice number but considering all that pent-up economic energy, it’s disappointing. Something or someone is holding the American economy back.

CANADA-19: Escaping the Virus By David Solway

https://pjmedia.com/columns/david-solway-2/2021/06/02/canada-19-escaping-the-virus-n1451752

A fearful, gullible and low-information public is no match for the masters of deceit: the Marist Mainstream Media, a suborned medical institution, and a political consortium in love with autocratic governance. Thankfully, there are citizens, in countries like Sweden and in the American red states, who have seen through the repressive and failed measures intended to combat COVID. My own country, governed entirely by ideologues and intellectual incompetents on both the federal and provincial levels, is devoid of political sanity and moral courage. A docile and ignorant electorate is easy prey for its leaders. There are exceptions, of course—business owners who have lost everything, people whose cognitive abilities have remained intact—but they form a media-discredited minority.

My anecdotal count is obviously personal and informal, without larger statistical warrant, but I would say that nine out of every ten people I meet and converse with are all for locking down and masking up. I have neighbors who rarely emerge from their apartments, more than a year into a serial disaster. I observe, incredulously, masked parents pushing strollers of masked infants impervious to the virus, swallowing their spittle and exhalations. I see far too many people driving masked, making it hazardous to navigate in the city, especially at traffic merges. We have had several narrow escapes as increasingly maladroit drivers, no doubt drowsy from breathing in their own narcotic CO2, seem to regard the roads as a dreamscape. The lack of awareness, both mental and sensory, beggars belief.

Moreover, people rush to the vaccination tents like adolescents to a rock concert, completely unaware of or indifferent to the large number of adverse reactions to the vaccines. This is true of many populations around the world, but Canada seems exceptional in the extent of its compliance. As mentioned, my personal tallies are anecdotal, but I know of several individuals who were hospitalized with critical reactions, some of whom have died. It is hard to escape a veritable cloud of despair that shadows my waning respect for my countrymen, 70 percent of whom vote Left—which tells one everything one needs to know about Canada.

A friend sends an example that stands as a symbolic marker for the vast majority of my fellow Canadians. On a hike through a 20+ mile conservation area, whose trails circle a man-made lake, he noticed a kayaker who looked fit and healthy. “He was miles from anywhere he could have launched from,” my friend writes, “fishing and just tooling around out on the lake. Outdoors. On a sunny day. Alone. In the middle of a lake. WEARING A MASK.” My friend wondered about the organic composition of this man’s brains—to put it decorously—which explained why “politicians will never let us get back to normal”—or why, we might add, many people seem quite happy with things continuing as they are. “Things as they are/Things as they will be by and by,” wrote poet Wallace Stevens, “A fat thumb beats out ay-yi-yi.” Ay-yi-yi is a reasonable sentiment in context. It has been said of this country that the most discouraging thing about it is the people in it.

My wife and I have long discussed the national decline and considered our personal prospects. We are pinioned here for now, partly from family obligations, and partly as a result of the draconian travel restrictions imposed by our overlords. We couldn’t go anywhere no matter how much we wanted to. But as soon as opportunity permits, we will be decamping to the free and rational jurisdictions in the U.S., possibly Texas, most likely Florida, where we have friends. We have been doing our due diligence, researching the best alternatives. Everything considered, Marco Island seems like a good bet. 

Like His Credibility, Fauci’s Book Has Disappeared By Matt Margolis

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2021/06/02/like-his-credibility-faucis-book-has-disappeared-n1451658

On Tuesday, we learned that Dr. Anthony Fauci was publishing a book called Expect the Unexpected: Ten Lessons on Truth, Service, and the Way Forward.

According to the book description, “In his own words, world-renowned infectious disease specialist Anthony Fauci shares the lessons that have shaped his life philosophy, offering an intimate view of one of the world’s greatest medical minds as well as universal advice to live by.”

But on Wednesday, the book had disappeared. Both Amazon and Barnes & Noble have deleted the book’s listings and pre-order options. The book’s removal comes in the wake of the release of emails obtained by a FOIA request revealing that Fauci knew that “the typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through the material,” despite his urging the public to wear them for safety, and that he had been informed that COVID-19 had “unusual features” that it “potentially look engineered” even though he publicly insisted that it was of natural origin.

It is not clear why the book has been removed from retailers or if there’s any connection whatsoever between the released emails and the decision to pull the book.

There are also unconfirmed reports that the White House is “actively discussing an exit strategy” for Dr. Fauci.

Yeah, Right: After Border Debacle, Biden Picks Kamala To Push ‘Voting Rights Reform’

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/06/03/yeah-right-after-border-debacle-biden-picks-kamala-to-push-voting-rights-reform/

You have to hand it to her: Vice President Kamala Harris has a knack for having her career advanced by others, despite continual abysmal performance as a public official. Unfair, you say? How else can you describe someone who fails so badly at one job, and then is immediately rewarded with another job of even greater importance?

There are lots of definitions out there for “failing upward” but probably the best comes from the “Simplicable” website, which calls it “a common feature of cronyism” in which members of a “social group continue to promote and reward each other despite an ongoing string of failures.”

Could anything better describe Harris’ political career, especially her latest turn as President Joe Biden’s “immigration czar”?

The most polite thing you can say about Harris’ so-far brief tenure as border czar is that she’s done little to make things worse. That’s largely because she’s a political cipher, picked precisely because she wouldn’t do a thing to stop illegal immigrants from crossing our borders.

That takes the heat off of Biden, whose early moves undid President Donald Trump’s smart, humane policy (which led to an enormous decline in both illegal contraband and border crossings), and replaced it with the Democrats’ dangerous, divisive open-border policy.

Harris is plainly incapable of doing the job. And that’s the point.

How else could you describe someone who claims that “climate adaptation” in Latin America is key to ending the U.S. border crisis?

Or someone who explained the “root causes” of the thousands of Central Americans illegally crossing the U.S. southern border by referencing the television show “Cheers,” where “everyone knows your name“?

Or someone who has focused on luring American companies to invest in Central America as a way to stop the surge, rather than focusing on the cause: Biden’s open-border policy?

Or someone who, during her 71 days as czar, refused to even visit the border or meet with border-state governors, who have desperately pleaded for help from Washington to handle Biden’s growing disaster?

Reparations Are Political Suicide, and Joe Biden Knows It By Charles C. W. Cooke

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/reparations-are-political-suicide-and-joe-biden-knows-it/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_

H.R. 40, the reparations bill, is DOA. Per Politico:

As a candidate, Biden said he supported a commission on reparations. But the administration has yet to endorse the actual bill. After his speech Tuesday, the president met with the members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who brought up the need for H.R. 40, which is named after the “40 acres and a mule” promise that now symbolizes the lack of support formerly enslaved people received from the federal government. According to those involved in the conversations, Biden let them down gently.

“He didn’t disagree with what we’re doing,” said Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.), the 2nd vice chair of the CBC. “He did talk about his plate [being] full with trying to get the infrastructure bill passed and that he really wanted to make sure that he could get that through before he took on anything else.”

Ouch.

H.R. 40, note, would not spend any money on reparations. It would simply create a commission to look into spending money on reparations. If Joe Biden is against even that at this early point in his presidency, then he’s going to be against the idea at every single point in his presidency. The next few months are going to be taken up with attempt to spend trillions of dollars on “infrastructure,” and, after that, the midterm election season will be upon us. In a cosmic sense, Biden may not “disagree with” what the CBC is doing. In practical terms, though, he’s running away from them as fast as he possibly can — and, in so doing, killing the idea dead for at least the rest of his tenure.

Joe Biden Attacks Courageous Maverick Democrats By David Harsanyi

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/joe-biden-attacks-courageous-maverick-democrats/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=hero&utm_content=related&utm_term=second

President Joe Biden dinged both Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin during a speech in Tulsa, Oklahoma, yesterday, calling them “two members of the Senate who vote more with my Republican friends.” Some coverage alleged that Biden had merely insinuated that the duo voted against more than with him, but it’s a lie that would have generated cheeky chyron corrections on CNN and instantaneous across-the-board fact-checking — five Pinocchios and all the rest — had it been Donald Trump.

It’s not to say that Sinema and Manchin have signed on to all of Biden’s multitrillion-dollar agenda items — often larded with proposals that Biden himself opposed only a couple of years ago, such as ending the Hyde amendment and allowing unlimited taxpayer funding of abortions. But, to this point, Sinema and Manchin have voted with the president 100 percent of the time. If Republicans are looking to them to be saviors, they will likely be disappointed.

Biden’s quip was meant to pressure both to help pass H.R. 1, and to give Democrats an excuse to blow up the Senate filibuster. The president, after all, framed their obstinance as a roadblock to protecting the “sacred right” of voting, again claiming that state laws that codify traditional integrity measures, rather than allowing the chaotic COVID–style free-for-all voting to become the norm, were on par with Jim Crow. H.R. 1 is an attack on free expression, an unconstitutional federal takeover of elections. Its scope is unprecedented. Yet, since the press has adopted the Democrats’ framing of the legislation — a “voting rights” bill meant to stop “Republican-led voting restrictions across the country” — many voters are probably confused by any reluctancy to support it.

Of course, the way Sinema and Manchin are portrayed by the press bears little resemblance to the coverage of, say, Susan Collins, who often held up Republican-agenda items. She was a plucky maverick ready to stand up for her beliefs. And Mitch McConnell was not, as far as I recall, asked daily whether he was willing to destroy the republican norms of the Senate to ram through his legislative agenda with a razor-thin majority. And even if he had been, reporters wouldn’t be referring to it as “filibuster reform.” Yet, the filibuster is the obsession of political media. Sinema and Manchin are the obsession of the political media. All of it geared to help one party realize its goals.

Never Let a Plague Go to Waste by Victor Davis Hanson

https://amgreatness.com/2021/06/02/never-let-a-plague-go-to-waste/

During America’s first-ever national lockdown, thousands of unelected bureaucrats, as well as federal and state governments, assumed enormous powers not usually accorded to them.

They picked and chose which businesses could stay open without much rationale. They sent the infected into nursing homes occupied by the weak and vulnerable.

Their rules for prosecuting those who violated social distancing, sheltering in place, mask wearing, or violent protesting often hinged on political grounds. Their spending measures on “infrastructure” and “health care” were excuses to lard up redistributive entitlements.

Conservatives moaned that left-wing agendas were at work beneath the pretenses of saving us from the pandemic. And the giddy left bragged that it was true.

After the 2008 financial meltdown, Barack Obama spoke of “fundamentally transforming” the country. Now he’s back, weighing in on the panic-driven, multitrillion-dollar spending that has pushed America’s debt to nearly $30 trillion.

“There’s a teachable moment about maybe this whole deficit hawk thing of the federal government,” Obama said in a recent interview with Ezra Klein of The New York Times. “Just being nervous about our debt 30 years from now, while millions of people are suffering—maybe that’s not a smart way to think about our economics.”

He apparently means that borrowing tons of money in a pandemic and not worrying too much about paying it back is a new, better approach to economics.

Last year, California Gov. Gavin Newsom boasted about leveraging California’s statewide quarantine.

“There is opportunity for reimagining a progressive era as it pertains to capitalism,” Newsom said. “So yes, absolutely, we see this as an opportunity to reshape the way we do business and how we govern.”