Why Biden’s Palestinian Policies Will Not Bring Peace by Khaled Abu Toameh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17909/why-biden-palestinian-policies-will-not-bring

The Biden administration is apparently hoping that engaging Abbas would undermine Hamas and other Palestinian extremists and embolden “moderate” Palestinians who are prepared to make peace with Israel and renounce violence.

The results of the polls, however, show that the Palestinian public is moving in precisely the opposite direction – towards more extremism and disillusionment with the PA leadership.

Referring to the peace process with Israel, 68% of the Palestinians said that they oppose a return to negotiations with Israel led by the US under the Biden administration.

The millions of dollars that the Biden administration is pouring on the Palestinians will not make them more moderate and encourage them to abandon violence and terrorism. There is only one way to deradicalize the Palestinians: halt the ongoing campaign to delegitimize Israel and demonize Jews.

It is the catastrophic failure to hold Abbas and the PA to account for their incitement against Israel and for their corruption that is emboldening Hamas and others who seek to destroy Israel.

The Biden administration’s policy of engaging with and strengthening the Palestinian Authority (PA) has suffered a setback: most Palestinians continue to express dissatisfaction with the performance of PA President Mahmoud Abbas and demand his resignation.

The Biden administration’s hope of reviving the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians has also suffered another blow: a majority of Palestinians remain opposed to returning to negotiations with Israel under the leadership of the US. In addition, half the Palestinian public favor a return to an armed struggle Israel.

China and the Crisis Presidency of Joe Biden by Pete Hoekstra

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17910/china-biden-crisis-presidency

How does a president who is struggling on so many fronts lead a nation against China, its biggest geostrategic competitor? China’s military buildup, the ongoing genocide against the Uyghurs, America and the West’s over-reliance on China in the supply chain, Chinese aggression against Taiwan and in the South China Sea, and China’s aggression against India along the common land border are all pressing issues that are only getting worse.

The Chinese communists have made clear in word and deed, however, including their Belt and Road Initiative and Made in China policies, that they have every intention of knocking-off America as global leader and supplanting the West in global standing.

[I]n 2008 Russia invaded the Republic of Georgia. European Union leaders offered a pitifully limited response and Russia faced very few negative reactions from either the EU or the U.S. But there were consequences. Many believe this painfully mild answer was an indicator to Russia that it could employ a more militaristic approach in areas of previous Russian influence. Six years after its invasion of Georgia, Russia invaded Ukraine, annexing Crimea and occupying parts of the Donbas region. The lesson seems clear and quite literal — give a tyrannical country an inch and it will take as many other countries as it can.

[F]or global stability and the standing of the United Sates, it is time for the president to draw a bright red line signaling to the Chinese communists the limits of what they can do and where they can go.

Less than a year in and Joe Biden’s presidency is beset by crises. Domestically, his increasingly unpopular agenda has been stalled by his own political party in Congress. On the international front, the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle continues to reverberate along with Europe’s growing frustration in dealing with the administration. Even on matters where we can agree, such as the submarine deal and our alliance with the Australia and the United Kingdom to counter China, the announcement was so badly handled it became just another friction point in U.S.-European relations. Then there is China itself. From the origins of COVID to its recent hypersonic missile test — an event the Pentagon’s top general Mark Milley concedes was a near “Sputnik moment” — and China’s ability to crush all US satellites as “debris,” the challenges between the U.S. and China only continue to grow.

Biden and the Democrats Have Failed America By A.J. Kaufman

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/ari-j-kaufman/2021/11/01/biden-and-the-democrats-have-failed-america-n1528549

Folks often ask me if the Biden administration “has done anything right” and “how can anyone support Democrats?” Normally I say that’s hyperbole and try to find one positive item, but over nine months in, I can’t.

As even friendly media outlets marvel at disastrous polls, let’s analyze the chaos, division, and ruination the 46th president and his cackling vice president have wrought.

U.S-Mexico border

Team Biden has eradicated the mostly secure southern border that they inherited and converted it into a sieve.

On Democrats’ watch through fiscal year 2021, Customs and Border Protection encountered nearly 1.5 million illegal crossers, up roughly 400% in one year. Democrats happily allow migrants who broke the law into the interior, often to liberal sanctuary cities, where even violent criminal convicts are usually protected.

And despite the harrowing numbers, they remain determined to erase successful, sane policies too.

Last week, Biden inexplicably decided to ponder forcing American taxpayers to give $450,000 to each illegal immigrant separated from his family.

Radical Left-Wing Billionaire Funding Hunter Biden Art Shows, Raising Ethical Concerns By Eric Lendrum

https://amgreatness.com/2021/11/01/radical-left-wing-billionaire-funding-hunter-biden-art-shows-raising-ethical-concerns/

The latest round of art shows featuring paintings and other artwork by Hunter Biden are being funded by a radical far-left billionaire with a history of political activism, according to the Daily Caller.

An exhibition of Biden’s work took place on October 1st at the Milk Studios in Los Angeles; Milk Studios is owned by billionaire businessman Moishe Mana. Mana has repeatedly donated to the Democratic Party, and was also behind several vulgar art displays with political messages behind them, including an infamous nude sculpture of President Donald Trump.

Between 2015 and 2018, Mana donated over $115,000 to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and various Democratic candidates around the country. He was a donor and strategist on the 2016 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, and co-hosted a fundraiser for Clinton in the closing weeks of the election where he auctioned off artwork to support her bid for president. One of Mana’s most infamous stunts was his public offer of $2,000,000 to a charity of then-candidate Donald Trump’s choice if he released his tax returns.

Anna Massoglia, an investigative reporter at the non-profit watchdog group Open Secrets, said that “the studio being opened by a political donor who has been involved in Democratic fundraising efforts involving art in particular and using art as a tool for other political purposes, really changes the way that this can be looked at.”

“This would not be the only time that the political donor who opened the studio has used art for activism or political purposes,” Massoglia continued. “It is also not the only time art has been used as a payment method or a way to curry favor with different politicians or to even exchange for various influence operations generally…we don’t know what other favors may be given behind the scenes and what connections are being made at these art shows.”

When the Daily Caller reached out to Mana for comment, he responded with profanity by telling the reporter, Jack Greenberg, “go f**k yourself [you] piece of sh** garbage,” and also called Greenberg “a nazi jew.” He also claimed that the Caller is owned by “a crazy bad guy,” without specifying to whom he was referring.

Hunter Biden’s foray into the world of art has raised numerous complaints of ethics violations from across the political spectrum.

Where Are the Real Domestic Terrorists? It’s malfeasance for powerful government authorities, including Joe Biden, to intentionally mislead the American people by stoking unjustified fears of a pending domestic terror attack. By Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2021/11/01/where-are-the-real-domestic-terrorists/

In a political stunt so obvious that only Representative Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) fell for it, the Lincoln Project on Friday reportedly deployed five Democratic activists dressed as white supremacists to a campaign event for Glenn Youngkin, the Republican candidate for governor of Virginia.

The optics were intended to conjure images of the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville; dressed in white shirts and khaki pants, the five human props carried tiki torches, a symbol of the protest that resulted in the death of one young woman in August 2017. Youngkin, like all Republicans, the Lincoln Project LARPers tried and failed to show, can only rise to political power on the tiki torch-wielding shoulders of racist preppies loyal to Donald Trump.

While the stunt immediately was mocked and condemned by the Right—and buried by the national news media—it highlighted the myth that violent white supremacists pose a dire national security threat. And it’s not a narrative solely promoted by journalists or washed-up Republican political consultants burning leftist cash; the falsehood that “domestic violent extremists,” code for Americans on the political Right, are the homeland’s biggest danger has the imprimatur of the Biden White House and powerful federal agencies.

In his inauguration speech, Joe Biden promised to defeat the “rise in political extremism, white supremacy, [and] domestic terrorism.” Characterizing the events of January 6 an “insurrection” carried out by white supremacist right-wing militias and using that as a pretext, one of Biden’s first official acts was to instruct his national security team to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the threat of domestic terrorism and submit the report within 100 days.

Acts of domestic terrorism, according to federal law, are

activities that involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State; appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion, or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.

That definition could apply to everything—or nothing at all. Many Americans might understandably argue the destructive and deadly rioting in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death last year meets that criteria far more than a four-hour disturbance in the Capitol on January 6. After all, the post-Floyd political climate has led to a spike in violent crime in cities across the country, jeopardizing the safety of millions of innocent Americans on a daily basis.

But Joe Biden and the ideologues who populate his administration are not targeting Black Lives Matter or Antifa activists; they’re too busy obsessing about unruly parents at school board meetings and Trump supporters who “paraded” in the Capitol earlier this year.

Muslim Congressional Candidate Accepts Money from Islamist Leaders Barbara Sharief’s tour of radical mosques pays off. Joe Kaufman

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/11/muslim-congressional-candidate-accepts-money-joe-kaufman/

Broward County Commissioner Barbara Sharief is one of many Democrats vying for the congressional seat (Florida CD20) previously held by now-deceased US Representative Alcee Hastings. Whoever wins the November 2nd Democratic Primary will most likely be the district’s next officeholder, and Sharief has placed herself in a good position for victory. Her support is a matter of controversy, though, as part of it has come from radical mosques and terror-related groups. This includes money contributions, as her latest campaign financial disclosure reveals funds from Islamist leaders. Will Sharief allow her votes in office to be bought by extremists?

Since Barbara Muhammad Sharief has been running for US Congress, she has made it a point to visit all of the radical mosques in the area. During a candidate forum in September, she said she was “extremely blessed” to be able to do so. Sharief spoke at the Islamic Center of Boca Raton (ICBR), which was co-founded by a Hamas website designer and a former assistant to Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Sami al-Arian, and she spoke at Pembroke Pines-based Darul Uloom, which has been a haven for al-Qaeda operatives and whose imam was thrown off a number of community boards for his public vitriol against homosexuals.

In August, Sharief was the “Special Guest” at an event sponsored by ICNA Relief USA, the US social services division of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA). ICNA has numerous links to South Asian terror. For over three decades, the group has harbored former death squad commander Ashrafuz Zaman Khan, allowing Khan to serve in ICNA’s top leadership positions. ICNA has sponsored events promoting the terrorist groups Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hamas. Sharief has taken numerous photos at various events with ICNA Relief USA Chief Operating Officer Abdul Rauf Khan, an individual who has used social media to target Jews and gays.

Virginia Parents Have Had Enough of ‘Woke’ Lies at Their Schools By Asra Q. Nomani

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/11/virginia-parents-have-had-enough-of-woke-lies-at-their-schools

Asra Q. Nomani is vice president of strategy and investigations at Parents Defending Education and a former Wall Street Journal reporter.

A diverse movement of concerned parents has arisen to oppose critical race theory.

Falls Church, Va. — Since Wednesday, October 6, Fairfax County Public Schools staffer Rob Kerr has been teaching a weekly two-hour course to teachers here at Marshall High School called, “AC-1608: How to Be an Antiracist Educator.”

If you happen to be white, look out — through the lens of this teaching, you’re racist. Consider this module in Kerr’s course: “Exploring and Understanding Whiteness,” which includes listening to a podcast by Bettina Love. She is the founder of the radical Abolitionist Teaching Network, whose core philosophy is that America’s schools, and especially its white teachers, are “spirit murdering” black children.

The Fairfax County “Antiracist Educator” syllabus, revealed here for the first time, borrows key concepts from the dour, divisive doctrine known as critical race theory, which holds that all white people are intrinsic oppressors of all minorities and especially black people. Lessons include “the Creation of Racist Systems,” “the building blocks of racism in the United States,” not to mention the ills of “whiteness.”

Education officials and politicians deny critical race theory is taught in K–12 schools, in a pattern of deception that parents are facing nationwide. We’ve heard of white lies, where folks fudge the truth. These are “woke” lies. But we’re now standing up with moral courage as unapologetic parents in a mama bear — and papa bear — movement. And we’re not just standing up against critical race theory. There’s a whole list of dubious woke education polices we’re fighting. These include: the elimination of merit exams for entry into once-elite schools; the elimination even of advanced math; the curating of pornography by some school libraries; and the cover-up of sexual assaults in schools.

Indeed, we’re seeing a “revenge of the parents.”

Karl Marx’s choice for Treasury secretary By Lloyd Billingsley

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/11/karl_marxs_choice_for_treasury_secretary.html

Joe Biden’s nominee for comptroller of the currency in the Treasury Department is Saule Omarova, a Moscow State University alum and recipient of a Lenin scholarship. Omarova wants Americans to have accounts with the Federal Reserve instead of independent banks. The Kazakhstan native is touching off both support and opposition. 

“It’s not every day that we’re presented with a nomination for a Lenin scholarship recipient who attended the Moscow State University and wants to end banking as we know it in the United States,” South Dakota Republican John Thune told reporters. Sen. Pat Toomey wants Omarova to turn over a copy of her thesis, “Karl Marx’s Economic Analysis and the Theory of Revolution in The Capital,” which was still on Omarova’s CV in April of 2017. 

Banking committee Democrats who hold doubts about Omarova are playing it close to the vest while others are outspoken in her favor. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, prime mover of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, touted Omarova’s “impressive qualifications and expertise in banking.” Sen. Sherrod Brown attributed opposition to “red scare McCarthyism” and hailed Omarova as someone who “fled communist oppression.” Republicans and Democrats alike might have their doubts about that. 

Omarova came to the United States on an exchange program with the University of Wisconsin and lamented the fall of the Soviet Union. In a May 9, 2020 interview with Chris Hayes of NBC, Omarova said “I feel guilty for having left the country at such a momentous time, because obviously they couldn’t hold it together without me.”

In the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, scholarships were handed out primarily on the basis of fidelity to Marxist doctrine, not academic expertise or merit. A ballpark figure for the contributions of Marx and Lenin to economics is zero, so the thesis should prove a fascinating read. The Soviet Union was an economic basket case, but it’s the American financial system Omarova views as dysfunctional. 

Commemorating the Balfour Declaration By Michael Curtis

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/11/commemorating_the_balfour_declaration_.html

Before World War I, the area of Palestine was a region of the Ottoman Empire with a small Jewish population. After the start of World War I, the British government began considering changes in the Ottoman Empire, the sick man of Europe, which had entered the war on the side of Germany and the Central Powers in October 1914. Among other proposals, Prime Minister David Lloyd George favored partition of the empire. In the Middle East, the last generally recognized sovereign power was the empire, and the area of Palestine was a district, not a political entity.

The Balfour Declaration was not a declaration but a letter of November 2, 1917, written by Scottish-born Arthur Balfour, former prime minister and foreign secretary, to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community.  Balfour, who was raised as a Protestant in the evangelical tradition, had been a friend of Chaim Weizmann, the most important Jewish personality of his day,  since 1906 when they opposed the Russian pogroms.   The Balfour letter was the result of prolonged discussion in the British cabinet and with Zionist leaders, and the subject of several drafts of the letter. Various individuals have been suggested as the primary author, including Lord Milner and Leopold Amery, but there is no definitely acknowledged single writer.

The declaration stated that “His Majesty’s Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object.”   In the statement, two factors are clearly understood: nothing should be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

The declaration gave rise to conflicting emotions: Jewish hopes and Arab disappointments. Lord Rothschild remarked that “for the first time since the dispersion, the Jewish people have received their proper status by the declaration of one of the great powers.”

The declaration was the first public support for Zionism by a major political power since Cyrus, the Persian king who liberated the Jews from their Babylonian exile in the 6th century BC.

How Journalism Abandoned the Working Class What explains the media’s obsession with race and power? It has very little to do with social justice and everything to do with class. Batya Ungar-Sargon

https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/how-journalism-abandoned-the-working

If you read this newsletter you are acutely aware of the transformation of the mainstream media over the last decade and, especially, over the past couple of years. But few have offered a fully satisfying answer to the question of why. 

Why is it, for example, that between 2013 and 2019, the frequency of the words “white” and “racial privilege” exploded by 1,200 percent in The New York Times and by 1,500 percent in The Washington Post? Why was the term “white supremacy” used 2,400 times by National Public Radio in 2020?

What changed? Why was there suddenly a relentless focus on race and power? And who—or what—was driving it?

At last those questions have been answered with unusual clarity by Batya Ungar-Sargon in her new book “Bad News: How Woke Media is Undermining Democracy.” 

Batya, who is an opinion editor at Newsweek, is hard to pin down politically. I first met her in 2018 and I would have described her then as woke. These days I’d call her a left-wing populist. (She’s part of an endangered species: a person willing to change her mind.) But what I appreciate most about Batya, and what I think you’ll find when you read the essay below, is someone who is able to put ideology aside and pursue to illuminate why the news is broken, how it is fueling one war (culture) to distract from another (class), and how that might be changed. — BW