FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Is the Biden administration running an anti-Israel con? By Andrea Widburg

Posted By on May 18th, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/05/is_the_biden_administration_running_an_antiisrael_con.html

On Saturday, Israel announced that it had evidence that Hamas military intelligence assets were operating out of a building with civilian media offices – in essence, using the media as a shield. Because Hamas turned the building into a military site, it became a legitimate target under international law. So, AP and Al Jazeera lost their propaganda sites. Israel gave detailed information about notifying Biden in advance of the strike. However, on Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there was no such evidence. Does this represent some kind of creepy and dangerous game-playing from the Biden administration?

You can read here about Israel’s initial targeting of the Hamas building, including Israel’s detailed statement about its justification for destroying that building. In the same post, you can see how the Biden administration’s knee-jerk reaction was to castigate Israel for having destroyed the AP and Al Jazeera headquarters.

Various media outlets, however, reported that Biden had so much evidence in front of him that he “gave the OK” to Israel’s assault on the building:

PRESIDENT Joe Biden “gave the OK” for the huge Israeli blitz that levelled an alleged Hamas building in Gaza after Benjamin Netanyahu shared the “smoking gun” evidence.

The evidence is said to have been handed over by the Israeli President during his telephone conversation with Joe Biden on Saturday.

A source close to Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi is reported to have said: “We showed them the smoking gun proving Hamas worked out of that building”.

He added Biden had “found the explanation satisfactory”, although did not provide details of the evidence.

The White House “readout” of a Saturday call between Biden and Netanyahu states that Biden “reaffirmed his strong support for Israel’s right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza.” It’s not clear whether that call occurred before or after the strike on the Hamas building.

The whole equation changed, though, on Monday, when Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that can be distilled to his asking, Hamas? What Hamas?

FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Violence in Israel Is the Price of Biden’s Weakness By Mike Pence

Posted By on May 18th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/05/violence-in-israel-is-the-price-of-bidens-weakness/

In the Middle East, he has replaced strength with weakness, moral clarity with confusion, and loyalty with betrayal.

The Trump-Pence administration opened the door to a future of peace in the Middle East founded on our strong and unwavering commitment to the state of Israel. But now Israel is enduring the worst outbreak of violence in at least seven years — a direct result of the weakness shown by the Biden administration from its first day in office.

Many Americans witnessing the recent bloodshed in Israel are perplexed by how quickly violence erupted after years of calm. The answer is that President Biden and congressional Democrats have abandoned unambiguous support for our ally Israel, emboldened our enemies, and turned their back on the policy that yielded historic peace deals in the Middle East.

Under the Trump-Pence administration, we made it crystal clear to the world that America stands with Israel. We withdrew from the dangerous Iran nuclear deal brokered by the Obama-Biden administration, which put the world’s leading state sponsor of terror on the path to nuclear weapons while sending pallets of cash to the mullahs in Iran. We acknowledged Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights and the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. And President Trump kept the promise made by countless Republican and Democrat politicians by actually following through in moving the American embassy to Jerusalem, the capital of the state of Israel.

Every step of the way, Democrats and self-proclaimed foreign-policy “experts” derided our administration’s approach and issued dire warnings that blood would soon flow in the streets of Israeli cities. As usual, they were wrong.

In fact, last year, our administration brokered the Abraham Accords, a series of historic peace agreements between Israel and Arab-Muslim countries — the most significant breakthrough for peace in decades.These groundbreaking peace accords happened not in spite of America’s support for Israel, but because of it. Other nations knew where America stood with absolute certainty. They knew America would respond forcefully if our citizens or allies were threatened. As a result, they responded rationally by pursuing peace and harmony.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Terrorists Fire Thousands of Rockets at Israeli Civilians, Courtesy of Iran Biden’s reengagement with the Islamic Republic could fund thousands more. Joseph Klein

Posted By on May 18th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/05/terrorists-fire-thousands-rockets-israeli-joseph-klein/

It was nearly seven years ago, on former President Barack Obama’s watch, when the Palestinian Islamist terrorists deliberately rained down enormous barrages of rockets on civilian population centers in Israel. Five Israeli civilians (including one child) were killed during the 2014 Gaza War. Now, for the first time since 2014, we are seeing the Palestinian terrorists engage in the same level of savagery once again, just four months into the Biden presidency. 

Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad have fired nearly 3000 rockets into Israel since May 10th. In that time, Israel has already reported at least nine dead, including five women and two children. Israel has responded forcefully with hundreds of air strikes in Gaza. The strikes have killed senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders and destroyed terrorist military and intelligence facilities, command headquarters, terrorist officers’ homes, and attack tunnel networks. “No Hamas officer, high or low, should feel safe over- or under- ground,” an Israeli army spokesman warned Saturday night. “Hamas will think 500 times before ever again going to war against Israel.”

The Palestinian terrorists are armed and funded by the fanatical Islamist Iranian regime. The Biden administration will not succeed in ending the violence in the long term simply by focusing on negotiating a ceasefire of the current hostilities. The Biden administration should focus instead on cutting off the terrorists’ support line at its source. Biden must abandon any negotiations with the Iranian regime and any consideration of sanctions relief that could potentially buttress Iran’s ability to bankroll Hamas and its other terrorist proxies.

The United Nations Security Council met twice last week in closed sessions to discuss the escalating crisis. On Sunday, the Security Council held an open meeting. When the speakers were not condemning Israel as the aggressor or equating the Palestinian terrorist attacks aimed at killing or wounding Israeli civilians with Israel’s military operations to defend its own citizens, they called for maximum mutual restraint and a ceasefire. Notably, the Biden administration’s UN Ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, failed in her remarks to the Security Council to re-affirm President Biden’s prior acknowledgement of Israel’s right of self-defense. Iran’s documented role as the terrorists’ main military supplier and funder was not mentioned even once.

Moral clarity requires an unambiguous acknowledgement that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist groups, supported by the terrorist-sponsoring Islamic Republic of Iran, are solely responsible for the violent rampage spiraling out of control. The terrorists must be held criminally to account for the dual war crimes of targeting Israel’s civilian population and launching their rockets from within Gaza’s civilian neighborhoods and institutions. The Iranian regime must be held criminally to account as the terrorists’ sponsor, aider and abettor. 

FOREIGN POLICY, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

As Iran’s Mullahs Incite Hamas Terrorism, Biden Administration Wants Sanctions Lifted by Majid Rafizadeh

Posted By on May 18th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17373/iran-hamas-terrorism

The Biden administration is apparently offering even more concessions and sanctions relief to Iran’s leaders, concessions that “go beyond the nuclear-specific sanctions.”….Meanwhile, these leaders from Iran are openly encouraging Hamas to launch more rockets….

In addition, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei…has been inciting terrorism on social media…. [and] labeled the whole nation of Israel a terrorist camp….

Twitter’s policy indicates that it will suspend users “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.” But Twitter appears to be giving him full immunity. It is worth noting that Twitter banned the former President Donald J. Trump… “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”

“Why is @khameni_ir still the fu*k on Twitter? If this isn’t incitement, idk wtf is!!!” — @JeremyKossen, Twitter, May 12, 2021.

“Why on Earth aren’t you banning @khamenei_ir and all his other accounts?” — @eL3CT10n to CEO Jack Dorsey, Twitter, May 12, 2021.

“The United States engaging in active negotiations with Iran and potentially providing billions of dollars in sanctions relief will no doubt contribute to Iran’s support of Hamas and other terrorist organizations who attack Americans and our allies. We call on you to immediately end negotiations with Iran, and make clear that sanctions relief will not be provided.” — More than 40 US Senators, letter to President Joe Biden, Newsweek, May 12, 2021.

It is mind-boggling that the Biden administration is forging ahead with its plan to revive the nuclear deal and lift sanctions against Iran’s mullahs while one of America’s strongest allies, Israel, is being attacked by the Iran-backed terror group, Hamas….

[T]he Biden administration must immediately halt talks with the Iranian regime. And definitely do not fund it. Any generosity will just be used to enrich Iran’s militia, the IRGC, and target more countries in the Middle East — in addition to the United States as it did on 9/11 and 1983. This time, however, the attacks may well come from Iranian bases in Venezuela or the Southern Hemisphere.

Amidst the Iranian regime’s clear role in inciting terrorism against Israeli civilians, talks to lift sanctions against the regime are advancing in Vienna. The Biden administration is apparently offering even more concessions and sanctions relief to Iran’s leaders, concessions that “go beyond the nuclear-specific sanctions.”

Meanwhile, these leaders from Iran are openly encouraging Hamas to launch more rockets at a longtime US ally in the Middle East, Israel. Additionally, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, Esmail Ghaani, in a phone call with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, recently applauded Hamas for its attacks.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Fauci says pandemic exposed ‘undeniable effects of racism’

Posted By on May 18th, 2021

https://www.aol.com/news/fauci-says-pandemic-exposed-undeniable-162620396

The immunologist who leads the COVID-19 response in the United States said Sunday that “the undeniable effects of racism” have led to unacceptable health disparities that especially hurt African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans during the pandemic.

“COVID-19 has shone a bright light on our own society’s failings,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said during a graduation ceremony for Emory University.

Speaking by webcast from Washington, Fauci told the graduates in Atlanta that many members of minority groups work in essential jobs where they might be exposed to the coronavirus. He also said they are more likely to become infected if exposed because of medical conditions such as hypertension, chronic lung disease, diabetes or obesity.

“Now, very few of these comorbidities have racial determinants,” Fauci said. “Almost all relate to the social determinants of health dating back to disadvantageous conditions that some people of color find themselves in from birth regarding the availability of an adequate diet, access to health care and the undeniable effects of racism in our society.”

ISRAEL, MEDIA Comments turned off

Associated Press, Hamas Propagandists By David Harsanyi

Posted By on May 18th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/05/associated-press-hamas-propagandists/

The news agency has a long, shameful record of regurgitating the terror group’s lies.

As more than 1,500 Hamas rockets were flying toward Israeli cities with the express purpose of murdering civilians, CNN could spare only around four minutes — in total — to cover the topic during an entire week of prime time. Typically, it’s only when the Jewish state begins defending itself that the story gets any real traction.

And, needless to say, the focus got intense after Israel destroyed a twelve-story high-rise building in Gaza that housed foreign press outlets, including the Associated Press. Israel claims that al-Jalaa Tower was home to Hamas military-intelligence assets. It called ahead to warn those inside, so, fortunately, no journalist was killed.

AP CEO Gary Pruitt said that his organization “had no indication Hamas was in the building or active in the building,” adding, “This is something we actively check to the best of our ability. We would never knowingly put our journalists at risk.”

This is nonsense. Pruitt knowingly puts journalists at risk every day he sends them to places such as Gaza, where the ruling regime wages war behind civilians it uses as shields. But how did Pruitt “actively” check? Did he ask Hamas? Did he call the landlord? Did he ring everyone’s bell? And how could we trust that a media outlet that is unable to track down a single Hamas militant shooting Qassam rockets — from dense civilian areas right near its offices — would be able to figure out who was in their building, anyway?

It is, of course, highly probable that Hamas was using journalists as human shields. This is what it does. During the last major outbreak of violence, in 2014, Gaza’s Shifa hospital became “a de facto headquarters for Hamas leaders,” who could “be seen in the hallways and offices,” according to the Washington Post — but not the Associated Press, which had around 40 journalists working on the Israeli–Palestinian story, including a number of them filing stories from inside that very hospital.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Army Prioritizes Climate Change as ‘Serious Threat’ to National Security By Caroline Downey

Posted By on May 18th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/army-prioritizes-climate-change-as-serious-threat-to-national-security/

In a memo released Friday, the U.S. Army announced that it now classifies climate change as a “serious threat to U.S. national security interests and defense objectives.” The statement subsequently signaled the military’s intention to prioritize combatting climate change with new risk analyses, threat projections, installation and natural-resource planning, supply-chain procurement considerations, and general strategy.

The statement added that the effects of climate change can induce “humanitarian disasters, undermine weak governments and contribute to long-term social and economic disruptions.”

“The Army has a lot to be proud of, yet there is a lot of work to continue to operate efficiently across extreme weather and climate conditions,” the memo read.

To prepare for and mitigate the fallout from the Earth’s warming, the Army plans to conduct “in-depth assessments of likely climate change effects on the Army’s worldwide missions,” while also working to “lead the way in technology development for tactical vehicles that balances increased capability with decreased climate impacts.”

The Army’s policy change comes after the Biden administration signaled its commitment to fighting the climate crisis as a national-security threat. In April, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III called climate change an “existential threat.”

MEDIA Comments turned off

Outrage after social media users discover series of Hitler-praising tweets from CNN freelancer The tweet turned out to be one of many in which Adeel Raja has praised Hitler By Cortney O’Brien |

Posted By on May 18th, 2021

https://www.foxnews.com/media/cnn-adeel-raja-says-world-today-needs-a-hitler

CNN is under fire for having hired a writer who posted several times on social media that he believes the world needs another “Hitler.”

Social media users demanded that the network respond after discovering the tweets from one of its freelance contributors, Adeel Raja, who has written dozens of pieces for the outlet. 

After some digging, it turned out to be one of several messages Raja has posted praising the Nazi leader.

“The only reason I am supporting Germany in the finals – Hitler was a German and he did good with those Jews!” Raja wrote during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Raja last had a CNN byline on Sept. 16, 2020. He still lists his affiliation with the network on LinkedIn.

“Hail Hitler!” he wrote the following day. Twitter users shared screenshots of the messages.

“The only reason I am supporting Germany in the finals – Hitler was a German and he did good with those Jews!” Raja wrote during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Raja last had a CNN byline on Sept. 16, 2020. He still lists his affiliation with the network on LinkedIn.

“Hail Hitler!” he wrote the following day. Twitter users shared screenshots of the messages.

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Top Retired Officers Are Right: Biden’s Leftism And ‘Woke’ Military Threaten U.S. Security

Posted By on May 18th, 2021

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/05/18/bidens-leftism-and-woke-military-threaten-u-s-national-security/

Military officials are trained to stand silently on the sidelines of politics, saying nothing but what relates to their mission, whatever it might be. But a recent open letter signed by 124 former flag-level officers warning of the dangerous effects of our nation’s sharp sudden turn to the left overturns that tradition. What do they know that the rest of us don’t?

The letter was not couched in military jargon or bureaucratese; it was plain-spoken and blunt in its concern about America’s course. It starts with a call for protecting our free and fair elections, but then turns toward the ominous political and cultural trends of recent years. No need for a translation:

Aside from the election, the current administration has launched a full-blown assault on our constitutional rights in a dictatorial manner, bypassing Congress, with more than 50 executive orders quickly signed, many reversing the previous administration’s effective policies and regulations. Moreover, population control actions such as excessive lockdowns, school and business closures, and, most alarming, censorship of written and verbal expression are all direct assaults on our fundamental rights. We must support and hold accountable politicians who will act to counter socialism, Marxism, and Progressivism, support our constitutional republic, and insist on fiscally responsible governing while focusing on all Americans, especially the middle class, not special interest or extremist groups which are used to divide us into warring factions.

They warned about the negative trends in a number of areas, ranging from our increasingly open borders and social media exercising control over speech, to Joe Biden’s return to the fatally flawed Iran nuclear deal and the failure to protect the rule of law.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Climate Lawsuits Take a Hit The Supreme Court makes it harder for cities to duck federal courts.

Posted By on May 18th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/climate-lawsuits-take-a-hit-11621288621?mod=opinion_lead_pos4

State and local governments have been trying to extract tens of billions of dollars from fossil-fuel producers for contributing to climate change. But a 7-1 majority of the Supreme Court on Monday decided an important procedural question in BP v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore that could put a lid on these suits.

Baltimore has sued some two dozen fossil-fuel companies for creating a “public nuisance.” It argues that the production, sale and promotion of carbon energy has increased greenhouse gas emissions, thereby contributing to climate change that will cause “property damage, economic injuries and impacts to public health.” To describe its argument as a legal stretch is an understatement.

A similar effort by states to shake down fossil-fuel power generators already failed in federal court (AEP v. Connecticut) in 2011. The Supreme Court ruled that corporations can’t be sued for their greenhouse emissions under federal common law since the Clean Air Act delegates the regulation of CO2 emissions to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Baltimore and other cities are now trying to sneak lawsuits through state courts where judges aren’t bound by AEP. The Supreme Court on Monday made this end-run much harder by ruling on a complicated procedural question regarding federal appellate court review of federal judges’ remand orders to state courts.