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Featured Column Ruthie Blum Commanding scorn The taking of personal responsibility is befitting of someone leading others into battle.

Posted By on January 29th, 2019

https://www.jns.org/opinion/commanding-scorn/

In a letter to the officers in his command early this week, the head of the Israel Defense Forces’ Judea and Samaria Division declared that “immoral and illegal actions” by IDF soldiers against Palestinians would not be tolerated.

“Those who cannot control themselves and do not undertake to operate professionally during a security mission and in accordance with the spirit of the IDF will have no place with us,” warned Brig. Gen. Eran Niv. “We will stand firm against our subordinates.”

Niv went on to assert that the use of force is legitimate only when required for the execution of a mission, and only against those who pose an immediate threat. So, for example, he explained, it’s OK to break down the door of a suspect, but not to trash his home as a form of punishment.

According to Kan 11 News, which broke the story on Monday evening, Niv was spurred to pen this directive by four investigations underway into the allegedly criminal or unbecoming conduct of IDF soldiers in the field.

Too bad Niv is not among them.

In the first place, such a seasoned, high-ranking officer ought to be aware that his dramatic “new” directive is as old as the 1994 IDF Code of Ethics and Mission. In fact, if it weren’t for that 25-year-old document—concerned with the “purity of arms” of the Israeli military—none of the investigations that supposedly sparked his letter would be taking place.

Nor would so many Israeli boys and girls in uniform be given the sense that they need to sling their rifles over their shoulders to free up their hands for law books and cameras. Fear of not being able to provide evidence at a later date to judges and hostile NGOs that they acted according to the IDF’s often ridiculously stringent rules of engagement will do that.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Against Trump: Three Years Later By Julie Kelly

Posted By on January 29th, 2019

https://amgreatness.com/2019/01/28/against-trump-

Three years ago this month, National Review published its controversial and now infamous entreaty, “Against Trump.” The issue was singularly devoted to making a case against Donald Trump’s then surging primary candidacy; it featured a roster of notable conservative influencers explaining why the brash Manhattan billionaire posed a dire threat to conservatism.

Exactly three years later, the magazine’s online version issued an apology for its early condemnation of Covington Catholic High School students, who, while attending the March for Life in Washington D.C., became the innocent victims of a social media ambush orchestrated and executed by the Left. Some conservative commentators who had contributed to the “Against Trump” issue quietly deleted their tweets criticizing the teens, without apology.

The irony surrounding the coincidence of the dates of those two circumstances might be considered either karma, comeuppance, or both. And it once again highlighted why Donald Trump is in the White House and Jeb Bush isn’t, and why Trump—and none of the self-proclaimed conservatives who opined in the pages of National Review three years ago—now is considered the standard bearer of American conservatism. When the Left attacks, the Right caves.

When Christian teenagers attending an event to support a cause that represents the heart of the conservative movement needed immediate and unflinching protection from a leftist mob, the self-appointed guardians of conservatism failed. Their mockery of “He Fights!” only exposes how they will not—or when they do fight they often pick the wrong battles, and how they find the whole business of political warfare beneath them—unless, of course, they can punch down at a target on their own side.

Don’t take my word for it. Here is a direct quote from that “Against Trump” issue: “[Trump’s] obsession is with ‘winning,’ regardless of the means—a spirit that is anathema to the ordered liberty that conservatives hold dear and that depends for its preservation on limits on government power.”

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

The Potomac two-step: Will no one stand up to the corruption in the FBI, DOJ, and CIA? By Patricia McCarthy

Posted By on January 29th, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/01/the_potomac_twostep_will_no_one_stand_up_to_the_corruption_in_the_fbi_doj_and_cia.html

For nearly ten years now, Americans who have been paying attention have known that our government has become corrupt, that its premier institutions were weaponized by the Obama administration to the point that we have become something of a police state or banana republic. This is not to say there was no corruption previous to Obama. As Sidney Powell addresses in her book License to Lie, the current special counsel, Robert Mueller, and his amoral, ruthless right-hand man, Andrew Weismann, had already been practicing their prosecutions of personal destruction for decades. In the 1980s, Mueller sent four men to prison who he knew were innocent. He did it to protect a confidential informant. Two of them died in prison. The lawsuits filed cost taxpayers $100M. That trial was connected to the murderous mafia hit man Whitey Bulger, who was finally caught after sixteen years. He died in prison in 2018. Was he murdered to protect Mueller?

There was the total destruction of Enron, and then came the obliteration of Enron’s accounting firm, Arthur Andersen. Those prosecutions were run much as Mueller and Weismann are running their current job assignment. Mueller successfully ruined both companies, costing thousands of people their jobs and sending nonviolent people to prison, sometimes to solitary confinement like what he did with Paul Manafort. Fortunately, but too little, too late, nearly all of the guilty verdicts they managed to elicit from juries were overturned by the Supreme Court in both cases.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Diversity Lysenkoism Rules UCLA How the University of California institutionalized politically correct junk-thought. Lloyd Billingsley

Posted By on January 29th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272686/diversity-lysenkoism-rules-ucla-lloyd-billingsley

Editors’ note: At the end of the 1960s at UCLA, the Black Panthers and the US organization battled for control of the new Black Studies program. In time, Chicano Studies, Women’s Studies, and Queer Studies also gained official recognition. Through the 1970s and 1980s, the University of California system rejected academically-qualified students and accepted others based on race and ethnicity. In 1996, voters responded with the California Civil Rights Initiative, which banned racial and ethnic preferences in state education, employment and contracting.

Twenty years later, UCLA’s Vice Chancellor for Equity Diversity and Inclusion is a specialist in “implicit bias” theory but shows a distinct preference for politically correct groups of the Left. Meanwhile, professors of a certain ethnicity and conservative political profile are ostracized for championing free speech. Even their staff and student supporters come under fire.

Below is Part I of Frontpage Mag’s 4-part series by Lloyd Billingsley on this state of affairs at UCLA.

January 17, 2019, marked 50 years since the Black Panthers and the US organization shot it out in room 1201 of Campbell Hall at the University of California at Los Angeles. Panthers John Huggins and Alprentice “Bunchy” Carter perished in the gun battle over control of fledgling black studies programs on the UCLA campus. Also at stake was control of the larger Black Power movement of the sixties.

US stood for “us,” black people, as opposed to “them,” the oppressive white people, but the rival Panthers called the group “United Slaves.” They were black nationalists founded by Hakim Jamal, formerly known as Allen Donaldson and a cousin of Malcolm X. Another US founder was Maulana Karenga, formerly known as Ron Karenga and Ronald McKinley Everett. Karenga is the creator of Kwanzaa and is now professor of Africana studies at Cal State Long Beach. The Black Panthers were more of a Marxist cast and made common cause with white radicals.

One of them was New Left stalwart David Horowitz, a red diaper baby born to Communist parents, as he outlined in Radical Son. Horowitz raised money for a Black Panther school in Oakland, but in late 1974 the Panthers murdered Betty Van Patter, the bookkeeper Horowitz recommended. The brutal crime showed the true nature of the Panthers, who had murdered many others, including member Alex Rackley, only 19, after making a recording of his “trial.” For David Horowitz, Van Patter’s murder signaled the need to depart from the left.

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The Dire Urgency for Trump’s Wall How national security, public safety, and Americans’ jobs are on the line. Michael Cutler

Posted By on January 29th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272694/dire-urgency-trumps-wall-michael-cutler

Although the partial government shutdown has ended, temporarily, President Trump has made it clear that in three weeks he will again shut down part of the federal government if funding is not provided for the construction of the border wall/barrier.

The mainstream media has said that “conservative Republicans” are unhappy with the President for re-opening the government while Democratic politicians are claiming a victory in the battle over the construction of a border wall.

In fact, all Americans should stand behind the President and back his demands for a border wall.

Superficially it would appear that the battle is being waged over a simple difference of opinion to determine the best way to secure the problematic southern border of the United States. In fact, this is how the mainstream media is portraying this struggle.

However, there is far more going on and far more at stake than a difference of opinion.

The battle is actually being fought over the goals of President Trump versus the Democrats’ ultimate goals. The Democrats are at war not just with Trump, but with America and Americans, and are willing to sacrifice national security and public safety in order to attain their goals.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

HOLOCAUST DENIAL, DEMENTIA AND ISRAEL- FIAMMA NIRENSTEIN

Posted By on January 29th, 2019

http://jcpa.org/holocaust-denial-

Memory loss can be a terrible disease. In the best case, it affects our recall of the minor details of an event, but in the worst case, such as with Alzheimer’s, it can lead to complete distortion of the past.

Holocaust denial is a kind of amoral cultural Alzheimer’s, and what makes it worse is that, unlike dementia, it is an intentional disease. Holocaust deniers often consciously lie, but they do so in the name of deep-seated hostility toward Jews. Their attitude is based on typical anti-Semitic bias – the idea that the Jews are taking advantage of the memory of what happened. This is a particularly ridiculous thought, given the colossal, overwhelming nature of the experience the Jewish people went through. It is impossible to imagine that some advantage could be gained from an absolute evil that pervades recent knowledge and the facts of Jewish history and life. Yet, the desire to deny the Holocaust propels these individuals to repudiate historical evidence and even eyewitness accounts.

Similarly, when UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) denies that Jerusalem has been linked to the Jewish people for centuries and millennia, it also rejects the extensive historic evidence attesting to the ongoing Jewish presence in the city. By so doing, it is also suffering from what could be diagnosed as anti-Semitic Alzheimer’s.

There is nothing improper about this comparison. The connection between relegating the Holocaust to non-existence and doing the same with the relationship between the Land of Israel and its people are two forms of denial intended to obliterate the Jewish people.

It is therefore very important and positive that International Holocaust Remembrance Day is currently observed in Europe with commitment. International Holocaust Remembrance Day takes place on January 27 every year, on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau on this day in 1945. In Italy, the president of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella will participate in the commemorations, alongside many schoolchildren. Commemorations also include educational programs, trips to Auschwitz, and public speeches. Most importantly, this day provides a unique opportunity to meet with survivors, who are dwindling in number but can still provide us with their personal testimonies and the strength of their presence.

HISTORY, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Austria Must Recognize Alevism as Distinct from Islam by Uzay Bulut

Posted By on January 29th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13647/austria-alevis-religion

“Anyone who studies and researches our faith a little bit would understand that. Alevism is a distinct faith. Alevism has been affected by Christianity, as well. Does that make [it] a branch of Christianity? And Islam has been affected by Judaism. Is Islam a branch of Judaism?” — Zeynep Arslan, Vice-President of the Austrian Federation of Alevi Unions.

“Although the officials of the lands where we live have signed agreements of international law, they never implement what is required by the law. Our religious rights and freedoms are guaranteed by international law, but our places of worship, cem houses, are not recognized [by the government]; our taxes are collected without our consent to be used to pay the salaries of imams who reject or insult us… Alevi school children still have to enroll in compulsory Islamic courses, in spite of rulings by the European Court of Human Rights.” – Public statement by Alevi leaders in Turkey, in support of the Austrian Federation of Alevi Unions, January 3, 2019.

Alevis have been suffering from Islamic intolerance in their home country, Turkey, for a century. They are now struggling against rising Islamic supremacism in Europe. Let us hope that Austria’s high court does the right thing this week and accepts their petition to be recognized as a distinct faith.

The Austrian Supreme Administrative Court is set to issue a ruling on a petition by the Austrian Federation of Alevi Unions to have their religion officially recognized as separate from Islam — and not part of the updated version of the 1912 Islam Law, which went into effect in 2015. The new law recognizes two “Islamic religious societies” — the Islamic Community in Austria, which represents Islam’s Sunni sects, and the Islamic Alevi Community in Austria, which is defined as an “Islamic sect.”

Austrian Federation of Alevi Unions president, Özgür Turak, told Gatestone about the legal struggle for official recognition of Alevism as distinct from Islam:

“The 1912 law granted the ‘Islamic Community of Austria’ the right to teach courses at schools and to choose their own teachers, whose salaries would be paid by the state. In 2007, researchers discovered that the ‘Islamic Community’ teachers who came to Austria from abroad supported sharia law and opposed the European values of human rights and democracy. The Austrian public was outraged by this, and the Austrian Office of Religious Affairs took it upon itself to amend the country’s Islam law.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

India: The Upper House of Parliament Must Help Muslim Women, Endorse the Bill Banning the Practice of “Triple Talaq” by Jagdish N. Singh

Posted By on January 29th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13648/india-muslims-divorce-law

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has argued that the bill amounts to interference with religious law, and therefore violates the Constitution of India. This objection might be thought of as disingenuous. According to Article 44 of the Constitution, “The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.”

By contrast, triple talaq is a unilateral, arbitrary tool in the hands of men against women, a condition what that is simply not acceptable in modern India.

For decades, Indian courts have upheld the precedence of Muslim women’s right to equality over Muslim Personal Law. The court ruled in 1985 that the denial of alimony was a violation of Bano’s fundamental rights, regardless of her religion, and that triple talaq ran contrary to those rights. In other words, Muslim women must enjoy the same rights as other women in India.

India’s Parliament must do the right thing for the country’s Muslim women, as it did nearly 64 years ago for the country’s Hindu women. Until the passage of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, Hindu women in India were not at liberty to divorce their husbands, while Hindu men were free to engage in polygamy. It will be a shattering miscarriage of justice if oppositionist politicians succeed in blocking this much-needed bill.

The Narendra Modi government in New Delhi deserves applause for passing the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2018, which criminalizes the practice of “triple talaq” — a medieval, patriarchal divorce procedure still in use in many Muslim communities in India and abroad. All this procedure requires for a man to divorce his wife is to repeat the word “talaq” three times.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Preparing for Peace – The Palestinian Way by Khaled Abu Toameh

Posted By on January 29th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13646/palestinians-preparing-for-peace

If, in the eyes of the Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership, normalization with Israel is an act of “treason,” a “crime” and a “big political and national sin,” the Trump administration may well be wasting its time and prestige on a peace plan that envisions peace between the Arab countries and Israel, at least at this time.

To achieve peace with Israel, Palestinian leaders need to prepare their people — and all Arabs and Muslims — for peace and compromise with Israel, and not, as they are now doing, the exact opposite. Shaming and denouncing Arabs who visit Israel is hardly a way to prepare anyone for peace, or the possibility of any compromise.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration and the international community would be doing a real service to the Palestinians if they start paying attention to assaults on public freedoms, including freedom of the media, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Holding Palestinian leaders accountable for their systematic abuses of public freedoms, assaults on journalists and incitement is the only way to encourage badly needed moderate and pragmatic Palestinians and Arabs to speak out.

While the Palestinian Authority (PA) continues to arrest and intimidate Palestinian journalists in the West Bank, its loyalists are also waging a campaign against Arab journalists who dare to visit Israel.

This month alone, the PA security forces have arrested nine Palestinian journalists, according to the Palestinian Committee for Supporting Journalists.

One of the journalists, Yousef al-Faqeeh, 33, a reporter for the London-based Quds Press News Agency, was taken into custody on January 16. On January 27, a PA court ordered al-Faqeeh remanded into custody for 14 days. His family said that they still do not know why he was arrested.

Al-Faqeeh’s wife, Suhad, said that PA security officers raided their house; when Yousef asked whether they had a search warrant, they proceeded to arrest him. “They took him to an unknown destination and did not provide a reason for his arrest,” she said. “They also confiscated his computer and mobile phone.”

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Al-Qaeda’s Little Sister Aidah Shukrijumah mourns brother Adnan’s death, while exhibiting his extremist DNA. Joe Kaufman

Posted By on January 29th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272693/al-qaedas-little-sister-joe-kaufman

Four years ago this past December, Saudi-born al-Qaeda senior member Adnan Gulshair el-Shukrijumah (Shukri Jumah) lost his life during a Pakistani Special Forces pre-dawn raid in South Waziristan. Last month, Adnan’s sister Aidah took to Facebook to mourn the anniversary of his passing. Few can fault the sister for mourning her brother’s death, but many can and should question her for the extremism that she herself has exhibited.

Adnan Shukrijumah was a top-ranking al-Qaeda commander and chief of al-Qaeda’s global operations. At one point, he was said to be second-in-command of the terrorist group.

In May 2001, Shukrijumah left his family home in Miramar, Florida and disappeared from the United States. Reports show he had taken flight training with 9/11 hijackers, and information gathered from top-tier al-Qaeda operatives, including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, would paint Shukrijumah as the next Mohamed Atta and leading a future 9/11-style strike against the US.

In July 2010, Shukrijumah was charged by the US government with overseeing a bomb plot to attack three New York City subway lines and a related plot to blow up a shopping center in Manchester, England. In the subway plot, he had recruited three young men for the attack. Prior to that, he had allegedly been involved in a plot to blow up high-rise apartment buildings.

Aidah el-Shukri a.k.a. Umm Taibah (Mother of Taibah) was one of Adnan’s younger sisters and is currently an oncology nurse advocate at Cardinal Health, located in Lewisville, Texas.

On December 8th, Aidah, along with photos of her now-deceased brother, wrote on her Facebook, “Can’t believe it’s been 4 years. Until we meet again my brother. Inshallah.” The photos had been reposted from a previous post she had made, on December 8, 2014, the date that the Taliban had confirmed Adnan’s death and two days following the Pakistani government’s South Waziristan raid.