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How the Biden Administration Is Trying to Bribe the Palestinians by Bassam Tawil

Posted By on September 13th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19964/biden-saudi-bribe-palestinians

Palestinian officials… have assured the US that they will not oppose Saudi-Israeli efforts at normalization, in the hope of receiving security, financial and political incentives from the Biden administration.

The Palestinian list of demands for not opposing a Saudi-Israeli deal includes, among other things: Resuming Saudi financial support to the Palestinian Authority, which slowed from 2016 and stopped completely three years ago, to the tune of around $200 million per year, and transferring parts of the West Bank currently under full Israeli control to the governance of the Palestinian Authority. The talk is about land in the West Bank’s Area C, which, according to the Oslo Accords, is exclusively controlled by Israel.

It appears, then, that Saudi Arabia and the Biden Administration are offering a bribe to the Palestinians in return for their silence over a Saudi-Israeli deal. The Biden administration seems desperate to achieve some kind of deal ahead of the 2024 US presidential election, presumably in the hope that it would boost President Joe Biden’s chances of being re-elected.

The Palestinian list of demands for refraining from condemning a Saudi-Israeli peace accord can be seen as tantamount to blackmail. The Palestinian leadership is telling the Saudis and Americans that if they want to avoid Palestinian condemnation, they must pay the price — with money and territory.

The Saudis are being asked to pay $200 million per year and the Americans, it appears, are expected to pressure — or blackmail — Israel into ceding control of more territory in the West Bank to Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority, in exchange for promises. [T]he Americans, it appears, are expected to pressure — or blackmail — Israel into ceding control of more territory in the West Bank to Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority, in exchange for promises.

The Palestinian leaders will happily accept any additional land in the West Bank, but, as experience has shown, they will do nothing to prevent these areas from becoming terror hubs.

Given the ongoing state of financial and administrative corruption in the PA, there is every reason to doubt that the Saudi funds would be used to boost the Palestinian economy or improve the living conditions of the Palestinians.

“The corruption began from the first moment that the Palestinian Authority began to gather the Palestinian people’s money and aid and pour it into the [ruling] Fatah [faction] budget, even though this money was given to the Palestinian people, not the Palestinian Authority or its officials who have divided it amongst themselves…. The many scandals of such officials and those close to Abbas have been exposed and seen as symbols of financial and political corruption, nepotism, bribery, smuggling and theft.” — Middle East Monitor, “Corruption in the Palestinian Authority,” December 2013.

Several militias and armed gangs are currently operating in the northern parts of the West Bank, while the PA is doing nothing to rein in the terrorists or prevent them from attacking Israeli civilians and soldiers.

The PA, which has spectacularly failed to enforce law and order in areas under its control, is demanding that Israel now allow it to gain control over even more territory in the West Bank?

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Jericho is NOT a Palestinian Heritage Site Congress Should Block Any UNESCO Funding Robert Williams by Robert Williams

Posted By on September 12th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19972/jericho-unesco-heritage-site

The deeply corrupt, highly politicized United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will vote later this week on declaring Jericho, an ancient Jewish city, a “World Heritage Site in Palestine.”

The Palestinian Authority submitted a nomination of Jericho, which it wants to rename Tell es-Sultan.

UNESCO’s purpose is to promote “international cooperation in education, sciences, culture, communication and information” which it is supposed to do through “knowledge sharing and the free flow of ideas.” Nowhere does it say that UNESCO has the least right to meddle in ongoing conflicts and create make-believe “facts” on the ground.

This illegitimate imposition is not the first time that UNESCO is putting on display its anti-Israel bias, penchant for faking history and an impressive tradition of lying.

In 2010, UNESCO renamed the Jewish site of Rachel’s Tomb the “Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque,” stating that it was part of “occupied Palestine.”” … At the time, only the US voted against these straight-faced falsifications of Jewish history.

In 2016, UNESCO declared Jerusalem’s Temple Mount – site of the two biblical Jewish temples – “a Muslim holy site of worship” and mentioned it only by its Islamic names, the “Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif.” It also renamed the Western Wall — a retaining wall which is all that remains of the Jewish Second Temple that was destroyed by the Roman Legions in 70 CE — “Al-Buraq Plaza”.

“[T]hey decided that the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron is a Palestinian site, meaning that it is not Jewish, and that the site is in danger. Not a Jewish site?! Who is buried there? Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca and Leah – our patriarchs and matriarchs! And the site is in danger? It is only in those places where Israel is, such as Hebron, that freedom of religion for all is ensured.” — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, The Guardian, July 7, 2017.

Corruption, politicization, and the falsification history do not appear, however, to bother the Biden administration in the least. In July 2023, the United States rejoined UNESCO, even though the organization has been called “a byword for inefficiency, nepotism and corruption” and was cited “among the most corrupt and politically biased UN agencies.”

“Biden’s excuse for rejoining UNESCO is to counter rising Chinese influence. The State Department argues, for example, that ‘we can’t afford to be absent any longer from one of the key fora in which standards around education for science and technology are set.’ This claim is entirely specious. There is little to no need for America to rejoin UNESCO to prevent harmful Chinese influence. UNESCO ‘standards’ for any sort of education are irrelevant, if not harmful to real education, as we’ve learned over many painful decades…. Biden is making precisely the same mistake as Obama, and, if Biden proceeds further, Congress should firmly block any UNESCO funding, as it has consistently done.” — John R. Bolton, former National Security Advisor and former US Ambassador to the UN, New York Post, June 20, 2023.

UNESCO does nothing to counter China, Russia, North Korea or Iran, but does do a lot to demoralize those countries hoping that the US will still be the leader of the Free World. UNESCO’s corruption, with America’s backing, is simply driving these countries still further into the waiting arms of China.

If US membership in UNESCO is to have any purpose at all, the least the Biden administration can do with its taxpayer dollars is all it can to prevent Jericho from becoming a “Heritage site in Palestine.”

For a start, there is no “State of Palestine.” In fact, until 1964, there was not even a “Palestinian people”.

“The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality, today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism.” — Zoheir Mohsen, Palestinian leader, interview in Trouw, March 31, 1977.

“For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.” — Zoheir Mohsen, Trouw, March 31, 1977.

It is important to remember: Until the seventh century there were not even any Muslims in the world, let alone Palestinians.

In 2021, UNESCO published a handbook: “Journalism, ‘Fake News’ and Disinformation: A Handbook for Journalism Education and Training.” Perhaps the good folks at UNESCO might read it before they vote?

Failing that, the US Congress should “should firmly block any UNESCO funding, as it has consistently done” — as Bolton suggested.

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UNESCO Vote Highlights Continued UN Bias Against Israel Congress Must Block Funding, Biden Should Reconsider His Decision to Join by Pete Hoekstra

Posted By on September 12th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19970/unesco-bias-israel

In one of the latest examples [of anti-Israel bias], UNESCO recently announced it will designate the city of Jericho as a “Palestinian” heritage site.

This is a clear attack on Christians and Jews, who also view the city as an important part of their cultural and religious history. The Biden administration should object to this designation and protest UNESCO’s clear bias strongly.

[A]s former U.S. Ambassador to the UN and former National Security Advisor John Bolton advised in his strong article, “Biden’s foolish rush to rejoin UNESCO has nothing to do with China”: “Congress should firmly block any UNESCO funding, as it has consistently done.”

Rather than building a culture of peace, UNESCO is perpetuating a culture of anger and division.

By exiting UNESCO again, the U.S. would send a clear message that it will not tolerate the organization’s anti-Israel bias and that it will stand up to other racist and anti-Semitic actions at the UN.

Most people know the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) through its eponymous and popular designation of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. By UNESCO’s own definition, “World Heritage sites belong to all the peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory on which they are located.” But an impending late-September vote by UNESCO again calls into question whether the organization holds to its stated beliefs or fits into the broader pattern of anti-Israel bias that permeates the United Nations.

The clear bias of the UN against the State of Israel was on full display in 2022. The UN General Assembly passed 28 resolutions criticizing countries. Of these resolutions, 15 criticized Israel, while only 13 were critical of all the other countries around the world combined. In a world beset by conflict, with a war in Ukraine, genocide against the Uyghurs in China, violence in Myanmar, the Taliban horrors in Afghanistan, instability in the Sahel, military infighting in the Sudan, and gang violence in Haiti, among the many global hotspots, Israel being the primary focus of UN criticism is totally inappropriate.

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When Bad Leaders Happen To Good People: The Corruption Of The ADL:Charles Jacobs and Avi Goldwasser

Posted By on September 12th, 2023

https://dailycaller.com/2023/09/11/charles-jacobs-avi-goldwasser-adl-jonathan-greenblatt-elon-musk-twitter-leadership/

American Jews are under ideological and, increasingly, physical assault, and our situation is rapidly deteriorating. Recent FBI statistics show Jews are subject to more hate crimes per capita than any other group of Americans — twice as likely to be targeted as black Americans, more than twice as likely as Muslims, and 50% more likely than those who are targeted for their sexual orientation or gender identity. Moreover, Jews are being displaced from educational institutions and corporations by demands for “diversity.”

The current strategies and policies of Jewish leaders to defend the community are clearly ineffective. Many Jewish leaders seem more concerned with promoting a progressive political agenda than protecting the Jewish community. Perhaps the best example of this failure of Jewish leadership is the ADL.  

The ADL was founded in 1913 to combat antisemitism, but in recent decades it has pivoted to a universalist approach that focuses on supporting “marginalized communities” and giving that focus a higher priority than the defense of the Jewish community. This shift, a kind of moral narcissism, is consistent with their leadership’s leftist political agenda and it enabled the ADL to align with the progressive politics of the Democratic Party, resulting in a significant increase in donations, especially from wealthy Silicon Valley corporate elites.

This also explains why, while Jews are being attacked by multiple groups — white racists, black racists who are mostly followers of Louis Farrakhan, radical Islamists, and leftist anti-Zionists — the ADL has been willing to mostly ignore Jew-hatred from its political allies among the “marginalized groups.” Prime examples are Al Sharpton and the BLM movement (whom the ADL has either given a pass or outwardly embraced), but also their kid-glove treatment of the Democratic Party’s Squad. The ADL also mostly ignores extremist imams in mosques across the country who can be found cursing Jews to their American Muslim congregations.

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Liberal Activists Storm and Take Over Kevin McCarthy’s Office Julio Rosas

Posted By on September 12th, 2023

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/juliorosas/2023/09/11/liberal-activist-storm-and-take-over-kevin-mccarthys-office-n2628258

LGBTQ+ activists stormed into and temporarily occupied Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) office in the Rayburn House Office Building, across the street from the Capitol building, on Monday to push Republican lawmakers to fund the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) for another five years.

Video taken inside the office shows the protesters sitting down in the reception area, while chanting “Pass PEPFAR now, McCarthy!”

The six protesters were eventually taken into custody by Capitol Police.

Users on X, formerly known as Twitter, dryly asked if those who participated in the protest would be treated the same way as those who were charged with trespassing during the riot at the Capitol building on January 6.

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If Liberals Voted Their Values, America Would Be Saved By Dennis Prager

Posted By on September 12th, 2023

https://pjmedia.com/columns/dennis-prager/2023/09/12/if-liberals-voted-their-values-america-would-be-saved-n1726281

The greatest reason for the existential threat to America posed by the woke/the progressive/the Left is that liberals vote for them.

If liberals voted for their values, the Left-wing destruction of every American institution — the American Medical Association and medical profession generally; the universities, high school and elementary schools; and the military, among many others — could not happen.

This is the American tragedy in a nutshell: The Left votes its values. The Right votes its values. Liberals do not vote their values. Liberalism has almost nothing in common with leftism, yet virtually every liberal votes for the Left.

Liberals believe in racial integration. The Left believes in racial segregation (all-black dorms on college campuses, for example).

Liberals believe in the ideal of color-blindness. The Left rejects the ideal of color-blindness. In fact, the Left claims the very term “color-blind” is racist.

The Left maintains that all whites are racist. No liberals do.

Liberals have always believed in America (without ignoring its flaws). The Left believes America is and has always been a fundamentally immoral country.

Liberals have always believed in free speech, which, by definition, includes “hate speech.” The Left, on the other hand, does not believe in freedom of speech. There is no example in history — from the French Revolution to the Russian Revolution to the contemporary American campus — of the Left not suppressing dissent.

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Are You Better Off Today Than You Were Four Years Ago? By Brian C. Joondeph

Posted By on September 12th, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/09/are_you_better_off_today_than_you_were_four_years_ago.html

What a great question going into the 2024 presidential election!

It was asked over 40 years ago and led to one of the biggest landslide elections in U.S. history.

As the Harvard Kennedy School summarized:

In the final week of the 1980 presidential campaign between Democratic President Jimmy Carter and Republican nominee Ronald Reagan, the two candidates held their only debate. Going into the Oct. 28 event, Carter had managed to turn a dismal summer into a close race for a second term. And then, during the debate, Reagan posed what has become one of the most important campaign questions of all time: “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” Carter’s answer was a resounding “NO,” and in the final, crucial days of the campaign, his numbers tanked. On Election Day, Reagan won a huge popular vote and electoral victory. The “better off” question has been with us ever since. It’s simple common sense makes it a great way to think about elections. And yet the answers are rarely simple.

This is the question that Donald Trump, or whoever is the ultimate GOP nominee, should be constantly asking. At the next GOP debate, rather than debating Trump’s temperament and fitness to serve, while he is leading the GOP pack by 50 points, they should be hammering the question of whether average Americans are better or worse off than they were four years ago.

Let’s look at some specific metrics.

Start with microeconomic issues hitting Americans in the wallet, beginning with retail gasoline prices. Despite the push for EVs, most Americans drive gasoline fueled vehicles and visit the gas station every week. Are they better off compared to four years ago?

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, gas is currently per gallon $3.84 compared to $2.62 four years ago, about a 27 percent increase.

Add the fact that in 2019, four years ago, the U.S. was energy independent for the first time since 1957. In 2022, the U.S. imported 8.32 million barrels per day of petroleum, hardly energy independent. The strategic petroleum reserve is depleted, and the Biden administration is doing nothing to rein in rising gas prices.

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Free Speech’s Death Spiral in Academia Harvard ranked as worst university in the country for free speech. by Joseph Klein

Posted By on September 12th, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/free-speechs-death-spiral-in-academia/

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and College Pulse just released their fourth annual College Free Speech Rankings of the free speech cultures of 248 of America’s largest and most prestigious campuses.  “Students entering college this fall can expect new friendships, all-night study sessions, dining hall food — and a culture of conformity and censorship,” FIRE said in announcing the rankings. “A new survey of more than 55,000 students across the country shows that most attend colleges that don’t value free expression.”

FIRE Director of Polling and Analytics Sean Stevens warned that with every passing year, “the climate on college campuses grows more inhospitable to free speech. Some of the most prestigious universities in our country have the most repressive administrations. Students should know that a college degree at certain schools may come at the expense of their free speech rights.”

FIRE’s rankings put Harvard University at the bottom of the list. In fact, “Harvard is by far the worst school in the country for free speech. It is the only school with an ‘Abysmal’ rating.” The University of Pennsylvania ranked as the second worst institution of higher learning on the list from a free speech perspective. The University of South Carolina, Georgetown University, and Fordham University rounded out the bottom five, with ratings of “Very Poor” or “Poor.”

The factors examined in determining the free speech rankings included student responses, the school policies that regulate student expression, disciplinary procedures, and “how schools responded to deplatforming attempts, which seek to prevent speakers from expressing themselves.”

Alarmingly, at the schools ranking in the bottom five, attempts at deplatforming had a disturbing 81% success rate. This means that these schools were quite willing to tolerate disruptive and even violent tactics as acceptable forms of protest to stop controversial speakers, particularly conservative ones, from proceeding with their campus speeches.

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Beyond FBI Failure On 9/11 How the Bureau’s “Terrorist Screening Center” fails to screen terrorists. by Lloyd Billingsley

Posted By on September 12th, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/beyond-fbi-failure-on-9-11/

Presidents regularly mount the podium but FBI directors have kept rather quiet on September 11. Last year, Christopher Wray delivered remarks that prove enlightening.

“It’s fitting that we mark this anniversary here, at the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC),” Wray said, “because the TSC is a prime example of the strides we made following the attacks—developing new capabilities and working in concert with our partners to keep people safe. It demonstrates the ingenuity, the dedication, and the spirit of collaboration we’ve brought—as a collective law enforcement and intelligence community—to the fight against terrorism.”

The Terrorist Screening Center, in Vienna Virginia, was established in 2003 to “consolidate the government’s approach to terrorism,” The TSC is administered by the FBI, with support from the Intelligence Community, Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, Department of State, Department of Treasury, and Department of Defense.

The impact of 9/11, Wray explained, “profoundly shaped the way we do our jobs, the way we collaborate and communicate with partners, and the way we tackle challenges. Really, it all comes down to one thing—keeping people we will never know, and families we will never meet, safe from harm.” Wray did not put a number to “the people who died that day,” and the only casualties he named were two FBI agents.

“Because of that terrible day, we’ve transformed the bureau in ways that have made us stronger and better, and our country safer. Those transformations have proven critical over the past 21 years—and will remain critical in the face of a continuously evolving terrorist threat. As we carry on this mission to protect Americans from terrorism, we bring to our work the same sense of purpose and resolve that we felt on 9/11 and in the days that followed.”

And so on, with a few significant omissions. The FBI failed to prevent the attack of September 11, 2001, and also slipped up on the prequel.

In 1993, the FBI failed to prevent Islamic terrorists from bombing the World Trade Center, which claimed six victims. The lessons went unlearned. For all its money, power and resources, the FBI failed to prevent terrorists from hijacking airliners and crashing them into the Pentagon and World Trade Center.

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Roger Kimball: Joe Biden has become a global embarrassment

Posted By on September 12th, 2023

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/joe-biden-has-become-a-global-embarrassment/

What time is it? A bit like the emperor Domitian, Joe Biden seems confused about the time. Warned by an omen that his death would come at midday, Domitian daily pestered people around him with that question, relaxing only after the dreaded hour had passed. 

Alas, his caution availed him not. One day in September 96 AD, a treacherous servant lied to Domitian about the time, inducing him to let down his guard. A knife-wielding steward did the rest. 

I am not sure that President Biden is still possessed of a guard he can drop. But if his recent performance in Hanoi is any indication, he does seem to be confused about the time of day.

‘Good evening, everyone. It is evening, isn’t it? This around the world in five days is interesting. Well, one of my staff members said, “Remember the famous song, ‘Good Morning, Vietnam?’ Well, good evening, Vietnam.”’

It was a feeble effort to make a joke, emphasis on ‘feeble.’ The president’s increasingly wary aides took the hint. They had been holding their collective breath as he rambled on. ‘Lying dog-faced pony solider,’ ‘John Wayne,’ ‘my brother,’ ‘climate change,’ ‘worse than nuclear war.’ 

‘We talked about stability,’ Biden slurred, ‘we talked about the Third World, excuse me, the Third World, the uh, uh the southern hemisphere has access to change…’ 

This wasn’t going well. You can’t talk about ‘the Third World’ in polite company anymore. Suddenly, Biden’s mic was cut and the dulcet tones of his press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre intervened: ‘Thank you everybody. This ends the press conference. Thanks everyone.’ Unaware of what happened, Biden maundered on for a few seconds. Then, like Nietzsche’s Last Man, he gazed vacantly about him and blinked. Then he shuffled slowly off stage and disappeared behind the drapery. 

The leader of the free world, ladies and gentlemen! A few days earlier in New Delhi, Biden stumbled over the name of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman: ‘Mohamet bin Slam, excuse me, Mohammad bin ’Slam.’ Cringe.