FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Iranian Regime’s Mullahs Pocketing Billions Thanks to the Biden Administration by Majid Rafizadeh

Posted By on September 2nd, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19944/iran-pocketing-billions

The Biden administration continues to ratchet up its appeasement policies with the ruling mullahs probably to revive the disastrous nuclear deal which would pave the way for the Islamist regime of Iran legally to have as many nuclear weapons as it likes; lift sanctions against the theocratic regime; strengthen the ruling mullahs with additional billions of dollars — for terrorism, nuclear weapons, the missiles to deliver them, “exporting the Revolution”, and suppressing their own people — and allow them to rejoin the global financial system and enhance their legitimacy on the global stage.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced last month that America “will continue to enforce all of our sanctions” and “will continue to push back on Iran’s destabilizing activities in the region and beyond.”

That just is not accurate. Sanctions are not being enforced: Iran’s oil export is booming and has surged above two million barrels a day. The ruling mullahs are now producing ever more oil and selling it at levels close to the pre-sanctions era to countries such as China, which desperately needs it, while the Biden administration has effectively cut off US oil exploration.

“Although we have some other incomes,” former President Hassan Rouhani previously acknowledged, “the only revenue that can keep the country going is the oil money.” – en.radiofarda.com, November 19, 2019.

Instead of enforcing sanctions, the Biden administration has been issuing waivers, making the sanctions appear to be simply cosmetic.

“At least $16 billion has now been made available to Iran without any congressional input—and more might be on the way. Another $6.7 billion is reportedly moving to Iran via the International Monetary Fund Special Drawing Rights… and reportedly … another $3 billion of regime assets frozen in Tokyo. India and China….” – Richard Goldberg, former White House security official, thedispatch.com, August 15, 2023.

The regime will most likely use the funds to further arm and assist Russia in its invasion of Ukraine; brutalize its own citizens; undermine US national security interests; fund its terrorist and militia groups across the Middle East and expand more deeply into Latin America.

MEDIA Comments turned off

Christopher F. Rufo: MSNBC’s War on Truth

Posted By on September 2nd, 2023

https://christopherrufo.com/p/msnbcs-war-on-truth?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

The left-wing news network releases a deeply misleading documentary about the reforms at New College of Florida.

Earlier this week, MSNBC released a documentary about the reforms at New College of Florida titled The War on Woke. The film would more accurately be described as part of MSNBC’s ongoing war on truth. As a trustee of New College, I feel obligated to respond to three accusations in the film that are false and misleading.

First, MSNBC host Alex Wagner claims that New College has recruited a disproportionate number of student athletes, enticed them with generous scholarship offers, and, despite an all-out effort to build a new baseball team, “doesn’t have a baseball field for them to play on.” The intention of these claims is to discredit New College; it is also driven by the same spirit of resentment against men, athletes, and conservatives captured in a recent New York Times headline about the changes: “At College Targeted by DeSantis, Gender Studies Is Out, Jocks Are In.”

None of these charges holds merit. The proportion of student athletes at New College is in line with other liberal arts colleges. It is standard practice for athletic programs to use scholarships to recruit potential students. And the baseball field accusation is simply false: according to New College baseball coach Mariano Jimenez, the college has struck an agreement to use the fields at IMG Academy, a Division I-level athletic facility near the New College campus—a fact that Jimenez directly communicated to the MSNBC producers, who ignored it to advance their narrative.

Second, MSNBC would like viewers to believe that academic life at New College is in chaos. Amy Reid, the gender studies professor whose program is being terminated, complained that “it’s going to be hard for the college to continue without the dedication and expertise and investment of time and energy of our tenured faculty members.” New College parent Tracy Ferro claimed that the school had no academic advisor for marine biology and “not one class for marine bio that was being offered” for her daughter.

These accusations also don’t square with the facts. Reid wants viewers to believe that New College was previously an academic utopia, but during her 28 years as a faculty member, the college’s standings plummeted across all metrics, leaving it as the lowest-performing public university in Florida. Yes, nearly 40 faculty members have departed, but this is a positive development: administrators can now recruit new faculty better suited to restoring the school’s classical liberal arts mission.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Dems Favor Palestinians Over Israelis For First Time, Poll Shows Poll comes as progressive lawmakers have worked to shift the Democratic Party’s support away from Israel Alana Goodman (March 23)

Posted By on September 2nd, 2023

https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/dems-favor-palestinians-over-israelis-for-first-time-poll-shows/

Democrats are for the first time more likely to favor the Palestinians over Israelis in the Middle East conflict, according to a new Gallup poll, reflecting the party leadership’s growing opposition to the Jewish state.

Forty-nine percent of Democrats now say they sympathize more with Palestinians, compared to 38 percent who side with Israelis—a staggering 11-point swing since just last year.

The poll comes as far-left, anti-Israel lawmakers have worked to shift the Democratic Party’s support away from Israel over the past several years.

High-profile “Squad” members, including Reps. Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) have accused Israel of “apartheid” and called for cutting off military support to the Jewish state.

Omar’s claim that U.S. politicians only back Israel because of donations—”It’s all about the Benjamins baby,” she wrote on Twitter in 2019—was widely denounced as anti-Semitic and led to Republicans removing her from the House Foreign Affairs Committee earlier this year. In 2021, House Democrats voted to block funding to Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system under pressure from far-left lawmakers.

ANTI-SEMITISM, BOOKS Comments turned off

Israelophobia, newest form of the oldest hatred The distinction between hating Jews and hating Israel is bogus ; Melanie Phillips

Posted By on September 2nd, 2023

https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/israelophobia-newest-form-of-the?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Antisemitism is a rotten term for the “longest hatred” that targets the Jewish people. For a start, there is no such thing as “semitism” to be “anti”.

The word “antisemitism” was invented by a 19th-century Jew-hater, Wilhelm Marr, who wanted to invest this prejudice with the spurious characteristic of race in order to appeal to a society that increasingly defined itself in scientific terms.

Today, with Jew-hatred having reached unprecedented global levels, the inadequacies of “antisemitism” are becoming ever more manifest. Many wrongly believe that it’s just another form of racism. Few understand that it’s a uniquely paranoid, deranged and murderous mindset.

Because Judaism and the Jews are so poorly understood, few recognise that this unique people is victimised by a unique prejudice. And few acknowledge that the prejudice changes shape as societies change.

Used for the sake of convenience, “antisemitism” fosters further misunderstanding over the issue of Israel. People assume that prejudice against the Jewish people is against Jews as people. Few understand that Judaism isn’t a private confessional faith as the west understands religion to be.

They don’t realise that Jewish religious identity is rooted in the land of Israel, where the Jews were historically the only people for whom it was ever their national kingdom. So they fail to grasp that Israel is at the very heart of Judaism. Denouncing the right of the Jews to the land is to attack Judaism itself.

But because “antisemitism” is associated with bigotry against Jews as people — and specifically with genocidal Nazism — individuals bridle when it’s used to describe their hostility to the State of Israel.

In other words, demonising Jews and wishing they would disappear from the world may be beyond the pale, but demonising Israel and wishing it would disappear from the world is just fine.

In his new book Israelophobia, published next week, Jake Wallis Simons takes this false distinction apart. The Jew-hatred that is now at epidemic levels throughout the west focuses overwhelmingly on the Jewish homeland

Simons, the editor of Britain’s Jewish Chronicle for which I write, does an outstanding job detailing the astounding tsunami of falsehoods, distortions, double standards and vilification engulfing Israel. Although atrocities and human rights abuses are taking place all over the world, this obsessional campaign is directed only at Israel, the sole democracy in the Middle East.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Mitch McConnell Agonistes The Beltway double standard on the health of public officials is something to behold.

Posted By on September 2nd, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/mitch-mcconnell-health-joe-biden-washington-dc-senate-republicans-12258cb3?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

You can tell who’s loved and hated in Washington by the way they’re treated when they have a health issue. President Biden stumbles through his first term, and is tripping toward another, with nary a notice from the Democratic-media complex about his obvious physical and mental decline. But GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell freezes up twice in five weeks before the cameras and he’s supposed to resign forthwith.

Mr. McConnell, who is 81 years old, clearly isn’t the same since he fell and suffered a concussion in March. His speech has long been slow but it seems more labored now. The moments when he has frozen for 20 seconds or so, and had to be helped by colleagues or aides, are difficult to watch.

Yet colleagues and others who have seen him after those events say he was alert and engaged. His doctor issued a statement on Thursday saying he’s able to continue his regular schedule. “Occasional lightheadedness is not uncommon in concussion recovery and can also be expected as a result of dehydration,” Dr. Brian Monahan said after he conferred with Mr. McConnell’s neurology team. If that’s the proper diagnosis and Mr. McConnell can still do the work, then he has no need to step down as leader.

Washington’s double standard on the health of politicians is also something to behold. Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman ran for the Senate after suffering a stroke and he still struggles. The press ignores it. California Sen. Dianne Feinstein didn’t know her aides had sent out a press release saying she wouldn’t run for re-election in 2024.

Then there’s Mr. Biden, who stumbles repeatedly, blurts out inanities and non sequiturs, and sometimes doesn’t seem to know where he is on stage. But because Democrats don’t want a primary fight, and they fear Vice President Kamala Harris could be their 2024 nominee, everyone is supposed to ignore Mr. Biden’s infirmities. Whatever his issues, Mr. McConnell doesn’t have to negotiate with dictators like Xi Jinping or take calls at 3 a.m.

ANTI-SEMITISM, EDUCATION Comments turned off

California’s ethnic studies mandate cannot be fixed The Jewish groups that welcomed a letter from Gov. Gavin Newsom about avoiding bigotry are betraying the community. The courses are an invitation to antisemitism. Jonathan Tobin

Posted By on September 2nd, 2023

https://www.jns.org/column/ethnic-studies/23/9/1/315400/?_se=d2VuZHlydDEwMEBnbWFsLmNvbQ%3D%3D&utm_campaign=Evening+Syndicate+Friday+912023&utm_medium=email&utm_source=brevo

You would think that everyone understands that you can’t defend the Jews while supporting something set up to help promote antisemitism. Yet apparently, that basic truth is being ignored by those who ought to know better.

The Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California (JPAC) has put itself in just such an impossible position. The group, which serves as the body tasked with defending the state’s Jewish community to the government of the nation’s largest state, is stuck in a contradiction.

On the one hand, it knows that it should mobilize whatever influence it has to push back against the way California’s ethnic-studies mandate in the public schools is being used to promote hatred for Israel and antisemitism by left-wing activists who dominate the educational establishment, including school boards and teachers unions.

On the other hand, as a group whose liberal politics tie it to the prevailing orthodoxies on the left that produced this problem, it feels equally obligated to defend the ethnic-studies mandate despite the way it has been used to attack the Jewish community.

JPAC has sought to ameliorate the problems created by the passage of the ethnic-studies mandate by the California legislature in 2021 and the creation of a model ethnic-studies curriculum by the state board of education even before that. But all it has done is to make it even harder to accomplish the one goal that ought to be embraced by those who care about defending both the Jews and core American values of liberty and equality: scrapping the entire program.

The latest twist in this long-running battle concerns a letter that has been issued by the California Board of Education to the 1,037 school districts around the state that, according to the ethnic-studies mandate law, have the authority to come up with their own curricula to implement it. The letter cautions the districts that some ethnic-studies materials that vendors have circulated discriminate against individuals or communities. It also reminds them that their courses should not reflect “bias, bigotry or discrimination.”

JPAC can rightly claim credit for using its political influence to force the board to issue the letter with the approval of Gov. Gavin Newsom. The problem it is trying to address is real. Much of the material is being used in classrooms by radical left-wing groups like the ones promoting “Liberated Ethnic Studies” in districts such as the city of Los Angeles. These curricula are based in critical race theory and promote antisemitism by depicting Jews and Israel as “white” oppressors.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Pakistan: Muslim Mobs Hunt Christians by Uzay Bulut

Posted By on September 1st, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19939/pakistan-muslim-mobs-hunt-christians

Hundreds of Christians fled their homes on August 16 when, in the eastern Pakistani district capital of Jaranwala, Muslim mobs started an anti-Christian riot, vandalizing churches and setting churches and Christians’ homes on fire — all based just on an accusation that a Quran had been desecrated.

At least 20 churches throughout the city were set on fire and more than 400 homes belonging to Christians damaged.

“Two Christian individuals are accused of desecrating the Quran. People are demanding life imprisonment, but the accusation is false. They have done nothing. The accusation was fabricated by an Islamist group, Tehreek-e-Labbaik.” — Faraz Pervaiz, a Christian Pakistani asylum-seeker who fled to Thailand after being accused in Pakistan of blasphemy for criticizing political Islam, reporting through his sources on the ground, August 2023.

“On August 16, 2023 a woman carrying these documents with torn pages of Quran knocked the door of Raja and Rocky, later be accused of blasphemy. When they opened the door, the woman started shouting at the family and accusing them that you have desecrated the Quran. The family was shocked. Meanwhile this woman started making loud noises to wake the people up. ‘Raja and Rocky has committed blasphemy,’ she was shouting, ‘and you Muslims are sleeping!'” — Faraz Pervaiz, August 2023.

The Muslim mobs then started attacking Christian homes and churches; the Christians fled and slept outside to avoid being burned alive, Pervaiz said.

“Christians are sleeping under open sky now. They are helpless. They get no support from any organization or the Government. They get no food support, and no new shelter is provided. They are starving. They are too scared to go back to their homes. They fear being killed… The police were helping the perpetrators and the vigilantes. There was no military intervention to stop the attacks. …The newly elected Prime Minister of Pakistan has condemned the incidents, but Christians need help, which he could have provided. But he did not because he knew that entire Muslim community would stand against him.” — Faraz Pervaiz, August 2023.

To urge Muslims to hunt down Pervaiz, mullahs in Pakistan have led demonstrations where the crowds were encouraged to chant: “There is only one punishment for insulting the Prophet. Sever the head from the body! Sever the head from the body!”

In 2019, Pervaiz’s home address in Bangkok, Thailand, was revealed in a video released on social media, with calls to every Muslim to find and kill him and his family. Several mullahs also attached fatwas to the video calling on Muslims to kill him. Posters with his photograph were plastered across many cities, including outside mosques and government offices in Lahore and Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.

Meanwhile, Pakistani Islamists have placed a bounty on Pervaiz. The Tahreek-e-Labbaik political party announced the first bounty of $62,000 in 2015. The next year, a cleric doubled it to $124,000. Pervaiz told Gatestone that many Islamist parties in Pakistan have placed a bounty on him; the amount now totals $400,000.

The UN and other members of the international community seriously need to reconsider their relations with the government of Pakistan. It is a systematic violator of human rights and a major supporter of Islamist terrorism. A government that treats its minorities so unjustly and inhumanely needs to be held to account.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Chicago TV Crew Mugged While Reporting on Robberies Ben Wilson

Posted By on September 1st, 2023

https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/chicago-tv-crew-gets-mugged-while-reporting-on-robberies/

A TV news crew covering armed robbers in Chicago were themselves robbed this week, as the city continues to struggle with a surge in crime.

The two crew members, a reporter and photographer for Univision Chicago, were standing on the street in the city’s Wicker Park neighborhood on Monday when two vehicles pulled up and three masked men with guns took their equipment and belongings, according to USA Today.

The identities of the victims have not been released, but police reported that they were not injured. No arrests were made as of Tuesday morning.

The story is the latest example of Chicago’s struggle with crime and violence. Dozens of people are shot and several killed on a weekly basis.

Crime increased by 38 percent in the month after Democratic mayor Brandon Johnson took office in May. In late July, robberies were up 17 percent compared with the same time last year, according to police data, and were up by 30 percent in the past three years.

A Democratic Chicago alderwoman asked gang members this month to limit their shootings and murders to the evening hours.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Democrats And Republicans Have Been Talking About School Reform For Years While Everything Has Gotten Worse By: Auguste Meyrat

Posted By on September 1st, 2023

https://thefederalist.com/2023/09/01/democrats-and-republicans-have-been-talking-about-school-reform-for-years-while-everything-has-gotten-worse/

On education, both Republicans and Democrats are out of ideas as schools continue to crumble.

One important takeaway from the first Republican presidential primary debate was that every candidate shared lackluster views on education.

The GOP has not developed a coherent position on this crucial issue. Sure, they have a few talking points: They want to abolish the Department of Education, break up teachers unions, protect children from leftist radicals, and implement some kind of school choice. But this doesn’t come close to a comprehensive vision of an issue that affects all Americans and will largely determine the trajectory of the country’s future. 

Assuming the candidates received their wishes, how would this work out? In all likelihood, this would mean that the federal government would save billions of dollars by offering fewer grants to needy college students and underprivileged schools. Teachers in all states would lose their leverage in negotiating a fair wage and better working conditions. And a whole new industry of education scammers would crop up to con unwitting parents out of their school vouchers.

These ostensible “reforms” could be made without such negative outcomes — and I’ve argued for some of them myself — but only if the reformers did their homework and took the time to understand how these systems and processes worked. 

Unfortunately, the Democrat Party is even worse on education.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

RFK Jr. STILL Pushing 20% in Dem Primary Polling Despite Constant Attacks, Censorship, Smears By Ben Bartee

Posted By on September 1st, 2023

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/benbartee/2023/08/31/rfk-jr-still-pushing-20-in-dem-primary-polling-despite-constant-attacks-censorship-smears-n1723508

Biden 60% Kennedy 19% Williamson 10%

A recent poll conducted by Big Village CARAVAN assessing Democrat Party voter preferences in June 2023 found that the Brandon entity is sitting at 60.3%, RFK Jr. is at 19%, and Marianne Williamson is at 9.7%. “Someone else” gets 10.9%.

This means that just about 40% of his own party’s voters actively oppose the re-nomination of Joseph Brandon and endorse other candidates — nearly unheard of for a sitting president. And this is without any debates and with the entire corporate state media in his corner.