Rehabilitating a War Criminal like Assad is Not an Option by Con Coughlin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19429/rehabilitating-war-criminal-assad

Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s offer to ease border restrictions to allow aid agencies better access to areas of northern Syria that were devastated by the recent earthquake is nothing more than a calculated ploy to have the punitive sanctions regime against Damascus eased.

The same pattern of double-dealing is now evident with the Assad regime’s blatant attempt to exploit the humanitarian disaster caused by the earthquake on the Turkey-Syrian border for its own ends.

Instead of easing sanctions against Assad, the Biden administration should be supporting efforts to establish an international war crimes tribunal that will ensure Assad and his henchmen stand trial for their despicable crimes.

Nor is Syria the only rogue Middle Eastern state seeking to exploit the earthquake.

Reports have also emerged that Iran, Syria’s main regional ally, is similarly seeking to take advantage of the humanitarian disaster to expand its military presence in Syria, a policy that is designed to intensify its efforts to threaten neighbouring Israel.

It is reported that Iran is using the earthquake to smuggle convoys of weapons disguised as humanitarian aid for earthquake victims in Syria.

The Biden Administration should not be encouraging them in their duplicity.

Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s offer to ease border restrictions to allow aid agencies better access to areas of northern Syria that were devastated by the recent earthquake is nothing more than a calculated ploy to have the punitive sanctions regime against Damascus eased.

Israel’s Declaration of Independence is being used as a protest prop By RUTHIE BLUM

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-732582

Explaining his party’s decision to exit from the Knesset plenum on Monday and boycott the proceedings surrounding the first reading of two initial bills relating to judicial overhaul, Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman tweeted: “The very vote, even a ‘nay’ vote, is legitimizing a series of laws that contradict the Declaration of Independence, and since [they do], I call on President [Isaac] Herzog not to sign them.”

Israel’s Declaration of Independence was also highlighted during anti-government rallies the preceding Saturday night. A huge replica of the document was spread out, like a massive carpet, on a street in Tel Aviv.

Elsewhere in the White City, protesters marched around holding a similarly massive one above ground. Others carried long banners with a quote from the Declaration, in Hebrew and English, reading, “The State of Israel will be founded on freedom, justice and peace.”

Two days earlier, Yom Kippur War veterans invoked the document, as well. The now-aging retired IDF soldiers placed a blown-up copy of it on the side of a tank that they stole from a memorial site in the Golan Heights to use as a prop in the protests and signed their names to it. Meanwhile, a separate armored vehicle from the existential 1973 battle was nicked from the area and bore the sign in block-capital English letters: “Defending Israel’s Declaration of Independence.”

It’s no accident that many of the streamers and posters waved in the ongoing demonstrations – held, ostensibly, to decry the ruling coalition’s judicial-reform moves, but actually staged in reaction to the rise of a “full, full, right-wing government” in Jerusalem – are in English. For one thing, foreign NGOs are paying for them, with help from the US State Department. For another, they’re much more photogenic when written in a language that CNN and the BBC can broadcast internationally without subtitles.

Liz Peek: Biden needs to answer these 3 questions about Ukraine

https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/3870017-biden-needs-to-answer-these-3-questions-about-ukraine/

In his recent surprise trip to Kyiv, President Biden took pains to note that assistance to Ukraine has been “bipartisan.” That is true, but it is also true that some Republicans are beginning to question what House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) called the “blank check” that Biden seems to be offering the war-torn nation.

Republicans and others debating the open spigot of U.S. aid are not pro-Russia or anti-Ukraine, they simply want some answers as the U.S. ships an unprecedented amount of money and arms to the beleaguered country. Last year Congress approved $113 billion in munitions and aid for Ukraine, an amount greater than budgeted for the U.S. Department of Education or the Department of Homeland Security. Imagine that.

Polls show U.S. enthusiasm for helping Ukraine is waning. In a recent survey, 48 percent of U.S. adults approved sending weapons to Ukraine; a year ago, 60 percent were in favor.  

Biden is to blame for this sliding support. On his trip the president spoke about the war to the people of Poland and to those in Kyiv. But when was the last time he spoke to Americans? When did he last hold a press conference about our strategy in Ukraine, perhaps joining with our military leaders? True, he touched on the war in his State of the Union speech but expended a mere 224 words on the conflict in a 9,000-word address. He spent more time denouncing baggage fees than explaining what U.S. ambitions were in Ukraine.

Eye-opener: South African activist abandons BDS movement after trip to Israel

https://worldisraelnews.com/eye-opener-south-african-activist-abandons-bds-movement-after-trip-to-israel/?

South African university student Klaas Mokgomole couldn’t find a blacks-only restroom at Ben-Gurion International Airport.

By David Karsh, TPS

Desperate to find a restroom after a nearly nine-hour flight from Johannesburg, South African university student Klaas Mokgomole grabbed his carry-on and hurried off the plane.

Urgently searching out a gate agent at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport and praying that the man understood English, Mokgomole asked, sincerely, “Can you please show me to the blacks-only restroom?”

The agent’s eyes widened in disbelief. He told Mokgomole in no uncertain terms that he never heard of such a thing and pointed him to a nearby bathroom.

That’s when it was Mokgomole’s turn to be confused.

Mokgomole — then a South African university student and outspoken youth leader of the anti-Israel, Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) movement — stood in the busy airport restroom dumbfounded as Jews and Arabs went in and out. They would have been oblivious to the transformation taking place as they stepped around him on that day in July 2015.

Recalling that seminal moment, Mokgomole explained to the Tazpit Press Service during a recent visit to Jerusalem, “I was taught very emphatically, racism in Israel runs so deep, that the Jews do not even share their toilets with blacks or Arabs.”

“To see within the first few moments after landing in Israel that this clearly is not the case marked a turning point for me,” he told TPS.

His curiosity sparked, Mokgomole began what would become a transformational journey from virulent anti-Israel activist to passionate peacemaker and bridge-builder between Israel and the rest of the world.

Israel Passes Law to Strip Terrorists of Citizenship Meanwhile Biden continues to finance the Palestinian Authority’s Pay-For-Slay terror scheme. by Vijeta Uniyal

https://www.frontpagemag.com/israel-passes-law-to-strip-terrorists-of-citizenship/

The Israeli parliament on Wednesday passed a law to strip terrorists of their citizenship for receiving financial rewards from the Palestinian Authority.

The new legislation, which received 94 votes in a 120-member Knesset, also gives the Israeli government the power to deport terrorists to the Palestinian Authority-controlled West Bank, as well as bar their reentry into Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government presented the bill after Israeli Arabs gave a “hero’s welcome” to a terrorist who was released after serving a 40-year prison sentence for kidnapping and murdering an Israeli soldier in 1983. Karim Younis, an unrepentant terrorist, “was greeted by family, friends and supporters chanting and carrying him through the streets on their shoulders,” the Jerusalem Post reported January 5.

The Arab Knesset members were enraged at the new legislation. They slammed the law for being “racist” towards convicted terrorists who happen to hold Israeli citizenship. “The decision, which could potentially affect hundreds of Palestinian citizens and residents of Israel, was condemned as racist by Arab lawmakers as well as Palestinian officials,” the left-wing Israeli newspaper Haaretz lamented.

“Knesset passes law to strip terrorists who receive PA stipends of Israeli citizenship,” by Carrie Keller-Lynn, The Times of Israel, February 15, 2023:

The Knesset approved a law on Wednesday to strip convicted terrorists with Israeli nationality of their citizenship — provided they receive funding from the Palestinian Authority or an associated organization.

The law, an amendment to Israel’s 1952 Citizenship Law, applies to both Israeli citizens and permanent residents incarcerated following a conviction for terror, aiding terror, harming Israeli sovereignty, inciting war, or aiding an enemy during wartime, and enables the interior minister to revoke their status after a hearing.

Trump Grand Juror Goes on Bizarre Media Blitz, Says Multiple Indictments Recommended By Debra Heine

https://amgreatness.com/2023/02/22/trump-grand-juror-goes-on-bizarre-media-blitz-says-multiple-indictments-recommended/

Before any indictments have been handed down, the foreman of the grand jury investigating election interference by former President Donald Trump and his allies in Georgia, is making the rounds in the media to discuss what was decided.

A special grand jury has recommended multiple indictments, according to the jury’s foreman, Emily Kohrs, 30, who appeared on CNN and MSNBC on Tuesday to talk about the case. Kohrs, an apparent Wicca enthusiast, has also spoken with The Associated Press, The New York Times and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“Can you imagine doing this for eight months and not coming out with a whole list” of recommended indictments, Kohrs told CNN. “It’s not a short list. It’s not.” The grand jury, according to Kohrs focused on Trump’s infamous phone call with Secretary Raffensperger.

“There may be some names on that list that you wouldn’t expect. But the big name that everyone keeps asking me about—I don’t think you will be shocked,” she said.

When asked specifically whether the jurors had recommended indicting Trump, Kohrs said, “You’re not going to be shocked. It’s not rocket science,” adding “it is not going to be some giant plot twist. You probably have a fair idea of what may be in there. I’m trying very hard to say that delicately.”

Kohrs said she couldn’t remember exactly how many indictments the special grand jury had recommended, but indicated that it would be more than twelve.

Asked by CNN’s Kate Bolduan whether the number of people was “more than a dozen,” Kohrs replied: “I believe so. That’s probably a good assumption.”

Portions of the grand jury’s final report, released last week, made it clear that the grand jury believed perjury charges were warranted for some witnesses. The foreperson’s identity was first revealed by The Associated Press. And earlier on Tuesday, Kohrs told The New York Times that the grand jury recommended multiple indictments, though she didn’t provide names.

The Ukraine War’s Prelude to What?  The longer this preview war goes on, the sooner will follow the nightmarish main attraction. By Victor Davis Hanson

https://amgreatness.com/2023/02/22/the-ukraine-wars-prelude-to-what/

The Ukraine mess is daily looking more like the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939, a meat grinder that took 500,000 lives. That three-year conflict became a savage proxy war and prelude for the belligerents of World War II.

The Ukraine battlefield is proving a similar laboratory of death. New lethal weaponry and tactics are introduced, modified—and always improved—from drones to guided missiles to internet-fed artillery. 

Likewise, a similar pre-global war lineup of the eventual adversaries is emerging in preview of a much larger, much scarier war to come.

The first mission of Ukraine, the aggrieved victim of a peremptory Russian attack, was simple survival. 

But now that it has been armed to the teeth and its soldiers proved far more capable and heroic than Putin’s once-feared Russia, Kyiv now seeks to push back Russians to their 2014 Ukrainian acquired borders.

Next President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced that the third stage will be to eject every Russian from 2013 Ukraine. He promises to reabsorb both the Crimea and the Donbas.

That is an ambitious goal that might require preemptive attacks inside Russia and on the Black Sea.

To accomplish the last two missions, Zelenskyy needs a blank check of support from a United States that can neither control its own borders nor maintain its critical infrastructure and is $33 trillion in debt.

Taking Back America By Eileen F. Toplansky

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/02/taking_back_america.html

As I travel, I constantly see tattered American flags blowing in the wind.  They are a metaphor for the state of the Union. It is emblematic of how our country is being hollowed out. We have a Manchurian leader who is gutting us of our rights.  The latest assault is Biden’s determination to put us under the domination of the World Health Organization, who will determine our health care.

Despite widespread criticism of the WHO’s response to the COVID pandemic, U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra joined with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in September 2022 to announce ‘the U.S.-WHO Strategic Dialogue.’ Together, they developed a ‘platform to maximize the longstanding U.S. government-WHO partnership, and to protect and promote the health of all people around the globe, including the American people.’

What could possibly go wrong with America ceding its G-d given rights to an organization that could set up a “medical police state under the control of the WHO, and in particular WHO Director-General Tedros” who could “issue orders that will go all the way down the pipe to your primary care physicians?”

Consider that COVID dictators continue to look for a way out after “draconian Covid measures ruined the lives of millions of lower- and middle-class Americans while lining the pockets of the liberal cabal.”

Cultural Marxism continues to degrade every facet of our country.

With the end of the Cold War, many Americans justifiably believed communism had been defeated.  But American Marxists have gained more influence than ever before.  Cloaking their goals under the pretense of social justice, these cultural Marxists want to distort America’s history and dismantle its very foundations.

Everywhere we turn, the social justice warriors have invaded.  Endless ethics training courses are mandated in order for colleges to receive federal funding. These courses are Orwell’s nightmare of debasing language, gaslighting, and weakening common sense. 

A Great Awakening Decades in the Making By J.B. Shurk

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/02/a_great_awakening_decades_in_the_making.html

Over at The Conservative Treehouse, Sundance has again managed to generate a treasure trove of anecdotal history, evidence, and analysis from those who visit his site.  

Last month, he asked readers: if “[y]ou did not take the COVID-19 shot, why not?”  The thousands of personal responses were illuminating and created a kind of timeline showing how irreconcilable conflicts pitting available scientific knowledge and common sense against the government’s own actions, orders, statements, and censorship heightened public distrust of COVID mandates and “vaccines,” until various tipping points spilled over into outright rejection of political, medical, and media authorities. 

This month, Sundance asks a more foundational question: “When did you start really paying attention?”  In other words, when did you “recognize that things around you, things you perhaps didn’t pay attention to before, were not what you thought they were”?  What was the moment when “your political awakening began”?  

The thousands of responses to this simple question are a cornucopia of rich history, personal reflection, and insightful analysis.  Just as last month’s COVID question created a powerful timeline documenting the last three years of COVID-1984 insanity, this month’s more general question has generated nothing less than a near-century’s worth of details and stories tracking people’s “aha moments” as they discovered that the promises of American self-government are often but an ornamental fabrication plastered upon the stratagems of ruthless government actors pushing propaganda, accumulating power, and sacrificing American lives.  Interestingly, they come from people traversing back and forth across the political spectrum.  From a research point of view, the collected information is staggeringly comprehensive, impressive, and invaluable.  From a personal point of view, the selfless entries and recorded memories are emotional, poignant, cathartic, and often deeply revealing.  I encourage you not only to read through some of the many responses, but also to continue the conversation here at American Thinker, whose commenters, like those at The Treehouse, are well known for their crisp intellectual engagement.

Jimmy Carter’s Last Hurrah Reflections on our 39th president. by Bruce Bawer

https://www.frontpagemag.com/jimmy-carters-last-hurrah/

When word came that Jimmy Carter, age 98, was entering hospice care, the predictable plaudits began to pour in. Calling Carter “an inspiration,” Maria Shriver gushed that he “moves humanity forward every single day.” Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) described Carter as having always “walked with God.” Rocker Nils Lofgren called him “[a]s fine a man and soul as I’ve ever seen.” And Steve Martin tweeted: “We’ve seen few humans this devoted and humble….Quietly continuing his mission,which was to do good. If you must leave us go gently . Leave your heart and bravery so we might learn.”

All of which is testimony to the power of hype.

I was nineteen years old during most of Jimmy Carter’s 1976 presidential campaign. You might have expected me to support him. Three years earlier, after all, I’d been every bit as addicted to the Watergate hearings on afternoon TV as my mother was to As the World Turns. I was besotted by the movie All the President’s Men, released a few months before the 1976 election. At the time of the election, I was a student on a college campus dominated by lefties who, purportedly jaded and alienated by politics in those post-Watergate days, embraced Carter as a breath of fresh air, a magnanimous soul uniquely equipped to make America, once again, a City on a Hill, noble in its character and great in its deeds. As Carter put it himself, “I can give you a government that’s honest and that’s filled with love, competence, and compassion.”

I didn’t trust the son of a bitch as far as I could throw him.

Yes, Nixon, aside from being a brilliant statesman, had been a wily character. The Watergate tapes had revealed his salty side. He was no saint, but then again he didn’t sell himself as a saint. What politician is a saint? What mattered was that Nixon was brilliant. He was a terrific president. He knew his stuff cold. He loved America. He hated Communism. Yes, he was often characterized as being awkward in his own body and very uncomfortable about interacting with voters on the campaign trail – which to me meant that, well, at least he wasn’t slick.

Carter was slick. Boy, was he slick. His big, toothy smile was the phoniest thing I’d ever seen. He insisted that his name appear on the ballot as “Jimmy,” not “James.” And he talked a lot more about his religion than any other presidential candidate in my lifetime had ever done. I’d never heard such sanctimony from a politician. It was while listening to him that I heard the term “born again” for the first time. Although plainly trolling for evangelical votes, he acted as if he was far too virtuous to think of doing such a thing.