ISRAEL Comments turned off

The disgraceful disruption of the Abraham Accords Ruthie Blum

Posted By on July 17th, 2022

https://www.jns.org/opinion/the-disgraceful-disruption-of-the-abraham-accords/

 The debate in Israel about the significance of U.S. President Joe Biden’s recent visit to Israel and affirmation of America’s “bone-deep” relationship with the Jewish state should make way for a far more serious question. Biden wasn’t lying when he told Channel 12’s Yonit Levi in an interview last week that he considers the anti-Israel members of his party to be “wrong.”

The very fact that the pronouncement made such bold headlines goes to show that what he said had been in some kind of doubt. But Biden has never been a radical, despite his eight years under former President Barack Obama, a loyal Alinskyite on a mission to erode America internally and “lead from behind” abroad.

No, Biden is a typical, old-guard liberal with all that entails, such as a tendency to pander more to the left than the right. It is thus that the proud Catholic who once opposed abortion did an about-face and jumped on the bandwagon against the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

What hasn’t changed is his position on the “peace process.” And here is where his same old colors were on full display, which rendered his joint pledge with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons worse than meaningless.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Nikki Haley Calls Biden’s Iran Policy ‘Slap in the Face’ to Israel By Diana Glebova The former U.N. ambassador also warned that the administration’s overtures to Tehran were ‘dangerous for America.’

Posted By on July 17th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/nikki-haley-calls-bidens-iran-strategy-slap-in-the-face-to-israel/?utm_source=

As President Biden finishes his diplomatic trip to the Middle East, Nikki Haley, former ambassador to the U.N. under Donald Trump, criticized the administration’s approach to Iran, calling it “dangerous for America.”

“Iran is selling drones to Russia and attacking American troops, and President Biden still wants to make a deal with the Ayatollahs. It’s a slap in the face to Israel and our Arab allies, and dangerous for America,” Haley said in a statement to National Review.

“By refusing to stand up to Iran, he yet again shows weakness when we should be showing strength,” she added.

Iran was a primary subject during Biden’s trip, intended to counter Russia’s growing presence in the Middle East. Biden vowed to stay tough on Iran’s nuclear program during his visit and pledged to use military force “as a last resort,” despite keeping talks open with a country drawing nearer to being able to build nuclear weapons.

Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 on account of Tehran’s work on ballistic missiles and the limited scope of the terms in the agreement, and Biden has worked to revive the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) throughout his presidency.

Recent reports show Iran is coming close to having enough enriched uranium to building a nuclear weapon, is targeting to kill U.S. officials and is holding military negotiations with Russia.

Russian officials visited Iran at least twice in the past month to look at weapons-capable drones, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN along with satellite imagery of the airfields.

“We have information that the Iranian government is preparing to provide Russia with several hundred UAVs, including weapons-capable UAVs,” Sullivan told CNN in a statement.

The president assured Middle Eastern leaders the U.S. is “committed to ensuring Iran never gets a nuclear weapon” on Saturday following the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) meeting.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

January 6 Committee’s Bid to Prove Trump Criminally Liable for Violence Falls Short Andrew McCarthy

Posted By on July 17th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/07/january-6-committees-bid-to-prove-trump-criminally-liable-for-violence-falls-short/?utm_

If anything, the panel has bolstered Trump’s defense rather than undermining it.

The January 6 committee seemed to hit the point of diminishing returns this week. The Democrat-controlled panel is straining to establish that its target, former president Donald Trump, is not just morally and politically but criminally culpable for the deadly Capitol riot, but it can’t make the case. Its evidence of criminal intent is too weak, and its tactic of conflating Trump’s state of mind with the unhinged words of extremists who reacted to his rhetoric is sleight-of-hand.

Plus, Trump has an intent defense: He was trying to ratchet up political pressure on Congress, not provoke a forcible uprising. And the committee is not only ignoring that defense but bolstering it (however inadvertently).

To be clear, I am speaking here narrowly about crimes involving the intent to use force, a necessary element of such offenses as seditious conspiracy, with which the Justice Department has charged several rioters. Trump’s liability for other potential crimes arising out of the events that culminated in the Capitol riot remains an open question. The committee is correct that Trump orchestrated a raucous rally on the National Mall on January 6, 2021. But the evidence that he intended the rally to turn lethally violent, as the committee implies, is slim.

To draw the committee’s conclusion, one must pretend, as the panel mulishly does, that Trump never said, during his speech at the rally that preceded the riot, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” (Memo to the Committee: In real criminal proceedings, which, unlike scripted political presentations, have cross-examination and the right to present a defense, your case gets laughed out of court when you get caught burying the exculpatory evidence. Competent prosecutors confront the exculpatory evidence head-on. Rather than signaling fear of it, they try to persuade the fact-finder that it’s trumped by other, more compelling evidence. Being persuasive involves playing it straight to maintain your credibility.)

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Resegregating American Education By Kenin M. Spivak

Posted By on July 17th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/07/resegregating-american-education/

The Biden administration and progressives are encouraging schools to separate students along racial lines — an unforgivable step backwards.

It took 86 years from the ratification of the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection to the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal” and therefore unconstitutional. With support from the Biden administration and the complicity of the Department of Justice, it has taken less than 70 years for radical leftists to reimpose separate educational facilities under the guise of promoting equity.

More than a year after its Freedom of Information Act request, Judicial Watch this month received records from District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) that show D.C. officials are providing segregated “affinity spaces” for its teachers and other staff on the basis of race and sexual identity. A September 2021 DCPS presentation explains, “Affinity spaces are gathering opportunities for people who share a common identity. This space will be organized based on the racial identities represented in Central Office as we aim to lean into the Courageous Conversation condition of isolating race.”

A form included in the presentation asks respondents to submit their pronouns and to select the racial affinity group(s) they intend to join. The choices are: Asian American/Pacific Islander, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, Indigenous/Native American, Multi-Racial, and White. The form also asks if respondents are interested in new LGBTQIA+ affinity spaces. Those spaces are divided into BIPOC (Black/Indigenous/People of Color) LGBTQIA+ and White LGBTQIA+.

A June 2021 email setting the agenda for a meeting at Marie Reed Elementary School explains that the “goal of these affinity groups is to create a safe space among colleagues to process the impacts of racism and white supremacy within our school community and identify collective actions to take as individuals and as groups.”

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Report: Just 14 Percent of Stacey Abrams’s Fundraising Haul Came From Georgia Residents Donors in California, New York, and Washington, D.C.Andrew Stiles

Posted By on July 17th, 2022

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/stacey-abrams-fundraising-scandal/

Stacey Abrams has raised almost $50 million for her gubernatorial campaign in Georgia. Just $7 million (14 percent) of that fundraising haul came from residents of that state, however, according to an analysis by Washington Free Beacon alum Lachlan Markay.

Nearly half the money raised by Abrams’s campaign and leadership committee ($22.7 million) came from donors in three deep-blue states and one liberal territory that wants to be a state but never will: California ($10.2 million), Washington, D.C. ($6.4 million), New York ($3.6 million), and Delaware ($2.5 million). The result is not entirely surprising given that Abrams recently described Georgia as “the worst state in the country to live.”

Those astonishing figures stand in stark contrast to the fundraising numbers posted by Abrams’s opponent, Gov. Brian Kemp (R., Ga.), who has raised most of his campaign funds from in-state donors. More than 83 percent of the $31.5 million raised by Kemp’s campaign and leadership committee came from Georgia residents, the analysis found.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Why Should We Believe Biden? By Matthew Continetti

Posted By on July 17th, 2022

The president’s credibility is shot.

Before leaving for the Middle East, President Biden sat down for an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 News. Anchor Yonit Levi asked the president if he would use force to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. “As a last resort, yes,” Biden said.

I’d like to think that Biden is sincere. I hope that he understands the dangers a nuclear Iran would pose to the Greater Middle East, to Europe, and indeed to the world. A nuclear Iran would launch a cycle of proliferation and escalation in the region. Iran’s nuclear missiles would be in range not only of America’s Persian Gulf allies but also of NATO. Iran would intensify its malign activities, from terrorism to proxy war to hostage-taking, knowing that the bomb gives it cover. A nuclear Iran means a world more dangerous, more violent, more flammable than the world is even today.

Which is why Biden is the latest American president to suggest that the use of force remains an option. An air and naval campaign to destroy the nuclear sites known to Western intelligence and to degrade the Islamic Republic’s capacity to retaliate is the best means of delaying and potentially foreclosing the possibility of an Iranian bomb. The objective of such an operation wouldn’t be regime change. The goal would be prevention. Israel and the Gulf States would support us. And Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping would pay attention. They would be put on notice: The American president means what he says.

Does he? In the spring of 2021, President Biden was asked about the record numbers of illegal immigrants who began crossing the southern border after he reversed his predecessor’s asylum policies. Biden dismissed the question. The migrant surge was “seasonal,” he said. It happens “every single solitary year.” Not like this, it doesn’t. The season ended long ago. The migration has continued for a year and a half. Last month saw the largest number of illegal crossings on record. Biden’s flippant answer was grossly mistaken, to say the least. He doesn’t seem to care. In fact, if he’s successful in ending Title 42 protocols allowing for the swift repatriation of illegal migrants, he will continue to make the problem worse.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Biden Administration: The Friendliest to Iran’s Mullahs? by Majid Rafizadeh

Posted By on July 16th, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18706/biden-administration-friendliy-iran

Even [Iran’s mullahs] probably cannot believe that they have gotten away with so many violations since the Biden administration assumed office.

Now, in Natanz, the Iranian regime is digging an underground nuclear facility that is reportedly extremely difficult to bomb.

The problem is that Iranian leaders keep testing the Biden administration with violations — such as increasing uranium enrichment to near weapon-grade levels, the transfer of weapons and oil to Venezuela, attempting to kill former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, trying to kidnap a US citizen on American soil, targeting US bases in Iraq with barrages of missiles, harassing US Navy ships, smuggling weapons in violation of UN resolutions, and turning off International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) cameras that monitor the regime’s nuclear activities — and keep witnessing no repercussions.

As a result, the ruling mullahs have become even more emboldened to ramp up their nuclear program.

Iran’s leaders can also see that the Biden administration is not holding accountable those countries that are violating the sanctions on Iran, including China and Venezuela, which continue to buy Iranian oil.

The Biden administration’s appeasement and inaction, sadly, have done nothing but breed terrorism and transgressions. It is to be hoped that the Biden administration will not leave the world an expansionist, terror state, Iran, imminently armed with nuclear weapons.

Prior to the Biden administration, since the ruling mullahs came to power in 1979, two US administrations — the Obama and Carter administrations — appeared soft on the Iranian regime. Now, the Biden administration seems to have perfected the skill of appeasing the ruling mullahs of Iran.

Even they probably cannot believe that they have gotten away with so many violations since the Biden administration assumed office.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Federal Judge Sentences 69-Year-Old Grandmother With Cancer to 2 Months in Jail For ‘Parading’ in the Capitol on January 6 By Debra Heine

Posted By on July 16th, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/07/14/federal-judge-sentences-69-year-old-grandmother-with-cancer-to-2-months-in-jail-for-parading-in-the-capitol-on-january-6/

A federal judge has sentenced a 69-year-old Idaho grandmother and cancer patient to two months behind bars for parading in the Capitol, a misdemeanor.

Pam Hemphill pleaded guilty in January to one count of demonstrating, picketing, or parading in a Capitol building.  The diminutive senior was photographed inside the Capitol Rotunda.

Hemphill, a former drug and alcohol counselor, flew to Washington, D.C. from Idaho on Jan. 5 hoping to see the results of the 2020 presidential election overturned. She was arrested in August of 2021.

At her sentencing hearing Tuesday, Senior U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, flatly told Hemphill that she will be serving time behind bars.

In addition to the 60 days in jail, Hemphill will spend three years on supervised release. Pursuant to her plea agreement, she will also have to pay $500 in restitution toward the estimated $2.7 million in damages to the Capitol.

“I’m heading to the prison! Just know your prayers and support is keeping me going emotionally and spiritually! Love you guys dearly!” she tweeted on Tuesday.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

How Universities Weaponize Freshman Orientation By Abigail Anthony

Posted By on July 16th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/07/how-universities-weaponize-freshman-orientation/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=right-rail&utm_content=top-stories&utm_term=second

Instead of simply informing students about the resources on campus, orientation can amount to an ideological hazing.

I arrived at Princeton University in September 2019. I had looked at Princeton online and thought, “one day . . .” Suddenly, I was experiencing day one. My eager arrival on campus was emotionally amplified by bright smiles, copious pamphlets, and dormitory supervisors dancing in tiger suits. Orientation innocently began with introductions of names and hometowns — then descended into divisive lectures and panels. The intention of these programs was not to assimilate us into our new (and intimidating) surroundings, but rather to coerce students into accepting and affirming a resident orthodoxy.

We often hear about how college students are indoctrinated in the classroom. But the brainwashing begins on move-in day.

Ideally, freshman orientation should be a procedural, social assimilation to familiarize students with the resources the university offers and how to access them. However, Princeton University undertook a mission to present incoming students with sexual, moral, and political guidance, wholly omitting widely held perspectives and effectively insulating progressive views from intellectual trial. Moreover, attendance at these events was compulsory, thus constituting an ideological hazing.

The mandatory “Safer Sexpo” event series within orientation provides condoms, lube, and other sexual products; in 2020, the university provided unspecified “sex toys” to students and emphasized “solo sex.” Each year, freshmen are given a “You’re So Sexy When You Aren’t Transmitting STI’s” comic book with crude pornographic drawings, complete with a condom attached to the back; the author’s website clarifies that “the ideal target audience for this book is college campuses and sex positive organizations that are involved with young people and adults.” Students are informed where they can obtain contraception, abortifacients, and abortions, but there’s no mention of local pregnancy centers. There is a mandatory LGBTQ+ panel, which provides flyers of “The Genderbread Person” diagram. The Gender + Sexuality Resource Center Peer Ed Training Terminology handouts include a “primer on trans inclusive feminism” which explains that “trans women are women” and “there’s no ifs, ands or buts about it.” The Way You Move play includes characters hooking up without regret; meanwhile, an abstinent character is nonexistent.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Starbucks CEO: Progressive Cities ‘Have Abdicated Their Responsibility in Fighting Crime’ By Caroline Downey

Posted By on July 16th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/starbucks-ceo-progressive-cities-have-abdicated-their-responsibility-in-fighting-crime/

Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, suggested Wednesday that major U.S. cities and those managing their governments are neglecting the crime issue to the detriment of commerce and community safety.

“I must say, in my view at the local, state and federal level, these governments across the country and leaders, mayors and governors, city councils have abdicated their responsibility in fighting crime and addressing mental health,” Schultz reportedly said at an internal meeting, according to a video posted on Twitter.

The business leader’s remarks came after his company announced plans to permanently close 16 locations in five progressive U.S. cities, including six in Seattle, six in Los Angeles, two in Portland, one in Philadelphia, and one in Washington, D.C., by the end of the month due to repeated security disturbances. Such incidents included customers and other members of the public using drugs in the stores.

“I don’t have to spend too much time on what’s going on in the country and how America is becoming unsafe, but you all read the press release over the last couple of days that we are beginning to close stores that are not unprofitable,” Schultz lamented. “It has shocked me that one of the primary concerns that our retail partners have is their own personal safety.”