RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/democrats-continue-to-mislead-americans-about-the-israel-palestine-conflict/?utm_source=

Welcome back to “Forgotten Fact-Checks,” a weekly column produced by National Review’s News Desk. This week we have a rundown of Democrats’ equivocations and lies about Israel, the not-so-curious case of Chris Cuomo, and more media misses.

“Anti-Zionism Is Not Anti-Semitism”

Israel and Hamas reached a cease-fire agreement last week after a flare-up of hostilities caused by rocket attacks from the latter on the former. Ostensibly, Hamas is inspired by the cause of Palestinian statehood broadly and the court-ordered eviction of a small number of Arabs from a neighborhood in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood — a local, still-ongoing legal fight — in this specific instance.

In truth, Hamas is using this narrow dispute as an excuse to target Israeli civilians, an ever-present objective of the terror group. Hamas’s original charter reads, “Israel, by virtue of its being Jewish and of having a Jewish population, defies Islam and the Muslims.”

And yet, many in the Democratic Party appear to be falling hook, line, and sinker for the ramshackle propaganda of a genocidal cult. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for example — she who, when asked to expand upon what she meant by the “occupation of Palestine,” backpedaled into admitting that she was “not the expert on geopolitics on this situation” — tweeted that “apartheid states aren’t democracies.” Lucky for her, no one asked for an elucidation this time. Unlucky for her, Rich Lowry took a knife to the non-expert’s implication.

But the falsehoods aren’t limited to young show horses. Senator Bernie Sanders condemned the evictions, saying that “the United States must speak out strongly against the violence by government-allied Israeli extremists.” Senator Elizabeth Warren — once a denizen of Harvard Law School — called the evictions “abhorrent and unacceptable” without addressing the legal issues driving the controversy, falsely lending credence to the idea that the situation in Sheikh Jarrah is driven primarily by divisions over ethnicity, or even politics.

As Erielle Davidson explained for us last week, “there is intellectual laziness, and then there is shameless misinformation.” Check out her piece for a substantive dive into the issue that you won’t find from progressive politicians who see the world’s only Jewish state as a political football, not one of the United States’ allies.

Many in the media too are of course guilty of shamelessly misinforming their readers, viewers, and listeners. Not only have some members of the press perpetuated the lies about Sheikh Jarrah, they’ve suggested that Iron Dome — the missile-defense system preventing Hamas’s rockets from landing in Israeli population centers — has exacerbated the conflict, implied that Israel did not have evidence of Hamas’s presence in the office building rented out by The Associated Press in Gaza (even though it has been known for years that the AP cooperates with the terror group for reasons of convenience), and failed to distinguish between the inadvertent civilian casualties caused by Israel’s response and Hamas’s initial campaign of intentional terror.

Democrats’ confusion about the state of the conflict — and which groups bear moral responsibility for it — is apparently shared by thugs residing in a number of American and European cities.

Across the West, Jews are being sought out and beaten for the crime of being Jewish: In Los Angeles at a sushi bar, in Manhattan’s Diamond District where explosive devices are being lobbed at them, and in London where anti-semitic incidents have increased by 500 percent over the past few weeks. 

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/now-progressives-are-whitewashing-anti-semitic-attacks/

Ilhan Omar had some interesting things to say about “Benjamin”-grubbing rootless cosmopolitans back in 2019. Though her words precipitated something of a mini-backlash, even then, most Democrats not only refused to denounce her words — the resolution mentioned Alfred Dreyfus and Leo Frank, not the Minnesotan — but they also refused to specifically condemn anti-Semitism. Instead, Democrats passed a watered-down, platitudinous laundry list of all censurable hatreds. “We all have a responsibility to speak out against anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, racism, and all forms of hatred and bigotry, especially as we see a spike in hate crimes in America,” explained then-senator Kamala Harris.

Resolutions are a waste of time, of course, but the inability of progressives to simply condemn left-wing anti-Semitism, the most consequential and normalized variant, to placate their Israel-haters is telling.

This week, Jews were targeted around the nation, and again the problem was soon conflated with “Islamophobia” — even though many of the attacks were perpetrated by Palestinian Americans and their allies. It is difficult to believe the gaslighting wasn’t a concerted effort. “I strongly condemn the rise of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia,” wrote Ayanna Pressley. Julian Castro wrote, “we must forcefully condemn anti-Semitic and Islamophobic attacks.” Other House members followed. Even outlets such as Axios reported that there had been “vandalism and harassment fueled by anti-Semitism and Islamophobia” but offered only a bunch of anti-Semitic incidents. “We’ve seen an increase in antisemitic and Islamophobic hate, in NYC and nationwide — hateful words, hate crimes, and other forms of violence,” explains Bernie Sanders, a man who believes in an even-handed approach between Israel and Hamas.

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/05/25/welcome-to-joe-bidens-police-state/

he Biden administration is using the Jan. 6 incursion into the Capitol building as a pretext for a domestic spying campaign that will supposedly target “violent extremists” but is more accurately described as the beginnings of a Biden police state.

Last week, we learned that the Defense Department plans to monitor service members’ social media posts for “concerning behaviors.” According to The Intercept, which broke this story, the plan is to enlist a private firm to do the spying, so as to avoid nasty entanglements with the First Amendment. The Intercept reports that:

An extremism steering committee led by Bishop Garrison, a senior adviser to the secretary of defense, is currently designing the social media screening pilot program, which will ‘continuously’ monitor military personnel for ‘concerning behaviors.’

This isn’t the only such incident.

Earlier this month, CNN reported that the Biden administration “is considering using outside firms to track extremist chatter by Americans online, an effort that would expand the government’s ability to gather intelligence but could draw criticism over surveillance of US citizens.”

And last month, Yahoo News broke the story that the U.S. Postal Service has been covertly monitoring Americans’ social media posts.

“The work involves having analysts trawl through social media sites to look for what the document describes as ‘inflammatory’ postings and then sharing that information across government agencies,” Yahoo said.

That story notes that “such data collection has also sparked concerns about the government surveilling peaceful protesters or those engaged in protected First Amendment activities.”

Ya think?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-year-after-george-floyds-murder-its-open-season-in-minneapolis-11621893383?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

Al Sharpton and civil-rights attorney Benjamin Crump led a march in downtown Minneapolis Sunday in advance of the first anniversary of George Floyd’s death on May 25. Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of Floyd’s murder last month.

Messrs. Sharpton and Crump didn’t visit North Memorial Health Hospital, where two recent victims of a yearlong explosion of violence in Minneapolis are on life support. On April 30 Ladavionne Garrett Jr. , 10, was riding in a car with his parents when a gunman opened fire. A bullet pierced Ladavionne’s head; doctors put him in a medically induced coma and removed part of his skull to relieve swelling on the brain. On May 15, 9-year-old Trinity Ottoson-Smith was jumping on a trampoline at a friend’s house when bullets fired from a passing car struck her in the head. She is also in critical condition at North Memorial, in the room next to Ladavionne’s.

Nineteen children in Minneapolis have been shot this year, an increase of 171% over the same period in 2020. Their relatives wonder where the protesters are. “Why ain’t nobody mad about a 10-year-old, my grandson, fighting for his life?” asked Sharrie Jennings, Ladavionne’s grandmother, at a May 17 mayoral event. “Because a cop didn’t shoot him, is that why?” Ms. Jennings warned of “a deadly summer” for kids if the mayor and police chief don’t “step up.” Later that day, Aniya Allen, 6, was caught in a shootout between rival gangs while in her mother’s car. Aniya died on May 19.

Minneapolis homicides between Jan. 1 and last week were up 108% compared with the same period in 2020; shootings were up 153%, and carjackings 222%. The crime increase began after Floyd’s death and has never let up. Nor has the assault on law enforcement that began with the arson destruction of the Third Precinct building on May 28, 2020. Officers are routinely punched, kicked and hit with projectiles. There was a near-riot in downtown Minneapolis in the early hours of May 22 following a shootout among club patrons. Two people were killed in that shootout and eight wounded. Responding officers called for backup across the Twin Cities at what the department called an “exceptionally chaotic scene.” The previous weekend, officers were maced, and pelted with rocks and debris while trying to disperse disorderly crowds.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/justices-please-take-the-harvard-case-11621894691?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

Nearly every day we learn of another case of governments or others setting policy based on the color of one’s skin. This is contrary to the equal rights fought for and won in the Civil War and civil-rights movement, and the Supreme Court has a rare and valuable chance to reaffirm that principle if it decides to hear the appeal in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.

The particulars concern whether Harvard discriminates against Asian-Americans in its admissions decisions. Harvard won in the lower courts but the Asian-American plaintiffs have appealed to the High Court. The larger stakes are whether the Supreme Court will wink as America divides in ways that have proved so destructive in the past.

The temptation will be for the Justices to give Harvard a pass given its contentious subject. The High Court has already taken cases on gun rights and abortion for the next term starting in the autumn. And you can imagine the reluctance to add the combustible issue of race to the docket.

This would be a mistake, and not only on the merits of this case. As Justice Clarence Thomas pointed out in 2018 when the Court passed on Kansas and Louisiana laws involving Medicaid funds for Planned Parenthood clinics, Supreme Court Justices are given lifetime tenure precisely so that a “politically fraught issue” will not prevent them from applying the law neutrally.

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/street-violence-as-a-political-tool

The new Democratic Party of oligarchs and technocrats enforces its orthodoxies upon blue state clients through broken windows and beatings, administered by party militias like antifa and BLM.

The Democratic Party has had a problem. It’s a small, incoherent, and privileged clique funded by billionaire oligarchs to push policies that even mainstream Democratic voters oppose. How to bridge the gap? The solution they chose, which party officials made clear this week, was simple: the way third-world elites always do—by using street violence to keep their clients in line.

This week, pro-Palestinian demonstrators auditioned for the chance to join already established Democratic Party militias antifa and Black Lives Matter by attacking Jews in New York and Los Angeles. Apologists for the violence reason that the demonstrators are angry about the deaths of innocent Palestinian babies under Israeli fire in Gaza so they’re taking their frustrations—admittedly misplaced!—out on American Jews.

That is not what’s happening.

Who knows how many of the activists waving the Palestinian flag as they beat Jews and detonate fireworks in front of Jewish-owned businesses are genuinely Palestinian Americans? Maybe some aren’t even Arab or Muslim, but that’s irrelevant—they are staking their claim to recruit, promote, and represent Arabs and Muslims as an interest group. And so the flag they’re really flying isn’t for the Palestinians but rather for the Democratic Party.