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August 2022

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Lebanon’s Leaders ‘Out of Touch with Reality’ by Khaled Abu Toameh

By on August 2nd, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18766/lebanon-leaders-reality

The Lebanese authorities are accusing Bishop al-Hajj of treason for bringing money to the poor and the sick, at a time when Iran is delivering — through Hezbollah — money and weapons to be used in the next war against Israel.

The money and the weapons that the Iranians are sending to Lebanon are designed to strengthen the mullahs’ control over the country. Iran, incidentally, is already occupying three other Arab countries: Syria, Yemen and Iraq.

“In our days, a bishop is being arrested and interrogated as if he was a foreign agent, while Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is received with full honor.” — Joseph Abu Fadel, Lebanese political analyst, Twitter, July 19, 2022.

[T]he Lebanese people are being forced to seek aid from their families and relatives in Israel “because of the failure of the Lebanese states at all levels.” — Alain Dargham, reporter for MTV Lebanon News, Twitter, July 21, 2022.

The Christians who fled to Israel did so out of fear for their lives and the lives of their families. They ran away from the terrorism and intimidation of Hezbollah and other terrorist groups.

If the Christian families living in Israel are able to send money and medicine to their relatives in Lebanon, it shows that those who moved to Israel are doing much better than the Christians they left behind in Lebanon.

Bishop al-Hajj is not a traitor. He is a hero to his community and the rest of the Lebanese people.

Iran and Hezbollah are afraid that such aid would open the eyes of the Lebanese people and make them realize that Israel is not their enemy. God forbid, they may even see that life in Israel is not so bad after all — and that their Israeli neighbors are prepared to help them.

The leaders of Lebanon, who have to report to their masters in Tehran, are evidently seeking to keep their people living in misery and poverty. The leaders are worried that if the people lead good and comfortable lives, they will stop thinking about violence and jihad (holy war) against Israel because they would have a lot to lose. The leaders also want their people to continue living in misery and poverty so that they can shift the blame for it to Israel.

For the past few years, the failed state of Lebanon has been experiencing one of its worst economic, political and social crises in recent history due to years of political strife and economic downfall. Yet instead of focusing their efforts on finding ways to end the crisis, the Lebanese authorities and leaders are spending their time intimidating those who seek to alleviate the suffering of the Lebanese people.

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

‘Here I Am; Send Me’: Teens Stand Against Jew Haters by Richard Kemp

By on August 2nd, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18768/here-i-am

As every commander knows, you do not train a soldier to fight when he is in the middle of a battle, you do it before he gets anywhere near the combat zone.

Victimhood culture, too often the corrosive first resort of those who face injustice or feel wronged, is not in Club Z’s creed. Students are taught that an individual’s character is defined not by what obstacles are thrown in their path but by how they have overcome those obstacles and turned them to advantage.

Club Z teens are not aggrieved victims but active and proud defenders. They know that weakness incites while strength deters, that keeping quiet about antisemitism, meeting the bullies half way or compromising with calumnies does not protect them, does not make the problem go away and does not diminish the diatribe against them.

Courage cannot be taught but it can be fortified, and that is fundamentally what Club Z does. It is what empowers these teens to say, as the finest soldiers say when there’s a perilous task to be done: “Here I am; send me”.

The Hebrew expression “hineni” means “here I am”, most famously used by the great Biblical defender of Israel, Isaiah, who responded to a heavenly call to duty with the words: “Here I am; send me”. Hineni encapsulates the spirit of Club Z (for Zionism), a network of Jewish American teens that are standing up for their people and their Zionist identity against the scourge of antisemitism that is on the rise across the US, with the latest FBI figures showing Jews — 2.4% of the population — were the target of nearly 60% of religious hate crimes in 2020.

Jew hate is at its most virulent on campus. A complaint filed last week against City University of New York includes a recorded 150+ incidents of antisemitism on their premises since 2015, more than 60 directly targeting Jewish students with the intent to harm them.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

Public Schools Are Cesspools Of Wokeness And There’s No Bringing Them Back By: Kendall Qualls

By on August 2nd, 2022

https://thefederalist.com/2022/08/01/public-schools-are-cesspools-of-wokeness-and-theres-no-bringing-them-back/

Kendall Qualls is a Republican candidate for Governor of Minnesota. Prior to his candidacy, he was president of TakeCharge, which is an organization committed to supporting the notion that the promise of America works for everyone regardless of race or station in life. He is a former Army officer and healthcare executive.

The DNA within the school systems has been radically altered along with administrators, teachers, and many students.

Teachers’ unions are pushing a radical Marxist-inspired agenda that is destroying public education in America.

Over the past several years, the left has aggressively infected the minds of the youngest children with the tenets of critical race theory (CRT) and gender ideology, while academic excellence has been shoved to the back of the bus. As a result, public schools are hemorrhaging students.

In my home state of Minnesota, 2022 “marks the second consecutive year the state’s public school system has lost thousands of students,” the Center of the American Experiment, a Minnesota think tank, reported in February. Why should parents in Minnesota or any other state keep their children in public schools?

In 2021, the Minnesota Department of Education’s statewide test results showed another drop in the number of students meeting or exceeding grade-level criteria. Overall, reading scores fell 7 percent, math scores dropped 11 percent, and science scores shrank 8 percent.

In another example, New York City public schools — which compose the nation’s largest school district — have already lost about 50,000 students over the past two years and are expected to lose nearly 30,000 more by the time school begins this fall.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Zawahiri Deserves to Rot

By on August 2nd, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/08/zawahiri-deserves-to-rot/

The al-Qaeda mastermind Ayman al-Zawahiri has rejoined his co-conspirator, Osama bin Laden, somewhere in the thereafter. The terrorist leader was reportedly killed in Afghanistan by a drone strike ordered by President Biden, who addressed the country Monday evening. A sociopathic maestro of mass murder is no more, and all Americans should welcome this victory against an Islamist mass-murder cult that has waged war against the free world.

Al-Zawahiri was second only to Osama bin Laden himself within al-Qaeda’s hierarchy. Alongside bin Laden, he orchestrated the 9/11 attacks, in addition to a wave of Islamist violence across the world. To al-Zawahiri, mass death was a religious duty “for every Muslim who can do it in every country in which it is possible to do it,” he wrote in 1998. Accordingly, from New York City to London to Baghdad, Zawahiri was responsible for plotting acts of terror that murdered thousands.

Although Washington took out bin Laden in 2011, and although the threat of jihadism has faded to background noise in recent years — replaced with anxiety about the threat from China and Russia, in addition to other, more conventional nation-state threats — the threat to the American homeland remained. In fact, the threat from one of those adversaries, Iran, joined with al-Qaeda’s worldwide networks spanning the Mideast, Africa, and even the Philippines, is still considerable. Even with Zawahiri gone, much of that network remains in play, including the Iran–al-Qaeda nexus.

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ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Cross-Examining the Climate Change Cultists What it means when someone wants to prevent cross-examination. Kurt Schlichter

By on August 2nd, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/08/cross-examining-climate-change-cultists-kurt-schlichter/

If you want to watch the pinkos fret, simply state the indisputable truth that what they call “climate change” is a massive hoax. Their fallback is inevitably that “science” – which they purport to love except when it demonstrates that there are only men and women and that you can’t change the sex you are born as – has decreed that because we peons insist on not living in caves like primitive tribesmen (okay, non-binary tribespeople) the Earth is going to cook. And, of course, the only solution is to do a whole bunch of things that leftists always wanted to do anyway. There’s no time to think, no time to reflect, and certainly no time to argue. Why, who are you to question the scientists?

Well, I’m a lawyer. I question scientists for a living. 

Now, I have no scientific training to speak of. I majored in communications and political science, so the only science I studied at UC San Diego had to do with the physics of foaming when I poured Coors into a glass, as well as the mechanics of human reproduction. Don’t expect me to discourse deeply on the heat retention coefficient of CO2 – I don’t even know if that is a thing, but it sure sounds sciency.

Instead, I hire scientists in most every case I try. Sometimes I hire several in different disciplines. The other side does too, and here’s the weird thing – at trial, the other side’s scientists always, always, disagree with my scientists.

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EDUCATION, ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Lethal Indoctrination of Children in Palestinian Education How UNRWA-run schools incubate anti-Semitism and terror. Richard L. Cravatts

By on August 2nd, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/08/lethal-indoctrination-children-palestinian-richard-l-cravatts/

Signaling yet another unfortunate reversal of Trump-era policies, President Biden was in Bethlehem in the West Bank on July 15th to affirm U.S. support for the long-aggrieved Palestinians.

During that meeting with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, Biden suggested that “Palestinian refugees deserve to live in dignity, to see their basic needs addressed, and to have hope for the future,” and one remedy for their condition, of course, is U.S. aid, namely, “an additional $201 million for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to continue delivering critical services to Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.”

UNRWA, the UN’s division dedicated solely to the Palestinian refugees, has been the subject of much scrutiny and criticism, which is why in 2018 the Trump administration eliminated further funding for the controversial agency. That approach was a good step, since UNRWA, established when some 400,000-700,000 Palestinians were made refugees with the founding of Israel, has perversely served as a political and diplomatic tactic by which the hapless Palestinians have languished stateless, as if in amber, used as a hammer with which to bludgeon Israel by blaming the Jewish state for the condition in which these refugees, including millions of the descendants of the original refugees, now find themselves. The slavish attention paid to this particular group of refugees suggests that their importance is based on the symbolic import of their existence as Israel’s victims, thus the budgetary and organizational commitment to UNRWA’s operations.

Specifically, UNRWA employs some 30,000 people to tend to the needs of only 5.7 million people identified as Palestinian refugees (or 190 refugees for every employee) while The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the division responsible for every other refugee in the world, some 59 million people, has only 18,000 employees (3277 refugees for every employee).

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Wit and Wisdom of Kamala Never has someone so empty of everything come this close to running everything. Daniel Greenfield

By on August 2nd, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/08/wit-and-wisdom-kamala-daniel-greenfield/

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris might be the single worst pair of communicators to occupy the White House. Both Joe and Kamala are wedded to teleprompters because he has too much to say and she has nothing to say. Teleprompters are there to keep Joe Biden from telling wildly inappropriate stories about his leg hairs or announcing an impromptu surrender to China, but they’re also there because in her natural state Kamala is incapable of saying anything at all.

Presidents and their veeps are supposed to be a balance of strengths and weaknesses like a good marriage, but instead Biden and Kamala are a bad marriage in which their weaknesses are mirror opposites, but also so far apart that they’re incapable of balancing each other out.

Neither Joe or Kamala have any real skills. They both got to where they are as a combination of political accidents by men who were attracted to their weakness and incompetence.

Obama picked Biden because the failed presidential candidate was an old white man who would be too inept to build his own power base or function independently of his team. And Obama proved correct when Biden not only failed to declare his independence during eight years as his second banana, but even after Obama twice refused to endorse his presidential run is still dependent on Obama’s people to tell him what to do, where to go and what to say.

Kamala was handpicked by Willie Brown for her willingness to sleep with a much older man. And to represent Willie’s interests on various commissions. Despite no apparent skills or real track record, she advanced through the ranks because she was a hollow vessel. Having very little in the way of a mind of her own, she could be counted on to do what her bosses wanted.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Why It’s Time for Defense Secretary Austin to Resign The compounded failures of a progressive ideologue. Amber Smith

By on August 2nd, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/08/why-its-time-defense-secretary-austin-resign-amber-smith/

Amber Smith is a former Pentagon official and U.S. Army Kiowa Warrior helicopter pilot and veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. She is the author of ‘Danger Close’.

The consequence of the Department of Defense COVID vaccine mandate? A self-inflicted national security threat to readiness, recruitment, retention and ultimately to the all-volunteer force. Secretary of Defense Loyd Austin made a foolish decision to throw away battle tested, combat proven service members with years of priceless war fighting experience and leadership who were an incredible asset to the fighting force. This deliberate decision has caused irreversible damage to the military and the force’s ability to accomplish the mission.

Austin should resign for his failures to maintain necessary force end strength, the worst recruitment crisis since the Vietnam war, for playing politics with soldiers’ careers over the COVID vaccine mandate, and the botched Afghanistan withdrawal. His failure to intervene early in order to tackle these issues prior to becoming full-fledged crises has significantly degraded the military’s capabilities, readiness and national security. 

But Austin’s failures started long before COVID. 

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MOVIES AND TELEVISION Comments turned off

Michelle Obama 2024: A review of Joel Gilbert’s new film By Thomas Lifson

By on August 2nd, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/08/emmichelle_obama_2024em_a_review_of_joel_gilberts_new_film.html

I confess that, having paid pretty close attention to the lives of Barack and Michelle Obama ever since the entry of the couple into presidential politics in 2003, I was surprised at how much I learned from filmmaker Joel Gilbert’s new film.  Michelle Obama 2024: Her Real Life Story and Plan for Power, offers a deeper look into the former first lady — and, in Gilbert’s opinion, the likely 2024 Democrat nominee — than I had ever experienced.  (You can read Joel’s recent AT article derived from the film here.)

It is a hugely entertaining look as well.  Gilbert travels to the key locations in Michelle Obama’s life, starting with the apartment complex her family first lived in, the schools she attended (quite a story there!), and the places she worked, as well as the places she and her husband made key moments in his political rise.

This is a very personal film, with Gilbert guiding viewers on this tour, and sometimes talking on camera with important persons in her life, including Michelle Obama’s mother, Marian Robinson, through a closed screen door on her house.

It is a testament to the honesty and thoroughness of the filmmaker that I came away from the film with a heightened appreciation for the efforts of Fraser and Marian Robinson in raising their children, older brother Craig and Michelle, as well as a deeper understanding of how thoroughly marinated in politics Michelle has been since early childhood.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Harvard Study: Only 8% of Capitol Rioters Wanted ‘Insurrection’

By on August 2nd, 2022

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/07/31/harvard-study-only-8-of-capitol-rioters-wanted-insurrection/

A comprehensive study by Harvard University of the motivations of those who participated in the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol found that only 8% wanted to start an insurrection or civil war — contrary to claims by the January 6 Committee.

The Harvard Crimson reported last week:

In the most comprehensive study to date of what motivated the Trump supporters to attack the Capitol, Shorenstein Center researchers found that 20.6 percent of the rioters, a plurality, were motivated to take part in the riot because they supported Trump. Another 20.6 percent of the rioters cited Trump’s fraudulent claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged as their primary reason for participating in the Jan. 6 riot.

…

The third most common reason for attacking the Capitol: a desire to start a civil war or an armed revolution, according to the study. Almost 8 percent of defendants indicated it was their main motivation.

In an interview, Fagan said she was surprised by how frequently support for Trump and concerns about the election were cited as primary motivations for joining the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

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