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October 2023

ANTI-SEMITISM, EDUCATION Comments turned off

Israel-bashers headline Jewish center’s speaker series at Temple University I wonder what historian Murray Friedman would think of what his center has become in the hands of his successors. Moshe Phillips

By on October 5th, 2023

https://www.jns.org/israel-bashers-headline-jewish-centers-speaker-series-at-temple-university/

While attention has been focused on the anti-Israel literary festival at the University of Pennsylvania, harsh critics of Israel are also being featured just across town—at Temple University’s American Jewish Studies Center, also in Philadelphia.

The line-up of speakers during the 2023-24 academic year at Temple University’s Feinstein Center for American Jewish History features one critic of Israel after another. It seems that you have to be angry at the Jewish state in order to qualify to be part of the series.

One of the speakers who already delivered their talk was Eric Alterman, whose latest book, We Are Not One, depicts Israel as an oppressor and derides American Jews for supporting it.

Speaking at Tel Aviv University last year, Alterman announced his personal break with Israel. “I’m sorry; I’m abandoning you and your colleagues,” he declared. “I’m going to devote my attention to rejuvenating American Judaism. Those are my people. I used to have in my will Israeli peace groups, I’m changing my will and I’m funding American Jewish scholarly and charitable institutions.”

In a recent issue of the Jewish Review of Books, a prominent Jewish scholar questioned some of the distortions in Alterman’s book. Alterman responded by denouncing the reviewer as “chief of [the magazine’s] pro-Israel thought police.” That kind of slur gives you a sense of his temperament.

To discuss the current judicial reform debate in Israel, the Feinstein Center chose Gilat Bachar. She’s one of the leaders of a legal initiative to reclassify Israeli anti-terror actions as “policing” (rather than combat) so that more Palestinian Arabs can sue the Israeli government.

It’s interesting to note that nine years ago, Bachar chose to serve as an intern at the extremist HaMoked center, which defends Palestinian Arab terrorists. Does that disqualify her from speaking about Israeli affairs at the Feinstein Center? No. But it does give you a sense of her orientation when she talks about Israeli legal controversies.

Another Feinstein speaker is Talia Lavin. She was forced to resign from the staff of The New Yorker after she falsely accused an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent of having a Nazi tattoo. It was actually the symbol of his platoon in Afghanistan, where he risked his life to keep terrorists from coming to the United States to maim and kill innocent people like Lavin.

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Support For Both Biden And Trump Fell In Oct. — A Blip, Or Opening For Challengers? I&I/TIPP Poll Terry Jones

By on October 5th, 2023

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/10/05/support-for-both-biden-and-trump-fell-in-oct-just-a-blip-or-an-opening-for-others-ii-tipp-poll/

The 2024 election has seemed to be a preordained outcome, with current President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump holding substantial leads in their respective parties. But in October’s I&I/TIPP Poll, both major candidates’ support slipped a bit against their challengers. A one-off fluke, or the start of a trend?

The most recent online I&I/TIPP Poll, taken Sept. 27-29 from 1,262 registered voters, saw slippage for both candidates, though neither will yet be pushing the panic button. The overall poll has a margin of error of +/-2.8 percentage points.

After several months of steady support among Democrats for the party’s presidential nomination, Biden saw his support fall to 34% in October after edging higher from 36% in July and 37% in August to 38% in September.

Since the margin of error for the 560 Democrats surveyed for the poll was +/-4.2 percentage points, Biden’s October support remains within the margin of error when compared to the previous month’s 34% reading.

That said, Biden’s support fell in October. Meanwhile, backing for several of his possible opponents (or, perhaps, replacements if Biden bows out), gained a bit during the month. Biden’s No. 2 rival, former First Lady Michelle Obama, got 11% of Democrats’ support, up from 9% in September, and support for current Vice President Kamala Harris, rose to 8% from 7%. Socialist gadfly and sometime-Democrat candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders took 7% of support in October, also up a percent from September.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has made news recently by vetoing several laws from the state’s far-left Legislature, saw his support rise from 4% in September to 5% in October.

But perhaps of greater concern to Biden’s political advisers is that he runs very weak among some large constituencies: Women (31% support) vs. men (36%), blacks and Hispanics (29% support) vs. whites (38%), and independents (29%) vs. registered Democrats (36%).

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ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The International Day of Persecuting Palestinian Journalists by Bassam Tawil

By on October 5th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20019/persecuting-palestinian-journalists

The Palestinian Authority’s crackdown on journalists and political activists is part of an ongoing effort to silence and intimidate its critics.

Palestinian leaders have repeatedly shown that they reject any form of criticism directed against them. The only criticism they accept is that which is directed against Israel. Palestinian leaders are not different than most of the Arab heads of state whose governments control the media, which serves as a mouthpiece for the Arab regimes.

The latest victim of the Palestinian Authority crackdown is Palestinian journalist Tariq al-Sarkaji, a resident of the West Bank city of Nablus.

In recent weeks, several other journalists were also arrested. They include Sami al-Sa’i, Mohammed Shawasha, Jarrah Khalaf, Hatem Hamdan, Akeel Awawdeh, Ahmed al-Bitawi, and Muath Washha.

The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms condemned the arrest of freelance journalist Jarrah Khalaf by the Palestinian Military Intelligence Service on September 4. The group said that Khalaf, 23, was summoned for an interview at the Military Intelligence headquarters in the city of Jenin. The next day, he was brought before the Jenin Prosecution Office and charged with “possession of weapons.” This is a charge that the Palestinian Authority often uses to justify the arrest of journalists and political activists.

It is a sad truth that, three decades after the inception of the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinians still do not have a free and independent media.

An even sadder truth is that most international human rights organizations care nothing about the abuse perpetrated against Palestinian journalists by their own leaders.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Charles Lipson: Matt Gaetz pulls the fire alarm It wasn’t a false alarm. He set the fire to burn out Kevin McCarthy

By on October 4th, 2023

https://thespectator.com/topic/matt-gaetz-fire-alarm-kevin-mccarthy-congress/

Matt Gaetz pulled the alarm but, unlike the stunt by fellow House member Jamaal Bowman, there really was a fire. Gaetz set it himself, with help from seven other Republicans on the party’s populist right. Now the whole party has to deal with the smoking ruins. 

Because the majority party has only a slim edge, any small, cohesive group among them can wield huge leverage. They can threaten to sink legislation or oust the Speaker by voting “no,” knowing their party doesn’t have enough votes to carry the day without them (or help from Democrats). 

That’s exactly what this “veto coalition,” led by Florida’s Matt Gaetz, did. When they issued the threat to close the government a few days ago, the tactic failed, but only because Democrats voted with most of the Republicans to keep it open. Why did Democrats help? Because the White House told them to, knowing the president would pay a political price if the government shut down, even temporarily. That’s why Biden’s White House wanted the Continuing Resolution (CR) passed. 

When Speaker Kevin McCarthy called a floor vote on the CR, the right wing of his caucus was outraged, partly because McCarthy called their bluff, partly because they didn’t get the concessions they wanted. 

The vote Tuesday to remove McCarthy as speaker was the populist right’s revenge. They secured only eight Republican votes against McCarthy, but that was enough. It is also a backhanded compliment to McCarthy’s Democratic predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, that she managed her caucus successfully with an equally narrow majority. 

Make no mistake: the entire Republican Party will pay an enormous price for this maneuver. It’s one thing to remove a speaker; it’s another to remove him without no obvious way to resolve the resulting impasse. Each day it lasts tells American voters, “Republicans don’t know how to govern.” They know how to use a bullhorn. They know how to stop legislation. They know how to jettison a speaker. But they don’t know how to pass legislation or find a new speaker. That’s a disastrous message to send voters. 

As the Republican House majority confronts this mess, they have only two conceivable paths to end it by selecting a speaker. Given their narrow majority, they need first, a candidate who wins virtually the votes in the Republican caucus and could be elected without any Democratic votes, and second, a candidate who wins a large plurality of votes in the caucus and becomes speaker because enough Democrats help them in the floor vote, either by voting with the Republicans or remaining absent. 

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BOOKS Comments turned off

How Do We Get Out of Here?: Half a Century of Laughter and Mayhem at The American Spectator—From Bobby Kennedy to Donald J. Trump Kindle Edition by R. Emmett Tyrrell

By on October 4th, 2023

https://www.amazon.com/How-Get-Out-Here-Spectator-ebook/dp/B0C47G4DVD/ref=sr_1_2?crid=

How Do We Get Out of Here? is R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.’s intimate memoir, detailing his leadership in the conservative movement and his relationships with its major personalities from 1968 to the present.

When R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. was a conservative college student in 1968, he watched as Senator Robert Kennedy gave a rousing campaign speech. When Senator Kennedy asked him, “How do we get out of here?” Tyrrell—the only other person onstage—not only escorted the candidate to his car but boldly pressed a “Reagan for President” button into the legendary Democrat’s hand.

This early, irreverent political prank marked Tyrrell’s entrance into what would become a decades-long engagement at the heart of American politics as founder and publisher of the legendary conservative magazine, The American Spectator. Tyrrell has now written a candid memoir of those tumultuous years, complete with fascinating—and often, uproarious—behind-the-scenes vignettes of the turbulent politics and the most prominent political and literary personalities of the era, including the Spectator’s furious political battles with Bill Clinton, the author’s close association with Ronald Reagan, his warm relations and competition with William F. Buckley of the National Review, his friendship with a post-presidential Richard Nixon, and the chaotic years of Donald Trump’s presidency.

Written in Tyrrell’s trademark unfailing and bitingly satirical style, How Do We Get Out of Here? is an invaluable and intimate recount of the political and cultural battles that shaped our contemporary politics, written by a raconteur whose fearless muckraking materially impacted the politics of the modern era.

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P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

The Book Ban Clan The left-wing faux book banning allegations are relentless By Larry Sand

By on October 4th, 2023

https://amgreatness.com/2023/10/04/the-book-ban-clan/

In Rules for Radicals, far-left organizer Saul Alinsky’s classic work on labor activism,  number 13 in his rules of power tactics reads, “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”

Alinsky’s words are in full view these days in the form of “book banning” charges, a current mantra of the American left. And, as we are in the middle of “Banned Books Week,” the onslaught is massive. Front and center in the movement is the American Library Association, whose 2023 Banned Books Week theme is “Let Freedom Read.” The ALA insists that our democracy is imperiled and “that the safety of our right to speak and think freely is directly in proportion to our right to read.”

Similarly, a new report from PEN America, a left-wing advocacy group, informs us that school book bans and restrictions in the U.S. rose 33% in the last school year, continuing what the organization deems a worrisome effort aimed at the “suppression of stories and ideas.” 

The Biden Administration thinks we are in dire straits and has appointed a deputy assistant secretary for the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. This “book ban czar” is entrusted to “enforce federal civil rights laws and address threats to civil rights.”

A spokesman from the Education Department adds, “The Department of Education remains firm in its commitment to ensure all students are protected from all forms of discrimination.” 

Not to be outdone, California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed a bill into law barring school boards from banning books, instructional materials, or curricula labeled as inclusive or diverse. He proclaims, “Remarkable that we’re living in a country right now in this banning binge, this cultural purge that we’re experiencing all throughout America, and now increasingly here in the state of California, where we have school districts large and small banning books, banning free speech, criminalizing librarians and teachers.”

In reality, whatever righteousness Banned Books Week may have once held – it started in 1982 – it has been taken over by progressives who, in large part, are trying to legitimize the field once known as “obscenity.”

In fact, most of the so-called “banned books” are nothing more than an attempt by parents not to have their children exposed to kiddie porn. For example, they don’t want their children to read books like Gender Queer, in which the protagonist says, “I can’t wait to have your c**k in my mouth — I’m going to give you the bl*w j*b of your life. Then I want you inside me.” Or maybe they don’t think their kid should be subjected to Lawn Boy, which contains a passage about 10-year-old boys performing oral sex on each other. Or perhaps they don’t want their child to be read Crank, which details meth addiction and rape.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

Drag University at Princeton Guess what’s happening at the #1-ranked American university. by Hugh Fitzgerald

By on October 4th, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/drag-university-at-princeton/

There is a new program, a new subject for study and teaching, at Princeton University, that should gladden the hearts of diversity, equity, and inclusivity devotees everywhere. It stretches the boundaries and pushes the envelope. Who could object? Well, you could, and I could.

Princeton, according to the latest list compiled by U.S. News and World Report, is ranked #1 among American universities. Think of that. #1.

And Princeton, no doubt hoping to solidify its status as #1, has just announced a new program that will train students in the Art of the Drag. Robert Spencer wrote about this here, and there is more here: “New ‘Drag University’ program at Princeton to fund students’ budding drag careers,” by Logan Dubil, The College Fix, September 28, 2023:

A new “Drag University” program launched at Princeton University will train students in the “artform.”

The program is offered through the school’s Gender + Sexuality Resource Center and is open to all undergraduate and graduate students interested in the world of drag, according to the center’s Instagram page.

Throughout the 2023-24 school year, enrolled participants will cover an array of topics, including the history of drag, “Sewing 101,” choreography, face painting, photoshoots and other topics, according to the program’s registration form.

The form was updated this week to note: “At this time we have reached our capacity for our scholarships, but you are more than welcome to attend our workshops.”

Prior to its update, the form stated the first six enrollees who attend the Sept. 19 orientation and commit to the program will receive scholarships to fully cover the cost of supplies, according to a copy screenshot by The College Fix.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

A Broken Congress House Republicans have forgotten their mission. by Daniel Greenfield

By on October 4th, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/a-broken-congress/

When Democrats are in the majority, they get their way. And when Republicans are in the majority, the Democrats also get their way. Most recently, after the stopgap spending bill was passed, Rep Jamie Raskin took to MSNBC to boast that the Democrats “got the vast majority of what we wanted” from it. And for some Republicans that was the last straw.

Eight House Republicans allied with Democrats on a vote to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy. And for the first time in over a century, a House Speaker was successfully booted from office.

A civil war among Republicans came down to threats from both sides of collaborating with Democrats in a House of Representatives with a narrow majority. And collaborating with Democrats seems to be the only thing that House Republicans know how to do anymore.

What are the legislative achievements of a House GOP majority, today, yesterday and the day before? They invariably involve collaborating with Democrats for personal political gain.

It’s been over a generation since a House Republican majority delivered for conservatives. Congressional Republicans are too terrified to fight Democrats and instead go after safe targets like each other. It’s not even worth counting how many times a Democrat White House made a House Republican majority cower in fear over the threat of being blamed for a government shutdown. Or how often that same majority compensated for surrendering to Democrats with meaningless virtue signaling votes that everyone knew were never going to pass the Senate.

Why are Democrats able to effectively wield their House majority while Republicans couldn’t? The Democrats are not afraid of what Republicans think of them. They develop a plan, implement it and dismiss Republican efforts to stop them. Republicans however care a great deal about what Democrats, in the House, in the media and the culture, think of them.

When Republicans threaten to blame Democrats for something, they laugh it off. Democrats backed the mobs that burned cities to the ground and opened the border to an unprecedented mass invasion without worrying what the Republicans would say. But Republicans live in fear of being blamed for a government shutdown. Rather than risk being blamed for shutting down the country, they shut down their own agenda, and then formed circular firing squads.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

A Glimmer of Hope in Higher Education The Open Discourse Coalition, a new organization that champions free speech, is thriving. By Susan J. Crawford and Kenneth G. Langone

By on October 4th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-glimmer-of-hope-for-free-speech-in-higher-education-colleges-universities-civil-discourse-7330474?mod=opinion_lead_pos10

The president of Bucknell University, John Bravman, stood behind a placard bearing the words “Freedom of Expression” last month and kicked off a yearlong forum on the subject. Mr. Bravman introduced columnist George Will, who inveighed against censorship for 45 minutes, skewering both political parties in the process.

It was a dream come true, considering the cancel culture flourishing on many college campuses. In 2021 we wrote a letter in these pages with the headline “Alumni Are Fed Up and Ready to Fight Back.” We saw what was happening at our alma mater and colleges nationwide and decided to do something about it.

We began Open Discourse Coalition, an alumni and student-supported organization. The coalition is an independent, nonprofit organization with an office blocks from Bucknell University. Its goal is to advance the school’s mission to offer students diversity of thought with an unwavering commitment to free speech.

Prominent speakers, confident they will be heard, have been drawn to Bucknell to discuss and debate national issues, with students from the right and left turning out in large numbers. Experts on some of society’s thorniest topics have civilly discussed, disagreed and answered challenging questions from students.

It “was not nearly as polarized as what I expected,” one student wrote in response to a program. Another: “I was pleasantly surprised at how civil the conversation [was] and highly appreciated the respect both views gave each other.” One professor told us it was the first time he heard two differing perspectives on gun control at the same program in more than 20 years on campus.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

“He Will Help You With What You Need”: New Messages To Hunter Deepen Concerns Over Chinese Influence by Jonathan Turley

By on October 4th, 2023

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/he-will-help-you-what-you-need-new-messages-hunter-deepen-concerns-over-chinese-influence

After the initiation of the Biden impeachment inquiry, new messages are deepening concerns over the influence of Chinese figures on the Biden family. Messages from longtime Biden associate Fran Person show the Chinese stepping in to support Hunter’s lavish lifestyle as funds dried up during his divorce. Person wrote Hunter that Chinese businessman Bo Zhang “will help you with what you need.”

Fran Person was not just a close aide to Joe Biden for years, but someone that the First Lady Jill Biden described as a member of the family: “Fran has been like a son to Joe and me. For eight years, we traveled the country, shared holidays together … Fran may be leaving the office, but he will always be a part of our family.”

Fran left the staff of Joe Biden and went to work with Chinese figures . . . and Hunter.

In a July 2017 WhatsApp message, Person told Hunter that Zhang was aware that he was in financial distress during his divorce and would cover his costs. Hunter sounds desperate for the Chinese support as he gushes money to fund his lavish lifestyle: “100K at least gets me until next month.”

Person assures him that Zhang has his back: “He will help you with what you need.”

Fox News Digital reported on Person’s messages. They include this assurance:

“I talked to Bo previously about the 37K – he didn’t flinch. I will talk to him about 56K and possibly 100K. It really depends on his liquid assets in the US…I will ask. His only problem is getting large sums out of China (especially right now).”

Hunter appears in distress and presses Person if he knew whether anything was wired or if they were in a “holding pattern.”

Person responds “No holding pattern…he was on his way to the bank this morning. He will be in touch when it’s confirmed.”

“He will help you with what you need. He also mentioned that you should take a trip to China some time this month to just get away for a week or so…just decompress.”

Hunter later schedules the trip.

The concern is that Hunter was receiving money from figures closely associated with foreign government and foreign intelligence, including the CCP.  These operatives often look for people who are in desperate situations to exercise influence over them. Hunter Biden’s massive spending and addictions would have been a draw for intelligence services.  He offered an obvious entry into potential influence or access with regard to Joe Biden.

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