ANTI-SEMITISM, EDUCATION Comments turned off

Tal Fortgang Destined to Fail Northwestern’s initiative to combat anti-Semitism does not respond to student protesters’ shallow worldview.

Posted By on September 4th, 2024

https://www.city-journal.org/article/northwestern-university-initiative-to-combat-anti-semitism-destined-to-fail

Even among the jarring snapshots that emerged from this spring’s anti-Israel encampments, imagery from Northwestern University’s “Liberated Zone” was particularly vile. In addition to the usual signs calling for the elimination of Israel, the campus was defaced with a depiction of a crossed-out Star of David—a symbol not just of Israel, but of the Jewish people. Perhaps most horrifying was a sign featuring Northwestern’s Jewish president, Michael Schill, caricatured with horns and blood dripping from his face, with a dialogue bubble reading, “I [heart] genocide.”

At the time, Schill indicated that Northwestern would take the blatant anti-Semitism seriously. “[W]hen I see a Star of David with an X on it, when I see a picture of me with horns or when I hear that one of our students has been called a ‘dirty Jew,’ there is no ambiguity,” he said. “This needs to be condemned by all of us, and that starts with me.” 

Nothing more than that condemnation materialized. Northwestern did not punish any student demonstrators. In fact, the administration negotiated an end to the encampment by acquiescing to several of the group’s demands. Schill had formed an Advisory Committee on Preventing Antisemitism and Hate in November 2023, but it disbanded in May after failing to find consensus on appropriate language to address festering Jew-hatred.

The kicker came last week, when Northwestern took a step likely to be emulated by other universities seeking to fend off lawsuits alleging violations of Jewish students’ civil rights. Schill announced that Northwestern would provide “expanded resources” and “educational opportunities” to combat “antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of hate.” At the heart of the plan: “Mandatory trainings on antisemitism and other forms of hate will be used in September at incoming student orientation and over the Fall Quarter for all returning students.” Naturally, there will also be “an integration of antisemitism and Islamophobia into the work of our Institutional Diversity and Inclusion Office, including a new religious literacy program.”

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Daniel J. Flynn Kennedys Gonna Kennedy In endorsing Donald Trump, RFK, Jr., is following a long family tradition of opposing Democrats when their disgust with the party overwhelms their loyalty to it.

Posted By on September 4th, 2024

https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-historical-precedent-behind-rfk-jrs-trump-endorsement

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in suspending his presidential campaign as his family members long desired, nevertheless displeased those sharing his last name by endorsing Donald Trump in the process. “It is worse than disappointment,” Max Kennedy wrote in the Los Angeles Times. “We are in mourning.”

“Our brother Bobby’s decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear,” a statement joined by five other Kennedy siblings read. “It is a sad ending to a sad story.”

Several of the Kennedy siblings, including former congressman Joseph and current journalist Douglas, did not attach their names to the statement.

“Personally,” reacted younger sister Kerry, “I completely disavow and separate and disassociate myself from my brother, Bobby Kennedy, and his flagrant and inexplicable effort to desecrate and trample and set fire to daddy’s memory.”

Our memories of Robert F. Kennedy, Sr., remain uncorrupted by facts. Like his brother John and so many others cut down in the prime of life, he appears to us as less a person than projection. In the case of Democrats, including many of his children, this amounts to a depiction of him as a loyal servant of the party. Falling for this seduction makes for an imaginary Bobby Kennedy, who always and everywhere acts to please the present. Reality, so often the imagination’s bête noire, objects.

Both Robert Kennedys, in fact, not only opposed Democrats in the White House when their disgust with party overwhelmed their loyalty to it but also voted Republican. Here the factual past overrules a present in search of not truth but affirmation. Who, really, “tramples” the memory of Robert F. Kennedy, Sr.?

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Take That! Biden-Harris DOJ Files Complaint against Hamas Mass Murderers Andrew McCarthy

Posted By on September 4th, 2024

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/take-that-biden-harris-doj-files-complaint-against-hamas-mass-murderers/

More a campaign document than a charging instrument . . . and a fundamentally unserious one.

Could it be more fitting that, in the criminal complaint against Hamas leaders unsealed in Manhattan federal court today, the lead defendant charged by the Justice Department is Ismael Haniyeh. Yes, if you were wondering, that would be the Ismael Haniyeh who was killed during a daring Israeli Defense Forces operation in Tehran about five weeks ago (on July 31).

If there was any doubt about it, “September 10 counterterrorism” is back.

The expression refers to the eight years between the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and the destruction of that complex in the jihadist atrocities that killed nearly 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001. That is the period, spanning the Clinton administration, when our government decided to regard jihadist terrorism as a law-enforcement problem to be addressed foremost by courtroom prosecutions.

Merrick Garland, now the Biden-Harris administration attorney general, was a top lawyer in the Clinton Justice Department. The Clinton strategy was not the Justice Department’s doing; America’s counterterrorism strategy is the president’s call. But having been there at the time, I can attest that DOJ was the strategy’s most enthusiastic advocate.

I can further attest that the strategy was a national-security train wreck.

It makes sense, it should be needless to say, to conduct courtroom prosecutions of terrorists who are captured trying to carry out attacks in the United States during ostensible peacetime. There is an argument (I don’t subscribe to it, but it is commonly held nonetheless) that such prosecutions are required by the Constitution, especially if some of the terrorists happen to be American citizens (as was not uncommon in the Clinton-era terrorism prosecutions). It makes even more sense to prosecute material supporters of terrorism in order to choke off the funding and recruitment of foreign terrorist organizations — a significant improvement in American counterterrorism law enacted in the mid Nineties.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Stefanik Urges Probe into Hochul after Feds Bring Chinese Foreign-Agent Charges against Former Staffer

Posted By on September 4th, 2024

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/stefanik-urges-probe-into-hochul-after-feds-bring-chinese-foreign-agent-charges-against-former-staffer/?utm_

Representative Elise Stefanik called for a probe into New York governor Kathy Hochul and her administration after the Justice Department indicted the governor’s former deputy chief of staff on Tuesday for allegedly working as an agent of the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party.

Linda Sun, a former staffer for Hochul and former governor Andrew Cuomo, was arrested today with her husband, Chris Hu. The charges relate to her work as an unregistered foreign agent for the Chinese government and money-laundering that Hu allegedly engaged in to hide the proceeds of Sun’s efforts.

Until today’s arrests, few members of Congress had commented on some New York government officials’ apparent ties to China’s consulate general in Manhattan and pro-Beijing community organizations. Stefanik (R., N.Y.) is the first to call for an investigation into Hochul and her administration.

“Failed Far Left Democrat Kathy Hochul allowed Communist Chinese spy Linda Sun unfettered access to the highest levels of New York State government,” Stefanik said in a statement to National Review this afternoon.

“From allowing Chinese police stations, to maintaining a sister city partnership between NYC and Beijing, this is another example of New York Democrats facilitating the influence campaign of Communist China. I am calling for a complete investigation into Kathy Hochul and her administration so that hardworking New York taxpayers receive the transparency we deserve.”

EDUCATION Comments turned off

One-Third of K-12 Students Behind Grade Level By Eric Lendrum

Posted By on September 4th, 2024

https://amgreatness.com/2024/09/03/one-third-of-k-12-students-behind-grade-level/

A recent study shows that roughly one-third of American K-12 students in the 2023-2024 academic school year are behind their grade level in a variety of subjects.

As Axios reports, the data was compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) through their “School Pulse Panel,” a survey of almost 4,000 grade schools that are considered nationally representative. The data from June of 2024, taken from the responses of 1,651 schools, shows that there has been virtually no change from the 2021-2022 school year, when 33% of students were learning at a level that was below their actual grade.

The study also examined the differences based on geographic region and locality, discovering that schools in the Western United States are performing worse than any other area of the country, with about 40% of students behind their grade level. When comparing urban areas and rural areas, the study found that 38% of students in city schools are behind their grade level, compared to 31% of students in suburban schools.

These findings further confirm that the long-term effects of the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdowns are continuing to be felt today, with the biggest impact being on American education. The quality of schooling in America plummeted sharply while schools were shut down, with virtually no improvement after the implementation of “remote learning” and “hybrid” schooling that combined partial in-person education with continued remote learning. Even after returning to full in-person schooling, many students have not recovered to pre-pandemic levels in their education.

Some of the strategies being employed by schools to combat this decline include hiring even more teachers, with 55% of schools choosing this strategy due to it being either “very” or “extremely effective.” Another 35% of schools are also spending more time focusing on target areas, while 18% are engaging in family outreach.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Evil of Cowardice Ben Shapiro

Posted By on September 4th, 2024

https://pjmedia.com/benshapiro/2024/09/04/the-evil-of-cowardice-n4932220

On Saturday night, the Israeli military made a macabre and horrifying discovery: the slain bodies of six hostages taken by Hamas, including American citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin. All six hostages had been shot point-blank in the head some 48-72 hours prior, presumably upon the approach of IDF soldiers; Hamas terrorists chose to murder the hostages they had held in terror tunnels for over 300 days rather than risk their liberation.

The discovery sent the entire nation of Israel into mourning. On Oct. 7, Israelis were forced to remember that the enemy they face is not merely violent, but purely evil. In subsequent months, with the extraordinary progress of the IDF in Gaza over the protestations of the Biden administration, Hamas’ evils were relegated once more to the realm of military conflict. But the very thought of these victims — Goldberg-Polin, 23; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Ori Danino, 25; Alex Lobanov, 32; Carmel Gat, 40; and Almog Sarusi, 27 — suffering without sunlight, food or water for nearly a year, all to be shot to death within hours of their possible freedom, reopened all the wounds of Oct. 7.

It turned out that all the diplomatic overtures made by America — overtures largely accepted by the supposedly intransigent administration of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — meant nothing. As Netanyahu pointed out, “whoever murders hostages does not want a deal.” That was predictable enough, given the fact that Hamas’ chief goal is its own survival — a goal directly at odds with Israel’s necessary goal of extirpating Hamas. That is why Hamas has consistently declared for months that there would be no hostage release without a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, along with the discharge of hundreds of convicted terrorists and murderers. Anything less than survival for Hamas is a loss. Dead Palestinians help Hamas achieve its goal of pressuring Israel; dead hostages help Hamas achieve its goal of pressuring Israel.

ELECTIONS, MEDIA Comments turned off

Here’s the Real Reason Harris Won’t Hold News Conferences Mark Tapscott

Posted By on September 4th, 2024

https://pjmedia.com/marktapscott/2024/09/03/is-this-the-real-reason-harris-avoids-the-media-n4932193

It’s going on 45 days since Vice President Kamala Harris last held a news conference with journalists, and speculation is rampant about how much longer she will go before convening another such gathering.

Here’s my suggestion: She won’t.

Or if she ever does, such gatherings will be few and far between.

Harris watched President Joe Biden all but ignore the White House press corps for more than three years. When he did deign to stand in front of the journalists to take a series of well-scripted questions, doing so invariably drew attention to his waning cognitive abilities.

But here’s the overlooked fact that is even more significant than the spotlight that shone on Biden’s decline during news conferences: rarely was he ever asked a challenging question by any of the assembled journalists other than Fox News’ Peter Doocy. And even rarer were the tough follow-ups that are essential to getting some semblance of the truth out of most politicians. More often, the questions have tended to be softballs that suggest most of the journalists present are sympathetic to the Biden-Harris administration.

What’s the lesson here that Harris and Democrats are likely drawing? Ignoring the national media is a no-downside proposition for them because, for the most part, the Mainstream Media is in their pockets.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israel Has the Right to Win Not a right to defend itself. A right to win. by Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on September 4th, 2024

https://www.ruthfullyyours.com/wp-admin/post-new.php

“Israel has a right to defend itself,” Kamala told CNN. And then insisted that the “war must end.”

What Kamala was really saying was that Israel has a right to defend itself against an attack, but it doesn’t have a right to win.

Democrats and some Republicans have offered the same formulaic responses since Oct 7.

And long before that.

“Israel has a right to defend itself from rocket attacks,” Obama said in 2014 before calling for a ceasefire. Israel has a right to defend itself, Bush and Clinton used to say before urging a quick end to the fighting in order to make a deal with the terrorists Israel is defending itself against.

Israel has a right to defend itself is the bare minimum allotted to anyone. Everyone has a right to defend themselves when they are attacked. Agreeing to it is not a pro-Israel statement. It is at best a neutral position to which the alternative position is that the Israelis should have allowed themselves to be overrun, destroyed and massacred, men, women and children, on Oct 7.

Anything less than the assertion that Israel has a right to defend itself is a declaration that it deserves to be destroyed. And that is the state of the debate within the Democratic Party.

On one side are the supporters of a two-state solution who want to split Israel between the Jews and the Islamic terrorists. Every time the terrorists invade and kill Jews, the Israeli army would have the right to briefly defend the country before the politicians make a new deal with the terrorists. On the other side are the one-state solution backers who don’t believe Israel has a right to exist and therefore no right to defend itself and support the Islamic terrorists who call themselves ‘Palestinians’ in their quest to destroy it by any means from BDS to genocide.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Harris Hangs On To Overall Lead, But Trump Maintains His Hold On Vital ‘Swing States’: I&I/TIPP Poll Terry Jones

Posted By on September 4th, 2024

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/09/04/harris-hangs-on-to-overall-lead-but-trump-maintains-his-hold-on-vital-swing-states-ii-tipp-poll/

Presidential candidate Kamala Harris still holds a slight lead over former President Donald Trump, but will it last after last week’s interview with CNN? Harris still enjoyed an edge with prospective voters as Labor Day approached, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll suggests, but it might not be sustainable as Trump consolidates his strength among swing-state voters.

In a head-to-head matchup, Harris holds a 48% to 45% advantage over Trump in the September I&I/TIPP Poll, with 1,386 registered voters answering the survey from Aug. 28-Aug. 30. The poll has a margin of error of +/-2.8 percentage points.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israel: Ceasefire Deal Will Prevent Hostages from Coming Home, Anti-Government Protests Only Embolden Hamas by Bassam Tawil ******

Posted By on September 3rd, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20917/israel-protests-embolden-hamas

Hamas leaders, who are closely observing the protests, are likely to harden their stance in the hope that the Israeli government will give in to the demonstrators’ demands, including an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has the Israeli public pressuring their government to allow Hamas to “live to fight another day”: to rearm, regroup and continue attacking Israelis – as Hamas official Ghazi Hamad vowed.

Hamas leaders are banking on the Biden administration to compel the Israeli government to give in to the terror group’s demands…. It has long been the dream of Hamas and many Palestinians to see the US turn its back on Israel.

Hamas’s primary goal is to remain in power and return to the pre-October 7 era, when it built a large terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. Hamas knows it will not be able to accomplish its aims without a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and an official end of the war.

That is why Hamas is insisting that Israel withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Israel’s presence there obstructs Hamas’s efforts to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip through cross-border tunnels, as it has been doing for the past two decades.

Hamas is reportedly demanding US and international guarantees that Israel will not target the terror group anytime in the future. Until then, Hamas will continue to hold on to many of the hostages as an “insurance policy.”

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 atrocities, will not release all the hostages at once. He will continue to physically surround himself with many of them to ensure that Israel does not kill him. Sinwar does not care how many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip perish, as long as he is permitted to stay alive.

Even if Hamas were to initially release 10 or 20 hostages as part of any agreement, who could ensure that the remaining captives would be released? Are we supposed to take Hamas’s word for it? Are we supposed to believe that the Americans, Egyptians and Qataris would be able to force Hamas to comply with the terms of any agreement?

Hamas is only interested in a deal that would keep it in power and make Israel lose the war. Hamas does not feel under pressure, at all, to reach any deal. Why should it? If US President Joe Biden were serious about reaching a deal, all he has to do is phone the leader of Qatar and tell him, as he allegedly told Netanyahu a few weeks ago, to “stop bullshitting me!”

The hostages-ceasefire negotiations have broken down because of insufficient pressure from the Biden administration on Hamas’s patrons in Qatar. The failure of the negotiations should be attributed to Qatar’s lack of action against the Hamas leaders who are living in luxury in Doha. Qatar is not doing anything because it is not under any serious pressure from the Biden administration. Has the Biden administration considered using the threat of withdrawing the US Central Command from Qatar’s Al-Udeid Air Base from to pressure the Gulf state’s rulers into convincing their friends in Hamas to free all the hostages?