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Bassem Eid: An Open Letter to My Palestinian Brethren

Posted By on May 20th, 2021

https://www.investigativeproject.org/8858/bassem-eid-an-open-letter-to-my-palestinian

Thanks to Nurit Greenger for this….rsk

I know that the past 10 days have been incredibly devastating and equally bewildering. Why is the world letting the Israelis do this to you? I am writing to you, my Palestinian brothers and sisters, to open your eyes from the disinformation that your real captor, Hamas, is feeding you.

To my Palestinian brethren, I implore you: please do not let Hamas brainwash you into thinking it has “achieved” anything on our behalf.

Do not fall prey to its lies and manipulations. Hamas is not a social justice movement and it certainly does not care about me or you. It is a criminal gang that only cares about increasing its own power at all of our expense. Your lives start to improve only when the Hamas reign of terror finally ends. Only then will you actually taste the fruits of real peace with your Jewish cousins.

Yes, I know that to some in the media Hamas has more or less achieved its goal in this vile destructive war it started 10 days ago. It has spread fake news about Sheikh Jarrah being the core of Jewish aggression. It has incited violent riots at Al Aqsa by falsely claiming that the Jews are going to destroy Al Aqsa when that has never been true. And then it exploited the situation it created by starting a war with Israel to then justify its rocket attacks. All the while, Hamas showed Palestinians a clear contrast between its ability to act and Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party’s inability to do much of anything.

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“Missing the Forest for the Tree” Sydney Williams

Posted By on May 20th, 2021

http://www.swtotd.blogspot.com

Most Republicans do not want to denigrate President Trump, but neither do they want to elevate him. Benign neglect is the preferred path. The good of what he did – freeing up the economy from restrictive regulations and confining taxes, repatriating more than a trillion dollars in corporate cash, raising wages for the lowest income workers, and creating the most jobs ever for Black and Hispanic; taking real steps to resolve the border crisis; addressing the bureaucratic morass in Washington; calling out international governmental bodies for their undemocratic ways; getting NATO nations to pay a greater share of their defense; confronting enemies of freedom like Communist China, Russia and North Korea; signing the Abraham Accords and instigating Operation Warp Speed to get a COVOD-19 vaccine out in record time – was overshadowed by a supersized ego and mean-spirited, feckless Tweets.

Democrats, on the other hand, would like to keep the spirit of Donald Trump front and center. While it is true that his ardent Republican supporters do not want to give up on him, neither do Democrat leaders who see him as someone around whom they can rally their troops. Trump Derangement Syndrome helped Mr. Trump with the public when he was President because complaints about him were so outrageous. But it hurts the Republican Party and their chances today when anti-Trump opinions are voiced by other Republicans. “Prudent Republicans,” wrote Andrew McCarthy in the May 15th issue of National Review, “perceive that the best way to move on from Trump is to stop talking about him.” I agree.

If Republicans want to take control of the House and Senate in 2022, they will have to focus on issues, not on the personality of the former President. Single issue politicians detract from legitimate policy debates. In refusing to accept the outcome of the 2020 election, Mr. Trump has done no more than what Al Gore did in 2000 and Hillary Clinton did in 2016. In all three cases (2000, 2016, 2020), there were certainly electoral irregularities, but there always have been. However, from what we now know, none of those elections would have been reversed. “If questioning the results of a particular election were a crime, as many have asserted in the wake of the controversial 2020 election and its aftermath,” writes Mollie Hemingway in her forthcoming book Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections, “nearly the entire Democratic Party and media establishment would have been incarcerated following the 2016 election.” It is not that Mr. Trump’s character should be ignored, but that it must be kept in perspective.

DAVID'S SLINGSHOT DPS, EDUCATION, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Dozens of Princeton Faculty Sign Letter on Mideast Conflict That Condemns Israel’s ‘Jewish Supremacy,’ Does Not Mention Hamas By Dion Pierre

Posted By on May 20th, 2021

https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/05/19/dozens-of-princeton-faculty-sign-letter-on-mideast-conflict-that-condemns-israeli-state-as-jewish-supremacy-does-not-mention-hamas/

At least fifty Princeton University faculty and staff signed a statement condemning “the ongoing attacks on the Palestinian people in Gaza by the Israeli armed forces,” in an open letter that decried Israel as a system based on Jewish supremacy, and made no mention of the Hamas militant group’s attacks on civilians.

“We condemn the displacement of Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem — part of a decades long campaign of warfare, expulsion, unequal residency rights, and discriminatory planning policies that advances the ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem,” said the Tuesday letter. “The brutal system that controls Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories is ideologically founded on Jewish supremacy.”

Also signed by several hundred Princeton students and alumni, the letter continued, “We mourn all loss of life. We also refuse the ‘two-sides’ and ‘evenhandedness’ narrative that ignores and conceals the meaningful differences between Israel — one of the most heavily militarized states in the world that receives $3.8 billion in military aid annually from the United States — and a Palestinian population resisting occupation and oppression.”

“We salute the bravery and will-to-survival of Palestinians — in the Occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza, and within Israel — as they resist the violence of the Israeli military, settler militias, and lynch mobs,” the letter said. It included no mention of Hamas, or the 4,000-plus rockets that the group has so far fired at Israeli territory.

Appearing in The Daily Princetonian, the letter also endorsed the so-called “Palestine and Praxis” open letter, a document signed by faculty from a range of universities urging their institutions to end partnerships with military, legal and academic entities “involved in entrenching Israel’s policies.”

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More than 61,000 migrants released into the US from the border under Biden by Anna Giaritelli,

Posted By on May 20th, 2021

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/more-than-61-000-released-border-biden

More than 61,000 immigrants who illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border have been released into the United States since President Joe Biden took office, according to federal data.

The federal immigration agencies that are responsible for apprehending and detaining immigrants have instead discharged tens of thousands of migrants into the country, despite the Biden administration’s claims that most migrant families are not being taken into custody in the first place. And it is the first time that an administration has greenlighted the release of immigrants without telling them when to appear in court, as previous administrations have done during surges.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Border Patrol allowed 61,312 illegal immigrants to walk out of their stations in February, March, and April. The number is a staggering increase from the 18 people who were let go during former President Donald Trump’s final full month in office, when the number of families showing up at the border was one-tenth of what it is at present. (Historically, though, more people attempt to migrate to the U.S. in the springtime than in the winter or summer months.)

The releases of adults and families do not include the tens of thousands of unaccompanied children who are also being discharged by the Department of Health and Human Services.

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Byron York The president appeases Putin

Posted By on May 20th, 2021

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/byron-yorks-daily-memo-the-president-appeases-putin

On Tuesday came word that President Joe Biden will waive sanctions on a major player in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which U.S. officials have long seen as a Russian threat to U.S. and European security. The pipeline, which is nearly completed, would transport natural gas from Russia to Germany. In the process, it would make both Germany and the rest of Europe — and the NATO alliance — vulnerable to the strategic desires of Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin. Not surprisingly, the pipeline is a top-priority project for Putin.

President Donald Trump was a leading force in supporting sanctions against the companies and individuals involved in the pipeline. But now, Biden plans to ease sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG, the company that is running the project, and its top official, Matthias Warnig. And here’s the odd thing: “The State Department will…acknowledge that the corporate entity in charge of the project (Nord Stream 2 AG) and its CEO, (Putin crony and former East German intelligence officer Matthias Warnig) are engaged in sanctionable activities,” writes Axios’ Jonathan Swan, who broke the story. “However, the State Department will waive the applications of those sanctions, citing U.S. national interests.”

What are those national interests? Swan reports that the Biden administration “is not willing to rupture its relationship with Germany” over the pipeline, which the administration insists it is still determined to stop.

Subscribe today to the Washington Examiner magazine that will keep you up to date with what’s going on in Washington. SUBSCRIBE NOW: Just $1.00 an issue!

Both Republicans and Democrats in Congress oppose the pipeline and support sanctions related to it. But for Republicans especially, after listening to Democrats accuse President Trump of appeasing Putin, the administration’s decision is particularly galling. And add to that their unhappiness with Biden shutting down the Keystone XL pipeline project in the U.S.

ISRAEL, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Has Everyone Gone Nuts? I can’t be the only person who has a Black Lives Matter sign but also believes Israel isn’t an apartheid state, who does Women’s Marches but thinks Hamas is not La Résistance. Where is everyone else? BY JILL KARGMAN

Posted By on May 19th, 2021

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/has-everyone-gone-nuts

When you’re like me and get a new asshole ripped daily by both the far right and the far left, it can feel like you’re in a Gary Larson cartoon as a dude on a tiny desert island with a palm tree. I don’t have a long white beard, but I definitely feel the weirdo isolation—this week more than ever before.

Over the past four years, my countless posts against that malignant narcissist Mango Mussolini sparked the ire of both his cosplaying Nazi followers and my own fanatical co-religionists, who regularly went ripshit on me for loathing their beloved leader. But that wasn’t going to stop me. I coped with the stress of 45 by sharing memes and following like-minded liberals who seemed to experience the same full-body cringe at Trump’s every idiotic move. While I got likes for commenting on his racism, sexism, or his orange neckgina, members of the other team called me an “ugly jew cunt” and more than a few Hasidic followers called me a fake Jew.

Those DMs never actually bothered me. Extreme religion—be it Pentecostal Christianity or extreme Orthodoxy of my own faith—has always disagreed with me, and probably always will. I have always suspected that no matter the faith, in any religion’s fundamentalist form the true believers all ultimately subjugate women and believe that being gay is a sin. Which is why all of their comments calling me an infidel have always been meaningless to me. If you don’t believe in hell, you don’t fear the bubbling sulfur of the Devil.

But that was before we were all plunged into Hades on Earth this past week, bombarded with horrific images on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After a barrage of influencers, fashion brands, and random-ass TikTokers posted one-sided propaganda claiming that Israel was ethnically cleansing oppressors, I felt my blood simmering and decided to post a simple Insta story: “I support Israel’s right to defend itself,” it said, simply. “Oh, and PS to some of my gay friends who keep posting against this, Israel is the ONLY country in the Middle East that supports LGBT rights!”

ISRAEL, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Can You Be a Progressive and Support Israel? A Conversation with Bronx Democrat Ritchie Torres. Bari Weiss

Posted By on May 19th, 2021

https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/can-you-be-a-progressive-and-support?token=

Ritchie Torres is a freshman congressman representing New York’s 15th district. He grew up in a public housing project in the Bronx, brought up by a single mother who raised him, his sister, and his twin brother on minimum wage. Upon his swearing-in, Ritchie became the first openly gay Afro-Latin American member of Congress. He is a staunch progressive, and has been vocal about improving public housing, advocating for LGBT businesses, and addressing child poverty. 

He is also an outspoken supporter of Israel, a position that 10 years ago wouldn’t have been notable, but in today’s progressive wing of the Democratic Party has made him a curiosity — sort of like a Trumper who doesn’t want a recount. 

Rep. Torres’s position on Israel has made him a target on social media, where he has been smeared as a supporter of ethnic cleansing and genocide. It has also opened him up to criticism from his colleagues.

To me, he looks a bit like a single man standing alone against a cultural tsunami. Does he feel that way? I called Rep. Torres yesterday to find out. 

Our interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

BW: Last week you said: “I am here to affirm, as a member of Congress — one who intends to be here for a long time — that I have an unwavering commitment to both the sovereignty and security of Israel as a Jewish state.” That kind of statement used to be par for the course for Democratic politicians. That no longer seems to me to be the case. What happened?

RT: It feels like we are living through a tectonic shift. We’re increasingly living in a world where support for Israel as a Jewish state, support for the American Israeli relationship, support even for a two state solution, is becoming heresy. And BDS is in danger of becoming orthodoxy, particularly within progressive circles.

BW: Why has that view become heretical? How did we get to this point?

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Jeffrey Epstein took Bill Gates to meet the head of Norway’s Nobel Committee that awards the Peace Prize By Thomas Lifson

Posted By on May 19th, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/05/jeffrey_epstein_took_

What sort of goals would make it worthwhile to hang out with a convicted child sex offender if you are a megalomaniac billionaire?  The curious case of the relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and Bill Gates just got curiouser.  Anonymous sources, denials, millions of dollars in donations, and claims of lies surround a 2013 visit of Bill Gates and Jeffrey Epstein to the Strasbourg home of the then-chairman of Norway’s Nobel Committee, which awards the Peace Prize.  The visit was uncovered by Norwegian business daily DN, whose sister publication describes in English the visit and its denial:

Former Nobel Committee chair Thorbjørn Jagland denied having met Jeffrey Epstein when asked by the current chairperson. An investigation by Norwegian business newspaper DN reveals Jagland hosted Epstein and Bill Gates in his Strasbourg residence in 2013.

These uncredited photos via the U.K. Daily Mail allegedly show Epstein and Gates together in Strasbourg and reveal that Jagland, a career politician who was at the time serving as secretary general of the Council of Europe as well as chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, lived in a spectacular home in Strasbourg.  While E.U. positions pay very well, and even though he held two jobs, this house looks suspiciously lavish to me:

It might be worth noting that the first Nobel Peace Prize awarded after Jagland assumed the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee (whose five members are appointed by that nation’s parliament, where Jagland has previously served, including as a prime minister) was to Barack Obama — shortly after his inauguration as POTUS, before he had accomplished anything remotely worthy of the honor.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Overhyped Story on New York’s Trump Probe By Andrew C. McCarthy

Posted By on May 19th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-overhyped-story-on-new-yorks-trump-probe/

Despite all the clamor since news broke last night of a purportedly big development in the state of New York’s criminal investigation of former President Donald Trump’s real-estate organization, nothing very meaningful has happened. The development here has to do, merely, with who is investigating. Nothing has changed regarding what is being investigated.

For years, multiple New York state authorities have been eying the Trump organization and the former president himself. As I’ve previously outlined (see, e.g., here), the DA has homed in on suspicions of bank, insurance, and tax fraud, based on what has been reported (particularly by the New York Times) to be a decades-old pattern of inflating or deflating estimates of the value of Trump assets to seek financial advantage (e.g., higher values help with borrowing and real-estate coverage, lower values with tax obligations, and insurance premiums). Meanwhile, the Empire State’s attorney general, Letitia James, has been probing the same subject matter, in anticipation of using her authority to bring civil actions — the AG’s criminal-enforcement authority is more limited than the DA’s.

Last night’s news is that the two offices are now joining forces on the criminal aspect of the investigation. That’s all.

This is not surprising. As I explained back in February (in the column linked above), the DA’s office — which litigated the case all the way to the Supreme Court twice in order to get access to former president Trump’s financial records — has been staffing the probe up. Joining forces with the AG’s office means the DA’s criminal probe will have additional resources, including lawyers experienced in corporate-financial investigations.

James is an ambitious progressive politician who is frequently touted as a future gubernatorial candidate (maybe the not-too-distant future). It makes political sense that she would want a more prominent role in a probe of Trump, who is unpopular in New York (which President Biden carried by 2 million votes in 2020, and Hillary Clinton by 1.7 million in 2016). So the latest shuffling of the prosecutorial deck will add fodder to Trump’s claims that he, his family, and his organization are being subjected to an abusive political vendetta by New York Democrats. Nevertheless, the announcement that James and Vance will be working together, rather than pursuing the case on parallel tracks, does not change the subject matter under investigation.

It is worth adding, as I have noted before, that though the investigation has been going on for a long time, no one has been accused of a crime or sued civilly at this point.

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Accused Russiagate ‘Spy’ Kilimnik Speaks — and Evidence Backs His ‘No Collusion’ Account By Aaron Maté

Posted By on May 19th, 2021

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2021/05/19/accused_russiagate_spy_kilimnik_speaks_-_and_evidence_backs_his_no_collusion_account_777328.html

The man cast as a linchpin of debunked Trump-Russia collusion theories is breaking his silence to vigorously dispute the U.S. government’s effort to brand him a Russian spy and put him behind bars.

In an exclusive interview with RealClearInvestigations, Konstantin Kilimnik stated, “I have no relationship whatsoever to any intelligence services, be they Russian or Ukrainian or American, or anyone else.”

Kilimnik, a longtime employee of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, spoke out in response to an explosive Treasury Department statement declaring that he had “provided the Russian Intelligence Services with sensitive information on polling and campaign strategy” during the 2016 election. That press release, which announced an array of sanctions on Russian nationals last month, also alleged that Kilimnik is a “known Russian Intelligence Services agent implementing influence operations on their behalf.”

Treasury’s claim came shortly after two other accusatory U.S. government statements about the dual Ukrainian-Russian national. In March, a U.S. Intelligence Community Assessment accused Kilimnik of being a “Russian influence agent” who meddled in the 2020 campaign to assist Trump’s reelection. A month earlier, an FBI alert offered $250,000 for information leading to his arrest over a 2018 witness tampering charge in Manafort’s shuttered Ukraine lobbying case, which was unrelated to Russia, collusion, or any elections.

Treasury provided no evidence for its claims, which go beyond the findings of the two most extensive Russiagate investigations: the 448-page report issued in 2019 by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the 966-page report issued in August 2020 by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Treasury has declined all media requests for elaboration on how it reached conclusions that those probes did not. Two unidentified officials told NBC News that U.S. intelligence “has developed new information” about Kilimnik “that leads them to believe” (emphasis added) that he passed on the polling data to Russia. But these  sources “did not identify the source or type of intelligence that had been developed,” nor “when or how” it was received.

“Nobody has seen any evidence to support these claims about Kilimnik,” a congressional source familiar with the House and Senate’s multiple Russia-related investigations told RCI.