The Truth about the Sheikh Jarrah Eviction By Erielle Davidson

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/05/the-truth-about-the-sheikh-jarrah-eviction/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_

It’s worth rebutting the deceptions about the incident at the supposed center of a resurgence in violence between Arabs and Israelis.

The east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah has become the latest flashpoint in the Arab–Israeli conflict, sparking the very tension that Hamas seeks to exploit for its own political advantage.

Several Palestinian-Arab families living in Sheikh Jarrah face eviction from homes following a ruling from Jerusalem’s District Court. In anticipation of a Supreme Court hearing of an appeal of the ruling, Palestinian Arabs have rioted nightly in Sheikh Jarrah, joining violent Palestinian-Arab attacks related to the Ramadan holy month, and culminating in violent eruptions across the city, including at some of Jerusalem’s holiest sites.

Meanwhile, Hamas has capitalized on the unrest by launching some 1,000 rockets toward Israel, with at least seven targeting the capital city, in the hopes of killing Jews and inciting further violence.

Since Sheikh Jarrah is emerging as the battle cry of the Palestinian-Arab violence, it is worth discussing why the supposed “scandal” isn’t really a scandal at all.

For starters, the title to the land never belonged to the Palestinian Arabs currently residing on the property. There is nothing pernicious happening beyond a standard landlord eviction of non-paying tenants. But you wouldn’t know that based on the current media coverage and outcry on the progressive left.

For instance, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) penned a tweet labeling the evictions “inhumane” and stating she stood in “solidarity” with the Palestinian families being evicted from “their homes.” Senator Bernie Sanders (D., Vt.) demanded that the evictions be halted, while Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) labeled the evictions “abhorrent and unacceptable,” asserting, “The Administration should make clear to the Israeli government that these evictions are illegal and must stop immediately.” Some progressives are even arguing to condition aid to Israel over the Sheikh Jarrah issue, suggesting that U.S. aid to Israel is being used to oppress Palestinian Arabs. In turn, the Biden administration has also expressed concerns over the evictions, albeit far less forcefully.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post just published an op-ed titled “Sheikh Jarrah highlights the brazenness of Israel’s colonialist project.” Or, not to be outdone, Reuters published a piece yesterday strangely lacking an opinion label, but nonetheless featuring the title, “East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah becomes emblem of Palestinian struggle.”

There is intellectual laziness, and then there is shameless misinformation. All of the above falls into the latter category.

The Justice Department’s Resident Conspiracist Susan Hennessey’s appointment suggests the department will be politicized again. By Kimberley Strassel

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-justice-departments-resident-conspiracist-11620944310?mod=opinion_featst_pos1

House Democrats in February stripped Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments, punishment for promoting conspiracy theories. Democrats this week rewarded their own conspiracy theorist with a powerful position at the Justice Department. Anyone miss William Barr yet?

Lawfare Executive Editor Susan Hennessey announced this week she’s taking a job at the department’s National Security Division, reportedly as senior counsel. Lawfare began in 2010 as a national-security blog, though by the Trump era it had become an unabashed mouthpiece for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency, and partisan enough to marinate in the anti-Trump fever swamps.

Before QAnon, there was that tinfoil-hat document called the Steele dossier. It read like the world’s worst spy novel—secret meetings, perverted sexual acts, bribes, blackmail, cutouts—but Ms. Hennessey and her fellow Lawfare contributors lapped it up and played a central role in building and promoting the Russia-collusion fiction. Ms. Hennessey’s history as a National Security Agency lawyer gave credibility to the craziness.

“The allegations are being taken quite seriously,” she assured readers in a post in January 2017, when news of the dossier first broke. Dossier author Christopher Steele is “a person whose work intelligence professionals take seriously,” she added. She also promised that this was not a case of Obama officials “leaking sensitive information” out of “revenge,” since intelligence officials treat sensitive information “with the utmost care.” Within days Lawfare was weaving madcap webs involving Mike Flynn, Roger Stone, Russian banks and Carter Page.

Like all good conspiracists, she also worked hard to cast doubt on facts that disproved her theories. She excoriated a 2018 memo by former House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes about FBI surveillance abuses, suggesting it was a “lie.” She wrote this before she’d even read the memo, which proved accurate. When the Justice Department inspector general released a 2019 report lambasting the FBI’s conduct in the Russia probe (including that Mr. Steele had cobbled together gossip), she tweeted that she didn’t “think the findings are significant enough” to “justify the work of a podcast.” (In the runup to her job offer, thousands of her prior tweets disappeared.)

Homeland Secretary Mayorkas blames Trump administration for unaccompanied minor surge on border Mayorkas said the surge in unaccompanied children began under the Trump administration.

https://justthenews.com/government/congress/dhs-secretary-mayorkas-blames-trump-administration-unaccompanied-minor-surge

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told Congress on Thursday that the Trump administration is responsible for the growing number of unaccompanied illegal immigrant minors on the southwest U.S. border.

“We began our work with systems and tools that the prior administration had dismantled and with assistance programs that had been torn down or cut short,” Mayorkas said during a House Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing. 

Mayorkas said the former administration had dismantled facilities used to temporarily hold migrant children and programs that supported legal immigration and said it ended the Central America Minors Program that provided a legal pathway for children to enter the U.S.

The Trump administration “did nothing to facilitate addressing of the surge. What they did was they dismantled the tools that we had to address it. And they tore down the programs that could have helped alleviate the pressure,” Mayorkas said.

Biden urged to dump ‘absolutely abysmal’ Harris as border czar, poll agrees by Paul Bedard,

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/biden-urged-to-dump-absolutely-abysmal-harris-as-border-czar-poll-agrees

Vice President Kamala Harris’s lack of action on the border has prompted a call for President Joe Biden to dump her as his border czar.

“Her response to the border crisis has been absolutely abysmal, so I am requesting that she be replaced as your ‘border czar,’” Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich wrote in a letter to Biden.

With his state overwhelmed by the historic surge of illegal immigrants, Brnovich has led the leaders in border states to call for immediate action from the administration — calls that have so far been ignored.

He said he has reached out to Harris, who has yet to visit the border. But, he added, “I have not received a response from Vice President Harris or anyone in your administration.”

YouGov America

@YouGovAmerica
Do Americans have a favorable or an unfavorable opinion of Vice President Kamala Harris? US adults: 41% favorable / 48% unfavorable Democrats: 74% / 19% Independents: 32% / 57% Republicans: 12% / 84% https://today.yougov.com/topics/politic

His letter, shared with Secrets, came at the same time a new poll found national disgruntlement with the new vice president.

The Squad Is Rooting for Hamas By David Harsanyi

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-squad-is-rooting-for-hamas/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=right-rail&utm_content=corner&utm_term=second

Ocasio-Cortez, usually a font of half-baked socialist economic ideas, now regularly offers thoughts on the Israeli–Palestinian situation to her 12 million Twitter followers.

Here is one:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
@AOC
Blanket statements like these w/ little context or acknowledgement of what precipitated this cycle of violence – namely, the expulsions of Palestinians and attacks on Al Aqsa – dehumanize Palestinians & imply the US will look the other way at human rights violations. It’s wrong.

First of all, there are no “expulsions of Palestinians.” Six Palestinian families may be evicted from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in a property dispute — and the Israeli supreme court has delayed a decision — over land that was seized from Jewish families by the Jordanian Army after 1948. It’s a complicated case, brought to the judicial system by private citizens and adjudicated in an independent court. The case has been litigated for nearly 50 years, through the existence of numerous Israeli governments, both left and right. Now, I realize Ocasio-Cortez has little use for independent judiciaries or private property — or history, for that matter — but cases like these are just a pretext for the Palestinian Authority, frustrated by the Abraham Accords and their own failures, to create chaos and deflect blame.

Second, the Al-Aqsa mosque was not “attacked.” Israeli police fired stun grenades and tear gas at rock-hurling rioting Palestinians, spurred by rumors of Jewish intrusions into the Muslim holy site. Palestinian leaders have relied on this ugly tactic for nearly a century — even before the idea of Palestinian state had been concocted — to gin up protests and insurgency. Anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of the situation knows the Israeli government has absolutely no interest in controlling or taking Al Aqsa. If they did, they would never have handed administration of the site over to Muslim authorities. If they did, the Israeli military wouldn’t be rerouting Jewish marchers celebrating the reunification of Jerusalem to placate Palestinians.

Other Squad members such as Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib openly spread blood libel. If you listen to them, you’d think Israelis go around killing Palestinian children for kicks. It’s odious. They’re Jew haters, and there’s no reason to pretend otherwise:

To wit: Ilhan Omar

@IlhanMN
Israeli air strikes killing civilians in Gaza is an act of terrorism. Palestinians deserve protection. Unlike Israel, missile defense programs, such as Iron Dome, don’t exist to protect Palestinian civilians. It’s unconscionable to not condemn these attacks on the week of Eid.

‘Where’s Durham?’: Investigation of Russia-collusion probe’s origin quietly hits second anniversary

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/may/13/wheres-durham-investigation-russia-collusion-probe/?

Former President Trump gushed “I am so proud” when then-Attorney General William P. Barr tapped John Durham to look for widespread wrongdoing by FBI officials in the early stages of its Russia-collusion probe.

That was in May 2019.

Two years later, Mr. Trump and other conservatives mock the investigation that has practically disappeared without an utterance from Mr. Durham or any sign that he has uncovered anything.

“Where’s Durham?” Mr. Trump said in March. “Is he a living, breathing human being? Will there ever be a Durham report?”

Mr. Trump’s about-face is emblematic of the extent to which conservatives have soured on the Durham investigation. Those who once breathlessly predicted the probe would uncover a deep state conspiracy against Mr. Trump have now reduced it to a punchline.

When a poll last month revealed that 67% of Americans are unaware of the Durham probe, some internet jokesters wondered if Mr. Durham himself was among those oblivious to its existence.

As the investigation sputters toward its second anniversary on Thursday with few signs of life, conservatives are questioning what Mr. Durham has been up to for the past 24 months and if the public ever finds out, will anyone care?

“To say there has been a federal investigation into these FBI abuses and there has been one plea deal is to condemn it,” said Tom Fitton, president of the conservative activist group Judicial Watch. “You are describing failure.”

Once hopeful conservatives believed Mr. Durham would ride into town and aggressively expose malfeasance by Obama-era FBI and Justice Department officials. They expected his probe would shed light on whether FBI officials knowingly misled a court when it obtained permission to wiretap former Trump adviser, Carter Page.

Now they are puzzled as to why he has yet to interview FBI officials who held senior roles in 2016. Former FBI Director James B. Comey, Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and anti-Trump investigator Peter Strzok haven’t spoken with Mr. Durham, according to people familiar with the probe.

Mr. Durham did interview former CIA Director John O. Brennan in 2020 but told him that he was not the target of any criminal inquiry. The reason for the Brennan interview remains opaque.

Robert Ray, who succeeded Kenneth Starr as independent counsel during investigations into then-President Clinton, said these types of investigations have a shelf life. The longer an investigation runs, the more obstacles emerge because witnesses’ memories fade and cooperation becomes more difficult to obtain.

Israel’s Favorability Among Americans Ambassador (Ret.) Yoram Ettinger

https://bit.ly/3uKTBfp

According to the annual February 2021 Gallup’s country favorability rating, Israel is the 7th most favorable country among Americans, enjoying a 75% very/mostly favorability rating.

Israel’s favorability of 75% – compared to 66% in 2013, 69% in 2019 and 74% in 2020 – is above its 65% average since 2001, and just shy of its exceptional 79% favorability recorded during the 1991 Gulf War, when the US public was exposed to Iraqi missiles hitting Israel. 

According to Gallup, “In the latest poll, 85% of Republicans view it favorably, compared with 77% of independents and 64% of Democrats.”

Iran (13%) and the Palestinian Authority (30%) trail Cuba (45%), and are among the least favorable countries, along with North Korea (11%), China (20%), Iraq (21%), Afghanistan (21%) and Russia (22%).

Israel trails Canada (92% favorability), Great Britain (91%), France (87%), Japan (84%), Germany (84%) and India (77%).

However, unlike these countries, Israel’s 75% favorability is in defiance of systematic criticism (of Israel) by the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other key members of the US media establishment, as well as by State Department spokespersons and the United Nations.

Israel’s high favorability rating occurs despite the spike in anti-Israel activities on US campuses, as well as the recent erosion of Israel’s stature on Capitol Hill (especially on the House side), which has been Israel’s consistent ally since 1948.

Is Israel on the verge of a Hamas-abetted civil war? Ruthie Blum

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/is-israel-on-the-verge-of-a-hamas-abetted-civil-war-opinion-668148

Amid the barrages of Hamas and Islamic Jihad rockets – and as young Arab citizens of Israel engaged in riots across the country – Muslim and Jewish medical personnel at the Rambam Health Care Center in Haifa issued a message of unity.

In an uplifting multi-lingual tweet on Wednesday evening, the doctors and nurses of the hospital posted a photo collage in which they are seen standing side-by-side, holding up pieces of paper spelling out the Hebrew sentences: “We overcame the coronavirus. We will all come together again now.” Some members of the team, in scrubs and surgical masks, with stethoscopes around their necks, are bearing signs with drawings of hearts accompanied by the word “peace” in Arabic.
The uplifting social-media post was both welcome and jarring. On the one hand, it served as a reminder of the dedication of Israel’s doctors and nurses of all ethnic and religious backgrounds to saving lives for months on end during the pandemic.

On the other, it constituted a stark contrast to the scenes of anti-Jewish rampages taking place in Jerusalem, Lod, Acre, Jaffa and Haifa, and retaliation by vigilantes out for vengeance against Arabs in Bat Yam, Tiberias and elsewhere.

The brewing of what is coming to resemble an actual civil war, as with the missiles from Gaza, can be attributed to Hamas, the terrorist organization that rules the Gaza Strip, and to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Hostility towards Israel as functional antisemitism by Renato Cristin *****

https://www.opinione.it/editoriali/2021/04/29/renato-cristin_ostilit%C3%A0-israele-antisemitismo-funzionale-human-rights-watch-onu/

On one thing, the recent report by Human Rights Watch dedicated to Israel is right: “a threshold has been crossed”. Yes, one limit has been crossed, or rather two, but it is Human Rights Watch itself that has exceeded them: on the one hand, its report goes beyond the limits of the caricature and the grotesque (which is inadmissible for an organization accredited to the UN), presenting a political and social reality through the distorting lens of pro-Palestinian, pro-Islamic and anti-Zionist ideology; on the other hand, the border that divides criticism of the work of the State of Israel from antisemitism as the result of an action, an analysis or an opinion has been crossed. Yes, this relationship has introduced a new level: it cleared that form of anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish hatred that I call functional antisemitism.

We know that these organizations, protected by the UN, have no problem attacking any government not aligned with the Palace, tarnishing it with hallucinating and often spurious accusations. But towards Israel there has always been, in that Palace and in its ideologies, a special aversion, which can be explained above all by the resistance that Israel opposes to the tendency to annihilate the nations that the UN has always supported and with the refusal Israel to accept the warnings (or rather: the diktats) to behave according to criteria that the UN considers politically correct.

Today, with an apparently isolated but in reality concerted action at the highest level, because it is connected with the orientation of the UN and, as we will see, with the action of the International Criminal Court, this questionable NGO puts Israel in the dock for racism and crimes against humanity (but with what credibility, then?, with what historical heritage, with what spiritual mission, with what political authority, with what popular mandate, with what ideological neutrality?), as if it were Amin Dada’s Uganda or the Central African Republic of Bokassa. Absurd, as in a piece by Beckett or Ionesco.

‘Truth,’ as Well as Israel, Is ‘Under Siege’ From Hamas, Declares NY Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres in Solidarity Speech

https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/05/13/truth-as-well-as-israel-is-under-siege-from-hamas-declares-ny-democratic-rep-ritchie-torres-in-solidarity-speech/

Progressive Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York has delivered an impassioned defense of the State of Israel in the face of the escalating military threat from Hamas.

Speaking to a virtual UJA event on Wednesday night, the 33-year-old East Bronx native — whose 15th district includes the South Bronx and borders that of fellow Democrat and frequent Israel critic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — restated his “unwavering commitment to both the sovereignty and security of Israel as a Jewish State.”

Torres remarked that “what is under siege is not only Israel.”

He continued: “What is under siege is the truth itself. Circulating on social media is a vicious lie — a lie that deceptively reframes the terrorism of Hamas as self-defense and deceptively reframes the self-defense of Israel as terrorism. Increasingly, we seem to live in an Orwellian universe where the truth no longer matters.”

Torres — who has at times faced criticism from colleagues on the left of the Democratic Party because of his stalwart backing for Israel — then noted that “support for Israel, especially in moments like these, is not for the faint-hearted.”