IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Liz Peek: Joe Biden’s immigration avalanche is about to bury him

Posted By on January 25th, 2024

https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/4429305-joe-bidens-immigration-avalanche-is-about-to-bury-him/

What on earth is Joe Biden thinking?  

As the country erupts over the horrorshow at the southern border, the White House is doing battle — not with the armed gangs infiltrating our country or the tens of thousands of people illegally streaming across our border, but with the governor of Texas, who is trying to protect his citizens from the unruly horde.   

Gov. Greg Abbott has directed the construction of razor wire barriers to prevent people entering between legal ports of entry; the White House has gotten permission from the Supreme Court to take them down. 

In addition, Republicans in Congress have demanded that the Biden administration secure the border in exchange for greenlighting aid to Ukraine and Israel.  

This is easy, folks. Give the GOP the rules changes they want and 1) Biden’s border catastrophe gets better, generating fewer appalling headlines, and 2) the U.S. meets its promises and Biden can keep chirping that “America is back.”  

Our clueless president disagrees. This issue could literally defeat Joe Biden, and he is fighting everything and anything that could make the situation better. 

The No.1 issue for Republican voters in Iowa and in New Hampshire was immigration, beating out even the economy. Not surprisingly, Donald Trump was the heavy favorite in both states. Securing the border was the former president’s signature campaign promise in 2016; having delivered on that pledge, he will, for sure, hit the topic hard again in 2024.   

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Why Benjamin Netanyahu Rejects Palestinian Statehood by Lawrence J. Haas

Posted By on January 25th, 2024

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/why-benjamin-netanyahu-rejects-palestinian-statehood-208847

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rejection of a post-Gaza War Palestinian state spurred a predictable global response—with UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres calling it “unacceptable,” President Joe Biden reiterating support for the “two-state solution,” and the European Union threatening “consequences” if Netanyahu’s government doesn’t change its course.

But the back and forth between Jerusalem (which is fighting a gruesome war with a genocidal terrorist group) and the world (which watches it peacefully from afar) masks a far more complicated reality.

The question is not whether Netanyahu is wrong to reject the two-state solution for the foreseeable future. The question is whether he’s wrong to say publicly what many in his position would think privately.

To be sure, Netanyahu can’t seem to resist the temptation to portray himself as a Jewish “Horatius at the bridge”—the only thing standing between his people and their destruction. With Israelis outraged by intelligence failures that enabled the slaughter of October 7, a weakened Netanyahu will likely try to reinforce that image at home and not worry about the consequences abroad.

But set aside that it’s the controversial Netanyahu who’s presiding in Jerusalem. And set aside the conventional wisdom that hails the two-state solution as the obvious path to Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Let’s consider the two-state solution through the eyes of a generic Israeli leader—one elected by the people and responsible for their safety.

The two-state solution is predicated on Israel and a new Palestine “living side by side in peace.” True peace, however, must not only emerge from the negotiating table but also infuse the hearts of the populace. Otherwise, pursuing the two-state solution is misguided and potentially dangerous.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

“Like…wtf”: Israel’s Arab Citizens Feel Lucky by Bassam Tawil

Posted By on January 25th, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20339/israel-arab-citizens-lucky

“It’s disheartening to know that among the fallen heroes are Bedouin and Druze soldiers, Muslims, and Christians who courageously defended our country. The Bedouin community mourns all civilian victims, regardless of their background — Jews, Christians, or Muslims. This brings me to a crucial point: we all share the same destiny, and our strength lies in unity. Unfortunately, there are those who seek to undermine cooperation between different sectors, sowing seeds of mistrust. I urge you not to be swayed by such attempts and to stand strong in our shared commitment to unity.” — IDF Sergeant First Class (reserve) Ahmed Abu Latif, 26, a husband and father to a one-year-old baby, who was killed on January 22 during the fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Facebook, November 13, 2023,

Hamas’s October 7 atrocities did not distinguish between Jew and Arab, old and young, male and female, black and white. At least 20 Arab Israeli citizens were murdered by Hamas terrorists during the attack on that day or by Hamas rocket attacks in the ensuing days. Most of the victims were Bedouin residents living in the south of Israel. Moreover, several Bedouin men and women were abducted by Hamas.

It is no wonder, then, that an overwhelming majority of the Israeli-Arab public opposed the Hamas attack. A study conducted by Nimrod Nir of the Adam Institute and Dr. Mohammed Khalaily among the Arab public showed that most Arabs support Israel’s right to defend itself and even expressed a willingness to volunteer to help civilians who were harmed during the Hamas attack. The study showed that almost 80% of Israeli Arabs opposed the Hamas attack, and 85% opposed the kidnapping of civilians.

“For the longest time, I struggled with my identity. A Palestinian kid born inside Israel. Like…wtf. Many of my friends refuse to this day to say the word ‘Israel’ and call themselves ‘Palestinian’ only. But since I was 12, that did not make sense to me. So, I decided to mix the two and become a ‘Palestinian-Israeli.’ I thought this term reflected who I was. Palestinian first. Israeli second. But after recent events, I started to think. And think. And think. And then my thoughts turned to anger. I realized that if Israel were to be ‘invaded’ like that again, we would not be safe… And I do not want to live under a Palestinian government. Which means I only have one home, even if I’m not Jewish: Israel.” — Nuseir Yassin (“Nas Daily”), Israeli Arab blogger, October 9, 2023.

“I’m an Israeli Arab… I’m embarrassed. And Hamas is to blame… “This [Arabs identifying with Israel] demonstrates that the Arab community in Israel aspires to further integrate into society and distance itself from bad faith actors like Hamas… Israeli Arabs and Jews are like salt and pepper: They both belong on the table, and once they’re sprinkled into a dish it’s almost impossible to distinguish between them.” — Prof. Mouna Maroun, Vice President and Dean of Research at University of Haifa and the former Head of the Sagol Department of Neurobiology, the first Arab woman to hold a senior faculty position in natural sciences; newsweek.com, November 21, 2023.

Hamas was undoubtedly hoping that the massacre its members committed on October 7 would sabotage relations not only between Israel and the Palestinians, but also between Jews and Arabs inside Israel. Fortunately, however, Hamas has been unsuccessful in pitting Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs against each other. Despite the Israel-Hamas war, the vast majority of Jews and Arabs inside Israel continue to work together and live in peace and security next to each other, and often in the same neighborhoods…

The Palestinians living under the corrupt Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the Hamas terrorist group in the Gaza Strip can only envy Israeli-Arab citizens for living in Israel, where they enjoy democracy, freedom of expression, access to superb healthcare and educational institutions and careers, as well as a thriving economy.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D- NY District 15)Gives Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Sermon at Central Synagogue NYC

Posted By on January 25th, 2024

Rep. Ritchie Torres Gives Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Sermon at Central Synagogue NYC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u3B_feOUUU&t=2s

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

TED Fellows Resign after Bill Ackman, Bari Weiss Invited to Speak at Conference By Zach Kessel

Posted By on January 25th, 2024

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/ted-fellows-resign-after-bill-ackman-bari-weiss-invited-to-speak-at-conference/

Five participants in the TED fellows program, which supports and promotes emerging voices in a variety of fields across the globe, resigned Wednesday after the public-speaking organization invited hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman and journalist Bari Weiss to speak at its 2024 flagship conference in Vancouver. The five fellows — self-described inventor Ayah Bdeir, filmmaker Saeed Taji Farouky, cosmologist Renée Hlozek, artist Sarah Sandman, and astronomer Lucianne Walkowicz — sent a letter to TED leader Chris Anderson and fellows program director Lily James Olds. Titled “TED Fellows refuse to be associated with genocide apologists,” the letter accused TED of choosing “not only to align itself with enablers and supporters of genocide, but to amplify their racist propaganda.”

The authors of the letter wrote that Ackman “has defended Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and has cynically weaponised antisemitism in his programme to purge American universities of Pro-Palestinian freedom of speech.”

The five former fellows also named the invitation of Free Press founder and editor Bari Weiss to the conference as a reason that they cut ties with TED. Weiss, they wrote, “has a long, sordid, and well-documented history of anti-Palestinian speech.” And, supposedly like Ackman, she has “weaponised antisemitism to defend Israel’s genocide in Gaza and has a track record of transphobic extremism.”

Ackman — not known, before the Hamas attack on Israel, as a commentator on current events — has become one of the most outspoken critics of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs in higher education. Since October 7, he has become one of the loudest voices on X discussing the rise in antisemitism in the United States, particularly on college campuses. He was also one of the bigger names calling for Claudine Gay’s removal, first after the former Harvard president’s testimony in front of the House Education and Workforce Committee and then during the plagiarism scandal that ultimately led to Gay’s resignation on January 2.

Weiss, whose outlet has extensively covered the Hamas attack, the ensuing Israeli response, and the conflict’s reverberations in the West, is the author of How to Fight Anti-Semitism, from 2019. She has become known as a defender of the Jewish state.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Trump: America’s ‘Coat’ for a Globalist Winter By J.B. Shurk

Posted By on January 25th, 2024

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/01/trump_americas_coat_for_a_globalist_winter.html

Market researcher and financial cycle analyst Charles Nenner has described Donald Trump in an insightful way.  In an interview earlier this month, Nenner predicted that we are simultaneously entering both a devastating global war cycle and a damaging downward financial spiral that cannot be stopped and will likely cause more human misery than the world has endured for quite some time.  While lamenting that this economic and social catastrophe is all but certain, he returned to his emphasis on cycles by saying, “You have summer and then you have winter,” and the best that anybody can do before winter arrives is to “buy a coat.”  When asked how Donald Trump’s return to the presidency might change things, he answered directly, “Trump is going to be the winter coat.  I think he can make it less bad.”

Trump is America’s winter coat.  What an apt metaphor for a man who takes all the bad weather around him in stride as he trudges up and over each new hill.  Trump is a man for all seasons, to be sure, but he seems singularly built for withstanding the fiercest winter storms.  As the global “elite” angrily watch President Trump become the Republicans’ presumptive nominee once again, some will wonder how this real estate titan and television celebrity whom they have long scorned has managed to survive endless partisan witch hunts, two farcical impeachments, outright bureaucratic sabotage, an onslaught of civil lawsuits targeting his wealth and reputation, a news media establishment that relentlessly impugns his character with outrageous lies, and a Deep State–directed “justice” system that seeks his death in prison.  The simplest answer is that Americans have long been searching for a leader not only willing to confront the D.C. Leviathan’s malevolent corruption, but also of sufficient grit to persevere against the “ruling class’s” inevitable vengeance.  

The Deep State’s worst strategic blunder has been its insistence on ruthlessly punishing Donald Trump for choosing to be the voice of tens of millions of forgotten Americans.  By throwing one challenge at him after the next and giving him the opportunity to prove his strength and determination, the D.C. Leviathan has cemented Trump’s reputation as a man of uncommon fortitude.  People sometimes have trouble distinguishing between heroes and villains.  When a man is endlessly tormented for the ideas and people he represents, and when the government engages in a punitive campaign of lawfare and lies to cut him down, nobody struggles to spot the good guy fighting back against evil.  Americans were looking for a warrior, and Donald Trump accepted the challenge.  The entrenched bureaucracy responded by erecting a nightmarish gauntlet certain to leave anyone bloodied and bruised.  To the D.C. despots’ amazement, Trump continues to run through an inferno of injustice that would have incinerated most.  Ironically, it is the Deep State that has proved the president’s mettle.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Is Cornell Next? School’s Wealthy Donors Call for President’s Ouster After resignations at Harvard and Penn, a former university trustee and an alumni group are calling for the same at Cornell By Douglas Belkin

Posted By on January 25th, 2024

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/is-cornell-next-schools-wealthy-donors-call-for-presidents-ouster-13ab9c4d?mod=hp_lead_pos11

Wealthy alumni activists enraged at the leadership of their Ivy League alma maters have helped push out the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University.

Now, a new group of donors are pulling out the same playbook at Cornell University.

Jon Lindseth, a Cornell alumnus, donor and former trustee, asked the school’s Board of Trustees to dismiss university President Martha Pollack and provost Michael Kotlikoff for allegedly stifling open debate and rational argument. Alumni who support the call for the pair’s ouster also are upset about diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the school as well as what they see as growing antisemitism on campus.

“Cornell is no longer concerned with discovering and disseminating knowledge, but rather with adhering to DEI groupthink policies and racialization,” wrote Lindseth, 89 years old, a retired mechanical engineer and entrepreneur, in a five-page letter to the board’s chair.

Trustees for the university in upstate New York are scheduled to meet Friday. In Lindseth’s letter, he calls for the school to eliminate DEI staffing and programming and adopt principles of free inquiry and open debate.

The push is supported by the Cornell Free Speech Alliance, a two-year-old group formed to support free expression and viewpoint diversity on campus. Some alumni members of the group who are also wealthy donors have indicated they would withhold donations if college administrators didn’t do a better job of protecting those ideals. Others want to see Pollack removed.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Davos 2024 Agenda Revealed – and Now in Crosshairs of U.S. Congress Americans are finally waking up to the dark agenda of the global elite. by Scott S. Powell

Posted By on January 25th, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/davos-2024-agenda-revealed-and-now-in-crosshairs-of-u-s-congress/

“Rebuilding Trust” was the theme of the 2024 five-day meeting at Davos of the World Economic Forum (WEF), which just adjourned on January 19. No doubt Klaus Schwab, the founder and chairman of WEF, produced that theme as a good faith attempt to appease a growing number of regular Davos attendees who can no longer support WEF’s incredulous agenda. That agenda is all about draconian control over people’s lives and replacing individual nation-states with some kind of unwieldy and unaccountable new world order.

Part of the genius of Davos has been cultivating the elite with a myriad of private receptions, glitzy parties, and boundless opportunities for wheeling and dealing, which provide a smokescreen of legitimacy for the radical global agenda of WEF. Attendees are certainly disinclined to speak ill of such a lavish host and his swanky resort venue that makes bringing together the rich and famous possible. And Klaus appears beyond reproach with his disarming, cute, contrived, broken English accent.

But for those paying attention to the specifics of the Davos pronouncements and agenda, there is more reason than ever to distrust the WEF. Schwab stated the quiet part aloud—openly dissing common citizens and dismissing the need for elections. He said such choices should not be left to the people but rather to elites and their artificial intelligence (AI). “You do not even need to have elections anymore,” said Schwab, “because you can already predict… because we know the results.” Thus, Schwab, speaking for Davos 2024, justified the subversion and cancellation of the U.S. election in November.

Indeed, when one surveys WEF goals for 2024, there is more reason than ever for alarm. Americans face many dangers, including the flood of illegal migrants—now approaching ten million; domestic terrorist attacks from fifth column cadre among that massive number of migrants; elite capture and corruption; breakdown of law and order and civil unrest; demoralization of the American military; economic recession; and accelerating growth of national debt. Another reason for pause and distrust of WEF is its close collaboration with the U.N.’s World Health Organization (WHO) and its director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

The Academic Bill of Rights to Restore Diversity of Thought on College Campuses Pushing back against the intellectual and moral rot. Phil Orenstein

Posted By on January 25th, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-academic-bill-of-rights-to-restore-diversity-of-thought-on-college-campuses/

The presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and MIT were held accountable for the “rampant antisemitism” on their campuses. During the December congressional investigation of the House Committee on Education & the Workforce, the sharp line of questioning by Congresswoman Elise Stefanik exposed the evil and moral rot on the campuses of these elite universities and ultimately two of the presidents resigned. Their pathetic answers on whether calling for “genocide of Jews” constituted bullying and harassment in their campus codes of conduct, exposed their utter lack of concern and arrogance, and it’s a good thing they were forced out.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. The intellectual and moral rot on our college campuses is much more deep seated than college presidents or boards of directors. The faculty are the real villains. It’s the professors who destroyed higher education in America as a place of free thought and turned these institutions into centers of indoctrination. They are the ones who must be held accountable for suppressing free speech and diversity of opinion, in the pursuit of social justice and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

Twenty years ago, academic freedom was essentially sacrosanct. But not today. There’s no more respect for academic freedom. Today professors, mainly in Humanities and Social Sciences, have become radicalized and practice indoctrination in the classroom for political and social change. Their mission is to produce social justice warriors. Israel is now designated the settler-colonialist oppressor in the social justice playbook, and the Palestinians are the oppressed victims. In their playbook they must stand in solidarity with the oppressed and join the crusade to overthrow the oppressor, which is why antisemitism now is raging out-of-control on campus. We saw it in the antisemitic riot at Hillcrest High School where a student mob attacked a Jewish teacher who was seen on social media attending a pro-Israel rally. We saw it in the pro-Hamas protests blocking traffic and cursing Israel, where many of the protestors were college students and faculty. We see it in the rise of antisemitic incidents on college campuses where Jewish students worry about their personal safety. We see the erasure of Israel from Middle Eastern maps in the classroom. It’s not just Jewish students – it’s Republicans, it’s patriotic Americans, it’s anyone who becomes the target of leftist indoctrination.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

First They Came for My People, Then They Came for the Jews A South Sudanese former slave recognized the Palestinian pogrom on Oct. 7 By Simon Deng

Posted By on January 24th, 2024

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/sudan-former-slave-jews-israel

My name is Simon Aban Deng. I am from South Sudan. I am a Shilluk. I am a Christian. I am a former slave.

I will not forget that day when Arab Sudanese government troops came and raided my village. We didn’t know what was going on until we heard gunshots from every direction. I was only 9 years old, but the militiamen were shooting anybody they saw, including children.

Myself, my family, and five of my friends had to run. But the Arabs ran after us: While we were running, they shot two of my friends. We ran wildly, not knowing where we were running. We just wanted to get away from these men, and the bullets, chasing us.

We ran until they disappeared. We then spent the night in the bush, terrified, and wondering if we would see these men again.

A relative of mine who was pregnant had escaped the village with us, but she couldn’t run like the other people. She collapsed from exhaustion as we were running, but we had to leave her, knowing that the Arabs would catch us if we tried to carry her or run at her pace. In the morning, as we returned to our village—wondering if it was still standing—we found that she had been eaten by wild animals during the night.

When we got there, the elders who were able to escape returned to bury the dead and try to save whatever the Arabs had not destroyed. And they had destroyed plenty. The whole village had been burned to the ground with the people inside the houses, including a blind man and an elderly lady we knew.

Seeing our beautiful village reduced to a wasteland of burned grass and rows of bodies, my father made the painful decision to leave. Now refugees, we walked to the town of Malakal, capital of Upper Nile state, where we lived for six months. Our neighbor there was an Arab named Abdullahi. One day, he asked to help him with putting his luggage onto the ferry since we lived so close to the riverbank.