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What Is Really Behind Bin Laden’s ‘Letter to the American People’? by Raymond Ibrahim

Posted By on December 8th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20202/bin-laden-letter-to-the-american-people

“Battle, animosity, and hatred — directed from the Muslim to the infidel — is the foundation of our religion. And we consider this a justice and kindness to them.” — Osama bin Laden, “Al-Qaeda’s Declaration in Response to the Saudi Ulema.”

“There are only three choices in Islam: either willing submission; or payment of the jizya, thereby physical, though not spiritual, submission to the authority of Islam; or the sword—for it is not right to let him [an infidel] live.” — Osama bin Laden, “Al-Qaeda’s Declaration in Response to the Saudi Ulema.”

In his “Letter to the American People,” however, bin Laden portrays Islam as “the religion of showing kindness to others, establishing justice between them, granting them their rights, and defending the oppressed and the persecuted.”

When clarifying to the Saudis what Islam really has in store for infidels, bin Laden quoted many of the most militant verses, such as Koran 9:29: “Fight those among the People of the Book [Jews and Christians] who do not believe in Allah, nor the Last Day, nor forbid what Allah and his Messenger have forbidden, nor embrace the religion of truth, until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.”

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Hamas on Campus: Students for Justice in Palestine by Robert Williams

Posted By on December 7th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20195/hamas-students-for-justice-in-palestine

Many pro-Hamas demonstrations that have been taking place on US campuses since Hamas launched its war on Israel on October 7, when more than 3,000 Hamas terrorists invaded and raped, pillaged, murdered and kidnapped their way through the small communities of southern Israel, have reportedly been led by a radical organization known as National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP).

According to a 2018 monograph… NSJP was founded in 2010 by leaders of American Muslims for Palestine and the US Palestinian Community Network, two organizations linked to US-designated terror organizations.

The letter [to nearly 200 university presidents] cites the NSJP toolkit document: “The toolkit refers to the Hamas-led terrorist attack in Israel as ‘the resistance.’ This was followed by statements at campus events where students proudly declared ‘We are Hamas,’ and ‘We echo Hamas.'”

Material support for a terrorist organization is a serious matter, too dangerous to leave for university presidents to solve. They frequently appear more concerned about placating the radical elements on their campuses.

Many of these academic institutions receive federal funding. However, Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 “prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.” Title IV also covers “violations based on religion.”

If a university allows material support for a terrorist organization, or discrimination against Jews, its federal financial assistance should be cancelled at once.

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The IDF is still the most moral army on earth Hamas terrorists have shown their brutality time and time again. When will Western observers wake up to that reality? Charles Lipson

Posted By on December 7th, 2023

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/comment/2023/12/06/idf-israeli-defense-force-hamas-hostages-hospital-gaza/

Now that fierce fighting has resumed in Gaza, international pressure is building on Israel to curb its military campaign and abandon its objective of crushing Hamas. The humanitarian goal of these demands is to protect innocent Palestinians. The political goal is to appease some Muslim states and appeal to anti-Israel “progressives” and Muslims in Europe and North America.

What these demands seldom mention is the cost of leaving in place a terrorist organisation bent on killing civilians, taking hostages, using civilians to shield its own fighters, and doing its best to wipe Israel off the map. The intense pressure on the Jewish state is not matched by that on Hamas.

This sharp asymmetry in political pressure is particularly evident in the fighting around Gazan hospitals. Intense battles have been waged at close quarters in and around the Indonesian Hospital, Al-Shifa (Gaza’s largest), and Al-Rantisi, among others.

News of that fighting is heartbreaking. Medical centers should be places of sanctuary. They have become sites of battle because they are useful for Hamas, which has turned patients and hospital workers into human shields and medical buildings into hiding places for terrorists, weapons, and tunnels.

Hamas uses hospitals like this for three reasons. The terrorist organisation knows that Israel has serious moral reservations about attacking civilian facilities and risking harm to innocents, a reservation not shared by Hamas militants willing to use their own people as human shields. Hospital traffic is also the perfect place to conceal the movement of terrorists and their supplies, a fact often excluded from debates over Israeli strategy. Resultantly, when the IDF launches strategic strikes, they pay a huge price in public opinion. 

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How Were the Universities Lost? The Ivy league and their kindred so-called elite campuses may soon go the way of Disney and Bud Light By Victor Davis Hanson *****

Posted By on December 7th, 2023

https://amgreatness.com/2023/12/07/how-were-the-universities-lost/

After October 7, the public was shocked at what they saw and heard on America’s campuses.

Americans knew previously they were intolerant, leftwing, and increasingly non-meritocratic.

But immediately after October 7—and even before the response of the Israeli Defense Forces—the sheer student delight on news of the mass murdering of Israeli victims seemed akin more to 1930s Germany than contemporary America.

Indeed, not a day goes by when a university professor or student group has not spouted anti-Semitic hatred. Often, they threaten and attack Jewish students, or engage in mass demonstrations calling for the extinction of Israel.

Why and how did purportedly enlightened universities become incubators of such primordial hatred?

After the George Floyd riots, reparatory admissions—the effort to admit diverse students beyond their numbers in the general population—increased.

Elite universities like Stanford and Yale boasted that their so-called “white” incoming student numbers had plunged to between 20 and 40 precent, despite whites making up 68-70 percent of the general population.

The abolition of the SAT requirement, and often the comparative ranking of high school grade point averages, have ended the ancient and time-proven idea of meritocracy. Brilliant high school transcripts and test scores no longer warrant admissions to so-called elite schools.

One result was that the number of Jews has nosedived from 20-30 percent of Ivy League student bodies during the 1970s and 1980s to 10-15 percent.

Jewish students are also currently stereotyped as “white” and “privileged”—and thus considered as fair game on campus.

At the same time, the number of foreign students, especially from the oil-rich Middle East, has soared on campuses. Most are subsidized by their homeland governments. They pay the full, non-discounted tuition rates to cash-hungry universities.

HISTORY, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

TODAY DECEMBER 7 IS PEARL HARBOR DAY

Posted By on December 7th, 2023

Americans  remember and honor the 2,403 Americans who were killed in the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, which led to the United States declaring war on Japan the next day and thus entering World War II.

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Report: U.S. Sets Record For Most Single-Day Border Apprehensions By: Shawn Fleetwood

Posted By on December 7th, 2023

https://thefederalist.com/2023/12/06/report-u-s-sets-record-for-most-single-day-border-apprehensions/

The United States reportedly set a new record for the most single-day migrant encounters at its southern border, marking another historic casualty brought about by President Biden’s open border policies.

According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources who spoke with Fox News’ Bill Melugin, “there were more than 12,000 migrant encounters” at the U.S.-Mexico border on Tuesday, including “10,200+ Border Patrol apprehensions of illegal immigrants, amongst the highest daily totals for BP ever recorded.”

These figures do not include “gotaways,” or illegal immigrants who managed to evade capture by CBP.

Brought about by the “Let’s let everyone in!” policies put forward by the Biden administration, Tuesday’s numbers come weeks after CBP reported that nearly a quarter of a million illegal aliens were apprehended at the southern border in October. In fiscal year 2023, the agency encountered “more than 2.47 million” illegals, marking an increase from the roughly 2.38 million recorded in 2022 and 1.73 million in 2021. A report published by House Republicans estimates there have been more than 1.7 million “gotaways” since Biden took office.

Despite the ongoing invasion, House Republicans have refused to impeach either Biden or Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for their intentional facilitation of the ongoing invasion. Last month, for instance, eight GOP representatives voted with Democrats to block a resolution introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to impeach Mayorkas for his allowance of the disaster to continue unaddressed.

Among the Republicans to vote down the measure were Republican Reps. Darrell Issa, Tom McClintock, and John Duarte of California, Ken Buck of Colorado, Patrick McHenry and Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, Cliff Bentz of Oregon, and Mike Turner of Ohio.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Another Election Overturned Due to Shenanigans Athena Thorne

Posted By on December 7th, 2023

https://pjmedia.com/athena-thorne/2023/12/06/another-election-overturned-due-to-voter-fraud-n4924522

A Louisiana Supreme Court justice has overturned the results of a Nov. 18, 2023, runoff election that was decided by a single vote. And while this case may seem like small potatoes, it could indicate that a sorely needed trend is beginning to emerge in the United States. Namely, unfairly defeated candidates are refusing to accept flawed elections, and more importantly, courageous judges are doing the right thing when faced with clear proof that shenanigans affected the outcome of an election.

The Louisiana election for the position of Caddo Parish Sheriff pitted Democrat candidate Henry Whitehorn against Republican opponent John Nickelson. Whitehorn prevailed by a single vote.

“The unofficial results of the sheriff race between me and my opponent indicated a one-vote margin out of more than 43,000 votes,” observed Nickelson at the time. “That’s something that hasn’t happened as far as we can tell in more than a century in this country, it’s truly unprecedented.”

Furthermore, “Many, dozens at a minimum, in the small sample of ballots we were able to inspect in the short time we had of these certificates had no signatures at all,” claimed Nickelson. “In other words, ballots had been submitted without a voter signing it,”

A recount was performed, which added three new votes to each candidate’s tally, leaving Whitehorn the victor again by a single vote. Mickelson then filed suit, contesting the results and calling for a new election.

On Tuesday, Louisiana Supreme Court justice Joseph Bleich ruled that the election results were null and void. “It was proven beyond any doubt that there were at least 11 illegal votes cast and counted,” explained Bleich, and therefore, it “is legally impossible to know what the true vote should have been.”

In an interesting side note, Bleich had to come out of retirement to serve as judge “ad hoc” after four justices recused themselves, citing personal friendships with Democrat candidate Whitehorn. This story could have ended like a classic “good ol’ boys” corrupt setup where it’s impossible to achieve justice because everyone is a crony. But instead, everyone did the right thing, and now a new election will be held. 

This is the second noteworthy voided election this year. These cases are blazing a trail forward that other plaintiffs and judges can follow when close elections have been provably affected by voter fraud, ballot harvesting, faulty machines, or other shenanigans or irregularities.

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Hamas’ Child Hostages The ancient horrors have returned. by Kenneth R. Timmerman

Posted By on December 7th, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/hamas-child-hostages/

For at least two generations, Israelis have felt secure in the knowledge that the horrors of the Holocaust were behind them. Safe behind border walls and protected by a powerful military, Jews in Israel would never again have to watch as children were murdered in front of their parents, and parents in front of their children.

October 7 changed all that – dramatically.

The Hamas-led killing spree of that day brought Hitler’s willing executions through the gates of Israel. Suddenly, nowhere was safe anymore.

I have spent the past week in Israel, researching a film on Israel Defense Force (IDF) soldiers with filmmaker Ricky Schroder and his producer, Julie Trammel.

From the very moment I arrived, the presence of the missing – Israelis ripped from their homes by Hamas terrorists – was everywhere. The broad stairs leading down to immigration at Ben Gurion airport were marked with the faces of the missing – on both sides of the hall. On some of the hundred-plus steps, the poster had been taken down to indicate hostages who had been released after more than fifty days of captivity.

By the time I left five days later, the gaps were bigger, as more returnees came home. But more than 136 remained by the time Hamas broke the temporary truce on December 1.

On Ditzengoff Street, one of the main thoroughfares of Tel Aviv, human-sized white teddy bears were strapped to every park bench, their bodies spattered with dirt and blood. Attached to each was a poster of one of the missing.

In Jerusalem, office buildings were lit up with the Israeli flag and holographic projections of the missing, rotating every few seconds.

During that week, we began to learn more about the horrors the hostages had undergone during their Hamas captivity.

ANTI-SEMITISM, EDUCATION Comments turned off

University Presidents’ Abhorrent Hypocrisy on Anti-Jewish Speech

Posted By on December 7th, 2023

https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/12/university-presidents-abhorrent-hypocrisy-on-anti-jewish-speech/

All of a sudden, America’s elite universities have started to sound like John Stuart Mill. Asked yesterday by Representative Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) whether students who call for “intifada” or shout “from the river to the sea” were acting “contrary to Harvard’s code of conduct,” Harvard’s president, Claudine Gay, struck a notably enlightened pose. Such “hateful, reckless, offensive speech,” Gay insisted, was “abhorrent” to her personally, and “at odds with the values of Harvard.” But she could not in good conscience move to do anything about it, given Harvard’s “commitment to free expression even of views that are objectionable, offensive, hateful.”

Ah.

The first problem with Gay’s answer (which was not fixed by a subsequent clean-up attempt) is that it is a brazen lie. Harvard does not, in fact, “embrace a commitment to free expression.” It does not tolerate views that its speech police consider to be “objectionable, offensive, hateful.” And, as the plain language of its own policies makes clear, it does not endure opinions that are contrary to its “values.” There is, of course, a strong case to be made for the university as an incubator of all ideas. Were Harvard known for a consistent liberalism, it might be able to defend the indulgence of students who chant “intifada” at their peers. But Harvard is not known for any such thing. On the contrary: Harvard is known for sanctioning scholars, for revoking acceptances, for disinviting academics, and for having created an environment in which students feel unable to share their beliefs. Per the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), Harvard’s score in the Free Speech Rankings is an “abysmal” “0.00 out of a possible 100.00.” In its latest evaluation, FIRE accorded Harvard a “-10.69,” which, the outfit recorded, is “more than six standard deviations below the average and more than two standard deviations below the second-to-last school in the rankings, its Ivy League counterpart, the University of Pennsylvania.”

Pressed by lawmakers, the president of Penn, M. Elizabeth Magill, was equally keen to wax lyrical about the joys of permissive deliberation. Judging whether or not to crack down on those who demand the genocide of Jews, Magill proposed, is “a context-dependent decision.” “If the speech becomes conduct,” she concluded, “it can be harassment.” This, too, is a defensible standard. Indeed, this is the standard that has been applied by the Supreme Court in the ruling that currently governs the limits of free expression, Brandenburg v. Ohio. But it is not Penn’s standard. Per FIRE, Penn has a “very poor” record on speech, ranking 247th out of 248. Worse still, FIRE reports, one’s experience at Penn is heavily dependent upon one’s political bent. For “liberals,” the school is ranked 32nd in the country. For “conservatives,” it sits at 220th. How’s that for “context-dependent”?

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A Desperate Debate Ends in a Draw: Noah Rothman

Posted By on December 7th, 2023

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/a-desperate-debate-ends-in-a-draw/

What may be the final debate of the Republican primary cycle — indeed, possibly the final debate of the 2024 election cycle — generated more heat than light on Wednesday night. Voters were presented with a Rorschach test. Each candidate hit their notes and met expectations, so voters who watched the debate probably saw exactly what they wanted to see — whatever that meant to them.

Voters who like Ron DeSantis saw him at his best. For the first time in this cycle, DeSantis ran like he was behind in the polls — a prudent calculation, because he very much is. DeSantis didn’t sit back, absorb blows, and stick to his message. Instead, he picked fights, with Nikki Haley in particular, some of which he won. He hammered his closest competitor on transgenderism and the need to prohibit in law access to surgical or pharmaceutical remedies for gender dysphoria in minors. He backed a muscular foreign policy, exhibited his encyclopedic knowledge of policy, and promised convincingly to be a reformer rather than a caretaker in the Oval Office. It was DeSantis’s best primary-debate performance by far.

If you aren’t inclined toward DeSantis, you had plenty to chew on, too. Chris Christie dissected him with the surgical acumen he once applied to Marco Rubio, savaging the governor for being evasive — a charge DeSantis confirmed with his habitual evasions. The Florida governor lent credence to vaccine skepticism, attacked American law-enforcement agencies for prosecuting “one of the biggest abuses of power in our history,” and refused to be pinned down on his commitment to Taiwan’s defense. Even DeSantis’s source of presidential inspiration, Calvin Coolidge, sounded insincere. That nod to the principle of radically limited constitutional government was welcome, but Coolidge’s aversion to the application of state power as a remedy for political controversies or even natural disasters does not bear even a passing resemblance to DeSantis’s record in Florida. That inauthenticity contributed to a conclusion you’ve likely already drawn about the governor.