The Biden administration believes that to prevent a return to violence, the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas must be used “to address a larger set of underlying issues and challenges,” said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, starting with the “grave” humanitarian situation in Gaza.
And:
Why not hang a white flag or is white too white? Already kissing their asses.
Biden State Dept. Urging U.S. Embassies to Fly BLM Flags to Mark 1-Year Anniversary of George Floyd’s Death By Debra HeineThe Biden State Department is encouraging all U.S. “Diplomatic and Consular posts” to display Marxist Black Lives Matter flags on May 25 to mark the one year anniversary of the death of George Floyd, according to a memo obtained by Human Events reporter Jack Posobiec. The memo, signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, said the United States would be among “many in the international community” honoring the career criminal. Summary: May 25 marks one year since the brutal murder of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Last year, the horrific video of Mr. Floyd’s final 9 minutes and 29 seconds went viral and spurred Black Lives Matter protests worldwide, in response to his senseless killing and to demand an end to systemic racism and police brutality. One year later, many in the international community will honor Mr. Floyd and acknowledge the long journey nations face to advance racial justice. Leading up to May 25, the Department has issued guidance on the use of Black Lives Matter language, banners, and flags. End Summary.
The vandalism and looting that followed the death of Floyd reportedly cost the insurance industry up to $2 billion, more than any other violent demonstrations in recent history. At least 25 Americans were killed during the unrest, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (ACLED). No less an authority than former Attorney General William Barr last year characterized Black Lives Matter “a revolutionary group” that agitates a far-left agenda using fascistic tactics. “They are a revolutionary group that is interested in some form of socialism, communism,” Barr told Mark Levin on Fox News, last summer. “They’re essentially Bolsheviks. Their tactics are fascistic,” he said. The Biden administration is reportedly planning to have the revolutionary Marxist group celebrated at U.S. outposts around the world. The State Department guidance is encouraging BLM-related displays within the interior, or exterior of the mission, including banners over doors, BLM spotlights, BLM projections, and BLM flags on flagpoles, according to the memo. “… this cable constitutes blanket written authorization to display the BLM flag on the external-facing flagpole during calendar year 2021,” the memo states. The Black Lives Matter flag, and/or any other types of affinity flags, should be treated as pennants of societies in accordance with this provision, and accordingly, when displayed alongside the U.S. flag either indoors or outdoors, should always be placed in a subordinate position. Regarding the external, public-facing flagpole of all U.S. missions, the written approval of the Secretary, through the Under Secretary for Management (M), is necessary to display any flag other than the U.S. flag, a Foreign Service flag, or a POW/MIA flag. As noted above, this cable constitutes blanket written authorization to display the BLM flag on the external-facing flagpole during calendar year 2021.
The memo goes on to urge diplomates to use “Department and Interagency tools and resources to promote policy objectives to advance racial equity and support for underserved communities throughout the year.” “On May 24, GPA will release a compilation video featuring messages from activists around the world on the importance of global racial justice as part of a playbook with language for the anniversary of George Floyd’s murder. This video compilation will also feature senior Department leaders to demonstrate the Administration’s commitment to racial equity and support for underserved communities,” the memo reads. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The State Department apparently got the memo but did not care:
Anti-Zionism Isn’t Anti-Semitism? Someone Didn’t Get the Memo
By Bret Stephens
Opinion Columnist
In recent years it has become an
article of faith on the progressive left that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism
and that it’s slander to assume that someone who hates Israel also hates Jews.
Not everyone got the memo.
Not the people who, waving Palestinian
flags and chanting “Death to Jews,” according to a witness, assaulted Jewish diners at
a Los Angeles sushi restaurant. Not the people who threw fireworks in New
York’s diamond district. Not the people who brutally beat up a man
wearing a yarmulke in Times Square. Not the people who drove
through London slurring Jews and yelling, “Rape their daughters.”
Not the people who gathered outside a synagogue in Germany shouting
slurs. Not the people who, at a protest in Brussels,
chanted, “Jews, remember Khaybar. The army of Muhammad is returning.”
Also
not getting the memo are the people who have tweeted the hashtag
#HitlerWasRight (including someone who now works for the BBC),
along with the hashtag #Covid1948, a suggestion that Israel is a virus that
needs the cure of Hamas’s rockets as a “vaccine.” Apparently, these hashtags
count as legitimate political speech at Twitter, a company whose objections to
bigotry are otherwise so strong that it once banned a Canadian feminist for the
sin of tweeting remarks about transgender women like “men aren’t women.”
In
this storm of hate, political leaders such as Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los
Angeles, President Biden and Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain have
issued appropriate statements of condemnation. On CNN, correspondent Bianna
Golodryga called out the anti-Semitism of Pakistan’s foreign
minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, when he cited “deep pockets” and “control [of]
media” in terms of Israel’s influence on public opinion. Good for her.
But if there’s been a massive online
campaign of progressive allyship with Jews, I’ve missed it. If corporate
executives have sent out workplace memos expressing concern for the safety of
Jewish employees, I’ve missed it. If academic associations have issued public
letters denouncing the use of anti-Semitic tropes by pro-Palestinian activists,
I’ve missed them.
It’s a curious silence. In the land of
inclusiveness, Jews are denied inclusion.
One response to the attacks that
I have seen coming from the left
is that attacks on Jews are wrong because an American or British or German Jew
should not be held responsible for the actions of the state of Israel. That’s
true, and fine as far as it goes.
But it doesn’t go far enough. Would the
assaults in Los Angeles and New York have been more justifiable if the victims
had been Israeli citizens — even, say, Israeli diplomats? Is hatred of an
entire country and threats or violence to its people acceptable as long as the
hate is untainted by some older prejudice?
It
is especially despicable when Israel is singled out in ways that apply to no
other country. To take just one example, when was the last time you heard of a
campus demonstration or a call for boycotts and divestment in response to
Turkey’s 47-year occupation of northern Cyprus or its routine bombardment,
using American-made jets, of Kurdish militants in Iraq? But, again, this doesn’t go far enough.
The accusations made against Israel — stealing Palestinian land (despite the
fact that Israel vacated the territory from
which it was subsequently attacked) and wanton violence against Palestinian
civilians, particularly children (despite the fact that Israel regularly warned its targets to vacate
buildings before targeting them) — can’t help but make me think of ancient
libels about Jewish greed and bloodlust.
Also echoing ancient libels is the idea
that 11 days of fighting between Israel and Hamas somehow constitute a unique
global horror, even as the world barely takes notice of the Taliban’s murder
this month of 85 people at a school in
Kabul. The anti-Semitic worldview is always Judeocentric, in
the sense that it is obsessed with Jewish behavior as the supreme factor in
domestic and international political life. The left has lately been awfully
Judeocentric.
This ought to be whistling loudly in
the ears of progressives who claim to be horrified by every form of prejudice.
Instead, they have indulged an anti-Israel movement that keeps descending into
the crudest forms of anti-Semitism. They remind me of a certain kind of Trump
voter who would occasionally voice disgust at his most outrageous behavior,
only to come back into alignment with him a few days later. After a while, it
becomes clear that the outrage is cheap, if it isn’t
simply fake.
Progressives will have to come to their
own reckoning about what to do about the burgeoning anti-Semitism in their
midst. As for Jews, they should take the events of the last few days less as an
outrage than as an omen.
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