I maintain, before the Hamas War against Israel is over, the Biden Administration will cave because it failed to ward off the various uprisings, not that it could have controlled all of them, particularly beyond our shores. These uprisings are causing Biden to sweat as they impact politics and our feckless president has never had the guts to stand against enormous pressure.
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This from a dear friend and fellow memo reader:
‘Social’ Justice Is Injustice
Support for Hamas derives from the fashionable idea that power determines what is right and wrong
By Solomson and Tal Fortgang
When federal judges take the oath of office, they say: “I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich.” These words come from the Bible and reflect a key principle of justice in the American tradition, shaped by our Judeo-Christian heritage: Justice isn’t about power. Whether a party is right or wrong in a dispute doesn’t depend on that person’s identity and social station.
For a long time, Americans have stood by that idea, considering it obvious. A powerful person could be regarded as a good guy or a bad guy depending on how he amassed and used his power. A powerless person might be virtuous or evil depending on how he dealt with his circumstances.
No longer is it so obvious. For many Americans today, justice—often with the modifier “social” before it—is precisely about power. Rejecting the biblical ideal codified in the judicial oath, our academics, intelligentsia and public figures have embraced the idea that power tells you all you need to know about who is right and who is wrong. This is clear as some of our best and brightest side with the Hamas terrorists in their war against Israel.
To those who believe in the biblical ideal of justice, defending Israel’s right to destroy those who commit atrocities against innocents isn’t simple, but involves a moral analysis that yields a clear conclusion. One must look at who acts virtuously and who acts viciously. Though no country is virtuous all the time, Israel seeks peace and in war doesn’t specifically target civilians. Israel holds no kidnapped babies, nor does it steal billions of dollars of foreign aid to build tunnels where terrorists can hide while using women and children as human shields. Hamas is unfathomably evil, by any traditional measure, to Israelis and Gazans. Its barbarism is unjustifiable, even if Palestinians have legitimate grievances against Israel.
But to those who believe power analysis is the key to justice, siding with Palestinians—even to the point of cheering Hamas’s atrocities—is simple. Israel is powerful, and Palestinians aren’t. Therefore, whatever Palestinians, even terrorist groups that don’t speak for all Palestinians, do is justified. Among those who believe the trendy logic of the academy, justice is done with respect to persons; doing equally right to rich and poor wrongly entrenches the power of the rich.
Recently, a video surfaced of a brave young woman speaking in Israel’s defense at Columbia University. She began her remarks with the obligatory announcement of identities: “I am an African-American, Native American, Jewish woman.” She then exposed her fellow students’ hypocrisy on issues of identity. Though she had been led to believe that her classmates cared about members of all marginalized groups, she had “learned that amongst my peers who openly advocate for the destruction of the one Jewish state, the desire to uplift and accept me is restricted only to the identities of mine they deem worthy.” She deserves applause for her ability to see through the farce of identity-as-justice, especially when manipulated to exclude Jews when convenient.
To maintain the principle of equal justice for all, students must not be trained to show they belong to a “marginalized group” for their arguments to be treated as legitimate. But campus orthodoxy demands exactly that. Young people are being programmed to believe that identity is itself an argument—exactly the fallacy that leads to demonizing Israel and Jews around the world merely because they have been successful by some measures. This pseudointellectual dogma has no more place in the academy than the notion that some races are superior or inferior to others.
Judges have been understandably reluctant to condemn this worrisome trend. But doing so should be uncontroversial for all who took that oath. Truth and rightness don’t depend on race, color, nationality, sex, religion, net worth or power. Murdering innocents is always wrong; so is cheering it on. That is the view we are sworn to bring to the courtroom. Maintaining it is critical to the rule of law.
Though advocates of the new justice now target Jews and Israel, their eyes are trained on upending the fundamental principles of a free and fair society. Ignoring how our educational institutions are training young Americans not only turns a blind eye to the moral perversity among those who celebrate terrorism. It also fills our country with injustice.
Judge Solomson serves on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Mr. Fortgang is his law clerk.
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The Black Left’s Allies From Stalin to Hamas
Totalitarian regimes have long sought propaganda opportunities in America’s racial tension and unrest.
By Jason L. Riley
A delegation of black American journalists, artists and political organizers visited the Palestinian territories in 2015, several months after Michael Brown was shot dead by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo. Among them were Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, and Marc Lamont Hill, a left-wing academic and commentator.
According to an account published in Ebony magazine, the trip was arranged by Ahmad Abuznaid, a Palestinian lawyer and political activist based in Florida. Its purpose, he explained, was “to allow for the group members to experience and see first hand the occupation, ethnic cleansing and brutality Israel has levied against Palestinians” and “to build real relationships” with fellow critics of the Jewish state. “In the spirit of Malcolm X, Angela Davis, Stokely Carmichael and many others,” Mr. Abuznaid added, “we thought the connections between the African American leadership of the movement in the US and those on the ground in Palestine needed to be reestablished and fortified.”
Mr. Abuznaid’s trio of pinup activists is revealing. Malcolm X was not only a member of the Nation of Islam, a black nationalist group that thrived on hatred of whites in the same way that Islamist organizations today thrive on Jew-hatred. He also was a vocal supporter of Mao Zedong, chairman of the Chinese Communist Party during the Cold War. Ms. Davis was a Black Panther in the 1960s and a longtime member of the Communist Party USA. Carmichael, another 1960s black militant and unabashed racial separatist, called Zionism a “diabolical movement.”
Authoritarians have long sought to undermine capitalism and democracy by exploiting racial strife in the U.S. In the 1930s, black luminaries such as the poet Langston Hughes and the scholar W.E.B. Du Bois, were lured to the Soviet Union, luxuriously feted by Joseph Stalin and sent back home to sing the glories of life under communism.
Paul Robeson, the accomplished black actor and singer, first traveled to Russia in 1934, shortly after Stalin had engineered a famine that killed millions of Ukrainians. During his visit, Robeson gave an interview to the American Communist Party newspaper, the Daily Worker. “I was not prepared for the happiness I see on every face in Moscow,” Robeson said. “I was aware there was no starvation here, but I was not prepared for the bounding life; the feeling of abundance and freedom that I find here, wherever I turn.” In 1952, the Soviet Union awarded Robeson the Stalin Peace Prize.
Most mainstream civil-rights leaders in the U.S. spurned these overtures. Martin Luther King Jr. was a staunch anticommunist, as were such organizations as the NAACP and the National Urban League. As head of the NAACP’s legal team, Thurgood Marshall rejected the notion that the Soviet system offered a better life for blacks, and he even worked with the FBI to expose communist infiltrators. Communists “are all sweetness and light these days, trying to persuade us to join their front organizations,” Marshall once told an audience. “We must continue to make it clear that there is no place in this organization for communists or those who follow the communist line.”
Stalin is dead and the Cold War is over, but totalitarian regimes still see propaganda opportunities in America’s racial unrest. After Michael Brown’s death in 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin told “60 Minutes” that the U.S. had no right to criticize how he handled dissidents, given “the problem in Ferguson.” State-run media outlets in China ran countless stories on the George Floyd protests, and Chinese newspapers criticized the U.S. government for failing to address racial inequality.
Nor is there any shortage today of black leftists willing to play the role of stooge. New York Times reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones has called Cuba the “most equal” country in the Western Hemisphere. BLM activists have defended Hamas’s attack on Israel, and Marc Lamont Hill has taken issue with the media’s “framing” Hamas “as a terrorist organization rather than a government, rather than a democratically elected government and/or political party.”
Last week, the mullahs even got an assist from the celebrated author Ta-Nehisi Coates, who gave an interview to the left-wing news program “Democracy Now!” Mr. Coates said that he visited the Palestinian territories with some other writers earlier this year and was “given a tour by our Palestinian guide.” He went on to compare the Israelis to white supremacists and the Palestinians to black Americans living under segregation. “I understood the anger. I understood the sense of humiliation that comes when people subject you to just manifold oppression, to genocide.” he added. “I come from the descendants of 250 years of enslavement.” And like a good propagandist he left out any mention of Hamas or the attacks of Oct. 7.
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Those pesky machines:
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Voting Machines Crash: Left’s New Tactic To Steal Key State? |
In an unfortunate turn of events, several voting machines in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, experienced glitches that resulted in votes being recorded ... [More] ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ |
https://twitter.com/
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Jewish billionaire Henry Swieca quit Columbia board over ‘abhorrent’ threats to Jews on campus By Jorge Fitz-Gibbon Jewish billionaire and philanthropist Henry Swieca quit the Columbia University board of directors over what he called the Ivy League school’s “moral cowardice” for allowing a “blatantly anti-Jewish” sentiment to thrive on campus. “To my deep regret the reputation and integrity of Columbia University, and by extension Columbia Business School, have been significantly compromised by a moral cowardice that appears beyond repair,” Swieca said in a resignation letter made public this week, Fox News reported. “This is abhorrent,” he wrote in the scathing letter. “Any other minority group on campus would never have to face anything close to this level of intimidation and hatred of Jewish and pro-Israel students experience.” Swieca added, “To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.” His resignation comes amid a disturbing outburst of pro-Palestinian fervor on Ivy League campuses in the wake of the sneak attack on Israel by radical Hamas terrorists and the subsequent retaliation by the Jewish State in the Gaza Strip. Columbia has been among the most active, with pro-Hamas protests and confrontations on campus. Late last month more than 100 Columbia professors signed a letter defending pro-Palestinian students who backed the Hamas attack on Israel, calling on administrators to stop making statements “that favor the suffering and death of Israelis or Jews over the suffering and deaths of Palestinians.” Earlier in October, an Israeli student was beaten with a stick outside the university library after questioning someone who was ripping down posters of Israelis taken hostage by Hamas. A massive pro-Palestinian protest at Columbia University on Oct. 12 was one of several anti-Jewish events and troubling incidents at the Ivy League school’s Manhattan campus since Oct. 7. AP Yoni Kurtz, 21, spoke at a press conference held by Jewish Columbia students denouncing the school administration for not doing enough to protect students. By Stephen Yang for NY Post Last week, Columbia finally launched an antisemitism task force to deal with the “terribly resilient” unrest amid spiking anti-Israeli sentiment — a move concerned critics said was too little too late. Swieca, 66, who founded Talpion Fund Management, received a master’s degree in business administration from the Morningside Heights university, said it raised “deep concerns” about the school. “With blatantly anti-Jewish student groups and professors allowed to operate with complete impunity, it sends a clear and distressing message that Jews are not just unwelcome, but also unsafe on campus,” he wrote in his resignation letter. “That’s why the president announced both a Task Force on Antisemitism and a Doxing Resource Group to address the acute problem of doxing playing out on our doorstep, even today,” the spokesman said.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++ Surprise, Surprise! +++ To absolutely no one’s surprise, the pro-Hamas activist who killed a 69-year-old, pro-Israel Jewish man, turns out to be a MuslimPosted By Ruth King Muslim college professor, Loay Alnaji, has been identified as the pro-Hamas activist ‘who killed Jewish protestor Paul Kessler’ with a megaphone that knocked him to the ground when rival rallies clashed in Thousand Oaks, California.Daily Mail (h/t Charlotte) The man who police have questioned in relation to the death of a Jewish man during a clash with pro-Palestinian protestors is 50-year-old college professor, Loay Alnaji, who teaches computer science at Ventura Community College in California allegedly hit Paul Kessler with a megaphone knocking him to the ground, resulting in a fatal blow to the head.Records show that Alnaji came to the United States in the 1990s – he had previously taught in the United Arab Emirates. He married Palestinian economics professor Nada Al Hammouri on Christmas Eve 2015. They have three children.On his Facebook page he has posted several messages in Arabic supporting the Palestinian cause. In his most recent from three weeks ago, he wrote: ‘O Allah, release the captivity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque… Sooner than later……..Oh Allah, don’t deprive us of praying in it before we die… ‘Oh God, give victory to your weak servants in Palestine, and everywhere…O Allah, bind their hearts with the bond of patience and faith..’Tensions have been growing between supporters of Israel and the Palestinians since Hamas’s October 7 surprise raid on the Jewish state in which some 1,400 people were killed. Alnaji’s stand against Israel’s actions took him to the streets of Thousand Oaks on Sunday afternoon, where the pro-Palestinian group was confronted by another supporting Israel.Alnaji is unabashed in his support for the Palestinian cause, posting online a video of an activist Shahid King Bolsen comparing the terror group Hamas with historic civil rights icons. ‘If someone asked me to condemn Hamas I would say, what’s the rush?’ Bolsen says in the video posted on Instagram. ‘Let’s let history decide. Bolsen, who was born Shannon Morris, is a 52-year-old American Catholic convert to slam who was sentenced to death in Dubai for murder.Kessler, 69, was struck down in Thousand Oaks, California, northwest of Los Angeles, when two rival groups protesting events in Israel and Gaza clashed. He died in the hospital the following day. The injury that killed him is believed to have occurred when his head hit the pavement.Witnesses say the two sides began antagonizing each other and then it turned physical. ‘They were both on an even ground, and they were yelling at each other, and then the man brought his megaphone up and hit Paul, and Paul went down,’ one unidentified witness told ABC Los Angeles.Another witness, Lu Johnson, told the Ventura County Star that he was driving through the intersection where Kessler was hurt. Earlier, Johnson said he had seen Kessler standing outside of a Shell station waving an Israeli flag. When the driver passed later, he saw Kessler on the ground bleeding from his head. ‘We were in shock. We saw that man on his back bleeding,’ he said. Around the same time, Johnson said that he saw a man on megaphone yelling.+++++++++++++++++++++ Israel’s 35th Day of War By Sherwin Pomerantz A report questioning why six photojournalists reporting for the Reuters and the Associated Press wire services appeared at the ready to document the Hamas terror attacks on Oct. 7 has received a response from another prominent publication that pays for one of the freelancers’ work. The New York Times released a statement on Thursday, saying that claims the newspaper “had advance knowledge of the Hamas attacks or accompanied Hamas terrorists during the attacks is untrue and outrageous.” The Times claims that their free lancer, Yousef Masoud,” “was not working for the Times on the day of the attack.” Perhaps not, but the question remains why reporters who knew about the attack in advance and should have been able to predict the results failed to raise the red flag and prevent the messacre as the intent of Hamas was most probably known to them as well. A drone caused a large explosion at an elementary school in Eilat on Thursday afternoon, injuring one civilian. Security sources are saying that the UAV was likely a suicide drone sent by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. A 20-year-old man suffered from smoke inhalation and was evacuated to the city’s Yoseftal Medical Center. Those present at the school at the time of the explosion were special-education students who were in the bomb shelter. On Thursday evening, Israel’s Arrow air-defense system intercepted a missile launched towards the Jewish state from the Red Sea area. Israel has agreed to observe daily four-hour “humanitarian pauses” in its operation against Hamas terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip, U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday. The first humanitarian pause was set to be announced later on Thursday, Kirby claimed, adding that Jerusalem committed to announcing each four-hour window at least three hours in advance. At the same time the Prime Minister’s Office released a statement reiterating that “the fighting is continuing and there will be no ceasefire without the release of our hostages.” In a post on X (formerly Twitter) earlier on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces likewise downplayed claims of a ceasefire. “There is no ceasefire. There are tactical, local pauses for humanitarian aid for Gazan civilians. These tactical pauses are limited in time and area,” said the military. Hamas has also released the pictures of two hostages they are planning to release, a 77-year-old woman and a 7-year-old boy. It is not clear why they made this decision, why these two were picked, or when the release will occur. Representative of the US and Israeli security services met in Doha with Qatari government coordinators for this effort on Thursday. Israel continues to insist on the return of all the 240+ hostages before any further longer-term discussions take place. As the country prepares for the fifth shabbat since the massacre, additional casualties have been announced. For my readers situated in the US, the March on Washington against rising worldwide antisemitism, scheduled for Tuesday, November 14th from 1300-1500 is a “must attend” event for anyone who has the capability to be in DC that day. This needs to be the biggest event our community has ever staged and I urge thos who can to be there!!! Shabbat shalom and let us continue our prayers for an early end to hostilities and the safe return of our troops. Sherwin Pomerantz has lived in Israel for 40 years, is CEO of Atid EDI Ltd., a international business development consultancy. He is also the Founder and Chair of the American State Offices Association, former National President of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel and a past Chairperson of the Board of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The IDF could teach Biden a thing or two but he is incapable of learning. +++ IDF strikes the organization in Syria that carried out the launch of a UAV toward Eilat which hit a school in the city. Syria strike The IDF early Friday morning struck the organization in Syria that carried out the launch of a UAV toward Eilat on Thursday, which hit a school in the city. "The IDF holds the Syrian regime fully responsible for every terror activity emanating from its territory. The IDF will respond severely to every aggression against Israeli territory," the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said in a statement. An explosion was heard on Thursday afternoon in the yard of the Tse’elim School in Eilat. The IDF confirmed that the explosion was a result of a drone that hit a building. The explosion damaged the school building, but the 37 students who were in the building at the time were not injured. One man was evacuated for treatment after suffering from smoke inhalation and several other people were treated for anxiety. On Thursday evening, IDF fighter jets struck Hezbollah terror infrastructure in Lebanon, in response to the launches toward Israeli territory over the past day. Additionally, the IDF struck terror targets using artillery and the "Iron Sting" guided mortar munition. Among the targets were terror compounds and infrastructure, observation posts, and technological equipment used to direct terror against Israel. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ | |
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