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President Joe Biden has sparked conservative outrage after proclaiming March 31, 2024—or Easter Sunday—as ‘Transgender Day of Visibility.’
By Tom Ozimek
President Joe Biden has declared March 31, 2024, which falls on Easter Sunday, as “Transgender Day of Visibility,” sparking uproar among conservatives and scathing criticism from former President Donald Trump, who demanded that the president apologize to millions of Christians in the United States.
“Today, we send a message to all transgender Americans ... You are America, and my entire Administration and I have your back,” President Biden said in the March 29 proclamation, while boasting of appointing “transgender leaders” to his administration and ending a ban on transgender people from serving openly in the military.
Calling transgender people “part of the fabric of our Nation” who help the country and its economy thrive, the president touted his administration’s efforts to make public services more accessible for transgender Americans, including “more inclusive passports” that include an X as the “gender” marker.
“There is much more to do,” President Biden said, while urging Congress to pass the Equality Act “to codify civil rights protections for all LGBTQI+ Americans” and officially declaring this coming Easter Sunday as “Transgender Day of Visibility.”
President Biden’s move sparked an outpouring of criticism among conservatives, including from the Trump campaign, which also objected to the White House’s instructions for an Easter egg art design competition for children that ban submissions with religious symbols or “overtly religious themes.”
“It is appalling and insulting that Joe Biden’s White House prohibited children from submitting religious egg designs for their Easter Art Event, and formally proclaimed Easter Sunday as ‘Trans Day of Visibility,’” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
California’s Capital Declares Itself a Transgender Sanctuary City
“Sadly, these are just two more examples of the Biden Administration’s years-long assault on the Christian faith. We call on Joe Biden’s failing campaign and White House to issue an apology to the millions of Catholics and Christians across America who believe tomorrow is for one celebration only—the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” she added.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
‘Easter Sunday Is Being Replaced’
Much of the criticism of the president’s proclamation centered on the fact that March 31, 2024, falls on Easter Sunday, which is one of the most important Christian religious holidays.
“Easter Sunday is being replaced,” actor and producer Kevin Sorbo, who has 1.9 million followers on X, said in a post. “Our ‘Catholic’ president banned religious imagery from the White House and is now calling Easter Sunday ’transgender day of visibility.'”
“Tyrants, all of them,” added Mr. Sorbo, whose posts on the platform are often critical of the Biden administration’s policies—and of far-left ideas and proposals more generally.
Harmeet K. Dhillon, a lawyer whose focus includes First Amendment rights and election law matters, took to X to share a critical reaction to President Biden’s decision to shroud this Easter Sunday with his administration’s transgender agenda.
“Isn’t every day at the Biden White House ‘Transgender Day of Visibility?’” wrote Ms. Dhillon, who also serves as vice president of the Republican National Lawyers Association.
“To deliberately insult Christians on this holy weekend is gross and evil,” she added.
Michigan state Rep. Joshua Schriver, a Republican, also took a dim view of the proclamation.
“contrary to Joe Biden, tomorrow isn’t Transgender Day of Visibility in Michigan,” he wrote in a post on X. “We will not celebrate sexual deviancy and self mutilation.”
“Tomorrow is Easter Sunday,” he continued. “We will be celebrating the resurrection of our King, Jesus Christ, who died and rose from the dead to give us ALL an opportunity to repent from our sins and believe in Him.”
“Where’s the empathy for Christians on our most important day of remembrance?” he added.
Amid backlash to the president’s proclamation, some media outlets ran fact-checks clarifying that President Biden’s declaration of this coming Easter Sunday as “Transgender Day of Visibility” seems to be a coincidence because March 31 happens to fall on Easter Sunday this year, but it doesn’t always.
Indeed, President Biden issued similar proclamations in 2021, 2022, and 2023. with March 31 falling on a Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday respectively in those years.
Background
Even though the Biden administration has in the past given a nod of recognition to March 31 as “Transgender Day of Visibility,” Friday’s proclamation is the first time that the president has used the authority vested in him by the U.S. Constitution to officially declare it as such.
March 31 has in some circles been celebrated as “International Transgender Day of Visibility” for over a decade.
According to the left-leaning media outlet NPR, it was founded 15 years ago by Rachel Crandall-Crocker, a male who identifies as a female and executive director of Transgender Michigan, a transgender advocacy group.
Initially, the idea didn’t get much traction, but with the help of Susan Crocker, his wife and Transgender Michigan’s operations director, it became a more widespread phenomenon, per NPR.
It’s unclear when “International Transgender Day of Visibility” came to be referred to as simply “Transgender Day of Visibility” in some circles in the United States.
Transgenderism has become a prominent issue in America’s social and political landscape in recent years, with those on the left tending to support “gender-affirming care” laws that in some cases block parents from having a say in their children’s decisions to get gender-change surgeries and other risky medical procedures.
Conservatives, by contrast, have backed laws that give parents more authority to prevent their children from undergoing transgender procedures or impose penalties on doctors who perform them without parental consent.
Unbelievable! Biden is celebrating the sexual grooming, and worse the genital and reproductive mutilation of children, God’s children, on Easter Sunday!
Americans need to get this disgraceful POS out of office, and show his communist backers the door with our foot in their rear.
Tom Ozimek is a senior reporter for The Epoch Times. He has a broad background in journalism, deposit insurance, marketing and communications, and adult education.
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FROM A VERY DEAR MINISTER FRIEND OF MINE AND A FELLOW MEMO READER.
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WOW! Assuming her research is correct, here is what open borders are costing us.
Tina Griego is a Free-Lance reporter for the Denver Post. She is a strong advocate for LEGAL Immigration Not Democrat, not Republican, not Liberal, and not Conservative.
What if they left?
Over 80% of Americans demand secured borders. What would happen if all 20 million or more vacated America? This may surprise you!
In California, if 3.5 million illegal aliens moved back to Mexico, it would leave an extra $10.2 billion to spend on overloaded school systems, bankrupt hospitals and overrun prisons. It would leave highways cleaner, safer and less congested. Everyone could understand one another as English became the dominant language again.
It means 12,000 gang members would vanish out of Denver alone. Colorado would save more than $20 million in prison costs, and the terror that those 7,300 alien criminals set upon local citizens. Denver Officer Don Young and hundreds of Colorado victims would not have suffered death, accidents, rapes and other crimes by illegals.
Denver Public Schools would not suffer a 67% dropout/flunk rate because of thousands of illegal alien students speaking 41 different languages. Denver's 4% unemployment rate would vanish as our working poor would gain jobs at a living wage.
In Chicago, Illinois, 2.1 million illegals would free up hospitals, schools, prisons and highways for a safer, cleaner and more crime-free experience.
Everyone would pay their fair share of taxes because they wouldn't be working off the books. That would result in an additional $401 billion in IRS income taxes collected annually, and an equal amount for local, state and city coffers.
No more confusion in American schools that now must contend with over 100 languages that degrade the educational system for American kids.
Our overcrowded schools would lose more than two million illegal alien kids at a cost of billions in ESL and free breakfasts and lunches.
We would lose 500,000 illegal criminal alien inmates at a cost of more than $1.6 billion annually. That includes 15,000 MS-13 gang members who distribute $130 billion in drugs annually and would vacate our country.
In cities like L.A., 20,000 members of the '18th Street Gang' would vanish from our nation. No more Mexican forgery gangs for ID theft from Americans! No more foreign rapists and child molesters!
America's economy is drained. Taxpayers are harmed. Employers get rich. Over $80 billion annually wouldn't return to the aliens' home countries by cash transfers. Illegal migrants earned half that money untaxed, which further drains America's economy which currently suffers a $30 trillion debt.
More than $30 TRILLION !!
At least 400,000 anchor babies would not be born in our country, costing us $109 billion per year per cycle. At least 86 hospitals in California, Georgia and Florida would still be operating instead of being bankrupt out of existence because illegals pay nothing via the EMTOLA Act.
Americans wouldn't suffer thousands of TB and hepatitis cases rampant in our country - brought in by illegals unscreened at our borders. Our cities would see 20 million less people driving, polluting and grid locking our cities' greenhouse gasses.
Over one million of Mexico's poorest citizens now live inside and along our border from Brownsville, Texas, to San Diego, California, in what the New York Times called, 'colonias' or new neighborhoods. Trouble is, those living areas resemble Bombay and Calcutta where grinding poverty, filth, diseases, drugs, crimes, no sanitation and worse. They live without sewage, clean water, streets, roads, electricity, or any kind of sanitation.
The New York Times reported them to be America's new ' Third World ' inside our own country. Within 20 years, at their current growth rate, they expect 20 million residents of those colonials. (I've seen them personally in Texas and Arizona; it's sickening beyond anything you can imagine.)
Here are 13 reasons illegal aliens should vacate America...
1. $14 billion to $22 billion dollars are spent each year on welfare to illegal aliens (that's Billion with a 'B')
2. $7.5 billion dollars are spent each year on Medicaid for illegal aliens.
3. $12 billion dollars are spent each year on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they still cannot speak a word of English. $27 billion dollars are spent each year for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.
4. $3 Million Dollars 'PER DAY' is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens. That's $1.2 Billion a year.
5. 28% percent of all federal prison inmates are illegal aliens.
6. $190 billion dollars are spent each year on illegal aliens for welfare & social services by the American taxpayers.
7. $200 billion dollars per year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens.
8. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US.
9. During the year 2005, there were 8 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our southern border with as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from other terrorist countries. Over 10,000 of those were middle-eastern terrorists. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroin, crack, guns, and marijuana crossed into the U.S. from the southern border.
10. The National Policy Institute, estimates that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion, or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period.
11. In 2006, illegal aliens sent home $65 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin, to their families and friends.
12. The dark side of illegal immigration: Nearly one million sex crimes are committed by illegal immigrants in the United States.
Total cost - a whopping $538.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR
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Emery Chapter 4 Kolkata and Beyond
When last you heard from me, we had just landed in Kolkata. Uniworld had arranged
for 2 school-bus sized buses to take us on the one-hour trip to our boat. There were
only 21 of us, so this was a very loose pack. The buses were elderly, and each seat
had been covered with a white towel to add a feeling of cleanliness and to cover any
“issues” with the seats. It was all fine.
The drive through Kolkata was horrifying. This city has been called the “Paris of India”
which is an alluring, although inaccurate, description. We did see some broad, tree-
lined boulevards with formerly grand buildings, but 90 percent of what we saw was
decrepit. Away from those streets, old lanes meandered through the city, fringed by
dirty, broken-down buildings. Everything was grey – grey buildings, grey sidewalks,
grey streets, grey sky. There are more billboards here, that add a splash of color, and,
of course, the saris, but even they don’t overcome the feelings of brokenness and
despair. Garbage was strewn or piled everywhere. It was worse than anything we’ve
seen in Mumbai, Delhi, or Havana.
They say they have outlawed cows in the city, but we saw a few. Poor things were
scrounging in the trash to try to find something edible. The guides always say that the
people feed them, but I don’t think there is enough to go around.
(Interestingly, the markets all over India are loaded with fresh vegetables, spices, herbs,
candies, and fruit. We can’t figure out who is buying all this bountiful food, because
there seem to be many more vendors than buyers. Most of the vendors look very poor
despite sitting next to all this healthy and plentiful food.)
We did go past the old British Polo Club and racetrack, which were attractive and
seemed to be in good shape. Many of the other buildings from the Raj period 1858 –
1947) have been abandoned or allowed to disintegrate.
The photos don’t show a city in distress, but future photos will. I was trying to take
some photos from the bus, but it was nearly impossible.
Not wanting to judge such a famous city by a one-hour bus ride, I looked up some
history. Kalikata was the original name in the days of the Moghuls, but there is
evidence that people lived here as much as 2000 years ago. Recorded history begins
with the East India Company in 1690. The British anglicized the name to Calcutta when
they took over. In 1690, Job Charnock, an agent of East India Company first came to
the city and bought three villages, including Kalikata, from the local landlord. In 1699,
East India Company started developing the city and named it Calcutta. In 1772, the
British designated the city as the capital of India. The city underwent rapid
industrialization. Richard Wellesley, the Governor General of Kolkata, worked to create
the architecture of the city and developed it as the "City of Palaces". This was the era
of high British influence on the culture of Kolkata.
The city refers to itself as The City of Joy, (said joy was not evident on our bus ride.)
and the cultural capital of India It has a history of famous writers, poets, artists, and
musicians. The Indian film industry began in Kolkata. Kolkatans take pride in their
food, museums, transportation, and shopping opportunities. So, there is apparently
more here than met our eyes.
We arrived at an area of empty buildings and dirt roads where our boat was moored.
One building here was either new or being restored, but the “cruise” business on the
Ganges is under-developed and the locals aren’t quite ready to greet visitors yet.
The Ganges Voyager II will be our home for the next several nights as we travel up and
down the Ganges. There are 56 passengers and 45 crew members aboard. We are in
the Maharaja Suite, which is quite roomy and feels like a hotel room. The bathroom is
very nice, with a separate tub and a shower that pumps out a good amount of water.
We have a desk, a minibar and coffee station, two chairs and a small table looking out
at the river, and a king-sized bed. They brag about the beds: “Savoir of England bed,
handcrafted by the finest bedmakers in the world.” Well, lah-dee-dah! The desk came
with an ottoman, but I asked for a straight-backed chair and it was here in a flash.
We met Dinesh, our butler, and Mehindra, the head of housekeeping, immediately, and
they are both helpful and willing to provide whatever service we might want. The staff is
all male and all Indian except for the Yoga instructor who was born in Bosnia-
Herzegovina and has lived in Delhi for 26 years.
Delighted to be in a place where we could unpack, we got our clothes sorted and
headed downstairs for lunch. We have been joined by a group beginning their India
tour with this cruise and then taking the Palace on Wheels train trip that we took 8 years
ago. (They are in for a treat!) They all seem friendly, and are a mix of Americans and
Aussies. No PTA’s in sight. (people to avoid.)
We set sail about an hour after the scheduled time, but no one seemed concerned. Our
first stop the next morning, 3/24, was in Kalna, 61 miles up the river. We were loaded
into electric rickshaws and rode through the center of town, arriving at a temple complex
called Rajbari. On one side of the road is a walled group of Hindu temples built from
1751 to 1849. These are large buildings, made of brick and covered with reddish tiles
which depict stories and gods.
Across the street we have the Nabakailas temples, built in 1809. This is made up of two
concentric circles. The outer ring has 74 temples and the inner one has 34, making a
total of 108. This is a very important number of Hindus, as we learned at a similar
installation in Bhutan. There are 108 prayer beads on a “rosary”, and people will say a
prayer at each temple, using the beads to keep count. These “temples” are not large.
Each is a single cell, about 4x4, with the same icon of male and female sex organs. (I
report, you decide.) Worshippers will often pour water or milk over the icons.
We were given a lengthy history of the god Krishna, who is the primary god being
worshipped at these temples. He is a very popular figure, and is found depicted in a
variety of ways: as a mischievous child; a romantic figure with his favorite girlfriend; and
playing his flute surrounded by dancing girls.
After our visit to the temples, we rickshawed over to the central market in Kalna. This
was a partially covered market that included flowers, fruits and veggies, fish, and
chickens. Many of the fish were being kept in water so that they would really be fresh. I
felt very sorry for them – some who had been removed from the water were breathing
their last. One winked at me as a plea for help. Others just flopped. The fishmongers
had large cutting instruments mounted on their platforms. They were like scythes but
turned upward so that the man could slice and dice his victim by just drawing it across
the blade and not having to hack at it. Very efficient.
There was a pile of wire boxes with live chickens. You would just buy the one you
wanted and take it home to chop off its head. Or they could chop it for you. Fortunately,
we didn’t see any chopping of heads.
It is very hot here, so they try to limit our activities to about 90 minutes in the morning.
By the end of the 90 minutes, I’m a drippy mess and happy to get back into the A/C.
After our visit to the market, we headed back to the boat.
There wasn’t much to do in the afternoon, so we decided to attend the talk on the
history of yoga. Yoga came originally from India and has morphed into many different
varieties over the years. (See how much I learned?) Later in the day, we attended the
actual yoga class. This was “chair yoga” for old people who were new to yoga. We
both enjoyed the calm and kind demeanor of the instructor. She’s also quite pretty,
which probably helps attract men to the class. I’m sure Jim never anticipated doing
yoga on the Ganges, in India, under a full moon. Pretty cool.
We had dinner with 3 great Brits. Lots of fun. That’s it for now. More adventures to
come, I’m sure. Photos are at:
https://www.mmemery.com/Kolkata-Ship-and-Kalna
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A dear friend and memo reader responds to my College and University Essay.
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I TOO HAVE SPENT MILLIONS EDUCATUNG MY 2 KIDS AND 4 GRAND CHILDREN THROUGH THE EPSTEIN SCHOOL, WESTMINSTER SCHOOL, WEBER SCHOOL EMORY MED SCHOOL, UGA, RHODES COLLEGE, U OF TEXAS, AND WAKE FORREST SCHOOL OF MEDICINE.
I SET UP TRUSTS AT EACH BIRTH FOR EACH CHILD THEN , ADDED TO THEM ANNUALLY UNTIL THEY MATRICULATED TO TAX PAYER LIFE.
I COULD NOT DO IT TODAY AS I DON'T HAVE THE YEARS IN FRONT OF M. FURTHERMORE, THE COSTS ARE RIDICULOUS, THE EDUCATION IS FAILING IN QUALITY FASTER THAN THE RISE IN TUITION WHICH IS WORSE.
IT IS NOT POPULAR TO BE A WORKER WHO GETS THEIR HANDS DIRTY, BUT I WOULD RECOMMEND A TRADE SCHOOL, I.E. HANDY MAN & THE KID WILL MAKE A GREAT LIVING ,ALWAYS IN DEMAND AND THEY COULD GROW FROM THERE.
HOPE YOU ARE WELL.
I AM COMING TO SEE SHERYL & STAVIE NEXT WEEKEND AND WOULD LOVE TO TAKE YOU TO LUNCH OR SAY HELLO IF TIME PERMITS.
KEEP WRITING!
A---
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The 177th Day of Israel’s War Against Hamas
By Sherwin Pomerantz
The US has presented their alternative to a full-scale IDF conquest of Gaza’s Rafah city, Kan News reported on Saturday night. The Biden administration opposes a military invasion of Rafah, where more than a million Gazans have sheltered during the war, causing friction with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Instead, the highest-ranking military officer in the U.S. offered Halevi an alternative plan for Rafah, Hamas’s last bastion in Gaza.
The alternative plan includes technological advances to secure the Gaza-Egypt border, a major source of arms smuggling, including border closures and using cameras and sensors. It also includes the isolation and encirclement of Rafah by Israeli forces, with targeted raids based on intelligence information. Finally, the plan involves the establishment of a joint US-Israeli command center to coordinate activities in the Gaza Strip.
According to the Kan report, the White House is also concerned that Israel has not made plans for who will rule Gaza the day after Hamas is defeated. US Secretary of State Blinken met earlier this month with the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, where a proposal was made for Arab forces to be stationed in Gaza, Judea and Samaria. An Arab diplomat familiar with the details of the Blinken meeting told Kan that the proposal took place as part of an effort “to launch a peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, and to implement the two-state solution.” There is no official reaction yet from Israel.
The last few days on the Israeli border with Lebanon can be defined as violence-heavy. Both sides are on an escalatory ladder, and both are climbing it, trying to stay on top — while avoiding stepping too high. A symmetry of sorts has taken shape in the north over the last five months, as Hezbollah has maintained its near-daily attacks on Israel and Israel has responded in kind, a symmetry reflected not just in strikes but in the civilian toll as well. Just as Israel felt compelled to establish a kind of “security zone” in the north, evacuating tens of thousands of residents from towns near the border, similar action has been taken in south Lebanon. Some 80,000 residents of northern Israel have been forced to leave their homes amid the hostilities. According to Israeli estimates, more than 120,000 Lebanese have become internally displaced by the fighting.
In certain south Lebanese villages where Israel has intelligence on a major Hezbollah presence, the IDF’s fire policy is strict: Anyone defined as a suspect is attacked.
Interestingly, throughout the months-long conflict, Hezbollah has chosen to send Palestinian groups rather than its own people to carry out infiltration attempts. The organization appears to be doing this in order to be able to portray the acts as ostensibly tied to the defense of Gaza, rather than unprovoked aggression. In an official announcement after the elimination of the latest terror cell last week, the IDF emphasized that the strike was conducted to thwart an imminent attack. It is quite possible that Israel had been following the cell for some time.
The Palestinian Authority is in the final stages of talks with the Biden administration about reforming its controversial welfare policy, which includes payments to terrorists and their families, two sources familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel on Friday. Drafts of the altered policy have been vetted by the administration’s lawyers and the reform was on track to be announced in the coming weeks, one of the sources said, confirming reporting in Politico. The altered policy would base welfare stipends that Palestinian security prisoners receive on the recipient’s financial need rather than the length of their sentence, as is currently the case, the source told The Times of Israel, adding that there were a number of outstanding issues still being negotiated.
The practice of paying allowances to those convicted of carrying out terror attacks and to the families of those killed while carrying out attacks — often referred to by some Israeli officials as a pay-to-slay policy — has been pilloried by critics as incentivizing terror.
Nearly six months after the devastating Oct. 7 invasion, data from the IDF Home Front Command reveals a significant return of Gaza periphery residents to their homes. Approximately 70% of those affected have made the decision to return, despite the continued unrest and occasional rocket fire from Gaza.
The return rates vary significantly across communities, heavily influenced by their proximity to the Gaza Strip. For instance, in Netiv HaAsara, a moshav directly adjacent to the Gaza fence, a mere 4.5% of residents have returned. This contrasts sharply with other areas a bit further from the conflict zone, where the return rate is considerably higher. For instance, in Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, around 60% of the residents have returned, and in kibbutzim Karmia and Zikim, the figures are approximately 50% and 40%, respectively.
Most of the towns located between 4 and 7 kilometers from the Strip have seen the return of 75% of residents. This includes communities such as the city of Sderot and the Sa’ad and Urim kibbutzim, indicating a greater sense of security or perhaps a stronger attachment to their homes among residents of these areas.
This gradual return of Gaza periphery residents, while marked by caution due to the unpredictable nature of the conflict, signifies a critical phase in the region’s recovery. It reflects both the challenges and progress in restoring life to a region that has been on the frontline of the Israel-Hamas war.
Let’s hope that the situation in the north will improve shortly as well so that the 80,000 who have been displaced from their homes can also return to some semblance of normalcy.
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Israel’s global isolation is caused by antisemitism, not bad policies
The answer to the Jewish state’s diplomatic dilemma is victory. Heeding the world’s demands to stop the war and let Hamas win will only make it worse.
by JONATHAN S. TOBIN
Israel’s critics and outright foes are right about one thing: Nearly six months after the Oct. 7 massacres, its isolation is growing. With each day that the war against Hamas continues, more allies of the Jewish state are turning into critics, and more critics are turning into outright enemies. And those enemies are increasingly open about their belief that the problem isn’t so much the supposedly brutal tactics of the Israel Defense Forces in pursuing the elimination of Hamas terrorists as it is their belief that the one Jewish state on this planet is illegitimate.
The sense of impending doom is accentuated by press coverage such as the recent cover story in The Economist titled “Israel Alone.” Such articles are practically a daily feature in The New York Times with the latest being a report claiming that Germany is gradually getting over its post-Holocaust guilt and starting to distance itself from its traditional diplomatic posture of support for Israel.
It’s accentuated by the vicious nature of the anti-Israel protests we see in places like New York City. The scene outside Radio City Music Hall in Midtown Manhattan this week as a mob raged against a campaign rally for President Joe Biden, where he was supported by former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, spoke to the way open anti-Semitic hate has become normalized. Not even Biden’s pivot away from a position of support for the war against Hamas was enough to persuade those demanding victory for the terrorist organization to stand down or cease their expressions of hate for Jews.
The reason why so many people around the world are moved to demonstrate their sympathy and solidarity for the perpetrators of the largest mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust isn’t much of a mystery.
Double standards and anti-Semitism
That Israel is being judged by standards applied to no other nation on earth is obvious. Even if the Hamas casualty statistics that are accepted by the mainstream corporate press are utterly bogus—and they are—it’s true that the post-Oct. 7 war has taken a terrible toll on the Palestinians in Gaza. Still, the scale of the fighting is nothing when compared to other recent wars fought in Syria or the Congo. And although pro-Hamas propagandists and their fellow travelers call what is happening a “genocide,” the human cost of conflict is minuscule when measured against actual genocides, such as those that have occurred in recent decades in Africa or the ongoing campaign by China against its Muslim Uyghur population.
Suffice it to say that there was no international movement—let alone mass demonstrations—in the streets of the world’s cities about any of those conflicts and genocides. Even the reaction to the illegal and brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine, which led to the United States and Western Europe responding with a massive effort of military aid the cost of that dwarfs the assistance the Americans have given Israel over the years, has not been quite so uniform. (Russia has maintained the support of China and many Third World countries, as well as Iran.) It also hasn’t generated the same kind of intense passion in the form of public demonstrations from those who call themselves “progressives.” Nor has the cause of Ukraine lit a fire from students on college campuses in North America and elsewhere.
The near unanimity about the awfulness of Israeli conduct at the United Nations isn’t surprising since the world body has specialized in singling out the Jewish state for opprobrium almost from its inception. But that drumbeat of incitement in the international community and the support for lawfare aimed at further isolating Israel in agencies like the International Court of Justice in The Hague is increasing.
All of this points to the conclusion that there’s only one kind of fighting that international opinion considers truly beyond the pale—and that is the wars waged by Israel. It’s true even when they are in response to clear violations of international law, not to mention the sort of barbarism that deserves to be compared to the Holocaust, like the Oct. 7 atrocities perpetrated by Hamas on Jewish communities in southern Israel.
Illogical proposals
Of course, many who say they are for a ceasefire in Gaza claim to be supporters of Israel. The Biden administration and the increasing number of congressional Democrats who seek to limit military aid to Israel and force it to accept a Palestinian state when the war ends fall into this category. Yet there’s something particularly baffling about the illogic of a position that is predicated on support for Israel’s security but equally insistent that a Hamas state in Gaza, whose only purpose is to destroy the Jewish state and slaughter Jews en masse, be essentially reconstituted and allowed to take over the even larger areas of Judea and Samaria, something that would be made inevitable by a ceasefire.
It’s not quite so baffling, however, when this position is viewed as being impelled by a campaign of anti-Semitic incitement against Israel, rooted in misinformation about the war being conducted by progressives who have enormous influence over American journalism, popular culture and sway over the activist wing of the Democratic Party.
To the chattering classes who are pushing for Israel’s isolation, the answers to its dilemma are clear. They believe that Israel should end its war on Hamas, enabling those who planned and carried out the largest mass slaughter of Jews since World War II and the Holocaust amid a spree of rape, torture and kidnapping that occurred on Oct. 7 to get away with their crimes. They say this is the only way to end the suffering of the Palestinian people and to rebuild Gaza. And they believe that this must be followed up by a renewed push for peace that will be based on the idea of creating an independent Palestinian state in Gaza, as well as Judea, Samaria and part of Jerusalem.
Few Israelis are ready to buy into this scenario. While there was broad support in the Jewish state for the 1993 Oslo peace accords that were based on the “land for peace” formula, three decades of Palestinian terrorism and rejection of Israeli/U.S. offers of statehood have sobered Israelis up about the intentions of their Arab neighbors. The Second Intifada—five years of Palestinian suicide bombings of civilians on buses, and in restaurants and schools from 2000 to 2005—the creation of a Hamas state in Gaza after the total Israeli withdrawal from the Strip in the summer of 2005 and now the horrors that took place on Simchat Torah last fall have created a broad consensus mandating both the elimination of Hamas and opposition to Palestinian statehood for the foreseeable future.
But those carrying on about how isolated Israel is—in sanctimonious tones in which they claim to be speaking more in sorrow than anger—are not interested in any of that. Nor do they care about Palestinian culpability for the war or the fact that polls show that an overwhelming majority of them support Hamas, as well as the atrocities of Oct. 7. That the same is true of those cheering the spilling of Jewish blood on the streets of New York and college campuses is also not taken into account when discussing this anti-Israel consensus among the so-called enlightened left.
Concessions breed isolation not popularity
The problem with their formula is, however, not just that Israelis reject it. It’s that those who make these proposals either don’t understand or are deliberately ignoring the root cause of Israel’s problem. Its isolation is not caused by bad policies, a right-wing government or the inevitable suffering caused by even the most justified and moral war. If the outrage about its conduct would never be applied to any other country, then those most critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition must acknowledge that the problem is anti-Semitism.
In the heyday of Oslo optimism in the 1990s, the late Shimon Peres, who had ushered that foolish effort into existence while Israel’s foreign minister, used to preach that Israel didn’t need hasbara—good public relations or pro-Israel advocacy. What it needed was good policies that led to peace. Once that happened, he said, the Jewish state would be popular everywhere.
But he was wrong. Neither the territorial withdrawals of Oslo nor Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement from Gaza made Israel popular. The same was true of the offers of statehood made by Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert in 2000, 2001 and 2008. In fact, the opposite was true.
The more Israel took risks for peace by giving up its rights and endangering its security, the more despised it became around the world. Rather than convincing the international community of its good intentions, concessions to the Palestinians made Israel appear to be a thief returning stolen property to its rightful owners. By discarding arguments that insisted upon Jewish rights to the land of Israel—as guaranteed by international law, in addition to history and justice—the Israeli peace camp helped legitimize the anti-Zionist narrative of the Palestinian nakba, the “catastrophe” of the establishment of a modern-day Jewish state.
Tragically, the spectacle of Jewish suffering, victimhood and humiliation on Oct. 7 had a similar impact on world opinion. Rather than demonstrating the barbaric nature and genocidal goals of Israel’s opponents, the anti-Zionists either denied the evidence of those crimes provided by the perpetrators or argued that the Jews—falsely labeled as “settler-colonialist” oppressors in the one country in the world where the Jews truly are the indigenous people—had it coming. The spilling of Jewish blood has, as it has so many times in the past, only incited more hatred against Jews.
Difficult though the task facing the Israel Defense Forces may be, if the current war ends in anything but total victory over Hamas, Israelis should expect no wave of sympathy or understanding. Not only will Hamas be able to declare itself vindicated—and by its commission of unspeakable crimes, assume primacy in Palestinian politics—but the international pressure on Israel to grant them more triumphs will only continue.
An ‘Iron Wall’ is still needed
Sadly, nothing will make Israel be loved by the world. The Jewish state cannot be “rebranded” to associate itself solely with its stellar economy, scientific accomplishments, or the beauty of its scenery or the genius of its people. The only formula for Jewish survival is the one that Zionist statesman and thinker Ze’ev Jabotinsky wrote about in his 1923 essay “The Iron Wall,” in which he preached that only when the Arab world realizes that it can’t defeat the Jews can peace be possible.
It should be remembered that the alliance with the United States, which is Israel’s greatest diplomatic asset, was not a gift given to the Jews by a benevolent American government in 1948. There was no alliance with Washington until after Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, when it demonstrated its military strength and acquired the strategic depth that made its survival not quite so precarious.
That belief in Israel’s dominance was also what impelled some Arab states to give up the fight leading to peace deals like the 2020 Abraham Accords. However, if Hamas is allowed to emerge from the war it started by breaching Israel’s defenses not only alive but crowned as the victor, anti-Semites will not merely be encouraged. They will think that for all of its strength and accomplishments, the Jewish state that Jabotinsky envisioned lacks that iron wall that it still needs.
Those who care about Israel must take these lessons to heart and realize that the only solution to its current situation is for Jerusalem to ignore its critics and push through to victory, no matter how difficult that might be in terms of its military and diplomatic challenges. Only by clearly beating the Hamas criminals, as well as their many supporters and enablers, can circumstances ease a little. Anything less and a nightmare scenario envisioned by anti-Semitic foes—in which Israel truly becomes a pariah state—will be the inevitable result.
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MSNBC Defends Biden’s Garbage Nominee, Sparks Debate Over Anti-Muslim Bias
According to a recent segment on MSNBC’s The Weekend show, two Democratic senators are facing backlash for their decision not to support President Biden’s nominee for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals 3rd Circuit. Co-anchors Symone Sanders-Townsend and Alicia Menendez, along with guest Michael Steele and MSNBC.com writer Hayes Brown, passionately came to the defense of Biden’s nominee, Adeel Mangi, who is facing rejection due to allegations against him.
The segment started with a clip of Democratic Senator Cory Booker passionately defending Mangi and praising his work, regardless of what happens with his nomination. Co-anchor Sanders-Townsend then expressed her belief that “politics was fueling a lot of the vitriol and misinformation” surrounding the nominee. Brown chimed in, claiming that “racism against a Muslim candidate” is at the root of the controversy against Mangi.
However, Brown and Sanders-Townsend failed to provide any evidence to support their claims. On the other hand, Republican Senator John Kennedy has compiled a detailed record of Mangi’s questionable associations and actions. For example, Mangi served on the advisory board of the Alliance of Families for Justice, which supports the release of convicted cop-killers. He also served on the advisory board of the Center for Security, Race and Rights, which has a director who has openly expressed anti-Semitic and anti-Israel views.
Despite these troubling associations, when asked directly if he believes Israeli Jews are “colonial settlers,” Mangi dodged the question, claiming he is not knowledgeable enough about the region to have an opinion. This weak response speaks for itself.
The anchors and guest went on to claim that Democratic senators are afraid to support Mangi due to potential backlash. However, this argument falls flat when considering that one of the senators who opposed Mangi, Joe Manchin, has already announced he will not be running for re-election. Additionally, the suggestion that politics plays a role in judicial confirmations is nothing new, as evidenced by the Democrats’ shameful attacks on Brett Kavanaugh and Senator Biden’s own behavior during Clarence Thomas’s confirmation in 1991.
As an MSNBC writer, Brown’s job is to help frame the news for readers. However, based on this segment, it seems that his agenda is to push false narratives and ignore facts in order to push a certain political agenda.
The rejection of Mangi’s nomination is not the product of politics or racism. It is the result of legitimate concerns raised by senators, including those from his own party, about his associations and actions. In a time when judicial confirmations are fiercely debated and scrutinized, it is important for all candidates to be thoroughly vetted and for senators to make informed decisions rather than blindly support a nominee based on their political party or religion.
Is the responsibility of the media to provide unbiased reporting and present all sides of a story, rather than cherry-picking information to fit a certain narrative. The failure to do so only perpetuates division and misinformation, which is not in the best interest of the public or our democracy. Let us hope that in the future, MSNBC and other media outlets will focus on the facts rather than personal biases when covering important issues such as this one.
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