Biden Surrendered to the Taliban; The GOP Must Not Surrender to Biden - David Horowitz and Daniel Greenfield

 

by David Horowitz and Daniel Greenfield

Impeach the president, court martial the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

 

Only one man lost his job over Afghanistan. Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller challenged Biden’s incompetent and spineless Joint Chiefs of Staff to take responsibility for their dereliction of duty that led directly to the catastrophe in Afghanistan. Taking responsibility meant resigning. Biden’s military men immediately smeared him as mentally ill and forced him out of the Marines.

Biden is directly responsible for the worst, most humiliating, most dangerous – yet completely avoidable - defeat in the history of American warfare. He has betrayed the country that elected him and that he is sworn to serve. Yet Biden has shown no remorse and taken no responsibility for the damage he has done. Instead, he has brazenly lied and called his own actions a “success.” As for his allies, he has blamed the Afghan military, the Afghan president and, of course, his adversary Donald Trump for the mess he single-handedly created. Hundreds are already dead and legions of unknown and uncountable others await death from terrorists whom Biden has freed, empowered and armed.

Meanwhile, Biden and the Joint Chiefs are busily covering up their disloyalty and incompetence. They are not going to resign. Biden is not going to fire the generals who should have gone to the wall to oppose his brainless decisions, and resigned when they failed to reverse them. These decisions were so bad that former British prime minister and staunch American ally Tony Blair has called them “imbecilic.” No former head of state has ever used such an extreme – but accurate – term to describe the decisions of an American president.

The Taliban held a victory parade to display the American military equipment that Biden simply abandoned and left for them to take. These weapons include Black Hawk helicopters, 2,000 armored vehicles, and 600,000 state-of-the-art assault rifles. Enough to arm multiple terrorist groups all over the world. There’s no telling how many Americans, Somalis, Syrians, and Israelis these weapons will kill.

Thanks to Biden’s lack of interest in American security and as a consequence of his decisions, the Taliban now control nine air bases including one at Bagram, which we spent hundreds of millions of dollars turning into a state-of-the-art complex. Adjoining Bagram was the country’s largest prison which housed thousands of Taliban, al-Qaeda, and ISIS-K prisoners who have been unleashed to kill more innocents who stand in their way. The nine air bases will now become assets not only for the Taliban, but for China, Iran, Pakistan, and other Taliban allies.

Massive amounts of intel data have also fallen into enemy hands. The Taliban are using hand-held biometric scanners to hunt down and kill former American allies. And the Chinese and other enemy intel officers that go over what we left behind will learn a lot about American methods and neutralize the technical advantages America once had. There were 16,000 night goggles left in Afghanistan. These provided a decisive military advantage to the Afghan government forces allowing them to see at night while the Taliban could not. Now the Taliban and every terrorist group with access to its store of American loot will share that advantage.

An American president and commander-in-chief loyal to his country and its citizens would never have made the decisions that Joe Biden did, which have put every American’s life at risk. A loyal general staff would never have gone along with them. A decent set of leaders would have hung their heads in shame at the result of their decisions, and been grateful that treason is no longer punished by firing squads, and departed political and military life forever.

The first days of Biden’s misbegotten term in office should have warned everyone of what was to come when he began surrendering American interests to our enemies. Thus, the Biden administration scuttled the Trump administration probe into the Chinese lab origins of the coronavirus pandemic. Worse still, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the likely source of the lab leak, has once again become potentially eligible for taxpayer funding.

While President Trump designated China's persecution of Muslims as genocide, Biden squeamishly told CNN, "Culturally, there are different norms that each country and their leaders are expected to follow." Genocide is a cultural norm that we are bound to accept.

Biden not only desperately pursued a renewal of the suicidal nuclear deal with Iran, he allowed the Islamic terrorist state to receive at least $1 billion through South Korea. He also ended the campaign against Iran’s Houthi Jihadists in Yemen whose motto is, “Death to America,” and who had fired missiles at the USS Mason.

He signed off on Russia’s pipeline, which dramatically increased Russia’s potential threats to American interests, while eliminating the Keystone XL pipeline at home. The hypocrisy of these mindless decisions showed that environmental concerns were merely a pretext for eliminating America’s pipeline, and undoing a Trump achievement and diminishing American power were what actually motivated the cancelling of the pipeline at home. 

America’s enemies read these gifts as proof of America’s weakness under the leadership of an American coward who as Vice President had been the lone vote against killing Osama bin Laden and who had abandoned Iraq to ISIS.

The Taliban knew they had nothing to fear from Biden so they tested him by offering to let America control Kabul. Instead of protecting our withdrawal and exit. Biden declined their offer – an act so suicidal it was itself worthy of impeachment. Biden let the Taliban take Kabul and surround the airport to provide security, with deadly consequences to thirteen American military personnel and unknown numbers of Afghan victims.

Al Qaeda’s allies, the Haqqani Network, controlled the checkpoints and surrounded the airport. American refugees trying to reach the airport were beaten by these terrorist thugs who didn’t let them get to the airport, but opened the door for ISIS-K to come bearing rockets, machine guns, and suicide bomb vests. That’s how the thirteen brave Americans were murdered in Kabul.

And these decisions seemed not to be absent minded mistakes, but calculated and deliberate.

Thus, in advance of the coming evacuation, Secretary of State Antony Blinken scrapped the Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau created by Trump to evacuate Americans. The same Biden Secretary of State invited the terrorist supporting UN to investigate American “systemic racism” while abandoning Americans to the real systemic racism of the Taliban. 

The Biden administration is a disloyal government that over and over has genuflected to America’s enemies and betrayed the American people, endangering their lives and the security of the nation. But while the whole Democrat Party goes along with these anti-America policies and the catastrophes they create, instead of holding them to account GOP leaders are playing their usual feckless roles, wasting their opportunity to nail the incompetent and disloyal president, along with his entire rotten administration to the wall.

Thus, House Minority Leader McCarthy has refused to move forward on Biden's impeachment.

McCarthy admitted that the Afghanistan rout was “probably the biggest failure in American government on a military stage in my lifetime.” “Probably”? McCarthy also called for "accountability." But what kind of accountability does he have in mind if he won’t hammer home the horrific actions Biden has taken. And what kind of accountability is he seeking if he won’t move to remove Biden and his enablers from office?

Every Republican should be shouting Impeach Biden! Impeach Harris! Impeach Blinken, Pelosi and Schumer! Also: Court Martial the Joint Chiefs of Staff! who were busy imposing Critical Race Theory on the troops and witch-hunting conservatives in the ranks, when they should have been planning the Afghanistan retreat.

Many Republicans, including their leaders, who don’t understand the political war that Democrats are waging against them, think this is a bad idea. They think: even if Biden could be impeached, that would leave America in the cackling grip of President Kamala Harris. This is the type of thinking that accounts for the passivity of Republicans while Democrats are always fighting an aggressive war against them.

Nancy Pelosi spent four years attempting to impeach Trump on transparently bogus charges. Did this hurt Democrat polling despite its embarrassments, or did it help Democrat efforts to tar and feather Republicans and increase Democrat support? Nancy Pelosi is not going to impeach Biden or anyone else. But the American people need to hear what these Democrats are guilty of and calling for their impeachment is the way to do it. Impeach them betraying the American people, endangering their lives and the lives of their children. This is how Democrats would conduct their political war if the roles were reversed. Republicans need to wake up and take the war to the enemy camp.

Meanwhile, as Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy sleeps American patriots are on the move.

Dozens of flag officers have signed a letter by Flag Officers 4 America calling on Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley to resign.

Republican leaders did nothing to protect some of our finest officers, like Lt. Colonel Matt Lohmeier, from being sacrificed on the altar of critical race theory when the incompetent military brass fired them. They did nothing to stand by whistleblowers like Lt. Col. Scheller. Will they re-think the costs of their silence and decide to stand by these officers?

Members of the Freedom Caucus, led by Rep. Clay Higgins, have introduced resolutions calling for Biden, Austin, and Milley to resign. Freedom Caucus members Rep. Norman and Rep. Harris have an impeachment resolution for Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Will McCarthy back these resolutions or continue offering hollow promises of “accountability”?

Where are the GOP leaders willing to fight for them by taking the fight to Biden, to his cronies and stooges, from Kamala Harris to Lloyd Austin, Antony Blinken, and Mark Milley? Lt. Col. Scheller threw away his military career to tell the truth. What’s House Minority Leader McCarthy risking? A few corporate donations? The respect of the D.C. establishment?

Joseph R. Biden is the worst president and the worst human being to ever occupy the White House. His ill will towards the country he leads is written all over his administration – the invasion of millions of unvetted foreigners from 100 countries, many of whom are COVID carrying, sex trafficking, drug dealing criminals. Out of control crime, making the streets of our cities unsafe is also a direct result of Democrat policies and criminal Democrat prosecutors and district attorneys. Bankrupting the economy with a $5 trillion socialist scheme, orchestrated by Bernie Sanders, a life-long supporter of Communist dictatorships, whose intent is to make every American dependent on government and beholden to federal bureaucrats is what the Democrats were working on late into the night in the Capitol as Americans died in Kabul.  

Patriots should never forget this, and never let Americans forget as well. Afghanistan is a holograph of America’s future if Democrat policies prevail. It fell because of the treachery of the Democrat Party in selecting a dementia case and judgement-challenged politician to be president. Afghanistan fell because of the lack of patriotic concern by the entire Biden White House and the military chiefs, the lack of concern for the welfare of the people, the first responsibility of those who hold these offices. The military chiefs who are a product of Barack Obama’s politicized military were busily pushing a Marxist ideology on their troops – one that indicts America as a hopelessly racist country, while the Taliban terrorists were preparing their victory march to Kabul.

Americans who love this country need to heed the call to defend it because the hour is late and the nation they love is under attack.

 

David Horowitz is the founder of the David Horowitz Freedom Center and the author of his latest book: The Enemy Within: How a Totalitarian Movement is Destroying America. Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/09/biden-surrendered-taliban-gop-must-not-surrender-david-horowitz-and-daniel-greenfield/

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The Cost of Our Afghanistan Withdrawal - Dennis Prager

 

by Dennis Prager

Exploring the damage to American interests.

 

How does a leader decide what to do?

The most logical response is: "Cui bono?" — "Who benefits?" — from the decision.

If some policy benefits your country most, you should, within moral bounds, pursue it.

If your enemies benefit most, you should avoid it.

I'd be curious to learn what answer proponents of America leaving Afghanistan — conservative or liberal — would give to the question, "Cui bono?"

I can say that until this moment, I have not read or heard a single cogent argument from proponents of American withdrawal as to how exactly it benefits America.

"Twenty years is too long," or its variant, "we have to end these endless wars," the most commonly offered argument for withdrawal, has nothing to do with benefiting America.

It is an emotional sentiment, not a rational argument.

The withdrawal has already cost us in a single day more service members' lives than we lost on any one day in Afghanistan since June 2014, seven years ago.

The number of American servicemen killed in Afghanistan per year from 2015 to 2020 is respectively 22, 9, 14, 14, 21 and 11. No one can seriously argue that we are leaving Afghanistan because of high American casualties.

So, while America doesn't benefit at all from leaving Afghanistan, it does get hurt.

The damage to the reputation of America — as an ally and as a strong country — is not easily overstated.

The damage done to NATO, whose members President Joe Biden didn't bother to consult, is greater than any damage former President Donald Trump — whom the left-wing mainstream media constantly attacked for damaging NATO — was alleged to have done.

On the other hand, "Cui bono?" has some very clear answers: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, every Islamic terror group in the world and every other anti-American regime and movement.

In the Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro compiled a list of recent Western weakness in the face of tyrants and the commensurate strengthening of those tyrants:

"The West's abandonment of Hong Kong in the face of Chinese aggression last year.

"The West's continuing desire for a rapprochement with the Iranian mullahcracy.

"The West's routine appeasement of Russia.

"All speak to the unwillingness of the West — and the West's leader, the United States — to stand up for allies anywhere on earth.

"Afghanistan is simply the latest, and by far the most stunning, example of abandonment of an American ally ...

"China's Global Times, a Communist Party mouthpiece, chortled, 'From what happened in Afghanistan, those in Taiwan should perceive that once a war breaks out in the Straits, the island's defense will collapse in hours and U.S. military won't come to help. As a result (Taiwan) will quickly surrender.'

"Indeed, given the window presented by the Biden administration, it would be somewhat of a surprise if China didn't attempt some sort of action against Taiwan in the next few years ...

"Foreign policy abhors vacuums, and the United States has now created one. That means that erstwhile American allies will begin to play footsie with countries like Russia and China, believing that American commitments mean little. They have reason for such suspicions, obviously."

The effects on Americans' perceptions of the military constitute another terrible price paid by leaving Afghanistan. More and more Americans see the military as more concerned with fighting white supremacy in America and transphobia in the military than with fighting for the supremacy of freedom on earth. This is new. And it will have a devastating effect on both America and the military. One obvious consequence: Who will want to enlist in a woke military? (Perhaps that's the goal.)

It seems that every generation has to relearn the basic laws of life, such as this one: There are many bad people and many bad countries in the world, and only a fear of good countries prevents them from conquering other countries.

There is less fear of good countries in the world today than at any time since World War II. And that is especially so because the good countries are preoccupied with their own alleged evils rather than with the world's real evils.

 

Dennis Prager

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/09/cui-bono-who-benefits-afghanistan-withdrawal-dennis-prager/

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Is the U.S. Intelligence Community Putting the World at Risk? - Pete Hoekstra

 

by Pete Hoekstra

[T]he U.S. intelligence community's whitewashing of China's culpability puts us all at risk.... Every word is weighed and considered. The implication that China is essentially innocent of any ill will is in the report only because some senior official wanted to include it.

• The Intelligence Community's COVID Summary is dangerous; infinitely more dangerous than it appears.

• How can the IC seriously believe that China's active stonewalling of the international community's attempts to get to the bottom of what happened and thus learn better how to combat the virus can be reduced to its "uncertainty about where an investigation might lead" or its "frustration" about outside political pressure? If... this wishful thinking really reflects what our IC believes, the world is in deep trouble.

• In sum, we can assess with a high degree of confidence that while the origins and initial awareness of the virus by the Chinese government cannot be clearly ascertained, the Chinese government has been intimately involved in most everything since then. It has used the pandemic to further its global economic and political agenda. Its behavior has been ruthless and malicious.

• [T]he U.S. intelligence community's whitewashing of China's culpability puts us all at risk.... Every word is weighed and considered. The implication that China is essentially innocent of any ill will is in the report only because some senior official wanted to include it.

• God help us if this signals the beginning of a Biden administration appeasement strategy. Judging from everything we have experienced over the last ten to twenty years, the attempt to placate China by writing off its malicious behavior as lightly as this report does... shows weakness. It rewards an aggressive China, and only invites more of the same.

The U.S. intelligence community's whitewashing of China's culpability for the COVID pandemic puts us all at risk. The attempt to placate China by writing off its malicious behavior as lightly as this report does is doomed to failure. It shows weakness. It rewards an aggressive China, and only invites more of the same. (Image source: iStock)

The recent release of an unclassified summary by the Intelligence Community (IC) of its investigation into China's role in the COVID pandemic leaves one feeling that there is nothing there. Like Sergeant Schultz in the old TV series "Hogan's Heroes," the IC seems to be protesting "I know nothing! Nothing!" The report provided no real substantive insights into the origins of the pandemic. Yet the Intelligence Community's COVID Summary is dangerous; infinitely more dangerous than it appears. Without saying so directly, it encourages us to discount China's significant culpability in this disaster, downplaying its responsibility for the pandemic unleashed on its territory and its role in the deadly spread of COVID around the world.

The summary comes to three relatively strong conclusions about Chinese actions and motivations. First of all, the IC states its judgment that China did not develop the virus "as a biological weapon." Second, the IC assesses that "China's officials did not have foreknowledge of the virus before the initial outbreak." Third, the report ends with a startling conclusion, stated so matter-of-factly that it could almost go unnoticed; it says that China's "actions," its "hindering" of the international investigation, its "resistance" to sharing information and its attempts to blame other countries, "reflect, in part, China's government's own uncertainty about where an investigation could lead as well as its frustration the international community is using the issue to exert political pressure on China."

The first two findings are probably correct. Taken together, they rule out the worst possible scenario: that China's leadership developed a biological weapon and knowingly unleashed it on an unsuspecting world. These findings were never really in debate so nothing new. But we should not take undue comfort in that. As Gordon G. Chang outlined in these pages earlier this week, just because they didn't do it this time, doesn't mean they will not do it in the future. Chang was correct in identifying COVID was the "ultimate proof of concept."

What truly makes the IC summary dangerous is its third conclusion, implying China's unacceptable behavior since the pandemic was unleashed can be explained away and thus ignored. How can the IC seriously believe that China's active stonewalling of the international community's attempts to get to the bottom of what happened and thus learn better how to combat the virus can be reduced to its "uncertainty about where an investigation might lead" or its "frustration" about outside political pressure? If our IC insists on promoting this rose-colored view of China, if this wishful thinking really reflects what our IC believes, the world is in deep trouble.

Let me build on Chang's exposure of China's behavior and offer some findings that should have been in the Intelligence Community report:

We can assess with a high degree of confidence that China views the U.S. as its primary global adversary. In the short term China wants to achieve near peer status with the U.S. In the long term it wants to be the dominant world power.

We can assess with a high degree of confidence that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been actively involved in advanced virus research via improving genetic targeting capabilities.

We can assess with a high degree of confidence that the CCP facilitated the global spread of the COVID-19 virus.

We can assess with a medium degree of confidence that the CCP used its influence with the WHO to spread a major disinformation campaign.

In sum, we can assess with a high degree of confidence that while the origins and initial awareness of the virus by the Chinese government cannot be clearly ascertained, the Chinese government has been intimately involved in most everything since then. It has used the pandemic to further its global economic and political agenda. Its behavior has been ruthless and malicious.

Americans, our international allies and enemies, and, of course, Chinese and CCP officials themselves, will read this intelligence summary carefully. Thus, the U.S. intelligence community's whitewashing of China's culpability puts us all at risk. In documents such as this report, there are no throwaway lines. Every word is weighed and considered. The implication that China is essentially innocent of any ill will is in the report only because some senior official wanted to include it.

God help us if this signals the beginning of a Biden administration appeasement strategy. Judging from everything we have experienced over the last ten to twenty years, the attempt to placate China by writing off its malicious behavior as lightly as this report does is doomed to failure. It shows weakness. It rewards an aggressive China, and only invites more of the same.

 

Pete Hoekstra is a former Representative in Congress from Michigan. He served as the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. More recently he was U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17710/intelligence-report-china-covid

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Video: Project Veritas Exposes Antifa Indoctrination in the Classroom - Frontpagemag.com

 

by Frontpagemag.com

Teacher brags about turning students into 'revolutionaries'.

 

Californian pro-antifa Inderkum High School teacher Gabriel Gipe bragged about turning his students into far-left "revolutionaries," and it was caught on video by James O'Keefe's Project Veritas.  Don't miss it!

 

Frontpagemag.com

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/09/project-veritas-exposes-antifa-indoctrination-frontpagemagcom/

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China bans effeminate men from being on television - Associated Press

 

by Associated Press

This is part of the "national rejuvenation" that Xi Jinping has called for

China’s government banned effeminate men on TV and told broadcasters Thursday to promote "revolutionary culture," broadening a campaign to tighten control over business and society and enforce official morality.

President Xi Jinping has called for a "national rejuvenation," with tighter Communist Party control of business, education, culture and religion. Companies and the public are under increasing pressure to align with its vision for a more powerful China and healthier society.

The party has reduced children's access to online games and is trying to discourage what it sees as unhealthy attention to celebrities.

China's government banned effeminate men on TV and told broadcasters Thursday, Sept. 2, 2021 to promote "revolutionary culture," broadening a campaign to tighten control over business and society and enforce official morality. 

GAVIN NEWSOM PRAISED CHINESE OUTLET DESIGNATED FOREIGN AGENT, WITH REPORTED TIES TO COMMUNIST PARTY

Broadcasters must "resolutely put an end to sissy men and other abnormal esthetics," the TV regulator said, using an insulting slang term for effeminate men — "niang pao," or literally, "girlie guns."

That reflects official concern that Chinese pop stars, influenced by the sleek, girlish look of some South Korean and Japanese singers and actors, are failing to encourage China's young men to be masculine enough.

Broadcasters should avoid promoting "vulgar internet celebrities" and admiration of wealth and celebrity, the regulator said. Instead, programs should "vigorously promote excellent Chinese traditional culture, revolutionary culture and advanced socialist culture."

Xi’s government also is tightening control over Chinese internet industries.

SOUTH KOREAN COURT SENTENCES K-POP STAR TO 3 YEARS IN PRISON

It has launched anti-monopoly, data security and other enforcement actions at companies including games and social media provider Tencent Holding and e-commerce giant Alibaba Group that the ruling party worries are too big and independent.

Rules that took effect Wednesday limit anyone under 18 to three hours per week of online games and prohibit play on school days.

Game developers already were required to submit new titles for government approval before they could be released. Officials have called on them to add nationalistic themes.

The party also is tightening control over celebrities.

In this 2017, file photo, Chinese women walk past advertisement featuring teen idol Lu Han, also known as China's Justin Bieber in Beijing. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Broadcasters should avoid performers who "violate public order" or have "lost morality," the regulator said. Programs about the children of celebrities also are banned.

On Saturday, microblog platform Weibo Corp. suspended thousands of accounts for fan clubs and entertainment news.

A popular actress, Zhao Wei, has disappeared from streaming platforms without explanation. Her name has been removed from credits of movies and TV programs.

Thursday’s order told broadcasters to limit pay for performers and to avoid contract terms that might help them evade taxes.

Another actress, Zheng Shuang, was fined 299 million yuan ($46 million) last week on tax evasion charges in a warning to celebrities to be positive role models.

 

Associated Press

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/world/china-bans-effeminate-men-from-being-on-television

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The United Church of Christ's Biased Resolution on 'Palestine' and Israel - Joseph Puder

 

by Joseph Puder

Historical facts are immaterial to the UCC.

 

The United Church of Christ (UCC), in what has become typical among the mainline Protestant churches, issued a resolution (July 18, 2021) stating that Israel’s continued oppression of the Palestinian people is a “sin.” The resolution calls on the General Synod to adopt a declaration of requirements for a just peace between Palestine and Israel. The UCC’s most recent resolution was adopted by 83% of its delegates voting on line. The UCC has a membership of 800,000.

The UCC, with its progressive-leftist interpretation of the Bible, its lack of regard for history and Middle East realities, particularly as it applies to Palestinian Islamist terrorism and intimidation, is guilty of the sin of bias. The current UCC resolution, like previous ones, shows a clear anti-Israel bias that is largely influenced by the dhimmified Arab-Palestinian Christians. In order to survive in the increasingly jihadist-Muslim Middle East, including the Islamist Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon (all three funded and supported by Iran), and Fatah in the West Bank, Palestinian Christians must show greater anti-Israel vigilance than their fellow Muslims. The above points are evidenced by the massive exodus of Christians from the Middle East to Europe, and the Americas. The Christians are escaping Arab-Palestinian oppression…not Israeli oppression. In fact, this writer interviewed Bethlehem’s Mayor, Elias Freij, in 1991, and asked him where are the Christians of Bethlehem? He replied, “In Santiago de Chile.” Today Bethlehem’s Christian population is around 7%, in the West Bank as a whole, the Christian population is down to about 2%, and in Hamas ruled Gaza, less than 1%.

Using as supportive “evidence” the following groups; Arab-Palestinian dhimmified Kairos declaration, the World Council of Churches, the anti-Semitic and terrorist dominated United Nations Works and Relief Agency (UNWRA), and the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel alone, or bringing forth discredited Israeli NGO’s who are funded by European government agencies with the purpose of weakening Israel, only serves to reinforce the one-sided, biased sources employed by the UCC resolution.

The Resolution’s summary says that, “It rejects a future imposed by military power, illegal occupation and dispossession, or unilateral annexation of land, and the use of imperialistic theology as justification.” Then in items 53,54,55, it proclaims, “In 1987, the Synod affirmed its recognition that God’s covenant with the Jewish people has not been rescinded or abrogated by God, but remains in full force, insomuch as ‘The gifts and the call of God are irrevocable (Rom. 11:29).” According to the UCC current resolution, the Biblical prophets of Israel (Jeremiah and Isaiah in particular) must be “imperialistic” because their “theology” points to God’s promise of his people returning (the Jews) to their ancestral homeland, the land of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel). It means all the land of Israel, particularly Judea and Samaria.

The initiators of this resolution (UCC churches in California, Connecticut, and New Hampshire) conveniently ignored historical events that took place in 1947, 1948, 1967, 2000, and 2008. In November, 1947, the United Nations (UN) voted to partition Mandatory Palestine into Arab (Jews were called Palestinians then) and Jewish states. The Jews of Palestine accepted a shrunken state (after the Holocaust, Jewish survivors in DP camps needed a home). The 1917 Balfour declaration assigned both banks of the Jordan River to be the Jewish homeland. The 1920 San Remo conference confirmed the Balfour declaration. The Arabs (Palestinians) rejected the partition and planned to destroy the nascent Jewish state (proclaimed statehood May, 1948), along with five Arab armies (Egypt, the Emirate of Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria). Haj Amin al-Husseini, the defrocked Mufti of Jerusalem (Hitler’s ally), sought to “finish Hitler’s work against the Jews.” In 1948, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan illegally occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They destroyed the Jewish quarter and expelled its Jewish residents. Britain and Pakistan were the only countries to recognize that illegal act.

In May, 1967, following Egypt’s dictator Abdul Nasser’s provocative acts of war (expelling the UN observers in the Sinai, and closing waterways to Israeli navigation, including the Suez Canal and the Straits of Tiran), Israel sent a message to King Hussein of Jordan to stay out of the impending war, and that Israel had no intention of attacking Jordan unless attacked by them. Under pressure from Nasser, Jordan attacked Israel (I witnessed that). In the Six Day War, Israel liberated Jerusalem, and recovered the Etzion Bloc, (Jewish owned communities conquered by Jordan in 1948). It captured the historical areas of Judea and Samaria, the cradle of Jewish/Biblical civilization. Israel’s call for peace negotiations was answered in November, 1967 with the infamous 3 No’s at the Arab League summit in Khartoum: No to negotiations with Israel; No to recognition of Israel; and No to peace with Israel.

The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), and its various terrorist components began a terror campaign against Israel and Jews. International aviation (inventing Plane hijacking) became a new target for the Palestinian terrorists. The Jewish/Israeli victims were primarily civilians, women and children in particular. The Oslo Accords signed at the White House lawn in 1993 served as a Trojan horse for PLO chairman Yasser Arafat. In July, 2000, President Clinton arranged a Camp David summit with Arafat and Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Barak, expressing the Israelis hope for peace, and a peaceful Palestinian state, made far-reaching concessions in order to end the conflict. Arafat, a lifelong terrorist, wouldn’t agree to “end the conflict.” Clinton accused Arafat of harming the future of his people…Arafat then provoked the second Intifada which cost the lives of many Palestinians and over 1,000 Israelis, blown up on buses, and restaurants. Arafat could have had a Palestinian state in July, 2000, but preferred terror instead.

In 2008, it was Arafat’s successor, Mahmud Abbas, who wasted another opportunity to establish a Palestinian state. This time it was Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who exceeded the concessions made by Barak. Abbas, likely fearing assassination, and the difficulties of handling a people weaned on terror, hate, and resistance, found it easier to receive European and American largesse as a way to motivate him to engage in peace negotiations, rather than making peace. Making peace required the Palestinian media, school curriculum, and mosques to end incitement and hate against Jews and Israel, and reach mutual respect with their Israeli/Jewish neighbors. In 2007, the Gaza Strip was under control of the Islamist terrorists Hamas, with Hamas declaring jihad on Israel.

As to “imposed military power,” without the protection of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and it’s manning of checkpoints, Israeli civilians would die at the hands of Palestinian terrorists. I wonder what the folks at the UCC churches in CA, CT, and NH would do with Hamas and Fatah terrorists as their neighbors?

UNSC Resolution 242 called for “territory for peace (but not all territories).” Egypt accepted peace and got back the entire Sinai. In the West Bank though, Jews have as much right to settle as Palestinians do. In a New York Times opinion piece (September 19, 1983), the late Eugene Rostow, who served as Dean of Yale Law School and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs in the Johnson administration, wrote: “Israel has an unassailable legal right to establish settlements in the West Bank.”

Jews are the indigenous people of Israel, not imperialistic conquerors. Exiled by Roman’s in 70CE, Jews never ceased their yearning to return. In 638CE, the real imperialists appeared. The Muslim Caliph Omar colonized Palestine and the Middle East as part of the Islamic imperialistic conquests.

 

Joseph Puder

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/09/united-church-christs-biased-resolution-palestine-joseph-puder/

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Candace Owens denied medical treatment as Colorado lab cancels COVID test appointment - Charles Creitz

 

by Charles Creitz

Tucker Carlson said, 'This doesn't sound like America'

Candace Owens blasts Colorado clinic that denied her a COVID test

Owens recounts being refused a COVID-19 test due to her public comments on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight'

Conservative author and commentator Candace Owens was denied medical care in the form of a coronavirus test by a Colorado laboratory because of her political beliefs, Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson reported Thursday.

Owens was sent a letter by Aspen Laboratories' co-founder Suzanna Lee informing her that her "booking" was being cancelled and that she would be "denied service" because of both her aversion to governmental face mask mandates and her analysis of the effectiveness of vaccination shots.

"We cannot support anyone who has pro-actively worked to make this pandemic worse by spreading misinformation, politicizing, and discouraging the wearing of masks and actively dissuading people from receiving life-saving vaccinations," Lee wrote in the letter obtained by "Tucker Carlson Tonight."

 

Just finished my live on Instagram here: https://t.co/lPjhqVYaGO

As promised— here is the email from the rabid activist declining to give me a test, plus my response to her. She clearly isn’t stable enough to work in health and is a danger to the Aspen community. pic.twitter.com/nV7xMGqVN3

— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) September 2, 2021

FAUCI: ‘MU’ COVID VARIANT NOT AN ‘IMMEDIATE THREAT’ TO AMERICANS

Carlson noted it has not been unusual for Americans of certain political affiliations to be "singled out, punished and denied services" – but that it is likely one of the first such cases of an American citizen being denied medical treatment on that basis.

Video

"This doesn't sound like America," he said, introducing Owens to the program.

Owens said she does not actually want to be tested for coronavirus but that because of sudden governmental restrictions on "bodily autonomy," she has to get routine tests to be able to engage in normal activities. 

"First and foremost, I'd like to not have to get COVID tested, but as you brought up in your previous segment – this is one of the only ways you can maintain your bodily autonomy right now and they're saying if you do not get the vaccination then you need a COVID test to move. If you go to an event you need a negative COVID test; if you want to leave the country or fly," she said.

"So I perpetually have to get tested to prove I'm negative," Owens said, noting she has traveled to three countries and 23 states in the last two years for her work and leisure.

Owens added that Lee's refusal of services begs the question as to the rhetoric of people like her who say it is "a pandemic of the unvaccinated."

"If this is a real deadly virus – if the unvaccinated are the people that are behind this pandemic, people like me … and you really believe this, why would you prevent somebody from complying with local COVID measures and trying to get a test and do the right thing? That doesn't make sense."

Such behavior "defies the science [they] claim is so true," said Owens.

Carlson noted that there are laws prohibiting doctors from refusing medical care to illegal immigrants or people who show up at emergency rooms uninsured – but that somehow an American citizen who has chosen not to get the COVID jab can suddenly be denied the same medical attention.

"Is that legal?" he asked.

"This is not about health anymore, this is about politics," Owens replied. "These people are sadistic, they are sadists. They like to manipulate you, they like control. They don't care about public health. This is a public health crisis she would say 'you know what I hate Candace Owen but of course she is in my town I'm going to give her a test and make sure she doesn't infect anybody else.'"

Carlson said Owens is essentially being lectured because she doesn't care enough, yet she was denied a coronavirus test she was seeking to take to show she indeed cares about local laws and policies.

"You can't get a COVID test and can't have a credit card," Carlson added. "This is getting really, really dark and I hope Republican members of Congress who still have some power would stand up for their voters."

 

Charles Creitz

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/media/candace-owens-denied-medical-treatment-colorado-lab-cancels-covid-test-appointment

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Bennett’s Voters Face Bennett’s Policies - Caroline Glick

 

by Caroline Glick

"Now the policy is to not survey ownership of survey lands and instead treat them as if they belong to Palestinians, even when no one has claimed ownership.”

 

Arugot Vineyard, Gush Etzion

The four farmers of Arugot Farm, located on the eastern side of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc were tense on Monday morning. They had just gotten word that the next day, a hundred soldiers were set to storm their farm and uproot their vineyard. They planted their vineyard six years ago in memory of Ezra Schwartz, a Jewish American youth who was murdered in a terror attack in 2015.

Ezra was killed and five of his friends from yeshiva were wounded when a terrorist opened fire on the minibus they were travelling in. They were stuck in a traffic jam at Gush Etzion junction and didn’t have a chance. The spot they were stuck in traffic was just a few dozen meters from where three other teenagers, Naftali Frankel, Gil-Ad Shaer, and Eyal Yifrach were kidnapped and murdered the previous summer. Their abduction and execution set off a chain for events that led to the summer war with the Hamas regime in Gaza. Ezra and his friends were on their way to help build Oz V’Gaon nature preserve on the eastern side of the junction. Oz V’Gaon is located not far from where their bodies were found and was built in their memory.

Local officials asked the farmers to build the Arugot Farm. It is located on state lands the Jewish National Fund had been unable to maintain. Around 20 years ago, the JNF planted ten thousand trees on the site to protect it from Palestinian land grabs. But in the space of a few hours, Palestinian villagers uprooted all of the trees. The four farmers and their families moved in seven years ago. Together they cultivate and protect some forty acres of state land.

Under the 1995 Oslo agreement, Judea and Samaria were divided into three areas: A, B, and C. A and B were transferred to Palestinian control. Area C, which made up 60 percent of the area remained under Israeli control. Israel administers Area C through the IDF’s Civil Administration.  

In 2008, then Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad released a strategy to seize the lands of Area C with the goal of choking the Israeli communities, blocking their development and transferring control over strategic lands to the PA. Since then, with lavish funding from the EU, thousands of acres of state land have been seized by the Palestinians. Illegal settlements have sprung up by the dozens, major traffic arteries and access roads to Israeli communities have turned into gauntlets. In an interview with Maariv last week, Kobi Eliraz, who served as an advisor on Area C to three defense ministers estimated that as a result of the land grabs, Israel today controls at best 40 percent of Judea and Samaria.

At the farm on Monday, Ari Abramowitz explained the significance of Arugot Farm, and the vineyard in the context of the Palestinian land grab war.

“Our location is the last line of state lands in eastern Gush Etzion. A kilometer to our east is already Palestinian Authority controlled territory. There are thousands of areas where Palestinians have seized control over state lands. Nature preserves are being destroyed and disappearing. The Civil Administration isn’t doing anything to stop this. But our little vineyard, where we’ve invested hundreds of thousands of shekels from our savings and spent hundreds of hours cultivating, this is what they insist on uprooting.”

Palestinian land seizures are impossible to miss. On the road to the farm, the Palestinians set up a half dozen illegal quarries, destroying the biblical landscape and enveloping the three Israeli communities in the vicinity – Maale Amos, Ivey Nahal and the Arugot Farm.

“We built the vineyard on survey land,” explains Jeremy Gimpel.

Survey land is land who ownership status in unknown. When land is delineated “survey,” the Civil Administration is supposed to survey ownership claims. If it can find no credible claims, survey lands are redesignated as state lands.

“We chose this spot because of its strategic importance for continued Israeli control of the area. It connects the Arugot Farm, Ivey Nahal and Maaleh Amos. The Palestinians want to isolate us from one another by cutting off the contiguity of Israeli control.”

“The military order to destroy this vineyard is particularly grating because just around the time we planted the vineyard, Palestinians planted an olive grove on survey land on the other side of this mountain. No one is giving them a destruction order.”

A local government official explained that the destruction order for the vineyard is part of a new policy being enacted by the Bennett-Lapid government.

“Since this government came into office, land policies in Judea and Samaria have changed. Until now, although the Civil Administration didn’t fight Palestinian land grabs, it tried to expedite the surveys of survey lands and redesignate them as state lands. That has stopped. Now the policy is to not survey ownership of survey lands and instead treat them as if they belong to Palestinians, even when no one has claimed ownership.”

The way things are going, the farmers ruminate, the IDF will uproot their vines and the next day, the EU will buy vines for Palestinians who will come in and plant them. The Civil Administration will sit on its hands and the land will be lost.

Destruction orders like the one for Arugot Farm’s vineyard is are just one way the Bennett-Lapid government is engaging in a diplomatic process towards establishing a hostile Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.

Although Prime Minister Naftali Bennett entered politics eight years ago brandishing a plan to apply Israeli law to all of Area C, today he is conceding Area C to the Palestinians without a fight.

Bennett’s policies are even more radical than those advanced by leftist leaders like Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni. Their peace plans all envisioned Israel retaining control over the so-called “settlement blocs,” in a final peace deal with the Palestinians. But the Bennett government is making moves on the ground that will break up Gush Etzion – the settlement bloc most deeply rooted in Israel’s political consensus – even on the Left.   

Alon Shvut and Rosh Tzurim are sister communities located in central Gush Etzion, about 15 minutes from the Arugot Farm. Central Gush Etzion is Bennett country. Whereas Bennett’s Yamina Party received only five percent of the vote nationwide, it dominates in Gush Etzion. Yamina won 54 percent of the vote in Rosh Tzurim and 40 percent in Alon Shvut.

Along the boundary between Alon Shvut and Rosh Tzurim is a small cluster of forty Arab houses that goes by the name Hirbat Zechariya. At its upcoming meeting, the Civil Administration’s planning committee is scheduled to approve a building plan that will add fifty new homes to the cluster. The new buildings would be constructed in the vineyards adjacent to Hirbat Zechariya. 

A local official relayed that the expansion of Hirbat Zechariya is financed by the French government, which spent 1.25 million euro on the building scheme.

The goal of expanding Hirbat Zechariya is straightforward. The vineyards where the new housing units are slated for construction are the walking paths that connect the Alon Shvut and Rosh Tzurim with all the villages in central Gush Etzion – Kfar Etzion, Elazar, Bat Ayin, Neve Daniel and Efrat. If the paths become a Palestinian settlement, the communities of central Gush Etzion will be cut off from one another.

Local residents attest that they have spoken with Bennett’s partner Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked about the issue and asked for her help. Her reply they say, “Talk to Benny.” That is, she referred them to Defense Minister Benny Gantz and claimed she has no influence on the issue. Notably, the same story has been repeated by concerned residents all over Judea and Samaria. They have called Shaked, formerly one of the champions of the communities in Judea and Samaria, asking for help. She has pled powerlessness and told them, “Speak to Benny,” as if he was the politician they voted for.

After Bennett broke with the right to form his government with the left and the Muslim Brotherhood’s Ra’am party, he soothed the fears of his voters in Judea and Samaria by telling them that there would be no “diplomatic process” with the Palestinians and that his government’s policies in Judea and Samaria would be limited to the “here and now,” and would not impact the long term political or territorial endstate. Unfortunately, both of his claims were untrue.

The diplomatic process is taking place on three levels. On the ground, Bennett’s government is informally, but in most cases irrevocably transferring control over Area C to the Palestinians while transforming Israeli communities – including the ones who everyone wants to maintain in perpetuity — into islands surrounded by Palestinian-controlled areas.

In the international area Bennett, Gantz and Foreign Minister Yair are meeting with foreign leaders – President Joe Biden, EU foreign ministers as well as Arab leaders – and agreeing to multiple demands for Israeli concessions on everything from sovereignty over Jerusalem, to the release of terrorists from prisons, to renewed funding and equipping of the Hamas regime in Gaza and the PA regime in Judea and Samaria.

In his meeting last week with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, Gantz agreed to sidestep Israel’s law requiring the government to withhold funding from the PA so long as it continues to pay salaries to terrorists. More than six percent of the PA’s operating budget is spent on payments to terrorists and their families. By calling the NIS500 million Israel is set to transfer a loan, Gantz avoided the legal restrictions. He also effectively killed Israel’s longstanding demand that the Palestinians stop waging war against Israel. His move – which Bennett approved – constituted an abandonment of Israel’s core demand that the PA and any future Palestinian entity abjure terror and live at peace with Israel.

To date, the government has refused to reject the Biden administration’s request to open a consulate in Jerusalem to serve the Palestinian Authority. If it permits the consulate to open, dozens of other states will follow — opening consulates to a hostile, terror funding PA in Israel’s capital. So by failing to reject Biden’s request, the Bennett-Lapid government is effectively agreeing to divide Israel’s capital behind the back the public’s back.

Thursday Abbas attended a summit in Cairo with Egyptian President a-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah. The meeting’s declared purpose was for the leaders to agree on a unified negotiating position with Israel. Sisi will communicate that position to Bennett when Bennett meets him in Cairo next week.

Monday afternoon, the Civil Administration delayed the order to uproot the Arugot Farm’s vineyard until next month. While relieved by the news, the four farmers had little reason to rejoice. Unless something radical changes, Bennett’s diplomatic process is coming for Gush Etzion.

Originally published in Israel Hayom.

 

Caroline Glick

Source: https://carolineglick.com/bennetts-voters-face-bennetts-policies/

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Israel: Still the 'Strong Horse' - Lawrence A. Franklin

 

by Lawrence A. Franklin

What in the world -- is the US expecting from repeating this disastrous exercise? For both the Israelis and the Gulf's Arab monarchies, Iran's Shia regional empire and drive to lead the Muslim world is still justifiably considered an existential threat.

• Currently -- excluding its ventures into South America from where it can more easily threaten North America -- Iran, sometimes via proxies such as the Houthis, Hamas or Hezbollah -- has successfully inserted itself into Yemen, in a seeming bid to overthrow and supplant Saudi Arabia, as well as in Iraq, Bahrain, Syria, Libya, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

• The first time around, during the Obama years, one might understand the fantasy that enriching and empowering Iran might lead it to give up its long-desired nuclear program and expansionist activities, not to mention the extreme abuses of its citizens at home. Now, however, the world has seen that the plan did not work, and that Iran had been cheating all along, anyhow.

• What in the world, then, is the US expecting from repeating this disastrous exercise? For both the Israelis and the Gulf's Arab monarchies, Iran's Shia regional empire and drive to lead the Muslim world is still justifiably considered an existential threat.

Israel -- no longer diplomatically isolated -- appears to be assuming a more prominent political and military role in the Middle East, as Iran's increasingly aggressive policies toward many regional states has accelerated cooperation between primarily Sunni Muslim Arab Gulf states and Israel. Only Israel appears to have the will and resources to confront the twin challenge to Western civilization presented by a revolutionary Iran and Islamic extremism. (Image source: iStock)

Israel -- no longer diplomatically isolated -- appears to be assuming a more prominent political and military role in the Middle East. Following Israel's generous peace terms with its Arab neighbors, states such as Egypt and Jordan decided decades ago to establish diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. More recently, Islamic countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan also decided to normalize ties with Israel. Presently, these strong new ties appear to be leading to cooperation on an ever-deeper strategic level, especially regarding the destabilizing threat to the area posed by an increasingly aggressive and hegemonic Iran.

Currently -- excluding its ventures into South America from where it can more easily threaten North America -- Iran, sometimes via proxies such as the Houthis, Hamas or Hezbollah -- has successfully inserted itself into Yemen, in a seeming bid to overthrow and supplant Saudi Arabia, as well as in Iraq, Bahrain, Syria, Libya, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

Iran's increasingly aggressive policies toward these regional states has accelerated the cooperation between primarily Sunni Muslim Arab Gulf states and Israel. The Sunni-Shia theological civil war within Islam still appears to be fueling the destabilization of the Middle East -- especially with the recently renewed courtship by the US administration of the Middle East's greatest disrupter, Iran.

The first time around, during the Obama years, one might understand the fantasy that enriching and empowering Iran might lead it to give up its long-desired nuclear program and expansionist activities, not to mention the extreme abuses of its citizens at home. Now, however, the world has seen that the plan did not work, and that Iran had been cheating all along, anyhow.

What in the world, then, is the US expecting from repeating this disastrous exercise? For both the Israelis and the Gulf's Arab monarchies, Iran's Shia regional empire and drive to lead the Muslim world is still justifiably considered an existential threat.

Israel's rising stature as a military power in the region is clearly a by-product of the new US policy decision to reduce its own military presence in the Mideast. This US decision was taken, presumably to confront more significant national security challenges such as China's rapidly expanding power in Pacific Asia. This US move, however, creates a power vacuum that only Israel is capable of filling. Only Israel appears to have the will and resources to confront the twin challenge to Western civilization presented by a revolutionary Iran and Islamic extremism.

The Israel Air Force bombing of Iran's growing military assets in western Syria opposite the Jewish state's Golan Heights area is relentless. Additionally, Israel's continued targeting of Iran's ships in regional waters is a boost to Gulf State morale and added proof that the decision of the Arab monarchies' leadership to reach out to Israel was the right choice. Israel may also be messaging the Biden administration that it will not be restrained by any US sensitivities if the national security interests of the Israeli nation-state are at risk.

Israel's prestige among its neighbors is buoyed by its reputation for scientific, technological and medical advances as well as its entrepreneurial spirit, which also have attracted the admiration of regional states.

One Israeli opportunity to demonstrate that it remains a "strong horse" may be a future decision to strengthen Saudi Arabia's air defense against Iranian missile attacks or pro-Iranian Houthi launches of armed drones from Yemen. Such a decision could help protect the oil kingdom's petroleum industry facilities. Another option that Israel, with its sophisticated, multilevel air defense systems, could implement is helping to draw Jordan into a defense partnership that might strengthen the threatened rule of King Abdullah II in Amman. Israel also might have more flexibility than the US to improve diplomatic relations with either Turkey or Russia, neither of which is presumably eager to see Syria become a permanent vassal state of Iran.

Perhaps, the most impressive Israeli performance that may have strengthened the resolve of neighboring states is the continued success of Israel's intelligence agencies in collecting information on Iran's nuclear weapons programs. Israel's multi-dimensional and aggressive defense of regional stability is also likely eventually to draw more regional Islamic states to embrace the "Abraham Accords."

Those involved in policy in the US Department of State and intelligence agencies might do well not to doubt Israel's will to act unilaterally in its own interest -- and, ironically, the interests of the United States and the Free World -- despite pressure from its American ally, which has sometimes been known to recommend sacrificial self-restraint.

 

Dr. Lawrence A. Franklin was the Iran Desk Officer for Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. He also served on active duty with the U.S. Army and as a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17617/israel-strong-horse

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Bringing in Afghan Refugees with All of Their ‘Luggage’ - Dr. Stephen M. Kirby

 

by Dr. Stephen M. Kirby

What's not being talked about.

 

Afghanistan has fallen to the Taliban and American forces are withdrawing.  As with such ventures, this has resulted in tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees fleeing their own country.  And as night follows day, this has also resulted in calls by many American individuals and organizations to bring in as many of those refugees as possible, because we “owe” it to the Afghans.

To hear such claims, one would think that these many thousands of refugees will immediately become part of America, sharing our values and ideas, and contributing to our communities.

What is not being talked about are the values, ideas, and culture those refugees are bringing with them.

In order to better understand the people many are calling to be brought in by the tens of thousands, let’s look at some considerations about the society from which these refugees are coming.

National Security

There are two national security issues that must be acknowledged.

First, a 2019 study found that 13% of Afghans had a lot of (4%) or a little (9%) sympathy for the Taliban.[1]  This means that for every 100,000 Afghan refugees brought into the United States, we could expect about 13,000 of them to have varying degrees of sympathy for the Taliban.

Then we need to take into consideration that 39% of Afghans think that “suicide bombing” in defense of Islam is often or sometimes justified.[2]  If we use the 4% number for those with a lot of sympathy for the Taliban, this means that out of every 100,000 Afghans we could have up to about 1,560 Afghans believing that “suicide bombing” could often be justified.[3]

Combining these two issues means we could be bringing in a potentially significant base of support for a jihadist group; and that base of support could include a large number willing to engage in jihadist attacks in the United States using explosives.

History of Violence

Then there is Afghanistan’s violent history.  What is the impact of this history on many of those refugees we are bringing in?  Consider this 2018 article:

…Afghanistan is home to nearly two generations that have grown up knowing only conflict and war. As a result, violent and aggressive behavior—particularly from young men—has become an accepted norm of Afghan society…a significant number of Afghan youth have become involved in organized crime or other illegal—and often violent—activities to fulfill their perceived obligations and duties to family…In many parts of Afghanistan, displays of aggression and intimidation represent a rite of passage for adolescent boys and a symbol of manhood for men. The social acceptance of such behavior, however, heightens the risk that intolerance of diversity and interpersonal violence, including violence against women and children, become an everyday fact of life.  A 2009 report…described violence as “an everyday occurrence in the lives of a huge proportion of Afghan women.”…a majority of Afghans are exposed to violence beginning at an early age, including physical abuse at home by parents and relatives as well as the liberal use of corporal punishment at mosques, madrassas, and schools. Children witness their mothers and sisters being violently abused at the hands of family members, which comes to be accepted as a social and cultural norm, resulting in the acceptance of violence as a first—and sometimes only—option for resolving conflicts.[4]

We are importing from a culture of violence.

Rights of Women

What is the attitude many of these refugees have toward women?  Here are two assessments:

Women and girls in Afghanistan continue to face widespread discrimination and human rights abuses. The country ranks among the least favourable on the Gender Inequality Index and the literacy rate for women is among the lowest in the world. Violence against women and girls is rife and the majority don’t go to school.[5]

And,

About two-thirds of men thought women in Afghanistan had too many rights and that women were too emotional to become leaders, compared to less than a third of women.  And while nearly three quarters of women said a married woman should have equal rights with their partner to work outside the home, only 15 percent of men agreed.  More than half of men also agreed with the statement that “more rights for women mean that men lose out”.[6]

Wife-beating is largely acceptable in Afghanistan:

Overall, 92 percent of women in Afghanistan feel that a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife for at least one of these reasons: going out without telling the husband, neglecting the children, arguing with the husband, refusing sex, and burning the food. Seventy-eight percent of women believe that going out without telling the husband is justification for beating, while 31 percent think the same about burning the food…The Afghanistan survey added an additional question to reflect local attitudes—wearing inappropriate clothes. Sixty-three percent of Afghan women feel a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife if she wears inappropriate clothing.[7]

94% of Afghans completely or mostly agree that a wife must always obey her husband,[8] and two-thirds of Afghan men agree or strongly agree with the statement, “Women in Afghanistan have too many rights.”[9]

Considering the information in this and the previous section, it is not surprising to hear this warning from Pierre-Marie Seve, the director and spokesman of the French think tank Institute for Justice.  He noted that migrants are over-represented in nearly all categories of crime [in France] and stated that Afghans, in particular, commit more crimes than asylum seekers from other countries.[10]

Prepubescent Marriage

Prepubescent marriage is acceptable in Afghanistan.  In 2016, the Pew Research Center released a report titled “Many countries allow child marriage.”^[11]  An appendix to that report titled “Marriage Laws around the World” provided this interesting information about approaches to child marriage in Afghanistan:^[12]

Despite a law setting the legal minimum age for marriage at 16 (15 with the consent of a parent or guardian and the court) for girls and 18 for boys, international and local observers continued to report widespread early marriage… By law a marriage contract requires verification that the bride is 16 years of age, but only a small fraction of the population had birth certificates…some girls as young as six or seven were promised in marriage, with the understanding the actual marriage would be delayed until the child reached puberty.  Reports indicated, however, that this delay was rarely observed and young girls were sexually violated by the groom or by older men in the family, particularly if the groom was also a child.

Will instances of prepubescent marriage soon be coming to your community or to a community nearby?

Sharia as the official Law of the Land

Afghans almost uniformly agree (99%) that Sharia should be the official law of the land.[13]  And among those Afghans who say Sharia should be the law of the land, 61% say it should apply to all citizens.[14]

81% of the Afghans who support Sharia as the official law of the land favor corporal punishments for theft; 85% favor stoning as the punishment for adultery, and 79% favor the death penalty for apostasy.[15]

In terms of honor killings for pre- or extra-marital sex, 60% of Afghans believed honor killings of women were often or sometimes justified; 59% believed the same about killing men in those circumstances.[16]

These are majority views among Afghans that are incompatible with American values and laws.

Integrating into American society

The Afghan values and beliefs mentioned above are major hurdles to the idea of Afghans integrating as a group into American society.  In addition, only 5% of Afghans speak English,[17] and the adult literacy rate is only about 43% (although the numbers vary).  66% of Afghans believe Western popular culture harms morality in their country,[18] and 96% believe that trying to convert others to Islam is a religious duty.[19]

These are not harbingers of widespread social/cultural integration by these refugees into American society.

Conclusion

Those on the side of bringing tens of thousands of Afghan refugees into the United States have been able to rely on noble sounding rhetoric and emotional arguments to confront those who are not as enthusiastic about that venture.

However, the facts presented in this article show that in reality these refugees are coming from a culture and a land whose values and history are completely different from, and largely incompatible with, those of the United States.

What is being generally overlooked is that there are more socially/culturally compatible countries for these refugees that actually border Afghanistan.  Perhaps what we might “owe” these refugees is assistance in finding refuge in those neighboring countries.

Dr. Stephen M. Kirby is the author of six books about Islam. His latest book is Islamic Doctrine versus the U.S. Constitution: The Dilemma for Muslim Public Officials.

[1]           “A Survey of the Afghan People, Afghanistan in 2019,” The Asia Foundation, p. 315, https://asiafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/2019_Afghan_Survey_Full-Report_.pdf.

[2]           “The World’s Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society,” Pew Research Center, April 30, 2013, pp. 29 and 70, https://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-overview/.

[3]           For why it is not accurate to use the term “suicide bomber” in these circumstances, see my article “Suicide or Paradise?” Arutz Sheva 7 – Israel National News, June 7, 2017, https://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/20604.

[4]           Belquis Ahmadi and Rafiullah Stanikzai, “Redefining Masculinity in Afghanistan,” United States Institute of Peace, February 15, 2018, https://www.usip.org/publications/2018/02/redefining-masculinity-afghanistan.

[5]           Gender Focus, UNICEF, accessed on August 27, 2021, https://www.unicef.org/afghanistan/gender-focus.

[6]           Sonia Elks, “Afghan men oppose more women’s rights; elders less hardline,” Reuters, January 29, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-women-equality/afghan-men-oppose-more-womens-rights-elders-less-hardline-idUSKCN1PN0TZ.

[7]           Donna Clifton, “Most Women in Afghanistan Justify Domestic Violence,” PRB, September 13, 2012, https://www.prb.org/resources/most-women-in-afghanistan-justify-domestic-violence/.

[8]           “The World’s Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society,” Pew Research Center, April 30, 2013, p. 93, https://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-overview/.

[9]           “Afghanistan Flash Surveys on Perceptions of Peace, Covid-19, and the Economy: Wave 1 Findings,” The Asia Foundation, 2020, p. 43, https://asiafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Afghanistan-Flash-Survey-Wave-1_fullreport_.pdf.

[10]         Chris Tomlinson, “French Think Tank Warns Afghan Migrant Increase Means Increased Crime,” Breitbart, August 28, 2021, https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/08/28/french-think-tank-warns-afghan-migrant-increase-means-increased-crime/.

[11]         Aleksandra Sandstrom and Angelina E. Theodorou, “Many countries allow child marriage,” Pew Research Center, September 12, 2016, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/09/12/many-countries-allow-child-marriage/.

[12]         “Marriage Laws around the World,” Pew Research Center, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2016/09/FT_Marriage_Age_Appendix_2016_09_08.pdf.

[13]         “The World’s Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society,” p. 15.

[14]         Ibid., p. 48.

[15]         Ibid., pp. 52, 54 and 55.

[16]         Ibid., p. 89.

[17]         “A Survey of the Afghan People, Afghanistan in 2019,” p. 336.

[18]         “The World’s Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society,” p. 136.

[19]         Ibid., p. 112.

 

Dr. Stephen M. Kirby

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/09/bringing-afghan-refugees-all-their-luggage-dr-stephen-m-kirby/

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