Finally! Kevin McCarthy wins House speakership in dramatic 15-round voting marathon - Nicholas Ballasy

 

by Nicholas Ballasy

McCarthy lays out ambitious agenda with a narrowly divided Congress, starting with eliminating 87,000 IRS agents.

 

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy captured the House speakership in dramatic fashion early Saturday, winning enough votes on a historic 15th ballot when 20 renegade Republicans changed their votes under enormous pressure after they won significant concessions about how Congress will operate going forward.

The final vote was 216-212-6.

"I hope one thing is clear after this week, I never give up," McCarthy said in a speech on the House floor after House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries handed him the gavel. "I make this promise: I'll never give up for you, the American people. And I will never give up on keeping our commitment to America."

McCarthy said the GOP-led House's first legislative action would be repealing the billions of dollars in funding from the Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act that was dedicated for the hiring of up to 87,000 IRS agents.

In total,15 of the conservative GOP holdouts switched to vote for McCarthy and 6 voted present. 

The weeklong drama captured on national television exposed deep divisions within the Republican caucus that are certain to resurface throughout the 118th Congress, and it ended with all the drama of a Hollywood movie.

McCarthy won about an hour after he lost on a 14th ballot by a single vote when some of his renegade colleagues voted differently than expected.

The public witnessed moments of tension among the GOP conference as McCarthy, who was just one vote short of the speakership, walked over to speak with Colorado GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert and Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, who both voted present. While the 14th round vote tally was being finalized, Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama had to be restrained after he confronted holdout Gaetz and a flustered McCarthy dashed into the seats. 

Republicans even began the process of adjourning for the night, exhausted and expecting more marathon negotiations ahead. But then suddenly Gaetz came down to McCarthy and suggested there was a deal for the holdouts to vote present, reducing the number required for a win. 

At that moment, many Republicans, who voted to adjourn rushed down to the clerks and change their votes to keep the session open so the historic 15th ballot could take place shortly after midnight. 

Democrats had none of the drama, rallying early and often around New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries to be their leader, injecting youth into a leadership that had been dominated by octogenarians like retiring Speaker Nancy Leader Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.

The GOP's deal followed a week of marathon negotiations, that at times involved former President Donald Trump, and spewed vitriol on television, and in private meetings, as Republicans tried to work out differences over the rules governing how votes will take place over the next two years.

Most of the original 20 holdouts said their primary concern was to change the way Congress operates so that they could begin to reduce the massive spending that has grown the national debt to nearly $32 trillion. The stalemate also kept members from being sworn in and constituents from having a lawful representative to answer their concerns or calls.

The concessions McCarthy made to win over more support from conservatives in the GOP conference included reducing the number of members needed to initiate a speaker recall to one, changes to the chamber's appropriations process and limiting McCarthy and his super PAC's meddling in House GOP primaries. These changes are reflected in the rules package that's under consideration. The rules package will likely be voted on next week.

Nicholas Ballasy

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/congress/house-convenes-11th-round-voting-speaker-election

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Harvard Med research on mRNA vax spike protein undermines fact-checkers, COVID censorship - Greg Piper

by Greg Piper

"The spike antigen itself ... may contribute to myocarditis" in some adolescents and young adults, says study in American Heart Association journal.

 

Fact-checkers and Big Tech lost another round with purported COVID-19 misinformation this week, when an American Heart Association journal published research suggesting the spike protein used in mRNA vaccines can harm some people.

The peer-reviewed study in Circulation reviewed 16 adolescents and young adults hospitalized at Massachusetts General Hospital or Boston Children's with post-vaccination myocarditis from January 2021-February 2022. All had "markedly elevated levels of full-length spike protein" in their blood, "unbounded by antibodies."

The Harvard Medical School researchers affiliated with the hospitals did not find free-floating spike in 45 "healthy, asymptomatic, age-matched vaccinated control subjects," despite "essentially indistinguishable" antibody profiling and T-cell responses between the two groups.

The findings call into doubt the default response of tech platforms and media organizations when dissenting scientists question the safety of the spike protein.

LinkedIn abruptly shut down mRNA vaccine pioneer-turned-critic Robert Malone's premium account in June 2021 when he mentioned the spike in the context of heart inflammation reports among young men. Malone later said a LinkedIn "senior executive" personally apologized for the wrongful removal.

Reuters and PolitiFact have each fact-checked Malone for claiming the spike is "cytotoxic" and harms children. "The spike proteins are harmless, do not cause illness and do not last long in the body," PolitiFact claimed a year ago. 

"Covid vaccines show your body's natural defenses how to recognize and kill the virus, then they disappear," former CDC Director Tom Frieden claimed in October 2021. "They don't stay with you."

Covid vaccines show your body's natural defenses how to recognize and kill the virus, then they disappear. They don't stay with you, they don't change your DNA, and serious adverse effects from vaccination are extraordinarily rare.

— Dr. Tom Frieden (@DrTomFrieden) October 6, 2021

 

Last summer, Twitter issued a strike against Kevin McKernan, who managed MIT's research and development for the Human Genome Project, for claiming the spike protein is a "super-antigen" whose staphylococcal enterotoxin B domain has "potent toxicity."

More than a year ago, Swedish researchers reported in the peer-reviewed journal Viruses that SARS-CoV-2's spike protein "significantly inhibits DNA damage repair," so it might be "safer and more efficacious" to phase out the full-length spike in COVID vaccine development.

The Circulation study has been shared by COVID vaccine skeptics, including British cardiologist Aseem Malhotra, who told Just the News last fall he first faced social media censorship after turning on mRNA products. Malhotra now calls them "one of the worst pharmaceutical interventions in the history of medicine."

THIS https://t.co/znGhfdNN2Y

— Dr Aseem Malhotra (@DrAseemMalhotra) January 4, 2023

"Whether the circulating spike protein in the setting of mRNA vaccination was pathogenic [caused the disease] is unclear," the researchers wrote in the full paper, calling its association with myocarditis "notable" in this cohort of 12-21 year-olds.

"There is growing in vitro evidence that spike itself can stimulate cardiac pericytes dysfunction or inflame the endothelium," they wrote. "Thus, the spike antigen itself, which evades antibody recognition rather than invoking immune hyperactivation, may contribute to myocarditis in these individuals."

Former Brown University epidemiologist Andrew Bostom, who threatened to sue Twitter before Elon Musk's purchase due to two suspensions in a month for sharing COVID vaccine research, highlighted this section.

 

Study of C19 mRNA vax-induced myocarditis patients, aged 12-21 yos: “It is notable that spike, which remained intact (& can “inflame the endothelium”) by evading cleavage and clearance, was associated with myocarditis in this cohort.” https://t.co/IPEz22vJnV pic.twitter.com/AvEy52CdEE

— Andrew Bostom, MD, MS (@andrewbostom) January 4, 2023

The authors say the study shouldn't be taken as evidence that COVID vaccination is generally harmful. "These results do not alter the risk-benefit ratio favoring vaccination against COVID-19  to prevent severe clinical outcomes," according to a box on "clinical implications."

The paper neglects to mention COVID's estimated infection fatality rate for young people, however. 

Stanford Med epidemiologist John Ioannidis, whose early-pandemic study of COVID infection rates put a target on his back, and his Meta-Research Innovation Center team published their latest update on IFRs Sunday in the Elsevier journal Environmental Research.

Based on 31 "systematically identified national seroprevalence studies in the pre-vaccination era," the median IFR for ages 0-19 was 0.0003% and for 20-29, 0.002%. That means 3 and 20 fatalities in a million, respectively. 

"The current analysis suggests a much lower pre-vaccination IFR in non-elderly populations than previously suggested," the study says. The team's year-ago update cut IFR in half for young people.

 

Stanford Prof Ioannidis et al Covid pre-vaccination Infection Fatality Rate paper is now peer-reviewed & published. Conclusions all same.

▶️https://t.co/m1TMDT3n0k

Catastrophic societal harms imposed d/t irrational fear & mass hysteria of a virus with IFR lower than influenza. https://t.co/C41V8d0DGr

— Kulvinder Kaur MD (@dockaurG) December 30, 2022

The Circulation paper, accepted for publication the day before Thanksgiving, came out a day after Harvard Med promoted the FDA's call for Americans regardless of risk level to get so-called bivalent boosters after completing their primary series or monovalent booster. That would mean a minimum three spike exposures for children as young as six months.

The medical school cited modeling by the Commonwealth Fund that claims an extra 75,000 lives could be saved over three months if Omicron-Wuhan strain boosting reached the same rate as flu vaccination for the 2021-2022 season. That model was updated after the FDA's mouse data-based authorization of bivalents but before research questioning their claimed superiority.

Mass General Brigham, which is Harvard Med's teaching hospital, downplayed the importance of the Circulation paper's findings in its press release on the study. It put the first mention of the spike protein below identical consecutive sentences reading: "Risk of severe COVID-19 continues to outweigh rare risk of post-vaccination myocarditis." 

The release's first paragraph also emphasizes the purported rarity of the adverse event, citing an uncredited statistic without age breakdowns.

 

CDC and FDA did not take vaccine induced myocarditis seriously in part because safety signal was hid by not focusing on young men

Full video on YouTubehttps://t.co/gc3S8JzsL3 pic.twitter.com/6QYnc28lxP

— Vinay Prasad MD MPH (@VPrasadMDMPH) January 4, 2023

"If the risk of myocarditis is not stratified by pertinent risk factors, it may be diluted for high-risk and inflated for low-risk groups," according to a new peer-reviewed paper by University of California San Francisco epidemiologist Vinay Prasad in the European Journal of Clinical Investigation, owned by academic publisher Wiley & Sons.

Prasad reviewed how many risk stratifiers — sex, age, dose number and manufacturer — were used in 29 post-vaccination myocarditis and pericarditis studies. A plurality (45%) had one or fewer, while 28% had all four.

"The highest incidence of myocarditis ranged from 8.1-39 cases per 100,000 persons (or doses) in studies using four stratifiers," the paper says. Six studies found at least 15 cases per 100,000 persons or doses for 12-24 year-old males after the second mRNA dose.

"Dose 2 is worse than dose 1. Moderna is worse than Pfizer," Prasad wrote in an accompanying essay for the Sensible Medicine newsletter Tuesday. "But these differences are lost in analyses that lump together products or combine young men and old women."

 

Greg Piper

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/kevin-mccarthy-delivers-first-remarks-winning-house-speaker-nation-worth-fighting

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Courts uphold sex-based distinctions in school sports and restrooms, dealing setback to ACLU - Greg Piper

 

by Greg Piper

Judge says West Virginia "Save Women's Sports" law not driven by "animus" and reflects biological athletic advantages of males.

 

Advocates for school policies based on gender identity faced two legal setbacks in a week, with federal appeals and trial courts rejecting ACLU challenges to sex-based restroom and sports competition policies in two states.

Days after the full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Florida high school's requirement that students use the restroom for their sex, calling it an "immutable characteristic" under Title IX, U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin upheld West Virginia's Save Women's Sports law.

"While some females may be able to outperform some males, it is generally accepted that, on average, males outperform females athletically because of inherent physical differences between the sexes," Goodwin wrote. 

The transgender plaintiff acknowledged that "circulating testosterone in males creates a biological difference in athletic performance," the opinion said. Goodwin cannot conclude "the state's classification based on biological sex is not substantially related to its interest in providing equal athletic opportunities for females."

The 11th Circuit and Goodwin's rulings are a reversal of fortunes for the ACLU, which recently convinced the 2nd Circuit to uphold Connecticut's transgender sports policy and blocked Idaho's pioneering Fairness in Women's Sports Act in trial court in 2020. 

The 9th Circuit heard mootness arguments in May 2021 based on plaintiff Lindsay Hecox's uncertain return to Boise State University, remanding the transgender competitor's challenge to Idaho law, but is now considering another appeal.

U.S. District Judge David Nye ruled last summer the case was not moot due to Hecox's spring 2022 return, participation in women's club soccer and intention to try out for women's track and cross-country.

The ACLU didn't respond when asked for its response to the legal setbacks and next steps.

State bills that would enshrine sex-based eligibility for girls' school sports, often titled "Save Women's Sports" or "Fairness in Women's Sports," have a mixed record even in generally conservative states. 

South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem vetoed such a bill in spring 2021 but quickly reversed herself amid blowback, signing a new bill a year later. Last month, Ohio's General Assembly rejected a sex-based sports bill hours after it passed the Senate.

A bill offered last year by Wyoming Republican Sen. Wendy Schuler, whose student athletic career started before Title IX, passed that chamber but didn't even get introduced in the House, both dominated by Republicans. 

Cowboy State Daily reported Wednesday that Schuler is bringing the bill back this year, shorn of its original application to college sports. She cites the inconsistency created by the Wyoming High School Activities Association's policy that punts decisions to individual schools but says they should consider students "in a manner that is consistent with their gender identity."

The West Virginia legislation was provoked by the Connecticut policy, which enabled the dominance of two biologically male runners in girls' track. 

Goodwin blocked the law when the ACLU sued on behalf of another would-be women's cross-country and track athlete, an 11-year-old who started taking blockers at the first signs of male puberty. The President Clinton appointee initially determined "B.P.J." had a "likelihood of success on the merits of her as-applied challenge." 

The judge accepted intervention from the Alliance Defending Freedom on behalf of former West Virginia State University soccer player Lainey Armistead in support of the law. ADF also intervened in favor of the Idaho law and sued to overturn the Connecticut competition policy on behalf of female cross-country and track athletes.

Goodwin appears to have been swayed by the "thousands of pages filed by the parties in this case," specifically citing Armistead, despite controlling 4th Circuit precedent in a transgender restroom case now at odds with the 11th Circuit's ruling. The judge speaks in the first person 23 times in 23 pages.

"[D]espite the politically charged nature of transgender acceptance in our culture today, this case is not one where the court needs to accept or approve B.P.J.'s existence as a transgender girl," the judge wrote. "Ultimately, B.P.J.'s issue here ... is with the state's definitions of 'girl' and 'boy,'" which Goodwin deemed "constitutionally permissible."

Sex discrimination laws must be backed by "exceedingly persuasive justification" under Supreme Court precedent, a test met by West Virginia law, the opinion said. It cited 4th Circuit precedent requiring that "preference rests on evidence-informed analysis rather than on stereotypical generalizations."

The preteen's unusual circumstances — starting blockers rather than taking cross-sex hormones to limit the advantage of male puberty — can't overcome the fact that "a person either has male sex chromosomes or female sex chromosomes," Goodwin wrote.

"I recognize that being transgender is natural and is not a choice," the judge said. "But one's sex is also natural, and it dictates physical characteristics that are relevant to athletics," regardless of whether "some females may be able to outperform some males." (The 2nd Circuit found such exceptions persuasive.)

Gender transitioning may not start until after male puberty, not all trans girls can get hormone therapy "depending on her age and the state where she lives," and the voluminous record shows "much debate over whether and to what extent" that therapy can reduce male athletic advantage.

Goodwin emphasized the contradiction between B.P.J.'s argument that low-testosterone boys are not "similarly situated" with average girls under Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause, and the student's argument that "availability of hormone therapies makes transgender girls similarly situated to cisgender girls ... at the moment they verbalize their transgender status."

B.P.J. has equal athletic opportunity under Title IX, just not in the opposite sex's sports, the judge wrote. "There is no serious debate that Title IX's endorsement of sex separation in sports refers to biological sex," and the court has no grounds to require the state to be "more inclusive and adopt a different policy."

The ruling had an important sleeper provision, deeming the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission a "state actor" subject to constitutional obligations. 

Counties have delegated their "authority to supervise and control interscholastic athletic events" to the commission, principals sit on its Board of Controls, and the state Board of Education must approve its rules, making the commission "pervasively entwined" with the state, Goodwin said.

And while "I have no doubt" the law "aimed to politicize participation in school athletics for transgender students," Goodwin said B.P.J. couldn't show legislative "animus" for transgender people beyond a bill cosponsor who "liked" anti-transgender comments on his Facebook post.

George Washington University law professor John Banzhaf called the ruling a victory for objective eligibility criteria. "Would a 20-year-old be permitted to compete in the Senior Olympics" based on his feelings or beliefs, "even if he claims that many senior citizens can outperform some 20-year olds?" he wrote in a press release.

Greg Piper

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/courts-uphold-sex-based-requirements-school-sports-and-restrooms-setting-back

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Why Palestinians Want to Slaughter Jewish Worshippers - Bassam Tawil

 

by Bassam Tawil

The Biden administration and the rest of the international community would do well to wake up to the fact that the Palestinian state they are clamoring for [would mean] the continued slaughter of Jews and the denial of their safe access to Jewish holy sites.

• The Palestinian Authority, which is in charge of security in Nablus, has -- despite official agreements in the Oslo Accords -- nevertheless refused to fulfill its commitment to protect and ensure free access to Joseph's Tomb.

• So far, no one has called out the Palestinian Authority for its grave violations of the international commitments signed with Israel ensuring free access to, and the protection of, all holy sites.

• Encouraged by the silence of the international community, the Palestinian Authority has been trying to prevent Jews from visiting another holy site, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem... which is abutted by the Western Wall.... This wall happens to be the holiest site in Judaism where Jews are permitted to pray.

• Instead of denouncing Abbas for his incitement and the Palestinians for their denial of Jewish links to the holy site, the United Nations General Assembly in 2021 approved a resolution that disavowed Jewish ties to the Temple Mount.

• Without the presence of the Israeli security forces in Jerusalem, Jews would have been attacked and slaughtered every day on their way to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.

• If the city or these sites were ever to be handed over to the Palestinian Authority, Jewish worshippers would have to visit their holy sites in bullet-proof vehicles accompanied by platoons of soldiers and police officers, as is necessary these days at Joseph's Tomb in Nablus.

• The Biden administration and the rest of the international community would do well to wake up to the fact that the Palestinian state they are clamoring for means the continued slaughter of Jews and the denial of their safe access to Jewish holy sites.

• Tolerance and freedom of worship are not terms that can be found in the Palestinian lexicon. The Palestinians will be satisfied only when they replace Israel with an Iranian-backed terror state and erase all traces of Jewish history and faith.

So far, no one has called out the Palestinian Authority for its grave violations of the international commitments signed with Israel ensuring free access to, and the protection of, all holy sites. Pictured: Palestinian children play in the charred ruins of Joseph's Tomb, on October 16, 2003, after Palestinians attacked and torched the site following the visit of Jewish worshippers the previous night. (Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images)

In the past several years, Jews visiting the holy site of Joseph's Tomb in the city of Nablus in the West Bank have been targeted by Palestinian rioters and gunmen.

The most recent attack took place on December 21, when Jewish worshippers and the Israeli soldiers guarding them came under heavy gunfire.

According to Palestinian sources, during the Palestinians' attempt to prevent the Jews from entering the holy site, one gunman, Ahmed Atef Daraghmeh, was killed and four others injured.

The Oslo Accords, signed in 1993 and 1995 between Israel and the Palestinians, placed Nablus and Joseph's Tomb under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority.

At the beginning of the Second Intifada (uprising), which erupted in 2000, the site was looted and burned by Palestinian rioters. Two years later, after the Israeli army launched a major military operation against Palestinian terrorists in Nablus and other Palestinian cities, Jewish worshippers began intermittently returning to visit the tomb.

Between 2009 and 2010, Joseph's Tomb was renovated, allowing Jewish worshippers to resume their visits.

Since then, the site has been repeatedly vandalized by Palestinian rioters in a conspicuous violation of Article 32 of the 1995 Oslo II Accord, which stipulates:

"2. Both sides [Israel and the Palestinians] shall respect and protect the listed below religious rights of Jews, Christians, Moslems and Samaritans:
a. protection of the Holy Sites;
b. free access to the Holy Sites; and
c. freedom of worship and practice."

According to the same Article:

"3. a. The Palestinian side shall ensure free access to, respect the ways of worship in and not make any changes to, the Jewish Holy Sites..."

The Palestinian Authority, which is in charge of security in Nablus, has nevertheless refused to fulfill its commitment to protect and ensure free access to Joseph's Tomb.

In 2015, hundreds of Palestinians stormed the site and set it on fire. Earlier this year, Palestinians again stormed Joseph's tomb, shattering the tombstone and damaging a chandelier. The following day, two Jewish worshippers were moderately wounded by Palestinian gunfire while trying to enter the site.

The recurring attacks on Joseph's Tomb and the attempts to kill Jewish worshippers appear to be part of Palestinian efforts to deny any Jewish link to Jewish holy sites.

"Joseph's Tomb is an Islamic site, and the Jews have no right to it," claimed Muhannad Sayel, a senior official with the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. "They [the Jews] are trying to falsify history."

In October, the Lions' Den, a terrorist group operating in Nablus under the nose of the Palestinian Authority, threatened to kill any Jew who enters Joseph's Tomb. "[Jewish] settlers are banned from entering Joseph's Tomb," the group warned. "They will be the target of our guns and explosive devices."

Last May, another terror group, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militia affiliated with the ruling Fatah faction headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, claimed responsibility for a shooting attack on Jewish worshippers and the Israeli soldiers guarding them at Joseph's Tomb.

Needless to say, the Palestinian Authority never arrested any of the terrorists from the Lions' Den or the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

Moreover, the attacks and threats against the Jewish worshippers have been ignored by the US administration and most of the international community.

So far, no one has called out the Palestinian Authority for its grave violations of the international commitments signed with Israel ensuring free access to, and the protection of, all holy sites.

Encouraged by the silence of the international community, the Palestinian Authority has been trying to prevent Jews from visiting another holy site, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

As with Joseph's Tomb, the Palestinians deny any link between Jews and the Temple Mount, which is abutted by the Western Wall – a retaining wall, all that is left of the Second Temple (also known as Herod's Temple), destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 CE, as was the First Temple (built by King Solomon) by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in the year 586 BCE. This wall happens to be the holiest site in Judaism where Jews are permitted to pray.

In recent years, Palestinians have been trying to prevent Jews from visiting the Temple Mount. Palestinian rioters have attacked visitors and the police with rocks, fireworks, iron rods, explosive devices and Molotov cocktails.

The Palestinian Authority and PA President Mahmoud Abbas have played a major role in inciting the violence and spreading lies about the Jews visiting the Temple Mount.

In 2015, Abbas declared:

"The Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher are ours. They are all ours, and they [the Jews] have no right to defile with them with their filthy feet. We salute every drop of blood spilled for the sake of Jerusalem. This blood is clean, pure blood, shed for the sake of Allah. Every martyr will be placed in Paradise, and all the wounded will be rewarded by Allah."

Instead of denouncing Abbas for his incitement and the Palestinians for their denial of Jewish links to the holy site, the United Nations General Assembly in 2021 approved a resolution that disavowed Jewish ties to the Temple Mount.

Such resolutions embolden the Palestinians to continue their campaign of terrorism against Jewish worshippers.

In 2010, the Palestinian Authority claimed in an official document that the Western Wall -- a retaining wall, all that is left of the Second Temple -- belongs to Muslims alone:

"The Zionist occupation falsely and unjustly claims that it owns this wall, which it calls the Western Wall or Kotel... This wall was never part of the so-called Temple Mount, but Muslim tolerance allowed the Jews to stand in front of it and weep over its destruction. No Muslim or Arab or Palestinian has the right to give up one stone of Al-Buraq [Western] Wall or other religious sites."

Fortunately for Jewish worshippers, Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, are under Israeli sovereignty and security control, guaranteeing free access for Jews, Muslims and Christians to their holy sites.

Without the presence of the Israeli security forces in Jerusalem, Jews would have been attacked and slaughtered every day on their way to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.

If the city or these sites were ever to be handed over to the Palestinian Authority, Jewish worshippers would have to visit their holy sites in bullet-proof vehicles accompanied by platoons of soldiers and police officers, as is necessary these days at Joseph's Tomb in Nablus.

The Biden administration and the rest of the international community would do well to wake up to the fact that the Palestinian state they are clamoring for means the continued slaughter of Jews and the denial of their safe access to Jewish holy sites.

Tolerance and freedom of worship are not terms that can be found in the Palestinian lexicon. The Palestinians will be satisfied only when they replace Israel with an Iranian-backed terror state and erase all traces of Jewish history and faith.

 
Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19266/palestinians-kill-jewish-worshippers

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

'Totally disgusting:’ Ex-House Intel chairman blasts FBI for censorship, election meddling - John Solomon

 

by John Solomon

"There should be people going to jail for what they were doing," said former Rep. Pete Hoekstra.

 

The former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee says revelations that the FBI and intelligence community were pressuring social media companies to censor Americans' opinions is "totally disgusting" and should result in the punishment of officials and wholesale reform of agencies.

"From my perspective, there should be people going to jail for what they were doing," retired Michigan Republican Rep. Pete Hoekstra told Just the News in a wide-ranging interview Friday. "This is scary for the American people that our intelligence community is being used to target Americans and to censor Americans' speech. Government has no role there. The intelligence community has absolutely no role."

Hoekstra, who led the House Intelligence Committee from 2004 to 2007 and later served as U.S. ambassador to The Netherlands, said the revelations from Elon Musk's Twitter files and a federal lawsuit brought by the Missouri and Louisiana attorneys general show that U.S. intelligence agencies and the FBI exceeded their legal authorities by monitoring Americans' social media posts and then pressuring social media companies to use their terms of service to censor opinions, most often conservative ones.

As examples, he cited revelations that the Department of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence were meeting routinely with Big Tech and that classified information was discussed as being shared. He also slammed one of his successors as House Intelligence chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff, for trying to get an American journalist deplatformed.

"It's totally disgusting," Hoekstra said in an interview on the John Solomon Reports podcast. "The intelligence community operates by a set of rules that says you operate outside of the United States, you do not operate against Americans inside of our borders. You do not operate against Americans outside of our borders. You are foreign intelligence. It's absolutely outrageous. And remember, a lot of this happened under a Republican administration. This happened under Donald Trump. The Director of National Intelligence, his office, is meeting, weekly, with Twitter and who knows who else?

"And then you've got the chairman of the Intelligence Committee sending notes over to Twitter. It is totally corrupt. And when Republicans get back the White House, there has to be a wholesale cleaning house of what's going on in the intelligence community."

Some in the intelligence community have tried to push back in recent days against the Twitter files revelations, without disputing they had contacts with Big Tech as revealed in the memos. Former Trump Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, for example, said the memos' references to DNI meetings with Twitter executives would not have involved content moderation or "anything to do with specifically about the Biden laptop as Russian disinformation."

And the FBI said its contacts with social media were routine and involved highlighting content without a direct order to censor.

"We are providing it so that they can take whatever action they deem appropriate under their terms of service to protect their platform and protect their customers," the bureau said late last month. "But we never direct or ask them to take action."

Hoekstra said he was disturbed by the FBI statement, which seemed to condone agents highlighting content for possible censorship.

"Obviously," Hoekstra said, the statement "sanctions and says it's okay. And it's like, no, it's not. I'm sorry, Director Wray — because the Intelligence Committee, we also have oversight for foreign intelligence, the foreign intelligence that the FBI plays a role in — no, you're not sanctioned to do this."

Other FBI experts, like former Assistant Director Chris Swecker, share Hoekstra's concerns.

"The FBI has an industry outreach program to help exchange information with industry, helping in the counterintelligence efforts of the FBI," Swecker told Just the News. "This has gone well beyond that. This is nothing but domestic spying, and this is nothing but suppression of First Amendment rights and ideas."

Hoekstra said he was amazed more advocates of free speech, like news media companies, have not spoken out against what has been revealed.

"Where is the outrage from the American people?" he asked. "Where's the outrage, even from the media? Hey, guys, we were being played for suckers by the intelligence community and the FBI. Where's the clamor for free speech?"

He added that the evidence thus far suggests much of the targeting during the 2020 election involved censoring conservative opinions or suppressing news damaging to Democrats, like the Hunter Biden laptop story.

"It's government run amok and fuels the whole narrative that the 2020 election was manipulated and stolen,” he said.

 

John Solomon

Source: https://justthenews.com/nation/free-speech/disgusting-ex-house-intel-chairman-blasts-fbi-censorship-and-election-meddling

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Middle East Quartet no longer relevant to Israel-Palestinian conflict - JPost editorial

 

by JPost editorial

Over the years, it has become unclear what work the Quartet actually does and whether it has relevance when it comes to what is taking place in Israel and the Palestinian territories. 

 

US State Department spokesman Ned Price holds a press briefing on Afghanistan at the State Department in Washington, U.S., August 16, 2021.

(photo credit: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/POOL)

The United States has not made any formal decisions about the Quartet, the group comprising the US, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations that is supposed to work on Israeli-Palestinian peace issues. However, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and due to long inaction by the Quartet, it is clear that the group lacks legitimacy, an important asset for any stakeholder – a country or an organization – that wants to play a role in regional peace issues and that needs to take a realistic approach to what is happening on the ground.

The Quartet was inaugurated in 2002 during the Second Intifada. It was created in an era when US-Russia relations were more productive and when the EU was seeking to play a greater role in the Middle East. 

Over the years, it has become unclear what work the Quartet actually does and whether it has relevance when it comes to what is taking place in Israel and the Palestinian territories. 

US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said on Wednesday that he was “not aware that we’ve made any formal decision regarding the Quartet or any formal statement regarding the Quartet.”

Nevertheless, the Biden administration is committed to peace issues. It has expressed concerns this week about the visit of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to the Temple Mount, and it is concerned about the new Benjamin Netanyhau-led government’s policies. 

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Temple Mount on Tuesday, January 3, 2023 (credit: PUBLIC SECURITY MINISTRY)

This is part of a larger context in which there are thought to be tensions because of the new government’s hardline, right-wing conservative agenda. The US wants to continue its commitment to Israel and work closely with Jerusalem, but it has made clear that it will not be able to remain silent when policies it views as dangerous are enacted.

So what is to be made of the current impasse and the future of the Quartet?

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine casts significant doubt on how Moscow can play a role in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

The reasons for this are multifaceted. On one hand, Moscow is distracted by the war. It will not be able to focus on the Middle East and the ongoing impasse between the sides. 

On the other hand, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine means it is no longer looked upon as a legitimate arbiter by the US and the EU, even if for some Palestinians it is perceived to be more objective due to the strong US alliance with Israel.

How can Russia annex Crimea and parts of Ukraine, for instance, and then condemn Israel for policies in the West Bank, or “annexation?” Russia will have a hard time playing a role in a peace process if it is actively engaged in a major war that is a blow to international law. 

Nevertheless, Vladimir Safronkov, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s special representative for the Middle East, recently said Moscow would not be distanced from its role in the Middle East. 

“I am convinced that any attempts to push Russia out of the region, to influence its relations with the region [will not work].”

Vladimir Safronkov

“I am convinced that any attempts to push Russia out of the region, to influence its relations with the region [will not work],” he said, indicating that the West has tried to isolate Russia from the work of the Quartet.

Considering these new realities, it is worth asking what the logic of the Quartet is now. Is the group taking a realistic look at events taking place in the West Bank and Gaza, such as rising violence in the West Bank, fueled by the erosion of the Palestinian Authority’s role in Jenin and Nablus? Gun smuggling, too, is a major challenge.

Is the Quartet or its members taking a serious look at how weapons smuggling undermines the PA and causes violence? Is it addressing this with neighboring authorities, such as Jordan and Egypt?

Countries involved in supporting peace need to address realities on the ground, not just make due with statements or unrealistic ideas. Israel and the Palestinian Authority need the commitment of the international community, but they also need the global community to recognize the changes that have taken place over the last decades.

JPost editorial

Source: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-726788

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Flouting Congress, DOD, Army maintains military COVID vax mandate on Guard, Reserves - Natalia Mittelstadt

 

by Natalia Mittelstadt

"The DOD's continued politicization of the COVID vaccine and their disregard for the law will have consequences," Rep. Austin Scott warned.

 

The U.S. Army is continuing to enforce the military's COVID-19 vaccine mandate on the National Guard and Reserves, despite the recent abandonment of the controversial and legally shaky order by Congress and the Pentagon itself.

On Dec. 23, President Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the $858 billion defense spending bill repealing the mandate. On Dec. 29, the Defense Department followed suit, rescinding the mandate that has frayed military morale and resulted in the discharge of over 8,000 service members who refused the vaccine.

In rescinding the vaccine mandate, the DOD acknowledged the NDAA requires the Defense Secretary to rescind his Aug. 24, 2021 memo issuing the sweeping order.

Last week, however, the Army issued a new guidance, FRAGO 35, which reads: "The FY2023 NDAA does not address the Secretary of Defense's directive regarding COVID-19 vaccination for members of the National Guard and Ready Reserve (Annex AAAA). Commands will continue to adhere to Annex AAAA and to paragraphs 3.D.21-3.D.23 unless and until Annex AAAA is superseded or rescinded by the Secretary of Defense."

File

FRAGO 35 to HQDA EXORD 225-21 COVID-19 Steady State Operations.pdf

Annex AAAA, according to FRAGO 35, is a Nov. 30, 2021 memo from the Secretary of Defense that requires all National Guard members to be vaccinated, as there were "members of the non-federalized National Guard who remain unvaccinated."

However, the November memo mentioned that the August memo already required "full vaccination of all members of the Armed Forces under DoD authority on active duty or in the Ready Reserve, including the National Guard, who are not fully vaccinated against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)."

The FRAGO 35 guidance also notes that service members won't be removed from the Army for the sole reason of being unvaccinated.

"Commands will immediately suspend processing and initiating involuntary enlisted separation and officer elimination actions that are based solely on a soldier's refusal to comply with the DOD COVID-19 vaccination order," the guidance reads. "Commands will continue to adhere to other previously published policies regarding the Army's response to COVID-19 pending further guidance."

Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.), who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement to Just the News on Friday: "The DOD's continued politicization of the COVID vaccine and their disregard for the law will have consequences. I look forward to working with my colleagues to fix this issue for our reservists and National Guard personnel."

Military attorney R. Davis Younts, who has represented service members in lawsuits challenging the military vaccine mandate on religious freedom grounds, also denounced the Army's interpretation of the mandate's repeal.

"The Army's decision to interpret the NDAA language as not applying to the Guard and Reserve is deeply troubling and a strong indication, that without further Congressional action, the DoD will continue coercive efforts to vaccinate or separate military members," Younts told Just the News on Friday.

"There is no rational legal justification for this interpretation and it is inconsistent with clear Congressional intent, which was to end the mandate for all military members," he continued. "The Army appears to be more concerned with purging Christians, than with following the Constitution or federal law. From the beginning of the mandate, the DoD and the Army have ignored federal law, this latest policy guidance is further evidence of a lack of respect for the authority of Congress."

The Army and Defense Department didn't respond to requests for comment on Friday.

In a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation, a DOD spokesperson said, "The Department is pausing all actions for all service members related to the COVID-19 mandate, to include separation," adding that the department is in the process of developing new policy within the 30-day window alloted by the NDAA.

An Army spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation that FRAGO 35 was sent to units on Dec. 29 and repeated the statement from the DOD and the guidance about ending separations solely over the mandate.

On Dec. 21, the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas ruled against the Army's vaccine mandate for 10 service members seeking religious exemptions.

Texas District Court Judge James Wesley Hendrix granted a preliminary injunction sought by six Army soldiers and four Army West Point cadets who were denied Religious Accommodation Requests (RAR) for exemptions.

File

Schelske Opinion and Order.pdf

The injunction prevents the Army from taking any disciplinary, punitive or separation measures against the service members in the lawsuit. However, the court ruling doesn't prevent the Army from considering vaccination status of the service members with regard to "making deployment, assignment, and other operational decisions." 

Noting that while "the Army does not dispute ... its ongoing obligation to accommodate its soldiers' religious freedom, including compliance with [the Religious Freedom Restoration Act]," the judge found that the service "has failed to prove that its ongoing imposition of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, which indisputably burdens some soldiers' sincerely held religious beliefs, serves a compelling interest through the least restrictive means available."

Following the court decision, Liberty Counsel, a religious freedom nonprofit involved in legal challenges to the vaccine mandate, said that despite the NDAA's repeal of the mandate, "the Department of Defense must be permanently enjoined from retaliating against the service members who submitted a request for religious accommodation, and all service members who were punished, demoted or discharged must be reinstated and their records corrected."

 

Natalia Mittelstadt

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/coronavirus/army-continues-push-covid-vax-mandate-guard-reserves-despite-congress

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Maybe Merrick Garland and his DoJ should focus on doing their jobs instead of suppressing dissidents - Jack Hellner

 

by Jack Hellner

They also try to catch criminals, not influence elections

The politicized Justice Department and Attorney General Merrick Garland ignore crime and deaths throughout the country while they continue to target a relatively small group of trespassers at the Capitol who were protesting an election. 

Only one person died at the Capitol that day, an unarmed woman who was shot by a Capitol Police officer. 

Garland and the J-6 committee in the House never seemed to care about her death.

Now he is attributing deaths that did not occur that day to the trespassers.

Merrick Garland Links 5 Capitol Police Deaths to January 6 Riot

Maybe he should attribute those deaths to Nancy Pelosi who didn't do her job to secure the Capitol even though she was warned there would be a large group of people there.

President Trump suggested that the Capitol should be protected by thousands of National Guard troops, but she refused to do her job and consent to Trump's offer to call in more troops and now she and others blame Trump.

They hid the truth that he told the protesters to march peacefully and patriotically. 

Maybe Garland could look at deaths elsewhere in the country and look for attribution:

How many deaths, including those of cops, occurred during the violent riots of 2020 by leftist groups? 

The media and other Democrats essentially encouraged and supported those riots. It is a shame that the politicized Justice Department led by Garland seems uninterested in those deaths. 

How many deaths occurred at the border because Biden and his administration refused to enforce immigration laws that Congress passed?

As far as I can tell, Garland has no interest in enforcing immigration laws. 

How many deaths occurred in sanctuary cities and states because officials refuse to abide by their oath to enforce laws? 

Again, We haven't heard a word from Garland. 

How many deaths from fentanyl occurred because of the lenient border policies?

How many suicides of border guards should be attributed to Biden, other Democrats and the DHS because the agents were prevented from doing their jobs? Garland hasn't given a speech on these deaths.

Three Border Patrol agents die by suicide in three weeks

The unprecedented crisis at the southern border appears to be taking a toll on rank-and-file Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers — with three agents taking their lives in November.

This brings the 2022 total suicides within the agency to 14, more than any year in over a decade, CBP confirmed to The Post.

How many deaths have been caused by leftist DAs who let career criminals roam the street? Garland seems silent on those deaths.

How many people died prematurely because they were scared to go out and get medical tests or those tests weren’t available during the COVID lockdowns?

How many suicides and other deaths occurred because of draconian policies, including the lockdown of schools, imposed by the CDC and government officials?

Playing Sports as a Child Could Prevent Depression and Anxiety Later On

How many deaths are caused to the poor because Democrat policies seek to keep them poor and dependent on the government instead of giving them opportunities to move up?

How many premature deaths occurred in underdeveloped countries because politicians and others tell them that using their natural resources destroys the Earth?

Why do politicians seek to control the non-pollutant CO2 that allows the Earth to be fed and to pretend they can keep temperatures where they are now since the cold kills over seven times more than heat every year?

Cold deaths vastly outweigh heat deaths. This is common knowledge in the academic literature and for instance the Lancet finds that each year, almost 600,000 people die globally from heat but 4.5 million from cold.

How many children died in botched abortions where Democrats say it is O.K. to withhold health care?

Why does Garland’s justice department target peaceful, non-violent protesters at abortion mills while ignoring violent attacks at pro-life centers? Obviously these are purely political prosecutions.  

How many people died from terrorism worldwide because President Obama, Joe Biden, and others worked so hard to get Iran billions of dollars? 

So maybe Garland should do his job and focus on all crime instead of targeting political opponents. Maybe his department should reduce its task forces focused on suppressing speech.

Maybe they should do their job instead of trying to influence elections. 

It appears that the FBI has a task force of at least 80 agents who are focused on suppressing speech they deem dangerous or misleading. They misled Twitter and others that a true story about the Biden family corruption. 

Prior to the 2020 election, tech companies including Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Discord, Wikipedia, Microsoft, LinkedIn, and Verizon Media met on a monthly basis with the FBI, CISA, and other government representatives. According to NBC News, the meetings were part of an initiative, still ongoing, between the private sector and government to discuss how firms would handle misinformation during the election.

How legal is that?

Image: Caricature by DonkeyHotey, via Flickr // CC BY 2.0

Jack Hellner

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/01/maybe_merrick_garland_and_his_doj_should_focus_on_doing_their_jobs_instead_of_suppressing_dissidents.html

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Iran Deepens Its Presence Inside Latin America - Majid Rafiadeh

 

by Majid Rafiadeh

Latin American countries are opportune places for Iranian covert intelligence operations, especially against the US.

• "Initially, my colleagues and I thought these were embassy employees, though we noticed their car number plates didn't belong to any embassy. We don't know what they are transferring... Because they won't let us examine closely. We just know that in past weeks, every day there are three to four flights to Venezuela." — Unnamed source at Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport, quoted by Iran International, December 7, 2022.

• Latin American countries are opportune places for Iranian covert intelligence operations, especially against the US.

• "One confidential intelligence document obtained by CNN links Venezuela's new Vice President Tareck El Aissami to 173 Venezuelan passports and ID's that were issued to individuals from the Middle East, including people connected to the terrorist group Hezbollah." — CNN, February 14, 2017.

• "We're concerned that [Venezuelan President] Maduro has extended safe harbor to a number of terrorist groups... [including] supporters and sympathizers of Hezbollah." — Nathan Sales, former coordinator for counterterrorism at the US State Department, Small Wars Journal, January 20, 2020.

• While the Biden administration continues to appease the Iranian regime, called by the US Department of State the "world's worst state sponsor of terrorism," the Iranian mullahs are creating their single "umma" (nation) on the doorstep of the US: Latin America. The Iranian regime's takeover of Latin America -- the creation of terror cells, the access to Latin American passports, the rise of Iranian-trained imams and militants in Latin America, the increasing recruitment of radicals -- is a potential existential threat to the United States.

The Iranian regime, while using Latin America as a sanctuary, has been increasing its presence and terror cells there. As protests continue in Iran, regime officials are in the process of obtaining passports and asylum from Latin American countries, particularly from Venezuela. Pictured: Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro meets with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on October 22, 2016, in Tehran. (Image source: khamenei.ir)

One of the critical threats to the US national peace and security is that the Iranian regime, while using Latin America as a sanctuary, has been increasing its presence and terror cells there.

As protests continue in Iran, the Iranian regime's officials are in the process of obtaining passports and asylum from Latin American countries, particularly from Venezuela, at the doorstep of the United States.

According to a recent report:

"Western diplomatic sources told Iran International that the Islamic Republic has started negotiations with its Venezuelan allies to ensure they'd offer asylum to regime officials and their families should the situation worsen, and the possibility of a regime change increases.... a delegation of four high-ranking regime officials visited Venezuela in mid-October for negotiations to ensure that the Caracas government would grant asylum to high-ranking officials and their families in case 'the unfortunate incident' happens."

Three flights a day are leaving Iran to Venezuela with "a considerable amount of cargo," according to a source at Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport

"Initially, my colleagues and I thought these were embassy employees, though we noticed their car number plates didn't belong to any embassy. We don't know what they are transferring, and whether they are leaving the country with all the luggage or not. Because they won't let us examine closely. We just know that in past weeks, every day there are three to four flights to Venezuela."

Latin American countries are opportune places for Iranian covert intelligence operations, especially those targeting the United States. A CNN report from 2017 stated:

"One confidential intelligence document obtained by CNN links Venezuela's new Vice President Tareck El Aissami to 173 Venezuelan passports and ID's that were issued to individuals from the Middle East, including people connected to the terrorist group Hezbollah."

These passports could be used for travel to North America or Europe.

Nathan Sales, former coordinator for counterterrorism at the US State Department, said:

"We're concerned that [Venezuelan President] Maduro has extended safe harbor to a number of terrorist groups... [including] supporters and sympathizers of Hezbollah."

The Iranian regime's plan to expand its influence and presence in Latin America dates back to the mid-1980s, under the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, as part of the ruling mullahs' core principle of exporting their extremist revolution to other countries. As Khomeini famously stated:

"We shall export our revolution to the whole world. Until the cry, 'There is no god but Allah' resounds over the whole world, there will be struggle."

The regime's key mission is even incorporated in Iran's current constitution:

"The constitution provides the necessary basis for ensuring the continuation of the revolution at home and abroad. In particular, in the development of international relations, the constitution will strive with other Islamic and popular movements to prepare the way for the formation of a single world community."

To spread its Islamist propaganda, the Iranian regime has set up Hispan TV, a Spanish-language television station. In Latin America, Iranian terror cells have grown. Al Mustafa International University and Iran's terror proxy Hezbollah have played a key role in expanding the mullahs' presence and ideology in the region. According to "United Against Nuclear Iran" (UANI), Al-Mustafa International University is tasked with "training the next generation of Iran's foreign Shi'a clerics, religious scholars, and missionaries...."

"It is estimated that Al-Mustafa has 40,000 foreign students enrolled at present, roughly half of whom are studying at campuses within Iran. Many Al-Mustafa graduates are selected by the Iranian regime to establish religious and cultural centers in their home countries, where they can then recruit students and inculcate loyalty to the Islamic Revolution among local populations."

UANI adds:

"Al-Mustafa operates several branches in European countries, most notably the Islamic College of London. Graduates of Al-Mustafa such as Italian cleric Abbas DiPalma have gone on to form Iranian cultural centers in their home countries, such as the Imam Mahdi Center in Rome. Al-Mustafa has also dispatched Lebanese graduates as missionaries to Latin America, where they seek to create inroads with expat communities and proselytize among local populations."

Evidence presented at court hearings linked Tehran to the bombings in Buenos Aires of the Israeli Embassy in 1992, and a Jewish community center there in 1994.

While the Biden administration continues to appease the Iranian regime, called by the US Department of State the "world's worst state sponsor of terrorism," the Iranian mullahs are creating their single "umma" (nation) on the doorstep of the US: Latin America. The Iranian regime's takeover of Latin America -- the creation of terror cells, the access to Latin American passports, the rise of Iranian-trained imams and militants in Latin America, the increasing recruitment of radicals -- is a potential existential threat to the United States.

• Follow Majid Rafizadeh on Twitter

 

Dr. Majid Rafiadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19292/iran-latin-america

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter