The New York Times' Orwellian Obsession with Israel - Phyllis Chesler

 

by Phyllis Chesler

Imagine the psychological effect of being barraged with so much propaganda every day, month and year. And that's from just one newspaper.

 

Are things really as bad as I think they are regarding propaganda against Israel and Jews, a subject I began closely tracking in 2001?

Recently, I asked five educated pro-Israel people: "How many first-section, hardcopy articles about Israel and Judaism do you think The New York Times published in the last six months of 2022?"

They answered, "Probably around 30 or 40, maybe less."

Shockingly, the answer is at least 127. Yes, I carefully counted them. This averages five negative articles every week in just one section. Given that Israel is the size of the state of New Jersey, the Times seems pathologically obsessed with it. Although they very occasionally publish a neutral or positive piece, at least 95% of their first section articles fixate on Israel's alleged imperfections and falsely magnify them into "atrocities."

These anti-Israel pieces also tend to be much longer than other articles. According to a 2012 study published in Sociology Mind, most Times articles are an average of 622 words. The Times' 127 anti-Israel articles seem to average approximately 1,700 words each, often appear on the front page, continue on one or two inside pages and feature many photos. This past August alone, these articles totaled more than 43,000 words.

The Times also makes extensive use of its Twitter account, posting up to a hundred times a day to its 54.8 million followers. An Oct. 24 article on Hasidic schools and financial fraud garnered 3,687 likes and was retweeted 1,728 times. Also in October, the allegation that Israel was driving Palestinians to live in caves drew 6,111 likes and 3,432 retweets.

Imagine the psychological effect of being barraged with so much propaganda every day, month and year. And that's from just one newspaper.

Imagine the psychological effect of being barraged with so much propaganda every day, month and year. And that's from just one newspaper.

Moreover, the Times consistently runs headlines that are blatantly biased if not cunningly deceptive.

For example, an Aug. 5 headline read: "Israel Hits Gaza, Prompting Rocket Barrage and Ending Relative Calm." This buried the fact that Israel was trying to prevent an imminent attack on Israeli civilians by Islamic Jihad.

A Sept. 28 headline, "4 Palestinians Killed in West Bank During Israeli Raid" failed to reveal until the end of the article that the Palestinians killed were combatants, or as the Times put it, "militants ... armed with assault rifles."

An Oct. 9 headline shouted, "A Deadly Shooting at an Israeli Checkpoint Sets Jerusalem on Edge." Based on the headline, one would not know that the killers were three Palestinians and the victims were an Israeli soldier and a severely wounded security guard.

The Times' anti-Israel and anti-Judaism bias extends far beyond headlines. While ignoring the alarming increase in antisemitic incidents and the escalation of physical attacks against visibly Orthodox Jews, primarily by African-American men, the Times instead chose to demonize Jews and Judaism.

In 2022, at least 12 articles appeared within a four-month period that criticized Hasidic schools for their students' low test scores, given that they are funded by the government; for creating "no show" jobs and diverting monies meant for education; for prioritizing religious over secular subjects; and for homophobia within their communities. In this same period, the Times did not publish a single article about the religious curriculum, suspected corruption, sexism or homophobia in Islamic or Christian schools.

When the facts directly conflict with the Times' narrative of Israel as evil, such facts are minimized or even omitted from the story.

When the facts directly conflict with the Times' narrative of Israel as evil, such facts are minimized or even omitted from the story.

An Oct. 14 article titled "Unrest Grows in West Bank in Deadliest Year Since 2015" listed multiple incidents in which Israel "shot dead" Palestinians, falsely implying that Israel routinely murders innocent people. Only at the very end did the article acknowledge that, during a search for a terrorist in Jenin, "Palestinian gunmen fired on the [Israeli] soldiers, leading to a lengthy gun battle in which two Palestinians were shot dead."

On Dec. 24, an article titled: "A Christmas Tree Brings Life to a Destroyed Palestinian Village" blamed Israel for the shrinking Christian population in Palestinian-controlled territories. However, according to Raymond Ibrahim, it is mainly Muslims who harass, arrest, persecute and murder Christians in and near Bethlehem. The Christians who remain are afraid to speak out against either the Palestinian Authority (in Judea and Samaria) or Hamas (in Gaza).

On Dec. 31, the article "For Palestinians, a Rush to Claim 'Martyrs' Killed by Israel" claimed that Israel is definitely, perhaps purposely, killing civilians whom Hamas and Fatah, in a sick competition, (falsely) claim as martyrs.

I wondered: Is The Washington Post equally obsessed with Israel? Try worse. In only the last three months of 2022, the Post averaged eight such articles every week—96 in total.

Although the headlines were a bit more accurate, the articles themselves were equally biased. While the Post did report acts of antisemitism and acknowledged that such incidents are on the rise, they repeatedly blamed them on Donald Trump, right-wing extremists and the Republican Party as a whole—as well as on Kanye West.

The Post also branded Israel's new democratically-elected government an "illiberal democracy" and the "most extreme," "most right-wing" government in Israeli history. It further equated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders with Trump and the Republicans.

As of May 2022, the Times had almost 10 million paid subscribers across digital and print platforms, with an average of 130 million unique website visitors every month. The Post had almost three million paid subscribers and averaged about 65 million unique website visitors per month.

Few media outlets (including wire services) can cover foreign affairs, so they reprint Times stories. This has gotten worse as local papers became financially strapped.

According to Middle East expert Dr. Mitchell Bard, "Few media outlets (including wire services) can cover foreign affairs, so they reprint Times stories. This has gotten worse as local papers became financially strapped."

These two newspapers are not the only venues obsessed with Israel. According to Matti Friedman in Tablet: "When I was a correspondent at the Associated Press, the agency had more than 40 staffers covering Israel and the Palestinian territories. That was significantly more news staff than the AP had in China, Russia or India, or in all of the 50 countries of sub-Saharan Africa combined."

We do not yet have an appropriate name for what happens when long-trusted media, the internet, teachers and professors as well as the academic curriculum, religious leaders, anti-Israel activists on campus and in the streets, international organizations including human rights groups and one's peers all repeat the same thing over and over again for 22 (or 50) years until everyone believes the information is true.

This kind of conditioning, coupled with rewards ("friends," a good grade, a job) and punishments (losing friends, getting doxed or fired), is far beyond mere "brainwashing" as it was previously understood. And it's happening on a massive, global scale and in many languages.

How does propaganda work? Sometimes, it consists of big blatant lies, narrative- rather than fact-driven, with malevolent purpose. More often, is a steady, low-key diet of info-bits that are meant to normalize the larger lies.

Today, the biggest lies, also known as "hate speech" when applied to certain people, but not Jews and Israel, are seen as the biggest truths. Propagandists insist that such lies are protected by doctrines of free speech or academic freedom.

We have been immersed in such lethal lies for so long and from so many different but simultaneous quarters (Western "progressives," the Islamic world, etc.) that it is now almost impossible to separate lies from truth.

Thus, Israel is an "apartheid" state (it is not); Israel is a "colonial settler state" (it is not); Israel is racist and homophobic (it is not); Israel is not a democracy (it is); Israelis persecute Arabs and Muslims (they don't); and "Palestine" and "Palestinians" are the only indigenous people of the Holy Land (very much a lie). The "two-state solution" is viewed as "fair," even though it is code for the elimination of Israel.

We have been immersed in such lethal lies for so long and from so many different but simultaneous quarters (Western "progressives," the Islamic world, etc.) that it is now almost impossible to separate lies from truth. Will it take another 22 or even 50 years to do so? Do we have that long to wait?

Someone known as Emmanuel Goldstein, Orwell's fictional, non-existent character in Nineteen Eighty-Four, is presented as the enemy of the state—the scapegoat for all that goes wrong.

Israel is Orwell's "Goldstein."

We are drowning in sewage.

I want to acknowledge my assistant Amanda Barsky for working with me on this piece.

Phyllis Chesler, a writing fellow at the Middle East Forum, is an emerita professor of psychology and women's studies and the author of twenty books, including Women and Madness, Islamic Gender Apartheid, An American Bride in Kabul, A Politically Incorrect Feminist., and A Family Conspiracy: Honor Killings.

Source: https://www.meforum.org/64013/the-new-york-times-orwellian-obsession-with-israel

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Russia fires new wave of missiles at Ukraine after hitting Kyiv infrastructure - Reuters

 

by Reuters

Fighting continues on the Ukrainian home front.

 

Russian missile strike in Dnipro

(photo credit: REUTERS)

Russia fired a second wave of missiles at Ukraine on Saturday, forcing people to take cover as sirens blared across the country just hours after morning air strikes that hit critical infrastructure in Kyiv and the eastern city of Kharkiv.

Authorities in Mykolaiv, the western city of Lviv and the Black Sea port of Odesa said air defenses were trying to shoot down incoming missiles. Explosions were heard in the central Vynnytsa region, Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne reported.

Moscow, which invaded last February, has been pounding Ukraine's energy infrastructure with missiles and drones since October, causing sweeping blackouts and disruptions to central heating and running water as winter bites.

The second attack on Saturday came hours after Reuters journalists heard a series of blasts in Kyiv in the morning before the air raid siren even sounded, which is highly unusual.

After the missile attack struck an apartment building on Saturday in the east-central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, five people were killed and 27 wounded. This included 6 children, Valentyn Reznichenko, the regional govenor, said.

"Twenty-seven people are injured. Six children are among them. All are in hospital," he said.

"An infrastructure facility was hit. No critical damage or fire. All emergency services are working at the site. No one is wounded," Kyiv's military administration said in a statement.

Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv (credit: REUTERS)

Bracing for dark days

Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on Saturday that the coming days would be "difficult" on the energy front after Russia's latest missile attack hit critical infrastructure in several regions.

"Due to the shelling in the majority of the regions, emergency cut-offs are being introduced. The coming days will be difficult," he wrote on Facebook.

Ukrenergo, which runs the power grid, said its workers were racing to fix the damage and that the network was grappling with a power deficit caused by earlier attacks even though it was -2 Celsius (28 Fahrenheit) in Kyiv, only mildly cold.

DTEK, the biggest private electricity company, introduced emergency blackouts in Kyiv, the Kyiv region and Odesa region.

Kyiv's mayor said the debris of a missile came down on a non-residential area in the Holosiivskiy district in the west of Kyiv, causing a fire but hurting no one.

Residential infrastructure was also hit in the village of Kopyliv in the region just outside the capital. The windows and roofs of 18 privately owned houses were shattered or damaged by the blast, Oleksiy Kuleba, the regional governor, said.

Air Force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said Russia's missiles had likely been fired along a high, looping ballistic trajectory from the north, which would explain why the air raid siren did not sound.

Ukraine is not able to identify and shoot down ballistic missiles, he told the Ukrainska Pravda online outlet.

Missiles strike Kharkiv

In Ukraine's northeast, Oleg Synehubov, Kharkiv's regional governor, said two S-300 missiles struck the city near the Russian border early on Saturday.

The attacks hit critical energy infrastructure and industrial facilities in the Kharkiv and Chuhuev district of the region, he said.

A damaged window is pictured at a burning residential building, following a Russian shelling amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, April 25, 2022. (credit: RICARDO MORAES/REUTERS)

"Our emergency services units and energy workers are working to liquidate the consequences and stabilize the situation with energy supplies," he said.

The strikes on Saturday came as Ukrainian and Russian forces battled for control of Soledar, a small salt-mining town in eastern Ukraine that for days has been the focus of a relentless Russian assault.

Russia said on Friday that its forces had taken control of Soledar, in what would be a rare success for Moscow after months of battlefield reverses, but Kyiv said its troops were still fighting in the town.

Reuters could not immediately verify the situation in Soledar.

Reuters

Source: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-728522

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Having it both ways: Biden legal arguments for Title 42, student loans conflict with each other - Aaron Kliegman

 

by Aaron Kliegman

Supreme Court "could hear COVID is so serious that we need to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to forgive student loans while at the same time COVID is so little an issue that we can let all these unscreened, potentially unvaccinated migrants come through," says immigration expert.

The solicitor general will be arguing that COVID-19 is — depending on the Biden policy being rationalized — an ongoing public health emergency, yet also an abated public health threat.

Supreme Court "could hear COVID is so serious that we need to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to forgive student loans while at the same time COVID is so little an issue that we can let all these unscreened, potentially unvaccinated migrants come through," says immigration expert.

In one case, COVID-19 is still a major problem, while in the other, the pandemic is now a non-issue, according to the administration.

 Dig In

The Biden administration may have unintentionally undermined its own legal argument to kill a Trump-era immigration measure.

On Wednesday, the administration renewed the COVID-19 public health emergency, marking the 11th time the government has done so since the pandemic began in early 2020. The renewal came four months after President Biden publicly declared "the pandemic is over."

The renewal, along with the administration's claimed rationale for its massive student loan debt forgiveness order, also appears to contradict the administration's case to end Title 42, the public health authority exercised by the Trump administration that allows border officials to expel migrants without allowing them to apply for asylum in order to limit the spread of COVD-19.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas has warned that as many as 18,000 migrants could cross the border daily if the health policy ends, although the administration has pushed to terminate it, arguing it's no longer necessary to protect public health.

"The government recognizes that the end of the Title 42 orders will likely lead to disruption and a temporary increase in unlawful border crossings," Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in a filing last month to the Supreme Court. "The government in no way seeks to minimize the seriousness of that problem. But the solution to that immigration problem cannot be to extend indefinitely a public-health measure that all now acknowledge has outlived its public-health justification."

Despite the administration's efforts, the Supreme Court last month ordered that the measure remain in place during a legal challenge over its fate being waged between the federal government and several states, including Arizona.

The Supreme Court is set to hear Arizona, et al. v Mayorkas next month. 

The contradictions don't end there, however. Indeed, Prelogar may find herself in a strange position next month. The solicitor general, responsible for arguing the federal government's position before the Supreme Court, will be arguing that COVID-19 is, by turns — depending on the Biden policy being rationalized — an ongoing public health emergency (for purposes of preserving student loan forgiveness) yet also an abated public health threat (for purposes of rescinding Title 42).

Biden announced in August that he will unilaterally cancel $10,000 of federal student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 per year and up to $20,000 for those who received Pell Grants, which support tuition for lower-income students.

Biden described the plan as a way to provide families "breathing room as they prepare to start re-paying loans after the economic crisis brought on by the pandemic."

After Biden made his announcement, the Justice Department released a legal opinion stating the secretary of education has the "authority to reduce or eliminate the obligation to repay the principal balance of federal student loan debt, including on a class-wide basis in response to the COVID-19 pandemic."

The Education Department's Office of the General Counsel also issued a memo making an identical argument.

A coalition of states challenged the plan in what became Nebraska v Biden, claiming it would deprive them of revenue.

In a Supreme Court filing in the case, Prelogar made clear the Justice Department's argument for the student loan forgiveness plan is based on a public health emergency.

"In March 2020, President Trump declared a national emergency in light of the COVID-19 pandemic," the document filed in November states. "That declaration remains in effect, and the government has declared all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the territories to be disaster areas. COVID-19 has killed more than one million Americans and led to the hospitalization of millions more. COVID-19 continues to kill more than 2,000 Americans a week. The pandemic has also inflicted severe economic harms, including layoffs, spikes in inflation, rising delinquency rates on debt, and projected reductions in lifetime earnings for students who left school during the pandemic."

The Justice Department wrote an almost identical passage in a Supreme Court filing last month for Brown v Department of Education, a case in which two plaintiffs challenged Biden's student loan forgiveness plan on the grounds that the administration didn't comply with federal law requiring notice and comment in implementing certain regulatory programs.

Like Arizona v Mayorkas, both Brown and Nebraska are set to be argued before the Supreme Court next month. The latter are specifically scheduled for Feb. 28, and it's possible Title 42 could be considered then as well — which is where Prelogar comes in.

"All the cases could potentially be heard on the same day, putting the solicitor general in an awkward position," Andrew Arthur, resident fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, told Just the News. "The court could hear COVID is so serious that we need to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to forgive student loans while at the same time COVID is so little an issue that we can let all these unscreened, potentially unvaccinated migrants come through.

"There's a glaring inconsistency here. It suggests the administration's true concern isn't public health but rather purely political ends."

Arthur echoed this point in an article for the Center for Immigration Studies.

"Nothing really mandates consistency in the administration's arguments when it comes to the effect of the pandemic," he wrote. "But if COVID-19 remains such an existential threat that it, in part, mandates $400 billion in federal spending (the Congressional Budget Office's estimate of the cost of Biden's student-loan forgiveness plan), wouldn't that threat logically also require  [the Department of Homeland Security] to close the border to illegal migrants?"

The Justice Department didn't respond to a request for comment.

Aaron Kliegman

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/having-it-both-ways-biden-admin-legal-arguments-title-42-student-loans

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Palestinians Recruit Minors as Terrorists, Then Condemn Israel for Shooting 'Innocent Children' - Bassam Tawil

 

by Bassam Tawil

Palestinian children are brainwashed against Israel from the cradle and are deliberately placed in harm's way, while the UN and the rest of the world look the other way.

• Palestinian terror groups are recruiting minors to carry out terrorist attacks while Palestinian leaders and international organizations are screaming that "innocent children are being killed."

• The Palestinian Authority... glorifies terrorists and rewards them and their families with monthly stipends -- essentially a "jobs program" that solicits murder....

• Those who send minors to carry out terror attacks should be held responsible for committing a crime against the Palestinians, for deliberately placing their children in danger, and not only Israel.

• Ayyad, who was killed during violent clashes with Israeli soldiers, had even written a will expressing his desire to die as a "martyr."

• "I'm happy that God has fulfilled one of my dreams: martyrdom." So much for being an "innocent child."

• Palestinian children are brainwashed against Israel from the cradle and are deliberately placed in harm's way, while the UN and the rest of the world look the other way.

• The UN members who held an emergency session to discuss the visit by a Jew to the Temple Mount are the biggest hypocrites of all. These supposed purveyors of virtue do not want to acknowledge that the Palestinian recruitment of children as soldiers is the real threat to peace and security, and not a Jew walking on the grounds of a holy site in Jerusalem.

• It would have been better for the UN and all those who rushed to condemn Ben-Gvir's visit had they called an emergency session to see why Palestinian children are being sent by their own people to die in clashes with the Israeli army.

• It would also have been better had the UN held a special session to discuss the Palestinian leadership's responsibility for its ongoing incitement against Israel and encouraging minors to seek death as "martyrs."

• The blood of the next Palestinian child killed in battle will be on the hands of the liars in the corridors of the UN and the offices of major newspapers around the world, which continue to ignore Palestinian atrocities against their own people.

Palestinian terror groups are recruiting minors to carry out terrorist attacks while Palestinian leaders and international organizations are screaming that "innocent children are being killed." Palestinian children are brainwashed against Israel from the cradle and are deliberately placed in harm's way, while the UN and the rest of the world look the other way. Pictured: Hamas terrorists, armed with rocket-propelled grenades, parade with children in the Gaza Strip, July 20, 2017. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) was quick to hold an emergency session on January 5 because a Jew dared to walk on the holiest site in Judaism, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Two days earlier, that Jew, Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's National Security Minister, had made a quiet, 13-minute tour of the site.

Although Jews visiting the Temple Mount are often harassed, threatened and sometimes physically attacked by Muslims, Ben-Gvir's brief tour ended peacefully and no violent incidents were reported by either Muslims or Jews. Still, the Palestinians and some countries, dubbing the visit a "dangerous and unprecedented provocation," continued to condemn Israel over it.

Revealingly, in the same week that the UNSC and various countries were denouncing Jews for visiting their holiest site in Jerusalem, Palestinians, in an ongoing form of child abuse and crimes against humanity regularly ignored by the media and international community, were again sending minors to attack Israeli soldiers in the West Bank.

Crimes against humanity, according to the United Nations, include:

h. Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court;

k. Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.

The exploitation of Palestinian minors in the war against Israel is not a new occurrence. It started immediately after the establishment of several Palestinian terror groups, particularly the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) more than 50 years ago. These groups have not hesitated to brainwash children and recruit them as combatants in the "armed struggle" against Israel.

In recent weeks, the Palestinian terror groups operating in the West Bank have been dispatching minors aged 15-17 to confront Israeli soldiers who enter Palestinian communities to arrest terrorists. Many of the minors are armed with automatic rifles and improvised explosive devices, as well as Molotov cocktails, stones and other objects.

When these minors are injured or killed during clashes with the soldiers, Palestinian leaders are quick to condemn Israel for targeting "innocent children." Many sloppy foreign journalists and human rights activists have no problem parroting the false Palestinian narrative regarding the death of the minors.

The most recent victims of the Palestinian abuse and exploitation of children are Amer Abu Zeitoun, 16, from Balata Refugee Camp, and Adam Ayyad, 15, of Dheisheh Refugee Camp. The two, who were killed during violent clashes with Israeli soldiers in the first week of January, were anything but "innocent children."

Those who send minors to carry out terror attacks should be held responsible for committing a crime against the Palestinians, for deliberately placing their children in danger, and not only Israel.

Abu Zeitoun, according to the Palestinians, was one of several minors recruited by the armed groups in his camp to monitor the movements of Israeli soldiers engaged in counterterrorism operations. The minors are called "The Guards of the Camp" and their job is to alert the terrorists when they see soldiers in the area.

The ruling Fatah faction headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas admitted that Abu Zeitoun was actually involved in the armed clashes between the Israeli soldiers and the Palestinian terrorists. In a poster published on January 5, Fatah hailed Abu Zeitoun as a "martyr, hero and fighter."

Abu Zeitoun's funeral was attended by dozens of gunmen, most likely the same terrorists who recruited him and sent him to attack the Israeli soldiers.

The Palestinian Authority that glorifies terrorists and rewards them and their families with monthly stipends – essentially a "jobs program" soliciting murder -- organized a "military funeral" for the Palestinian minor. This is the same Palestinian Authority that allows the terror groups to freely operate in areas under its control. This is the same Palestinian Authority that does not call out the terrorists for exploiting the children and sending them to fight the Israeli army, one of the strongest armies in the Middle East.

The second recent victim of Palestinian child abuse, Adam Ayyad, also turned out not to be an "innocent child." According to his friends and neighbors, Ayyad was affiliated with the PLO's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a notorious Palestinian group designated as a terrorist organization by the US, European Union, Canada and Israel. During his funeral, Ayyad's body was wrapped with the red-colored flag of the PFLP.

Ayyad, who was killed during violent clashes with Israeli soldiers, had even written a will expressing his desire to die as a "martyr."

"I'm telling everyone that martyrdom is not just death," Ayyad wrote. "Martyrdom is a pride for yourself and pride for the whole world. Martyrdom is a true victory that ends your life, but it ends while you are happy. I'm happy that God has fulfilled one of my dreams: martyrdom."

So much for being an "innocent child." Like Abu Zeitouneh and other minors, Ayyad knew exactly what he was doing and that he could be killed while attacking Israeli soldiers. The PFLP, whose leaders recruited and dispatched Ayyad to the battlefield, later held a ceremony to honor him for his "martyrdom."

Abu Zeitouneh and Ayyad were not the only minors recruited by terrorist groups to carry out terrorist attacks. In November 2022, Mahdi Hashash, a 15-year-old boy from Balata Refugee Camp, was killed when an improvised explosive device he was preparing to throw at Israeli soldiers, accidentally went off prematurely. After his death, a local terror group, called Balata Battalion, praised Hashash as a "hero" and "lion."

Palestinian terror groups are recruiting minors to carry out terrorist attacks while Palestinian leaders and international organizations are screaming that "innocent children are being killed."

Palestinian children are brainwashed against Israel from the cradle and are deliberately placed in harm's way, while the UN and the rest of the world look the other way.

The UN members who held an emergency session to discuss the visit by a Jew to the Temple Mount are the biggest hypocrites of all. These supposed purveyors of virtue do not want to acknowledge that the Palestinian recruitment of children as soldiers is the real threat to peace and security, and not a Jew walking on the grounds of a holy site in Jerusalem.

It would have been better for the UN and all those who rushed to condemn Ben-Gvir's visit had they called an emergency session to see why Palestinian children are being sent by their own people to die in clashes with the Israeli army.

It would also have been better had the UN held a special session to discuss the Palestinian leadership's responsibility for its ongoing incitement against Israel and encouraging minors to seek death as "martyrs."

By failing to confront the child exploitation, the UN and Israel's enemies are endangering the lives of more Palestinian children who have been recruited to join the jihad (holy war) against Israel and Jews.

The blood of the next Palestinian child killed in battle will be on the hands of the liars in the corridors of the UN and the offices of major newspapers around the world, which continue to ignore Palestinian atrocities against their own people.

Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19313/palestinians-children-terrorists

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Biden Tells Israel to Give Money to Terrorists, Not Terror Victims - Daniel Greenfield

 

by Daniel Greenfield

The most anti-Israel administration stands with Islamic terrorists.

 

The Biden administration condemned Israel for giving $39 million in tax revenues to the victims of terrorism instead of the terrorists.

“It is morally just and important for the war against terror. There is no greater justice than using the funds for the victims of terror,” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said of the move.

State Department spokesman Ned Price condemned Israel’s actions as a “unilateral response” that will “exacerbate tensions. and warned that the administration will raise the issue with Israel.

Price did not address whether the Palestinian Authority spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year to finance terrorist attacks against Israelis through the ‘Pay-to-Slay’ program raises any tensions. The ruling PLO body spending millions to kill Jews is not unilateral, but Israel refusing to finance the murder of its own citizens is a dangerous move that will make peace difficult.

Palestinian Authority PM Mohammad Shtayyeh claims that if Israel doesn’t give it $39 million, that “will promptly lead to its collapse.”

The terror organization has been claiming variations of the same thing for over two decades.

“Palestinian Authority Broke and In Disarray,” the media agonized in 2004. “Palestinians Threaten to Collapse the Palestinian Authority,” they clamored in 2009. “Suspended tax transfers leave Palestinian economy on the brink” came the warnings in 2015. “Palestinian finances near collapse as cuts deepen,” we were told in 2019.

The PLO’s terror infrastructure is always on the verge of collapse, but sadly never does.

“Israel sells us everything, including water treatment, electricity and drinking water, and in fact profits from all of this,” Shtayyeh whined.

Why after 30 years can’t the aspiring terror state do anything for itself? The “Palestinians” have received an estimated $40 billion in foreign aid. Other estimates have put it at $50 billion.

Over $14 billion of that money went directly to the Palestinian Authority. What did all that money buy apart from mansions for top terrorists?

Pinchas Rutenberg, who had unsuccessfully urged Russia’s liberal Kerensky government to execute Lenin and Trotsky before it was too late and fought to the last to defend the Winter Palace against the Bolsheviks, headed to Israel and began electrifying the country.

“No one doubts the duty of the British Empire to develop the Land of Israel, but who will be charged the financial burden? The British taxpayer? Or perhaps the Arab public that has lived in the country for hundreds of years and has not lifted a finger to develop it. True, Rutenberg is a Jew, and he recruited businessmen and Jewish capitalists to develop the natural resources of the Land of Israel and create jobs for its Arab residents, but is it therefore necessary to disqualify his vision?” Churchill opined.

In a matter of years, much of Israel was powered by the generators that Rutenberg had built.

And all of this happened over two decades before Israel even achieved independence.

Somehow Jewish refugees could do a better job of providing electricity in the 1920s after only a few years than the Palestinian Authority has managed in the 2020s after 30 years.

Churchill correctly observed that the Arab invaders and colonizers had lived there for “hundreds of years” yet had “lifted a finger to develop it.” The cost of developing the territories under PLO control has passed right back to the British taxpayer, the American taxpayer and the Israelis.

Every few years, Israel threatens to cut off the power unless the terrorists pay their debts. The last time around the debt had shot up to $500 million. Each time diplomats warn that if Israel cuts off the power, there will be a humanitarian crisis. But when isn’t there a crisis?

Biden directed over half-a-billion dollars to the terrorists since taking office. And yet the PLO claims that it’s still on the verge of collapse and Israel has to save it all over again.

“The PA must stop its involvement in terror if it wants to survive. As long as it continues to encourage terror, it is our enemy and as such, what interest do we have to help it?” Israeli Finance Minister Smotritch pointed out.

The Palestinian Authority has never run out of money to pay the terrorists, but it can’t manage to pay for its power bill or accomplish anything useful for its people.

Secretary of State Blinken and Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, are headed to Israel to scold the Jewish State for not giving money to the terrorists. The administration has used every possible forum to show contempt and undermine Israel: including a recent UN session denying Jews the right to visit the Temple Mount which is the holiest site in Judaism.

When National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the Temple Mount, the Biden administration called it an “unacceptable” violation of the “historic status quo” that bans Jews.

And yet Ben-Gvir’s visit came and went.

Since then, he’s told the police to take down the terrorist flags of the PLO.

“It is inconceivable that lawbreakers will wave terror flags, incite and encourage terrorism,” Ben Gvir said. “I have issued instructions for the removal of the flags, which support terrorism, from the public space and to stop incitement against the State of Israel.”

The Biden administration, which funds terrorism and incitement against Israel through its foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority, is probably unhappy with this. Its spokesmen repeatedly accuse Israel of “unilateral” acts that increase “tensions”. Every time a Jewish person sneezes in Jerusalem, Ned Price appears at a State Department podium to intone about unilateral sneezing, raising tensions. And yet it’s the Biden administration that is conducting unilateral actions meant to undermine Israel’s status like its rogue diplomatic operation to the PLO.

The level of pettiness included stepping in when an Iron Age spoon was seized from the founder of Birthright Israel to “return” it to the Palestinian Authority even though the Arab Muslim colonists had invaded the area a thousand years later and have no claim to the ancient artifact.

The spoon was identified in the files as coming from the country of Israel, “from the Hebron area” that “is the area of the richest Iron age Jewish tombs (many royal).”

The pettiness of seizing an artifact that originated from an Israeli source and turning it over to the Arab Muslim terrorists who currently occupy parts of Hebron to make a point is emblematic of the Biden administration’s determination to undermine the Jewish People’s claim to its land.

The Biden administration and the media are furious that Israel’s new patriotic government is asserting its rights. It’s a belated act of self-defense that the media treats as an attack.

A hysterical AP news story denounces Netanyahu’s new government as “hard-line”,  “ultra-nationalist”, and the “most hard-line and religious government in Israel’s history” that is “shaking the foundations of Israel’s democracy”, “fomenting divisions” and “barreling toward conflict”.

And that’s just the first two paragraphs of a deranged screed masquerading as news coverage.

Israel’s new government is not “shaking the foundations of Israel’s democracy”, it’s restoring it after decades of hijacking by an activist judiciary by implementing a system of checks and balances to equalize its power with that of the legislature.

It is not “fomenting divisions”, it’s confronting divisions created by leftists and dealing with them. And it’s not “barreling toward conflict” but responding to the attacks against the Jewish State.

What has Israel’s “ultra-nationalist” and “hard-line” government done so far? It diverted money that will be used by terrorists to finance the murder of Jews to the victims of these attacks.

One of its cabinet members briefly visited the holiest site in Judaism. Another suggested that the terrorists need to choose between getting money through Israel and killing Jews.

All that outrage over basic acts of decency.

It’s hard to argue with any of these actions when they’re described objectively. That’s why shrill labels like “hard-line” and  “ultra-nationalist” are being used to silence any meaningful debate.

The media doesn’t want to talk about why Israel and the United States should be financing Islamic terrorism against Jews. Israel’s new government is determined to make that the issue.

Anyone in the Biden administration, the media and activists who scream about “unilateralism” and “ultra-nationalists” should be asked to put away their thesauruses and answer why money should go to terrorists not terror victims.

Daniel Greenfield

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/biden-tells-israel-to-give-money-to-terrorists-not-terror-victims/

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Hunter Biden, China, classified documents: Mystery swirls around Penn Biden Center - Jessica Chasmar, Joe Schoffstall

 

by Jessica Chasmar, Joe Schoffstall

Hunter Biden explored getting job at Penn Biden Center before it even existed

The Penn Biden Center lies at the heart of the latest Biden controversy but in some ways remains shrouded by mystery.

The White House revealed earlier this week that classified documents were discovered at the Washington, D.C., office for President Biden's think tank, the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, in early November. On Wednesday, news broke that another trove of classified documents from Biden's time as vice president had been discovered at another location, leading to louder calls for Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate the president's handling of such documents. 

The Biden Center has since found itself in the middle of a firestorm, leading to renewed questions on the likes of Chinese donations to the University of Pennsylvania, which houses the think tank. Hunter Biden is also shown to have discussed the center in emails before its launch.

Within weeks of leaving the vice presidency under former President Barack Obama in January 2017, Biden became the "Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor" at the University of Pennsylvania, an honorary position, and the "Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement" was launched in Washington, D.C., the next year.

However, discussions about the elder Biden's future involvement with Penn long predated the end of the Obama presidency, according to emails from Hunter Biden’s infamous abandoned laptop, which have been verified by Fox News Digital.

President Biden pictured here in August with Hunter Biden on Johns Island, South Carolina, has faced scrutiny over his handling of classified documents after leaving the vice presidency in 2017.  (NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)

SEVERAL TOP WHITE HOUSE OFFICIALS WORKED FOR BIDEN AT HIS THINK TANK WHERE CLASSIFIED DOCS DISCOVERED

On April 25, 2016, Creative Artists Agency (CAA) agent Craig Gering emailed Hunter with "confidential notes from our meeting," in which Gering listed apparent plans that were discussed for the vice president upon leaving office. 

One of those plans included "wealth creation," with no further explanation, and another included an apparent reference to the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., with a possible job opportunity for Hunter.

"The Biden Institute of Foreign Relations at the University of Pennsylvania," Gering's email read. "Focus on foreign policy. In addition to the institute at U of Penn, the school has an existing office in DC that will be expanded to house a DC office for VP Biden (and Mike, Hunter and Steve?). Operates like The Clinton Global Initiative without the money raise."

Hunter then confirmed Gering's notes but emphasized that they needed to be "very confidential" because they were not set in stone. 

"Yes," Hunter replied, "in theory that's the way I would like to see it shake out--- BUT please keep this very confidential between us because nothing has been set in stone and there's still a lot of sensitivity around all of this both internally and externally. He hasn't made any decisions and this could all be changed overnight."

Hunter Biden confirms Craig Gering notes. (Fox News)

Just 10 days earlier, Hunter was scheduled to attend a meeting with his father and then-university President Amy Gutmann, according to an email of Hunter's schedule from Rosemont Seneca Vice President Joan Mayer. It is not clear if the meeting at the White House actually took place, but it was scheduled almost exactly one year after Hunter and his then-wife Kathleen hosted Gutmann for a private dinner at Cafe Milano, a Georgetown institution in Washington D.C., according to an April 2015 email from a Penn official to Kathleen and Hunter. The guest list "comprised of Academy Members (significant donors), trustees, Overseers, and Penn parents" from UPenn, another email read.

Joan Mayer email to Hunter Biden (Fox News)

Hunter's lawyer and the White House did not respond to Fox News Digital inquiries on the matter.

Joe Biden left the vice presidency on Jan. 20, 2017, and was hired as a professor at Penn less four weeks after that, where he was paid a total of $776,527 in 2017 and 2018, which was nearly double what full-time Penn professors made during the same time, Philadelphia magazine reported in 2019.

The magazine reported at the time that the former vice president's professorship was "really more of speaking residency," and that "[h]e’s been on campus so infrequently that it becomes news when he actually is there," which was a total of six times.

 

 

The Penn Biden Center had its official opening in February 2018, where Joe signaled he had spoken with Gutmann when he was still vice president about becoming a "professor" and being able to bring his own team with him to UPenn.

"President Gutmann, when you came to me before the [Obama] administration was up and asked me whether I [would] consider to be a professor at Penn, the first thought I had was that it sounded like an intriguing idea, but it became even more intriguing after the outcome of the [2016] election when you said I could bring along with me some serious, serious people," Biden said during the opening ceremony in February 2018.

"Serious staff people and much more than staff, and they start with Tony Blinken and Steve Ricchetti and others, so thank you for allowing me to bring along some really, really bright people," he added.

In 2019, Biden took an unpaid leave of absence from Penn after he announced his presidential campaign.

An office building housing the Penn Biden Center, a think tank affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, is seen in Washington, D.C., January 10, 2023, following reports that classified documents from the time when President Joe Biden was serving as Barack Obama's vice president have been found at the center that Biden sometimes used as office space. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

As president, Biden selected Gutmann to be the U.S. Ambassador to Germany. David Cohen, the former chairman of Penn's board of trustees who was also at the Penn Biden Center’s opening, was tapped by the president as the U.S. Ambassador to Canada.

Vice president Joe Biden launches his "Moon Shot" mission to cure cancer with a tour of the University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Cancer Center and a roundtable conversation with researchers there on Friday, Jan. 15, 2016. (Ed Hille/Philadelphia Inquirer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images.)

On Monday evening, the White House revealed that classified documents dating back to Biden's time as vice president were discovered at the Penn Biden Center in November. The president's personal attorneys then handed the documents over to the National Archives and Records Administration.

On Wednesday, Fox News confirmed that aides to Biden discovered at least one more batch of classified documents from his time as vice president in Biden's possession. The news has prompted calls from Republican lawmakers for Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate Biden's handling of classified documents.

During the North American Leaders Summit in Mexico City Tuesday night, Biden said he was "surprised" to learn that classified documents had been found at the Penn Biden Center.

"They did what they should have done. They immediately called the [National Archives] … turned them over to the Archives, and I was briefed about this discovery and surprised to learn that there were any government records that were taken there to that office," Biden said. "But I don't know what's in the documents. My lawyers have not suggested I ask what documents they were."

10 UNANSWERED QUESTIONS ABOUT BIDEN'S CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS

The Penn Biden Center's mission statement says it was founded on "the principle that a democratic, open, secure, tolerant, and interconnected world benefits all Americans," and that it works to continue Biden’s fight "to secure American global leadership by defending and advancing a liberal international order."

Fox News Digital previously reported that at least 10 senior Biden administration officials have been hired to their current or former positions after stints at the Penn Biden Center, including current Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl and White House counselor Steven Richetti. Blinken and Richetti both served as managing directors while Kahl was a strategic consultant at the center.

Since the Penn Biden Center opened, the University of Pennsylvania has come under a microscope over its influx of foreign donations, particularly from China.

Penn took in roughly $77 million in gifts and contracts from China between 2014 and 2020, The Daily Pennsylvanian previously reported. Further, the Washington Free Beacon noted that foreign donations to the university tripled in the two years following the Biden Center's opening in 2017, with most of the money coming from China. 

Penn also struggled to explain a $3 million donation from 2019 from a Hong Kong shell company tied to Chinese national and businessman Xu Xeuqing. A university spokesperson previously said the donation came from Chinese national Xin Zhou, but the Free Beacon reported it could not identify a connection between Xin and Nice Famous Corporation Limited, where the gift originated.

The university also received at least $12.8 million in gifts from China between March 2020 and June 2022, according to a review of the Department of Education's foreign gift reporting database. Additionally, the university reported at least $2.8 million in China contracts between July 2020 and January 2022.

"The Penn Biden Center has never solicited or received any gifts from any Chinese or other foreign entity. In fact, the University has never solicited any gifts for the Center," Penn's vice president of communications Stephen MacCarthy told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

MacCarthy said that since its inception, two American donors provided three unsolicited gifts totaling $1,100 for the Biden Center and that "one hundred percent" of the center's budget is from university funds.

"Penn is fully compliant with federal law regarding the reporting of foreign gifts and contracts, as foreign gifts are all properly reported to the U.S. Department of Education as required by Section 117 of the Higher Education Act," MacCarthy said.

Republicans want a special counsel to investigate Biden's handling of classified information after the two troves of documents were located this week. Garland has appointed John Lausch, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, to review the matter.

The revelation that classified documents were found in Biden's possession comes months after a similar situation related to former President Donald Trump's handling of classified documents. Following a months-long dispute between Trump and the Department of Justice, FBI agents executed a warrant for the search of the former president's home in Mar-a-Lago to recover some 300 classified documents.

Fox News’ Thomas Catenacci and Cameron Cawthorne contributed to this report.

Jessica Chasmar, Joe Schoffstall is a digital writer on the politics team for Fox News and Fox Business. Story tips can be sent to Jessica.Chasmar@fox.com.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hunter-biden-china-classified-documents-mystery-swirls-penn-biden-center

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

University that housed Biden center pressed to end FBI China spy probe after big Beijing donations - John Solomon and Nick Givas

 

by John Solomon and Nick Givas

University of Pennsylvania, which hosted the Penn Biden Center where classified documents were found in November, received $47.7 million from China in the three years when Biden was affiliated with it.

The University of Pennsylvania, the Ivy League institution which collected tens of millions of dollars from China while paying Joe Biden and hosting his foreign policy think tank, successfully pressured the Biden Justice Department to end an FBI counterespionage program targeting Beijing's increasing influence within U.S. academia.

Attorney General Merrick Garland shut down the FBI's so-called China initiative in February 2022 shortly after more than 160 members of the University of Pennsylvania faculty signed and made public an open letter demanding the program be shuttered, on the grounds that it amounted to racial profiling. The faculty letter was part of a larger university battle against the program.   

UPennLettertoGarlandreChinaInitiative.pdf

"We acknowledge the importance to the United States of protecting both intellectual property and information that is essential to our national and economic security," read the letter made public on Feb. 9. "We understand that concerns about Chinese government sanctioned activities including intellectual property theft and economic espionage are important to address.

"We believe, however, that the China Initiative has deviated significantly from its claimed mission: it is harming the United States' research and technology competitiveness and it is fueling biases that, in turn, raise concerns about racial profiling." 

A handful of left-leaning universities, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, had also previously appealed to the DOJ to close down the program. 

Two weeks after the letter was sent, Garland announced the termination of the program, sending shockwaves through federal law enforcement.

The DOJ's own website still includes, to this day, a lengthy recitation of criminal cases the 4-year-old program had brought against members of academia who were working with China — either on espionage charges or failure to disclose foreign monies, as is required by law.

Just a month prior to the Garland decision, FBI Director Christopher Wray traveled to the Reagan presidential library to give a speech pleading for the government to devote more attention and resources to combating China's devastating influence inside the United States. He specifically cited cases where Beijing had used university academics to do its bidding. The FBI boss claimed China's espionage has become "more brazen, [and] more damaging." 

"China's government has the global reach and presence of a great nation, but it refuses to act the part and too often uses its capabilities to steal and threaten, rather than to cooperate and build," he argued. "That theft, those threats, are happening right here in America, literally every day." 

Just the News reached out to both the Justice Department, to confirm whether Penn ever officially lobbied the DOJ directly, and also to the university itself. Neither institution responded.

Penn has long ties to both the Biden family and China. Its former president, Amy Gutmann, for instance, was named by the president in 2021 to be his ambassador to Germany.

During her Senate confirmation, Gutmann acknowledged the university took money from Chinese interests but insisted it did not affect the school's values and that the university even rejected creating a Confucius Institute on campus funded by entities tied to the Chinese government.

"What I do know, and what I make sure of, is that no gifts, no contracts, to the University of Pennsylvania are allowed to threaten academic freedom, are allowed to threaten national security," she testified. "We do no classified research."

Penn is in the limelight now after the revelation Monday that classified documents from Biden's vice presidency — including top secret items and intelligence on Ukraine and Iran — were found last November in Biden's old office at the Penn Biden Center think tank, where he worked in D.C. from 2017 to 2019.

The White House claimed the memos were found by lawyers cleaning out Biden's old office. Multiple news organizations reported Wednesday that more classified documents were found at a second location used by Biden.

The university has said it did not solicit any donations specifically to fund the Penn Biden Center, funding it out of its operating budget while also paying Biden a handsome sum to be an honorary professor who did not teach classes but made occasional appearance or lectures.

Biden's tax returns reviewed by Just the News show Penn paid the future president $911,644 between spring 2017 and spring 2019, when he stepped aside to run for president.

File

Biden-2017-Amended-Federal.pdf

File

Biden-2018-Amended-Federal.pdf

File

BidenEthicsForm2019Income.pdf

Reports compiled by the conservative watchdog group National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) from disclosures to the Department of Education showed that Penn collected more than $67.6 million in donations and contracts from China between 2013 and 2019. The vast majority of that money, $47.7 million, flowed during the three years Biden was employed by the university, the records show.

The Chinese money poured in most rapidly in the four months after Biden opened the center in February 2018, a period during which nearly $20 million came through, including a $14.5 million anonymous gift on May 28, 2018, according to a complaint the NLPC filed with the Department of Education in May of 2020. The complaint requested that the department investigate all the Chinese gifts to Penn and the Penn Biden Center, alleging that the gifts listed as anonymous were "in clear violation" of the Higher Education Act's requirement that "all gifts or contracts exceeding $250,000 must disclose the foreign ownership and control of the gift or contract."

"The University of Pennsylvania and the Penn Biden Center are particularly vulnerable to China government influences due to the large amounts of China donations and contracts," the NLPC alleged in the complaint.

The NLPC filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on Tuesday seeking "all documents, including but not limited to emails, text messages, communications, memoranda, and photographs, that refer to the discovery and handling of classified and other presidential records that were in a closet at the Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement." 

"They do get money from China, either directly or indirectly," NLPC counsel Paul Kamenar told Just the News. "With Hunter [Biden], it was directly from an energy company. It's a fact that UPenn has received some $60 million in Chinese donations, $22 million of which is anonymous. The actual donors should be disclosed. Not simply that it's 'from China.'" 

The watchdog group filed a complaint with the DOJ in October 2020 urging that the center be investigated for failure to register as "foreign agents" under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The university has denied any wrongdoing.

Penn has been very "opaque" when confronted with these discrepancies, and "it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to realize the money from China to the school is not going to Pennsylvania's music department," said Kamenar. "It's going to UPenn's international program, of which the Biden Center is one of the top beneficiaries."

Kamenar also raised several other questions and concerns, including how the classified documents in question ended up in the Biden Center in the first place when it didn't even open its doors until two years after the former vice president had left office. 

Noting that the White House is claiming Biden was vacating the Penn-Biden Center office space, Kamenar said he spoke with the leasing manager of the building, who said the center still had 4-5 years left on its lease. 

"Why would you have high powered attorneys be your movers?" Kamenar asked. "That's a high price to pay for a mover. What were the lawyers doing there in the first place? I'd like to know their names."

Penn boasts numerous programs in China, including "currently [having] over 20 international partnerships with Chinese institutions, including Shanghai Jiao Tong University, with whom Penn first entered into an agreement in 1980," according to its website. "Faculty from all of Penn's 12 schools have reported over 350 research projects and instructional activities in China, including many of the projects presented at the annual Penn China Research Symposium." 

Several security experts interviewed by Just the News said the loss of the China Initiative after pressure from schools like Penn was a serious blow to the FBI's ability to fight Chinese espionage threats in the academic world.

"This may be the best $67 million investment the CCP has ever made," retired FBI intelligence chief Kevin Brock told Just the News. "By donating a stunning amount of money to an American university with deep ties to Joe Biden, China was able to have a major impediment to its strategy of targeting American academic researchers across the country completely removed courtesy of Biden's Attorney General Merrick Garland.

"Bottom line," Brock added, "the FBI's China Initiative worked against a known national security threat. The idea that it was racially biased is absurd and certainly less so than the common practice of admissions discrimination against Asian American students so common in many Ivy League schools."

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton said the Biden DOJ's closing of the FBI counterintelligence program was "a huge mistake" and that arguments by universities like Penn that the program was racist were preposterous.

"It obviously has nothing to do with race," Bolton said on the John Solomon Reports podcast Wednesday. "There's long been great relations between the people of China and the people of the United States. And the past 70-plus years, it's been the communist government of China. That's been the problem. And they're the ones that were conducting the espionage. They've been all over American universities."

 

Among Congressional investigators, there is a broader concern that the Penn Biden Center and the flow of Chinese money to the host university may have been part of a larger China influence operation targeting the Biden family, one that U.S. banks began flagging with suspicious activity reports to the Treasury Department in 2013 — after Hunter Biden joined his father on a trip to Beijing and began scoring overseas business deals.

In the 2017-18 time period, while the center was set up, Hunter Biden was deep in negotiations with a Chinese energy company called CEFC on a deal to route U.S. natural gas and energy assets to the Chinese. The deal included the Biden family getting a $5 million no interest, forgiveable loan from Chinese sources, according to a document found on a laptop seized by the FBI.

The loan arrangement, confirmed in documents previously obtained by Just the News and information released by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), shows that CEFC Beijing International Energy Company Limited understood the transaction would greatly benefit Joe Biden's family (referred to as "BD family" in emails). 

In one case uncomfortably close to the first family, Patrick Ho, one of Hunter Biden's business partners in the CEFC China energy deal, was charged with using a U.S. think tank to carry out a scheme to bribe officials in Africa over energy deals.

Patrick Ho, a CEFC executive who worked closely with Hunter Biden before his arrest, was eventually convicted in a federal court in Manhattan of multiple felonies and sentenced to three years in prison.

The DOJ alleged that Ho also tried to broker arms transactions and other business with Iran in violation of Western sanctions. Ho wrote an email in 2014 — before he connected with the Biden family — saying that "Iran has money in a bank in China which is under sanction" and that it wished to purchase precious metals through a bank in Hong Kong, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court.

At least one of the classified documents that Joe Biden's lawyer found at his private think tank office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington involved intelligence on Iran, according to multiple media reports.

You can follow John on Twitter @JsolomonReports and you can follow Nick on Twitter @NgivasDC

John Solomon and Nick Givas

Source: https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/university-housed-biden-think-tank-pressed-doj-end-fbi-program

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter