Former prosecutor accused of limiting questions about Joe Biden denies politics played a role in Hunter probe - Brooke Singman

 

by Brooke Singman

Lesley Wolf appeared before the House Judiciary Committee last week for a transcribed interview

 

FIRST ON FOX: The former assistant U.S. attorney who allegedly worked to ‘limit’ questions about Joe Biden denied that politics played a role in the Hunter Biden investigation during her interview at the House Judiciary Committee, according to a transcript reviewed by Fox News Digital. 

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf, though, testified that she would "not be permitted to answer most of the questions you have for me" due to the ongoing nature of the federal criminal investigation into the first son. 

HUNTER BIDEN INVESTIGATORS LIMITED QUESTIONS ABOUT 'DAD,' 'BIG GUY' DESPITE FBI, IRS OBJECTIONS: WHISTLEBLOWER

Wolf, who recently left the Justice Department—a decision that "long predated" allegations against her, was subpoenaed by the House Judiciary Committee to appear for a deposition. 

Wolf appeared before the House Judiciary Committee last week for a voluntary transcribed interview after the Justice Department negotiated terms with the panel. 

Fox News Digital reviewed a transcript of her interview Thursday night. 

After her interview, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said Wolf "refused to answer most of our questions." 

"She refused to answer based on instructions she was given from the Justice Department," Jordan said.

IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley, who led the IRS’ portion of the Hunter Biden probe, and Joseph Ziegler, a special agent within the IRS’ Criminal Investigation Division, alleged political influence surrounding prosecutorial decisions throughout the Hunter Biden investigation, which began in 2018.

Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, is seen after making a statement during a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol about testifying publicly to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Wednesday, December 13, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Shapley alleged that Wolf sought to block investigators from asking questions related to President Biden throughout the years-long federal investigation into his son, Hunter Biden.

But during her interview, Wolf testified that "at no time did politics play a role in or in any way impact my work as a federal prosecutor." 

Wolf also said that prosecutorial decisions were "never made in a vacuum and were always guided by principles of justice and fairness." 

JORDAN SAYS FORMER PROSECUTOR WHO ALLEGEDLY SCUTTLED HUNTER INVESTIGATION 'REFUSED' TO ANSWER QUESTIONS

"My voluntary appearance here today is not without an overwhelming feeling of frustration and disappointment because as much as I would invite the opportunity to explain the decisions made and accurately describe the actions taken, I will not be permitted to answer most of the questions you have for me," Wolf said. "It should come as no surprise to the committee that as a former DOJ employee, I am significantly constrained by and must strictly adhere to the authorization provided by the Department of Justice, as well as those obligations independently imposed by the Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure, including rule 6e, and the relevant laws governing disclosure of tax information." 

Wolf explained that, "in light of the ongoing nature of the investigation," she was "legally obligated at this time to largely remain silent as to those allegations, beyond stating the truth, which is, at all times while serving as an AUSA, I acted consistently with the Justice Manual, DOJ policy directives, and my statutory legal and ethical obligations." 

"I followed the facts where they led and made decisions in the best interests of the investigation," Wolf said. "This includes, but is by no means limited to, policies and rules governing politically sensitive investigations, election year sensitivities, attorney search warrants, search warrant filter requirements, and professional conduct rules barring contact with represented parties." 

But when faced with specific questions by investigators, Wolf repeatedly said she could not answer or speak to "particulars or details about anything" relating to the ongoing Hunter Biden probe, led by now-Special Counsel David Weiss, and repeatedly said she was "not authorized" to discuss the matter. 

Supervisory IRS Special Agent Gary Shapley (L) and IRS Criminal Investigator Joseph Ziegler are sworn-in as they testify during a House Oversight Committee hearing related to the Justice Department's investigation of Hunter Biden.  (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Shapley alleged earlier this year that Wolf worked to "limit" questioning related to President Biden and apparent references to Biden as "dad" or "the big guy."

But according to a Fox News Digital review of the transcript, investigators did not ask her about that specific allegation. 

Shapley and Ziegler also alleged that in October 2020, Wolf reviewed an affidavit for a search warrant of Hunter Biden’s residence and "agreed that probable cause had been achieved." However, Shapley said Wolf ultimately would not allow a physical search warrant on the president’s son.

Shapley said Wolf determined there was "enough probable cause for the physical search warrant there, but the question was whether the juice was worth the squeeze."

Wolf allegedly said that "optics were a driving factor in the decision on whether to execute a search warrant," Shapley said, adding that Wolf agreed that "a lot of evidence in our investigation would be found in the guest house of former Vice President Biden, but said there is no way we will get that approved."

LESLEY WOLF, PROSECUTOR ACCUSED OF WORKING TO 'LIMIT' QUESTIONS ABOUT 'BIG GUY' IN HUNTER PROBE, OUT AT DOJ

Wolf also allegedly tipped off Hunter Biden’s legal team ahead of a planned search of his storage unit.

During her interview, Wolf did acknowledge that "Political Figure 1"--a term used in several communications between Hunter Biden investigators--was, in fact, a reference to then-Vice President Joe Biden. 

Wolf was asked about an email exchange with FBI Special Agent Joshua Wilson, in which she stated: "There should be nothing about political figure 1 in here." 

Wolf said "Political Figure 1" is "described as former Vice President Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., now President Biden," but would not specifically elaborate on why she gave that directive. 

Wolf was asked: "To the extent you didn't--you asked the agents to take out political figure 1, there was no political motivation in requesting that?" 

"I refer you back to my opening statement where I said at no time there was politics playing a role in those decisions." 

Wolf's testimony came as part of the House impeachment inquiry against President Biden, which was formalized last week. 

President Joe Biden returns to the White House December 20, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo.; Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio; and Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., are leading the investigation as the House gathers evidence and considers whether to draft articles of impeachment against President Biden.

The committees are investigating the alleged politicization of the federal probe into Hunter Biden. They are also investigating the Biden family’s foreign business dealings and whether the president was involved or benefited directly from those ventures.

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., left, and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, right. (Getty Images)

President Biden has repeatedly denied having any involvement in his son’s business dealings.

Hunter Biden was subpoenaed as part of the inquiry as well but defied his subpoena to appear for a deposition at the House Oversight Committee last week. Instead, he made a public statement on Capitol Hill, blasting the Republican impeachment inquiry and saying his father was "not financially involved" in his business dealings.

Comer and Jordan have threatened to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress.

Hunter Biden's public statement Wednesday came just days after he was charged out of Special Counsel David Weiss' investigation.

Weiss alleged Hunter Biden was engaged in a "four-year scheme" when the president's son did not pay his federal income taxes from January 2017 to October 2020 while also filing false tax reports. Weiss filed the charges in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Weiss also indicted Hunter Biden on federal gun charges in Delaware. The president's son pleaded not guilty, and his attorneys are working to dismiss the charges altogether.

Brooke Singman is a Fox News Digital politics reporter. You can reach her at Brooke.Singman@Fox.com or @BrookeSingman on Twitter.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/former-prosecutor-accused-of-limiting-questions-about-joe-biden-denies-politics-played-a-role-in-hunter-probe

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Supreme Court rejects special counsel request to intervene in Trump immunity appeal - Ben Whedon

 

by Ben Whedon

 

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the matter on Jan. 9.

 

The Supreme Court on Friday declined to immediately intervene in a legal dispute over former President Donald Trump's claims of presidential immunity and will instead permit an appeals court to first consider the matter.

There were no noted dissents among the justices, The Hill reported.

At issue are Trump's immunity claims in Special counsel Jack Smith's election case. U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected his arguments earlier this month, prompting Trump to appeal and Smith to petition the justices for intervention. 

Smith had asked the Supreme Court to take up the case and skip the appeals court, which the Trump team insisted was a partisan effort to keep his prosecution on schedule amid the presidential election.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the matter on Jan. 9. Chutkan has paused proceedings in the case while the appeals process plays out.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/supreme-court-rejects-special-counsel-request-intervene-trump-immunity-appeal

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Americans Must Choose Between Civilization—or Its Destroyers - Victor Davis Hanson

 

by Victor Davis Hanson

A new existential struggle.

 

Nihilism is the religion of the Left. Anarchy is now at the core of the new Democratic Party.

If the Left wished radically to alter the demography of the U.S., it could have expanded legal immigration through legislation or the courts.

Instead, it simply erased the border and dynamited federal immigration law.

By fiat, nihilists ended the wall, and stopped detaining and deporting illegal aliens altogether.

Or was it worse than that when candidate Joe Biden in September 2019 urged would-be illegal aliens to “surge” the border?

As a result, through laxity and entitlement incentives, 8 million illegal entrants have swarmed the southern border under the Biden administration.

They are swamping border towns, bankrupting big-city budgets, and infuriating even Democratic constituencies.

The same nihilism applies to crime.

In the old days liberals gave light sentences to criminals or reduced bail. But today leftist prosecutors do not even seek bail. They hardly prosecute theft or random assaults.

Criminals are arrested and released the same day. Is the nihilist plan to destroy the entire body of American jurisprudence, and to ensure “equity” in being victimized?

Is the woke idea that all Americans — inclusive of diverse Beverly Hills elites, Hollywood celebrities, or members of Congress alike — must share victim equity, and thus experience first-hand street robbery, car-jacking, smash-and-grab, and home invasion?

The United States can produce annually more natural gas and oil than any nation on earth. It once pioneered nuclear power. It has vast coal reserves and sophisticated hydroelectric plants.

The old idea was to use these unmatched resources to transition gradually to other cleaner fuels such as hydrogen, fusion power, solar, and wind. That way consumers would still enjoy affordable energy. And the United States could remain independent of coercion by the oil-producing Middle East.

But that was not the nihilist way.

Instead, the left deliberately cut back on pipelines, new energy leases, and fracking. It bragged of an upcoming ban on fossil fuels. In drought-stricken, energy-short California, the state is blowing up, not building new dams.

Is the nihilist agenda to punish with bankruptcy the energy-using middle class?

Is the hope that Americans will have to beg the Saudis, Iranians, Venezuelans, and Russians to pump more of the hated goo for our benefit so we would not have to dirty ourselves helping ourselves?

When Joe Biden entered office in January 2021 the U.S. was naturally rebounding from more than a year of Covid-enforced lockdowns.

Overtaxed supply chains were still fragile. Pent-up demand was soaring. Consumers were flush with government cash. Trillions of dollars had been printed and infused into the economy to ward off a feared recession.

All economists advised not to increase the deficit, spike further consumer demand, and expand entitlements.

Instead the Left did just the opposite.

Four-trillion dollars were printed and distributed. In no time, Americans, recovering from Covid, next experienced the worst, but entirely preventable, inflation in 40 years.

Three years later prices on staples remain 30-40 percent higher than when Biden took office. Mortgage rates tripled.

Abroad the nihilism is even more inexplicable and terrifying.

All nations suffer military setbacks. But none in memory have shamefully hightailed out of a theater as we did from Afghanistan.

Few countries could even imagine discarding billions of dollars of weapons and hardware into the hands of the terrorist Taliban, or abandoning a $1 billion new embassy, and a huge, remodeled air base.

Why did the administration simply allow a huge Chinese spy balloon to float and photograph leisurely over the continental U.S.?

Naive countries might endure two or three attacks on their overseas bases without serious retaliation. But how could the U.S. military permit 135 rocket barrages by Iranian-supplied terrorists on American soldiers without a major and sustained response?

Is the point to humiliate our own troops? To destroy what is left of U.S. deterrence?

Popular culture is especially captive to leftist nihilism.

It is not enough to object to a statue or artwork. Instead, without deliberation or public input, they must be defaced or destroyed, all the better stealthily and by night.

After the massacres of October 7 — but well before Israel had even responded to the barbaric invasion — thousands of students swarmed their elite universities cheering on the violence.

And what so exhilarated them?

The nihilist, ghoulish beheading, torture, mutilation, mass rape, dismemberment, and necrophilia of unarmed, civilian Israeli elderly, women, children, and infants.

In sum, we are witnessing an epidemic of leftist nihilism similar to the 16th-century European mad wave of iconoclastic destruction of religious art.

Or is the better parallel the suicidal insanity that Mao Zedong unleashed during his cultural revolution of the 1960s?

The old politics of right versus left, and Republican opposed to Democrat have now given way to a new existential struggle: Americans must choose between civilization — or its destroyers.

Victor Davis Hanson

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/americans-must-choose-between-civilization-or-its-destroyers/

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Blockbuster Poll Casts Doubt on Outcome of 2020 Election - Chris Talgo

 

by Chris Talgo

Based on this poll’s findings and the countless examples of mail-in voting shenanigans that states purposefully allowed to occur in 2020, it is more than likely that the outcome was skewed in favor of Biden. But that is in the past. It does no good to cry over spilled milk.

 

What if the 2020 election was actually far from the most “safe and secure” in American history, as the mainstream media have relentlessly parroted over the past three years? What if Joe Biden actually lost several of the closely contested battleground states due to widespread mail-in voting fraud? What if Donald Trump actually won the 2020 election?

These questions have been dogging me ever since the 2020 election was called in favor of Joe Biden. However, thanks to a new poll conducted by the Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports, we may be able to answer these taboo questions with a new sense of confidence.

Here are a few of the key takeaways from the poll: 21 percent of mail-in voters admitted that they filled out a ballot for a friend or family member; 19 percent of mail-in voters admitted that a friend or family member filled out a ballot on their behalf; 17 percent of mail-in voters admitted that they voted in a state where they are no longer a permanent resident; and 17 percent of mail-in voters said they signed a ballot for a friend or family member with or without his or her permission.

Every single one of these instances are illegal and constitute voter fraud. Moreover, these categories are not mutually exclusive, meaning respondents could have engaged in multiple forms of voter fraud.

In the 2020 election, 46 percent of voters cast ballots by mail. However, the proportion of Democrats who voted by mail was significantly higher than Republicans. In fact, according to the Pew Research Center, 58 percent of Biden voters voted by mail compared to 32 percent of Trump voters.

If voters for Trump and Biden both cast fraudulent mail-in ballots at roughly the same 20 percent rate, it would mean an outsized number of Biden’s votes were potentially fraudulent simply because Biden received nearly twice the total number of mail-in votes than Trump.

Using simple arithmetic and 2020 election data, we can estimate that Biden received approximately 47 million votes by mail whereas Trump received about 24 million. Now, if we assume that 20 percent of both Trump and Biden mail-in votes were cast fraudulently, it would mean that Biden received nearly 10 million illegal votes and Trump received close to 5 million mail-in votes that should not have counted.

Next, if we extrapolate those numbers across the battleground states, several of which were decided by less than a 20,000-vote margin, it is more than likely that Trump would have carried enough battleground states to win the Electoral College.

Of course, this does not mean that Trump certainly won the 2020 election. But it does mean that Biden’s victory should have an asterisk attached to it, seeing as how the evidence points to the 2020 election being fraught with mail-in voter fraud on both sides.

It also means that those who attacked anyone who questioned the outcome of the 2020 election as an “election denier” should issue a blanket apology.

We must recall that the 2020 election was unlike any other in history because several states bypassed state legislatures and changed election laws due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of these changes were designed to eliminate commonsense guardrails like signature verification, which have been in place for decades to ensure that mail-in ballots are as valid as possible.

What’s more, dozens of states, including many battleground states, universally mailed ballots to all registered voters on their voter rolls, even though state voter rolls are notoriously inaccurate. In 2012, the Pew Center on the States analyzed state voter registration rolls and found, “Approximately 24 million -- one of every eight -- voter registrations in the United States are no longer valid or are significantly inaccurate. More than 1.8 million deceased individuals are listed as voters. Approximately 2.75 million people have registrations in more than one state.”

Based on this poll’s findings and the countless examples of mail-in voting shenanigans that states purposefully allowed to occur in 2020, it is more than likely that the outcome was skewed in favor of Biden. But that is in the past. It does no good to cry over spilled milk.

However, as the old saying goes: fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. To prevent this from happening again, it is imperative that states pass reasonable reforms to ensure that the 2024 election is, indeed, safe and secure. A few examples include cleansing outdated voter registration rolls, requiring signature verification for mail-in ballots, outlawing ballot harvesting, and eliminating no-excuse absentee voting.

Although it is surely necessary for some people to vote by mail, like military personnel deployed overseas, it should be an exception, not the norm.

The first question in the Heartland-Rasmussen poll asked likely voters: “If your state banned mail-in balloting in next year’s presidential election, would you choose to vote in-person or would you choose not to vote at all?” The overwhelming majority (94 percent) said they would vote in person. A miniscule 2 percent said they would not vote at all.

In other words, the vast majority of likely voters are more than willing and able to vote in person. This is how elections have historically been held throughout the world, and how they ought to be held going forward. In 2024, we must make sure that we get to back to basics and encourage people to vote in person, on Election Day, preferably. With our country more divided than I have ever seen, I do not think we can survive another haphazard election like we witnessed in 2020.

Image: Heartland Instittute

Chris Talgo (ctalgo@heartland.org) is editorial director at The Heartland Institute.

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/12/blockbuster_poll_casts_doubt_on_outcome_of_2020_election.html

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Will Partisan Lawfare Destroy Trump? - Victor Davis Hanson

 

by Victor Davis Hanson

We have never seen anything like this before in American history

Trump Derangement Syndrome became Orwellian with the recent ruling of the Colorado Supreme Court.

It approved the erasure of Trump from the Republican primary ballot in Colorado, by invoking Section 3 of the 14^th Amendment.

That ossified clause was intended to bar any ante-bellum federal officials who joined the Confederacy from again holding federal offices after 1865.

In no way is Trump’s conduct on January 6 comparable to calling for secession, much less prompting a Civil War that cost the country 700,000 lives.

An “insurrectionist” president does not address unarmed protestors with qualifiers like, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

How also can one be guilty of insurrection without ever being indicted for such a supposed crime, much less convicted of it? 

And the more we learn about January 6, all the more it appears to have been a spontaneous riot, more buffoonish in nature than conspiratorial.

No one has explained the mysterious, politicized January 6 refusal of the Speaker of the House to order a reinforcement of the Capitol police.

Or the FBI stonewalling about its informants in the crowd.

Or the revealing admissions of New York Times reporter Matthew Rosenberg (“a ton of FBI informants among the people who attacked the Capitol”).

Or the warped composition and conduct of the January 6 congressional committee.

Or the months-long official disinformation surrounding the number and circumstances of those who died that day.

That day’s illegality in terms of violence and death paled in comparison to the largely excused and exempted 120 days of summer violence in 2020, when Antifa and BLM engineered riots, arson, and death.

Their planned violence accounted for 35 or so killed, and more than 1,500 injured police officers.

Some $1-2 billion in property was destroyed.

A police precinct, federal courthouse, and iconic Washington, D.C. church were torched.

Mobs attempted to storm the White House grounds and sent the president into a secure underground bunker.

But if one really wishes to imagine genuine “insurrectionary “and actionable language, then recall current Vice President Kamala Harris’s 2020 de facto encouragement to the rioters,

But they’re not gonna stop. They’re not gonna stop, and this is a movement, I’m telling you. They’re not gonna stop, and everyone beware, because they’re not gonna stop. They’re not gonna stop before Election Day in November, and they’re not gonna stop after Election Day. Everyone should take note of that, on both levels, that they’re not going to let up — and they should not. And we should not.

Or remember this 2020 insurrectionary warning to two sitting Supreme Court Justices by then Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

At the very doors of the court, Schumer revved up an angry crowd with undisguised threats:

I want to tell you Gorsuch. I want to tell you Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.

The Colorado court ruling is sadly only the most recent in a long series of disastrous firsts that are slowly unwinding the republic and making a mockery of the rule of law.

Remember the Russian collusion hoax and the 2016 Clinton/Fusion GPS effort to destroy a presidential candidate?

Recall the 2020 Russian disinformation farcical claim concerning the genuine Hunter Biden laptop?

Do not forget the precedent of impeaching a president twice and then trying an ex-president and private citizen in the Senate.

Then there was another first of raiding an ex-president’s private home over disputes about the removal of presidential papers that are typically solved bureaucratically and as a civil matter.

We are also witnessing ongoing lawfare waged by state and local partisan prosecutors to destroy the current leading presidential candidate.

Their indictments either have no merit or would never have applied to liberal politicians or both.

What will be Colorado’s precedent?

Will red-state courts now respond by erasing Joe Biden from their ballots on grounds that he is “guilty” of insurrectionary activity—by deliberately destroying the southern border, undermining U.S. security, sabotaging federal immigration law, and violating his oath of office?

Will some states remove Vice President Kamala Harris from their 2024 ballots on grounds that in 2020 she deliberately incited insurrectionary protestors who had been engaged in riot, arson, looting, violent assaults on police, and attacks on federal properties?

So does the Left see where it is taking the country?

It is destroying all the old parameters of accepted politics in using any means necessary to deny millions of citizens the right to elect their own highest official.

We have never seen anything like this before in American history. But it is only the latest chapter of an ongoing travesty that will not end well.

Victor Davis Hanson

Source: https://amgreatness.com/2023/12/21/will-partisan-lawfare-destroy-trump/

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The Dark World of Hamas’ Sadism and Sexual Torture - Sha'i Ben Tekoa

 

by Sha'i Ben Tekoa

The roots of a death cult.

 

The “Bible” of the English Language, the Oxford English Dictionary of 1932, defined the word “ghoul” as “An evil spirit supposed in Mohammedan countries to rob graves and prey on human corpses.”

That sounds right. The world was even treated to a display of this on October 7 when an army of Jihadist Arabs violently raped not only living Jewish females but also their dead bodies. One can also assume that they sodomized the remains of dead Jewish men and boys too.

From reports by survivors of captivity in Gaza, there is reason to believe, given what is known of Arab sexuality, that the remaining men and boy hostages have been sodomized and females continually raped throughout their two months of captivity.

It would be instructive to note that the Jewish Bible teaches that Ishmael, father of the Arabs, was a “wild ass of a man” – meaning a man in human form but in spirit an undomesticated jackass with, presumably, the sex life of an animal.

The Jewish people, meanwhile, have a very different relationship with the human body. The Jews were mankind’s first sexual moralists, which surely contributes to Jew-hatred. The Jews, after all, gave the world the story of  Sodom and Gomorrah.

The Jews’ religion also sometimes calls for capital punishment by hanging, with the rule that  the corpse must be taken down and buried before sunset. It must not be allowed to be pecked at by birds or allowed to decompose and smell. No matter how awful the criminal had been, his body was the handiwork of G-d.

And so, the IDF has lost soldiers in Gaza trying to retrieve the bodies of dead comrades-in-arms who either expired from the bestiality of their barbaric captors or were outright murdered by them. Indeed, since 2014, the Muslim Brotherhood (HAMAS) in Gaza has held onto the earthly remains of two IDF soldiers, tormenting their parents every day since then by not returning their sons for a proper Jewish burial.

Besides being sub-civilized ghouls who deal in dead bodies, Muslim Arabs have long histories of being kidnappers and enslavers. For a thousand years before the first black African was enslaved in the New World, the Arabs routinely had been raiding black Africa to scoop up black boys, hundreds at a time and castrate them on the spot. Most did not survive, but those who did were taken back into the Arab world and sold as eunuchs to tend to the needs of a Muslim man’s harem.

The north coast of Africa was once dotted with four Muslim maritime powers: Morocco, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, whose cruisers hunted for ships at sea belonging to Christian nations to not only plunder the vessel and its cargo, but to also enslave the passengers and crews until ransomed. They were known colloquially as the Barbary Pirates, but in truth they were not pirates, if by that we think of independent highwaymen on the high seas flying the Skull & Bones who when ashore hung out in taverns, got drunk singing “Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum” while pawing at wenches.

No, these tee-totaling seamen, when at sea, prayed to Mecca three times daily (five times when ashore) and flew three flags vertically arranged at the masthead of their cruisers. The lowest represented the pasha in the cruiser’s home port; in the middle flew the pennant of the Ottoman Sultan in Istanbul to whom these regency city-states paid tribute; at the top, symbolically above all, flapped the green flag of Islam.

Indeed, it was Islam’s jihad that justified their hijacking, kidnapping, and enslaving. For example, in late March 1786 in London, a clandestine meeting transpired among three diplomats: Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, respectively U.S. ambassadors to France and England, and a Sheik Abdurahman of Tripoli (Libya) representing the pasha there.  At that time, there were twenty-one American merchant seamen enslaved in Algiers, the most feared of the Barbary ports, with the sheik threatening, however politely, to start hijacking American merchant ships too. To prevent that, he was asking for “tribute,” roughly a third of the American government’s annual budget at the time.

When Jefferson asked him why, since the U.S. was less than two years old and had never done anything wrong to Tripoli, the sheik explained that the jihad was eternal. The Crusades may have ended centuries in the past but the hostility between Christendom and Islam and smallbore clashes never did. A century previous, Vienna was menaced with conquest by the Muslims.

Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli were governed by Turkish Janissaries, commonly Christian boys kidnapped in the Balkans by Muslims, forcibly converted to Islam, and used as homosexual boy-toys for the Ottoman grandees. As adults, they went off to North Africa to sire sons with the local women but also take for themselves a boy-toy they liked to dress in fine clothes and show off to other men.

Yasser Arafat (1929-2004) according to the highest-ever Soviet bloc defector, Ion Pacepa, former head of Communist Romania’s version of the KGB, wrote in his book Red Horizons that Arafat traveled with bodyguards who as little boys were orphaned when the Mossad liquidated their terrorist fathers. Arafat then “adopted” them, raised them to be his bodyguards, and every night they all partied in “gay” orgies.

Arab Muslims also practice corporal punishment as no other culture does. Steal something and you can have your hand chopped off. What other religion in the world acts like this?

So, anyone who saw the 43-minute IDF video of what Hamas Muslims did to Jewish bodies on October 7, including the mutilation of their sex organs, should not be surprised.

In 1972 at the Munich Olympic Games, when Arafat’s boys took Israeli athletes hostage, they flaunted their power over them by castrating the weight lifter in front of his teammates.

Muslims also practice polygamy, which is a form of slavery for women. Indeed, what might be the signature distinction between Judeo-Christian civilization and Islam is the sex lives of Muslims.

Lost in the horror of what Hamas did to Jews on Oct 7, the perpetrators were 2,500-3,000 homicidal maniacs bent not only on mass murder, mutilation, and sexual depravity, but suicide – yearning to be killed by Jews. Dying in their jihad would result in their immediate insertion into Muslim paradise – where the jihadist gets to violently rape 72 virgins for all eternity. It is no coincidence that the word “assassin” is, like “ghoul,” a product of Arab-Muslim culture.

Westerners must throw some cold water in their faces and ultimately confront the reality of Islam, which means “submission” and glories in holy war against all non-Muslims, and especially against the Jews – against whose victims’ bodies anything goes.

 

Sha’i ben-Tekoa’s PHANTOM NATION: Inventing the “Palestinians” as the Obstacle to Peace is available at Amazon.com in hard cover or a Kindle ebook. His podcasts can be heard on www.phantom-nation.com.

Source:https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-dark-world-of-hamas-sadism-and-sexual-torture/

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The Biden Admin is Pushing for an Israel-Hezbollah Deal - Daniel Greenfield

 

by Daniel Greenfield

It's as if Oct 7 never happened

 

Pictured: Thousands of Hezbollah supporters in Beirut, Lebanon on December 9, 2023, attend a funeral march for three Hezbollah terrorists who were killed while operating along the Israeli border in Quneitra, Syria. (Photo by Ibrahim Amro/AFP via Getty Images)

If there was one lesson to be learned from Oct 7, it's don't negotiate with terrorists. But that's the one lesson no one seems to be willing to learn, as David Wurmser notes at the Center for Security Policy:

"A U.S. plan, spearheaded by the diplomatic efforts of the U.S., and led by Amos Hochstein (who negotiated the Lebanon Maritime Agreement) and the French government, is emerging to diffuse tension along Israel's northern border. The U.S. and France appear to propose a plan with three elements. Hizballah withdraws its forces northward. Israel concedes all the disputed areas along the border. And finally, the area between Israel and Hizballah will be filled by the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF)."

The LAF, despite the money we spend on them, just does whatever Hezbollah tells them.

A deal in which Israel concedes more territory to Lebanon in exchange for a proposed Hezbollah withdrawal is less than worthless. Hezbollah can move back whenever it chooses and Israel will be denied the ability to reclaim the territory. The same brilliant minds that thought Hamas could be moderated with money also promised that Hezbollah could be moderated with money by ceding maritime territory to be used for energy harvesting to Lebanon. The insane thing is that these same people are now pushing this.

Islamic terror groups don't moderate. They take whatever you give them and use it to go ahead and kill you.

And yet here we are. Israel is trying to pressure Lebanon to push back Hezbollah so that tens of thousands of Israelis who have been displaced by Hezbollah attacks can go home. (Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have been displaced in total. The media is obviously not covering this.)

Israel is proposing a military solution. The Biden administration and France are proposing a land-for-truce deal that would weaken Israel's ability to respond to future attacks from Hezbollah.

It's as if Oct 7 never happened.

• Follow Daniel Greenfield on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook

Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article previously appeared at the Center's Front Page Magazine.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20239/israel-hezbollah-deal

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Fear Of Muslims Is Rational; “Islamophobia” Is A Myth - Jonathan Gault

 

by Jonathan Gault

Despite the constant hectoring about Islam being a religion of peace, a snapshot of Muslim conduct worldwide shows the claim is a lie as to the faith’s devout adherents.

 

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary describes the word “phobia” as “an exaggerated, usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation.” In the wake of recent events, is fear of Muslims, labeled “Islamophobia,” really exaggerated, inexplicable, and/or illogical?

I’ve concluded that not only is fear of Muslims logical and explicable, but it is by no means exaggerated and, most probably, understated. The deliberately misleading term “Islamophobia” itself amounts to a cudgel used to silence critics of what Dutch Parliamentarian (and possible new Dutch Prime Minister) Geert Wilders has at times characterized as a totalitarian political ideology masquerading as a religion.

I could enumerate just some in the endless litany of recent (and even not-so-recent) violent attacks that radical Muslims have perpetrated in (delusional) Western societies that welcomed and unsuccessfully attempted to absorb and assimilate large numbers of Muslims. However, Raymond Ibrahim has already done so, writing extensively (and magnificently) about historical events that provide countless examples (here and here) of aggressive Muslim behaviors resulting in widespread slaughter. His writings elucidate numerous historical episodes consuming people of all ethnicities and religions, including their fellow Muslims, with particular cruelty reserved for Africans, Armenians, and, of course, Jews.

Image: Salman Rushdie (edited), a “lucky” victim of Muslim violence, for he survived the deadly attack against him. YouTube screen grab.

Why has

• Geert Wilders been (in his own words) “deprived of a personal life” requiring constant police protection for more than a decade?
• Salman Rushdie had to spend the last 35 years in fear? (And note that his fear was justified.)
• Hoover Institute fellow Ayaan Hirsi Ali, now a Christian, who was both abused and mutilated by “Imams” as a child, been living “with round-the-clock security due to her willingness to speak out and her abandonment of the Muslim faith?

If Islam is peaceful, why do these prominent critics need constant protection.

If we look around the world, Muslims are fighting in many places:

• Muslim insurgencies are found in the Philippines and Thailand.
• Numerous Indo (India)-Pakistani Wars have pitted Muslim Pakistan against majority Hindu India, while India’s Muslims regularly launch religious attacks.
• Muslim Chechens fight Russian Orthodox Christians and send death squads into Europe.
• Muslim Azeris fight those Armenians who remain from the genocide the Muslim Turks perpetrated against them in 1916.
• Historical animosity between Turks and Greeks is well documented and continues to this day in Cyprus, split between the Turkish North and Greek South.
• Orthodox Christian Serb and Muslim hostility dates back 600+ years to the Ottoman Wars.
• And we have the ongoing Arab/Israeli wars as the most glaring current-day example, during which a fictitious Muslim ethnic group, the “Palestinians” (really, Arabs), perfect modern-day terrorism.
• Muslim Arab Janjaweed regularly slaughter black Africans in Sudan.

Even the incomparable “Islamophobes” in China, who view any religion as a threat, place particular focus on Islam, which could be why the government maintains a system of “re-education camps” for Uyghurs, containing (for the time being) any potential for Muslim violence.

There also are examples of persistent internecine warfare between Muslims themselves:

Hamas displaced the PLO in Gaza in 2007, fighting door to door. Ironically, few were concerned about civilian casualties then, as Muslims slaughtered each other with impunity.

The Syrian Civil War, pitting Alawite against Sunni, resulted in upward of a half million slaughtered, displacing more than 6 million people and creating the largest refugee crisis since WWII, perhaps forever changing the character of the European continent and society. It also led to the rise of ISIS, whose members cruelly tortured and killed thousands of “impure” Muslims and other ethnicities, most famously Yazidis, until eliminated by US forces under President Trump’s leadership.

The mostly Shia Houthis displaced the hapless Sunni leadership in Yemen following a decade of proxy civil war during which tens of thousands died.

If we go back to the 1980s, more than a million were killed in the Iran-Iraq War, after which, two years later, in a duplicitous show of gratitude for financial support, Saddam invaded his Muslim-Arab financiers in Kuwait to avoid repayment of Iraq’s accumulated war debt.

Muslim societies themselves lean heavily toward despotism, demanding ideological purity and groupthink through a culture that requires submission. Indeed, a Muslim is “one who submits.” All who live in Muslim society live in constant fear of violence from the government and their fellow citizens.

Note that refugees from Syria insisted on going to Europe, particularly Germany, not to another Muslim country where they might have been familiar with the customs. Why is that? No reasonable person believes that Algerians, Gazans, Iranians, Iraqis, Libyans, Syrians, or Yemenis live carefree, unencumbered existences. African Haratine people in Mauritania remain enslaved by (of course) Muslim Arabs.

Facts show that Islam’s religio-political ideology and its adherents are anything but peaceful. Islam’s holy texts themselves incite violence, manifested against both non-believers and believers.

Islam’s teachings drive some Muslims to commit and condone evil. Muslims mutilate the genitalia of their subjugated women, whom they treat as children or second-class citizens. Family honor is tied to the sexual behavior of women, and honor killings often blame women, the victims, for being in situations they are unable to avoid or control.

Whenever women live under Muslim control, they exist in fear due to the primitive, dysfunctional “customs” enforced by a violent, patriarchal society that punishes differing opinions and free thought. Men, separated from women without the possibility for intimacy, turn to molesting young boys, a vile, hypocritical contradiction of their “faith”, which purports to prohibit homosexuality.

Considering its 1,500-year history of brutal, ruthless violence in pursuit of domination, it is logical for anybody to be afraid of Muslims and Islam. Fear of Islam is not, therefore, an exaggerated, inexplicable, or illogical fear. It is a reasonable, measured, and logical response to the repeated, ongoing violence that Muslims worldwide have committed for centuries. Winston Churchill, unencumbered by political correctness, said about Islam, “No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith.”

Churchill, Rushdie, and Wilders all “told it like it is.” Islamophobia is a canard. This is all TRUE. If Muslims do not like hearing this then they must change their behaviors.

Lt. Colonel Jeff Cooper, the father of modern handgun safety, advised: “Observe your cat. He moves well, using his senses fully. He is not preoccupied with irrelevancies. He’s not thinking about his job or his image or his income tax. He is putting first things first, principally his physical security. Do likewise.” This teaches us two things: (1) Be aware of your surroundings and take precautions to stay safe and, perhaps more importantly, (2) Don’t worry about your image.

Americans, however, refuse to act like cats. They live in fear because many have abandoned truth. This is why useful idiots can repeat nonsense such as “Islam is a religion of peace” while the USA has been fighting Muslims for 30 years.

Christ taught the world that “the truth will set you free.” We must re-embrace Judeo-Christian values and stop worrying about our “image” or having woke mobs rebuke us for speaking the truth they consider “politically incorrect.” This self-censorship erodes truth.

Cowards lie due to weakness. Psalm 34 tells us to “keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies.” Liars understand what awaits them at the gates of heaven.

Be courageous. Courage is needed in Joe Biden’s America, where nobody is punished for lying but only for telling the truth, which perpetuates deceit. We must flip the script and reacclimate society to truth, which will be difficult, especially for the “snowflakes.”

We must stop deceiving ourselves. We’ve been propagandized by academia and the media to self-censor, to believe that the truth (about everyone except Jews, apparently) is somehow offensive. It’s not. It’s reality. If something is true, say it loudly and repeatedly. While there are individual Muslims who are peaceful, Islam is not a “religion of peace,” and fear of Muslims is rational because of Islam’s violent history, medieval culture, and totalitarian tendencies. It is a ferocious political ideology masquerading as a religion. Don’t allow these tyrants, their useful idiots, nor their apologists to silence you any longer.

Jonathan Gault is a pseudonym.

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/12/fear_of_muslims_is_rational_islamophobia_is_a_myth.html

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PLO official equates released Palestinian teen terrorists with Israeli child hostages - Nan Jacques Zilberdik

 

by Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Released teen terrorist praises Hamas’ “achievements” of releasing terrorists for Israeli civilian hostages

 

 

 

In the exchange deal between Israel and Hamas, Israel agreed to release 150 terrorist prisoners - among them teen terrorists - in return for 50 Israeli female and child hostages captured by Hamas during its terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

Palestinians and others abroad have shockingly compared the innocent Israeli civilian hostages to the Palestinian terrorists imprisoned for terror attacks.

Thus, PLO Ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot referred to Palestinian terrorist prisoners and Israeli civilian captives as one and the same thing - “hostages”:

PLO Ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot: “It is good news that hostages will be released from both sides, and while the world is hailing the release of 50 Israeli hostages – good for them – nobody is talking about the hundreds of Palestinian children that will be released, that have been taken hostage by Israel even before the 7th of October (refers to Palestinian terrorist prisoners released in exchange deal during Israeli counter-terror operation against Hamas’ terror war on Israel; see note below -Ed.)… So this is an opportunity to expose the rotten, corrupted system of racial domination that Israel has erected in the entire occupied Palestinian territories."

[PLO Ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot, X (Twitter) account,
Nov. 23, 2023]

An interviewer with CNN challenged Zomlot’s equating Palestinian terrorist prisoners with Israeli civilian hostages:

CNN interviewer: “When we look at the pictures of how those [Israeli] people [who] were kidnapped, elderly women thrown over motorbikes screaming, taken over the border, shoved down tunnels, kept in dark – there is a quantitative and qualitative difference in the mode of detention between the two.”

[CNN Arabic, X (Twitter) account, Nov. 25, 2023]

Zomlot answered by denying any responsibility by terror organization Hamas, belittling the brutal kidnappings of Israelis of all ages, and claiming they were “done by individuals” whereas the Palestinian terrorist “hostages” were “kidnapped” by “a state”:

Husam Zomlot: “I'll tell you what's the difference. I'll really tell you what's the difference. The difference is the first is done by individuals (sic., by Hamas), but the second is done by a state, by a state that sponsored an army… It is disgraceful to even draw any equity between a state that is a member of the UN, that is Israel and its responsibility under international law, andbetween individuals (sic., Hamas), so in fact the lack of equity is to focus on 'responsible' - between parentheses – actors, that they should perform in full accordance of international law.”

[CNN Arabic, X (Twitter) account, Nov. 25, 2023]

Asked about Israel’s definition of the released prisoners as “terrorists,” Zomlot responded that for Israel “every Palestinian is a terrorist” and every person siding with “Palestine” is too:

Sky News interviewer: “The Israelis say that some of the people, some of the women and children in that group, are terrorists. How do you react and respond to that?”

Husam Zomlot: “Well, for the Israelis every Palestinian is a terrorist. For the Israelis every human being who supports our rights, everybody who calls for the end of the occupation is an antisemite. For the Israelis every Jewish person who supports our rights is a self-hating Jew.”

[PLO Ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot, X (Twitter) account,
Nov. 23, 2023]

One such teen terrorist who Zomlot refers to as an innocent child “hostage” was Yazan Al-Hasanat, a 17-year-old member of the PFLP terror organization who was held under administrative detention from June 22, 2023, until his release in the deal. Upon his release, Al-Hasanat praised Hamas’ “achievements” that led to his and other terrorists’ release: 

Released terrorist prisoner Yazan Al-Hasanat: “We will empty the prisons. The prisoners’ situation requires resistance (i.e., terror) that will release them… The resistance is with blood, with weapons. The prisoners do not want peaceful resistance. They want resistance that will fight so they will triumph. All the prisoners are in favor of the resistance… We are very proud of the resistance (i.e., Hamas), of the resistance’s achievements, and satisfied with what is happening in the Gaza Strip, with the abductions, the abduction of the captives (i.e., Israeli hostages).”

[Quds News Network, Twitter account, Nov. 26, 2023]

At the time of the prisoner exchange for Israeli hostages, PA Chairman Abbas’ advisor Mahmoud Al-Habbash also referred to all imprisoned Palestinian terrorists as “hostages” who have a “right to breathe free air”:

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “It is the right of these brothers, sisters, and sons to breathe free air (i.e., terrorist prisoners released in Israeli-Hamas ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal). We think that it is the right of every Palestinian to achieve his freedom and leave the Israeli prisons, because they are hostages in the hands of the occupation state (i.e., Israel), and without a doubt it is their right to be released and their families’ right to rejoice.”

[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Nov. 24, 2023]  

  

The following is more information on the war and the terrorist mentioned above, and a longer excerpt of some of the statements cited above:

Yazan Al-Hasanat - 17-year-old Palestinian member of the PFLP terror organization held under administrative detention from June 22, 2023, until his release in the prisoner exchange deal starting on Nov. 24, 2023, between Israel and Hamas in which Israel agreed to release 150 terrorist prisoners, pause drone surveillance in the Gaza Strip, and allow movement between the northern and southern Gaza Strip, in return for 50 Israeli female and child hostages held by Hamas during the Israeli counter-terror operation against Hamas’ terror war on Israel.

Hamas war on Israel October 2023 - At least 1,200 Israelis, including over 1,000 civilians, were murdered and over 4,800 wounded, in addition to approximately 244 (including 110 later released or liberated and at least 26 later killed) who were abducted into the Gaza Strip, in a Hamas terror war that began when approximately 3,000 Hamas terrorists broke through Israel's security fence at the Gaza Strip border and launched a surprise attack, taking control of several Israeli towns and attacking a music festival on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, which fell on the Sabbath, Oct. 7, 2023. During the massacre the terrorists tortured, raped, shot, beheaded, and burned their victims alive, murdering entire families and leaving at least 21 children without parents. Hamas terrorists also fired at least 5,000 rockets at Israeli population centers. In response, Israel launched Operation Iron Swords to counter the Hamas terror threat. Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon joined Hamas' terror war starting from the following day, attacking Israel from the north. Occasional rocket launches and shootings continued from Lebanon throughout the war. A ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal began on Nov. 24, 2023, in which Israel agreed to release 150 terrorist prisoners, pause drone surveillance in the Gaza Strip, and allow movement between the northern and southern Gaza Strip, in return for 50 Israeli female and child hostages held by Hamas. The deal was subsequently extended with additional releases, until Hamas violated the agreement and resumed attacking on Dec. 1, 2023.

English-language interview with PLO Ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot on British Sky News:

PLO Ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot: “It is good news that hostages will be released from both sides, and while the world is hailing the release of 50 Israeli hostages – good for them – nobody is talking about the hundreds of Palestinian children that will be released, that have been taken hostage by Israel even before the 7th of October (refers to Palestinian terrorist prisoners released in exchange deal during Israeli counter-terror operation against Hamas’ terror war on Israel; see note below -Ed.)… So this is an opportunity to expose the rotten, corrupted system of racial domination that Israel has erected in the entire occupied Palestinian territories."

Sky News interviewer: “Mr. Zomlot, I just want to ask you on that point that you've just made about the Palestinian prisoners, because there is an expectation that 150 Palestinian women and children will also be released from Israeli prisons. The Israelis say that some of the people, some of the women and children in that group, are terrorists. How do you react and respond to that?”

Husam Zomlot: “Well, for the Israelis every Palestinian is a terrorist. For the Israelis every human being who supports our rights, everybody who calls for the end of the occupation is an antisemite. For the Israelis every Jewish person who supports our rights is a self-hating Jew. They have ready labels for everybody. Our children are children, they deserve love, protection. They deserve a different future, and never in the history have we seen rounding [up] children without charge, without trial, without access to their parents or even lawyers (sic., aside from the terrorists held under administrative detention, many of the released terrorists had been tried and convicted). This is savagery. What Israel has been allowed to do has really demolished all the rules that we have built together after the horrors of World War II. The international system, the rules-based international system, was based on two things: The first is that war should never be the first option, and this was [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's war of choice, because he waged a war against our people, our children, our hospitals, our schools – a war of choice. This was not a war between Netanyahu and Hamas, this was an Israeli aggression against our people.”

[PLO Ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot, X (Twitter) account,
Nov. 23, 2023]

English-language interview with PLO Ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot on CNN Arabic:

CNN Arabic interviewer: “We are apt to lose sight of the fact, when we talk about hostages being released etc. etc., but these people – 85-year-old women, 9-year-old boys shoved on motorbikes (refers to Israelis taken captive during Hamas’ invasion and massacre to launch its terror war on Israel; see note below -Ed.). These people were kidnapped by Hamas, which I understand you're not going to, I mean you don't approve of in any shape or form, but we are really talking here about people who were kidnapped being released by their kidnappers.”

PLO Ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot: “Well, Richard, you know, I have to challenge you here and say that while, good on you that you mention these hostages – and good that they are released, they should be released, I mean the Israeli hostages – but why didn't you ask me about the Palestinian hostages, the children that have been released today, that have been in Israeli prisons before the 7th of October (refers to Palestinian terrorist prisoners released in exchange deal during Israeli counter-terror operation against Hamas’ terror war on Israel -Ed.)? You know, we have hundreds of Palestinian children being rounded [up] by Israel over years and years without charge, without trial, without access to lawyer or to their own families and parents (sic., aside from the terrorists held under administrative detention, many of the released terrorists had been tried and convicted). This is really unconscionable, it doesn't even belong to our today and our humanity, and therefore this is a time to really focus on the overall system of segregation, of oppression, and you know what? It's so telling that much of the international media is really focusing on the 50 Israeli-”

CNN interviewer: “Ambassador, just a minute. The reason why is simple. At first, while I was coming on to the Palestinians-”

Husam Zomlot: “Yeah, tell me the reason, Richard."

CNN interviewer: “Sure, because when we look at the pictures of how those people were kidnapped, elderly women thrown over motorbikes screaming, taken over the border, shoved down tunnels, kept in dark – there is a quantitative and qualitative difference in the mode of detention between the two.”

Husam Zomlot: “I'll tell you what's the difference. I'll really tell you what's the difference. The difference is the first is done by individuals (sic., by Hamas), but the second is done by a state, by a state that sponsored an army. The army invades innocent people's houses in the middle of the night, in the early hours of the morning, wakes up these children in the most terrifying… Let me finish my point, Richard. You asked me, I'll answer you. It is disgraceful to even draw any equity between a state that is a member of the UN, that is Israel and its responsibility under international law, and between individuals (sic., Hamas) , so in fact the lack of equity is to focus on 'responsible' - between parentheses – actors, that they should perform in full accordance of international law.”

CNN interviewer: “Alright, you've answered.”

[CNN Arabic, X (Twitter) account, Nov. 25, 2023]

Posted text: “[PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud] Al-Habbash to [Egyptian] TeN TV: We didn’t want this war, we did not strive for it, and defending our people is the most important priority for us.”

 

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “It is the right of these brothers, sisters, and sons to breathe free air (refers to terrorist prisoners released in an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal, during Israeli counter-terror operation against Hamas’ terror war on Israel; see note below -Ed.). We think that it is the right of every Palestinian to achieve his freedom and leave the Israeli prisons, because they are hostages in the hands of the occupation state (i.e., Israel), and without a doubt it is their right to be released and their families’ right to rejoice…

We did not want this [Israeli] barbaric aggression, we did not wish for it, we did not strive for it, and we had no need for it. We did not want this war, we did not strive for it, we did not seek it, and we still refuse to enter this cycle [of violence].”

[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Nov. 24, 2023] 

Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Source: https://palwatch.org/page/34866

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Top battleground state official sounds alarm on border crisis' impact on election integrity - John Solomon

 

by John Solomon

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger wants federal, state constitutional amendments banning non-citizen voting.

 

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is sounding an alarm that the crisis at the southern U.S. border may eventually cause an election integrity crisis in America, imploring lawmakers in Congress and his state Legislature to pursue constitutional amendments to permanently ban noncitizen voting before liberal activists try to secure voting rights for the millions flooding into the county under President Joe Biden.

More than 2.8 million immigrants have had encounters with authorities so far this fiscal year, according to data from the Department of Homeland Security's CPB.

“I think that they have a long-term plan,” Raffensperger said Wednesday night in an exclusive interview with the "Just the News, No Noise" television show. “If you look at our open borders, Biden’s over borders, people are just streaming into this country. And there's no rules, regulations, and think about this, really, we should be able to have secure borders as a sovereign nation. Also, if you think about human trafficking, and the drugs and any other, you know, issues that you can relate to that. But every country has secure borders, except right now Biden's southern border, because he will not enforce our immigration laws."

“What that does is open up, you know, the ability for these liberal groups," he continued. "They want to get them some help, get them (noncitizens) on the rolls for city elections,” he added. “But once you ended up with them, offer them city elections, how do you really have (voter) rolls that are clean for both statewide and federal elections? We want to make sure that everyone understands only American citizenship, only American citizens should be on the voter registration list, and only American citizens should be voting in our elections.”

Raffensperger’s concerns aren’t purely theoretical. While federal law from the 1990s bans non-citizens from voting in U.S. House, Senate and presidential elections, at least 17 municipalities in Vermont, Maryland and California and the District of Columbia have authorized non-citizens to vote in local elections, according to Ballotpedia.

A bid to make it legal statewide in New York was recently ruled unconstitutional by a trial court judge and an appeal of that ruling filed by the City of New York, through Mayor Eric Adams and the New York City Council, is currently pending at the Appellate Division of the New York courts. Nonetheless, liberal pressure continues to spread noncitizen voting initiatives elsewhere in the country, especially in blue cities and states.

In Georgia, a liberal group called the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda is suing to try to block the state from conducting its legally required citizenship checks during voter registration. Raffensperger’s office is contesting the lawsuit. The Secretary said he recently conducted an audit of his state’s voter rolls and identified more than 1,600 people who tried to become eligible to vote without proof they were citizens.

While Georgia’s multi-layer security checks caught the efforts, Raffensperger fears other states with less robust security measures might not catch noncitizens on their rolls. A Texas audit in 2022 identified more than 11,000 registered voters who may have been noncitizens, sending the names to counties to check and eliminate offenders. Many -- though not all of those identified in the state audit -- were later confirmed to be noncitizens, local election officials have said.

Raffensperger is pressing his state's General Assembly to amend the state Constitution to mandate that only U.S. citizens may vote in state elections. He told Just the News that enshrining it in the constitution will make it more lasting than current state laws and engender confidence in elections for decades to come.

“The benefit of having it in the Constitution. It's much more difficult for later administrations or … the General Assembly to  change something with a constitutional amendment when you have people that all of a sudden, you look at some of the other states have flipped their General Assembly's and then they're run by these liberals. The next thing you know, that's one of the first things that they want to do is open the doors for non-citizen voting,” he said.

Raffensperger said he expects the state constitutional issue could be ready by next November. In the meantime, he also is urging Congress and other states to begin the far more arduous process to add a similar amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“The most important thing people need to understand is that for the majority of Democrats and Republicans, this is bipartisan,” he added. “We have 70% of all Democrats believe that you have to be an American citizen. 94% of all Republicans. That's 80%  here in Georgia, and that's probably the nationwide average. It just is common sense.”

In the meantime, Raffensperger warned that liberal groups who try to register noncitizens to vote illegally could be jeopardizing immigrants' future citizenship opportunities by creating a legal violation that disqualifies the immigrant for naturalization later on.

“People don't realize that if a noncitizen actually registered to vote, it could actually upset the ability for them to ever become an American citizen,” he said.

John Solomon

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/thutop-battleground-state-official-sounds-alarm-border-crisis-impact

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