Biden says US-based troops may embark for Europe soon - Michael Lee

 

by Michael Lee

Biden made clear that there would not 'be any American forces moving into Ukraine'

President Biden made clear Tuesday that there would not "be any American forces moving into Ukraine," though U.S. troops could be moved to Europe in the "near term." The troops may head to NATO front-line countries if Russian begins a large military operation against Ukraine.

Biden's comments to reporters in Washington come as the White House has urged Americans to leave Ukraine, saying that the security situation in the region "can deteriorate with little notice."

"There are reports Russia is planning significant military action against Ukraine. The security conditions, particularly along Ukraine’s borders, in Russia-occupied Crimea, and in Russia-controlled eastern Ukraine, are unpredictable and can deteriorate with little notice," said a State Department travel advisory Sunday.

President Joe Biden (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The president compared a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine to the kind of operation not seen in Europe since World War II, saying the country would face "enormous consequences" if it attacked its neighbor. 

"There will be enormous consequences if he were to go and invade … for Russia," Biden said when asked to assess the risk that Russian President Vladimir Putin would opt to invade Ukraine. "Not only in terms of economic consequences and political consequences, but there would be enormous consequences worldwide."

STATE DEPARTMENT ISSUES ‘DO NOT TRAVEL’ WARNING FOR UKRAINE AS EMBASSY STAFF IS TOLD TO LEAVE 

Biden said that such an invasion would "change the world," comparing the scope of the situation to World War II.

"If he were to move in with all those forces, it would be the largest invasion since World War II," Biden said.

Vladimir President Vladimir Putin (Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

The president said trying to predict what Putin will do is like "reading tea leaves," noting that it will ultimately be Putin's decision on what to do with all the troops Russia has amassed on the Ukrainian border.

Members of Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces, volunteer military units of the Armed Forces, train in a city park in Kyiv, Ukraine. (AP/Efrem Lukatsky)

But officials in Ukraine have sought to calm fears that an invasion could be imminent, arguing that the situation is currently "under control."

"There are risky scenarios. They’re possible and probable in the future," Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Monday. "But as of today ... such a threat doesn’t exist."

 

Michael Lee is a writer at Fox News. Follow him on Twitter @UAMichaelLee

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-troops-embark-europe-soon

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Blaming Israel, Not Muslims, for Christian Woes - Raymond Ibrahim

 

by Raymond Ibrahim

When true culprits go unnamed.

 

The following article is reprinted from JNS.  Written by Chaim Silberstein and Hillel Fendel, it quotes and uses statistics provided by Raymond Ibrahim, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

Fact: The 2016 killing of a gorilla in Cincinnati received six times more media coverage than the beheading by ISIS of 21 Coptic Egyptian Christians who refused to recant their faith. This is just one example of the woeful paucity of reporting on rampant Muslim persecution of Christians around the world. Others abound.

In Nigeria, no fewer than 32,000 Christians were butchered to death by the country’s main jihadists over the course of the decade that just ended. Another more than 3,000 Christians were murdered there during the first seven months of this year, and three months ago, Muslims attacked a Christian community, murdering 49 Christians and kidnapping another 27.

The situation in other Muslim countries is better, but that’s little comfort. Raymond Ibrahim, author of a 10-year-old monthly Gatestone Institute series entitled Muslim Persecution of Christians, says that “the phenomenon of Muslim persecution of Christians is real: it’s unwavering, constant and systemic, and it conforms to sharia-approved patterns—meaning its root source is Islam.”

Ibrahim emphasizes that in addition to the “pure genocide” of Christians in Nigeria, this same jihadist spirit is well entrenched or increasing in other African nations, such as Somalia, Mauritania, Kenya, Mozambique and many more. In Christian-majority Uganda, it is common to see Muslims attacking or killing family members for converting to Christianity.

In Pakistan, Ibrahim writes, “blatant and systemic discrimination against Christians is downright disgusting. Not a week seems to go by without a young, underage Christian girl being abducted, raped and then forced to convert and marry her abductor—with the police and courts siding with the abductors and rapists.”

In Egypt, numerous churches have been bombed by Muslims over the years, killing many worshipers, while others have been banned outright, and kidnappings and forced marriages of Christian women and girls to their Muslim abductors have reached record levels.

Palestinian Authority Christians

What about in the Palestinian Authority-controlled areas? A 2019 report by Edy Cohen of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies cited three horrifying incidents that received very little attention, because they are “not connected to Israel.” These stories “encapsulate the persecution of Palestinian Christians,” in the words of an HonestReporting.com report.

One of them occurred on April 25, 2019, when Muslims stormed a village near Ramallah in response to a Christian resident who complained to police that the son of a Fatah leader had attacked her family. Rather than protecting the innocent civilian, police ignored the armed Fatah-affiliated rioters as they lobbed petrol bombs at homes and fired live rounds into the air.

The men even demanded that the Christians pay a jizya, a yearly tax historically levied, by authority of the Quran, on permanent non-Muslim subjects (dhimmi) of Islamic states.

In the two other incidents in Cohen’s report, vandals broke into, desecrated and stole equipment from churches in Bethlehem and Ramallah. In 2013 in Gaza, the Christian Holy Family School was set on fire, while the five Christian schools in the district were closed by Hamas government order.

“The only thing that interests the P.A. is that events of this kind not be leaked to the media,” Cohen wrote, because Fatah exerts heavy pressure on Christians not to report the attacks, so as not to damage the P.A.’s image.

"[Many] Christians in the PA … fear—with good reason—that Muslim aggression against them will only escalate. Such fears are all the stronger in light of the thunderous silence of the Western (and Israeli) media in the face of the Christian minority’s ongoing disappearance from the P.A. and Islamic lands in general—in striking contrast to the growth, prosperity and increasing integration of the Christian community in Israel proper.”

Church leaders blame Israel

With all this, a recent declaration by church leaders in Jerusalem puzzlingly lays all blame for Christian woes in the Holy Land at the feet of Jewish and Israeli elements. They warned that Christians have become targets of “frequent and supported attacks by radical fringe groups”—Jewish ones, that is. Nowhere do they mention attacks, both physical and otherwise, initiated against Christians by Muslims. The religious leaders warned of a “systematic [Jewish] attempt to drive the Christian community out of Jerusalem and other parts of the Holy Land.”

Several days later, two leading Christian clerics, one in Britain—no less than the head of the Church of England, Justin Welby—and one in Jerusalem, wrote an article supporting the claims and clearly suggesting that Israel is at fault for the decline in the Christian population in the Holy Land. This, even though the Christian population in Hamas-run Gaza has plummeted by 80 percent (!) over the past 15 years, to around 1,000.

The article states: “The growth of settler communities and travel restrictions brought about by the West Bank separation wall have deepened the isolation of Christian villages and curtailed economic and social possibilities.” Again, these vague and undocumented accusations totally obfuscate the true picture of ongoing Palestinian-Arab persecution of Christians. The article does not even mention the P.A. or Muslims.

Regarding the insinuations that Israel is responsible for a drop in its Christian population, the facts tell a different story. Though the percentage of Christians in Israel has dropped drastically over the decades, largely because of the massive Jewish immigration to the Jewish state, in absolute numbers the Christian population in Israel proper has actually grown, and Israel is the only Middle East country in which this is the case.

It is notable that the Christian charity organization “Open Doors” attributes to “Islamic oppression” the steep decline of Christian numbers in the P.A.-controlled areas. The organization claims that “Islamic extremist militants” have been causing Christians to fear violent attacks.

Keep in mind that Christian numbers are dwindling in Muslim lands around the world. In 2019, Christians comprised 5 percent of Middle Eastern populations, compared with 20 percent a century ago.

Despite all, it might be of some consolation to know that even the Welby article notes that “Christians in Israel enjoy democratic and religious freedoms that are a beacon in the region.”

Israel officially recognizes no fewer than 10 Christian denominations that regulate personal status issues, such as marriage and divorce: Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic and Roman Catholic—to which most Israeli Christians belong—as well as Armenian Orthodox, Armenian Catholic, Maronite, Syrian Orthodox, Syrian Catholic, Chaldean Catholic and (Anglican) Episcopal. Israel is the only country in the region where freedom of Christian worship is not only permitted, but also protected.

In light of the Welby accusations, it behooves honest and freedom-loving citizens, especially in the Christian world, to protest yet another blatant anti-Semitic attempt to delegitimize Israel. These transparently false attacks serve only to delegitimize their own credibility. Shame.

 

Raymond Ibrahim

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/01/blaming-israel-not-muslims-christian-woes-raymond-ibrahim/

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Samuel Hayek’s Message Will Remain, Hanging in the Air - Hugh Fitzgerald

 

by Hugh Fitzgerald

Haunting those Jews who refused to listen.

 

When Samuel Hayek, the head of the Jewish National Fund in the U.K., gave an interview to the Jewish News in December, he said that within ten years, the situation of British Jewry might become intolerable because of the increase in the Muslim population. These are his exact words:

“The process is that maybe in 10 years, maybe less, who knows, Jews will not be able to live in the UK. I don’t think anybody can stop it.” ”It” refers to that burgeoning Muslim presence.

All hell then broke loose. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis denounced him, and 46 members of the Jewish Board of Deputies called for Hayek to be fired. “Chief Rabbi condemns JNF UK chair Samuel Hayek’s ‘no future for Jews’ claim,” by Lee Harpin, Jewish News, January 7, 2022:

In denouncing Samuel Hayek for expressing alarm about the Jewish future in the U.K., Mirvis also praised the support of the Muslim community, alongside that of “countless non-Jewish partners” in the fight against the “scourge of antisemitism” which he said sadly “continues to be an appalling blight upon British society.”

Mirvis claims that everything is copacetic for British Jews, “a vibrant, confident, and contented community,” but at the same time, he admits that “the scourge of antisemitism continues to be an appalling blight upon British society.” So which is it? The “scourge” is there, but at the same time, there is nothing to worry about? And would the Chief Rabbi care to tell us where he thinks that “appalling blight” of antisemitism is coming from? Lager louts, is it, or possibly aging admirers of Oswald Mosley? C’mon, Chief Rabbi, admit that the current antisemitism in the U.K. is coming almost entirely from Muslims who have taken to heart the many antisemitic passages to be found in the Qur’an, which I included in my post yesterday.

Where is that “support of the Muslim community” for the Jews? The support offered to Jews by London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan, though welcome, hardly constitutes the “support of the Muslim community.” When Muslims have attacked Jews physically, or ridden in convoys of cars through the Jewish neighborhoods of St. John’s Wood and Golders Green, yelling bloodcurdling antisemitic threats through megaphones to terrify Jews, where was that “support of the Muslim community”?

The Chief Rabbi – one of JNF UK’s honorary patrons alongside other senior political figures including former Labour prime ministers Sir Tony Blair and Gordon Brown – is the most high-profile figure yet to condemn comments made by Hayek in an interview with Jewish News last month.

Asked to clarify a claim that “Jews have no future in England”, which the charity chief made to the Jewish News, Hayek sparked widespread anger when he said that as a result of Muslim immigration “maybe in 10 years, maybe less” Jews would no longer be able to live in the UK.

I disagree with Hayek’s bleak forecast about the future of Jews in England. Jews will be able to live, I think, in the U.K. for many decades to come. But they will do so in an atmosphere that will be increasingly fraught and insecure. What Hayek ought to have said is something like this:

“As with Jews in the rest of Europe, especially in France and Germany, British Jews find themselves more insecure, ore subject to physical assaults and verbal venom on social media, because of the growing Muslim population in their midst. We have seen a 50% increase of antisemitic attacks in our country in just the past year, and the perpetrators have not been neo-Nazis, as some like to assume but rather, Muslims. This truth cannot be denied, and no one is helped by Pollyannish remarks that ignore that reality.”

 Responding to Hayek’s remarks, the Chief Rabbi told Jewish News: “It is entirely wrong to suggest the future of the British Jewish community is in question as a result of demographic change in this country.” He’s whistling in the dark.

When there is so much evidence of a steep rise in antisemitic attacks all over Western Europe, when the number of such attacks in the U.K has increased by more than 50% in the last year, when the attackers are almost always Muslims, it may be discomfiting to hear the truth, but why is it “entirely wrong” to connect the future of the British Jewish community” to “demographic change” in the country, that is, to the steady increase in the numbers of Muslims in the population?

“There is no doubt that the scourge of antisemitism continues to be an appalling blight upon British society, but recent years have demonstrated that the Jewish community can rely on the support of countless non-Jewish partners in tackling anti-Jewish hatred, including from within the Muslim community.”

He [Mirvis] added: “It is possible to be realistic about the challenges of contemporary antisemitism in the UK while also believing that we are blessed to live in an overwhelmingly welcoming nation, as one of the most vibrant, confident and contented Jewish communities in the world.”

Chief Rabbi Mirvis’s intervention came after more than 46 elected Board of Deputies representatives signed a letter demanding that trustees of the Jewish National Fund UK charity back calls for chairman Samuel Hayek to resign over his “Islamophobic” comments.

The open letter – signed by deputies and those with under-35 observer status on the Board from across the Jewish religious spectrum, including three United Synagogue representatives – calls for the 11 trustees to take “decisive action” over the JNF UK chair’s inflammatory comments.

It states: “Samuel Hayek must resign, and his Islamophobic comments must be condemned explicitly by you as his fellow trustees.

“Until such a time that this happens, we will advise our synagogues and organisations to withdraw cooperation with JNF UK and the programs it funds and supports. We will also advise members of our synagogues to ensure their children do not take part in programmes run or funded by JNF UK.”

What a fantastic, hysterical reaction to Samuel Hayek’s sober remarks, which identified a real problem facing British Jewry, even if his timeline was a bit too grim, and needed to be lengthened. Instead of taking his remarks as a point of departure for the candid discussion of the effect of an inexorably increasing Muslim population on British Jewry, everyone lined up to denounce him as the bearer of outrageous — because very unwelcome — tidings. Denunciation followed denunciation. Everyone is calling for Hayek to be fired for his “inflammatory comments,” his “bigoted remark,” his “racism,” his “Islamophobia.” No one wants to consider that he may just have a point.

The letter [signed by those 46 members of the Board of Deputies], sent to JNF UK trustees on Tuesday, states: “It is chilling that Hayek echoes Great Replacement Theory – an ideology used historically against Jewish communities – that ‘the white Christian majority is shrinking… to a degree where there is a point it cannot protect itself anymore’.”

Hayek says nothing about, nor does he “echo,” the “Great Replacement Theory.” He points out that Muslims have been growing in number in the U.K., but does not say that they will “replace” the white Christians. He says only that this increasing Muslim presence will make life considerably more difficult for Jews, and that at some point Jews in the U.K. will find the situation has become intolerable. Is that false, or is that true? Had he stopped there, many would agree. But when Hayek added that within “ten years, or perhaps less,” life for Jews in the U.K. could become “intolerable,” that struck many as much too grim, and Hayek opened himself up to criticism on that point alone — but not on the thrust of his melancholy message.

The letter [from the 46 members of the Board of Deputies] signed by Masoreti, Reform Judaism, Liberal Judaism and Habonim Dror, UJS and Yachad representatives, adds: “These bigoted remarks have no place in our community. If we have come to expect zero-tolerance of antisemitism, we must show zero- tolerance of racism and Islamophobia.”…

Every version and sect of Judaism in the U.K. appears to have consigned Hayek to the outer darkness. He is accused repeatedly of “Islamophobia,” of “racism,” of uttering “bigoted remarks.”What did he do? He said there is a problem with Islam. Jews in Germany say they have a problem with Muslims who attack them on the streets. Jews in France say they have a problem with Muslims who have been not only attacking, but murdering Jews – a dozen in the last few years – solely for being Jews. The celebrated French philosopher and writer Alain Finkielkraut noted in 2018 that “we [French Jews] should not leave,” he said, “but maybe for our children or grandchildren there will be no choice.” How does that differ, except as to expected time of arrival, from the prediction of Samuel Hayek? Does Chief Rabbi Mirvis think that Alain Finkielkraut is “bigoted,” a “racist,” an “Islamophobe”?

No doubt the pressure will force Samuel Hayek to resign. It’s called shooting the messenger. But his message will remain, hanging in the air, to haunt those Jews who refused to listen, but will eventually be forced within a few years, as things worsen, to recognize the bleak truth of what Hayek, ahead of his time, had predicted.

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis will not allow himself to think that Samuel Hayek just might have a point. His method of dealing with this bearer of bad tidings is to clap his hands over his ears and let others mouth the scurrilities that he hopes will shut Hayek up: “Islamophobe,” “bigot,” and “racist.” He reminds one of Dicken’s Mr. Podsnap, who had a similar way of dealing with disagreeables:

“Mr Podsnap was well to do, and stood very high in Mr Podsnap’s opinion. Beginning with a good inheritance, he had married a good inheritance, and had thriven exceedingly in the Marine Insurance way, and was quite satisfied. He never could make out why everybody was not quite satisfied, and he felt conscious that he set a brilliant social example in being particularly well satisfied with most things, and, above all other things, with himself.

“Thus happily acquainted with his own merit and importance, Mr Podsnap settled that whatever he put behind him he put out of existence. There was a dignified conclusiveness–not to add a grand convenience–in this way of getting rid of disagreeables which had done much towards establishing Mr Podsnap in his lofty place in Mr Podsnap’s satisfaction. ‘I don’t want to know about it; I don’t choose to discuss it; I don’t admit it!’ Mr Podsnap had even acquired a peculiar flourish of his right arm in often clearing the world of its most difficult problems, by sweeping them behind him (and consequently sheer away) with those words and a flushed face. For they affronted him.”

Samuel Hayek has uttered disagreeables about Muslims and the future of British Jewry, and they have “affronted” Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, who has reacted just like Podsnap: “I don’t want to know about it; I don’t choose to discuss it; I don’t admit it!”

 

Hugh Fitzgerald

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/01/samuel-hayeks-message-will-remain-hanging-air-hugh-fitzgerald/

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Iran's Palestinian Proxy: Jihad against Israel and America - Khaled Abu Toameh

 

by Khaled Abu Toameh

PIJ's statement shows that its supporters understand resolutions pertaining to the Israeli-Arab conflict by the United Nations and anti-Israel organizations around the world as a license to continue the jihad against Israel and all Jews.

• The Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the second largest and hugely influential group in the Gaza Strip after Hamas, does not believe that the conflict with Israel is over Jerusalem, settlements, borders, checkpoints or Palestinian prisoners.

• Qattati's article shows that PIJ and its masters in Tehran consider not only Israel as the "enemy," but the US too. This is the same Iran whose representatives are currently negotiating with the US and other world powers about reviving the 2015 nuclear deal.

• PIJ is undoubtedly hoping that the talks in Vienna will allow Iran to proceed with its plans to deceive the world into thinking that it will end its support for terrorist groups throughout the Middle East or abandon its plan to obtain nuclear weapons.

• PIJ's statement shows that its supporters understand resolutions pertaining to the Israeli-Arab conflict by the United Nations and anti-Israel organizations around the world as a license to continue the jihad against Israel and all Jews.

• It is also most critical that the Biden administration immediately place Iran's other proxy organization, the Houthis, who just bombed Abu Dhabi, back on the US List of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Since the US Department of State removed them from the list in February, they have returned the favor by becoming more aggressive than ever and are successfully destabilizing the region.

• When these groups are enriched and emboldened, that just means even more bad news for the US and the region.

• The Biden administration might do well to remember that its arrangements with the mullahs in Iran will spill over into bloodletting by Iran's proxies throughout the Middle East -- who will be only too happy to credit the Biden administration for their toxic, destructive success.

The Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the second largest and hugely influential group in the Gaza Strip after Hamas, does not believe that the conflict with Israel is over Jerusalem, settlements, borders, checkpoints or Palestinian prisoners. For PIJ, the only way for solving the conflict is by eliminating Israel and killing as many Jews as possible. PIJ sees Israel as one big settlement and a foreign implant that needs to be dismantled as soon as possible. Pictured: Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists parade with Bader 3 rockets in Gaza City, on May 29, 2021. (Photo by Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images)

The Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the second largest and hugely influential group in the Gaza Strip after Hamas, does not believe that the conflict with Israel is over Jerusalem, settlements, borders, checkpoints or Palestinian prisoners.

Like Hamas, PIJ's "logical intellectual vision considers all of Palestine still occupied from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea." For PIJ, the only way for solving the conflict is by eliminating Israel and killing as many Jews as possible. PIJ sees Israel as one big settlement and a foreign implant that needs to be dismantled as soon as possible.

PIJ and Hamas have direct control over two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which has shared borders with Israel and Egypt.

Hamas says in its charter (Article 11) that it "believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic waqf [Trust] upon all Muslim generations till the day of Resurrection."

Article 15 of the charter states:

"In the struggle against the Jewish occupation of Palestine, the banner of jihad must be raised. That requires that Islamic education be passed to the masses locally, in the Arab [world] and in the Islamic [world], and that the spirit of jihad – fighting and joining the ranks – must be broadcast among the Umma (Muslim community)."

The PIJ position and strategy, which is similar to that of Hamas, was recently outlined in an article written by Walid al-Qattati, a Palestinian writer and senior official of the group, and titled "The Philosophy of Resistance in the Thought of Islamic Jihad."

Why is the article worth reading?

First, it aims to remind the Palestinians, and all Arabs and Muslims, that PIJ remains committed to the annihilation of Israel through jihad (holy war). True, the article also expresses support for "popular resistance" against Israel, but this is interpreted by Palestinians as a green light to carry out stabbings, car-rammings, and rock and Molotov cocktail attacks against Jews. The article basically argues that it is fine to stab or shoot a Jew if one cannot launch bigger "operations" such as suicide bombings or rocket attacks.

Second, the article comes at a time when the Egyptians and other parties continue to search for ways to achieve a long-term truce between Israel and Hamas, PIJ and other Gaza-based armed groups.

Third, Qattati's article shows that PIJ and its masters in Tehran consider not only Israel as the "enemy," but the US too. This is the same Iran whose representatives are currently negotiating with the US and other world powers about reviving the 2015 nuclear deal. Just this week, US President Joe Biden said that it is "not time to give up" that "there is some progress being made" in the talks with Iran's mullahs.

The Biden administration is negotiating with Iran while Tehran's Palestinian proxy is calling is on Arabs and Muslims to join forces to fight against the "Zionist entity" and American "colonialism."

As Qattati, a PIJ official , put it:

"The resistance is a Palestinian, Arab and Islamic front. Palestinian Islamic Jihad believes in the necessity of establishing alliances with any party that wants to fight the enemy, and the movement (PIJ) has no objection to cooperating and coordinating with all the anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist forces seeking to liberate Palestine. Every Palestinian, whether Muslim or Christian, will participate in the defense of the homeland and the sanctities. As for the Arabs and Muslims, the movement (PIJ) believes that the resistance that will lead to the liberation of Palestine is an Arab and Islamic effort that includes all the free people. The project to liberate Palestine will not succeed without the formation of an Arab- Islamic resistance front against the Zionist entity and American colonialism."

This is a straightforward appeal to Arabs and Muslims to wage war on Israel and the US so that Iran and its proxies will be able to proceed with their plans to tighten their grip on Arab countries where they are spreading terrorism and bloodshed. These include Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, and Iraq.

Established in the Gaza Strip in 1981, PIJ has been labelled a terrorist organization by the US, European Union, Britain, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Israel. The group has since carried out dozens of terror attacks on Israelis, including suicide bombings and launching rockets at Israel. PIJ's armed wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, continues to be extremely active in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The PIJ's most recent attack took place in December 2021 in the West Bank, when members of the group murdered a 25-year-old yeshiva student, Yehuda Dimentman.

The Palestinian terror groups see the murder of Dimentman as part of the "jihad and resistance against the Zionist enemy usurping Palestine by all methods and means."

PIJ, according to Qattati, believes that "heavenly laws and international norms and conventions" allow the Palestinians to use weapons to murder Jews and "expel" them from "occupied Palestine."

PIJ's statement shows that its supporters understand resolutions pertaining to the Israeli-Arab conflict by the United Nations and anti-Israel organizations around the world as a license to continue the jihad against Israel and all Jews.

Qattati goes on to explain that as far as his group is concerned, "resistance is an ideology before it is an action. Resistance was found in the mind and thought before the knife and the gun, and in the heart and soul before the bomb and the missile."

Qattati warns Arabs and Muslims against "abandoning jihad before the liberation of Palestine," and states that "making peace with the [Israeli] enemy is not permissible according to the Islamic sharia law."

PIJ, he adds, defines itself as "an Islamic national liberation movement and an integral part and component of the contemporary Palestinian national movement" whose main goal is to "liberate all of Palestine through the strategy of jihad and resistance."

In a warning directed towards the Palestinian Authority, led by Mahmoud Abbas, and Arab countries that have signed peace agreements with Israel, Qattati says:

"it is not permissible to deviate from the approach of resistance to the approach of bargaining over land and rights, and it is not permissible to create alternative priorities for liberation or finding ways to coexist [with Israel]."

He maintains that PIJ and other Palestinian terror groups have the right to possess, manufacture and develop weapons that would be used against the enemies of the Arabs and Muslims: Israel and "American colonialism."

"The resistance means keeping the flame of jihad burning in Palestine," the PIJ official writes.

"The role of the mujahideen (holy warriors) and the resistance fighters in Palestine is to revive the duty of jihad and ignite the flame of resistance against the Zionist entity until the conditions for complete victory over it are completed."

PIJ is undoubtedly hoping that the talks in Vienna will allow Iran to proceed with its plans to deceive the world into thinking that it will end its support for terrorist groups throughout the Middle East or abandon its plan to obtain nuclear weapons.

The PIJ, Hamas and other terror groups are evidently hoping that these weapons will be used one day by Arabs and Muslims to destroy Israel and the US. PIJ and Hamas are also undoubtedly hoping that Iran will increase its supply of arms and money to the Palestinians once it strikes a deal with the Biden administration and the other world powers.

The Biden administration needs to understand that appeasing Iran means empowering the mullah's proxies, not only in the Gaza Strip, but also in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq.

It is also most critical that the Biden administration immediately place Iran's other proxy organization, the Houthis, who just bombed Abu Dhabi, back on the US List of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Since the US Department of State removed them from the list in February, they have returned the favor by becoming more aggressive than ever and are successfully destabilizing the region.

When these groups are enriched and emboldened, that just means even more bad news for the US and the region.

The Biden administration might do well to remember that its arrangements with the mullahs in Iran will spill over into bloodletting by Iran's proxies throughout the Middle East – who will be only too happy to credit the Biden administration for their toxic, destructive success.

• Follow Khaled Abu Toameh on Twitter

 

Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18162/iran-palestinians-proxy-jihad

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China Wins Gold . . . for Tyranny - Terence P. Jeffrey

 

by Terence P. Jeffrey

Why the CCP should never be allowed to host another international event.

 

 

When Ohio State played Utah at the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day, 87,842 people packed into that stadium to watch the game.

On New Year's Eve, 66,839 attended the Orange Bowl to watch Georgia take on Michigan, and 76,313 attended the Cotton Bowl to watch Alabama take on Cincinnati.

COVID-19 did not stop them.

When the 2022 Winter Olympics start in Beijing in a little more than two weeks, the various venues for that event will hold only those who the Communist government of the People's Republic of China allows to be there.

No one will be allowed to buy a ticket for any contest at the Beijing Olympics.

Over the past month, the People's Republic of China has repeatedly escalated the restrictions it will impose on who can attend the Olympic games and what they will be allowed to do there.

On Sept. 29, the International Olympic Committee announced that people from outside mainland China would not be admitted as spectators to the games.

"Tickets will be sold exclusively to spectators residing in China's mainland, who meet the requirements of the COVID-19 countermeasures," the IOC announced.

Two days before Christmas, the PRC announced that the Chinese residents it would let attend the Olympics would not be allowed to speak too loudly there.

"On Thursday, as athletes around the world continued to plot out the safest personal routes to the Games," the New York Times reported, "China detailed some of the strictest rules yet for its own citizens. Spectators at the Winter Olympics — which were already limited to residents of China — will be allowed to clap, but not shout, in support of athletes."

This week, China announced that no tickets at all will be sold for the Olympics and that it will, instead, "invite groups of spectators" to attend the events.

"Given the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to ensure the safety of all participants and spectators, it has been decided that tickets should not be sold anymore but be part of an adapted programme that will invite groups of spectators to be present on site during the Games," said a statement issued by the IOC. "The organizers expect that these spectators will strictly abide by the COVID-19 countermeasures before, during and after each event so as to help create an absolutely safe environment for the athletes."

Restricting where people can go and what they can do is nothing new in the PRC. It is standard procedure.

The State Department released its latest report on human rights in China last March. The 88-page document chronicled the Chinese government's systematic attack on the rights of the Chinese people. A separate State Department report focused specifically on China's attacks on religious freedom. It was 136 pages long.

"Significant human rights issues included: arbitrary or unlawful killings by the government; forced disappearance by the government; torture by the government; harsh and life-threatening prison and detention conditions; arbitrary detention by the government, including the mass detention of more than one million Uyghurs and other members of predominantly Muslim minority groups in extrajudicial internment camps," said the opening summary of the human rights report.

"Communist Party control over the judicial and legal system; arbitrary interference with privacy; pervasive and intrusive technical surveillance and monitoring; serious restrictions on free expression, the press, and the internet, including physical attacks on and criminal prosecution of journalists, lawyers, writers, bloggers, dissidents, petitioners, and others as well as their family members, and censorship and site blocking," it listed as some other Chinese government attacks on human rights.

"Under the two-child policy," it noted, "the government imposes childbirth restrictions and often coerced women and girls into abortions and sterilizations for exceeding birth quotas."

"Communist Party members," the State Department explained, "hold almost all top government and security apparatus positions."

That means China is run by atheists.

"CCP members and members of the armed forces are required to be atheists and are forbidden from engaging in religious practices," says the department's report on religious freedom.

They would like to make everybody in China an atheist — or, failing that, make it difficult for people to practice the faith they do embrace.

"The law mandates the teaching of atheism in schools," says the religious freedom report.

"Children younger than the age of 18 are prohibited from participating in religious activities and receiving religious education, even in schools run by religious organizations," it says.

"A Catholic source in the northeast part of the country told AsiaNews.it in July that government staff attended Sunday services to monitor activities and ensure children who were 18 or younger did not attend," it said.

"Authorities," it said, "also installed surveillance cameras in all Protestant and Catholic churches in Jinxiang County, Jinin City, Shandong Province."

Athletes who have trained for much of their lives to earn the chance to compete in the Olympics should never be barred from doing so — even in Beijing. It would have been wrong to abort their dreams by making them boycott these games to protest the evils committed by the regime that is hosting them.

But when millions of people around the world turn their eyes toward Beijing to watch these great athletes compete, they should not forget those evils.

And so long as China is governed by this regime, it should never be allowed to host another international event.

 

Terence P. Jeffrey is the editor-in-chief of CNSnews.com.

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/01/china-wins-gold-tyranny-terence-p-jeffrey/

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The Crime Wave Nobody Sees: Yet Another Muslim Rape Gang in the UK - Robert Spencer

 

by Robert Spencer

The British political and media elites continue to ignore why this keeps happening.

 

If you thought that the Muslim rape gangs that plagued Britain for years while authorities did nothing for fear of being called “racists” or “Islamophobes” were a thing of the past, think again. A gang of six Muslims is in court now over charges that they forced eight underage girls into sexual activity multiple times between 2013 and 2017. There is no indication that this will be the last Muslim rape gang in shattered, staggering, dhimmi Britain, either. Yet still no one in Britain dares speak of the root causes of this appallingly recurring phenomenon.

The details are about as revolting as you might expect. The MailOnline reported Tuesday that the men “sexually exploited and abused vulnerable young girls after luring them over Facebook with the promise of drink and drugs.” They “committed the offences against eight girls under the age of 16 in the Redditch area of Worcestershire.”

Abdul Hussain, 21, Usmaan Asghar, 22, Arslan Tazarab, 25, Ethashan Tazarab, 21, Usman Ali, 28 and Numan Mohammed, 23, “are charged with a total of 24 sex offences going back almost ten years - including sexual assault and sexual activity with a child.”

Prosecutor Mark Heywood QC said: “This case is about eight girls in their early to middle teens and from 2013 to 2017 they were sexually abused by these defendants. Some were crudely groped simply because they were in reach. Some were lonely and wanted attention. Others had made poor lifestyle choices which made them vulnerable. This included drinking, taking drugs, and being sexually available - they were easily taken advantage of. One was faced with demands for oral sex, she gave up resisting. When she did resist and saying no, she was grabbed and forced to comply.”

Why does this keep happening? The answer to that question is quite clear, but no one wants to see it. In France, a Muslim quoted Qur’an while raping his victim. A survivor of a Muslim rape gang in the UK has said that her rapists would quote the Qur’an to her, and believed their actions justified by Islam. Thus it came as no surprise when Muslim migrants in France raped a girl and videoed the rape while praising Allah and invoking the Qur’an. In India, a Muslim gave a Qur’an and a prayer rug to the woman he was holding captive and repeatedly raping. And the victim of an Islamic State jihadi rapist recalled: “He told me that according to Islam he is allowed to rape an unbeliever. He said that by raping me, he is drawing closer to God…He said that raping me is his prayer to God.”

In India, a Muslim kidnapped and raped a 14-year-old Hindu girl, and forced her to read the Qur’an and Islamic prayers. In Pakistan, another Christian woman recounted that her rapist was also religious: “He threw me on the bed and started to rape me. He demanded I marry him and convert to Islam. I refused. I am not willing to deny Jesus and he said that if I would not agree he would kill me.” Rapists demanded that another girl’s family turn her over to them, claiming that she had recited the Islamic profession of faith during the rape and thus could not live among infidels.

The Qur’an teaches that Infidel women can be lawfully taken for sexual use (cf. its allowance for a man to take “captives of the right hand,” 4:3, 4:24, 23:1-6, 33:50, 70:30). The Qur’an says: “O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves of their outer garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused. And ever is Allah Forgiving and Merciful.” (33:59) The implication there is that if women do not cover themselves adequately with their outer garments, they may be abused, and that such abuse would be justified.

However, anyone who points all this out will be excoriated as a “racist” and an “Islamophobe,” and accordingly ignored. This has been going for years, and there is no sign that it’s going to stop anytime soon.

 

Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of 23 books including many bestsellers, such as The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Truth About Muhammad and The History of Jihad. His latest book is The Critical Qur’an. Follow him on Twitter here. Like him on Facebook here.

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/01/crime-wave-nobody-sees-yet-another-muslim-rape-robert-spencer/

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Rice swim coach speaks out against transgender Lia Thomas situation - Joe Kinsey

 

by Joe Kinsey  

Huston openly criticized the NCAA for being 'a bystander waiting for other organizations to make tough decisions'

Something rather interesting happened last week when Rice swim coach Seth Huston openly spoke out on the Lia Thomas transgender swimmer story that has dominated collegiate swimming since early December when Thomas made headlines for smashing biological female records.

In an interview with Swimswam.com, Huston openly criticized the NCAA and was even quoted as saying he thinks it’s "black and white right now, you compete as what you were biologically born until we get to the point where we’ve expanded opportunities, you know for instance, in transgender."

And the world didn’t end over Huston’s comments. He wasn’t fired and his bio hasn’t been scrubbed from the Rice swimming site.

While Thomas’ teammates have spoken to OutKick via anonymity to protect themselves from attacks, Huston, who is in his 19th season at Rice, is believed to be the first coach to put his name on quotes associated with the Thomas controversy.

Lia Thomas of the Pennsylvania Quakers gets ready to compete in a freestyle event during a tri-meet against the Yale Bulldogs and the Dartmouth Big Green at Sheerr Pool on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania on January 8, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Hunter Martin/Getty Images)

The four-time Conference USA Coach of the Year told Swimswam, in no certain terms, that the NCAA is full of cowards who refuse to take a stand. Last week, the NCAA Board of Directors kicked the transgender issue down the road for governing boards to deal with.

"The NCAA once again has proven that it is not leading. It is not really even following," Huston told Swimswam. "The NCAA governance has become a bystander waiting for other organizations to make tough decisions. They hoped NIL would continue to be suppressed and now they are scrambling to make it fit their construct. Now they sit on the sidelines with Transgender issues.

"The [College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America] is right in being frustrated with NCAA Leadership or lack thereof, but wrong to suggest Lia compete at NCAAs."

According to Swimswam, Huston flat-out says Thomas shouldn’t be allowed to compete in the women’s division at the NCAA Championships in March.

"I respect Lia Thomas, her transition, and all of that," he said. "And I am completely OK with (her having) the opportunity to compete. because that would be a Title IX issue.

"But I think another thing within Title IX is that we have to be given time to accommodate, I guess you could say. Whether that is creating a third division, a transgender division, or whatever."

Lia Thomas of the Pennsylvania Quakers smiles after winning the 200 yard freestyle event during a tri-meet against the Yale Bulldogs and the Dartmouth Big Green at Sheerr Pool on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania on January 8, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Hunter Martin/Getty Images)

Keep in mind Huston is a member of CSCAA’s "100 Greatest Coaches" list. This is an influential voice within the collegiate industry and he’s saying Thomas shouldn’t be allowed to compete against — and likely beat — biological women at the NCAA Championships.

Roger Brooks, who serves as senior counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, told OutKick that he believes universities could ultimately pay the price in court over Title IX legalities dealing with transgender athletes taking away opportunities from female competitors.

"I do think colleges like the University of Pennsylvania that are letting this happen are violating Title IX and they should be held accountable and I do think there are good arguments that the NCAA itself is essentially an agent of its member colleges and is violating Title IX," Brooks noted. "The law is not being complied with and we hope that in due course we’ll be able to correct that."

Brooks also believes this fight will lead to a showdown in the Supreme Court.

"I think the answer to that is ‘yes,’" he said, adding that the court cases are mounting and it’s likely there will be more cases to come. "The law is not fast but within the next couple of years we’ll see a case about this issue in front of the Supreme Court."

But that will not come before March and the NCAA Championships.

Lia Thomas of the Pennsylvania Quakers gets set to compete in a freestyle event during a tri-meet against the Yale Bulldogs and the Dartmouth Big Green at Sheerr Pool on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania on January 8, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Hunter Martin/Getty Images)

For something to change between now and then, Brooks believes it’s going to take a groundswell of voices rising up to say it’s wrong for Thomas to race against biological females for NCAA titles.

"I’m encouraged what I’m hearing publicly from voices that nobody can accuse of being transphobic," Brooks said.

So far it’s hard to find anyone accusing Rice swim coach Seth Huston of being transphobic and he’s on record saying Thomas shouldn’t be in that pool racing women in March.

Penn’s swim season continues Friday against West Chester. It will be Penn’s final meet of the year before the Ivy League Championships and Thomas’ trip to the NCAA Championships.

 

Joe Kinsey

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/sports/rice-swim-coach-speaks-out-lia-thomas

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Now the UN is 'helping' rejected migrants recover 'repressed memories' to get asylum status - Monica Showalter

 

by Monica Showalter

This isn't their first migrant-surge rodeo, either. 

Todd Bensman, who's doing yeoman's work on the international rackets enabling big migrant surges at the U.S. border, has found the United Nations at the nexus of the matter, aiding and abetting illegal immigration into the U.S., and not for the first time.

In a report for the Center for Immigration Studies, he found this:

TAPACHULA, MEXICO — United Nations-funded immigrant service nonprofits in southern Mexico are offering an unusual and controversial psychological therapy to enable migrants to continue on the trail north to the United States.

At least two UN-funded nonprofits with operations in the southern border states of Chiapas and Tabasco pay stables of clinical psychologists to help migrants recover "repressed memories" of government persecution and other hardship stories that qualify migrants for Mexican asylum and a residence card, allowing an eventual trip over the U.S. southern border. Thousands apparently have gone the recovered memory route after they were rejected for asylum because they told Mexican immigration authorities they just wanted to go to the United States to make money — an ineligible claim, unlike official government persecution.

With their newfound memories of more eligible claims, the immigrants get asylum (a term many use interchangeably with refugee status) and Mexican residency cards, which many then promptly use to pass through Mexico and make illegal entry over the American border.

Enrique Vidal, coordinator for the Fray Matias de Cordoba human rights center disclosed that United Nations money pays psychologists to unearth repressed memories of torture, persecution, and human rights violations after immigrant clients are denied asylum, to reverse denials on appeal.

"The most common mistake migrants make during interviews ... is that they are saying that they are suffering economic hardship. It's not one of the criteria for refugee status," Vidal explained during a lengthy recorded telephone interview January 20 with the Center for Immigration Studies in Tapachula. "That may cover up one of the true reasons why they are coming. They need psychological help so they can remember the situation they experienced."

Asked if recovering asylum-qualifying memories for better interview outcomes is the main purpose of employing psychologists with United Nations money, Vidal answered: "Yes, through the psychological help we give them."

How very convenient.  And how very phony.  So many rejected migrants now have repressed memories of torture and political persecution that all of them now qualify for asylum status in the States.  All they have to do is visit one of these United Nations–funded chop shops, and they'll cook up a good narrative for them to present.  The "science" of "repressed memories" has long been a controversial matter, given that most of it is junk science.

Bensman explains that the typical migrant who comes to these establishments (he noted three of them) is someone who's been rejected for asylum in Mexico once, because he was obviously an economic migrant, and now wants a second go at it through the miracle of "repressed memories."  Once a repressed memory is "discovered" by psychologists, a revised application can be filed.  And all of a sudden, thousands of migrants now have "repressed memories."  Funny how that happens when U.N. money is involved.  The migrants are then coached by the teams of U.N.-bankrolled psychologists and lawyers about what to say or what not to say in order to get asylum status, and Bensman notes that the Mexican officials take them at their word and sign off.  Once the previously rejected migrants get the Mexican asylum status, they then head for the U.S. border, to the hands of their Border Patrol valets, who then put them on "free" flights around the country to their destinations of choice, no identification necessary.  Mission accomplished.

Bensman notes that this isn't the first time the United Nations has been caught encouraging surges of illegals into the United States.  Not too long ago, he also exposed that the United Nations was handing out "free" $400 cash debit cards to illegal migrants every couple weeks, noting:

Monthly cash for food, lodging, and 'movement' assistance amounts to material support for illegal immigration. It influences decisions to cross.

It does.  The average yearly per capita income of a Honduran is $1,000 a year.  The $800-a-month cash support amounts to $10,000 a year from the U.N., which is ten times what they could earn back home for doing nothing in Mexico.  It's even higher than the average $7,000-per-capita income in Mexico.  Only a fool would stay in Honduras with that kind of deal on offer.  For the U.N., flush with American cash, money is no object.

Bensman also notes that the U.N. is handing out cash in envelopes, drug-dealer style, to certain migrants of its favor, as well as mobile transfers, bank transfers, and other "free" money for expenses.  What could go wrong?

In the end, it amounts to encouragement, aid, and abetting of illegal immigration, as well as big profits to the Mexican cartels whom migrants pay well for smuggling services and certain kinds of "protection."

To border hawks, all of this looks, feels, and acts like an agency providing the means for illegal border crossings.  The IOM's own stated purpose for cash-based interventions would only reinforce the perception: the money is intended to "restore feelings of choice and empowerment for beneficiaries."

Migrant advocates defend cash support to aspiring illegal border crossers as a means to prevent death and suffering among populations they believe have no choice but to migrate and would whether or not any UN agency helps out. But the legitimate flip side of that claim is that cash in envelopes or in e-wallets — filled in part by U.S. taxpayer money — can also be said to enable, sustain, or even entice many driven not by urgent dangers but by a desire for better jobs amid reports that Americans would let them in.

That describes well the U.N. operation to help illegal aliens recover "repressed memories" to get to those cash cards and, eventually, all the paradise on offer in gringolandia. 

What the heck is going on?  What we see is an NGO industrial complex with an entrenched interest in keeping the migrants flowing to the states.  The migrant surges are their result, given that migrants could never accomplish these missions if they were operating solely on their own.  They are being paid for by someone, and that someone is the America-hating United Nations, whose ultimate mission is to erase America's borders and America itself.

Bensman notes that some congress members, led by Texas GOP rep. Lance Gooden, are trying to put a stop to this through H.R. 6155.  They won't succeed so long as leftists hold the reins of power, but they may succeed after 2022 if they have the will for it.  Let's hope they do.

Image: Twitter screen shot.

 

Monica Showalter

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/01/now_the_un_is_helping_rejected_migrants_recover_repressed_memories_to_get_asylum_status.html

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Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Excludes Hollywood’s Jewish Founders and Filmmakers - Rajan Laad

 

by Rajan Laad

It is outrageous and revolting that the Jewish founders of Hollywood were excluded. The organizers may have said they will make amends, but it could be argued that the damage is already done.

On Sept. 25, 2021, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures was launched to memorize the world of film.

It was a good idea.

The cinematic experience is unique and well known the world over. Where else can a diverse group of people be engaged such that they forget their differences and experience almost identical emotions simultaneously? 

The world of film is also where art and technology unite to deliver a unique mix of sound and image.

Beyond entertainment, cinema is an important module of literature. Many films have also transcended the realms of the cinema halls to become cultural milestones the world over.

Motion pictures have existed for more than a century, hence a museum dedicated to the magic of the movies was not just a welcome idea, it was essential.

However, once launched, a major problem with the Museum became instantly apparent to its patrons.

The story of Hollywood’s founding is both exceptional and inspiring. A group of primarily Jewish émigrés arrived in America to escape anti-Semitic persecution in Europe and set up what would become a multibillion-dollar industry.

This includes Paramount Pictures co-founder Adolph Zukor, Warner Bros. founders Harry and Jack Warner, Universal Pictures co-founder Carl Laemmle, Columbia Pictures co-founder Harry Cohn, and MGM co-founders Sam Goldwyn and Louis B. Mayer.

While partisan hatred may have marred the universal charms of what used to be wholesome entertainment, Hollywood still continues to captivate audiences globally and is likely to last as long as the human race.

Shockingly, the history of the origins of Hollywood and its Jewish founders at the Museum was conspicuous by its absence.

There was even little reference of Jewish auteurs who shaped Hollywood. Sunset Boulevard director Billy Wilder was the only one who had a small placard next to one of his six Oscars noting that he fled Nazi Germany because of his religion.

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, responded as follows:

“I would’ve hoped that any honest historical assessment of the motion picture industry — its origins, its development, its growth — would include the role that Jews played in building the industry from the ground up. As I walked through, I literally turned to the person I was there with and said to him, ‘Where are the Jews?’ The omission was glaring.”

Israeli-American media mogul Haim Saban and his wife Cheryl, who made the largest donation of $50 million to the Museum told Rolling Stone that they “firmly believe that the Jewish contributions to the film industry, from its founding to today, should be highlighted.”

The director of the museum director and president, Bill Kramer said:

“Representation is so important to us, including our Jewish founders. If we are not talking about them in enough detail or more prominently, we want to hear that and we want to respond to that. And we’re really happy to be able to make a change and are going to course correct.”

Based on reports, this seems to be a case of exclusion and not an omission of details. 

Kramer later informed Rolling Stone that a year from now, the museum will launch an exhibit of the founding fathers and the birth of the studio system, which will mark the first and only permanent exhibition in the collection.

There has been scant coverage in the news media of this scandalous exclusion.

The issue was covered by Rolling Stone and also carried the Jewish publication Forward, as well as the Wrap, and a few others.

For any museum curator of any culture or organization, the top priority should be the details of its founding. While it may be essential to include contemporary figures in order that it appears relevant, without the founders the organization would never have existed. 

It is hence outrageous and revolting that the Jewish founders of Hollywood were excluded. The organizers may have said they will make amends, but it could be argued that the damage is already done.

We have to wonder why this glaring omission occurred.

It has to be remembered that in the past, despite having Jewish founders, many major Hollywood stars from the golden era such as Edward G. Robinson, Hedy Lamarr, Lauren Bacall, and Kirk Douglas were compelled to opt for stage names to conceal their Jewish identity because of the bigotry within the industry and among audiences.

But those were the old days, contemporary Hollywood claims to celebrate a commitment to diversity and ‘representation.’ 

However, that commitment to diversity increasingly seems to exclude the Jewish people who are among the most persecuted groups in the history of mankind.

The focus is only on people of color and LGBTQ individuals.

Sarah Silverman and Seth Rogan, have spoken about anti-Semitism in contemporary Hollywood.

Perhaps woke liberal Hollywood is focused on the superficial and hence perceive the Jewish founders as people of ‘white privilege’ who were rich, and powerful people. Perhaps they blame these founders, much like the founding fathers of the nation, for systemic racism within the industry and hence think the founders do not deserve mention or respect.

Perhaps the top echelons of Hollywood, owing to their warped ideals see Israel as an aggressor and that somehow has translated into them thinking of the Jewish people as oppressors rather than oppressed.

In recent times there has been a blatant display of anti-Semitism.

Harry Potter star Emma Watson took to Instagram to express support for the Palestinian cause.

Other showbiz stars such as Susan Sarandon, Games of Thrones star Lena Headey, ‘comedian’ John Olivier, Roger Waters, Dua Lipa, Viola Davis, Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, and even Israeli-born Natalie Portman have expressed pro-Palestinian views.

The fear among people in Hollywood is that they may be ‘canceled’ for not toeing the line. 

Israeli Gal Gadot received backlash for supporting her homeland of Israel.

Hence the stars try to make an overt demonstration to appear as true believers of the groupthink.

Today, Israel is the only truly liberal, democratic, and pluralistic state in the Middle East. It is also the only true ally the U.S. has in the Middle East.  Isreal stands for diversity and tolerance, the very ideals that Hollywood claims to strive for. 

Yet the powerful in Hollywood seem to harbor an irrational dislike for Israel. 

Is this plain anti-Semitism, masquerading as a concern for Palestinians?

What is more amazing is that some prominent Jewish filmmakers have joined the groupthink.

Even Steven Spielberg who made the masterly Schindler’s List which was a profound tribute to the humanity of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust made the film called "Munich." That film attempted to paint a false equivalence between the torture-murder terrorists who massacred Israeli athletes in the 1972 Olympics and the Israeli government. It was abominable Palestinian propaganda.

The liberals in Hollywood keep falsely claiming that President Trump and his supporters for being Neo-Nazis.

By relentlessly discriminating against the Jewish people, it is they who are behaving like Neo Nazis.

The motives behind this shameful exclusion seem to be malicious rather than erroneous.

It is time for the powerful Jewish people to stand up for this bigotry. If they can exclude the founding father of Hollywood in a museum to celebrate showbiz, they can do anything.

The Holocaust remembrance falls on Jan. 27 this year, and silence at such time will be tantamount to complicity.

Image: Luijtenphotos, via Wikimedia Commons // CC0 1.0 Univeral Public Domain

 

Rajan Laad

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/01/academy_museum_of_motion_pictures_excludes_hollywoods_jewish_founders_and_filmmakers.html

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