Waking Up After a Trump Derangement Syndrome Overdose - Daniel Greenfield

 

by Daniel Greenfield

What do you do when there’s no one left to hate?

 

Over the span of four years, the Democrats constructed one of the greatest cultural monuments to hate in this nation’s history. It is difficult to measure the sheer number of hours that CNN and MSNBC dedicated to Trump conspiracy theories, the gigs of podcasts, the millions of ad dollars, and the total extent to which their entire narrative circulated around hating one single man.

This cult of anti-personality unified the party, enabling its radicals to adopt policies that were as insane as they were incomprehensible, from police defunding to critical race theory to lockdowns, and the elevation of two politicians, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who are short on palatable personalities, riding on the coattails of a program to militarize the capital, federalize elections, pack the Supreme Court, add two states, and usher in a virtual dictatorship.

There was only one problem with their plan: President Trump was no longer in the White House.

The systemic shock from that reality is still setting in. Gallup reports a swing from a heavy nine point Democrat party preference to a "rare five-point Republican edge ". The swing, “among the largest Gallup has measured for each party in any quarter”, parallels the massive collapse of Biden’s approval ratings, the 90% drop in CNN’s ratings, and similar declines among the media.

They’re all interrelated.

The Democrats and their media are waking up from a Trump Derangement Syndrome overdose. After years of getting high on hate, they’re crashing down to earth.

Unfortunately for them they haven’t learned to function any other way. After building an entire movement around hating Trump, they’re still churning out the same familiar antithesis messaging about Trump investigations and pushing claims of systemic racism. They’re trying to spin the failure of their pandemic policies by pumping out hatred for the unvaccinated.

And none of it’s working.

Building an anti-personality cult is a neat trick, but expecting most of the public to ignore inflation, home-ownership sliding out of reach, gas prices that make it too expensive to drive, rising crime, not to mention a climate of instability and fear, over a hate campaign directed at a guy who isn’t even in the White House was never a realistic prospect for most of the country.

The dirty secret of leftists is that they’re much better at being against things than for them.

They’re much more plausible critics of capitalism than defenders of socialism. Ask them what’s wrong with corporations and they can make a thousand movies, but inquire how exactly their alternative economic system is supposed to overcome human nature, and they spout nonsense.

Black Lives Matter and its radical allies built an entire mythology around police abuses, but their assertion of alternatives to the criminal justice system makes even the media roll its eyes.

The Left is fantastic at attacking individuals and institutions, but then the time arrives when it has to make good on its plan for an alternative to the economy, the police, the military, the nuclear family, sex, art and whatever other basic element of humanity it seeks to replace.

And that’s when the horror sets in.

Invariably the Left either tries to keep the old ways going while making them seem more edgy and woke, or, worse still it actually implements its insane ideology leading to utter disaster.

The Biden administration has managed to do both at the same time with terrible results.

History may repeat itself as farce, but this particular leftist farce has been running for nearly two centuries with no one having learned anything from the ruinous failures and mass deaths.

And that’s because the Left is really good at picking or inventing enemies. It’s always fighting on the side of justice against an evil that is both contemptible and outrageous. It harnesses hipness, manufactures slogans, and encourages rebellious teens to join its cause. They show up at rallies and declare that they are the future because they know nothing about the past.

But then the moment comes, and it always does, when they come to power and they can no longer hide behind hating industrialization, consumerism, the bourgeoisie, Nixon, Reagan, Thatcher, Trump, Netanyahu, the police, the military, or whatever their latest hate object was.

And then before long everyone can see that the red emperor has no clothes and never did.

Trump Derangement Syndrome was a fantastic success on a branding level. For four years the Democrats never had to really explain anything or defend their agenda because their agenda was an antithesis. Anything they proposed was immediately good because it was anti-Trump.

It never occurred to them to wonder what they would do without him.

But anti-Trumpism was always a front for a naked power grab. Trump Derangement Syndrome was a massive distraction for a total assault on everything from education to the family to the government. Using TDS, they subverted the FBI and the military, broke off elements of the GOP, and hatched a plan to fundamentally transform the country as soon as they replaced Trump.

And like Wile E. Coyote, it never occurred to them that as soon as that happened, they were running on air. Trump had been holding them up all this time and now there’s nothing underfoot.

The Americans who bought into Trump Derangement Syndrome have been waking up. The massive poll swings are what happens when people get up off the floor, shake their heads, and search for the nearest exit. It’s taken longer for the Democrats to wake up and even longer for them to even begin to understand what happened last night and why their heads hurt so much.

And they still don’t get it.

Democrats killed the goose that had laid all their golden eggs. They built everything around hating Trump, much as they did around hating Nixon, and ended up with a Carter rerun.

Who could have predicted that one?

Their only hope now is the return of Trump or a hate object that may prove equally compelling, whether it’s Ron DeSantis or that guy at the gas station who refuses to wear a mask. But to utilize that hate object, to turn it into the focus of an anti-personality cult, they have to lose first.

Hatred of the kind that their movements are built on can only be justified when it’s wielded by those who claim to be out of power. And such claims, despite their best efforts, are only marginally plausible when they’re not actually sitting in the halls of power. All the rhetoric about threats to democracy don’t amount to much when coming from the people with all the power.

To be reborn in the fires of hate, the Democrats and their leftist flank need to lose. And after losing, they will rise again, animated by hatred, asserting that they are the advocates for the wretched of the earth, denouncing the criminal tyranny of those who beat them at the ballot box, organizing marches, protests, and rallies that promise to hate their way to power once again.

 

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/01/waking-after-trump-derangement-syndrome-overdose-daniel-greenfield/

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Biden’s Press Conference - and the Blame Game - Joseph Klein

 

by Joseph Klein

Boasting, gaffes, delusions and passing the buck.

 

President Joe Biden began his January 19th news conference with scripted remarks boasting about his first-year performance. He continued with an eyebrow-raising, delusional self-assessment for nearly two hours, in which he claimed that he had “probably outperformed what anybody thought would happen” while blaming Republicans and COVID-19 for failing to do even more.

“Can you think of any other President that has done as much in one year?” Biden asked reporters rhetorically. In one sense, he had a strong point: it is a challenge to think of any other U.S. president who has done more damage to the country domestically and globally in his first year in office than Joe Biden has done.

Biden rambled much of the time in responding to questions from the press regarding such topics as Russia’s designs on Ukraine, the economy, COVID-19, his pledges to bring unity to the country, and the fate of his Build Back Better and voting “reform” legislation. Rampant crime in cities across the country and unremitting surges of illegal aliens across the open southern border with Mexico did not come up.

Biden made his usual share of faux pas, most notably seeming to give Russia leeway for a “minor incursion” into Ukraine. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki quickly released a statement intended to walk back this gaffe. Biden himself followed up with his own “clarifying” statement but it was too late. “We want to remind the great powers that there are no minor incursions and small nations,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shot back on Twitter. “Just as there are no minor casualties and little grief from the loss of loved ones."

At times, Biden became sarcastic, even testy when a few reporters challenged him with pointed questions. One reporter asked him about his recent speech in Atlanta promoting his voting “rights” legislation. Many people objected to his comparing opponents of his legislation to those who took the side of avowed racists such as s George Wallace, Bull Connor, and Jefferson Davis in past struggles over issues of race.

“Look at what I said, go back and read what I said,” Biden angrily retorted. Then in a sarcastic, condescending tone, he added, “I assume you got into journalism because you’d like to write.”

Looking back at what Biden said in Atlanta, it’s true that he didn’t outright call his opponents George Wallace, Bull Connor, or Jefferson Davis. But that’s just semantics.

Jefferson Davis was a traitor to his country, fighting to preserve slavery. George Wallace vowed "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." Bull Connor used police attack dogs against civil rights activists. Biden disgracefully said that those who oppose provisions in the Democrats’ voting bills, such as mandating no-excuse mail-in balloting nationwide for anyone who requests it, are just as much on the wrong side of history as those infamous bigots from very different eras. He insulted many Americans today who have legitimate qualms about a one-size-fits-all federalization of election procedures. And he trivialized the noble achievements of true civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr.

The president did not apologize for his inflammatory remarks, which had drawn criticism even from members of his own party. Instead, he doubled down.

He also recklessly suggested that failure to pass his legislation intended to federalize voting procedures could call into question the legitimacy of this year’s midterm elections.

"Oh, yeah, I think it easily could be — be illegitimate,” Biden said in response to a reporter’s question inquiring about the impact of changes to some states’ voting laws on the 2022 elections. Referring to his voting legislation which went down to defeat in the Senate hours after he spoke to reporters, the president added that “the prospect of being illegitimate is in direct proportion to us not being able to get these — these reforms passed.”

Jen Psaki did some cleanup here too, trying to deflect attention back on the Democrats’ favorite boogeyman, Donald Trump.

What defeated the Democrats’ attempt to ram through federalization of the voting process and run roughshod over long-established Senate practice was the refusal of two courageous Democrat Senators – Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema – to be bullied. Right triumphed over might in the Senate when a bipartisan majority voted down a cynical attempt to alter the filibuster’s protections of the minority’s rights.

The president is relentless at playing the blame game. In the Biden White House, the buck stops everywhere but on his own desk.

Biden falsely claimed that Republicans today refuse to play ball. He yearned for the good old days when Republicans “weren’t nearly as obstructionist as they are now….”

If Joe Biden had not tacked so far to the Left to please the Democrats’ progressive radical base, he might have found more willingness on the part of Republicans to cooperate with him. Even so, Republicans worked with Democrats to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill, one of the few legislative victories that Biden managed to achieve even with Democrat majorities in the House and Senate. Infighting within the Democrat Party delayed its final passage.

The  U.S. Innovation and Competition Act passed the Senate back in June with a big bipartisan majority, 68 to 32. It's the Democrat-controlled House that is sitting on the legislation. Biden's problem lies more with his own party than it does with the Republicans.

Despite legitimate concerns about the Democrats’ runaway spending, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was even willing to work with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in order to raise the national debt ceiling and avoid a possible default.

As for Biden’s complaints about the filibuster, which he strongly supported during his long Senate career, Democrats used the filibuster to stop the bipartisan police reform bill during the last year of the Trump administration. They did so for obvious partisan reasons. During the 2019-2020 Congressional term, a record-breaking 328 filibusters were recorded while Democrats were in the minority. This year, while they hold majority power, Democrats even used the Senate filibuster they now claim to hate to block sanctions on businesses tied to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline carrying natural gas from Russia to Germany. Russian President Vladimir Putin is no doubt grateful.

Biden accused Republicans of not standing for anything except obstructing his agenda. "I did not anticipate that there’d be such a stalwart effort to make sure that the most important thing was that President Biden didn’t get anything done,” Biden said, oddly referring to himself in the third person. “Think about this: What are Republicans for? What are they for? Name me one thing they’re for.”  

Here are just a few things that Republicans are for, which resonate with many millions of Americans: secure national borders, safer streets, support for law enforcement, fiscal responsibility, lower taxes and less regulation, peace through strength, parental rights, school choice, and individual freedoms.

If Republicans can continue to thwart the progressive Left’s radical agenda, they can prevent what Biden's former boss Barack Obama promised would be the "fundamentally transformation" of the country.

 

Joseph Klein

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/01/bidens-press-conference-joseph-klein/

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The Muslim Brotherhood’s ‘Useful Idiots’ at the Broward County School Board - Joe Kaufman

 

by Joe Kaufman

Elected officials bow to Islamists who lobby for extra day off based on population lie.

 

For years, public school students have gotten days off for both Christian and Jewish holidays. Some Muslim groups have complained of feeling slighted, arguing “diversity.” Last month, the Broward County School Board granted their wishes, by adding to the upcoming school calendar a day off for Eid al-Fitr, which falls at the end of Ramadan. But were the members of the School Board and others purposely misled by the organizations with flagrantly false information about Broward’s Muslim population? And did they consider the extremism and bigotry these groups, themselves, are affiliated with? Had they done so, the outcome might have been very different.

This past October, the School Board discussed the proposed calendar for the 2022-2023 school year. Leaders from the Muslim community came to lobby the officials to choose a calendar that would include a day off during Ramadan. Two of the leaders, South Florida Muslim Federation (SoFlo Muslims) Broward County Representative Yunus Ismail and Emgage Outreach Lead Corey Shearer, during the comments portion of the meeting, made it a point to tell the School Board that at least 75,000 Muslims reside in Broward and that 25,000 of them are students in Broward schools. This data not only appears to be false, but it is also grossly inflated.

According to bestplaces.net, a data gathering website quoted by the nation’s top publications and organizations, Muslims make up 1% of Broward’s 1,958,105 (as of this writing) population, totaling 19,581 people. According to the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA), another widely quoted data gathering site, in 2010, Broward Muslims had a population of 18,176. Indeed, using the statistics from these data sites, if one ads up the populations of all three South Florida counties – Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach – one does not reach a total near 75,000.

Additionally, in a February 2008 article from the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel discussing a then-alleged “Islamic growth spurt” in South Florida, Altaf Ali, then-head of the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which is a member of the Muslim Federation and a group notorious for inflating Muslim population numbers itself, said Broward’s then-Muslim population was 20,000. It is obvious that the Muslim Federation contradicted its own affiliate group, for how can anyone believe that a population of 20,000 Muslims in 2008, which by the data websites’ standards was a little high to begin with, went up almost four-fold in 2022?

Yet, the Broward County School Board and, as well, the Broward County Commission, which issued a press release calling on the School Board to add the Muslim day off on its calendar, were both fed the false data, including the part about the 25,000 students (and many of whom may not even be attending public schools). In fact, the data was the first piece of evidence (for the said day off) mentioned in the Commission’s press release, taking up the entire second paragraph of the release. According to the release, the data was courtesy of the Muslim Federation.

Given the above information, it appears that the 2022-2023 calendar was changed primarily as a result of bogus statistics – what seem to be egregious and unchallenged lies – provided by the aforementioned groups. Question: Who are these groups and what is their agenda?

The Muslim Federation is an umbrella organization for the vast majority of radical Muslim institutions in South Florida. This includes groups linked to overseas terror, such as CAIR, which has ties to Hamas; Islamic Relief (IR), which has been banned by a number of nations; and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA). The Federation also represents extremist mosques. Two of them, the Islamic Center of Weston (ICW) and Masjid Jamaat Al-Mumineen (MJAM), teach their followers from a text, Tafsir Ibn Kathir, which labels Jews and Christians “enemies”; repeatedly calls for the death penalty for gays; and sanctions domestic violence against women.

Emgage, which is also a member of the Federation, is an Islamist group that attempts to disguise its sinister goals as political advocacy. The founder and Chairman of Emgage, Khurrum Wahid, has been an attorney for many of the high-profile terrorists that the US government has prosecuted, including members of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and reportedly, Wahid himself was placed on a federal terrorist watch list in 2011.

Following the School Board’s December decision to move forward with the calendar change, the Muslim Federation and Muslim Students Association (MSA), which was also part of the lobbying effort and which too has a terror-related history, threw a party in celebration of the decision. Participating in the affair were different members of the School Board, including Rosalind Osgood, Nora Rupert, Ann Murray, and Debra Hixon.

The Muslim Federation, which posted on its website numerous photos of the School Board members standing behind and next to large Federation and MSA banners, stated that the school officials “congratulated the community, calling it a big win and vowed to continue their efforts… safeguarding [the] interests of [the South Florida] Muslim community.”

In reality, the “big win” for the Federation and its ilk was not the adding of the day off for Muslims. The introduction of Eid to the school calendar never was about a day off. The prize, instead, was the winning of the loyalty and unquestioning submission of the School Board members, whom the Islamist groups showcased like hunting trophies in front of the celebratory crowd. If the day off serves any purpose for these organizations, it is most probably to indoctrinate students into their brand of Islam.

The clueless School Board members and county commissioners have been duped and cynically manipulated by false data supplied to them by extremist groups pushing a bigoted and violent agenda. By not independently verifying the statistics given to them by the Muslim Federation and Emgage and by not performing proper background checks on these organizations, the Broward School Board members and commissioners have failed both their students and the public.

Beila Rabinowitz, Director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.

 

Joe Kaufman is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and the Chairman of the Joe Kaufman Security Initiative. He was the 2014, 2016 and 2018 Republican Nominee for U.S. House of Representatives (Florida-CD23).

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/01/muslim-brotherhoods-useful-idiots-broward-county-joe-kaufman/

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The January 6 Narrative is Starting to Unravel - John Green

 

by John Green

Did the federal government have some involvement with January 6? We don’t know the answer to that question -- and that’s a problem for a constitutional republic.

The Democrats and the propaganda ministry have tried to portray the events of January 6 as the greatest assault on democracy… in like, forever.  But it seems like that narrative is starting to unravel.  The unraveling began when many people began to suspect that the whole thing was a setup and started looking into it. 

It wasn’t law enforcement or MSM journalists investigating -- they could be controlled.  It was amateur citizen investigators using the power of the internet.  Ah… the internet -- allowing average citizens to cross-reference and collate a limitless sea of information.  Our Founders would approve.

Citizen investigators began to identify individuals who were clearly involved in inciting the riot on January 6.  But a curious number of them had not been arrested by the FBI, even though their identity was well known.  One such individual is Ray Epps.  Epps is seen on video urging the crowd to enter the Capitol building.  He lives in Arizona on a ranch and hasn’t been arrested.  There are numerous others, just like him.  The question became unavoidable: Did the federal government have involvement with January 6?  We don’t know the answer to that question -- and that’s a problem for a constitutional republic.

As this curious information began to come to public attention, the FBI cover-up started.  It removed Ray Epps from its “most wanted” list and released a report stating that there was no evidence of a coordinated attack on the Capitol -- even though they had been calling it a coordinated attack for months.  Apparently, the bureau hoped the whole thing would fade into obscurity.  But it didn’t.  Merrick Garland and San Fran Nan wouldn’t let it.

The proud head of the police part of our police state couldn’t let it go.  Garland was having too much fun playing with his new “fully operational death star” -- which has the Orwellian name “Department of Justice.”  The only thing missing is a “Peoples” at the beginning of that name.  Unfortunately, Garland has bragged for months about his “shock and awe” campaign to bring insurrectionists to justice.  The DoJ has had hundreds of citizens under arrest for months -- for the horrendous crimes of trespassing and taking selfies on Capitol grounds.  What are prosecutors supposed to do? Go to the judge and say, “Oops!  Our bad.”  That’s not the way police states operate.

Merrick Garland isn’t the only one pushing the narrative beyond what the evidence supports.  San Fran Nan has kept the topic in the news as well.  She is facing a midterm shellacking, looking down the barrel of a Trump return to politics, and needs a propaganda blunt object with which to beat on Republicans.  Her solution was simple, elegant, and stupid.

• Appoint a committee to investigate something that didn’t happen -- the greatest assault on our democracy since Pearl Harbor -- or was it 9/11? I forget.
• Add a couple of useful idiot Republicans -- preferably of the #NeverTrump variety.
• Subpoena every Republican in the known universe.
• Provide creative leaks to the awaiting propaganda ministry. [Pelosi note to self: Don’t forget to add Adam Schiff to the committee.]

Viola, a year’s worth of negative Trump news cycles.  Maybe it could even be stretched to three years.  But after a year of investigating an insurrection that the FBI said wasn’t an insurrection, the questions started to get a bit too inconvenient for San Fran Nan’s committee.  So, she did what masters do.  She jerked the leash hard, and her twin dogs barked.  The committee released a statement defending Ray Epps, and the FBI arrested Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers, and a number of his fellow travelers.

In August of 2021, the FBI said there was no evidence of a coordinated attack on the Capitol.  Now, in January of 2022, the FBI is saying that Rhodes organized teams to conduct an armed paramilitary operation to prevent congressional certification of the vote.  There’s just one problem: It never happened.  Except for the activities of Ray Epps, who is no longer wanted by the FBI, there was no coordination at all of the mob at the Capitol.  Stewart Rhodes was present, but he never entered the Capitol, and like the other Oath Keepers present, he was unarmed.  In fact, the only firearms present in the Capitol on that day were those in the possession of the Capitol Police -- one of which was used to kill an unarmed protester.

The indictment of the Oath Keepers is not about what they did.  It’s about what they wanted to do -- even though they didn’t do it.  Crimes of intent are tricky things to prosecute.  How can any man know what’s in another man’s heart and mind?  Does the FBI have some evidence of his actual desire, or is Steward Rhodes automatically guilty of wrong-think because he’s a patriotic (e.g., anti-government) conservative?

Maybe the FBI has gotten possession of incriminating emails.  It’s possible that Rhodes (a Yale-trained lawyer) blasted out his insurrection plans with his Gmail account.  Of course, the jury will also need to consider the FBI history of falsifying emails, such as it did to get warrants against Carter Page.

Maybe the FBI has witnesses that overheard the Oath Keepers’ plans.  The bureau is well known for planting informants in organizations suspected of subversion.  But whatever witnesses it has had better have more credibility than Andrew McCabe, Peter Stzrok, Kevin Clinesmith, or any of the three agents that have been removed from the Whitmer kidnapping witness list.

I’m not jumping to any conclusions about the Oath Keepers.  Whatever evidence the FBI has, is going to need very close examination -- by an army of citizen investigators.  Don’t underestimate their abilities.  Doing so didn’t work out so well for Dan “Fake but Accurate” Rather.

Much to the FBI’s consternation, the January 6 investigation hasn’t faded, and the amateur investigations continue.  The questions are getting more inconvenient by the nanosecond.

Now we have an attorney general and various FBI officials who can do little more than stammer, mutter the words “ongoing investigation,” and stare at the ceiling while being questioned by Congress.  “Ongoing investigation” is starting to feel like the new “pleading the 5th.”

After the Republicans win the midterm elections, they should keep the January 6 committee in place -- but under new management.  San Fran Nan’s committee set a few precedents that should be very useful.  The minority party has no rights.  Committee members are subject to the approval of the Speaker of the House.  Executive privilege is a thing of the past.  Any member of the opposing party is also fair game.  The Republicans should subpoena Merrick Garland, Christopher Wray, and Nancy Pelosi.  I’m dying to see how Granny Boxwine does under questioning from Ted Cruz.  Watching Cackles Harris laugh nervously at every question should just about end her political future -- if she hasn’t already ended it herself.  Heck, they should even subpoena the electronic devices of “Shifty” Schiff and “Bang-Bang the Fang Fang” Swalwell.  I’m sure they have some interesting texts and emails about January 6 as well.

Image: Tyler Merbler

 

John Green is a political refugee from Minnesota, now residing in Idaho. He currently writes at the American Free News Network (afnn.us).  He can be followed on Facebook or reached at greenjeg@gmail.com.

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/01/the_january_6_narrative_is_starting_to_unravel.html

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Why Palestinian Leaders Ignore Arab Atrocities - Khaled Abu Toameh

by Khaled Abu Toameh

These leaders know that it is far easier -- and far safer -- to condemn Israel than to demand that Assad cease committing atrocities against the Palestinians. Spewing hatred against Israel has no price tag attached. Criticizing an Arab dictator, by contrast, can prove costly in the extreme.

• For now, it seems that the Palestinian leadership is ignoring not only the "tragedies" of its people in Syria, but even the complaints about the failure of the Palestinian officials to raise the issue with the Syrian government.

• The Palestinian leadership apparently does not want to assume any responsibility for its people in the Arab world because that would mean spending money on them and providing them with various services. Palestinian leaders would, it seems, rather keep the money for themselves than assist their own people.

• The Palestinian leaders appear more concerned about the return of the Assad regime to the Arab League than the return of tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians to their homes in Syria. These leaders know that it is far easier -- and far safer -- to condemn Israel than to demand that Assad cease committing atrocities against the Palestinians. Spewing hatred against Israel has no price tag attached. Criticizing an Arab dictator, by contrast, can prove costly in the extreme.

The Palestinian leadership is ignoring not only the "tragedies" of its people in Syria, but even the complaints about the failure of the Palestinian officials to raise the issue with the Syrian government. The London-based Action Group for Palestinians of Syria estimated the number of Palestinians who have died of torture in Syrian prisons at 620. Hundreds more Palestinians died due lack of proper medical treatment during the Syrian army's siege of the Yarmouk refugee camp, the group said. Pictured: Yarmouk refugee camp, near Damascus, on May 22, 2018, days after Syrian government forces regained control over the camp. (Photo by Louai Beshara/AFP via Getty Images)

Palestinian leaders never miss an opportunity to condemn Israel and accuse it of committing "crimes" against the Palestinians. This is in the context of the ongoing virulent Palestinian campaign of incitement against Israel.

The Palestinian leaders, however, remain oblivious to the suffering of their people in some Arab countries, especially Syria, where more than 4,100 Palestinians have been killed during the fighting between the Syrian army and the opposition or died as a result of torture, starvation and medical negligence over the past decade. These leaders are also most likely afraid that their Arab brothers would punish them if they speak out against the atrocities committed against Palestinians in the Arab countries.

Human rights organizations have described the Syrian practices and measures against the Palestinians as a "catastrophe" and "massacres." They pointed out that since the eruption of the civil war in Syria in 2011, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been arrested or displaced.

The "crimes" against the Palestinians in Syria do not, unfortunately, seem to be at the top of the Palestinian Authority's (PA) priority list. Worse, the PA leadership is currently trying to curry favor with Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose security forces are accused of killing, wounding, arresting and displacing tens of thousands of Palestinians.

The PA leadership's attempt to restore its ties with the Assad regime has drawn sharp, widespread and harsh criticism from many Palestinians and Syrians. They say they cannot grasp the logic of reconciling with an Arab leader who has so much Palestinian blood on his hands.

Earlier this month, a delegation representing the ruling Fatah faction headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas visited Damascus, where its members met with Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad. The delegation, headed by Fatah Secretary-General Jibril Rajoub, handed the minister a letter from Abbas to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The letter "affirmed the depth of the historic relations between the two sides and [Abbas's] desire to strengthen relations between the State of Palestine and the Arab Republic of Syria."

Rajoub later announced that Abbas was planning to visit Damascus soon to meet with Assad. Rajoub was also quoted as saying that a decision to suspend Syria's membership in the Arab League was "shameful." The decision was taken in 2011 by the Arab League in response to Syria's failure to end its bloody and violent crackdown on anti-Assad protesters.

Rajoub's support for the reinstatement of Syria's membership in the Arab League and the PA leadership's efforts to normalize its ties with the Assad regime drew sharp criticism from many Palestinians and Syrians.

Commenting on Rajoub's statements, Syrian cartoonist Ammar Agha Al-Kala wrote:

"The shame is that 14 million [Syrians and Palestinians] have been displaced. The shame is that 1.5 million people have been killed."

Palestinian-Syrian writer and journalist Suad Qatanani remarked:

"Mahmoud Abbas will visit the one (Assad) who starved and killed Palestinians in Yarmouk refugee camp (near Damascus). Will he ask Assad why he destroyed the Palestinian camps and displaced their people? Will he ask Assad about those who were killed in Syrian detention? Will he ask Assad about the fate of the Palestinians who disappeared in Syrian prisons?"

According to the London-based Action Group For Palestinians of Syria (AGPS), a human rights watchdog that monitors the situation of Palestinian refugees in war-torn Syria, 1,458 Palestinians from Yarmouk have been killed since 2011. This includes 496 who died due to shelling of the camp, 208 who died from starvation or medical neglect due to the siege by the Syrian army and 215 tortured to death in Syrian prisons. According to a recent report by AGPS:

"Yarmouk camp is considered one of the most affected areas in Syria as a result of the siege imposed by the Syrian army and its loyal forces since 2013, while water and electricity were completely cut off for the population in 2014, and the entry of food, medical and other items was also prohibited."

"War crimes and crimes against humanity have been carried out against Palestinian and Syrian civilians in Yarmouk, which is under brutal siege by Syrian government forces," Amnesty International revealed in 2014. Residents told the human rights group that they had not eaten fruit or vegetables for many months, while others said they had resorted to eating cats and dogs.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) pointed out that before the civil war in Syria, Yarmouk camp was home to nearly 160,000 Palestinians. Today, the number of residents living in the camp is estimated at 3,000. In 2018, it was estimated that 60% of the camp had been destroyed by the Syrian army and pro-Assad militias.

During their visit to Syria, the Palestinian delegation members attended a rally in Yarmouk camp to mark the 57th anniversary of the launch of Fatah's first terrorist attack against Israel.

Commenting on the visit, Palestinian-Syrian lawyer and writer Ayman Abo Hashem wrote:

"The visit of the Fatah delegation to Damascus and the [Fatah] rally held on the ruins of Yarmouk camp are a stab in the back of all the Palestinian and Syrian victims whose homes were destroyed and who were killed, arrested, and displaced by the Assad regime's criminal regime. Palestine refuses to be associated with leaders who turn a blind eye to its tragedies and care only about their interests."

The Fatah delegation that visited Damascus has faced severe criticism and widespread condemnation from Palestinians and Syrians for ignoring the "tragedy" of the Palestinians in Syria and not including it in the discussions with Syrian government officials, AGPS reported on January 8, adding:

"A number of Palestinian activists expressed outrage at Fatah's and the Palestinian Authority's neglect and marginalization of the tragedy of the Palestinians in Syria and their lack of sense of responsibility towards it... The activists said that the Palestinian leadership works for its own interests, forgetting the pain of their people and displaying indifference to their suffering."

Samer, a Palestinian from Yarmouk, told AGPS:

"This complete disregard [for the plight of the Palestinians in Syria] was accepted with great resentment by the Palestinians, who no longer have confidence in the leadership that undervalues them and wants to achieve its own political gains at the expense of its people."

Noting that 620 Palestinians have died of torture in Syrian prisons and detention centers since 2011, AGPS pointed out that the Palestinians of Syria urged the Palestinian embassy in Damascus dozens of times to intervene to release Palestinians held by the Syrian regime and halt the siege of Yarmouk camp and the repeated attacks on Palestinian camps, especially air raids and barrel bombardments. Their appeals went unheeded.

Palestinian activist Abu Mustafa al-Qaoud said that the Palestinian leadership has never used its relations with the Syrian regime to serve the interests of the Palestinians in Syria. "The Palestinian Authority has failed to secure the release of one Palestinian [from Syrian detention] or the return of one displaced family to its home," al-Qaoud complained.

For now, it seems that the Palestinian leadership is ignoring not only the "tragedies" of its people in Syria, but even the complaints about the failure of the Palestinian officials to raise the issue with the Syrian government.

The Palestinian leadership apparently does not want to assume any responsibility for its people in the Arab world because that would mean spending money on them and providing them with various services. Palestinian leaders would, it seems, rather keep the money for themselves than assist their own people.

The Palestinian leaders appear more concerned about the return of the Assad regime to the Arab League than the return of tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians to their homes in Syria. These leaders know that it is far easier -- and far safer -- to condemn Israel than to demand that Assad cease committing atrocities against the Palestinians. Spewing hatred against Israel has no price tag attached. Criticizing an Arab dictator, by contrast, can prove costly in the extreme.

• Follow Khaled Abu Toameh on Twitter

 

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

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18139/palestinian-leaders-arab-atrocities

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Did the Texas Synagogue Jihadi Act Alone? - Clare Lopez

 

by Clare Lopez

A sobering look at the Pakistani connection.

 

In the wake of the turbulence surrounding the 15 January 2022 Texas synagogue attack, it may be useful to take a step backward to review those events from a broader strategic perspective. John Guandolo at Understanding the Threat  has done an excellent job explaining how this attack fits into the overall Islamic Movement jihad campaign against Western Civilization and the United States Constitutional Republic and the Jewish people in particular. Here, though, let us focus on the particular involvement of two international aspects: the Tablighi Jama’at Islamic revivalist/missionary organization and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.

First, the event itself: from what we know as of this writing, a Pakistani jihadi with British citizenship named Malik Faisal Akram entered the Reform Jewish Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, TX (a Dallas-Ft. Worth suburb) around 10:40 the morning of 15 January 2022 during Shabbat services. The shul’s prayer and services schedule is helpfully posted online at its monthly calendar page. Services were being livestreamed for the benefit of congregation members praying from home, so much of the event and subsequent 10-hour stand-off with law enforcement was captured on audio, although apparently not on video.

Akram initially approached the closed front doors of the synagogue and was let in by Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, affectionately known by his congregation as ‘Rabbi Charlie”. At first Rabbi Charlie didn’t suspect anything untoward, but interrupting Shabbat services, decided to make tea for Akram. In a 17 Jan 2022 interview with CBS News, Rabbi Charlie recounted the moment when things turned terrifying. Reportedly, Akram pulled a gun and made claims about bombs. According to a portion of the synagogue livestream broadcast obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Akram is heard saying, "I've got these prisoners" and "I am going to die." While his key spoken demand was the release from U.S. federal prison of the Pakistani jihadi known as “Lady Al-Qa’eda” – true name, Aafia Siddiqui – that was but a pretext for a broader objective. Akram claimed that he and Siddiqui would be “going to Jannah (Muslim belief of heaven) after he sees her,” according to a statement from the FBI on Saturday night.

What neither Rabbi Charlie, his congregation members, nor apparently Local Law Enforcement Officers (LLEOs) and the FBI have understood was that, with these statements, Akram was reciting his belief in core Islamic doctrine. As Robert Spencer wrote in PJ Media, antisemitism is deeply rooted in the Qur’an itself, where it is written that “Jews are called the strongest of all people in enmity toward the Muslims (5:82); they fabricate things and falsely ascribe them to Allah (2:79; 3:75, 3:181); they disobey Allah and never observe his commands (5:13), and Muslims should wage war against them and subjugate them under Islamic hegemony (9:29), among many other slanders.” Further, as Spencer writes, the abduction of infidels as hostages is also sanctioned in the Qur’an (Sura 47, Verse 4), where it is stipulated that Muslims may choose to kill hostages, enslave them, ransom them, or “show favor” and release them. Similarly applicable is Sura 9, Verse 111, which offers the promise of paradise to those who “kill and are killed” for Allah, in the act of jihad, thus becoming a shahid.

While it is a tremendous relief to know that Rabbi Charlie and all the other hostages got out of the situation alive and unharmed, their unfamiliarity with these Qur’anic passages may well have contributed to their unquestioning acceptance of interfaith dialogue associations that in retrospect may be seen as unwise. Indeed, as the synagogue’s Mission Statement declares, “we believe in interfaith inclusion” and “Tikkun Olam (Repair the World)”. Further, as the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue’s Facebook pages show, the Rabbi and his congregation had promoted interfaith events, including a 2 November 2019 and 6 November 2021 “Peace Together Walk”, with a photo of the walk beginning in front of the Colleyville Masjid, also known as the “Colleyville Association of Mid-Cities”. The Islamic Center of Southlake also was a participant. Unfortunately, each of these mosques has Muslim Brotherhood/jihadist connections, as documented by Understanding the Threat. Just one of those connections, for example, is the Imam Siraj Wahhaj, of the Brooklyn, NY Al-Taqwa Mosque, who was specifically named in a list of the unindicted co-conspirators at the 1993 World Trade Center bombing trial.

Now, to the Tablighi-Jama’at and Pakistani connections. As we now know, Akram entered the U.S. through JFK Airport in late December 2021 with his British passport on the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP)’s visa waiver program. He would have obtained that entry permit through the CBP’s online portal. Once waived through Customs at JFK, Akram was free to travel onward anywhere in the U.S. that he wished. It is unlikely that CBP is aware of what Tablighi Jama’at is or that Akram was affiliated with it. CBP should have, but possibly didn’t know either about Akram’s criminal record, as revealed by his brother. As Ilana Freedman documented in her excellent October 2016 monograph, “Gateway to Jihad: Tablighi Jama'at”, Tablighi Jama’at (TJ) is a global Islamic proselytizing organization with millions of followers in at least 80 countries. Although TJ is jihadist, it is not known to commit terrorism per se, but rather sends its missionaries to preach in mosques and Islamic Centers to strengthen the commitment of Muslim faithful to the essential doctrine and law (shariah) of Islam. Such dawah efforts, however, in many cases, serve as a conveyer belt or gateway to kinetic jihad, as was the case with Akram.

Akram himself, born in the United Kingdom (UK) of a family that hailed from the Jhelum district in the Pakistani Punjab, reportedly had traveled abroad on just such missions. According to reporting from the Hindustan Times, in the Blackburn, Lancashire area of England where Akram grew up, he “served as the head of the Rondell Street Islamic Centre in the London area, also known as Reza Masjid, where largely Muslims of Pakistani origin prayed. He also prayed at the Eldorado Masjid that was frequented by Gujarati Muslims in the region.” Two teenagers, possibly Akram’s sons, were arrested by UK Counterterrorism police in South Manchester on Sunday 16 Jan 22 and held for questioning.

As we can see, the connections to Pakistan are many. Nevertheless, it must be said that any possible connections to the Pakistani government or to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency are premature at this point. It is instructive, though, to recall the many Islamic terror attacks in which ISI has been involved. We may begin with the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, India, in which, according to the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) drawing on classified Indian government documents, the ISI was “heavily involved”. The following year, on 30 December 2009, according to declassified U.S. government documents, a Jordanian doctor reportedly recruited and dispatched by the ISI, detonated a suicide vest at the CIA’s Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost, Afghanistan, killing seven and injuring an additional six. Then, on 2 December 2015, U.S.-born Syed Rizwan Farook and his Pakistani wife, Tashfeen Malik carried out a deadly shooting attack at Farook’s office Christmas party in San Bernardino, CA.  The couple had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State online and expressed support openly for Islamic jihad. Malik had attended college and the Al-Huda International Welfare Foundation women’s Islamic seminary in the Punjab before marrying Farook through an online arranged wedding that took place in Saudi Arabia in 2014.

Once again, while direct ISI involvement in this attack has not been publicly documented, the area of the Punjab where Malik studied is known as a stronghold of Deobandi jihadist groups, such as Lashkar-e Jangvi and Lashkar-e Taiba, both closely affiliated with the ISI. Then, in June 2016, Omar Mateen, who identified himself as “an Islamic soldier” in talks with a crisis negotiator, opened fire inside the Orlando, FL Pulse nightclub, killing 49 people and leaving 53 wounded. Mateen, age 29, was a U.S. citizen, born in Queens, NYC to Afghan immigrant parents. At some point, Mateen had attended the Islamic Center of Ft. Pierce, whose imam, Syed Shafeeq Rahman, quickly after the shooting, named Wilfredo Amr Ruiz, a local leader of the Hamas-related Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), as the mosque’s new spokesman. Rahman, also a General Practitioner medical doctor, obtained his medical degree from the Ayub Medical College in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Finally, a brief mention must be made about the 2018 cybersecurity breach involving multiple Members of Congress. The Pakistani Awan brothers, who were given access to highly sensitive government information without a background check, were permitted to work remotely – from Pakistan – up to several months at a time, according to investigative reporter Luke Rosiak.

In summary, then, there are far too many Pakistani connections to jihadist attacks and operations, spanning many years, to ignore. Nevertheless, those connections would appear to be rarely noted and only perfunctorily investigated.  Certainly, in this most recent attack on the Texas synagogue, there must have been an extensive support network that conducted the pre-attack casing and surveillance, recruited and prepared Akram, and arranged for his travel to and within the U.S., his lodging, and provision of the funding and knowledge for how to purchase a gun on the street. Clearly, the Muslim Brotherhood/CAIR network in and around the Dallas-Ft. Worth area has been vocal in campaigns to get the Pakistan-born convicted terrorist Aafia Siddiqui released from prison. Siddiqui not only tried to kill U.S. personnel in Afghanistan in 2008, leading to her conviction on terrorism charges in a 2010 Manhattan trial, but had been married to a nephew of Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, who remarked on her “obsession” with jihad. Educated at MIT, Siddiqui earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Brandeis University in 2001, before returning to southwest Asia in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. She is serving her sentence at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell, Ft. Worth, located some 24 miles from the Congregation Beth Israel. Note: This does not automatically mean that CAIR was involved in the synagogue attack, but rather that it shares Akram’s antisemitic animus and purpose in obtaining Siddiqui’s release from prison.

This analysis is offered in the interests of encouraging the situational awareness of faith communities, law enforcement, and national-level security agencies alike. Comments such as that made by FBI Special Agent in Charge Matt DeSarno at a press conference following the end of the hostage crisis attest to the critical need for such education. Although roundly criticized later, that evening, DeSarno said that the “hostage taker was specifically focused on an issue not directly connected to the Jewish community” and added that there was “no immediate indication that the man had was part of any broader plan”.

The fact that UK police and counterterrorism officials are assisting their U.S. counterparts in the investigation does indicate that the overall investigation extends internationally. At the same time, comments such as made by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Sunday 16 Jan 22, who said that it was “too soon to tell” if the Texas synagogue hostage situation was part of a “broader extremist threat” and that they were looking into "what this person's motives were and whether or not there are any further connections” demonstrate just how far we yet have to go.

 

Clare M. Lopez is the Founder/President of Lopez Liberty LLC and serves as a senior advisory board member for the Near East Center for Strategic Engagement (NEC-SE).

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/01/texas-synagogue-jihadi-did-not-act-alone-clare-lopez/

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Emma Watson is Right, Sort Of - Hugh Fitzgerald

 

by Hugh Fitzgerald

Who, exactly, is keeping the Palestinians unfree?

 

Emma Watson, the actress who played Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies, made news recently when she declared on Instagram “Free Palestine” and declared her “solidarity” with the oppressed Palestinians. Why her opinion should matter tells us something about the mental state of our giddy globe. What’s next? Should we consult Mick Jagger for his views on the expansion of NATO? Or ask Randy Quaid for his thoughts on the IMF? Watson’s sentiment isn’t wrong, writes Stephen Flatow: the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank do indeed need to be free, but she’s sending her message to the wrong address. It’s not the Israelis who are keeping the Palestinians unfree, but their own corrupt and despotic rulers, both those belonging to Hamas in Gaza, and those belonging to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

Flatow’s response to Emma Watson is here: “Emma Watson is right about Palestinians being enslaved,” by Stephen M. Flatow, Israel Hayom, January 10, 2022:

“Free Palestine!” says actress Emma Watson.

She’s right.

The territories where the Palestinian Arabs live are indeed enslaved. They deserve to be freed from the tyrannical rule of their oppressors – Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.

The actress, best known for her role as Hermione Granger in the “Harry Potter” films, set off a firestorm in the world of social media this week with her Instagram post showing “Free Palestine!” banners and expressing “solidarity” with them. Hopefully, her declaration will stimulate a serious conversation about the cruel occupation that the international community has been ignoring.

The “cruel occupation” of Gaza has nothing to do with Israel. There has not been a single Israeli in Gaza since 2005. It is Hamas that makes life miserable for the people of Gaza. The “cruel occupation” in the PA-ruled areas of the West Bank where Israel’s writ does not run, is that imposed by the PA leaders themselves; they are the true source of the Palestinians’ anguish.

The details concerning Hamas and the PA, which I cite here, are all quoted from the latest reports by two strongly pro-Palestinian groups: Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. These are not “Israeli allegations.” They are what the Palestinian Arabs’ most vocal supporters are saying about the two Arab regimes that rule over 98% of the Palestinian Arabs.

During the past year, “the Palestinian authorities in the West Bank and the Hamas de facto administration in the Gaza Strip continued to crack down on dissent, including by stifling freedoms of expression and assembly, attacking journalists and detaining opponents,” reports Amnesty.

Human Rights Watch notes that the PA recently jailed journalist Sami al-Sai for the crime of “administering a Facebook page that had posted information about PA corruption.” Twenty protesters in Ramallah who dared to cry out against PA corruption were likewise jailed. Hamas recently arrested seven citizens for “participating in a video chat where they answered questions from Israeli civilians about life in Gaza.” And other Gazans were jailed for “weakening the revolutionary spirit.”

Both Hamas and the PA rule over their people with an iron fist. Those who dare to criticize the corruption and nepotism of their leaders, exemplified in Hamas by Khaled Meshaal and Moussa Abu Marzouk, and in the PA by Mahmoud Abbas, or to the lack of elections that makes a mockery of their claims to be democratic, are swiftly punished. The lucky ones are imprisoned. The most unlucky, like Nizar Banat, are beaten to death.

Elections? Nothing doing. Mahmoud Abbas is entering the 17th year of his four-year term as President, and he has put his time in office to good use, having accumulated with his sons Tarek and Nasser a family fortune of some $400 million. Abbas briefly contemplated holding elections in 2021, but as soon as he realized from the polls that he would lose the presidency by a wide margin — any candidate running against him would receive at least 60% of the vote — he promptly cancelled them, and hasn’t spoken of elections since.

Hamas is just as ruthless in Gaza. It routinely imprisons anyone who says a word against the terror group. No one dares to complain about the two Hamas leaders, Khaled Meshaal and Moussa Abu Marzouk, each of whom has a fortune of at least $2.5 billion, stolen from the aid money intended for the impoverished Palestinians in Gaza. In addition there are 600 Hamas millionaires living in lavish villas in Gaza; these are the relatives and friends of the Hamas leaders, enjoying their well-paid sinecures. Hamas has a long record, beginning with its campaign against Fatah, in 2007, of violence in Gaza. In its war on Fatah in 2007 it killed more than 100 members of the group; it also broke the arms and legs of anyone who, though not members, expressed support, however mild, for Fatah. Since 2007 Hamas has carried on inflicting violence to terrorize and crush any critics. It shoots dissenters in the legs, crippling them, or sometimes, Hamas goons break the arms and legs of those who complain about its rule. And every year there have been dozens of extra-judicial killings, in Gaza, of Hamas’ severest critics.

Hamas also frequently executes citizens after “trials” that are “marred with due process violations,” reports Human Rights Watch.

How do the PA and Hamas regimes treat those whom it arrests? “Palestinian security forces in the West Bank and Gaza routinely used torture and other ill-treatment with impunity. … Security forces in both areas used unnecessary and/or excessive force during law enforcement activities.”

What about women’s rights in Occupied Palestine? Amnesty: “Women and girls faced discrimination in law and practice and were inadequately protected against sexual and other gender-based violence, including so-called honour killings.” Last year alone, “nineteen women died in the West Bank and 18 in Gaza as a result of gender-based violence.”

The men who commit these “honor killings” of female relatives in order to “restore the family honor” are seldom punished, and when they are, they can expect only a short time in prison. Wives and daughters are commonly viewed as chattels of their male relatives, who can treat them as they wish. The situation for women is better, but not by much, in the West Bank, where the strictures of Islam have been loosened; in Gaza the fanatical believers hold sway.

Human Rights Watch points out that the PA “has no comprehensive domestic violence law.” Keep in mind that the PA has been ruling for 27 years. Nearly three decades in power and still no comprehensive domestic violence law….

A domestic violence law, meaning a law punishing husbands for disciplining their wives, would likely be seen to conflict with Qur’an 4:34, which allows husbands to “beat” their wives If they even suspect them of being “disobedient.” The PA chooses not to risk opposition from fanatical Muslims; it keeps postponing consideration of a “domestic violence law” and will almost certainly continue to do so. In Gaza, the subject simply never comes up; such a law, limiting the freedom of husbands to discipline their wives, would be unthinkable for Hamas, the Gaza branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Homosexuals in Gaza can be imprisoned for up to ten years for committing homosexual acts. The PA has not legislated for or against rights for homosexuals. But it forbids homosexual rights groups from meeting. The PA police keep close tabs on homosexuals, and blackmails them – threatening to tell their families about their homosexual activities – unless they become informers for the police.

Any expression of dissent or criticism of the leaders, in Gaza and the West Bank, is immediately shut down, and the dissenters arrested. Nonviolent protests, whether over price rises or are broken up with extreme violence in both Gaza and the West Bank. There is no freedom of the press; any criticism of Hamas in Gaza or of the PA in the West Bank can cause a newspaper to be temporarily closed. Palestinian courts have ordered shutdowns of websites and social media pages which contained criticism of President Mahmoud Abbas, or were affiliated with opposition groups, or focused on combating corruption.

There have been no elections, either presidential or for the legislature, in the West Bank since 2005, when Mahmoud Abbas became president of the PA. There have been no elections, either presidential or for the legislature, in Gaza since 2006. Both Gaza and the PA territories are despotisms, where public protests, no matter how peaceful, are violently suppressed, social media sites are shut down, and critics imprisoned or killed.

The Palestinians are ruled by grasping despots – in Gaza by the leaders of Hamas, in the West Bank by the leaders of the PA – who have blighted their lives. In mid-December, the telling results of a poll taken by Palestinians themselves were made public. Ninety-three percent, or 1,116 of the 1,200 Arab residents of eastern Jerusalem who were queried, said that they preferred to continue living under Israeli rule rather than be transferred to the rule of the Palestinian Authority. They’re no fools.

Emma Watson, if you care about the Palestinians, turn your gaze on the real villains of the piece and focus the attention of your 61.3 million followers on Instagram not on Israel, but on those who are the Palestinians’ true oppressors: in Gaza, not Israel, but Hamas; in the West Bank, not Israel, but the Palestinian Authority. If only they could speak freely, the Palestinians would thank you for it.

 

Hugh Fitzgerald

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/01/emma-watson-right-sort-hugh-fitzgerald/

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When Joe Biden speaks, sane people are horrified - Patricia McCarthy

 

by Patricia McCarthy

The sad aspect of it all was that one could tell Biden thought he was dazzling his audience. He was, as usual, quick to anger when asked a question that intimated that he was less than the best President ever.

If there was any doubt that Joe Biden is unfit for the office of President of the United States, yesterday’s marathon press conference put such qualms to rest. But the signs have been there all along, while his decline into incoherent totalitarian irascibility is accelerating. 

His painfully over-long press conference on Wednesday, only his second of this long and miserable year of drastic inflation, lunatic covid restrictions, vaccine mandates, etc., confirms the decline.   It did not put anyone’s fear about Biden’s competency at rest.  Faux reporters like Yamiche Alcindor and Jennifer Rubin swore Biden performed brilliantly but every rational person watching knew it was a “slow-motion train wreck.”

The sad aspect of it all was that one could tell Biden thought he was dazzling his audience.  He was, as usual, quick to anger when asked a question that intimated that he was less than the best President ever.  He insisted that he had outperformed all previous presidents!  He accepted no responsibility for inflation, for the disastrous debacle in Afghanistan, for the administration’s confusing and ever-changing advice and restrictions re: COVID.  Everything and anything that has gone wrong is not his fault. 

There were many moments of awkward silence as he thumbed through notes on the podium or suffered one those mind-freezes that have become so familiar.  He seemed to throw Ukraine under the bus by approving of a “minor incursion” by Putin into that nation.  

The White House spent the day trying to walk that one back.  Psaki released this statement:  

President Biden has been clear with the Russian President: If any Russian military forces move across the Ukrainian border, that's a renewed invasion, and it will be met with a swift, severe, and united response from the United States and our Allies," Psaki said. "President Biden also knows from long experience that the Russians have an extensive playbook of aggression short of military action, including cyberattacks and paramilitary tactics. And he affirmed today that those acts of Russian aggression will be met with a decisive, reciprocal, and united response.

He said nothing of the kind.  Exactly who is in charge?

Except for one softball question from Alcindor, and several from Cecilia Vega and one from Janet of Univision which did point up the cruelty of Biden’s open border policy, there were few other probing questions about the ongoing invasion across our southern border and the explosion of human and child sex trafficking and import of fentanyl as a result.  He blathered on without actually answering them other than to say how wonderful his policies are compared to Trump’s.  

 He still will not allow journalists to visit the facilities housing the thousands of migrants there.  Biden is effectively a partner-in-crime with the drug cartels that are reaping vast billions thanks to Biden’s open border policy.  There were no questions about the horrific rise in crimes across the nation in Democrat-run cities with Soros-placed district attorneys who consistently value criminals over victims.  These DAs, like Gascon in Los Angeles, Boudin in San Francisco, Kim Gardner of St. Louis, Krasner in Philadelphia, John Chisholm of Milwaukee, Alvin Bragg in Manhattan all believe in bail “reform,” which essentially means no bail; criminals have been given the freedom  to commit crimes again and again with impunity.  The list of homicides and other violent crimes committed by people released onto the streets by these DAs is the saddest commentary of all and Biden has never uttered a word of opposition to these DA’s intentional destruction of civil society. 

While Biden got some challenging questions that triggered his quick temper, the reporters in that room today were more concerned with Russia, masks, and vaccine mandates.  There was one questions about China, our most fearsome enemy, to which Biden gave a long rambling non-answer.  He will never anger China; they own him.  China is currently suffering another wave of some variant or another just as the winter Olympics are about to begin.  No one questioned the wisdom of sending our athletes into the super-spreader event of all time.  

But the presser only confirms what Biden proved over a week ago. The speech that Biden angrily delivered in Georgia on January 11th was an abomination and only those Democrats blinkered by mindless devotion to the progressive hate-America agenda could or would dare to defend it.  As he ranted on and on, one had to wonder “Who wrote this?  Who loaded it onto the teleprompter without a sense of dread?”  

Neither of Biden’s principal speechwriters, Vinay Reddy and Jon Meacham, have admitted to it.  So full of contempt for anyone who operates in opposition to the progressive, anti-white agenda, it sounded as though it was written by Louis Farrakhan or Stokely Carmichael.  

There is no tolerance for disagreement within the current radical leftist mob.  If one does not succumb to Biden’s (or his puppet-masters’) commitment to transforming America into a Marxist hell ala Venezuela, we are deemed the worst sort of racists; we are akin to Bull Connor, George Wallace and Jefferson Davis. 

Exactly to whom was this speech meant to appeal?  Those who embrace the racist aims of Black Lives Matter perhaps were cheering him on, but most black Americans were likely to be as horrified as everyone else who heard it.  Contrary to the left’s mantra that blacks should not have to show voter ID, a majority of blacks strongly support voter ID.   

It was insulting and offensive, but it was vintage Joe Biden.  He has always been an unprincipled man – consider his abhorrent treatment of SCOTUS nominees Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas at their confirmation hearings – and he’s always been a dim demagogue, interested only in advancing his personal power for financial gain.  There is not an iota of decency in Joe Biden; never has been.

That speech in Georgia revealed who and what the man really is, a thug and a bully.  Quoting Ken Masugi at American Greatness:  

“The Biden speech is one no president should give, they, and the whole establishment punditry, agreed.  None of them pointed out it was the latest in Biden’s history of racial fanaticism.”

The bill is not a voting rights bill since there is no voter suppression in this nation.  It is designed to enable the Democrats to steal all future elections with mail-in ballots, ballot harvesting, no voter ID, indiscriminate voter drop boxes for stuffing.  See Hans von Spakovsky’s column on what the bill does.

The Wednesday press conference only proved again that this President and his staff are incompetent, that Biden himself is not mentally fit, that the Democrat party is officially a Marxist party that cares not one whit about the American people or the Constitution.   These are dangerous times.  The mid-term elections cannot come soon enough.

Photo credit: YouTube screengrab (cropped)

 

Patricia McCarthy

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

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