COMMENTARY / OPINION
Adin Steinsaltz
Our False Partners BY NATAN SHARANSKY
Progressives who divide the world into ‘oppressors’ and ‘the oppressed’ are not our allies.
DECEMBER 18, 2023 – Twenty years ago, after my first trip as a government minister to 13 college campuses in the United States, I told Ariel Sharon, then Israel’s prime minister, that in my opinion, the main battlefield for the future of the Jewish people lies in American academia. Since then, I appeared dozens of times at different universities, and with each visit I witnessed the new antisemitism growing stronger.
In light of this experience, I insisted in many conversations with liberal American Jews that while left- and right-wing antisemitism are connected and both are very dangerous, it is the left-wing variety that poses the greatest threat. The reason is that left-wing antisemitism today is buttressed by a powerful, all-encompassing ideology that has significant support on social media and in the academy.
This ideology divides the world into oppressors and oppressed, and assumes that moral righteousness always lies with the latter. It assesses the moral value of an action not on its own terms but based on the identity of the agent, asking not “Is this right?” but “Does it help the victimized class?” What is worse, if an action is thought to aid the downtrodden, it becomes acceptable to violate the most basic rights of those deemed to be their oppressors, including the rights of free speech and physical security.
Before Oct. 7, these warnings were usually met with skepticism. How, I was asked, can you compare the Ku Klux Klan-like hatred of the far right with the vision of social justice warriors who want equality and inclusion just like we do? Even when I pointed out clear examples of antisemitism in the progressive movements that American Jews supported, I was told that these groups might have their problems, but that their dream was the same as ours and we had an obligation to help them.
Colorado Undermines Democracy in the Name of Democracy By Peter Meijer
I was one of ten House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after January 6. I think the court’s decision is shameful. Peter Meijer writes.
December 20, 2023 – For years, we’ve been told that Donald Trump is a worse-than-Hitler threat to democracy and that those who opposed him—leading Democrats, the courts, Noam Chomsky, Michael Avenatti, Rachel Maddow, the hosts of The View, even old Twitter—were just trying to protect it. It’s odd then to now be told that the best way to save democracy is by banning Trump from the ballot.
That’s what happened in Colorado yesterday, when the state’s Supreme Court ruled in a 4–3 decision that former president Donald Trump—currently the most popular presidential candidate—was disqualified from appearing on Colorado ballots for the 2024 presidential election.
The decision—perhaps the most extra-constitutional act by a high court in my lifetime—is astonishing on every level.
First, the reasoning:
Israeli hostages are not welcome in London Giulio Meotti
When there are no longer Jews in Europe, will they call Hamas to light the Hanukkah candles? Op-ed.
Dec 20, 2023, 5:10 PM (GMT+2) – The Jewish celebration of Hanukkah in the Dutch city of Enschede took a strange turn, after the mayor refused to be seen near the Israeli ambassador. The Enschede synagogue had invited mayor Roelof Bleker to the Hanukkah celebration and reserved a seat for Bleker next to the Israeli ambassador, Modi Ephraim. But a few hours earlier, the synagogue received a phone call from Bleker with some preconditions. “The mayor did not want to sit next to the ambassador and did not want to shake his hand.”
Enschede’s small Jewish community – 45 Jews in total – was already frustrated with Bleker, who rejected their requests for greater security and surveillance after October 7, despite a wave of anti-Semitic attacks across the country.
But what is better than Hanukkah without Israelis in Europe from which Jews are disappearing to celebrate multiculturalism? When there are no longer even 45 Jews in Enschede, will they call Hamas to light the Hanukkah candles?
Perhaps Europe can invite the Arab residents of Gaza to resettle there?
Going woke has endangered American Jews Jonathan Tobin
Troubling poll numbers among young voters point to a future where American exceptionalism ends and Jew-hatred is mainstreamed.
December 18, 2023 – It was just one result among a blizzard of other poll results in a single survey. But one data point in the Harvard/Harris monthly survey of public opinion not only jumped out at observers like a five-alarm fire but also called into question the future security of American Jewry. Amid many other questions, the pollster asked a random sample of 2,034 registered voters the following question: “Do you think that Jews as a class are oppressors and should be treated as oppressors, or is that a false ideology?”
The question may have been loaded, and its results are, at least to some extent, contradicted by the answers to some of the other questions in the survey. But the fact that 67% of participants ages 18 to 24 responded that Jews are “oppressors” is deeply shocking though hardly surprising. If that proves an accurate assessment of opinion among generations that will lead the nation in the future, then it also means that the assumption on the part of many Jews that “it can’t happen here”—based on the idea of American exceptionalism setting it apart from other Western nations—will be proven wrong.
A belief that Jews are ‘oppressors’
The numbers in the poll contrast the markedly different results from other age groups. The older one gets, the more likely the respondent was to correctly label talk of Jewish oppressors as a “false ideology.” Those aged 25 to 34 answered 56% to 44% that it was false. Those aged 35 to 44 gave a 64% to 35% majority to the “false ideology” answer with those aged 45 to 54, 55 to 64, and 65 and older opposing this smear by 76%, 85% and 91%, respectively.
We know that those in the 18-24 age bracket have been subjected to indoctrination in intersectional and critical race theory myths so prevalent in the American educational system. These toxic ideas don’t merely heighten racial divisions, but identify Jews and Israel as possessing “white privilege” and “oppressors” of Palestinian “people of color.” That’s in spite of the fact that the conflict between Israelis and Arabs isn’t racial and the majority of Israeli Jews are themselves considered “people of color since they trace their origins to the Middle East or North Africa.
Those of college- and graduate-school age are particularly likely to have been exposed to these false ideas. They also have most likely been in classes where these ideas were treated not as controversial theories but as current orthodoxy that cannot be questioned, let alone disputed, without exposing oneself to the danger of being falsely labeled as a “racist.”
[Ed.:
Diplomatic option toward Iran is self-destructive Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger
December 20, 2023 – *The US State Department’s diplomatic option has facilitated the transformation of Iran from “the American policeman of the Gulf” to “the largest anti-American venomous octopus in the world,” stretching its rogue arms from the Persian Gulf through Africa to Latin America and the US-Mexico border, which it perceives as the soft underbelly of the US.
*The diplomatic option – including a frail US response to sustained Iranian attacks on US installations in the Persian Gulf region – has aggravated Middle East instability, threatening the survival of every pro-US Arab regime, and is inducing anti-US global Islamic terrorism. This is severely eroding US posture of deterrence, benefitting Russia, China and mostly Iran, while undermining US national and homeland security.
*The diplomatic option has suspended most economic sanctions – without Congressional consent – surging Iran’s oil export from 500,000 barrels per day to 2-3 million barrels per day, increasing Iran’s national income by some $100bn, mostly dedicated to bolster Iran’s anti-US rogue operations, increasingly in Latin America, the US’ backyard.
Islam and Criminal Law BY M.A. BRAGADIN
DEC 19, 2023 2:30 PM – Two of the most valuable things by which our culture has been enriched are the freedom of expression and the freedom of religion. They are so highly esteemed that many countries have enshrined them in their constitutions. The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States may serve as an example. The curious thing about this amendment, however, is that it does not set any limits to these freedoms. In contrast, many countries have put limits on them. The Dutch Grondwet, for example, qualifies them both with the clause “behoudens ieders verantwoordelijkheid voor de wet“: “except for everyone’s liability before the law.” This clause is intended to set a limit to these rights by means of the penal code. You can say whatever you want, but in doing so, you are restricted by the penal code. Insulting or threatening someone, for example, or inciting people to break the law, is not covered by the freedom of expression.
Now let’s take a close look at Mohamedanism. It has a sacred book, called the Qur’an, and provides a massive number of stories about Mohamed (if he ever existed) in the Hadith. What strikes most students of this material is its undeniably antisemitic character. Now, it must be noted that just like Jews, the Arabs (including Mohamed) qualify as Semites, so the notion that he was antisemitic means anti-Jewish. Antisemitism is, in some countries, a criminal offense.
It must furthermore be noted that the Qur’an literally incites Mohamedans to violence, for example in surah 47, verse 4: “So when you meet the kuffar, strike [their] necks.” Incitement to violence is a criminal offense. Please note that this surah mentions the kuffar, the unbelievers. Christians qualify as kuffar. It is because of this surah that in many terrorist attacks, the focus is on cutting the necks of the intended victims. The surah quoted is only one of many inciting to violence, or insulting whole groups, such as the Jews.
In addition, Mohamedanism states that Mohamed is the perfect example, al insan al kamil. Now let’s study an hadith, specifically concerning the aftermath of the Battle of the Trench, when the Muslims broke the siege of Mecca and Mohamed believed that the Banu Qurayzah, a Jewish tribe of Medina, had betrayed him. Mohamed’s earliest biographer, Ibn Ishaq, describes the killing of the Banu Qurayza men as follows:
Then they surrendered, and the Apostle confined them in Medina in the quarter of d. al-Harith, a woman of B. al-Najjar. Then the Apostle went out to the market of Medina (which is still its market today) and dug trenches in it. Then he sent for them and struck off their heads in those trenches as they were brought out to him in batches. Among them was the enemy of Allah Huyayy b. Akhtab and Ka`b b. Asad their chief. There were 600 or 700 in all, though some put the figure as high as 800 or 900.
(…)
The spoils of battle, including the enslaved women and children of the tribe, were divided up among the Muslims that had participated in the siege and among the emigrees from Mecca (who had hitherto depended on the help of the Muslims native to Medina).
As part of his share of the spoils, Muhammad selected one of the women, Rayhana, for himself and took her as part of his booty.
From this story, it follows that the perfect example personally beheaded at least 600 fighting-age Jewish men. Some will have it that Mohamed was smiling all the time, giving him the nickname “the laughing killer.”
This episode shows that Mohamed didn’t shy away from genocide, and in this, he set an example. Genocide is a criminal offense.
Enslavement is also a criminal offense.
According to the hadith, furthermore, al insan al kamil had multiple wives. Polygamy is a criminal offense in Western culture. One of these wives was Aisha, whom he married when she was 6 years old; the marriage was consummated when she was 9 years old. In practically all Western penal codes, this qualifies as child rape and statutory rape.
Rape is considered a legitimate act for jihadists under the sharia. Vide October 7. Rape is a criminal offense.
In conclusion, we have seen how the Qur’an and Mohamedanism are continually inciting people to criminal offenses. Now, if that is the case, then why are the authorities in countries which limit the freedom of expression expressly by their penal code tolerating this?
‘Kaplan Force’ and the ‘Swords of Iron’ war Yisrael Medad
Hamas put a stop to the judicial reform protests that filled Israeli streets and channeled that into unity. At least, for now. Opinion.
Dec 20, 2023, 12:00 PM (GMT+2) – (JNS) There exists a deeply embedded suspicion in right-wing circles that the actions and rhetoric of the so-called “Kaplan Force” groups contributed to the Hamas invasion of Oct. 7 in Israel’s southwest region along the Gaza border. The essence of the theory is that Hamas—observing the literal tearing apart of Israeli society—became convinced that a strike would succeed since the core factor of protests was the weakening of the Israel Defense Forces through calls to refuse reserve duty in essential military units, such as air-force pilots and intelligence drone operators.
Is that suspicion in any way justified or at the least conceivable? Was Hamas emboldened, if not encouraged, to launch the pogrom that it had been planning for perhaps years?
In order to understand the vicious and venomous nature observed in the Kaplan Force sloganeering, it is necessary to grasp that the campaign began some six years ago and, despite the noise and contamination of the public discourse, has been largely unsuccessful. That itself increases the bitterness of those invested in its (lack of) success.
Jonathan Pollard: Arrest Heads of Kaplan Force [33:41]
Young Americans Want to See the End of Israel | The Caroline Glick Show In-Focus [38:17] JNS TV
December 19, 2023 – A shocking poll shows young Americans’ hateful attitudes towards Jews, the Biden administration sets up Israel to be charged with war crimes and continues a policy that sides with Israel’s enemies.
Victory for Israel! Analysis. The Sovereignty Movement interviews Prof. Aryeh Eldad [16:28]
A ten-part series about Israel that needed to be posted on YouTube Rabbi Prof. Dov Fischer
Watch this series to ducate your family and friends, and then share it with your friend’s college kid or niece/nephew.
Dec 19, 2023, 4:00 PM (GMT+2) – I finally did it — because someone had to. Responding to requests from all over the place, I did something I never before have done: I posted on YouTube videos of classes I have taught for my shul via Zoom.
Ever since my lung transplant in particular, I have been teaching heavily on Zoom — three or four classes each week on topics ranging from (i) Nakh (the Biblical Prophets) to (ii) Mishneh and Rambam’s Mishnah Torah to (iii) Advanced Judaic Topics with Advanced Torah Texts to (iv) multi-part series on specific topics that grab me, like the History of Jews in the United States and, more recently, one or two hours weekly on the latest developments from Israel.
But there has been one topic that I taught half a year ago that somehow hit a unique chord all its own: a 10-part series on the Jewish Underground (Machteret) and its role in the Rise of the Modern Country of Israel.
(I must digress: Please note that I refer to Israel as a “Country.” I adamantly refuse to call it a “State.” Delaware and North Dakota are states. A state is picayune. Others lacked the guts to call Israel “Eretz Yisrael,” the “Country of Israel,” because they were afraid the Arabs would say such a name implies Zionist designs on Iraq, based on an expanded definition of Biblical Promised Israel. So they used “Medinat Yisrael,” and everyone mindlessly calls Israel a “State.” That makes it less scary to speak of a “Two-State Solution.” What’s so scary about Virginia and West Virginia near each other? North Dakota and South Dakota? North Carolina and South Carolina? Iowa and Whatever Is Near It? Big deal — two states. Well, unlike a “state,” a country has armies, an air force, and even more mass-destructive weapons. Like Russia and Ukraine. So: (i) There is no “Palestine,” and Israel is not a “state.” It is a “Country,” no less than England, France, Russia, or Zimbabwe.)
… The entire 10-Part YouTube Playlist can be found here or here. [Emphasis added] And I do not just teach facts; I take sides. I am not afraid to cheer on the Irgun and Lechi. Each session is one hour. It is a bit choppy, not at all a Hollywood production. .,.
“Solution,” said you? Jack Engelhard
Here’s what two-state solution really means.Opinion.
Dec 19, 2023, 4:00 PM (GMT+2) – Seems to me that if Biden and his people have their way, “the day after” will look exactly as the day before.
In other words, under the Biden Plan, the same terrorists will run Gaza, but under different names.
So, Hamas becomes PA/PLO/Fatah, and Yahya Sinwar becomes Mahmoud Abbas. If there’s a difference from one gang to the next, I’d like to know what it is.
On the streets of New York City, it’s called Three-Card Monte, where the Card Sharp keeps shuffling the deck… and magically he wins, you lose, sucker.
The Biden/Blinken Plan is the same bad bet…which the Israelis are sure to refuse, though already the set-up against Israel is in the works, up front and behind the scenes.
Abbas is being made kosher for their big move.
Namely, the two-state solution, and borrowing somewhat from what we wrote, Feb 28, 2021, see, Writings, this is what a two-state solution really means…
Throughout Trump’s presidency, we seldom heard that refrain… two-state solution….and a relief it was. It was a pleasure to have it gone like a bad tooth.
Denmark Declares War on Multiculturalism [18:58] VisualPolitik EN
December 8, 2023 – For many years, decades even, the rich Nordic social democracies were seen as the perfect haven for immigration. Regardless of origin, race, religion or any other status, most of these countries were built by the arrival of hundreds of thousands of foreigners.
Some time ago, however, all this has begun to change, especially in Denmark. Denmark is by far the Nordic country that has taken the most radical approach to illegal immigration. Did you know that the Danish government is even demolishing immigrant neighbourhoods? In this video we tell you all the details.
We recommend this video: Why does SWEDEN NO LONGER WANT IMMIGRANTS?
Tucker Carlson Makes Ominous Comments on the Truth Behind UFOs: ‘Really Dark… There’s a Spiritual Component There I Don’t Fully Understand’ (VIDEO 29:29) By Mike Lachance
Dec. 16, 2023 7:50 pm – Tucker Carlson appeared on the ‘Redacted’ podcast this week, hosted by his former FOX News colleague Clayton Morris.
Morris asked him which news stories bother him the most. Tucker responded, saying that he is most bothered by the 2020 election, saying that he now believes that there were issues surrounding the election that he once dismissed but now concedes may be true.
Then he started talking about UFOs and things took a dark turn. Tucker suggested that if you talk to people with real knowledge on this topic, that there are aspects of it it that are so dark, that he won’t even discuss it with his wife. He also says that there is a ‘spiritual’ component to the issue that he does not understand and goes on to say that he wishes he did not know about this.
Partial transcript via Twitter:
“There’s a spiritual component there I don’t fully understand.”
“Part of it is the public can’t deal with it. It’s too far out. The implications are too profound.”
“This is established and I feel comfortable saying it, these are real, whatever they are, they’re not human, and the government has known that for a long time, possibly going back to the 1930’s, at least.
There’s tons of evidence in the written record, in paintings, in literature, that people have been seeing and interacting with these things for a long time.”
“There is some stuff, if it’s true, and I’m kind of thinking it is true, it’s so radical, we don’t want to tell the people we love most about it.”
Watch the video [or don’t bother…]
[Ed.: The half-hour video does not say anything about UFOs except that Tucker says that its a dark and ominous subject! Very disappointing. Frankly, I’m more concerned about those earthlings flying around in hi-tech drones at night monitoring us. Perhaps that is what he was alluding to?]
Shockingly Good: Bill Maher Throws Down – Explains Reality of the Genocidal “From the River to the Sea” Chant [GREAT Video 8:13] By Margaret Flavin
Dec. 16, 2023 2:00 pm
Bill Maher has had strong words in the aftermath of the Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7 in Israel that are becoming more and more out of step with the radical leftists in the Democrat party.
In a recent episode, he took a swipe at former President Obama for comments he made this week about the Israel-Hamas war and shared his disappointment in the former President’s “moral equivalency.”
He has slammed liberals for defending Hamas and the rise of anti-semitism among you people.
He lambasted elite colleges for their “indoctrination into a stew of bad ideas” and the suppression of free speech.
In November, he even took the bold move, at least within his own party, of defending Western civilization.
On Friday’s episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher shared his new rule on the genocidal “From the River to the Sea” chant favored by leftists.
Even more surprising than Maher’s take is the audience’s enthusiastic applause and approval at his remarks.
[Ed.: Be sure to see the comments to this article at Gateway Pundit! Maher is definitely moving to the right! His Democrat audience here is applauding…“They’re here, they like their bagels with a shmear, get used to it!”]
Erasing the past TIERNEY’S REAL NEWS
DEC 17, 2023 – The Islamo-Communists running Minnesota just unveiled the new Minnesota flag. They said the old one was offensive to Native Americans. Right.
Obama Judge Forbid Rudy Giuliani From Defending Himself Against Charges – Rudy Giuliani Speaks Out on War Room (VIDEO 24:19) By Jim Hoft
Dec. 16, 2023 8:10 pm – On Friday a Washington DC jury ruled that Rudy Giuliani owed plaintiffs Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss $148 million in their lawsuit against him. The two Georgia election workers alleged defamation after Rudy previously claimed the two women contributed to voter fraud in Georgia’s 2020 election.
At the time of the 2020 election, the two women made little money. Shaye Moss’s annual salary was reportedly about $35,000 as an interim supervisor at the elections department. However, one document from the plaintiff’s exhibits showed that Moss’s pre-tax income was $259,000 during at least one of the years since the 2020 election. Freeman and Moss were elevated to the level of heroes in the mainstream media after the election and by Joe Biden earlier this year when he awarded them both Presidential Citizens Medals for their “exemplary contributions to our democracy surrounding January 6, 2021.”
The Gateway Pundit reported on the shocking news that the DC jury awarded Ruby and Shaye $100 million more than their attorneys asked for. The $148 million total will be split between the mother and daughter.
On Friday night, Giuliani told The Gateway Pundit’s Jordan Conradson, “My next steps are going to be to appeal it.” He continued, “It is going to take a while because there’s so much to appeal.”
This morning Mayor Giuliani joined Steve Bannon on The War Room. Rudy told Steve that Obama-nominated Judge Beryl Howell forbid Rudy from defending himself in her courtroom. How is this allowed in America?
There’s more. The women are represented by top east coast lawyers.
Mutants Among Us BY DANIEL GREENFIELD
How do you create a generation that will believe in anything?
DEC 15, 2023 5:00 PM – After Oct 7, some purple-haired genderqueer activists on TikTok have taken to reading the Koran and are pondering converting to Islam. That may seem like a leap, but once you’re a teenage girl who decides to be a boy for internet clout, changing to Islam is less difficult.
Hijabs, like dyed hair and androgynous clothes, have long become just another accessory of restless social change. Commercials that claim to relate to the youth invariably include a woman in a hijab as a progressive marker alongside a purple haired they/them, an ascetic activist type in a t-shirt and random minorities laughing together while having lattes on a college campus.
Every generation in the last 60 years has grown up with less of a sense of who it is than the previous one. The intangible sense of being an American that once came from boundless frontiers, a work ethic, a sense of fair play and meritocracy was replaced by cultural programming distributed by daily newspapers, big publishing houses and movie theaters, then television networks and colleges, and finally a massive chaotic stream of social media sewage.
American identity used to be so strong because it was internal and acquired through hard work and the character shaping experiences of life in a country with many possibilities, but it became performative for those members of newer generations with diminishing frontiers who acquired theirs from following a script written for them by the entertainment industry and radical academics. Rather than learning who they were, they copied who they thought they should be.
Social media combined with academic theories that reduced all identities to a construct unleashed a generation of mutants who mimeographed behaviors on social media. Identity became a game. And identity could be gamed for maximum advantage. Socially astute and emotionally unstable teens spread social media diseases like transgenderism or facial tics
Sodomy in the Senate TIERNEY’S REAL NEWS
DEC 16, 2023 – The Daily Caller (the former media outlet owned by Tucker Carlson) leaked a video of two gay males having anal sex in the US Capitol. One worked for Democrat Senator Ben Cardin. The other is still unidentified. The Spectator also reported this “breaking news.” Then, other investigative reporters went into action to find more details.
I know many righteous people will tell me NOT to report on debauchery like this. They prefer NOT to see it. Well, it looks like this guy is a foreign agent and is doing this to blackmail our elected officials. Also, both Madison Cawthorn & George Santos testified that this type of activity is going on in the Halls of Congress and the Republicans removed them for telling the truth!
This is the real sickness that has infected every US institution in the United States of GAY America and it needs to stop! Sodom and Gomorrah!
