Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer, who frequently opines on issues pertaining to Israel, Zionism, and anti-Semitism, has agreed to take part in a <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/8c47026d6af148588f3ad8f4c1c2935d">debate</a> about the Trump administration’s new Israeli-Palestinian peace plan at the new website <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/">Pairagraph</a>, which <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/about">describes itself</a> as “a platform for written dialogue between pairs of notable individuals” and “an online meeting place for the world’s most prominent figures across government, industry, academia, religion, and the arts.”
Hammer was previously scheduled to <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/b155455f1bf04a71a596bf1b8cb0cf13">debate</a> Palestinian-Arab activist <a style="font-style: italic;" href="https://twitter.com/Issaamro">Issa Amro</a>, but Amro <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/b155455f1bf04a71a596bf1b8cb0cf13/2">refused to respond</a> to Hammer after his <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/b155455f1bf04a71a596bf1b8cb0cf13/1">initial response</a>. Pairagraph then secured Omar Baddar as a new debate opponent, and Baddar <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/8c47026d6af148588f3ad8f4c1c2935d/2">responded</a> to Hammer on Sunday. The Pairagraph debate format consists of dueling 500-word entries. 
Here is Hammer&#8217;s <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/8c47026d6af148588f3ad8f4c1c2935d/3">rebuttal to Baddar</a>.
<div>
An old lawyer maxim goes: &#8220;If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither on your side, pound the table.&#8221;
Omar Baddar is pounding the table. He has doused a field of straw men in gasoline and applied an industrial-grade blowtorch.
Baddar embraces countless obfuscations and outright lies. There was no &#8220;ethnic cleansing&#8221; in 1948 — only the fateful Arab rejection of November 1947. Blame for the 1967 war lies squarely with Gamal Abdel Nasser, who repeatedly vowed to exterminate Israel and militarized the Sinai in defiance of the 1956 demilitarization. U.N. S.C.R. 242 has never been internalized by the Palestinian Authority, but Israel has frequently offered a generous Palestinian state (e.g., 2000 and 2008) hewing closely to 1948&#8217;s harrowing &#8220;Auschwitz borders.&#8221; Israel did not instigate the civilizational jihad that was Arafat&#8217;s Second Intifada; rather, the mentee of Hitler ally Haj Amin al-Husseini planned it while rejecting the peace offered at Camp David in July 2000. (“[Arafat] did not negotiate in good faith; indeed, he did not negotiate at all,&#8221; President Clinton said.)
Baddar and his ilk nonsensically shout &#8220;apartheid,&#8221; but if the Palestinian-Arabs wanted peace, they would have negotiated one of the sundry times Israel has offered statehood. Instead, the PA has become the laughingstock of the Arab world. The vile 1967 Khartoum Resolution is now the very distant past; following Trump&#8217;s peace plan unveiling, Saudi Arabia said it &#8220;appreciate[d] the efforts of President Trump’s administration to develop a comprehensive peace plan.&#8221; The UAE&#8217;s foreign affairs minister approvingly tweeted a Bret Stephens column decrying Palestinian rejectionism.
Historically, separatist movements are rarely successful. Those separatist movements — Tibetans, Kurds, etc. — that might be offered a state by the &#8220;international community&#8221; would gladly accept. That the PA, which names parks after suicide bombers and directly subsidizes murderous jihad via &#8220;pay to slay,&#8221; rejects such offers gives the game away. The PA&#8217;s ultimate goal is not peace, but to kill all the Jews. &#8220;From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free,&#8221; a rally cry frequently associated with terror-sympathizing hate groups, is nothing short of a call to genocide.
The Arab world, sobered by Iran, finally sees the Palestinian ruse. It wants to finally resolve this issue. Accordingly, the Trump peace plan is emphatically reasonable. That the plan&#8217;s bare-bones preconditions to full Palestinian statehood — cease indoctrinating Palestinian-Arab children in Jew-hatred, oust Hamas, etc. — are viewed as non-starters in Ramallah says all one needs to know about the moral midgets of the PA.
There is zero — zero — compelling U.S. national security interest in carving out a PLO/PA jihadist state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The PA is fortunate that it has enough addlebrained leftists to carry its flag and keep viable the &#8220;two-state&#8221; solution paradigm. Israel has yet again stretched out its hand, but the PA is again poised to throw its own people under the bus.
</div>
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RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-at-pairagraph-trumps-israel-palestinian-peace-plan-is-fair-and-just-part-1">Hammer At ‘Pairagraph’: Trump’s Israel-Palestinian Peace Plan Is Fair And Just (Part 1)</a>

Israel : Illustration

Hammer At ‘Pairagraph’: Trump’s Israel-Palestinian Peace Plan Is Fair And Just (Part 2)

Donald Trump

Foreign Policy

Hamas

Israel

Middle East

Palestinians

Radical Islam

Radical Islamic Terror

Students for Justice in Palestine

“Jerusalem is ours, our weapon is our Islam, and our ammunition is our children. And you, O my son, are meant for martyrdom.” 
This <a href="https://palwatch.org/page/16939">statement</a>, uttered by a Palestinian mother to her son, was posted on the official Facebook page of Fatah, the political party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Unfortunately, the sentiment expressed in this Facebook post is not a rare one. The use of Palestinian children as child soldiers and terrorists has been prevalent in the Levant for decades — and not just by Fatah. Hamas, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other organizations indoctrinate children and regularly send them to their deaths. With more light being shed on the issue recently, it is time for all people of good conscience to stand up and tell these children what their leaders will not: They deserve life.
The practice of using children in warfare and terrorism is immoral and contradicts the norms outlined in the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx">U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child</a> in 1989. The U.N. articles ban the use of children in any military capacity — such as combatants, laborers, and support staff. Thankfully, many countries have signed and ratified the convention, thereby committing to the protection of the most vulnerable amongst us. However, this ban means nothing if the international community fails to speak up against violations of this norm, or even address the issue in any serious way.
There are roughly <a href="https://www.un.org/youthenvoy/2015/02/4-10-child-soldiers-girls/">300,000 estimated child soldiers</a> around the world in over 20 countries. About 40% of the children are girls, sometimes as young as eight years old. While there has been much attention and even some <a href="https://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/2020/02/south-sudan-comprehensive-action-plan-to-end-prevent-all-grave-violations-against-children-signed-by-government/">successes</a> in addressing the issue in African countries (though of course, much more is necessary), the issue of Palestinian-Arab child soldiers, specifically, has thus far failed to grasp the world’s attention. Worse, it is sometimes even excused.
For too long, the systemic abuse that Palestinian minors suffer at the hands of their oppressive leaders has gone largely ignored by the international community. Far too many children have been sent to their deaths, either as suicide bombers or while carrying out stabbing attacks. The abuse extends from &#8220;traditional&#8221; combat roles to every imaginable dangerous auxiliary capacity. Children are used by Gaza-based terror groups as <a href="https://nypost.com/2015/05/02/un-report-outlines-how-hamas-used-kids-as-human-shields/">human shields</a>, whether it’s protecting adult terrorists on the front lines of violent riots, or protecting weapon stores and rocket launching silos intentionally placed in proximity to, or even inside, Gaza schools.
Indoctrination in violence frequently begins in the Palestinian-Arab education system. Countless reports of inflammatory material propagated on official Palestinian Authority- or Hamas-run media have been published, yet have received little condemnation internationally. It took until August 2019 for the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to issue its first ever <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-first-un-panel-calls-on-palestinians-to-halt-hate-speech-against-israelis/">condemnation</a> of incitement and anti-Semitism found in Palestinian Authority textbooks. The textbooks included glorification of terrorists like <a href="https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5161024,00.html">Dalal Mughrabi</a>, who viciously slaughtered 38 civilians, including 13 children, during the 1978 &#8220;Coastal Road massacre.&#8221; Even <a href="https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/Data/articles/Art_20997/E_080_16_1749675127.pdf">kindergarteners</a> are not off limits from Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another Gaza-based terror group, even runs terrorist <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/100000-children-attend-radical-Hamas-summer-camps">summer</a> boot camps for about 10,000 children.
The tragedy of Palestinian child soldiers — or any child soldier, for that matter — does not end once the child takes off the uniform. Those who survive their ordeal often exhibit severe psychological trauma that hinders their ability to adjust to civilian life. The evil people who turn children into tools of war for their own political gain do not merely rob children of their childhoods; they rob them of the joy of living normal lives.
On February 12, 2020, the word commemorates the annual “Red Hand Day,” which is meant to draw attention to child soldiers. There is no better time to shine a light on the plight of Palestinian-Arab children suffering at the hands of their oppressive, corrupt leaders.
Indeed, some have already to take matters into their own hands. A <a href="http://www.pcsweek.org/">multi-NGO campaign</a> is underway on social media and college campuses to raise awareness about the nightmare that so many Palestinian-Arab children are forced to endure. This campaign encourages citizens to send open letters to their governments and public leaders. Yet this is merely the first step.
We all have a duty to raise awareness and pressure Palestinian-Arab leaders to cease these exploitative practices. Palestinian-Arabs must know that they can have more to life than death and murder — and are worth more than ammunition. Even if no one else will tell them this, we must.

Mahmoud Abbas

FISCHBERGER: Palestinian Child Soldiers Can No Longer Be Ignored

Anti-Semitism

United Nations

Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer, who frequently opines on issues pertaining to Israel, Zionism, and anti-Semitism, has agreed to take part in a <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/b155455f1bf04a71a596bf1b8cb0cf13">debate</a> about the Trump administration&#8217;s new Israeli-Palestinian peace plan at the new website <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.pairagraph.com">Pairagraph</a>, which <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/about">describes itself</a> as &#8220;a platform for written dialogue between pairs of notable individuals&#8221; and &#8220;an online meeting place for the world’s most prominent figures across government, industry, academia, religion, and the arts.&#8221;
Here is Hammer&#8217;s <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/b155455f1bf04a71a596bf1b8cb0cf13">opening salvo in his debate</a> against Palestinian-Arab activist <a href="https://twitter.com/Issaamro">Issa Amro</a>. The Pairagraph debate format consists of dueling 500-word entries.
In the entire history of human civilization, there has never, ever been an independent Arab state situated between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
Never.
At the same time, there has been a continuous Jewish presence in the historical Land of Israel — including the biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria, which &#8220;international community&#8221; ignoramuses nonsensically call the &#8220;West Bank&#8221; — for thousands of years.
The modern 20th/21st-century history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not difficult to grasp. The Balfour Declaration of 1917, San Remo Resolution of 1920, Article 22 of the League of Nations Covenant, and the Peel Commission all laid the pre-World War II positive law foundation for what we all already knew from Genesis: The Jews are entitled to our land. In November 1947, the U.N. Partition Plan for Palestine proposed a pro-Arab partition that would have given the Jews a tiny, unworkable state. The Jews accepted; the Arabs rejected and instead launched a genocidal war to kill the Jews. The Arabs lost. The Arabs tried in 1967 and lost again. They tried in 1973 and lost yet again. The unrepentant terrorist Yasser Arafat and his Holocaust-denying kleptocratic Palestinian Authority successor, the brutish Mahmoud Abbas, have similarly never been nearly as interested in negotiating peace as they have been in killing Jews and inciting bloody jihad. In a sign of good will, even after Arafat&#8217;s Second Intifada murdered over 1,000 Jews and grievously maimed many thousand more, Israel in 2005 unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip — forcibly uprooting its own citizens en route. Jihadist outfit Hamas took over and turned the Strip into an Iran-subsidized terrorist enclave.
Again, the history is not difficult to understand. As Dennis Prager has said, if the Israelis were to lay down their guns, Israel would be destroyed tomorrow. But if the Palestinian-Arabs were to lay down their guns, there would be peace tomorrow.
All the Palestinian-Arabs have to do is accept Israel as a Jewish state with secure and recognized borders, pursuant to U.N. Security Resolution 242, and there will be immediate peace. But they have not done so because the sprawling Arab world, with devastating rapacity, has never abided a Jewish state that is smaller than the state of New Jersey.
The Trump administration soberly recognizes that under properly construed international law, Israel has (by far) the best legal claim to all of Judea and Samaria. Jordan illegally occupied the territory after the failed 1948 Arab war of aggression, after all, and Israel won it back only in the defensive war of 1967. Israel has always been willing to make political concessions of the land for peace, as no less conservative a prime minister as Benjamin Netanyahu&#8217;s acceptance of the Trump peace plan demonstrates.
The Trump plan deals with the reality on the ground — the reality of inveterate Palestinian-Arab intransigence, rejectionism, and glorification of jihad. The U.S. cannot be &#8220;neutral&#8221; as between stalwart moral/strategic ally Israel and a thuggish Palestinian Authority. Good for Trump for recognizing that.

Western Wall, Jerusalem, Israel

Hammer At ‘Pairagraph’: Trump’s Israel – Palestinian Peace Plan Is Fair And Just (Part 1)

Benjamin Netanyahu

Trump Administration

Zionism

We have to wait until President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan is unveiled to discuss it; those already discussing are likely to be wrong. But it is worth reviewing where Israelis, Palestinians, Arab states, and Americans have been — and why this time may be different.
The central flaw in the “Palestinian-Israeli peace process” has never been addressed. There has not been — and there is not now — a shared goal toward which Israelis and Palestinians can be induced to work. Instead, each side has three specific and irreconcilable objectives.
The Palestinians — both Hamas and Fatah — seek:
<ul>
<li>An independent state without recognizing a legitimate and permanent state of Israel in any territory. Both factions are willing to accept a temporary agreement with Israel on the way to the fulfillment of the <a href="https://iris.org.il/plochart.htm">PLO Charter</a> to which both are committed. (Reading the Charter will tell you what else they are committed to, and it isn’t a “two state solution.”)</li>
<li>Sovereign control of East Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state.</li>
<li>The right of entry for all remaining 1948–1949 Arab refugees from Britain’s Mandatory Palestine, as well s their descendants, to any place within pre-1967 Israel in which they or their antecedents claim to have lived.</li>
</ul>
Israel seeks three different things:
<ul>
<li>Recognition of the legitimacy and permanence of Israel within finalized “secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force”: U.N. Resolution 242’s security promise to Israel.</li>
<li>The capital of Israel in Jerusalem and Israeli protection for Jewish patrimony in the eastern part of Jerusalem.</li>
<li>“End of conflict; end of claims.” After an agreement, the Palestinians will not be able to press additional claims against Israel for territory or other “rights.”</li>
</ul>
Beyond the issue of objectives, all previous “Palestinian-Israeli peace processes” were doomed because they operated as if the protagonists were on an island in the middle of the sea rather than in the middle of the Middle East. Until recently, the Palestinians counted on lip service, at a minimum — guns and money in better cases — from the so-called “Arab world” and a variety of African and Middle Eastern states. This broad, if shallow, support covered up the fact that the Palestinians were the weakest link in regional politics. It was impossible for Palestinian Authority (PA) strongman Mahmoud Abbas — let alone Hamas — to recognize the legitimacy of Jewish nationhood and accept a split, rump state squeezed between Jordan and Israel if the Arab states with the money and the guns didn’t go along.
The more the U.S. pressed for Palestinian concessions that would rile the bankers, the more the Palestinians retreated. Intransigence and violence were their defense against being told to defy their Arab state patrons.
The core issue was never jobs or civil society or drinking water — or even a state — for the Palestinians; it was never about Palestinians at all. It was about the failure of the Arab states to accept the reality of 1948 and their losses in 1949, and recognize the legitimacy and permanence of the state of Israel in the region. “Secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force,” says U.N. Resolution 242, and that is the obligation of Arab States to Israel.
And finally, they’re getting there. Anwar Sadat’s bold move has never been the vision of conservative Arab leaders; Sadat, after all, died. But today, Israel’s relations with the Sunni Arab world are closing in on something real. Yes, it is based on threat perception on both sides. Yes, it is tentative. Yes, it has a lot to do with the price of oil. No, it isn’t closeness borne of shared values and governing systems. OK, let’s not get carried away. But this is the Arab-Israeli process. It doesn’t need Palestinians, but maybe they can benefit. If not, not.
Palestinians patrons today are Iran, an increasingly bellicose and Islamist Turkey, and weak European states with little to contribute.
And finally, the Americans.
The PA appears to have mistaken America as an “honest broker” for America as a “neutral party.” Between Palestinians and Israelis, the United States is not, and should not, ever be &#8220;neutral.&#8221; With Israel we share goals, values, and history; with the Palestinians we do not. &#8220;Honest broker&#8221; is something else. The U.S. has an obligation to state clearly the requirements of peace and ensure that both players understand the consequences of breaking the rules.
Pursuit of arrangements between Israel and the Palestinians is not for the faint-hearted. The parties deserve honest brokerage — American &#8220;neutrality&#8221; would be a betrayal of an ally.
Now, let’s see what the Trump administration has in mind.
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Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/">The Jewish Policy Center</a> in Washington, and Editor of inFOCUS Quarterly.

US President Donald Gives A Speech At Israel Museum

BRYEN: Running Up To The Peace Process

Jerusalem

The Daily Wire conducted an email interview with New York City Jewish leader <a href="https://twitter.com/HikindDov">Dov Hikind</a>, a former Democratic New York state assemblyman, founder of <a href="https://twitter.com/AmericansAA">Americans Against Antisemitism</a>, and prominent public-facing activist representing large swaths of New York&#8217;s Orthodox Jewish community. Just last month, President Trump called Hikind a &#8220;highly respected Jewish leader&#8221;:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Thank you to highly respected Jewish leader Dov Hikind for his wonderful statements about me this morning on <a href="https://twitter.com/foxandfriends?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@foxandfriends</a>.
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1211655287247126535?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
What follows is a question-and-answer exchange about anti-Semitism — and how to fight it.
The Daily Wire (TDW): Anti-Semitism is, of course, the world&#8217;s oldest bigotry. But why has it been so on the rise over the past decade or so in Europe and now, it seems, in the U.S.?
Dov Hikind (DH): The answer is complex, as there are many factors involved. Though Europe and the U.S. are experiencing increased anti-Semitism, the sources aren’t exactly the same. In Europe, most physical attacks and verbal assaults are committed by Muslims — though there is also a resurgent far-Right. In America, nationally, it is primarily a white supremacy problem; but in the major cities, which happen to be areas with high concentration of Jews, it’s the far-Left and minority groups that are responsible for perpetuating anti-Semitism and justifying the violence committed in its name. But what they do have in common is that the rise happens because hatred is tolerated and anti-Semitism is back in vogue. Additionally, the cesspool of hatred that can be found on social media has no borders or political affiliations and serves to feed the growing hateful appetites on both sides of the Atlantic.
TDW: How much do you blame Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio for the rise in anti-Semitism in New York and New York City, specifically?
DH: I’m not in the habit of blaming any single individual for a massive problem that predates their own existence. The governor and mayor did not create anti-Semitism and certainly don’t directly contribute to its rise. They are, however, responsible for reacting appropriately and swiftly to restore the sense of security that has been robbed of the Jewish community. And here, the onus is more on the mayor than the governor since it’s New York City that is far beyond out of control in comparison with any other city in America. That’s not a great distinction for New York to hold. So I don’t blame them for the rise, but they are to be held accountable for the lack of results on the ground.
TDW: To what extent have Mayor de Blasio&#8217;s constant attacks on police undermined the safety of Jews in New York City?
DH: That goes to the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-hammer-on-tipping-point-with-liz-wheeler-new-yorks-insane-pro-criminal-bail-law">broader issue of policing and criminal justice</a> that we’re seeing unfold now. There’s no doubt that when respect for law enforcement is undermined, so is respect for the law itself. Add to that the lack of consequences for violent anti-Semitic criminals, and there’s no doubt as to why there’s a lack of deterrence and the attacks continue unabated. The police of New York City are the best; they just need to be enabled to do their jobs with the dignity and respect they deserve. Strong policing ensures safe communities; they go hand in hand. It remains to be seen if these trends will be reversed or if they continue to deteriorate.
TDW: Why do so many Jews seem to not take self-defense seriously? Why is a fear of guns and gun ownership so seemingly popular among large swaths of the Jewish community?
DH: Two reasons: First, there is a notion that G-d protects every person, not guns — so if a person’s time comes, no gun will help. Second, there is a legitimate fear that in households filled with children, bringing in a lot of guns to a community that is not especially adjusted to it will only lead to accidents and tragedies that will be painfully regretted. Also, there’s a notion that the fighter, the one to take up arms, is not for every segment of the Jewish population. Some study and pray, some fight. I do think it’s important for every person, Jewish or not, to know how to defend oneself in this crazy and unpredictable world, but that’s a decision for each individual to make.
TDW: Why do so many people politicize anti-Semitism and weaponize it as a cudgel? Why do so many on the Left, in particular, only focus on white nationalist/neo-Nazi anti-Semitism and turn a blind eye to anti-Semitism from Islamists, so-called &#8220;anti-Zionists,&#8221; and black nationalists alike?
DH: Anti-Semitism has always been used as a cudgel. Rather, more precisely, Jews have always been used as political cudgel (in previous times, known as “the Jewish question/problem”). What it signifies is a certain decay and rot within society. When a society cannot face its decisions and actions, and instead seeks a scapegoat, the most available and returned to in history, are the Jews. Easy. Convenient. And it comes with an entire repertoire of “reasons” for hating Jews. Now, at this point in time, in America, it is the Left that has a major blind spot when it comes to anti-Semites in their ranks, and that’s because anti-Semites got so good at couching hateful rhetoric in the guise of humanitarian concern that they’ve lost sight of what they’re really promoting. Think of the morning Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) woke up to find that David Duke had tweeted in her support! A white supremacist neo-Nazi tweeting support for an African-American anti-Zionist anti-Semite! That’s the level of distortion and blindness at play in the current landscape that leads to such strange political bedfellows.
TDW: Is so-called &#8220;anti-Zionism&#8221; the same as anti-Semitism, pure and simple?
DH: Yes. Pure and simple. Why? Because can you find a similar movement that is “anti-China” over its detention of over 1,000,000 Uighur Muslims? Is there any anti-Syria movement over Bashar al-Assad’s committing genocide against his own people? The list goes on. The answer is no. There is only one movement of people that are mobilized to challenge the &#8220;right to exist&#8221; and sovereignty of a single nation on Earth, and that so happens to be the lone Jewish state. Anti-Zionism is simply one variation of anti-Semitism. It’s on the menu. You can hate Jews because we’re not white (neo-Nazis), because we’re white and share in its privilege (far-Left), or because we’re baby-killing, Zionist-colonialists who have absolutely no history in the land of Israel (radical Islamism). They can take their pick from the &#8220;hate du jour.&#8221;
TDW: What can be done to make Zionism and the pro-Israel cause palatable and popular again among the American and international Left?
DH: You know, traditionally this question gets an answer like, “we have to show how valuable Israel is to the world, how the start-up nation is innovating for the betterment of the world by bringing water and irrigation technologies to rain-deprived regions in Africa and being among the first to send rescue teams and humanitarian aid when natural disasters strike any country on earth.” But I’m personally sick of those answers because it implies that we need to constantly compete in some kind of warped popularity contest. Our deserving of equal rights and treatment on the global stage should not be tied to how wonderful Israel is. No. Let’s take Israel for no better than any other state, no more amazing — it would still be no less deserving of fair treatment! So I don’t think we can magically make Zionism and Israel more palatable, but more importantly, I don’t think that’s where our energies should go.
TDW: Why is Israel so unpopular on the American university campus? What can be done to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-how-pro-israel-students-campus-can-fight-josh-hammer">counter growing anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment</a> on the university campus?
DH: We know for a fact that a lot of money has been pouring into the American university system from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-al-jazeeras-disgraceful-holocaust-denying-josh-hammer">terror-supporting states like Qatar</a>, which bankrolls <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-israel-must-destroy-hamas-once-and-all-josh-hammer">Hamas</a> as well as the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-designating-muslim-brotherhood-terrorist-josh-hammer">Muslim Brotherhood</a> and its American subsidiary, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/firester-cairs-fight-to-undermine-u-s-border-security-continues">CAIR</a>. These benefactors are behind groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine, which is single handedly responsible for creating a terribly toxic environment for Jewish students and faculty. Frankly, I don’t believe Jewish groups will ever invest the same resources in combating those efforts as the enemies of Israel do, but it goes back to high school education. When you peel that layer back and see what kind of Jewish education students have received prior to arriving on campus, it becomes clear that too many lack the basic and adequate knowledge to defend themselves against the malicious lies and libels that anti-Semitic student groups spread. If we can better educate our high school students, they’ll have a better chance at fighting back against anti-Semitism on university campuses.
TDW: What role does education play, exactly, in countering anti-Semitism? How can education about the Holocaust and Jewish history, in general, help counter the trend?
DH: Crucial. Central. It’s all about education. Hate is borne of ignorance. But the task is doubly as hard because it’s not only a matter of getting the right information to students, but working to counter all the lies and falsehoods that are perpetuated at astounding speed and frequency. The Holocaust is the central case study of anti-Semitism because it encapsulates from beginning to end what the dangers of unchecked anti-Semitism look like. What starts with hateful rhetoric can easily end in a genocide perpetrated by the most &#8220;cultured&#8221; and &#8220;civilized&#8221; of European societies, with a majority of its citizens partaking in the apparatus that annihilated six million Jews. No society is immune to the plague of anti-Semitism. However, those who choose ignorance and denial of the Holocaust rather than wrestling with its wrenching paradoxes are those most likely to repeat its darkest chapters.
TDW: What advice would you give to those who are trying to make a difference in their own lives, in terms of countering anti-Semitism?
DH: Action! Get involved with an organization, like Americans Against Antisemitism, that takes concrete steps to combat this hatred. Taking part gives the individual a sense of control, that we are not victims or pawns, that we will not be pushed around, but will stand up for our G-d-given rights. But individuals can do anything that works for them. For some, it’s being loud on social media; for others it&#8217;s hosting events and attending rallies. The point is for every individual to do his or her part, no matter how small or big, because our force is increased with unity. And to be clear, one need not be Jewish to take up the fight against anti-Semitism; the fight to eradicate this special and oldest of hatreds is quintessentially an American struggle for the right to live in freedom and pursue happiness.

Assemblyman Dov Hikind &#8211; Jewish organizations held a protest

Fighting Anti-Semitism: An Interview With Jewish Leader Dov Hikind

Andrew Cuomo

Bill de Blasio

CAIR

Crime

Hate Crime

Holocaust

Judaism

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Visiting Jerusaelm for the World Holocaust form, French President Emmanuel Macron used the site of a holy church to <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/macron-yells-at-israeli-security-to-leave-french-church-during-jerusalem-visit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.timesofisrael.com/macron-yells-at-israeli-security-to-leave-french-church-during-jerusalem-visit/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1579878466728000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGd1lyLaA_FJ-ZMS6QNqiuEPliWKw">yell at the Israeli Police</a> who were protecting him.
This is just another episode of French antagonism to Israel’s presence in Jerusalem. In 2016, France supported a ludicrous UNESCO resolution that implied Jerusalem has no Jewish or Christian historical connection. The French prime minister at the time, Manuel Valls, subsequently expressed regret for his country’s action, but it did not stop France from doing it again: A year later, it abstained on a similar UNESCO resolution.
The following year, when President Trump announced that the United States will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move its embassy, France was at the forefront of the passionate and angry European opposition — itself more aggressive than the Palestinian and Arab reactions. Macron repeatedly claimed that the recognition would have negative security repercussions well beyond Jerusalem, stating that “the status of Jerusalem is a question of international security which concerns the entire international community.&#8221;
Such European position is based on a 1949 U.N. resolution that designated Jerusalem and Bethlehem as a “corpus separatum” to be placed under an international legal regime — essentially a European colony.
Macron did not stop there, and tried to link the May 2018 Hamas-led &#8220;Nakba day&#8221; Gaza riots to the opening of the new U.S. embassy: “Experience shows that whether you like it or not, things like that provoke violence in response. … This leads to people dying.” He said.
French disruptive meddling in the Middle East is not new. In 1920, French actions triggered the first shots in what became the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. France invaded Syria in order to dethrone the pro-Zionist Arab Emir Faisal and to instill a French regime instead (nominally posing as a League of Nation mandate). While Jews attempted to stay neutral in the French-Arab conflict, local Arab commanders suspected French soldiers were hiding in the Jewish village of Tel-Chai and a deadly battle ensued.
The residue of French colonialism was very much on display in Macron’s visit to Jerusalem on January 22. Indeed, it traces back as far as the inter-colonialist dealings of the 1850s, when the Ottoman Empire gave the Church of Saint Anne to France as a reward for France’s support in the Crimean War.
“Get out,” Macron yelled at Israeli Police as they entered that church with him. Analysts view this as an orchestrated show directed at Macron’s Muslim and far-left anti-Israel voters. Previous French President Jacques Chirac pulled a similar stunt during his 1996 Jerusalem visit. Walking through the narrow alleys of the Old City — a venue of multiple stabbings and other terrorist attacks — Chirac confronted his Israeli security detail for their tight protection.
What is alarming about the January 22 incident is not that Macron, like Chirac, decided to take a shot at Israel for seemingly internal political grains, but that he chose to do so in one of Christianity’s holy sites, located right on the Via Dolorosa. As Macron ordered Israeli Police out, he yelled at them that those rules have been in place for centuries and “that will not change with me.” Macron got it wrong. This colonialist-era arrangement could have only been in place for one century and a half.
While Macron might wish for Jerusalem and Bethlehem to be taken away from the locals and given to the “international community,” this particular part of Jerusalem should apparently belong to France. His spokesperson even clarified this point. Israeli Police stated that Macron’s team later apologized for the incident, and Macron went on to shake the hands of his security detail as they continued their tour of the Old City.
Notwithstanding the apology, one cannot ignore the disturbing pattern. This week’s actions come just a year after Macron outraged the world in announcing his plans to honor Marshal Petain, murderer of the Jews of France and head of the collaborative Vichy government, for his role in World War I. Macron later retracted the plan. Symbolically, the Macron incident occurred as he gathered along with 45 world leaders in Jerusalem to remember the Holocaust — a genocide for which France is still in the early stages of recognizing its previous occupied government&#8217;s complicit guilt. For example, a recent <a href="http://www.claimscon.org/france-study/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.claimscon.org/france-study/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1579878466728000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEVIoRCH-fCTziIpPRiSTN_v0QSVQ">study</a> showed that 45% of French millennials are unaware of the occupied French government’s collaboration with the Nazi regime during the Holocaust.
Let us be clear — France is an important ally of both Israel and the United States, and Macron is a friend. He is a courageous fighter against anti-Semitism, including in his repeated proclamation that there is no difference between anti-Zionism and anti Semitism. But friendship requires honesty and France should be told that it is time to take a deep look inside.
France’s repeated episodes of opposition to Jerusalem should not be taken lightly, even if followed by some sort of retraction or apology. Moreover, anti-Semitism in France is rising yet again and trickling up into the mainstream of French society. This was just as it did in the 1890s during the Dreyfus Affair — a stunning case of state-sponsored anti-Semitism spanning multiple levels of French government and society — and just as it did in the 1940s with the Vichy government&#8217;s collaboration with the Nazis.
Rather than yell at Israeli Police that things &#8220;will not change with me,&#8221; it is time for Macron and France to enact radical changes that will put an end to the French government&#8217;s stance against Jerusalem. This should not be done to please Jews or Christians. It should be done for the sake of France itself.
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Gol Kalev analyzes trends in Zionism, Europe and global affairs. For more of his articles: <a href="http://europeandjerusalem.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://europeandjerusalem.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1579878466728000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFitK7ujW6YkWYwdOOdDlab9h_iRg">europeandjerusalem.com.</a>
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Emmanuel Macron

KALEV: Macron Must End France’s Colonialist-Like Stance Against Jerusalem

France

The enigmatic Gulf emirate of Qatar, which is obscenely wealthy due to its fortuitous location above the world&#8217;s largest natural gas field, has a longstanding problem with Sunni jihadism. The wealthy petrochemical sheikh minority of the <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2019/08/03/qatar-travel-ban-billionaires-slaves-trapped-middle-east/">majority slave state</a> Qatari populace is, along with Recep Tayyip Erdogan&#8217;s Turkey, disproportionately responsible for funding and exporting more radical Sunni Islamism than any other cloistered clerisy the world over. The Qatari ruling class <a href="https://www.meforum.org/57690/ensconced-doha-islamists">proudly hosts</a> Islamist cleric Yusuf Al Qaradawi, the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-designating-muslim-brotherhood-terrorist-josh-hammer">Muslim Brotherhood</a>&#8216;s de facto global caliph, and has long been the preeminent state <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium-hamas-officials-expect-30-million-transfer-from-qatar-within-several-days-1.7222696">bankroller</a> of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Pro-terror network <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-al-jazeeras-disgraceful-holocaust-denying-josh-hammer">Al Jazeera</a> also serves as a state-run Qatari propaganda outfit, and it is the evil bile spewing from Al Jazeera&#8217;s airwaves that led more moderate Sunni Gulf states, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to boycott and embargo Qatar in 2017. Counter-jihadist activist David Reaboi <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/feb/17/qatar-a-hospitable-base-for-the-muslim-130932598/">put it well</a> at The Washington Times in February:
<blockquote>Al Jazeera is the world’s most successful, sophisticated and influential state-directed information operation.
It is remarkably aggressive in service of Qatar’s foreign policy interests, which include four key elements: (1) undermining the stability of its neighbors, especially Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates; (2) promoting Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood in vulnerable, Western open societies; (3) financially and diplomatically supporting violent terrorist groups like Hamas, al Qaeda and the Taliban; and (4) assisting the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, Iran, in evading US sanctions as it seeks to develop nuclear weapons.</blockquote>
Now, according to an <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/qatar-iran-attack-vessels-intelligence-allies">exclusive Fox News report</a> from this past weekend, Qatar — which, despite alienating its fellow Sunni Gulf states, maintains a cozy relationship with the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-iranian-revolution-forty-years-old-stand-josh-hammer">terror-supporting</a> Iranian mullahs — has once again revealed its true colors for the world to see. As reported by Benjamin Weinthal, Fox News obtained a report alleging that &#8220;Qatar had advance knowledge on an Iranian attack on four commercial vessels in the Gulf of Oman in May and may have failed to warn its U.S., French, and British allies.&#8221; In other words, Qatar duplicitously sided with the world&#8217;s number one state sponsor of terrorism over its purported Western &#8220;allies.&#8221;
The only thing that is surprising about such Qatari duplicity is that anyone in the West is still surprised by it. Qatar has long been the proverbial <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/04/qatar-is-the-weakest-link-in-an-arab-nato/">&#8220;weakest link&#8221;</a> of the Sunni world, utilizing aggressive governmental lobbying, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/04/fashion/qatar-luxury-fashion-national-museum-blockade.html">outlandish flaunting</a> of its petro-infused wealth to sic more A-list politicos onto its dole, and intensive funding of American <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/center/brookings-doha-center/">think tank</a> and higher education institutions to inculcate an insidious pro-Qatar message. As reported by the <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/16/qatar-georgetown-texas-university/">Daily Caller</a>, Qatar was the number one foreign state funder of U.S. institutions of higher education from 2011 t0 2016 — surpassing some states even hundreds of times its size, such as China.
Weinthal&#8217;s report ought to serve as a much-needed wakeup call for the more sclerotic elements of our bipartisan foreign policy ruling class. That ruling class is oftentimes overly deterred from meaningfully cracking down on Qatar by the U.S. military presence at Qatar&#8217;s Al Udeid Air Base. But it is ultimately myopic to permit our military&#8217;s presence at Al Udeid to pose an impregnable barrier to attempt to rein in this tiny but destructive nation. It is long past time for policymakers and the chattering class alike to arrive at the conclusion that Qatar is not our friend — at all.

Doha, Qatar

HAMMER: Terror-Funding Qatar Once Again Proves It Is Not America’s Friend

Al Jazeera

Iran

Qatar

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Saudi Arabia

We are only now beginning to understand the true extent of Qatar’s long campaign to subvert the American political establishment, to advance its own interests, and to advance the interests of <a href="https://ahvalnews.com/qatar-turkey/qatar-iran-turkey-alliance-erodes-regional-security-arab-weekly">close allies</a> Iran and Turkey. It seems like every passing month reveals <a href="https://efile.fara.gov/ords/f?p=1381:130:12387682161381::NO::P130_CNTRY:QA">more public figures</a> working to advance the Qatari agenda. The latest to be make headlines is former U.S. Ambassador to Qatar Dana Shell Smith, a senior foreign policy advisor to the Kamala Harris presidential campaign.
Following the killing of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Smith raised eyebrows when she <a href="https://twitter.com/ambdana/status/1188446888967786499">objected</a> on Twitter to President Trump’s pitiless description of Baghdadi’s death. She <a href="https://twitter.com/AmbDana/status/1188446071019724803">wrote</a>: “This gruesome, vivid and probably exaggerated description of dogs chasing down Baghdadi will endanger our personnel in the region. … When bin Laden was killed, we were careful to be clear that he had been given a proper Muslim burial.”
To be sure, she <a href="https://twitter.com/AmbDana/status/1188454050372698114">added</a> that, “The killing of Baghdadi was unquestionably good and necessary.” But her larger objection was met with <a href="https://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2019/10/28/obamas-qatar-ambassador-has-some-thoughts-on-the-way-president-trump-talked-about-the-death-of-al-baghdadi/">scorn</a> by many who found it hard to believe that Smith wanted due honors given to a violent <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Baghdadi-rapist-led-genocidal-caliphate-died-in-tunnel-606053">murderer and rapist</a> like Baghdadi.
Why, then, does Smith care so much about Baghdadi’s dignity?
Possibly it is not she who cares, but her friends in Qatar. Despite their claims of moderation, many Qataris actually support ISIS. A 2014 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/28/support-isis-stronger-arabic-social-media-europe-us-than-syria">study</a> found that 47% of Qatari Arabic language social media messages discussing ISIS were supportive — the highest percentage in the world. And this is just one instance of Qatar’s <a href="https://www.counterextremism.com/countries/qatar">long history</a> of supporting extremists, including al-Qaeda and Hamas.
Normally one wouldn’t assume that an ex-diplomat would parrot the opinions of her former host country. But Smith’s case is special. She has a <a href="https://af.reuters.com/article/africaTech/idAFL1N21J0DJ">long history</a> of <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/otaiba-ambassador-uae-leaked-emails_n_5932bf04e4b02478cb9bec1c">advocating for the interests</a> of Qatar. Earlier this year, investigative journalist Daniel Greenfield published a detailed <a href="https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/07/qatar-supporter-advising-kamala-harris-daniel-greenfield/">exposé</a> of Smith’s long history of advancing Qatari foreign policy — even while serving as U.S. ambassador.
Canadian businessman Alan Bender went further. Bender, who had spoken with high-level Qatari officials, said that Smith was being paid by Qatar through her <a href="https://www.fp4america.org/dana-shell-smith">consulting firm</a> <a href="https://sccefile.scc.virginia.gov/Business/S655876">Decibel Strategy LLC</a> — which Bender described as “her fake company in the U.S.” (The company has no public presence and does not describe its clients or services.)
Smith is not the only former diplomat to be working for Qatar’s interests. Even if we stick to public data, several former ambassadors have gone so far as to openly take Qatari money.
The list is impressive. Former U.S. Ambassador to Qatar (1995–1998) <a href="https://qataramerica.org/team/ambassador-patrick-theros/">Patrick Theros</a> was the long-serving president of the U.S.-Qatar Business Council, and also was one of the first board members of Qatar Foundation International. Amb. <a href="http://untermeyer.com/resume/">Chase Untermeyer</a> (2004–2007) did business consulting for U.S. firms operating in Qatar before becoming the founding chairman of the Qatar-America Institute in 2017. And Amb. <a href="https://www.squirepattonboggs.com/en/professionals/l/lebaron-joseph">Joseph LeBaron</a> (2008–2011) is now <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lebaron1">vice chair</a> of Daruna, a firm providing housing for migrant workers in Qatar and the chairman of which is Qatari royal family member Shaikh Nasser Al-Thani; LeBaron also became a senior advisor to Squire Patton Boggs, which has <a href="https://efile.fara.gov/docs/2165-Exhibit-AB-19940201-DBKPB503.pdf">lobbied</a> for Qatar since 1994.
Other public figures known to have previously taken Qatari money include <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/02/23/rudy_giuliani_loves_america_except_when_hes_consulting_for_qatar/">Rudy Giuliani</a> and <a href="https://efile.fara.gov/ords/f?p=1381:130:12387682161381::NO::P130_CNTRY:QA">dozens</a> of lobbying firms in Washington. And Qatar-financed lobbyists Nick Muzin and Joey Allaham were the point-men in a controversial <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-new-lobbying-qatar-targeted-250-trump-influencers-to-change-u-s-policy-1535554647">Qatari campaign</a> to target some 250 “influencers” in and around the Trump administration, at least some of whom were handsomely paid themselves as a result. Qatar paid the pair $3 million for that effort, and <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/01/qatari-lobbyists-received-millions-through-shadow-firm/">another</a> $3.9 million for “foster[ing] dialogue” with American business leaders.
It’s not illegal to take foreign money, as long as it is properly disclosed. But if Smith or Decibel Strategies is indeed being paid by Qatar, she has not disclosed it in a Foreign Agent Registration Act (<a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2009-title22/pdf/USCODE-2009-title22-chap11-subchapII.pdf">FARA</a>) filing — though she is mentioned in other entity filings, having <a href="https://efile.fara.gov/docs/2165-Supplemental-Statement-20160714-24.pdf">met</a> with Squire Patton Boggs several times while ambassador.
Whether or not Smith is actually on the Qatari payroll, she appears to be participating in a massive and well-funded effort by Qatar to subvert our foreign policy. This broad-spectrum effort includes <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/16/qatar-georgetown-texas-university/">hundreds of millions</a> of dollars paid to our universities, for which Qatar has gotten <a href="https://twitter.com/Bush41Library/status/922929216953503744">valuable</a> <a href="https://www.qatar.georgetown.edu/news-events/news/report-highlights-georgetown%E2%80%99s-thought-leadership">quid pro quos</a>; the extensive propaganda operations of regime-owned Al Jazeera, which have sparked calls from lawmakers to make it <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/401145-al-jazeera-propagates-hatred-is-it-also-a-foreign-agent">disclose</a> its <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/al-jazeera-pushes-back-on-gop-effort-to-force-it-to-register-as-a-foreign-agent">activities</a> under FARA; and the well-publicized <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/us/politics/foreign-powers-buy-influence-at-think-tanks.html">corrupting</a> of major think tanks such as the Brookings Institute. And that’s merely the legal elements of Qatar’s plan.
Qatar has every right to advocate for its interests, and even to hire American figures to make its case. But there is a difference between advocacy and corruption. American foreign policy needs to be built around America’s interests, not those of foreign countries with large bankrolls.
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Dr. Oren Litwin is a Fellow for <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/">Islamist Watch</a>, a project of the <a href="https://www.meforum.org">Middle East Forum</a>.

Doha Qatar skyline

LITWIN: Former Diplomat And Top Kamala Harris Campaign Advisor Acts As Mouthpiece For Terror-Supporting Qatar

Al Qaeda

Islamic State (ISIS)

Kamala Harris

Terrorism

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Twitter has just fallen for the oldest trick in the terrorist organization playbook. It’s resisting a bipartisan congressional call to exclude Hamas and Hezbollah from operating freely on its platform on the grounds that it allows only the “political” but not the “military” factions to tweet. The geniuses at the Silicon Valley tech giant have been duped by what I call the <a href="https://www.meforum.org/6261/the-terrorist-wing-scam" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.meforum.org/6261/the-terrorist-wing-scam&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1572021847554000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHGFzA7RYJK_UDIFzAZE_jIVS5e4g">terrorist wing scam</a>.
For over a century, the most successful terrorist organizations have learned to disguise their true nature by creating political and charitable “wings,” “arms,” or “branches” (the metaphor varies). These enterprises act like dummy corporations, allowing groups to participate in the very same civil societies which they attack. Ever since the IRA pretended that Sinn Fein was the “political wing” of the Irish resistance, only loosely connected to the “militant IRA,” other terrorist groups have followed suit, either with political or charitable “wings.” Successful counterterrorism begins with rejecting this illusion of separation.
Twitter’s gullibility first came to light on September 22, when a bipartisan <a href="https://www.insidernj.com/press-release/joint-release-twitter-bucks-u-s-law-defends-terrorist-organizations-hezbollah-hamas/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.insidernj.com/press-release/joint-release-twitter-bucks-u-s-law-defends-terrorist-organizations-hezbollah-hamas/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1572021847554000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE3NdjEtQzgmE2E6qxOfYNHOA_3jw">press release</a> by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Tom Reed (R-NY), Max Rose (D-NY), and Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-R) pointed out that Twitter allows Hamas and Hezbollah to operate accounts in clear violation of U.S. law criminalizing “material support” for U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The congressmen demanded that Twitter “remove all content from Foreign Terrorist Organizations.”
Twitter <a href="https://gottheimer.house.gov/uploadedfiles/9.24.2019_twitter_response_to_gottheimer.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://gottheimer.house.gov/uploadedfiles/9.24.2019_twitter_response_to_gottheimer.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1572021847554000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG33ebsUul8bJvdOg6KcRsfwHBa3w">responded</a> on September 25 with a letter from Carlos Monje, Jr., director of public policy and philanthropy, defending its policy of allowing Hamas and Hezbollah on its site. His explanation is a textbook example of what happens when one accepts the wing scam. “Twitter,” he explains, “draws a distinction between the political and military factions of these organizations.”
The letter continues to explain that “[i]ndividuals directly representing or promoting the political factions of these organizations may use Twitter in accordance with the Twitter Rules, including those outlined above. Accounts affiliated with the military wings, however, are permanently suspended.”
The Congressmen <a href="https://gottheimer.house.gov/uploadedfiles/10.22.19_gottheimer_bipartisan_reply_to_twitter_re_ftos_on_platform.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://gottheimer.house.gov/uploadedfiles/10.22.19_gottheimer_bipartisan_reply_to_twitter_re_ftos_on_platform.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1572021847554000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGa0_AyEd7VbUohZhwwBcUl1i9LIg">responded</a> on Tuesday, October 22, with a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, pointing out the flaws in his company’s policy and expressing dismay that it draws a distinction where U.S. law does not. “This distinction is not meaningful,” their response reads, “nor is it widely shared. Hezbollah and Hamas are terrorist organizations as designated by the United States Government. Period.”
Of course, they are right that the distinction is not meaningful. Even Hamas’ co-founder Ahmed Yasin <a href="https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/uploads/Documents/opeds/4224db3950778.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/uploads/Documents/opeds/4224db3950778.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1572021847554000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHtpggw7mk-blJWwOft2Rdtm6yCew">acknowledged</a> in 1998 that, “We cannot separate the wing from the body. If we do so, the body will not be able to fly. Hamas is one body.” In 2001, Yasin’s successor Abdul Aziz Rantisi acknowledged that “Hamas’ political wing determines the overall policy for the movement [and the] military wing operates at the pleasure of the political bureau, and is subordinate to it.” Unfortunately, they are wrong that the distinction is not widely shared.
Terrorists understand that by participating in a political process, they gain a cloak of legitimacy from foes who value participation in the process. Former President Jimmy Carter illustrated this fallacy in 2015, when he <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/carter-says-hamas-leader-committed-to-peace-netanyahu-not/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.timesofisrael.com/carter-says-hamas-leader-committed-to-peace-netanyahu-not/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1572021847555000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHVuVXTzFZB5zOCa228SlxfO5zUVQ">declared</a> of Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, “I don’t believe that he’s a terrorist. He’s strongly in favor of the peace process.”
By falling for the scam, Twitter offers more than the privilege of dispensing wisdom 280 characters at a time. It provides its corporate stamp of approval on Hamas and Hezbollah, helping both groups build the façades behind which they hide.
Martin McGuinness (“the Butcher of Bogside”) was an IRA commander in the 1970s and also a member of Sinn Féin. Like his fellow IRA commander Gerry Addams, he was allowed to transition from terrorist to politician by participating in the “peace process.” McGuinness eventually became Sinn Fein’s chief negotiator with the British government and in June 2012, his transformation complete, he actually shook the hand of Britain&#8217;s Queen Elizabeth — whose cousin Lord Mountbatten was murdered in 1979 by the IRA he commanded.
The four congressmen gave Dorsey until November 1 to comply with their demands to follow the law. That gives him some time to study the issue, look into the history, and prevent his company from inadvertently facilitating Hamas and Hezbollah in their efforts to blend into civil society through social media.  He doesn’t have to shake their hands.
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 A.J. Caschetta is a Ginsburg-Ingerman fellow at the Middle East Forum and a principal lecturer at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

In this photo illustration a popular micro blogging and

CASCHETTA: Twitter Falls For The Terrorist Wing Scam

Twitter

As of right now, most national head-to-head polls for the 2020 presidential general election show President Donald Trump losing to his Democratic Party presidential primary rivals. This trend generally holds, regardless of whether the nominee is any of the leading top three Democratic candidates: Former Vice President <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_biden-6247.html">Joe Biden</a>, Sen. <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_warren-6251.html">Elizabeth Warren</a> (D-MA), or Sen. <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_sanders-6250.html">Bernie Sanders</a> (I-VT).
While the Trump campaign might be tempted to rest on its laurels and sneer at the polls based upon a look back at the perceived polling debacle that was the 2016 presidential election, such a move would be just as haughty as it is myopic. As Harry Enten&#8217;s <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/trump-is-just-a-normal-polling-error-behind-clinton/">article</a> from November 4, 2016 — that would be four days before the general election — presciently pointed out, in retrospect, polling from the 2016 election cycle was not actually irreconcilable with a Trump victory. Trump obviously trailed Hillary Clinton in the polls, but his victory was actually not outside the realm of polling feasibility — or even outside the realm of polling reasonableness.
As such, the 2020 Trump re-election campaign would be wise to focus on what it can do to win over a larger share of independent, moderate, and suburban voters. In doing so, the Trump campaign would be wise to look back to a much-ballyhooed part of Karl Rove&#8217;s 2004 blueprint for George W. Bush&#8217;s re-election: Specifically, that campaign&#8217;s ingenious focus on the &#8220;<a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/security-moms-bushs-secret-election-weapon-gl6jc8cxr7j">security mom</a>.&#8221; The mythical &#8220;security mom,&#8221; at the time, was symbolized by the proverbial suburban mother who was worried about revanchist Islamist terrorism and sought to protect her home and family against those who would seek to kill us.
Although some of the specific animating issues have changed over the past 15 years, there is tremendous potential this election cycle for Trump to deploy similar messaging and reach out to a similar sect of voters.
Violent crime in America, despite overall dramatically declining since the 1990s, has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-in-defense-of-prosecutors">unfortunately spiked</a> over the past few years. Why isn&#8217;t Trump formally renouncing the <a href="https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20191004/he-was-released-early-from-prison-in-february-now-hes-wanted-for-murder-on-federal-hill">harrowing</a> First Step Act jailbreak law, the passage of which he apparently already <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/trump-reportedly-regrets-passage-jailbreak-first-step-act-gullible-conservatives-supported/">regrets</a>, and doubling down on &#8220;Willie Horton&#8221;-style anti-crime messaging?
Left-wing Democrats are campaigning harder than ever on anti-Second Amendment, gun-grabbing policy proposals. Why isn&#8217;t Trump leading Republicans on a 2020 platform of cracking down on the gun felons that <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/html/decriminalization-delusion-14037.html">light-on-crime</a> jurisdictions like California seem <a href="https://calmatters.org/gun-violence/2019/10/felons-firearms-california-federal-charges-gun-control-newsom/">hellbent on unleashing</a> upon the general public?
The global jihad — as embodied both by the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-designating-muslim-brotherhood-terrorist-josh-hammer">Muslim Brotherhood</a>, the mother&#8217;s milk of Sunni jihad, as well as more public-facing Islamist outfits like al-Qaeda and Islamic State — continues, 18 years after 9/11, to pose a threat to the U.S. homeland. Why isn&#8217;t Trump running on a platform of discussing not just the wall and border security, but also the arguably even more indispensable issue of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-border-wall-nice-interior-enforcement-nicer-josh-hammer">interior visa enforcement</a>? What about the need to radically <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-never-forget-911-we-need-rethink-how-we-josh-hammer">restructure our immigration policy</a> away from letting in largely unvetted populations of Middle Easterners?
Across the nation, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-who-will-stand-for-the-forgotten-american">neo-Confederate</a> &#8220;sanctuary&#8221; jurisdictions employ anti-<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articlevi">Supremacy Clause</a> erroneous legal &#8220;reasoning&#8221; to defy <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=1&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiHsv7v4LXjAhWTHM0KHZKMB7gQFjAAegQIAxAB&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.law.cornell.edu%2Fuscode%2Ftext%2F8%2F1324&amp;usg=AOvVaw2EunpYa249SvA-oBwwFrS2">federal immigration law</a>, ignore ICE detainers on <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/another-illegal-alien-arrested-brutal-rape-notorious-sanctuary-montgomery-county/">violent criminal aliens</a>, and aid and abet the work of the transnational Mexican cartels that traffick drugs and criminals alike into the homeland. Why isn&#8217;t Trump proposing more aggressive policies to strip federal funding away from sanctuary jurisdictions and effectively message to suburban voters that the government will act to help prevent MS-13 thugs from terrorizing their neighborhoods?
There are a myriad other examples, to be sure. But to maximize its 2020 re-election chances, the Trump campaign ought to focus more intensively on appealing to moderates and suburban swing voters. In order to do so, there is no better platform than a safety and security agenda tailored to the very &#8220;security moms&#8221; that President Bush so effectively courted in 2004.

Handcuffed prisoner

HAMMER: Trump Needs To Focus On A Safety And Security Agenda For 2020

2020 Election

Democratic Party

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Jail

MS-13 Gang

National Security

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan used his United Nations General Assembly speech last week to blast Israel as the cause of “injustice” in the Middle East and vow that his country “will continue to stand by the oppressed people of Palestine as she has always done.” But a new report by Israel’s Meir Amit Intelligence and Information Center, as well as new sanctions announced by the U.S. Treasury Department, make it clear that Erdogan is in no position to cast aspersions.
“Turkey turns a blind eye to Hamas’ covert operational and financial activity being carried out from its territory (which has recently been demonstrated in the American sanctions) and regularly denies its existence,” the Meir Amit center <a href="https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/app/uploads/2019/09/E_212_19.pdf#page=14">reported</a>.
“[T]he latest American designations clearly demonstrate that Turkey continues to be used as a hub for Hamas’ operational and financial activity, even after the departure of Saleh al-Arouri,” the Meir Amit report <a href="https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/app/uploads/2019/09/E_212_19.pdf#page=14">said</a>. <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/810.pdf">Arouri</a>, a founder of the Hamas military wing and a member of the Hamas political bureau, lived in Turkey until last year.
During his time in Turkey, he helped plot Hamas terror attacks. He <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/4532/hamas-official-admits-his-group-murdered-three">claimed credit</a> on behalf of Hamas for the 2014 kidnapping and murder of three Israeli yeshiva students. Later that year, the Shin Bet “uncovered an extensive Hamas military network which operated in Judea and Samaria. Its operatives had planted IEDs in Samaria. They [were] handled by Hamas’ headquarters in Turkey,” the Meir Amit report <a href="https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/app/uploads/2019/09/E_212_19.pdf#page=13">said</a>. “Hamas’ military operatives who were trained abroad (in various countries, including Turkey) participated in this activity.”
For his part, Erdogan <a href="https://english.palinfo.com/news/2016/11/22/Erdogan-Hamas-elected-national-liberation-movement">considers</a> Hamas a “liberation movement” and denies that it is a terrorist group.
While it supports the Palestinian-Arab cause, Turkey denies autonomy to more than 15 million Kurds and even <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/in-turkey-repression-of-the-kurdish-language-is-back-with-no-end-in-sight/">represses</a> the use of the Kurdish language. It has bombed Kurdish civilians. It occupies much of northwestern Syria and has <a href="https://israelunwired.com/silence-from-the-west-as-turkey-conducts-ethnic-cleansing-against-kurds-and-christians-in-afrin-syria/">engaged</a> in ethnic cleansing <a href="https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/0784919f-57d4-43f5-b970-f7d7bea78994">against</a> the Kurds there. Turkish warplanes bombed a hospital in Afrin during its invasion of the Kurdish enclave last year, independent <a href="https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2018/03/19/did-turkey-bomb-afrin-hospital/">analysis</a> by Bellingcat, a citizen journalism organization that focuses on war crimes and criminal activities, showed.
Earlier this month, <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm772">the U.S. Treasury Department</a> announced sanctions on Hamas leaders and ISIS facilitators living in Turkey.
Those include Zaher Jabarin, who heads Hamas’ finance office from Turkey and manages tens of millions of dollars in Hamas money. Jabarin’s transfers of U.S. dollars “finance HAMAS’ terrorist activity,” the Treasury statement said. Like Arouri, Jabarin was one of the founders of the Hamas military wing in Judea and Samaria. Jabarin was in charge of a Hamas squad that abducted and murdered Israeli border policeman Nissim Toledano in 1992, the Meir Amit report <a href="https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/app/uploads/2019/09/E_212_19.pdf#page=14">said</a>.
“Jabarin has served as the primary point of contact between Hamas and the [Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp –Quds Force] IRGC-QF. Since 2017, his relations with them were enhanced based on Hamas operatives’ efforts to increase funding from Iran,” the <a href="https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/en/new-designations-recently-published-us-department-state-department-treasury-reveals-turkeys-central-role-hub-hamas-handles-financial-matters-includin/">report</a> said.
Treasury also targeted the Turkey-based Redin Exchange as “a key part of the infrastructure used to transfer money” to Hamas. Redin transferred $10 million to the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, in March.
Redin also facilitated a $2 million transfer last year from the IRGC-QF and Hezbollah to Hamas. Its deputy CEO, Ismail Tash, was the primary contact in numerous Iran-Hamas money transfers, the Meir Amit report found.
Erdogan’s inner circle has encouraged bloodshed between Israel and the Palestinians by providing assistance to the al-Qassam Brigades. Israel’s Shin Bet <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/7349/shin-bet-investigation-exposes-depth-of-turkey">arrested</a> two suspects last year linked to the <a href="http://www.sadat.com.tr/about-us/news/141-how-is-the-palestine-question-solved.html">Turkish private military company SADAT</a>, which run by <a href="https://www.cnnturk.com/turkiye/erdogana-basdanisman-atanan-adnan-tanriverdi-kimdir-sadat-nedir">top Erdogan military adviser</a> retired Brig. Gen. Adnan Tanriverdi. It accused them of helping Hamas’ military buildup by providing money and weapons to the terrorists. SADAT’s website calls for the use of military force against Israel. Meir Amit <a href="https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/app/uploads/2019/09/E_212_19.pdf#page=14">reported</a> that Jabarin had recruited the men under instructions from Arouri.
“The liaison of Palestine with the globe should not be left at the mercy of Israel. This requires open support by Islamic countries. Every effort should be made, including use of force,” SADAT <a href="http://www.sadat.com.tr/about-us/news/141-how-is-the-palestine-question-solved.html">says</a> on its website.
Erdogan presented Turkey as a terrorism fighter, saying Turkey killed ISIS fighters in areas of Syria it occupies. He glossed over Turkey’s clandestine support for ISIS in Syria.
“Turkey has been the country most influenced by the [ISIS] threat; this terrorist organization has harassed our borders and targeted our cities very near the borders with suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Turkish citizens,” Erdogan <a href="https://youtu.be/Bve1yt0SEb4?t=498">said</a>. “Turkey is the first country that has delivered the heaviest blow to the [ISIS] presence in Syria.”
Internal documents and whistleblowers tell a different story — one of a country that plays both sides when it comes to ISIS. Leaked emails from Erdogan’s son-in-law and current Turkish finance minister, Berat Albayrak, <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4006568/WikiLeaks-reveals-57-000-emails-son-law-President-Erdogan-proving-connection-ISIS-operation-smuggling-oil-Turkey.html">showed</a> his connection to an ISIS oil smuggling operations.
The Treasury Department <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm772">sanctions</a> also targeted several Turkish companies that “materially assisted &#8230; or provided financial, material, or technological support” to ISIS.
Turkey’s intelligence agency, the MIT, conspired to bus ISIS jihadists across Turkish territory, leaked Turkish <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/7809/report-wiretaps-show-turkish-intel-supported-isis">wiretaps show</a>. At least 15,000 ISIS fighters entered Syria that way, Abdullah Bozkurt, former editor of Turkey’s Today’s Zaman newspaper, told the Investigative Project on Terrorism (where we both work) in February.
Turkish police were told not to arrest ISIS fighters traveling to Syria, said former Turkish National Police official Ahmet Yayla.
Turkey provided ISIS with drones and munitions, an ISIS fighter <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=88&amp;v=q9ZTmYyN6eY">detained</a> by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who was interviewed by the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism said. He and a <a href="https://anfenglishmobile.com/features/isis-prisoner-from-palestine-we-were-treated-in-istanbul-37895">Palestinian-Arab ISIS fighter</a> held by the SDF said that Turkish hospitals provided medical assistance to wounded ISIS terrorists.
“Like me, thousands of ISIS members have been treated in Turkey. Everyone knows that Turkey is the mother of all jihadist groups,” <a href="https://anfenglishmobile.com/features/isis-prisoner-from-palestine-we-were-treated-in-istanbul-37895">said</a> former ISIS fighter Islam Ahmed Muhammed Balusha. “This applies to the jihadist groups in Syria, Iraq, Libya, and even from Palestine to Afghanistan. Turkey has supported the ISIS massively.”
Erdogan’s party, the AKP, allegedly used ISIS to attack political opponents.
EU INTCEN, the European Union’s intelligence arm, <a href="https://ahvalnews.com/terrorism/ahval-reveals-top-secret-eu-report-akp-commissioned-isis-ankara-massacre">reportedly</a> suggested the AKP ordered an October 2015 ISIS <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/10/turkey-suicide-bomb-killed-in-ankara">suicide bombing</a> at a peace rally in Ankara that killed 109 people.
Erdogan’s pretense of being the savior of the region’s problems belies the fact his government has become a major terrorism supporter and is guilty of everything he criticizes Israel of doing.
&nbsp;
John Rossomando is a senior analyst at the <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org">Investigative Project on Terrorism</a> and Steven Emerson is its executive director.

Erdogan at U.N.

ROSSOMANDO & EMERSON: While Erdogan Slammed Israel At U.N., Turkish Support For Terror Was Revealed

Turkey

Last week’s announcement that U.S.-led peace talks with the Taliban had been called off relieved many, but distressed others who were hoping for an end to our longest war. After a suicide bombing killed 12 people on Thursday, September 5th, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/08/world/asia/afghanistan-taliban-camp-david.html">acknowledged</a> that the Taliban failed to live up to its commitments. Trump tweeted: “What kind of people would kill so many in order to seemingly strengthen their bargaining position?” Welcome to the Art of the Deal, Taliban-style.
Perhaps Trump is learning from his experiences with Israel’s longest war with the Palestinians and the difficulty he has experienced with his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51599/israel-jason-greenblatt-has-done-crucial-work-gideon-israel">“Deal of the Century”</a> proposal. While each situation differs in some significant ways, both serve as illustrations that wars don’t end when only one side wants it to end. Until one side wins and the other acknowledges defeat, a war will continue.
The Trump administration’s desire to “finally get the hell out of Afghanistan” might be an admirable one, but our departure before the Taliban has acknowledged its defeat will be interpreted as victory and embolden the group to return to its old ways. Though the Taliban and the Afghan ISIS groups are currently at least in part rivals, no one should preclude the possibility of a union between the two.
After the first Gulf War, enough Israelis believed that their war with the Palestinians could finally come to an end. But their generosity to the dispersed PLO, exiled to Tunisia, was interpreted as weakness. The PLO exploited it to recruit a new generation of fighters — a generation they educated with their newfound autonomy. Palestinian terrorism escalated dramatically, both in the number and severity of attacks.
Soon after the talks with the Taliban were scuttled, word came out that there was a plan for members of the Taliban to join members of the Afghan government and U.S. representatives at Camp David. Some believed that having Taliban negotiators on U.S. soil on September 11th, 2019 would be worse than “bad optics” — their presence would defile the venerable retreat in Maryland. But here too, the PLO’s Yasser Arafat had already accomplished that feat, soiling the grounds with his presence in 2000. During the Clinton presidency, Arafat <a href="http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/ArafatArticles.html">spent more time</a> in the White House than any other foreign “leader.”
Inviting bad actors, even those with American blood on their hands, is acceptable only after they have been defeated and have acknowledged their defeat. Until both the Taliban and whomever the Palestinians choose as their leaders acknowledge their defeat, their presence should not be tolerated on U.S. or Israeli soil, respectively.
Perhaps neither our war against the Taliban nor Israel’s war against the PLO/PA/Hamas is actually winnable. But both are certainly lose-able.
A complete pullout of all U.S. troops and advisors from Afghanistan will be celebrated from Kandahar to Quetta as a Taliban victory. Recall how Taliban propagandists compared Obama to Gorbachev when the new U.S. president simultaneously announced both a troop surge and a subsequent date for their departure from Afghanistan.
Likewise, any Israeli offer of more accommodations, cash, and autonomy to the PLO/PA/Hamas will be seen as weakness and will be exploited. Recall Arafat’s not so-secret messages to the Palestinian critics of Oslo that the “peace process” would buy them time to gain strength and continue the fight.
For American and Israeli lawmakers, the time to talk about peace will only come when the Taliban and the Palestinians feel their defeat and believe that they have better options than continuing to fight. Until then, the best we can hope for is a managed conflict, limiting our own casualties, and inflicting more severe casualties on our enemies.
A.J. Caschetta is a Ginsburg-Ingerman fellow at the <a href="https://www.meforum.org">Middle East Forum</a> and a principal lecturer at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

U.S. And Afghan Forces Battle Taliban In Kunar Province

CASCHETTA: War Isn’t Over Just Because You Want It To Be Over

Afghanistan

Military

The legal think tank <a href="https://zachorlegal.org/">Zachor Legal Institute</a> has filed a complaint with the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office, asking for an investigation into possible terror recruitment activities at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
The Department of Education <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/education-department-unc-duke-gaza-conference-anti-semitism-allegations">announced on June 17</a> that it will investigate an anti-Israel conference held in March at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill after multiple <a href="http://www.thetower.org/7397-part-1-unc-duke-conference-on-gaza-whitewashes-hamas-blasts-israel/%22 %5Ct %22_blank">reports</a> surfaced that showed pro-terrorist and anti-Semitic propaganda constituted the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46045/hammer-duke-and-unc-should-both-be-ashamed-their-josh-hammer">bulk of the seminar’s content</a>. Published <a href="https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/58050/part-1-unc-duke-conference-on-gaza-whitewashes">reports</a> indicate that the same anti-Israel groups active on Duke University’s campus — Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Coalition for Peace With Justice — were also involved with this controversial campus event.
Last April, during Duke’s “Israel Apartheid Week,” SJP provided representatives of Florida-based Dream Defenders and Eyewitness Palestine with access to the campus to teach students about a supposed linkage between the Black Lives Matter movement and the “Palestinian struggle.” <a href="https://vault.myvzw.com/webcs/app/share/view/eTTAAQR7by?shareUid=76cb6b0af37340aea678288f19a0c4b6">Videos</a> show Eyewitness Palestine spokespeople claiming that Israel targets innocent “black and brown people” for torture and death, while recruiters counseled the students that it was their “duty” to fight for the lives of all people of color in their “transnational movement for black lives.”
This “transnational movement” runs a training camp in an area of the Middle East controlled by Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), where willing participants are transported to be trained by “resistance leaders.” <a href="https://vault.myvzw.com/webcs/app/public/error?errorCode=9">Videos</a> and <a href="https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/04/09/what-happened-during-dukes-israeli-apartheid-week/">reports</a> show recruiters urging students to travel as a delegation to refugee camps in Ramallah for in-home visits with leaders of the PFLP. The local Coalition for Peace with Justice reportedly covers the travel expenses.
Students from Duke and from North Carolina Central University enthusiastically described on video their own “transformational” meetings in the homes of leaders of the PFLP back in 2017. They presented themselves as active participants, rather than merely conveyors of information, for the PFLP. Because students meet with leaders of a foreign terror organization, as opposed to rank-and-file members, they may put themselves in legal jeopardy.
The PFLP has been on the U.S. State Department’s <a href="https://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/other/des/123085.htm">list</a> of foreign terrorist organizations since 1997. The group has boasted responsibility for terror attacks ranging from suicide bombings and bus bombings to mass shootings that, in total, have killed hundreds of Israelis and many American citizens.
“In Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, the Supreme Court found that the law prohibiting the provision of material support to designated terror groups did not violate the First Amendment, even if the material support consisted entirely of organizational type support for a terror group&#8217;s non-violent activities,” cites the complaint. “The reasoning was that support is fungible, in that even non-violent support can allow a terror organization to re-allocate its resources so it can focus more on its violent activities.”
However, the Eyewitness Palestine organization itself has continued communications with leaders of the PFLP, according to pictures, videos, and public reports.
“Campus anti-Israel groups are not only inciting hate, they are providing material support to foreign terror organizations,” notes Zachor Legal in its complaint to the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office.
“The United States Supreme Court has found that providing material support to designated foreign terror organizations is a violation of federal law and specified that providing organizational assistance to such terror organizations, including engaging in advocacy in support of the organizations, is a prima facie violation of the federal law and not protected by the First Amendment,” continued the complaint. “This is exactly what occurs with the Eyewitness Palestine delegations.”
Zachor Legal also points out that local organizations may be raising funds for charities that are actually fronts for terror groups, as was the case in the federal Holy Land Foundation prosecution, where the U.S. government found that domestic charity groups were actually sending funds to Hamas. Groups like Durham’s Coalition for Justice with Peace, which solicit money for multiple children’s charities in Gaza, should be investigated to ensure that donations are not being funneled to the PFLP, Hamas, or Islamic Jihad.
Part of the evidence developed for this case was the result of an investigation in North Carolina, Florida, and Israel by Sloan Rachmuth of the news and public policy group Haym Salomon Center. The investigation is supported by information gathered at meetings, in public records, social media postings, videos, and interviews with sources on multiple North Carolina campuses.
While the leadership of the groups operating on local campuses and in local communities know that their activities are in support of foreign terror organizations, it is likely that many of the students and community members who participate in the activities of these groups are unaware of the ties to terror and simply believe that they are involved in a social justice endeavor.
“College campuses in North Carolina are in danger,” cautions Marc Greendorfer, president of Zachor Legal. “Students recruited at these events are likely unaware that they are being culled by radical operatives to go overseas to train with terrorists. Also left in the dark about these terror recruiting events are well-meaning parents who expect public safety officials to keep their children safe.”
Paul Miller is president and executive director of the news and public policy group <a href="https://salomoncenter.org/">Haym Salomon Center</a>. Follow him on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/pauliespoint">@pauliespoint</a>.

Duke Chapel

MILLER: Are Terror Groups Recruiting On College Campuses?

Education

Lately, 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has been staking out a position as a defender of the American Muslim community against the alleged white nationalism of Donald Trump. Along with fellow candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Warren was outspoken in support of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) when President Trump attacked Omar earlier this year. Warren has also vocally opposed the so-called “Muslim Ban,” a major priority for Muslim activist groups.
Unfortunately, in the process, Warren has become close to several organizations that promote political Islamism — an imperialist ideology demanding that Muslims seek political supremacy as a religious imperative. Some of these organizations are connected to actual terror organizations or are otherwise supportive of them.
For example, in December 2016, Sen. Warren was a featured speaker at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC) — the infamous “Roxbury Mosque” — at the <a href="https://counterjihad.com/terror-experts-concerned-sen-warren-aide-radical-mosque">urging</a> of one of her staffers who attended the mosque. This mosque has deep connections to <a href="https://www.peaceandtolerance.org/2016/12/10/faith-leaders-urge-sen-elizabeth-warren-and-boston-mayor-martin-walsh-not-to-legitimize-jihadist-mosque-interfaith-gambit/">terrorism</a>: The Islamic Society of Boston was founded by convicted terror financier Abdurahman Alamoudi, the Roxbury Mosque itself had Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi as a trustee, and several attendees later joined al-Qaeda and Islamic State. Furthermore, at the time ISBCC was under the direct control of the Boston chapter of the Muslim-American Society (MAS), the <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/85.pdf">American arm</a> of the Muslim Brotherhood.
In her drive to oppose Trump and support an embattled minority, Sen. Warren is actually lending her credibility to radical groups that do not reflect the American Muslim mainstream. This could simply reflect a commitment by Warren to civil rights and equal treatment for all Americans, coupled with a lack of care over with whom she ought to associate.
But it could also be part of a disturbing new trend, in which a former <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-does-elizabeth-warren-have-a-plan-for-israel-1.7409088">supporter</a> of Israel is ostentatiously embracing political Islamism to slyly court the <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/05/progressive-anti-semitism-multicultural-left-new-york-times/">increasingly anti-Semitic</a> radical wing of the progressive movement. By supporting Islamists, Sen. Warren might be signaling that she’s now on board with the hard-left argument of “intersectionality” — that all so-called “marginalized” groups need to be uncritically supported against their supposed oppressors, including the United States itself.
The warning signs have been piling up. Starting with President Trump’s election in 2016, Warren also began associating with Islamist groups in order to criticize Trump’s “Muslim ban.” In January 2017, Warren was one of the featured speakers at a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CAIRNational/photos/a.92140837694/10154480568662695/?type=1&amp;theater">protest</a> against the misnamed “Muslim ban” held by the Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization presenting itself as a civil rights champion of Muslims that actually was <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/1059.pdf">founded</a> by the covert Palestine Committee of the Muslim Brotherhood. The FBI <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/1029/fbi-explains-its-cair-cut-off">severed ties</a> with CAIR in 2009, after evidence of its close ties to the terror organization Hamas was presented during the infamous Holy Land Foundation terror-financing trial.
CAIR also <a href="https://www.cair.com/cair_says_maryland_governor_s_anti_bds_order_violates_first_14th_amendments">works</a> <a href="https://ca.cair.com/losangeles/news/cair-ca-calls-on-uc-board-of-regents-to-retract-anti-bds-anti-free-speech-statement/">constantly</a> to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CAIRNational/posts/bdsmovement-cair-anti-bds-bills-expected-to-feature-prominently-at-aipacon-frida/10155579678417695/">support</a> the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS) campaign against Israel. BDS was initially funded and propelled in the United States by the Islamist group <a href="https://www.ampalestine.org/what-bds-0">American Muslims for Palestine</a>, a <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/7884/revised-complaint-bolsters-amp-ties-to-old-hamas">front group</a> for Hamas, and it has the <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/04/the-bds-movement-is-a-cleverly-disguised-campaign-to-destroy-israel/">professed aim</a> of destroying Israel entirely and ethnically cleansing its Jews from the region.
In June 2018, Warren <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/we-will-not-obey-hundreds-of-women-rally-in-dc-to-protest-zero-tolerance-immigration-policy/2018/06/28/d1aca604-7a4a-11e8-aeee-4d04c8ac6158_story.html">participated</a> in the “Women Disobey” march against the family separation policies carried out at the Mexican border. One of the main <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/news/393302-womens-march-organizers-plan-protest-against-family-separation">organizers</a> was Linda Sarsour, a noted <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/01/opinion/womens-march-progressives-hate.html">Islamist radical</a> who is the executive director of MPower Change — a group that regularly claims the United States is corrupted by <a href="https://twitter.com/MPower_Change/status/1138580194342592512">white supremacy</a> and even calls for the <a href="https://twitter.com/MPower_Change/status/1131231289699315712">abolition</a> of ICE and the entire <a href="https://twitter.com/MPower_Change/status/1125883211970531328">prison system</a> alike!
Unsurprisingly, observers have noted a recent shift in Warren’s tone towards Israel — from her previous support to sharp criticism. As late as 2014, Warren <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/news/elizabeth-warren-2020-where-does-progressive-senator-stand-palestine-976905873">stated</a> that “America has a very special relationship with Israel” and defended increased military funding; but more recently, Warren attacked Trump’s move of the American embassy to Jerusalem, condemned new “settlement” activity, and called for expanded U.S. aid to Gaza. Some former supporters grew <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-does-elizabeth-warren-have-a-plan-for-israel-1.7409088">concerned</a> that Warren was no longer “doing her homework” and was trying to position herself for the 2020 presidential campaign at Israel’s expense.
Then in March 2019, Warren refused to attend the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC’s national conference and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/03/27/did-eight-democratic-candidates-boycott-aipac-conference/?utm_term=.c25309633c7e">gave no explanation</a>, despite having attended in the past. This followed a joint <a href="https://thetempest.co/2019/03/25/news/democrats-boycott-aipac/#content">pressure campaign</a> by MoveOn.org and Sarsour’s organization MPower Change.
After the massacre of Muslim worshippers in Christchurch, New Zealand, Warren <a href="https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1107627965418868736">stated</a> that “in the same way that [Islamic State] and al-Qaeda terrorism pose a threat to the United States, so does the rise of white nationalism.” The comparison is <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-03-21/white-nationalism-is-not-a-terrorist-threat-like-islamic-state">overheated</a>; while white supremacist terrorism is more dangerous now than in recent years and needs to be dealt with, modern white supremacists have never marshaled standing armies with thousands of personnel, nor have they managed to control territory or form their own state as did Islamic State.
So why compare the two? Here, Warren was echoing a line pushed in unison by hard-left activist groups and Islamist organizations such as CAIR and Emgage; CAIR-Oklahoma director Adam Soltani went so far as to <a href="https://twitter.com/CAIRNational/status/1128662057723863043">say</a> that “white supremacy is the root of Islamophobia,” and Emgage has made white supremacy a <a href="https://twitter.com/Emgageaction_/status/1125091707262001154">recurring</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/EmgageAction/status/1135637277487407104">theme</a> in its messaging.
In June, the Warren campaign hired a new Director for Progressive Partnerships, an activist named <a href="https://twitter.com/maxberger/status/1142208194606968834">Max Berger</a>. Berger has a long history of <a href="https://freebeacon.com/politics/warren-staffer-draws-criticism-for-anti-israel-tweet/">incendiary claims against Israel</a> and claims in <a href="https://www.jns.org/opinion/zoa-urges-warren-to-fire-hamas-loving-israel-hating-ifnotnow-co-founder-max-berger/">support of domestic Islamists</a> like Omar Suleiman — claims which were so virulent that Berger recently cleared his entire Twitter history to conceal them.
Finally, on June 24th, Warren was one of only two presidential candidates (the other being third-tier candidate Jay Inslee) to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/muslimcaucus/videos/518338828905378/?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARB_ESNTRN9AH2Obl9etyBfuk57ydLE5f2wRaZblH2SZay3TYMzGUvjSt2SicEUfPojcxtD2ju4iBlHCZ0QPwmF-l1qjc3EqZMwNNScq7_0ZEZA8m5NJlh1Ula6KeN3njoveIrUMaQipm8UI3VKUA3xAAJbTQh2tgrhgkd0xpS77Ult9dRaZkHxkyI4T1_pycMXJ9tBkaWEXoirrwx7cjed4wWGCWQ7bXaS2FSFt-mvY1DpfYGXtAPPEGI27adOnjBMfK8k8dpRuSrWAdFC7mAzYQuhIFT2Cl4Hijl2Pz9VK2TCYXtkoizJvaUuVIXbfp0nwBF3sLVGLerA7IOxA5IRmh1JuqXF6-ETD9Q&amp;__tn__=-R">address</a> the <a href="https://www.muslimcaucuscollective.org/agenda">Muslim Collective for Equitable Democracy 2019</a>, a conference of Islamist politicians, candidates, and activists that featured some of the most harmful Islamist voices in the United States, such as CAIR founder Nihad Awad.
Supporting the American Muslim community against the Trump administration has become sound progressive politics. But associating herself with Islamists like CAIR and Linda Sarsour indicates that Warren may be going far beyond simple political gestures — she is now actually internalizing the Islamist narrative. That is a mistake. The goal of the Islamist movement is nothing less than the <a href="https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/22032/popular-us-imam-constitution-inferior-to-sharia">delegitimization</a> of the American constitutional order and the seizure of political power. The American Muslim community is incredibly diverse and has more voices than just the Islamists; if Warren wants to support the Muslim community, associating with the Islamists is the last thing she should do.
Dr. Oren Litwin is the associate director of <a href="https://www.meforum.org/59041/middle-east-forum-launches-islamism-in-politics-project">Islamism in Politics</a>, a project of the <a href="https://www.meforum.org">Middle East Forum</a>.

LITWIN: Elizabeth Warren Must Stop Associating With Islamist Radicals

Boston

Elizabeth Warren

Islam

California imam Ahmed Billoo recently <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/58905/prominent-california-islamists-praise-imam-call">called</a> for the mass extermination of Jews. Apparently impatient at the border security protocols at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, he posted a prayer to Twitter with the hashtag &#8220;Zionists&#8221;: &#8220;Oh God, reduce their numbers, exterminate them, and don&#8217;t leave a single one alive.&#8221;
Ahmed Billoo&#8217;s sister is Zahra Billoo, director of the San Francisco branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). She is also an important figure in the Women&#8217;s March movement, and has <a href="https://www.facebook.com/IslamicSocietyOfSantaBarbara/photos/a.395510290553801/1756659207772229/?type=3&amp;theater">appeared</a> alongside her brother at Women&#8217;s March events. Billoo’s own colleagues at CAIR <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/58905/prominent-california-islamists-praise-imam-call">&#8220;liked&#8221;</a> Ahmed’s post. When asked, CAIR and Zahra Billoo herself refused to comment on Ahmed Billoo’s genocidal call.
Publicly, Zahra Billoo prides herself on her commitment to progressive causes. When explaining her involvement in the Women’s March, she <a href="https://ca.cair.com/sfba/updates/cair-sfba-director-zahra-billoo-to-speak-at-womens-march-on-washington/">said</a> that &#8220;what we need right now is to send a clear message&#8221; and &#8220;that we will work together across communities to defend and protect each other.&#8221;
Despite these warm words, she was curiously unwilling to offer any criticism when it came to her brother advocating mass murder. On the contrary, Zahra Billoo made a heartfelt <a href="https://www.facebook.com/billoozahra/posts/10102964029972277">post</a> to her brother on Facebook a mere few hours after he prayed for the extermination of Jews, apparently in relation to another public stand he had taken: &#8220;My brother makes me proud often, but there’s a special kind of appreciation I have when he does this — puts his privilege to good use, asserting his rights, speaking out against border harassment, and thereby making it at least somewhat easier for those who are afraid or unable.&#8221;
While Zahra Billoo&#8217;s refusal to repudiate her brother’s endorsement of violence may appear to contradict her own camera-friendly activism, her silence is less surprising when one examines Billoo&#8217;s own social media history.
Billoo regularly <a href="https://twitter.com/search?l=&amp;q=hamas%20from%3AZahraBilloo&amp;src=typd&amp;lang=en">expresses</a> support for the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, at times justifying Hamas&#8217;s attacks against Israeli civilians. In one <a href="https://twitter.com/ZahraBilloo/status/488606959785218049">tweet</a>, she writes, &#8220;Blaming Hamas for firing rockets at (Apartheid) Israel is like blaming a woman for punching her rapist.&#8221;
Over the past few years, Billoo has also consistently <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&amp;vertical=default&amp;q=from%3AZahraBilloo%20Hamas&amp;src=typd">supported</a> Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) official Sami Al Arian, describing him as an &#8220;incredible and law abiding Muslim leader.&#8221; (PIJ was <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/palestinian-islamic-jihad">designated</a> a terrorist organization by the State Department in 1997.) In 2006, Al Arian <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/70.pdf">pleaded</a> guilty to conspiring &#8220;to make or receive contributions of funds, goods or services to or for the benefit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a Specially Designated Terrorist.&#8221; Al Arian was later deported to Turkey. In 2018, in a speech at a conference sponsored by Turkey&#8217;s Directorate of Religious Affairs, Al Arian <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/7335/al-arian-calls-us-our-enemy-at-turkish-conference">said</a> that &#8220;the United States, which gives Israel so much confidence, is our enemy.&#8221; Billoo twice confided that she draws <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&amp;vertical=default&amp;q=from%3AZahraBilloo%20Al-Arian&amp;src=typd">inspiration</a> from Al Arian and has <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&amp;vertical=default&amp;q=from%3AZahraBilloo%20Al-Arian&amp;src=typd">quoted</a> him on several occasions.
In 2018, Billoo stated, &#8220;The Israeli Defense Forces, or the IDF, are no better than ISIS. They are both genocidal terrorist organizations.&#8221; Billoo’s anti-Semitic obsession with Israel is pervasive enough that the interfaith organization PACT briefly <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/06/14/interfaith-group-pact-rescinds-award-for-bay-area-muslim-leader-after-pressure-from-jewish-members/">rescinded</a> an award to Billoo last year.
While Billoo indulges her true opinions on social media, she also works to present a very different picture of herself to the public. After the massacre of Jews at the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh, Billoo signed &#8220;An Open Letter to America About Anti-Semitism.” In the conclusion, the letter refers to the dangers of “white nationalist anti-Semitic hate.&#8221; But Billoo’s own hatred, while not inspired by white nationalist hatred, is not any less dangerous.
What is truly surprising is not that Zahra Billoo stayed silent as her brother called for the massacre of Jews, nor even that she subsequently claimed to be &#8220;proud of him,&#8221; but rather that she is still regarded by some as a leading progressivist figure. Zahra Billoo&#8217;s actual views have been in plain view for many years on social media and the subject of media reports many times. Yet Billoo continues to be praised for her activism and was even once <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/06/27/interfaith-group-pact-reinstates-award-to-muslim-leader-zahra-billoo-after-community-outrage/">honored</a> for &#8220;actually [speaking] out against anti-Semitism.&#8221;
Islamists such as Billoo enjoy protection from criticism using the thinnest of veils. Their duplicity is clear and without doubt. These self-proclaimed Islamic leaders must be judged on all their words and actions, and not merely on the progressive personas they project.
Martha Lee is a research fellow of <a href="http://islamist-watch.org/">Islamist Watch</a>, a project of the <a href="https://www.meforum.org">Middle East Forum</a>.

LEE: The Tale Of The Two Faces Of The Billoo Family

Israel Defense Forces (IDF)

Over the course of her tenure in Washington, Democratic presidential contender Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has adapted her position on Israel to cater to her most energetic base of support — the far Left. What once began as at least a <a href="https://www.jns.org/glimpse-at-elizabeth-warrens-record-on-israel-as-senator-inches-towards-presidential-run/">rhetorically</a> pro-Israel position has transitioned into full-fledged Israel-hatred.
The Warren campaign has <a href="https://www.israellycool.com/2019/07/08/us-presidential-candidate-elizabeth-warren-has-got-a-problem-hes-called-max-berger/">hired</a> anti-Israel extremist Max Berger, who is a co-founder of IfNotNow, a group that <a href="https://www.ngo-monitor.org/ngos/if-not-now/">supports</a> the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement that seeks the eventual elimination of the Jewish state. Additionally, Berger has come under fire for expressing sympathy for the militant Palestinian terror group Hamas, as Adam Kredo of The Washington Free Beacon <a href="https://freebeacon.com/politics/warren-staffer-draws-criticism-for-anti-israel-tweet/">reports</a>.
&#8220;Anyone who wants to be friendly with Hamas has no business being in a presidential campaign,&#8221; Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center told the Free Beacon. &#8220;It&#8217;s very straightforward.&#8221;
Rabbi Cooper added: &#8220;If that&#8217;s the message that Elizabeth Warren wants to send to Jewish progressives and the rest of the American Jewish community, that the person she put in charge of outreach wants to be friends with Hamas, no way,&#8221; Cooper said, adding that he finds it hard to believe Warren would be comfortable knowing one of her staffers has engaged in such rhetoric. &#8220;She&#8217;s going to have to deal with this right now.&#8221;
In a Monday campaign town hall, Sen. Warren <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/warren-says-shell-push-to-end-israels-occupation">told activists</a> from IfNotNow and a staffer for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) that she would commit to pressuring Israel to end its supposed “occupation” of the Palestinians.
And in addition to the Berger hiring, it’s worth noting that Sen. Warren has <a href="https://publicintegrity.org/federal-politics/elizabeth-warren-president-pac-money-treasurer/">long been supported</a> by Democrat mega-donor Paul Egerman, who is currently serving as her campaign treasurer. Egerman is an <a href="https://publicintegrity.org/federal-politics/elizabeth-warren-president-pac-money-treasurer/">advisory council member</a> to the anti-Israel group J Street, which was created to service former President Barack Obama’s anti-Israel agenda.
Sen. Warren appears to be committed to going to extreme lengths to demonize Israel and its supporters. This week, she pledged to use the powers of her office to launch an “investigation” into the supposed foreign influence of Jewish GOP donor Elliot Broidy, who, coincidentally or not, happens to be a major supporter of the state of Israel.
“Warren is now making a campaign issue of an investigation that she demanded of a political opponent who has yet to be charged with a crime, much less convicted,” RedState’s Streiff <a href="https://www.redstate.com/streiff/2019/07/09/elizabeth-warren-targeted-trump-backer-investigation-using-campaign-issue/">wrote</a> Tuesday in response to the new Warren campaign pledge. “Regardless of the merits of the case, campaigning on using your personal clout to strong arm the Justice Department into investigating someone who is a political opponent is something that just isn’t done in American politics,” the piece continued.
Sen. Warren’s abandonment of our most vital Middle East ally began gradually, in 2015, when she and fellow Democrats <a href="https://www.jns.org/glimpse-at-elizabeth-warrens-record-on-israel-as-senator-inches-towards-presidential-run/">boycotted</a> Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress.
In 2017, she <a href="https://www.jns.org/glimpse-at-elizabeth-warrens-record-on-israel-as-senator-inches-towards-presidential-run/">slammed</a> the Trump administration for publicly recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. A few months later, Warren targeted the Israeli military for its response to Gaza rioters.
Then, in 2018, Warren <a href="https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-leads-call-to-address-humanitarian-crisis-in-gaza">signed</a> onto a letter (along with fellow anti-Israel presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders) calling on the secretary of state to do more to address the several crises in the Gaza Strip. The letter makes no mention of Hamas, the terrorist group that rules Gaza.
Today, in 2019, you can find Warren drafting and co-sponsoring resolutions <a href="https://www.merkley.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/DAV19945.pdf">blasting</a> Israeli government security policies. In February, she engaged in a total character assassination of the Israeli prime minister, <a href="https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1101242554748682241">claiming</a> that Mr. Netanyahu is a criminal who is “embracing right-wing extremism” and “manipulating a free press.”
Of course, Sen. Warren is just one of many 2020 Democrats who have completely abandoned our most vital Middle East ally to accommodate the loud, leftist, pro-Palestinian extremists that make up part of the Democratic base.
Jordan Schachtel is a foreign policy analyst and investigative reporter.

SCHACHTEL: Elizabeth Warren Completes Her Total Abandonment Of Israel

Leftism

Massachusetts

Following on the heels of its <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48033/al-jazeera-promotes-pride-while-its-state-backer-josh-hammer">recent</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47456/hammer-al-jazeeras-disgraceful-holocaust-denying-josh-hammer">controversies</a> for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/27428/gop-and-dems-congress-urge-doj-investigate-al-hank-berrien">anti-Semitism</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47456/hammer-al-jazeeras-disgraceful-holocaust-denying-josh-hammer">Holocaust denial</a>, Qatar&#8217;s Al Jazeera Arabic network this week featured a former Hamas leader praising the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood&#8217;s assistance in conducting missile attacks on Israeli civilians.
Broadcasting from Al Jazeera&#8217;s studios in Doha, former Hamas Leader Khaled Mashal <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbsxR-Zh_fA&amp;feature=youtu.be">eulogized</a> the former Egyptian President <a href="https://twitter.com/AJArabic/status/1141450582999392257">Mohamed Morsi</a>, who died of a heart attack on Monday in a Cairo courthouse. He offered condolences to the people of Egypt for the loss of &#8220;a great man,&#8221; reminding the network&#8217;s Arabic audience that Morsi had repeatedly challenged Israel while in office.
In the midst of an hours-long memorial broadcast brimming with incitement against Qatar&#8217;s enemies, including Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Mashal praised the deceased Morsi for assisting Hamas&#8217; bombardment of civilians in Israel.
&#8220;With Morsi&#8217;s support in Cairo,&#8221; the Hamas leader said, &#8220;our great resistance factions &#8212; including Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades &#8212; had bombed the heart of Israel.&#8221;
Mashal praised a fiery speech given by Morsi in November 2012, in which he expressed his opposition to Israel and the United States. &#8220;That&#8217;s when the great Egyptian state, inspired by its great leader [Mohammed Morsi] said no to Israel, no to America. Their aggression must come to an end.&#8221;
Throughout the day&#8217;s broadcast, Al Jazeera compared Morsi&#8217;s death to the 2004 demise of PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, misleadingly dubbing both to be &#8220;murder.&#8221; The network described Morsi as a &#8220;martyr&#8221; and repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that the Brotherhood leader was &#8220;slowly assassinated&#8221; by the current government headed by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who designated the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization in 2013.
This narrative has been advanced in the west by Human Rights Watch&#8217;s director for Middle East and North Africa Sarah Leah Whitson, who accused the Egyptian government of &#8220;criminal negligence&#8221; in providing for Morsi&#8217;s health care while in prison. The allegation drew a <a href="https://egyptindependent.com/egypts-sis-hrw-uses-morsis-death-for-political-purposes/">strong rebuke</a> from Egyptian authorities.
&#8220;It is surprising that Whitson posted her first tweets less than 30 minutes after the death and concluded that he died as a result of medical negligence, though no evidence or information was provided to prove her allegations,&#8221; Egypt&#8217;s State Information Service said in a statement.
The Brotherhood leader was facing life in prison for sharing classified information with Qatar through Al Jazeera while in office. After the popular uprisings that led to his government&#8217;s fall in 2013, Morsi and 10 others were convicted of life sentences for leaking classified information to Qatari authorities through journalists at Al Jazeera&#8217;s Cairo bureau. Morsi and Brotherhood compatriots were also charged with providing secret assistance to foreign militant groups, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran&#8217;s Revolutionary Guard Corps &#8212; as well as for his role in a 2011 break from Wadi el-Natrun prison.
The blatantly <a href="https://twitter.com/AJArabic/status/1141284508089683968">pro-Muslim Brotherhood network</a> stated that the only two heads of states who had condemned Morsi&#8217;s &#8216;murder&#8217; were the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and the Turkish dictator, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. No surprise there, alas, as Erdogan has become the new godfather of the Brotherhood.
For most of the day, Al Jazeera&#8217;s featured guest was <a href="https://twitter.com/AJArabic/status/1141141041237676033">Erdogan</a>, a staunch supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood and the largest <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/3rd-straight-year-turkey-jailed-journalists-country-report/story?id=59791362">jailer of journalists</a> in the world. Erdogan <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbRnYNZGl9A&amp;feature=youtu.be">described</a> el-Sisi&#8217;s Egyptian government as a &#8220;tyranny,&#8221; and lashed out at Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates &#8212; two Islamic countries that strongly support Sisi against the Brotherhood &#8212; for remaining silent with respect to Morsi&#8217;s death.
Throughout its news bulletins, the Qatari media outlet strongly criticized Cairo for allowing a reporter from <a href="https://www.aljazeera.net/news/politics/2019/6/19/&#1605;&#1589;&#1585;-&#1578;&#1587;&#1605;&#1581;-&#1604;&#1589;&#1581;&#1601;&#1610;-&#1573;&#1587;&#1585;&#1575;&#1574;&#1610;&#1604;&#1610;-&#1576;&#1586;&#1610;&#1575;&#1585;&#1577;-&#1602;&#1576;&#1585;-&#1605;&#1585;&#1587;&#1610;">Israeli national television</a> to cover the event and tour the streets of the Egyptian capital, claiming that the <a href="https://twitter.com/AJArabic/status/1141427933246119936">reporter</a> was &#8220;inaccurate&#8221; when he stated that Egyptian people were not moved by Morsi&#8217;s death.
This latest controversy comes amid renewed scrutiny of the Qatari network in the United States.
On Capitol Hill, Al Jazeera has recently come under fire from members of Congress who are urging the Qatari state-controlled outlet to register with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA). Kremlin-funded Russia Today registered under FARA in 2017 and has since been denied press credentials by the Congressional Press Association.
&#8220;If any question remained about whether Al Jazeera is an independent news network or an organ of radical Islamist propaganda, it has now been put to rest,&#8221; wrote Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI) in <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/the-mask-drops-at-al-jazeera">the Washington Examiner</a> this month. As The Washington Free Beacon&#8217;s Adam Kredo has reported, Bergman had a subsequent <a href="https://freebeacon.com/politics/firm-working-for-al-jazeera-demands-gop-rep-correct-op-ed/">testy exchange</a> over the issue with an attorney at DLA Piper, a prominent law firm that has been retained by Al Jazeera. The congressman called out the law firm&#8217;s &#8220;heavy-handed attempt to intimidate a Member of Congress to advance the interests of a foreign government that promotes Islamic extremism and anti-Semitism.&#8221;

Al Jazeera Promotes Hamas’ War On Israel In Broadcast For Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Leader

Egypt

According to <a href="https://jewishinsider.com/2019/06/ilhan-omar-to-join-black-jewish-caucus/">Jewish Insider</a>, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has announced she will be joining the Congressional Black-Jewish Caucus. The Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota had previously offered support for this bipartisan partnership, stating on Twitter:
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Last month, <a href="https://twitter.com/janschakowsky?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@janschakowsky</a> and I joined together to talk about the common threat of white nationalism faced by Muslim, black and Jewish-Americans. Glad to see colleagues follow through in working on the things that unite us and not divide us <a href="https://t.co/KxGV0lnnGI">https://t.co/KxGV0lnnGI</a> <a href="https://t.co/ylJTjmjnxk">https://t.co/ylJTjmjnxk</a>
&#8212; Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) <a href="https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1136385348190314496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 5, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Reps. Brenda Lawrence (D-MI), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), and Lee Zeldin (R-NY) announced the launch of the Black-Jewish Caucus on June 3rd. The launch of the Caucus was facilitated by the American Jewish Committee.
As many are no doubt aware, Ilhan Omar has been accused on multiple occasions of trafficking in blatantly anti-Semitic rhetoric &#8212; whether it be claiming that Israel had &#8220;hypnotized the world&#8221; or that American support for Israel was based solely upon Jewish money.
Her supporters are certain to laud her announcement as final and incontrovertible proof that Ilhan Omar is not an anti-Semite. Not only that, they say, but she is now actively fighting against anti-Semitism!
The brutal fact is that Ilhan Omar does not care about fighting anti-Semitism. She simply wishes to profit politically from certain forms of anti-Semitism, while steadfastly ignoring others.
If we look at Ilhan Omar&#8217;s announcement in the context of her repeated attempt to focus on white supremacist violence, her motivations become clear. Just today, she tweeted:
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This is the type of hate/threats against our life we deal with on a regular basis.
White supremacists were responsible for almost every extremist murder last year. We must treat domestic terrorism with the same vigilance we treat international terrorism. <a href="https://t.co/j20PIkV11w">https://t.co/j20PIkV11w</a> <a href="https://t.co/4M2R0LKnYO">https://t.co/4M2R0LKnYO</a>
&#8212; Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) <a href="https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1136681273982967810?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 6, 2019</a></blockquote>
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While her claim that most &#8220;extremist murders&#8221; were perpetrated by white supremacists may be true domestically, this is far from true internationally, where radical Islamic extremists are responsible for far more deaths than are white supremacists.
However, what must be noted is that Ilhan Omar is intentionally portraying the issue of extremism as a false choice, wherein we can only combat one form of extremist violence and must therefore decide which is more of a threat. In reality, we should be able to agree that all forms of extremist violence and discrimination should be rejected. After all, the Democrats themselves chose not to condemn Ilhan Omar&#8217;s anti-Semitism, and instead supported a broader condemnation of amorphous &#8220;hate.&#8221;
Given that Ilhan Omar is presenting a false binary choice, her motivations become clear when we look at one key sentence from her tweet: &#8220;We must treat domestic terrorism with the same vigilance we treat international terrorism.&#8221; The problem for Omar is that she has a demonstrated history of not taking international terrorism seriously. She lobbied for lighter sentences for ISIS recruits, she has publicly aligned herself with terrorist sympathizers and terror-related groups, and was even seen <a href="https://www.jpost.com/American-Politics/Ilhan-Omar-jokes-about-tone-of-voice-when-former-professor-said-Al-Qaeda-586716">giggling about Hezbollah and al-Qaeda</a> during a recently resurfaced 2013 interview.
Omar is trying to make the argument that we do not treat domestic terrorism with the same vigilance with which we treat international terrorism. Even if she were correct, her insouciant attitude towards international terrorism proves that she is either a hypocrite or is someone driven by a general strategy of deflection and distraction.
When we combine the two indisputable facts that Ilhan Omar is an outspoken anti-Semite and that she transparently does not take international (i.e., radical Islamic) terrorism seriously, we are left with only one conclusion.
Her support of the Black-Jewish Caucus is not rooted in a desire to fight anti-Semitism. If it were, then she would presumably speak out against terrorist groups &#8212; like Hamas &#8212; who have openly and repeatedly expressed a desire to see a Jewish genocide. Instead, she supports and fundraises for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which has long had close organizational ties with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. In reality, her support is rooted in her disingenuous desire to redirect all criticism &#8212; as well as any criticism of her compatriots &#8212; by hiding behind a cherry-picked group of victimized Jews.
For Ilhan Omar, anti-Semitism is a convenient political vehicle. She has no intention to fight anti-Semitism. Instead, she is willingly ignoring radical Islamic anti-Semitism to advance her own goals.
Ilhan Omar claimed that &#8220;Israel has hypnotized the world.&#8221; The truth is that the only people being hypnotized are the people who believe Ilhan Omar&#8217;s support of the Black-Jewish Caucus is motivated by anything other than the goal of weaponizing anti-Semitism.

HAWORTH: Ilhan Omar’s Decision To Join The Congressional Black-Jewish Caucus Is A Hypocritical Stunt

Ilhan Omar

Progressivism

In an unusually stark and blunt admission this week, Yahya Sinwar, chieftain of the Sunni sharia supremacist <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44732/hammer-israel-must-destroy-hamas-once-and-all-josh-hammer">death cult</a> Hamas, which was democratically elected to govern the Gaza Strip following Israel&#8217;s 2005 unilateral withdrawal from the area, openly admitted that the jihadist group takes funding from the terrorist Shiite sharia supremacist regime in Iran.
Per <a href="https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/05/30/hamas-leader-admits-group-receiving-iranian-military-and-financial-support/">Algemeiner</a>:
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The leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip publicly admitted on Thursday that the terrorist group was getting military and financial backing from Iran.
&#8220;We have developed our capabilities,&#8221; the Israeli news site Mako quoted Yahya Sinwar saying at a Hamas rally in Gaza, &#8220;and we have received financial and military support from Iran.&#8221;
&#8220;We will only continue to improve our capabilities,&#8221; he pledged, and admitted, &#8220;If Iran didn&#8217;t support us in recent years, we wouldn&#8217;t have achieved what we achieved.&#8221;
Sinwar stated that the Grad rockets fired at Israel during the latest round of fighting in early May were of &#8220;Iranian manufacture.&#8221;
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Iran is mainly known for funding Hamas rival Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is a fellow terrorist group also operating in the Gaza Strip. Sunni nations <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47456/hammer-al-jazeeras-disgraceful-holocaust-denying-josh-hammer">Qatar</a> and Turkey, by contrast, have emerged over the past decade as the chief benefactors of Hamas.
Since its unilateral withdrawal in 2005, Israel has been forced into three full-scale wars with Hamas, which routinely bludgeons Israeli civilians and metropolitan areas with indiscriminately fired terrorist rockets. In a March Daily Wire op-ed, I <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44732/hammer-israel-must-destroy-hamas-once-and-all-josh-hammer">laid out the case</a> for Israel to utterly destroy Hamas once and for all:
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Try as the Israel Defense Forces might to keep on <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Column-One-Mowing-the-lawn-in-Gaza-569775">&#8220;mowing the grass&#8221;</a> when the &#8220;infidel&#8221;-loathing jihadists of Hamas flare up in impulsive paroxysms of &#8220;anti-Zionism&#8221; Jew-hatred, the status quo in Gaza is completely unsustainable. No other sovereign country on Earth would deal so passively with such a cancerous threat living on its border &#8212; with its <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44688/dramatic-escalation-terrorist-rockets-gaza-reach-josh-hammer">biggest civilian centers</a> under constant fear of city-wide sirens signaling the incoming threat of crude Iran-manufactured rockets fired haphazardly from a bordering terroristic death cult. Indeed, no sovereign country on Earth should have to deal with such a threat. If the Sinaloa Cartel or Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion ever decided to shoot terrorist rockets at Texan or Arizonan ranchers, the United States would (rightfully) send in M1 Abrams tanks across the Rio Grande tomorrow. &#8230;
It is long past time for the Israeli government to commence a full-on, comprehensive land/air invasion to hunt down and permanently root out every last one of the Hamas leadership there. Israel surely has no interest in formally re-annexing Gaza &#8212; calamitous as Sharon&#8217;s withdrawal was, the Israeli government could not be any less interested in now re-absorbing the radicalized Arab populace there. And while the Israel Defense Forces would no doubt suffer high and tragic casualties as a result of a prolonged land invasion, one is forced to consider the tradeoff of inaction &#8212; the continuance of the status quo. And that status quo is truly terrible for all parties involved.
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Hamas is merely the Palestinian-Arab branch of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46714/hammer-designating-muslim-brotherhood-terrorist-josh-hammer">Muslim Brotherhood</a>, which is the preeminent Islamist group in the world and often serves as a &#8220;gateway drug&#8221; for more universally recognized extremist groups such as al-Qaeda, Islamic State, and Jamaat-e-Islami. The Brotherhood&#8217;s founding Egyptian preacher, Hassan al-Banna, <a href="https://www.counterextremism.com/threat/qutbism">described</a> his ideology thus: &#8220;It is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its law on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet.&#8221; Today, Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the Brotherhood&#8217;s spiritual leader who finds a comfortable home surrounded by <a href="https://www.meforum.org/57690/ensconced-doha-islamists">terror-supporting emirs</a> in Doha, publicly endorses suicide bombings against &#8220;infidels&#8221; such as U.S. soldiers deployed in the Middle East.

Hamas Admits It Receives Arms And Money From Iran’s Terrorist Regime

The Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that an Islamic man in New Jersey has been arrested for allegedly threatening to blow up Trump Tower and the Israeli embassy in New York City, providing support to Hamas, and threatening to shoot up pro-Israel supporters.
The 20-year-old man, who will not be named by The Daily Wire, was arrested on Wednesday morning for &#8220;attempting to provide material support to Hamas, lying on his application to enlist in the U.S. Army, and making a threat against pro-Israel supporters,&#8221; the DOJ said in a <a href="http://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/somerset-county-man-charged-attempts-provide-material-support-hamas-making-false">statement</a>.
According to the <a href="http://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/press-release/file/1164941/download">criminal complaint</a>, the suspect emailed the Al-Qassam Brigades, which is the military wing of the Palestinian-Arab Hamas terrorist organization, stating that he &#8220;reverted to Islam a few weeks ago&#8221; and was interested in joining the group.
&#8220;In April 2019, [the suspect] appeared in an Instagram Live video wearing a black ski mask and stated that he was against Zionism and the neo-liberal establishment. When asked by another participant in the video if he would go to Gaza and join Hamas, [the suspect] stated &#8216;yes, If I could find a way,'&#8221; the DOJ stated. &#8220;Later in the video, [the suspect] displayed a Hamas flag and retrieved a handgun. He then stated &#8216;I&#8217;m gonna go to the [expletive] pro-Israel march and I&#8217;m going to shoot everybody.'&#8221;
In other social media posts, the suspect stated, &#8220;I want to shoot the pro-israel demonstrators &#8230; you can get a gun and shoot your way through or use a vehicle and ram people &#8230; all you need is a gun or vehicle to go on a rampage &#8230; I do not care if security forces come after me, they will have to put a bullet in my head to stop me.&#8221;
&#8220;In December 2018, [the suspect] sent $100 via Moneygram to an individual in Gaza who [the suspect] believed to be a member of the Al-Qassam Brigades &#8212; a faction of Hamas that has conducted attacks, to include suicide bombings against civilian targets inside Israel,&#8221; DOJ added.
In February 2019, the suspect stated that he wanted to join the U.S. Army so he could &#8220;learn how to kill &#8230; So [he] can use that knowledge.&#8221;
The suspect completed a security clearance application for national security positions in February &#8212; an application on which law enforcement claims he lied when he stated that he had never &#8220;associated with anyone involved in activities to further terrorism.&#8221;
In April, the FBI surveilled the suspect outside of Trump Tower in New York City. Immediately after visiting the building, the suspect wrote on Instagram: &#8220;I want to bomb Trump Tower.&#8221;
In another Instagram post, the suspect wrote: &#8220;Okay, so I went to NYC today and passed by Trump Tower and then I started laughing hysterically &#8230; shit I forgot to visit the Israeli embassy in NYC &#8230; i want to bomb this place along with trump tower.&#8221;
&#8220;Each count of attempt to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine,&#8221; the DOJ added. &#8220;Each count of making false statements related to international and domestic terrorism carries a maximum penalty of eight years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The count of transmitting a threat in interstate commerce carries a penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.&#8221;

BREAKING: Islamic Man Arrested For Threats To Blow Up Trump Tower, Israeli Embassy, DOJ Says

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