NEW REPORT: UC San Diego Appoints Anti-Israel Activist as a Community Liaison

By Canary Mission

Meet Ramah Awad, the anti-Israel activist appointed by UCSD, and her antisemitic staff and associates

On May 22, 2024, the Ethnic Studies Department at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) announced that Ramah Awad would be the first Palestinian community leader in residence. In a radio interview, Awad explained that beginning in the fall of 2024, she will act as a liaison between the university and the local Palestinian community and will offer seminars on campus on subjects of her choosing.

On October 15, 2023, just eight days after Hamas massacred 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 250 more, Awad helped organize an anti-Israel rally in San Diego, California. In an interview with ABC 10 News, Awad downplayed the terror attacks of October 7, saying, “I don’t think it serves anyone…to be focusing in on the events of this week…I think it’s so important to look at this week within the context of the past 75-plus years.”

During her undergraduate education at Stanford University, Awad was a leader in the BDS campaign on campus. She was also involved with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM). Both organizations have known connections to terrorists and have shown their support for the destruction of the State of Israel.

On November 5, 2020, Awad published an article in Sage Journals titled, “BDS as the baseline of solidarity: toward a model of co-struggling with Palestinians in their movement for justice and liberation.”

In the article, Awad defended a policy known as the “right of return,” which is understood as a path to the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state.

On June 2, 2021, in an interview with the Muslim Network TV posted on Facebook, Awad said, “I think the most accurate way to talk about what is happening in Palestine is a settler-colonial project. You can see the ways that the Israeli state is doing everything that it can to ensure that there are minimal Palestinians on minimum land.”

The appointment of Awad is particularly troubling in light of the post-October 7 atmosphere on UCSD’s campus.

Since the October 7 massacre, Jewish students at UCSD have been harassed and intimidated by Hamas-supporting protesters. Less than a week after Hamas’ October 7 massacre of Jews, a gang of Hamas supporters beat up a supporter of Israel in San Diego (see video below).

On November 1, Israel supporters attending a student government meeting required a police escort to exit the building due to a threatening anti-Israel mob that had gathered outside chanting explicit support for terrorism.

(The UCSD chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine planned a “walk out” of the meeting once they discovered Jewish students would be in attendance.)

Despite video footage of the incident (see below), the university later denied anything had happened and claimed that the police knew nothing about it.

Awad was hired by UCSD to be a liaison to the Palestinian community and to teach seminars on subjects of her choosing. Will she serve to foment an already charged and antisemitic atmosphere on campus?

Under Awad’s leadership of Majdal, several anti-Israel and antisemitic individuals, including individuals who support terror, serve in key positions:

Subrein Damanhoury – Program & Communications Coordinator

Member of the San Diego chapter of the pro-terror activist group Palestine Youth Movement (PYM)

Showed support for arch-terrorist Zakaria Zubeidi, the former Jenin chief of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades

Tweeted: “I f**kin hate zionists” (December 17, 2020)

Tweeted: “In conclusion f**k Israel and Zionism but more specifically f**k American Zionists” (December 3, 2019)

Nadine Hassoun – Chair of the Advisory Board

Affiliated with the pro-terror organization PYM

Referred to Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist Ghassan Kanafani as a “revolutionary”

Supported BDS and was a member of SJP while at San Diego State University

Yasmeen Obeid – Advocacy & Campaigns Coordinator

Active with the pro-terror organization PYM in 2021

Affiliated with anti-Israel organizations Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR)

Jeanine Erikat – Advisory Board

Board member of SJP at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) in 2017

Shouted at an Israeli reserve soldier during a speaking engagement at UCI

Promoted anti-Zionist activities on campus

Selma Hassane – Development Associate

Promoted the illegal encampment at UCSD led by her father, Imam Hassane

Supported BDS

Activist with the San Diego chapter of the anti-Israel organization CAIR in 2013

Promoted anti-Zionism week at UCI organized by SJP in 2017

Majdal receives funding from private donors and government funds from California HumanitiesCalifornia Mental Health Services AuthorityCalifornia Natural Resources Agency and California Department of Social Services. Majdal’s partners include several anti-Israel organizations:

Islamic Center of San Diego

U.S. Campaign for Islamic Rights – a coalition of American-based anti-Israel organizations that lobbies the U.S. Congress to adopt anti-Israel policies and end government support for Israel.

National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC) – a pro-Arab lobbying group. Posts on NNAAC’s Instagram account promote the myths of Israeli “genocide,” “ethnic cleansing” and “apartheid” against Palestinians. Other posts push pure antisemitic content.

San Diego for Palestine Coalition, a politically active anti-Israel organization in San Diego, which Majdal reposted.

The Islamic Center of San Diego, a partner of Madjal, purports to be the largest mosque in the city.

The mosque is infamous for being the home of two 9/11 hijackers. It also received a federal grant of $150,000 in 2023, according to reporting by The Washington Free Beacon.

The head of the mosque, Imam Taha Hassane, is a community activist and leader who played a part in organizing the illegal encampment at UCSD in 2024. He is a member of the anti-Israel organization CAIR. In his role at the mosque, he has shared antisemitic ideas and conspiracy theories.

On May 5, 2024, Hassane posted on his Instagram account, “We demand from UCSD to boycott and divest from the genocidal zionist state. Free Palestine!”

Sermons at the mosque have come under fire for their antisemitic and pro-terror messages, including:

On October 20, 2023, Imam Hassane said, “What we are witnessing now did not start last week or October the 7th! This is a result of a 75-plus years of brutal Zionist occupation of Palestine and it is the result of the 16-plus years of the brutal barbaric blockade of Gaza!”

He continued, “When people are occupied, resistance is justified. Resistance when people are occupied becomes a human right! People have the right to resist.”

On December 23, 2023. The mosque hosted an event featuring speakers from American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). Speeches were filled with antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric. AMP’s Associate Director of Outreach & Grassroots Organizing Taher Herzallah said:

“…the floodgates have opened…When we talk about student activism, this is the moment, this is the time to agitate, to make Zionists feel very uncomfortable on campus.”

“We are clear about our objectives. Free Palestine, from the River to the Sea. Don’t let anybody make you feel uncomfortable about saying that, because we don’t follow their moral authority.”

Imam Hassane’s wife, Lallia Allali, an employee of the University of San Diego at the time, was in the press for an offensive antisemitic picture she posted on social media following October 7. Due to the post, she resigned from her job. Allali is also involved with the anti-Israel organizations CAIR and PYM.

EDITORS NOTE: This Canary Mission column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Who Is Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s VP Candidate?

By Family Research Council

Vice President Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) as her vice presidential running mate on Tuesday. The obscure governor and former congressman has signed bills that would remove children from their parents’ custody if the parents refused to carry out transgender procedures, allowed abortion until birth, and left churches meeting online while so-called “essential businesses” were permitted to open their doors more fully during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The vice presidential nod had narrowed to Walz and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (D), whose ardent support of Israel would have complicated Harris’s ability to win Michigan. The 60-year-old Walz — who is in his fifth year as governor of Minnesota and served 12 years in the U.S. House of Representatives — has sometimes drawn comparisons with Bernie Sanders by comparing socialism to “neighborliness.”

“It just highlights how radical Kamala Harris is,” because she “listened to the Hamas wing of her own party in selecting a nominee,” Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance told a press gaggle late Tuesday morning. Tim Walz “has proposed defunding the police just as Kamala Harris has,” said Vance. “Tim Walz allowed rioters to burn down Minneapolis in the summer of 2020, and then the few who got caught, Kamala Harris helped bail them out of jail. So, it is more instructive about what it says about Kamala Harris. She doesn’t care about the border. She doesn’t care about crime. She doesn’t care about energy. And most of all, she doesn’t care about Americans who have been made to suffer under those policies.”

Walz’s career could be split into two halves, said those who have clashed with him over the years: his time as a congressman in a swing district, where he had to modulate his own liberal views, and his tack to the left once he became governor. In Congress, “he focused on veterans issues, and kept his head down to some extent,” explained Moses Bratrud, director of strategy at the Minnesota Family Council, on Tuesday’s “Washington Watch.” But as governor, he has appealed more to the Ilhan Omar wing of the Democratic Party, said Bratrud. “It’s almost like there are two Tim Walzes.”

Walz served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives (2007 to 2019) after defeating a Republican congressman in a rural district. His record sometimes tracked with his constituents’ more centrist views — for instance, his work on veterans affairs — although Walz’s social liberalism earned him a 0% rating from FRC Action in his next-to-last year in Congress.

As governor, he has signed abortion-expanding legislation, placed transgender ideology over parents’ rights, and limited religious liberty.

Abortion

In January 2023, Walz signed the Protection of Reproductive Options (PRO) Act, which allows unlimited abortion-on-demand until birth. He also increased the payments abortionists receive from the government when they carry out taxpayer-funded abortions, removed informed consent laws, curtailed funding for pro-life pregnancy resource centers, and removed a requirement that babies born alive during botched abortions receive life-saving emergency care.

“Kamala Harris and Tim Walz make up the most pro-abortion presidential ticket America has ever seen. There is no daylight between them on this issue,” said SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser in a statement emailed to The Washington Stand.

Walz called his state an “island of decency” for allowing abortion in an area allegedly dominated by pro-life policies. Walz said among “the things we value most around freedom” include “reproductive freedom,” a euphemism for abortion. At times he has said the “golden rule” is: “Mind your own d–n business!” about who people “marry, their own health care decisions, what books they read.”

“Sadly, these aggressive attacks against vulnerable women and children have earned Walz a place as Harris’s running mate on the Democratic ticket,” said Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life Action, in an email to TWS.

Transgender Policy

Walz has aggressively sided with the transgender industry and promoted extreme gender ideology in the state, including for minors against their parents’ will. Among his most controversial actions, Walz declared Minnesota a so-called sanctuary state for transgenderism. In April 2023, Walz signed a bill (House File 146) that would take minors into state emergency custody if the child has been “unable to obtain gender-affirming health care” — that is, if parents objected to transitioning their minor child. Critics like Bratrud call it “the kidnapping bill,” because it will remove children from any state in the union from their parents’ care if those parents do not enact Walz’s view of transgender ideology.

Instead, Walz has barred parents from getting any alternative, banning so-called “conversion therapy.” He signed a bill that “threatens mental health practitioners who offer voluntary, compassionate care to young people who just want to live according to their faith in the area of gender and sexuality,” explained Bratrud.

Walz’s guidelines have seen schools put feminine hygiene products in boys’ restrooms. “That’s just crazy. That makes no sense whatsoever,” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) told Newsmax on Tuesday morning.

“When it comes to transgenderism — the anti-science movement that promotes the right of males and females (including minors) to switch their sex — the Biden-Harris team is the most radical administration in American history,” said Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, in an email sent to TWS.

“Freedom is on the march in Minnesota. Decency is on the march in Minnesota. Compassion is on the march in Minnesota,” said Walz after signing the “kidnapping bill,” compassionate therapy ban, and abortion expansion bills on the same day.

Walz has portrayed his socially liberal policies as a matter of personal “freedom,” the key word Kamala Harris has used to brand her presidential campaign. “Here in Minnesota, we believe in protecting personal freedoms. It’s why we established reproductive freedom and gender-affirming care as fundamental rights in Minnesota. And it’s why we banned the practice of ‘conversion therapy’ and ended book bans based on ideology,” Walz posted on X on July 26.

Yet religious denominations say they experienced little freedom during the 2020 COVID lockdowns, when Walz’s policies kept houses of worship closed while bars and casinos opened more fully. Walz issued an executive order that allowed so-called essential businesses to expand their capacity — but in-person church services remained limited to 10 people. The Becket Fund sued, and Roman Catholic and conservative Lutheran church leaders announced they would ignore his executive order and reopen on Pentecost Sunday. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D), a Muslim, tenaciously defended Walz’s lockdown policies, contending that since houses of worship “are not buildings,” then “churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples have never been closed because Minnesotans have been doing the work of worship outside the buildings: serving the poor, sick, and needy, delivering meals, ministering online to the spiritual needs of their people.”

“[I]t is so disheartening that the Governor has subordinated our spiritual well-being to the economic well-being of the State,” said Rev. Dr. Lucas Woodford, president of the Minnesota South District of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

Socialism, Lawlessness, Immigration, and China

Walz has earned comparisons with Bernie Sanders for his embrace of the term socialism. “Don’t ever shy away from our progressive values. One person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness. Just do the d–n work!” said Walz.

Walz was governor in May 2020, when George Floyd’s death in police custody touched off the Black Lives Matter (BLM) riots. Rioters burned down the Minneapolis Police Department’s 3rd precinct en route to inflicting an estimated half-a-billion dollars of damage statewide. Walz faced steep criticism for waiting three days to call in the National Guard, due to strained relations with then-President Donald Trump.

Walz has favored amnesty for illegal immigration, as well as legal immigration expansion, earning an F- from NumbersUSA. Walz once vowed that, if the U.S. built a wall to stop the flow of illegal immigrants over the southern border, he would “invest in a … ladder factory” to help illegals climb the wall. Walz has also voiced his support for so-called “sanctuary cities,” which do not comply with federal law enforcement’s efforts to deport criminal aliens and others who entered the country unlawfully.

Walz summed up his views of the last four years in a social media post, stating, “Joe Biden is and has always been an American hero. History will look fondly on his legacy.”

Walz was born on April 6, 1964, in West Point, Nebraska, to James F. Walz and Darlene Rose Reiman Walz. He served 24 years in the Army National Guard and worked as a teacher, including a year on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

The Democratic vice presidential candidate has longstanding ties to America’s most potent foreign adversary, China. Walz spent a year teaching in the People’s Republic of China, instructing students at Guangdong province’s Foshan No. 1 High School in English and American history in 1989 — the year of the Tienanmen Square massacre. If it left unpleasant memories, they were soon forgotten, as Walz and his wife, Gwen (nee Whipple), took their honeymoon in China in 1994. They set up a company that carried out exchange visits to China, Educational Travel Adventures. Walz said he had visited China 30 times by 2016.

Walz belongs to the liberal Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), which has paid for its employees’ abortions through its health care plan, ordained non-celibate homosexual clergy, and promoted transgenderism and “queerness” as “beauty.” He and his wife, Gwen, have two children, Hope and Gus, both conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF), a fact Walz has used as a political weapon in his campaign speeches. Walz got his first political job in 2004 as a organizer for the John Kerry presidential campaign.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

The ‘History of the World Is the Story of Hatred,’ but the History of God Is the Story of Love

By Family Research Council

Scripture makes clear there are two groups: those who are of the world and those who are not. Put more simply, there are believers, and there are unbelievers. Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters,” and James 4:4 proclaims that “friendship with the world is enmity with God.” And yet, as we walk the same earth, avoiding one another entirely is simply impossible. Not to mention the fact that many of those who are in the world intentionally seek out believers to call us “hateful” and “bigoted,” insisting that we are what’s wrong with the world. On the other side of this, we as believers are called to interact with the world, sharing the goodness and truth of Christ.

When analyzing these things, it seems probable that two issues may arise — particularly for Christians. First, we may become intimidated by the drastic differences between the two groups and the inevitable hatred we will face by being bold in a world that rejects Christ often deters us from trying at all. The second issue that may creep into the lives of believers involves the misunderstanding that we’re free to mix and match philosophies as we please. Regardless of which path we may find ourselves on, I find it beneficial to make the distinction between belief and unbelief undoubtedly clear, and I’m going to do that by dissecting the two different narratives we face.

  1. “The history of the world is a story of hatred.”

I’ve heard it said that “the history of the world is a story of hatred.” Although where I heard this from escapes me, it stands to reason that this is a message worth unpacking. We see examples of Scripture’s call for believers to stay distinct from the world in 1 John 2:15-16, Romans 12:2, 1 John 5:19, John 18:26, and countless other passages. And if Scripture is adamant about keeping the world separate from those of faith in terms of identity and lifestyle, then we must ask ourselves why. Perhaps the shortest answer is because, as previously stated, the world is full of hatred.

First, it hates God. Romans 1 says that all “are without excuse” in terms of God’s existence, for He has made His existence known, and His invisible attributes “have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world.” Yet, this they reject. As verses 21-23 state, “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” Fools whose hearts are darkened and their thinking is futile is quite the picture. But Scripture doesn’t stop there in describing the position of the ungodly.

In addition to hating God, we can see how the world often hates each other. In fact, we can trace the depravity of man all the way back to the Garden of Eden. The moment sin entered the world as written in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve started pointing their fingers at one another. Only a number of chapters later, and we have Cain, an envious brother, murdering Abel. Walk through the rest of the Old Testament, and you see wars, rebellion, adultery, and all kinds of debauchery unfold. Judges 21:25 describes a tremendously dark time in history in which “there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

But let’s fast forward to modern day, where all around we have people trying to be their own god, hating everything that He deems is good. And spoiler alert: it’s a disaster. Transgenderism is a plague that mutilates healthy bodies and catapults the mind into a series of harmful delusions. Abortion tears apart healthy babies inside their mother’s womb. Pornography and gender politics turn beautiful, God-given blessings such as marriage and sex and discards them as if they mean nothing. But this is what the world wants, right? They don’t want a final authority to answer to. They don’t want their way of life to be “restricted” by some Supreme Being. They want the final say, and I think it goes without saying that it all leads to sin, which ultimately leads to death.

There’s more that could be said, but it feels sufficient to say that from the Garden of Eden until now, the history of the world is a story of hatred, anger, and vanity.

  1. The history of God is the story of love.

The world offers a narrative of hatred, but by divine grace, God offers a narrative of love. Yes, Scripture provides the long and messy history of a world brimming with hatred, but it also offers the even longer and beautiful history that results in a masterful story of love. When we read of the gospel and the good news of eternal life for all who believe, this is not some plan God came up with last minute. On the contrary, this plan of redemption was determined before the foundation of the world.

Before there was anything, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit dwelled in perfect love and unity with one another. God did not need us, but He chose to create us. Even when man used his freewill to rebel against God, He still chose to pursue us. Even when the history of the world unfolded, only further emphasizing it’s hatred of God, He still chose to pursue us. In fact, it’s in realizing how great the hatred of the world is that we are struck by how much greater the love of our God is. Indeed, when Paul wrote that nothing could ever “separate us from the love of God,” we understand just how true that is.

From beginning to end, God remains faithful. Christ’s death sealed the promise of eternal life for those who inherit the Kingdom of heaven, and we are called to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which [we] have been called” (Ephesians 4:1). And being a church guided by a God who is love, this means that, as a body, we imitate that same love to the best of our ability.

We are called to humility, kindness, meekness, generosity, and patience. We’re called to put others above ourselves and center our lives on service. We are called to speak the truth, and to speak it in love. Truly, there’s no greater contrast to the world’s story of hatred than God’s story of love. Just as John concluded his gospel by stating “the world itself could not contain the books that would be written,” perhaps the same is true here. Not all the books in the world would be enough to describe the great, steadfast love of our God.

As we understand these two distinctions, we reflect on the truth that, like oil and water, truth and falsehood simply cannot mix. But for the Christian, acknowledging this isn’t enough. We ought to actively remember that we’re the ones who understand this picture clearly. As such, we will continue to face persecution and slander. We will continue to be deemed “hateful” and “bigoted.” After all, as Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw once said, “Hatred is the coward’s revenge for being intimidated.” When we promote God’s truth, the world responds in anger.

But within the chapters of John 15 and 17, Jesus makes clear that apart from Him, we can do nothing. He stated that we are not of the world, just as He was not of the world. Our roots must be firmly planted in Christ and His story, not our story. Our love must be rooted in Christ, not ourselves. The world will always hate Christianity because their love is of self, but we have the opportunity every day to be a light and show them another way ­ — the only Way.

C.S. Lewis mapped out the distinction well when he said, “Look for Christ and you’ll get Him, and with Him, everything else thrown in. Look for yourself and you’ll get only hatred, loneliness, despair, and ruin.”

I can’t help but wonder, which story will you be a part of?

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Hamas And Al-Jazeera, A Decades-Long Symbiotic Relationship

By Middle East Media Research Institute

QatarPalestinians | MEMRI Daily Brief No. 631

As the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza went on day after day, Al-Jazeera dubbed it “Gaza Resists” and used the phrase in all of its advertising and promos for continuing news coverage. Once the war seemed to die down and even end, the Qatari pan-Arab broadcaster switched from “Gaza Resists” to “Gaza has triumphed.”

But this was not the current war in Gaza unleashed by Hamas on October 7, 2023, but a war a decade earlier – Operation Protective Edge – waged in July-August 2014. In this earlier conflict, the symbiotic relationship between Al-Jazeera and Hamas was in sharp relief as the broadcaster followed closely Hamas’s own guidelines to the media on how to portray the conflict. The Hamas Ministry of the Interior and National Security had issued a video directive for “Facebook activists” to follow on reporting the war.[1] As The National Interest reported at the time, “the channel’s Gaza coverage seems to have taken its cues from Hamas’ own media playbook.”[2]

The network not only provided wall-to-wall coverage of the war but also gave unstinting, positive, uncut, and premium coverage to Hamas leaders. This included a 40-minute speech and press conference by Hamas political leader Khalid Meshaal but also messages from Hamas’s military wing and from the allied Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group. Such a scenario of collaboration between Hamas and Al-Jazeera would be repeated in subsequent years. In May 2021, after the end of two weeks of fighting between Hamas in Israel, Hamas political chief in Gaza Yahya Sinwar would be seen on Al-Jazeera giving a victory speech while praising the Qatari broadcaster as “the best pulpit to give the accurate voice to our position.”[3]

Origins

But the historical record of Al-Jazeera’s open support for Palestinian terrorist operations goes back much further. As early as November 1999, Al-Jazeera had invited Hamas leaders to talk about their “resistance” operations against Israel, and in doing so shattered the long-standing Arab media hegemony of Fatah and the PLO. In 2005, after the full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, Al-Jazeera carried footage of Hamas Friday sermons and military parades held in the abandoned Israeli compounds to celebrate the withdrawal.[4] This included remarks by Sheikh Nizar Rayyan, a cleric who was also a senior official in the military wing of Hamas: “The vanquishing of the enemy in Gaza does not mean that this stage has ended. We still have Jerusalem and the pure West Bank. We will not rest until we liberate all our land, all our Palestine. We do not distinguish between what was occupied in the 1940s and what was occupied in the 1960s. Our Jihad continues, and we still have a long way to go. We will continue until the very last usurper is driven out of our land.”

At the same 2005 event, Hamas spokesman Mushir Al-Masri commented on Al-Jazeera that liberating Gaza was like liberating Tel Aviv, both were the same. He added a phrase that would become quite famous in the West in 2023: “the weapons of the resistance that you see here will remain, Allah willing, so that we can liberate Palestine – all of Palestine – from the [Mediterranean] Sea to the [Jordan] River, whether they like it or not.”[5]

Indeed, the cause of Palestine would be a staple of Al-Jazeera coverage and the media campaigns built by the network around conflict in the Holy Land would be a constant. Other causes would come and go. In 2006, Al-Jazeera’s championing of Hezbollah and Hassan Nasrallah during the Tammuz War with Israel succeeded in making the cleric a famous and beloved figure in the region, if only for a few years until Nasrallah sent his fighters into the Syrian Civil War on the side of the Assad regime.

Other media campaigns, especially in the early years after 2001, focused on fawning coverage of Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda and later the head of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (later to become the Islamic State or ISIS) Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi. Just as there was a moment when Lebanon was the issue, Iraq had its moment, as did Egypt when Hosni Mubarak was overthrown and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood came to power. In all these incidences – Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, and many others – Al-Jazeera was always consistent, taking the side of the Islamist, anti-Western, and anti-Israel part, the hero in the network’s narrative. And yet even when it came to Palestine, Palestinian officials, from the time of Arafat to this day, would sometimes complain that the Qatari network preferred the Islamists (Hamas) over the Palestinian Authority and its security forces.[6]

The bias should come as no surprise. It was baked in from the beginning. Both Hamas and Al-Jazeera come from the same root, from various iterations of the regional Muslim Brotherhood political organization. Hamas, officially dating from December 1987, was a Palestinian offshoot of local Islamist groups heavily influenced by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Al-Jazeera, launched in November 1996, began from a cell of staffers initially hired and then fired by BBC Arabic.

Early Al-Jazeera staffers had ties to the Syrian and Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. The network’s director for many of those early formative years (2003-2011) was Palestinian Wadah Khanfar. A subsequent director, the Jordanian Yasir Abu Hilaleh (2014-2018) was a well-known Islamist.[7] And looming over all the channel’s staff, no matter their personal preference or orientation, was Qatar’s openly Islamist foreign policy, not just strongly pro-Palestinian but strongly Palestinian Islamist as it favored similar causes elsewhere, from Turkey’s Erdoğan to Afghanistan’s Taliban.[8] The support and the bias in favor of Hamas and Islamist causes is both institutional and personal.[9]

And the cross-fertilization on the screen among Al-Jazeera’s (and Qatar’s) various pet causes and favorites – Hamas, Erdoğan’s Turkey, Jihadism, Political Islam, antisemitism – was always there through the years. You might see Erdoğan on Palestine, Hamas’s Khalid Meshaal praising Al-Jazeera cleric Yussef Al-Qaradawi or Hamas speaking on antisemitism. So, for example, a 2016 Al-Jazeera interview with Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahhar included the charge that President-Elect Trump was possibly a Jew, but that even if he was not, “he loves the Jewish religion and even more, Jewish money.”[10] Sinwar was not mistaken when he called Al-Jazeera, the best of pulpits.

Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Zahhar on Al-Jazeera, November 8, 2016.

More War, More Popularity

Al-Jazeera was deeply interested in and invested in the cause of Palestine but what was the receptivity of the Palestinians themselves to the influence of the Qatari network? The most recent Shikaki (PCPSR) Poll (carried out May 26-June 1, 2024) reported that “Al-Jazeera is the most-watched TV station in Palestine with 68% selecting it as the one they watched the most during the past two months. West Bankers are more likely than Gazans to watch Al-Jazeera, 82% and 46% respectively [partly due to the inability of many in Gaza to watch TV]. The distant second most popular TV station is Hamas’s own Al-Aqsa (4%) followed by Palestine TV (3%), Palestine Today, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya, Ma’an and pro-Iranian Al-Mayadeen (2% each).”[11] Similarly, the previous Shikaki poll, published in March 2024, found Al-Jazeera to be the most watched (61%) with the second-place station at only 4% (Palestine Today).[12]

While all polling in the Middle East, even the well-respected PCPSR polls, should always be treated with caution, these results generally ring true. The latest results are even more striking if one looks at the last poll before the current war, from early September 2023, we see that Al-Jazeera was still then most watched station at that time but the figures were much lower – 28% with Hamas’s Al-Aqsa a distant second at 11% (4% on the West Bank, 22% in Gaza).[13] The percentage of Palestinians watching Al-Jazeera has more than doubled since the outbreak of the war – 28% in September 2023, 61% in March 2024, and 68% in May 2024.

Covering the Gaza War has been a priority for the channel from October 7. A key part of Al-Jazeera’s effectiveness as a media or propaganda outlet is its willingness to lavishly devote airtime and resources to breaking news, particularly to news events of its own choosing. So that the network in a sense does not just cover the news, it makes it, working closely with its political and militarized partners (in this specific case, Hamas and its allies). This is especially true in covering live events that conform with and shape a previously expressed narrative. As Brussels-based Palestinian activist Amjad Abu Koush has noted: “It seems that five months of annihilation are not enough for Al-Jazeera TV, in its efforts to garner as much viewers and like-clicks as possible.”[14]

It is that specific combination of breaking news and propagandistic spin that has made Al-Jazeera so popular among Palestinian audiences. That is the likely reason why its viewership seems to have more than doubled. It is telling its viewers both what they think they need to know, in terms of coverage, and also what they want to hear, in terms of an overall narrative.

A Consistent Narrative

And what is Al-Jazeera’s narrative, specifically when it comes to Palestine? There is a sturdy consistency going back more than two decades to the current Al-Aqsa Flood War of 2023-2024.

First of all, in the Al-Jazeera narrative on Palestine, Palestine is not “winning” (it is certainly not losing) but rather it (in this case “Gaza”) has already won.[15] The “victory” in the current war was not achieved, as in other conventional conflicts, with the situation at the end of the war but rather announced at the beginning. October 7 is portrayed as a victory in a way as if December 7, 1941, was both the beginning and the defining moment of the conflict between Japan and the United States. As if the conflict had ended with the deterrence or shock inflicted on the Americans on that day.

Al-Jazeera fired the first media shots of the war. The October 7 war was formally first announced in a recording by Hamas military commander Muhammad Deif on Al-Jazeera, a fact that shows a high level of coordination and appreciation by Hamas of the role Al-Jazeera had played in previous conflicts and would play in this one. In that recording Deif called on all Palestinians elsewhere, not just in Gaza but also on the West Bank and inside Israel to rise up with any weapon they had on hand.

Since that date Al-Jazeera has essentially functioned as Hamas TV around the clock, making it, unsurprisingly, essential watching for Palestinians trying to understand what is happening on the ground.[16] That thirst for knowledge comes with a price as information is filtered through the Hamas and Al-Jazeera ideological lens.[17]
The Qatari channel’s direct material support and service to the Hamas war effort are both massive and multi-faceted and have included:

  • Broadcasting threats by Hamas leaders and leaders of other terror organizations;
  • Celebrating and praising the terror attack and missile attacks on Israel;
  • Airing hostage videos to exert pressure on the Israeli government;
  • Broadcasting military announcements on an almost daily basis;[18]
  • Airing footage on military encounters and the killing of IDF soldiers;
  • Broadcasting near IDF troops and airing analysis by military experts to advise Hamas fighters on recommended tactics and maneuvers;
  • Pinpointing potential Israeli quality targets;
  • Fabricating anti-Israel propaganda;
  • Fabricating information designed to thwart Israel’s instructions to the Gaza population;
  • Silencing any criticism of Hamas, and constantly rebroadcasting Hamas war propaganda focusing on IDF soldiers killed in the fighting; Hamas statements in Hebrew inciting the Israeli public against its government, including scenes from the current hostage families’ demonstrations in Israel; and Hamas propaganda referring to every city, town, and community inside Israel as a “settlement”;
  • Describing the hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 as “convicted prisoners” – equating them with the convicted Hamas terrorists in Israeli prisons – and referring to the young Palestinian adults in Israeli custody as “children”;
  • and Propagating the lie that IDF soldiers raped Palestinian women during the attack on Hamas terrorists at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.[19]

As Al-Jazeera columnist Hani Ismail Muhammad, an Egyptian Islamist based in Turkey, wrote on the channel’s website on October 12, 2023, “to complete the victory, Muslims in the east and west of the globe must and should show solidarity with Palestine and Gaza and with the Resistance and its battle.”[20] The late Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s Political Bureau, underscored the already-won victory in remarks broadcast live by Al-Jazeera on January 9, 2024: “We should hold on to the victory that took place on October 7 and build upon it,” and he added: “Time is on our side.”[21]

Retired Jordanian Major General Fayiz Al-Dwairi pontificating on Al-Jazeera (July 2024)

One key part of the victory narrative on Al-Jazeera in this war (2023-2024) has been the skewed commentary provided by its chief military analyst Fayiz Al-Dwairi, a retired Jordanian Major General and military engineer.[22] In a glowing profile written by Al-Jazeera staff and posted on its website in January 2024, Al-Dwairi is described as “the Analyst of the Resistance,” beloved and eagerly followed by Hamas fighters. And it should be no surprise that he is popular. The piece goes on to gush that Al-Dwairi “was known for his optimistic assessment of the performance of the Palestinian resistance after the Al-Aqsa flood.”[23] According to the article, while praising the qualities of the Hamas fighter over the IDF soldier, and pointing out the supposed inadequacies of Israeli equipment, Al-Dwairi rhapsodized about Hamas’s military prowess, “there is nothing like it in military history from Alexander the Great until today.”[24]

The victory narrative has real power to inspire the masses but it is not fool proof. What Al-Jazeera has been doing is similar to what the organization calling itself the Islamic State or ISIS did in its own propaganda from 2013 on – projecting the image of victory. The presentation of a narrative of success – whether military advances or political progress or steadfastness, etc. – is compelling and attractive but only as long as it is somewhat tethered to reality. If the propaganda gets too far away from the reality on the ground, then it produces a reverse reaction where it is not believed. This is somewhat like the boasting of Arab regimes in the June 1967 war with Israel, which then turned out to be false and exposed these regimes to ridicule. Arab regimes – one may remember Iraqi Information Minister “Baghdad Bob” (Muhammad Said Al-Sahhaf) during the 2003 American invasion of Iraq – and terrorist groups have tended to exaggerate, if not actually fabricate events involving military success against the enemy.

But while both Al-Jazeera and Hamas do exaggerate and fabricate, they also know that they cannot fabricate an entirely false reality out of whole cloth. The spin must be selective. So, a Hamas victory narrative must be based on some objective truths, even if clothed in layers of exaggeration. For such an image to be sustained, the war must end in a way that the claims of victory seem somewhat plausible, even if many or most observers know that this is not really true.

The Hamas/Al-Jazeera victory narrative would find its climax in a visual endgame that included something like a defiant and triumphant Yahya Sinwar coming out of a bunker and speaking to the masses in a public event in the ruins of Gaza. Even if the words are empty and the masses rented, such an event would provide a fitting visual conclusion to the victory narrative. Another relatively effective way of doing it would be, of course, an exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages with scenes of public jubilation as the prisoners raise their hands in victory while exalting national and political symbols. Defiance by the living, claims of steadfastness – surviving the conflict – and mass prisoner releases are the tangible badges of victory that have already been used in past wars between terrorist groups and Israel. They were used by Hizbullah and Al-Jazeera in 2006 and by Hamas and Al-Jazeera in 2014.

Still another Al-Jazeera columnist, Yasser Saad Al-Din, put it this way in April 2024: “Israel has been defeated, but has the Resistance won?” The author relied heavily on Israeli opinions about the war and particularly on criticism by internal opponents of the current Israeli government. But on the Palestinian side, there was no criticism but rather conformity, “the resistance has triumphed militarily, morally and even politically over the occupation army.”[25]

A new element in the victory narrative, in contrast with past Gaza conflicts, has been the rise of the pro-Gaza protest movement, especially in the United States, a surprising factor that has not been missed by Hamas or Al-Jazeera. Indeed, even the Houthis in Yemen and Iran’s Supreme Leader have praised the movement. Saad Al-Din depicted Israel as “dismantled as an occupation state in the eyes of Western public opinion.”

An even more tangible example of victory would have been if the war would have brought Hamas to power on the West Bank, replacing Fateh and the PLO. This was certainly one of the reasons for the October 7 war in the first place. It was a possibility dear to the hearts of both Erdoğan’s Turkey and Qatar, two of Hamas’s closest supporters. But this was never something that would have happened immediately once the current conflict concludes. The fact that the destruction in Gaza has been so widespread, and that so many leaders, like Muhammad Deif and Ismail Haniyeh, have been eliminated by the Israelis will make the final attempted selling of that victory narrative so much harder at the end of the day. It was a lot easier to push the victory story earlier in the conflict, less so in August 2024. But some sort of effort will be made nevertheless.

In seeming stark contrast to the victory narrative, but actually complementary to it is the “Palestinians are Victims” narrative. Just as a martyr is in a very real sense both a victor and a victim, so do both Al-Jazeera and Hamas seek to highlight as much as possible the suffering of the Palestinian people, highlighting real events, exaggerating others and fabricating still others.

This narrative also requires the playing down of military casualties while highlighting civilian ones. An entire process of linguistic alchemy is required to be put into action in order to make such an approach work. Teenage gunmen become children, Hamas members become independent journalists, Palestinian profiteering becomes Israeli starvation tactics, collateral damage become intentional targeting, failed Hamas/PIJ missiles falling on Gaza facilities become Israeli airstrikes, as in the notorious blood libel about the Al-Ahli Hospital on October 17, only ten days after the beginning of the war.

AI-generated image of a defeated Netanyahu and Biden (Midjourney) from Al-Jazeera

No story is complete without a villain and, coupled with the segments on “Palestinians as Victors” and – simultaneously – “Palestinians as Victims,” there is a third stool in the narrative: the “Israel is Lacking/Defeated/Finished” component. Military analyst Al-Dwairi on Al-Jazeera describes the Israelis in Gaza as “advancing towards death, fighting without protection against an adversary willing to do anything for victory” and “with great fear for his life, which exposes him to great psychological pressure.” It does not matter that Al-Dwairi’s analysis of this factor or anything else turned out to be wrong, what mattered is that, in the moment, he provided the cover of supposed expert analysis to what was actually advocacy and confirming the preconceived notions of his Arab and, especially Palestinian, audience: Hamas was winning and the Israelis, as soldiers and as people, were losing, lacking or inferior, solely propped up, if that, by technological prowess given to them by the Americans. As Arab-American columnist Hussain Abdul-Hussain said recently, if you follow Al-Jazeera and other Islamist media, there are “76 years of Israeli failure and Palestinian successes.”[26]

Given these factors and the sheer weight and breadth of Al-Jazeera coverage on the Gaza War (analyst Al-Dwairi was featured almost daily for months), it is then not so surprising that Palestinian audiences have responded by tuning in and by expressing views that are broadly in sync with Al-Jazeera’s narrative. One might ask, what came first? The Al-Jazeera “chicken” or the Hamas “egg” in shaping and influencing public opinion? The reality being that, as we have shown, both entities came from a common root and shared a common, deeply held, worldview. And both reflect views already held by a significant percentage of the Palestinian population. When asked in a May 2023 poll what has been the most positive or the best thing that has happened to the Palestinian people since 1948, the largest percentage (24%) said that it was the establishment of Islamic movements, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad and their participation in armed struggle; 21% said that the best thing was the eruption of the first and second intifada. Only 9% saw the establishment of Fateh as the best thing that had happened.[27] The propaganda work of Al-Jazeera on behalf of Hamas was half-done even before the war began.

But important questions remain for the day after. Once the war does end, will Al-Jazeera’s numbers decline, from 68% in the latest poll back to 28% in September 2023? It is quite likely that other conflicts or events will rise elsewhere to capture the channel’s attention – that is the nature of the news business – ­­although Palestine has been a staple of the channel for decades. What could fill the information gap if Al-Jazeera’s numbers decrease? Can the channel’s stranglehold on Palestinian public opinion be challenged? And will there ever be a final reckoning for Al-Jazeera’s shameless and deadly promotion of Hamas and other terrorist groups, not among Palestinian public opinion but, more importantly, by policymakers in Washington? That is the ultimate question.

AUTHORS

Yigal Carmon and Amb. Alberto M. Fernandez

Yigal Carmon is President of MEMRI.

Alberto M. Fernandez is Vice President of MEMRI.

[1] Youtube.com/watch?v=VxzZ5cm8ZCw, July 10, 2014.

[2] Nationalinterest.org/feature/the-problem-al-jazeera-11239, September 10, 2014.

[3] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 11037, Hamas Leader In Gaza Yahya Sinwar, Israel’s Most Wanted – In His Own Words: ‘We Support The Eradication Of Israel Through Armed Jihad And Struggle; This Is Our Doctrine’; ‘The Brothers In Iran And Hizbullah Spared Us Nothing’, December 22, 2023.

[4] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 991, >Hamas Friday Sermons in Abandoned Gaza Settlements on Al-Jazeera TV: ‘We Can Liberate Palestine – From the Mediterranean to the Jordan River’, September 21, 2005.

[5] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 991, Hamas Friday Sermons in Abandoned Gaza Settlements on Al-Jazeera TV: ‘We Can Liberate Palestine – From the Mediterranean to the Jordan River’, September 21, 2005.

[6] X.com/KhaledAbuToameh/status/1817408090246967320, July 27, 2024.

[7] Al-ain.com/article/resignation-qatar-yasser-al-jazeera, May 10, 2018.

[8] See MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No. 1527, Al-Jazeera Unmasked: Political Islam As A Media Arm Of The Qatari State, August 12, 2020.

[9] See Special Dispatch No. 10879, Presenters, Reporters From Qatar’s Al-Jazeera Praise Hamas Attack, Celebrate Israel’s Disaster, October 17, 2023.

[10] See MEMRI TV Clip No. 5758, Hamas Leader Mahmoud Al-Zahhar: Trump Possibly a Jew; Money Is the Jewish Religion, Key to U.S. Decision-Making, November 8, 2016.

[11] Pcpsr.org/en/node/985, May 26-June 1, 2024.

[12] Pcpsr.org/en/node/973, March 5-10, 2024.

[13] pcpsr.org/en/node/955, September 6-9, 2023.

[14] See MEMRI TV Clip No. 10944, Brussels-Based Palestinian Activist Amjad AbuKoush: We Are Paying The Price For 17 Years Of Hamas Policies; Al-Jazeera TV Wants The Bloodshed To Continue So It Can Garner More Viewers And More ‘Likes’; Qatar Has Taken Over Palestinian Decision-Making, March 7, 2024.

[15] See MEMRI JTTM report Canada-Based Pro-Al-Qaeda Cleric: Hamas’ Claims Of Victory Are Absurd, Its Only Accomplishment Is Increasing The Suffering Of Palestinians, February 27, 2024.

[16] See MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis Report No. 1751, Al-Jazeera Arabic: The Qatari-Owned TV Channel That Promotes Islamist Terrorism Worldwide – UPDATED, May 6, 2024.

[17] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 10872, Qatar Enabling Hamas’ War Against Israel, October 15, 2023.

[18] See MEMRI TV Clip No. 11011, Al-Jazeera Airs Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades Video Calling On Muslims To Join Jihad; Shows Ambush Against Israeli Soldiers, April 10, 2024.

[19] See MEMRI Daily Brief No. 587, Al-Jazeera’s Gaza Script Sabotaged By Their Ally Hamas, April 1, 2024.

[20] Aljazeera.net/blogs/2023/10/12/7-%d8%a3%d9%83%d8%aa%d9%88%d8%a8%d8%b1-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%88%d8%b9%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d9%86%d8%aa%d8%b8%d8%b1-%d9%88%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%88%d9%87%d9%85-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b6%d8%a7%d8%a6%d8%b9, October 12, 2023.

[21] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 11072, Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh: We Should Hold On To The Moment Of The Victory Of October 7 And Build Upon It; Time Is On Our Side; Donations To Gaza Are Not ‘Humanitarian Aid’ But ‘Financial Jihad’, January 10, 2024.

[22] See MEMRI TV Clip No. 11089, Al-Jazeera Military Analyst Fayez Al-Dwairi Explains Anti-Tank Missile Used By Hamas In Gaza, Adds: It Can Penetrate Israel’s Namer APC And Merkava Tank, January 1, 2024.

[23] Aljazeera.net/encyclopedia/2024/1/4/%d9%81%d8%a7%d9%8a%d8%b2-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%af%d9%88%d9%8a%d8%b1%d9%8a-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%84%d9%84-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d9%82%d8%a7%d9%88%d9%85%d8%a9, January 23, 2024.

[24] Aljazeera.net/encyclopedia/2024/1/4/%d9%81%d8%a7%d9%8a%d8%b2-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%af%d9%88%d9%8a%d8%b1%d9%8a-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%84%d9%84-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d9%82%d8%a7%d9%88%d9%85%d8%a9, January 23, 2024.

[25] Aljazeera.net/opinions/2024/4/14/%D9%87%D8%B2%D9%85%D8%AA-%D8%A5%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A%D9%84-%D9%81%D9%87%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AA%D8%B5%D8%B1%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%85%D8%A9, April 14, 2024.

[26] X.com/hahussain/status/1818983797553078667, August 1, 2024.

[27] Pcpsr.org/en/node/944, June 7-11, 2023.

‘The History of Kamala Harris’ by Geoffrey B. Higginbotham, Major General, USMC (Ret.)

By Dr. Rich Swier

Many of our readers sent us a link to a column written by Geoffrey B. Higginbotham, Major General, USMC (Ret.) on the history of the Harris family and of Kamala and her husband Doug Emhoff.

It was published on March 13, 2021 in Government in Exile.

Here are Marine General Higginbotham’s words.

The History of Kamala Harris

For your knowledge and interest about the Biden VP.  Here is a timely editorial that exposes the hidden background of Kamala Harris from the Combat Veterans for Congress Political Action Committee that is posted here with permission of the author. CVFC PAC supports the election of US military combat veterans to the US Senate and House of Representatives. The editorial begins:

Kamala Harris’ father was an avowed Marxist professor in the Economics Department at Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA. Both of Harris’ parents were active in the Berkeley based Afro-American Association; Fidel Castro and Che Guevara were the heroes of the Afro-American Association.

The group’s leader, Donald Warden (aka Khalid al-Mansour), mentored two young Afro-American Association members, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale; they created the Maoist inspired Black Panther Party which gained strong support from Communist China; the Black Panther Party served as the model for creation of the Black Lives Matter Marxist organization Khalid al-Mansour subsequently went on to arrange financing and facilitated for Barack Hussein Obama to be accepted as a
student to matriculate at Harvard Law School.

Following her graduation from college, Harris returned to California and subsequently became the mistress of the 60-year-old married Speaker of the California Assembly, Willie Brown, Jr. Brown’s political campaigns were supported and funded by Dr. Carlton Goodlett, the owner of The Sun Reporter and several other pro-Communist newspapers.

Brown was elected as Mayor of San Francisco, and strongly endorsed Harris’ Marxist political philosophy; he guided Harris’ political rise in California politics, leading to her election as California’s Attorney General. Willie Brown, Jr. was a well-known long-time Communist sympathizer. Willie Brown, Jr. was initially elected to public office with the substantial help of the Communist Party USA.

Today, Willie Brown is widely regarded as one of the Chinese Communist Party’s best friends in the San Francisco Bay Area.

While serving as San Francisco District Attorney, Kamala Harris mentored a young San Francisco Radical Maoist activist, Lateefah Simon, who was a member of the STORM Revolutionary Movement; Simon currently chairs the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Board. Simon has always been close friends with the founder of Black Lives Matter Marxist Domestic Terrorists, Alicia Garza, as well as STORM member and avowed Communist, Van Jones. Harris has been openly and aggressively supporting Black Lives Matter Marxists; Kamala Harris is still closely associated with Maoist Lateefah Simon and Marxist Alicia Garza.

Kamala Harris’s sister Maya Harris was a student activist at Stanford University. She was a closely associated with Steve Phillips, one of the leading Marxist-Leninists on campus and a long-time affiliate with the League of Revolutionary Struggle, a pro-Chinese Communist group.

Phillips came out of the Left, and in college he studied Marx, Mao, and Lenin, and maintained close associations with fellow Communists. Phillips married into the multi billion dollar Sandler family of the Golden West Savings and Loan fortune. He funded many leftist political campaigns, and the voter registration drives in the Southern and South Western states in order to help his friend, Barack Hussein Obama, defeat Hillary Clinton. Phillips has been a major financial sponsor for Kamala Harris’s political campaigns for various California elective offices.

Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff works for the law firm DLA Piper, which “boasts nearly 30 years of experience in Communist China with over 140 lawyers dedicated to its ‘Communist China  investment Services’ branch. He was just appointed to Professor at Yale to school future lawyers in the fine points of Communism. When she was elected to the US Senate, Kamala Harris appointed a Pro-Communist Senate Chief of Staff, Karine Jean-Pierre. Jean-Pierre was active with the New York-based Haiti Support Network. The organization worked closely with the pro-Communist China/Communist North Korea Workers World Party and supported Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the far-left Communist former president of Haiti and the radical Lavalas movement.

Fortunately for Harris, but potentially disastrous for the Republic, elected office holders are not subject to the security clearance process. If the FBI did a Background Investigation on Kamala Harris, she never would have passed, because of her 40-year close ties with Marxists, Communists, Maoists, and Communist China. Harris would never have been approved for acceptance to any of the 5 Military Service Academies, been appointed to a US Government Sub-Cabinet position, or would have been approved to fill a sensitive position for a high security defense contractor. Yet, since Joe Biden was elected, Harris could be a heartbeat away from being President.

The US constitutional Republic is being threatened by the People’s Republic of Communist China (PPC) externally, and by their very active espionage operations within the United States. The People’s Republic of Communist China (PPC), with 1.4 billion people, is governed by the 90 million member Chinese Communist Party (CCP), that has been working with Russia to destroy the US Constitutional Republic for over 70 years.

If the American voters read the background information (in Trevor Loudon’s article) on Kamala Harris, they would never support her election as Vice President of the United States. Joe Biden is suffering from the early onset of dementia and will continue to decline in cerebral awareness; he will never be able to fill out a four-year term of office. Since Biden was elected, the Socialists, Marxists, and Communist who control Kamala Harris, are planning to enact provisions of the 25th Amendment, in order to remove Joe Biden from office, so Harris can become the first Communist President of the United States.

Since Biden was elected, because Biden would not be up to it, Kamala Harris would lead the effort to appoint very dangerous anti-American Leftist, Communist, Socialists, and Marxists to fill highly sensitive positions in the Washington Deep State Bureaucracy. She would fill all appointive positions in the US Intelligence Agencies, in the Department of Homeland Security, in the Department of Defense, in The Justice Department, the Department of State, the FBI, the CIA, most cabinet positions, the National Security Council, and in the White House Staff.

American voters must alert their fellow Americans that Kamala Harris is a very serious National Security threat to the very survival of the US Constitutional Republic; she has been a fellow traveler of Marxists, Communists, Maoists, Socialists, Progressives, and Chinese Communists for over 35 years. President Trump had much more background information on Kamala Harris than we presented here, and he was correct, when he accused Kamala Harris of being a Communist subverter.

Geoffrey B. Higginbotham
Major General, USMC (Ret.)

RELATED ARTICLE: Kamala Harris’ Father Was a ‘Marxist Economist’? Snopes rating TRUE!

EDITORS NOTE: This Government in Exile column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Despite war and threats of Iranian attack, French Jews immigrate to Israel en masse

By NEWSRAEL Telling the Israeli Story

155 more French Jews arrive in Israel day after Hamas chief eliminated and Iran vows to take revenge, bringing total number of new French immigrants to Israel since October 7th to 1,000.


One-hundred-and-fifty-five new French Jewish immigrants landed at Ben Gurion Airport on Thursday, August 1st, on a chartered Aliyah flight made possible by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ), the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration and the Jewish Agency for Israel.

This latest flight brings the number of French olim who have arrived in Israel since the outbreak of the war on October 7th to more than 1,000.

The new immigrants disembarking from the plane were greeted with an emotional ceremony which included Minster of Aliyah and Integration Ofir Sofer, Chair of the World Zionist Organization Yaakov Hagoel, and CEO of the IFCJ Ayelet Shilo Tamir.

According to the latest data, since October 7th, over 24,000 people have made Aliyah (immigrated) to Israel from dozens of countries around the globe, with massive demand for continued Aliyah, including a 520 percent reported increase in new applications as compared to the same period last year.

From France alone, over 7,000 new applications have been opened as compared to 1,200 the year prior.

Among the top reasons cited by olim to move particularly now is a clear desire to live in Israel and be part of the modern Zionist experience.

Among the new “olim” (immigrants to Israel) are Duli and Yonatan Gluch, who were accompanied by their two children and who will be moving to the coastal city of Ashdod.

Duli acknowledges that the growing antisemitism in France was a considerable factor that made the decision to move that much more urgent.

“I have become more and more afraid to allow my kids go out with a kippah. In our neighborhood, it’s gotten very scary, with signs all over the place supporting the Palestinians and the sense that, as Jews, we are being targeted.”

Yonatan said that several months ago he was driving, and another car stopped him and two people jumped out, brandishing a knife.

“They saw I was a Jew and I know that’s why they wanted to attack me. We don’t feel protected in France, and we simply can’t sit back and wait for an October 7th type of attack to happen here.”

The 155 new immigrants included 7 infants.

The new immigrants will be taking up residence in communities around the country including Netanya, Ra’anana, Hadera, Givat Shmuel and Ashdod.

Over the past several months, the Aliyah Ministry and the Jewish Agency has intensified its Aliyah operations in France with representatives travelling to relevant communities to assist in the immigration process.

As a result of the operation put in place under the direction of Minister Sofer, immigrants are accompanied from the moment they open up a file until their arrival in Israel.

The new immigrants are also assisted by the Global Aliyah Center of the Jewish Agency which supports the practical and financial needs of tens of thousands of new immigrants each year.

“Every aliyah of Jews excites the country anew, but those who are arriving now, especially since October 7th, are particularly moving and provide support to the entire nation,” said Minister of Aliya and Integration Ofir Sofer.

“We are working to encourage the aliyah of Jews from all over the world, while also striving to ease the integration of olim in all areas of life, from assistance with rent or home purchases to employment, academic studies, Hebrew studies, and community support. I call upon the public in Israel—welcome them as they are arriving right now. Let the olim feel part of the Israeli public.”

Yaakov Hagoel, chairman of the World Zionist Organization lauded the new immigrants for realizing the Zionist dream despite Israel going through one of its most “challenging” times in its history.

“As the world observes the achievements and dreams coming true at the Olympics, we are witnessing the realization of dreams for Jewish immigrants from France despite the most challenging period in Israel’s history.”

“While airlines cancel flights to Israel and travel warnings are issued globally, 155 new immigrants (olim) from France have arrived to establish their new home here. I wish them all a warm welcome, a supportive community, and abundant opportunities on their life-changing journey in Israel.”

IFCJ President Yael Eckstein remarked that “Even in the height of a devastating war,” the Jewish state is “blessed to see people recognizing that Israel remains the spiritual and physical land that we call home.”

“Together with our partners and with the support of our hundreds of thousands of donors around the world, we are committed to working tirelessly to help Jews come home to Israel. Days like this serve as a deeply emotional and inspiring reflection of the strength of Zionism. We congratulate all these families and will continue to support their journey as they acclimate into their new lives.”

EDITORS NOTE: This World Israel News column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Blinken to G7: Iran, Hezbollah could attack within 24 hours

By NEWSRAEL Telling the Israeli Story

Iran and its Lebanese terror proxy Hezbollah could attack Israel as early as Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his counterparts from the G7 countries on Sunday.

Three sources briefed on the conference call confirmed the top American diplomat’s remarks to Axios reporter Barak Ravid.

Blinken convened the meeting with the G7 allies—Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom—to coordinate ahead of the expected offensive by Iran and its terror proxies against the Jewish state.

While Washington believes Iran and Hezbollah will retaliate against Israel for the targeted killings last week of senior Hezbollah member Fuad Shukr in Beirut and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, it is unclear regarding what form that retaliation will take, said Blinken.

Nor, he added, does Washington know the exact timing of the expected attack. However, he emphasized that it could start as soon as the next 24 to 48 hours, meaning as soon as Monday.

“Blinken asked the other foreign ministers to apply diplomatic pressure on Iran, Hezbollah and Israel to maintain maximum restraint,” the report continued.

He also stressed to the G7 allies that the bolstering of U.S. forces in the Middle East region was for defensive purposes only.

“We express our deep concern over the heightened level of tension in the Middle East which threatens to ignite a broader conflict in the region,” the G7 ministers said in a statement.

“We urge all involved parties to refrain from perpetuating the current destructive cycle of retaliatory violence, to lower tensions and engage constructively towards de-escalation. No country or nation stands to gain from further escalation in the Middle East,” it continues.

Gen. Erik Kurilla, commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), arrived in the Middle East on Saturday for a previously planned trip the focus of which has now shifted to mobilizing a multilateral defensive force to shield Israel.

Kurilla was expected in Israel on Monday. Israeli officials told Axios that Kurilla will meet with the Israel Defense Forces to finalize preparations ahead of the possible Iranian and Hezbollah attacks. He was also scheduled to visit the Gulf states and Jordan.

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EDITORS NOTE: This JNS – Jewish News Syndicate column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The Catholic Bogeyman

By The Catholic Thing

Fr. Jerry J. Pokorsky: The center of anti-Catholic gravity has moved from nativists to atheists – and pro-abortion “anti-Catholic Catholics” such as Biden, Pelosi, and Gavin Newsom.

The ribald – and often insightful – 1960s comedian Lenny Bruce once quipped: “Everybody knows which church you’re talking about when you talk about The Church.” The Catholic Church reveals God, and God alone is our Judge. But the Church, as the Mystical Body of Christ, is The Bogeyman for many people.

Anti-Catholicism has deep American roots going back to colonial days. In early America, Catholics could not fully practice their faith. Catholic commissioners enacted the Maryland Toleration Act in 1649, granting religious freedom to all. But Protestants rather quickly repealed it in 1655.

Anti-Catholicism continued after the Revolutionary War, though Catholics fought alongside Washington. Priests were allowed to cross the Potomac River and celebrate Sunday Mass in Saint Mary’s Church in Alexandria. But Virginia law prevented them from spending the night. In 1844, after anti-Catholic rioters in Philadelphia torched churches, Archbishop John Hughes of New York famously invoked the specter of Russia’s scorched-earth strategy as Napoleon approached: “If a single Catholic church were burned in New York,” he warned, “the city would become a second Moscow.”

Before the Civil War, the “Know-Nothings” spread fear of Catholics as “un-American.” Yet at Gettysburg, Holy Cross Father William Corby granted general absolution to the renowned Irish Brigade before the carnage of the Wheatfield. After the victory, nonetheless, battle-weary Union soldiers suppressed anti-draft riots by mostly Irish Catholics in New York.

Well into the 20th Century, the Ku Klux Klan burned crosses on the properties of Blacks, Catholics, and Jews alike. Al Smith, the first Catholic presidential candidate, lost the election in 1928 because of anti-Catholic sentiment. John Kennedy’s jousting with anti-Catholics culminated with his mostly capitulating Houston speech to Protestant clergymen.

In recent decades, the center of anti-Catholic gravity moved to atheists – and pro-abortion “anti-Catholic Catholics” such as Biden, Pelosi, and Gavin Newsom. During the papacy of John Paul II, old-time Protestants – such as Jerry Falwell, became political allies of traditional Catholics (especially in support of the pro-life and anti-Communist agenda of Ronald Reagan.)

In a touching 2020 essay explaining his Catholic conversion, GOP Vice-President nominee Senator J.D. Vance writes, “I came eventually to believe that the teachings of the Catholic Church were true, but it happened slowly and unevenly.” In the rough and tumble world of partisan politics, he continues to work out his understanding of Catholic morality. In June 2024, Vance and all 49 Senate Republicans signed a letter stating their support for in vitro fertilization (IVF). They accused Democrats of “false fearmongering” over the GOP position on the treatment. (Unborn babies often take it on the chin from politicians.)

God is not absent from America’s founding documents, of course. The Declaration of Independence declares that God endows us with certain unalienable rights, such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The U.S. Constitution is rooted in the Catholic-based English Magna Carta of human rights. The U.S. Capitol and the Supreme Court buildings depict historical lawgivers, including Moses and the Ten Commandments. Recent sound bites aside, the nation is not a democracy. The U.S. is a democratic republic protected (theoretically) by enumerated powers in the Constitution and the separation of government branches. The entire process depends upon honesty, integrity, and respect for the rule of law.

The Constitution is an exceptional legal and social document. But like most Church pronouncements, the Constitution is not infallible. Slavery remained unresolved until the 13th Amendment abolished it in 1865, following the deaths of 700,000 Americans in the Civil War. As they stand – and as amended – the founding documents are compatible with the Catholic understanding of governance (as judicial battles continue on several Supreme Court rulings).

The First Amendment reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The non-establishment clause allows everyone to practice their faith according to the dictates of conscience. Faith informs consciences. Catholic worship includes the right of living and promoting Christian morality.

The Church understands conscience as the voice of God that stirs our capacity to distinguish right from wrong. The Church informs consciences with the objective truths of the Ten Commandments, as known through her authentic teachings. The Church accepts the binding value of the Constitution – and all civil laws – but only to the extent that laws do not condone or force intrinsic violations of the Ten Commandments.

The Fourth Commandment entails patriotism. Those who conscientiously objected to National Socialist and Communist tyranny were heroic patriots. Catholics faithful to the Fifth Commandment who actively oppose murdering unborn babies are also praiseworthy patriots. But anti-Catholic polemicists have distorted the clarity of the Church’s Magisterium and accuse Catholics as arrogant and unpatriotic.

Like Catholics, atheists may invoke their consciences. But they do not acknowledge conscience as the voice of God. Atheists inform their consciences with the magisterium of generally accepted cultural expectations. For example, the alleged right to orgasm on demand, apart from matrimony, has become a cultural dogma. The LGBTQ+ ideological agenda admits to little dissent in most government and corporate workplaces.

Atheists and others are quick to remind Catholics of clergy sexual abuse and episcopal cover-up crisis even as they ignore the greater sexual cesspool of the culture. But the Gospels’ genealogy of Jesus includes murderers and adulterers. Nobody denounces the Law of Moses because of the many infidelities among the Jews. Like the Chosen People in the Old Testament, Catholics hardly form a monolithic cultural bloc of fidelity to the Church and Christian virtue.

Many atheists (and anti-Catholic fellow travelers) suggest Catholics “impose their morality” on others. But every enacted public law, by definition, imposes moral standards of behavior. Americans have a history of honoring conscientious objection and protecting individuals from unjust recriminations.

Dogmatic atheists – those who have the pious hope that death extinguishes all human existence – dismiss the prospect of eternal damnation. The Church does not take our salvation for granted. Everyone will face God on the Day of Judgement. The Church is an atheist’s bogeyman. But Catholics see the Church as a Holy Mother lovingly guiding us via her teaching and sacraments to our heavenly home.

Father Jerry J. Pokorsky is a priest of the Diocese of Arlington. He is pastor of St. Catherine of Siena parish in Great Falls, Virginia.

EDITORS NOTE: This The Catholic Thing column is republished with permission. © 2024 The Catholic Thing. All rights reserved. For reprint rights, write to: info@frinstitute.org. The Catholic Thing is a forum for intelligent Catholic commentary. Opinions expressed by writers are solely their own.

Tariq Ramadan and Cultural Jihad

By Amil Imani

On July 27, 2011, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Richardson, Texas, the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), Dallas chapter, featured Dr. Tariq Ramadan, a highly controversial Islamic scholar, for their annual fundraising to Support Religious Freedom & Sharia Awareness.

ICNA, an offshoot of the Muslim Students’ Association (MSA), was founded by Muslim immigrants from the Indian subcontinent. Its members are mostly of South Asian descent, primarily Pakistanis, Bengalis, and Indians. Among many of its goals “shall be to seek the pleasure of Allah through the struggle of Iqamat-ud-Deen [establishment of the Islamic system of life] as spelled out in the Quran and the Sunnah of [Muhammad].”

Steven Emerson and the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) have documented the fact that ICNA is a militant Islamic fundamentalist organization that supports terrorism. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has accused the ICNA of inviting extremist and anti-Semitic speakers to its conferences that serve as platforms for extremist views. ICNA has also put up giant billboards, festooning significant highways, such as the one along Highway 101 and Tully Road in San Jose, California, with crafty messages. Bold letters on the billboard proclaim Islam You Deserve to Know. A toll-free number, 1-877-WhyIslam, and the website, WhyIslam.org, beckon the public to get the real scoop about the “religion of peace” with its ceaseless violent record from its inception to this day.

Dr. Ramadan’s presence could have gone relatively unnoticed in the Dallas Metroplex, except for the man’s lengthy record of subversive campaigns and activities. Tariq was banned from the United States for six years (a visa restriction lifted last January by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton).

Why is he welcomed again in this country? Has he mended his ways? Not a chance. Secretary Clinton, for whatever reasons, has decided to let the man come and carry on with his dangerous work.

Tariq Ramadan is a faithful flag bearer to the violent Islamic order of the Muslim Brotherhood, founded by his grandfather, Hassan al-Banna. Tariq’s U.S. visa was revoked initially due to his connections to Islamic terrorism. A devoted champion of the religion of peace that he is, Ramadan is uncompromisingly committed to the elimination of the State of Israel, and not necessarily by peaceful means. This religion of peace that Ramadan and his ilk promote rides at the tip of the sword. Peace, in Islamist terms, offers no room for negotiations or live and let live.

The tumultuous road to get into the event aside, the star performer, Ramadan, at the meeting, lived up to the expectation of the rabid rank-and-file Islamist by exhorting the faithful to carry out their duty of what I call “Soft Jihad” and others term it “Cultural Jihad,” in the United States. Soft Jihad is practiced where the sword jihad is not advisable, where Muslims are not strong enough to unsheathe their sword, where the true nature of Islam is exposed, and when the general public would likely stamp them out.

A critical tool of soft jihad, Ramadan outlined, involves penetrations of the American educational system by use of means such as the Da’wa religious duty of each Muslim to convert non-Muslims in order to strengthen the Islamic Ummah.

Freedom of belief is a treasured feature of enlightened societies where different views clash in the marketplace of free ideas and vie for acceptability without resorting to deception, dissimulation, or violence. Ideas and beliefs sink or survive on merit as judged by the public.

In Islam, that is not the case. To Muslims, there is no need for various ideas and beliefs to be contested on merit. Muhammad has brought the perfect belief system directly from Allah—a flawless belief that is the best and good for eternity. To Muslims, people are like children. They are incapable of deciding these weighty matters, and they should accept the faith of Allah like a patient should take a medicine prescribed by an infallible physician, no matter how unpalatable the medicine may be.

Sugarcoating of Islam is, therefore, universally practiced by these self-described doctors of the Islamic religion. They keep ranting about the importance of accepting things on faith, denigrate reason, dangle carrots and sticks, and demand unconditional surrender in return for guaranteed bliss and salvation. The masses toe the line and support the clergy’s lavish parasitic lifestyle, and the charade continues. It works like a charm. Use the Jihad of the Sword when it can and use the Soft Jihad until the sword can be unsheathed to finish the job. And don’t forget, the end justifies any means. Ramadan and company keep on preaching to the hordes.

Islam is the most successful fraud in the history of humanity, and it is a great success. Millions of mullahs and imams keep the fraud going, and over a billion and a half of the faithful pay for it. They pay in funds, labor, and even life for the IOUs issued to them by the likes of Ramadan, who glide through life without breaking a sweat to earn their daily bread.

Ramadan and his co-lice should be given credit not only for their part in this well-acted play but also for demanding their flock play: deception, dissimulation, a laundered version of Islam, and even outright lies.

Ramadan, for instance, never presents the naked face of Islam. He never speaks of the Islam that thrives on hate, throws acid in the face of women who fail to don the hijab or girls going to school, flogs people for sporting non-Islamic haircuts,  stones to death, violators of sexual norms and other forms of Islamic brutalities such as Honor Killing. He never talks about institutionalized pedophilia in Islam. The fact that Muhammad “married” a six-year-old and consummated the marriage when Ayesha was only nine when he was pushing sixty.

Confronted with this repulsive behavior of the founder of their perfect religion, a few exercise the defense mechanism of denial and say it did not happen, dismissing their own most trusted historical record. Some say that it wasn’t exactly marriage. It was a politically expedient act, an act of the perfect emissary of Allah. Then we have numerous instances of the same child molestation happening in the Islamic world ever since the example set by Muhammad. Marriage of pre-pubescent girls to older men. Just the other day, Dr. Salih bin Fawzan, a prominent cleric and member of Saudi Arabia’s highest religious council, issued a fatwa proclaiming that there is no minimum age for marriage and that girls can be married “even if they are in the cradle.”

This is only one of numerous shameful and barbaric provisions of the Islamic Sharia that Ramadan and other Soft Jihadists want to transplant to America. Islam is a great deal for the savage, sexually driven male while true bondage for women who seek their right to equality with men.

To this day, the state of Saudi Arabia, the custodian of the twin holy cities of Islam and purportedly a shining example of an Islamic society, forbids women from driving automobiles. And now this is the cult that Ramadan and company want to import to America and impose on all of us, as they have successfully done to parts of Europe.

Misogynist practices aside, Islam Sharia provisions make any civilized human recoil with horror.

He defends Islam with the same mantra of “We against Them,” “We the righteous against the heathens,” and “We the servants submissive of the Great Allah against the rebellious enemies of Allah.” To Islam, a non-Muslim is a combatant against Allah, and he is fair game to be subjugated and killed. Ramadan conveniently sidesteps this and other features of this discriminatory cult.

Tariq Ramadan claims Muhammad was the perfect man, the kind of saintly man that every Muslim should idolize and aspire to follow. On top of his list is the desire to lead their lives in such a way that they would please Allah if they could.

Ramadan speaks of Muhammad’s perseverance in preaching to the Meccans his dogma, which seemed more like confused verbiage of a hallucinatory man than a revelation from the one and only super-god Allah. Ramadan asked the Muslim community to spread the word of Islam in America, even if they faced stiff resistance, as the Prophet Muhammad faced stiff resistance in Mecca at first. During his Mecca years, Muhammad was ridiculed for his confused sayings by his tribe of Quraish. He was called “shaeron majnoon”—a crazed poet.

The death of his first wife and wealthy employer, Khadija, left Muhammad even more vulnerable to the ridicule and harassment of the Meccans. He fled from Mecca for Medina, and Muhammad found more people willing to join his clique in the relative safety of that city with a large, tolerant Jewish community.

Once in Medina, Muhammad hit on a most powerful formula for success. He justified everything by claiming that Allah wants it this way. And Allah was nothing to trifle with. He held the key to the most magnificent paradise and a dreadful hell. The duty of every good Muslim became unquestioning obedience to everything that Muhammad said and wished. Muhammad became Allah’s gatekeeper to paradise and hell.

Muhammad’s formula worked magic with the Bedouins of Arabia, who thrived on robbery and killing. His religion spread like a pandemic disease in no time at all.

As Muhammad gathered more and more followers, he turned on the Jewish community of Medina, killed the men, plundered their belongings, and captured their women and children as slaves. That was the birth of Soft Jihad. Be meek and deceptive first until you gather enough power, then unsheathe the sword. It worked then, and it is working today.

And here we are in the 21st -century, facing the onslaught of Islamists and a “cultural jihadist” like Tariq Ramadan. Tariq Ramadan and other Islamic apologists cover a broad spectrum. Ramadan said, “Inshallah, our future in the West will be positive. We are not here by accident. We are here to reassess the essence of our religion.” He blamed Tea Party activists and conservatives for giving Islam a bad name. You don’t need the Tea Party, Ramadan, to give Islam a bad name. Islam is its own bad name and is mired in evil deeds.

It is repugnant, yet understandable that Ramadan goes around and sings the praises of Islam in low and high notes and every other note that he can disguise and improvise. He makes a perfect living at it. What is baffling is some very high-ranking non-Muslims, for whatever reason, helped launder Islam and present it as what it is not. Former President George W. Bush, for one, did a great disservice on several occasions by exonerating Islam from the crimes of radical Muslims by attributing the horrific violence committed under the banner of Islam to a small band of extremists. The President’s assertion was either based on ignorance of the facts about Islam or his attempt at political correctness. In any event, truth was sacrificed, and the public continued to cling to the false notion that Islam is a peaceful religion. People who dare to disclose the true nature of Islam run the risk of being denounced as bigots and hatemongers. Some businesses are subjected to boycotts, and individuals are sued.

Ramadan should know better, and he most certainly does: the so-called small band of Islamic extremists is the true face of Islam.

Hence, it is a fact that Islam is misrepresented, as Ramadan likes to claim. It is misrepresented by people like himself as well as by non-Muslim individuals and institutions who the modern-day Islamic conquerors generously reward. This time around, Muslims are using the immense petrodollar they extract from oil-addicted non-Muslims. The sword is temporarily replaced by just as deadly a weapon—the petrodollar. Before long, the Muslims aim to add a more deadly modern version of the sword—the Islamic bomb. Lastly and most dangerously, Islam has a powerful, unwitting ally in the masses of good-hearted, gullible Americans who bend over backward to protect the long-cherished principle of religious freedom. And it is this magnificent provision of our society that makes Hillary Clinton reissue a visa to likes of Ramadan to come and exploit the benign provisions of a benevolent system for establishing Islamic enslavement. “Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction,” said Ronald Reagan. We should remember that.

©2024. All rights reserved.

Click here to learn more about Dr. Tariq Ramadan.

RELATED ARTICLE: Terrorists ‘Emboldened’ by Biden ‘Stalling’ Aid to Israel, GOP Senators Say

Jimmy Carter’s Animus Toward Israel

By Jihad Watch

Jimmy Carter’s grandson, Jason Carter, said this Monday about his grandfather: “This is a good man who has done remarkable things with his life and has taken the opportunities that he was given and used them to do good.” Back in 2016, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach pointed out several reasons to disagree with this assessment, including Carter’s fondness for the Palestinians, as well as his animus toward Israel and its American abettors:

In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, Mr. Carter again laid responsibility for U.S. bias against the [supposedly] destitute, depressed and (consequently) violent Palestinians on American policy makers’ helplessness, over the last 30 years, against the menacing tactics of the powerful American-Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC).

AIPAC, that all-powerful Jewish lobby, as Carter clearly sees it, is a danger, with those “menacing tactics,” whom no one can apparently stand up against. In truth, AIPAC has no “menacing tactics,” but is largely informational: it disseminates information about Israel, and sometimes sponsors trips to that country; it urges its members to support candidates who share AIPAC’s concerns but does not contribute to any political campaigns itself. It is far outspent, in Washington, by the Saudis and other Gulf Arabs who do have small armies of well-paid lobbyists at their disposal, and are also well-versed in contributing to presidential centers and libraries.

However, it seems that AIPAC’s real fault was its failure to outdo the Saudi’s purchases of the former president’s loyalty. “There has not been any nation in the world that has been more cooperative than Saudi Arabia,” the New York Times quoted Mr. Carter June 1977, thus making the Saudis a major factor in U. S. foreign policy.

Carter apparently took no notice of the $100 billion the Saudis have spent around the world to promote Wahhabi (Salafist) Islam. And twenty-four years later, when 15 out of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Saudis, Carter still continued both to praise the Saudis, and deplore the behavior of Israel.

Evidently, the millions in Arab petrodollars feeding Mr. Carter’s global endeavors, often in conflict with U.S. government policies, also ensure his loyalty.

It’s hard to know if Carter’s animus to Israel reflected all the money that Arab sources supplied to him, to his peanut farm, to his friend Bert Lance, and to his presidential center and library. Was there not a pre-existing antisemitism which then was reinforced by the receipt of all that Arab money? His dislike of Israel was difficult to conceal during the Camp David negotiations.

Many will remember Carter’s behavior during the Camp David negotiations with Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin. He hero-worshipped Sadat, who in his view, could do no wrong. For Begin, on the other hand, Carter exhibited a palpable want of sympathy, even a visceral physical dislike for the homely Israeli leader. He was cruelly impatient with the anxieties Begin expressed about threats to the Jewish state’s survival. While pressing Begin to make concession upon concession to Sadat, Carter erupted that he was “sick and tired of hearing about the Holocaust.” Carter and National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski exhibited a clear distaste for Begin, while setting up Sadat as a veritable Prince of Peace, even though it was Begin who was making “sacrifices for peace” by giving back the entire Sinai, while Sadat gave up nothing, and only had to graciously accept what Begin, under American duress, offered. The great sacrifices Begin made to obtain a peace treaty with Egypt were never acknowledged by Carter. When else in history has a nation victorious in war ever had to sue for peace, as Israel did with Egypt at Camp David? On what theory did Carter think an aggressor state deserved to have every last bit of territory from which it had launched such aggression? For Begin was pressured to give back the entire Sinai, from which Egypt had launched attacks on Israel in 1948, 1967, and 1973.

Carter has said that Israel should give up all of the West Bank, which he calls “occupied territory.” He seems never to have read the Mandate for Palestine, for if he had done so, he would have discovered that Israel has a legal claim to all of the West Bank which was, according to the Mandate, part of the territories originally assigned to the future Jewish state. But had he done so, would it have mattered? He has for decades been set in his virulent anti-Israel ways, that appeals to history and international law are unlikely to cause him to rethink his deep dislike of the Jewish state.

AUTHOR

Hugh Fitzgerald

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Kamala is Anti-Israel. Her Husband’s Law Firm Represented the PLO

By Jihad Watch

The PLO’s money arm was the largest foreign principal for his law firm.

Will Doug Emhoff’s Legal Career Be an Issue for the Biden-Harris Ticket?” the New York Times asked four years ago.

The newspaper noted that Emhoff, the husband of Kamala Harris, was a partner at DLA Piper whose “lobbying clients” had included the governments of Afghanistan and Bahrain, as well as the Qatari government-funded Al Jazeera Network and the Palestine Monetary Authority.

DLA Piper was good to the Emhoff-Harris family with the family taking home $2.7 million in 2019 and $1.2 million in 2020. “To aspire to create wealth is a good thing as far as I’m concerned. If that is what one chooses. I, on the other hand, have chosen to live a life of public service,’ Kamala had claimed. But the “life of public service” led to her husband’s role at DLA Piper.

And two DLA Piper clients are connected to a flashpoint in Kamala’s foreign policy.

As vice president, Kamala pursued a harsher line against Israel than Biden, virulently denouncing the Jewish state over its military campaign against Hamas terrorists after Oct 7.

DLA Piper not only represented Qatar through its state-owned Al Jazeera terrorist propaganda network, but has an office there as part of the Qatar Financial Centre Branch of DLA Piper Middle East. Qatar harbors Hamas and funded it along with other Islamic terrorist groups.

The enemy terrorist outlet hired DLA Piper around the same time that some members of Congress had asked why Al Jazeera was not complying with the Foreign Agents Registration Act and why the Department of Justice had failed to bring the Qatari operation into compliance.

This occurred in 2019 when Emhoff was still a partner at DLA Piper, though he was not involved with that particular case, that was part of a relationship with Qatar that predated his time there.

DLA Piper however also entered into an agreement with the Palestine Monetary Authority for $600,000 to “strengthen its relationship with the American government” signed with PMA boss Jihad Al Wazir. As of 2019, DLA Piper was still representing the ‘banking arm of the PLO and sending out invitations to members of Congress to meet with then PMA head Azzam Shawwa. By 2021, the PMA had become DLA Piper’s largest foreign principal.

The Palestine Monetary Authority came to prominence after a lawsuit by the family of a terror victim. Yaron Ungar, an American, along with his wife were murdered by Islamic terrorists in Israel. The family sued the PLO and Hamas and won a sizable judgment against the terrorists.

Since the terrorist groups aren’t themselves in America, the Palestine Monetary Authority, which manages funds from the terrorist area’s ‘banks’ had its assets frozen leading to an extended legal battle. The PMA claimed to be an independent entity but lawyers representing the terror victim’s surviving son pointed out that initial capital came out of the PLO’s ‘Palestinian Authority’, that its “its shortfall was to be paid by the PA, and its profits were to be paid to the PA. As to management, the PMA’s governor is appointed by the PA chairman as are its board members, their salaries are determined by him, and he has the right to terminate the PMA board members and officers. Additionally, the Ungars showed that the PMA regularly used the PA’s letterhead.”

While law firms can take on all sorts of clients and Douglas Emhoff did not appear to have been involved in the Palestine Monetary Authority case, as a partner he likely benefited from the overall prosperity of the firm and politically he and Kamala might have benefited from the relationships created through his role at one of the top big government law firms.

Freedom Center Investigates previously found that Kamala Harris began receiving political donations from lawyers at firms where Emhoff was a partner beginning with their marriage and then his move to DLA Piper after she became a senator.

But beyond that there is a complex triangle of relationships between the Biden administration, the Palestine Monetary Authority and DLA Piper.

The Biden administration appointed George Salem as the chairman of the USAID’s ‘Partnership for Peace Fund’  tasked with handing out $250 million to Israeli and ‘Palestinian’ peace projects just three months after he had spent six years as a registered foreign agent for the Palestine Monetary Authority.

Salem had previously lobbied for Qatar’s Al Jazeera, also represented by DLA Piper, and had entered into what the firm describes as having “entered into a relationship as Strategic Advisor with DLA Piper”. When Salem was appointed to head the $250 million fund, DLA Piper issued a press release.

A few things that Emhoff’s former law firm didn’t mention is that Salem was a co-founder of various anti-Israel groups, sat on the board of the American Task Force on Palestine and of UNRWA USA, and had also represented the Hamas front group, the ‘Holy Land Foundation’, Salem was not only its lawyer, but had supported HLF even before charges were brought against it. And Salem, a longtime figure in political circles, had donated to DLA Piper’s PAC.

Kamala had started as an insider in California Democrat politics, but even though she only spent a brief amount of time in the Senate, her husband’s very profitable law firms brought the Emhoff-Harris family into contact with foreign influence and foreign money in D.C.

Freedom Center Investigates had previously reported on the intersection between Emhoff’s previous law firm and its Cuban business, and Kamala’s opposition to the embargo on the Communist dictatorship. Similar questions might be asked about the intersection of Kamala’s hostility to Israel and the problematic and even terrorist clients of her husband’s law firm.

DLA Piper has represented Israeli companies and clients, but the relationship to the Palestine Monetary Authority and Qatar, is troubling, and raises questions about the Emhoff-Harris family.

Democrats have long used Douglas Emhoff, Kamala’s husband, who was raised in a Jewish family, as a defense against critics noting her troubling political views, but Emhoff’s law firm connections raise their own issues, both apart from his wife and perhaps reflective of her.

Kamala’s husband did not personally represent terrorists, terrorist sponsors or terrorist-linked entities during his time at DLA Piper (one of his clients at a previous law firm was however an arms dealer who was since charged and plead guilty) but he benefited from a firm that did.

In Washington D.C., it’s a better idea to follow the money than to follow the speeches. Kamala and her husband have made plenty of speeches, but more importantly, they cashed the checks.

AUTHOR

Daniel Greenfield

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

When Jews Are Forced to Make Impossible Choices

By Canary Mission

During the Columbia University pro-Hamas encampment protests, which started in April 2024, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) tried to split up Jewish students at the university into “pro-genocide” or “anti-genocide” camps, saying, “We should not have to tolerate antisemitism or bigotry for all Jewish students, whether they are pro-genocide or anti-genocide.”

Her inflammatory comments imply that if a Jew supports Israel’s right to exist, then they also must necessarily support the alleged “genocide” in Gaza.

Omar’s polarizing rhetoric represents a popular strategy in “progressive” American discourse that attempts to artificially corral Jews into one of two camps. Should a Jew support Israel, he or she is then automatically forced into the “enemy” camp.

This tactic pushed many Jews out of the left and into the right or into political homelessness.

Much like the attempted polarization of American Jewry today by antisemitic politicians like Omar, Jews throughout history were similarly attacked. The aggressors used the pretense of offering Jews a “choice”; more often than not, it was an impossible one.

The tsunami of antisemitism sweeping through the world is not a new phenomenon. Jews have been the target of hatred for millennia. Over thousands of years, attacks on Jews took on different shapes, using multiple modus operandi. A society’s penchant for scapegoating and targeting Jews at times indicated the beginning of the end for that civilization.

In other instances, increased antisemitism was symptomatic of a turning point, indicating a society’s downward spiral away from liberal values and personal freedom. Encroaching ideas of fundamentalist Islam and radical Marxism into segments of Western society points to this phenomenon today.

In the age of social media and AI-generated propaganda, those who lack an understanding of Jewish and world history are ripe for absorbing antisemitic rhetoric and susceptible to believing and proliferating lies. Education is critical to combat the misinformation permeating the screens of impressionable youth. As Winston Churchill famously said, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

CHART: IMPOSSIBLE CHOICES FOR JEWS THROUGHOUT HISTORY

Jewish Life in the Soviet Union under Stalin (1924-1953)

Under Joseph Stalin’s harsh communist rule, Jews were forced to choose between giving up their religious practices or continuing to follow their religion in secret and risk arrest and deportation to forced labor camps in Siberia. For over a thousand years, Jews lived in what eventually became the Soviet Union, occasionally in peace but more frequently under severe repression and persecution. Overall, Jews suffered greatly under Stalin’s dictatorship.

He enforced a ban on all religions based on the communist teachings of Karl Marx. Stalin’s rule is known as a time of repressing opposition and forced communism. Overall, he was responsible for the death of around 40 million people.

Stalin had a complex relationship with Judaism. On one hand, during his rule, Stalin allowed many (assimilated) Jews to hold positions of power in the Russian government. Two of Stalin’s children even married Jews. On the other hand, he was against Jewish nationalism and forced Jews to give up their religion.

Jews were often persecuted for practicing and spreading religion and sent to forced labor camps in Siberia, referred to as the Gulag. Historians estimate the total number of Gulag prisoners at 20 million, of which 2 million did not survive their incarceration.After World War II, Stalin created a campaign against “rootless cosmopolitans,” a phrase viewed by many as a euphemism for Jews. Some historians contend that he planned to commit genocide by killing all of the Jews in the Soviet Union, but his scheme was cut short by his sudden death in 1953.
Jews in the Soviet Union continued to experience repression of their religion until the regime’s demise in 1991.

Jews in Pre-WWI and WWII Germany (1871-1943)

In the period leading up to World War II, German Jews had to make a choice: stay in Germany despite the rising antisemitism or leave the country where they had made their home.

On January 18, 1871, the German Empire was founded and Jews became equal citizens by law. By the early 1900s, most Jews had assimilated into German society. German Jews participated in areas of life such as journalism, retail, law, culture and medicine.

At least 100,000 Jewish soldiers fought for Germany in World War I between 1914 and 1918. When Germany was defeated Jews were scapegoated as “internal enemies” and unjustly held responsible for their country’s defeat.

The following years leading up to the Nazi Holocaust were ominous for German Jews and Jews across Europe. Many Jews understood that Germany was not safe for them. During the first six years of the Nazi rule, 304,000 German Jews managed to emigrate, which constituted more than half of the community in 1933.

The Jews that remained were not given any choices by the Nazis. Their rights were stripped from them and they were sent to forced labor or concentration camps. Overall, the Germans and their collaborators killed between 160,000 and 180,000 German Jews in the Holocaust.

The Dreyfus Affair (1894-1906)

In 1789, French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte offered the Jews of France full citizenship, becoming the first European country to grant Jews this right. However, citizenship and its ensuing rights were contingent upon a declaration that they were French first and Jewish second. As such, Napoleon hoped to completely assimilate the Jews into French society.

Roughly 100 years later, in 1894, a Jewish military captain named Alfred Dreyfus was falsely accused of treason and initially sentenced to life in prison. The “Dreyfus Affair,” which lasted from 1894 to 1906, brought to the surface the latent antisemitism that French Jews thought was negated under the banner of “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.”

In 1895, as Dreyfus was falsely judged guilty of treason and paraded through the streets, the crowd chanted, “Death to Judas! Death to the Jews!” This event was a tipping point for some Jews, proving that they had never been accepted into French society despite their attempts at assimilation and declarations of fidelity.

So great was the shock of the Dreyfus Affair that Austrian Jew Theodor Herzl, who moved to France with the belief that the assimilation of Jews into European gentile society would be the cure for antisemitism, decided the Jews must leave Europe and establish their own state. Assimilation had not inoculated French Jews from antisemitism.

In the Persian city of Mashhad, in 1839, Jews were persecuted and then given a grievous choice: convert to Islam or die.

During the Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BC), the Jewish community flourished in Persia. Some historians argue that as much as 20 percent of the population was Jewish, with prominent Jewish figures including Queen Esther from the Purim story.

When Arabian Islam conquered Persia, the rights of the Jewish community were downgraded to those of dhimmis (non-Muslims, second-class citizens living in an Islamic state). In the 16th century, Shi’ism became the official state religion and Jews became objects of hatred to their Muslim neighbors.

Mashhad was considered a holy place in Shi’ite Islam, and non-believers were not allowed to live there. Nevertheless, Nader Shah, a Persian ruler and Sunni Muslim, brought Jews to Mashhad to guard the spoils of wars that he had conducted throughout India in the mid-1700s.

The Jews lived in a separate quarter and despite their inferior status, the community prospered and became a source of resentment to its Muslim neighbors.

In 1747, Nadir Shah was assassinated, and Iranian Jews became targets of persecution. In 1839, an excuse was used to perpetrate a pogrom. Local Muslims attacked Jews, burning a synagogue, looting homes and kidnapping children. Following the attack, in which between 30 and 40 Jews were killed, the 2,400 Jews who survived were forced to convert to Islam or be killed.

Around 300 Jewish families formally converted but continued to practice Judaism in hiding, while others managed to flee.

The pogrom is known as Allahdad (“God’s Justice”).

Acceptance of Jews in Iranian society fluctuated over the years until the Iranian Revolution in 1979, when close to 100,000 Jews fled Iran, mainly to the UK, the United States and Israel. According to the Jewish Agency, an estimated 9,100 Jews remain in Iran today.

Arguably, the most infamous time when Jews were forced to choose occurred in 1492, when the Jews of Spain were told to convert to Christianity or leave Spain forever.

During the Middle Ages, Spain had a thriving, prosperous Jewish community. Created in the 12th century by the Catholic Church to root out “heresy,” the Inquisition was a European movement that lasted hundreds of years and targeted various faiths and religions.

The Inquisition was mainly concerned with the heretical behavior of Catholics and converts. However, in 1390, the Jews and Jewish converts in Spain became central targets. The Inquisitor courts killed many Jews and Jewish converts that they doubted and pressured others to convert to Christianity. Some Spanish Jews accepted the Christian faith, while many continued practicing Judaism in secret.

After 100 years of persecution, in 1492, the remaining Jews in Spain were given a choice: convert or face exile. As a result of this ultimatum, more than 160,000 Jews were expelled from Spain. The Spanish Inquisition officially ended in 1834. Spain remained a significant player in world politics until the end of the century.

Under Hellenistic rule, Jews were given a choice by their Greek colonizers: abandon Judaism and take on Greek traditions and religious practices or face persecution.

At this time in history, Jews mostly lived in Judea (today’s Israel). Following the first exile, some Jews were scattered throughout the Middle East, and others voluntarily left Judea to live in the Greek Empire.

Jews experienced moderate peace under the rule of the Seleucid kingdom for around 120 years. However, around 214 BCE, the Greek kingdom began to falter due to a combination of internal strife, weakening political structures and external pressures.

In 167 BCE, Emperor Antiochus IV came to power during this tumultuous time for the Greek Empire. He reasoned that forcing the Jews to Hellenize would help correct the empire’s ills by creating socio-economic stability in the region. He forbade certain Jewish practices like ritual circumcision and worshiping in the Jewish Temple, located in Jerusalem.

Eventually, Antiochus IV told Jews that they could Hellenize or face death. Some Jews went along and accepted the Hellenistic ideology, while others refused to cower to foreign influence.

The Jews who clung to their Judaism rebelled against the empire in the Maccabean Revolt (167-160 BCE) and won, leading to the empire’s further decline. Jews commemorate the rebellion’s success until today by celebrating the eight-day Jewish holiday of Hannukah.

EDITORS NOTE: This Canary Mission column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

2 Terrorist Leaders Assassinated in 24 Hours

By Family Research Council

In less than 24 hours, two prominent terrorist leaders in the Middle East met separate, violent, and sudden ends. Senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr died Tuesday in an Israeli air strike in Beirut, Lebanon. Around 2 a.m. on Wednesday, Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s political leader, died in Tehran, Iran from an explosive device planted in his safehouse months earlier. Israel has not claimed credit for the second strike, but it could be interpreted as a strategy to bring the Gaza war to a conclusion by eliminating the terrorist leadership.

The strikes came three days after a rocket fired by Hezbollah struck a soccer field in northern Israel, killing 12 children in a Druze community. Netanyahu had not yet concluded his trip to the U.S., but when the news broke he rushed back to Israel “and had been ensconced with his cabinet basically since he landed,” described Israeli security expert Caroline Glick on “Washington Watch.”

Fuad Shukr

The first strike came against Shukr, “the Hezbollah chief of staff of their terror forces in Lebanon,” said Glick. “He was responsible for all their precision guided missiles and for all of their missile strikes against Israel,” including the deadly soccer strike.

Shukr has also been wanted by the United States for four decades for his role in the 1983 bombing of a Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. service members. “He’s been a known terrorist for decades,” Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Wednesday’s “Washington Watch,” with a “$5 million bounty on his head by the United States.”

“That has to be a setback for Hezbollah in their work against Israel,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins noted on “Washington Watch.” “He’s an operational leader. This is quite significant. This is going toward the head of the snake.”

Ismail Haniyeh

That night, 900 miles away, a bomb exploded in a safehouse of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), where Hamas’s political leader Haniyeh was staying in Tehran for the inauguration of Iran’s new president. The bomb was apparently planted months beforehand, remained undetected, and was remotely detonated. “When you go to Tehran … Iran is the head of the snake,” Perkins added.

“Israel is not taking credit for the Haniyeh strike,” Glick observed. “It is taking credit for the Hezbollah strike. But that’s a distinction that may or may not make that much of a difference, because obviously it’s being attributed to Israel.” Indeed, Perkins acknowledged that “the Iranians have responded that it is their duty to take revenge against Israel for this hit.”

Reuters and several other media outlets described Haniyeh as “the more moderate face of Hamas” in a poorly concealed jab at Israel for their suspected role in his death. However, after scorching criticism, Reuters quietly amended its original headline, although the article still calls Haniyeh “moderate” and “relatively pragmatic.”

Haniyeh joined Hamas at the terrorist group’s founding in 1987, became prime minister in Gaza in 2006, where Glick noted “he served for many years as the terror master on the ground,” including through the group’s bloody coup in 2007, and became chief of the group’s politburo in 2017. In 2019, he relocated from Gaza to Qatar to minimize his own personal danger.

Haniyeh endorsed donations to Gaza as “financial jihad,” led chants calling for “Death to Israel,” and celebrated the October 7 massacres as they occurred on video. In January, he proclaimed, “We should hold on to the victory that took place on October 7 and build upon it.” “You’ll never convince me he didn’t have anything to do with October the 7th,” Graham declared. “He was … in Iran … paying homage to the new Iranian president … and during the swearing in, they were chanting, ‘Death to Israel, death to America.’” Such is the so-called “moderate” face of Hamas.

Haniyeh’s assassination was “humiliating for the Iranian regime,” wrote the National Review editors, “as it means they allowed a leader of one of their proxy groups to be killed right under their noses when he was supposed to be under their protection.”

Assuming the assassination was carried out by Israel, it “sends a strong message to Tehran that no one is going to be under your shelter that we [can’t] eliminate,” suggested Perkins. “The Israeli intelligence is remarkable and able to track these individuals.”

“This shows that Israel can basically take out anybody any time it wants to in Iran. So it’s not only intelligence capability, it’s also operational capability on the ground in Iran,” Glick agreed. “He wasn’t in a major hotel. He was being hidden, effectively. And he was assassinated while under the protection of the IRGC.” As a result, “now they’re more under the gun to stand down against Israel and to accept our demands.”

Resolved to Win

“What we saw on Tuesday in Beirut and in Tehran, again, is going to act to stabilize the political situation and Israel still further, perhaps expand the governing coalition,” predicted Glick. “Over two-thirds of Israelis say that the only important thing is victory. It’s more important than national unity. It’s more important than anything. We need to win this war.”

Uniting Israelis behind a victorious strategy is important to Netanyahu’s government because “a very restive leftist minority has been trying to undermine the stability of the government for the year-and-a-half before October 7th,” Glick explained. “And then, with a short respite of about three or four months at the beginning of the war, they went back to trying to overthrow the government.”

What is holding Israelis together right now is their common sense of purpose, driven by the fact that they are at war along seven fronts. “This idea that there’s this tit-for-tat going on and that we’re not already at war … is part of a word game that is being led really by the United States under the Biden-Harris administration to try to portray this as some sort of … secret assault on Israel by Iran and its proxies,” complained Glick. “We’re at war.”

“Israel has been under continuous attack for the past nine months from Hezbollah and Lebanon, and obviously from Hamas, and from the Houthis, and from Iran, and from Iran’s militias in Iraq and in Syria, and in Judea and Samaria, and so on and so forth,” she continued. So, it’s “remarkable that … the United States keeps saying, ‘Well, we don’t want [certain responses] if Israel is attacked this way or that.”

Glick compared the situation to America’s own “total war” experience in the previous century. “Nobody ever asked, after any [discrete] battle in Europe in World War II — or in the Pacific, or in any battle in any war — ‘Okay, so now they attacked you. Are you going to do something?’ We’re at war. Of course we’re going to do something. We haven’t won yet!” she said. “There’s this whole effort to try to deny reality when it relates to the fact that Israel is in an ongoing regional war against Iran and all of its regional proxies.”

The targeted assassinations suggest a new phase in Israel’s war against Iran and its proxies, one that may evade harassment by the Biden administration. “We’ve been at war,” Glick repeated. “It’s important to be on offense. It’s important to restore Israel’s position.” With sudden, targeted strikes against terrorist leaders, Israel can regain the initiative, avoid American badgering about “red lines,” and keep their enemies on the back foot.

“Israel has a policy,” said Graham. “We will hunt you down — no matter what you do, no matter how long it takes — we’re coming after you if you try to kill Israelis.” Israel seems increasingly eager to fulfill that promise sooner rather than later.

Only three weeks earlier, Israel successfully eliminated Mohammed Deif, Hamas’s chief of staff in Gaza, striking one more name off the shrinking cast of characters around Hamas’s military leader, Yahya Sinwar. “Were Israel to eliminate Sinwar, coupled with the killings of Haniyeh and Deif, it would be easier for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to claim that Israel has effectively decapitated Hamas, making it more plausible to declare victory and exit Gaza to focus on the threat from Hezbollah and Iran itself,” proposed the National Review.

Israel inching closer to victory does not mean the threat is reduced — quite the opposite. “I would have to imagine there’s an anticipation of a retaliatory strike by Iran, or at least through one of their proxies,” imagined Perkins. “Israel has always been the most threatened country,” Glick responded. “Certainly, over the past 10 months, Israeli embassies, consulates throughout the world have been subjected to threats and to attacks, whether by radical leftists or Islamists, on the streets, and in London, and in other places.”

One particular vulnerability is “Israel’s athletes now in the Olympics,” she added, who “have already been under [threat] since the very outset of the games last week.” Israel recently augmented their “unprecedented amount of security” by “giving a personal bodyguard to every Israeli athlete.” There is a historical precedent for a heightened threat environment at the Olympics. In 1972, Palestinian militants killed 11 Israeli athletes in a terror attack at the Olympic games in Munich. The threat to Israeli athletes will continue beyond the Olympics into the Paralympics, “where Israel tends to win a lot of gold medals because we have so many wounded [military] veterans,” said Glick.

Despite the ongoing threats, Israel has demonstrated the proper — and successful — way to counter the violent hostility of Iran’s anti-Israel, anti-Western regime and its terrorist proxies. Israel has targeted those responsible for murdering its citizens. It has not been deterred by the porous international boundaries or nice distinctions between entities, which its enemies ignore. It identified the head of the snake and cut it off, sending a signal that it has the means, motive, and opportunity to do more. If America wants to deter Iranian aggression and Islamist terror in the Middle East (and elsewhere in the world), its leaders should take note.

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

EXCLUSIVE: Harris VP Short-Lister Collaborated With Trans Lobby To Target Counselors Who Don’t Gender-Transition Kids

By The Daily Caller

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is reportedly on Vice President Kamala Harris’ shortlist for running mate, collaborated with transgender activists to target professionals who help children resolve gender distress without life-altering medical treatments, according to documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Shapiro administration and representatives of the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ activist group, worked behind the scenes in a systematic campaign to effectively impose bans on so-called “conversion therapy,” without needing to pass any legislation. The Trevor Project also investigated individual licensed therapists, some of whom were connected to Christian groups, and shared part of that information with Shapiro’s administration, emails obtained by the DCNF show.

The Shapiro administration’s collaboration involved pressuring state licensing boards to adopt strict policy statements that gave them authority to take disciplinary action against licensed professionals engaging in so-called “conversion therapy.”

Though conversion therapy typically refers to efforts to change same-sex attraction, the term has incorporated gender identity as well. The new Pennsylvania licensing board policy statements, which have been adopted by five state licensing boards and went into effect June 8, define efforts to help gender-distressed children become comfortable with their natural sex — rather than affirming a transgender identity — as conversion therapy.

The new policies condemn any licensed Pennsylvania professionals who work to resolve a child’s gender distress without “affirming” a transgender identity as engaging in “immoral” and “unprofessional conduct,” punishable by the state board. Violation of board policies could result in revocation or suspension of a professional or medical license.

Furthermore, all five policy statements clarify that “gender transition” treatments, including life-altering medical or surgical interventions aimed at changing a minor’s sex, are not considered to be a form of conversion therapy. This position aligns Pennsylvania with the Biden-Harris administration, which has worked to push children into transgender medical procedures.

Michael Geer, president of the Pennsylvania Family Institute, told the DCNF that he’s concerned by Shapiro’s efforts to punish those who disagree with his convictions.

“These actions by Gov. Shapiro hinders the ability of counselors and therapists to help their patients and threaten to punish those with convictions on sexuality and gender that differ from the governor’s,” Geer said in a statement provided to the DCNF.

“Pennsylvanians who seek help in facing unwanted same-sex attractions or gender dysphoria should be free to speak with professional counselors who could help them achieve their personal goals.”

‘More Binding’ Than Law

Perry Monastero, who spent more than five years working on behalf of the Trevor Project’s campaign to ban conversion therapy in Pennsylvania, praised the state boards’ adoption of the conversion therapy policy statements, calling them “more binding” than state law, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported in May.

“This action by the boards is more binding than if we had a state law, because the decision makers are the professionals and their own peers, so they’re the ones that are saying this is not up to standard, and they’re the ones that could impact the discipline,” Monastero said.

Monastero is one of several transgender activists that have cozy relationships with the Shapiro administration. Emails obtained by the DCNF through public records requests reveal he kept in close contact with the administration as it sought to limit how children with gender dysphoria can be treated. Shapiro’s office and the Trevor Project did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

In December 2023, representatives from the Trevor Project, including Monastero, met with the executive director of the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Women, Moriah Hathaway. In an email, Monastero thanked Hathaway for her support in “exploring options to more effectively address extant LGBTQ+ conversion therapy by licensed professionals in Pennsylvania.”

Public record email discussing a meeting between the Shapiro administration and the Trevor Project obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The inability of the Pennsylvania state legislature to pass a conversion therapy ban was highlighted at a March 2024 meeting of State Board of Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists and Professional Counselors.

During that meeting, Johanna Byrd, executive director of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Pennsylvania Chapter, noted NASW had been interested in legislative actions to ban conversion therapy but had found the legislature was “too deadlocked” and sought other avenues implement a ban, according to the published meeting minutes.

In March, Monastero reached out to Ashleigh Strange, the executive director for the Governor’s Advisory Commission on LGBTQ Affairs, to set up a meeting to discuss conversion therapy. The next day, Monastero sent Strange an internal document from the Trevor Project revealing a county-by-county report of alleged conversion therapy “practitioners” in Pennsylvania. 

An internal report from the Trevor Project obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation through a public record request.

The report details how the Trevor Project “conducted a systematic search of publicly available sources” to identify individuals and organizations they claimed offered conversion therapy, noting that many of the providers were found through databases maintained by Christian organizations such as the Restored Hope Network and Focus on the Family.

The report states, “Pennsylvania is home to some of the larger faith-integrated/based organizations that employ licensed conversion therapy providers compared to other states.”

Strange mentioned her meeting with the Trevor Project as part of a weekly update to Shapiro’s LGBTQ commission, noting the administration was working with the Trevor Project to increase ways to report therapists who provide alleged conversion therapy in a March 8 email.

“We are working with the Trevor Project to amplify ways the public can report conversion ‘therapists,’” wrote Strange.

A confidential report from the Trevor Project that was obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation through a public record request.

Anne Edward, Executive Director of Restored Hope Network, told the DCNF she is “offended yet not surprised” that Christian therapists are being targeted by transgender activists.

“We are offended, yet not surprised, that opponents of counseling choice are unfairly targeting our Christian counselors who respect client goals and support those who seek to walk out their faith with their bodies,” Edward said.

“This counseling reduces suicidality for minors by a whopping 50 percent according to the Williams Institute Generations data reviewed by Dr. Paul Sullins. Disturbingly, The Trevor Project is seeking to ban counseling choice and punish counselors.”

Meeting minutes from the licensing boards of MedicineSocial Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists and Professional CounselorsPsychology, and Osteopathic Medicine between April 8 and May 2 further show the Shapiro administration pressuring state licensing boards to eliminate so-called conversion therapy.

At an April meeting of the State Board of Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists, and Professional Counselors, Jacqueline A. Wolfgang, a Pennsylvania Department of State attorney, told the board that Shapiro was “calling on” licensing boards to adopt statements warning professionals of potential board discipline for practicing conversion therapy, according to the meeting minutes.

Not every state board member voted in favor of adopting the Shapiro supported conversion therapy policy statement.

Steven Erickson, chair of the Pennsylvania State Board of Psychology, was the only member of the six person board to vote against adopting the conversion therapy policy statement.

According to the meeting minutes, Erickson asserted that the conversion therapy policy statement amounted to restricting free speech.

“Chair Erickson wanted to make it clear that the policy is a content-based restriction on speech,” the meeting minutes state.

When reached for comment, Erickson told the DCNF he is unable to make any statements about the issue because he is an active board member.

Anne Edward, executive director of Restored Hope Network — one of the Christian groups the Trevor Project highlighted in its internal report — told the DCNF that conversations between a clinician and clients are constitutionally protected speech.

“The 11th Circuit Court ruled that professional speech is constitutionally protected speech and overturned the ‘conversion therapy’ bans for minors in three states. In other words, the state should not insert itself into conversations between clinician and client, even for minors,” said Edward.

“They also acknowledged that abusive treatment was not being used, rather this was to attempt to ban speech, professional speech. We advocate for freedom of speech between client and clinician which saves lives.”

The State Board of Medicine and Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists and Professional Counselors unanimously adopted the policy statement against conversion therapy. One member of the Board of Osteopathic Medicine voted against against adopting the policy statement.

In a May 2024 press release, Shapiro praised the adoption of the conversion therapy policy statements stating, “There is no place for the harmful, dangerous practice of conversion therapy here in our Commonwealth.”

History Of Radical Transgender Activism

Shapiro has been a long time advocate of child sex change. As Attorney General of Pennsylvania, Shapiro opposed the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” a bill that banned men from competing in women’s sports, calling it “cruel” and discriminatory. He also filed amicus briefs supporting the elimination of sex-based school bathrooms.

During his 2022 campaign for governor, Shapiro repeatedly promised to expand LGBTQ+ hate crime laws and ban so-called conversion therapy, despite a history of legislative efforts to ban conversion therapy failing to gain traction in Pennsylvania’s divided state legislature.

Since 2015, Pennsylvania has spent more than $19.8 million in taxpayer funds on pediatric sex change interventions such as puberty blockers, cross sex hormones’, and sex change surgeries, according to the PA Family Institute(RELATED: ‘Chilling Effect’: States Are Cracking Down On Therapists Who Don’t Affirm Kids’ Trans Identities)

On July 27 at the Central PA Pride in Harrisburg a recording shows Shapiro telling attendees “To our trans children, I see you and I love you.”

Shapiro continued, “I’ve gone to court to protect our trans kids, and I’ll continue to stand in the town squares and town halls in every community across Pennsylvania, rural, urban and suburban, and proclaim loudly and clearly that we love all God’s children, including our trans children.”

The Shapiro administration has a portal on Pennsylvania’s Department of State website where anyone can “file a complaint against a licensed professional engaging in unprofessional or harmful conduct like conversion therapy.”

Shifting Definitions

Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, a physician and board chairman of the medical watchdog group Do No Harm, told the DCNF that it’s outrageous that Pennsylvania state boards are denying children the opportunity to resolve their gender dysphoria without dangerous, life-altering medical procedures.

“Conversion therapy for gay individuals is known to be unacceptable practice. Attempts to deal with confused children who believe that they need to take medications and even surgeries to alter their physical appearance is a whole other circumstance, and the Pennsylvania medical boards should not deny these children the opportunity for proper care,” Goldfarb said.

Historically “conversion therapy” has been used to describe interventions aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation. However, the term has been broadened since the mid-2010’s to include any efforts to change a person’s “gender identity.” Under this expanded definition, used by the Shapiro administrationthe Trevor Project and the Biden White Houseactivists view helping a child resolve gender distress as an attempt to “convert” their “gender identity.”

Transgender ideology includes the belief that a person’s sex can be different from their “gender identity,” which the World Professional Association of Transgender Health defines as “a person’s deeply felt, internal, intrinsic sense of their own gender.” It’s a rejection of long-established scientific understanding of biology that there are only two sexes based on the fact there are only two types of reproductive cells — sperm and ova.

The very concept of “gender identity” creates the possibility of changing one’s sex — a biological impossibility — through medical interventions, therefore creating a demand for medical sex reassignment interventions.

“The state of Pennsylvania medical boards are confusing two separate situations,” Goldfarb said. “They have conflated an attempt to provide psychotherapy to explore the reasons for gender dysphoria, particularly when it occurs in a rapid onset fashion, with those attempting to change the sexual orientation of gay individuals. These two situations are distinct, and it is outrageous that the state medical boards in Pennsylvania have decided to deny children the opportunity to explore their gender confusion, which we know resolves itself spontaneously in up to 90% of children if not subjected to so-called gender, affirming care.”

AUTHOR

Megan Brock

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: The Trans Lobby Is Campaigning To Make It Illegal To Talk A Child Out Of A Sex Change

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


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Don’t Know Much About History

By Jerry Newcombe, D. Min.

George Orwell wrote in his classic novel, 1984: “Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.

So, there’s a battle over history. That battle continues in our day.

A June 2024 survey of 3,000 college students dealt with basic knowledge of American history and government. Unfortunately, they found a lot of ignorance among university students.

The group responsible for the survey is ACTA the American Council of Trustees and Alumni.

ACTA reports on the results of their recent survey: “We found that significant numbers of college students graduate without even a rudimentary grasp of America’s history and political system.”

For example, some of the findings were:

  • “Almost one-third of students think senators serve a four-year term.”
  • “One-third of students are not sure who the chief justice of the Supreme Court is.”
  • “Almost half of students incorrectly identify Thomas Jefferson as the Father of the Constitution.”  Drilling down, they found, “Less than one-third (31%) of students correctly identify James Madison as the Father of the Constitution.”
  • “Less than one-third of students know that the legislative branch has the power to declare war.” In fact, “Almost half (48%) of students believe the executive branch has the power to declare war.”
  • “Almost three-quarters of students believe threats of violence should be censored by the government.”

And on it goes.

The results of this and similar surveys remind me of the old song that notes: “Don’t know much about history.”

The pollsters also found a big divide, along ideological and sexual lines, between those willing to defend the country versus those who would leave America if attacked. They write: “More than half of students would flee the country if the United States were invaded.

  • “Males (60%) are significantly more likely than females (34%) to say they will stay and fight if the United States were invaded.
  • “Strong Republicans (72%) are significantly more likely than strong Democrats (29%) to say they will stay and fight if the United States were invaded.”

I’m not a fan of our 28th president, Woodrow Wilson, because he set in motion many of the “progressive” policies that have helped bring us to this place of ignorance of American history and basic civics. Nonetheless, even a broken clock is correct twice a day.

Here is what Wilson said in a rally speech in 1911, before his election, about the importance of history: “A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about.” He went on to speak of our spiritual heritage.

In my opinion, political correctness lay at the root of the problem. Too often the schools are more concerned about children’s self-esteem than they are about how much they learn.

They are taught, by-and-large, a multi-cultural approach to the world, in which all cultures are considered equally valid and virtuous. The idea, for example, of America being exceptional is so anathema that it would be unthinkable to teach today.

At one time, America was very well educated—primarily so that people could read the Bible for themselves. In New England, after generations of Puritan influence, John Adams remarked that finding an illiterate man in New England was as rare as a comet.

In our recent Providence Forum documentary, “The Beginning of Wisdom,” on how the Bible shaped American education, we open the program with this remark and quote: “At one time, America was among the best educated nations in the world. James Madison of Virginia, a key architect of the Constitution, said, ‘A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.’”

We close this program with the observation of founding father Thomas Jefferson, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.”

Also, on the ACTA website is an article called, “Ten Things Everyone Should Know About American History” This is by Princeton professor and author Allen Guelzo.

Dr. Guelzo notes that Abraham Lincoln was concerned, even as a young man, about “the loss

of memory—not his own, but the nation’s memory of its Revolutionary founders.” The future 16th president’s concern was that maybe another “Alexander [the Great], a Caesar, or a Napoleon” would someday arise and seize power because we had forgotten the past.

Guelzo adds, “Lincoln was right to be worried in 1838: To lose our history is to lose ourselves.”

If we continue much further down the path of ignorance of American history and civics, we could ultimately lose the American experiment of self-rule under God.

©2024. Jerry Newcombe, D. Min. All rights reserved.

President Donald J. Trump’s support among Jews surpassing Reagan levels

By The Geller Report

VP Kamala Harris would totally abandon Israel and the American Jewish community to appease her pro-Hamas voters. On the other hand, President Trump is the most pro-Jewish and pro-Israel POTUS ever.

It would be crazy for any Jewish American to cast a vote against President Trump in November.

Anyone Jew who doesn’t vote for Trump votes for the death and destruction of his own people.

Trump’s support among Jews surpassing Reagan levels

Harley Lippman explores Trump’s growing support among Jewish voters and its implications for US-Israel relations.

By Jerusalem Post, July 29th, 2024

“Trump’s support among Jews has grown a lot, to the point that his numbers could very well surpass those of Reagan,” Harley Lippman, an out-of-the-box philanthropist and businessman with decades of experience in the diplomatic and political world, said in a recent interview with The Jerusalem Post. Lippman, who has been considered a moderate Democrat, attributed this shift to concerns about rising antisemitism and the perceived inadequacy of progressive responses to these issues.

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

Geller Report Staff

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POSTS ON X:

Trump: [Kamala’s] totally against the Jewish people, and it amazes me how Jewish people will vote for the Democrats when they’re being treated so disrespectfully and badly.”

Where is Kamala? There are 12 dead Israeli children, we are a day later and SILENCE FROM @KamalaHarris!

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh DEAD in his residence in Tehran

By The Geller Report

One of the world’s most evil men finally meets his end. Hamas’ end is drawing near, inshallah! — unless the Biden regime manages to betray Israel even more than it has already done, and moves to save Hamas.

Hamas chief killed in attack on his residence in Tehran, IRGC says

Iran International, July 30, 2024:

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and one of his bodyguards were killed after his residence was targeted in Tehran, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed in a statement.

A statement by the IRGC’s Public Relations Department said the attack was carried out early Wednesday, adding that a probe is underway to find the cause of the incident.

The statement offered condolences to the people of Palestine, the Muslim world, and the Resistance Front’s fighters over the Hamas leader’s death.

A statement by Hamas says an “Israeli” raid killed the Palestinian group’s leader Ismail Haniyeh in his residence in Tehran….

Read more.

AUTHOR

Atlas Shrugs

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

‘Unsung Hero’ Brings Family Values Back into Hollywood

By Family Research Council

Pure and cinematically pleasing movies are hard to find. Thankfully, Christian band For King & Country (Joel and Luke Smallbone) produced an easy pick for Friday family movie nights. Their film, “Unsung Hero,” was released earlier this year and is about their Australian family’s immigration journey to the United States. Alongside other recent Lionsgate releases (“I Still Believe,” “The Jesus Revolution,” “American Underdog”), the film was a box office success. It also has a unique and encouraging message that is scarce in the modern film industry.

What is this lesson? It is worth being a family under God. This message repeats throughout as viewers are reminded that being a family takes hard, faithful work, but it is worth persevering together in the pain and placing trust in the Lord.

Here are just a few of the truths Christian families can gather from this countercultural film.

Warning, spoilers up ahead!

1. Marriage can be difficult, but it is worth remaining faithful.

In the movie, we see the parents, David and Helen Smallbone, process differently about what is happening in their new life. The mom is a godly example of submission to her husband, even when he is not making the best decisions and struggling in his grief. When she finds out that they need to stay longer in Tennessee due to her husband being rejected a promised job, she breaks down and cries in her room. She realizes she needs a break instead of taking out her anger on her children and husband. Helen is also willing to love David amid his cynicism and emotional struggles, especially as life continues to get harder for their family. Helen does stand up when needed, but knows when to do so and makes sure their children know their dad does love them, even when he shows his flaws.

Concerning David, he wants to provide more for his family. But he is trying to understand how to make it through, reacting in pride and frustration. However, he respects his wife and is not willing to give up working for his family. It is clear as the story unfolds that Helen and David know marriage is a sacred covenant before God by continuing to honor, love, and stay in all the brokenness together. They picture what it means to remain in marriage “for better or worse” through their personal conflicts.

2. Parents must be intentional and present with their children.

One of the most inspiring and convicting themes throughout the film is Helen Smallbone’s parenting and biblical leadership. She continues to shepherd her children’s hearts during each circumstance and multi-tasks working, comforting her husband, and experiencing pregnancy. One way her biblical parenting stands out amid other films is her willingness to lovingly teach her kids in a way that each will understand.

In one scene, she is playing pretend pirates with them on a playground. At one point, they must “abandon” their ship to be safe. The kids are wondering what to do next on their pirate adventure, and Helen sees this as an opportunity to speak into her children’s hearts while continuing their story.

Helen: We burn the ships. All of them.

Joel: Even ours?

Luke: How do we get back?

Helen: We don’t. It’s gonna be dangerous and scary, and it’s gonna be hard. It’s gonna be so hard that you’ll want to go back. But if you know that you can go back, you will. And giving up, giving in, is not an option. We’ve gotta fight our way forward. We have to win. Do you understand?

In the next scene, they pretend to surrender or “burn” their ship by each throwing make-believe torches. The acting, the sound effects, visuals, and dramatic music tie everything together to show it is about each of them courageously surrendering this new season of life to the Lord. Such a scene is rare to witness in the film industry today, because it includes a healthy parenting moment about reflecting God’s glory with eloquent, cinematic creativity. This scene and others can encourage Christian parents they can be the loving, biblical teachers their children need because the Lord will be their strength.

3. Christian fathers can make it right with their kids.

What makes the end amazing is that the father is willing to listen to his wife, get up after grieving the loss of his dad, and apologize to his children. These actions are right and chivalrous, but the last one is especially poignant: The father apologizes to his kids. It does not show him making excuses or overthinking it. It did not matter if the kids remembered his sins — he went to them and apologized. This is marks a turning point in the film because God’s love and forgiveness meet to change their family.

After apologizing, he calls a music producer for his daughter to have a record audition when he rejected her and his wife’s idea beforehand. Throughout these ending scenes, David Smallbone is defining biblical fatherhood and headship by owning his mistakes and assuring his children they have a present, loving dad.

It is particularly significant for a child when his or her dad looks at them lovingly in the eyes and admits his shortcomings. Whether the child realizes it or not, it teaches the son or daughter that this is what it means to be a man of God.

In Genesis 1-3, God points out that man is made to have biblical headship of his household. The opposite of this is a husband being domineering over his wife and provoking his children in anger (Genesis 3:16-19, Ephesians 6:4). Children only have one biological mom and dad. In a Christian home, the kids are watching how their mom and dad steward their special, biblical roles to love God, them, and their marriage well.

So, what we witness at the film’s ending is the biblical truth that fathers can be willing to be the specific example Christ has chosen for them. It is never too late for godly dads to look at their families and say assuredly, “I love you. I want to make it right. And I understand my role in your life.” It is so encouraging and convicting for fathers to know they can correct their mistakes for their family through repentance and be the biblical leader of the household under God.

Overall, “Unsung Hero” exemplifies on the big screen how to glorify God in Christian families and what it truly means to be a hero.

AUTHOR

Annabelle Pechmann serves as a Communications intern at Family Research Council.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

The Lost Art of Thinking

By Family Research Council

“Think, think, think,” says Winnie-the-Pooh, the famous animated character, as he pauses to solve a problem. This is a simple and quite memorable phrase from the loveable bear, but its simplicity should not be mistaken for superficiality. There is much truth in the act of pausing and thinking.

People have become comfortable with ignorance and fast information. The average time that people spend looking at a news article is about 148 seconds. The average person seems to believe whatever they are told, wherever they heard it, and they trust people who may have a bad worldview that skews certain viewpoints. People, especially Christians, should think, analyze, and contemplate information rather than accept anything as truth. Without a thinking nation, unbiblical people and policies can sneak into power and suddenly control most areas.

Thinking involves ideas. Ideas are like packages, and when we think, it is as if we are perusing through those packages, opening some of them, looking and handling the stuff inside, and keeping or discarding the items. When we think, we ask questions, almost like mining for gold. We shouldn’t believe the first notion, or “rock” we find, but instead dig deeper looking for the golden idea or meaning. Along the way, we may find a fool’s gold idea that should be abandoned.

The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22, “Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil” (New International Version 1984). A Christian is free to explore ideas, but should also sift through those ideas and “hold on to the good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21b). Colossians 2:8 says, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” Rather, Christians are to turn their mind towards Christ (Colossians 3:1-2; Romans 12:1-2).

Therefore, it is wonderful to read literature, watch the news, look at social media, listen to music, and have discussions. We can grow in knowledge, and others can grow too as “iron sharpens iron” (Proverbs 27:17). Creativity and innovation can advance when ideas can be explored. New ideas can bring joy, help, encouragement, comfort, and prosperity. But bad ideas can corrupt, destroy, and bring fear. While there is a balance of knowing an exact answer since there is absolute truth, there is a balance of exploring new ideas while at the same time being careful.

Furthermore, worldviews are basically a set of ideas that explain the world around us. Those ideas or worldviews are the purpose for almost every action of a person. Therefore, we should be careful listening to the news, reading books, and listening to music because the author’s worldview is always infused. We should question the concepts that are presented to see what they are communicating. Are they aligned with Scripture? What worldview is being conveyed? Could this worldview have a destructive impact on the world? For true reflection to work, belief in absolute truth is a must, which ultimately is from God (John 14:6).

When there is no contemplation, bad ideas can seep into our minds because often they are coated in what seems like candy or nice-sounding language that is convincing. Psalm 55:21-22 says, “His speech is smooth as butter, yet war is in his heart; his words are more soothing than oil, yet they are drawn swords.” We may begin to believe lies about something, which could lead to making wrong decisions. Wrong decisions usually affect other people. These terrible sentiments and decisions can hurt and destroy others and their livelihoods. For example, politics and government are basically a battle of ideas. If the government or politicians decide to implement an immoral idea, then it would hurt the citizens. One can see this with politicians advocating for Marxist and socialistic ideas, such as critical race theory, free college, redistribution of wealth, and gender theory.

This is why Christians should be careful about content mentally absorbed. We might think it tedious to contemplate the information coming into one’s head, but we should just start by pausing, even for a second, after receiving new information. Begin by asking yourself one question: is this true? This will probably help to begin thinking more deeply about topics and asking more questions, such as: should I believe this; what does this mean; or, is this biblical? If we have a thinking nation, people are held more accountable and better ideas are implemented in the world.

Most people have lost this art of thinking, especially in America. However, there is always hope, particularly for Christians. People can change their minds by God’s grace. Therefore, the time is now. Christians can change the world by submitting their minds to Christ in the art of thinking.

AUTHOR

Katherine Musgrove

Katherine Musgrove serves as a Policy and Biblical Worldview intern at Family Research Council.

RELATED ARTICLE: ‘Unsung Hero’ Brings Family Values Back into Hollywood

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

The Religion of Nationalism

By The Catholic Thing

David Carlin: Is it any wonder that millions of Americans are devoted to Donald J. Trump? He promises to thwart globalism and reassert Christian nationalism.


When I was in high school, a school managed and mostly staffed by Christian Brothers, our Latin teacher was a young diocesan priest.  I don’t believe he taught me much Latin (though I still remember the first line of the Aeneid), but he taught me at least one great sociological truth.  One day, leaving Virgil aside for a few minutes, he told us that the greatest rival to Catholicism in modern times was, not Protestantism, but nationalism.

I would broaden that statement and say that nationalism has been the greatest “religious” rival not just of Catholicism, but of Christianity in general.  Communism in the 20th century was another great rival “religion,” but nationalism – which first appeared in strength on the geopolitical scene in the 18th century – was even greater.  It was nationalism that defeated Communism.  Even in Russia, Russians loved Russia more than they loved Communism.

Much depends of course on how we define religion.  Let’s say that a religion is a moral community that provides its members with (a) an explanation of the universe, (b) a purpose in life, (c) a code of morality, and (d) a mystical connection with all other members of the community.  Catholicism does that, and so does Communism, and so does nationalism.  And so they are all forms of “religion.”

One of the surest proofs that you belong to a religion is that you are willing, if need be, to suffer death for your religion.  Over many centuries Christian martyrs have given such proof again and again, and so have many Communists.  As for martyrs of nationalism, think of the American Civil War and World Wars I and II.

Even today Christian martyrs are being produced in large numbers in some parts of Africa.  One may doubt, however, that many of today’s Christians in Europe and North America are made of the same martyrdom stuff as our African co-religionists.

The religion of nationalism, however, unlike the religion of Communism, didn’t necessarily see itself as the enemy of Christianity.  In some countries it imagined that it could co-exist with the old faith and that the two – nationalism and Christianity – could, so to speak, marry one another, or at least cohabit, locked in a not-quite-licit embrace.  In the United States, for instance, being a good Christian made you a better American nationalist, and being an American nationalist made you a better Christian.  Or so at least it has been widely felt.

In some countries – France comes to mind – you could be an ardent nationalist while at the same time being an ardent anti-clericalist. Think of Georges Clemenceau.

In any case, nationalism, whether in combination with Christianity or standing alone, has been, as my old Latin teacher told us, a great and powerful modern religion.  He told us this, it may be noted, while attempting (alas, with scant success) to teach us boys to read and appreciate the greatest piece of nationalistic literature ever written, the Aeneid.

For a thousand years or more the Western World has been engaged in a process of modernization.  For several centuries, this process required that societies be organized as monarchies with increasingly strong monarchs.  Eventually, kingdoms came to think of themselves as nations (even if they retained nominal monarchs).

More recently, individuals and organizations in the vanguard of modernization have come to believe that the Age of Nations, like the earlier Age of Monarchs, has had its day.  It is due to be replaced by an Age of Globalism or Transnationalism.  We are living, not so much in individual nations like Germany or France or America, as in a great world city or Cosmopolis.

This Cosmopolis is of course not yet fully formed, and its full construction may take a few centuries.  But its outlines can be seen (look for example at the European Union). And if we are wise, we will work at building this city, the progressives say, abandoning our increasingly archaic attachments to this or that particular nation.

If we are truly modernized men or women (or even nonbinary persons), we should think of ourselves, not as citizens of Spain or Italy or Hungary, but as citizens of the world.

But there are two problems here.  For one, it is easy to love France or America, since they are real things.  But the Cosmopolis is not.  It is a hypothetical thing, a possibility, a dream.  Loving the Cosmopolis is like loving that magnificent home you will live in the day after you win the lottery.

Of course there are some people, a very small number, who already live in something resembling the dreamt-of Cosmopolis.  They are global elites, the kind of people who meet annually at Davos.

Another problem is that in telling us that we must move beyond the Age of Nations, you global elites are telling us that we must abandon nationalism as a hopelessly outdated thing, something like the Pony Express.  But to abandon nationalism is to abandon what, for many of us, has been our religion, or at least half of it.

You are inviting us to live meaningless lives in a meaningless universe, with no moral code to guide us and no connection to one another but the cash nexus.

Is it any wonder, then, that political “rightists” are in rebellion?  That Britain withdrew from the European Union?  That Victor Orban wants to keep Hungary for the Hungarians?  That right-wing parties are growing stronger throughout Europe?

And is it any wonder that here in the United States tens of millions of people have developed a near-fanatical devotion to Donald J. Trump, a demagogue (in the original or ancient sense of the word) who promises to “make America great again” – who promises, in other words, to prevent the globalists from abolishing our old religion of American or Christian nationalism?

AUTHOR

David Carlin

David Carlin is a retired professor of sociology and philosophy at the Community College of Rhode Island, and the author of The Decline and Fall of the Catholic Church in AmericaThree Sexual Revolutions: Catholic, Protestant, Atheist, and most recently Atheistic Humanism, the Democratic Party, and the Catholic Church.

POST ON X: The head graphic designer for Kamala’s new logo is an avowed communist who called for burning, looting and violence during the BLM riots.


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EDITORS NOTE: This The Catholic Thing column is republished with permission. © 2024 The Catholic Thing. All rights reserved. For reprint rights, write to: info@frinstitute.org. The Catholic Thing is a forum for intelligent Catholic commentary. Opinions expressed by writers are solely their own.