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July 2022

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Americans See Jan. 6 Hearings As Politically Biased And Anti-Trump: I&I/TIPP Poll Terry Jones

By on July 13th, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/07/13/americans-see-jan-6-hearings-as-politically-biased-and-anti-trump-ii-tipp-poll/

The Jan. 6 hearings mark the third major investigation into former President Donald Trump’s time in office. To many people, in particular Republicans, these investigations have looked suspiciously politicized, especially the most recent hearings. What’s surprising is that a large share of Democrats agree, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll results show.

Republicans have been front and center in criticizing the Jan. 6 hearings as little more than a political circus intended to besmirch Trump.

Even the makeup of the “bipartisan” committee has come in for ridicule, since the two GOP members of the nine-member panel were handpicked by the Democrats — contrary to the common practice of having a party select its own representatives. This wasn’t helped by the fact that the two GOP members, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney and Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, are both vociferous critics of Trump and voted for his impeachment.

But is the deck really stacked against the controversial former president? Republicans give a resounding “yes.” But most surprising of all, many, if not most, Democrats agree.

In the July 2022 online I&I/TIPP Poll, we asked 1,643 adults across the country whether they agreed with the following two statements:

“Some say that the Jan. 6 committee was handpicked and represents only Democrats’ points of view.”
“Some say that the Jan. 6 committee’s main aim is to ensure President Trump can’t run in 2024.”

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FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

No More ‘Pay to Slay’ Biden should condition reopening of the PLO’s Washington office on ending cash for terrorists. By Sander Gerber and Michael Koplow

By on July 13th, 2022

https://www.wsj.com/articles/no-more-cash-for-terrorists-payments-west-bank-abbas-biden-visit-martyrs-washington-11657656402?mod=opinion_lead_pos6

” Having a system of payments pegged to the extent of the violence inflicted is a moral stain on the Palestinian Authority.”

President Biden visits Israel and the West Bank Wednesday and is expected to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Mr. Abbas will undoubtedly press Mr. Biden to reopen the Palestine Liberation Organization’s office in Washington, which President Trump closed in 2018. Mr. Biden must make clear that for the PLO mission to open, the Palestinians must stop paying terrorists, and families of terrorists, who have attacked Israelis.

This U.S. dispute with Palestinian policy isn’t new. Washington ended direct budgetary support for the Palestinian Authority in 2014 over concerns that the prisoner and “martyr” payments create incentives for terrorism. The lack of Palestinian responsiveness led Congress in 2018 to pass the bipartisan Taylor Force Act, prohibiting U.S. assistance to the West Bank that directly benefits the Palestinian Authority (with limited exceptions for the east Jerusalem hospital network and childhood vaccinations). Although Mr. Trump closed the mission on other grounds, Congress later amended the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act to link its reopening to the abandonment of the policy informally called pay for slay. While Congress has few issues of bipartisan agreement, holding the Palestinian leadership accountable for prisoner and martyr payments is one.

The Palestinians would be wise to heed these messages from both sides of the congressional aisle as well as administrations of both parties. Having a system of payments pegged to the extent of the violence inflicted is a moral stain on the Palestinian Authority.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

‘Anonymous’ U.S. leaks divulging Israel’s secrets to Iran By Bob Unruh

By on July 13th, 2022

https://thejewishvoice.com/2022/07/anonymous-u-s-leaks-divulging-israels-secrets-to-iran/

Someone in the Biden administration may be “leaking” details about Israel’s covert operations in order to try to persuade Iranian leaders to return to the failed Iran nuclear deal created – at a cost of billions of dollars – by Barack Obama.

President Donald Trump withdrew America from the deal, which purported to prevent the rogue regime in Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons but actually only delayed that, when he determined there was no benefit to the United States. Joe Biden has been trying to resurrect it.

Now Just the News is reporting just as Biden is preparing to travel to Israel and Saudi Arabia next week, that “anonymous U.S. officials” are “leaking information to the media details about alleged covert Israeli operations against Iran, from targeted killings to explosions at nuclear sites.”

Those leaks could, in fact, generate a number of complications, from retaliation by Iran to failed efforts to take out Iran’s threats.

“It’s a sign of extraordinary incompetence and unprofessionalism from Biden and his foreign policy team,” Fred Fleitz, a former CIA analyst who also served as a senior staffer on both the House Intelligence Committee and the National Security Council, told Just the News.

“It’s outrageous they would leak this kind of information.”

The “anonymous” reports have included those made recently to CNN about Israel increasing its covert attacks in Iran, the report said.

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ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Why Arabs Are Fed up With the Palestinians by Khaled Abu Toameh

By on July 13th, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18694/arabs-fed-up-with-palestinians

The Palestinians can only blame themselves for antagonizing their Arab brothers and consequently losing the Arab money. The Palestinians have been spitting in the face of the Arab countries, while at the same time expecting these countries to continue funding them.

The Arabs are clearly not as naïve as the Americans and Europeans, who are continuing to pour millions of dollars annually on the Palestinians without conditions and without demanding accountability.

Had the Palestinians welcomed the many peace accords between Israel and the Arab states instead of condemning them and bad-mouthing the Arab leaders, they would have been in a much better situation today. They would have continued to receive financial aid from the Arabs and been able to use this money to build a better future for their children

The Arab countries have more urgent issues to deal with than the corrupt, thankless Palestinian leaders do. You can start with the welfare of their own people. The Palestinian leadership, by contrast, is happy to fail its people by indoctrinating generation after generation with bloodlust for Jews. When Palestinian society finds itself left in the global dust of progress, it can thank its leaders for bringing them to that sorry pass.

The Palestinians are disappointed: their Arab brothers have stopped providing them with financial aid. The truth is that most of the Arab countries long ago turned their backs on the Palestinians. They can only blame themselves for ruining their relations with the rest of the Arab world.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Living by the Race Card with Rajiv Sethi : Glenn Loury

By on July 13th, 2022

https://glennloury.substack.com/p/living-by-the-race-card?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

In recent conversations, John McWhorter and I have noted that some of the less reputable initiatives put forward by progressive educators, administrators, and elected officials in the name of social justice seem to be losing traction. There is a concerted pushback among parents to reinstate blind admissions testing in elite public schools and banish CRT-type programs from K-12 education, among voters living in cities run by district attorneys who favor overly lax sentencing for felons, and among ordinary people who feel like their ordinary political views can no longer be uttered in polite society.

“Resistance” is one word that describes this trend. “Backlash” is another. In the following excerpt from my conversation with my friend the economist Rajiv Sethi, he worries that this backlash is harming people who did nothing to deserve the ire of those who are fed up with the progressive line on race. I have no doubt there are such innocent victims, and that is regrettable. But we shouldn’t be surprised that the backlash has its excesses; the progressive insistence on injecting race into seemingly every facet of public life is itself excessive. As I say below, you live by the race card, you die by the race card.

When our policy decisions and political movements are premised on the notion that we as human beings are reducible to our race, that our responsibilities and experiences begin and end in race, we are in deep, deep trouble. I hope that those who are resisting the progressive race hustle in the schools and on the ballot are successful, and that those defeats can ratchet down the atmosphere of division and grievance we’re living in now. If not, I fear the backlash will continue, and that a few wrongfully terminated teachers will be the least of our problems.

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