HOMELAND SECURITY, MEDIA Comments turned off

Media Rallies Against Deportation of Student Who Urged Taking “Cue” from Hamas “My hatred of the US empire knows no bound” Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on March 23rd, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/media-rallies-against-deportation-student-who-urged-taking-cue-from-hamas/

Momodou Taal had a simple plan. Come to America on a student visa to destroy it from within.

In one post, he wrote, “The end of the US empire in our lifetime in sha Allah.” Months later, he celebrated receiving his student visa, writing, “Student Visa issued. We going to America baby! Alhamdulillah!” Shortly thereafter, he tweeted, “My hatred of the US empire knows no bound. Wallahi.”

“When the enemy is US imperialism, then absolutely anyone the US calls an enemy is my friend,” he posted in July. “My hatred for US imperialism and the global system it reproduces knows no bounds,” he wrote one month prior. “At this point; any movement, nation, people who are working to decrease the impact and effects of US imperialism on the world has my support.”

Any sane country would never have let the likes of Momodou Taal inside. But we let him in and welcomed him in every possible way as he chanted support for Islamic terrorism.

While leading an anti-Israel campus demonstration last year, Taal called on his fellow student protesters to take their “cue from the armed resistance in Palestine.”

That is to say Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Jihadist groups.

Taal made a similar statement hours after the October 7 attacks, writing, “The dialect demands: That wherever you have oppression, you will find those who [are] fighting against it. Glory to the resistance!”

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The EU Must Stop Undermining Efforts to Save Itself by Majid Rafizadeh

Posted By on March 23rd, 2025

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21485/eu-undermining-iran-efforts

It is high time for Europe — while posing as the pinnacle of virtue — to stop hiding behind US and Israeli actions. The EU needs to cut off trade, impose severe sanctions, and isolate Iran completely. Anything less is complicity.

Even as Iran deepens its military alliance with Russia by supplying drones and missiles that are used to create scorched earth in Ukraine’s cities, the EU has refused to sever its financial connections to Tehran. Iranian-made Shahed drones have devastated Ukrainian infrastructure, yet European businesses are still trading with the very country producing them. This is not just hypocrisy — it is an active betrayal of Europe’s own security interests.

The EU would do well to take the following steps immediately: Sever all economic ties with Iran. No more trade, no more investment, no more financial engagement. Every euro that flows into Iran is a euro that strengthens a regime that threatens European, as well as global, stability. Impose the harshest possible sanctions. Target Iran’s energy sector, its financial institutions, and its military industries. The EU needs to make it clear that Iran’s actions will face an unbearable economic cost. Trigger the snapback sanctions.

If European leaders are too weak to act themselves, at least support those who are preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power, devouring the region and “revolutionizing” the West. The EU needs to openly declare its backing of any Israeli military operation against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The European Union has spent years enriching Iran by choosing economic gain over security, morality, and strategic interests.

While the Iranian regime continues to fuel war, repression and terrorism, the EU has clung to its trade partnerships and business deals, while refusing to take meaningful action against a regime that actively threatens the continent’s stability as well as that of the globe.

The EU is not being naive — it is making a calculated choice to prioritize money over principles, over the safety of its own citizens, and over the security of its allies. This really needs to end. Iran is supplying weapons that kill Ukrainians, is on the brink of acquiring nuclear weapons and has been taking Europeans hostage with no consequences. The EU nevertheless continues to do business with Iran. The EU provides the regime with the economic resources it needs to expand its influence and finance its nuclear program, military operations and terror proxies.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Judge Fines Pam Bondi for Wearing a Cross – Then Tries to Cancel It, Forgetting She Knows the Constitution Better Than He Knows His Own Job! By Medeea Greere

Posted By on March 23rd, 2025

https://amg-news.com/incredible-judge-fines-pam-bondi-for-wearing-a-cross-then-tries-to-cancel-it-forgetting-she-knows-the-constitution-better-than-he-knows-his-own-job/

A judge tried to fine Pam Bondi for wearing a cross in court. Big mistake. She destroyed him with the Constitution, live in court. Now he’s under investigation — and the nation is watching what happens when tyrants get checked in real time.

Pam Bondi walked into the courtroom like she had thousands of times before. Calm. Prepared. Respected. But on this day, it wasn’t her case files or arguments that sparked tension — it was the cross around her neck.

A simple silver emblem of her faith became, in the eyes of Judge Martin Prescott, an “affront to courtroom neutrality.”

Within minutes, the judge halted proceedings and made an announcement that stunned the room:

“Ms. Bondi, you are in violation of decorum. You will be fined if the cross remains visible.”

A fine. For a symbol of faith. In a U.S. courtroom.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Liz Peek: Trump learned from Biden’s mistakes: Never underestimate Saudi Arabia

Posted By on March 21st, 2025

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5205602-trump-biden-saudi-arabia-oil

When it comes to energy, President Trump is playing chess, not checkers. Former President Joe Biden wasn’t even playing tic-tac-toe.

Consider: Why are U.S. officials traveling to Saudi Arabia to negotiate peace between Ukraine and Russia? Why not more traditional diplomatic venues like Geneva or Vienna?   

Because Trump knows that Saudi Arabia is critical to lowering oil prices and pressuring Russia to come to the bargaining table. He also knows that Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince, craves acceptance as a global leader and that hosting these high-level meetings helps him achieve that end.

Biden had spurned bin Salman, promising in 2019 to make him “a pariah.” Trump won’t be making that mistake.

Gasoline prices are down 11 percent from a year ago, providing welcome relief to Americans worried about inflation and a boost for the Trump White House. Trump campaigned on lowering energy prices; nothing could be more important to the success of this administration. Biden’s approval ratings were clobbered when gasoline prices breached $5 per gallon in 2022; for Trump, the stakes are equally high.  

Gasoline prices are lower because crude oil is hovering around $67 per barrel, down from $84 a year ago. Why the drop? There are numerous factors, but the most important is that OPEC+, for the first time since 2022, has agreed to expand output in April. Between next month and September 2026, OPEC-plus has agreed to reverse its prior 2.2 million barrel per day cuts; unless demand strengthens unexpectedly, or there is a major disruption of production in the Middle East, the bump in output should keep prices steady, and below the $78 level posted on Inauguration Day. 

For that, you can thank Trump and his outreach to bin Salman. 

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israeli Defense Minister to Hamas: Hand Over All the Hostages or Lose Land Permanently The terror group faces a stark choice. P. David Hornik

Posted By on March 21st, 2025

https://pdavidhornik.substack.com/subscribe?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=email-subscribe&r=8t06w&next=

Today, Friday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz stated:

If the Hamas terror organization continues to refuse to release the hostages, I instructed the IDF to capture additional areas, evacuate the population, and expand the security zone around Gaza for the protection of Israeli communities and IDF soldiers, through a permanent hold of the area by Israel.

As long as Hamas continues its refusal, it will lose more and more land that will be added to Israel.

Katz added that Israel would use “all military and civilian pressure, including evacuation of the Gaza population south[ward] and implementing US President Trump’s voluntary migration plan for Gaza residents.”

Katz also

affirmed Israel’s commitment to the US hostage deal proposal put forward by President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The plan calls for the release of all hostages—both living and deceased—in two phases, separated by a temporary ceasefire. “We are fully committed to this proposal, which does not compromise Israel’s security interests,” Katz said.

This is a dramatic declaration that is now making headlines on Israeli sites.

I would feel more comfortable if it were Katz’s boss, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, rather than Katz, making such a statement—clearly and publicly. The defense minister may be the second most powerful person in Israel, but a statement of this weight should come from the person at the helm. When it doesn’t, it creates a misgiving that Katz may be freelancing.

As it became clear that Hamas was merely stalling in the negotiations and using the time to rebuild and reorganize its forces, possibly build new tunnels, set up rocket launchers, and even plan new cross-border attacks, early Tuesday morning Israel launched heavy airstrikes against the Hamas leadership and terror infrastructure. Since then Israel has continued the military pressure, and by Thursday four separate IDF forces were operating in different parts of Gaza.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

John Roberts Is Responsible for the High Court’s Self-Delegitimization Josh Hammer

Posted By on March 21st, 2025

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2025/03/21/john_roberts_is_responsible_for_the_high_courts_self-delegitimization_152535.html

At his 2005 Senate confirmation hearing to be chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, John Roberts famously invoked America’s national pastime in describing his view of the judicial role in our constitutional order: “Judges are like umpires. Umpires don’t make the rules, they apply them. The role of an umpire and a judge is critical. They make sure everybody plays by the rules, but it is a limited role. Nobody ever went to a ball game to see the umpire.”

If only!

Unfortunately, Roberts’ actual career on the high court has been one extensive repudiation of his lofty “umpire” proclamation. In exalting above all other concerns his personal conception of the institutional integrity of the Supreme Court, and by extension the entire judiciary, Roberts has ironically done more than anyone else to delegitimize the courts. His recent wildly out-of-line criticism of President Donald Trump’s call for impeachment of a rogue lower-court judge is just the latest example. For the court’s own sake, in these politically tense times, Roberts must change course immediately.

Roberts first showed his hand in the landmark 2012 Obamacare case, National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius. As was initially reported by CBS News’s Jan Crawford in the immediate aftermath of the decision and subsequently reported in later years by other court watchers such as CNN’s Joan Biskupic, Roberts initially intended to rule against the constitutionality of the health care law’s individual mandate — its most controversial feature.

But at some point during the court’s deliberations, Roberts changed his mind. He decided that he could throw a bone to the court’s conservative bloc by ruling against the mandate on Commerce Clause grounds, which the law’s drafters and the Obama administration alike had cited as its constitutional basis. But Roberts threw an even larger bone to the court’s liberal bloc, unilaterally opting to rewrite the statute so as to construe the mandate as a “tax” — which then-President Barack Obama himself had repeatedly told a skeptical public that it was not. Obama’s signature domestic achievement was thus upheld.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

UNRWA still operating in Israel despite laws barring agency By David Isaac

Posted By on March 21st, 2025

https://www.jns.org/unrwa-still-operating-in-israel-despite-laws-barring-agency/

Israel’s UNRWA ban went into effect on Jan. 30 but has been only partially implemented. That worries activists and Knesset members involved in the effort to shutter the terrorism-linked U.N. agency.

To help ensure the law is applied, Likud MK Dan Illouz, who sponsored one of the two bills to bar UNRWA (full name the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East), formed the Knesset Lobby for Closing UNRWA. It held its first meeting on Feb. 20.

“We know and have experience that very often laws that are enacted in the Knesset are not necessarily applied,” Illouz told JNS.

Possible threats to the laws’ implementation aired at the lobby’s meeting included High Court interference and attempts by Israeli businesses enjoying commercial ties with UNRWA to sabotage the law.

The two bills, passed into law on Oct. 28, merged four separate private bills. “They were all put together and translated into two historic laws that are meant to put an end to UNRWA’s effective presence in any area controlled by Israel,” Illouz said.

The first law prohibits UNRWA from “operating any representative office, providing any service, or carrying out any activity, directly or indirectly, in the sovereign territory of the State of Israel.”

The second law prohibits any Israeli authority or public servant from dealing with UNRWA. “A government authority, including other bodies and individuals performing public duties according to law, shall not have any contact with UNRWA or anyone acting on its behalf,” the legislation states.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

A BRUTAL REALITY MELANIE PHILLIPS

Posted By on March 21st, 2025

https://melaniephillips.substack.com/

Hamas left Israel no alternative but to resume the war

The resumption of Israel’s war in Gaza has produced a predictable reaction in a world that remains determined to malign the Jewish state.

Western media declared that Israel had ended the ceasefire. In fact, the ceasefire had ended more than two weeks earlier. Although Israel had agreed to a further US-brokered deal, Hamas rejected it and refused to release any more hostages.

Hamas left Israel with no option but to resume the war, which it did with an aerial bombardment of Gaza.

The terror group instantly stated that the bombardment had killed 400 Gazan civilians. This was absurd because Hamas couldn’t have known the number of casualties so fast and, as usual, it omitted any Hamas operatives in the total. Yet in typically reflexive fashion, the western media parroted this incredible figure without questioning it.

No less predictable have been the Israeli protests that by resuming the war Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has abandoned the hostages —of whom 24 are said still to be alive.

The most bitter and agonising reproach has been voiced by some of the former hostages, who have accused Netanyahu of ignoring everything they’ve been telling the world about the horrific conditions in which the captives are being held.

There can hardly be a single person in Israel who doesn’t desperately want the hostages back home. And there’s no denying the genuine anguish at the failure to get them all back. Their plight is beyond horrific, and the profound emotionalism of the public response is entirely understandable.

Unfortunately, such emotion is a barrier to clear and unavoidably brutal thinking. The only way Hamas will return all the hostages is if Israel surrenders and leaves it in power. The reason it took the hostages in the first place was to ensure that Israel could never win against it.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Bangladesh’s Reign of Terror: Toward the Next Islamist Hub of South Asia? by Uzay Bulut

Posted By on March 21st, 2025

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21486/bangladesh-islamist-terror-hub

“Politics steadily worsens in Bangladesh. The economy is in free fall, law and order is in a cul-de-sac. The rule of law is under organised assault, with detained politicians, cultural activists and journalists unable to come by bail in court…. Bangladesh’s crisis is existential. All the values instrumen­tal to its emergence 50-plus years ago are systematically being jettisoned by a regime that lacks constitutional legitimacy.” — Syed Badrul Ahsan, veteran Bangladeshi journalist and commentator, December 6, 2024.

Some of the major groups, which were previously banned but, under Bangladesh’s new leadership of Muhammad Yunus, now encouraged, include: Hizb ut-Tahrir, Tawhidi Janata, Hefazat-e-Islam, at-e-Islami, and the Ansarullah Bangla Team.

Since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ouster in August 2024, the government under Yunus has freed convicted Islamic terrorists, downplayed mass violence against minorities (mainly Hindus), and let jihadist mobs take over the streets.

More than 2,200 cases of violence against Hindus in Bangladesh were reported for 2024 alone.

These radical Islamic organizations share the same main goal: a global Islamic Caliphate. If this Islamic takeover succeeds in Bangladesh, the country will become another Islamic terror state — like Afghanistan under the Taliban and Syria under its new terrorist leader, Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa.

On March 7, thousands of members of Bangladesh’s banned Islamist militant group, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, defying police barricades, marched through the streets of Dhaka to demand that the country’s secular democracy be replaced by an Islamic caliphate. Demonstrators chanting “Khilafat, Khilafat” – a direct call for Islamic rule — gathered for the “March for Khilafat” procession outside the Baitul Mukarram Mosque after Friday prayers. The mob at the march turned violent — complete with stone-throwers who clashed with police. The police, in turn, fired back with tear gas and stun grenades.

Hizb ut-Tahrir, which has been banned in Bangladesh since 2009 for posing a threat to national security, organized this rally in defiance of a government ban on public gatherings.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

A Reckoning for Higher Education? Are American colleges and universities finally getting their comeuppance? By Teresa R. Manning

Posted By on March 21st, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/03/21/a-reckoning-for-higher-education/

On Friday, March 14, Trump‘s Education Department announced an investigation into more than 50 colleges and universities for their continuation of racial preferences despite the Supreme Court’s 2023 opinion in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (“SFFA”) which found such practices both illegal and unconstitutional. The March announcement, which specifically mentioned race-based scholarships in a program called the “PhD Project,” was a follow-up to a February 14 “Dear Colleague Letter” by Acting Assistant Secretary of Civil Rights Craig Trainor, which told schools to get rid of diversity ideology (aka “DEI” or “diversity, equity, and inclusion)” or lose federal funds.

Things are getting real.

“Diversity” has been all the rage in business and academia for decades now. The word took hold in the 1990s when the prior terms “affirmative action,” “reverse discrimination,” “racial quotas,” and Critical Race Theory (“CRT”) were almost universally denounced as unjust and destructive. Though more pleasant sounding, “diversity” is actually just more of the same, the same wine in a different skin, as they say. A poisonous ideology that pits Americans against each other based on race or sex.

All these movements attack America, aiming to divide and conquer citizens by fomenting racial discord and creating a race industrial complex that enriches some—think the 6-figure salary of “White Fragility” author Robin DeAngelo or the million-dollar homes purchased by BLM founders—while leaving most others demoralized or puzzled. After all, obsession with race crowds out consideration of real aptitude and talent for jobs, scholarships, and school admissions.

With talent yielding to race politics, mediocrity becomes the norm. (Professional athletics, where champions like Tom Brady or LeBron James shine, would never put up with it!) Mediocrity then becomes ruin; the recent DC plane crash, for example, was immediately connected to “diversity hires.”  Ignoring or even penalizing real competence guarantees this result.

But Trump has other plans.