A Short ‘Honey-Do’ List for President Trump

Although Republican lawmakers were confronted with shouting, screaming mobs during their February recess, they have no one to blame but themselves… or one of their not-dry-behind-the-ears staffers who wouldn’t know a leftist political assault from a Girl Scout picnic.  Someone in their capital offices or in their district offices should have known that a George Soros/Barack Obama-linked organization called “Indivisible” planned to turn their town hall meetings into rowdy shouting matches.  Their goal was to create an impression that the congressman or senator was very unpopular with voters and they were somewhat successful in creating that impression.

Indivisible protesters claim a kinship with the Tea Party, but like almost everything else we hear from liberals and Democrats, those claims are totally without merit.  For starters, it should be noted that Tea Party activists are all people who are for something, while liberals and Democrats, including the troublemakers of Indivisible, refuse to say what they’re actually for… other than the early departure of Donald Trump from the White House.

What that should tell us is that there are an awful lot of people in Washington with a “D” behind their names who have far too much free time on their hands.  As our mothers used to caution us, “idle hands are the Devil’s play-things.”

It’s time that Donald Trump and congressional Republicans took off the gloves and played a little political hardball.  They might want to give Obama and the Democrats something to think about by preparing a list of “honey-dos” guaranteed to hold the interest of Democrats.  For starters, Republican congressional leaders should announce plans for an audit of Obama’s 2009 stimulus program, a $787 billion boondoggle passed by Congress in February 2009.  What happened to the $787 billion that was to be spent on “shovel ready” projects when, by Obama’s own admission, they couldn’t find many “shovel ready” projects?  Once again, like much of what Democrats do, the stimulus was a solution in search of a problem.  Nevertheless, we do need to know exactly who walked off with nearly a trillion dollars of taxpayer money.

Now that Obama has let it be known that he’s ready to come out of retirement to lead a “shadow government,” Trump may want to lay a little trap for him as payback for the humiliation he suffered at the 2012 White House Correspondent’s dinner when Obama publicly ridiculed him for being a “birther.”  The White House could hint that Trump, after several months in office, was considering inviting Obama back to the Oval Office for a general discussion on several knotty international and domestic problems.  However, in order to accommodate that discussion, it would be necessary to verify that Obama’s security clearance was up to date.  And when the White House staff found that Obama cannot pass the same Homeland Security E-Verify test that all green card applicants must pass in order to work in the United States… all E-Verify attempts using Obama’s name and Social Security number from his federal and state tax returns produce a “no match” response… they would quietly, and without fanfare, appear to drop the issue.

However, the White House press corps, always anxious to add another nail to Trump’s coffin, could be expected to press for an answer, fearful that Obama was being “dissed” by Donald Trump.  The White House press secretary would then attempt to avoid the issue, saying that the idea was still “under consideration.”  But, as pressure built within the White House press corps for a Trump response, a carefully placed “leak” could let the story out.  Then, in Sean Spicer’s daily press briefing, he could finally be forced to “come clean.”  By that time, everyone in the country would know that President Trump would be unable to share classified information with Obama because he has been using a stolen Social Security number for many years and cannot qualify for access to confidential, secret, or top secret information.

Turning to the illegal immigration issue, the Trump administration should not delay plans to implement a cutoff of federal funding to cities and states that have declared themselves to be “sanctuaries” for illegal aliens.  If those cities and states insist on actively defying U.S. law, acting as accomplices to millions of illegal aliens, there must be a price to pay.  All of those members of the Hollywood entertainment community who couldn’t help but sneak in a few anti-Trump digs as they accepted their awards on Oscar night will have to be taught a bit of humility.

According to estimates prepared by a California legislative committee, the State of California receives some $368 billion each year in federal support, 77% of which (some $283.4 billion) goes to individuals and corporations to cover the costs of Social Security, Medicare, defense contracts, federal civilian wages and salaries, military wages and salaries, veterans benefits, non-defense contracts, federal retiree benefits, etc.  The remaining $84.6 billion goes directly to state and local governments.  Presumably, it is that $84.6 billion that the Trump administration would  target.  So how would Californians respond?  Realizing that the IRS can’t put tens of thousands of wealthy Californians behind bars, what we might expect to see is mass avoidance of federal income taxes.  And how would the IRS respond to that?  More than likely the IRS would choose to levy penalties and interest on individual taxpayers.  And when the tax bills remained unpaid, the IRS would begin to attach bank accounts and to file liens on real property.

And finally, if money truly is the “mother’s milk” of politics, then George Soros and his Open Society Foundation are an entire dairy farm for the Democrat Party and every other radical left pressure group and anti-American organization on Earth.

Soros immigrated to the United States in 1956 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen on December 18, 1961.  A Hungarian Jew, Soros worked for the Waffen SS in Hungary during World War II, delivering eviction notices to Jewish businessmen and shopkeepers and helping the Nazis dispose of Jewish property and personal belongings.  Not only has he not expressed remorse for his role in dispossessing untold numbers of fellow Jews, many of whom later died in Nazi concentration camps, he has said in an interview that he considers the year he spent working for the Nazis in Budapest “the happiest time” of his life.

Just four years before Soros arrived in the U.S., another World War II refugee, 32-year-old Ukrainian Ivan Demjanjuk, arrived in New York with his wife and child.  The Demjanjuk’s lived in Indiana for a time but later settled in the Cleveland, Ohio, area where Demjanjuk worked as a diesel engine mechanic at a Ford Motor Company assembly plant.  He applied for citizenship

and became a naturalized U.S. citizen on November 14, 1958.  His story is an interesting one.

At the outbreak of World War II, while working as a tractor driver on a Ukrainian collective farm, Demjanjuk was drafted into the Soviet Army.  However, after being captured by German forces and sent to a POW camp, he and other Ukrainian prisoners, knowing that their lot in life would be far better in the German army than to be subjected to the cruelties of the Russian army, put on German uniforms and agreed to join forces with the Germans to fight the Russians.

Demjanjuk was transferred to a German POW camp at Sobibor, in occupied Poland, where he was assigned duty as a guard.  When the war ended and members of the enlisted ranks were disarmed and sent home, Demjanjuk took his family and sailed for New York.  However, in 1975, a Ukrainian newspaper published a list of names of ethnic Ukrainians living in the United States.  Demjanjuk’s name was on the list and it was only a matter of time before Nazi hunters compared that list to a list of names of those who had worked in Nazi concentration camps.

Demjanjuk’s U.S. citizenship was revoked for failure to disclose the nature of his service in the German army and he was deported to Israel for trial.  However, the Israeli court failed to convict him and he returned to Cleveland where he rejoined his wife and three children.  But the U.S. Government was not finished with him.  And although his citizenship was restored in 1998, the U.S. Department of Justice claimed new evidence was found against him and revoked his citizenship a second time in 2002.  However, when no country would accept him he remained in the U.S. until April 2, 2009, when Germany agreed to try him in a German federal court.

Demjanjuk, gravely ill, was taken from his home in Cleveland on a stretcher, transported to the airport by ambulance, and flown to Munich.  On July 13, 2011, 91-year-old John Demjanjuk was wheeled into a Munich courtroom where he was charged with having been an “accessory” to the murder of 27,900 Jewish prisoners in the Sobibor concentration camp.  He was found guilty on all counts and was sentenced to five years in prison.  He died on March 17, 2012, a free man, while awaiting an appeal of his conviction.

So the question arises: when is the last time someone reviewed George Soros’s citizenship application?  If Ivan Demjanjuk could be hounded to death because he failed to fully disclose his wartime experience as a prison guard in the German army, why was Soros given a pass for his role as a functionary of the Nazi Waffen SS?  Or did he simply lie about his wartime service?

As matters now stand, Trump’s most dangerous and implacable enemies are a “loose cannon” ex-president with delusions of grandeur and an aging international billionaire who hates America and its people and who will spend whatever it takes to do us harm.

Barack Obama and George Soros are the Bobbsey Twins of the “hate America” movement, and so long as they are free to do so they will do everything in their power to bring our great nation to its knees.  As liberals and Democrats accelerate their campaign to delegitimize the Trump presidency, let us hope that he will not hesitate to use the power and the influence of his office to rid the nation of those poisonous influences.

‘Drain the Swamp’ Promise Drives Establishment Panic

I’m consistently asked this question by bewildered Republicans and Trump supporters: Why won’t Democrats give President Trump a chance? He was duly elected and yet the attacks began immediately. Why? There was an election and Trump won. Give him a chance.

It’s a reasonable question. And the answer is the perfect confluence of dynamics propelling this phenomena of immediate and historically intense opposition.

First, we need to understand that the response by Democrats, the media and the reactionary, organized and funded street Left, needs to be seen through the prism of why Trump was elected in the first place.

Trump’s campaign and election is a repudiation in every conceivable way of Obama’s policies, many of Bush’s policies and Congress’ game-playing. Many Americans did mediocre under Bush, and most did poorly under Obama. The reasons for which are a different topic, but they fall under the broadest umbrella of “The way Washington does things.” And the way Washington does things is to put Washington interests first. Not Americans’.

Trump tapped into those frustrations and angers at Washington, and into substantial American anxiety over the country’s direction and slow demise. The anger of Trump supporters was largely not race-based. Not immigrant-based. Obviously not gender-based.

It was Washington-based.

The swamp today

Washington is a well-oiled machine — for Washington interests.

The power structure within Washington — the most important, wealthy and powerful capitol in the world — is this: Politicians, beginning with the President and Congress; political appointees, starting with Cabinet members, then their deputies and so on; lobbyists, who are often former members of Congress and former political appointees (that’s the revolving door Trump is trying to close); and finally, the entrenched bureaucracy that makes a solid living by the tens of thousands, often accomplishing little more than self-perpetuating. The leaks damaging to Trump and appointees is coming from this final group.

The Washington metro area never suffered through the long recession and economic downturn that the rest of the country did. It never does. Because the billions of dollars — trillions, actually — just keep pouring into the Capitol.

This is the swamp that hundreds of thousands of Trump supporters chanted about at his campaign stops across the country.

When Trump was elected, he immediately set about keeping the promises he made over and over on the campaign trail. Draining would commence. That in itself is shocking, as it has long been accepted — by the media and “smart” circles, not so much the rest of America — that Republicans and Democrats alike say a lot of things during a campaign to get elected that we all know — wink, wink — they do not intend to act on.

This is the bait and switch. Clinton was never going to provide a middle class tax cut. Bush was never going to cut entitlements. Obama was never going to block gay marriage. The media knows it and is part of the act.

This Beltway acceptance of lying to the American people in “campaign mode” reflects the elite’s expectation that the masses are stupid enough to not see it during governing mode. That’s also how Washington works. But the people saw it, and found someone they believed would do what he said. The results are in. Trump is setting about the draining.

Rapid response

The establishment of both parties was rocked on their keisters by Trump’s election. His campaign mode is the same as his governing mode in terms of doing what he said he would. His quick actions on promises to start undoing the Washington that does not work for most Americans was like poking a mama grizzly in her den with her cubs.

Reaction was swift, from demonstrations without to leaks from within. The small minority of Republicans publicly opposing Trump gave cover to Democrats to go to unexplored extremes, beyond the normal political oppositions all presidents naturally face from the opposing party.

Because of Trump’s own careless linguistic excesses and thin skin, he provides continual fodder for the masses of the angry Left that was being used by the organized, funded elements of the Left.

Remember, these were people who were sure they were going to get the first woman president and losing to such an upstart apple cart over-turner was enraging. The demonstration organizers and funders are able to take that anger and frustration of the Left and use it to leverage their existing infrastructure of protesting machines. While many people in the demonstrations are sincerely upset, they are being used by the Left establishment.

So this impressive array came together: The Democrat establishment, just a small but cover-providing portion of the Republican establishment, the media establishment that Trump continues to engage head-on like no one else, the entrenched bureaucratic establishment (including the intelligence agencies) and ancillary establishments of lobbyists, experts, etc. They aligned in common cause against the man that most seems to threatened the system that has empowered and enriched them.

Trump is a highly imperfect vehicle for this undertaking, but this same array would have come together against any candidate who truly meant to “drain the swamp.” Trump just makes it a little easier with his public carelessness.

If Trump is allowed to do what he says he wants to do, it becomes the first loosening of the plug at the bottom of the swamp. A lot of political oxes will be gored, power and influence will be lost and cozy D.C. establishments on the Left and Right will be up-ended.

They won’t wait to see how he does because it is not in their best interests to do so, and they seem to have all the components in place to not wait.

Seismic change: Tuesday’s address to Congress

Key phrase being “seem to.”

This is vital, because Trump presented a dramatically different image of himself when he address the Joint Session of Congress Tuesday night — a State of the Union for a newly elected president. In it, Trump laid out a vision for the country that was not sifted through the heavy filter of media bias and negativity.

Trump was presidential, controlled, focused on his vision and agenda, compassionate and patriotic. He hit 80 percent conservative notes, 20 percent populist notes. The reviews even in the media were that Trump not only gave a great speech — because expectations are low with him on giving speeches — but a well above-average speech for any State of the Union or equivalent. It was a real effort at post-partisanship (to which the Democrats in attendance gave the metaphorical middle finger) and a forceful vision of a renewed America.

Even his fiercest enemies, such as Van Jones, said: “He became President of the United States in that moment, period.”

So if Trump not only does exactly what he promised to do in terms of the broadest “drain the swamp” actions, but does it with more of the gravitas expected of the office, then the Washington establishment will have two options: dig in deeper and ratchet up or give up and surrender.

There is no reason to think they will easily surrender their power, influence and wealth.

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EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on The Revolutionary Act.

‘The Golan is ours’ — Israel Sovereignty and American National Security

A momentous joint press conference was held at the White House with President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu on February 15, 2017. For the first time in recent memory, a U.S. President was not demanding that Israel relinquish sovereign territory that had been granted under international law. That meant that the Jewish nation was entitled to negotiate secure borders in the land west of the river.

Things appear to be changing in the Middle East among the Sunni Arab monarchies, Emirates and states recognizing that America’s democratic ally is the proverbial strong horse opposing the hegemonic aspirations of the Shia Islamic Republic of Iran. An Iran that in consort with its proxy Hezbollah is actively engaging in creating a Shia crescent from the Persian Gulf via Iraq and Syria to the Mediterranean Coast of Lebanon. Moreover, Iran has control of two world maritime choke points in the oil trades; the Straits of Hormuz and the Bab al Mandab (at the mouth of the Red Sea).

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The Golani tree symbol of the IDF Golani Brigade of the Northern command.

For Israel there is evidence that Iran’s IRGC Qods force and its proxy Hezbollah are ranging across the vital Golan Heights frontier. That is reflected in clashes that resulted in the deaths of IRGC Generals and a Hezbollah commander, son of the terrorist mastermind Imad Mughniyah.   A frontier that is also witnessing the expansion of ISIS militia on the southern portion of the Golan frontier.

The Golan is strategic to Israel’s national security reflected in its annexation by Israel’s parliament the Knesset in 1981. Yet, there have been efforts at the UN suggesting that Israel’s sovereign claim to the Golan is questioned. That despite it being included in the original Palestine Mandate granted to Great Britain at the Sam Remo conference in 1920. After two climatic wars fought in 1967 and in 1973, Israel is not about to give up its sovereign claim to the Golan.Further, Israel’s ears on the Middle East can be found on the summit of Mount Hermon at the base of the frontier monitoring digital communications.  IDF Golani units are deployed on the heights of this important bastion.  The UNDOF force in the demilitarized has been routed during the six plus years of the Syrian civil war. Israel has provided humanitarian aid and medical assistance to Syrian civilians and casualties of opposition militias often treating them in field hospitals and in emergency cases sending them to hospitals in central Israel.  The Syrian frontier on the Golan divides the Druze community, the Israeli branch of which are loyal citizens and yet understand the predicament of their cousins across the frontier.

There has been talk of establishment of so-called safe zones in southern Syria at the apex where Israel, Jordan and Israel meet.  At issue is what international forces would staff it. Given the record of the UN peacekeepers it is dubious that it could effectively defend the suggested safe zones. Israel’s experience in the Lebanon wars indicates that it is not about to take on the responsibility of a security zone in Syria. The one in Lebanon ended disastrously in the pell mell withdrawal from the Southern security zone   in 2000.

That apex at the conjunction of the three counties frontiers is now the target of the Islamic State. A recent Jewish Press report confirms the activity of Islamic State Salafist militia overrunning the apex area of Southern Syria, Jordan and Israel threatening the Golan frontier. It reports that the ISIS militia is lead by a Palestinian Salafist. While the IDF Chief of Staff Eizenkot would like the UNDOF to block further movement by the ISIS, their track record has been abysmal. Thus his assessment is that the IDF on the northern frontier could see intense fighting occur this spring.

Jonathan Schanzer and Marc Dubowitz crystallized in a Wall Street Journal article, “Golan,” stressing the vital importance of Israel’s sovereignty.  They noted:

Benjamin Netanyahu has achieved his primary objective of resetting ties with the U.S. after eight years of tensions. True, the Israeli prime minister and Donald Trump still need to bridge the gap on issues such as Palestinian-Israeli diplomacy and West Bank settlements. But they seem to be on the same page on a broad range of regional matters.

That could lead to a breakthrough on an issue of strategic importance to Israel. According to reports of the two leaders’ meeting on Wednesday, Mr. Netanyahu asked for U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

The move makes sense for both sides. It would provide the Israeli government with a diplomatic win while helping the Trump administration signal to Russia and Iran that the U.S. is charting a new course in Syria.

[…]

By recognizing Israel’s sovereignty in the Golan, the Trump administration would signal to Russia that, while Washington may now coordinate with Moscow on activities such as fighting Islamic State, it doesn’t share Russia’s goals for Syria.

Moreover, it would show that the U.S. will take a tougher line on the provision of arms and intelligence to Iran and Hezbollah.

Recognition of Israel’s Golan claims would acknowledge that it needs these highlands to hold off a multitude of asymmetric and conventional military threats from Syria—and whatever comes after the war there. Israel continues to target Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah to prevent them from establishing a base of operations on the Syrian Golan.

Recognizing Israel’s sovereignty in the Golan would also soften the Palestinians’ core demand for a state within the 1967 borders. If an international border can be revised along the Syrian border, the Palestinians will have a harder time presenting the 1949 armistice line along the West Bank as inviolable.

Against this background we reached out to someone who knows the strategic importance of what Messrs. Schanzer and Dubowitz have espoused, Ambassador Yoram Ettinger former Israeli emissary in Washington involved with Congressional liaison.

Mike Bates overlooking Kotel and Dome of the Rock Mosque on Temple Mount 3-2014.jpg

Mike Bates

Mike Bates:  Good afternoon welcome back to Your Turn, this is Mike Bates. We continue with our conversation, our Middle East round table discussion. With me in studio is Jerry Gordon,  Senior Editor of the New English Review and his blog the Iconoclast.

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Jerry Gordon

Jerry Gordon: Glad to be back.

Bates: And joining us by telephone from Israel is Yoram Ettinger, former Israeli Congressional Liaison.

Yoram Ettinger: Thank you very much.

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Former Ambassador Yoram Ettinger

Bates: Ambassador Ettinger, from your perspective as a former Israeli Emissary involved with Congressional relations, how significant was the outcome of the joint press conference at the White House on January 15th?

Ettinger: I would say that the outcome of the meeting between the leaders of the US and Israel is very significant.  It signals reconnection of the US administration with Middle Eastern reality after eight years – and more years – of assuming that the Palestinian issue is the core cause of regional turbulence and the crown jewel of Arab policymaking. Now there is an Administration that realizes, with all due respect, the Palestinian issue is not the primary or secondary, not even tertiary issue when it comes to Middle East priorities. The current administration seems to focus on the major threats to the US as well as to Western democracies and the regional and global stability. These are: Iran’s megalomaniacal aspirations and its  aim to become a major nuclear power. Second is Islamic terrorism  and third, the need to minimize the clear and present danger to every  pro- American Arab regime in the middle east, such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain and Oman.

On all of those issues – Iran, Islamic terrorism, and the need to stabilize the pro- American Arab regimes – Israel plays a very unique role. The question is, are you going to sacrifice the very essential cooperation between US and Israel on the altar of the Palestinian issue? It seems to me that President Trump and his advisors may or may not go along entirely with Israel’s view of the Palestinian issue.  They are not going to sacrifice dire American national security interests on the altar of the Palestinian issue, which is not, is not, a core cause as far as Arab policymaking is concerned.

Bates: Ambassador Ettinger, I realize Israel is a democratic country, and like every democratic country, the people are not unified in their view of the world any more so in Israel as it is in the United States. But I’m curious. If you can generalize, what is the sense of the Israeli people to President Trump versus what we had for the previous eight years, President Obama?

Ettinger: Certainly Israel is highly diversified as far as ideology, as far as world view, even as far as Judaism is concerned.  However, one should note that a major factor in Israel is a sense of patriotism. We see that on the occasion of wars, on the occasion of conflicts with Arab countries, and recently on the issue of the Palestinians.  We see coalitions of all the big groups in Israel.  In fact, something which is not common in the US. The  majority of our special operation forces are very Dovish, and I emphasize very, very Dovish in their world view, and the majority of Israel’s combat pilots are also very Dovish.

And, their worldview has nothing to do with the fact that they are first to be called to serve during wartime, and they serve superbly.

When it comes to President Trump, the perception in Israel is that he is supportive of Israel. The public has accorded him at this point very significant support, unlike the case of the eight years with President Obama – when many Israelis sympathized with him as far as personality is concerned, maybe as it was reflected by television, newspapers, radio – but most Israelis were aware that as far as President Obama was concerned, Israel was not exactly one of his top positive priorities. When it comes to President Trump, the sense is that he does regard the Jewish State as a cardinal, positive element on his agenda.

Gordon: Ambassador, what is the danger of having a Palestinian state adjacent to the Jewish nation of Israel?

Ettinger: When it comes to Israel, the clear and present lethal threat is highlighted at this time of global instability, violence, and intolerance, tenuous agreements, tenuous regimes and policies. With a Palestinian state, Israel would be once again constrained to an eight-to-fifteen mile sliver along the Mediterranean, over-towered and dominated by the mountain ridges of the West Bank of Judea and Samaria. This is not exactly a prescription for long life expectancy. It’s a prescription for suicide, I believe.

But the key point is not what it means for Israel. For your American listeners, the issue is what would the impact be on America’s national security. And Americans should know when it comes to a Palestinian State, based on its track record, we are talking about a definite erosion of America’s authority in the Middle East and definite injury to very important American national security interests. For instance, there is the American-supported Hashemite monarchy in Jordan. A Palestinian State on the one hand and Hashemite regime in Jordan east of the Jordan River constitute an oxymoron.

Top Jordanian military officers made it very clear to their colleagues in Israel that the top priority of the Hashemites  is to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. Now the issue is not merely one more, or one less pro- American Arab regime.  A change in regime in Jordan would cause tectonic ripple effects, which would not be limited only to Jordan, but a definite spill- over southward to Saudi Arabia and from Saudi Arabia to the rest of the pro- American  Arab Gulf states.

This means that a Palestinian state could trigger ripple effects all the way into the Persian Gulf area, playing into the hands of Iran, also possibly into the hands of Russia and China and certainly adversely effecting America’s interest. It could create an Iranian block from Iran through Iraq, Jordan, all the way to fifteen miles from the Mediterranean. That  would mean loss of pro- American control of two critical waterways, the Bab el Mandab and Hormuz Straits in the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, two of the most critical waterways for oil tankers, which would have an impact on the  global economy and  American economies.

You might also find a guarantee of naval rights, landing rights for the Russian, possibly Iranian, maybe Chinese, naval and air force, in the eastern flank of the Mediterranean, which once again would undermine vital American interests.

All this is based on the track record of Palestinians, which includes the waves of terrorism in the 1920s, 30s, 40s; collaboration with the Nazis during the Second World War; collaboration with the USSR after the war; collaboration with Ayatollah Khomeini after the demise of the Shah of Iran; and very close ties with Russia, North Korea, China, Cuba, and Venezuela.

Bates: Ambassador  Ettinger there was a recent  The Wall Street Journal op-ed by Jonathan Schanzer and Mark Dubowitz of the Washington DC based Foundation for Defense of Democracies drew attention to the possibility of Israel asserting sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Why did Israel annex the Golan Heights in 1981 and what geo-political and national security significance does it have given the threats on the frontier from Iran’s proxy Hezbollah and Syrian Islamic opposition  and ISIS?

 Ettinger: First of all, the Golan Heights is not foreign terrain for the Jewish state. The Golan Heights is part of the Jewish homeland going back some 3,500 years .  As far as contemporary strategy is concerned, there are only two options when it comes Golan: will it be part of Israel, controlled by Israel; or will it be a platform for rogue organizations, rogue regimes. There is no other option, although again in the wishful la-la land of some western policymakers, one could transform it into an international, neutral area.  Certainly when you look at the Middle East there is no such thing as a neutral element or neutral space.

As far as the impact of the Golan Heights, once again on the region as a whole and on Israel. One can go back to 1970 when Syria was a major military Arab power, Syria invaded Jordan. With the US bogged down in Southeast Asia, there was no way it could stretch military hand and help the pro- American late King Hussain. They called Israel. Israel mobilized its troops and the following day – without firing a single shot, only through the posture of deterrence of the presence of Israel – the Syrian military withdrew back to Syria. That was possible because Israel controlled the Golan Heights in 1970, which meant we were at the point where we could reach Damascus and basically take over Syria.

Should Israel be off the Golan Heights, and once again there is violence which threatens pro-American Arab regime in Jordan, without the Golan (and certainly there would already be a Palestinian state), Israel would be in no position, have no power to exert any posture of deterrence to assist the US, assist pro-American Arab regimes. We are talking today about the proliferation of Islamic terrorist organizations, many of which operate in Syria, which means with proximity to the Golan Heights and should Israel get off Golan Heights, the only question would be: which rogue regime, which rogue organization, will then control the Golan Heights.

Bates: There is no question that the Golan Heights are critical to the security of Israel. I made a day trip through Golan Heights when I was in Tiberius a few years ago. It’s beautiful, sparsely populated area.  It is of  massive strategic importance. Why doesn’t the United States recognize the Golan Heights as part of Israel’s sovereign territory and is there any chance that will change under a Trump presidency?

Ettinger: It’s true that Golan Heights is critical for Israel’s national security, but it’s also true that it is  very important for America’s own national security, America’s own posture of deterrence in the Middle East.  Israel on the Golan Heights, Israel on the mountain ridges of Judea Samaria extends the strategic hand of the USA. With Israel off the Golan Heights and certainly off the mountain ridges of the West Bank, Israel is going to be transformed from a national security asset to a national security liability and a burden on the US. And the US is facing, in my mind, intensifying, and not reduced, threats due to the current trends in the Middle East and throughout the world. The US cannot rely on Europe which has lost its will power gradually – and is also losing its muscle. Israel is the only element in the Middle East upon which the US can rely. It is probably the most effective force anywhere in the world upon which the US can rely on.

Bates: No, question about it Ambassador.

Gordon: Ambassador, what is behind Israel’s emergence as a world leader in high tech global investments and its impact on the country’s economy?

 Ettinger: Out of necessity, due to the attempt to strangle Israel territorially, militarily, economically; due to various attempts to boycott and sanction Israel; and due to real lack of natural resources, Israel had to rely on its brain power. We have managed not only to survive but we have managed to develop – I would say next to the US – a major global, high tech technological country, both commercially and militarily. Today, in Israel, we have 250 research and development centers operated by global high tech giants, most of them American, some European. These are the centers that develop for Intel and Microsoft, and Apple and Google, and other giants, the latest innovative technologies. Israel contributes to research and development in America, to the competitiveness of American industries in the global competition, and to America’s foundation of employment.

Bates: It is a huge benefit, Ambassador. We have been speaking with Jerry  Gordon of the New English Review and its blog the Iconoclast and  with Ambassador Yoram Ettinger.  You can find Ambassador Ettinger online at www.theettingerreport.com.

Thanks so much for joining us this afternoon on 1330amWEBY

Listen to the broadcast, here.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review.

The Truth about the termination San Antonio ACT for America Chapter Leader — LTC Roy White

This column exposes how the ACT for America National leadership decided to terminate their ACT San Antonio, Texas chapter leader LTC Roy White, USAF (Retired).

DISCLAIMER: Over ten years ago I was ACT chapter leader in Sarasota County, Florida. I worked with the former senior staff of ACT including Guy Rogers and Kelly Cook, both of whom have left ACT. LTC White has been a contributor to this publication and we have obtained information from LTC White and other sources which detail how his termination was handled.

Readers may come to their own conclusions about this termination of a highly successful volunteer, ACT chapter leader and its impact on ACT for America national leadership and goals.

This column is based upon what actually happened in real time. It is a jumping off point for a further investigation and a discussion of the mission, vision and role of ACT for America national.

The Cause for LTC  White’s Firing

On Thursday, February 23rd, 2017 ACT for America San Antonio scheduled its monthly meeting. The speaker was Karen Lugo, Constitutional attorney and author of the book Mosques in America. Ms. Lugo is a recognized speaker based upon her experiences of how building codes, zoning ordinances  are often not adhered to when it comes to Islamic facilities under construction and how citizens can learn from these experiences. The promotion for the event may be found here and here.

On Thursday, February 23rd LTC White was removed as the San Antonio Chapter Leader of ACT for America for failing to follow Mr. J. Craig, ACT for America’s Director Field Operations, recommendation to “cancel the meeting.”

Read Mr Craig’s letter terminating LTC White here.

The Changing Narrative for LTC White’s Firing

Text messages from January 21st to January 24th between LTC White and Mr. Craig show the reasons for directing LTC White to cancel the meeting changed over time:

  1. “Bad messaging”, “looks bad with the media” perceptions created by the CAIR press release (phone conversation between Mr. Craig and LTC White)
  2. “Shutting down mosques” are words used by Mr. Craig but not by LTC White in two emails.
  3. “Legal action against ACT”.

Resignation Notification to ACT for America

According to LTC White:

“I informed Mr. Craig I would be resigning from ACT for America upon my return home from my meeting on the evening of February 23rd via text message at 1:12 PM.  Accepting my resignation would’ve resulted in far less ammunition being given to the Islamists.”

LTC White texted Mr. Craig, “After I return tonight I will submit my letter of resignation. You want have to fire me. No hard feelings.”

Observations

This link is to a few of the nearly 200 persons who attended the actual event.

Brigitte Gabriel has inspired thousands of persons over the years to stand up to CAIR and the Islamists who continue to push their Sharia compliant agenda. It seems something has changed at ACT.

When one of ACT’s most capable and loyal chapter leaders is subsequently fired for putting those words into action, it is clear they don’t want leaders, they want “puppets” for ACT National to use as donor collection sites to fund a never ending thirst for money and donors.

Brigitte has preached against political correctness (PC) speech about Islam for years. There is nothing more non-PC than holding meetings despite CAIR press releases. ACT is undergoing change. This shift occurred at the same time a $500,000 anonymous donation was made in late 2016. Has that donation come with strings attached?

LTC White noted:

“I expect taking criticism from CAIR and other Islamic groups. I just never thought I’d receive such vicious attacks from my own organization.

A veteran of 20 years, I’ve met as many or more great patriots in my last seven years as I did with the patriots I served with in my twenty years as a veteran.

It is an honor to call John Guandolo, Clare Lopez, Lt Gen Michael Flynn, Rabbi Jonathan Hausman, Steve Coughlin, Jim Simpson, Nonie Darwish, Mayor Beth Van Duyne, Karen Lugo and too many more as friends.  To have them share their perspectives with my San Antonio members is something I will continue to do.

I add to this list all of the great patriots, Chapter Leaders, mentors, former ACT National staff and most importantly my local ACT for America members who have loyally made our Chapter so strong and a target for CAIR. You have my undying respect for being in the fight.”

What Donors Should be Asking

  1. ACT for America needs less “cult-like” mentality and more transparency.  Donors should ask what is actually being accomplished by ACT for America.  Merely following a fiery speaker because he or she has a great stump speech is of little long term value to this country.
  2. Donors should demand to see real results, not speeches that provoke emotion.  Demand transparency.
  3. Determine if the leadership or the National staff is directly involved in those “wins” or merely cheerleaders on the sideline taking credit for the victories by their unpaid volunteers. Those successes are then touted by National in mailings to gain dollars that never return to the local level but go into the National coffer.

ACT’s  New Buzzword: “Messaging” – What it Really Means is “Political Correctness”

It is my assessment that political speak had crept into the ACT lexicon ten years ago and most recently “messaging” has replaced the very unpopular phrase “political correctness” at ACT national.  Conference calls and Chapter Leader emails provide a chilling narrative of controlling the “message”. In LTC White’s case telling the truth about Islam and mosques. In this case ACT treated LTC White like the enemy because he wanted the truth to be told to his members and brought a nationally recognized speaker on mosques to speak to them about the threat.

ACT for America accomplished what CAIR and the SPLC wanted to accomplish, eliminate one of ACT’s most outspoken and effective chapter leaders.

It is no surprise CAIR attempts to intimidate religious leaders to shut down ACT meetings in San Antonio by asking religious leaders such as Rabbi Scheinberg of Rodfei Shalom Synagogue (link here) or Pastor Steve Branson of Village Parkway Baptist Church (link here) to deny ACT a meeting location.  It is a credit to these fine men and congregations they don’t back down from CAIR.

What I, as a former ACT chapter leader nor LTC White, didn’t expect is to have ACT for America, via Mr. Craig, kowtow to CAIR and shut down the truth from being spoken.

Leaders who lean forward and have earned the organization’s trust with a proven track record shouldn’t be fired for telling the truth.  LTC White was an ACT Mentor for the last two years. He traveled thousands of miles sharing ACT’s vision including visits with the author.  Yet because CAIR sends out a press release, Mr. Craig and ACT National demands demanded that LTC White cancel a meeting for bad “messaging?”

ACT can regain some credibility among its members and donors by doing the following:

  1. Immediately remove those key persons from leadership positions who executed this decision or have those above them accept responsibility publicly. LTC White was willing to resign over his decision, ACT national leadership needs to be willing to do the same. From conversations with ACT members (click here to read letters from ACT members) a consensus is forming that National leadership should be removed as their trustworthiness and credibility with members and chapter leaders has dramatically declined. What chapter leader wants to stick his or her head out only to have it chopped off by ACT national?
  2. Recall the February 23rd message sent to ALL CHAPTER LEADERS. A new message acknowledging ACT’s rush to judgement in firing LTC White and an apology restoring his honor and credibility in the eyes of ACT Chapter Leaders needs to be sent out.
  3. Recall press releases that dealt with this situation and send out an acknowledgement of ACT’s rush to judgement in firing LTC White and announcing his departure from ACT as a loyal and patriot in the fight against the spread of Islamic ideology that threatens the U.S. Constitution.

I believe ACT for America has the potential to do great work in protecting the U.S. Constitution but it won’t meet that potential without internal changes.

ACT for America is nothing without its donors, members and Chapter Leaders. They should demand the following actions be taken. If not taken by June 1st, 2017 with a completion of all tasks by August 2017, members and chapter leaders should re-consider their support of ACT for America. Here are some thoughts:

  1. Ask for Chapter Leader volunteers (not ACT National staff or leaders) to create a poll asking a series of questions, a “Climate Survey”, of what is right and what is wrong within ACT. This would include reorganization and allocation of resources to those areas that support the local ACT Chapter much more directly than current practices. Publish those results with an action plan with dollars attached to that action plan. Present those results and the plan to donors and members so they can see if ACT is serious about changing course.
  2. Devise a 2-3 month long training program with the help of Chapter Leader Mentors for potential ACT Chapter Leaders that upon successful graduation new Chapter Leader applicants are awarded a chapter certification increasing the chances of success for their chapter, a suggestion previously made by me but was never approved.
  3. Provide a more accurate account to members, the public and to donors the number of chapters in ACT for America. The 1000+ number includes inactive chapters and inactive chapters are worthless except when it comes to making false claims about how large an organization claims to be. ACT for America must become more transparent and that means being honest. To be listed as an ACT for America chapter on the website a chapter must do one of the following:
    1. At least quarterly conduct an actual meeting with speakers or action oriented activities, (lobby in the State Capitol, attend an interfaith dialogue event…it doesn’t have to be just a speaker).
    2. Conduct an online conference call, live Facebook, YouTube presentations or web conference calls to those in each chapter area.
    3. Produce a local newsletter, email or publication related to ACT for America on a quarterly basis.

Donors, members and Chapter Leaders will have to decide on whether to stay with ACT for America or not if these recommendations are not accepted and accomplished. If chapter leaders can’t trust national leadership, what’s the point?

However, here is hope beyond ACT. As the saying goes, God works in mysterious ways.

Iran is home to the fastest growing Evangelical Christian growth in the world at nearly 20%. Afghanistan is the second fastest at 17% thanks to men like Dr. Hormoz Shariat at Iran Alive Ministries and other non-profits like Open Doors, The Voice of the Martyrs and many other religious groups who are risking their lives everyday.

In the U.S. groups like Dr. Mark Pfeiffer at The Christian Institute for Islamic Studies or Reverend Joe Carey at Radical Truth are providing the knowledge to Christians who are fighting to win the souls of Muslims in bringing them to the Lord and training church congregations on how to do that in their own community.

LTC White believes that, “The most successful way to keep anyone from becoming a Jihadist is to introduce them to the Lord but that takes a special skill and these groups and others are on the front lines teaching congregations how to win the most important battle, the one for their souls. The most effective way to keep a prevent a non-Sharia compliant Muslim to become a Sharia compliant jihadist is to touch their spiritual nature through Christ.  Would Jews be upset if a Muslim leaves a ideology that teaches to kill Jews and Christians who  converts to a faith that says to love all persons, Jews, Christians and Muslims?  I would think my persons of all faith would be quite happy about that change of heart.”

ACT doesn’t have to do what these other groups do but ACT members who wish to share this information shouldn’t be stifled to talk about the spiritual battle going on at their meetings nor discouraged from bringing in guest speakers who can provide hope in this area.

Pastor Hibbs, a great spiritual leader and who understands Islam very well, spoke at last year’s ACT National Conference and was a refreshing voice. If it’s fine for him to speak at a National conference then local chapter speakers should be encouraged to do the same. ACT touts “43 bills passed in 22 states” as its badge of honor of accomplishments. Those thousands of volunteers who worked hard to make that happen but that all pales when compared to the number of souls saved by Christian groups like those above.

In closing, this the timeline of events and communications between Mr. Craig and LTC White. The emails referenced above are for those interested in the getting into the weeds. This column is an attempt to lay out the changing narratives and the behavior of Mr. Craig. In his defense, he may only be the messenger.

LTC White said, “I have no ill feelings toward Mr. Craig or anyone at ACT for America. He comes from a background of political campaigning and insulating a candidate from negative publicity is understandable, even if the truth is being told. That can never be the standard we use in this fight…the truth is all we have and it is all we need.”

The source for ACT for America’s strength in its members and chapter leaders.  

LTC White concluded our interview saying his strength,

Comes from my abiding faith in my God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The journey I started in 2009 that led me to begin studying Islam after my time as serving the children of Snowball Express as President and Chairman has been a true blessing. I’m thankful and appreciative of ACT for America and Brigitte Gabriel for adding to my wealth of knowledge.

This baptism of fire has made me a stronger believer and made me realize the spiritual battle is the only way to truly win this war. 

In fact, the great victories against Islam are occurring on the spiritual battlefront.” [Emphasis added]

RELATED DOCUMENT: Personal Message from Brigitte

RELATED VIDEO: Lieutenant Colonel Roy White’s presentation at the AFA Conference, August 21, 2016.

Hollywood Elites become Major Propaganda Arm for the Islamic Republic of Iran

My two cents worth!

To get an Oscar award, keep silent toward the inhumane acts of the Islamic Republic of Iran but slam the American government, you get an Oscar without even deserving it.

Islamic Republic of Iran’s film director, Asghar Farhadi who would not protest against the atrocities by the Islamic Republic of Iran in the last 38 years, sends a warning letter to Trump condemning U.S. Immigration ban.

Asghar Farhadi Ayatollah Khamenei

Asghar Farhadi (right) with Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei.

Has Mr. Farhadi ever sent a strong letter to Khamenei condemning crimes against humanity in Iran and the Middle East by the Islamic Republic?

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Asghar Farhadi was awarded once again by Hollywood but the voiceless people of Iran were again and completely abandoned. Was this Oscar sponsored by the Islamic Republic of Iran for the waste of time movie “salesman”?

Iranian film director Asghar Farhadi took advantage of Western democracy and our freedom of speech to verbally attack President Trump with Anger and hate and a politically motivated message, but had Mr. Farhadi the same courage in Iran he would be immediately get arrested by the same regime he has been defending.

This is how sinister the pawns of the Islamic republic of Iran are: This article proves how Asghar Farhadi used the last OSCAR to campaign for Iran regime’s Nuke Deal and be their mouthpiece while in “America”.

This year, Asghar Farhadi was awarded with an Oscar to ONLY slam President Trump and to avoid the human rights violations by the Islamic Republic of Iran, the leading State sponsor of terrorism, and number one in the world with its human rights violation records.

Neither Asghar Farhadi nor Ms. Anousheh Ansari had the courage to stand for the voiceless people of Iran, especially people in Khouzestan where the entire WORLD could hear their message, but Instead Farhadi’s message was directed against Trump and was filled with hate and anger just like the language of the regime.

Farhadi had not even tried to obtain visa to USA but instead Iran lobby NGO, NIAC paved the road to an Oscar for him and their supported regime, so the Islamic republic of Iran could be on the spotlights and be cherished.

This Oscar was a political showcase that had done nothing to do with Farhadi’s film itself but a political action taken by anti-Trump Liberal Hollywood against President Trump.

Muslim Iranian Farhadi calls it  an“inhumane” law that bans immigrants to the U.S.” Farhadi should be reminded that immigration to the U.S. or visiting the U.S. is not a right but a privilege. Mr. Farhadi needs to be reminded what his own Government is doing to his own people and that many dual citizen Iranians are taken as hostage by the Islamic Republic and are banned from leaving Iran.  Farhadi needs to be reminded what the Islamic republic of Iran’s been doing to religious and ethnic minorities and Afghan refugees living in Iran.

Anousheh Ansari

Anousheh Ansari

The Iran regime lobby has been advocating for the Islamic republic through the educated Iranian Americans such as Ms.   Anoosheh Ansari and Dr. Firouz Naderi who carry the bidding of the Islamic Republic but failed to acknowledge that many Iranian nationals are banned entry to Iran by the very same regime.

Let those Iranians who lack principals and ethics be proud of Mr. Farhadi and the Government he represents but it is obvious that this Oscar was only a defiance, and a political agenda using Farhadi against Trump not because Farhadi really deserved the award. If Iranians living abroad had shown so much enthusiasm, unity and support they are showing for an Iranian film director, I bet Iran would have been freed decades ago sand maybe the nation could also HOST an Oscar.

Watch Mark Dice, Author and Media Analyst speaking about the propaganda of Hollywood and Islamic Republic of Iran at this year’s OSCAR.

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RELATED VIDEO: Tackling the Iran Nuclear Deal.

VIDEOS: An Incomprehensible and Vexing Question

This is an incomprehensible and vexing question. If you know the answer I look forward to your enlightening me.

The minds of the liberal American Jews are especially incomprehensible and vexing, but so are the minds of black Americans, who have been screwed by Democrats since the days of slavery on, only switching to soft bigotry in 1965.

Suppose the Communists had deposed Hitler and were hunting the Nazis down, killing them or shipping them off to gulags (meaning “concentration camps”). And suppose a great many Nazis managed to flee the country. Would the Jews have besieged the government and the media pressuring the government to allow unlimited numbers of them to enter to the U.S. as refugees? After all, “we too have been refugees.” Would that have even been rational?

That is exactly what most American Jews today are doing, but the Nazis this time are Islamo-Nazis, literally. The Muslim Brotherhood is the Islamic branch of the Nazi Movement, unrepentant and unpunished. The founder of the Brotherhood, Hassan al-Bannah, teamed up with the Nazis in the early 1930’s and grew under Nazi tutelage. Google the parameters bannah nazi and read what comes up.

Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin el-Husseini meeting with Adolf Hitler.

The infamous Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, the Haj Amin el-Husseini, had connected to the Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1930’s and was the undisputed creator and leader of the Palestinian national movement. He went to Berlin in 1941, was received by Hitler personally, and forged an alliance with him. He raised Islamic divisions for the Waffen SS and was to rule the Middle East under Hitler when Germany should conquer it, and he was to be the one to carry out the Final Solution to the Jewish Question in the Middle East. He and the Muslim Brotherhood taught the Nazis how to address their message to the Muslim world and, for their part, they imbibed the full range and richness of European Jew hatred. There is a reason why the Islamic terrorist organizations use the Nazi salute. They are, quite literally, Islamo-Nazis.

Not all Muslims are Islamo-Nazis, but polls show that the percentage of Muslims living in Islamic majority countries who have “unfavorable views of Jews” ranges from 60% to 100%. They are assiduously and intensely taught, from infancy, to hate Jews and that Jews should be killed for the fact of being Jews. The result is described quite well, by Pat Condell, A Special Kind Of Hate.

In truth, this is nothing new and it applies especially to Jews but not only to Jews. Mass murder of all non-Muslims is endemic to Islamic rule. Islamic rule in India is emblematic.  It is an on-going phenomenon. Here is a more recent example.

The Islamic fundamentalist jihadis are driving the Jews out of Europe. Are Jews in America so sure they will not do the same in America that they view it as repugnant racism to even vett them for terrorists? The Jews seem to be so deeply brainwashed that they cannot see the difference between the Muslim “refugees” and their own grandmothers fleeing the Holocaust.

Under President Trump refugee arrivals to the U.S. have dramatically slowed

tillerson-and-trump

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (left)

In advance of a new EO supposedly coming out on Wednesday, checking the numbers this morning here are a few things I learned.

Total arrivals this fiscal year (which began on October 1, 2016) are at 36,822.  Last time we checked on 2/23 we were at 36,637.

Secretary of State Tillerson and President Trump can still set the ceiling lower than 50,000!

President Trump has set the ceiling for this fiscal year which ends on September 30th at 50,000 (a number we argue is not that low when one examines all of the post 9/11 years, see here. Bush’s lowest year was 39,554).

47% of the 36,822 are Muslim refugees of some stripe.

Here is how they break down:

Ahmadiyya: 130
Shiite: 2,152
Sunni: 8,659

Muslim (who apparently don’t designate a sect): 6,547

A couple of things that interested me in the numbers.  First we are bringing in large numbers of Burmese Muslims now (Rohingya, I presume).  817 are recorded as from Burma.  In reality we don’t know exactly where they came from.  They could be from the Muslim country of Bangladesh.  These are not our responsibility!

Then for Iraqis we admitted both sides of the warring factions:  1,472 are Shiites and 2,506 are Sunnis.

So, let me get this straight! From Iraq we must have Sunnis saying they are persecuted by Shiites and Shittes saying they are persecuted by Sunnis, and we bring them both to be resettled in your cities.  How long before they go after each other on American soil?

So here (from Wrapsnet) is a map of where the 36,822 were placed one day short of 5 months in to FY2017.

Wyoming remains the only state in the nation with no refugee program.  Of course Washington, DC only gets a tiny number.

screenshot-369

screenshot-370

Not show on the map are Florida with 1,197, Alaska with 41 and Hawaii with 3.

Here are the top ten receiving states. 

I repeat! Governor Abbott’s withdrawal of the state of Texas from the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program did not slow the flow to the state! If you want to help President Trump succeed, Texans need to focus their political activism on Senator John Cornyn as we explained here.

screenshot-368

This post is filed in our Trump Watch! category as well as ‘refugee statistics’ and ‘where to find information.’

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U.S. ‘within 10 years’ of becoming Sweden if Trump policies fail

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RELATED VIDEO: Judicial Watch “Special Edition” Interview with Top Trump Advisor Sebastian Gorka.

VIDEO: Organizing for Action — Obama’s Shadow Government

New York Post contributor Paul Sperry joined Lou Dobbs on Wednesday night to discuss Barack Obama’s shadow government organization to sabotage President Trump. Sperry says Obama has trained tens of thousands of organizers already in Alinsky tactics at his boot camps.

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Mayor of Honolulu: My Latest Appointee Helped Deliver Lots of Muslims to Europe

by Andrew Walden

honolulu sealA February 21, 2017 Caldwell administration news release touting the appointment of Jim Howe to head the Honolulu Emergency Services Department includes this tidbit:

“Most recently, Howe provided consulting services to the ProActiva Open Arms program, which helps rescue European-bound refugees from treacherous ocean waters who are fleeing war, persecution or poverty.”

“ProActiva Open Arms” sounds humanitarian but some in Europe see it as a human trafficking scheme run by mercenaries and intelligence operatives intended to keep refugees from overrunning tiny Malta.  The Guardian May 3, 2016 explains: “The Maltese immigration crisis is a decade ahead of the rest of Europe. It began in 2002, during the fierce fighting of the Somali civil war, peaked in 2004 when Malta joined the EU, and ended – eerily, abruptly, and so far without a decent explanation – just as the main European crisis was beginning in 2015.”

Some Trump supporters see the hijrah as a George Soros funded plan to destabilize Europe which backfired leading to the election of nationalists—including Donald Trump—in country after country throughout the West.

jim howe

Jim Howe

Here is the rundown on ProActiva, and its ships Golfo Azuro and Astral, from anti-EU European think-tank GEFIRA:

GEFIRA December 4, 2016: NGOs are smuggling immigrants into Europe on an industrial scale

For two months, using marinetraffic.com, we have been monitoring the movements of ships owned by a couple of NGOs. Using data from data.unhcr.org., we have kept track of the daily arrivals of African immigrants in Italy. It turned out we were witness to a big scam and an illegal human traffic operation.

NGOs, smugglers, the mafia in cahoots with the European Union have shipped thousands of illegals into Europe under the pretext of rescuing people, assisted by the Italian coast guard which coordinated their activities.

Human traffickers contact the Italian coast guard in advance to receive support and to pick up their dubious cargo. NGO ships are directed to the “rescue spot” even as those to be rescued are still in Libya. The 15 ships that we observed are owned or leased by NGOs have regularly been seen to leave their Italian ports, head south, stop short of reaching the Libyan coast, pick up their human cargo, and take course back 260 miles to Italy even though the port of Zarzis in Tunis is just 60 miles away from the rescue spot.

The organizations in question are: MOAS, Jugend Rettet, Stichting Bootvluchting, Médecins Sans Frontières, Save the Children, Proactiva Open Arms, Sea-Watch.org, Sea-Eye and Life Boat.

The real intention of the people behind the NGOs is not clear. We would not be surprised if their motive were money. They may also be politically driven; the activities of the Malta-based organisation, MOAS, by trafficking people to Italy is the best guarantee that migrants will not show up on the Maltese shore. MOAS is managed by an Maltese Marine officer well known in Malta for his maltreatment of refugees 1)

GEFIRA November 16, 2016: NGOs Armada operating off the coast of Libya

Ships permanently used by NGOs off the Libyan coast … Proactiva Open Arms operates the Astral. We spotted the Astral many times in Libyan territorial waters. The ship disappeared on a regular basis from the AIS tracking websites. Website: Proactiva Open Arms.

GEFIRA November 15, 2016: Caught in the act: NGOs deal in migrant smuggling

On the evening of 12 October at 21:15, 113 people were picked up 8.5 nautical miles off the Libyan Mellitah Complex, by four NGO ships; the Phoenix, the Astral, the Iuventa and the Golfo Azzurro. At that moment these four ships were within the territorial waters of Libya.

During this transport, 17 persons were reported missing, including a three-year-old child.

Wednesday 12 October eight o’clock in the morning, the Italian coast guard informed the Golfo Azzurro about the coming “rescue” operation, 10 to 12 hours in advance; they directed the Golfo Azzurro to a location within the Libyan territorial waters. Eveline Rethmeier, a Dutch journalist, was on board of the Golfo Azzurro. At 20:23 (UTC time 18:23) she posted a video were ‘Chief of the Mission’ Mateo told the crew something was coming. In her blog she wrote: “At eight o’clock in the morning we got the messages that there is a ship with problems 30 nautical miles away from us. The Italian coast guard asked assistance in the area. We were briefed by ‘Chief of the Mission’ Mateo. He told us that we should be prepared for guests.”

The Italian coast guard did not only direct the Golfo Azzurro to the Libyan territorial waters but also the Phoenix, the Astral and the Iuventa. According to the Malta Today: “It was around 7 pm (12 October) when the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Rome contacted Phoenix. Still, it was only at 9.20pm that the rubber boat was sighted by making use of the Schiebel drones on board the Phoenix. In cooperation with the other search-and-rescue NGOs in the area, a rescue operation was swiftly launched.” The Golfo Azzurro was told at 8.00 AM that there was a ship with problems while the Phoenix was contacted 10 to 11 hours later!

Background:

ProActiva in Mediterranean

ACT For America’s Brigette Gabriel [a.k.a. Hanan Qahwaji]: Inning Two Begins

In the days after I wrote about the liberal ideologies of ACT for America founder Brigitte Gabriel, her birth name is Hanan Qahwaji, toward Islam, mosques and the firing of an ACT chapter leader I have gotten tremendous feedback. My column was about her firing of ACT chapter leaders LTC Roy White, a retired U.S. Air Force officer and pilot of the A-10 fighting War Hog, and more importantly a true and pure American patriot has been a proud moment in my life.  Roy is a man you want on your side in any war.

After the article I received hundreds of calls and emails from people who know Gabriel and also Roy White.  It has been a lifetime’s worth of wow and oh my gosh moments!  I had dozens of current ACT chapter leaders and many more current members who told me in quite loud words that they were tired of Gabriel’s love for the all mighty dollar and her liberal thoughts on the satanic evils of Islam. 

LTC Roy White speaking before the Texas Legislature in January 2017. Photo by Ilana Panich-Lindsman.

Gabriel now preaches that Islam is peaceful and loving and she believes this peace loving ideology is good and only a few radicals have hijacked Islam and these people are her targets and not the over 3000 mosques in America nor the millions of Muslims who attend them. On 9/11/2001 there were just over 1,000 mosques in America.

Gabriel advises that the mosques are opened legally in America and should not be looked at by her members. We need to ask Gabriel if she supports CAIR, ISNA and Planned Parenthood.  Each of these hell hole organizations advocate hate and murder and were also opened legally in America.  Should we also support Americas Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood leader Congressman Keith Ellison out of Minnesota?  He was legally elected.

This is what some of the former chapter leaders, current ones, and Americans who know Gabriel told me:

  1. Gabriel formed her non profit organization for money and her Hollywood style life reflects that.
  2. Gabriel does not care for her members and Chapter leaders. They are tools to bring in millions of dollars for her.
  3. Gabriel charges between $3,000 and $10,000 to her chapter leaders for her coming to their locations.  Not always that much but the majority of times.
  4. Many times when she goes to an event she brings with her a whole entourage of staff to include a hairdresser.
  5. A member of Israeli intelligence stated Gabriel is not who she says she is and the facts she states about her life in Lebanon are dramatically fabricated. Israelis have been looking into her for being a total oil of Hamas. Readers keep in mind I personally don’t know if this is true but I can guarantee you I will find out the truth.
  6. Gabriel is an egotistical person who seeks the attention of politicians and the media. This is one of the reasons she gives Islam a free pass just as Fox News journalists such as Hannity, O’Reilly and all others do. Gabriel and these pseudo journalists never ever say that the Islamic ideology is the problem our free world faces.  Instead they say Islam and the billion Muslims are peace loving and only a small number of radicals have hijacked Islam.
  7. Many people informed me that Gabriel weekly pressures the Chapter leaders to give and raise more money for her. They constantly feel stressed.
  8. Many chapter leaders (over 60 thus far) have reported to me they were resigning or have done so after my article about Gabriel.
  9. Numerous ACT chapter leaders and members say they are looking for a true American patriot and true conservative who are not afraid to say Islam is evil, the mosques are breeding grounds for terrorists, and Muslims who attend the 3000 mosques who desire the destruction of Israel and America are an American national security problem.  I highly suggested they support John Guandolo, Pamela Geller or Robert Spencer.
  10. Hundreds of people say that Gabriel fired an American hero (LTC Roy White) for looking into national security issues in mosques and that action confirms their years of believing that Gabriel was not who she publicly claims to be.  They called her a con woman and fraud.

I will be seeking more information on each of these allegations.

This is only a sampling of what people wrote about Gabriel.  It is now crunch time.  You can either believe that Islam and mosques are peaceful, loving and tolerant like Gabriel and some Fox News staff do, or you can believe that Mohammed was,

  • Evil and a child rapist for marrying a six year old child and raping her.
  • That the Islamic ideology itself is pure satanic evil and advocates throughout their mosques the destruction of Israel, America and the millions of Americans.
  • Islam strongly in 2017 advocates the marriage of small children and then raping them for years.
  • And Islam has always had slavery and still does.

Please contact me with your comments positive or negative about my articles.  Email is Davegaubatz@gmail.com, phone 276 930 1227.  My site is www.wearenotafraid.blogspot.com

NOTE: Gabriel and her staff heard about me that I was putting out an article about her firing Roy White so she quickly put out a letter giving False reasons for filing him.  She did this as a cover up.  You can tell the letter was rushed because there are no less than 30 typos in a short letter.

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Virginia Beach-based group believes Islam threatens America: “It’s a spiritual battle of good and evil”

Students for Justice in Palestine caught in a lie

sjp logoArlington, TX – Leadership of Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Arlington, Texas (SJP UTA), which has been embroiled in an anti-Semitism scandal, are claiming that they don’t know former friend and colleague Nancy Salem. They are also denying that any of their members have made anti-Semitics comments.

Canary Mission’s evidence concludes that both of these claims are flagrant lies.

Following the release of a report by campus watchdog Canary Mission, SJP UTA have sought to distance themselves from Salem. The former pre-school teacher who called to “kill some Jews” on Twitter, was fired yesterday from her job at Children’s Courtyard amidst calls for the school to shut down.

In response, SJP UTA yesterday posted a statement on their primary Facebook page making two absurd denials. The first is that Salem has “never been associated with SJP” and second that “Sjp has never had any members make any anti-semitic [sic] statements.”

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Canary Mission’s investigation of the activists Twitter interactions revealed that at least half a dozen SJP UTA members implicated in Canary Mission’s expose, including their Vice President, are closely acquainted with her.

Here is Salem wishing their Vice President a happy birthday last year:

Though never a student at UTA, a point made clear in Canary Mission’s profile on her, Salem was clearly affiliated with the SJP UTA chapter. SJP UTA have a second Facebook account, which can still be viewed now, even though since our expose the names of those individuals implicated in their anti-Semitism scandal have since been removed and there is virtually no content. Nancy Salem was one of those individuals whose name was removed.

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Below are examples of interactions between Salem and the above mentioned SJP UTA activists clearly showing that they know her:

Lastly, here are just two examples conclusively showing just three SJP UTA members together with their anti-Semitic statements. The rest can be found on the Canary Mission UTA page.

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, vetoes Refugee Reporting Bill

Bills like these are really innocuous.  They don’t stop any refugee placement in the state, they simply tell state officials and the public who is in the state. The information would aide local officials in determining school capacity, housing availability and other welfare services that would need to be provided to these legal immigrants.

From CBS:

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Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe (left)

RICHMOND, Va. (NEWSPLEX) — A bill requiring an annual report on refugees resettled in Virginia has been vetoed.

Governor Terry McAuliffe vetoed House Bill 2002 on Friday, saying the report would “send a message of exclusion to people looking for the chance to rebuild their lives” and poses a danger to them.

The legislation would have required nonprofit resettlement agencies and local affiliates that provide refugee or other immigrant resettlement services, like the International Rescue Committee, to report information regarding those settled in the Commonwealth.

The state Department of Social Services would then collate and submit a report to the governor’s office and the General Assembly each year.

The report would include information such as the total number of individuals resettled in Virginia by the agency; the locality where the individual was resettled; the individual’s age, gender and nation of origin; and whether the individual was placed through the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program.

More here.

It would be interesting to see if Maryland Republican Governor Larry Hogan would veto a similar bill! Hogan has spoken in favor of more refugees for Maryland.

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VIDEO: Wayne LaPierre at CPAC 2017

NRA Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer Wayne LaPierre addressed the crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. “Have we ever seen such anger in this country,” asked the NRA chief, referring to the enraged leftist movement. He said many of these people hate everything that America stands for and they’re willing to engage in criminal violence to get what they want.

These are dangerous times, warned LaPierre, who declared that we’re also under siege from the national media machine. Everything they do, he pointed out, is intended to purposely and maliciously destroy the Trump presidency.

But when Americans voted last November, the NRA vowed to stand by Donald Trump’s side and LaPierre promised that gun owners across the country will fight the violent left and will not be defeated. “Terror knows no more ferocious foe than freedom in the hands of ‘We the people.’

Keith Ellison: ‘Blacks don’t have an obligation’ to obey government

he Muslim Brotherhood-linked Keith Ellison, the first Muslim to be elected to Congress, also has past ties to the Nation of Islam — a black Islamic supremacist, anti-white, anti-gay, anti-Catholic and virulently anti-Semitic group. He conveniently denounced his involvement with the group when it suited him in 2006, after it became an issue during his first run for Congress.

It would seem that no matter how much hatred Ellison has spewed against the U.S. and Israel, his documented Islamic supremacist ties, and his facilitating of the crudest divisions in racial politics, he is still a trusted and influential Democratic leader, and likely soon to be the Chair of the DNC.

“Keith Ellison Once Said Black People Don’t Have ‘Obligation’ To Obey Government”, by Peter Hassan, The Daily Caller, February 23, 2017:

Democratic congressman and DNC chair front-runner Keith Ellison once said that “black people don’t live in a democracy” and “don’t have an obligation” to obey the government.

Ellison made the comments at a 1992 protest after white police officers were acquitted in the beating of Rodney King. At least 63 people died in the racially charged riots following the verdict.

Minnesota newspaper the Star Tribune quotes Ellison as telling a group of protesters in Minneapolis that “Black people do not live under a democracy.”

“You don’t have an obligation to obey a government that considers you to be less than human,” Ellison said.

Ellison, the nation’s first Muslim congressman, has come under fire for his history of making racially inflammatory comments, as well as his past association with notorious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, whom Ellison has since renounced. (RELATED: Democratic Donor: Keith Ellison ‘Clearly An Anti-Semite’)

Ellison once called for American blacks to have their own nation and called the U.S. Constitution “best evidence of a white racist conspiracy to subjugate other peoples.”

While speaking to an atheist group in 2007, Ellison compared the Sept. 11 attacks to the Reichstag fire, stopping just short of accusing then-President George W. Bush of having a hand in the attacks.

“It’s almost like the Reichstag fire, kind of reminds me of that,” Ellison said of 9/11, according to reports at the time. “After the Reichstag was burned, they blamed the Communists for it, and it put the leader [Hitler] of that country in a position where he could basically have authority to do whatever he wanted.”

Ellison went on to say he wouldn’t suggest the U.S. had a hand in the attacks because “you know, that’s how they put you in the nut-ball box — dismiss you,” before later walking back his comments…

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EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on Jihad Watch.

General McMaster and that ‘Perverted Interpretation of Religion Used To Justify Violence’

President Trump has chosen Lt. General William McMaster as his new National Security Adviser. As a three-star general, McMaster’s appointment will require Senate confirmation, and one hopes that whatever else the Senators ask him, they make sure to examine his understanding of Islamic terrorism. For surely this is the greatest threat not only to American security, but to that of the entire West.

General McMaster has pronounced on the subject of Islamic terrorism twice in the last year, in almost identical language, and what he said suggests that he has missed something important about the ideology of Islam.

In May 2016, in a speech he delivered on “Harbingers of Future War: Implications for the Army” at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, General McMaster referred to “groups like ISIL, who use this irreligious ideology, this perverted interpretation of religion to justify violence. They depend on ignorance, and the ability to recruit vulnerable segments of populations to foment hatred, and then use that hatred to justify violence against innocents.

Apparently well-satisfied with his original formulation, General McMaster repeated it, almost verbatim, in a speech to the Center for Leadership and Excellence at the Virginia Military Institute on November 21, 2016, ringingly declaring that “we will defeat today’s enemies, including terrorist organizations like Daesh, who cynically use a perverted interpretation of religion to incite hatred and justify horrific cruelty against innocents.”

This description of Daesh – the Islamic State – as “cynically using a perverted interpretation of religion to incite hatred and justify horrific cruelty against innocents” is most peculiar. For whatever else you can say about Daesh or other Muslim terrorists, the adverb “cynically” is the least applicable to their actions. Al-Baghdadi, Al-Awlaki, Bin Laden, Al-Zawahiri, Nidal Hasan. Omar Mateen, Adam Gadahn, Aafia Siddiqui, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, and all the other stars in the terrorist firmament have not been cynics, but rather, the reverse — the truest of true believers. And what they truly believe(d) in is what Islam’s texts inculcate, including the view of non-Muslims as cosmically ungrateful (in not accepting the message of Muhammad), their “vileness” Qur’anically established (8:55; 98:6), their continued insubmissive existence as kuffar seen as a colossal affront to Islam.

Muslims have a duty to spread Islam by means of Jihad, which overwhelmingly means the use of violence, though it can be conducted through other means – as, for example, Jihad of the Pen/Tongue, to spread Islam’s message. Today, along with violence, a new instrument – demographic conquest – is being used to overwhelm the Infidels and spread Islam. “New” because never before in history have millions of people dedicated to the longterm destruction of others been allowed by those others to settle deep behind what ought be regarded as enemy lines, as Muslims have now been allowed to settle throughout Western Europe. If Muslim numbers do surpass those of the indigenous non-Muslims, Muslims will be in a position to offer non-Muslims a choice: either to convert to Islam, or be killed, or to accept the permanent status of dhimmi, with all of its attendant disabilities. And there is no end to Jihad; it should continue until the whole world is ultimately subjected to Islam. There is nothing – pace General McMaster — “cynical” about any of this.

As for those phrases repeated by General McMaster about this “perverse interpretation of religion [used] to justify violence” which becomes, in his longer variant, a “perverted interpretation of religion to incite hatred and justify horrific cruelty against innocents,” the only “perverted interpretation” of Islam is, I’m afraid, that of General McMaster himself, who appears certain that Islam properly understood cannot possibly inculcate anything that might “incite hatred and justify violence” against non-Muslims. I’m not sure which would be worse: that he may think he must pretend to believe this nonsense in order to avoid being accused of Islamophobia and to safely rise high in the Washington ranks, or that he really believes it.

Perhaps during his confirmation hearings, some senators will press him on this, trying to find out what McMaster thinks Islam, mainstream Islam, teaches and how it differs from that “perverse interpretation” to which he keeps referring. The exchange ought to be instructive. For example, the senators might ask him, while the reporters are present and the cameras whirring, what he remembers from the Qur’an on the subject of Infidels. What, a probing Senator might ask him, under the guise of refreshing his memory, does he make of Qur’an 98:6, describing Infidels as “the vilest of creatures”? Would he regard it as a “perverse interpretation” of that verse to think it inculcates hatred toward non-Muslims, or isn’t it in fact clear in its declaration of such hatred, and should he not be willing to recognize that this is a perfectly straightforward, if disturbing statement, with no “perverse interpretation” necessary?

Or take the famous Verse of the Sword, Qur’an 9:5: “When the sacred months are over slay the idolaters wherever you find them. Arrest them, besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for them. If they repent and take to prayer and render the alms levy, allow them to go their way. God is forgiving and merciful.” What “perverse interpretation” of this pellucid call to violent Jihad is needed to make this verse “incite hatred”? It’s dripping with murderous hatred already. The Senators could continue to quote from the more than one hundred Jihad verses in the Qur’an or stories from the Hadith, that is, verses that exhort the killing of Infidels. Or they might read out, and ask for General McMaster to comment on, the description of the mass killings of the 600-900 bound prisoners of the Banu Qurayza, by Muhammad and his followers, or the accounts of the pleasure Muhammad (“al-insan al-kamil,” the Perfect Man, and “uswa hasana,” the Model of Conduct) took in learning of the murders of those who mocked him (Asma bint Marwan, Abu Afak), or the descriptions of the many military campaigns he took part in not only against his sworn enemies, but simply against those who, like the inoffensive Jewish farmers of the Khaybar Oasis, were known to be prosperous. For the Khaybar farmers had not been fighting against Muhammad; they were a target for this covetous warlord simply because they were both well-off and ill-defended. The Khaybar attack gives the lie to the Muslim claim that Muhammad only fought defensive wars. Muhammad and his men despoiled the Khaybar farmers, who had done nothing against them, of both their property and their women; the loot was enough of a lure. Or was this aggressiveness all a matter of Muhammad’s “perverse interpretation” of Islam?

It would be perfectly appropriate for the Senators to ask General McMaster what “perverse interpretation” of Islam he thinks the Islamic State or Al-Qaeda labor under, to explain exactly where the terrorists’ interpretation of Islam distorts or veers away from the basic tenets of Islam, as conveyed by any mainstream madrasa’s lessons, or any orthodox imam’s sermons?

General McMaster refers to “groups like ISIL, who use this irreligious ideology” and whose members “depend on ignorance, and the ability to recruit vulnerable segments of populations to foment hatred.” Again he should be asked, what is the “ignorance” that members of the Islamic State depend on to obtain recruits? Is General McMaster suggesting that these potential recruits are “ignorant” of the real meaning of Islam – the peace and tolerance and convivencia about which the small army of apologists (John Esposito, Pope Francis, Karen Armstrong, Barack Obama, Reza Aslan, Omid Safi, and so many others) constantly prate? Is General McMaster quite convinced that it is “ignorance” of Islam that helps “groups like ISIL [ISIS]”? How is it that so many “ignorant” Muslims could manage to remain unaware of Islam’s pacific essence, and thus be easily inveigled into believing the “perverse interpretation” of the faith, as something violent, hate-filled, cruel, that is the very opposite of what, in the General’s view, is the essence of Islam? Is this what General McMaster purports to believe? Isn’t it, rather, that those who join ISIS or Al-Qaeda are not ignorant at all, but know perfectly well what the texts of Islam inculcate, and rightly understand the meaning of Islam as a warlike doctrine of conquest and subjugation? And aren’t they quick to offer textual support from the Qur’an, Hadith, and Sira, for their every act of terror? And hasn’t Islam meant conquest through violence, and subjugation, of many different kinds of Infidels, over many different lands, for the past 1400 years?

Many of the senators questioning General McMaster will prefer not to press these points. Most Democrats will agree with his pollyannish remarks on Islam. Most Republicans may simply wish to defer to the general as a Trump appointee, wrongly assuming that he must, therefore, be “tough” on Islam. Few senators will have the stomach to discuss Islam truthfully in public, knowing they will then have to endure the usual idiotic charges of bigotry and “Islamophobia” from those whose minds are made up, and who do not want to be confused with facts. But it would take only a handful of senators, possibly from both parties, offering piercing questions, to strike a blow for common sense and our common security. Ideally, a few of them will choose to read aloud Qur’anic verses or stories from the Hadith that inculcate hatred of, and violence toward, Infidels. The General should be asked what exactly those recruited by terrorists are ignorant of, and why he considers them, as a result, more “vulnerable” to the siren song of the Al-Baghdadis and Bin Ladens. Does he think these recruits are less educated, or more impoverished, and because of that easier to inveigle into terrorism? The data suggests otherwise. Many studies have concluded that Islamic terrorists are both better off economically and better educated than the average Muslim.

If they are particularly “vulnerable” to those texts that preach violent Jihad, this means not that they are “ignorant” and susceptible to accept a “perverse interpretation” of the faith, but that they are prepared to take Islam to heart, not shirking their duty to engage in violent Jihad (or to “strike terror”), but acting upon what Islam demands of its followers; they are having their Islam straight up, as determined Jihadists, and not on the rocks of self-interested calculation that might make some hesitate to sacrifice themselves for Islam. It’s hard to understand what General McMaster means by his use of the word “ignorance” in reference to these recruits. Is he suggesting that their knowledge of Islam is incomplete, and that if they were to learn more, they would of course come to realize that only a “perverse interpretation” of Islam would lead to violence? Does he believe that his understanding of Islam is superior to that of Al-Baghdadi or Bin Laden? After being confronted in those hearings with those 100-plus Jihad verses, and many other verses, too, that teach contempt for the Infidels, those that characterize them as the “vilest of creatures” and instruct Muslims not to take Christians and Jews as friends, “for they are friends only with each other,” would General McMaster still maintain his rosy view of Islam? It is not those more ignorant of Islam who are inveigled by terrorist masters but, rather, those who, becoming ever more devout, study the texts closely, take to heart the endless litany of hatred toward Infidels, feel keenly the duty of Jihad, and become terrorists fully conscious of what they are doing. We would all prefer to believe – it would be such a great relief – that General McMaster is right, and that Islamic terrorism is a result of a “perverse interpretation” of Islam, one having no relation to the “real” Islam. How comforting it would be to believe that Muslim terrorist masters “depend on ignorance” (of the real, peaceful Islam) – how comforting, and how false.

Perhaps, made aware of comments critical of his knowledge of Islam, such as these you are reading, or here, General McMaster might give himself, by way of preparation for his confirmation hearings, a short course in Islam that would disabuse him of his hitherto complacent understanding. He could then simply tell the sympathetic senators that he has had occasion to study both Islamic texts and Islamic terrorism more fully, and based on that study, wishes to revise his previous statements, made last year, so that they would read something like this: “The many Islamic terrorist groups, such as the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah, and many other groups and groupuscules, are able to recruit Muslims using an interpretation of Islam that is not necessarily accepted by all but is certainly accepted by a great many – far too many – Muslims, and candor compels me to admit, following a re-examination of the Qur’an and other Islamic texts, that this version of Islam should be considered not aberrant but mainstream.”

And then he might add: “It is up to us to figure out how best we can help those born into Islam, without any choice in the matter, who recognize those troublesome aspects of their faith that are inimical to real peace and real tolerance, and for which they would like to find a solution, if such is possible.” An unflinching statement like that, from General McMaster, despite the subsequent howls of protest by CAIR and the Southern Poverty Law Center, would be enough – would be more than enough – to clear a good many minds of cant.

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EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on Jihad Watch.