TAKE ACTION: Urge Republican U.S. Senators to Confirm President Elect Donald Trump Cabinet Nominations

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Please urge Republican U.S. Senators to strongly stand for and confirm the cabinet nominations of President Elect Donald Trump who will put into place the policies necessary to achieve the values represented by the November 5th voter mandate.

Click here to send your email to urge Republican US Senators to strongly stand for and confirm President Elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominations.

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The voters issued a mandate on November 5, 2024 that they are fed up with public policies that allow and perpetuate inflation, high energy costs, illegal immigrants, unnecessary wars, males competing in female sports, gender mutilation of children, DEI and the woke agenda.

The people that President Elect Donald Trump has nominated for cabinet positions are some of the very best candidates to stand for the values represented by the November 5th voter mandate and achieve the relevant public policies that voters expect.

Republican US Senators must strongly stand for and confirm President Elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominations in order to achieve the relevant public policies that voters expect.  To do anything less would be a disappointment of monumental proportions and hurt the gains that were made in the 2024 elections and could be made in the 2026 elections.

Florida Family Association has prepared an email for you to send to urge Republican US Senators to strongly stand for and confirm President Elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominations.

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The ‘Terrorists’ Of Aleppo and Those Behind Them

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Syria | MEMRI Daily Brief No. 682

There was a time, not so long ago, when Syria – the conflict that became the Syrian Civil War – seemed like the center of the world. I was still in government at the State Department in August 2013 when we were told to prepare for direct U.S. military intervention in Syria, as a result of Obama’s infamous “redline” in the sand in response to Assad’s use of chemical weapons. Then he went for a walk in the White House Rose Garden and changed his mind. Obama decided that a nuclear deal with the Iranian regime was more important than Syria.

Those same years saw tens of thousands of young people, especially young Muslims, flock to Syria in search of a Jihadist utopia. Syria was the first full-blown social media war. It was where – 12 years ago – the original online space for a lot that came after: Hashtag Fridays, media swarms, “Knights of the Uploading,” snuff videos, fake videos, citizen journalism. Stuff pioneered in the heat of war and revolution in Syria would be copied by terrorists, regimes, and intelligence agencies, east and west.

Bashar Al-Assad, who had once bused thousands of foreign jihadists to the Iraqi border so that they could kill Americans, almost lost his throne to Syrian rebel action. He was saved by direct Russian, Iranian, and Hezbollah intervention with an assist from the Obama Administration. The agony of the Syrian people continued but jaded Western attention faded, especially after Assad regime successes against Islamist rebels culminating in the fall of rebel-held parts of Aleppo in 2016 and other triumphs later.[1]

But an unfinished, “frozen” conflict suddenly got hot again when a well-planned Syrian rebel offensive – “Operation Deterrence of Aggression” – launched on November 27, 2024, from their enclave around Idlib caught the Assad regime napping. Led by the Salafi-Jihadist Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), the offensive conquered the city of Aleppo and surrounding areas in less than four days, a feat that had taken Assad and his backers four long years to accomplish.[2] And HTS had succeeded with a lot less fighting.[3]

While many have focused on the current travails of Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah – Assad’s military backers and all of them busy elsewhere – the main reason for the HTS victory, aside from excellent operational security and new weapons and tactics, seems to have been that much of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) is a hollowed-out shell, far weaker than its ostensible numbers and weapons would indicate. Syria is an economic basket case. Officers supplement their meager salaries by taking bribes for soldiers to take extended leave and work at other jobs back home. Some units seem to have broken and fled after losing their officers.

In any case, a city of over two million people and a wealth of military booty fell into rebel hands with relative ease, drawing comparisons with the conquest of Mosul in Iraq by ISIS in June 2014. The rebels continued to consolidate their conquests in the north of the country while heading south on the road to Damascus.

And who are these rebels? Neo-Con Democrat William Kristol tweeted that he hoped that “the Biden Administration is doing everything it can to help the anti-Assad fighters in Syria.” In the deeply politicized and partisan online space discussing Syria, these rebels are often depicted as either head-cutting Jihadist mad dogs or freedom fighters just wanting to go home. Both in English and Arabic, there are a wealth of voices and accounts, seemingly reactivated from their years-long slumber, that have gone back to their old tricks – exaggeration, falsehoods, fake or mislabeled videos, guilt by association – in talking about the rebels, Assad, and the conflict.

Syria’s Sunni Muslim Arab Islamist rebel groups are not one thing. They are survivors, the product of 13 years of brutal war, infighting, and revolution, a hodgepodge of factions, absorbed, reshaped, purged, and rehabilitated over time. Almost all of them are various shades of Islamist or Salafi-Jihadist. Some are no better than bandits or mercenary guns for hire. All of them are connected or influenced, to a greater of lesser extent, to the Islamist Erdoğan regime in Turkey.

A Man Of Destiny

The most powerful and disciplined faction – HTS – is, according to U.S. law, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). HTS’s leader is a remarkable figure in the annals of Jihad. Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani (that is his pseudonym, his real name and even his birth place were not clear for years) was only in his early 30s when he was sent in August 2011 by Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, then the head of the Al-Qaeda branch in Iraq – the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) – into Syria to establish a branch there as the Syrian Civil War began. Al-Joulani was already a veteran Jihadist with a decade of militancy.[4] He had risen through the ranks of ISI to become a senior official, wali of Nineveh province, a rare feat for a Syrian in an organization dominated by Iraqis and fatally obsessed with loyalty.

Al-Joulani was sent in with a brief to assassinate some rival Jihadists in Syria and to establish a secret organization there. He ignored the first task and carried out the second with his group, then called the Al-Nusra Front, first appearing in public in January 2012. Its first known attack was a double suicide bombing against a military target in a Damascus suburb.

It would become an FTO in December 2012, but that would not stop the organization’s growth. I remember meeting with Syrian opposition figures, secularists and moderates, in summer of 2012 and they expressed the fear that the Jihadists were better fighters, less corrupt, more professional and seemingly more dedicated than the regular ranks of what was then called the Free Syrian Army. They were concerned that sanctioning Al-Joulani’s group would make it even more popular.

Al-Nusra Front, which would become HTS in 2017, would continue to grow, absorbing smaller groups and contingents of foreign fighters as well – Chechens, Uyghurs, and Western Muslims among others. The group was a successful and deadly player in Syria’s bloody war but as time went on, Al-Joulani would demonstrate rare political skills.

In April 2013, Al-Baghdadi would formally announce the creation of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and publicly admit that he was behind the creation of Al-Nusra and Al-Joulani’s sojourn into Syria. That bombshell statement was followed 36 hours later by Al-Joulani rejecting Al-Nusra’s incorporation into ISIS and instead claiming loyalty to Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the distant head of Al-Qaeda. Al-Joulani in a sense appealed to a surprised Al-Qaeda to prevent his group from being absorbed by ISIS. Open civil war had come to the global Jihadist movement.

Al-Joulani’s group would become bitter enemies of his old comrades in ISIS or “the Islamic State,” the two groups clashing, killing each other, and declaring each other “infidels’ worthy of death (the process called takfir). Instead of gloating in public slaughter like ISIS did in its extravagant video productions, most of the killings carried out by Al-Joulani’s group would be done discretely, away from the camera. Al-Joulani would not only demonstrate pragmatism on the battlefield and in ideological struggle but also show a keen sense of media savvy in a series of interviews he would give on the widely-watched Islamist Qatari Al-Jazeera Television, beginning in 2013.[5] These were hour-long infomercials for Al-Joulani and his organization, portraying them in the most positive and reasonable light possible.[6] In 2021, Al-Joulani gave his first interview to a Western journalist.[7]

Al-Joulani’s organization would continue to grow even as Assad, with the help of the Iranians and Russians seemed to turn the tide in Syria. By July 2016, it had a name change (first JFS – the Front for the Conquest of the Levant – and then later HTS – the Organization for the Liberation of the Levant) and formally broke ties with Al-Qaeda. This would cause splits within the organization as Al-Joulani sought to nationalize or Syrianize the group. HTS would go on to defeat and destroy a new Al-Qaeda branch and drive out other rival Jihadist, Islamist, and nationalist groups, many of whom would become part of another umbrella organization more formally tied to Turkey, the Syrian National Army (SNA).[8]

The SNA would serve as Turkish mercenaries in Libya and against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. They would be used to fight Syrian Kurds in Afrin and other sites along Syria’s northern border in Turkey while sidelining in various criminal activities.

So, Syria’s advancing Islamist rebels in 2024 are not all one thing. Al-Joulani’s HTS in 2024 is not exactly the same as Al-Joulani’s Nusra Front of 2012. Turkish-influenced HTS is very different from the Turkish-controlled SNA. Al-Joulani’s organization is still Islamist, still (relatively) professional and disciplined, it has purged or killed many of its extremists and loose cannons while still remaining – to our eyes – an extremist organization. It is perhaps particularly striking that as Aleppo fell, the SNA, responding to Turkey’s priorities, moved east to fight Syrian Kurds, while Al-Joulani’s HTS moved south to fight Assad.

Learning to play the propaganda game and to manipulate Western expectations, Al-Joulani over time softened the initial harsh treatment Jihadists in Idlib had inflicted on Christian and Druze minorities, a process that has taken years and seems to have produced some tangible results for these minorities. One of the first things HTS has done in Aleppo is to make several public statements reassuring the city’s non-Muslim, especially Christian, minorities about their safety under the new order. Another statement was issued urging reconciliation with Syria’s (well-armed) Kurds. “The leader” Al-Joulani’s more general statement to the Syrian people issued on November 30, 2024, was an object lesson in diplomacy.[9] Many Syrians were also moved by heartwarming propaganda videos showing HTS fighters returning home to Aleppo after seven or eight years and surprising their mothers at home. Many Syrians who may have no particular liking for HTS are delighted by the surprising turn of events.[10]

I have dwelt at length on the charismatic Al-Joulani and HTS because he and it are rather unique. This is a hardcore Jihadist, a dropout from Damascus medical school, who joined the ranks of Jihad in his early 20s, and has learned not only to survive in an extremely dangerous region but to flourish and who seems to be on the verge of even greater things. This is a capable, dangerous man, one who may combine the ruthlessness and organizational skills of a Yahya Sinwar with real pragmatism and a winning smile.[11] His organization has been refashioned several times, leadership purged, and emerged stronger at each opportunity. He has gone from promising to “conquer” Syria (although the word used, Al-Sham, refers to both Syria and the Levant) to promising to “liberate” her.

Is there any real case to be made that Al-Joulani and his organization are any different than other Salafi-Jihadist or armed Islamist group? That their trajectory will not lead to similar dark alleys and not end in tears as have ISIS and Al-Qaeda (both groups abandoned by Al-Joulani), or Hamas and the Taliban? Nothing is certain or set in stone. The hope is that the Syrian experience is different and that it has somehow tempered and moderated HTS and its leader through the years. There is some evidence of that, for example, in the treatment of religious minorities or in the civilian Syrian Salvation Government that ostensibly rules Idlib.[12] But there is also evidence of ambition, extremism, and the thirst for power.[13] So trusting Al-Joulani and HTS is very much like Oscar Wilde’s famous quip about second marriages, “the triumph of hope over experience.”

A New Regional Chessboard

Al-Joulani’s victory in Northern Syria has also ripped the diplomatic fabric across the region. It seems, and should be interpreted as, a major Turkish victory expanding Turkish influence over Aleppo, a city and region long coveted by Turkish nationalists, the old Ottoman Vilayet of Halep.[14] But it was carried out, mostly, by a man capable of ultimately betraying Erdoğan just like he betrayed Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi or Ayman Al-Zawahiri. The possibility that someone – not just Assad – will try to kill Al-Joulani seems high. The victory in Aleppo also exposed tensions and fissures in Turkey’s fraught relations with Iran and Russia.[15] It also frays Qatar’s – allied to Turkey and longtime supporter of Al-Joulani – ties with Iran. It used to be that Qatar could posture as an ally of Turkey and Iran, now it is exposed as favoring the former over the latter.

While the fate of HTS heading south into the Syrian heartland is unclear, on the surface it will be difficult for Assad to quickly recover Aleppo and its environs. He was only able to take the city – the half the rebels controlled in 2016 – with the help of Hezbollah fighters, Iraqi militias, Iranian generals, and Russian firepower. Soleimani and Nasrallah are dead and Russia has its hands full. Iran would need to recruit new infantry cadres in Iraq and Iran, Assad would need to remobilize and retrain troops (this seems to be already beginning).[16] This will take time. And they would have to be reassured that Turkey would not intervene militarily to keep its prize. Turkey may also want to secure a new deal with Russia and Iran to freeze the newest battle lines in place, thereby pocketing the gains won by HTS and its allies.

But it does seem that Iran and Russia will try to assist Assad. Russia has appointed a new commander in Syria and unconfirmed reports say that Iran is sending its General Jawad Ghafari, “the Butcher of Aleppo,” back to Syria.[17] If the past is any guide, a regime offensive orchestrated by Iran and Russia would seek to overwhelm the rebels by sheer weight of numbers. But that will take some time to prepare. And HTS has probably now more than doubled the Syrian population it controls.

There is a very real rivalry between allies Russia and Iran in Syria but that may be shelved for now. The Syrian Arab Army unit, the 30th Syrian Republican Guard (SRG) Division, charged with the main defense of Western Aleppo, was a Russian product. Assad himself – as opposed to the regime he heads – has not looked so weak in a decade.

Faustian bargains are not impossible and perhaps Turkey could be compensated elsewhere, particularly if it includes a final reckoning with Syria’s Kurdish region. But sacrificing too much would dent Turkey’s symbiotic relationship with its Syrian Islamist allies. Some of the Arab Gulf states are deeply uneasy at the prospect of Assad falling to Syrian Islamists, especially to a movement led by a leader who seems to be both genuinely popular and connected to their rival Qatari neighbors.[18] They will open their pocketbooks once again to promote their preferred outcomes. Israel meanwhile looks on with both interest and concern, their main goal will be to make sure that Syria’s border with Israel remains free of potential threats, whether from Sunni or Shia Jihadists with ambitious delusions of grandeur.

Still another wild card is the United States at the cusp of new leadership.[19] It is not impossible that a new Trump Administration could conclude that America has no compelling national interests in Syria at all and that the best thing is for this cornucopia of bad actors – Al-Joulani, Turkey, Iran, Assad, Russia, the Gulf states – to fight it out among themselves. Currently the United States is allied most closely with the leftist/nationalist Syrian Kurds (SDF/YPG), who are bitter enemies of Turkey and maneuver between America, Russia, and the Assad regime in a desperate bid to maintain their hard-won autonomy. It is not at all clear if the Trump Administration, rightly concerned about imperial overreach overseas, will continue with these policies.

With or without American involvement, this deadly minuet of war and diplomacy will continue. Some (Al-Joulani, Turkey) are winning today and some others are clearly on the defensive (Assad, Iran) but it is not at all clear who will be the ultimate winner in the end. And when that end will arrive.

AUTHOR

ALBERTO M. FERNANDEZ

Alberto M. Fernandez is Vice President of MEMRI.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Islamist Militants Storm Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s Aleppo Palace With Calls Of ‘Allah Akbar!’

Iran-Backed Militias In Iraq And Yemen Blame ‘Zionists,’ U.S. For Rebel Offensive In Northern Syria, Call On ‘Islamic Resistance’ To Counter It

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

SOURCES:

[1] Spectator.co.uk/article/syrias-conflict-is-heating-up-once-more, November 30, 2024.

[2] Independentarabia.com/node/613050/%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%A9/%D8%AA%D9%82%D8%A7
%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%B1/%D9%83%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%B3-%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%84%D8%A9-%D8%B3%D9%82%D9%88%D8%B7-%D8%AD%D9%84%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%B9-%D8%A3%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%85-%D9%87%D8%AC%D9%88%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81%D8%B5%D8%A7%
D8%A6%D9%84, November 30, 2024.

[3] Lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/12/01/lightning-rebel-offensive-in-syria-s-aleppo-in-a-middle-east-in-full-
reconstruction_6734748_4.html, December 1, 2024.

[4] Middleeasteye.net/big-story/syria-war-hts-leader-jolani-inside-world, June 22, 2021.

[5] See MEMRI TV Clip No. 4089, In Wide-Ranging Interview, Jabhat Al-Nusra Commander Al-Joulani Discusses Jihad in Syria, Declares: Our Conflict with ISIS Has Been Resolved, December 19, 2023.

[6] See MEMRI TV Clip No. 4929, Jabhat Al-Nusra Commander Joulani: We Have Instructions To Refrain From Launching Attacks In The West From Syria, May 27, 2015.

[7] Pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/designated-terrorist-syria-opposition-abu-mohammad-Al-Jolani-documentary-idlib-province, June 1, 2021.

[8] Cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/peace/conflict_resolution/syria-conflict/2022/state-of-the-syrian-nationAl-army-march-2022.pdf,
March 2022.

[9] X.com/AlbertoMiguelF5/status/1862934453628084449, November 30, 2024.

[10] Levant24.com/articles/2024/12/repelling-the-aggression-campaign-regionAl-internationAl-and-humanitarian-motives, December 1, 2024.

[11] See MEMRI TV Clip No. 8030, HTS Leader Muhammad Al-Joulani Attends Eid Al-Fitr Celebration with Families of “Martyrs,” Gives Children Toys, May 26, 2020.

[12] New R France24.com/en/middle-east/20230511-reporters-notebook-idlib-the-last-islamist-rebel-bastion-in-syria, November 11, 2023.

[13] Dw.com/en/syrian-protesters-rise-up-against-islamists-in-idlib/a-69166416, May 25, 2024.

[14] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 9207, Iranian Expert Shohreh Poulab: Erdoğan’s ‘Red Apple’ Project ‘Provides A New Version Of Geopolitical Rivalry With China And Russia In Central Asia’, March 2, 2021.

[15] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 9185, Iranian Academic Rohollah Eslami: ‘Turkey Pursues Its Racist Foreign Policy In The Context Of Its Expansionist Behavior’; To Counter The Threat, The Iranian Government Must Prioritize The ‘Idea Of Iran’ And Its National Interest, February 18, 2021.

[16] Aawsat.com/%D8%B4%D8%A4%D9%88%D9%86-%D8%A5%D9%82%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%A9/5087202-%
D8%A5%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%B0%D9%91%D8%B1-%D8%A3%D9%85%
D9%8A%D8%B1%D9%83%D8%A7-%D9%88%D8%A5%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A%D9%84-%D9%88%D8%AA%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%B3-%D8%A5%D8%B1%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%84-%D9%85%D8%
B3%D8%AA%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A5%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%AD%D9%84%D8%A8,December 1, 2024.

[17] News-pravda.com/world/2024/12/02/892132.html, December 2, 2024.

[18] Msn.com/en-ae/news/national/uae-president-discusses-syrian-developments-in-phone-call-with-bashar-Al-assad/ar-AA1v3tI
q?ocid=BingNewsSerp, December 1, 2024.

[19] Theconversation.com/us-military-presence-in-syria-carries-substantiAl-risks-but-so-does-complete-withdrawAl-235569, August 16, 2024.

American-Israeli Hostage Confirmed Dead

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Israeli-American hostage Omer Neutra is dead. The Israeli military reported Monday morning that the 21-year-old tank platoon commander died nearly 14 months ago, stating that “we can confirm, based on intelligence, that he was killed in battle on Oct. 7 [2023] and his body has been held hostage in Gaza since.”

“May his memory be a blessing,” the Israel Defense Forces added of Neutra.

The terrorist organization Hamas, which killed 1,200 in the Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel, rules the adjacent Gaza Strip where Hamas took Neutra’s body.

Neutra was born in New York City in 2001. After high school, he took a gap year and participated in a leadership program in Israel.

After a year there, Neutra decided to join the Israel Defense Forces and became a tank platoon commander. On Oct. 7, he was serving close to Israel’s border with Gaza. Neutra’s tank was found empty shortly after the terrorist attacks and he was believed to have been taken hostage.

Aviva Klompas, CEO of the pro-Israel educational organization Boundless, wrote on X that the IDF determined Neutra’s death occurred the day of the terrorist attacks “based on findings and new intelligence information.”

For over a year, Neutra’s parents have traveled the U.S. and the world pressing for their son’s release.

“Imagine, over nine months [of] not knowing whether your son is alive. Waking up every morning, praying that he too is still waking up every morning,” mother Orna Neutra said in July from the stage of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

“Bring them home,” her husband, Ronen, chanted with the crowd.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reacting to the news Monday, praised Neutra’s service to his country and wrote in a translated post on X: “Omer was a man of values, blessed with talents and a Zionist in every inch of his limbs. He immigrated to Israel to enlist in the IDF, chose a combat path and was chosen to command and lead. This is what he did at the outbreak of the war on October 2023, when he fought fiercely at the head of his soldiers to defend the settlements surrounding Gaza, until he fell.”

Netanyahu pledged to “not rest or be quiet until we return [Neutra] home to the grave of Israel, and we will continue to act resolutely and tirelessly until we return all of our hostages.”

Three other Americans taken hostage by Hamas—Edan Alexander, Sagui Dekel-Chen, and Keith Siegel—are believed to be alive in Gaza.

Terrorists released a hostage video of Alexander on Saturday, which the White House called “a cruel reminder of Hamas’ terror against citizens of multiple countries, including our own.”
The video was captioned “Time is running out.” It was shared on the Telegram channel of Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, NBC News reported.

Alexander, weeping in the propaganda video, tells Netanyahu, “You have neglected us.” Speaking to President-elect Donald Trump, Alexander asks him to use his authority “to negotiate for our freedom.”

Adi Alexander, the hostage’s father, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that seeing his son in the video was “very emotional and disturbing, but we were happy to see him after a year that we didn’t see our son.”

At least 60 living hostages are believed to be held in Gaza; the bodies of another 35 or so also are believed to be there.

AUTHOR

Virginia Allen

Virginia Allen is a senior news producer for The Daily Signal and host of “The Daily Signal Podcast” and “Problematic Women.” Send an email to Virginia. Virginia on X: .

Related posts:

A Year After Hamas Terrorist Attack, 4 US Citizens Remain Hostage

The Delegitimization of Israel in the Airline Industry

Israel Eliminates Hamas Leader Behind Oct. 7 Massacre

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

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Joe Biden Pardoned Hunter Biden to ‘Protect the Family Business’: Congressman

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After repeatedly insisting he would never do so, President Joe Biden has pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, for any and all crimes he committed over the last decade and disdained his son’s prosecution as “a miscarriage of justice.” The president reversed course “to protect the family business” of influence-peddling and shaking down foreign leaders that netted the Biden family at least $27 million, said some of the president’s most thorough investigators.

Joe Biden announced he had offered Robert Hunter Biden “a full and unconditional pardon” on Sunday, December 1. The pardon covers “those offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024, including but not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted (including any that have resulted in convictions) by Special Counsel David C. Weiss.”

Hunter Biden entered a guilty plea to nine federal tax charges — three felonies and six misdemeanors — related to $1.4 million in unpaid taxes on $7 million in income. The first son had also been convicted of three felony charges for lying on a federal application to purchase a handgun, when he falsely attested that he was not drug-dependent. In all, Hunter Biden faced up to 42 years in prison, although he likely would have served 52 months.

But the pardon extends far beyond the tax and gun charges, covering any crime Hunter Biden committed over the last decade, beginning from the time Hunter began his role as a conduit of payments from foreign leaders to the Biden family — an arrangement critics say sold access to the Obama-Biden White House.

But Joe Biden implied that his Republican political opponents had engineered the criminal charges in an attempt to “break” Hunter and drive him out of his sobriety. “For my entire career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth,” said the president in a statement accompanying the pardon.

“No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong,” Biden contended. “[R]aw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.”

The family seemingly telegraphed the pardon in an Instagram post which Joe Biden’s daughter, Ashley, uploaded over the Thanksgiving holiday. “They tried to break us … but never will/can. Just made us even stronger, closer, and even more grateful for one another,” wrote the first daughter. Joe Biden echoed his daughter’s words in his statement, writing: “There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”

Joe Biden Repeatedly Promised Not to Pardon His Son

The pardon violates numerous promises from Joe Biden and his spokespeople that the president would not pardon his son of any wrongdoing. During Biden’s June 6 visit to commemorate D-Day in Normandy, an ABC News reporter asked him, “Will you accept the jury’s outcome, their verdict, no matter what it is?”

“Yes,” replied Biden weakly.

“And have you ruled out a pardon for your son?”

“Yes,” Biden repeated.

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre stated at least five times over the last year that Biden would not pardon Hunter: last December 13, and this year on August 14, September 5, November 7, and recently as November 12. She also categorically ruled out the possibility that Biden would commute his son’s prison sentence.

“No one is actually surprised by the Hunter pardon. Biden’s political career was defined by abuse of power for personal gain. This was the most predictable thing ever,” said Joseph Backholm, senior fellow for Biblical Worldview and Strategic Engagement at Family Research Council. “We always knew it was a yes,” agreed Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).

In fact, President-elect Donald J. Trump predicted the pardon. Fox News reporter Bill Melugin asked then-candidate Trump in October if, “in the name of unity,” he would consider pardoning Hunter Biden. “I’ll bet you the father probably pardons him. We’ll see what happens. But he’s a bad boy, no question about it,” said Trump. He went on to say he did not “want to hurt anybody” by prosecuting his political enemies, even if they are guilty — adding that ultimately, he declined to investigate Hillary Clinton for similar allegations that she funneled foreign bribes through the Clinton foundations.

“Biden pardoned his son because he knows Trump would’ve,” surmised detransitioner Chloe Cole.

But at least one veteran Republican lawmaker seemed taken aback at the news. “I’m shocked [President] Biden pardoned his son Hunter,” because he said “many times he wouldn’t,” and “I believed him,” said Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). “Shame on me.”

The announcement came late on the Sunday evening of a holiday weekend — a move usually taken to minimize its news impact. Biden explained the statement came out during a holiday weekend, because “once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further.”

But critical reaction from Republicans, and at least one Democrat, rained in.

‘Such a Miscarriage of Justice’

“Such an abuse and miscarriage of justice!” said President-elect Donald Trump on Truth Social.

Many harangued Biden’s social media post of May 31: “No one is above the law.”

“Unless it’s your son,” retorted Mary Vought, vice president of Strategic Communications at the Heritage Foundation.

The pardon “does complete the ark of corruption of the Biden family, doesn’t it?” asked Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, on Fox Business Monday morning. “This is a scam and a scheme, and he gussies it up in issues of family and addiction.”

Others noted the pardon weakened other aspects of the Democratic Party’s agenda. “The next time Democrats talk about increasing background checks on gun purchases please note their silence on this,” instructed former Trump White House spokesman Sean Spicer.

But the most damning critiques said President Joe Biden pardoned Hunter as a means of indirectly pardoning himself for receiving bribes from overseas, which he funneled through his son and brother, James.

Joe Biden pardoned Hunter “to protect the family business,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) in a statement emailed to The Washington Stand on Sunday night.

“Today’s pardon is just the latest in a string of efforts by the Biden administration to cover up and dismiss the years of criminal activity committed by the Biden family,” he said, noting that “evidence has shown President Biden was not only aware but clearly complicit” in his son’s criminal activity.” Thankfully, this decision cannot and will not undermine or cover up the mountain of evidence … that has shown the level of corruption committed in a blatant attempt to trade on the name and power of political office to enrich the Biden family.”

Other congressional investigators echoed those sentiments. “Democrats said there was nothing to our impeachment inquiry. If that’s the case, why did Joe Biden just issue Hunter Biden a pardon for the very things we were inquiring about?” asked Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Last August, Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) filed four articles of impeachment against Biden, one of which accuses the president of selling access to the U.S. government through Hunter Biden and his brother, Jim Biden.

10% for ‘the Big Guy’

Three House committees — the House Oversight Committee, Judiciary Committee, and Ways and Means Committee — released a 291-page impeachment inquiry report on August 19, detailing how the Biden family received at least $27 million from foreign funding over the years, as well as receiving $8 million in loans from Democratic funders. “President Joe Biden conspired to commit influence peddling and grift,” the report concluded. “The totality of the corrupt conduct uncovered by the committees is egregious.”

The most explosive email noted that Hunter Biden would save 10% of his Ukrainian business deals for “the big guy,” a reference business associates confirmed identifies Joe Biden.

Congressional reports have traced millions of dollars in transfers from foreign governments to the Biden family, including:

  • $10 million from Burisma Holdings Ltd. Hunter Biden received $83,333 a month as a board member of Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company, despite having no knowledge of Ukraine or energy, at a time when his father served as vice president and Burisma faced a criminal probe from Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin. According to the FD-1023 form obtained by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, CEO and president of Burisma, Mykola Zlochevsky, said he paid $10 million “protection” money. A federal informant told the FBI in June 2020 that Zlochevsky told donors nothing would come of an investigation by a Ukrainian prosecutor named Viktor Shokin, saying, “Don’t worry, Hunter will take care of all of those issues through his dad.” In December 2016, Joe Biden would confront then-President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, leveraging $1 billion in U.S. aid to demand — and receive — Shokin’s ouster.
  • $1 million from Burisma Holdings’ corporate secretary Vadym Pozharsky to Hunter Biden, agreed to in spring 2014.
  • $3.5 million in February 2014 from Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina to the shell company Rosemont Seneca Thornton. Of that, $2.5 million went to the Bidens and $1 million went to Biden associate Devon Archer. The Obama-Biden administration did not sanction Baturina, even as it cracked down on others in Vladimir Putin’s orbit.
  • $3.1 million from Romanian real estate tycoon Gabriel Popoviciu in 2015. Popoviciu hired Hunter Biden to cause the Obama-Biden administration to “investigate the Romanian criminal investigation into Gabriel Popoviciu and thereby cause an end to the investigation of Gabriel Popoviciu in Romania,” according to court filings from Special Counsel David C. Weiss. Hunter Biden met with Romania’s ambassador to the United States one day after Popoviciu wired $179,836.86 to a business account controlled by Robinson Walker, LLC. In all, the Romanian oligarch sent the firm $3.1 million, split between Hunter Biden and two associates, Rob Walker and James Gilliar. Hunter Biden should have registered as a foreign lobbyist under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) but did not, because he was “concerned that lobbying work might cause political ramifications for the defendant’s father,” then-Vice President Joe Biden, who handled the administration’s Eastern European portfolio at the time.
  • Several million from China in two deals, the largest of which is from the China Energy Fund Committee (CEFC). That deal produced the infamous text message of Hunter Biden claiming Joe Biden was seated next to him as he demanded a CEFC official wire him money.
  • $142,300 — “the exact price of Biden’s sportscar” — from Kenes Rakishev of Kazakhstan, a close associate of that nation’s prime minister, in April 2014. Hunter purchased a hybrid vehicle known as a Fisker Karma the day after the deposit.

Although President Joe Biden has continuously insisted, “I did not interact with their business partners,” Hunter Biden testified to two House committees in March that then-Vice President Joe Biden met with Burisma Corporate Secretary Vadym Pozharsky, Chinese business figure Jonathan Li, Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina, and Kazakhstan oligarch Kenes Rakishev between 2013 and 2015. Last August, the House Oversight Committee released a list of 16 times Biden lied about his family’s business.

Biden also assisted his son’s business endeavors as vice president, Republicans charge. Joe Biden improperly used Air Force Two and Marine Two to transport Hunter Biden to 15 countries, where he often struck business deals that financially benefited the Biden family. Vice President Biden also used pseudonymous email addresses — Robert.L.Peters@pci.gov, robinware456@gmail.com, and JRBWare@gmail.com — to include his son on official business, records show. One involved a meeting with then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, copied to Hunter Biden’s email address at Rosemont Seneca Partners (hbiden@rosemontseneca.com), one of at least 20 shell companies the Bidens established.

At least nine members of the Biden family have benefited from Hunter’s business deals, according to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.):

  • Hunter Biden;
  • James and Sara Biden, the president’s brother and sister-in-law;
  • Hunter’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle;
  • His current wife, Melissa Cohen;
  • Hunter’s ex-girlfriend, Hallie Biden, who is his brother, Beau Biden’s widow; and
  • Three unnamed children or grandchildren of Joe or James Biden.

The federal government had investigated Hunter Biden for years due, in part, to the contents of his laptop, which Democrats derided as “Russian disinformation.” U.S. Attorney David C. Weiss of Delaware allowed the statute of limitations to run out on numerous charges. The Biden administration announced last August it had appointed Weiss as special counsel to investigate the Hunter Biden scandal. Attorney General Merrick Garland claimed Weiss requested his appointment to the role which, according to the Code of Federal Regulations (28 CFR § 600.3), is supposed to be “selected from outside the United States [g]overnment.”

Sweetheart Plea Deal Scuttled

In his pardon statement, President Joe Biden lamented that “a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the court room — with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases.” However, the plea bargain — which also shielded Hunter Biden from prosecution on any future charges — fell apart last July when federal district Judge Maryellen Noreika questioned its constitutionality.

“No amount of lies or spin can hide the simple truth that the Justice Department nearly let the President’s son off the hook for multiple felonies,” said IRS whistleblowers Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley and Special Agent Joe Ziegler in a statement Sunday night. “Anyone reading the President’s excuses now should remember that Hunter Biden admitted to his tax crimes in federal court, that Hunter Biden’s attorneys have targeted us for our lawful whistleblower disclosures, and that we are suing one of those attorneys for smearing us with false accusations.”

The two took pride that, thanks to their work, “President Biden has the power to put his thumb on the scales of justice for his son, but at least he had to do it with a pardon explicitly for all the world to see rather than his political appointees doing it secretly behind the scenes.”

House Republicans picked up the case, which had been dropped by the Biden administration. Reps. Comer, Smith, and Jordan cited Hunter Biden’s false testimony to Congress as they jointly referred him for prosecution by the Justice Department on June 5. As this author reported at The Washington Stand:

“The evidence shows that he lied under oath three times, House Republicans say. They say Hunter lied about a text he sent telling a Chinese official he and his father would use all their power against the company unless they received payment for services rendered. ‘I sent the text to the wrong Zhao,’ said Hunter, claiming he texted a man who had nothing to do with the Chinese energy company and probably had no idea what the texts were about. The committee released WhatsApp records showing Biden contacted only one Zhao, named Raymond Zhao, whom he stayed in touch with for months. Zhao facilitated the release of $5 million from China to the Biden family.

“They also say Hunter Biden fibbed when he claimed a shell company he set up with friend Devon Archer, Rosemont Seneca Bohai, was never ‘under my control nor affiliated with me.’ The committee released a document signed by the president’s son stating, ‘I, Robert Hunter Biden, hereby certify that I am the duly elected, qualified and acting Secretary of Rosemont Seneca Bohai, LLC.’

“Biden also denied trying to help any foreign business associates obtain a U.S. visa. ‘I’d never pick up the phone and call anybody for a visa,’ he said under oath. The committee released an email from Devon Archer stating, ‘Hunter is checking with Miguel Aleman to see if he can provide cover to Kola on the visa.’ The individual in question, ‘Kola,’ is Nikolay Zlochevsky, CEO of Burisma.”

Many of the charges are detailed in a September 2023 episode of the “Outstanding” podcast.

Legacy Media Reaction

The legacy media covered the pardon with maximum sympathy for Biden and predictably calumniated his Republican foes. Politico.com posted, “Republicans pounce on Biden pardoning his son, Hunter.” After pushback, the website changed the headline to “Republicans say Biden is a ‘liar’ after he pardons Hunter, his son.”

Jeff Zeleny — who once asked then-President Barack Obama what aspect of being president “enchanted” him most — called the pardon “poignant” and “a striking … ending to this Thanksgiving holiday.” Zeleny added, “Clearly, there was pressure inside the family. We were told, really, in recent weeks that Dr. Jill Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, was very supportive of the president doing something like this. The president was not sure.”

Alex Thompson of Axios told Semafor.com that the unfolding criminal conspiracy was “a central drama of the Biden administration which doubled as family tragedy and a love story.” Thompson went on to ding “bad-faith conservatives trying to humiliate” Joe Biden.

As far back as June, former CNN reporter John Harwood said that “people who insist Biden will pardon Hunter after specifically ruling it out are telling on themselves,” because “they can’t imagine someone acting on principle and keeping his word.”

But not all critics of the Hunter Biden pardon belonged to the Republican Party. “While as a father I certainly understand President [Biden’s] natural desire to help his son by pardoning him, I am disappointed that he put his family ahead of the country,” said Colorado Governor Jared Polis (D). “This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation. When you become President, your role is Pater familias of the nation. Hunter brought the legal trouble he faced on himself, and one can sympathize with his struggles while also acknowledging that no one is above the law, not a President and not a President’s son.”

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

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

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

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

VIDEO: I’m Taking a Stand—Will You?

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Our friend Terry Longpre sent us the below video writing:

A familiar face.

I watched Kelly’s video and who do I see in it, but you!

I hope she doesn’t think I was with the Teams (SEALS). My job was and is to promote them as true warriors.

This was sent to me by a friend whose son was killed in Afghanistan.

May God Bless all our troops who have fought and died for this Constitutional Republic called the United States of America.

And may God bless their families.

©2024  All rights reserved.

Netanyahu’s wife meets with Trump, discusses plight of hostages

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Sara Netanyahu dines with President-elect Donald Trump at his Florida golf club, speaking with the incoming president regarding the plight of hostages held in Gaza, and the ‘fight against the axis of evil.’ 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, met with former President and President-elect Donald Trump in Florida Sunday, Mrs. Netanyahu and the Trump campaign’s deputy director of communications said Monday morning.

WATCH:

Sara Netanyahu is in the midst of a 20-day visit to Miami, Florida, visiting her son, Yair Netanyahu.

On Sunday night, Mrs. Netanyahu dined with the incoming president at his Mar-a-Lago Gulf Club.

Margo Martin, who served as press secretary during the first Trump administration and Deputy Director of Communications during the 2024 presidential campaign, posted an image of the two at a table in the club’s dining hall to X/Twitter.

“President Donald Trump and Sara Netanyahu having dinner at Trump International Golf Course tonight,” Martin tweeted.

Mrs. Netanyahu also uploaded the photo to her Instagram account, writing that she had responded to an invitation by the incoming president.

“I attended a dinner meeting at President-elect Donald Trump’s golf club, to which I was invited by him. I congratulated the President on his historic victory in the elections.”

The two discussed the plight of Israeli hostages still held captive in the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu wrote, as well as the war against the “axis of evil.”

“During the meeting, which was warm and friendly, we discussed many topics, including the steadfast friendship between Israel and the United States and the importance of continuing to nurture the unique bond between our nations.”

“I also brought to the President’s attention the immense suffering Israel endured on October 7th and the inhumanity of Hamas terrorists holding our citizens hostage under harsh conditions. I emphasized the urgent need to act for their release and swift return.”

“We also discussed the strategic importance of Israel’s victory in the fight against the axis of evil, for a more stable and secure future in the Middle East and around the world.”

RELATED VIDEO: FBI Director-Nominee Kash Patel – ‘We need America to prioritize Israel’

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

Eyeless in Gaza: A History of a Cursed Land

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Gaza is a place that makes men mad and blind. Historically, it has been cursed and cursed again.

There is something about this place that rejects progress and breeds death and destruction.

It began brightly when settled by the Canaanites, an early Jewish tribe. It was even described in the Bible as “the Promised Land.”

Archeological evidence describes an overlapping of an Israelite and a Canaanite culture.

Etymology however hints at the inevitable fate of Gaza in the Hebrew letters of its Semitic name. To be subjugated.

Then the Philistines came, and Gaza has been cursed ever since.

The biblical story of Samson and Delilah tells of a strong man from the Jewish tribe of Dan who lived near Bet Shemesh who was lured into Gaza only to be tortured, blinded and killed, by the Philistines.

Hence the expression “Eyeless in Gaza.”

According to the Book of Judges, the Philistines oppressed Israel for 40 years.

The lesson of Samson was that he was arrogant and foolhardy. This has been the fate of those who have ambitions in Gaza.

Alexander the Great conquered and rebuilt Gaza only for it to be destroyed and desolated until the arrival of the Romans when it became a trading port.

After the Roman conquest of Jerusalem, Jews were sold into slavery and taken down to Gaza.

In the rebellion of 66 CE, Gaza was burned down.

Gradually, Gaza became a trading pivot between the Middle East and Africa. Christianity took root, mainly through conversions.

There was a Jewish presence as witnessed by the archeological site of a 6th Century synagogue with a mosaic floor depicting King David.

Arab Muslim conquest led to the end of the Byzantine period in which churches were converted into mosques.

In the year 766, Gaza was laid waste through civil wars between rival Arab tribes, something that was to repeat itself in our lifetime.

When the Crusaders arrived in the year 1100, they found Gaza uninhabited and in ruin. Yet, 60 years later, travelers described the place as “very populous and in the hands of the Crusaders.”

Gaza then endured a tempestuous period. First an earthquake, then conquering Mongols destroyed what had been rebuilt by the Mameluks.

Gaza suffered the wrath of heaven and hell with a bubonic plague, a flood, and further destruction through periods of conquest, treason and teachery, until the arrival of the Ottoman Turks in the 16th Century.

Even under Ottoman rule, Gaza was plagued by Bedouin tribes plundering unguarded camel caravans using Gaza as a trade link between the Middle East and Africa.

Gaza was briefly occupied by the French under Napoleon Boneparte who referred to it as “the outpost of Africa and the door to Asia.” But even he was forced to abandon his short-lived control of Gaza after his forces failed to capture the port city of Acre which led to the French retreat out of the Middle East.

By 1838, one American traveler, Edward Robinson, described Gaza as being larger in population than Jerusalem but, a year later, the bubonic plaque struck again, and Gaza stagnated.

With the Ottomans battling encroaching Egyptians, this tempestuous place suffered more death and destruction.

By World War One, Gaza had been strengthened into an Ottoman fortress town largely populated by their military enlarged by the arrival of German forces.

In 1917, British forces failed twice to defeat joint Ottoman and German armies in Gaza.

A second Gaza battle in April 1917 ended in a massacre for the British.

Officially, General Murray put the casualty figures at “between 6,000 and 7,000,” but others claim numbers between 14,000 and 17,000 deaths.

Where else have we heard about disputed Gaza casualty figures?

Murray was replaced by General Allenby.

Under the advice of his senior British officers in Cairo, Allenby prepared for the third Battle of Gaza until a Jew, recruited into British intelligence, advised Allenby to ignore his generals and target Beer Sheba.

Palestinian agronomist, Aaron Aaronsohn, advised Allenby; “You can’t reach Jerusalem and liberate Palestine without watering thousands of men, thousands of horses and camels, and your motorized vehicles, and I know where the water is.”

An impressed Allenby countermanded his senior officers and ordered them to plan for Beer Sheba which was captured in heroic style with the last great cavalry charge in military history by the ANZACS on 31 October, 1917.

I recount the history of the battles, the characters and dramas, in my book, ‘1917 From Palestine to the Land of Israel.’

Gaza eventually fell with a British siege that depleted the Turks and Germans of food and water.

By avoiding Gaza, Allenby was able to liberate Jerusalem and eventually drive the Ottoman rulers out of Palestine.

Three points need to be emphasized in this war.

Jews fought in their own unit to drive the Ottoman Turks out of Palestine.

No Arabs volunteered to liberate Palestine west of the Jordan River.

The Jewish Legion, however, fought east of the Jordan River to apprehend captured Turkish prisoners after creating a bridgehead which the ANZAC cavalry crossed to win the battle of e-Salt in today’s Jordan.

There had been a Jewish presence in Gaza throughout this conflict until 1929 when Arab pogroms, initiated by Haj Amin al Husseini, reached Gaza. Those that weren’t killed were escorted out of Gaza by train to Tel Aviv by the British for their safety.

By 1946, Gaza was a stateless wilderness, but Jews returned to Gaza and created Kibbutz Kfar Darom.

The founders based their claim thus, “Our ambition is to settle this land and make the wilderness flourish because, since the exile of our ancestor, it has been abandoned and turned into a wilderness. At the same time, we wish to build our lives in the spirit of the Torah and the prophets, the same spirit which accompanied and strengthened our people through years of wandering, suffering and torment.”

They fortified their kibbutz initially against marauding Arab gangs, but they were caught up in the early stages of a war between Egypt and the fledgling State of Israel, and it was attacked before Israel declared its independence.

The battle began with Egyptian heavy shelling and an onslaught of armored vehicles escorted by field artillery tanks and thousands of infantry soldiers on the first day.

Miraculously, the Kfar Darom defenders fought and stopped the Egyptian attack.

Failing to conquer Kfar Darom, the Egyptians besieged the community and continued north. The defenders held their ground against the entire Egyptian army in an incredible heroic battle for three months.

In the night of July 9, 1948, they were commanded to evacuate the kibbutz. Ten had been killed and sixty injured when they locked the gate and retreated north out of Gaza.

In 1981, as part of an Egyptian peace treaty, Jews who lived in Sinai moved to the Gaza area and created twenty-one settlements. The most populated Gush Katif area was located along the Gazan coastline with homes, thirty synagogues, schools and yeshivot.

Another group of settlements were located along Gaza’s northern border with Israel, expanding the Jewish presence from Ashkelon to the edges of Gaza City with the Erez Industrial zone as part of this bloc.

Netzarim, Kfar Darom, and Morag were strategically located in the heart of the Gaza Strip creating a framework and its main transportation route. In addition, the settlements developed a thriving agriculture on land fed by the area’s main aquifers.

One settlement, Gadid, had a large French population and maintained an absorption center for new immigrants from France.

Gaza prospered into an agricultural and tourism paradise. Jews and Muslims coexisted for more than a decade, but tensions grew, ignited by malevolent Arabs and, in 1987, a Jewish shopper in a Gazan market was stabbed to death. The next day an Israeli truck accidentally killed four Arabs, sparking the first riots of what would become the first intifada.

A brief period of calm followed the Oslo Accords and Israel agreed to withdraw from parts of the Gaza Strip. But an escalation of violence after September 2000 led Israel to impose stricter measures on Palestinians in the area in order to protect the Jewish families in Gaza. But the Palestinian violence increased leading to frequent military operations to prevent terror attacks against soldiers and Jews living in the Gaza settlements as well as to prevent Arab infiltrations to attack targets inside Israel.

On August 17, 2005, in the search for peace with the Palestinians, Israel evacuated all the Jews from Gaza until there were no Jews left even exhuming the bodies of the dead for reinternment in Israel.

As Jews were being forced out of their homes in Gaza by Israeli soldiers, American Jews donated $14 million buying greenhouses from the Jewish farmers and donated them to Gaza’s new Arab government. Former World Bank President, James Wolfensohn, even gave half a million of his own money to the scheme.

However, as soon as the last Jew left Gaza, the greenhouses were destroyed, looted and smashed while Gaza’s Arab police officers stood watching.

Since the disengagement no Jews have been present in the Gaza Strip. But the Arabs didn’t stop killing. Where there were no Jews, they began killing each other.

With the death of Yasser Arafat in November 2004, the rivalry between Hamas and Fatah burst into a deadly civil war.

Over 600 Palestinians were killed in the fighting from January 2006 to May 2007. Dozens more were killed or executed in the following years as part of the conflict. Under Hamas control Gaza was turned into the world’s largest terror metropolis both above and below ground. Everything and everybody were dedicated to the ultimate goal of destroying Israel and killing Jews.

And so we have the curse that is Gaza today. A curse that has infected the West that actively, willingly, supports a Jew-hating terror regime. A curse that is heard and seen by its vocal and active hatred and criticism of Israel with one insidious example being a biased media that expresses sympathy for a hate fueled Palestinian Gaza by covering up blatant facts preferring to turn their biased venom against Israel, the collective Jew.

One example; “Not interested!” said Anna Botting and Sky News against Israeli spokesman, Mark Regev, of bombing the Al Ahli Hospital accusing him of killing 500 Palestinians after Regev requested her to withhold her anti-Israel judgment until the facts were known.

The fact turned out to be a Palestinian rocket, one of hundreds that were misfired in Gaza and killed Palestinians.

No apology from Botting or Sky News. They had become an arm of the Palestinian indoctrination machine in Gaza.

This is not confined to Sky News. It is wholesale across a rancid media that has become stained by the curse of Gaza.

The more pro-Palestinian they are the more viciously vindictive they are in their reporting against Israel. Example – the BBC is worse than Sky.

The more they dump down in Israel, the more they hide the murderous Palestinian ideology and crimes and, by doing so, gift Hamas a pyrrhic victory, help extend the war and seal the fate of our hostages.

The insane curse of Gaza exhibited by the Western media, extends to their politicians and into the international criminal courts that not only absolve Gaza of all its sins but act as prosecutors against the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.

In the end, Gaza is not only about Israel and Jews. It is also about the closing of the Western mind. A West that has become subservient to those that practice jihadism and has imported the curse of Gaza into their own backyard.

There is no hope for a world that is infected by ignorance and blindness.

They are all eyeless in Gaza.

For three thousand years, this place has been cursed.

Unless there is a reawakening, the curse of Gaza will stain us all for generations to come.

©2024 . All rights reserved.

Please visit BARRY’s Newsletter substack.

Biden Poses With Book By Terror Spox Claiming Israel Shouldn’t Exist

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With the election of President Trump, Israel and the U.S Jewish community not only dodged a bullet, they dodged a MOAB.

January 20th can’t come fast enough. President Joe Biden is a disgrace.

Biden spotted with book that accuses Israel of

The spotting has drawn mixed reactions from both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli groups that are unclear as to what message is being sent.

By Jerusalem Post, November 30th, 2024

US President Joe Biden was spotted leaving a bookstore in Nantucket, Massachusetts, on Friday with a copy of The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017, by Palestinian-American historian Rashid Khalidi.

The purchase occurred during a holiday visit with his family as the nation kicked off the Black Friday shopping season following Thanksgiving. Photos of the outing have circulated all over X/Twitter and international media outlets.

It is unclear if Biden purchased the book or if it was handed to him. Multiple media outlets, including Fox News and The New York Post, have reached out to the White House for comment, but so far, there has been no response.

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

Geller Report Staff

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

Critically Thinking about the U.S. Department of Education

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What is the best path forward for this troubled agency? 

There is almost universal agreement — and solid evidence — that the US K-12 education system is an abject failure from multiple important perspectives. This is not good for the children (who are the victims), or for America.

The solutions proposed for this have ranged from:

a) scrapping the entire K-12 public school system, to

b) eliminating the federal Department of Education (e.g., here). Although the rationale behind these is understandable, neither of these suggestions are wise, practical, or effective resolutions to the dire situation we are in.

Consider, for example, the idea of eliminating the Department of Education. What we would be left with is fifty (50) State Education Departments. Radically reforming 50 State Education Departments would be an extraordinarily expensive, Herculean project that would take at least twenty years — if ever — to come to fruition. In the meantime, the US is left with 50 different education systems. How is that good for the country? Who would take on this Sisyphilan task? And who would pay for it?

My recommendation (as an education outsider) is to solve this — affordably, effectively, and relatively quickly — by fundamentally changing the Department of Education. The idea is that the Department would become a powerful game-changing force for good (which would be a radical change).

The new Department of Education would properly do major things like:

1 – Redefine its Mission. Here is the boilerplate pablum that is their current mission. Its objective should be upgraded to something like: meaningfully assisting States in producing high school graduates who are competent, productive, healthy critical thinkers (e.g., see this fine piece). In other words, the Department should leverage the power and money of the federal government to aggressively assist States in fixing the currently deplorable K-12 education system. (Note: in 2024 the Department had 80± Billion in discretionary funding (out of a $250± Billion budget) — that is a LOT of leverage!)

2 – Get rid of bureaucratic bloat. Strip down the Department to the bare essentials. Right now there are over 4100 employees. How about aiming for 400 — a 90% reduction? Four hundred competent, motivated employees can do a LOT!

3 – Clarify what should be the primary objective of K-12 education. Assuming that the 3Rs are properly taught, the #1 objective of every state education system should be to produce Critically Thinking graduates. In other words, radically change the education system from its current focus on teaching students WHAT to think, to instead teach them HOW to think. Since no State is currently doing that, this would revolutionize American education. (Note: presently there is zero uniformity among States on this foundational issue. Less than ten even mention Critical Thinking in their Mission!)

4 – Investigate what is the most effective methodology of teaching. For example, would the best way to educate our children be to have a classical education program (like here)? Or, would the best way be to adopt the state-of-the-art techniques used by MacKenzie Price? Or something else? The Department should solicit and consider a variety of ideas — and then pass on their findings to the States. What sense does it make for 50 States to do this type of investigation? (Note: almost no States are investigating this.)

5 – Take the lead in resolving the religion issue embedded in K-12 education. For some time now the public school system has been in a conflicting situation regarding religion. On the one hand, schools are bending over backward to not do anything that some activists might claim is a 1st Amendment violation (a federal matter).

On the other hand, US public schools feel obligated to convey morality and ethics (e.g., “discrimination is wrong” — which is a religious [moral] position). Aggressively stepping into this gap are atheism and relativism — which are effectively religions (e.g., see here). So, despite their concerns about not advocating for any religion, that is exactly what public schools are doing. The Department should research and take a position on this exceptionally important issue, as (again) no States are doing that.

6 – Take the lead in other national K-12 education matters.

a) A good example is what’s going on regarding extremely problematic books being in K-12 school libraries (see here and here). The fundamental problem is that the ALA does not recognize the issue of age-appropriateness! The Department should officially go on record endorsing the significance of age-appropriateness in K-12 classes, libraries, and associated matters.

This idea is already societally accepted in the US. A good example is that the rating systems for movies and also for TV, are based on age-appropriateness. The movie website says “Established in 1968, the film rating system provides parents with the information needed to determine if a film is appropriate for their children.” Exactly the same thing applies to books being considered for K-12 school classes and libraries!

To make a profound improvement in K-12 education, the Department should specify that they can not provide any money to a State that does not have an appropriate official written policy regarding the age-appropriateness of materials associated with their K-12 schools. [Towards that same end the Department should oppose legislation that undermines the concept of age-appropriateness — like this.]

b) A different example is that the Department should take an official stand against the scourge of SEL that has infested public schools nationwide. Their position should be along the lines of this.

c) Yet another example (of several) is that the Department should weigh in on teacher certification. The education mills are pushing out progressive graduates (e.g., see here) who have few Critical Thinking skills. No State can fix this, but the Department may be able to.

BTW the best chance we have for substantially reforming the Department, is to have a good collection of “outsiders” (not from the education establishment) participating in the process. People who have few pre-conceived ideas of what can and can not be done, are more likely to be advancing more creative improvements (like above).

The Bottom Line —

All of the current K-12 education system’s weaknesses are being taken advantage of by anti-American, Left-leaning ideology advocates. The corruption of the K-12 Science curricula is a perfect example of how American students are being Pied Pipered to a woefully inadequate education.

Worse — MUCH WORSE — is that most of these miseducated graduates soon become voting citizens. What is our future if it is being determined by citizens who have no Critical Thinking skills, and have been thoroughly propagandized by Left-leaning ideology???

This clearly says that leaving our children’s education up to 50 different States IS NOT WORKING — and will likely NEVER WORK!

An updated Department of Education should step into this void and provide constructive and effective K-12 education leadership. Now is the time to do exactly that!

©2024   All rights reserved.

Here is other information from this scientist that you might find interesting:

I am offering incentives for you to sign up new Substack subscribers!

I also consider reader submissions on Critical Thinking on my topics of interest.

Check out the Archives of this Critical Thinking substack.

WiseEnergy.org: discusses the Science (or lack thereof) behind our energy options.

C19Science.info: covers the lack of genuine Science behind our COVID-19 policies.

Election-Integrity.info: multiple major reports on the election integrity issue.

Media Balance Newsletter: a free, twice-a-month newsletter that covers what the mainstream media does not do, on issues from COVID to climate, elections to education, renewables to religion, etc. Here are the Newsletter’s 2024 Archives. Please send me an email to get your free copy. When emailing me, please make sure to include your full name and the state where you live. (Of course, you can cancel the Media Balance Newsletter at any time – but why would you?

The Mainstreaming of Islamic Extremism

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Progressives rationalize tenets that justify atrocities against Jews and destroying a sovereign democratic state, while they cheer Hamas for resisting an “occupation” that only exists in the minds of leftists, terrorists, and Palestinian Arab revisionists. 

After the horrific events of last year and the war that followed, Hamas was finally recognized as a genocidal terror organization – but only by some and only for a moment. The global community almost immediately cast Hamas in a conciliatory light by contextualizing its brutality as “resistance to occupation,” though Israel withdrew from Gaza nearly twenty years ago.

Many world leaders blamed the victim by (a) criticizing Israel for a blockade designed to prevent the flow of weapons and terrorist materiel (but not the importation of food, health supplies, or essential goods) and (b) falsely portraying Gaza as an “open-air prison” (if anyone prevented Gazans from leaving, it was Hamas and Egypt) in the “most densely populated” urban area in the world. Though demonstrably wrong on all counts, such propaganda was reinforced through constant repetition by the mainstream media and progressive political establishment, including many prominent Democrats.

Honesty and common sense were thrown out the window by progressives who effectively called for another Holocaust by chanting “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and perpetuating the correlative myths of Palestinian Arab indigeneity and Jewish colonialism – in a land where only Jews have a documented presence going back to antiquity. Nevertheless, these and other odious canards were embraced as articles of faith by progressive politicians, leftist academics, identity community activists, and mainline liberal churches, who became standard bearers of the “new antisemitism,” which is merely a reworking of classical stereotypes and calumnies used to malign Jews through the ages.

Antisemitic slurs and tropes are shouted by street mobs, taught in college classrooms, and repeated by journalists, politicians, and celebrities. The world’s oldest hatred is also disseminated by pseudo-scholars who use the gloss of academia to slander Jewish tradition and claim, among other things, that the Temple never stood in Jerusalem and Jews are foreign interlopers descended from non-indigenous peoples who usurped a country – Palestine – that never existed. They are also committed to validating a people – the Palestinian Arabs – who are a modern political creation.

Anti-Jewish hatred is exacerbated by political, media, and academic establishments that provide no counterbalance and instead rewrite history, for example, by denying the Jews’ unbroken connection to their homeland as reflected in the archeological record and whitewashing the persecution of Jews under Islam. They are quick to denounce any perceived affront to Arab or Muslim sensibilities and just as quick to denigrate any expressions of Jewish pride or Israeli sovereignty.

Indeed, the mainstream generally refuses to acknowledge Muslim antisemitism, the relationship between radical Islam and terrorism, or the history of jihadist colonialism. Liberal pundits instead wax poetic about claims of Islamic tolerance, while rationalizing any antisemitic or anti-western excesses as reactions to Israeli provocations or American imperialism.

Unable to tolerate criticism of their own warped and bigoted views, they invariably claim to be victims of censorship whenever their screeds against Jews and Israel are exposed as antisemitic vitriol (though it seems nobody ever prevents them from speaking). But they remain mute regarding the historical subjugation and negative imagery of Jews under Islam, the influence of this imagery on anti-Israel rejectionism, and the cultural justifications for the murder, rape, and torture of Israelis.

To most progressives, Hamas and Hezbollah are neither extreme nor radical; and in the historical context of Islamist supremacism, they might actually have a point.

Traditionally, life was difficult for non-Muslims under Islam – particularly Jews, who were dispossessed from their land by conquest, relegated to dhimmi status, and generally degraded, abused, and denied human rights. Despite claims of tolerance throughout the Islamic world, the general treatment of Jews was often no better than in Christian Europe.

During the early Islamic period, for example, Jews were forced to wear distinctive badges or metal seals around their necks. Starting in ninth-century Baghdad, they were required to wear yellow badges (a practice that was brought to Europe by returning crusaders) and were often physically branded, while in Egypt they were required to wear bells on their garments. Throughout the Islamic world, Jews were often isolated or confined to ghettos, forbidden from using the same bathhouses as Muslims, and subjected to pogroms, massacres and forced conversions just as they were in Christian Europe.

Despite the fantasy of equity and prosperity during the Golden Age of Spain, Jews in the Iberian Peninsula often fared little better than their brethren under Christian rule. This reality was illustrated by the experiences of Rambam (Maimonides) and his family, who left their native Cordoba, not because of Christian Jew-hatred, but because the ruling Almohads gave the Jewish community the choice of conversion, exile, or death – centuries before the expulsion from Christian Spain.

The idea that Jewish life in the Islamic world was idyllic until the establishment of modern Israel is preposterous. Antisemitism was ubiquitous after the rise of Islam and ultimately influenced Arab hostility towards the reborn Jewish nation. Those who believe the myth of peaceful coexistence are not typically of Sephardic, Mizrachi or Yemenite Jewish descent. If they were, they would be more likely to know from the experiences of parents and grandparents how precarious Jewish life was in Arab lands and how antisemitism there preceded Israel’s rebirth by centuries.

Anti-Jewish sources appear in both written and oral tradition, for example, in Quranic verses accusing the Jews of perverting scripture (e.g., Sura 3:63; 3:71; 4:46), eschatological passages from the Hadith foretelling their ultimate extermination (Sahih al-Bukhari, Vol. 4, Book 56, No. 791), and references in both to the slaughter of the Jews known as Banu Qurayza in Medina. Thus, it is not surprising that Jews in Islamic society were scorned, demeaned, and subjugated; and given the doctrinal basis for this enmity, hostility for the state of Israel was inevitable.

The reality of Muslim antisemitism is ignored by those who believe that obsequious apologetics is necessary to atone for past colonialism. But Islamist Jew-hatred is fully embraced by radical progressives, whose chants of “from the river to the sea…” are really calls for genocide. The irony is lost on these useful idiots that the fundamentalist ideology they deem politically virtuous rejects the foundation of their woke identities. There are no “Queers for Palestine” or “CODEPINK” feminists who would be welcome in a fundamentalist Islamic state where women are subjugated, and gay people are killed.

What western apologists fail to appreciate is the integral persistence of dogma that divides the world into “dar al-Islam” (house of Islam) and “dar al-Harb” (house of war) and demands the subjugation of infidels. And in the absence of theological reformation, it seems unlikely that pandering dialogue will ever foster sincere acceptance of non-Islamic cultures or true peace with a Jewish state.

The affinity between radical Islamists and the progressive left seems counterintuitive given the left’s disdain for religion in its own cultural backyard. But the so-called “red-green alliance” makes perfect sense considering that leftists and Islamists share a common hatred of western democratic values – and of Jews and Israel.

It is this shared hatred that influences progressives to (a) rationalize tenets that justify atrocities against Jews and (b) cheer Hamas for resisting an “occupation” that only exists in the minds of leftists, terrorists, and Palestinian Arab revisionists. The progressive refusal to acknowledge the religious basis of anti-Israel hatred suggests a worldview shaped either by ignorance or a repudiation of history, democratic values, and common decency.

Whatever the motivation, the progressive coddling of Islamists clearly is no path to peace. Nor is pressuring Israel to cease defending herself before achieving her objectives against Iran and its terrorist proxies. The road to peace, moreover, does not require a two-state solution with people who deny Jewish history. Rather, it depends on genuine acceptance of the Jews’ sovereignty in their homeland, which necessarily requires a reformation of thought, ideology, and doctrine.

But what encourages such reformation, and can it be imposed from without?

The traditional peace process always ignored the elephant in the room – i.e., the faith-based foundation of anti-Israel rejectionism – and demanded unilateral concessions by Israel based on revisionist presumptions, e.g., the validity of a Palestinian Arab narrative that denies Jewish history. This was true of Oslo, the Obama-era strategy of bullying Israel and appeasing Iran, and the Biden embrace of anti-Israel and antisemitic progressives.

If anything, October 7th proved the fecklessness of these policies and the two-state concept.

The only deviation from the policy failures of past administrations was the Abraham Accords during President Trump’s first term, which sought normalization through shared economic, cultural, and strategic interests. Perhaps this strategy could facilitate the doctrinal change necessary for reformation – and perhaps not. But reinvigorating the accords as a paradigm while simultaneously renewing America’s commitment to a strong Israel might pave the way for real ideological change that could significantly influence the geopolitical landscape of the Mideast during a second Trump term.

And why not?

©2024. All rights reserved.

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When a Democrat says that a Trump cabinet nominee is ‘unqualified’ or a ‘extremist’ it means he or she is a patriot

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Well it seems that the Democrat Party is still angry at the 2024 election results.

They are so angry that President Elect Donald J. Trump and Vice President Elect J.D. Vance won that they are now creating a shadow government to go against President Trump.

WATCH:

Does this sound like a “smooth transition of government” as Biden promised?

They are angrier at President-Elect Donald J. Trump’s cabinet nominees.

So how do they react, just like they always react. The begin by name-calling.

They use words like “unqualified.” But wasn’t Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. and Kamala Harris unqualified based upon their actions while in office?

The Democrats use words like “extremists” but weren’t their policies, e.g. DEI, extremist? Or pushing the LGBYQE+ Agenda extremist?

Or pushing their climate change agenda extremist?

WATCH: Globalist John Kerry: “We need to get people to behave!”

Wasn’t Kerry’s call to declare a “climate emergency” extremist?

Isn’t targeting Trump’s nominees extremist?

WATCH: Trump Cabinet Nominees, Appointees Targeted With Bomb Threats, Violence

Isn’t Planned Parenthood staff on camera laughing over ripping legs off of viable, live preborn babies extremist?

WATCH: Warning disturbing content.

Isn’t FEMA giving illegal migrants over $10,000 dollars while offering American hurricane victims $750 make FEMA leadership and it’s employees “unqualified” to serve?

WATCH:

Doesn’t it make Boston Mayor Wu who is refusing to won’t go along with President-elect Trump’s plan for mass deportations make her and any other elected official who fails to uphold our immigration laws unqualified to serve in office?

WATCH:

Perhaps it is time for Democrats to look into a mirror and see the truth and reality of their policies.

For you see it is they who are extremists and unqualified for public office.

DANA WHITE: “The entire country relates with Trump right now”

Get it? Got it? Good!

©2024 All rights reserved.

RELATED VIDEO: In under three minutes, RFK Jr. explains the connection between God and man

Domino Effect: Israel’s War With Hezbollah Sparks Syrian Rebel Offensive

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The fallout from Israel’s war with Hamas and Hezbollah has triggered a domino effect threatening Syrian President Bashar Assad’s grip on power and Iran’s regional influence.

A surprise offensive by the Sunni jihadist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), affiliated with al-Qaeda, is reshaping the battlefield and delivering devastating losses to Syrian government forces backed by Iran and Russia.

This rapid escalation began shortly after an Israeli-Hezbollah ceasefire went into effect on Wednesday morning. Hezbollah has been badly weakened by the war, unable to assist Assad’s forces in the face of the HTS offensive.  Israel confirmed eliminating 2,500 Hezbollah terrorists and likely killed at least 1,000 more. Casualties include nearly all of the terror group’s top leadership. Israeli forces also seized 25,000 weapons.

By Wednesday, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham — formerly known as the Nusra Front — launched a surprise attack on Aleppo, Syria’s industrial and economic hub, marking the largest assault on Assad’s forces in the region since 2020. The rebels have since captured the international airport and seized control of over 75% of Aleppo’s neighborhoods.

HTS rapidly advanced into the northwest Syrian city of Idlib and are now threatening Hama, overwhelming Assad’s army, which has struggled to mount an effective defense. Over 330 casualties have been reported, including Hajj Hashem, a senior Iranian advisor, and Ahmad Ali, the Syrian security chief in Aleppo. Iranian-backed positions and infrastructure, including the consulate in Aleppo, have been severely hit.

Iran’s dual crises—protecting Hezbollah and shoring up Assad—have left it vulnerable on multiple fronts. Tehran accused the U.S. and Israel of orchestrating the Syrian attacks, labeling them part of a broader campaign to destabilize the region. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi is set to visit Damascus for urgent talks with Assad, following consultations with Turkey and Russia.

Turkey’s alleged support for HTS further complicated the situation. While Ankara has a history of backing opposition groups against Assad, it also faces tensions with Kurdish forces, who have surprisingly aligned with Assad to counter the rebel offensive.

Russia, which also backs Assad, launched airstrikes against the HTS, but with Moscow preoccupied with its war in Ukraine, may not be able to do much more.

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EDITORS NOTE: This TPS News Agency column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Trump Threatens 100 Percent Tariffs On Any ‘BRICS’ Nation That Abandons U.S. Dollar

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President-elect Donald Trump threatened Saturday to impose 100% tariffs on any BRICS nation that abandons the U.S. dollar.

Trump warned the economic alliance — composed of markets in countries like Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — that moving away from the U.S. dollar to create a new BRICS currency will not be taken lightly under his incoming administration.

“The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the Dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER. We require a commitment from these Countries that they will neither create a new BRICS Currency, nor back any other Currency to replace the mighty U.S. Dollar or, they will face 100% Tariffs, and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. Economy,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

“They can go find another ‘sucker!’ There is no chance that the BRICS will replace the U.S. Dollar in International Trade, and any Country that tries should wave goodbye to America,” he added.

After Russia faced global sanctions for its war with Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly hoped to position BRICS — which has expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates — as an alternative platform for international payments, Reuters reported in October.

Earlier this month, Trump hit the ground running by threatening to impose a 25% tariff on all Mexican and Canadian goods until their governments take action to limit the onslaught of drugs and illegal migrants entering the U.S. (RELATED: Trump Taps Jamieson Greer To Be His Trade Chief)

While Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum publicly suggested she would retaliate if Trump’s tariffs came to be, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, where the two had constructive conversations.

“I just had a very productive meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, where we discussed many important topics that will require both Countries to work together to address, like the Fentanyl and Drug Crisis that has decimated so many lives as a result of Illegal Immigration, Fair Trade Deals that do not jeopardize American Workers, and the massive Trade Deficit the U.S. has with Canada,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday. “I made it very clear that the United States will no longer sit idly by as our Citizens become victims to the scourge of this Drug Epidemic, caused mainly by the Drug Cartels, and Fentanyl pouring in from China. Too much death and hardship!”

“Prime Minister Trudeau has made a commitment to work with us to end this terrible devastation of U.S. Families,” the president-elect continued. “We also spoke about many other important topics like Energy, Trade, and the Arctic. All are vital issues that I will be addressing on my first days back in Office, and before.”

AUTHOR

Julianna Frieman

Contributor.

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

LEGEND: President Trump Names Kash Patel To Be FBI Director

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Wow. The deep state is quaking.

Watch Kash Patel the FBI Director Nominee

Get ready.

President Trump on Truth Social:

I am proud to announce that Kashyap “Kash” Patel will serve as the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and “America First” fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People. He played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution. Kash did an incredible job during my First Term, where he served as Chief of Staff at the Department of Defense, Deputy Director of National Intelligence, and Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council. Kash has also tried over 60 jury trials. This FBI will end the growing crime epidemic in America, dismantle the migrant criminal gangs, and stop the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking across the Border. Kash will work under our great Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to bring back Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity to the FBI.

Guess who Kash Patel calls a ‘fraud’ and election rigger? Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

RELATED ARTICLE: Trump Nominates Kash Patel To Be FBI Director

PATEL ANNOUNCEMENT ON TRUTH SOCIAL:

PATEL ON X:

The Fighting Goes On Despite Fake Hezbollah Ceasefire

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“This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities,” said Biden.

WATCH: The Fighting Goes On Despite Fake Hezbollah Ceasefire

Ceasefires against Islamic terrorists are observed mainly in the breach. Islamic terrorists don’t observe actual ceasefires, they use them to reorient and regroup, but continue attacking to celebrate their ‘victory’.

(To Muslim terrorists, the other side agreeing to a cessation of fighting or proposing peace is a sign of their weakness.)

So despite all the hype, the fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah terrorist group continues.

The Israeli air force struck Hezbollah terrorists and a rocket launcher in southern Lebanon on Friday, the IDF reported.

Troops detected terrorist activity and the movement of a Hezbollah portable rocket launcher, according to the military.

The IDF noted that it will actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement, which took effect on Wednesday.

What that means is that there’s a ‘ceasefire’ between the bouts of fighting.

According to Biden, “under the deal reached today, effective at 4:00 a.m. tomorrow local time, the fighting across the Lebanese-Israeli border will end — will end.  This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities.”

No, it wasn’t. It was designed to save Hezbollah to fight another day. And another day may be sooner than we think.

AUTHOR

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