SAVE THE DATE:CIJR VIRTUAL GALA: Sunday, August 22, 2021 @ 7:30 PM (EDT) Register Here
Eric Adams Is Awful. I’m Putting Him on My Ballot.: Michelle Goldberg, NY Times, June 18, 2021[On the NYC mayoral election, Michelle Goldberg voices her opposition to leading candidate, ex-policeman Eric Adams, but acknowledges that if it comes down to Andrew Yang and him, he may be the least worst between them.
“An Adams administration would most likely be a head-spinning time of marginalization for the left. Just three years ago, New York City seemed an epicenter of democratic socialism with the victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. One year ago, mass demonstrations after the murder of George Floyd sparked national demands to reimagine policing. For New York Democrats to choose a law-and-order mayor now would be seen as a rebuke to progressives all over the country. So, I can hardly believe I’m going to put Adams on my ballot. But as Andrew Yang has grown increasingly strident about public order, I’ve started to think that Adams might be only the second-worst of the viable candidates. Many progressive groups are urging people not to rank either, which makes sense if you think they’re equally bad. The contest between Adams and Yang has become less urgent as Maya Wiley and Kathryn Garcia, my top two choices, have surged and Yang has faded. But it’s still possible that the race could come down to the two men, and I believe in always choosing the lesser of two evils. New Yorkers can rank up to five names. I’m planning to put Adams fifth.”
“The new US administration requested that I save our disagreements on the Iran nuclear deal for behind closed doors, and not share them publicly. I told them I won’t act that way. In 1944, at the height of the Holocaust, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt refused to bomb the railway leading to the extermination camps, and refused to bomb the gas chambers, which could have saved millions of our people. We hoped for others to save us, and they didn’t come. In the face of the threat of extermination, we were helpless. Our voice was not heard among the nations. We had neither a state nor an army. But today we do have a voice. We do have a state, and we do have defensive power.” – former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I’ve heard what Bennett said [about standing firm against Iran], and I’m concerned, because Bennett does the opposite of what he promises. An Israeli prime minister has to be able to say no to the president of the US on matters that endanger our existence. I’ll be happy if this doesn’t come true, but from the moment the US returns to the Iran deal, this government will not approve operations against Iran to stop their armament.” Netanyahu insisted he and his allies would soon return to lead. “I have just one, modest request,” he said to the incoming government. “Try to ruin the economy that we are leaving you as little as possible, so that we can fix it as quickly as possible when we return to power.” (NY Post, June 15, 2021)
“Lapid promised [US Sect of State Antony] Blinken that Israel would not surprise the United States on matters relating to Iran’s nuclear program. That’s the program designed to produce nuclear weapons to annihilate the state of Israel,” Netanyahu said. The former prime minister revealed that there were times where he acted without first consulting the U.S. and that the commitment by the new ruling coalition headed by Lapid and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett would only accelerate its collapse. “There were times that I did tell them of impending actions, there are many other times where I didn’t, and yet it took the Lapid-Bennett government three days to undermine this important and critical tenet of our national security,” Netanyahu said. “That’s why this government is so dangerous to our future. That’s also why we’ll bring them down a lot faster than you think.”—Journalist Tom O’Connor writing on Netanyahu’s response to Israeli Alternate Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid’s second phone conversation with Antony Blinken. (Newsweek, June 21, 2021)
“After racist and violent “death to Arabs” marches earlier today in Jerusalem, children in Gaza are being woken by bombs in the middle of the night. Israel’s government doesn’t value Palestinian lives. It has managed a decades-long ethnic cleansing project, funded by the U.S.” — Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) tweeted. She accused Israel of orchestrating “a decades-long ethnic cleansing project, funded by the U.S.” (United With Israel, June 18, 2021)
“I think it’s great to have a U.S. president part of the club, and very willing to cooperate”. — French President Emmanuel Macron, at the Group of Seven European meeting, regarding President Biden. (WSJ, June 16, 2021)
“There is no clearer example than the Biden administration’s new effort aimed at indoctrinating America’s schoolchildren with some of the most toxic and anti-American theories ever conceived. … For decades, the America-blaming left has been relentlessly pushing a vision of America that casts our history, culture, traditions, and founding documents in the most negative possible light. Yet in recent years, this deeply unnatural effort has progressed from telling children that their history is evil to telling Americans that they are evil. In classrooms across the nation, students are being subjected to a new curriculum designed to brainwash them with the ridiculous left-wing dogma known as “critical race theory.” The key fact about this twisted doctrine is that it is completely antithetical to everything that normal Americans of any color would wish to teach their children. – former President Donald Trump writes. (RealClearPolitics, June 18, 2021)
“I expected that I was paying this fortune, all this time and energy, to learn how to think. But they [Columbia University professors] are forcing you to think the way they want you to think. I realized, wow, this is insane. I thought America was different, but I saw so many similarities to what I saw in North Korea that I started worrying.” – North Korean defector Yeonmi Park (27) told Fox News regarding her studies at Columbia University. She added that “she couldn’t believe she would be asked to do “this much censoring of myself” at a university in the United States. “I literally crossed the Gobi Desert to be free and I realized I’m not free. America’s not free.” Yeonmi Park fled North Korea at age 13 in 2007, a voyage that took her and her mother to China and South Korea before she went to school in New York in 2016. Her professors gave students “trigger warnings,” sharing the wording from readings in advance so people could opt out of reading or even sitting in class during discussions, Park told The Post. “Going to Columbia, the first thing I learned was ‘safe space,’” she said. (NY Post, June 14, 2021)
PA PREPARING TO RESUME TALKS WITH ISRAEL (Ramallah) — The Palestinian Authority (PA) is preparing to resume the diplomatic process with Israel because of pressure from the US administration. As part of the preparations, the head of PA intelligence, Colonel Majed Faraj, embarked on a series of talks with US security officials. Hussein A-Sheikh, the PA Minister of Civil Affairs, is expected to lead the Palestinian team during the talks, in place of Saeb Erekat, who died from the Coronavirus, as will PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki. (WIN, June 21, 2021)
AFTER DELAY, EU RELEASES REPORT DETAILING ANTISEMITISM, INCITEMENT TO VIOLENCE IN PALESTINIAN TEXTBOOKS (Brussels) — A European Union analysis of Palestinian textbooks was published Friday, following demands from European Parliament members to release the long-awaited report, as well as calls to withhold aid from the Palestinian Authority over violent and antisemitic incitement found in its educational materials. The report — produced by the Germany-based Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research — analyzed 156 textbooks and 16 teacher guides published between 2017 and 2019 by the Palestinian Ministry of Education, in a range of subjects. It found that PA textbooks trafficked in antisemitic tropes, removed previously-included references to Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements, and “glorified” as heroes terrorists convicted of killing Israelis. They also portrayed violence against civilians as part of a “narrative of resistance,” and conspicuously delegitimized Israel, erasing the Jewish state from maps and even avoiding mentioning its name. (Algemeiner, June 18, 2021)
THOMAS-GREENFIELD COMMITS TO REFORMING UNRWA AND U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS (Washington) — U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told legislators that the Biden administration is conducting strict oversight and pursuing reforms of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) as well as the U.N. Human Rights Council. Thomas- Greenfield praised UNRWA for what she described as unilateral actions to stop distribution of textbooks containing antisemitic and anti-Israel material. Marcus Sheff, CEO of IMPACT-se, an Israel-based NGO that monitors UNRWA educational materials, was skeptical of the U.N. agency’s efforts to reform its curricula but praised the U.S. for “working hard to deal with” the issue. (Jewish Insider, June 17, 2021)
HOUSE GOP MEMBERS TO PUSH FOR CENSURE OF ‘THE SQUAD’ OVER ISRAEL COMMENTS (Washington) — House Republicans are poised to introduce a resolution that censures members of the progressive “Squad,” over Rep. Ilhan Omar’s anti-Israel and anti-US remarks. This resolution is a rebuke to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held back from censoring her rather than spark a possible civil war among the Democrats. The measure — led by Reps. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Banks (R-Ind.) — comes less than a week after Omar (D-Minn.) tweeted, “we have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban.” The blowback was swift even within Omar’s own party, with 12 Jewish Democrats condemning her remarks, and Pelosi (D-Calif.) issuing a statement in conjunction with other leaders slapping down the lightning-rod comments. (NY Post, June 14, 2021)
SARAH SILVERMAN PRAISES ILHAN OMAR’S ‘SQUAD,’ GETS INVITED TO JOIN AS ‘PROGRESSIVE JEWESS’ (Washington) – Minnesota Rep Ilan Omar tweeted a photo of the progressive group of House representatives, which includes Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Rashida Tlaib (MI), Ayanna Pressley (MA) and Cori Bush (MO). Silverman commented on the image, saying: “Love this group!! You give me hope! (Wish there was a progressive Jewess in there … someday).” Omar responded, “You could run and join us,” along with a smiley face, Silverman replied: “my skeletons have skeletons.” On June 10, Omar “clarified” her recent comments on Twitter comparing Israel and the US to Hamas and the Taliban, after facing criticism from a group of Jewish House Democrats and others in Congress. (Algemeiner, June 18, 2021)
SENATORS RE-INTRODUCE BILL SUPPORTING STATE, LOCAL ANTI-BDS MEASURES (Washington) — Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) reintroduced a bill providing congressional support and guidelines for state- and local-level efforts to combat the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, after efforts to move the legislation forward in 2019 divided Democrats. (Jewish Insider, June 21, 2021)
ORTHODOX UNION, ALARMED BY CONGRESS’ REACTION TO GAZA CONFLICT, BRINGS CONSTITUENTS FACE TO FACE WITH THEIR LAWMAKERS (Washington) — The Orthodox Union is setting up meetings between members of Congress and Orthodox Jewish constituents who are alarmed by antisemitic incidents since last month’s Israel-Gaza conflict, and by what they see as Congress’ failure to have Israel’s back. So far, 87 constituents have met with the staff of 18 lawmakers from both parties in Alabama, Arizona, California, New Jersey and New York. The meetings are unusual because of who is present. Typically, meetings on constituent issues include staffers from lawmakers’ offices and, often, representatives of constituent groups. The O.U. meetings include rank-and-file constituents and, in most cases, the lawmakers themselves. Most meetings have been via Zoom, but at least one has been in person. (JTA, June 17, 2021)
OVER 180 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY FACULTY BACK RESEARCH TIES WITH ISRAEL AFTER CALL FOR BOYCOTT (NYC) — Over 180 Columbia University faculty members wrote an open letter supporting the university’s academic ties with Israel, on the heels of a call from others at the school to end relationships with Israeli institutions. Organized in early June by the Academic Engagement Network (AEN), a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit supporting education about Israel, the letter encouraged Columbia to build on research and teaching missions in the Jewish state. (Algemeiner, June 18, 2021)
MIAMI TO INVEST $1M IN ISRAELI BONDS IN GESTURE OF SOLIDARITY (Miami) — The city of Miami will invest $1 million into Israeli government bonds after commissioners voted unanimously to approve a resolution that came as a surprise even to the Israeli Consul General. Commissioner Joe Carollo proposed the investment as a pocket item during a meeting of the Miami City Commission, telling the public the investment will serve as a “small token of our support for Israel and our appreciation for the warm friendship and support that we have had from so many Israelis and their contribution to our community.” The money will come from surplus funds. (Miami Herald, June 10, 2021)
GERMAN CEO TO 16,000 EMPLOYEES: ACCEPT ISRAELI FLAG FLYING OR FIND NEW JOB (Berlin) — When some employees at Europe’s largest digital publishing house complained about an Israeli flag flown in solidarity with the Jewish State outside company headquarters, the CEO replied with a blunt message to the entire worldwide staff. “I think, and I’m being very frank with you, a person who has an issue with an Israeli flag being raised for one week here, after anti-Semitic demonstrations, should look for a new job,” Mathias Doepfner, CEO of Axel Springer told his 16,000 employees worldwide in a video conference. The Berlin-based publishing house is Europe’s largest, owning prominent magazines and web sites such as Bild, Die Welt, Business Insider and Politico Europe. (United With Israel, June 22, 2021)
TOP CHINESE SPY ‘DEFECTS TO US TO SPILL WUHAN LAB SECRETS’ (Washington) — One of China’s top spies is said to have defected to the United States and possibly handed the intelligence agencies information backing the theory that coronavirus escaped from a laboratory. Dong Jingwei, 57, the deputy minister for state security in Beijing, is rumoured to have arrived in the US with his daughter in February, after first flying to Hong Kong. If confirmed, he would be the highest ranking official ever to switch sides between China and America. (The Times, June 20, 2021)
CONSERVATIVE: DC MAYOR FRAMED TRUMP (Washington) — Last summer, the media blamed then-President Donald Trump when authorities used tear gas to clear protesters from a street near the White House — but new reports confirm DC’s liberal mayor, Muriel Bowser, was the one responsible. She “allowed Trump to take the blame for what her police forces had done,” The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway wrote. Bowser, in fact, instigated the “hysterical reaction from anti-Trump forces” that “contributed to a widespread breakdown in law and order throughout the summer.” She even resisted assistance from federal law enforcement, saying she was “in control of the situation” one day before the January Capitol riots. It is only natural to wonder how much of the “billions of dollars in destruction, dozens of killings, a ripping of the fabric of society, and a general breakdown of law and order” were made worse by the “dangerous propaganda spewed by the corrupt press,” Hemingway muses. (NY Post, June 17, 2021)
Rosie Abella Said She’d Answer Questions When She Turned 75: Paul Wells, MacLeans, June 15, 2021 — On the last Friday morning of the spring session of the Supreme Court of Canada, the chamber was nearly empty.
EXCLUSIVE: Chinese Defector’s Identity Confirmed, Was Top Counterintelligence Official: Jennifer Van Laar, Red State, June 17, 2021 — We now know the name of the Chinese defector RedState first wrote about on June 4, who has been working with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) for a few months, and what his position within the Chinese military and government was, among other details.
In celebration of St. Jean Baptise, a national Quebec holiday,the Daily Briefing will not be distributed tomorrow Thur. June 24th.
