Victor Davis Hanson on Impeachment and the ‘Cancer’ of Woke Ideology | American Thought Leaders: Epoch Times, Feb. 9, 2021
In this episode, we sit down with classicist and historian Victor Davis Hanson to discuss the rise of critical social justice and woke ideology, growing limits on freedom of speech, and his take on the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.
WEEKLY QUOTES
“As a practical matter, the control of the Golan in that situation … remains of real importance to Israel’s security. Legal questions are something else, and over time, if the situation were to change in Syria, that’s something we look at, but we are nowhere near that.” — U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken to CNN news anchor Wolf Blitzer. “The Golan Heights will remain forever a part of the State of Israel. The Israeli position is clear. In any possible scenario, the Golan Heights will remain Israeli.” – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responding to Blinken’s comments. (JNS, Feb. 9, 2021)
“Nothing will change the fact that the ICC lacks both legal jurisdiction and competence to rule on the rights of the sides to the conflict and that its decision yesterday disregards both facts and law. We are far from saying our last words on this issue.” — Nitsana Darshan Leitner, founder and president of Shurat HaDin, in response to the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) decision that paves the way for Israel to be investigated for “war crimes.” (Arutz Sheva, Feb .6, 2021)
“If there will be a new agreement that will endanger the very existence of the state of Israel — what do you think we are going to do, pray? No; we are going to defend ourselves in any way that will be effective,” — Israeli cabinet minister Tzachi Hanegbi on the German outlet Deutsche Welle. He answered Conflict Zone host Tim Sebastian who asked if Israel would act alone against the threat of a nuclear Iran. (Algemeiner, Feb. 5, 2021)
“The Jerusalem Clock is hidden in London today,” Fatah, the political movement behind the PLO and the Palestinian Authority, asserts in a post titled “Jerusalem Stolen Clock.” It goes on to claim that the British military ordered the clock tower dismantled. Then the “British moved the clock first to a new tower across from the municipality of Jerusalem, and transferred it to the British Museum in London, to become the famous British icon, ‘Big Ben.’” How did Big Ben, which was built in 1859, become a Muslim clock tower from the 20th century? There are some other slight differences between London’s Big Ben and the “stolen clock,” such as the fact that Big Ben is 316 feet tall while the “Palestinian” clock tower was only 42 feet. But the story of the “Palestinian clock” is also the story of the entire myth of “Palestine.” – Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, and investigative journalist and writer. (JNS, Feb. 2, 2021)
“The brief filed by the House managers advocating for the conviction and disqualification of citizen Donald Trump contains an attack on freedom of speech for all Americans…. Why is this historic point so important now? Because the argument made by the House impeachment managers that the First Amendment does not apply to presidents or others who “attack our democracy” was precisely the argument made by Joseph McCarthy and his followers in the 1950s, when they tried to deny First Amendment protection to communists and others who were viewed as enemies of democracy and who, if they had come to power, would have denied the rest of us our freedom. … Impeachment is not, as the House managers claim, “fundamentally an employment action.” It is an interference with democracy that can result in a small number of elected officials removing an elected president and denying the public the right to vote for him in a future election. To fail to understand this difference is to fail to understand the Constitution.” – Lawyer Alan Dershowitz on why this second impeachment trial against citizen Donald J. Trump is not constitutional. (The Hill, Feb. 4, 2021)
“It’s a mess. It’s a shambles. It’s an embarrassment. It is the worst ever by any reasonable measurement. Judging by their performance on the most important files, the current bunch in Ottawa would need to hire a consultant to figure out how to get wet in a thunderstorm, and set up a task force to study how to tie their own shoes. Look around you. Canada is in the biggest, most persistent and threatening crisis since — well since ever. The long-term care homes are under a blizzard of mortality. There is heartbreak in every small business in the country. The worry and anxiety level of most everyday citizens — especially those not shielded by uninterrupted cheques from provincial and federal governments, and those not serving as a member of a legislature — is at an all-time high. This rich, sophisticated, technologically advanced and altruistic country of ours is the only G7 nation raiding vaccine supplies intended for “developing countries.” As some droll Twitter feed offered, it’s as if the many-mansioned denizens of Toronto’s Forest Hill were making raids on the food banks, and soaking up all the Canadian Tire money.” – Columnist Rex Murphy on the Trudeau government’s inability to cope with the coronavirus. (National Post, Feb. 5, 2021)
“The Americans know this and are currently vaccinating more people each day than Canada has in total to-date. At this pace they are on track to soon vaccinate more than one entire Canada, while our doctors’ office shelves sit empty…. As we get lapped by other countries in the race to vaccinate, global capital will follow the new leaders. This is a huge missed opportunity as attracting foreign capital is a much better way of transforming an economy than printing money to buy government issued debt issued to fund major fiscal spending programs. Let’s hope that this isn’t Trudeau’s idea of building back better.” — Martin Pelletier, portfolio manager at Wellington-Altus Private Counsel Inc. (Financial Post, Feb. 8, 2021)
US SENATE MAINTAINS EMBASSY IN JERUSALEM IN NEAR-UNANIMOUS STIMULUS PACKAGE AMENDMENT (Washington)
The US Senate approved an amendment to Friday’s COVID-19 relief package that pledges to keep the US Embassy to Israel in Jerusalem, reaffirming the 2018 decision by former President Donald Trump to relocate it from Tel Aviv. The amendment, included a Covid rebate package, passed by a 97-3 vote, with only Senators Tom Carper (D-DE), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (D-VT) voting against it. The broader pandemic relief measure passed narrowly, 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote. (Algemeiner, Feb. 5, 2021)
NEW ISRAELI DRUG MAY BE WORLD’S FIRST TO SUCCESSFULLY TREAT COVID-19 (Tel Aviv)
The drug EXO-CD24, a cancer drug is based on a biological protein normally associated with cancer research that is known to calm the body’s immune system. Ichilov Hospital researchers discovered that it successfully treats patients who are seriously ill with Covid – 19. The treatment developed by Professor Nadir Arber of the Integrated Cancer Prevention Center at the hospital was tested on 30 patients in moderate and serious condition suffering from the virus with a 95% positive result. (World Israel News, Feb. 5, 2021)
‘GOOD VIBES’: ISRAEL, US LAUNCH JOINT ‘JUNIPER FALCON’ MILITARY DRILL (Jerusalem)
About 1,000 American and Israeli soldiers are holding a joint military exercise focusing on training the two air and ground forces to work together. After two decades, this might be the last time the biennial Juniper-Falcon exercise is held after outgoing President Donald Trump issued an order transferring Israel from being under USEUCOM to the Central Command (CENTCOM) area that is centered in the Middle East. (United With Israel, Feb. 4, 2021)
IRANIAN PLOT TO BOMB ISRAELI EMBASSY IN EAST AFRICA THWARTED BY WESTERN INTELLIGENCE (East Africa)
An Iranian plan to attack an Israeli embassy in East Africa was thwarted last month. According to reports, Tehran sent Iranian agents, some of whom also hold European citizenship, to an unnamed East African country to scope out the Israeli embassy for a potential attack. The U.S. embassy and the United Arab Emirates embassy in the same country were also scouted out as potential targets. (World Israel News, Feb. 2, 2021)
BIDEN’S ASST SECRETARY OF STATE WORKED FOR QATAR, PUSHED FOR DEAL WITH HAMAS (Washington)
“I was inspired by the Palestinian intifada,” Hady Amr wrote a year after September 11, discussing his work as the national coordinator of the anti-Israel Middle East Justice Network. “I have news for every Israeli,” Amr ranted in one column written after Sheikh Salah Shahada, the head of Hamas’ Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was taken out by an Israeli air strike. Biden has now chosen Amr as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israel-Palestine (World Israel News, Feb. 4, 2021)
US CONGRESSMAN FORCED TO RETRACT LIE THAT ISRAEL ‘BURNT DOWN’ PALESTINIAN VILLAGES (Washington)
In an interview on MSNBC about Biden administration foreign policy, Democratic Congressman Ro Kahann of California said that Israel was an ally of the U.S., but then made the false accusation that Israel was “burning down” Palestinian villages. Called out by a reporter from The Times of Israel, Khanna tried to clean up his comment, but kept his aggressive anti-Israel stance. (United With Israel, Feb. 7, 2021)
GEORGE SHULTZ, SECRETARY OF STATE WHO PRESSED FOR FREEDOM FOR REFUSENIKS, DIES AT 100 (Stanford)
George Shultz, the Reagan administration secretary of state who made it his mission to bring about freedom for Soviet Jewry, has died at 100. Shultz was a moderate Republican who in several economic Cabinet positions during the Nixon presidency advanced affirmative action as redress for discrimination. (JTA, Feb. 8, 2021)
PARIS ADOPTS IHRA DEFINITION OF ANTI-SEMITISM (Paris)
The Council of Paris, led by Mayor Anne Hidalgo, adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism. The move by Paris comes ahead of the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement’s Global Mayor’s Summit on March 16. (JNS, Feb. 5, 2021)
FRENCH CHIEF RABBI CLASHES WITH FELLOW COMMUNAL LEADERS IN DEBATE OVER FRANCE’S JEWISH FUTURE (Paris)
French Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia has long argued that his community is inseparable from the wider French society, which he insists will overcome its many challenges, including the anti-Semitism that has driven thousands of French Jews to seek a more secure existence in Israel. But this hopeful messag is coming under fire from prominent French Jews who accuse the chief rabbi of failing to recognize a bitter reality and unfairly faulting those who choose to leave. The debate, set off by a controversial and deeply pessimistic op-ed in the mainstream community weekly Actualite Juive, has dragged into the open a conversation about the fate of French Jewish life that more commonly takes place behind closed doors. (JTA, Feb. 5, 2021)
COPS IN POLAND QUESTION EDITOR OF JEWISH WEBSITE OVER ARTICLE ON POLISH COMPLICITY WITH NAZI PERSECUTION (Warsaw)
Katarzyna Markusz, the editor of Jewish.pl, a website devoted to Jewish life in Poland was questioned by Polish police, following an anonymous complaint concerning an article the journalist and academic wrote about Polish complicity with the Nazi persecution of the country’s 3 million Jews during World War II. (Algemeiner, Feb. 5, 2021)
CANADIAN JEWS DENOUNCE ‘OBSCENE ABUSE’ OF JUSTICE SYSTEM AS ALLEGED NAZI WAR CRIMINAL AGAIN DELAYS DEPORTATION HEARING (Ottawa)
Canadian Jewish organizations reacted furiously to a further delay in a deportation hearing for an alleged Nazi war criminal who served with a death squad unit responsible for the murder of more than 90,000 people in Russia and Ukraine during World War II. In a legal wrangle that lasted for more than 25 years, Helmut Oberlander — who is now 96 — had his Canadian citizenship stripped on four separate occasions by lower courts, but those decisions were reversed in three appeals. Last December, Canada’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal to restore his citizenship, which Oberlander obtained in 1960, paving the way for his final deportation. But Oberlander’s legal team successfully secured a delay until at least next month of any deportation hearing. (Algemeiner, Feb. 8, 2021)
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PANEL TELLS GRADUATE STUDENTS’ UNION TO STOP FUNDING DISCRIMINATORY BDS (Toronto)
In a ruling announced on Thursday, the University of Toronto said it would require the Graduate Students’ Union to stop forcing students to fund the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. It was the first time a Canadian university has intervened to stop a student group from promoting BDS. The Complaint and Resolution Council for Student Societies (CRCSS), a university organization, had received a complaint in February 2020 about the BDS committee on the student group. (Algemeiner, Feb. 5, 2021)
REVEALED: TRUDEAU STAFF DISCUSSED KEEPING COVID RESPONSE INFORMATION SECRET FROM CANADIANS (Ottawa)
Newly leaked emails show that senior staffers in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office spoke privately with the staffers of Liberal cabinet minister about how to keep information on the COVID response secret from Canadians. The emails stem from June, 2020. The government is alleged to have been intentionally vague and unspecific in their communication to the public about the obtaining of supplies, and to curb public critique of their efforts. The email exchanges reveal that government liability was a primary concern. (Post Millennial, Feb. 7, 2021)
BREAKING: THOSE ENTERING CANADA VIA LAND BORDER WITHOUT NEGATIVE COVID TEST COULD FACE $3,000 FINES (Ottawa)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that as of February 15, those entering Canada through a land border will need to show a 72-hour PCR test with negative results. Trudeau said that those without a negative PCR test for non-essential travel could be fined up to $3,000, per person. The measures mirror those for international travel by air, a measure which has been in place since early January. (Post Millennial, Feb. 9, 2021)
AIR CANADA CUTS 1,500 JOBS AS TRUDEAU TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS TAKE TOLL ON AIRLINE INDUSTRY (Ottawa)
Air Canada has announced that they are cutting 1,500 jobs and suspending over a dozen international flight routes as government-imposed travel restrictions continue to cost the airline industry, Global News reports. (Post Millennial, Feb. 9, 2021)
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