Latest Analysis and Commentary
by Alan M. Dershowitz • August 16, 2022 at 5:00 am
The American Civil Liberties Union, which has repeatedly challenged the constitutionality and applicability of the Espionage Act to anti-government activities by left-wing radicals, is strangely silent when the same overbroad law is deployed against a political figure whose politics they deplore. Then there is the manner by which Trump loyalists have been treated when they were indicted. Several have been arrested, handcuffed and shackled, despite not having been charged with crimes of violence and despite the absence of evidence that they were planning to flee... [M]ost other comparable defendants are simply notified of the charges and ordered to appear in court. Yet despite this apparent double standard, the left has been silent. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland commendably stated that the Justice Department is dedicated to the "evenhanded application of the law." But recent applications of the law suggest otherwise. "Due process for me but not for thee" seems to have replaced the equal protection of the law as the guiding principle. Perhaps the most glaring manifestation of the double standard currently at work is the different approach taken to the alleged mishandling of classified material by Trump, on the one hand, and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, on the other hand. No wide-ranging search warrants were sought for Clinton's home, where private servers were apparently kept and subpoenaed material even possibly destroyed. Equal justice for Democrats and Republicans must not only be done; it must be seen to be done. There must be one law, and one application of law, for all comparable acts and persons. There must also be one standard of civil liberties — and complaints about their violation — by principled civil libertarians. This unacceptable double standard is so widespread that it endangers the rule of law and the historic role of neutral, non-partisan civil liberties that protect it from partisan weaponization.
Civil liberties require a single standard without regard to party, ideology or person. This great tradition has not been evident when it comes to the treatment of Donald Trump. A double standard has been manifested in a number of ways. (Image source: iStock)
Civil liberties require a single standard without regard to party, ideology or person. The right of Nazis to their despicable free speech must be protected with the same vigor as the right of Salman Rushdie. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in particular, and good civil libertarians in general, used to live by that creed. That is what makes them different from special pleaders who limit their advocacy to those who agree or identify with them. This great tradition — that led John Adams to defend the hated British soldiers who were accused of the Boston massacre and led the old ACLU to defend the right of Nazis to march through Skokie, Illinois — has not been evident when it comes to the treatment of Donald Trump. A double standard has been manifested in a number of ways.
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by J.B. Shurk • August 16, 2022 at 4:00 am
To insist that grown adults lack the ability to make consequential life choices is to insist that they be infantilized for the rest of their lives. Parents have every right to balance the costs of missed educational opportunities for school-aged children against the risks of illness. American adults are entirely qualified to judge for themselves whether masks, gloves, or full body hazmat suits are necessary for day-to-day existence. And individual Americans are intellectually capable of determining whether they wish to be injected with novel mRNA vaccines. To insist that grown adults lack the ability to make consequential life choices is to insist that they be infantilized for the rest of their lives. To believe Americans cannot, or should not, make their own health decisions is to steal from them their personal agency and render them completely dependent upon government directives. Such a system elevates bureaucratic authority and enslaves the citizen to the State. That type of total government control is the hallmark of authoritarian and totalitarian societies. It has absolutely no place, however, in any nation that regards itself as a bastion for personal freedom.
To believe Americans cannot, or should not, make their own health decisions is to steal from them their personal agency and render them completely dependent upon government directives. Pictured: Dr. Anthony Fauci prepares to testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, June 30, 2020. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
COVID-19 mitigation czar and mask scold Dr. Anthony Fauci recently bemoaned Americans' increased reluctance to "adhere" to public health restrictions. Blaming "fatigue," "political divisiveness," and "social media misinformation and disinformation," the good doctor seemed quite upset that Americans no longer readily comply with every policy recommendation coming from his office. Where officials command and citizens comply, however, "expert" opinion smothers personal choice. That is hardly the American way.
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by Khaled Abu Toameh • August 15, 2022 at 5:00 am
"The US has started packing its bags to leave the Middle East. It is no longer able to impose maximum pressure on us." — Major General Hossein Salami, commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, August 4, 2022. Like their patrons in Tehran, these proxies are all staunchly committed to the destruction of Israel and the killing of as many Jews as possible. PIJ continues to threaten and attack Israel, while Hezbollah and the Houthis are doing their utmost to destabilize security and stability in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Syria and the Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia. In a clear warning to the Biden administration, the Arabs are stressing that the Americans are mistaken to think that Iran will change its dangerous policies and actions once it reaches a new nuclear deal with the US and the other world powers, including the European Union. "Today, Lebanon is not suffering from war as much as it is suffering from Iranian occupation through Hezbollah, which threatens the collapse of the country as a whole. We are facing an Iranian political fantasy from which the region has gained nothing but devastation and destruction, whether in Gaza, Lebanon, or Syria, as well as Yemen and Iraq." — Tareq al-Hamid, former editor-in-chief of the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat; aawast.com, August 7, 2022. "Western countries continue to bet on Iran's so-called moderation and demand that it change its behavior, reduce its regional influence, and abandon its ballistic missile program. This is an impossible task, regardless of any deal presented to Tehran. Hostility to America is one of the foundations of the Islamic Revolution. Spreading the Islamic Revolution in the region is the task of the Islamic Republic. Iran's strength is not only with weapons, the Revolutionary Guards, and the army, but also with influence in the region. Iran's destabilizing behavior in the region is the highest priority in Iranian policy-making." — Rafik Khoury, veteran Lebanese journalist, independentarabia.com, July 27, 2022. "These armed groups are working in Iran's interests. In return, they are rewarded [with weapons and money] for serving Iranian interests." — Dr. Jassim Khalfan, Emirati political analyst, posts.com, August 7, 2022. "The [Palestinian] groups just provide services to those who pay them. Wars by proxy and working for external agendas have destroyed the Arab world and many countries...." — Dr. Talal Al-Sharif, former member of Jordan's Parliament, amad.ps, August 8, 2022. At this point, one has to ask if the Biden administration is negotiating with Iran and offering it billions of dollars simply not to attack Israel until President Joe Biden's term is over in another two-to-six years. Once again, the Biden administration's irresolution has only served to embolden the terrorists and their masters in Tehran, as well as the Russians and the Chinese Communist Party.
Arab political analysts see this month's fighting between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) as part of the Iranian mullahs' ongoing efforts to increase their influence in the Middle East by arming and funding Islamist terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Pictured: PIJ gunmen in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on August 8, 2022. (Photo by Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images)
The recent war between Israel and the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) organization in the Gaza Strip should be seen, according to several Arab political analysts and authors, in the context of Tehran's mullahs' attempts to force the Biden administration to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. By unleashing Islamic Jihad against Israel, the mullahs are apparently trying to tell the Biden Administration, "You see what we are capable of doing? We have a number of militias and armed groups that could attack Israel and Arab countries. Hurry up and give us (Iran) everything we want before it is too late. Remove the Revolutionary Guard from the list of foreign terrorists. Give us billions of dollars or else we will continue to attack America's Arab and Israeli friends. Hurry up and sign a new nuclear deal with us or else we will be angry at the US and we will continue to attack Israel and kill Jews."
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by Raymond Ibrahim • August 14, 2022 at 5:00 am
The Christians of Nigeria are, in fact, being purged in a genocide, according to several NGOs. Every two hours, one Christian there is killed. "Heavily armed bandits, many of whom are said to be ethnic Fulanis, are waging their own form of Jihad; killing, abducting and terrorizing worship centers and educational institutions owned by churches as well as impoverished communities in the North and Middle Belt regions." — Vanguardngr.com. June 19, 2022, Nigeria. The Biden administration's response to the jihadist onslaught against Christians in Nigeria...has been to remove Nigeria from the State Department's list of Countries of Particular Concern: nations that engage in, or tolerate, violations of religious freedom. "The landlocked Sahel state [Burkina Faso], one of the world's poorest countries, is in the grip of a nearly seven-year-old jihadist insurgency. Thousands of people have died and nearly two million have been driven from their homes." — Guardian.ng, June 28, 2022, Burkina Faso. "Amoti came to our home very early in the morning and needed to know more of Issa [Jesus], whom she had seen in a dream.... she willingly accepted Jesus for the salvation of her soul..... then together we went to church in Nansana." When she arrived home, her father "...ordered his sons to seize and beat her, then took a sharp knife and pierced her eyes," one of her brothers who had tried to defend her later said. "I want to remove these eyes so that you stop seeing churches forever—even if you die, we are not going to bury you," her Muslim father said. — Morning Star News, June 14, 2022, Uganda. "After Bashir was ousted from 30 years of power in April 2019, the transitional civilian-military government... outlawed the labeling of any religious group "infidels" and thus effectively rescinded apostasy laws that made leaving Islam punishable by death. With the Oct. 25 [2021] coup, Christians in Sudan fear the return of the most repressive and harsh aspects of Islamic law." — Morning Star News, June 20 2022, Sudan. On June 6, a 15-year-old Christian girl told a court how she was kidnapped and raped by a Muslim accused of abducting and forcibly converting her to Islam and marrying her. — Morning Star News, June 7, 2022, Pakistan. June 14 report tells the story of Rehmat Masih, a Christian man who, despite there being no evidence, "has been in prison for five months in a new fabricated blasphemy case. He is accused of profaning and desecrating the pages of the Koran, but in reality he allegedly simply refused an offer to change religion.... on January 3, "police arrested Rehmat Masih, accusing him of committing blasphemy and tortured him severely" in an effort to make him admit to desecrating the Koran, an offence punishable by life imprisonment under Section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code. On January 19, 2022, a bail application was filed for the defendant, but the judge rejected it. Rehmat has been in prison since, awaiting his trial. — asanews.it, June 14, 2022, Pakistan.
The Christians of Nigeria are being purged in a genocide, according to several NGOs. Every two hours, one Christian there is killed. On Pentecost Sunday, June 5, terrorists stormed the St. Francis Catholic Church in Ondo State, Nigeria and massacred about 50 Christians who were peacefully worshipping their God. Pictured: State officials walk past wounded victims from St. Francis Catholic Church, on June 5, 2022. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
The following are among the abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of June 2022: The Muslim Slaughter of Christians Nigeria: On Pentecost Sunday, June 5, terrorists stormed the St. Francis Catholic Church in Ondo and massacred about 50 Christians who were peacefully worshipping their God. Videos, according to one report, "showed church worshippers lying in pools of blood while people around them wailed." Western media presented the attack as a baffling aberration for Nigeria, arguing, as the AP did, that "It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack on the church." Not once did the AP even mention the words "Muslim," "Islam," or "Islamist," in their determined attempt to ignore the fact that Islamic terrorists have routinely stormed churches and slaughtered many Christians over the years in Nigeria — for instance here, here, and here.
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by Amir Taheri • August 14, 2022 at 4:00 am
Last June Khamenei himself spoke of the "need to open a new front in the West Bank against the Zionist enemy". Reliable sources in Baghdad say that the Quds Force has been "transiting" significant quantities of arms and cash via Iraq to Jordan, to be smuggled to the West Bank. The Jordanian authorities say they are aware of these "hostile activities"'. King Abdullah himself has publicly called on Iran to cease "destabilizing activities". Supporters of "pre-emptive initiative" speak of a triple alliance in which the Islamic Republic, the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation work together to drive the US and its allies out of Eurasia, eastern Europe and the western Pacific, bringing almost a century of "American hegemony" to an end. In such a scenario, Taiwan, Ukraine and Israel must not remain as bases for the American "hegemon" and its European and regional allies. All three, each in its own way, also pose threats to China, Russia and Iran's authoritarian systems by offering models for pluralist democracy and liberal capitalism. It is clear that some dangerous pipe-dreamers in Beijing, Moscow and Tehran have fallen for the phantasmagoric vision of, "three great powers" banding together and with help from "the rest", that is to say, the so-called Third World, as Kayhan says, to destroy an international system created by the "corrupt and decadent". [P]rudence demands preparing for even the improbable.
Iran's supporters of "pre-emptive initiative" speak of a triple alliance in which the Islamic Republic, the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation work together to drive the US and its allies out of Eurasia, eastern Europe and the western Pacific, bringing almost a century of "American hegemony" to an end. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Iran's then President Hassan Rouhani in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on June 14, 2019. (Photo by Vyacheslav Oseledko/AFP via Getty Images)
In his meeting in Tehran with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Islamic Republic's "Supreme Guide" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised what he called "Your Excellency's pre-emptive initiative" in launching "Special Operations " against Ukraine. He claimed that if Putin had not invaded Ukraine, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) would have started a war against Russia to regain control of the Crimean Peninsula. Although later removed from the official media in Iran, the remarks started a debate in Tehran's decision-making circles about the Islamic Republic adopting a similar strategy by going on the offensive against its "enemies". Supporters of that view have been further encouraged by China's military demonstrations against Taiwan. Fars News, controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, claims the latest showdown on Taiwan had led to "total humiliation" for the United States.
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by Majid Rafizadeh • August 13, 2022 at 5:00 am
When the regime's television host asked him about the video showing concrete being poured into the Arak reactor's pipes to block them, Ali Akbar Salehi, former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran responded: "[N]ot the pipes you see here. We had purchased similar pipes, but I couldn't announce it at that time.... We needed to be smart." — Iran Focus, August 2, 2022. In addition, during the deal, several reports, later proven to be accurate, warned that Iran was conducting secret nuclear activities. Now, thanks to the Biden administration's focus on reviving the nuclear deal... the Iranian regime bought time by dragging out the negotiations long enough to reach the nuclear threshold. Regrettably, it looks as though the Biden administration and Europe -- through their endless concessions and a staggering lack of deterrence -- are still trying to force-feed the world a hostile Iran, armed with nuclear weapons. One can only assume that the Biden administration is hoping to bribe the mullahs with up to a trillion dollars just not to bomb Israel while he is still president. Meaning that afterwards would be splendid? Not only are deals such as the Biden or Obama nuclear deal failing to halt the predatory regime of Iran from advancing its nuclear program and possessing nuclear weapons, it actually facilitates Iran's going nuclear by legitimizing its weapons.
Believing that the ruling mullahs of Iran will halt their nuclear advancement with a deal is laughable. The 2015 nuclear deal required that the core of the Arak nuclear reactor would be filled with concrete and disabled. When asked about the video showing concrete being poured into the reactor's pipes to block them, Ali Akbar Salehi, former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran responded: "[N]ot the pipes you see here. We had purchased similar pipes, but I couldn't announce it at that time.... We needed to be smart." Pictured: Salehi delivers a speech at the Bushehr power plant, on November 10, 2019. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)
The Biden administration has spent all its political capital to resurrect the nuclear deal -- presumably to perpetuate the idea that a nuclear agreement with the Iranian regime will stop Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, believing that the ruling mullahs of Iran will halt their nuclear advancement with a deal is laughable. The Iranian regime has even boasted about its shrewd policy of deceiving and misleading the international community during the previous nuclear deal. One of terms of the 2015 nuclear deal, for instance, was that the core of the Arak nuclear reactor would be filled with concrete and disabled. Iran, according to the country's Fars news agency, claimed that it had poured in the concrete and destroyed the reactor core. The US State Department, during the Obama-Biden administration, confirmed the move as well.
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by Soeren Kern • August 12, 2022 at 5:00 am
A Belgian court has temporarily prohibited the Belgian government from exchanging an Iranian diplomat convicted of terrorism for a Belgian citizen being held in Iran on dubious charges of espionage. The court's ruling represents a potential blow to a controversial new prisoner exchange treaty, which critics say will embolden the Iranian government to step up its practice of taking foreigners hostage to pressure Western countries into making concessions. The treaty has angered those who argue that it would grant impunity to Iranian agents such as Assadi and have accused the Belgian government of caving in to "odious blackmail." It has been variously described as: "frightening appeasement," "a green light to terrorists," and "very short-sighted," "dangerous," "outrageous," "a sign of weakness," "a stunning mistake," and "a deal with the devil." "If the Belgian government proceeds with this treaty, Iran's regime will further turn Europe into a roaming ground for its terrorists, targeting not just Iranian dissidents but others also, as Tehran is essentially being told that it won't pay a price." — Ramesh Sepehrrad, Organization of Iranian American Communities, July 5, 2022. "With the knowledge that prisoner swaps are an easy option, Tehran will now instruct more 'diplomats' and other operatives to engage in terrorism.... Europe must recognize that, ultimately, the only sustainable path to having a stable relationship with Iran is to support the Iranian people's democratic aspirations." — Cameron Khansarinia and Kaveh Shahrooz, Politico, August 1, 2022.
A Belgian court has temporarily prohibited the Belgian government from exchanging an Iranian diplomat convicted of terrorism for a Belgian citizen being held in Iran on dubious charges of espionage. Iran is suspected of holding Olivier Vandecasteele hostage to force Belgium to release Assadollah Assadi, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence in Belgium for masterminding a plot to bomb a rally of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which took place near Paris in 2018. Pictured: Police guard the courthouse during Assadi's trial in Antwerp, on February 4, 2021. (Photo by Dirk Waem/Belga/AFP via Getty Images)
A Belgian court has temporarily prohibited the Belgian government from exchanging an Iranian diplomat convicted of terrorism for a Belgian citizen being held in Iran on dubious charges of espionage. The court's ruling represents a potential blow to a controversial new prisoner exchange treaty, which critics say will embolden the Iranian government to step up its practice of taking foreigners hostage to pressure Western countries into making concessions. On July 20, after months of heated debate, Belgian lawmakers voted 79 to 41 (with 11 abstentions) to approve the "Convention between the Kingdom of Belgium and the Islamic Republic of Iran on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons." The Belgian government said the agreement, the first of its kind in Europe, is the only possible way to free Olivier Vandecasteele, a 41-year-old Belgian aid worker who has been held in solitary confinement at Tehran's notorious Evin Prison since his arrest on February 24.
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by Con Coughlin • August 11, 2022 at 7:00 am
Russia's invasion of Ukraine, moreover, provides a timely illustration of what can happen when the West does not take sufficient action to safeguard the security of its allies. In February, for example, the US approved a $100 million support package to improve the island's missile defences, which were designed to improve its Patriot missile defence system. But bureaucratic wrangling in Washington means Taipei has still to receive the support it needs. Consequently, now that Beijing has provided the West with its military template for intimidating Taiwan, this has provided the US and its allies with an indication of the military defences, such as anti-missile, anti-aircraft and anti-warship missiles, to thwart any future Chinese attack. So if Washington, as the Biden administration keeps insisting, is really serious about defending Taiwan from Chinese aggression, then it should get off the fence and abandon its confused policy of "strategic ambiguity" in favour of one that will deter future acts of Chinese aggression against this freedom-loving island state.
China's extreme military response to Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan sends an unequivocal message to the US that it can no longer sustain its policy of "strategic ambiguity." Pictured: A Communist Chinese military jet flies over Pingtan island, one of China's closest points to Taiwan, in Fujian province on August 6, 2022. (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)
China's extreme military response to Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan sends an unequivocal message to the US that it can no longer sustain its policy of "strategic ambiguity." At a time when the very existence of the democratic island state is under threat from China's communist rulers, what Taipei badly needs is unconditional declarations of support from its Western allies, not the diplomatic equivalent of sitting on the fence, which essentially sums up the Biden administration's inadequate response to date. Although the Chinese military committed numerous violations to Taiwan's territorial integrity in the days immediately following Pelosi's visit, the Biden administration shows no sign of abandoning the policy of "strategic ambiguity" that has defined Washington's approach to the Taiwan issue for decades.
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by Mohshin Habib • August 11, 2022 at 4:00 am
Samin Ehsani had been running educational courses for Afghan children living in Iran, but who did not have access to education in the country. During the trial, her activities were presented as an example of the charges against her. In Iran, an estimated 300,000 followers of the Baha'i faith are being denied many fundamental rights such as access to education, employment, political office, and practice of their religious rituals. Iran's clerical regime evidently considers the Baha'is to be heretics and as having no religion. Baha'is consider Baha'ullah as a messenger in succession to Buddha, Jesus and Mohammed. For that, no other religion or state suppress them except Iran.
From the early 1980s, Baha'is in Iran have suffered under a wave of state-sponsored persecution. Hundreds of Baha'i leaders and notable figures have been killed and imprisoned by the Iranian authorities. (Image source: iStock)
On June 15, 2022, Samin Ehsani, a follower of the Baha'i faith and an activist for children's rights in Iran was arrested and transferred to the infamous Evin Prison in Tehran. Earlier, on July 2, 2011, Ehsani had also been sentenced by Branch 28 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran to five years in prison on charges of "propaganda against the regime, acting against national security, and being a member of the heretical Baha'i faith."
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by Lawrence Kadish • August 10, 2022 at 10:00 am
Why is President Joe Biden depleting America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve just when the US should be enlarging it? Why does the Biden administration seem as if it is trying to weaken America just at a time when China is becoming increasingly more aggressive? Pictured: Gasoline prices listed in Los Angeles, California on July 19, 2022. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)
The Biden administration in April sanctioned the sale of our nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve to the highest bidder. They have done so under the logic that putting more oil on the global market at a time when Russia has an energy stranglehold on Europe could force down the pump price of gasoline. One could ask, as Congressional mid-term elections loom, and the price of gas soared to five dollars a gallon, has the White House made a strategic energy decision based on politics rather than on what is in the best security interests of our nation -- because the country that is among the high bidders for our oil reserves is China. This is the China that has obliterated Tibet. This is the China that practices slavery, torture in internment camps, forced labor, child labor and organ-harvesting on live detainees. This is the China that has choked democracy in Hong Kong. This is the China that threatens the freedom of 23 million Taiwanese.
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by Gordon G. Chang • August 10, 2022 at 5:00 am
Russia and China have launched another attempt to develop a "new global reserve currency." In other words, they are again attacking the dollar. There is only one country that can dethrone the dollar, and it is not a BRICS nation. It is the United States. President Joe Biden is China's and Russia's biggest ally in "dedollarizing" the world. Russia's ruble, although showing surprising strength of late, is tied to a country in long-term—and seemingly irreversible—decline. Moreover, the Russian Federation, thanks to its aggression and barbarism in Ukraine, is cementing its role as a pariah. Who wants to hold a weak Chinese currency that is racing toward the edge of the cliff? Furthermore, Xi Jinping, the Chinese ruler, believes in "absolute" control of every aspect of society. The idea of free convertibility, therefore, is almost certainly anathema to him. So until China completely abandons its model of economic development and removes Xi as ruler, the renminbi cannot dethrone the dollar. The Chinese failure to make their currency widely acceptable means, as a practical matter, the BRICS currency will never get off the ground. What are the attributes of a global reserve currency? It must be stable, it must be underpinned by a large and strong economy, it must be freely convertible, and it must be used widely. Americans should not remain overconfident. The only reason the greenback is still the world's reserve currency is because there is no practical alternative. China and Russia, however, are busy trying to figure out how to engineer a replacement.
Russia and China have launched another attempt to develop a "new global reserve currency." In other words, they are again attacking the dollar. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden looks as if he is trying to kill the dollar. In Beijing and Moscow, they cannot believe their good fortune. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet in Beijing on February 4, 2022. (Photo by Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)
"The issue of creating an international reserve currency based on a basket of currencies of our countries is being worked out," said Vladimir Putin in June, at a meeting of the BRICS—Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa—grouping. Russia and China have launched another attempt to develop a "new global reserve currency." In other words, they are again attacking the dollar. A "coordinated global challenge taking place to the U.S. dollar... would be the biggest news story in decades," writes "Tyler Durden," the pseudonym for in-house staffers at the ZeroHedge site. Durden is "stunned that nobody seems to care that arguably the largest shift on the global macroeconomic playing field over the last half century may be taking place." Hold the "shift" language. There's only one country that can dethrone the dollar, and it's not a BRICS nation. It's the United States. President Joe Biden is China's and Russia's biggest ally in "dedollarizing" the world.
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by Raymond Ibrahim • August 10, 2022 at 4:00 am
"And it is striking how quickly politicians and commentators trot out the same discredited banal narrative that the drivers for such carnage are climate change and lack of resources. They say that the causes are 'complicated,' with hardly a mention of the Jihadist ideology that is behind the endless atrocities of ISIS and Boko Haram. And then they say that everyone [Christian and Muslim] suffers and there is a sort of equivalence with victims coming from varied religious backgrounds. They should tell that to the families whose loved ones are targeted, day in and day out, and see what sort of response they receive." — Lord Alton of Liverpool, June12, 2022. "[T]he shocking murders in a church in #Nigeria are attributable to Ideology, Insecurity and Impunity - along with indifference by the Buhari Government. Nor can climate change be blamed for executions, abductions and murders." — Lord Alton, Twitter, June 6, 2022. "[P]oliticians need to be more honest about what drives the carnage." — Lord Alton, June 12, 2022.
Pictured: The bloodstained floor of St. Francis Catholic Church in Ondo State, Nigeria, after the murder of 50 Christians there, on June 5, 2022. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
Politicians have found a new straw man: climate change. There are certainly many things we can gradually do not to pollute or wreck our planet, but blaming it for the pervasive slaughter of Christians by Muslims in northern Africa is not one of them. It seems, sadly, that what drives the persecution of Christians there, and elsewhere, is doctrine, not climate change. On June 5, 2022, Muslims massacred 50 Christians inside a Nigerian church on Pentecost Sunday (one of many examples of Nigerian Christians massacred while worshipping in their churches). Two days later, Ireland's President Michael Higgins issued a statement linking the Nigerian church massacre to -- climate change. "The neglect of food security issues in Africa, for so long has brought us to a point of crisis that is now having internal and regional effects based on struggles, ways of life themselves," he wrote, implying that food shortages caused by the climate are what cause murder.
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by Bassam Tawil • August 9, 2022 at 5:00 am
The statement in support of China is yet another example of the Palestinians' betting on the wrong horse. Always on the side of the despotic regimes and countries, Palestinians appear to have learned nothing from their mistakes. While Israel consistently stands by its US partners, Palestinians continue to ridicule and condemn the US, undermine its interests by aligning themselves with anti-US parties, and financing the families of Palestinians who murder Israeli and US citizens. Palestinians expect US financial aid, but oppose the US on every foreign policy front. The Biden administration does not seem to have a problem funding the Iranian regime, the Chinese Communist Party, the illegitimate Venezuelan government or the Palestinian leadership while Palestinians are spitting in the face of the US and openly supporting all those who hate the US and the Americans. It sometimes seems as if the harder America's adversaries spit, the harder the Americans rush to fund them. Palestinians, who have sided against America with Nazi Germany, the Russians, Saddam Hussein, North Korea, Syria's Assad, Iran, Hezbollah, and now China, are again exposing their anti-US sentiments. They will happily pad their bank accounts with American money, while continuing to act against the US and its policies in different parts of the world. Many Arab countries have learned the lesson of Palestinian betrayal: that is why they long ago stopped funding the Palestinians. The Arab leaders refuse to throw their money at those who praise their enemies. The US has actually been teaching those who wish to create a Palestinian state that being best buddies with America's worst enemies is where the biggest profits lie.
Palestinians have chosen to be on the side of China in its latest skirmish with the US over Taiwan. The statement by the Palestinian "presidency" supporting China illustrates what has been known for years -- that Palestinians are adversarial to American interests and hostile to American allies. Pictured: Palestinians burn a US flag in Bethlehem, on January 29, 2020. (Photo by Musa Al Shaer/AFP via Getty Images)
Palestinian leaders have a tradition of backing tyrants and corrupt regimes around the world. When their choices prove disastrous, they run to the Americans begging for pity. The Palestinian leaders do not run to their Arab brothers: they know that most Arab countries are sick and tired of Palestinian lies and backstabbing. The Palestinians, in addition, are best known in the Arab world for biting the hand that feeds them. Less than a month after the Biden administration announced new contributions totaling $316 million to support the Palestinian people, the Palestinian leadership proved once again that the Palestinians are not friends of the US.
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by Pete Hoekstra • August 8, 2022 at 5:00 am
The investigative reporting by these two organizations [the New York Times and the Washington Post] was so thorough and groundbreaking it turned up things that were not even there. For having refused to rescind these awards, the Pulitzer Committee should receive its own Pulitzer -- for fraud. The real hoax appears to have been the CCP's ostensible good behavior and the now-hugely-discredited initial reporting on the virus. Or how about the Hunter Biden laptop cover-up? Once again, On October 14, 2020, just weeks before the 2020 presidential election, a critical story of possible extensive influence-peddling with senior intelligence officers in the CCP, Russia and Ukraine by the son of a presidential candidate. The contents of the laptop raised questions that the candidate at the time, Vice President Joe Biden, could be compromised. The entire subject was decisively pushed aside, along with the potential threat to national security that such an eventuality might entail. Also not allowed during the January 6th hearings have been any witnesses for the defense, any cross-examination, or any exculpatory evidence. One wonders, for instance if the January 6th Committee will consider the July 29, 2022 tweet by General Keith Kellogg, that on January 3, 2021, Trump, in front of witnesses, did indeed ask for "troops needed" for January 6. Kellogg wrote: "I was in the room." The January 6th Committee has also not released any information about government informants or FBI undercover law enforcement officers who might have been in the crowd, and Pelosi is also said to be blocking access to a massive quantity of documents. Finally, according to attorney Mark Levin, under the Constitution's separation of powers, Congress, has no legitimacy even to hold a criminal investigation: that power belongs to the Judiciary. The entire proceeding is illegitimate and a usurpation of power. Is it surprising that after the Pulitzer decision, the Russia collusion hoax, the Whitmer kidnapping hoax, the Covid origin hoax, the Hunter Biden laptop hoax, and now the January 6th Committee hoax, that many Americans believe there is something wrong with the system?
Is it surprising that after the Pulitzer decision, the Russia collusion hoax, the Whitmer kidnapping hoax, the Covid origin hoax, the Hunter Biden laptop hoax, and now the January 6th Committee hoax, that many Americans believe there is something wrong with the system? (Photo by Al Drago/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Recently former US President Donald Trump challenged the award of Pulitzer Prizes to the New York Times and the Washington Post for their investigative reporting on alleged collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia. The investigative reporting by these two organizations was so thorough and groundbreaking it turned up things that were not even there. You have to hand it to them for this so-called "great reporting": the Pulitzer Committee sure did. We now know, of course, the grand conspiracy pushed by these papers is nothing more than thoroughly debunked disinformation. For having refused to rescind these awards, the Pulitzer Committee should receive its own Pulitzer -- for fraud.
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by Richard Kemp • August 7, 2022 at 5:00 am
Commenting on the killing of Zawahiri, UN Secretary General's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the UN was "committed to fighting against terrorism and strengthening international cooperation in countering that threat". Of course it was a different story when Israel acted against Jabari. UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland was "deeply concerned" by "the targeted killing today of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader inside Gaza." Israel has not claimed its operation in Gaza — codenamed Breaking Dawn — is to deter. The government has made it clear that the strikes were to prevent an imminent threat to the Israeli population. It had hard intelligence that PIJ, led by Jabari, was planning attacks across the border from Gaza. Protecting its people from violent external attack is not only permitted under international law, it is the duty of every government. If deterrence of such attacks were possible, Israel would have taken action to deter. PIJ is an Iranian proxy, directed and funded to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Its leader, Ziad Nakhaleh, has been in Tehran for the last few days, meeting with his IRGC paymasters and other government officials including Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. As PIJ and its fellow jihadists have indiscriminately fired an estimated 400 missiles (at time of writing) at targets from Sderot to Tel Aviv since Operation Breaking Dawn began, the IDF has continued to launch precision strikes from the air and the ground to halt the attacks on Israeli citizens. Just as Israel's casus belli for attacking PIJ targets was lawful, it has taken the utmost care to ensure its continued strikes are also lawful, only attacking targets that are proportionate and necessary to the military objectives and giving warnings where civilian casualties could occur. We can expect non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as Human Rights Watch to pile on. Amnesty International, however, might be slightly more circumspect as they are at present gyrating from the widespread international reproach that greeted their just-published report condemning Ukraine's defensive actions, in which they again showed the total incomprehension of war and the laws of war that they often demonstrate in their denunciations of Israel. Slavering for the last two days at the prospect of IDF-inflicted mass casualties, much of the media immediately and without any evidence eagerly pointed the finger at Israel over the tragic killing of seven people, including four children, in Jabalia camp in the Gaza Strip. They will undoubtedly try, but journalists and UN investigators will find it hard to refute the IDF's confirmation that they did not strike the location and have conclusive video and radar evidence that the deaths were caused by a misfired PIJ rocket, launched as so often from within the civilian population. This would certainly fit, as approximately a quarter of all terrorist rockets fired so far during this campaign have landed inside Gaza, not in Israel.
As Palestinian Islamic Jihad and its fellow jihadists have indiscriminately fired an estimated 400 missiles (at time of writing) at targets from Sderot to Tel Aviv since Operation Breaking Dawn began, the IDF has continued to launch precision strikes from the air and the ground to halt the attacks on Israeli citizens. Pictured: Local residents and Hamas police officers assess the damage from a missile strike by Palestinian Islamic Jihad that hit the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, on August 7, 2022. (Photo by Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images)
A week ago US President Joe Biden ordered the elimination of Al Qaida boss Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul. A few days later Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid ordered the elimination of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) commander Tayseer al-Jabari in Gaza. These were two of a kind: mass killers whose sole purpose was to inflict pain, death and destruction on ordinary decent people to bring about their vision of Islamic conquest. Commenting on the killing of Zawahiri, UN Secretary General's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the UN was "committed to fighting against terrorism and strengthening international cooperation in countering that threat". Of course it was a different story when Israel acted against Jabari. UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland was "deeply concerned" by "the targeted killing today of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader inside Gaza."
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