The World Jewish Congress on Wednesday condemned the World Health Organization’s approval of a blatantly one-sided annual resolution accusing Israel of perpetuating a health crisis in the Palestinian territories. The resolution was passed, with 96 countries voting in favor, 11 against, and 21 abstaining. Among those that voted against the resolution aside from Israel, were the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada, Brazil, Germany, Czech Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, and Hungary.
“The World Health Organization has, yet again, demonstrated the pervasive double standards within the United Nations which single out Israel for condemnation while absolving the Palestinian authorities of any wrongdoing or responsibility in the territories under their control,” said World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder.
“As in the UN General Assembly, the Human Rights Council, the Commission on the Status of Women, and other bodies, the World Health Organization has debated only one country-specific resolution at this session, despite scores of conflicted regions where the deterioration of health continues to pose an alarming and pressing threat,” Lauder said.
“This resolution, which in its very essence is deeply flawed, does not once mention Hamas or its responsibility for the health crisis in the Gaza Strip and barely mentions the role that the Palestinian Authority plays in caring for its residents, placing the blame disproportionately on Israel. It also turns a blind eye to the corruption that abounds within the Palestinian leadership, and the misuse of funds that could and should be devoted to health care and are instead used to reward terrorists for murdering and maiming Israelis,” he said.
“We thank the United States, the United Kingdom, and the other countries who stood their moral ground in opposing this charade and urge other countries to think deeply and carefully about the message they are sending in supporting this clearly biased resolution. The WHO is an important organization that is much needed by the international community for the benefit of health around the world. However, its standing and efficacy is undermined by those who would rather point the world’s finger at Israel than risk having it pointed at themselves. It’s time for the international community to wake up and realize that the body tasked with our global protection has become theater of the absurd,” Lauder said.
Hundreds of supporters for the fight against antisemitism congregated in Times Square to call for Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s removal from the Foreign Affairs committee for her repeated use of antisemitic tropes and her recent support for Hamas while they were firing rockets on Israeli civilians.
What’s become clear is that Omar, and along with her, Rashida “the Holocaust gives me a comfortable feeling” Tlaib, are mainstays in the Democratic party, and no amount of hand washing will wipe away their stain and “taint” of antisemitism. Leaders Pelosi and Schumer, all of the Democratic presidential hopefuls, and certainly, above all others, the host of Jewish congressmen and women who have remained silent or outwardly supported and reinforced these two scathing antisemites, are collectively responsible for what they produce.
I can tell you this: we will not be silent; nor will we stop fighting for Ilhan’s removal from the committee and the casting out from the Democratic party of unabashed antisemites who masquerade as anti-Zionists, neatly cloaking themselves as liberal humanitarians. We see right through them, and we’re moving full force ahead.
ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) today praised law enforcement for the arrest of Jonathan Xie, a resident of Basking Ridge, Somerset County, NJ, for threatening to ‘shoot everybody’ at a pro-Israel march. Xie was allegedly inspired by the Palestinian terror organization, Hamas. While many terror organizations, including ISIS, al-Qaeda and Hezbollah, single out Jews and Zionists as targets, this is the first arrest of a U.S. citizen allegedly motivated by Hamas-ties in almost ten years.
“This arrest serves as a clear reminder that foreign terror organizations’ violent and hateful ideologies truly have no borders,” said Evan R. Bernstein, ADL NY/NJ Regional Director. “Hamas’ hatred of Israel seems to have motivated this individual to target pro-Israel supporters in the United States. This is once again indicative of the need for Jewish communal security, and we applaud law enforcement for this critical arrest. We must remain vigilant against extremism and hate from across the ideological spectrum.”
ADL remains in close contact with law enforcement, and its Center on Extremism monitors Islamist extremist organizations and their offshoots, including Hamas.
The Rieders Foundation is filing a formal complaint with the New York state division of Human Rights on Monday May 20, 2019 against the Rockefeller Brother’s Foundation (RBF) for its extensive and well-documented donations to groups with anti-Semitic and anti-Israel bias. Attached to the complaint is a 19 page report outlining the various individuals and organizations that the RBF supplies with grants. Stephen Heintz, president of the RBF, responded to these claims in an article that was published in Tablet magazine. Heintz reiterated that donations regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were “aimed at ending the 50-year long occupation in order to bring justice, dignity, and security to all Israelis and Palestinians.”
Heintz failed to acknowledge that many of the recipients of RBF grants strongly support a 1 state solution, as well as the boycott, divest, and sanction (BDS) movement. BDS is widely recognized as the least productive path to a peaceful solution, eliminating the possibility for two states to coexist side by side. Legislation in the United States has made BDS irrelevant in 27 states and the number is increasing steadily. BDS is a symbolic replacement for traditional anti-Semitism, as was recognized 5/17/2019 by the German Bundestag.
At the Rieders Foundation, we are also clarifying the tax-exempt status that the RBF operates under. With donations as large as $3 million to organizations such as JStreet for its “Iran Campaign”, the RBF should not remain eligible for its 501(c) 3 tax-exempt status. Other recipients of RBF grants include, Ifnotnow, Jewish Voice for Peace, and the US campaign for Palestinian rights. Organizations such as Defense for Children International (which received $25,000 from the RBF in 2017) employed board members and workers with direct ties to the Popular front for the liberation of Palestine (PFLP), “a terrorist organization designated as such by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel.”
The frightening part is that DeBlasio really thinks he is capable of dealing with the rest of the world when to us, his captives within the city boundaries, he's no more than a bumbling idiot. Photo Credit: Shutterstock
The prospects for a resurgence of the struggling chapeau industry should be getting a shot in the arm with as many as 24 Democrat candidates tossing their hats in the ring for the presidential nomination. And that’s just the latest count. But the latest contestant for this monumental but thankless job is none other than one of our own, the inept mayor of the Big Apple……Bill De Blasio. Don’t get us wrong. We and about 60% of other New Yorkers would like someone to take him off our hands and out of Gracie Mansion, but just the thought of him occupying the White House and corrupting the entire nation, is downright scary. The frightening part is that he really thinks he is capable of dealing with the rest of the world when to us, his captives within the city boundaries, he’s no more than a bumbling idiot.
We’ve struggled for years under his and his wife, Chirlane’s rule and we just found out more bad news. That the program she started 4 years ago, the ThriveNYC scheme funded by 900 million $ of taxpayer money to improve our town’s mental health, has disappeared. Since its inception, the organizers of that questionable boondoggle have largely failed to keep records and appear to have accomplished nothing. And Chirlane was selected by her loving spouse to run this monumental undertaking although her, call it what you will, claim to fame is as a black/lesbian/activist poet, political speech writer and wife to Hizzoner.
So, under her “leadership” nearly one billion bucks are gone like the cleanliness and efficiency of our subway system, like the destruction of our acclaimed three elite high schools that have sent off tens of thousands of kids to better the world community and of course, the stupidity of running Amazon out of town by AOC. All of the above and more given to you by the De Blasio family team of incompetents who might perhaps even might be labeled criminals by an honest prosecutor if one can be found to dig into this mess of their administration.
Some might complain that his campaigning around the country will deprive us of his “leadership.” Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran Democrat consultant might have hit the nail on the head with his comment on the matter: “New York city residents have never felt that he’s been involved in the grind that makes NYC government work. So it doesn’t matter. The bureaucracy is running this place. He’s not running it.” So… do we ever miss the likes of Mayors Guiliani and Bloomberg!!!! Our thought bears repeating. As incompetent as De Blasio is as our own Mayor and as much as we’d like to see him go, the thought of him as president is our nightmare. Don’t let it happen!!
The conference billed as “Peace to Prosperity” will serve as a “pivotal opportunity to convene government, civil society, and business leaders to share ideas, discuss strategies, and galvanize support for potential economic investments and initiatives that could be made possible by a peace agreement.” Photo Credit: UN Photo/Mark Garten
Bahrain on Tuesday defended its decision to host a White House-engineered conference to address the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, saying its only objective is to support the “brotherly Palestinian people.”
While the Palestinian Authority rejected a White House-sponsored economic conference planned for next month in Bahrain, which is part of the rollout of President Trump’s long-awaited Israel-Palestinian plan, Bahrain’s foreign minister, Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, tweeted that his country respects the Palestinian leadership’s steadfast position safeguarding Palestinian rights, but also defended his country’s decision to host a conference to address the Middle East crisis.
In a statement issued on Sunday by the White House announcing the upcoming economic workshop to be held in Manama in Bahrain on June 25th and 26th, the conference billed as “Peace to Prosperity” will serve as a “pivotal opportunity to convene government, civil society, and business leaders to share ideas, discuss strategies, and galvanize support for potential economic investments and initiatives that could be made possible by a peace agreement.”
According to the White House, the “Peace to Prosperity” forum will facilitate discussions on an ambitious, achievable vision and framework for a prosperous future for the Palestinian people and the region, including enhancements to economic governance, development of human capital, and facilitation of rapid private-sector growth. If implemented, this vision has the potential to radically transform lives and put the region on a path toward a brighter future.
“I look forward to these important discussions about a vision that will offer Palestinians exciting new opportunities to realize their full potential. This workshop will engage leaders from across the entire Middle East to promote economic growth and opportunity for the people in this important region,” said United States Secretary of the Treasury Steven T. Mnuchin.
“The ‘Peace to Prosperity’ workshop underscores the close strategic partnership between the Kingdom of Bahrain and the United States as well as the strong and shared interest in creating thriving economic opportunities that benefit the region,” stated Bahrain Minister of Finance and National Economy Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa.
According to an AP report, Bahrain’s foreign minister said that both the official and popular position of Bahrain “has been and continues to be championing the brotherly Palestinian people in the restoration of their legitimate rights in their land and an independent state with its capital as east Jerusalem, additionally economically supporting the Palestinian people.”
The conference “serves no other purpose” than to help the Palestinian people “through developing their abilities and enhancing their resources,” said Bahrain’s foreign minister.
The eventual peace plan is expected to feature proposals for regional economic development that would include Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is working to rally key Arab states, like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Qatar and others, to help bankroll economic incentives that could get Palestinians to buy into its Mideast plan, according to an AP report.
Bahrain hosts the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet and is a close ally of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which are widely believed to be seeking closer ties to Israel, viewing it as a potential ally against Iran, a shared enemy.
The report also indicated that Rabbi Marc Schneier, (the presiding spiritual leader of the Hamptons Synagogue in Long Island), who was appointed special adviser by Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, said he knows of no other Gulf leader that has been more preoccupied with establishing relations with Israel and bringing other Gulf states onboard.
The AP reported that Schneier said King Hamad told him in a 2016 meeting in the palace that “our only hope for a strong, moderate Arab voice in the Gulf is a strong Israel.” He noted that the king also sent an interfaith delegation from Bahrain to Jerusalem not long after the Trump administration moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in recognition of it as Israel’s capital.
“It’s not a question of Bahrain being a participant. They have led this effort, at least since I’ve known the king for eight years,” Schneier said, adding that it’s no wonder that the king “would embrace” the opportunity to host the Mideast meeting.
According to an Al Jazeera report, Palestinian officials said the conference would not address the core political issues of the conflict: final borders, the status of Jerusalem, or the fate of Palestinian refugees.
“The cabinet wasn’t consulted about the reported workshop, neither over the content, nor the outcome nor timing,” Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said on Monday.
“Any solution to the conflict in Palestine must be political … and based on ending the occupation,” he added.
This statement was reiterated by Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization. “We were not consulted by any party on the announced meeting to take place in Manama, Bahrain,” he said. “We have not mandated any party to negotiate on our behalf.”
He added that, “Attempts at promoting an economic normalization of the Israeli occupation of Palestine will be rejected.”
The Palestinians, who severed ties with the United States more than a year ago, have repeatedly expressed fears that the White House would try to buy them off with large sums of investment in exchange for freezing their demands for an independent state. They have also expressed concerns that Washington is trying to rally support from other Arab countries to pressure them into accepting a plan they see as unacceptable.
Al Jazeera reported that Social Development Minister Ahmed Majdalani, meanwhile, said Palestinian officials would not attend the June meeting.
“There will be no Palestinian participation in the Manama workshop,” Majdalani, who is also a member of the executive committee of the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told Reuters news agency.
“Any Palestinian who would take part would be nothing but a collaborator for the Americans and Israel.”
On that note, the Times of Israel has reported that Bashar Masri, a Palestinian industrialist with vast business holdings throughout Judea and Samaria, has said he had turned down an invitation to the conference.
“I will not participate in this conference, and none of the representatives of our companies will participate,” he wrote on Facebook. “We reaffirm our clear position: We will not deal with any event outside the Palestinian national consensus.”
The Jerusalem Post reported that former PA minister of information Nabil Amr, welcomed the US administration’s decision to delay the announcement of the political part of the deal and described it as an “important step in the right direction.”
In an interview with Maan news agency, Amr also welcomed the workshop “on condition that it does not come as an alternative to a political solution, which is the basis for tackling the conflict on the Palestinian-Israeli track.” Amr called on the Palestinian leadership to be more open to the political developments in the region and the world and to positively engage with influential forces in the international arena, including the US.
Having recently been denied a visa to the visit the United States, Hanan Ashwari, a longtime PLO representative and aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, slammed the planned Bahrain meeting, saying it was not “a peace plan, “ according to an Al Jazeera report.
“This is just an economic workshop and another way of rewarding Israel again and maintaining Israel’s control of our land and resources,” Ashrawi told Al Jazeera.
“It is the Americans who have rejected everything so far; from the law to the agreements, to the basic requirements of peace to the components of any viable peace process … It shows a lack of understanding of the issues of the region,” she added.
The Jerusalem Post reported that the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front, also affiliated with the PLO – condemned the conference as a “stab in the back of the Palestinians and their martyrs and prisoners. The workshop, the group said, “marks a departure from the resolutions of the Arab summits and is a suspicious embroilment in the American-Israeli project to liquidate the Palestinian cause.”
Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s Middle East envoy, said it was “difficult to understand why the Palestinian Authority would reject a workshop designed to discuss a vision with the potential to radically transform lives and put people on a path toward a brighter future.” Photo Credit: Shutterstock
Palestinian Islamic Jihad official Ahmed al-Mudalal said the Palestinians reject economic initiatives that are part of a deal to “erase” the Palestinian cause.
Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s Middle East envoy, said it was “difficult to understand why the Palestinian Authority would reject a workshop designed to discuss a vision with the potential to radically transform lives and put people on a path toward a brighter future.”
“History will judge the Palestinian Authority harshly for passing up any opportunity that could give the Palestinians something so very different, and something so very positive, compared to what they have today,” Greenblatt said.
“Our economic plan is an ambitious but achievable vision; it presents an alternative path with the potential to unlock a prosperous future for the Palestinian people if they choose to follow it,” Greenblatt said.
Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor who is also the chief architect of the “Deal of the Century” said that it had been disheartening that the Palestinian leadership had attacked the Middle East peace plan before it is unveiled. Photo Credit: Shutterstock
Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor who is also the chief architect of the “Deal of the Century” said that it had been disheartening that the Palestinian leadership had attacked the Middle East peace plan before it is unveiled.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Kushner said, “The Palestinian people, along with all people in the Middle East, deserve a future with dignity and the opportunity to better their lives. Economic progress can only be achieved with a solid economic vision and if the core political issues are resolved.”
According to the TOI report, David Friedman, the United States Ambassador to Israel has embraced the “Judea and Samaria Chamber of Commerce,” a group led by Jewish settlers that seeks business alliances with Palestinian partners. The group’s Palestinian co-founder, businessman Ashraf Jabari, said he had been invited and planned on attending.
It is unclear how any large-scale projects would be carried out in the Gaza Strip. The US and Israel consider Gaza’s Hamas rulers to be a terrorist group and have no direct contacts with them.
Intelligence indicates that the Iranian regime is using its terror proxy groups to conduct attacks on ships operating in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical Persian Gulf shipping lane that has become the center of international tensions as Tehran seeks to foment instability in reaction to President Donald Trump's efforts to strangle the hardline regime. Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Iran and terror proxies escalating attacks, developing sophisticated weaponry as standoff heats up
Intelligence indicates that the Iranian regime is using its terror proxy groups to conduct attacks on ships operating in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical Persian Gulf shipping lane that has become the center of international tensions as Tehran seeks to foment instability in reaction to President Donald Trump’s efforts to strangle the hardline regime.
U.S. intelligence collected over the past month had indicated that Iran has been installing missiles on small vessels in the Gulf region. Tehran is relying on a large network of terror proxies and allies to attack not only commercial vessels in the region, but also U.S. military assets stationed there.
Iran has a long history of conducting terror attacks in this manner, fueling worry in the Trump administration that Tehran could carry out a large-scale attack via its terror networks. In just the past two years, Iran has been identified as being responsible for at least 143 attacks against shipping vessels in the Gulf, according to expert analyses of the ongoing tensions in the region.
There is further evidence Tehran is developing a range of tactical weapons and smaller vessels that could pose significant problems for the U.S. Navy and its larger boats, according to U.S. intelligence assessments and experts.
The Trump administration has responded by sending greater U.S. military assets to the region and issuing a range of sanctions. Trump himself has warned the Iranian regime at multiple junctures, including during the weekend, that any attack on the United States or its allies will result in a crushing response.
Four commercial ships were damaged last week in the Gulf and carry the hallmarks of Iranian-backed attacks.
“While details remain murky, this development underscores how Tehran and its proxies may exploit maritime vulnerabilities in the region,” the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, or FDD, a think-tank with close ties the Trump administration, noted in a recent policy brief on the situation.
“Tehran has a history of targeting civilian vessels transiting the Gulf and threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which approximately one fifth of the world’s seaborne oil passes,” FDD stated in a policy briefing issued by veteran military intelligence experts Andrew Gabel and Bradley Bowman. “During the last two years of the Iran-Iraq War, Iran conducted 143 attacks against shipping in the Gulf. Last month, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) Commander Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri threatened to close the strait.”
Iran has a history of using its terror proxies to conduct attacks in order to shield the regime from responsibility and avoid sparking a large-scale war that would surely end in the Islamic Republic’s destruction.
“To avoid international condemnation and direct confrontation with the United States military, Tehran may use covert operators to conduct attacks,” FDD noted in its brief. “This could include the use of divers or crew members to sabotage vessels. Such an approach would be consistent with Tehran’s use of proxies and asymmetrical terrorist attacks. Such tactics enable Tehran to achieve its objectives at a relatively low cost, while evading attribution and consequences.”
Similarly, a weekend rocket attack near the U.S. embassy in Baghdad also bared the hallmark of Iran. Sources in the region told the Washington Free Beacon the attack was likely conducted by Iran’s Hezbollah assets in Iraq.
While Iran could not compete with U.S. forces in a conventional war, the hardline regime in Tehran has focused on developing smaller military vessels that carry sophisticated weaponry suited for fast attacks.
President Donald Trump has, in the past, openly showed Fox New his favoritism, commending the station as his most faithful new outlet. The network has been his first pick when it was time for him to give an interview, and the network was spared when he condemned scores of other media groups for promoting ‘fake news’.
As reported by Yahoo! News, now the president seems to have soured a bit, even on Fox News. On Sunday May 19th, the President took to Twitter to criticize Fox network, for the second time. Mr. Trump expressed dismay with the conservative network for interviewing Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor from South Bend, Indiana. “Hard to believe that @FoxNews is wasting airtime on Mayor Pete, as Chris Wallace likes to call him. Fox is moving more and more to the losing (wrong) side in covering the Dems,” Trump wrote. In an afternoon flurry of tweets, the President added, “Chris Wallace said, ‘I actually think, whether you like his opinions or not, that Mayor Pete has a lot of substance…fascinating biography.’ Gee, he never speaks well of me.” Nevertheless, the president proceeded to schedule an interview with the network for that evening.
The first indication that Trump was feeling tension with the network was last month. The president took a swipe at Fox after it hosted a town hall meeting with Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, another 2020 presidential contender. “So weird to watch Crazy Bernie on @Fox News,” Trump tweeted. The audience “was so smiley and nice. Very strange,” wrote Trump, implying that he thought it was filled with Sanders supporters.
The stiffening ties with Fox News began after two former important Fox personnel departed from roles in his administration. Namely, Bill Shine, a former Fox News executive, who resigned from a post as White House communications director in March, after only nine months on the job. The other is former Fox news anchor Heather Nauert, who served as spokeswoman at the State Department. Nauert was promoted to a senior State post and had been considered as a potential candidate to replace Nikki Haley as US ambassador to the United Nations. She withdrew herself from consideration in February, following issues with her nanny not having a proper visa. She also did not return to work as State Department spokeswoman, as of April. Two weeks ago, Trump nominated Nauert to serve on the panel which oversees granting fellowships at the White House.
At a campaign rally on Saturday, May 18, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that his country will never pay restitution for Jewish properties stolen during the Holocaust, and that paying restitution “violates international law and would also be a posthumous victory for Hitler, which is why we will never allow it.” Photo Credit: Shutterstock
At a campaign rally on Saturday, May 18, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that his country will never pay restitution for Jewish properties stolen during the Holocaust, and that paying restitution “violates international law and would also be a posthumous victory for Hitler, which is why we will never allow it.”
“This statement is deeply insensitive to Holocaust survivors and their families. It is also simply incorrect — the issue is not about the German Nazi confiscations during the occupation of Poland,” said Gideon Taylor, Chair of Operations, World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO). “It is about property subsequently nationalized by the Polish Communist government that continues to benefit the Polish economy. Indeed, the Polish government introduced draft legislation to address this issue over a year ago. This issue impacts non-Jewish and Jewish property owners and is particularly important for Holocaust survivors whose property was first taken by the German Nazis and then by the Polish Communists. We call for Poland to meet its commitment to non-Jewish and Jewish property owners who have waited many years for Poland to provide them with a measure of justice.”
Background Information Regarding Poland and Recent Activity on Property Restitution
In February, Secretary of State Pompeo in his first trip to Warsaw publicly called for Poland to provide restitution: “We also appreciate the importance of resolving outstanding issues of the past, and I urge my Polish colleagues to move forward with comprehensive private property restitution legislation for those who lost property during the Holocaust era.” Following the visit, the Prime Minister erroneously stated that the issue was “definitely resolved.” The Prime Minister was referring to a 1960 treaty between Communist-era Poland and the US that addressed only people who were citizens of the United States at the time of the taking of their property by Poland. Therefore, the treaty did not cover most American Holocaust survivors from Poland who became American citizens long after their property was confiscated. Nor would that agreement have affected claims from Polish Holocaust survivors or their families who live today in Israel or other countries.
On May 11, thousands of Polish nationalists marched in Warsaw. Many held anti-Semitic placards, demanding that Poland pay no compensation to Jews for property seized during the Holocaust. Copies of the anti-Semitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion were distributed.
The protests in Poland, as well as smaller ones in the United States, against returning property to Holocaust victims and their families focused on the Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today (JUST) Act. The JUST Act, signed into law by President Trump after passing the US Congress unanimously, aims to encourage countries like Poland to fulfill their promises under the Terezin Declaration. The JUST Act serves as a powerful statement of America’s bipartisan, unwavering commitment to supporting Holocaust survivors in their quest for justice.
Last week, the Polish government cancelled a trip by Israeli officials to Warsaw because the officials were going to raise the issue of property restitution.
Former White House Counsel Donald McGahn defied a subpoena Tuesday from the House Judiciary Committee to testify about his conversations with President Donald Trump ordering him to oust special counsel Robert Mueller in the midst of Mueller's investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Photo Credit: Fox News
Former White House Counsel Donald McGahn defied a subpoena Tuesday from the House Judiciary Committee to testify about his conversations with President Donald Trump ordering him to oust special counsel Robert Mueller in the midst of Mueller’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
The Democratic-controlled House panel left an empty chair and a nameplate at the witness table for McGahn.
But the 50-year-old Washington attorney, now in private legal practice again, adhered to White House instructions to not testify, and a Justice Department legal opinion that Congress cannot force him to appear.
Congressman Jerrold Nadler, the committee chairman, assailed McGahn’s refusal to testify, threatening to go to court in an effort to force McGahn to testify.
“Our subpoenas are not optional,” Nadler said.
He said McGahn’s testimony was essential after the Mueller report recounted that Trump directed McGahn to get rid of Mueller and then, when a news account appeared about his directive, asked him to publicly lie to deny the story, which McGahn refused to do. Mueller’s investigators interviewed McGahn for 30 hours about his interactions with Trump.
“We will not allow the president to stop this committee’s investigation,” Nadler said. The committee two weeks ago overrode Republican objections as it voted to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress after he refused to turn over an unredacted copy of Mueller’s 448-page report on his 22-month investigation.
The leading Republican on the panel, Congressman Doug Collins, attacked Democrats for staging the short hearing absent McGahn, calling it “a circus.”
“The Democrats,” Collins said, “are trying to make something out of nothing,” noting that Mueller concluded that Trump did not collude with Russia to help him win the White House.
Mueller reached no decision whether Trump obstructed justice by trying to thwart the investigation, but Barr and then Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein subsequently concluded that obstruction charges against Trump were not warranted.
Nadler accused Trump of trying to “run out the clock” to prevent hearings about his alleged misconduct. Nadler said Trump’s conduct in directing McGahn to get rid of Mueller and then to deny that he had done so were “not remotely acceptable.”
Nadler further dismissed the opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel against McGahn’s testimony, saying it was “entirely unsupported by the case law” related to the testimony of White House aides.
McGahn’s attorney, William Burck, on Monday said his client “remains obligated to maintain the status quo and respect the president’s instruction. In the event an accommodation is agreed between the committee and the White House, Mr. McGahn will of course comply with that accommodation.”
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders explained in a statement that the Justice Department “has provided a legal opinion stating that, based on long-standing, bipartisan, and Constitutional precedent, the former Counsel to the President cannot be forced to give such testimony, and Mr. McGahn has been directed to act accordingly.”
The Justice Department, in its legal opinion, said, “We provide the same answer that the Department of Justice repeatedly provided for five decades: Congress may not constitutionally compel the President’s senior advisers to testify about their official duties.”
Senator Chuck Schumer is asking the federal government to investigate whether a Chinese state-owned company’s proposal to design new subway cars for the MTA could be a national security risk. Photo Credit: Shutterstock
Senator Chuck Schumer is asking the federal government to investigate whether a Chinese state-owned company’s proposal to design new subway cars for the MTA could be a national security risk.
As reported by the NY Post, on Sunday, Schumer asked for a “bottom to top review” as he pointed to the tariff war ongoing between the U.S. and China, and to the criminal charges filed last week by the Trump administration against Chinese firm, Huawei, for stealing US technology. The NY Democrat said due diligence will be necessary before allowing the Chinese company to do work for the MTA. The company is pursuing a $4 billion contract with the MTA.
In March 2018, China Railway Rolling Stock Corp. (CRRC), the largest train car producer in the world, won the MTA Genius Transit Challenge and proposed investing $50 million of its own money to design a new subway car using lighter materials and “modern train control technology.” Now, as part of its plan, CRRC wants to move forward installing new technology in our subway system.
“Given what we know about how cyberwarfare works, and recent attacks that have hit transportation and infrastructure hubs across the country, the Department of Commerce must give the green light and thoroughly check any proposals or work China’s CRRC does on behalf of the New York subway system, including our signals, Wi-Fi and more,” said Schumer said in a statement.
MTA Chief External Affairs Office Max Young voiced his approval in a statement. “The MTA has robust, multilayered and vigorously enforced safety and security standards, but we support efforts of government agencies to bolster that work,” said Young.
While CRRC does not yet have a contract with the MTA and has not started any work, the company already has won contracts with transportation systems in Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston. The rail tech company tends to underbid other competitors, thanks to the heavy subsidies it gets from the Chinese government. CRRC is now also in talks with Washington’s Metro system, seeking a $500 million contract for train cars.
“This kind of national security responsibility is just so big, and so complex, that the MTA and other big-city transit systems should not have to foot the burden of going it alone to assess whether or not CRRC’s low bids for work, and current contracts across the country, are part of some larger strategy,” Schumer said. “We just cannot be too careful here, especially now, amidst these tensions.”
John Jay College, a public college with the City University of New York, will still be footing a hefty bill while in the process of axing three professors for a sex and drugs scandal. Photo Credit: Shutterstock
John Jay College, a public college with the City University of New York, will still be footing a hefty bill while in the process of axing three professors for a sex and drugs scandal. The senior college for criminal justice located in midtown Manhattan decided last week to move forward with the firing of three professors accused of sexual harassment and selling and using drugs on campus. The cost to taxpayers is close to half a million dollars and growing.
As reported by the NY Post, in September two former female students alleged that professor Ric Curtis, who once chaired the anthropology and sociology departments, was the ringleader of a lewd, drug-abusing culture in an area of offices called “The Swamp.” Though Curtis denied all allegations, he along with professors Anthony Marcus and Barry Spunt were put on paid leave before the beginning of the school year. A fourth adjunct lecturer also implicated in the scandal, Leonardo Dominguez, did not have his contract with the school renewed.
Law firm Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila was hired in September to investigate the accusations. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office also investigated but “decided not to bring any criminal charges”. “The safety and well-being of our community is nonnegotiable,” wrote College president Karol Mason. “There is absolutely no place for sexual harassment or misconduct at John Jay. That’s why our community needs to know that I am taking actions to hold individuals accountable who have failed to live up to our standards of conduct.”
John Jay College signed an “engagement letter” with the law firm for $100,000. “But we have not received an invoice for the work and expect the final cost to be higher given the scope of the investigation,” said Richard Relkin, a John Jay spokesman. Further, the three teachers continue to receive their six-figure salaries, while the investigation is ongoing. They will likely continue to be paid till the termination process is complete, which may take another five months. As per the post, the salary in 2018 for Curtis was $156,685, Marcus made $126,301 and Spunt got $106,407.
Mason said earlier this week that the investigation is growing, with over 60 witnesses interviewed, along with the review of “an extensive number of documents and emails.”
Curtis’ lawyer, Robert Herbst, accused John Jay of denying him due process and vowed to “fight these unjust efforts” to fire him. Spunt’s lawyer, Carmen Jack Giordano, said the school was “bowing to political pressure and expedience, rather than being guided by fairness and truth.” He said Spunt was “looking forward to finally having a full hearing on [the] allegations made against him.”
Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani joined the voices of ridicule following Mayor Bill de Blasio’s announcement to run for Presidency in 2020. Photo Credit: Shutterstock
Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani joined the voices of ridicule following Mayor Bill de Blasio’s announcement to run for Presidency in 2020.
On Thursday, on “Good Morning America” Mayor de Blasio cast himself as the 24th Democrat to officially challenge President Trump for the presidency next term. “When we put working families first in New York City, the city got stronger. That can happen for our country, too,” de Blasio said in a 3-minute long video unveiling his candidacy, and lauding himself as the most accomplished progressive pick. De Blasio lost no time taking shots at the president, with whom he has been at odds since day one. He said “every New Yorker knows he’s a con artist”, dubbing the president “con don”. “I’m a New Yorker, I’ve known Trump’s a bully for a long time, this is not news to me or anyone else here, and I know how to take him on,” de Blasio said. “Donald Trump must be stopped. I’ve beaten him before, and I will do it again.”
Bright and early Thursday Morning, President Trump ripped de Blasio’s upcoming announcement. “ The Dems are getting another beauty to join their group. Bill de Blasio of NYC, considered the worst mayor in the U.S., will supposedly be making an announcement for president today. He is a JOKE, but if you like high taxes & crime, he’s your man. NYC HATES HIM!” the President tweeted.
On Sunday, Giuliani joined John Catsimatidis on his AM-970 radio show, ‘The Cats Roundtable’. “It’s hilarious that our friend de Blasio is running,” said the former mayor, who served from 1994 to 2001. “America will find out what New Yorkers know. When you call him Big Bird, it’s a compliment,” said Giuliani, comparing the 6-foot-5 Democrat to the Sesame Street canary.
“I took being mayor very seriously. Thought I left the city in pretty good shape to Mike Bloomberg,” said Giuliani, admitting that despite their differences his replacement was “a good mayor”. He continued on to say he was “heartbroken” by what the current mayor is doing to the office. “I can’t believe what [de Blasio] is doing,” he criticized. “I mean, first of all, he doesn’t work. He doesn’t go to work!”
“Oh well. Not worth getting aggravated about. The Democrats know how bad he is. Not just us,” he added. Giuliani went on to tell the host, who previously had an unsuccessful mayoral campaign against de Blasio, “I’d like to tell the people of New York that if you had been the mayor the city would be in a lot better shape, John.”
Multiple Jewish students attending New York University’s study abroad program in Tel Aviv, Israel were disheartened that it was boycotted by a department at the school. Hundreds of the school’s faculty members as well as members of NYU’s general administration joined in expressing their disapproval.
On May 2nd, the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis (SCA) at NYU announced that it passed a resolution of non-cooperation with the school’s study abroad program in Tel Aviv. The SCA accused the Tel Aviv program of operating “in the shadow of racial, religious, and political profiling.” The SCA’s statement said that it passed the resolution “by a majority vote,” in response to Israel’s “longstanding practice of barring entry to persons of Palestinian descent, and its recent amendments to the Law of Entry prohibit entry to members of groups that are critical of government policies.” The SCA resolution’s five identified authors are known to be supporters of the BDS campaign.
As reported by The Algemeiner, while Israel’s entry law does bar access to foreigners who are identified as key proponents of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign, NYU’s spokesman confirmed that “no NYU student has been prevented from going to Israel.” NYU’s administration also pushed back against the SCA decision by stating that no SCA faculty were even involved with the Tel Aviv program, implicating that there was no “practical effect to the vote.”
The timing of the SCA’s announcement was also offensive. The measure was passed on Yom HaShoah, Israel’s national Holocaust remembrance day. “How am I as a Jewish student supposed to feel when an academic boycott of the Jewish state is declared … on the day in which we are meant to reflect on the tragedy and crimes committed against our people by the Nazis,” said Javier Cohen, a sophomore who attended NYU-Tel Aviv this past fall semester. “Anti-Zionist groups on campus love to criticize the ease with which pro-Israel students ‘pull the antisemitism card,’ but the obsession that we see on campus in targeting the one and only Jewish state while defending just about any other can’t be explained otherwise,” he added.
“Jews, non-Jews, pro-Palestinian students — we were all able to go to Tel Aviv for a semester,” said Ilan Bassali, a senior at the University, who attended NYU-Tel Aviv in spring 2017. He said his program included roughly 20-30 students who held extended discussion where “we both opened each others eyes to the other side, which is very valuable and doesn’t happen enough.” That a department at “the university I go to, pay tuition to, and spent four years of my life at is doing something like this” and is pursuing non-cooperation with the Tel Aviv program is “offensive and sad,” he said.
“The rising anti-Israel sentiment on campus has made Jewish students the targets of discrimination, and even harassment, regardless of their political affiliations,” said another undergraduate student, who wished to be identified only by her first name, Shai. “This is a problem that the administration needs to tackle with more than just an ‘institutional statement.’”
NYU spokesperson John Beckman responded, pointing out that the general administration does not agree with the position of the SCA. He said the administration “has unwaveringly supported NYU Tel Aviv and publicly criticized its opponents.” “The University will not allow the SCA vote to have any impact on NYU Tel Aviv, to prevent any students from studying there, or to disadvantage any student who chooses to study there,” Beckman asserted. “NYU has a firm, established track record of opposing BDS, of opposing ostracism based on support of Israel, of rejecting calls to close NYU Tel Aviv, and of supporting its Jewish community; it’s unfortunate that there are those who choose to ignore that,” he added.
For four years the LIRR, managed by the MTA, together with local and state officials planned the ambitious South Fork Commuter Connection. Photo Credit: Shutterstock
For four years the LIRR, managed by the MTA, together with local and state officials planned the ambitious South Fork Commuter Connection. Beginning in March, a single train car heads to and from eight towns in the Hamptons, staffed with up to three employees. State-financed shuttle buses await at each stop at the posh Hampton towns, as part of the endeavor geared towards attracting commuters out of their cars, thereby easing traffic on the congested East End.
As reported by the NY Post, residents are saying the trains are a striking example of waste, with only several riders per train, at $4.25 per ride. “It’s not working,” said Jay Fitzpatrick, an architect and longtime resident of Southampton. “Nobody’s taking it.” Last Thursday, he said he counted a total of six passengers get off an early-morning train in Southampton. Four of them then boarded one of two shuttle buses.
The Hampton Hopper buses are provided by the state Department of Transportation to the towns at a cost of $1 million a year. The routes are designed to transport passengers to local hospitals and schools. Thomas Neely, the transportation and traffic director for Southampton Town, confirmed that “very few people are taking the shuttle buses”. He said local Hamptons officials have already reduced the buses at each station down from four to two.
As though to ratify the low usage of the trains, the LIRR has decided to cut the five-day-a-week shuttle-train service, to four days, eliminating service on Fridays. The LIRR said it will make better use of the train, adding the trains to Penn Station to accommodate summer crowds arriving from the city. The few commuters who rely on the South Fork Connection will be forced back onto the congested roads on Fridays. Ironically, the Hamptons train, if needed at all, would be most necessary on Fridays, when merchants, and employees usually commute in time to serve the weekend crowds during the summer.
“This just wasn’t thought through well enough,” said Lin Restivo, a Hampton Bays resident who in March began commuting with the train, but will now go back to driving on the jammed County Road 39.
Neely expressed sympathy for the commuters of the South Fork Connection , but said there is little that can be done, as the LIRR lacks the infrastructure to run both the shuttle service and add summer trains at Penn Station. A Spokeswoman for the LIRR said, “We’re open to amending the schedules depending on customer demand, whenever and wherever we have the cars and track capacity to do so.”
In the forefront of spotlighting the dramatic escalation of anti-Semitic attacks in New York City is former Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind. As a son of Holocaust survivors and a former member of the Jewish Defense League, Mr. Hikind understands the urgency in spotlighting the horrifying rise in anti-Semitism and the need for defense training. Photo Credit: YouTube
Another weekend goes by, another anti-Semitic incident to report.
Over the weekend, a car filled with hooligans hurled anti-Semitic insults at two Jewish teenagers who were walking through Brooklyn’s Borough Park neighborhood. As reported by the NY Post, the 13-year-old and 16-year-old boys, dressed in traditional Orthodox Jewish clothing, were walking by 51st Street and 12th Avenue sometime between 1 and 1:30 a.m. on Saturday. According to the police, the boys heard people from a car shouting, “Allahu Akbar!” and, “Do you know Hitler? We love him, he did a good job!” The car then drove away. The boys informed the police, saying they saw four people in the car. The police have yet to confirm the number of people in the car. The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is looking into the incident.
The news no longer invokes shock. A little over a week ago, an Orthodox Jewish man was punched in the head by a stranger on the streets of the same Williamsburg neighborhood, near Rodney Street and Marcy Avenue. Three days prior to that attack, there was a different occurrence in Williamsburg, in which a group of men punched a 42-year-old wearing religious attire in the face while screaming anti-Semitic profanity.
In the beginning of May, the NY police department reported an 82 percent increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes in the Big Apple this year. There were 82 incidents reported to police from January 2019 till the end of April, versus 45 incidents during the same time frame last year. Overall index crime in NYC is lower by 6.7 percent this year compared to last year. Anti-Semitic incidents now account for over half of the overall hate crimes reported this year. “When you drill down on the anti-Semitic hate crimes we are seeing approximately 80 percent are drawing of swastikas in some way, shape or fashion throughout New York City,” said NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea.
The data “should serve as an important reminder to all of us that we must continue to be vigilant in the face of hate,” said Evan Bernstein, the NY/NJ Regional Director for the Anti-Defamation League. “No one should ever have to live in fear that they will be attacked, harassed or targeted because of their faith. New York is no place for hate.”
“While the scourge of anti-Semitism is growing at an alarming rate across the country and around the world, we must face the reality that here at home in New York City we have a serious problem of anti-Semitic attacks on identifiably Jewish members of our community,” said Rabbi David Niederman, President of the UJO of Williamsburg. “People merely walking on the streets here feel like sitting ducks, worrying that they must look over their shoulder in fear of being hurt because of their faith.”
