Yesterday the country observed National Peace Officers Memorial Day to honor the law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty over the past year. If you noticed flags in your community flying at half-staff, that’s why. 

Sadly, we are adding too many names to the memorial of fallen officers. Last year, 163 officers died in the line of duty. So far in 2019, 42 law enforcement officers have died.

I am pleased to report that President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr attended yesterday’s national memorial service on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol.

When it comes to backing up our police officers, there are no mixed messages with this administration! President Trump previously referred to the memorial service as “one of the most important solemn occasions of the year,” and he vowed to attend it every year of his presidency.

At yesterday’s memorial service, President Trump recognized the family of Officer Ronil Singh, who was killed the day after Christmas by a criminal illegal alien shielded by California’s insane sanctuary laws. 

The president repeated his call to secure the border, end illegal immigration, stop sanctuary policies and to reform our immigration laws with a merit-based system that welcomes more immigrants like Ronil Singh who will be productive citizens, contributing to our society.

In his proclamation recognizing Peace Officers Memorial Day, President Trump declared:

On Peace Officers Memorial Day … we express our unending gratitude to our Nation’s law enforcement officers. Those brave men and women selflessly confront danger to protect our families and defend our communities. We also honor those in blue who have been killed or disabled in the line of duty…

Our Nation’s law enforcement officers serve with courage, dedication, and strength. They fearlessly enforce our laws, even at the risk of personal peril, safeguarding our property, our liberty, and our lives. We owe them, and their families, our full and enduring support.

To all the men and women in law enforcement, please know that millions of Americans are grateful for the job you do each and every day!

Rewriting History

Rep. Rashida Tlaib recently ignited a firestorm of controversy over her remarks about the Holocaust. Here’s what she said:

There’s kind of a calming feeling, I always tell folks, when I think of the Holocaust and the tragedy of the Holocaust and the fact that it was my ancestors, Palestinians who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in some ways had been wiped out… all of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post the Holocaust, post the tragedy and horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time. And, I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that…

I want to revisit the controversy because, unfortunately, the news coverage surrounding her remarks has largely focused on the word “calming” when talking about the Holocaust. 

“Calming” and “Holocaust” are two words that should never be used in the same sentence. Democrats circled the wagons, and defended Tlaib from attacks which they believed unfairly took her remarks out of context. But let’s not lose sight of the bigger problem with her remarks.

What is so outrageous isn’t her poor choice of words but her poor attempt at making up history. The notion that Arab Muslims welcomed Jews, who were fleeing the Holocaust and who wanted to return to their historic homeland, is simply a lie.

Writing in The Atlantic, professor of history Benny Morris explains:

But the historical reality was quite different from what Tlaib described: The Palestinians indirectly, and in some ways directly, aided in the destruction of European Jewry…

Palestine’s Arabs — led by the cleric Muhammad Haj Amin al-Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem — mounted a strident campaign to pressure the British … to bar all Jews from entering the country… in 1936 they launched an anti-British and anti-Zionist rebellion that lasted three years…

British entry certificates for Jews to Palestine declined [dramatically from 1936 to 1938]. Those who couldn’t get in were left stranded in Germany, Poland, Hungary, and elsewhere. Almost all died in the Holocaust, which the Germans unleashed in 1941.

But the Palestinians’ contribution to the Holocaust was also more direct. Husseini … helped pro-Nazi generals launch an anti-British rebellion in Iraq in 1941 (which itself engendered a large-scale pogrom against Baghdad’s Jews, the Farhoud).

When that rebellion failed, he fled to Berlin, where he … lived in comfort until the end of the world war. During the war, he helped recruit Muslims from the Balkans for the German army and the SS, and in radio broadcasts exhorted Middle Eastern and North African Arabs to launch jihad against the British and “kill the Jews.”

Tlaib’s comments are worth revisiting because she is doing exactly what the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been doing for decades. 

They claim that Jews never lived in the Holy Land; that they are “colonial occupiers.”

They claim that there never was a Temple Mount. 

They claim that Jerusalem historically belonged to Muslims. But Jerusalem has never been the capital of any nation other than the Jewish state of Israel.

This effort to rewrite history with an anti-Semitic narrative that attempts to erase the Jews from the Holy Land should be condemned by all, no matter your political or ideological leanings.

By the way, Christians must understand that if such efforts ever succeed, then our Bible becomes a lie too.

More Warnings

Tensions in the Middle East continue to rise. The State Department yesterday ordered all non-emergency personnel working at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the U.S. Consulate in Erbil to leave Iraq as soon as possible. The State Department also issued a travel advisory, warning that “U.S. citizens in Iraq are at high risk for violence and kidnapping.”

The order for U.S. personnel to leave Iraq comes amid reports of Iranian proxy attacks against oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman and drone strikes against Saudi pumping stations. 

Don’t miss the significance of the drone attacks. It means that this technology is now in the hands of jihadists and terrorists. The potential threats are endless. 

Meanwhile, other reports have noted that the pumping stations hit by the drones were “on the same latitude as Riyadh, which means the Saudi capital is within range” of the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.