As you know, fighting anti-Semitism is a top priority for me at American Values. Pastor John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel and CUFI Action Fund, where I serve as the Washington Director, are also strongly committed to fighting anti-Semitism. 

And, as a Trump appointee to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, I have advocated for measures to more aggressively combat anti-Semitism, which is a growing threat here in the United States and around the world. 

Yet in spite of this growing threat, Congress has been unable to take any significant action on the matter. The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act would empower the federal government to withhold funding from institutions of higher learning that tolerate anti-Semitism on their campuses. 

Unfortunately, it has been languishing on Capitol Hill due to opposition from so-called “progressives” who are hiding behind free-speech concerns. That’s really rich, since free speech is routinely denied to conservative and pro-Israel students while blatantly anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist groups, like Students for Justice in Palestine and organizations promoting the BDS movement, are given free rein. 

So yesterday, American Values, CUFI, and many others applauded when President Trump took action to break the logjam. He signed an executive order directing the Departments of Education and Justice to adopt many of the policies outlined in the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act.

Once again, the Trump/Pence administration has demonstrated its commitment to fighting hate and to standing with the Jewish people.

Trump’s Big Night

More than 10,000 people turned out for Trump’s big rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Tuesday night. The president was particularly upbeat, and why wouldn’t he be?

• Illegal border crossings are way down.

• So is unemployment.

• Job creation is up.

• Wages are up.

• American manufacturing is experiencing a renaissance.

• Goldman Sachs predicts even more growth in 2020.

• As promised, Trump is remaking NAFTA, the trade regime followed by presidents of both parties that gutted Middle America.

• Pelosi’s impeachapoolza is failing to sway voters and even some House Democrats.

• More and more Americans now say they are better off today than they were four years ago.  

Horowitz on The Hill

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz testified yesterday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. As you know, his report on the FBI’s handling of the Russia investigation has gotten a lot of press attention lately, most of it grossly distorted.

To be clear, Horowitz did not clear the FBI of wrongdoing. Horowitz found numerous egregious errors and extensive abuse of the secret FISA courts. In fact, he was so alarmed by what he found that his office is now conducting an audit of the FBI’s entire FISA warrant application system. 

Democrats on the committee repeatedly pressed Horowitz about his conclusion that he did not find evidence of bias to suggest that everything was really okay at the FBI. It was not okay. In his statement, the inspector general declared:

We also did not receive satisfactory explanations for the errors or missing information. We found that the offered explanations for these serious errors did not excuse them.

Democrats might be okay with that, but I’m not. The attorney general is not, and I don’t believe most Americans are either. 

As Chairman Lindsey Graham put it, the continued illegal surveillance of Carter Page and the “doctored” evidence to do so “had a bias that reeked.”

Kudos to Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who aggressively questioned Horowitz on his bias finding. Lee stated, “Your lack of evidence is not evidence that there was no bias." The inspector general conceded the point, saying:

We noted the lack of satisfactory explanations and leave open the possibility that … it’s unclear what the motivations were, on the one hand gross incompetence, negligence, on the other hand intentionality [bias] … we weren’t in a position with the evidence we had to make that conclusion… I’m not ruling it out.

One final point. The political bias started with the Steele dossier. The former British spy who compiled the dossier was reportedly "desperate” to stop Trump. Steele was paid by Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Biased, partisan dirt was eagerly used by the FBI as the basis for the FISA warrant to spy on the Trump campaign. 

That’s all the evidence of bias anyone should need.

Pensacola Update

I am pleased to report that Secretary of Defense Mark Esper seems to appreciate the severity of the problem the Pentagon has with the American people regarding last week’s terrorist attack at Naval Air Station Pensacola. 

It was announced Tuesday afternoon that all 852 Saudi military students in the United States have been suspended from flight training and will be restricted to classroom instruction pending a thorough security review and increased vetting efforts.

That’s a good first step.

The idea that we are training Saudi pilots, allowing them to travel all over the country, and permitting them to get hunting licenses but denying our own soldiers their right to be armed is insane.

Jersey City Shooting

Late Tuesday afternoon, there was breaking news of a shooting at a kosher market in Jersey City. Three people were killed at the store and a veteran police officer, a father of five children, was also gunned down at a cemetery prior to the attack on the kosher market. Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said that the kosher store was deliberately targeted.

The perpetrators of this vicious attack were identified yesterday as David Anderson and Francine Graham. Prior to the shooting, Anderson posted anti-Semitic and anti-police statements online. 

Not much is known about Graham, but Anderson had an extensive criminal history, including arrests in New Jersey and Ohio. Both were suspects in another murder that occurred over the weekend and were reportedly members of the radical Black Hebrew Israelites. 

If that group sounds familiar, it should. They were on the National Mall this January threatening Nick Sandmann and other Covington Catholic high-school students who were peacefully demonstrating in support of the sanctity of life.

Biden, Trump, & Judges

During an interview Tuesday, Joe Biden made a bizarre observation about President Trump’s success in confirming conservative judges. Here’s what he said:

Look at how the federal court system is changing. Four more years of the same kind of appointments, you’re going to see a court system that is fundamentally, for two generations, locked in a way that’s a death grip that does not make any sense.

I thought that was a curious phrase for him to use. The truth is that ever since 1973, the courts have literally been in a “death grip” as liberal judges made it impossible to stop the carnage of unborn children. As usual, Biden has it exactly backwards. 

If President Trump and Vice President Pence are reelected, the courts will ultimately be in a “life grip” as the nightmare of abortion-on-demand is brought to a close. And that, in my view, should cause every conservative to redouble their efforts in the year ahead!