After Ceasefire, Israeli Conflict Shifts to U.S.
Joe Biden’s muddled messages on the two-week barrage were unfortunate — but they were nothing compared to the anti-Semitic rants of his party’s radical wing.
There may not be rockets flying over Gaza, but there are certainly verbal grenades being lobbed on Capitol Hill. While the Middle East embraces a fragile peace, the ceasefire in Israel hasn’t managed to stop the internal war here at home. For the first time in generations, a major political party is openly challenging our alliance with Israel. And the fallout, as our allies know, could be deadly.
Joe Biden’s muddled messages on the two-week barrage were unfortunate — but they were nothing compared to the anti-Semitic rants of his party’s radical wing. In Twitter tirades and floor speeches, the “jihad squad” (as they’re appropriately being called), took their hatred of the Jewish nation to new levels — calling Israel “terrorists,” “racists,” and “extremists.” At one point, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) openly called Benjamin Netanyahu the “apartheid-in chief,” (a charge National Review’s Rich Lowry thoroughly debunks here). Republicans, whose jaws have been on the floor since the Democratic barrage began, still can’t come to grips with the level of open contempt and hostility from the Left.
Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.), one of the many Republicans wide-eyed by the anti-Israel comments, could only shake his head at just how quickly the Democratic Party is being transformed by its wildest extremists. “It’s remarkable to me that unity around Israel and standing with Israel used to be a nonpartisan issue. Just 10 years ago, it was not partisan to be able to talk about Israel and our national connection to them as an important ally. And now suddenly my Democratic colleagues are turning towards the Palestinians and towards the terrorist organizations that they support in the area. And it’s just remarkable to be able to see that shift.”
And look at what’s happened as a result, Lankford urges. The entire Middle East is destabilized. “Now we’re falling apart in the area. And the only thing that’s really shifted during that time period is America’s posture towards Israel.” On the House floor, Republicans got into heated debates with Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who was asked point-blank why she supported terrorists over Americans. In places like New York and Los Angeles, the squad’s demonization of Israel is leading to actual violence. U.S. Jews are being attacked, spit on, and beaten, because so many people are buying the Left’s lies about what’s happening overseas.
It’s gotten so out of hand that major media outlets like Newsweek have started sounding the alarm at just how dangerous this internal party split could be on the global stage. The Ayatollahs, they warn, are also watching. “The Squad launched into a disinformation campaign that would have made Tehran proud…” In fact, their anti-Israel propaganda is so compelling that Democrats have even earned the praise of the Muslim Brotherhood.
And they aren’t the only bad actors paying attention. Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran can all see the Democrats’ support for Israel is sagging. It’s only a matter of time, many worry, until they exploit it. Yesterday, Joe Biden’s party sent a clear message to the rest of the world that it can’t count on America’s support for Israel even in the smallest of gestures. When House Republicans offered a resolution to signal support for emergency funding for the tiny nation, Democrats couldn’t even bring themselves to back that. They killed it on a 218-209 vote, even though it was just a messaging bill. Well, we got the message all right. The Democrats are now the party of terrorist sympathizers.
“I don’t know in the history of this country where we have not sided with Israel in their plight to maintain their democracy,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) told me on “Washington Watch.” “But this crowd knows no bounds. It really doesn’t.” Even Barack Obama’s administration, who did everything to keep Israel at arm’s length, never openly embraced Hamas. “There was never this kind of pressure vocally from the Left on issues related to Israel during the Obama years,” said one of his former national security advisors. And yet, as Caroline Glick pointed out on Pray Vote Stand this past Wednesday, there probably hasn’t been this level of godlessness in the Democratic Party either. “The contemporary anti-Semitism that we’re seeing today is sort of part and parcel of the Left’s abandonment of God.”
In the meantime, Christians have our work cut out for us. We’re instructed, scripturally, to pray for the peace of Israel, but if we’re to pray for it — we should also work for it. That doesn’t mean, Heather Johnston reminded us on PVS, “just standing there waving a flag for Israel. It means taking an active role in government — contacting our senators and our congressmen and being a robust voice on the earth today for the Jewish people.” It’s up to us to decide who represents us and our views to the world. If there’s a dangerous shift under way, then it’s our responsibility to correct it. The sooner, the better.
Originally published here.
Lego Toys with More LGBT Extremism
The Left is tearing down mainstream values — brick by brick! Lego, the latest company to pander to the woke, just decided to test the waters with a rainbow set of “LGBTQIA+” figures. “Everyone is awesome!” the iconic toy company tweeted with a picture of the pack, which also boasts a transgender-flag colored spectrum. And if you’ve always wanted your kids to get an early education on cross-dressers, creator Matthew Ashton says you’re in luck. Although the characters are supposed to be non-conformist, the purple figure is meant as “a clear nod to all the fabulous drag queens out there.”
Of course, Lego isn’t the first toy company to wade into radical politics. Barbie and American Girl dolls have tried it (to very vocal protests). So did Mr. Potato Head — for about 12 hours. The uproar over the iconic spud was so overwhelming that Hasbro was forced to reverse course with record speed. “Hold that Tot!” the company tweeted. “Mr. Potato Head isn’t going anywhere. While it was announced today that the potato head brand name and logo are dropping the ‘Mr.’ I yam proud to confirm that Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head aren’t going anywhere and will remain Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head.”
If Lego wants to trot down this same controversial path, they’ll learn pretty quickly that American parents aren’t interested in their building blocks of indoctrination. Most U.S. consumers are wide awake, thanks to the cancel culture, and they’re not about to let a major decision by Lego corrupt a playful tradition that they loved as children themselves.
Unfortunately, these days, a family can’t even turn on PBS without seeing something shocking created specifically for kids. In New York City, the network is under incredible fire for broadcasting a drag queen series aimed directly at children as young as three. “Let’s Learn,” the program is called. And children learned all right — about a drag queen called “Lil Miss Hot Mess.” Apart from singing from his book “The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish Swish Swish” to the tune of the “The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round,” Lil Miss explains to children what he does. “Everyday people who like to play pretend and dress up as often as we can,” before adding, “I think we make pretty good role models.”
PBS, which rakes in a significant amount of taxpayer dollars, has been overwhelmed by complaints. And no wonder, considering that the man hosting the show happily says, “I think we might have some drag queens-in-training on our hands.” It also has some angry viewers on its hands too.
For now, FRC’s Jared Bridges warns, “Parents should be sure that we’re not letting any toy corporation (or school, or media company, or fill-in-the-blank) be the source about what’s true in the world. Moms and dads should be aware that no area of the world — not even the toy aisle — is immune from the age-old effects of deception.” The sad part about Lego’s campaign is that everyone is awesome. But they’re awesome because they’re created in the image of God to be uniquely male and female — a truth that’s unchangeable, down to their very DNA.
If Lego wants to turn its back on thousands of years of science, morality, common sense, and public opinion, that’s their choice. But they need to know that there’s a price for their extremism. Contact Lego on Twitter @LEGO_Group or email them on the website and voice your concerns about their blatant attempts to build more extremists with their bricks.
Originally published here.
Different Joe, Same No
Under President Joe Biden, Democratic policy ideas have gotten so radical that even so-called “compromise” proposals are toxic. Biden’s climate plan is nearly identical to the Green New Deal, Fairness for All is almost the same as the Equality Act, etc., and now there’s a new “compromise” proposal on election law from Senators Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) that would be more of the same. They’ve “tried to shift away from the comprehensive overreach” of the first election overhaul, H.R. 1, FRC’s Ken Blackwell said, but the truth is, it’s just as lethal.
The Democrats’ original proposal to unwind election security measures and federalize election law (H.R.1/S.1) ground to a halt in the Senate after a tied committee vote and Sen. Manchin’s insistence on finding Republican support for any election law. The Democrats cleverly branded the massive bill the “For the People Act,” although a more accurate title would have been the “Corrupt Politicians Act” for the way it would strip power from the people and make cheating easier.
Meanwhile, the Manchin-Murkowski measure, which has yet to win the support of Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), “would put a chokehold” on states shoring up their election systems, said Blackwell. Manchin has proposed that the U.S. attorney general would have “preclearance” power over “any changes to election processes and policies at the state level.” The 2020 election exposed failures in states across the country, and legislatures in 47 states are considering various election reform measures. Under Manchin’s voting rights bill, every state would have to get permission from the U.S Attorney General before implementing any of those changes. It’s hard to imagine the constitutional anarchy that would ensue if one unelected bureaucrat held veto power over states’ ability to conduct their own elections, as the Constitution provides.
The “preclearance” idea didn’t come out of thin air. Under the Voting Rights Act passed in the 1960s, nine states with racially discriminatory voting practices had to pre-clear any election changes with the U.S. attorney general. But the preclearance condition only ever applied to states with a racially troubling track record. In 2013, the Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holderstruck down the preclearance mandate as unconstitutional, saying that it was an “extraordinary departure from the traditional course of relations between the States and the Federal Government,” which no longer reflected “current political conditions.” In other words, there’s no longer evidence of racially motivated voter suppression that would justify subjecting state election reforms to “preclearance” by the U.S. attorney general.
Even this ostensibly bipartisan proposal, Blackwell argued on Thursday’s “Washington Watch,” “would undermine totally our federalism system, which puts emphasis on state and local control and in our elections. "The most basic level of oversight” should be “at the local level, not [with] some bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.” He concluded that Democrats “are really bent on… creating a one party, national system that is… centrally controlled.” That’s a freedom-killing cocktail, if ever there was one.
The last time the Voting Rights Act was reauthorized, the Senate voted unanimously. Given the Democratic Party’s lurch to the Left, it’s difficult to find that kind of common ground on anything. Senator Joe Manchin should be congratulated for defending the filibuster, and for trying to find common ground on an issue so central to a free republic’s civic life. But the best intentions cannot salvage bad policy. The latest iteration of the voting rights law has too much interference in election rulemaking by unelected bureaucrats. So it’s hard to see how Republicans could ever accept it.
Originally published here.
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.
