The Broke-n Generation

Posted on December 18, 2024 by First.One.Through

Today’s youth are a sorry lot.

In the aftermath of the targeted killing of a healthcare insurance executive, more 18-29 year olds thought that the assassination was justified than thought it unjustified (41% to 40%) according to a DailyMail poll. The Gen Z generation was an outlier compared to every other age group, with those over 50 years old having 10% or fewer believing that the killing was justified.

The peculiar morality of 18-29 year olds is not limited to their view of the insurance industry. In the aftermath of the Hamas slaughter of Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, a Harvard poll showed that 60% of 18 to 24 year old thought that the attack was justified. Half of that age group supported Hamas (compared to 4% for people over 65) and 51% said they thought Israel should be liquidated and handed to Hamas.

Why is there such depravity and celebration of violence amongst today’s youth?

According to a Yale poll conducted in the fall of 2024, the majority (52.5%) of Americans under 30 years old consider themselves liberal. Only one-quarter are conservative, and those that are, are only “somewhat conservative.”

These under 30 liberals are not typically perceived as violent. According to Pew Research, they have the lowest gun ownership in America. According to a PBS poll, it is Republicans that are more likely to resort to violence “get the country back on track,” not the left (which should not be surprising as the poll was taken under a Democratic presidency; should the poll be conducted again under a Trump administration, it would be curious to see the results).

Further, according to a McCourtney poll in January 2024, Gen Z youth are the least angry age group in the U.S. They also tend to feel the most pride for certain things.

The various polls seem incongruous. On one hand, Gen Z youth applaud murder but are generally not as angry or prone to violence according to polls.

One observation made by the Brookings Institute is that today’s youth is much more diverse racially and ethnically than older generations, as well as compared to youth of prior generations. It means that current polling data may be wrong depending on the sample set selected, and it means that age may be only one determinant of how young people view the world.

*Brookings Institute warns of polling data for today’s youth*

Another factor is perhaps social.

Gen Z was more impacted by the pandemic and its lockdowns than other generations, forced to spend high school and college at home and behind masks. They grew up and went through puberty with social media and texting on their cellphones as the main methods of engagement rather than physically interacting with peers and society.

Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation, said that Gen Z is suffering from a serious mental health crisis. He views this generation as more depressed and susceptible to self-harm. His analysis highlights correlation rather than causation, as there are very few Gen Z without social media to compare. The podcast linked above considers that maybe more anxious youth spend more time on social media than less anxious people, so the correlation may be from the self-selected initiators rather than from platform engagement.

Polls have looked at Gen Z’s attitudes regarding societal values. According to a 2022 Gallup poll, those aged 18-29 were much more likely to believe that companies should be more focused on long-term benefits of society than profitability. They are much more likely than older Americans to leave a position at a firm if they disagreed with the company’s values.

Those opinions are seemingly not limited to corporate America. Harvard’s December 2021 poll showed that young Americans were very unhappy with President Biden and Congress and “over a third think they may see a second U.S. civil war within their lifetimes.” While Gen Z may not be carrying guns, they believe that society is broken and war is coming.

Beyond society being broken, they personally feel broke. According to a 2024 NBC poll, the most pressing matter for Gen Z by far was inflation and the cost of living (31%), ahead of “threats to democracy” at 11%. Crime, immigration, foreign affairs and other matters were all far behind.

*NBC poll of Gen Z before 2024 presidential election*

None of the polls are perfect but the assembly of all this data leads to some disturbing conclusions about Gen Z today:

they are distressed – emotionally and financially – disconnected from society because of masks and technology
they do not see a secure future, whether because of personal financial stress or because they believe the system is rigged against them
they have no faith in institutions – whether government or corporations – to look out for them and society
while they may not be inclined or able to commit violence themselves, they empathize with those who do

It sounds like the backdrop for the movie Joker, with a society ready to venerate murder as a pathway for validation and justice. It’s Gen Z’s desire to rip down the establishment in a brewing civil war which more closely resembles the French Revolution than the 19th century war between the states.

While the fictional Joker character was understood to be deeply troubled, Hamas and Luigi Mangione, the killer of the United Healthcare CEO, are being portrayed as deeply righteous. Professors at universities are praising the killers, and pointing to “wealthy Jews” as operating “behind the curtain” (to quote Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)) to entrench a corrupt system for selfish goals. The media echoes the “powerful Jew” and corrupt Republican/”White supremacy”/patriarchy themes to incite the masses. They make playing cards of other insurance executives to target.

The youth are marching with chants to “Globalize the Intifada“, to bring the October 7 massacres to every corner of the world. They are picking infidels in each town and industry to target for their rage.

Gen Z’s embrace of anarchy is being encouraged by liberal media, the education system, radical left wing organizations and America’s foreign foes. Each is influencing and validating “the anxious generation,” seeking TikTok moments to clone the next Joker, attempting to destroy the United States from within.

The VERY WRONG Takeaways From Democratic Politicians

Posted on November 15, 2024 by First.One.Through

After the clean sweep of the presidency, Senate and House by Republicans, Democratic politicians are trying to figure out why they lost. Mainstream Democrats like Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) thinks that the party needs to pivot to economic issues and away from social issues, emphasizing the need to “take power” from the powerful and hand it to the working class. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) thinks that there’s an “oligarchy” in the United States who steal everyone’s money and buy elections, so Democrats should focus on seizing and redistributing that wealth.

If those are the lessons learned, the Democrats will continue to lose, as they should.

Money in elections. The Democrats spent about one-third more than Republicans and lost big. The dollar spent per vote was about 50% more. The numbers show that it’s not about money in politics or the Democrats would have sailed away with victory.
America’s “oligarchy.” The richest people in the United States BUILT amazing companies and created millions of jobs and products that people love. The oligarchs in Russia just STOLE state assets. Sanders & Co. have a basic lack of understanding of economics which feeds a deep contempt for wealthy people. The distortion leads people like Sanders to the horrific conclusions and proposed policies that deny Americans property rights.
Americans feel “impotent”. Murphy’s claim that Americans feel that only a handful of people hold power is true about the omnipotent Democratic political machine: They decided to throw President Biden out of the running. They unilaterally decided that VP Kamala Harris was going to run as the party’s nominee without allowing everyday Americans the opportunity to vote for their nominee. Democratic politicians are the imperialist power players and people are waking up to that grotesque fact. Most do not want to pivot to the far-left like Justice Democrats who accuse the Democrats of imperialism, so they pivot right.

The Democrats should now appreciate that they should have never picked Harris for vice president four years ago. You don’t pick one of the most left-wing senators from the most radical left-wing state and assume that such person could win most of America. Knowing her baggage and role in the unpopular Biden administration, Harris’s attempt to pivot towards the middle came off as completely inauthentic, a non-starter for many voters.

Considering the above, the election takeaways for the public and the Democratic Party and possible plans for the future include:

The Democratic machine was tactically smart to lie to Americans about Biden’s health. Harris was never going to beat any Republican – as the November election showed – so the best chance of her becoming president was to prop up Biden until the middle of 2025 and then let him resign to hand the presidency to Harris. The question isn’t why the Democrats waited so long to admit to Biden’s health issues; there was no other option, as even $1.5 billion dollars highlighted. [Note that Pelosi and gang are very astute – it will be important to trace the monies spent on the Harris campaign to see if/how much was siphoned off to favorite causes and other Democratic politicians for future races.]
Pick presidential candidates from swing states. Democrats should stay away from California, Massachusetts and New York and run candidates from Pennsylvania, Georgia or Michigan. The electoral college is not just a game of arithmetic; the candidates should be broadly attractive for everyone, not niche extremists.
The far-left wing “Squad” of the Democratic party is a toxic anchor that shut be cut off. The Democratic Socialists of America held a vote in August 2023 to remain inside the Democratic party to pull the party leftward rather than break into its own party, stating “It is not advisable for us to form an independent political party with its own ballot line at this moment.” The stink of their socialist policies has washed over Democrats. The party should expel the toxic DSA politicians and candidates, including Rep.Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).
Stop the wealth transfer platform. No American will feel safe if the idea that their property can be seized by the government and handed over to someone the government prefers. Immigrants know the corrupt communism and socialism of property theft. They came to this country for a fair shot at capitalism to become wealthy. Don’t vilify billionaires as immoral, the way AOC says.
Decentralize and narrowly focus. Don’t push an issue like fracking or gender identity in sports onto the national stage. What may fly in Oregon may not in Texas, and making politicians delve into matters that are best handled locally will inevitably rub many people the wrong way. National campaigns should always lead with safety and the economy. Always, in every election.

Mainstream and extreme Democrats are so trapped in their political philosophies that they believe that the election loss was an issue of messaging. It was not. Americans have eyes and ears and did not appreciate the pig under the lipstick.

The critical issues of security and the economy were alight with global wars, rampant antisemitism, inflation, grab-and-go theft and the National Guard in the subways over the past four years. Keeping the socialist-jihadi fringe inside the party whose policies include destroying the economy and embracing genocidal terrorists will forever sink anyone in their orbit on a national level.

*The image of the Democratic policies and priorities*

Most importantly, Democrats need to stop pitting groups against each other – the powerful versus working class and Whites versus people of color – and then vilifying their foes as ‘Nazis’ and ‘deplorables.’ The only segment to move leftward towards those positions were those they targeted who dutifully ate their humble pie – educated White men – while the non-woke uneducated and minority groups watched the pandering as inherently racist, anti-religion and anti-Democratic.

Americans are abandoning the politics and universities of wokeism. It’s a good thing. Democrats will now decide whether to jettison it or continue to cleave to their intersectional and DEI ideology.

“I Think We Need To Have A Real Conversation About Woke Antisemitism” (July 2024)

‘Imagine’ No Wokeness (February 2022)

Bernie Sanders’ Antisemitic and Anti-Zionist Friends (March 2020)

Bernie Sanders is Less Sophisticated Than Forrest Gump (April 2019)

Robert Kennedy And Donald Trump: The Jihadi War On American Politicians

Posted on November 10, 2024 by First.One.Through

On June 5, 1968, on the one year anniversary of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian Arab, shot and killed Senator Robert Kennedy while he was campaigning to be the president of the United States. Sirhan assassinated the American politician because of his support for Israel.

On October 7, 2023, on the fiftieth anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur Arab-Israeli War, the Iranian proxy of Hamas massacred 1,200 people in Israel and took over 250 people hostages. In the ensuing months, other Iranian proxies went to war with Israel including Hezbollah from Lebanon and the Houthis from Yemen, while the Islamic Republic of Iran attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump as he campaigned to be the next president.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents as he is helped off the stage at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., Saturday, July 13, 2024. (photo: Gene J. Puskar / AP)

On February 1, 2024, the FBI filed a lawsuit against members of the US designated foreign terrorist group Hamas. The suit mentions Iran 79 times as a partner for Hamas’s October 7 massacre, as well as ongoing support for the group. Beyond that gruesome day, the suit alleges that Hamas and Iran “knowingly and intentionally combined, conspired, confederated, and agreed together and with each other to kill nationals of the United States.“

The Iranian proxies are public with their threats on the U.S. On October 28, 2023, one of Hamas’s leaders broadcast “The U.S. Administration and the Western countries supporting the aggression are full partners with the occupation in the genocidal war and the cascade of blood that flows from defenseless civilians.This blood will be a curse and a volcano of fury from the masses of our Ummah [i.e., the Muslim community] and the free people of the world against these killers.” An October 18 broadcast from Hamas had a similar message that Hamas is “stating loud and clear that the American administration and the Western countries that support the aggression are full partner countries along with the occupation forces in this annihilation war.” On December 2, 2023, a Hamas official said on Hamas media that “[t]here is not a single crime that the U.S. has not committed against Gaza. May Allah settle the score with America, and may He take revenge on that criminal Nazi country.”

The jihadi war against the United States predates the October 7 jihadi massacre. For example, as stated in the lawsuit, “On or about December 22, 2017, Hamas spokesman Abd Al Qadir Al-Hawajiri spoke at a Hamas rally that was broadcast on a Hamas media outlet. In his speech, Al-Hawajiri condemned American support for Israel, proclaiming that ‘that entity [i.e. , Israel] will cease to exist, as will America.‘”

The vitriol against the United States accelerated after President’s Trump’s pro-Israel actions, specifically mentioning “the American Declaration that the U.S. recognizes Jerusalem to be the entity’s [i.e., Israel’s] capital, as well as to America’s recognition of the legality of the settlements.”

But the jihadi war against Israel is not about the “settlements” or the capital, but Jewish presence in any form. As Ismail Haniyeh, a leader of the Hamas movement said months before he was assassinated in Iran, “We do not want to see you [Jews] on this land; this land is ours, Al-Quds is ours, all of it is ours… there is no place or residing for you.” He went on to commit to waging war and never negotiating or compromising with Israel.

*Statements from Palestinian leader Ismail Haniyeh as relayed in US lawsuit against members of Hamas on February 1, 2024*

Iran and Hamas actively recruited monetary support from the United States and elsewhere to wage their genocidal war. In November 2020, Hamas’s Al Aqsa TV held a “First Electronic Pioneers Conference” in which Haniyeh said “We need to upgrade the support, from support through soft power to support by means of money and weapons. Yes, I would like to make it perfectly clear: I am talking about support by means of money and weapons, for the mujahideen and the murabitun [the people who harass Jews visiting the Jewish Temple Mount] in Jerusalem and its environs.” Members of South African parliament were in attendance.

Millions of dollars were routed – and continue to be routed – to Hamas via Gazan charity groups. That money is used to kill Israelis, Americans and to fund assassination attempts on American leaders.

Jihadi groups are not just waging a war on Israel but also on America. The genocidal assassins are not limited to the fanatical leaders of Iran and Palestinian groups and include members of the socialist-jihadi alliance in the United States who provide material support for the violence.

NYTimes Said Israel Killed Man Of Peace In Assassination Of Leader Of Hamas (July 2024)

US Bans Iranian Media But Israel Shouldn’t In The Middle Of A War? (May 2024)

Excerpt of Hamas Charter to Share with Your Elected Officials (May 2021)

Every Picture Tells a Story: Israel Is Scared of Female Iranian Shoppers (February 2021)

The New York Times Whitewashes Motivation of Palestinian Assassin of Robert Kennedy (June 2018)

Double Standards: Assassinations (June 2014)

Democrats Spend Big Money Yet Point At Jews

Posted on November 8, 2024 by First.One.Through

The United States is considering the final tallies from the 2024 presidential election. While the numbers are not quite final, there are a few obvious takeaways: Republican Donald Trump won, and spent a lot less to do so.

Trump won roughly 4.5 million more votes than VP Kamala Harris. According to Open Secrets, Trump spent about one-third less than Harris on the campaign, about $1.0 billion to $1.5 billion for Harris. Taken together, Harris spent $22.00 on average per vote compared to Trump’s spend of about $14.06, 56% more.

Progressives have long decried the spending of AIPAC, the bipartisan pro-Israel group, as “an existential threat.” They assembled far-left anti-Israel groups into a Reject AIPAC coalition, claiming that “This influx of [pro-Israel] money to oppose the strongest progressives in Congress and to support election deniers hurts our democracy.”

But democracy is seemingly fine when progressives spend billions of dollars.

The anti-Israel progressive group lies are multiple: AIPAC supports many progressives, but only those who share the pro-Israel philosophy which is the mission of the group, much like abortion PACs support politicians focused on that one issue. They also support conservatives who are pro-Israel.

Post by Rep. Jamaal Bowman who was primaried by George Latimer with the support of AIPAC because of his demonization of Israel and anti-Israel and Jew ambivalent actions, posting on X about ‘Palestine’ in a reflection of the Harris loss. Seemingly looking for a job among the socialist-jihadi alliance.

Second, and to the point here, progressives love spending money as witnessed in the Harris campaign. They spent one-third more and still lost both the popular vote and electoral college. Democrats only point to the money when its spent against them, and especially if they can make it look like the source is powerful Jews operating behind the scenes in classic antisemitic stereotypes.

AIPAC was highly successful in its campaigns in the 2024 election cycle among Democrats and Republicans. They helped Asian-Americans, Blacks, Hispanics, vets, progressives and conservatives win their races. Their success stands in sharp contrast to the failure of Democratic groups to elect Harris with so much money to lose so badly.

Money is important in elections but isn’t the deciding factor as the $1.5 billion spent by Democrats in the failed effort to get Harris elected demonstrated. It will be interesting to see if there is an audit of the enormous Democratic spend and whether many people enriched themselves during the race. People should also track whether “progressives” continue to only talk about money when Jews are spending it.

AIPAC’s Open Tent Versus Justice Democrats Niche Extremism (April 2024)

The New York Times Continues ‘Powerful Jew’ Myth (June 2022)

The Re-Introduction of the ‘Powerful’ Jew Smear (March 2021)

Jewish Vote For President Broke Important Threshold

Posted on November 7, 2024 by First.One.Through

The exit polls are in for the 2024 election, and President Donald Trump did remarkably well for a Republican amongst Jews, particularly in key swing states of Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada, where he secured 41%, 37% and 42% of the Jewish vote, respectively.

The 32% tally which Trump secured nationally among Jews was the highest tally since 1988.

To put that figure in context, since 1952, Jews have only broken the 30% threshold for Republicans seven times, and in each of those situations, the Republican has prevailed. In the 12 elections where the Jewish vote for Republicans was 30% or less, the Republican only won four times, or just one-third.

Jews are a minority-minority and their votes do not necessarily deliver the outcome, but they are seemingly a solid bellwether of the national mood. The nation – and a considerable portion of its Jews – feel that the United States has been going in a bad direction and is now putting its faith in the Republican Party.

I Did Not Vote For Trump in 2016 or 2020. I am Voting For Him Now. (November 2024)

‘Tis The Season To Vote And Donate Jewish (April 2024)

Wednesday Morning Quarterback… Four Years Ago

Posted on November 6, 2024 by First.One.Through

Republican former President Donald Trump handedly defeated Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, and liberals have begun second guessing their strategies and choices that led to her defeat. Many consider whether Harris could have won had she (or the Democratic establishment that surrounded her) selected Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro as a running mate. The popular governor might have been able to help Harris win the Keystone State (which she lost) and had more Jews support her in other races, perhaps delivering Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.

The reality is that Harris and the Democrats fought a very good race – considering the TOP of the ticket. Bringing in Harris late in the election cycle, limiting her interviews to prevent gaffes, and making the election about her not being Donald Trump was smart. However, it could not overcome the Biden-Harris term being deeply unpopular and Harris could not separate herself from the administration in which she served.

The correct question for Democrats this Wednesday morning was not what they did wrong over the past few months but what they did FOUR YEARS AGO. Specifically, choosing Harris as the Vice President because she was a Black woman, and allowing the nation’s border to be overrun.

Harris never won a single delegate in her 2020 run for the president. She had a voting record as a member of the alt-left coming from a radically woke state. Had Biden chosen a moderate and qualified candidate from one of the seven swing states, the 2024 election would have been much easier for the Democrats to secure. Opting to pick a person a heartbeat from the presidency purely because of her intersectionality characteristics was more than a blunder.

In addition, the Biden-Harris failure at the borders put Americans at risk. Americans listed it as one of the key considerations in selecting a president along with the economy (in which people also preferred Trump), well above abortion rights. But the Democratic machinery was tethered to the reality of the past four years, even as they attempted to make the race about democracy and women’s rights.

Democrats began to get tough on the border late in the term but the impact was already present, much like the soaring inflation of Biden-Harris’s first years in office leveled off, but the cumulative effect was already baked into everyone’s daily living. Wars in Ukraine and Israel made the world feel unsafe and rudderless.

Picking Josh Shapiro as the VP might have helped Harris win the 2024 election but it would have just covered up bad choices of the last four years. The takeaway should be more strategic to develop better tactics for the future, not just thinking about the choice of VP in the immediate race.

Americans voted for the economy and safety. Just like Israel. As long as Democrats appear as the party of redistributing wealth, defunding the police and porous borders, with left-wing politicians from left-wing states as their spokespeople, they will continue to lose races they could have won.

Powerful Democrats Tell Leaders To Wait Out The Jews (November 2024)

Senator Schumer Is No ‘Shomer’ (October 2024)

The Most Important Congressional Races For Your Engagement (September 2024)

A Milestone For US Recognition Of Foreign Terrorist Groups (September 2024)

The Anti-Israel And Anti-American Woke Grows (July 2024)

Murdered Jews as Political Fodder at Election Season in America and Always in Israel (October 2018)

I Did Not Vote For Trump in 2016 or 2020. I am Voting For Him Now.

Posted on November 1, 2024 by First.One.Through

Like many Jewish Americans, I am a registered Democrat. Unlike many, I have no party loyalty and vote for the person I think is best suited for the job.

My friends were shocked when I voted for the libertarian candidate for president in 2016. They rattled off the many offenses of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and that I was wasting my vote. I did not disagree. But I could not vote for Trump or Clinton. Not only had Clinton proven herself to be awful but Trump was a vulgarian wildcard. I believed Trump was such a “deal guy” that he had no sense of the compromises that are needed to run a country of 330 million. He would be bad for America, Israel and the whole world.

I ended up being quite wrong about Trump on Israel. Surrounded by a strong team of advisers, he understood what was required for an ENDURING PEACE in the Middle East, not just the paper to get to a peace agreement. He delivered an amazing array of achievements for America and the Middle East over his term, including the fewest deaths of Arabs and Jews over any four year stretch in modern history.

Yet I remained worried. America was deeply divided and I could not imagine Trump being the solution to bring the country together. Four years on I looked for an alternative.

I cast my lot initially with Mike Bloomberg as a centrist, who had pushed aggressively for Hillary over Trump in 2016 under the premise that she was basically like a prostitute who is deeply unloved but gets the job done. Bloomberg was my version of #NeverTrump meets #NeverBernie Sanders. But he was eliminated early on.

I settled on Biden as the “centrist” to help address the “Mason-Dixon Plaid” that pitted neighbor against neighbor. I wanted to stop the brewing civil war, and too many people hated Trump for him to be the solution. I similarly voted for centrists in Congress, rejecting mainstream media’s endorsement of far left-wing radicals like Jamaal Bowman. I picked a winner at the top of the ticket but saw extremist radicals taking over Congress.

Those radical members of Congress had no need to compromise the way a president must. They incited their base, and brought antisemitism to deplorable levels after the October 7, 2023 massacre of 1,200 people in Israel. Fading Biden had no idea or desire to stem the vicious tide.

Jewish members of Congress like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) turned on Israel and refused to combat the wave of antisemitism. Young Democrats and liberal universities revealed themselves to be deeply hostile to Israel and Jews.

The divide in America now felt more personal. It was no longer about Republicans versus Democrats, but more immediately, radical antisemitic extremists which had metastasized inside the Democratic party and liberal institutions against American Jewry. The general tension in the country is no longer my priority, but the specific targeting of minority-minority Jews which made even leading Jewish politicians hide in fear.

Pundits like Bret Stephens may argue that Trump continues to be a danger, and I was a NeverTrumper just like him. Many friends who are devout liberal Jews continue to believe that the antisemitism is really just a minor issue which will subside when the Iranian proxy war against Israel ends.

I disagree. Things have become so dire for American Jewry that Jews like me are prioritizing Jews over everything else. The alt-left will easily take over a Kamala Harris administration.

Sen. Bernie Sanders explaining that Kamala Harris will side with the alt-left when she is not bound by Biden’s preferences as it relates to Israel

Israel is laying the groundwork for an enduring peace in the Middle East by ridding the region of jihadi extremists who intend on annihilating local Jewry. It is tragic and ugly but essential. Americans – DEMOCRATS – need to similarly take actions which may seem displeasing, including voting for Trump, to end the toxic antisemitism drowning Jews today.

Be A Proud DINO And Expunge Extremists (February 2024)

The DSA Is Systematically Coming For Zionist Jews (August 2023)

Anti-Israel and Jew-Ambivalent in Congress (December 2022)

Politicians In Their Own Words: Why We Don’t Support Defending Jews (January 2022)

Eyes Wide Shut (November 2016)

Palestinians And Their Supporters Hate America

Posted on August 20, 2024 by First.One.Through

Since 1993, the United States has provided more than $7.6 billion in assistance to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza—primarily through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The Trump administration suspended the program in January 2019 due to the Palestinians continued support of terrorism but it was restarted under the Biden administration in April 2021. According to the U.S. Governmental Accounting Office report in December 2023, American taxpayer dollars are currently not going to terrorism via that program.

The same cannot be said of the money the U.S. sends to Palestinians via the United Nations.

Since 1950, the U.S. has donated $7.3 billion to UNRWA, the temporary agency to deal uniquely with Palestinians who left Israel in 1948, together with their millions of descendants. The Biden administration suspended payments to UNRWA in January 2024 when it was revealed that several staffers participated in the brutal mass slaughter of people in Israel on October 7.

All that money hasn’t bought America any love.

The supposedly “moderate” Holocaust-denier President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority addressed the Turkish government on August 15, 2024. He promised “sharia law: victory or martyrdom” in the war against the Jewish State, and cursed the United States, “America is the plague and the plague is America.”

Pro-Palestinian protesters in the United States hate America too.

The mobs removed the American flag and hoisted the Palestinian Authority flag on college campuses in North Carolina and New York City. They publicly burned the U.S. flag in Washington, D.C. and in the center of New York City. They chanted “death to America!” at rallies in Michigan and urged a complete dismantling of the U.S.

“Hamas is coming” to Washington, D.C.

The negative sentiments about the U.S.A. is more prevalent among Democrats than Republicans. According to a June 2023 Pew poll, Republicans were more likely to view America as tolerant (54% to 35%) and democratic (51% to 36%) compared to Democrats. Meanwhile Democrats were more likely to find the U.S. to be dangerous (43% to 21%) and religious (35% to 26%) than Republicans. Note that these statistics were taken before the Palestinians launched the October 7, 2023 war against Israel.

Meanwhile, Israelis have a very positive view of the United States, with 77% having a positive view according to a June 2024 Pew poll. By way of comparison, Canada, the United Kingdom and France have 54%, 54% and 46% positive scores for the United States, respectively.

According to Palestinian sources, there are over 40,000 Gazans killed in the current war against Israel. Israel claims that 17,000 of the dead were terrorists. That means that the Palestinian Authority expects millions of additional dollars to support their “Martyrs Fund” / pay-to-slay program, on top of appeals to rebuild Gaza in the war they deliberately initiated.

When the leader of the Palestinian Authority declares “America is the plague” and his supporters threaten to burn America to the ground, it begs the question why America gives a single penny to people who despise the country, and whose leaders promise to give their last penny to people who slaughter Jews.

The Anti-Israel And Anti-American Woke Grows (July 2024)

NY Times Lies That Gazans Hate Hamas (June 2024)

Globalize The Intifada With Socialists (May 2024)

Israeli-Arab Conflict For Americans In March 2024 (March 2024)

The Normalization Deformity: No To Zionism and Peace; Yes To Massacres and Terrorism In a Global Intifada (January 2024)

Statistics on American Anti-Jewish and Anti-Muslim Attacks (November 2023)

The UN Coordinator For Palestinian Appeals (November 2021)

The Global Intifada (July 2021)

Ramifications of Ignoring American Antisemitism (May 2015)

Pick Your Jihad; Choose Your Infidel (September 2014)

The Last Days Of ‘Everlastingly Happy’ At The Edges

Posted on August 8, 2024 by First.One.Through

Roman Vishniac (1897-1990) was a famous documentary photographer who captured images of what turned out to be the end of a thriving Eastern European Jewish community. His photographs and story are captured in film and several books, which serve as witness to Jewish life as it existed before being extinguished in the Holocaust.

Vishniac did not try to capture only old Jews or poor shtetl Jews, although his images do bring stories like Fiddler On The Roof to the real world. He captured all kinds of Jews who lived full lives in cities and towns, without the foreboding knowledge that death was coming as individuals and as a collective.

Marc Chagall (1887-1985) captured Russian villages and Jews in his paintings in the decades before Vishniac. Jews had been relegated to live in the Pale of Settlement on the western ends of the Russian Empire for hundreds of years, and Chagall’s early paintings were somewhat peaceful despite the various pogroms which decimated much of the Jewish community in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

On October 7, 2023, roughly 3,500 people came to southern Israel near the Gaza Strip to celebrate life and music. The Tribe of Nova music festival was an annual all night electronic music experience which drew mostly secular people from around the world. They celebrated with friends and family near Jewish communities whose residents strove for coexistence with their neighbors in Jew-free Gaza nearby. No one knew that Palestinian terrorists were going to descend on the party and the kibbutzes to slaughter and torture as many people as the Arabs could find.

In eastern Europe and Russia, Jews lived in confined areas at the edges of where host countries decided Jews may live. The Jews lived the best they could under the restrictions, until political powers decided that they didn’t want Jews anymore. The militaries either slaughtered the Jews or expelled them.

While Jews originated and always lived in the land of Israel, modern Zionism sought to give Jews autonomy in their homeland again. While the reestablished Jewish State was formed in 1948, the country fought many wars against neighbors which found a Jewish State an insult to Islam.

Believing that the Israeli army kept them secure, Israelis danced the night away on October 7, just three kilometers from where the Palestinian group Hamas governed the terrorist enclave of Gaza, with a well-publicized plan seeking the death of Jews and destruction of Israel. Thousands of Gazan terrorists invaded Israel and butchered and slaughtered more Jews on a single day than any day since the Holocaust.

Jews danced and lived on the edges, on narrow slices of the world where they were informed they were entitled to live. In the end, whether from their own antisemitic governments or neighboring genocidal armies, they were targeted for annihilation.

The United States Now

What are the lessons for the largest diaspora community the world has ever known, with nearly 6 million Jews accounting for two-thirds of the global diaspora? Or other western democracies like Canada, the United Kingdom and France?

Jews have achieved financial success and attained leading positions at many global companies. They have built schools and hospitals, industries and factories. They have no restrictions on professions or where they can live, how they can pray or what they eat.

Yet the feeling for Jews post-October 7 feels tense. Unsafe.

The presidents of America’s leading universities came to Washington, D.C. and said that they would not combat Jew-hatred on their campuses. The best they could offer were chaperones to escort Jews to their classes or dorms as they confront open and approved intimidation and harassment.

Many American politicians in liberal cities are openly saying that they will not protect Jews. Jews living in the suburbs of New York and St. Louis fought aggressively to oust antisemitic politicians (Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush), with the defeated members of Congress then threatening to come after them.

Are these the new edges in the West in 2024, the straight line on campuses from dorms to classrooms, as well as suburban towns outside of liberal cities? Are universities and cities generally becoming off limits to Jews? Are Jews being told to simply accept that they can live happy lives on the edges?

Jews know history. They carry it in their DNA. They know that any restrictions form the contours of confinement. There is no safety in ghettos, only marked addresses for future annihilation.

*Marker for location of massacre of the Jews of Lisbon on April 19, 1506*

President George Washington penned a letter to the Jewish congregation of Newport, RI on August 18, 1790 which said “The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”

Yet Jews are feeling a deep erosion of that sentiment, that they are part-and-parcel of the fabric of the great country, as leaders of both academia and government assist persecution and inflame bigotry against the most persecuted people in the world.

Excluding Jews in any form, place or time is against the foundational principles of the United States. It cannot be accepted for America to be America.

American Jews will not fight for a slice of land on the edges of society in which to live. They have seen the destruction of fellow Jews when they stay politely in the alloted corners. Whether traditional or secular. Whether in Israel or the diaspora.

*Marker of location where 200+ Jews in Vienna who had refused to convert to Christianity were burned at the stake in 1421.*

American Jews will fight for all of America and to continue to be integral part of the great nation, unafraid.

*Student at George Washington University demanding protection from intimidation, harassment and discrimination, May 2024*

American Jews hold fast to Washington’s Newport letter, as he signed “May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.”

Alas, what make antisemites everlastingly happy is harassing Jews until they experience the pogroms and expulsions of Fiddler On The Roof today.

ACTION ITEM

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The Holocaust Will Not Be Colorized. The Holocaust Will Be Live. (May 2019)

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The Long History of Dictating Where Jews Can Live Continues (December 2015)

Palestineism Is Antisemitism Writ Large

Posted on July 30, 2024 by First.One.Through

The pro-Palestinian movement in the United States has gone full jihadi, targeting JEWISH institutions, including synagogues. The instigators are not only anti-Israel but anti-Jews.

Squirrel Hill Synagogue, PA location of worst mass murder of Jews in the US, defaced with pro-Palestinian graffiti, July 2024

Jewish houses of worship are not Israeli. They have nothing to do with the war between Israel and Hamas terrorists, but were targeted by pro-Palestinian antisemites.

Synagogue in Los Angeles, CA spray painted with “Free Palestine” and “F*ck Israel” in May 2020

The Palestineism movement specifically calls for finding and confronting Zionist organizations, which it has determined is every Jewish organization unless it specifically repudiates Zionism. They have created a “Mapping Project” to enable people to locate and harrass Jewish Americans, Jewish organizations, Jewish schools and synagogues.

The United States Holocaust Museum has written extensively about the Nazis use of intimidation as a tool to weaponize fear and “rationalize war, persecution, and genocide.” The “Free Palestine” graffiti on houses of worship – especially in the shadow of the largest mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust on October 7, 2023 by Palestinian Arabs – is a deliberate targeting of Jews, a marker for exclusion and persecution.

The Department of Justice needs to act against these hate crimes. The department knows that “Hate crimes have a devastating effect beyond the harm inflicted on any one victim. They reverberate through families, communities, and the entire nation, as others fear that they too could be threatened, attacked, or forced from their homes, because of what they look like, who they are, where they worship, whom they love, or whether they have a disability.”

Section 241 of the civil rights code makes it a felony to intimidate people to hinder the free exercise to a basic privilege like worship.

Yet in Pennsylvania, home to the largest mass murder of Jews in the United States and scene of recent graffiti on a synagogue, Sen. Bob Casey and Gov. Josh Shapiro did not flag that the perpetrators of the antisemitic intimidation should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. They only spoke of the symbolism of the vandalism and graffiti.

The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) made it an offense to use intimidation to prevent a person from going to a synagogue. A Tennessee woman was just sentenced to three years and five months for intimidating people from using an abortion clinic. Such action should be enforced quickly and broadly for vandalizing a synagogue, with long sentences when the language calls to eradicate the Jewish State.

Words of condemnation are appreciated but American Jewry needs and demands that politicians and law enforcement enforce laws to protect Jews from the onslaught of toxic antisemitic Palestineism that is sweeping the nation.