The Front Page Cover
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened"
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Featuring:
Geller and her colleagues aren't the only victims that America's elites refuse to side with against aggressors
Caroline B. Glick
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"Know who you are standing with"
"Show me your friends and I'll show you your future"
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Court Says NSA Record Collection Exceeded Patriot Act Authority 
In a win for opponents of the National Security Agency's massive telephone metadata collection efforts, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday the program is not authorized by the Patriot Act. The three-judge panel did not, however, go so far as to declare it unconstitutional. As The Wall Street Journal reports, "The NSA has used the Patriot Act to justify collecting records of nearly every call made in the U.S. and entering them into a database to search for possible contacts among terrorism suspects." It's an attempt to collect all the hay, make a stack and then look for needles. But the judges didn't order a stop to the collection because Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which the NSA specifically cited for its authority, is due to expire on June 1 and is currently under debate in Congress. The House Judiciary Committee has already passed a bill ending the bulk collection in favor of requiring case-by-case consideration.
As we wrote two years ago, the issue with bulk collection is one of trust. nObama’s tenure in the White House has been plagued with scandals — political targeting at the IRS and the EPA, wiretapping of news outlets, the Benghazi cover-up, VA wait lists and Fast and Furious — all of which makes this data collection for a war he doesn't even want to fight unsettling. -The Patrito Post
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nObama’s Bold New Idea: How About a Missile Defense System?
A few weeks ago, Barack nObama was announcing the rough draft of a nuclear agreement with Iran. It was supposed to prevent, or at least give the West and its Middle Eastern allies warning of, a nuclear breakout from Iran. In the coming week, it appears that nObama's helping countries belonging to the Gulf Cooperation Council run for the bunkers. CNN reports that the nObama administration will bring up the idea of creating a ballistic missile defense system that would protect the countries from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia to Oman — just in case Iran ever develops a nuclear warhead or two.
The nObama administration's policy has been to generally discourage the development of missile defense systems. In 2001, the then-State Senator nObama said, "I don't agree with a missile defense system." In 2009, his administration traded a missile defense system that protected Poland and the Czech Republic against an Iranian missile attack for an assurance by Russia that it would discourage Iran's nuclear program. ("Reset!") It was around this time that former Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen announced Iran had enriched enough uranium to fabricate a nuclear warhead. But in April, Russia approved an $800 million sale of its S-300 missiles to Iran, undercutting the West's ability to knock out the Islamic Republic's nuclear production facilities in the event it did achieve breakout.
If nObama were serious, he would bolster missile defense in the U.S. and Europe. In February, Iran successfully launched a missile that put a satellite into orbit, which prompted Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) to say, "While rogue states like Iran develop sophisticated ballistic missile systems and space satellite programs, President nObama continues to turn his back on any type of long-term strategy for our military and national defense." -The Patrito Post
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NYPD Mourns Fallen Officer
The New York Police Department is mourning another fallen officer. Brian Moore, 25 and white, died three days after being shot in the face by Demetrius Blackwell, who is black. (According to Investor's Business Daily, "FBI crime data over the past decade show that African-Americans commit a disproportionately high 40% of all cop-killings — more than three times their representation in the population.") The reason in Blackwell's case? Moore and his partner were in their unmarked vehicle when they asked Blackwell if he had a gun in his waistband. Instead of answering, Blackwell drew the stolen firearm and fired on the two, mortally wounding Moore and wounding his partner. The funeral will be Friday. "Officer Moore put his life on the line in order to protect his fellow New Yorkers, and our state is a better place because of him," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement. "Like so many of his brothers and sisters in uniform, Officer Moore served with selflessness and courage, and he will be greatly missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family." Yet this 25-year-old won't receive the level of attention Freddie Gray, also 25, has. The reason is simple: Gray's death after an injury while in police custody fits a narrative; Moore's does not.
-The Patrito Post
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Job Numbers Can Be Summed Up in One Word: 'Unchanged'
When will the U.S. economy roar back to life? First quarter GDP dismally underperformed expectations, and it can't be blamed on the weather. The only good number in April's Bureau of Labor Statistics' jobs report is that the U.S. economy added 223,000 jobs. But even that number is tempered by the paltry number of workers the country added in March. Unemployment "was essentially unchanged" as it was 5.4%, and the U-6 measure of labor under utilization edged down a tenth of a percentage point to 10.8%. And the labor force participation rate remains at historic lows. "Since April 2014, the participation rate has remained within a narrow range of 62.7 percent to 62.9 percent," the report says.
Of the jobs that were added, most of the growth was in the economic sectors of professional and business services, health care and construction. The oil and gas industry lost 3,000 jobs in April, which shows it's contracting and jettisoning workers after the glut of energy production in December. The factories are slowing down, as the average manufacturing workweek is shortening to 40.8 hours. This is all in contrast to the nObama administration's mantra that the economy will kick itself out of first gear any day now. Before BLS released the numbers, The New York Times said the shadowy policymakers at the Fed will be watching this report to see if they should raise interest rates. While it would be nice to get a little something for keeping money in a bank, it seems like the Fed will follow the economy's lead and stay frozen. -The Patrito Post
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Bill Whittle Speech is either free or it isn’t!
(gopthedailydose.com) - Speech is either free or it isn’t! The attack in Texas wasn’t against Conservatives–it was against every American... Check out this important Afterburner to find out why Bill says you’re DEAD wrong if you think the cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo or attendees at the free speech event in Texas had it coming to them for being too “provocative” by drawing Mohammed. http://gopthedailydose.com/2015/05/08/watch-bill-whittle-speech-is-either-free-or-it-isnt/
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U.S. Military Bases Raise Threat Levels in Response to ISIS Activity
(AmyElizabeth) - CNN is reporting that U.S. military bases raised their threat alert levels on Thursday night in response to increased activity on the part of the Islamic State, and on a message released Wednesday by the jihadist group claiming that they have 71 “trained” jihadists prepared to attack within the United States... CNN reports that the threat level at bases was raised to “Force Protection Bravo,” according to one unnamed American official, which the Pentagon describes as “increased and predictable threat of terrorism.” The news outlet notes that this is the highest threat alert level bases have been raised to since the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. An official confirmed to CNN that Admiral William Gortney, head of U.S. Northern Command, signed the order to raise the threat level. CNN also quotes Captain Jeff Davis, spokesman for the U.S. Northern Command, as stating that the raised threat level is “the new normal” and military bases will have “increased vigilance and force protection.” “We seek to be unpredictable,” he added. http://gopthedailydose.com/2015/05/08/report-u-s-military-bases-raise-threat-levels-in-response-to-heightened-isis-activity/
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(thepoliticalinsider.com) - We all know that President Barack nObama invented the immigration crisis for political reasons. He wants to import Democrat voters and grow the welfare state... But now, we’re learning that nObama is also eager to import thousands of of Muslims into America… some of whom are radicalized and support terrorism. Under the State Department’s U.S. Refugee Admissions Program those Muslim refugees come from civil war torn countries in Africa and the Middle East, such as Syria. And they will end up living in parts of Idaho, even though the FBI can’t possibly conduct proper background checks on all of them! Other refugees are being moved to Spartanburg, S.C. — the home state of conservative hero Rep. Trey Gowdy! Gowdy is not pleased with the nObama administration carelessly putting residents of South Carolina at risk, and he fired off an angry letter to nObama’s State Department, demanding the program be put on hold until these questions are answered: http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/obama-wants-to-dump-thousands-of-muslims-in-u-s-trey-gowdy-is-fighting-back/#22
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A constitutionalist agenda for the GOP
(Ramesh Ponnuru & Reihan Salam) -For Republicans, defending the Constitution is like the weather: They all talk about it, but nobody ever does anything. Or, at least, does anything practical... Conservatives think that modern government has drifted far from the constitutional design, to the country’s detriment. Too often, though, the remedies they offer are either fanciful or plainly inadequate. In the former category are proposals for constitutional amendments to provide more structural protection for constitutional principles that have fallen by the wayside: supermajority requirements for tax increases, for example, as a means of restoring limits on the federal government. Whatever the merits of these ideas, the very high bar the Constitution erects for formal amendment limits their utility. In the latter category are pledges to appoint only originalist judges. That goal is certainly an important one, but it sometimes causes conservatives to neglect the duties of the other branches of the government, and of citizens, in preserving the constitutional order. http://www.aei.org/publication/a-constitutionalist-agenda-for-the-gop/?utm_source=paramount&utm_medium=email&utm_content=AEITODAY&utm_campaign=050815
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Benghazi Committee: The White House Is Still Stonewalling Us
(Scott Greer) - The Select Committee on Benghazi released its interim report Friday, and while it documented the progress of the investigation into the terror attack, there apparently remains one problem — the White House’s refusal to fully cooperate with the committee... According to Republican South Carolina representative and committee chairman Trey Gowdy, the nObama administration is dragging its feet when it comes to releasing requested documents for the investigation. “This Committee has interviewed eyewitnesses never before interviewed, obtained tens-of-thousands of pages of documents never before provided, and reviewed new information central to the investigation such as FBI reports specific to the interrogation and prosecution of Abu Khattala,” Gowdy stated in the report. “But while progress has been made, the greatest impediment to completing this investigation in a timely manner has been the level of cooperation by the executive branch.” http://dailycaller.com/2015/05/08/benghazi-committee-the-white-house-is-still-stonewalling-us/
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Clinton Charity Scandal: At Least There Won’t Be an Email Trail
(Ronn Torossian) - In 1998, Hilly Clinton on The Today Show blamed the media for the many issues facing her husband, then-President Bill Clinton, saying, “This is — the great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it is this vast right-wing conspiracy... that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president.” And today, that damn conspiracy continues amidst allegations that the Clinton Foundation took cash while she was Secretary of State – and that emails mysteriously disappeared. Or, of course one can take the alternative track, as some Clinton Foundation insiders are, that they are not nor have they ever tried to hide anything. On this issue, it seems that even the liberal media is not buying it, as the PR firestorm continues to blast the international goodwill work. http://www.frontpagemag.com/2015/ronn-torossian/clinton-charity-scandal-at-least-there-wont-be-an-email-trail/?utm_source=FrontPage+Magazine&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=8592b367b4-Mailchimp_FrontPageMag&utm_term=0_57e32c1dad-8592b367b4-156509103
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Social Security is in Worse Shape Than You Thought
(Tom Anderson) - The Social Security Administration projects that its trust funds will be depleted by 2033—not an optimistic forecast. But it may be even bleaker than that... New studies from Harvard and Dartmouth researchers find that the SSA’s actuarial forecasts have been consistently overstating the financial health of the program’s trust funds since 2000. “These biases are getting bigger and they are substantial,” said Gary King, co-author of the studies and director of Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science. “Social Security is going to be insolvent before everyone thinks.” http://joemiller.us/2015/05/social-security-is-in-worse-shape-than-you-thought-video/?utm_source=JoeMiller.US+List&utm_campaign=3d335ae674-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_065b6c381c-3d335ae674-230998701.
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The Middle East Runs out of Water
(Daniel Pipes) - A ranking Iranian political figure, Issa Kalantari, recently warned that past mistakes leave Iran with water supplies so insufficient that up to 70 percent, or 55 million out of 78 million Iranians, would be forced to abandon their native country for parts unknown... Many facts buttress Kalantari's apocalyptic prediction: Once lauded in poetry, Lake Urmia, the Middle East's largest lake, has lost 95 percent of its water since 1996, going from 31 billion cubic meters to 1.5 billion. What the Seine is to Paris, the Zayanderud was to Isfahan – except the latter went bone-dry in 2010. Over two-thirds of Iran's cities and towns are "on the verge of a water crisis" that could result in drinking water shortages; already, thousands of villages depend on water tankers. Unprecedented dust storms disrupt economic activity and damage health. Nor are Iranians alone in peril; many others in the arid Middle East may also be forced into unwanted, penurious, desperate exile. With a unique, magnificent exception, much of the Middle East is running out of water due to such maladies as population growth, short-sighted dictators, distorted economic incentives, and infrastructure-destroying warfare. Some specifics: http://www.danielpipes.org/15815/the-middle-east-runs-out-of-water
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Govt Reportedly Ordered a Church to Remove Pro-Life Signs or a Fine
(gopthedailydose.com) - The fight against Christianity and the Constitution continues apace and is ratcheting up. The government is poking the badger here seeing if churches will cave on freedom of speech and religion... This church did not submit and thank goodness for The Rutherford Institute’s timely intervention. Seriously? They wanted a quote from Mother Teresa and a scripture from Jeremiah 1:5 posted outside a church removed? The government can threaten all they want… we will not obey! Nothing less than our Constitutional rights and our religious beliefs are at stake. The government can get stuffed. A conservative legal firm is claiming victory after government officials reportedly dropped their demand that a Virginia church remove two pro-life signs that were being displayed on its property. http://gopthedailydose.com/2015/05/09/the-government-reportedly-ordered-a-church-to-remove-pro-life-signs-within-10-days-or-face-a-potential-fine-what-happened-next-has-officials-reversing-course/
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China Preparing for Drone Warfare
(Bill Gertz) - China’s military plans to produce nearly 42,000 land-based and sea-based unmanned weapons and sensor platforms as part of its continuing, large-scale military buildup, the Pentagon’s annual report on the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) disclosed Friday... China currently operates several armed and unarmed drone aircraft and is developing long-range range unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for both intelligence gathering and bombing attacks. “The acquisition and development of longer-range UAVs will increase China’s ability to conduct long-range reconnaissance and strike operations,” the report said. http://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-preparing-for-drone-warfare/
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Geller and her colleagues aren't the only victims that America's elites refuse to side with against aggressors
Caroline B. Glick
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(jewishworldreview.com) - The notion that a rape victim deserved to be raped because she was wearing a tight outfit light up all our red lights..
This is the case first and foremost because it absolves the rapist of responsibility for his crime.
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We are also disgusted by attempts to blame the victim for her victimization because it is substantively false. If men are more likely to rape women in tight clothing then rape should be all but nonexistent in traditional Islamic societies. Yet the opposite is the case. Rape and sexual abuse are endemic to such societies. According to the UN, a whopping 99.3 percent of Egyptian women reported having suffered sexual abuse.
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There is a third reason more general reason that we recoil from the thought of blaming rape victims for their suffering. One of the foundations of liberal societies has always been that victims of aggression are not to blame for their attackers' aggression.
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Over the past few days, we have been witness to a dangerous erosion of this principle among American elites.
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Last Sunday, two Islamic terrorists armed with assault rifles tried to massacre participants at a Muhammad cartoon drawing contest in Garland, Texas.
. The goal of the contest was self-evident. The organizers wished to defend the freedom of speech — and the right to life — of critics of Islamic totalitarianism.
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Rather than standing with the contest's organizers and participants, the US media from MSNBC to Fox News attacked Pamela Geller, the event's main organizer, and accused her of responsibility for the attack.
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The White House failed to condemn the attack, and the media continued their attacks on Geller even after Islamic State claimed credit for the attack, promised to "slaughter" Geller and anyone who shelters her or gives her a microphone, and announced it has a formidable infrastructure across the US it will use to carry out more attacks against Americans.
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To a degree, the White House's refusal to condemn the attack, like the media's pile-on against Geller, is understandable. Most Americans ascribe to the overarching notion of "Live and let live."
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And it is a good thing they do. It is impossible to maintain a liberal society without a basic tolerance of differences among its members.
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But there are groups that a liberal society cannot tolerate without ceasing to be liberal.
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When a group says that society as a whole must constrain its freedoms so its members can feel comfortable, it crosses a boundary that cannot be crossed. So, too, when a group demands that society choose between it and another group that is not issuing a similar ultimatum, it is crossing the line. In other words, any group that demands a limit on liberty and rights of others is harming the foundations of liberal society. If a society wishes to remain liberal, it must constrain such groups.
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Champions of totalitarian Islam test the strength of liberal societies because they force them to choose. Distressingly, as we see with the refusal of the White House and media elites to recognize that like the rape victim with tight clothes, Geller isn't responsible for the jihadists' decision to kill her and the participants at her event, elite American society is failing this test.
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Geller and her colleagues aren't the only victims that America's elites refuse to side with against aggressors. In recent years, on college campuses across America, university authorities have failed to distinguish between tolerant and intolerant groups and so have effectively sided with the intolerant against their victims.
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The primary victims of this abdication of moral responsibility on the part of administrators have not been counter-jihad activists like Geller and her colleagues. The primary victims have been Jews.
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According to a study conducted by the Louis Brandeis Center in Washington last year, more than half of Jewish students at US universities suffered or witnessed anti-Semitism during the preceding year.
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This week, Mosaic published an essay by Prof. Ruth Wisse from Harvard describing the rise and spread of anti-Semitism on campuses throughout the US. To exemplify the process, Wisse discussed at length the rapid rise of anti-Semitism at UCLA.
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Jew-hatred at UCLA burst into the headlines in March when it was reported that members of the student government initially rejected a student's application to serve on an influential board because she was Jewish and "very active in the Jewish community."
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The story caused waves of indignation and revulsion from all the right corners. But the incident was not exceptional. A similar incident occurred last month at Stanford. And more no doubt occur regularly under the radar.
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These open anti-Semitic assaults are the foreseeable consequence of campus cultures sympathetic to anti-Semitism.
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Wisse recalled that at the start of the year, a consortium of anti-Israel organizations asked that candidates for the student council sign a "statement of ethics." The statement included a pledge not to participate in trips to Israel organized by Zionist groups including the Zionist Organization of America, AIPAC, the Anti-Defamation League and Aish International's Hasbara Fellowships.
. One of the candidates that signed on was elected president of the student council.
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A group of pro-Israel organizations asked that UCLA's chancellor officially condemn the so-called "statement of ethics." Chancellor Gene Block refused, claiming it was "protected speech."
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Block's response was shockingly hypocritical.
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Statements of opposition to homosexuals, women, Muslims, blacks and any number of other groups are not considered protected speech at UCLA. His claim that anti-Jewish speech is protected when speech against other groups is not is itself a bigoted statement.
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Moreover, his claim that the "statement of ethics" is protected speech is intrinsically false. The content of that "statement" was itself an assault on freedom of expression. Its authors and supporters sought to coerce candidates for student leadership into agreeing not to expose themselves to Zionist ideas, and so silence Zionist voices and prevent open debate.
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Block made a mockery of free speech by claiming that the "statement of ethics" was protected speech.
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A straight line connects Block's refusal distinguish between anti-Israel aggressors and their pro-Israel victims and the student council's rejection of a student's candidacy for office because she is "too Jewish."
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Block made it acceptable to blame the victim at UCLA, as long as the victim is a Jew.
. In campuses throughout America, anti-Semitism is legitimate. Anti-Israel goons do not always win their battles for campus boycotts of the Jewish state. But that doesn't mean they aren't achieving their goal. The primary purpose of anti-Israel groups on campus is not to pass boycott resolutions.
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Their goal is first and for most to normalize anti-Semitism by normalizing the libelous claim that there is something intrinsically controversial if not evil about Zionism, Israel, and Jews who support Israel.
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Just as the media claim that Geller is responsible for the jihadist attack against her own event, so at US universities, pro-Israel activists — and even non-activist Jewish students and professors who refuse to condemn Israel — are accused of racism. According to the prevailing wisdom, the Jews are the bigots and the aggressors because they refuse to condemn Israel and even dare to support it. In so doing, they hurt the feelings of the anti-Israel activists who cannot peacefully coexist with people who support Israel's right to exist.
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The opposite of course is the case.
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The anti-Israel students, like the terrorists in Texas, cross the line between acceptable and unacceptable behavior in a liberal society. By demanding that wider society on and off campus choose between them and the Jews who make no parallel demand, they demand that American society side with intolerance and against its foundational principle of "Live and let live."
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One of the great difficulties that those who fight the anti-Semites on campuses face is the fact that a significant number of Jews have joined the anti-Semites in their quest to expel Jews from the public square. Organizations like J Street and Jewish Voices for Peace were established to give a Jewish stamp of approval to anti-Israel campaigns.
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And they aren't the only Jews stymieing efforts to force university administrations to side with the Jews against their attackers.
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Last month, the heads of the Jewish Federation in Orange County reportedly interfered with student celebrations of Israeli Independence Day at the University of California at Irvine on behalf of Muslim anti-Israel protesters who sought to ruin the festivities. According to a report of the events at the online Frontpage Magazine, the pro-Israel students separated participants in their event from Muslim student protesters by placing a line of students waving Israeli and American flags between them.
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The move was angrily opposed by Federation Director Lisa Armony and Federation President Shalom Elcott. They reportedly insisted that the Israeli flags be taken down because they were "antagonizing" the anti-Israel protesters. Next week, a consortium of Zionist groups will be demonstrating outside the UJA-Federation building in New York to protest its promotion of groups that support boycotting Israel. The president of the UJA-Federation, Alisa Doctoroff, is reportedly a major donor to the New Israel Fund which funds pro-boycott groups.
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The American elites' — including the Jewish elites' — willingness to accept anti-Jewish discrimination on US campuses, like their willingness to accept attacks on anti-jihad activists like Geller, is devastating for the American Jewish community and for America as a whole.
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Their refusal to distinguish between the victim and the aggressor, not to mention their willingness to stand with the aggressor against the victim, threatens the American Jewish community and challenges the liberal foundations of American society.
. What can the government of Israel do to combat the rise of anti-Semitism in America? How can the object of the demonization defeat those who demonize it? Although its bare 61-seat majority makes Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's new government unstable, a narrow coalition has a clear advantage over a unity government with the Left.
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The rise and spread of anti-Semitism in elite circles in the US threatens Israel. If it wishes to defeat this threat, Israel cannot continue to speak in two voices.
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Israel cannot fight this fight when government ministers participate in J Street conferences.
. It cannot defend its defenders when members of the government say that Israel is only legitimate if it works actively to cede its capital city to terrorist groups that seek its annihilation.
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The government's response to this onslaught must be clear and uncompromising: The freedom of American Jewry to be Jewish, like the ability of the US to remain a liberal democracy, is dependent on restoring the ability of Jewish Americans and American elites to distinguish between victims and aggressors and on their willingness to side with the victims.
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