53percenter's Blog

Democrats will elect several new representatives to Congress in November who hold staunchly anti-Israel views.

That will happen whether or not Democrats win overall, and manage to re-install Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as speaker. The anti-Israel members-of-Congress-to-be are running in solidly Democratic districts where they are certain to be elected.

As such, Americans must brace for the kind of extreme anti-Israel politics that has, until now, stayed on campus, in the mosque, in Europe, and in the Third World.

The leader of the pack is Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, the new heroine of the Democratic Party grass roots. Ocasio-Cortez — or AOC, as some of her fans now call her — is neither Muslim nor Palestinian. But she is a “democratic socialist.”

Despite Israel’s socialist roots, the far-left now identifies with the Palestinians, overlooking the brutality of Palestinian terror, the pervasive antisemitism of Palestinian society, and the authoritarian rule of both the Islamist Hamas regime in Gaza and the secular Palestinian Authority.

In May, after Hamas used a phony “mass protest” to in an effort to breach the Gaza border and attack Israeli civilians, AOC sided with the terrorist group, calling the Israeli response a “massacre” — even though nearly all of the 62 killed were Hamas operatives. In July, she stated that while she believed “absolutely in Israel’s right to exist,” she was opposed to the “occupation of Palestine.” She could not, when pressed, explain what she meant by the term, which the far-left often uses to refer to all of the State of Israel.

But there are two incoming representatives even more hostile to Israel than AOC.

One of them is Ilhan Omar, a Somali-born state representative who won the Democratic Party primary for Minnesota’s 5th congressional district — the seat being vacated by Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) — this week. In the past, Omar has referred to Israel as an “apartheid regime.” In 2014, during a war in Gaza, Omar tweeted: “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.”

More recently, like AOC, Omar has deployed pro-Israel boilerplate to placate voters, donors, and critics. Earlier this month, she told a candidate forum: “I support a two-state solution. It is going to be important for us to recognize Israel’s place in the Middle East and the Jewish people’s rightful place within that region.” She also said that she opposed the “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions” (BDS) movement.

But in the state legislature, she opposed a bill against boycotts of Israel and urged divestment from Israel bonds.

The other is Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American who won the crowded Democratic Party primary for the 13th congressional district of Michigan last week. She promptly launched a series of anti-Israel tweets, apparently in response to events in the Middle East, where Hamas launched nearly 200 rockets at Israeli civilians and the Israeli air force responded by targeting Hamas military infrastructure.

In the past, Tlaib supported Palestinian terrorist Rasmea Odeh’s bid to fight deportation, and is backed by anti-Israel Palestinian-American activist and Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour, who called for “jihad” against the Trump administration.

Curiously, Tlaib seems to be facing an onslaught of criticism from within the Palestinian-American community, for whom ordinary participation in American politics is seen as a form of selling out. One of her defenders tweeted that for Tlaib, “The first fight was for Palestine, always Palestine.”

Tlaib herself appealed to her community in a Facebook post that concluded: “#FreePalestine.” For Palestinian activists, and for the far-left, that slogan refers to the dismantling of Israel and its replacement with a Palestinian state.

For now, AOC, Omar, and Tlaib will retreat to the safe harbor of the “two-state solution” — enough to placate the Democratic Party establishment and nervous liberal Jewish donors. But in a crisis, they are likely to side against Israel, as in the past — even when the enemy is Hamas, Hezbollah, or Iran.

No matter the November result, this is what Democrats are bringng to Washington.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

The relationship between the suicide bomber who killed 22 at a concert in Manchester, England and the mosque he attended is coming under fresh scrutiny after recordings emerged of an apparently extremist sermon preached just months before the attack.

The words of the sermon, which have been analysed by Islamic scholars and are being investigated by police, amount to a call to violence according to British state broadcaster the BBC, which quotes the remarks of experts Usama Hasan and Shaykh Rehan who said the preaching called for “military jihad”.

In the recording, Imam Mustafa Graf is alleged to pray “We ask Allah to grant them mujahideen [Islamist fighters] – our brothers and sisters right now in Aleppo and Syria and Iraq – to grant them victory”, and to claim “Jihad for the sake of Allah is the source of pride and dignity for this nation.”

In an apparent call to action, the Imam also said: “brothers and sisters, it is time to act. Not only to talk.”

Usama Hasan of the anti-extremism think tank the Quilliam Foundation told the broadcaster about the comments by Imam Mustafa Graf that: “From the context and the way these texts are used they are clearly referring to military jihad, to armed jihad.

“I have known the Islamic discourse for pretty much 40 years… and the mujahideen are the group fighting armed jihad.”

Shaykh Rehan said of the speech: “He’s giving them the narrative of them against us. He is psychologically and practically brainwashing young people into either travelling or to do something to take action.”

The mosque itself, housed in a former Victorian church, has denied extremism is preached within its doors, and told the BBC that words used like “mujahideen” and “jihad” had merely been misinterpreted. Greater Manchester Police are reviewing the new material to determine whether an offence has been committed.

Imam Graf also denied on camera preaching hate speech — footage that the BBC contrasted with archive footage of him in 2011, wearing military uniform in Libya, talking to camera about “awaiting orders to attack” while men around him loaded ammunition into an armoured fighting vehicle.

The BBC report also claimed five men who attended the mosque have either travelled to Syria or been jailed for serving the Islamic State, a further claim that the mosque denies. The Guardian reports the Mosque said in a statement that: “We do not tolerate or instigate any form of preaching that breaches both Islamic principles and the laws of England and Wales.”

BREAKING: Latest named victim of Manchester attack is 8-year-old Saffie Rose Roussos https://t.co/Xf4w03JYoK pic.twitter.com/bDwiBN6MQL

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) May 23, 2017

It is not known whether Abedi and his family, who were frequent worshippers at the Mosque, were present when the sermon was delivered. However, Abedi bought a ticket for the Ariana Grande concert where he detonated a suicide bomb the following year just ten days after the sermon was given.

Salman Abedi, the Manchester Arena bomber was 22-years-old at the time he detonated a home-made explosive device loaded with shrapnel in the foyer as an Ariana Grande concert finished, killing 22 parents and children leaving the event, and himself. British born to Libyan parents, a British Royal Navy ship had “rescued” Abedi from the Libyan civil war in 2014 where it is alleged he had been engaged in militant activity.

The victims of Abedi’s attack included ten peopel under the age of 20, the youngest being just eight years old. Over 800 were injured “physically or psychologically” in addition to the dead, with many receiving life-changing wounds.

Avi Yemini, a Jewish-Australian IDF veteran, conservative political blogger and political candidate, has been banned from Facebook allegedly for publishing “hate speech.”

A popular Jewish-Australian IDF veteran, political blogger, and Australian state government candidate recently found his Facebook page banned, just 48 hours before the blacklisting of Infowars host Alex Jones. Yemini’s Facebook page boasted a follower count of approximately 175,000 but was suspended for “hate speech” according to a notification Yemini received from Facebook. Yemeni has been on the receiving end of death threats on Facebook himself based on his reporting.

Yemini appealed Facebook’s decision but was told that the page would not be taken off the blacklist. Some have accused Yemini of being banned from the platform for posting the phone number of an ABC News reporter, which they believed was doxing, but Yemini claims that the number he posted is publicly available on ABC News’ website.

Breitbart News spoke with Yemini who provided the following comment on the blacklisting of his page:

Banning my page is another example of Facebook’s political bias and is an attack on free speech. They are purging conservative pages. In this case, they are meddling in the Australian political system and therefore breaching a number of local laws.

I plan on suing them if they do not reinstate it immediately. By banning me, they are preventing me from reaching out to Australian Liberty Alliance voters, which is a form of voter suppression.

I believe I was banned because I am exposing the Islamization of Australia and how it is negatively impacting the country. Many other conservatives around the world have also been banned for speaking out about Islam.

They claim it was for ‘hate speech’ but when pressed couldn’t give me a specific post that breached any of ther terms and conditions.

Breitbart News reached out to Facebook for comment on the issue but received no response.

A minor Republican primary battle in metro Detroit, Michigan, has exploded into the national consciousness after a white candidate called her Asian challenger a “ching-chong” and belittled her supporters as immigrants who didn’t belong in this country, raising serious questions about the re-emergence of racism, anti-immigrant sentiment and the dark underbelly of ethnic animosity in the era of Trump.

Wait, wait, did I say Republican? Sorry about that one; what I actually meant to say was Democrat.

Oh, and I said “white candidate” too, didn’t I? She was actually black. Can’t believe I spaced on that one, as well.

And when I said that it “exploded into the national consciousness” and is “raising serious questions about the re-emergence of racism, anti-immigrant sentiment and the dark underbelly of ethnic animosity in the era of Trump,” what I actually meant to say was “literally nothing happened and nobody outside of Michigan even gave the slightest of craps about it.” It’s just a minor Freudian slip, after all. Could have happened to anyone.

Yes, even though Michigan state Rep. Bettie Cook Scott is apparently one of the most openly racist elected officials since the days when Robert Byrd would ask the dry cleaners to use extra starch on his hood because the point seemed to droop if he got too close to the burning cross, the only non-local coverage this awful human being has gotten in the past few days consists of minor write-ups in The Washington Times and other papers of that ilk.

TRENDING: Fox News Breaks New Viewer Record, Swamps CNN’s Entire Brand

According to the Detroit Metro Times, Cook called opponent Rep. Stephanie Chang a “‘ching-chang’ and “the ching-chong” to multiple voters outside polling precincts during last Tuesday’s Democrat state Senate primary.

“She’s also said to have called one of Chang’s campaign volunteers an ‘immigrant,’ saying ‘you don’t belong here’ and ‘I want you out of my country.’”

Mephitic nativism: It’s not just for Republicans anymore. And in fact, it was never for Republicans. It was mostly for racist Democrats like Rep. Scott. But that whole movie Dinesh D’Souza just released about the racist history of the Democratic Party and liberalism is complete bunk, at least as far as the mainstream media is concerned. Right.

Just to make this even more disgusting, one of the people who heard Rep. Scott’s rants involving Asian people was Chang’s husband.

“The various off-color remarks were heard by multiple people connected with Chang, including Chang’s husband, who spoke with Metro Times,” the paper reported. 

“Sean Gray says after overhearing Cook disparage Chang outside a precinct on the east side of Detroit, ‘I … asked her not to speak about my wife in that manner.”

After realizing Chang’s husband was in earshot, Cook apologized and said she didn’t mean  … sorry, no, my mistake; why do I keep on getting these things wrong? She told Gray his wife could go back to China, the dirty interloper.

“At that time she said to the voter that ‘these immigrants from China are coming over and taking our community from us,’” Gray told reporters.

RELATED: #MeToo Dems Cheer as Accused Woman Abuser Easily Wins Election

I mean, at least you can give her credit for not going telling him, “Is she from Japan? Vietnam? Korea? Whatever, they’re all the same anyway.” Right?

Oh wait, no, you can’t, because she actually ended up saying worse stuff. “Gray, who is black, says Scott then went on to call him a ‘fool’ for marrying Chang.” Scott also said that it “disgusts her seeing black people holding signs for these Asians and not supporting their own people.’”

It wasn’t just Chang’s husband, either. Kalaya Long, a volunteer with Voices of Women to Win, says she heard Scott telling another voter, “Thanks for voting for me, you don’t need to vote for that ching-chang.” She would later allegedly tell Chang’s campaign staff, “I called them ching-chongs. That’s what they are!”

“As an African-American woman, I’ve been called the N-word before in my life and you never forget it,” Long said. “Each time it’s shocking and appalling and disgusting, so when you hear someone that’s a minority and a woman using slurs against another minority that’s a woman, it’s just mind boggling and it just felt dirty.”

“These comments are offensive to all Asian-Americans,” Rep. Chang told the Metro Times. “It isn’t about me. It’s about an elected official disrespecting entire populations, whether they be Asian-American, immigrant, or residents of Sen. District 1 or (Cook’s) own current house district.”

At least Cook won’t be getting a promotion. Chang easily won the primary with 49 percent of the vote. Scott, meanwhile, couldn’t muster enough racial animosity to get beyond 11 percent, good for third place.

Now, where’s my point in all of this — other than Democrats can be (and often are) flagrant racists, and that the popular theory that African-Americans can’t be racist is very clearly wrong?

To demonstrate, I’m going to come up with a hypothetical minor Republican politician who serves on the city council in Pocatello, Idaho. We’re going to name that hypothetical minor Republican politician Joey Buttafuoco, because I think the intervening 25 or so years has made us forget just how giggle-worthy the name Joey Buttafuoco is and I think that’s wrong.

Councilman Buttafuoco isn’t a racist. However, he goes to Bob Evans with his family one Sunday morning and receives terrible service. He gives no tip. The waiter happens to be African-American and posts about it online. All of a sudden, Councilman Buttafuoco is one of the most hated men in America. His support for Donald Trump comes under scrutiny and Chris Hayes openly wonders if this is the kind of thing we’re going to see more of now that Donald Trump has ripped the curtain away from America’s ugly racism. Vox releases at least four videos impugning the councilman’s motives. John Oliver devotes 22-and-a-half minutes to the scandal. The original Joey Buttafuoco expresses outrage that Councilman Buttafuoco has besmirched his brand and changes his name to James Gunn.

Rep. Bettie Cook Scott will almost certainly keep her position and you will never hear this woman’s name again after next week. This is in spite of the fact that she affects the entire state of Michigan and not just the people of Pocatello.

At least Rep. Scott apologized, because at this point why the heck not? However, see if you can notice the subtext in the passage I’ve highlighted below, because it adds to the inherent hilarity of this entire dumpster nuclear test.

“I humbly apologize to Representative Chang, her husband, Mr. Gray, and to the broader Asian American community for those disparaging remarks,” Scott (or one of her PR flaks) wrote. “In the divisive age we find ourselves in, I should not contribute further to that divisiveness.“

“I have reached out to Representative Chang to meet with her so that I may apologize to her in person. I pray she and the Asian American community can find it in their hearts to forgive me.”

“In the divisive age we find ourselves in, I should not contribute further to that divisiveness.” If you read between the lines in even the most desultory manner, you should be able to parse that pretty easily: The only reason Rep. Bettie Cook Scott is a racist is because Donald Trump and conservatives made her that way! Brilliant!

In closing, I’d like to point out that this is all fun and games until someone like Bettie Cook Scott is contributing unsigned editorials to The New York Times. That someone is Sarah Jeong, who we’ve all mostly forgotten about in relatively short order in spite of the fact that she tweeted, inter alia, that white folk “are only fit to live underground like groveling goblins.”

If Rep. Scott was a bit savvier, she could have just told all of us conservatives getting hyped up about her racism that we didn’t get the “context,” the same way that nobody got the fact that Jeong wasn’t really talking about “white people” when she said racist stuff about “white people.” After all, “ching-chong” is, to paraphrase Vox’s Zack Beauchamp, “the expressive way anti-racists and minorities talk about Asians.”

If only Rep. Scott had a little more foresight, forget about state senator — she could have been Michigan’s next U.S. senator. Instead, she’s just going to have to settle for not having anything happen to her at all. And isn’t that the real tragedy?

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.