Supposedly pro-Israel Democrat defeated by Abdul el-Sayed supports him despite his anti-Israel standings

The Democrats in Michigan held primaries for midterm USA elections, and somehow, it's just not shocking a Muslim candidate like Abdul el-Sayed would win, defeating an allegedly pro-Israel Democrat, Haley Stevens, in the process. But what's really head-shaking is that Stevens is willing to support el-Sayed in the upcoming Congressional elections:

Stevens answered, “Well, look, I don’t speak for Abdul, but I think he knows where I stood on that issue and where I continue to stand. I’m very focused on rebuilding the temple, where many of my friends have their precious children in day school. That was in my congressional district. It remains a serious matter. And I’m going to make sure that the voices and the folks who have been impacted all across Oakland County by that temple bombing and the voices of our Jewish community are heard, and I’m going to do that in the way that my involvement and participation in the American political process allows. Look, let’s be really clear, cause you’re relitigating a primary that’s over, it’s over. I said what I had to say, and I’ll — I stand by what I had to say, to be honest with you, and I believe Abdul heard me. But the deal is is that no American is my enemy. No Republican is my enemy. No Democrat is my enemy. We’ve got to cut this stuff out. We’ve got to start working together. We’ve got to start looking at this country as this beautiful, free place that we love. My views are going to continue to be on display. I’m going to continue to be in this party, speaking out against political violence, speaking out against antisemitic violence, and all forms of political violence and hate, absolutely. And, in the meantime, the competition’s still rolling. I think you guys in the media are going to be coming out to Michigan. This will be exciting. We know you love our state. That’s a good thing. Come and go to our small businesses. We need you there when you’re in town. But we’re going to do something special. This was a special, historic primary. We all know it. Everyone was calling it out, one way or another, that there was going to be a 15-point loss, and that wasn’t the deal. And that’s okay, that these guys had it wrong. And we just showed them the Michigan way, and that’s what we’re going to show you in November when we beat Mike Rogers.”

She may be employing stealth tactics, but when she says she's willing to work to defeat Republican Rogers, that's definitely telling. So what kind of "pro-Israel" Democrat is she anyway? If John Fetterman in Pennsylvania wouldn't back el-Sayed, Stevens shouldn't either. She's rendered her stance laughable and moot.

That aside, this is another sad indicator of where the USA's headed, now facing serious problems with Islamofascists running for public office, and who knows if anything will be done to prevent them from being able to retain the positions they're sadly bound to achieve?

Update: Fox News (via Front Page) reports that el-Sayed got funding from a certain very bad activist group:

Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign has collected more than $115,000 from individuals who work for or have held leadership roles with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has been designated a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates and formally designated or labeled as such in Florida and Texas.

That's also bad news. Similarly bad is who else in Congress is also supporting el-Sayed's campaign (also via Front Page):

Schumer spoke with El-Sayed Wednesday, calling it a “great conversation” and praising the former Michigan public health official for a “very, very strong campaign” that mobilized Wolverine State voters who hadn’t been involved in politics.

Schumer pledged to “do what it takes to win,” brushing off his deep disagreements with El-Sayed over Israel. Other issues — healthcare, the state of the economy and tariffs — matter more to Michiganders, Schumer added.

Once again, Schumer's proven himself to be as bad, possibly worse, than Stevens is.

Update 2: an Iranian woman who became a lawmaker in Belgium warns about the encroachment of Islam in Michigan.

Will alleged deal with Iran include surrender of nuclear materials?

Now, president Donald Trump says a deal with Iran will be signed on Sunday, ahead of a G7 conference he's attending:

President Donald Trump announced Saturday that a deal with Iran will be signed on Sunday, ahead of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) at the White House and his departure for the G7 in Evian-les-Bains, France.

A short time after Pakistani Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar told Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan that the deal will be signed electronically, Trump took to Truth Social to confirm the deal will be formalized.

[...] The president said the deal does not include cash exchanges and the nature of his administration’s relationship with Iran is substantially different than that of his predecessors.

“Our relationship with Iran is a much different and better one than previous Administrations have had. Unlike Obama’s Hundreds of Billions of Dollars in payments to them, including 1.7 Billion Dollars in green, cold cash, no money will exchange hands,” he wrote.

Trump added that, at some point, the United States will retrieve the “Nuclear Dust” — enriched uranium that was buried by B-2 Bomber strikes at Natanz, Fordow, and Esfahan in Operation Midnight Hammer a year ago. Iran allowing the United States to retrieve and destroy this material had been a key redline of the president’s throughout negotiations.

Now here's one serious problem: Iran's reportedly trying to seal openings to the underground storages where they've kept the uranium with mines in order to make it difficult for the USA military to reach those areas, if at all. If such reports are factual, that's not shocking Iran's tyrants would do that, but it certainly won't make things any easier.

And of course, the Iranian dictatorship, as it stands now, cannot be allowed to continue running the country in any way. They've threatened to attack Israel again because of the IDF's continued work in Lebanon to defeat the Hezbollah, and if they do, that'll only confirm the regime has no intention of cooperating with even Trump. So it still remains to be seen what'll be the outcome.

Iran still trying to attack gulf states with drones

Iran's Islamofascist tyrants are violating the alleged ceasefire by launching drones at the UAE, if anywhere:

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates' Fujairah ‌said on Monday that a fire broke out at the ⁠Fujairah Oil Industry Zone following what they described as a drone attack originating from Iran.

Civil defence teams ‌were ⁠deployed immediately to contain the blaze, Fujairah Media office ⁠said in a statement.

There was no immediate ⁠comment from Iran.

Of course not. But this makes clear they're still not willing to surrender voluntarily, and the worst part is that they'll probably start firing missiles again sooner or later.

Beauty pageant contestant for "palestine" has connections with jihadist Marwan Barghouti

It turns out, unshockingly, that Nadine Ayoub, the Dubai-residing contestant at Miss Universe who represented "palestine", has connections with a jihadist:

Nadine Ayoub, the first-ever Palestinian contestant in the Miss Universe competition, was married to Sharif Barghouti, the son of senior Fatah figure Marwan Barghouti, and later named her child after him, the New York Post revealed.

Ayoub, who says she is a 27-year-old US and Canadian citizen living in Dubai, made headlines recently after being selected as the first Palestinian representative in Miss Universe 2025, which concluded Thursday night with Miss Mexico winning the crown.

Old photos obtained by the New York Post show that she made a notable effort to hide the fact that she had once been married to Sharif Barghouti, son of the well-known Fatah leader who is serving five life sentences at the Israeli Hadarim Prison for orchestrating terrorist attacks that killed five people in 2001 and 2002.

Posts on social media indicate that Ayoub married Sharif Barghouti in 2016, and three years later gave birth to a son named Marwan, apparently in tribute to the convicted murderer and terrorist.

Well this definitely gives beauty a bad name, when someboyd like her obviously went into the contest just to push propaganda, and employ it as nothing more than a propaganda weapon. And if the Miss Universe pageant is going to allow this, it's one more reason why they themselves should've gone out of business long ago. Beauty pageants cannot be produced as a political tool, and this only further damages the brand.

Wash. Post admits Hamas is to blame

In a rare instance of willingness to acknowledge savages are to blame for causing a "cease-fire" to collapse, the Washington Post admits the Hamas is the one at fault here, but that's otherwise all:

After just a week, the fragile Gaza peace is fraying. Israel halted the transfer of aid to Gaza on Sunday and launched airstrikes after it said Hamas fighters killed two Israeli soldiers. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have threatened to withhold reconstruction funds so long as Hamas stays in power. Given the continued barbarity of Hamas, a happy future for the people of Gaza is probably out of reach in the near term. Yet full war is also unlikely to resume.

Consider this a win for President Donald Trump, who brought about the ceasefire. It’s also an acceptable outcome for Israel, which has seen the return of all living hostages. And, perhaps most important, this might the best anyone can really hope for in the Middle East.

Naturally, they vehemently refuse to acknowledge Islam's got any accountability here, and if they don't think it should stop being indoctrinated, then no wonder nobody can hope for much in the middle east. And of course, they fail to acknowledge that any crowds in Gaza who cheer when alleged collaborators with Israel are murdered execution style by the Hamas only make clear they're as barbaric as the overlords are. One of the biggest tragedies in this case is that the Gazan Muslims are "happy", but for all the wrong reasons. If any of them are leaving for other countries, hopefully ones like the UAE and even Indonesia, it'll be far better as a result.

Has Israel actually achieved anything proper besides releasing the hostages from Hamas, assuming they'll all be freed?

The announcments were made of an "agreement" between Israel and the Hamas jihadist organization, and here's a list of what could be:

What does the Trump plan include?

The plan is divided into phases: a full hostage deal followed by a post-war phase. Phase A involves the release of living hostages and the return of at least some of the deceased—ideally all—in exchange for the release of 250 terrorists serving life sentences, approximately 1,700 Gazans detained since October 2023, an end to the war, and a partial IDF withdrawal.

Phase B will focus on matters still under negotiation: disarming the terrorist groups in Gaza, establishing a new governing authority, the deployment of an international force, and continued IDF withdrawal. There are fundamental disagreements, especially over the disarmament clause. While Egypt claims Hamas is willing to transfer its rockets to an Arab entity, Hamas' overseas leadership insists they will retain their weapons until a Palestinian state is established and the "occupation ends."

Who are the prisoners being released?

As previously mentioned, hundreds of terrorists, many with blood on their hands, are slated for release.

There is a dispute between Israel and Hamas over six "senior prisoners": Marwan Barghouti of Fatah, Ahmad Saadat of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and from Hamas, Ibrahim Hamed, Hassan Salameh, Abdullah Barghouti, and Abbas al-Sayed. As of Thursday evening, Israel opposed their release, but Hamas remains hopeful it can secure at least partial approval.

With stuff like this likely to happen, has Israel actually achieved anything? Depending on how things go from here, this is going to be a serious disaster in the making, especially if Israel doesn't continue working round the clock to do everything possible to put a stop to Hamas altogether. It'll be fortunate if the last hostages are released. But in the long run, the release of violent murderers as ransom will be very sad.

Since Qatar comes up in the subject, some Congressman who're sponsoring a bill to ban sharia in the USA may have also spoken about them, and Daniel Greenfield notes it's a good way to see who's on Qatar's payroll.

Trump has sadly made a serious mistake when it comes to dealing with Syria's new jihadist autocrat

Many no doubt were disturbed when Emmanuel Macron met with Ahmed al-Sharaa recently. But now, Donald Trump has caused more damage to the ability to deal properly with Islamic terrorism in Syria - and anti-Christian persecution occurring there - as he was willing to meet with al-Sharaa and even lift sanctions against Syria:

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the head of the jihadist terrorist organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), praised President Donald Trump in an address on Wednesday for taking the “courageous and historic” step of lifting sanctions on his country.

Sharaa delivered a speech to the Syrian people following an in-person meeting with President Trump in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where President Trump concluded the first of three stops in a Middle East tour on Wednesday. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who first met Sharaa shortly after HTS toppled the half-century-old Assad family regime in Damascus, arranged and presided over the meeting.

The event was the first time in 25 years an American president had met a Syrian head of state.

President Trump announced that he would lift sanctions on Syria on Tuesday before the meeting. He reinforced his commitment to the decision in remarks to reporters following his meeting with Sharaa, who he called “pretty amazing.”

Syria is currently on the State Department’s list of State Sponsors of Terrorism and the subject of extensive, onerous sanctions. All stem from the behavior of former dictator Bashar Assad, who allied himself closely with Iran and its entire terrorist proxy network and, throughout over a decade of civil war, committed a host of atrocities against his own people. HTS, the al-Qaeda offshoot Sharaa led under the alias Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, overthrew the Assad regime in December, sending the dictator fleeing to his patrons in Moscow.

As one of several factions actively combatting the Assad regime, HTS made a longstanding enemy of Iran and the Shiite terrorist axis and did not participate in the Assad regime’s crimes – though it engaged in its own atrocities, particularly against groups that Assad did not persecute, such as Christians and Alawite Shiites. HTS massacres of Alawites have been documented to have occurred as recently as this March; Sharaa has attempted to distance himself from the violence.

Seriously, this causes terrible damage to the cause of Christians who fell victim to horrific crimes of jihadists in the area, and the whole notion al-Sharaa had nothing to do with it is naive. It's regrettable Trump is doing this, no matter what for.

A similar concern could be raised about whether Trump intends to meet with Vladimir Putin:

President Donald Trump said Friday that he would like to set up a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin “as soon” as possible.

Trump made the comments in Abu Dhabi as he prepared to return home to the United States at the end of his Middle East tour. He had previously floated a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin in Turkey, but the Russian president refused to attend.

“They all said Putin was going and Zelensky was going. And I said, If I don’t go, I guarantee Putin is not going, and he didn’t go,” Trump said. “And I understand that, but we’re going to get it we’re going to get it done. We’ve got to get it done. Five thousand young people are being killed every single week on average, and we’re going to get it done.”

While Ukrainian and Russian officials are meeting in Turkey on Friday, Trump said he believed he would have to meet with Putin to make real progress toward ending the war.

And this meeting between Putin and Zelensky is being conducted in equally bad territory, Turkey? Well that's got to be telling too in its own way. No matter how one looks at this, what's regrettable here is the whole notion Putin cannot be brought down in any way, even though he's the one who began all this, not to mention that he still acts as an autocrat. And meeting in Turkey is not improving the situation either.

Considerable number have already left the Gaza strip

Despite what the pathetic propagandist Hen Mazzig claimed a few months ago, many Muslims in Gaza have left in the thousands already:

Since the war began, over 36 thousand people have left the Gaza Strip - an unprecedented number, showing a growing emigration trend.

There is a growing wave of emigration from the Gaza Strip, mostly through the Rafah Crossing into Egyptian territory. According to a report by Channel 12, approximately 2,000 of the emigrants left through Israeli territory, some via the Allenby Crossing on the Jordanian border and others via the Ramon Airport to other countries. However, most emigrants have been leaving through the Rafah Crossing, which was reopened for exit only at the beginning of the ceasefire.

According to the report, only specific groups can leave legally: Sick patients who need medical treatment outside of Gaza, civilians with foreign passports, and residents who received visas from other countries that agreed to officially accept them.

Many countries are involved in accepting refugees, some as a temporary destination and others as a permanent solution. Among the outstanding countries are Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, western European countries, and Romania, which especially stood out due to the number of refugees accepted.

Hamas strongly objects to the emigration and sees it as a threat to its control over the territory. According to Hamas spokesmen, the process is in line with the plan that US President Donald Trump proposed to transfer Palestinian Arabs to other countries.

Internet influencers who are affiliated with Hamas have launched media campaigns calling on residents to remain in Gaza, but so far, they have been mostly unsuccessful.

What's only regrettable is if any western European country and an eastern one like Romania could be accepting them, because they don't belong in any civilized area, and are bound to lead to disaster if they remain there. All concerned Europeans should object, and if there's anywhere where the departers from Gaza could go, it's to the Russian sattelite regions like Dagestan and Chechnya, the latter which as noted before, has accepted evacuees already.

All that aside, this is good to see they're leaving an area they don't deserve to be in after what they, like the Hamas itself, were willing participants in on October 7, 2023. But they don't belong in civilized European and Asian countries either.

Trump's idea for Gaza could have potential

President Donald Trump's said he'd like to take charge of rebuilding Gaza as a more inhabitable place for everyone:

Several pro-Israel experts who focus on the Middle East believe President Donald Trump’s plan for the U.S. to take over the Gaza Strip will be challenging, yet beneficial.

During a Tuesday press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump announced his plans to relocate all Gazans out of the area and to rebuild the strip into a U.S.-owned-development zone, sparking varied reactions.

Jonathan Schanzer, the Senior Vice President for Research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Americans would not be embraced in Gaza without the help of Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

“A plan that would include the Saudis and Emiratis would be more welcome by the rest of the region, but there is no Arab participation,” he said. “So, Trump has now forced their hands. Now we wait to see the Arab reaction.”

He added that the main challenge would be removing Gazans from the war-torn strip, which Trump has described as a “demolition site.”

“This would be better handled by the Arab states, but they have failed to propose a feasible plan,” Schanzer said. “Trump has forced their hand.”

Ran Bar-Yoshafat, an attorney and public diplomacy expert who has served in the Israeli Defence Forces reserve in Gaza after October 7, is a fan of Trump’s idea.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Bar-Yoshafat said. “Trump is saying what everyone is thinking. Better for them, better for us.”

Netanyahu says the idea is worth considering. And provided the future will ensure Jews can live/work in Gaza again, that's what'll make it work for real. Also, moving Muslims out of Gaza can serve as an example of what other countries having trouble with Islam can do.

Update: Robert Spencer says:

As for American administration of Gaza, it could work as a temporary measure, but only if leftist nation-builders are kept far away from the project and the whole area is approached in a manner that has not been attempted before: not to teach the natives who hate the West and democracy to love both but to free the area of jihadis and then build a new life with those who remain.

That's an important point. Here's more from David Friedman.

Muslim gulf states buy real estate near the District of Columbia

While most conservatives' attention may have been focused upon China's buying of real estate in the USA, it would seem little attention's been given to how Islamic countries like Qatar and the UAE have been doing the same:

Arab Gulf states have quietly and sometimes secretly purchased at least $282 million worth of real estate in Washington’s most elite neighborhood.

Situated high atop the banks of the Potomac River and overlooking the nation’s capital, Virginia’s “Gold Coast” has long been the home of America’s ruling class. Today, it’s home to a number of high-profile Washingtonians, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, whose home on Arlington’s tony Chain Bridge Road has been swarmed by an encampment of anti-Israel protesters since Hamas’s October 7th invasion of Israel.

But since 2019, a mysterious entity called 600 CBR LLC has been buying up property in the area, building up a compound that sold for three times as much as Jeff Bezos’ $23 million D.C. mansion. Though the buyers behind 600 CBR are unknown, the real estate blog UrbanTurf reported in 2022 that “the buyer is from the United Arab Emirates and that settlement documents confirm this.”

The embassy of the United Arab Emirates owns extensive property just down the block from the 600 CBR compound, and the compound’s primary residence is directly across the street from Blinken’s $5 million home. Since October 7th, anti-Israel protesters have been living in the narrow strip between the road and the LLC’s property, with their tents, signs, and buckets of fake blood just inches from its fence.

It is unclear whether the various Arab nations who own the properties are involved in the protests outside Blinken’s home, which The Daily Wire reported likely violate several state and local laws. The UAE embassy did not answer questions from The Daily Wire about whether UAE royals are behind the purchase, nor their stance on the protest outside Blinken’s home.

[...] The Embassy of the State of Qatar’s nearby compound is assessed to be worth $20 million. The oil-rich nation has just 300,000 citizens—half the size of the District of Columbia—but recently counted 2 million residents. The vast majority of its residents are foreign laborers working in conditions sometimes described as “modern slavery.”

Qatar has been in the international spotlight since Hamas’s invasion of Israel. The terrorist group’s leaders operate out of Qatar, and the nation’s representative to the Arab parliament said “There can be no peace or negotiations with the Zionist entity.” Qatar has also enmeshed itself into D.C.’s culture by becoming part-owner of the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards.

This news certainly does make clear the whole notion the UAE and Saudi Arabia have improved, morally or otherwise, is still far from being so. The question now is whether anything can be done to reverse the situation. This is disturbing and can't be taken lightly. Even in Europe, there's only so much of this that can't be overlooked.

Rabbi murdered in UAE

A missionary rabbi was sadly found murdered in the UAE:

An Israeli man who went missing in the United Arab Emirates has been found murdered, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Sunday, denouncing his death as a “heinous antisemitic terrorist act.”

Zvi Kogan, a rabbi who worked in the Gulf Arab country for an Orthodox Jewish group called Chabad, vanished in Dubai on Thursday.

“The state of Israel will use all means at its disposal to bring the criminals responsible for his death to justice,” the prime minister’s statement said.

The authorities of the UAE did trace and arrest some suspects, and this is what's revealed about them:

It is believed that Kogan was attacked by three Uzbeks, who are suspected of having been hired by Iran. The three allegedly followed Kogan from his workplace, the kosher supermarket in Abu Dhabi, and then escaped to Turkey. Kogan's vehicle was found an hour and a half's distance from Dubai.

What that demonstrates is how Islamofascists can hire other Islamofascists from all sorts of places to do each other's dirty work. And now it's cost a defenseless man his life. Condolences to the rabbi's family.

Dave Chappelle continues to explain why he isn't worth watching

It looks like there's another showbiz persona out there, somebody not unlike Joe Rogan, who's abused their welcome when encountering problems with woke censorship, and decided to exploit their fame, long or short, as a way of attacking Israel in the process. Case in point, alleged comedian Dave Chapelle:

Stand-up comedian and actor Dave Chappelle drew cheers from his audience in Abu Dhabi on Thursday by reportedly calling the Israeli war on Hamas terrorists in Gaza a “genocide.”

The capital of the federation of seven sheikdoms that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on the Arabian Peninsula delivered the audience that cheered on Chappelle’s observations.

AP reports the full crowd at Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Arena cheered as DJ Trauma, who accompanied Chappelle on the trip, played the song “My Blood is Palestinian” by the Palestinian singer Mohammed Assaf.

About halfway through in a wide-ranging comedy set Chappelle, a Muslim, initially said he had been told by his friends either to discuss the war or not.

From the audience, a woman screamed: “Free Palestine!” The crowd cheered, according to the outlet.

Chappelle then referred to the war as a “genocide” and said that making Jews safer in America amid rising cases of antisemitism would make them realize they don’t need Israel as an ultimate protector, the AP report detailed.

Gee, and here when the USA under Joe Biden's spiraling into disaster, Chappelle ignores all that. Let's not forget the time he delivered more anti-Israel rhetoric on another of his comedy tours. That an audience in the UAE appears to have applauded his repulsive statements suggests even the Abraham Accords isn't working as well as it could've.

And if it wasn't clear before, Chapelle's a Muslim? Very interesting. This could probably explain why any LGBT movements who had a problem with him before seem to have withdrawn their misgivings almost entirely ever since. It may not have been clear before, but as Chappelle's making clear now, he follows the Religion of Peace, the only ideology the LGBT movements are not willing to oppose, proving their standings aren't altruistic; just intended to demolish sensible values in civilized countries. Chappelle's abused his welcome in saner society more than enough already, and no sane person should pay to see his performances anymore.

What if Israel's secular leftists actually wanted an ultra-Orthodox state?

That's a decidedly valid question I've wondered even before I read this article:

One of the big concerns of the largely “secular” Israelis protesting week after week in Tel Aviv is that Israel will be transformed into a religious state based on Halacha (Jewish religious law), not unlike the way Iran is today governed by a particular brand of Islamic Sharia Law.

But legislation by one party or another is highly unlikely to bring about such a scenario under present circumstances.

The real “threat” (for those who see it as a threat) is to be found in the rapid growth rate of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish (Haredi) population in Israel.

Here's the thing: many leftists seem almost entirely uninterested in boosting their own birthrate, preferring instead to obsess themselves with stuff that alienates many Haredis, like LGBT ideology. (Of course, let's not forget that the kind of stringencies many of the most insular Haredi clans go by, like refusing to view a woman's image or listen to them sing, have turned lot of their subejects homosexual, which makes them little better than said secularists.) And that approach merely leads to only so much of a drop in birthrates for said leftists. There's also the decline of heterosexual marriage to consider. Nor do any of these leftists make a convincing case for Haredis to abandon their lifestyle. So how do they expect to improve society? Something tells me they're not really interested, and as noted at the article's end:

Ironically, it is secular society’s exaggerated focus on individual freedom and personal identity that is likely to facilitate the thing they fear most, a religious state governed by a far more cohesive and disciplined ultra-Orthodox community.

Yes, if it were to happen, it'd be the left's fault. Yet as I've said before, something tells me this makes little difference to many leftists, and they might actually be fine with it. Mainly because I recall viewing a news interview with a right-wing politician who spoke of leftist women who supposedly find Haredi dress/obsession with modest wear reprehensible, yet they have no qualms in any way about wearing burkas and such if they go to an Islamic-led country, which could include the UAE and even Bahrain. No wonder putting the word secular in quote-unquote makes so much sense. It's all just hypocrisy for the sake of making issues, much like many Haredi extremists do.

Miri Regev didn't like visiting Dubai

Here's some fascinating news about a government minister who originally visited the UAE about 5 years ago, before the Abraham Accords were developed, and it turns out she didn't enjoy the trip:

Transportation Minister Miri Regev stated that she did not like Dubai during her visit and that she would not go back to the city in the United Arab Emirates.

“I’ve been to Dubai. I won’t be going back. I don’t like the place,” Regev said in a speech today (Wednesday. However, she added that "it's amazing to see the roads they have built in six years."

I remember seeing a picture of her wearing an outfit that was almost like a burka when she paid a visit. It makes no difference whether she was visiting a mosque; that was an utter disgrace, and a poor example for women. Does this mean she didn't like that either? Well, I suppose it's better late than never that she'd admit it.

From what I've heard about Dubai, it's still got a ways to go before one can consider it truly a place to look forward to visiting. They'll have to abandon Islam to really prove themselves ready for the free world. At least the highways they've built there do admittedly have significance.

Miss World 2023 will be held in UAE

This was first reported last month, and I'm not sure if it's taken place yet, but the Miss World beauty pageant, which is mostly British-owned, will be held this year in a country Israel's signed a peace treaty with:

After much speculation, the Miss World Organisation (MWO) has announced the host country for the 71st edition of the pageant is the United Arab Emirates.

[...] This would be the first time that Miss World is heading to the Middle East and the second time that it is being held in a country where Islam is the dominant religion.

To be fair, given that the UAE today isn't sharia-governed like it was in the past, that's why this could be an acceptable thing. However, what'll really make it an event to appreciate is if the organizers make sure they don't turn to any wokeness like the scummy leftists who've run the Miss America pageant, those now running the Miss Universe pageant, or even those who ran the potentially defunct Miss Israel pageant. By that, I mean they shouldn't be going miles out of their way to add transsexuals to the list of contestants, which is divisive, and if the Israeli pageant directors had any intention of doing that, they are most truly despicable.

Could it be Miss World's being held in the UAE this year because, if there's something the local authorities wouldn't approve of, it's transsexual ideology, and this serves as a good way to avoid all that? Who knows? What is clear is that women's beauty pageant organizers can't kowtow to such abominations any more than sports competitions, among other institutions.

All that aside, I hope an Israeli contestant will register with the pageant, and it shouldn't have to be based on whether a local pageant does the sponsoring. It's entirely possible for a local girl to make arrangements independently, I would think. And before I forget, let's hope this pageant has swimsuit segments.

Jordanian antisemites destroy rabbi's teffillin

In a sad example of how Muslim antisemitism is still very prevalent in Jordan, some airport guards vandalized a rabbi's teffillin:

Security guards at a Jordanian airport desecrated a rabbi’s tefillin (phylacteries) during a security check before he boarded a plane.

Rabbi Moshe Haliwa, chief rabbi of the Jewish community in Dubai, was waiting to board a connecting flight to Abu Dhabi during a layover at Amman’s Queen Alia International Airport when security officials seized the rabbi’s tefillin.

According to a report by Yediot Aharanoth, the security officials seized Rabbi Haliwa’s tefillin after he disembarked following his flight from Israel.

If the "peace treaty" with Jordan ever falls apart, some could reasonably wonder if that'll be a bad thing, considering Jordan's Islamists haven't abandoned their antisemitism any more than anything else bad about it.

Ohio elects Muslim woman with extremist connections to state legislature

Benjamin Baird informs us of the sad news that another Muslim's been elected to political office in Ohio, and possibly to Congress:

As the first Somali Muslim woman elected to the Ohio state legislature, Munira Abdullahi is expected to bring “diversity” and “new perspectives” to the Ohio House of Representatives, according to her supporters. What they don’t tell you is that the 26-year-old belongs to a radical Sunni Islamist organization that uses youth indoctrination, charity, and social work to grow its political power and spread theocratic, often illiberal views.

Based on her background and career trajectory, Abdullahi could feasibly become the next Ilhan Omar — Minnesota’s far-left congresswoman known for expressing radical, antisemitic opinions and consorting with various Islamist groups. Indeed, the Ohio legislator shares striking similarities with Omar, the first Somali Muslim elected to her state’s legislature in 2016 and the first Muslim woman elected to Congress.

But what's really chilling about her associations is whom she's worked for when it comes to activists:

Omar, who will soon be a third-term congresswoman, works closely with American Islamist organizations and is known to advance legislation on their behalf. For her part, Abdullahi doesn’t just associate with extremist groups — she is a card-carrying member of the Muslim American Society, a notoriously extreme Islamist group that the United Arab Emirates designated as a terrorist organization in 2014.

In fact, MAS is the “overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America,” according to federal prosecutors, or the U.S. branch of a global, pan-Islamic organization known for its violent history in the Middle East. Since 2012, Abdullahi has worked part-time as a youth director at MAS-Columbus, and she was promoted in March to the role of program manager at the national office.

One must wonder how many extremist Muslims live in Ohio now, along with their sympathisers, and how badly it'll affect a state that's said to be Republican-led. This is seriously bad news.

Yes, antisemitism against ultra-Orthodox in USA is troubling

Irit Tratt, a writer living in New York, says that while the Haredi harassment of Conservative congregationists at the Robinson's Arch stand near the Old City's Western Wall is offensive, most activists opposed to it in the USA should also be concerned about antisemitic attacks on Haredis stateside:

While the June 30 episode deserves condemnation, the Jewish community’s swift reaction to harassment leveled at non-Orthodox Jews differs from the relatively muted response following assaults against the US ultra-Orthodox community, whose neighborhoods are witnessing rising antisemitism.

Hassidim in Brooklyn are routinely subjected to attacks similar to the one that occurred last April, where assailants repeatedly punched a haredi male, resulting in injury. On another occasion, a hassidic Crown Heights resident was kicked and beaten by a man hurling antisemitic epithets. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), of the 51 total antisemitic assaults that were reported in New York state in 2021, over half (34) took place in Brooklyn.

Yet despite the alarming uptick in violence, Jewish groups like the JFNA continue to emphasize hate crimes aimed at non-Orthodox Jews and other minority groups. Online statements decrying antisemitism amplify “from Pittsburgh to Colleyville” yet fail to mention Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Williamsburg, where antisemitic violence is frequent.

With the haredi manner of dress and degree of observance far different from the majority of US Jews, the mainstream Jewish community’s refusal to seriously confront the slew of attacks in haredi neighborhoods reflects a level of indifference with which they view their Jewish counterparts.

Incidentally, undermining the fight against Jew hatred is the current politicization of antisemitism. It bears mentioning that in many cases, crimes against haredim residing in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods are perpetrated by minorities.

Perhaps fearful of offending the left-wing sensibilities of their congregants, Jewish leaders instead focus on crimes that both target nonobservant Jews and are committed by offenders with links to right-wing extremists. Calling attention to the violence spreading within ultra-Orthodox communities would also potentially complicate the relationship between Democrat lawmakers and liberal-leaning Jewish institutions.

Well they're right about the serious concern of kowtowing to leftism, to say nothing of the oblivious attitude towards left-wing extremists like Antifa. Of course, if this is the Satmar clan we're talking about, how can you possibly think it's so easy to speak in their defense when they're hardly grateful for it, no matter who they vote for in the USA? The Satmar are anti-Zionist themselves, and not all that different from the Reform movement, as a result.

She goes on to note:

Spitzer points out that the JFNA, the ADL and AIPAC have virtually zero haredi representation.

The ADL’s recent appointment of Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker as special adviser on security confirms Spitzer’s assertions. Andres Spokoiny, CEO of the Jewish Funder’s Network, admitted in an interview for ejewishphilanthropy’s Daily Phil that one of the challenges of integrating haredim is that “you would need segregated spaces. Are you willing to do that? I’m not, but that’s a dilemma.”

While disappointing, statements underscoring the exclusion of haredim from Jewish communal life are also a departure from courtesies extended to the religiously unaffiliated by the ultra-Orthodox community. In 1965, the late hassidic Rabbi Hershel Weber founded Hatzalah, the largest nonprofit ambulance service in the United States. The mostly Orthodox volunteer force fields over 70,000 calls a year and responds to emergencies regardless of victims’ religious persuasion.

Similarly, in 2005, two members of Brooklyn’s hassidic community, Mordechai Mandelbaum and Alexander Rappaport, opened Masbia, the New York-based nonprofit kosher soup kitchen and food pantry, where everyone is treated like a mensch. Masbia provides over 2,000,000 meals yearly to Jewish and non-Jewish families.

Let us be clear. Of course it's admirable if certain movements in Haredi society are running businesses like these, which I'm guessing include mainly Chabad. But when it comes to isolated sects like Satmar and even Skver, what are they truly contributing? A distinction has to be made, and I'm not sure the writer's done that. And even then, it's honestly insulting if any Haredis are demanding segregation, or even modest dress for women, and oppose hearing ladies sing music. That's something defenders of Haredi communities have to answer about: whether it's a positive example, which it most definitely is not.

IN FAIRNESS, US Jewry’s reluctance to condemn antisemitism within ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods and a failure to acknowledge their goodwill does not excuse the abhorrent behavior witnessed at the Western Wall. Yet disaffected Jewish pluralists must recognize that trust is rarely built on policies tinged with paternalism.

To some degree, haredi disruptions are motivated by progressive approaches to Jewish traditionalism. In just over 30 years, the US Jewish community has successfully lobbied to liberalize prayer in Israel. Such inroads now include allowing women to read from the Torah and don a tallit while at the Wall.

The Wall is considered a holy site and acts as a synagogue. Those protesting its restrictions would likely think nothing of covering their heads or removing shoes before touring other religious destinations, such as the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. For its part, Israel should be weary of embracing an American brand of liberalism that, demographically speaking, is something short of a success story.

Now there's a legitimate concern. Do the complainants at the Western Wall have any issues with what Islamists demand when it comes to mosques? Do they have any issues with the Religion of Peace at all? If not, then it definitely does undermine their positions. Ironically, even the ultra-Orthodox ruffians at Robinson's Arch likely don't give a damn about Islam's demands for modesty either, nor the antisemitic verses in the Koran. That's why Haredi extremists and Reform Judaists aren't all that different in some regards.

And while we're on the topic, there was more commotion by Haredis against the Women of the Wall during a Bat Mitzvah:

An American teen held a protest bat mitzvah ceremony at the Western Wall in Jerusalem Friday alongside the Women of the Wall activist group, braving Haredi protesters who sought to disrupt, sometimes violently, the female-led Torah reading.

No injuries or arrests were reported during Friday’s confrontation, which came during the observance of the start of the month of Av and a month after a major incident at the egalitarian section of the Western Wall garnered international attention.

On Friday, thousands of black-attired young yeshiva students, both male and female, swarmed a group of about 100 women and a dozen men who accompanied them to the Western Wall, where traditional prayers were to take place at 7 a.m., ahead of the bat mitzvah of Lucia da Silva, 12, of Seattle, who came to Israel with her parents and godparents to celebrate the event.

Each month, a group called Women of the Wall attempts to read Torah at the Western Wall in violation of the rules of the site’s main plaza, which bar women from carrying and reading from the Torah. Only at a nearby site, known as Ezrat Yisrael or Robinson’s Arch, can women read from the sacred scroll.

Da Silva opted to celebrate her coming of age with the group, reading from scripture amid the throngs of often vicious protesters against such female-led services.

Her mother, Ada Danelo, had prepared Lucia ahead of time to think of the Western Wall as a soccer arena. In this scenario, da Silva was the star kicker, and the crowd included both hooligans and supporters.

“I looked at them as fans who came to cheer me on,” Lucia said of the commotion that encircled her as she read from scripture at one of Judaism’s holiest sites.

Ushers working for the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, a state-funded institution, attempted to direct the women into a dedicated lane leading to a fenced-in corral but Women of the Wall refused. Instead, they headed to the center of the women’s section, adjacent to the men’s section of the wall to hold their service.

This form of protest occurs at the start of every Jewish month, in this case Av, as the start of a month, known in Hebrew as Rosh Hodesh, is considered a holiday with feminine undertones. The start of the month of Av also marks the start of the nine days leading up to the Jewish day of mourning, Tisha B’Av, which commemorates the destruction of the two Jewish temples, and this period is generally seen as a time for introspection and repentance.

Clutches of girls dressed in black set upon the women, calling them whores and heretics and hollering that they should burn in hell. When confronted by Women of the Wall activists and asked for their names, three of the girls in unison replied, “I’m a minor.” Others blew whistles to drown out the women.

From a raised platform behind the women’s section, young men taunted them with coarse gestures and insults, and were occasionally herded away by police. Photographers practiced in the monthly ritual came equipped with noise blockers.

The WOTW may be a galling bunch of leftists, but that's still no excuse for this incident either, as it only lends further credibility to the concerns by movements like the Conservative sect. The Haredis who pulled this hollering horror have no business calling themselves loyal Judaists, and should get out of the lifestyle to boot, since it's clearly not influencing them for the better.

Trump may never receive credit from the left for bringing more peace to the middle east

Aryeh Lightstone's published an excerpt from "Let My People Know", about the Trump administration's efforts to bring more peace treaties between Israel and Arab/Islamic countries, on the week when faux-president Joe Biden has visited the country:

Tomorrow, President Joe Biden will travel to Israel. I believe all Americans should root for his success. However, success will be more difficult to achieve because it hasn’t yet been defined by his administration. I had the honor of working for David Friedman, former U.S. ambassador to Israel, and Jared Kushner, former senior adviser to the president. With them, there was never any doubt about what success entailed. The only challenge was how to achieve it as efficiently and effectively as possible.

President Trump’s senior policy team consistently went against conventional wisdom, because that conventional wisdom was wrong. Breaking with that long-standing complacency led to the historic Abraham Accords. Biden can and should invest and expand the Abraham Accords. To do that, he and his own team must not revert to outmoded thinking. One way Biden could show he is leading the region into the future — instead of being handcuffed by the past — would be to go to the Western Wall with the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog.

Unfortunately, that's hardly been the case, and neither Biden nor any of the rest of his faux-government staff have shown any interest in retaining the positions that Trump worked hard to bring about, seeing how they're hell-bent on reopening the US consulate in east Jerusalem for the sake of servicing PLO representatives and their twisted Islamic beliefs. That they're opposed to building homes for Jews in Judea/Samaria only worsens the issue.

That's just one reason why few will root for Biden in any event. If he's unpopular in the USA based on his disastrous policies when it comes to the home borders, for example, why should anybody want to root for him in overseas affairs?

And the worst thing is that the left will never give Trump any genuine credit for all the hard work he did to bring about positive change in the middle east, for Israel's benefit or any other country. That's surely one of the saddest things about the current situation.

The Temple Mount travesty

Ruthie Blum's written more about the disaster of jihadism poisoning the atmosphere at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City, and how poor US policy's making everything worse:

After Israel’s ambassador to Amman was summoned on Monday for reprimand over the riots on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher Al-Khasawneh praised “every Palestinian who throws rocks and every Islamic Wakf worker who stands tall against the pro-Zionists defiling the Aqsa Mosque under the auspices of the Israeli occupation government.”

Rather than call Al-Khasawneh to task for openly inciting violence in an official address to the Jordanian Parliament – especially during Ramadan, when Muslims are supposed to focus on faith, spiritual contemplation and self-discipline – King Abdullah II complained to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that Israel was committing “provocative acts [that] violated the legal and historic status quo” on the compound.

The falsehood that Israel is storming and trying to take over the Aqsa Mosque is an ongoing antisemitic propaganda ploy with multiple aims. One involves the rejection of ancient Jewish ties to the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. Another is to obfuscate the fact that Israeli security forces were, as they always are, dispatched to the area solely to prevent the very deadly activities that Jordan’s premier is unabashedly encouraging.

Which is abominable. As is the UAE's similar reaction, which also puts their sincerity under a question mark:

They have seen the widely circulated footage of young Muslims amassing rocks and planks inside Al-Aqsa, trampling on the carpets of the hallowed house of worship with their shoes and playing soccer amid the rubble. And though many Muslims in Israel and elsewhere took to social media to express outrage at the dishonor, the Jordanian prime minister championed the young men who turned the sacred space during a somber holiday into a fun-filled hate-fest.

Nevertheless, even the UAE followed Jordan’s lead. Not only did the Gulf state summon its first-ever Israeli ambassador, Amir Hayek, for a dressing-down, but Etihad Airways and Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, the two Emirati airlines that were slated to take part next month in Israel’s Independence Day civil flyover, canceled their attendance.

You could reasonably wonder if this suggests that, in the future, the UAE relations might collapse, as they refuse to avoid the cliched loyalism to jihadist-minded creeps. Whether or not that happens, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid bungled in their responses to the incidents:

The reason for the about-face was Israel’s “aggressive actions.” Rather than confronting the absurd allegations through the projection of strength, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett made a mealy-mouthed statement.

“Israel is doing everything so that everyone can always celebrate their holidays safely – Jews, Muslims and Christians,” he said. “We expect everyone not to join the lies and certainly not to encourage violence against Jews.”

Without referring to Jordan specifically, Bennett went on to criticize those who “blame Israel for the violence against us – those who encourage throwing rocks and violence against the citizens of the State of Israel. This is unacceptable. It is a prize for the inciters, foremost among them Hamas, which is trying to spark violence in Jerusalem.”

FOREIGN MINISTER Yair Lapid adopted an equally powerless stance. After speaking on the phone with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, he recounted having “emphasized Israel’s responsible and measured efforts in the face of riots by hundreds of Islamic extremists on the Temple Mount,” and insisted that Israel “would not tolerate calls for violence.”

Oh dear. Al-Khasawneh and Abdullah must have been shaking in their boots – double-time when they heard that Lapid had impressed upon Blinken the “need for international support to restore calm to Jerusalem.”

International support? Where from, exactly? The Israel-bashing Security Council?

Indeed, their beliefs are just so myopic, to say nothing short of revolting due to their pathetically weak approach. Already, Bennett and Lapid have set Israel on a path to having its relations with Islamic countries become more injured than need be. Though the reactions by said countries does make clear why their adherence to the Religion of Peace will prevent serious improvement in their own conduct overall.