From Ian:
Pompeo Blasts House Democrats For ‘Foolish’ Stance On Israeli ‘Settlements’
Pompeo Blasts House Democrats For ‘Foolish’ Stance On Israeli ‘Settlements’
As The Daily Wire reported last month, 106 House Democrats sent a scathing letter to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that expressed “strong disagreement” with the Trump administration’s recently promulgated legal assertion that so-called Israeli “settlements” in the biblical Jewish homeland of Judea and Samaria do not per se violate international law.Secretary of State Pompeo Responds to Congressional Critics on Legality of West Bank Settlements
The House Democrats’ hysterical letter accused Pompeo of “ignoring international law” and “undermin[ing] America’s moral standing.” The congressmen continued: “If the U.S. unilaterally abandons international and human rights law, we can only expect a more chaotic and brutal twenty-first century for Americans and our allies, including the Israeli people.”
Conservative Zionists quickly and assertively pushed back against the tendentious missive. The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), which identifies as “the largest rabbinic public policy organization in America,” wrote its own powerful letter that deconstructed the House Democrats’ misleading claims. Frequent Daily Wire contributor and CJV Managing Director Rabbi Yaakov Menken told The Daily Wire at the time: “Word to the wise: If you claim to be pro-Israel, and sign a letter regarding Israel along with Reps. Omar, Tlaib, and Ocasio-Cortez, you’re fooling no one but yourself. It’s amazing to see congressmen telling the administration to ignore Acts of Congress. All the more so when those Acts prevent U.S. tax dollars from being spent to encourage terrorism.”
Now, as reported by The Jerusalem Post, Pompeo has powerfully responded himself to the House Democrats’ letter. Pompeo excoriated the Democrats’ letter as “foolish,” and he hit the anti-Israel presidency of Barack Obama in no uncertain terms: “The Obama-Kerry departure from America’s historic support of Israel has done nothing to make peace more attainable.”
“While I appreciate your interest in this important issue, I couldn’t disagree more with those two foolish positions,” Pompeo continued. “While you are free to fixate on settlements as a barrier to peace, you are simply wrong in referring to that view as being subject to bipartisan agreement.”
Pompeo then blasted “the erroneous positions of international law that have gained favor in the past decades”: (h/t MtTB)
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday responded to a Congressional letter that criticized the administration's position on the legality of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.NJ elected official wonders if anti-Semitic shooting was justified over treatment of black Americans
"The State Department's determination did not reverse any policy with regard to Israeli settlements. Rather, the State Department reversed a legal determination by Secretary Kerry...allowing UNSCR 2334, whose foundation was the purported illegality of the settlements...to pass the Security Council on December 23, 2016."
"Secretary Kerry's determination did not enjoy bipartisan consensus. Rather, it received bipartisan condemnation, including from leading Democrats in both chambers of Congress. Indeed, an overwhelming number of Senators and House Members, on both sides of the aisle, supported resolutions objecting to the passage of UNSCR 2334."
"While you are free to fixate on settlements as a barrier to peace, you are simply wrong in referring to that view as being subject to bipartisan agreement. No less a Democratic spokesman than the Senate Minority Leader publicly stated at his AIPAC address on March 5, 2018, that 'it's sure not the settlements that are the blockage to peace.'"
"You assert that we have 'blatantly disregarded' the Fourth Geneva Convention....I commend to you the writings of Eugene Rostow, who left his position as Dean of the Yale Law School to become Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs in the Johnson Administration....Rostow stated in 1983 that 'Israel has an unassailable legal right to establish settlements in the West Bank.'"
"U.S. policy with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict largely has been consistent for decades and remains so: we support and seek to facilitate direct negotiations between the parties towards the goal of a just and lasting peace agreement."
"Regrettably, as many experts concur, UNSCR 2334 and the related self-justifying remarks by Secretary Kerry have saddled the Trump Administration with a significant handicap in advancing the cause of peace by erroneously injecting into the conflict an incorrect and largely irrelevant legal component. This in turn has led to the hardening of positions, especially on the Palestinian side."
A Jersey City Board of Education Trustee suggested that the shooting at a Jewish market that left six dead last week, including the shooters, was justified as a result of how Jewish people treat African Americans.
Both suspected shooters, David Anderson, 47, and Francine Graham, 50, were found dead after a shootout with police. Both of them publicly expressed interest in the Black Hebrew Israelites, but neither had formal connections, and the shooting is being investigated as a hate crime.
On Saturday, Lincoln High School Principal Chris Gadsden posted a column from InsiderNJ on Facebook. The column, titled "Faith and Hope to Fight Hate," focused on a recent event bringing together religious and civic leaders to address the shooting and the hate that precipitated it. While discussing the growing tension between the African American and Jewish communities, they also spoke about the encroachment of a new development making its way into the traditionally poorer neighborhoods.
Joan Terrell, who sits on the Jersey City Board of Education, commented on the post questioning, "Where was all this faith and hope when Black homeowners were threatened, intimidated, and harassed by I WANT TO BUY YOUR HOUSE brutes of the [J]ewish community? ... Who helped Black people living in rental properties owned by the [J]ewish people but were given 30 day eviction notices so that more [J]ewish people could move in?"
Her post continued to accuse Jewish residents of forcing African Americans out of their homes and referenced community programs that have been eliminated.
“Mr. Anderson and Ms. Graham went directly to the Kosher supermarket,” Terrell wrote. “I believe they knew they would come out in body bags. What is the message they were sending? Are we brave enough to explore the answer to their message? Are we brave enough to stop the assault on the black communities of America?”
She's a city official where Jews were just gunned down in cold blood because they're Jews, and she just said they probably deserved it, and by the way are they taking ppl's organs?
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) December 17, 2019
City officials instigating another pogrom, but you'll hear crickets over this.
Ah. pic.twitter.com/PZPdA39wUp
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) December 17, 2019


























