'The goal of BDS is to sow the seeds of discord on college campuses...'

The campus BDS movement, at Inside Higher Ed, "Middle East Conflict, U.S. Campuses":

As pro-Palestinian, pro-BDS activism has increased on campuses, it's upset many pro-Israel students, who question whether student governments are being urged to hold Israel to higher standards than other countries in the world and whether the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is being portrayed accurately in campus discussions and debates.

"There was more anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activity on American campuses in this past one year than there have been in the last 10 years combined,” said David Eden, the chief administrative officer at Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life.

“The goal of BDS is to sow the seeds of discord on college campuses,” said Eden, who described the movement as “pro-hate” and “anti-peace.” (He also noted that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has come out against it.)

Keep reading.

Nouri al-Maliki Tightens Grip on Power

Huh? I guess he didn't get the White House memo about loosening up his dictatorial regime.

At the Washington Post, "Iraqi premier Maliki gaining strength as Shiites rally behind him":

BAGHDAD — Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is tightening his hold on power in response to the catastrophe unfolding in Iraq, even as his critics blame his policies for causing the mayhem that is tearing the country apart.

Reinforced by a call to arms from the country’s top Shiite cleric and by promises of support from Iran, Maliki has set about rallying the country’s Shiite majority behind his leadership as Sunni extremists bear down on Baghdad.

Negotiations on the formation of a new government have been suspended, and instead, Shiite factions who had sought to prevent Maliki from securing a third term in office by aligning with Sunni and Kurdish politicians have thrown their support behind him.

The risk of even deeper polarization between the sects is evident. The streets of Baghdad now teem with armed Shiite men, whose response to the clergy’s summoning of fighters has further shored up Maliki’s position.

Sunnis shuddered Tuesday at the news that the body of a Sunni imam and two of his assistants had been discovered in Baghdad’s morgue, four days after they were detained by men wearing government uniforms. The episode echoed the sectarian bloodletting that raged in the middle of the last decade, and it reinforced fears that a new round of killings could be imminent.

Officials close to Maliki acknowledge that his exclusionary politics and failure to reach out to Sunnis may have contributed to the ease with which predominantly Sunni parts of the country have fallen under the control of al-Qaeda-linked extremists over the past week.

Keep reading.

Palestinians Celebrate #Hamas Kidnappings of Three Israeli Teenagers

At Israelly Cool, "More Palestinian Reactions to Kidnapping: The Most Disturbing of All (Updated)."

And from the IDF:

As our forces press forward in the search for #EladGiladNaftali, #Palestinians are celebrating their abduction pic.twitter.com/Ayppg7rKZ1

— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) June 17, 2014

William Jacobson Speaks at Luxe Sunset Boulevard Hotel, Los Angeles

Following-up, "Professor William Jacobson, 'The Case for Israel and Academic Freedom,' Luxe Sunset Boulevard Hotel (June 17, 2014)."

I tweeted from the lecture:

.@Liberty_Chick Professor William Jacobson, of @LegInsurrection, now speaking in Los Angeles. #Israel pic.twitter.com/zcVrR1OIfh

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 18, 2014

The presentation was very familiar to me, as I'm an avid reader of William's blog. But check the archives for some of his work on the left's academic boycott of Israel. Also, I expect the talk tonight was quite similar to the lecture William gave at Vassar, where the college's 39 academic boycotters refused to accept William's offer of debate. See, "Vassar College Wins (Update – Video added)."

The folks at CJHS videotaped the event and no doubt the clip will be posted at Legal Insurrection when it's available.

Plus, I had the pleasure to meet Darleen Click of Protein Wisdom, and she was taking notes. So, it's good bet she'll have a review posted right away and I'll update.

Overall, a great event and a nice break from blogging. Conservatives are the best people. I always enjoy meeting up with them.

New York Metropolitan Opera Cancels 'Death of Klinghoffer'

At Truth Revolt, "Breaking: Met Opera Cancels Anti-American, Anti-Semitic Broadcast."

And at CBS News New York, "Metropolitan Opera Cancels Simulcast Amid Anti-Semitism Fears." And at the Los Angeles Times, "Metropolitan Opera cancels 'Klinghoffer' cinema broadcasts."

Professor William Jacobson, 'The Case for Israel and Academic Freedom,' Luxe Sunset Boulevard Hotel (June 17, 2014)

Yesterday William posted the announcement, at Legal Insurrection, "If it’s Tuesday, it must be L.A."

I'm heading out right now to attend the lecture.

More from Mark Tapson, at FrontPage Magazine, "The Case for Israel and Academic Freedom":

This Tuesday evening in Los Angeles, Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors is hosting Cornell law professor William A. Jacobson as he presents “The Case for Israel and Academic Freedom.” At the forefront of the fight against the American Studies Association (ASA) academic boycott of Israel, Jacobson will argue that the boycott is anti-educational, anti-peace, and based on misconceptions and omissions about the history and legality of the conflict.

Prof. Jacobson is the founder and publisher of two popular websites, Legal Insurrection and College Insurrection, which have covered the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement for years. He has been cited in major publications such as The Jerusalem Post, The Times of Israel, Forbes, National Review, Commentary, and elsewhere. Through Legal Insurrection, Jacobson was instrumental in obtaining rejections of the academic boycott by over 250 University Presidents, and has filed a challenge to the ASA’s tax exempt status.

I asked him a few questions in advance of Tuesday’s event...

Keep reading.

And here's the event listing, at the Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors homepage, "EVENT: The Case for Israel and Academic Freedom | June 17, 2014."

Should be home tonight about 10:00 or 11:00pm, and blogging will resume.

Thanks everyone. Hope to see you there!

New York Times Claims Abu Khattala Launched #Benghazi Attack in Retaliation for 'Innocence of Muslims' Video

Well, the president promised to bring the perpetrators to justice, almost two years ago. And you gotta love the timing. Sure does help Hillary Clinton's battlespace preparation, to say nothing of getting the administration's Iraq debacle out of the headlines.

The main story's at Wall Street Journal, "U.S. Forces Capture Key Benghazi Suspect Grabbed in a Nighttime Raid, Ahmed Abu Khattala Faces Possible Death Penalty." And from Barbara Starr at CNN:



But the the big deal here is how the New York Times joins Clinton's battlespace prep with this unsourced report, citing "private conversations," in which Abu Khattala is said to have launched the Benghazi attack to take "revenge" against the "Innocence of Muslims" video --- the controversial online film which was the basis for the administration's Susan Rice talking points after the attack of September 11, 1012.

See, "A Brazen Figure in Benghazi Holds an Attack’s Secrets Apprehension of Ahmed Abu Khattala May Begin to Answer Questions on Assault":

But for all his brazenness, Mr. Abu Khattala also holds many tantalizing secrets for the Americans investigating and debating the attack.

His apprehension by United States military commandos and law enforcement agents may finally begin to address some of the persistent questions about who carried out the attack and why. Those questions have spawned a small industry of conspiracy theories, political scandals, talk radio broadcasts, and a continuing congressional investigation.

Despite extensive speculation about the role of Al Qaeda in directing the attack in Libya, Mr. Abu Khattala is a local Islamist militant, with no known connections to international terrorist groups, according to American officials briefed on the criminal investigation and intelligence reporting, as well as other Benghazi Islamists who know him.

In interviews, Mr. Abu Khattala professed his admiration for Osama bin Laden and blamed American foreign policy for the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But he remained a distant admirer, having spent most of his adult life jailed for his extremism under Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.

During the uprising against Colonel Qaddafi, Mr. Abu Khattala formed his own militia, which played a small role in the NATO-backed uprising. But within a few months, he had pulled his small band back from the front, deeming most of his fellow Islamists insufficiently committed to establishing a puritanical theocracy and too close to the West.

After Colonel Qaddafi fell, Mr. Abu Khattala was one of the disgruntled veterans of the uprising who kept Benghazi on edge. Though he had friends among the militia leaders of the city who were close to American and British diplomats who took residence in the city, he kept his distance from foreign diplomats and rallied his own supporters to protest what he viewed as foreign interference in Libya’s affairs.

What he did in the period just before the attack has remained unclear. But Mr. Abu Khattala told other Libyans in private conversations during the night of the attack that he was moved to attack the diplomatic mission to take revenge for an insult to Islam in an American-made online video.

An earlier demonstration venting anger over the video outside the American Embassy in Cairo had culminated in a breach of its walls, and it dominated Arab news coverage. Mr. Abu Khattala told both fellow Islamist fighters and others that the attack in Benghazi was retaliation for the same insulting video, according to people who heard him...

Keep reading.

Well obviously these unnamed sources from "private conversations" just aren't going to fly, considering such an explosive issue.

The fact is, according to Stephen Hayes, in contrast to administration claims, the intelligence community's "talking points didn't once mention the anti-Islam video that Rice placed at the center of her narrative."

With this questionable report from the New York Times, White House hacks and Obama's media lapdogs can once again deny the facts debunking the "Innocence of Muslims" narrative. It's a classic protection gambit for the White House and it plays perfectly into Hillary Clinton's book tour media rollout, which is frankly nothing more than an early presidential campaign tour.

Brigitte Gabriel Destroys 'Moderate' Muslim Saba Ahmed at Heritage Benghazi Accountability Panel

I saw Dana Milbank's column last night, "Heritage's ugly Benghazi panel." What a complete smear. I didn't even need to see the video before calling the dude out as a complete hack.

So now this Heritage panel has blown out into a major partisan battle over what, "Islamphobia"? Or conservative "anti-Muslim hatred"? Who knows with the idiot progressive? Clearly, Brigitte Gabriel nails the point so hard that PC tool Milbank had to smear her and the entire Heritage event as racist or something. But you can see the exchange for yourself at clip, as well as the fierce push back on the right below.

Here's Pat Dollard, "WATCH, MUST-SEE: The Awesome Brigitte Gabriel Destroys ‘Moderate’ Muslim…Receives Standing Ovation During Benghazi Panel."



And here's "moderate" Saba Ahmed shown holding a microphone at the back of the conference room. She looks Jumanah Imad Albahri and probably would be "for it" if Hezbollah was able to round up all the world's Jews for extermination. (Indeed Ahmed's background is described as "weird" with "ties to convicted a terrorist.")



More from Noah Rothman, at Hot Air, "Dana Milbank’s take on Heritage’s ‘ugly’ Benghazi panel is utterly dishonest." And Mollie Hemingway, at the Federalist, "Friends Don’t Let Friends Read Dana Milbank."

Also from Erick Erickson, "What Dana Milbank Does Not Tell You."

Gun-Toting Child Jihadists Oversee #ISIS Execution of Shia Guards Outside Baghdad

At London's Daily Mail, "The boy jihadis: Sickening new images reveal gun-toting children as young as eight watching ISIS execution as Shia prison guards 'slaughter 44 Sunni inmates north of Baghdad'."



More updates throughout the day.

The Return of Christian Anti-Semitism

From Melanie Phillips, at Commentary, "'Jesus Was a Palestinian': The Return of Christian Anti-Semitism":

In all the uproar over the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement and the campaign to delegitimize Israel, the role of Protestant churches has received scant attention. This is a terrible mistake. The return of replacement theology is of the greatest possible significance to the way Israel is regarded in the West. The Church still has great influence over Western culture. Even in Britain, people think Christian clerics embody integrity, conscience, and truth-telling; when they assert that Israel is a racist, oppressive, aggressive state, they are believed. And in the United States, such is the centrality of Christianity and the Hebrew Bible that if this theological and political slide into untruth and hatred is not stopped, there will be drastic consequences—not just for support of Israel but for American society.

As Christians are murdered by Islamists across the world, some of their churches are directing their passions elsewhere. They are busily rewriting history, constructing a theology out of gross political distortion and lining up once again with historic forces of unfathomable darkness. It is not just the State of Israel that is being threatened as a result. Stamping upon its parent, the Church is embracing its own assassin—and the West’s potential nemesis.

This is a complicated essay that deserves multiples readings. And so I'll leave off to dear readers for now on this. I can say that this piece is astonishingly eye-opening. The malignant historical revisionism is just sickening, which has turned Christian faith into an ideology of Nazism.

Definition of the #Democrat Party

Heh, seen on Twitter last night:

Democrats are leeches! pic.twitter.com/IIeq0D6jAb #Tcot @peddoc63 @DrMartyFox @hankishtwit @JamesNathaniel7 @TheDemocrats @Morning_Joe

— Janie Johnson (@jjauthor) June 9, 2014

Dodgers, #Angels Have Mixed Reaction to Tobacco After Death of Tony Gwynn

I guess Tony Gwynn attributed his cancer to smokeless tobacco.

I thought "What the heck?" when I heard he'd passed. He was only 54.

In any case, at the Los Angeles Times:

For many players, the use of smokeless tobacco becomes entwined with playing the game. It becomes difficult to imagine baseball without it.

I can see that. But times are changing.

In any case, read it all at that link.

The World Ignites on #Obama’s Watch

From Walter Russell Mead, at the American Interest:

As Islamist jihadis like Boko Haram murder and kidnap their way across Nigeria and Mali in pursuit of what they somehow convince themselves is a noble purpose, as Iraq and Syria writhe in the flames of an insurgency gone into hyperdrive, as the Taliban licks its chops over the future of Afghanistan, and as the smoke rises over Karachi’s airport, Washington is still trying to pretend that the global war on terror is a thing of the past.

RTWT.

John Kerry's Proposal to Work with Iran Is 'Preposterous'

At National Review:

Bill O'Reilly: 'Enormous Dereliction of Duty' if Obama Fails to Bomb #Iraq

Another great talking points memo:

Kenya Terrorist Attack 'Most Sophisticated Seen of Its Kind'

More on the Nairobi al-Shabaab attack, via Telegraph UK:



PREVIOUSLY: "Al-Shabaab Massacres Dozens in Nairobi! U.S Marines Stationed Atop Embassy!"

Hobby Lobby Critics Demonize Belief

From Jonathan Tobin, at Commentary:

The legal and political world is awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision in the Hobby Lobby case with bated breath. The court’s ruling will determine whether the Obama administration’s efforts to restrict religious freedom or the plaintiffs’ belief that faith may be practiced in the public square will prevail. The arguments over the merits of the case in which the government’s attempt to impose a contraception and abortion drug mandate on private businesses as well as religious institutions have been endlessly rehearsed as a sidebar to the general debate about ObamaCare. But, as I noted earlier this year, rather than confining the debate to the question of constitutional rights, critics of the plaintiffs in Hobby Lobby v. Sebelius have done their best to portray the business owners who seek to strike down the government mandate as not merely wrong but a threat to liberty.

In order to do this, the administration and its cheering section in the mainstream media have sought to transform the debate from one that centers on government using its power to force people of faith to choose between their religion and their business to the dubious notion that dissenters from the mandate wish to impose their beliefs on others. This is a false premise since even if the owners of Hobby Lobby win, its employees won’t be prevented from obtaining birth control or abortion-inducing drugs. The only thing that will change is whether their Christian employers will be forced to pay for them.

But efforts to demonize Hobby Lobby are not confined to these specious arguments. As today’s feature in Politico on the Green family shows, the goal of the liberal critics of Hobby Lobby isn’t so much to draw the line on religious freedom as it is to depict their foes as crazy religious extremists who want to transform America into a “Christian nation.” That this is an unfair distortion of their intent as well as the point of the court case goes without saying. But the fact that mainstream publications feel free to mock the Greens in this manner tells us exactly why the plaintiffs’ fears about restrictions on religious freedom may be justified.

In Politico’s telling, the Greens are religious fanatics who not only are willing to conduct their businesses along religious lines, including closing their chain of hobby stores on Sunday, but also want to promote their beliefs to others. The Greens may wind up investing hundreds of millions of their vast fortune to the building of a Bible museum in Washington D.C. The also want to promote Bible study and ... funding a textbook and curriculum about religious studies they’d like to see be adopted by school systems. According to Politico, these efforts are stirring concern in the ranks of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and other liberal organs....

The attacks on the Greens illustrate the intolerance of openly expressed faith that is at the core of the mandate the administration is seeking to enforce. The Greens are no threat to the liberty of non-believers who need not visit their bible museum nor read the religious materials they publish.

Keep reading.

Six in 10 Americans Dissatisfied with Obama Administration Handling of 2012 #Benghazi Attack

Yes, because it was all just some unhinged GOP whipped up frenzy for the base, or something.

At CNN, "CNN/ORC Poll: Majority dissatisfied with handling of Benghazi."

Just 37 percent are satisfied with the administration's handling of Benghazi, and:

Sixty-one percent of Americans surveyed think the administration has generally been dishonest in providing information about Benghazi in the aftermath of the attack.

“That may be one reason why overall dissatisfaction with the White House has gone from 50% in 2012 to 60% now,” said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

There'll be more on this. An ABC News poll out last week found that 58 percent of Americans thought the White House "covered up what it knows" about. Benghazi.

VIDEO: U.S.-Made Stinger Missiles Likely in Hands of #ISIS Jihadists in Iraq

Following-up from previously, "Sources: #ISIS Jihadists Likely Have U.S.-Made Stinger Missiles."

Only America Can Prevent a Disaster in #Iraq

From the former American Regent in Iraq, L. Paul Bremmer, at the Wall Street Journal:

America's core interest remains a stable, united and democratic Iraq. But American regional interests are broader. At stake now is the century-old political structure of the entire region, with huge consequences for our friends and allies there.

If the terrorists continue south and take the capital, Baghdad, or threaten the Shiite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf, a full-scale civil war is likely. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani Friday issued the first call for "jihad" by the Shiite religious leadership in almost 100 years. Radical Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr has reactivated his " Mahdi " army and other Shiite leaders have recalled two battalions from Syria to fight in Iraq. A serious threat to the holy cities would almost certainly provoke intervention by Iranian Revolutionary Guards on the side of the Shiites. Kurdish leaders, who have the best-organized military force in Iraq, have taken advantage of the current chaos to wrest control of the long-coveted city of Kirkuk from the central government, and would be tempted to declare Kurdistan's independence.

Those Americans who have pressed in the past for dividing Iraq should be careful: They might get what they wished for. The price would be very high: a regional war on top of an Iraqi civil war. American action now would be considerably less difficult than later.

After a feckless and hesitant American policy against any intervention to stop Bashar Assad's slaughter in Syria, the region needs to see that we understand the risks by demonstrating a clear commitment to help restabilize Iraq. That means first stopping the southward march of the ISIL; then helping the Iraqis retake important cities like Mosul, Tikrit and Fallujah...

Continue reading.

And, if you can bear it, watch Bremer's interview with Erin Burnett on CNN, " Paul Bremer: Obama is to blame for Iraq."

A a leftist attack dog, I tweeted:

.@ErinBurnett You cannot be serious with that Paul Bremer interview?!!! My god Stephanie Cutter's got nothing on you, Obama flack!
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 17, 2014