Category: Congress

Tlaib Vote Shows That the Barbarians Aren’t At the Gates; They’re in Congress

ROBERT SPENCER | 5:02 PM ON FEBRUARY 16, 2024
SEE: https://pjmedia.com/robert-spencer/2024/02/16/tlaib-vote-shows-the-barbarians-arent-at-the-gates-theyre-in-congress-n4926514; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:
AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib
One of the most open-and-shut issues in the history of the United States came before Congress Wednesday, and any decent human being had every reason to expect that the vote on it was unanimous. One of the wise solons present, however, decided, no doubt after a sober period of soul-searching, to have her vote simply record the bare fact that she was present and not her affirmation or rejection of the issue at hand. That righteous and thoughtful lawmaker was Rashida Tlaib (D-Ramallah), and the issue at hand was a condemnation of Hamas for the rape of captive Israeli women.

If you’re wondering how anyone in his or her right mind could have any hesitation about condemning savage mass rapes, it’s only because you haven’t been overcome by the Jew-hatred that has since Oct. 7 become fashionable among leftists and that has for decades been deeply rooted among the supporters of the Palestinian jihad against Israel. The winsome and patriotic Tlaib is, of course, both a deeply committed leftist and a supporter of the Palestinian jihad, so her vote was no real surprise. Still, it sends a chill down the spine to realize that the barbarians aren’t at the gates; they’re in Congress. 

Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) reported Wednesday that the House “voted unanimously, 418-0, to condemn Hamas terrorists for rape and sexual violence on Oct. 7.” Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.), who introduced the bill, H.Res.966, noted that “on Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, mercilessly killing 1,200 people; raping, mutilating, burning and assaulting their victims to inflict physical and psychological pain, unleashing trauma that continues to plague a grieving Israel. The brutality was planned and calculated.” No fair-minded person could disagree, and so Frankel’s resolution gained co-sponsors from the other side of the aisle, including Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.) and Jen Kiggans (R-Va.).

JNS noted that H.Res.966 “condemns all rape and sexual violence ‘as weapons of war,’ including those Hamas committed on and after Oct. 7; calls on all countries to criminalize rape and sexual assault and hold both state and non-state armed groups accountable for such attacks; and tells international groups to ‘unequivocally condemn the barbaric murder, rape, sexual assault and kidnapping by Hamas and other terrorists on and since Oct. 7 and hold accountable all perpetrators.’” 

It affirmed U.S. “support for independent, impartial investigations of rape and sexual violence committed by Hamas on and since Oct. 7” and reaffirmed a “commitment to supporting survivors of rape and sexual violence, including those brutalized on and since Oct. 7.” Who could object? Rashida Tlaib.

Frankel, clearly aware that some among her fellow leftists sided with Hamas despite its barbarity, added, “Sadly, Hamas’s savagery has been met with a shrug—and even denial—from many corners of the world. Our resolution loudly and clearly condemns all rape and forms of sexual violence as weapons of war, including those acts committed by Hamas terrorists on and since Oct. 7.” One of those who was ready with a shrug and denial was Tlaib, who stood out as the lone member of the House of Representatives who could not bring herself to condemn Hamas’ rapes and so voted “present.”

Related: WATCH: Yet Another Video Surfaces, Making Ilhan Omar’s Real Allegiance Even Clearer

Tlaib apparently calculated that a "yes" vote on this resolution might be seen as a condemnation of Hamas and its jihad against Israel, and unlike her colleague among The Squad, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Swizzle Stick), Tlaib couldn’t bring herself to go on record in such a manner. Another Squad member, the Somalia-First Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Mogadishu) likewise registered her dissent but in a less immediately obvious way: she simply didn’t vote at all.

How could either Tlaib or Omar think that this bill was even remotely controversial? The answer to that is clear: their hatred of Israel is so intense that they just don’t have any problem with what Hamas did on Oct. 7, and they don’t want to alienate the hordes of anti-Israel demonstrators across the country who have been increasingly open about their unhesitating support for the jihad terror group.

In this, Tlaib and Omar represent a further coarsening and degeneration of an already degraded American body politic. Mass migration, the anti-assimilation ethos among the migrants and their supporters, and the left’s war against patriotism have brought an unprecedented ugliness into American politics, as the standards of civility and of civilization itself that endured for over two centuries have been eroded under the heavy pressure of multiculturalism, anti-white racism, revisionist history, and far-left agitprop. 

Now we have elected representatives in Congress who can’t bring themselves to condemn rape. And it’s going to get worse.

Congress Tightens Up Reporting Requirements on Foreign Funding of Universities

  BY 

REPUBLISHED, SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/12/congress-tightens-up-reporting-requirements-on-foreign-funding-of-universities

The scandal of certain foreign governments funding programs at American universities that further the interests of their often unsavory regimes is at long last being addressed by Congress. The House has just passed a bill — which will soon be voted on in the Senate — to tighten the reporting requirements for major foreign gifts (above $250,000) and to require greater oversight by universities of the programs being funded. More on this legislation, which is sure to become law, can be found here: “U.S. House Approves Reporting on Foreign Funds to Universities; Includes Key MEF Priorities,” Middle East Forum, December 8, 2023:

American universities will no longer be able to count on a complacent federal bureaucracy and weak legislation to avoid disclosing foreign gifts and contracts, if a House vote two days ago becomes law.

The Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions Act – the DETERRENT Act (H.R. 5933) – passed the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday in a bipartisan vote of 246 to 170. Introduced by Rep. Michelle Steel (R-CA) and co-sponsored by Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and 25 other members, the bill significantly strengthens key provision of Section 117 of the Higher Education Act.

For decades, many universities have ignored requirements to report foreign gifts or contracts of over $250,000. Legislation lacked the teeth to hold academe accountable, allowing parts of the education bureaucracy to ignore violations of the law. Even if universities complied, they did not need to disclose the purposes for which the funds would be used – a loophole that allowed foreign states such as Qatar and China quietly to fund potentially disreputable projects or individuals….

Particularly worrisome are the large sums provided by rich Arab states, especially Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, to fund a vast expansion of Middle Eastern Studies, and Islamic Studies Departments, providing for greater numbers of faculty with endowed chairs; these faculty members not surprisingly turn out to share the world views of the states that fund them, including their anti-Israel animus and deep sympathy for the “Palestinians.” Saudi Arabia, and individual Saudis, provide large sums not just to endow individual chairs, but also to set up entire centers for Islamic studies, whose members are not unbiased scholars, but promoters and defenders of Islam. One example is the infamous apologist for Islam, John Esposito, who was the founding director of the Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown, which got its start with a $20 million gift from Prince Alwaleed himself. Qatar, which has supported Hamas for decades, including providing refuge for the leaders of its political wing, has funded chairs in Islamic law, as has Saudi Arabia. The amounts provided by Arab states to American universities has been staggering. Qatar has given American universities $4.3 billion over 35 years, between 1986 and 2021, according to a 2021 report by the Executive Director of the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, Dr. Mitchell Bard. By December 2023, that amount has risen above $4.5 billion. That buys a lot of goodwill in American universities, and a desire on the part of both faculty members and administrators to please such a funder, in the hope that such sums will continue to roll in from deep-pocketed Doha.

Overall, between 1986 and 2021, American colleges and universities received nearly $8.5 billion from all Arab sources.” That buys the Arabs many friends on campuses, which may help explain why universities have been so lax in policing the antisemitic and anti-Israel student groups that have convulsed so many schools in the last year, and especially after October 7, when the IDF entered Gaza to ensure that Hamas never again poses a military threat to Israel.

The public, the media, and the political class will now see just where all that Arab money is going to in our universities, and for what purposes. How much influence have the Arab states bought, in supporting programs on Middle Eastern Studies and on Islam, that furthers pro-Arab and anti-Israel views? How have faculty members been chosen for these programs? Is there a politically correct test that is being quietly imposed so that, for example, no one sympathetic to Israel will be hired by a Middle East Studies department? Are students taking courses in departments subsidized by Arab money being instructed, or indoctrinated? Thanks to the new requirements for universities to report all foreign money received, and how it will be spent, it will be much harder to hide from the government, and the public, what these vast sums from Arab governments and individuals are meant, and largely have managed until now, to accomplish.