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Extremism is on the Rise in Israel Details
WORLD WATCH After neo-Nazis marched in Charlottesville, North Carolina, and then President Donald Trump responded by saying there were “good people on both sides,” people who abhor white supremacism stood up, took notice, and condemned the marchers.
Anti-racists would be wise to do the same about the far-right march that took place last week in Jerusalem.
The situation in Jerusalem began with clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces over restrictions placed on the Damascus Gate entrance to the Old City. Then, in response to TikTok videos showing two Palestinian youths slapping an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man, the far-right Jewish group Lahava called for a “demonstration of national dignity.” Leaked WhatsApp messages revealed calls to lynch Palestinians.
Stopgap Methods Won’t Fix Migration Challenge Details
IMMIGRATION CRISIS-The continuing press of migrants from Mexico and Central America arriving at the U.S. southern border has forced the Biden administration to send Vice President Kamala Harris south on a negotiating mission
. According to The New York Times, “She will work with the leaders of Central American governments.” Armed with “billions of dollars,” she will seek collaboration in “reducing the violence and poverty” that predispose to migration.
A look at realities in Honduras and Guatemala suggests her goal is unattainable. That’s because past U.S. policies and actions in the region, interventionist and exploitative, contributed to the very life-threatening conditions Harris is targeting. To succeed, the Biden administration must grapple with a dark legacy fashioned by the United States itself.
LEADERSHIP FAILURES-It is perhaps the most unfortunate of truisms that in a time of crisis the masses desperately seek to find comfort in the arms of a proclaimed leader.
Just as unfortunate is there is never a shortage of charlatans eager to assume the role. The one consolation for this sentiment is that at least it usually does not age well.
Those who lived through 9/11 in New York had to endure Rudy Giuliani being elevated to America’s Churchill. This despite the fact no single action Giuliani took on that fateful day or in the aftermath could plausibly be connected to having saved a single life something Giuliani openly lied about. His ballyhooed Office of Emergency Management, originally designed to coordinate emergency operations of different agencies, was completely useless since Giuliani insisted, over the objections of practically everyone else involved in the project, that the office’s headquarters be within walking distance of City Hall. It ended up inside WTC 7,
GOP Offers Preview of Brutal Climate Policies in Texas Details
LESSONS FROM CLIMATE CHANGE-As Texas battles a severe snowstorm and mass power outages this winter, Tim Boyd, the now-former Republican mayor of Colorado City, revealed his party’s plan for the deadly extreme temperatures linked to climate change.
In a lengthy Facebook post that was deleted soon after it went viral, then-Mayor Boyd told his residents that they were entirely on their own as the brutal winter weather caused mayhem and deaths across the Lone Star state.
His honesty was like catching a glimpse of a rare animal in the wild. “Sink or swim[,] it’s your choice!” he wrote, without bothering to couch his words in euphemisms. Boyd added, “The City and County, along with power providers or any other service owes you NOTHING!” For such an exhortation to come from the elected leader of a city a man literally chosen by his people to ensure that local government works