‘No One Should Be Surprised By Anti-Semitic
Cartoon’ In NYT, Says Yair Netanyahu
Speaking to this reporter, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son, Yair, slammed the New York Times for printing an anti-Semitic cartoon in the international edition of the newspaper.
The caricature in question depicted Yair’s father, the Israeli prime minister, as a guide dog donning a Star of David necklace while leading an apparently blind, skullcap-wearing President Trump. The offensive cartoon was published during the Passover holiday.
“No one should be surprised by the vile, anti-Semitic cartoon published in the New York Times,” the younger Netanyahu stated.
Yair charged the Times “has always been an anti-Israel newspaper, and yes, anti-Jewish too.”
He referred, among other things, to the Times’ controversial World War II treatment of reports that Adolph Hitler was methodically murdering the Jews of Europe, with the newspaper at the time infamously relegating the few reports it carried on the Holocaust to the back pages.
“During World War II, the newspaper deliberately hid from the American public news dispatches about the extermination of millions of Jews in Europe,” Yair Netanyahu charged.
Netanyahu pointed out that extensive coverage of Hitler’s atrocities against Jews may have prompted the American public to “demand that the government take steps to help the Jews…actions like bombing the death camps and railways could have saved millions of lives.”
“It’s no surprise that the New York Times so strongly opposes President Trump’s brave decisions to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and declare the Golan Heights as part of Israel,” Netanyahu added.
Democrats Have Turned Their Back On Israel
The Democratic Party “has taken a conscious decision to turn their backs on Israel,” charged this reporter in a television interview.
“I think you are going to see American Jews, if they do care about Israel, bolt the Democratic Party because how could they stay in when the Democratic Party has taken a conscious decision to turn their backs on Israel,” I stated during a debate on Israel’s i24News.
I continued: “Millennials, especially on the Democrat side, gravitate away from Israel. And I think that is part of the larger story here. Not of anything that the Israeli government in particular is doing but a specific story to the Democratic Party, which is heading toward the radical left. And along with the radical left you have not just anti-Americanism but also anti-Israeli sentiment. It goes hand-in-hand.
“We see that with Ilhan Omar and the rise of [Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez. To me it is very troubling that the Democratic Party over all — this is not, I think specific to Israel — is moving toward the radical left and Israel is a casualty of that.”
The topic was a recent Pew Research poll that showed 64 percent of the American public hold a positive view toward the Israeli people. Broken down to parties, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents were 77% more likely to have those favorable views of Israelis when compared to 57% of Democrats and those who lean left.
When it came to views of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the poll found that 61% of Republicans and only 26% of Democrats viewed the government in a positive light.
Republican Tries To Limit
Voting Rights To Ex-Felons In Florida
Rep. James Grant, a Republican member of the Florida House of Representatives, told this column he is seeking to “maintain the integrity of Florida’s Constitution” and uphold voter intent by proposing legislation clarifying criteria for the restoration of voting rights for Florida’s nearly 1.4 million ex-felons.
Grant’s bill would require the state’s ex-felons to first pay civil fines and court fees before registering to vote. The legislation clarifies methods of enacting Florida’s Amendment Four, which was approved by voters during last year’s Midterm election and states that former felons can have their voting rights restored “upon completion of all terms of sentence including parole or probation.”
Progressive organizations, many financed by billionaire activist George Soros, are working overtime to oppose Grant’s legislation and other measures seeking to define criteria before the ex-felons can regain voting privileges. This, as the nation’s biggest swing state, seems poised to play a pivotal electoral role in the 2020 presidential race.
Grant’s bill passed the Florida House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice last month and could come to another vote as soon as this week.
The heavily Soros-funded American Civil Liberties Union and Brennan Center for Justice based in New York both served as consultants in drafting Amendment Four. Soros’s Open Society Foundations donated $50 million to the ACLU. The Brennan Center has been the recipient of numerous grants from Soros.
The restoration of voting rights to ex-felons comes alongside larger efforts by the Democratic Party and progressive organizations to deploy a massive ground game to Florida to register voters, increase turnout and lobby Floridians against President Donald Trump.
With its 29 Electoral College votes, Florida is the nation’s biggest swing state and is critical to Trump’s path to victory in the upcoming race. If statewide 2016 voting patterns are repeated, the Democratic candidate for president would be able to win the White House by capturing Florida and one other swing state — Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin or Michigan.
Democrats seek to transform Florida’s current voter map of 4.96 million registered Democrats, 4.7 million Republicans and about 3.6 million voters with no declared party affiliation.
Failed gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum announced his own Florida voter registration initiative committed to registering no less than one million new voters for 2020 while aiming to “evict Donald Trump” from the White House.