Monetary Motive?
The Jewish group behind the “Jewish Rally for Refugees” in New York on Sunday was massively funded by the federal government under the Obama administration to resettle refugees.
HIAS specializes in refugee resettlement and in 2015 received the majority of its annual $25 million budget from government grants. That year, the State Department provided $17,663,704, and the Department of Health and Human Services gave another $2,765,195. The fiscal year 2014 saw a $16,959,850 State Department grant and $2,546,469 in funds from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Guidestar documented that in 2013, HIAS received $16,261,661 from government and intergovernmental agencies and took in a total of $31,218,870 in revenue. In 2012, $14,707,399 in government grants was donated to HIAS and the organization produced $27,677,240 in revenue.
In 2008, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations, a division of the UN Economic and Social Council, officially accepted HIAS as an accredited NGO.
All this, though, was left unmentioned in much of the news media coverage of the rally. Haaretz, for example, described HIAS as “the global Jewish nonprofit that protects refugees.” The Jerusalem Post described the organization as a “global Jewish nonprofit organization that works to protect refugees.” And local Fox 5 simply labeled HIAS as “the global Jewish nonprofit.”
In attendance at Sunday’s rally was Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), who used the platform to compare the Trump administration to the Third Reich. “Those same people who sent Jews back to the Third Reich never left,” stated Ellison. “We will stand up, we will stand together and we will say, refugees are welcome here.”
Those statements are instrumental coming from Ellison, a politician who in the 1980s and ’90s was reportedly associated with the anti-Semitic Nation of Islam and defended the radical group’s controversial leader, Louis Farrakhan.
Other speakers at the rally included New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, New York City Public Advocate Letitia James, and New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer. De Blasio also channeled the Holocaust at the event.
Intelligence Officials: We Can’t Vet These People
Law enforcement and intelligence officials privately told the House Committee on Homeland Security that the U.S. screening process for refugees contains inherent vulnerabilities and that a lack of information makes background checks for potential refugees difficult to trust.
“In other words, we cannot screen against information we do not have,” reads the House Homeland Security Committee’s Final Report of the Task Force on Combating Terrorist and Foreign Fighter Travel.
The contents of the report, issued September 2015, received little news media attention. The details are newly relevant in light of the controversy surrounding President Donald Trump’s executive order temporarily halting the refugee program while government agencies revamp the flawed screening process.
Separately, a June 13, 2016 government document prepared by the Congressional Research Service for members and committees of Congress warns that U.S. agencies have limited resources to confirm biographical claims provided by Syrian refugee applicants.
The document states: “The Obama Administration has noted that refugees experience a more ‘rigorous screening than anyone else we allow into the United States.’ Administration officials have asserted that federal agencies are involved in additional screening of Syrian refugees. For example, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services within DHS conducts enhanced reviews of potential Syrian refugees.
“However, congressional critics have noted that such enhancements may not be enough, especially because U.S. intelligence agencies know relatively little about the people in Syria and Iraq who are involved with the Islamic State and have limited/no resources in Syria that can confirm the information provided by refugee applicants [emphasis added].”
Jihadist Defends Rocket Attack Against Israel
Last Wednesday’s rocket fire on the Israeli resort city of Eilat was “a natural reaction” to alleged Israeli involvement with the Egyptian army’s clampdown on Sinai militants, Abu Baker Almaqdesi, a Gaza-based jihadist who fought for the Islamic State, told Breitbart Jerusalem in an interview.
Almaqdisi previously fought for ISIS in Syria and Mosul in northern Iraq, where he says he was injured.
Without offering evidence, Almaqdesi claimed that in recent days Israel Air Force drones have taken part in raids on chapters of Wilayat Sinai, the Islamic State’s Egyptian affiliate. Some of the casualties, he claimed, were Gazans.
Breitbart Jerusalem submitted a request to the Israel Defense Forces for comment on the allegations of drone strikes in the Sinai.
Using anti-Semitic language, Almaqdesi, who spoke to Breitbart Jerusalem in Arabic, claimed that “the Jewish entity” – referring to Israel – “never stopped assisting the Egyptian army of infidels in their war against the mujahedeen, and tonight’s salvo on Umm Rashrash [Eilat’s Arabic name] was a natural reaction to those crimes.”
The jihadist said further: “Earlier this month, we fired at the Elojah crossing [between Egypt and Israel]. Our brothers are determined to continue to react to the crimes of the Jews, and we’ll continue to launch rockets at Israel despite their airborne operations and despite the strain of the Egyptian army of infidels.”
Asked whether large-scale attacks on Israel are being planned, Almaqdesi said: “It’s the decision of the brothers in the leadership, but it is clear to all that the Jewish entity is just one player in the war on Islam. Though a major one. Therefore, no option is off the table. It’s true that the Jewish police arrest our mujahedeen even inside Palestine and the forces of the treacherous collaborator Abu Mazen do it too, and even those who are falsely called Muslims in Gaza fight against us. But our organization proved that we could strike anywhere in the world. I can tell you that our weapons are now aimed at Israel more than ever before.”