The Great Loyalty Oath Campaign

I oppose BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions – of and against Israel). It is conducted on behalf of lawless, racist tyrants against the Middle East’s only democratic government. Nonetheless, this strikes me as unconstitutional.

A Texas Elementary School Speech Pathologist Refused to Sign a Pro-Israel Oath, Now Mandatory in Many States — so She Lost Her Job

It’s certainly repugnant.

I think the headline would be more accurate if it said “Refused to Abandon Her 1st Amendment Rights.”

A children’s speech pathologist who has worked for the last nine years with developmentally disabled, autistic, and speech-impaired elementary school students in Austin, Texas, has been told that she can no longer work with the public school district, after she refused to sign an oath vowing that she “does not” and “will not” engage in a boycott of Israel or “otherwise tak[e] any action that is intended to inflict economic harm” on that foreign nation…

[The oath] would bar Amawi not only from refraining from buying goods from companies located within Israel, but also from any Israeli companies operating in the occupied West Bank (“an Israeli-controlled territory”). The oath given to Amawi would also likely prohibit her even from advocating such a boycott given that such speech could be seen as “intended to penalize, inflict economic harm on, or limit commercial relations with Israel.”…

The bill’s language is so sweeping that some victims of Hurricane Harvey, which devastated Southwest Texas in late 2017, were told that they could only receive state disaster relief if they first signed a pledge never to boycott Israel…

This required certification about Israel was the only one in the contract sent to Amawi that pertained to political opinions and activism. There were no similar clauses relating to children (such as a vow not to advocate for pedophiles or child abusers)…

How is this different from legally compelling teachers to use made-up pronouns?

In order to obtain contracts in Texas, then, a citizen is free to denounce and work against the United States, to advocate for causes that directly harm American children, and even to support a boycott of particular U.S. states, such as was done in 2017 to North Carolina in protest of its anti-LGBT law. In order to continue to work, Amawi would be perfectly free to engage in any political activism against her own country, participate in an economic boycott of any state or city within the U.S., or work against the policies of any other government in the world — except Israel.

I’m reminded of Chapter 11 of Heller’s Catch-22. Captain Black conducts the Great Loyalty Oath campaign:

““The important thing is to keep them pledging,’ he explained to his cohorts. ‘It doesn’t matter whether they mean it or not. That’s why they make little kids pledge allegiance even before they know what “pledge” and “allegiance” mean.’ To Captain Piltchard and Captain Wren, the Glorious Loyalty Oath Crusade was a glorious pain in the ass, since it complicated their task of organizing the crews for each combat mission. Men were tied up all over the squadron signing, pledging and singing, and the missions took hours longer to get under way. Effective emergency action became impossible, but Captain Piltchard and Captain Wren were both too timid to raise any outcry against Captain Black, who scrupulously enforced each day the doctrine of ‘Continual Reaffirmation’ that he had originated, a doctrine designed to trap all those men who had become disloyal since the last time they had signed a loyalty oath the day before. It was Captain Black who came with advice to Captain Piltchard and Captain Wren as they pitched about in their bewildering predicament. He came with a delegation and advised them bluntly to make each man sign a loyalty oath before allowing him to fly on a combat mission.””

The First Amendment especially applies to speech you don’t like. I would agree that a speech pathologist’s duties should exclude political advocacy; but that is an HR matter, and not in evidence here.  It is not something to be applied to her personal shopping decisions or off-duty speech by state law.

Danger Close

The debate about this Administration’s incompetence has included speculation about its ignorance vs. intentionality, but it is moot whether the President has adopted the motto “Never Remember” consciously or otherwise. President Obama has done a very dangerous thing.

Ignorance of history is a necessary condition for his betrayal of Israel, but it is not sufficient. This ignorance must be coupled with a visceral disdain for Israel and for the United States.

The links below illustrate the ignorance and the danger. The first reminds us of the facts of the 1967 War the President either does not know or wants to erase. The second is an astute analysis of what the President means by “fundamentally changing America.” Neither is short. Both are worth your time.

Contemporary coverage of the Six Day War

Obama’s abandonment of America

Whether the President’s ignorance is real or feigned, the only difference is whether his ideology requires lying or the lying enables his ideology.

Al-taqiyya

Brutally stabbed to death in their home by Islamic fanatics: Udi and Ruth Fogel, 36 and 35, and their children Yoav, 11, Elad, 4 and baby Hadas, 3 months.

In the land of Hamas this atrocity was celebrated by dancing in the street and the passing out of candy. One can understand a twisted mind. This is a twisted people.

In defense, Hamas invoked Al-taqiyya, Islamist’s standard operating procedure: Hamas Speaks

Leave Helen alone

Former White House correspondent Helen Thomas is a graduate of Wayne State University. Her recent revelation that she is a virulent anti-semite has caused the University to reconsider an award it has been handing out in her name in order “to recognize her role in promoting diversity in the media and issues of race in America.”

Wayne State may retire name of Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity Awards after controversy

Leonard Pitts, Jr. and Lynette Clemetson are the most recent recipients of this …um… honor. There is no word on whether these luminaries have returned their awards. Similarly, there is no word from Ben Burns, a WSU journalism professor who serves as chairman of the Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity Awards committee.

I think removing Ms Thomas’ name from this award would be an overreaction. Why can’t they just rename it the “Helen Thomas Spirit of Perversity” award and give the first one posthumously to some German leader who also liked sending Jews to Poland and rural Germany.

Another approach would be to insist that true devotion to diversity would, perforce, include a person who hates Jews. That is a minority position (outside academia and ignoring media bias) and it certainly invokes “issues of race” in America.

Rally for Hamas and Hezbollah

Kathryn Prater’s story, Group rallies at Capitol to raise awareness of Israeli occupation, in today’s Lansing State Journal:

A small group held banners Wednesday on the steps of the state Capitol, seeking to raise awareness about the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

They gathered to mark 62 years since the occupation began, after Israel became an independent state in 1948. Palestinians commemorate the day, called al-Nakbah, on May 15 each year.

“People are suffering tremendously,” said Dearborn resident Sufian Nabhan, an American Muslims for Palestine board member. “Occupation is apartheid, occupation is segregation. Massacres are going on daily.”

Nabhan said that in the last decade, both his parents died from cancer because they could not get through Israeli blockades to reach a hospital in Jerusalem.

“We’re sending a message to our leaders in this country to stop supporting the occupation with military aid to Israel. We bear responsibility for what we pay for with our tax dollars,” Michigan Peace Team member Mike McCurdy said.

“We may be few, but we stand in solidarity with thousands around the world,” he said from the Capitol steps. “As long as this occupation continues, hate will be bred toward the United States.”

The fact that the LSJ uncritically uses the word “occupation” and names the land in dispute the “Palestinian territories” is proof that the LSJ accepts the argument that Israel should be destroyed. Surely, the LSJ is aware that there is some controversy over whether there is any occupation, and they should have used quotes around the term. But, the LSJ does not take this assertion as an opinion, they accept it as fact.

Dating the “occupation” to 1948 is even more telling. This is critical in supporting the “Right of Return” – demanded by the “Detroit Declaration” of which Sufian Nabhan is a signatory. The “Right of Return” is a demand that 5.5 million Arabs must be allowed to move inside Israel’s 1948 frontiers. Israel’s Jewish population is 3.9 million.

Mr. Nabhan is President of the Islamic Center of Detroit. He also is probably a liar about his parents’ deaths due to Israeli blockades. Might as well say his parents died because of Palestinian suicide bombers and failure to form a State, despite hundreds of millions in aid.

What the Hamas and Hezbollah supporters rallying on the steps of Michigan’s Capitol building mean to say is made clear in this video. One wonders when American Jews who vote for the leftists, and that’s most of them, will wake up.

First they came for the Israelis…

H/T MF

RGN1 virus airborne?

RGN1 is Robert Gibbs’ personal mutation of H1N1.

Solely from the transcript you’d think it had infected State Department spokesman Ian Kelly as Obama administration talking points get the better him because of some persistent questioning.

You have to watch the video to get the full flavor of Mr. Kelly’s responses. He tries the talking points, but clearly does not buy them himself. He does his best, but he just can’t say such silly things with a straight face. (Go to about 14:50)

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/videoLibrary/assets/swf/CSPANPlayer.swf

If Mr. Kelly has contracted RGN1, the virus has definitely attenuated. He has the decency to be embarrassed. If only he had not said, “…we are less than a year into this Administration, and I think we’ve accomplished more over the last year than the previous administration did in eight years.”

It would be nice to know who asked the questions that cornered Mr. Kelly. CSPAN does not provide this information, but the man should be asking questions in the White House.

H/T Commonsense & Wonder