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Ashley Traficant Archives – Concerned Women for America

GARRISON, TRAFICANT: China’s Reach Into Mainstream America Comes With A High Price To Pay

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CWA’S International team made up of CWA’s VP of International Affairs, Dr. Shea Garrison and Legislative Strategist Ashley Traficant teamed up on an Opinion Piece published this week in The Daily Caller.

“The White House recently received a classified report from U.S. intelligence confirming what many already suspected — China’s public reporting of COVID-19 cases and fatalities is “intentionally incomplete” and “fake.” Furthermore, with currently over 1.3 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally, if the Chinese government had acted 3-weeks earlier, the number of early cases world-wide could have been reduced by 95%.

While the world pays the price, staying barely one step ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese government focuses on a propaganda war to skirt culpability and shift blame to the U.S. for the virus’ origin.

But China’s game of manipulation and attempts to undermine the U.S. at the highest levels of government and civil society is nothing new. With over 350,000 cases today in the U.S., COVID-19 is evidence that U.S. leaders and citizens should always be watchful, holding the Chinese government firmly accountable.”

 

Read Dr. Shea Garrison and Ashley Traficant’s Entire Piece Here:

CWA International: This Week in Washington, Support for Israel

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Support for Israel 

AIPAC Policy Conference

CWA International had the privilege of attending AIPAC’s (American Israel Political Action Committee) Policy Conference this week in Washington, D.C., to learn and celebrate the American-Israel relationship. Echoed throughout the general sessions and breakouts was the need to protect the bipartisan nature of our relationship with Israel and the importance of fighting anti-Semitism—there was a clear undertone, vocalized explicitly by a few speakers, of the dangers of Bernie Sanders’ statements calling AIPAC bigoted and Israel racist. Comments that Dr. Shea Garrison rebutted last week.

CWA received an invitation to attend the conference as a result of our collaboration with AIPAC as we take on these issues both on the Hill and internationally. Thank you for joining with us in standing with Israel and against anti-Semitism.

Talking Points on President Trump’s Peace Plan

You’ve heard us talk about the President’s Peace to Prosperity plan proposing a starting point for negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, but now we have talking points to break it down for you. Shea has taken the time to clearly outline and articulate key components and contours of the plan. This way we can all understand it without having to read all 181 pages. Check it out here.

Election

Israel had another election this week, the third in less than a year. Incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin — Bibi — Netanyahu has won the most seats, but at the time of writing is still three seats short of the 61 seats needed to have a majority in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. It is believed Bibi will be able to increase his coalition in order to reach the 61-seat threshold and maintain his seat as Prime Minister—but this year has shown that nothing can be taken for granted.

CWA staff with AIPAC staff for briefing

CWA LAC’s Actions on Iran and U.S. targeted killing of Soleimani

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Concerned Women for America has been busy these last eight days to keep you updated and your voice heard in the midst of the targeted killing of Qassem Soleimani and subsequent events. Here are highlights of the work we have done this week to cover this momentous event.

Talking Points

On Friday, January 3, we sent out briefing points to ensure you had a detailed explanation of the targeted killing of Soleimani and the context surrounding these events. Realizing this is a significant moment in history, we want to make sure you have real-time knowledge of what’s happening and what it means for the United States and your family.

Briefing:

CWA International hosted a briefing Tuesday, January 9, with The Heritage Foundation’s Senior Research Fellow on the Middle East, Jim Phillips, for our staff, state leaders, and supporters. Jim gave us an in-depth presentation on Soleimani, Iran’s threat to the United States, their low-intensity war of terror led by Soleimani, Iran’s history of aggression, the threat to Israel and the impact of the death of Soleimani on all of the above. Check out Jim’s article in the Daily Signal for some of his insights on the situation: “How US Strike Against Iranian General Changes Rules of Game in Iraq, Region.”

Hill Letter

CWALAC sent a letter to the House opposing Thursday’s vote on H. Con. Res. 83, the war powers resolution seeking to undermine the President’s ability to react in a timely manner to protect American personnel and facilities and downplay the immediacy of the threat presented by Soleimani. It is important to note a concurrent resolution, like this one, is non-binding—this bill is nothing more than a pseudo-press release by House Democrats. Unfortunately, this bill passed, largely along party lines 224-194, with eight Democrats opposing and three Republicans supporting. One of the Republicans supporting, Rep. Mat Gaetz (R-Florida), said he supported the strike on Soleimani but feels Congress should be consulted for any further action.

(Here is a great article on this resolution and the War Powers Authorization in context of recent events with Iran)

Garrison and Traficant: Anti-Semitism is on the Rise

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Concerned Women for America’s International Affairs team consisting of Dr. Shea Garrison and Ashley Traficant, published an article in The Hill showcasing how Anti-semitism is on the rise throughout the world.

Jeremy Corbyn, the soon-to-be former leader of the U.K.’s Labour Party, was defeated in a landslide election last week.

But while Corbyn announced his resignation and Labour lost dozens of seats, the anti-Semitism of his party remains endemic throughout the United Kingdom and Europe. Seventy-five years after the Holocaust, anti-Semitism is on the rise.

Tel Aviv University cites a 13 percent increase in anti-Semitic attacks worldwide in 2018, with the U.S., U.K., France and Germany having the highest number of incidents.

According to a CNN survey, memories of the Holocaust are fading while anti-Semitic stereotypes flourish. Forty-four percent of Europeans think anti-Semitism is a growing problem. But 28 percent say it is a response to the actions of Israel, while 18 percent feel it is “a response to the everyday behavior of Jewish people,” meaning a sizeable portion of Europeans blame the victims of anti-Semitism for its increase.

German anti-Semitism commissioner Felix Klein has even warned that it may not be safe to wear a kippah (Jewish skullcap) in public in Germany. Germany has seen a 70 percent increase in violent acts against Jews since 2017, but not all instances of anti-Semitism are violent. Unaddressed resentment and hateful stereotypes can be precursors of violence.”

Read the Entire Piece in The Hill Here:

America Stands with Hong Kong

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Last Sunday, 800,000 protestors took to the streets of Hong Kong, the largest pro-democracy demonstration yet. The number of demonstrators has steadily increased since the start of the protests six months ago with no sign of slowing down. This movement is so significant that despite ongoing trade negotiations with China, the Trump administration entered the fray to ensure China respects Hong Kong’s autonomy and fundamental right to protest.

Protests began in June in response to a new Beijing-backed extradition law that would have allowed people arrested in Hong Kong to be imprisoned in China. The first couple months of protests were peaceful and extraordinarily respectful, as demonstrators apologized to those inconvenienced by facilities closed due to the protests, even moving out of the way to allow emergency vehicles to maneuver through the massive crowds. They sang “Sing Hallelujah to the Lord” as their anthem.

Momentum swelled as a record number of people came out to vote in Hong Kong’s local elections in November despite the increase in police force and violence, including the shooting of two protestors. An astonishing 452 local seats flipped from pro-Beijing to pro-democracy officials, a significant and peaceful victory. Chinese President Xi dismissed this as “window dressing,” but it is impossible to ignore. The election could very well be a bellwether of changing times.

As Hong Kong protests and China waits, the United States is acting. President Trump signed into law Sen. Rubio’s (R-Florida) bill supporting the protestors and creating a U.S. congressional oversight mechanism to ensure China does not violate its agreement for Hong Kong to have autonomy at least until 2047.

Predictably, China was not thrilled. In response, the Chinese foreign minister Hua Chunying said China would no longer review requests for U.S. ships and aircraft to stop in Hong Kong.

To be clear, China generally does deny these requests; they are just announcing they won’t even look at the requests. This is more bark than bite.

Hong Kong is a Chinese territory that is supposed to have its own autonomous government. In 1997 the U.K. handed Hong Kong, its then colony, over to China under the agreement of “one country, two-systems” for the first 50 years. It is unknown what will happen after the year 2047.

The watching world exposes and puts a check on China. Between Beijing-backed police increasing violence towards protestors in Hong Kong and the concentration camps of around 1 million Uyghur Muslims, China’s violations of human rights are egregious and in the limelight.

Secretary Pompeo’s formation of the Commission on Unalienable Rights provides another mechanism by which China can be held to account. The commission’s purpose is to ground U.S. foreign policy on human rights in American’s founding principles of individual liberty. While the Commission is advisory, it will also help create a standard by which to measure the nations, exposing those, like China, who provide pseudo rights to veil their egregious violations of human rights.

Though the extradition law has been withdrawn, Hong Kong’s hunger for liberty has only grown. The world watches to see what action, if any, China might take. In the chaos one thing is clear, the United States stands with the people of Hong Kong as they fight for freedom.

Global Rise of Anti-Semitism

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Europe is facing a resurgence of anti-Semitism less than 75 years after the Holocaust. Tel Aviv University’s Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry cites a 13 percent increase in anti-Semitic attacks worldwide in 2018, with the U.S., United Kingdom, France, and Germany having the highest number of occurrences.[1]

According to a CNN survey, forty-four percent of Europeans believe anti-Semitism is a growing problem in their countries with about 20 percent saying it is the result of the everyday behavior of Jewish people. This means they believe that in some way the Jews are responsible for the increase in anti-Semitism.[2] Furthermore, more than one-third of the Europeans polled had no or very little knowledge of the Holocaust, with 20% of ages 18 to 34 saying they’ve never even heard of it. Unfortunately, the same statistic is true of American millennials.

When history is forgotten, the sins of the past are repeated.

The UK, Anti-Semitism, and Labour

The United Kingdom experienced a record number of anti-Semitic incidents in 2018, the third calendar year in a row that the Community Safety Trust (CST), similar to the Anti-Defamation League, has reported a record-breaking year in anti-Semitic acts.[3]

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and the party itself have come under fire for inappropriate handling of anti-Semitism within the party and have been accused of participating, whether inadvertent or not, in anti-Semitism on and offline. The concern about Jeremy Corbyn is so significant that three rival Jewish British newspapers took unprecedented action in July of 2018 and published a joint editorial on the front page of their respective papers titled, “United We Stand”. This editorial declared, “The stain and shame of anti-Semitism has coursed through Her Majesty’s Opposition since Jeremy Corbyn became leader in 2015.”[4]

Much of their argument centered on the fact that the Labour Party, under Corbyn, has refused to fully accept the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism. Labour accepted the definition with very significant exceptions such as “accusing Jewish people of being more loyal to the state of Israel than their home country and requiring higher standards of behavior from Israel than other nations.”[5] Both exceptions are central to the definition of anti-Semitism. Excluding them is to undermine the very definition of anti-Semitism recognized internationally.

Nine Labour MPs (Members of Parliament) left the party in February due to Labour’s weak handling of anti-Semitism and partly due to its stance on Brexit. One of these MP’s, Luciana Berger, a British Jew, has received death threats and been the target of anti-Semitism online.[6]

Last September, while still a Labour MP, Berger needed a police escort to attend the Labour Party’s Annual conference. The Atlantic reports it was discovered six weeks later that Labour had known about a specific threat made against her by a fellow party member for six months and covered it up—keeping it from both Berger and the police. It was only revealed by a leak to the press.[7] Five months later when Berger announced her exit from the Labour Party in February 2019 at a press conference, she stated, “I cannot remain in a party that I today have come to the sickening conclusion is institutionally anti-Semitic.”[8]

France and Violent Anti-Semitism

Just across the English Channel, France is also seeing a rise in anti-Semitism, though in a different manifestation. Joshua Safran, an American Jew and board member of the Jewish Community Relations Council in Portland, shared his experiences writing:

The last time I was in France, in the fall of 2001, I was routinely confronted by strangers yelling, “Juif, Juif!” (Jew, Jew!). On Yom Kippur, a man hurled a piece of rebar through the stained glass window of the little stone synagogue in Bastia, Corsica. The hunk of metal just missed my wife’s head. And when the services were over, we were forced to walk a gauntlet of shoving, spitting men shouting racist anti-Jewish slurs.

The anti-Semitism Safran experienced in the early 2000’s has only worsened. In 2018, France saw a staggering 89 percent increase in violent anti-Semitism and 74 percent increase in anti-Semitism overall, according to the Kantor Center report.[9]

CNN’s survey showed half of the people in France did not think they had ever socialized with a Jew. It also revealed 20 percent of people in France and Germany believe Jews have too much influence in the media, and twenty-five percent of people from those countries think Jews have too much influence on wars and conflicts.

This is not new anti-Semitism; these are the same lies and tropes resurrected.

Germany, Anti-Semitism, and BDS

The Kantor Center report also shows Germany has had a 70 percent increase in violent anti-Semitism since 2017. [10] Germany’s increase in anti-Semitism is so significant, the German anti-Semitism commissioner Felix Klein warned Jews that it may not be safe to wear a kippa (skullcap) everywhere in Germany. He has also called for additional training for police and other officials on how to specifically deal with anti-Semitic crime.[11]

During a CNN interview, Klein spoke of the history of anti-Semitism in Germany and how it is resurfacing. He said, “The word ‘Jew’ as an insult was not common in my time when I went to school. Now it is…”[12]

The German parliament stepped in a few weeks ago and passed “Decisively Oppose the BDS Movement and Fight Anti-Semitism” resolution. BDS stands for Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions. The BDS Movement is international economic warfare against Israel veiled in an argument of equal rights for Palestinians. The movement’s goal is the economic isolation of Israel by encouraging institutions, individuals, colleges, private companies, and even countries to stop investing in, trading or doing business with Israel and Israeli corporations or products.

The resolution by the German parliament strongly condemned the BDS Movement as anti-Semitic and accused the movement of using methods similar to Nazi propaganda and economic disenfranchisement of Jewish businesses.[13]One of the tactics of the BDS Movement in Germany is activists placing “Don’t Buy” stickers on Israeli products. German legislators argue this is reminiscent of the Nazi slogan “Don’t Buy From Jews!”[14]

The BDS movement is gaining traction as anti-Semitism, supported by both those on the far left and far right, seeps more and more into the mainstream both in Europe and in the United States.[15]

Closer to Home: The Threat in the U.S.

The BDS Movement that forced the German parliament to take action is spreading in the United States, especially on college campuses. And anti-Semitism is also emerging in the media both domestically and internationally.

Assaults on American Jews more than doubled in 2018 according to a recent report by the Anti-Defamation League.[16] The number of anti-Semitic incidents are 48 percent higher than they were in 2015, and 99 percent higher than in 2015.[17] And all but four states had anti-Semitic incidents.[18]

When Joshua Safran wrote of his experiences of anti-Semitism while traveling in Europe as a practicing Jew, he was painting a picture of what he fears could be America’s future. He described how America has been a haven for Jews to worship freely and without fear.

Yet in light of the Tree of Life and Chobad of Poway synagogue shootings, Safran laments the potential loss of this exceptional and historic freedom of worship for Jews in the United States.  He fears the rise of anti-Semitism in the United States puts America on the path of Europe writing:

I was used to being harassed, abused and put in danger when I prayed in synagogues abroad. Never did I think America would become just as dangerous.[19]

The editorial board of The New York Times recently called itself to account for the anti-Semitic cartoon published in its international edition. In a piece titled, “A Rising Tide of Anti-Semitism” the board addressed their concern that The New York Times had not learned lessons from its own history, confessing “In the 1930’s and 1940’s, The Times was largely silent as anti-Semitism rose up and bathed the world in blood”. They went on to warn the cartoon “is evidence of profound danger—not only of anti-Semitism but of numbness to its creep, to the insidious way this ancient, enduring prejudice is once again working itself into public view and common conversation.”[20]

There is nothing new under the sun– Europe is traversing down the dangerous road of anti-Semitism with America not far behind. Holocaust survivors still living, now bear witness to the reincarnation of the rhetoric and hate that precipitated historic bloodshed and plunged the world into war less than a century ago.

Some may argue the data presented represents a minority, albeit a large one, rather than majority opinion. But without education and action, that minority will grow. One in five millennials in both Europe and the United States have little to no knowledge of the Holocaust. Two generations from World War II and memories are fading.

Therein lies the point– we forget our history. It is the hateful few, unchallenged and unchecked by society, who infect the heart of a nation.  We must not stand idly by.

[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-antisemitism/anti-semitic-attacks-rise-worldwide-in-2018-led-by-us-west-europe-study-idUSKCN1S73M1

[2] https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2018/11/europe/antisemitism-poll-2018-intl/

[3] https://cst.org.uk/news/blog/2019/02/07/antisemitic-incidents-report-2018

[4] https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/voice-of-the-jewish-news-united-we-stand/

[5] https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-45030552

[6] https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-45030552

[7] https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/04/corbyn-and-anti-semitism-files/586990/

[8] https://www.vox.com/world/2019/3/8/18249953/uk-labour-party-anti-semitism-jeremy-corbyn-juliana-berger

[9] http://www.kantorcenter.tau.ac.il/sites/default/files/Antisemitism%20Worldwide%202018.pdf

[10] http://www.kantorcenter.tau.ac.il/sites/default/files/Antisemitism%20Worldwide%202018.pdf

[11] https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/26/europe/germany-antisemitism-kippah-intl-scli-ger/index.html

[12] Ibid.

[13] https://www.wsj.com/articles/growing-international-movement-to-boycott-israel-is-condemned-by-germany-11558108099?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1

[14] Ibid.

[15] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-antisemitism/anti-semitic-attacks-rise-worldwide-in-2018-led-by-us-west-europe-study-idUSKCN1S73M1

[16] https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/anti-semitic-incidents-remained-at-near-historic-levels-in-2018-assaults

[17] Ibid.

[18] Ibid.

[19] https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2019/05/03/poway-synagogue-anti-semitic-jewish-shooting-column/3649866002/

[20] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/30/opinion/cartoon-nytimes.html