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Doorstep Postings: After months of resignation speculation, there will be no more stallin’ for Justin Trudeau

This is a special edition of Doorstep Postings, the periodic political commentary column written by Josh Lieblein for The CJN.

Armando Iannucci, best known as the creator of HBO’s political sitcom Veep, also directed a 2017 movie titled The Death of Stalin, which depicts the chaos that ensues when one of history’s greatest monsters abruptly departs a political system that has been built to cater to his slightest whim.

For decades, his underlings have cowered in terror of misinterpreting a joke or a directive, learned to expect regular humiliations or sudden demotions, and pretended at friendships and alliances with those they can and will destroy given the first opportunity.

Now they have to observe the old order and make new rules up as they go along at the same time—all the while trying to choose a successor despite no clear succession plan. 

The film shows the tyrannical Stalin demanding a recording of a classical piece that he heard on the radio. Since no recording was made, the pianist Maria Yudina is forced to repeat the performance. Within the record cover, she includes a letter denouncing the dictator which he finds and reads. Before he can order her death for this petty act of rebellion, he laughs so hard that he strokes out on the spot. Stalin’s inner circle rushes to the leader’s deathbed, feigning grief and trying to out do one another in tributes while sharpening their knives.

When Stalin comes back to life for a brief moment and points wordlessly at an unclear target, the apparatchiks obsess over the meaning. Was he denouncing one of them or giving them his blessing?

As of this writing, Justin Trudeau has not suffered the same fate as Stalin and will continue to oversee the Liberals as leader until a replacement is chosen. Yudina did not—as far as we know—have designs on succeeding Stalin the way Chrystia Freeland is rumoured to. But excluding those differences, what we are about to see is a similar disasterpiece of Liberal Kremlinology as hilarious and dark as anything Iannucci could conceive of.  

The comedy will derive from how hard the contenders will strive to be Canada’s next Liberal leader, the next prime minister, and—assuming current trends hold—the answer to a trivia question of who Pierre Poilievre demolished on his way to institute decades of Conservative rule.

For the next to-be-determined number of months, those we pay to report and interpret the inner workings of Ottawa will have to rank Donald Trump’s promised demolition of our economy below the latest thing Mark Carney or Melanie Joly said or did. The CRA will be free-styling how they’re collecting capital gains taxes this year since the proposed changes have been prorogued along with the rest of the government business, but never mind that: how far is Dominic LeBlanc distancing himself from the legacy of the Great Leader, and is it wise for him to do so?

The Death of Stalin is a fairly accurate rendering of history, as these go, but it overlooks a major event that actually precipitated the crisis generated by Stalin’s passing. The U.S.S.R. was in the middle of the deeply antisemitic Doctor’s Plot, a purge of physicians that left the leader without proper medical care. Stop me if this rings another current events bell: Soviet leaders had convinced themselves that physicians, acting under the auspices of Zionism, were conspiring to subvert the State and murder its officials. Despite the fact that few if any doctors were ever found to be “conspiring” to do anything, the Plot would have led to the deportation of all Jews living in the U.S.S.R. had Stalin not bought the farm (or taken collective ownership of the agricultural commune, as it were.) 

Some might call the implication that the whole affair was an attempt by the ruling class to consolidate power and act against its enemies mere bourgeois-nationalist subversion. Just like the implication that certain groups would sign up as Liberal “supporters” and elect a leader sympathetic to their interests. Remember that all you have to do is be living in Canada and be over the age of 14 to select the next Liberal chief. But as we’ll hear many times over the course of this race: implying that certain groups are trying to act against the country’s leaders is just another form of promoting hatred. Even if they say that’s explicitly what they’re doing!

Not to worry though: if The Death of Stalin is anything to go by, the contenders will eventually pick one camp to be the common enemy and unite against them. In the film, this is the loathsome sex criminal Lavrentiy Beria, who is brutally executed without trial by eventual winner Nikita Khruschev and buried in history.  Beria’s mistake was to threaten all the other contenders instead of trying to work with any of them—when they all turn on him, he’s reduced to begging for his life to no avail. So, if you are one of those radical students of history who believes this race is a way to bend the Liberal Party to your whims, be warned:  “Wade gently through the river because there are snakes and crocodiles.”

Josh Lieblein can be reached at joshualieblein@gmail.com for your response to Doorstep Postings.

The post Doorstep Postings: After months of resignation speculation, there will be no more stallin’ for Justin Trudeau appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.

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Majority of New York City Hate Crimes Targeted Jews in 2024, New Data Shows

Anti-Israel protesters target a synagogue in Queens, New York on July 14, 2024. Photo: Screenshot

Jews were targeted in the majority of hate crimes perpetrated in New York City last year, according to new data issued by the New York City Police Department (NYPD).

On Monday, the NYPD released its end-of-year crime report, which recorded a precipitous drop in crime overall but also the disturbing numbers on antisemitic hate crimes. Out of the 641 total hate crimes tallied by the NYPD, 345 targeted Jews, which, in addition to being a 7 percent increase over the previous year, amounted to 54 percent of all hate crimes in the city.

As The Algemeiner previously reported, antisemitic hate crimes in 2024 posed a major threat to the quality of life of New York City’s Orthodox Jewish community, which was the target in many of the incidents. In just eight days between the end of October and the beginning of November, three Hasidim, including children, were brutally assaulted in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. In one instance, an Orthodox man was accosted by two assailants, one masked, who “chased and beat him” after he refused to surrender his cellphone in compliance with what appeared to have been an attempted robbery.

In another incident, an African American male smacked a 13-year-old Jewish boy who was commuting to school on his bike in the heavily Jewish neighborhood. Less than a week earlier, an assailant slashed a visibly Jewish man in the face as he was walking in Brooklyn.

Days after the week-long antisemitic hate crime spree, three men attempted to rob a Hasidic man after stalking him through the Crown Heights neighborhood.

The explosion of hate continued a trend. In 2023, antisemitic incidents accounted for a striking 65 percent of all felony hate crimes in New York City, according to a report issued in August by New York state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. The report added that throughout the state, nearly 44 percent of all recorded hate crime incidents and 88 percent of religious-based hate crimes targeted Jews.

Other major cities and states have recently reported increases in antisemitic hate crimes.

In Los Angeles County, antisemitic hate crimes rose 91 percent in 2023, from 127 the prior year to 242 in what the LA County Commission on Human Relations (LACCHR) described as “the largest number of anti-Jewish crimes ever” in the city.

Additionally, the state of Massachusetts saw more antisemitic hate crimes in 2023 than at any time since government officials began tracking such data eight years ago, according to a report issued by its Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS).

A striking 119 antisemitic hate crimes were reported to law enforcement agencies, EOPSS said, a total which, in addition to eclipsing 2015’s total of 56 incidents, amounts to a 70 percent increase over the previous year. Antisemitic hate crimes also constituted 18.8 percent of all hate crimes reported in 2023, a figure which trails only behind the percentage of hate crimes which targeted African Americans.

The report added that 68.9 percent of the antisemitic incidents involved property destruction or vandalism, a total of 82, while another 19 percent involved intimidation. Some physical assaults, six, were recorded or reported to the police.

“The local increase reflects national trends. Our data showed that over 10,000 antisemitic incidents were recorded in the US since Oct. 7, 2023, an over 200 percent increase compared to incidents reported to us during the same period a year before,” Peggy Shukur, vice president of the ADL’s East Division, told The Algemeiner when the information became public. “Behind every one of these numbers are people who have experienced the harm, fear, intimidation, and pain that reverberates from each of these incidents. The fact that numbers increase by 70 percent is a grim reminder that antisemitism continues to infect our communities in real and pervasive ways.”

Overall, anti-Jewish hate crimes in the US spiked to a record high in 2023, and American Jews were the most targeted of any religious group in the country, according to a report released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in September.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post Majority of New York City Hate Crimes Targeted Jews in 2024, New Data Shows first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Trump Vows ‘Hell Will Break Out in the Middle East’ if Gaza Hostages Not Released by His Inauguration

US President-elect Donald Trump makes remarks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, US, Jan. 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria

US President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday reiterated his threat to seek retaliation against Hamas if the Palestinian terrorist group does not release the remaining hostages in the Gaza Strip.

“If [the hostages] aren’t back by the time I get in office, all hell will break out in the Middle East, and it will not be good for Hamas. And it will not be good, frankly, for anyone. All hell will break out,” Trump told reporters.

Trump made the comments during a wide-ranging press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. He stood alongside Steve Witkoff, the recently appointed special envoy to the Middle East for his incoming administration. 

“They should’ve never taken them. They should’ve never been the attacker of Oct. 7, but there was. Many people [were] killed. They’re no longer hostages,” Trump added.  

On Oct. 7 of last year, Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages to Gaza during their invasion of southern Israel. During the onslaught, 45 Americans were killed and 12 were abducted.

About 100 hostages, both dead and alive, remain in Gaza, including seven Americans. Three of them — Keith Siegel, Sagui Dekel-Chen, and Edan Alexander — are thought to still be alive. Three others — Itay Chen, Gadi Haggai, and Judi Weinstein Haggai — are believed to be murdered by the terrorist group, with their bodies still in the Palestinian enclave. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) revealed last month that Israeli-American hostage Omer Neutra was killed during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, and his body was taken by terrorists into Gaza. Neutra was initially presumed to be among the living captives.

In total, 100 hostages remain in Gaza, and at least a third of them are believed to be dead.

Trump said on Tuesday that families of hostages have approached him in tears, desperately begging for a deal to secure their loved ones’ release from captivity. 

The president-elect emphasized the importance of dispatching a “great negotiator” to broker a ceasefire deal to halt fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and free the remaining hostages, gesturing to Witkoff. Trump added that although he does “not want to hurt the negotiations,” he believes that reiterating his threats to unleash “hell” across the Middle East will incentivize Hamas to reach a deal in the upcoming weeks. 

Trump has repeatedly vowed to take aggressive action to secure the return of the remaining hostages. He has previously promised that Hamas will have “hell to pay” if the terrorist group does not release those still held captive in the Gaza Strip. 

“Everybody is talking about the hostages who are being held so violently, inhumanely, and against the will of the entire World, in the Middle East – But i’’s all talk, and no action!” Trump posted last month on the social media platform Truth Social. “Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume Office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity.”

“Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW!” he added.

The post Trump Vows ‘Hell Will Break Out in the Middle East’ if Gaza Hostages Not Released by His Inauguration first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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US Lawmaker Says Washington Funding Taliban, Pens Letter Urging Trump to Halt Aid

US Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) on Dec. 5, 2024. Photo: Mattie Neretin / CNP/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect

US Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) recently penned a letter to President-elect Donald Trump claiming that Washington is “funneling” money to the Taliban government in Afghanistan and calling on his incoming administration to stop such foreign aid, citing the Taliban’s extensive history of supporting Islamist terrorism.

“I write to express my strong concerns with foreign aid being funneled to the Taliban and my desire to work with your administration to stop tax dollars from going to terrorists,” Burchett wrote in the letter dated Jan. 2. “It was brought to my attention the US State Department, under the Biden administration, was funneling money to the Taliban.”

Burchett claimed that after questioning US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the top American diplomat “admitted that non-governmental organizations paid nearly $10 million of foreign aid to the Taliban in taxes.”

The lawmaker said that sending foreign aid to the Taliban undermines US national security, arguing that American government agencies are incapable of tracking how the Islamist movement spends US dollars.

“The larger issue, which Secretary Blinken failed to acknowledge, is the shipments of cash payments in United States dollars to Afghanistan’s central bank,” Burchett wrote. “These cash shipments are auctioned off and after that, they are nearly impossible to track. This is how the Taliban is being funded and plans to fund terrorism around the world.”

The lawmaker did not provide any direct evidence in the letter to support his claims, although the US has provided extensive aid to Afghanistan. According to an October 2023 report from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the US has provided nearly $2 billion in humanitarian assistance for Afghans since mid-August 2021, making Washington the largest humanitarian donor in Afghanistan. It is unclear how much of that money has ended up in the hands of the Taliban, which the US and other countries have designated as a terrorist group.

“The United States of America should not fund its enemies abroad. I implore you to take action to put an end to wasteful foreign aid spending and to support efforts in Congress to put Americans first,” Burchett wrote. “I look forward to working with you during your second term as president.”

Burchett added that he plans on reintroducing legislation that would require the State Department to “discourage foreign countries from providing financial or material support to the Taliban, and to report on direct-cash assistance programs and Taliban influence over Afghanistan’s central bank.”

He claimed that while the bill — first introduced in 2023 — passed the US House “unanimously,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) refused to bring the bill to the floor for a vote.

Following the release of Burchett’s letter, billionaire and X/Twitter owner Elon Musk, who will serve in the Trump administration as co-head of the Department of Government Efficiency, sparked a debate online regarding the allegations.

“Are we really sending US taxpayer money to the Taliban?” Musk wrote on X on Monday.

“We are. The next terrorist attack will be 100% fully funded by the American taxpayer,” Burchett responded.

The distribution of American taxpayer dollars to Afghanistan has emerged as a hot-button issue for Republicans in recent months. In December, US Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) blasted Blinken over the transfer of US dollars to the country.

“There’s an American citizen out there, literally woke up this morning losing 30% of their paycheck. And a good percentage of that is going to the Taliban or other programs abroad,” Mast said. “And this is something that we all need to think about, and we will be thinking about deeply for the next two years. There’s a joke that’s made often out there about kids going to college to learn basket weaving, and what a joke that would be. But the United States right now is literally sending tens of millions of dollars to the Taliban. 14.9 million, to be exact, to teach Afghans how to do carpet weaving.”

“Even worse, by the numbers, we spent $9 billion to resettle 90,000 roughly Afghan refugees here since the fall of Afghanistan. My simple Army math tells me that’s about $100,000 a person. That’s absurd. So my question for you. We do not even have an embassy in Afghanistan. We have no diplomats there. What are we doing giving them $1?” Mast continued.

The Taliban infamously provided a safe haven for al Qaeda before the 9/11 attacks and was accused of sheltering Osama bin Laden and his terrorist group afterward. A US-led military coalition subsequently removed the Taliban from power in Afghanistan in 2001.

In 2021, however, the Taliban once again seized power in Afghanistan, amid US President Joe Biden’s military withdrawal from the country.

The post US Lawmaker Says Washington Funding Taliban, Pens Letter Urging Trump to Halt Aid first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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