1000% agree. Not just grandparents, but parents as well. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS do a recorded interview of family members from previous generations before they're no longer here. I interviewed an aunt about a tragedy that befell our community. As she answered my questions and recounted our family's story of that event, we were both in tears. That recording is very dear to me. I regret not having interviewed my parents, grandparents and other aunts and uncles.

Joel B. Pollak 9 May 2024

Maher Bitar, the White House Coordinator for Intelligence and Defense Policy at the U.S. National Security Council (NSC), was a radical pro-Palestinian activist and a leader within Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

The SJP is one of the most prominent groups involved in the pro-Hamas, antisemitic “encampment” protests that have taken over dozens of university campuses. Its parent group is also the target of a lawsuit by survivors and families of victims of the October 7 terror attack that alleges SJP is a propaganda front for Hamas in the U.S.

Bitar’s record is coming under closer scrutiny as President Joe Biden takes unprecedented action to undermine Israel’s war against the Hamas terrorists that attacked it on October 7, including withholding arms from Israel.

Biden’s decision was applauded Wednesday by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who has backed the radical protests, and whose daughter was suspended from Barnard College for her role in radical protests at nearby Columbia University.

Daniel Greenfield wrote about Bitar’s background in a 2021 article published by the Jewish News Syndicate:

    At the PSM [Palestine Solidarity Movement] conference in Georgetown [in 2006], Bitar had run a session describing how to best demonize Israel. Next year, he facilitated a Palestinian Student Society summit addressed by Joseph Massad, who had called Israel a “Jewish supremacist state” and praised terrorism.

    …

    A few years later, Bitar could be found presenting at a Sabeel conference featuring some of the worst bigots like Rebecca Vilkomerson of JVP, who had invited a terrorist to address the BDS hate group, and Richard Falk, who had endorsed a book which wondered whether “Hitler might have been right after all.”

    …

    Bitar went to work for UNRWA, interned at the misnamed and militantly anti-Israel Foundation for Middle East Peace and studied at Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre, writing papers on the so-called “Nakba” and on “Palestinian” activism. He appeared to describe Israel’s security barrier as a “segregation wall.”

UNRWA has been implicated in the October 7 attacks, and Massad, who teaches at Columbia, praised the attacks.

more
https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2024/05/09/bidens-nsc-intel-director-maher-bitar-is-a-former-radical-pro-palestinian-activst/

Fab Friday thanks, Pookie! And may you and yours have a fantastic weekend!

And now, we take you to our pretend-President:

Israel Enters Rafah As Negotiations With Hamas Breakdown and Bibi Tells Biden Where to Put It
streiff
3–4 minutes

Israeli troops pressed deep into the southern Gaza city of Rafah Friday, seizing the main road dividing the east and west halves of that city and effectively encircling the eastern portion. This movement came as Hamas "negotiators" refused to continue talks with Israel, and as Joe Biden announced, he would impose an arms embargo on Israel if it attacked Rafah.

Negotiations between Hamas and Israel have entirely broken down. Israeli negotiators have returned home, and Hamas negotiators have returned to their patrons in Doha. Hamas issued a statement Friday: "The negotiating delegation [of Hamas] left Cairo heading to Doha. In practice, the occupation [Israel] rejected the proposal submitted by the mediators and raised objections to it on several central issues. Accordingly, the ball is now completely in the Israeli occupation's court."

The breakdown seems to be caused in no small part by the utter ineptitude of Biden's team.

Along with the breakdown of negotiations and the beginning of what may be the final phase of this Israel-Hamas war comes a clash between Joe Biden — or at least Biden's puppeteers — and Israel's government.

Biden has placed a hold on existing arms exports to Israel and, in a CNN interview on Thursday, pledged to cut off military aid to Israel if it invaded Rafah.

more
https://redstate.com/streiff/2024/05/10/israel-enters-rafah-as-negotiations-with-hamas-breakdown-and-bibi-tells-biden-where-to-put-it-n2174002