Biden Touts Praise from Anti-Israel, Abolish-the-Police Movement

Plus, Ken Griffin on “Western values”; Gaza casualty count; a new Jewish great migration

Joe Biden

President Biden has added a new line to his campaign fundraising speeches, touting praise of his administration’s policies from an extremist group that favors defunding the police and is backing the campus “encampments” that falsely accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza.

Biden used the new line in four recent campaign appearances, in Portola Valley, California; in Palo Alto, California; in Medina, Washington, and in Seattle, Washington, according to White House transcripts.

Portola Valley, May 10: “I was so proud that the new report co-released on 20 ma- -- by 20 major climate organizations, from the Sierra Club to Sunrise Movement, credited my administration with taking more than 300 actions to -- related to climate, conservation, public health, clean energy,” Biden said going on to quote from the report.

Palo Alto, May 10: “I’m so proud of the new report released by the 20 major climate organizations, from the Sierra Club to the Sunrise Movement, crediting our administration with taking more than 300 related climate actions -- conservation, public health, clean energy.”

Medina, May 11: “I’m proud to say the new report co-released by 20 major climate organizations….Climate organizations, from the Sierra Club to the Sunrise Movement, credited my administration with taking on more than 300 actions relating to conservation, climate, public health, and clean energy.”

Seattle, May 10: “I’m so proud to report that co- -- that wh- -- they co-released by 20 major climate organizations, from the Sierra Club to the Sunrise Movement, it credited our administration with making more than 300 actions related to climate, conservation, public health, and clean energy.”

What is the Sunrise Movement?

Its official website, under the “our demands” section, says, “abolish the police, fund social programs.” It says, “we cannot achieve climate justice without moving away from police and prisons.”

The organization is also a signer of the recent “Statement in solidarity with student protests for Gaza,” a statement that says:

We commend the students who are exercising their right to protest peacefully despite an overwhelming atmosphere of pressure, intimidation and retaliation, to raise awareness about Israel's assault on Gaza – with U.S. weapons and funding. These students have come forth with clear demands that their universities divest from corporations profiting from Israeli occupation, and demanding safe environments for Palestinians across their campuses. The students’ courage and determination in the face of adversity inspire us all to take action and speak out against injustice wherever it occurs. As they risk everything right now, it is critical that all of us do everything we can to support them.

We join them in calling for an immediate and lasting ceasefire and an end to the U.S. government's and institutions' role in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

As we stand in solidarity with the students protesting in encampments across the country, we reaffirm our commitment to amplifying their voices, condemn the university administration officials' violent response to their activism, and demand that universities remove the presence of police and other militarized forces from their campuses.

In February, the Sunrise Movement stormed Biden’s campaign headquarters in Delaware, “demanding that he declare a climate emergency, call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and end U.S. funding of Israel,” according to a report in Inside Climate News that says 21 of the 80 protesters were arrested.

The Sunrise Movement’s X feed is full of items denouncing Aipac, the main pro-Israel lobby, claiming, inaccurately, that, “AIPAC is funded by republican oil billionaires that are against climate science & protecting reproductive rights.”

What is Biden, or his team, thinking by describing this group as a “major” climate organization or expressing pride—“I’m so proud”—in the fact that it supports him?

The big news organizations like the New York Times spend millions of dollars on reporters following Biden around, but they don’t report this stuff, which is fine, because it provides an opportunity for publications such as this one.

A new Great Migration?: The flow of talent and capital out of high-tax, high-regulation states like New York, Illinois, and California to lower-tax, lower-regulation places such as Florida and Texas is one of the ongoing themes around here, guided by Albert Hirschman’s “Exit, Voice, and Loyalty” framework.

Now an American Jewish leader is suggesting such a population flow as a solution to the outbreak of antisemitism on American college campuses. “We will need to relocate in large numbers to new and more welcoming parts of the country—including the Southeast, the Southwest, and other more conservative regions of the country that protect religious freedom and promote religious education,” the CEO of Tikvah, Eric Cohen, writes in a new essay, “The Exodus Project,” adapted from a speech he delivered Sunday night to an online audience of more than 1,300.

“The purpose of a great American university is the perpetuation of the best of our Judeo-Christian civilizational inheritance and the formation of young men and women who seek to preserve and renew our way of life,” Cohen writes, proposing that “we can launch new Jewish colleges that prepare young Jews for the weighty responsibility of preserving American liberty.”

I’m not here either endorsing or disagreeing with Cohen’s plan or his definition of the purpose of a university, just passing it along as newsworthy.

Ken Griffin FT interview: Speaking of the purpose of a university, a half-billion dollar donor to Harvard, Ken Griffin, gave an interview to the Financial Times in which he called on Harvard to embrace “western values.”

Asked what Harvard should do next, Griffin told the Financial Times: “Harvard should put front and centre [that it] stands for meritocracy in America and will educate the next generation of leaders in American business, government, healthcare, and the philanthropic community. Harvard will embrace our Western values that have built one of the greatest nations in the world, foster those values with students, and ask them to manifest these values throughout the rest of their life.”…

Griffin said the many wealthy Harvard donors he had spoken to had “little interest in micromanaging the university”, however. “There is a palpable interest in Harvard serving as a beacon of truth-seeking and meritocracy,” he said: “Many wealthy donors have valuable insight into transformation and improvement strategies that are clearly needed at this time.”

Gaza casualty count: In a blog post for the Council on Foreign Relations, Elliott Abrams notes a revision to UN reporting on casualties in Gaza:

On May 6, the UN published data showing that 34,735 people had reportedly been killed in Gaza, including over 9,500 women and over 14,500 children. On May 8, the UN published data showing 34,844 people had reportedly been killed, including 4,959 women and 7,797 children.

Apparently the Hamas-controlled Gaza Government Media Office and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry have different figures. Writes Abrams: “Hamas wants the world to believe that the main casualties and fatalities have been women and children, an argument almost universally accepted until very recently. Now even the UN, or one part of the UN, silently acknowledges that it blindly accepted Hamas numbers meant to mislead.”

He concludes: “I await the stories in The New York Times, Washington Post, and NPR reporting on this, but the wait may be a long one.”

Eliot Cohen on the war: The other Eliot, Eliot Cohen, writes in the Atlantic: “The case of Israel against Hamas, and specifically the question of a potential invasion of Rafah, Gaza, is particularly striking. Freezing the conflict before the destruction of Hamas as an effective military organization (as a political movement, it may last a very long time) has no prospect of delivering anything remotely like peace. Insisting that the Israelis find a humane way of destroying an enemy, without collateral damage, is absurd when that force is deeply and cunningly dug in and fortified, and indeed prefers for political reasons to see its own civilians suffer.”

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