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Jack C. Askins, M.D.: Vaccine Status or Immune Status? 4 (1)

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by Jack C. Askins, M.D.

What is more important, vaccine status or immune status? Most people believe a vaccine is to establish immunity to a pathogen. Prior infection has resulted in immunity throughout human history. If a person is immune to a virus, clinical infection is avoided and replication and transmission of the virus is prevented. Simple question with a straightforward simple answer based upon known science. With the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the answer is not quite so simple. Natural immunity has always been the gold standard to which vaccine development has been compared….. until the past 18 months. There has been a full-court press to promote the mRNA inoculations, unlike anything I have ever seen. Government and big business have taken over what has always been the responsibility of known science, researchers, and physicians.

Prior infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus results in natural immunity. At least 75 years of virology and immunology has established the fact that natural immunity is at least as good and usually better than vaccine immunity; true in the past and true now. Natural immunity is broad, robust, and durable and usually will last years to a lifetime. Conversely, the mRNA vaccines appear to wane after 5-6 months. Even the CDC and the NIH agree they do not know how long the mRNA vaccines will provide “protection”. The CDC even went so far as to redefine a vaccine as a drug that provides “protection” but not immunity in the historic and traditional meaning of the word.

I compiled bullet point facts with references on natural immunity and that provided by the “vaccines”.

Bullet point facts concerning what is known about natural immunity:

• Natural immunity recognizes the full complement of SARS-CoV-2 proteins and thus provides protection against a broad array of variants. [1-4]
• Studies have demonstrated prolonged immunity with respect to memory T and B cells, bone marrow plasma cells, spike-specific neutralizing antibodies, and IgG+ memory B cells following naturally acquired immunity. [1-4]
• People who have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 typically generate T cells that target at least 15-20 different fragments of coronavirus proteins. [12]
• The current vaccines result in the creation of antibodies against one specific virus spike protein programmed by the mRNA injection. [12]
• The spike protein on the virus is prone to mutate to escape the vaccine; the other myriad proteins targeted by T cells in natural immunity patients do not appear to be involved in the rapid mutation into the variants that are reducing vaccine effectiveness. [12]
• Multiple studies have confirmed that reinfections are rare in patients with natural immunity and are less severe than first-time infections. [5,6]
• Recent Israeli study included 187,549 unvaccinated persons with natural immunity: only 0.48% were reinfected; 0.02% were hospitalized; 0.008%were hospitalized with severe disease; only one died and he was over 80 years of age. [7]
• Based upon such evidence, many scientists and clinicians have concluded natural immunity and protection against COVID following recovery from infection is long-lasting. [8, 38]
• 1359 Cleveland Clinic employees previously infected, unvaccinated: no occurrence of re-infection in a 10 month follow-up from time of infection. [20]
• There is a growing body of literature supporting the conclusion that natural immunity not only confers robust, durable, and high-level protection against COVID-19, but also better than vaccine induced immunity. [13-17,19, 39]
• 23 patients who had recovered from SARS-CoV-1 still possess CD4 and CD8 T cells 17 years after infection during the 2003 epidemic. [9]
• A paper in Nature from 2008 found that 32 people born in 1915 or earlier still retained some level of immunity against the 1918 flu strain – 90 years later. [10]
• Robust durability of natural immunity is well established. Narrowly focused vaccine immunity appears to be waning at 6 months. [11]
• Natural immunity is the gold standard for effectiveness and durability to which researchers compare during vaccine development. [11]

Bullet point facts concerning what is known about the mRNA injections:

• The mRNA vaccines cause our cells to produce a specific Covid virus spike protein to which our immune system produces IgG and IgM humoral antibodies.
• IgA mucosal defense antibodies are not produced and durable T cell immunity is questionable following vaccination.
• Antibody Dependent Enhancement can increase the lethality of the Covid infection when non-neutralizing antibodies are produced by the vaccine and as the virus mutates to variants. [26]
• Although initial claims of Pfizer efficacy was 90-95%, that is down to 39% in the Israel study and 42% in the Mayo Clinic data. [27, 36]
• Approximately 30% of people who receive the mRNA shot may not develop adequate protection against the Covid-19 virus. [31]
• Duration of effectiveness appears to be 5-8 months.
• Necessity for boosters has been claimed by the CDC.
• Both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines currently appear to reduce the severity of illness and mortality rate but not prevent replication within the body or reduce viral nasal load and transmission (infectivity). [CDC declarations, multiple news reports]
• Vaccine immunity only targets the spike-protein of the original Wuhan variant, whereas natural immunity recognizes the full complement of SARS-CoV-2 proteins and thus provides protection against a greater array of variants. [Hooman Noorchasm noorchasm.medium.com]
• Canadian study reported 9/16/2021 the “incidence of myopericarditis overall was approximately 10 cases for every 10,000 inoculations with mRNA vaccine. [22]
• This year’s Covid surge numbers are larger than last year due to emergence of variants defeating the current mRNA vaccines.
• Israel and the UK were highly vaccinated and their recent hospitalizations and deaths have been mostly in the vaccinated population.
• UK Public Health data from 9/23/2021: Current Covid-19 deaths are over 3,000% higher than this time last year. 80% of those dying had the Covid vaccine. [21]
• Mass vaccination in the midst of a pandemic has not been recommended by virologists and immunologists due to the promotion of variants as the virus works to escape the vaccine and replicate within the vaccinated host.
• A recent large Japanese study predicts the virus will mutate itself to be completely immune to the vaccine and will likely become more virulent. [24]
• None of the vaccines in current application have been systematically or adequately tested for safety or efficacy in individuals who have previously been infected and recovered from SARS-CoV-2. In fact, Covid survivors have overall been largely excluded from Phase III vaccine clinical trials. [37]
• People with natural immunity are at increased risk for vaccine injury to include thrombosis and multisystem imflammatory syndrome. [25, 28, 29, 32]
• Mandated vaccination represents baseless DISCRIMINATION against already immune but unvaccinated persons being treated as inferior to the “fully vaccinated”. [30]

REFERENCES

[1] Jennifer M. Dan, et al., Immunological memory to SARS-CoV-2 assessed for up to 8 months after infection, SCIENCE (Feb. 5, 2021) (finding that memory T and B and B cells were present up to eight months after infection, noting that “durable immunity against secondary COVID-19 disease is a possibility for most individuals”).

[2] Jackson S. Turner, et al., SARS-CoV-2 infection induces long-lived bone marrow plasma cells in humans, NATURE (May 24, 2021) (study analyzing bone marrow plasma cells of recovered COVID-19 patients reported durable evidence of antibodies for at least 11 months after infection, describing “robust antigen-specific, long-lived humoral immune response in humans”); Ewen Callaway, Had COVID? You’ll probably make antibodies for a lifetime, NATURE (May 26, 2021), https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01442- 9 (“The study provides evidence that immunity triggered by SARS-CoV-2 infection will be extraordinarily long-lasting” and “people who recover from mild COVID-19 have bone-marrow cells that can churn out antibodies for decades”).

[3] Tyler J. Ripperger, et al., Orthogonal SARS-Cov-2 Serological Assays Enable Surveillance of Low-Prevalence Communities and Reveal Durable Humoral Immunity, 53 IMMUNITY, Issue 5, pp. 925-933 E4 (Nov. 17, 2020) (study finding that spike and neutralizing antibodies remained detectable 5-7 months after recovering from infection).

[4] Kristen W. Cohen, et al., Longitudinal analysis shows durable and broad immune memory after SARS-CoV-2 infection with persisting antibody responses and memory B and T cells, MEDRXIV (Apr. 27, 2021), https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.19.21255739v1 (study of 254 recovered COVID patients over 8 months “found a predominant broad-based immune memory response” and “sustained IgG+ memory B cell response, which bodes well for rapid antibody response upon virus re-exposure.” “Taken together, these results suggest that broad and effective immunity may persist long-term in recovered COVID-19 patients”)

[5] Nabin K. Shrestha, et al., Necessity of COVID-19 vaccination in previously infected individuals, MEDRXIV (preprint), https://www.medrxiv.org/content
10.1101/2021.06.01.21258176v3. (“not one of the 1359 previously infected subjects who remained unvaccinated had a SARS-CoV-2 infection over the duration of the study “and concluded that those with natural immunity are “unlikely to benefit from covid-19 vaccination”).

[6] Laith J. Abu-Raddad, et al., SARS-CoV-2 reinfection in a cohort of 43,000 antibody-positive individuals followed for up to 35 weeks, MEDRXIV (Feb. 8, 2021), https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.15.21249731v2 (finding that of 129 reinfections from a cohort of 43,044, only one reinfection was severe, two were moderate, and none were critical or fatal); Victoria Jane Hall, et al., SARS-CoV-2 infection rates of antibody-positive compared with antibody-negative health-care workers in England: a large, multicentre, prospective cohort study, 397 LANCET: 1459- 69 (Apr. 9, 2021), https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33844963/ (finding “a 93% lower risk of COVID-19 symptomatic infection… [which] show[s] equal or higher protection from natural infection, both for symptomatic and asymptomatic infection”); Aidan T. Hanrah, et al., Prior SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with protection against symptomatic reinfection, 82 JOURNAL OF INFECTION, Issue 4, E29-E30 (Apr. 1, 2021), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7832116/ (Apr. 1, 2021) (examined reinfection rates in a cohort of healthcare workers and found “no symptomatic reinfections” among those examined and that protection lasted for at least 6 months).

[7] Yair Goldberg, et al., Protection of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection is similar to that of BNT162b2. vaccine protection: A three-month nationwide experience from Israel, MEDRXIV (pre-print), https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.20.21255670v1

[8] Chris Baranjuk, How long does covid-19 immunity last? 373 BMJ (2021)

[9] Nina Le Bert, SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell immunity in cases of COVID-19 and SARS, and uninfected control, NATURE (Aug. 2020).

[10] Xiaocong Yu, et al., Neutralizing antibodies derived form the B cells of 1918 influenze pandemic survivors, NATURE (2008)
[11] Heidi Ledford, Six months of COVID vaccines: what 1.7 billion doses hove taught scientists, 594 NATURE 164 (June 10, 2021), https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01505-x (study notes that “Six months is not much time to collect data on how durable vaccine responses will be…. In the meantime some researchers are looking to natural immunity as a guide.”

[12] Tarke, A. et al. Cell Rep. Med. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrm.2021.100204 (2021).

[13] Sivan Gazit, Roei Shlezinger, Galit Perez et al. Comparing SARS-CoV-2 natural immunity to vaccine-induced immunity: reinfections versus breakthrough infections
medRxiv 2021.08.24.21262415; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.24.21262415

[14] Hall VJ, Foulkes S, Charlett A et al. SARS-CoV-2 infection rates of antibody-positive compared with antibody-negative health-care workers in England: large, multicentre, prospective cohort study (SIREN). Lancet. 2021

[15]Harvey RA, Rassen JA, Kabelac CA, et al. Association of SARS-CoV-2 Seropositive Antibody Test With Risk of Future Infection. JAMA Intern Med.

[16] Turner, J.S., Kim, W., Kalaidina, E. et al. SARS-CoV-2 infection induces long-lived bone marrow plasma cells in humans. Nature 2021

[17] Wang, Z., Yang, X., Zhong, J. et al. Exposure to SARS-CoV-2 generates T-cell memory in the absence of a detectable viral infection. Nat Commun 12, 1724 (2021).

[18] CDC.gov/mmWave/volumes/70/wr/mm7021e3.htm

[19] BMJ 2021; 374 doi: VACCINATING PEOPLE WHO HAVE HAD COVID-19: WHY DOESN’T NATURAL IMMUNITY COUNT IN THE U.S.? BMJ 2021;374:n2101

[20] Nabin K. Shrestha, et al. NECESSITY OF COVID-19 VACCINATION IN PREVIOUSLY INFECTED INDIVIDUALS. MedRxiv June 19,2021. CLEVELAND CLINIC STUDY OF 1359 UNVAXXED AND PREVIOUSLY INFECTED EMPLOYEES REVEALING NO RE-INFECTION DURING 10 MOS FROM TIME OF INFECTION.

[21] theexpose.uk. Sept. 23, 2021. British publication reporting on data from British and Scotland Public Health

[22] Kafil, Lamacie, Chenier, et al. mRNA COVID-19 Vaccination and Development of CMR-confirmed Myopericarditis. MedRxiv September 16, 2021

[23] Gazit, Shlezinger, Perez, et al. COMPARING SARS-CoV-2 NATURAL IMMUNITY TO VACCINE-INDUCED IMMUNITY: REINFECTIONS VERSUS BREAKTHROUGH INFECTIONS August 24, 2021

[24] The SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant is poised to acquire complete resistance to wild-type spike vaccines.
BioRxiv. August 23,2021. Very detailed Japanese study showing how the Covid virus is mutating toward complete resistance to current mRNA vaccines.

[25] Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome after SARS-CoV-2 Infection and COVID-19 Vaccination
Mark B. Salzman, Cheng-Wei Huang, Christopher M. O’Brien, Rhina D. Castill
Emerging Infectious Diseases • http://www.cdc.gov/eid • Vol. 27, No. 7, July 2021

[26] ANTIBODY-DEPENDENT ENHANNCEMENT SCIENCE 18 DEC. 2020. Good review of ADE, mechanism and history of its occurrence in other infections (Dengue fever, HIV, Ebola).

[27] COMPARISON OF TWO HIGHLY-EFFECTIVE mRNA VACCINES FOR COVID-19 DURING PERIODS OF ALPHA AND DELTA VARIANT PREVALENCE. medRxiv. August, 08, 2021
This is the Mayo Clinic study revealing the Pfizer vaccine effectiveness against the Delta variant at 42%.

[28] A LETTER OF WARNING TO THE PENNSBURY SCHOOL BOARD IN PENNSYLVANIA: MANDATING VACCINATION OF COVID-RECOVERED AND ALREADY IMMUNE PERSONS IS HAZARDOUS. Hooman Noorchasm noorchasm.medium.com

[29] Krammer, et al, ROBUST SPIKE ANTIBODY RESPONSES AND INCREASED REACTOGENICITY IN SEROPOSITIVE INDIVIDUALS AFTER A SINGLE DOSE OF SARS-COV-2 mRNA VACCINE,
medRx (Feb 1, 2021)

[30] WHY I BELIEVE SCOTUS SHOULD ADJUDICATE ZYWICKI VS. GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY: ITS NOT ABOUT INDIVIDUAL AUTONOMY, ITS ABOUT BASELESS DISCRIMINATION AND EXECUTIVE OVERREACH! Hooman Noorchasm noorchasm.medium.com

[31] A SEVERE ERROR IN FEDERAL PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY: ANTIBODY TESTING IS CRITICAL FOR DETERMINATION OF COVID-19 VACCINE NECESSITY AND EFFICACY IN EVERY AMERICAN.
Hooman Noorchasm noorchasm.medium.com

[32] Fabio Angell, SARS-CoV-2 VACCINES: LIGHTS AND SHADOWS, 88 European J. Of Internal Medicine 1-8 (2021)

[33] James f. Childress, et al., Public Health Ethics: Mapping the Terrain, 30(2) J. Law & Med. Ethics 170 (2002).

[34] N. Kojima, NK Shrestha, JD Klausner. A Systematic Review of the Protective Effect of Prior SARS-CoV-2 Infection on Repeat Infection. medRxiv 8/27/21 Dept of Medicine, UCLA.
Findings: Weighted average risk reduction against reinfection was 90.4% and observed for up to 10 months.

[35] N. Kojima, A Roshani, M Brubeck, A Baca, JD Klausner. Incidence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 Infection Among Previously Infected or Vaccinated Employees. Dept of Medicine, UCLA.
Findings: No difference in the infection incidence between vaccinated individuals and individuals with previous infection.

[36] newsnetwork.MayoClinic.org

[37] VACCINE INFORMATION FACT SHEET FOR RECIPIENTS AND CAREGIVERS ABOUT COMIRNATY (COVID-19 VACCINE, mRNA) AND PFIZER-BIONTECH COVID-19 VACCINE TO PREVENT CORONAVIRUS DISEASE 2019 (COVID-19). 9/22/2021 fda.gov55

[38] LASTING IMMUNITY FOUND AFTER RECOVERY FROM COVID-19. NIH January 26, 2021

[39] REINFECTION RATES AMONG PATIENTS WHO PREVIOUSLY TESTED POSITIVE FOR COVD-19: A RETROSPECTIVE COHORT STUDY. Sheehan, Reddy, Rothberg CLINICAL INFECTIOUS DISEASES 3/15/2021
Six months after infection, protection against symptomatic disease exceeded 90%.

“Dr. Jack Askins is a cardiologist in Wichita Falls, TX. This is the first article in a series of four he has authored that we intend to publish here. His reasoned scientific voice needs to be heard during these times as the COVID-19 Vaccines have become politicized through government mandates. We are encouraged by his boldness and expertise that he brings to the subject.” 

Jack C. Askins, M.D.: SOMETHING ISN’T RIGHT 4.5 (2)

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by Jack C. Askins, M.D.

Something isn’t right in this entire vaccinated vs unvaccinated argument and division taking place in our country. On one side, the proponents of vaccination are labeling the unvaccinated as the cause of the current surge in the Covid case numbers (“a pandemic of the unvaccinated”). Overflowing hospitals and Covid deaths are all the fault of the unvaccinated, so the story goes. President Biden says his “patience is wearing thin”. Vaccines will be mandated and private businesses and government will be the enforcers. Life will be difficult for the unvaccinated. Some have said the unvaxxed should not be treated in hospitals if they become ill.

On the other side, the unvaccinated state vaccines and mandates are about freedom to choose and liberty; “my body, my choice”. They point to an overall Covid survival rate of 99% and cite data regarding complications and side effects from the vaccines. They call attention to how the CDC recently re-defined a vaccine from providing “immunity” to providing “protection”.
They also have concerns about the unique mRNA mechanism of action and how the approval process was incomplete and abbreviated. “If the vaccines work, why aren’t they working?”

For the sake of national unity and promoting confidence in this new technology of the mRNA shots, this should have already been sorted out by the vaccine developers and researchers. Apparently, animal studies were not done and the phase 3 trials were prematurely “completed” last December and the control group offered the mRNA shot. Completion of phase 3 trials was originally scheduled for 2023. The politicians in charge, the CDC, and the NIH have hardened their recommendations into mandates, threats, and penalties which includes loss of employment and financial destruction. Federal regulatory agencies will be turned loose on the unvaxxed.

But all of this confusion and division and rancor and hate could be mostly avoided by truthfully answering one question. One question backed up by 75 years of immunology and virology science and research. The same immunology and virology we all studied in college and medical school and have called upon to diagnose and treat patients in our practices. The same immunology and virology being ignored by the politicians and the armchair doctors at the CDC.

The one important question is “What is more important, vaccine status or immune status?” It is a very simple and obvious question but the fact it is not being asked or explained goes to the issue of honesty and transparency. If a vaccine provides immunity, then the targeted virus will not infect or replicate within a person and thus not be spread to others.

The CDC has admitted the mRNA vaccines do not provide immunity but rather “protection” against serious infection and death. Dr. Fauci has recently stated that in Covid infected patients, nasal viral loads available for transmission to others are similar between the unvaccinated with no prior infection and the vaccinated. Based on this, one could argue the mRNA shots are a “therapy” and not a “vaccine”. This “therapy” may not be all that effective – Israel hospitals have been filled up with sick vaccinated patients and 2/3 of recent Covid deaths in the UK have been in the vaccinated. In both countries, most of the population have been vaccinated and that did not stop the Delta variant surge. Pfizer “effectiveness” is calculated to be down to 39% in the Israeli data and 42% in a Mayo Clinic study.

But here is the salient point about vaccine status vs. immune status: the issue of natural immunity. Natural immunity occurs following an infection with a viral pathogen. Prior to the politics of 2020 and 2021, natural immunity was widely recognized as the most robust and broad immunity one could have. Natural immunity produces mucosal IgA antibodies (stops the infection at the mucosal barrier – nose, mouth, eyes). If the pathogen makes it past the mucosal barrier, internal B cells produce humoral antibodies (IgG and IgM) and cellular immunity is initiated with CD4 and CD8 T cells. The CD4 cells coordinate an immune response and the CD8 T cells are the “killer” cells and attack and destroy cells in our body which have been infected with the virus. Your own cells are destroyed to prevent the virus from using them to make more copies of itself.

And here is the really interesting and important part: after a period of time the B and T cells can transition into a “sentry” mode lasting years to perhaps a lifetime and re-activate if challenged by the virus. Statements that natural immunity is only of a few months duration are ignorant, biased nonsense.

The mRNA shots turn a person’s cells into viral spike protein factories that provoke the immune system to produce humoral antibodies to the specific spike protein encoded by the mRNA. There are no mucosal barrier IgM antibodies produced and the data on CD4 and CD8 T cells is murky at best. One would think all this would have been studied and known in detail prior to unleashing the mRNA injections on an uninformed world. Consequently, we are now having surging Delta variant infections, the appearance of the Mu variant, recommendations for 3rd and 4th and beyond boosters, and thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of injuries attributed to the mRNA shots in our CDC VAERS data and the European monitoring data.

Now that we know all of this, why are we now dividing the country and creating social and financial chaos with vaccine mandates? The “unvaccinated” are not a monolithic group but rather comprised of those who were previously infected and now have natural immunity and those who are infection-naive (no prior SARS Cov 2 infection). Efforts at vaccine encouragement (not mandates) should be directed at the infection-naive who are at risk and have co-morbidities. There now is evidence the mRNA shot, when given to Covid survivors with natural immunity, places them at a several times higher risk for vaccine injury and death. Arterial and venous thrombosis and cytokine storms have been observed. To not recognize those with natural immunity and proceed with discrimination and penalties against them does not acknowledge the science and is illogical, unethical, and immoral.

Hospitals are making the argument that taking the mRNA shot is necessary to prevent over-burdening hospitals with Covid patients. The Israel and UK data mentioned above argue against that and those countries may be a prequel to what is beginning to happen in the U.S. However, educating and encouraging at-risk individuals within the community to take the Pfizer or Moderna shots may lessen the severity of illness presenting to the hospital.

In addition, perhaps hospital administrators and medical staffs could provide bold leadership rather than dutifully following the same CDC “guidance”. There are published studies and protocols from experienced academic and frontline physicians who have demonstrated 85% decrease in hospitalizations and death utilizing re-purposed medications per protocol (see Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance; America’s Frontline Doctors). What if it were only a 25-30% decrease in hospitalizations? Would that not be worthwhile (what do we have to lose)? Why not do an informal observational study with these protocols, including informed consent, on perhaps 25% of Covid patients presenting to the hospital? Expand the percentage if the results are favorable. Following CDC “guidance”, hospitals have been on defense for the past 21 months. How has that been working out? Why not go on offense and try a different therapeutic approach which appears to benefit patients? What do we have to lose?

Reasons given for not trying these protocols have included the drugs are not FDA approved for Covid purposes and there is no CDC approval. Drugs are frequently given “off label” if in the best interest of the patient. As far as CDC protocol “approval”, the CDC provides “guidance” but does not have regulatory power to deny physicians acting in the best interest of a sick patient (“right to try”). In regards to “first do no harm”, the antiviral and anti-inflammatory drugs
re-purposed in these protocols have been given millions of times around the world with virtually no significant complications (“what do we have to lose?”).

Hospitals around the country are also mandating mRNA shots for all their employees and staff.
The uninformed and misinformed might assume that is for the protection of the patients. However, there is no evidence health care workers have been a significant source for Covid spread within a hospital. The CEO at a local hospital recently stated there has been no confirmed case of staff infecting a patient during this pandemic. Temperature assessment and early self-quarantine seems to have been effective.

Also, a high percentage of health care workers are Covid-recovered and have natural immunity. A study by the Cleveland Clinic this year revealed that in approximately 1350 health care workers within the Cleveland Clinic system who had prior infection and no vaccination, there was not a single incidence of SARS-CoV-2 re-infection in a 10 month follow-up. The CDC recently analyzed blood from blood banks and calculated that 83% of the country have antibodies to the Covid virus from either the mRNA shots or from natural immunity. Those with only natural immunity comprised approximately 25% of the total in this study. What happened to the concept of herd immunity?

Mandating mRNA injections in hospital employees and staff will obviously not reduce the number of sick patients presenting to a hospital for diagnosis and treatment. Some within the hospital think it is a symbolic and manipulative gesture aimed at the community and will influence the unvaxxed to obtain the mRNA shot. However, polls have suggested this will be counter-productive as both vaxxed and unvaxxed people in communities realize this mandate will not reduce the surge of Covid patients presenting to a hospital. It will, however, reduce the availability of staff to care for them.

The past 21 months have been a difficult and destructive assault on most of our society but politicians have exploited it for their political benefit. To not recognize that is naive. Most would agree this virus and the global response to it is very fluid and dynamic. What was thought to be true 6 months ago is not true now, and 6 months (or 3 or 1) months from now, it will probably evolve into something else. In the midst of all this dynamic change, at a very fundamental level it does not seem ethical or moral to mandate this drug be injected into our bodies. That precedent and the effects of the drug will be forever; the virus probably will not.

Jack C. Askins, M.D.

Note:
1. This paper is not written as an anti-vaccine statement and should not be taken as such. High-risk people who have not been previously infected with the Covid virus should be encouraged (not mandated) to take the mRNA shot as it may reduce the severity of an infection and help avoid death, if infected. Mandates and not recognizing the immune status of those previously infected are issues contributing to the mistrust and division within our country. A very large portion of this nation feels like they have been enrolled into a vast experiment involving masks, vaccines, and mandates without their informed consent. Medical science is strongest and innovation occurs when diversity of opinion and criticism are encouraged. That is why Morbidity & Mortality conferences and peer review of journal articles are the historical norm within the practice of medicine. Critical analysis and alternative thought and opinion are now being persecuted and silenced. No matter how one feels about vaccines and mandates and alternative treatments, the silencing and persecution of critical thought and opinion will strangle medical innovation and further divide our country.

2. This was written in a simplistic and conversational style as one would have when speaking with a patient or a poorly informed physician colleague. Considerable technical detail was excluded and references were not formally listed as this obviously is not intended for submission to a journal. The Israel and UK data are easily found with an on-line search and the original papers and articles are available. The same is true of the Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic studies and statements by Dr. Fauci and Rochelle Walensky and the CDC.

Jack C. Askins, M.D.

“Dr. Jack Askins is a cardiologist in Wichita Falls, TX. This is the first article in a series of four he has authored that we intend to publish here. His reasoned scientific voice needs to be heard during these times as the COVID-19 Vaccines have become politicized through government mandates. We are encouraged by his boldness and expertise that he brings to the subject.” 

Robert Spencer: Biden’s Team of Israel-Haters 4 (1)

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by Robert Spencer

Would a supporter of Israel really fill his foreign policy staff with those who hate the Jewish State?

Just days after Joe Biden was inaugurated, pro-Erdogan Turkish journalist Hakkı Öcal, according to Ahval News, “highlighted a report on the strong presence of Jews in the cabinet of U.S. President Joe Biden.” The report claimed that there was an “over 50 percent Jewish presence in the new U.S. cabinet,” and pointed Secretary of State Antony Blinken and CIA Deputy Director David Cohen, among others. But Öcal was off base: among Biden’s handlers, Jewish and non-Jewish, there are few, if any, staunch friends of Israel. After just a few months in office, it was clear that Joe Biden’s handlers’ administration was shaping up to be the most anti-Israel presidency since the founding of the modern State of Israel.

Robert Malley, Special Envoy to Iran, has become notorious over the years for his support for Iran’s Islamic regime and pronounced distaste for Israel. The Washington Times revealed in February 2021 that back in July 2019, “Iran’s smooth, English-speaking foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, met with Robert Malley, who was President Obama’s Middle East adviser, in an apparent bid to undermine the Trump team and lay the groundwork for post-Trump relations.”

Malley was a good choice for such an assignment. An Israeli security official noted in February 2008 that Malley “has expressed sympathy to Hamas and Hizbullah and offered accounts of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that don’t jibe with the facts.” Obama dropped Malley in May 2008 after it came to light that he had met with representatives of Hamas, but six months later sent him as an envoy to Egypt and Syria.

Meanwhile, Reema Dodin is a deputy director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs. According to the Jerusalem Post, “during the Second Intifada, in 2002, Dodin spoke about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with residents of Lodi, California, saying that ‘suicide bombers were the last resort of a desperate people.’” Also, “in 2001, Dodin took part in a demonstration at UC Berkeley calling for the university to divest from Israel….The demonstrators compared Israel to apartheid South Africa.”

In a similar vein, Biden’s handlers appointed Maher Bitar the Senior Director for Intelligence on the National Security Council. In 2006, while a student at Georgetown University, Bitar was a member of the executive board of the viciously pro-jihad, anti-Israel Students for Justice in Palestine, and was seen dancing in front of a banner that said “Divest from Israel Apartheid.”

The Deputy Secretary of State is Wendy Sherman, who was the lead negotiator of Barack Obama’s disastrous nuclear deal with Iran. The State Department’s undersecretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights is Uzra Zeya. According to the Jewish News Service, Zeya “worked for the magazine Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and its publishing group, American Educational Trust. The Washington Report has questioned the loyalty American Jews have to the United States; published accusations against the ‘Jewish lobby’; claimed American Jews control the media; and accused the Mossad of perpetrating the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy and the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.”

The Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israel-Palestine is Hady Amr. In an unhinged 2002 rant, Amr repeated Palestinian jihad propaganda, declaring: “I have news for every Israeli: a very large proportion of the more than 150 million children and youth in the Arab World now have televisions, and they will never, never forget what the Israeli people, the Israeli military and Israeli democracy have done to Palestinian children.”

Undersecretary of Defense for Policy is Colin Kahl. According to Israel Hayom, “Kahl has quite the anti-Israel record. He thinks the bombing of the nuclear reactor in Iraq was 1981 was a mistake. In 2012, he acted to remove recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital from the Democratic party’s platform. In 2015, he was among those to formulate the Iran nuclear deal. In 2016, at the end of his term, then-US President Barack Obama tasked him with enlisting support for the anti-Israel UN Security Council Resolution 2334 that determined Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria were a violation of international law.”

Have Biden’s handlers appointed a balancing group of strong supporters of Israel, who will move to prevent this unsavory group (which is larger than just those named here) from disrupting America’s relationship with its strongest, most reliable ally in the West? Is there any brake to the ability of the anti-Israel group in Biden’s administration to force Israel to make potentially life-threatening concessions to the Palestinian jihad force. The answer to both questions is no.

FPM: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/04/bidens-team-israel-haters-robert-spencer/

Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of 21 books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His latest book is Rating America’s Presidents: An America-First Look at Who Is Best, Who Is Overrated, and Who Was An Absolute Disaster. Follow him on Twitter here. 

Bill Lockwood: Herod’s Throne at Machaerus 4 (1)

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by Bill Lockwood

John the Baptist was imprisoned and beheaded by Herod Antipas (Mark 6:14-29; Matt. 14:1-12). The territory of Antipas included the Trans-Jordan district where was located the famous fortress called “Machaerus.” It was here that John was imprisoned, according to Josephus (Antiquities 18:116-119). Eusebius, a later Christian historian, corroborates the location.

The fortress of Machaerus (Greek word meaning “sword”) was originally built by the Hasmonean Alexander Jannaeus in 90 B.C., destroyed by the Roman general Gabinius in 57 B.C., transformed into a royal palace and city by King Herod the Great in 30 B.C., and destroyed by the Nabatean king Aretas IV in AD 36.  A post-Herodian fortress was reconstructed by Judean rebels during their final war with Rome.

The fortress was located on a hilltop east of the Dead Sea, providing a panoramic view all the way to Jericho and the Temple of Jerusalem, Masada to the south, and even to a well north of Jericho overlooking the Jordan Valley.

Machaerus was said to be the second most fortified place in Israel in the time of Christ, only behind Jerusalem. Destroyed by the Romans in the winter of 71/72 A.D., the post-Herodian Machaerus disappeared from the maps for nearly two millennia.

The fascinating element of this biblical site is that its ruins have been excavated by archaeologists for the past fifty years. Its once magnificent 7,000 square-foot royal courtyard complete with a throne-niche, where once sat Herod the Great as well as Antipas, has now seen the light of day. With the assistance of modern technology that is able to trace and even project the figures of the buildings, it is almost as if one is stepping back into a 2,000-year-old time capsule.

Biblical figures come to life. Herod the Great, his son Tetrarch Herod Antipas and his second wife, Princess Herodias, her daughter Princess Salome, and of course, the one and only John the Baptist. Remarkable reconstruction models are found in Biblical Archaeology Review.

John L. Kachelman, Jr.: Pollyanna or Phinehas—Reality Refused or Reality Realized! 4.5 (2)

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by John Kachelman, Jr.

Reality…accept it or deny it…

An amazing irony is observed in one’s choice to live a life of denial. It is personally satisfying to ignore reality and believe the convenient. It is easier to excuse personal duty when you refuse to admit reality. It is tempting to sit back and “wait” for someone else to “fix” the problem. It is soothing to say, “Well let’s just pray about it and not say anything!” What is actually being said by that ridiculous comment is that if we close our eyes and refuse to listen to facts, then it will all “go away.” But…reality will not go away!

This article is asking the question, do you refuse reality OR do you realize reality?

Buchenwald was one of the largest concentration camps in the German Democratic Socialist governing system. It was the first camp to be liberated by American troops. Just outside the barbed-wire fence was a thriving town (Weimar, Germany) whose population went about its daily schedule and never noticed the horrors that they saw. General Eisenhower forced the town citizens to march through the camp’s horrors and look at what they had permitted.

The citizens of Weimar, Germany lived a life of reality’s denial. Their denial brought catastrophic results and, frighteningly, these catastrophes lay in the immediate future of our nation.

Scripture stresses that mankind must accept and confront reality so God’s Law is honored. Look at a few of the many verses:

• Exodus 32: 25, 26, “Moses saw that the people were out of control…then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!”

• 1 Chronicles 26:14, “Zechariah, a counselor with insight”

• Ezra 8:18, Sherebiah “a man of insight of the sons of Mahli”

• Proverbs 12:8, “A man will be praised according to his insight”

My personal favorite is 1 Chronicles 12:32, “The sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do.”

This is reality today…your nation is perched precariously on the precipice of catastrophe. Our nation needs an unquestioned majority of those mimicking the sons of Issachar “who understand the times and with knowledge of what the USA should do!” This is the reality that YOU must either refuse or realize.

Two personality types deal with reality. These are life’s perspective in opposite ways. You are one or the other.

The first is “Pollyanna.” The term is from Eleanor H. Porter’s 1913 novel. This novel focuses on an orphan named Pollyanna. She has an unrealistic optimistic attitude. It is an entertaining and escapist read BUT it is a totally banal possibility for reality. It refers to a person who is excessively and blindly optimistic person. Thus, it identifies one who is unreasonable and illogically optimistic. Such a person is a fool, an idiot and a coward.

Modern psychology has identified the Pollyanna syndrome as “an excessively or blindly optimistic person who refuses to accept reality.” They say “Well things are not so bad.” These refuse to look at reality. The syndrome describes the difference between an ineffective and an effective approach to problem solving; the difference between escaping responsibilities from delusionary optimism and being realistic about personal duty to challenge reality.

The “Pollyannas” of this world threaten responsible living. Such offers no specific counsel but only generalities that can be understood in various ways. These remain silent “but prayerful.” They utilize “prayer” as a convenient amulet or talisman for dismissing the “bad situation” being discussed. These profess confidence in God BUT they fail to put faith into practice—they fail to uphold and bind God’s Laws. James asks this group, “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?” (2:14). If you have faith that God will overcome then you will be active in that belief and aggressively seek God’s righteousness in reality (James 2:17, “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself”).

A Pollyannaish character embraces compromise that leads to disaster. Such people are unreasonable, illogical and subversive to reality. These are NOT the characters you want by your side in war. Victory is assured to those who are boldly confident and aggressively active in their faith in the Almighty God. This brings us to the next personality…

The second is Phinehas. He was the son of Eleazer and the grandson of Aaron. This is a man of heroic statute. When God’s enemies tried to compromise Israel and bring the nation to ruin, they first hired Baalam to curse the nation. But God turned Baalam’s curses into blessings. Baalam was dismissed but as he left, he advised how Israel could be compromised. The narrative states, “the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab. For they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So, Israel joined themselves to Baal of Peor, and the Lord was angry against Israel” (Numbers 25:1-3).

The compromise of Israel at Peor was devastating. The flagrant anarchy was shocking. No authority was respected. The population was in chaos. The existence of Israel as a nation was “hanging by a thread.”

There was consternation in the nation. People were upset at what was happening. Numbers 25:6 describes a large group standing at the Tabernacle. They were witnessing the disintegration of their society. Their culture was unraveling before their eyes. They were weeping. They were whining. They were asking “What is happening! What can we do!” They were wringing their hands in nervous anxiety and shaking their heads in dismay. Even Moses was present but inactive. No one was trying to correct the issue. The only action was crying, wringing hands, shaking heads, perplexing words and an overwhelming sense of defeat.

In the midst of the anarchy and hopelessness, “when Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he arose from the midst of the congregation and took a spear in his hand, and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and pierced both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman, through the body. So the plague on the sons of Israel was checked” (Numbers 25:7-8).

Phinehas realized the reality of his situation. His faith prodded him to confront reality. His heroic faith saved his nation and glorified God.

He was aggressive; he was realistic; he was bold; he refused to cower to the prevailing actions; he refused to be intimidated by the compromised majority. He was steadfast in his faith in the Almighty God. This faith refused to be intimidated or silenced.

He took the initiative.

Phinehas understood that he must recognize reality. He did not seek a comfortable excuse to avoid being involved. He did not hide behind a Pollyanna optimism that God will suddenly pop up and put an end to the anarchy.

Phinehas took the initiative, realized the reality of his nation’s sin and anarchy, and acted with bold aggression. Because of this he is held in great esteem throughout the Scripture. He is a hero NOT because he was timid and nice BUT because he was upholding God’s righteous Law.

Here is how Inspiration memorializes this hero, “Phinehas stood up and interposed, and so the plague was stayed. And it was reckoned to him for righteousness, to all generations forever” (Psalm 106:30-31). Phineas saved his nation not by being “nice” to the anarchists but by upholding God’s righteousness.

The United States of America needs citizens who are like Phinehas NOT as Pollyanna. Our nation desperately needs citizens aggressively standing for God’s righteousness. Our nation needs voices boldly proclaiming and defending biblical truth. Our nation seeks the heroic hearts that are more concerned about upholding righteous morality and individual freedom instead of being “nice” and ignoring flagrant blasphemy that is known to them.

The presence of a Pollyanna is entertaining and it is an escape from reality. It is comfortable and convenient. It is “nice.” But you cannot survive in such a delusional existence. The Pollyannaish perspective is criminal; it is inhumane; it is ungodly; it is cowardly. During the horrors of the German National Socialist governing the general population lived in a Pollyannaish delusion. They refused to look at the reality of the evil surrounding them. As the daily purging of the “deplorables” continued, the residents of Weimer, Germany awoke each day to milk their cows, till their gardens, work their jobs and enjoy their families. Within easy eyesight were the walls of Buchenwald that held unfathomable horrors. They would hear rumors but conveniently dismissed these saying “Oh where is your proof? You are always looking at the negative. You are not being nice.” But they could not escape reality for very long with such Pollyannaish dismissals.

The real issue asks, “Are YOU a Phinehas or a Pollyanna?”

As you consider the points above, I ask, “Where are YOU with the reality of our nation today? Are you more concerned with being ‘nice’ and silent or are you striving to teach God’s righteousness? As you observe family, friends, and associates whose behavior, words and attitudes are contrary to God’s righteousness, do you respond as Pollyanna or Phinehas?”

This is YOUR reality…your nation is being decimated; morality is nonexistent; politicians refuse to condemn violence, rioting, looting and murder. YOU have family, friends and associates who have thrown away God’s righteousness to accept a personal anarchy. You cannot casually dismiss their behavior and be excused just as Weimar’s population could never excuse their silent approval of Buchenwald.

Are you a Pollyanna or a Phinehas?

Exactly what will Inspiration say about the way you refused reality or realized reality?

This is where YOU are today…your nation is perched precariously on the precipice of catastrophe. Current polls have the Dems winning both Houses of Congress and the Presidency. I pray the polls are significantly wrong and that God’s Providence will provide for us to continue as “one nation under God.”

Our nation needs an unquestioned majority of those mimicking the sons of Issachar “who understand the times and with knowledge of what the USA should do!” This is the reality that YOU must choose so that Inspiration will memorialize your life with the same compliment earned by Phinehas.

Plutarch’s Parallel Lives records the history of a General Lucius Cornelius Sylla. His general appearance was foreboding. He was of unusual height, had piercing blue eyes, and his face’s complexion was described as “white with blotches of fiery red.” He was a commander who was followed by committed troops. He held a “vehement and implacable desire” to conquer Athens, and he did so. On one maneuver he prepared siege to a city. He directed his troops to divert the River Cephisus. The troops were obedient to the order but they really desired to attack the enemy. Sylla pointed them to the most difficult position that had to be taken and told them to show their valor by their actions. The spirit of the men and their devotion to their Commander carried them forward and in spite of the difficulties, the victory was won. The moral of that historic victory must not be lost in our current situation. A courageous spirit is half of the battle won and often the courageous wins unexpected successes! It is this heroic courage and unquestioned commitment to our Commander that identifies us as “Phinehas.” This illustrates well Inspiration’s words, “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7).

John Kachelman, Jr. is a Christian patriot, preacher, and missionary for Jesus Christ to foreign countries. He lives in Montgomery, AL.

Bill Lockwood: Multiculturalism Destroys America 0 (0)

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by Bill Lockwood

First century Israel was a mixing pot of a variety of cultures. Ever since the fourth century B.C. the nation had been engulfed by Hellenization brought about by the Macedonian general, Alexander the Great. This western culture was completely different from the Asian world.

One of the most shocking elements of that Greek culture was the building of a gymnasium in Jerusalem where athletes would perform in the nude. “So they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem according to Gentile custom … They joined with the Gentiles and sold themselves to do evil.” So wrote the Maccabees (1 Macc. 1:14-15).

Rome
Then in 63 B.C. the Roman general Pompey took over the old Seleucid Empire of Syria. He defeated the forces of Antioch and stormed down toward Jerusalem. Thus began the turbulent rule of Rome over Judea.

The Romans appointed John Hyrcanus II as High Priest—a sacrilege to the Old Testament that mandated a son of Aaron to be priest for life. They also confirmed Antipater, an Idumean, to be the royal official representing Rome. It was his son, Herod the Great, who killed all the babes of Bethlehem at the birth of Christ.

With an Idumean line of kings ruling over the nation and its lands; and Hellenization of customs, language, habits, foods, and entertainment; and Rome overseeing the entire with its standing army stationed throughout Israel, which was deeply resented by the Jews; the stage was set for a huge conflict of cultures.

The chaos that ensued is well-known. Wracked by differences so wide as to never hope for healing, the Jews themselves were practically exterminated by Rome at the holocaust of 70 A.D. Rome was tired of the constant inner struggles and civil unrest that seemed to be the hallmark of Israel.

America
Rick Santorum, former candidate for president of the United States, related that his grandfather came from Fascist Italy to come to America to work in the coalmines of western Pennsylvania. Like most immigrants, he believed in the American ideal; that all men were created equal.

However, Santorum warns, “as a result of multicultural relativism, we fear seeing the American aspiration eroded, our common purpose lost, and the ‘re-appearing of tyranny and oppression’ that is not only poised against us abroad but is also pointing its dagger at us here at home.”

The real culprit here is the philosophy of multiculturalism. It threatens to destroy our once solid nation, just as it did Israel of old.

“The Master Principle” of our nation, as Dan Smoot wrote in 1994, is Christianity. The organic documents of our government—the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, are based upon its presuppositions. Assimilation to these fundamental principles proved to be the glue that held diverse peoples and groups together.

Multiculturalism, however, which is being drummed into our students from elementary school through collegiate training, seeks to dissolve this glue by its flagrant teaching of relativism.

Charles A. Tesconi, dean of the College of Education at the University of Vermont, relates the following. “As a descriptor, multiculturalism points to a condition of numerous life-styles, values, and belief systems. By treating diverse cultural groups and ways of life as equally legitimate, by teaching about them in positive ways, legitimizing differences through various education policies and practices, self-understanding, self-esteem, intergroup understanding and harmony, and equal opportunity are promoted.”

As Alex Newman and Samuel Blumenfeld remark here, this “multicultural education embraces much more than mere cultural pluralism or ethnic diversity. It legitimizes different lifestyles and values systems, thereby legitimizing moral diversity—which is simply moral anarchy” (Crimes of the Educators, p. 229).

The concept of moral diversity “directly contradicts the biblical concept of moral absolutes based on the Ten Commandments, on which this nation was founded.”

Anarchy
As Newman and Blumenfeld state above, multiculturalism has led to anarchy. Lawlessness. And this itself, as if it is a legitimate philosophy, is being peddled in the university classroom. Liberal professorships across academia have routinely churned out young radical revolutionaries ready to revamp America.

Dr. Nathan Jun, for example, professor of Philosophy at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, TX, has specialized in Anarchist Studies. He has published numerous articles in Anarchist journals. Anarchist Studies, Radical Philosophy Review, and The Journal of Political Ideologies included among them. He is author of Anarchy and Political Modernity (2011).

He has written that “classical anarchism is arguably the first political postmodernism.” Postmodernism, of course, completely severs the concept of values and morality from any eternal standard. Nothing is right; nothing is wrong.
If one thinks this is simply an esoteric academic teaching that has no relevance to the current troubled America, Dr. Jun’s Facebook page features an “Abolish the Police” poster.

Christopher F. Rufo, a contributing editor of City Journal, writes that “The latest call to action from some criminal-justice activists: ‘Abolish the Police.’” Advocates and activists press not just to reform the police, but to do away with it altogether. It is a “concrete policy goal” of anarchists that has infected mainstream American radicals from Seattle to Boston.

“Police abolitionists believe that they stand at the vanguard of a new idea, but this strain of thought dates to the eighteenth-century philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who believed that stripping away the corruptions of civilization would liberate the goodness of man.”

This, of course, is nonsense. As Jun himself demonstrates, when anyone, even with legitimate questions on his Facebook thread asks why, in these days of violence, should we “abolish the police,” he tells them to “F____ off.” So much for “liberating the goodness of man.”

Pamela Geller: The Ground Zero Mosque Project Is Back 0 (0)

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by Pamela Geller

Lest we forget, the building of the intended “Islamic center” was destroyed in the 911 Islamic attacks. Human remains were found on the site. 9/11 families were joined by immigrants from India, Russia, Egypt, Israel, Africa, Iran and Europe to show opposition to the construction of a mega-mosque at our protest at Ground Zero. Others flew in from overseas to speak or just to share their particular ethnic communities’ experiences at the hands of moslems.

The news was buried under two dense paragraphs and five large photos in an article in New York YIMBY about a different project: “Construction has also yet to begin on 51 Park Place, which is slated to become a 71-foot-tall, 16,000-square-foot Islamic cultural center.”  The infamous Ground Zero Mosque project, a long buried effort to build a triumphal mosque at the site of the worst jihad terror attack in American history, is back.

Construction has yet to begin, but it will: the shady developer behind the Ground Zero Mosque scheme, Sharif El-Gamal, has been working to build this sinister structure for years.

We defeated the Ground Zero Mosque project once before.  The 16-story mosque that El-Gamal initially planned to build there has not been built.  Our efforts in showing what an insult it was to the American people and to the victims of 9/11, and how many Muslims worldwide would inevitably view it as a triumphal mosque built on the site of a jihad attack, defeated it.  Tens of thousands of people came out for our rallies in lower Manhattan against this celebration of this 9/11 attacks, and El-Gamal was beaten in the court of public opinion.

It was a long battle.  President Obama announced his support for the mosque at an Iftar dinner, no less.  Then-mayor of New York City and current presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg supported the mosque as well, claiming hysterically that “if we don’t build it, the terrorists will win!”  The media actively campaigned for it — the elites in their increasingly fragile ivory towers relentlessly stumped for the Cordoba mosque (euphemistically called an Islamic center with a prayer space) for years.

And yet despite all this opposition and much more, the people stood up and fought the Ground Zero Mosque and won.  An army of Davids.

But that wasn’t the end of the story.  Crains New York reported on El-Gamal’s new project in 2015 in a story that demonstrated how the developer was hoping to sneak his triumphal mosque into existence: “Mr. El-Gamal’s Soho Properties has proposed a 667-foot condominium tower at lower Manhattan’s 45 Park Place.  The glass skyscraper, which has yet to break ground, will include at least 15 full-floor units of 3,200 to 3,700 square feet, and average prices higher than $3,000 a square foot, according to plans released to Bloomberg by the developer.”

That sounded normal enough.  But then the article added: “Adjacent to the tower, Soho Properties will build a public plaza connected to a three-story Islamic museum and prayer space.”  An Islamic prayer space is a mosque.  The article also said: “An Islamic museum ‘is just as much of an insult,’ Pamela Geller, a blogger and one of the center’s most vocal opponents, wrote in an email.  ‘It will be like having a museum touting the glories of the Japanese Empire at Pearl Harbor.’”

I think an Islamic museum at Ground Zero dedicated to the half-billion victims of jihadi wars, land appropriations, sharia, cultural annihilations, enslavements, and sharia enforcement is an excellent idea, but is that what Sharif El-Gamal had in mind?  Of course not.  And how did El-Gamal plan to finance this?  The answer was predictable.  The New York Post reported in May 2016 that “the developer of the failed Ground Zero Mosque has nailed down ‘Sharia-compliant financing’ for a new, luxury condominium tower and Islamic cultural museum on the same site, he and his banking partners said.”

Then in May 2017, the New York Times ran a story entitled “Condo Tower to Rise Where Muslim Community Center Was Proposed.”  The Times said that “45 Park Place, a 43-story condominium that will soon rise three blocks from the World Trade Center,” was “something of a consolation prize for the developer,” as it “replaces the developer’s 2010 plan to build a 15-story Islamic mosque and cultural center on this site, an idea that erupted into a national controversy and cable news network bonanza.”

In the last couple of years, there has been virtually no news about this “Islamic museum.”  But the New York YIMBY story shows that the project has been advancing under cover of darkness.  A 71-foot-tall structure is three stories high, as in the revised plans announced in 2015.

El-Gamal has many friends and allies among New York City’s political and media elites.  It is likely that de Blasio city officials and the New York Times and other city papers all met with El-Gamal and agreed to keep the reporting on this project to an absolute minimum, so that it could get built without incurring the righteous anger of the public again.  The first time around, they courted publicity and tried to make El-Gamal a hero.  We demolished that and destroyed their plans.  So now they’ve clearly decided to go ahead surreptitiously.

It is disgusting that El-Gamal continues to taunt Americans and poke at America’s most egregious recent memory.  El-Gamal was there when we had tens of thousands in the streets opposing his Ground Zero mosque.  He knows how angry and upset people get at these Islamic structures on the site of jihad war.  The 9/11 Muslim terrorists extolled Allah no fewer than 90 times in their last letters.  Will those letters be on display at this Islamic cultural center/museum?

There is an important lesson to be learned here — and one we would be wise to adopt.  They never stop.  No matter how absolutely they lose, how many setbacks they suffer, they keep on pursuing their supremacist goals.

The Ground Zero Mosque project was and is a middle finger to the American people.  There has never been a mosque of reconciliation and healing built on the site of a jihadi attack.  Ever.  It is, on the other hand, an Islamic pattern to build triumphal mosques on the cherished sites of conquered lands.  History is riddled with triumphal mosques built on the sites of jihad attacks or appropriated from other religions: the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque on the site of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, and innumerable mosques built on the sites of Hindu temples that were demolished by Muslims all attest to that.

And now it looks as if Sharif El-Gamal is going to be able to build his own triumphal mosque at Ground Zero after all.

GR: https://gellerreport.com/2019/12/gzm-back.html/

Pamela Geller is the founder, editor and publisher of The Geller Report and President of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) and Stop Islamization of America (SIOA). She is the author of Fatwa: Hunted in America (foreword by Geert Wilders) (Dangerous Books), The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America (foreword by Ambassador John Bolton) (Simon & Schuster) and Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance (WND Books). She is also a regular columnist for numerous publications.

Bill Lockwood: Was Jesus a “Refugee?” 0 (0)

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by Bill Lockwood

As reported by CNN, a Methodist church in California is displaying a nativity scene depicting Jesus, Mary and Joseph as refugees in cages to “draw attention to the conditions faced by migrants seeking asylum in the United States.” The Claremont United Methodist Church, which is about 30 miles east of Los Angeles, “posted the photo on its website showing the three held in separate cages topped with barbed wire. The baby Jesus is wrapped in a silver foil blanket.” The “lead pastor” Karen Clark Ristine told CNN that “we thought about the most famous refugee family in the world.”

The United Methodist Church, ever ready to warp biblical narratives into liberal political messages, has displayed a stunning ignorance of the Bible. As Gary DeMar observes, “Leftists have little regard for the Bible unless it can be used to scold Christians for judging righteously … and to support socialism based on a passage about voluntary giving (Acts 2:42-45; 4:32-35).”

As I wrote in a former article, there are several biblical considerations that need be made. (1) God Himself established borders of nations. Read Acts 17:26. (2) God demanded that Old Testament Israel respect the borders of other nations. God gave Mt. Seir to Esau and his descendants for a “possession.” Therefore, Israel, when coming out of Egypt, was not to cross it (Deuteronomy. 2:5). The same regarded Israel’s respect of Moab’s borders.

(3) Once settled in Canaan, the Israelites were sternly warned to “drive the Canaanites out.” The stated reason for this was to preserve the culture of Israel (Numbers. 33:51,52). (4) Even Abraham was deported once it was discovered that he lied to border agents. Read Genesis 12. (5) Regarding Jesus and the holy family, as DeMar notes, they were living within the confines of the Roman Empire. Egypt was part of the Roman Empire at the time of Jesus’ birth. Their escape from Bethlehem was only to another Roman Province. (6) Another command given to Joseph and Mary was that they were to return to their homeland after the death of Herod (Matthew. 2:20). DeMar asks, “How many refugees return to their home nations after entering the United States?”

Hugh Fitzgerald: The Israeli Air Force “Mows the Lawn” in Gaza 0 (0)

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by Hugh Fitzgerald

In Gaza, on November 11, having endured many attacks on its civilians by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Israel struck at the terror group with pinpoint accuracy, firing a missile at a particular room on the third floor of a residential building, which turned out to be the very bedroom of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander in northern Gaza, Baha Abu al-Ata, killing only him and his wife. Confirming his death, a PIJ spokesman said he was just about to undertake “a heroic jihadist action.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Abu al-Ata an “arch-terrorist” and said he was “the main instigator of terrorism from the Gaza Strip. He initiated, planned and carried out many terrorist attacks. He fired hundreds of rockets at communities in the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip, whose suffering we have seen,” he told a news conference in Tel Aviv. “He was in the midst of planning additional attacks in the immediate short term. He was a ticking bomb.”

The PIJ is the second-largest terrorist group in Gaza, and also has offices abroad  in Damascus, Tehran, and Khartoum. It is even more extreme than its rival Hamas, in that – unlike Hamas — it refuses even to consider a ceasefire, and it has recently been firing hundreds of rockets into southern Israel, always into civilian areas, in its determination to prevent a shaky ceasefire between Hamas and Israel from taking hold. Israel has previously held Hamas accountable for attacks by the PIJ, and would attack Hamas targets in retaliation for PIJ rocket attacks on Israeli towns and cities. The idea was to inflict so much pain on Hamas that it would then target PIJ in Gaza itself, to prevent its attacking Israel. But now, with the killing of Baba Anu al-Ata, Israel appears to have concluded that Hamas has been not unwilling but, rather, unable to halt PIJ attacks on Israel, so the IDF will have to do the job itself. The Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Lt Gen Aviv Kochavi, said that Abu al-Ata had undermined recent efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which runs Gaza and is considered a rival to PIJ.

An hour after the Israelis announced the attack on Abu al-Ata in northern Gaza, an Israeli plane fired two rockets at the house of Akram al-Ajouri, a senior member of the terror group PIJ, in the Mezzeh area of Damascus. Al-Ajouri managed to survive, but his son and Ajouri’s bodyguard were killed.

What do these attacks signify? First, that Israel wants to do its utmost to ensure that no innocents are harmed. In both cases, the rockets struck with pinpoint accuracy. In Gaza, not only did the IDF manage to limit the attack to Abu al-Ata’s apartment on the third floor, but, with even greater accuracy, to the very bedroom where he and his wife were sleeping. In Damascus, a similar surgical strike on the home of Al-Ajouri killed only his son and his bodyguard. Many hours later, the Syrians claimed that Al-Ajouri’s granddaughter had also been killed; it’s unclear if this is true, or if it was fabricated in an attempt to elicit more anger against Israel.

Compare these Israeli strikes to how the PIJ struck back. In just the six hours after the killing of Abu al-Ata, PIJ fired more than 170 rockets into civilian areas of Israel. Workplaces and schools were shut down as far north as Tel Aviv. There was no attempt by PIJ to hit a particular target, no “pinpoint accuracy” to these attacks; every Israeli in southern and central Israel was a potential target, including those in the country’s hub, Tel Aviv. Half the country closed down, including schools and workplaces from Tel Aviv south; with sirens intermittently sounding, and people taking cover on the streets or in one of the many bomb shelters that Israelis have built everywhere in their permanently imperiled country

Israel has now retaliated, in turn, for those PIJ rocket attacks. It did not do so right away, holding its fire for six hours, possibly in the hope that after the targeted killings, and having vented its anger with its volley of rockets, the PIJ might rethink its strategy. But it was not to be: and so, with 160 rockets having been fired at Israel, the IAF finally struck back, only at strictly military targets of the PIJ. The IAF hit arms warehouses, a training center for Islamic Jihad’s naval force, a shaft of a PIJ terror tunnel in northern Gaza, and a digging site of another PIJ terror tunnel in the central Strip. Only five people have been reported killed in those attacks, all of them PIJ terrorists. Here, again, in Gaza, the IAF has shown itself to be exceedingly accurate, with no civilian deaths among the Palestinians reported so far.

Israel, meanwhile, has also been careful not to hit a single target belonging to Hamas. Israelis have rethought their previous strategy of holding Hamas responsible for attacks by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and attacking it after enduring attacks by PIJ. Israeli commanders have become convinced that Hamas is trying, but not succeeding, in preventing PIJ from launching its rockets. So Israel briefly decided to return – but has made clear it is doing so only temporarily — to its former policy of “targeted assassinations,” that it used to employ with such effect against Hamas. The IDF is trying to deal forcefully and quickly with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, by cutting off the “head of the snake” – that is, killing its military commander in Gaza, Baha Abu al-Ata, and, in Damascus, the head of its political wing, Akram Al-Ajouri. It wants to weaken Palestinian Jihad, perhaps enough to encourage Hamas to finish the job the IAF has begun, and to return to trying to keep alive the tentative ceasefire that Egypt has been brokering between Israel and Hamas.

As the battle goes on, and both sides have already been “urged to exercise restraint” by the U.N., note that “restraint” is exactly what Israel has always been exercising, in these surgical strikes against PIJ leaders and military targets. It is the PIJ that has never exercised “restraint” in its attacks on Israelis, consistently shooting its rockets into Israeli civilian areas. If it has not caused more civilian casualties, it’s not for want of trying.

The remaining leadership of PIJ remains defiant, and issued a statement promising that “Our inevitable retaliation will rock the Zionist entity.” So far that “inevitable retaliation” has not led to any Israeli deaths, but only to fewer than a dozen wounded. This low number testifies to the efficacy of the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system, the country’s excellent warning system, and the shelters that are found  everywhere in Israel.

Hamas, the Palestinian organization that administers the Gaza Strip, said Israel “bears full responsibility for all consequences of this escalation,” and promised Abu al-Ata’s death “will not go unpunished.” This is the minimum that could be expected from Hamas, which though secretly pleased at the damage done to its rival, must pretend to be outraged by Israel’s attacks. It is noticeable that Hamas did not fire any retaliatory rockets itself, nor did it state that it would participate in “punishing” Israel. If Abu al-Ata’s death “will not go unpunished,” apparently Hamas will not be among those doing the punishing. Hamas could have said that “we will help punish Israel for its murder of Abu al-Ata,” but did not. That’s a significant public breach between Hamas and PIJ. How long Hamas will wait, until itself taking on the much-weakened PIJ, in order to assure itself that the ceasefire with Israel will hold, is anyone’s guess. The Israelis hope it is soon. They would themselves re-enter Gaza, to crush all the terrorists, what they call “mowing the lawn,” only most reluctantly. Hamas cannot afford to behave like PIJ, oblivious to the consequences of its acts, and willing to endlessly attack Israel even if the IDF’s retaliation is always more punishing than anything the PIJ can inflict. For Hamas is now more than a terrorist group; it bears all the responsibilities of rule in Gaza. And that includes trying to maintain the ceasefire with Israel, brokered by Egypt, for as long as it serves its interests.

Why do Israelis call these actions taken against the terrorists “mowing the lawn”? It’s because they know it is only a temporary solution to a permanent problem. The terrorists may be cut down, but will always reappear, like a lawn that regrows after being mowed. The Jihad, the Israelis know, is permanent. It’s been going on, somewhere in the world, for the past 1,400 years. If only the people in the chanceries of the West, so quick to round on Israel for daring to defend itself, could grasp that simple fact.

JW: https://www.jihadwatch.org/category/hugh-fitzgerald

Hugh Fitzgerald is a student of history and literature, primarily of America and Europe. He admires Jacques Barzun, J. D. Salinger, and Alan Bennett, reads dictionaries for profit and pleasure, and finds particularly appealing the words “recompense,” “quondam,” “magari,” and “degringolade.”

By far the best way to reach Hughun is through the offices at Jihad Watch. Fitzgerald has an email account, the address of which is hughfitz123@msn.com.

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