That would be the 2016 “Field Guide” written by Mark Potok that they created to try to silence voices they disapprove of (yours truly is on it!).
Tag: Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society
SPLC takes down their "Field Guide" to anti-Muslim extremists
Possibly getting wind of an upcoming lawsuit the Southern Poverty Law Center has apparently blinked and removed their October 2016 “Field Guide,” that included yours truly, from their website.
The Field Guide was meant to let the media know who they were supposed to shun when seeking comment on anything to do with Islam.
If you visit my post on the ‘honor’ here you will see that the link to the news no longer works.
However, as pointed out by National Review writer Jack Crowe, the pdf version is still available. Download it now for further reference!
The list of “extremists” besides me, included: Steve Emerson, Brigitte Gabriel, Frank Gaffney, Pamela Geller, John Guandolo, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, David Horowitz, Ryan Mauro, Robert Muise, Maajid Nawas, Daniel Pipes, Walid Shoebat, Robert Spencer, and David Yerushalmi.
As I said previously, I don’t really belong in such an august group. My real ‘sin’ is that I was getting under the skin of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, one of the nine major federal refugee contractors***, and a close ally of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
On learning of the honor, I said this:
By the way, it was a study by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, here in 2013, that directed the SPLC to focus on my work. I wrote about it here.
Inclusion on the list meant that I must have really hit a nerve at HIAS.
Below is what Crowe reported yesterday at National Review (hat tip: Judy):
The Southern Poverty Law Center has removed the “Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists” from their website after attorneys for Maajid Nawaz, a practicing Muslim and prominent Islamic reformer, threatened legal action over his inclusion on the list.
The report, which had been active on the SPLC’s website since it was published in December 2016, was intended to serve as a resource for journalists to identify promoters of hateful propaganda; but it included a number of liberal reformers such as Nawaz, a former Islamic extremist who has since dedicated his life to combating the hateful ideology.
“A shocking number of these extremists are seen regularly on television news programs and quoted in the pages of our leading newspapers. There, they routinely espouse a wide range of utter falsehoods, all designed to make Muslims appear as bloodthirsty terrorists or people intent on undermining American constitutional freedoms. More often than not, these claims go uncontested,” the report, which still exists in PDF form, reads.
Nawaz, who founded the anti-extremist think tank Quilliam, said during a Wednesday night appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience, a popular podcast hosted by comedian Joe Rogan, that the report was removed from the SPLC website under legal threat sometime in the last two days.
“We have retained Clare Loch, they are writing to the Southern Poverty Law Center as we speak. I think they’ve got wind of it — the Southern Poverty Law Center — and as of yesterday, or the day before, they’ve removed the entire list that’s been up there for two years,” Nawaz said on the podcast.
Nawaz — informed by his experience as a former member of a global terror organization and a political prisoner in Egypt — routinely criticizes the fundamentalist interpretation of Islam that gives rise to terrorism. As a result of that work, the SPLC and a coalition of partner organizations that helped create the list accused him of “savaging Islam.”
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born liberal feminist who fled her home country amid civil war and now works at the Hoover Institution, was also branded an “anti-Muslim extremist” by the SPLC.
Go here for more of the National Review report and to follow links.
Below is a screenshot of the SPLC case against me:
*** I post the contractor list almost every day because I want new readers to know exactly who is responsible for driving the US Refugee Admissions Program (in addition to the UN!). The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society has taken the lead in political and legal activism against President Trump’s so-called Muslim ban. I have a huge archive about them, see here.
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of the nine VOLAGs’ income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees, line them up with (low paying) jobs in food production and cleaning hotel rooms, and get them signed up for their services (welfare)! From most recent accounting, here.
- Church World Service (CWS) (71%)
- Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) (secular)(93%)
- Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM) (99.5%)
- Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) (57%)
- International Rescue Committee (IRC) (secular) (66.5%)
- US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) (secular) (98%)
- Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS) (97%)
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) (97%)
- World Relief Corporation (WR) (72.8%)
Jewish groups disagree about Muslim migration to US; internal pact revealed
It seems that the fifty or so Jewish groups operating in the US have a secret pact to not speak ill of each other. However, that agreement seems to be coming apart as complaints involving the more conservative Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) have been filed.
One of those complaints appears (no one is revealing complete details) to involve a possible complaint by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) which is not happy with ZOA pointing out HIAS’s financial incentive to admit and resettle more Muslim ‘refugees’ to America.
(HIAS, for new readers, is one of the nine major federal resettlement contractors*** placing refugees as secretively as they can into your towns and cities. HIAS played a major role in filing lawsuits against the Trump Administration’s so-called Muslim ban.)
First here is information from Forward in a story entitled:
Presidents Conference’s Secret Rules Bar Jewish Groups From Attacking Each Other
(President refers to the Presidents of each of the Jewish advocacy groups.)
Top American Jewish organizations agreed last year to adhere to rules that ban them from attacking each other, the Forward has learned.
The rules, which regulate the discourse of American Jewish leaders, have never been publicized, and are unknown to the vast majority of the constituents of the organizations that have agreed to abide by them. First written in 1995, they were quietly revamped in early 2017.
All of the fifty-odd Jewish groups that belong to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations are subject to the rules, which now ban “insults, ad hominem attacks, and name calling” against the Presidents Conference or its member organizations, and statements that are “false, inaccurate or unfairly exaggerated.”
Alleged violations of the rules are referred to a committee that has the power to recommend that organizations guilty of serial violations be expelled from the Presidents Conference. The membership and procedures of that committee, which also were updated last year, have never been made public.
At least four alleged infractions of the rules are currently pending before the committee, the Forward has learned. Those four all involve the Zionist Organization of America, a hawkish pro-Israel group, which is the subject of two of the complaints and has filed two more.
“I criticize other organizations all the time,” said Mort Klein, the ZOA’s president. “You just can’t lie, and you can’t say don’t support them. You can’t call names.”
[….]
The Presidents Conference did not respond to a request for its current governing documents. It also did not respond to questions about what complaints are currently pending before the tribunal, and whether the tribunal had ever acted against a member organization.
[….]
According to one person active in the Presidents Conference, both the Jewish refugee aid organization HIAS and the Anti-Defamation League currently have complaints that have long been pending against the ZOA. The ZOA’s Klein told the Forward that his group has brought its own complaints against the ADL and Ameinu, a progressive Zionist organization.
None of the organizations would describe the content of their complaints. But that they relate to the ZOA is not surprising, given the organization’s willingness to publicly attack its colleagues. In a letter to the editor published in the Forward in 2017, Klein suggested that there was a “profit motive” behind the HIAS’s opposition to President Trump’s Muslim ban.
“Some refugee resettlement groups, such as HIAS, which have invoked ‘morality’ arguments….have been receiving millions of dollars of government grants to resettle refugees,” Klein wrote.
HIAS would not say whether the January 2017 letter, or some other public statement by the ZOA, was the subject of its complaint to the committee.
“I do not want to prejudice the proceedings in any way by commenting before the process has run its course, which I hope will be soon,” said Mark Hetfield, HIAS’s president and CEO.
More here.
The letter and the allegations against HIAS:
This is a portion of the 2017 ‘Letter to the Editor’ by Morton Klein (supporting President Trump) that seems to have Hetfield steamed:
…. under Jewish law, someone with a potential “profit motive” to favor a particular position is in no position to judge. Some refugee resettlement groups, such as HIAS, which have invoked “morality” arguments to promote admitting poorly vetted refugees have been receiving millions of dollars of government grants to resettle refugees.
There is also no moral equivalence between Trump’s executive order and Franklin Delano Roosevelt slamming the doors on Jews trying to escape from Nazi Europe. The 1930s Jews posed no terror threat to the U.S., were in imminent danger of annihilation, and had nowhere else to go. By contrast, immigrants from the seven countries of concern are infiltrated by terrorists, are often already in Turkey or Jordan where there is no imminent danger, and have 50 other Muslim nations that can be pressured to accept them. (ZOA also favors safe zones in the Middle East.)
The Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes survey (2009) found that over 90% of Muslims in surveyed majority Muslim nations held strongly unfavorable (anti-Semitic) attitudes towards Jews. Bringing more Jew-haters into the U.S., who will join surging vicious anti-Semitic activities on college campuses and the anti-Israel Congressional lobby, is dangerous and immoral.
More here.
Our complete Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society archive is here. HIAS is very close to the SPLC, by the way.
*** These (below) are the nine federal refugee resettlement contractors and I say all of them have a profit motive (including Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, etc) to resettle more refugees including Muslim refugees.
And, I think one of the greatest insults to taxpayers is that these same groups, which are paid by us to take care of refugees, have become super-sized Leftwing community organizing and agitating groups. HIAS is the leader in attacking Trump!
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of the nine VOLAGs’ income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees, line them up with jobs, and get them signed up for their services! From most recent accounting, here.
- Church World Service (CWS) (71%)
- Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) (secular)(93%)
- Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM) (99.5%)
- Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) (57%)
- International Rescue Committee (IRC) (secular) (66.5%)
- US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) (secular) (98%)
- Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS) (97%)
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) (97%)
- World Relief Corporation (WR) (72.8%)
Australian 'Christian' magazine goes to bat for US refugee resettlement contractors
And, although this article at ‘Sight’ magazine got my blood boiling for its promotion of the six ‘religious’ charities (Ha! Ha!) that (out of the goodness of their hearts?) are ‘welcoming’ refugees and getting them their services in your towns and cities, it is very revealing.
Before reading on, maybe revisit my post yesterday and know that the offices that the ‘religious’ contractors are closing could stay open if they raised private money to pay the salaries of their workers to care for the refugees they placed a few months, or a few years, ago.
To SATISFY THEIR CHARITABLE INCLINATIONS, THEY COULD TAKE CARE OF THOSE WHO ARE ALREADY HERE! NEW REFUGEES ARE NOT REQUIRED FOR THAT!
However, new refugees are required if they want to suck down millions of federal dollars (through per refugee head payments) and continue their high-flying spending especially on salaries for the big wigs—like Mark Hetfield in the photo that Sight uses to decorate its story.
Sight magazine (looks like it is a mag for the international religious Left):
A program under siege!
Refugee aid groups have conducted massive layoffs and office closures ever since the Trump administration began issuing various versions of a travel ban, sometimes called a “Muslim ban”. The groups have been left on the hook for empty apartments and have had to explain to interested churches why they can’t bring refugees to their areas. And many refugee advocates have expressed concern over how long it will take the groups to come back from those cuts, if they can at all.
[….]
President Trump has also slashed the total number of refugees who will be admitted into the US, from 110,000 in fiscal 2017 – a bar set by former President Obama – to 45,000 in fiscal 2018, which started in October. And agencies say they aren’t even on track to settle that number: Just over 6,000 had come to the country in the last three months.
Hidden behind these figures is the decimation of an expansive refugee resettlement apparatus composed largely of faith-based nonprofit organisations that have partnered with the federal government for decades.
Of the nine groups helping refugees find a home in America, six claim a religious affiliation: World Relief, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Church World Service, HIAS (founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and Episcopal Migration Ministries.
Historically, these groups are contracted by the government to help take in refugees after they undergo a lengthy application and vetting process that involves several agencies, including the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security. (The placement of families is determined on a weekly basis through consultation between the State Department and the resettlement groups.)
Once people are brought to the US, resettlement groups authorised annually by the State Department typically provide new arrivals with housing and food, as well as long-term assistance for achieving self-sufficiency such as help in finding jobs, learning English and often becoming permanent US residents or citizens. [And signing them up for their WELFARE, food stamps, medical care, etc.—ed]
But leaders of these groups say the Trump administration’s new policies are hobbling their operations and hurting those they serve. They’re fighting back and finding hope in a groundswell of support from people of faith, but the future remains uncertain. [If they have a groundswell of support, can’t those supporters send enough cash to keep the low level employees in their jobs?—ed]
“I don’t know how long it will take to undo the damage that has been done,” said Matthew Soerens, US director of church mobilisation for World Relief.
A program under siege
The harm inflicted on the resettlement program by the Trump administration is difficult to calculate. Each organisation is structured differently and many partner with independent local groups for on-the-ground efforts.
[….]
Meanwhile, officials say the cost of the ban can sometimes fall disproportionately on the resettlement agencies*** instead of on the federal government.
When you have contractors (see below) that are 97-98% federally funded I can’t see that the costs will fall disproportionately on the contractor!
For serious students of the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program there is a lot of really good information in here, so continue reading here. I may actually revisit this article tomorrow so I can be sure you see the individual contractor’s sob stories. And, I got a chuckle out of their glowing use of quotes from the recently departed Linda Hartke.
Where is Congress?
As long as the nine federal contractors are almost entirely funded by the US taxpayer and then are permitted to protest, community organize and lobby Congress for more refugees and more money, this program will never be reformed!
Photo caption! Just so you know I am not making up Hetfield’s handsome salary, here is a page from HIAS’s most recent Form 990:
*** These are the nine federal resettlement agencies, six are (LOL!) ‘religious charities.’
The original Refugee Act of 1980, that set up this monstrosity, envisioned a public-private partnership that over the years has almost completely morphed in to a federal program and that is why these agencies are hurting now—they got fat and lazy on the federal teat!
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of their income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees and get them signed up for their services (aka welfare)! From most recent accounting, here.
- Church World Service (CWS) (71%)
- Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) (secular)(93%)
- Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM) (99.5%)
- Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) (57%)
- International Rescue Committee (IRC) (secular) (66.5%)
- US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) (secular) (98%)
- Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS) (97%)
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) (97%)
- World Relief Corporation (WR) (72.8%)
US taxpayer-funded resettlement agency has it nose (again) in Israel's business
Many American Jewish groups are angry with the Israeli government because it is now taking steps to remove tens of thousands of economic migrants who entered Israel from Africa before it had built its great border wall.
If US private activist groups want to pressure Israel that is their business, however, when one of those groups is paid millions annually from the US Treasury it becomes our business what they do. Of course it is the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) I’m talking about.
Why are we paying them a dime to take care of the refugees they resettle in the US while they muck around in world affairs?
Where is Congress? Cut them off!
And, let me be clear at the outset (before I get broad brush anti-Jewish comments). HIAS is first and foremost driven by its Leftwing view of the world (a borderless world). Just as there are Catholics (Lutherans, Evangelicals etc) on the political Left and on the political Right, so too are there Jews on both ends of the political spectrum.
HIAS is NOT working here on behalf of Israel! (I hear all the time from readers who say that HIAS is working for Israel!)
Israel is in the same situation the US is in with thousands upon thousands of mostly economic migrants (not refugees) who got in to the country illegally and if permitted to stay would drastically change the country, for the worse. Anyone in their right mind knows that borders cannot be completely erased if a country wants to survive.
The difference is that since Israel is smaller it will die faster than we will if they do nothing about people like these:
Israel is said to be planning to begin deportations in the spring and the International Left (including HIAS) is haranguing the Netanyahu government in hopes of stopping it.
Here is The Jerusalem Post to explain what they are doing.
They want Israeli pilots to not fly the deportation planes!
(That is one of the mean tactics the mean Leftwing learned from Saul Alinsky to go after those who will hurt first—some poor pilot just doing his job.)
Amid growing reports that the government is planning to deport tens of thousands of migrants from Sudan and Eritrea to Rwanda in March, an online campaign has been launched to beseech Israeli pilots not to fly asylum-seekers to what many activists deem a death sentence.
The campaign, initiated this week by the NGO Zizim Community Action, calls on the public to send letters to the Israel Aviation Association and the Israel Pilots Association, which includes all the pilots in the country, to refuse to fly migrants to any dangerous African country.
According to the NGO’s CEO, Raluca Gena, the online campaign is the first step toward a series of activities against what they, and many other human rights organizations and Jewish communities around the world, are calling an immoral deportation.
[….]
Presently, approximately 35,000 Eritrean and Sudanese asylum-seekers live in Israel. Among their 13,764 asylum applications submitted since 2013, only 11 have been approved by the Interior Ministry as of July 2017 – 10 Eritreans and one Sudanese.
Outside of Israel, prominent leaders of the North American Jewish community sent a public letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday urging Israel not to imprison or deport tens of thousands of Sudanese and Eritrean asylum-seekers.
Rather, the leaders – who sent an initial letter regarding the controversial issue to Netanyahu in November – urged him to allow North American Jews to help resolve the matter.***
Signatories include Mark Hetfield, president and CEO of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), the global Jewish nonprofit that protects refugees; Rabbi Jill Jacobs, executive director of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights; Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street; and Nancy Kaufman, CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women. [This is a who’s who of American Leftwing Jewish groups.—ed]
“The government of Israel recently announced its plans to imprison or potentially deport tens of thousands of Sudanese and Eritrean asylum-seekers unless they leave voluntarily before April,” the letter states.
“The ultimatum follows a mounting campaign of escalation on the part of the Israeli government to pressure the roughly 38,000 African asylum-seekers remaining in Israel to self-deport. While Israeli authorities contend that the population in question – most of whom entered Israel between 2007 and 2012 – are economic migrants, HIAS and other rights groups argue that they are asylum-seekers and refugees deserving of protection.”
Israel does (or did) have a program where economic migrants who self-deported received a financial payments, but I don’t know if it is still in use.
More here.
***You should know that HIAS has been working with the US State Department to bring some of those so-called ‘refugees’ to the US directly from Israel. The numbers are small so far (9 this fiscal year), but if you think this story isn’t about you, it is!
They aren’t planning to bring more of them to the US and other western countries, are they?
See my complete HIAS archive by clicking here. And for more on Israel and refugees, I have a whole category on the topic here with 164 previous posts.