A Tale Of Two Pipelines

We've all been shocked by the news that the largest gasoline pipeline in America was totally shut down by a cyberattack. The Colonial Pipeline moves 100 million gallons of gas every day from Gulf Coast refineries up the East Coast to the New York metro area. 

The attack does not appear to have caused lasting damage, and the pipeline operators hope to have it up and running by the weekend. But already there are scattered fuel shortages in multiple states and gas lines, bringing back bad memories of the Carter years.

This is just the latest in a series of cyber terrorism attacks against American infrastructure. Some cyberattacks have been launched from North Korea. Others from communist China and Iran. This one appears to have come from Russia.

So, it was disappointing yesterday to see President Biden go soft on Russia, suggesting he would discuss the issue with Vladimir Putin at their meeting next month.

That brings me to another attack on a pipeline vital to America's economic and national security. Sadly, that attack was successful. The pipeline was shut down. Thousands of Americans lost their jobs, and we became more vulnerable to attacks like the one against the Colonial Pipeline. 

Of course, I'm talking about the Keystone XL Pipeline coming from Canada. It wasn't attacked by Russian hackers, but Joe Biden just hours after he took office. 

The Colonial Pipeline can fight back against Russian hackers. The Keystone Pipeline couldn't fight back against a president who foolishly declared war on our energy industry. So, it's only our president who was able to successfully "sabotage" a U.S. pipeline.

In view of this latest attack, Biden should reverse his decision and reopen the Keystone XL Pipeline. But I'm not holding my breath.

Biden's Open Borders Agenda

If you needed more evidence of Biden's open borders agenda, look no further than his latest White House appointment. Natalie Montelongo has been named White House deputy director for political strategy and outreach. 

Prior to joining the Biden White House, Montelongo was an open borders activist at the ACLU, where she spent her time raging against Donald Trump's immigration policies, and backed outrageous demands by the radical left to abolish ICE. 

In May of 2018, she tweeted: "[The Trump] administration's actions are not motivated by public safety concerns – they're terrorizing immigrant communities. #ICE didn't exist 15 years ago, it doesn't have to exist now."

A month later, Montelongo urged radical leftists to shut down ICE facilities, tweeting, "If you're looking for a way to help - look up your nearest ICE office and shut-it-down."

As we recently reported, the Biden Administration is imposing sanctuary policies on the entire country by handcuffing ICE. While the border is wide open and illegal crossings are at a record high, deportations are at a record low. That means thousands of criminal aliens are walking free on our streets today.

Palestinian Violence Escalates

Palestinian militants in Hamas and Islamic Jihad escalated their attacks against Israeli civilians overnight. More than 600 rockets were fired at Israeli communities, including the major cities of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. In response, the Israeli Defense Forces launched airstrikes against scores of terrorist targets.

The Biden Administration must be feeling really good about its decision to restore funding to the Palestinian Authority. Once again, we see just how unserious Mahmoud Abbas is about making peace with the Jewish state! 

As we previously noted, the Biden Administration initially called on Israel to ensure that all religious institutions were open for worship in Jerusalem. But the pressure on Israel is outrageous and totally misplaced. 

Radical Palestinians, spurred on by Abbas and Iran's supreme leader, took rocks and other weapons to the Temple Mount. It has been a common occurrence over the years for Muslim extremists to rain those rocks down on Jews worshipping at the Western Wall. Israeli police moved in to stop these attacks. 

That's why services at the Al Aqsa mosque were disrupted over the weekend – because the Palestinians were rioting.

When Ayatollah Khamenei declared it was a "public duty" for Muslims to fight against Israel, there were no statements from the White House or State Department demanding Iran end its calls for genocide and a second Holocaust. Why are we negotiating sanctions relief with this terrorist regime?

And then there is the American media. Multiple networks (here, here and here) said that this violence is because Israel "captured" Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War. Israel did not "capture" Jerusalem. Israel liberated Jerusalem. 

Jerusalem has never been the capital of any other nation other than Israel. That was true in biblical times, and it is true in modern times since the state of Israel was recognized in 1948. 

From 1948 to 1967 East Jerusalem was under Jordanian control.  Jordan made no attempt to establish a Palestinian state. Nor did it make any attempt to guarantee religious freedom in East Jerusalem. Israeli Jews who approached the Western Wall were shot at by snipers. 

Religious liberty was only restored in all of Jerusalem the night it was restored as the capital of all of Israel.

Meanwhile, politicians and diplomats are either condemning Israel (here and here) or urging "restraint from both sides," as if there is any moral equivalency between the state of Israel and the terrorists of Hamas.

Gilad Erdan, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, rejected such claims, saying, "Israel has no other choice but to defend its citizens from these indiscriminate attacks, and we demand that the international community hold the Palestinians accountable and forcibly condemn their actions."

Pastor John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel, condemned this not-so-subtle form of anti-Semitism, telling Newsweek:

"The international community needs to cease treating Israel differently than all other democracies on earth. Treating Israel as a second-class citizen among the nations and holding the Jewish state to a double standard in the context of self-defense is nothing more than the apotheosis of international anti-Semitism."

Religious Freedom Under Siege

Check out my latest interview with David Brody of The Water Cooler on the growing threat of government overreach against religious liberty. You'll be shocked at what's happening not in communist China, but in Canada! We also discussed the Biden Administration's latest assault on conscience rights.