"Hollywood supplied the faces. Beijing's money built the stage. Jihadis wrote the script. It is long past time Washington stopped treating the show as spontaneous."
 |
| It's hard to wish the entertainment industry well. |
"On Thursday, an Oscar winner, an Emmy winner, a New York City Council member, and a Democratic congressional nominee sat down on First Avenue. Around them marched communists bankrolled from Shanghai, Islamist-aligned activists, and protesters waving the flag of a terrorist organization. They called it a stand for peace. It was the Red-Green alliance on parade, and Washington should treat it as the influence operation it is.
"A federal grand jury in Manhattan is examining Neville Roy Singham's money. Singham is a Shanghai-based tech mogul whose nonprofit network members of Congress accuse of advancing the interests of the Chinese Communist Party. On Thursday, that network's street machine delivered Hollywood's biggest names to the curb.
"Susan Sarandon, Hannah Einbinder, Caleb Hearon, and Chelsea Manning, [Debra Winger] were led away in zip ties. Cynthia Nixon, Elliot Page, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus joined them in the street. These performative activists had political company. Democratic congressional nominee Darializa Avila Chevalier, New York City Council member Chi Osse, and activist Linda Sarsour were also arrested, and Brad Lander, another Democratic congressional nominee, joined the protest.
"New York's own mayor set the stage. Zohran Mamdani, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, has spent months branding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal on television and social media. He even promised to have the New York Police Department arrest him under an International Criminal Court warrant, a power he never had and later admitted he lacked. It was theater for the manipulated masses, and on Thursday, the street performed the sequel.
"This was a coalition, not one group's protest. The sit-in was run by Jewish Voice for Peace, an organization that is neither Jewish nor for peace, with co-sponsors including the DSA, the Palestinian Youth Movement, and New York's Muslim American Society chapter. The larger march was led by the Palestinian Youth Movement and the People's Forum, which has received $22 million from Singham. The Party for Socialism and Liberation arrived with wagons of professionally printed signs. Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin was on the street. Her fellow co-founder, Jodie Evans, is married to Singham." . . .More.