Category Archives: Liberal

Appearing before reporters earlier this week to explain that the Liberal government would be putting its authority behind a Liberal MP's motion calling for a parliamentarycondemnation and study of Islamophobia,Heritage Minister Melanie Joly said a "question of leadership" was at hand.

Shereturned to the theme Thursday as she explainedwhy the Liberals would not support a Conservative counter-proposalthat drops references to Islamophobia in favour of a general focus on religious discrimination.

"Those of us in leadership positions have a social responsibility to take a strong stance on these matters, to be clear, to be courageous, to lead," she said.

There were echoes here of something Justin Trudeau said two weeks ago when he rose inthe House of Commons to addressthe shooting at a mosque in Quebec City that left six men dead.

"I want to remind each and every one of my 337 colleagues that we are all leaders in our communities," the prime ministersaid. "It is at times like these that our communities need our leadership the most."

People attend a vigil on Jan. 30 for victims of the deadly mosque shooting in Quebec City. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)

So, at a moment of anxiety, the Liberals see a moment to define leadership.

Conservatives, meanwhile, have drawn a line under Islamophobia and want to see the word defined.

But, beyond the semantics of Motion 103, the Conservatives now seem in danger of being defined by theloudest voices of objection in their midst.

M-103was tabledin December, following an e-petition on the same topicposted in June.

Less than two months after Liberal MP Iqra Khalid brought the motion forward, a gunman opened fire during prayers at the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre. And in the Houseon Thursday, Joly could cite a list of other hateful acts.

Still, the motion came to the floor of the House for debate this week with loud voices of opposition claiming that an attack on free speech is at hand.

The motion requests that the heritage committee conduct a study ofIslamophobiaand religious discrimination and provide recommendations for how the government could respond to such prejudice. To critics, thisisthe first step toward a prohibition against any criticism of Islamic practice or belief.

Some Conservative MPs allowed the House to unanimously adopt a motioncondemning Islamophobia in October on a quick voice vote. But now Conservatives are concerned thatIslamophobianeeds to be defined: aliteral reading of the word would suggest that criticism ofthe religion, not merely its adherents, is at issue.

During debate on Wednesday, Khalid and the Conservative critic, David Anderson, actually offered similar definitions: "the irrational hatred of Muslims that leads to discrimination" and "hatred against Muslims," respectively.

Saskatchewan Conservative MP David Anderson tabled a counter-proposal to Motion 103 that focuses on all religious discrimination, rather than Islamophobia specifically. (CBC)

ButKhalidhasn't added that to her motion. And the Conservative proposal, tabled by Anderson on Thursday, suggests merely focusing on all religious discrimination instead.

Jolydismissed thatas a"watered down" and "cynical" offer,meant to cover up internal Conservative divisions. She insistedMPs shouldn't be afraid to say the word.

Rising shortly after question period to address the Conservative motion,Khalidread aloud the threats and hateshe has been subjected to.

"lslamophobiais real," she said.

Motion 103 is another opportunity for Trudeau to embrace thelatest flashpoint in the long story of Canadian multiculturalism: the immigration, integration and acceptance of those of the Muslim faith.

As a candidate for leadership of the Liberal Party,Trudeauaddressed an Islamic conferenceand used the opportunity todiscuss Wilfrid Laurier's efforts tounite cultures and religions.

Two years later, in March 2015, he used alongaddress on liberty and diversityto condemnthe Conservative government's attempt to ban the niqab during the swearing of the citizenship oath.

The election campaign that brought Trudeau's Liberals to government was then defined, in part, by the niqab and Conservative proposals tostripcitizenship from dual nationals when convicted of terrorism and to create a hotline for reporting "barbaric cultural practices."

Celebrating his victory on election night,Trudeau recalled his encounter with a Muslim woman in a hijabwho told him of her hope that her child wouldn'tbe a second-class citizen.

Justin Trudeau gives his election victory speech in Montreal on Oct. 19, 2015. (Jim Young/Reuters)

There are philosophical underpinnings toTrudeau's thinking based on the guarantees of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, an argument that diversity creates strength and an acknowledgement that core values must persist alongside multiculturalism but an outspoken commitment to pluralismhas also become a powerful piece of Trudeau's brand.

All the more so now that Donald Trump, Brexit and tensions in Europe seem to cast doubt on the success of multiculturalism.

Conservative leadership contender Michael Chong has voiced support for Motion 103, but four of his rivalshave touted their opposition in fundraising appeals. Kellie Leitch created a website, with an image from the October 2014 attack on Parliament Hill visible in the background, where those who oppose the motion can sign a petition.

Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch created a website to organize opposition to Motion 103. (Paul Chiasson/Canadian Press)

Speakingin the House on Thursday, Joly took aim at those actions and the appearance offour Conservative leadership candidates at a "freedom rally" organized by a conservative activist to defend free speech and "stand against sharia law in this country."

At that rally on Wednesday night, the organizer, Ezra Levant,warned that the prime minister was pursuing"massive unvetted, un-integrateable Muslim migration."

Any Conservative who believes their party's losses in 2015 werelinked to theniqab, "barbaric cultural practices" and citizenship revocation might see reason to worry in all that.

And the Liberals are pressing the issue.

On Thursday, several Liberal MPs tweeted a link to Trudeau's speech on the niqab. Video of the remarks was then posted to the prime minister's account.

By late in the afternoon, two Liberals had tweeted a graphic touting that "condemning hate is as Canadian as" maple syrup, the charter and Tim Horton's.

"Call your MP and say yes to #M103," it reads."#MakeItAwkward."

The serious matters of justice and dignity are no doubt difficult to separate from the politics of the situation.

In terms of leadership, it is to wonder whether some kind of compromise, perhaps merelyadding a definition to the existing text of Motion 103, might result in a more united expression of support

Link:

Anti-Islamophobia debate might define both Liberals and Conservatives - CBC.ca

Forget preference deals with One Nation, it appears both major political parties in WA are planning to woo Pauline Hanson supporters with musicafter both playing AC/DC songs at their campaign launches.

Not only did the Labor and Liberals launch their campaigns at the same time on Sunday, but both parties chose songs from legendary Australian rockers AC/DC.

When Labor leader Mark McGowan walked to the stage to address the party faithful at Perth Arena, AC/DC's classic 1975 hit T.N.T was belting out of the speakers.

Given Mr McGowan's Rockingham roots, I'm sure the Labor leader has heard the odd 'Acca Dacca' song screeching from the windows of hotted-up Commodores as he door-knocked his electorate.

Across town at the University of WA, where the Liberals were waiting for Premier Colin Barnett and his political posse to enter the room, AC/DC's Thunderstruck was blaring out of the speakers.

But what were the Liberals thinking? Surely Barry Manilow's Can't Smile Without Youwould've been more appropriate, given the party could lose its leader if it gets belted at the election.

But then just when you thought no one in the Liberal party had heard of Spotify, Daft Punk's One More Time was played as Mr Barnett walked to the podium.

Subtle.

Knowing Labor, it will probably take the higher ground, saying at least the original singer of AC/DC Bon Scott sang T.N.T, while his replacement Brian Johnson belted out Thunderstruck.

I'm looking forward to Liberal Treasury Mike Nahan and his Labor counterpart Ben Wyatt attacking each other over which song sold more copies.

The party decided to leap into the 21st century and play Shut Up and Dance by American funksters Walk the Moon at the end of the launch which was recommended by the Labor leader's daughter.

If you look at the lyrics, maybe Labor was trying to same something to the Premier.

"Oh don't you dare look back/Just keep your eyes on me / I said you're holding back / She said shut up and dance with me."

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Liberal and Labor get 'Acca Dacca' at party campaign launches - WAtoday

In the introduction to Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?, the anthology of conservative thought he edited for publication in 1970, William F. Buckley memorably declared: Blindfold me, spin me about like a top, and I will walk up to the single liberal in the room without zig or zag and find him even if he is hiding behind a flower pot. Which reminds me.

As a young lawyer new to private practice but fresh from a clerkship on the Eighth Circuit, I was asked to work with South Dakota attorney Larry Piersol as local counsel on an appeal pending for one of Larrys clients in that court. Larry worked in private practice in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and was a South Dakotan through and through.

In late 1981 or early 1982 Larry came to town for the oral argument of the appeal in St. Paul. We had Larry over for dinner and got to talking about matters political. Larry had served in the South Dakota House of Representatives as Democratic minority whip and even for a term as majority leader. His success in politics was no accident; he was both likable and intelligent. Indeed, his legal skills and political service resulted in his appointment to the bench as a district judge by Bill Clinton in 1993. (Judge Piersol took senior status in 2009.)

In the course of our conversation Larry told me that he was an old friend of South Dakota native Tom Brokaw. Brokaw, he confided, is an interesting guy. You really cant get a good handle on his politics, he told me.

I disagreed. Hes a liberal, I asserted.

You really cant tell, Larry responded.

I can tell, I said. Hes a liberal.

How could I tell? I cant remember. Im not bragging; its not hard to tell. Bill Buckley would not have had to exert his great analytical powers to find Brokaw out. You can just tell.

If youve heard any of Brokaws brief commentaries served up in recent years as An American Story, or heard him opining on any of the NBC/MSNBC gabfests, you know hes a liberal, and an earnest one at that.

I love the tagline he uses for his American Story commentaries. This is Tom Brokaw reporting, he says. Hes still deep under cover. Its almost funny.

Reading Brokaws New York Times column yesterday about the opportunity he was offered to serve as President Nixons press secretary in late 1969, I thought back to my conversation with Larry. Brokaw writes in the Times column:

White House press secretary to Richard Nixon? I had been raised in a family of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman Democrats. My parents were skeptical about John F. Kennedy, but my wife and I were generational enthusiasts.

I worked hard at keeping personal beliefs out of my work, but there were limits. My first job, in a deeply conservative Omaha newsroom, was a test. Most of my colleagues thought I was a crazed liberal for supporting Medicare and the voting rights and civil rights bills.

Not a crazed liberal, Tom, just a liberal. A decent liberal, a patriotic liberal, but a liberal nevertheless, of the Democrat variety.

This is Scott Johnson reporting.

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Tom Brokaw, liberal Democrat - Power Line (blog)

An elite Upper East Side private schools annual ice-skating party at Trump Wollman Rink in Central Park had to be canceled after parents refused to send their kids in protest of the president, sources said.

THE WEEK IN PICTURES

The Parents Association at The Dalton School sent a letter Thursday announcing the Dalton on Ice event was scrapped, saying it would not be financially prudent because of significantly lower attendance.

Daltons PA president, LaMae DeJongh, declined to comment but sources said the low attendance was due to rampant anti-Trump sentiment at the elite prep school, which boasts alumni such as CNNs Anderson Cooper.

I think it is completely insane, said one Dalton parent who disagrees with the protest. Like him or not, it feels like a strange place for New Yorkers to protest. And sad that kids now have no skating party.

Trump renovated the rink in 1986 after the city fumbled the job for six years.

Click for more from the New York Post.

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Liberal moms reportedly force school to cancel skating party at Trump rink - Fox News

Garbage in, garbage out is how it works with a computer. Its no different with society: Misinformation yields misunderstandings and the adoption of misguided policy, personal and political.

The following are 10 liberal myths even many conservatives believe. How many did you know were commonly accepted fake news, fallacies or false history?

Not according to research. As Peter Schweizer reported in Dont listen to the liberalsRight-wingers really are nicer people, latest research shows, relative to conservatives liberals are:

Studies also show liberals are less happy. Any idea why?

Whether its the dystopian 1973 film Soylent Green, Paul Ehrlichs book The Population Bomb or something else, the modern psyche has been infused with Malthusian assumptions about inexorably increasing populations. The reality?

With fertility rates already below replacement level (2.1 children per woman) in approximately 100 nations, demographers say that while global population will reach about nine billion in 2050, it will begin declining quickly thereafter.

According to Pew Research Center, atheists, agnostics and those claiming no particular religion will actually lose population share over the next few decades. For faith begets fecundity: The secular are just not as likely to be fruitful and multiply.

As I demonstrated in 2014 using data from liberal Mother Jones, non-Hispanic whites commit mass murder at just about the rate their population share (currently 62 percent) would suggest. Dont expect this myth to stop being a media meme, though.

Actually, according to Charol Shakeshaft, the researcher of a little-remembered 2004 study prepared for the U.S. Department of Education, the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests, reported LifeSite News in 2010.

Its not surprising people assume otherwise, however. Consider: Californias 61 largest newspapers published almost 2,000 stories in the first half of 2002 about the Church scandaland only four about the ongoing public-school scandal.

History says otherwise. Whether the handiwork of Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, Tamerlane, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, the Vikings, Hitler or someone else, warfares motivation was virtually always lust for land, wealth, resources, power and/or glorynot religious zeal.

According to Providence College professor Anthony Esolen in this PragerU video, medieval Europeans:

Professor Esolen states that the period was not the Dark Ages but the Brilliant Ages.

While conservatives are generally skeptical of the anthropogenic global-warming thesis, often they dont realize that increased atmospheric CO2 is actually beneficial. Botanists pump the gas into greenhouses because it facilitates plant growth. Why do you think the Mesozoic eras CO2 levelsfive to 10 times todaysyielded lush foliage?

A CO2-rich world is a green world.

On the contrary, the Crusades were actually European wars of survival designed to repel Muslim armies. As Thomas Madden, chair of the History Department at Saint Louis University,put it, the Crusades were not the brainchild of an ambitious pope or rapacious knights but a response to more than four centuries of conquests in which Muslims had already captured two-thirds of the old Christian world. At some point, Christianity as a faith and a culture had to defend itself or be subsumed by Islam. The Crusades were that defense.

Actually, judicial supremacy is not in the Constitution. Rather, the power was declared by the judiciary itself, notably in the 1803 Marbury v. Madison Supreme Court decision.

Since nothing in the Constitution dictates presidents must be constrained by judicial opinions, its not surprising they havent always felt compelled to be: Presidents Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln both ignored court rulings during their administrations.

Reality is like a jigsaw puzzle: You cant see the big picture without assembling enough pieces. And with untruths where facts should be, our puzzle remains puzzling at bestand presents a twisted image of ideology at worst.

Selwyn Duke (@SelwynDuke)has written for The Hill, The American Conservative, WorldNetDaily and American Thinker. He has also contributed to college textbooks published by Gale Cengage Learning, has appeared on television and is a frequent guest on radio.

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10 Unfortunate Liberal Myths Conservatives Often Believe - Observer

Posted February 18, 2017 16:42:34

The WA Liberal Party has denied its surge in the polls was due to a preference deal with Pauline Hanson's One Nation, instead attributing the gain to a growing lack of faith in the Labor Party.

A ReachTEL poll published in a weekend newspaper revealed the two parties are neck-and-neck at 50-50 on two-party preferred terms, as the state heads towards an election on March 11.

It is the strongest result for the WA Liberals in almost two years, with the party lagging in Newpoll results on a two-party preferred basis since March 2015.

Cabinet minister Joe Francis would today not say whether the latest figures came as a relief, but instead pointed the finger at Opposition leader Mark McGowan.

"I hope that Western Australians and voters are starting to realise the slick fraud that is Mark McGowan," Mr Francis said.

"You don't have to look too far through his policy announcements to realise most of them are totally unfunded.

"They are pie in the sky stuff."

Mr Francis denied the stronger result was due to the preference deal with One Nation, revealed last week, which sees the Liberals preference the Queensland-based party over their traditional allies the WA Nationals in the Upper House.

"If you look down into the details of the poll it will tell you that's not the case," Mr Francis said.

The poll asked respondents, "Do you agree with the Liberals' decision to enter into a preference deal with One Nation?"

Some 54.2 per cent of respondents disagreed, while 15 per cent were undecided.

However, of undecided voters, almost nine percent said they were more likely to vote for the Liberals, while 53 per cent said they would be less likely.

The poll also revealed Mr McGowan's approval rating as preferred Premier dropped, but he still led 53-47.

Mr McGowan would not be drawn on the negative result.

"Polls will go up and down, that's the history of polls and I've always said it is a big mountain to climb to win the election," he said.

"But I am up for the fight, I've got the experience, my team is excellent.

"We've got the right candidates, the right policies."

Topics: government-and-politics, elections, wa

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Liberal resurgence in latest poll not linked to One Nation deal, Francis says - ABC Online

Campaign posters for candidates are seen in Bunbury during the WA Nationals campaign launch for the 11 March state election. Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP

A new poll suggests a small proportion of Liberal voters would be less likely to vote for the party because of its preference deal with One Nation in the coming Western Australia state election.

The survey showed 18.6% of Liberal voters in Chisholm and 15.9% in Reid said they would be less likely to vote for the party because of its deal with One Nation, while the percentage of those who remained unchanged in the two electoral divisions respectively stood at 66.1% and 65.5%.

Just over 51% of the total number of voters surveyed in both seats said their vote would be unchanged.

The surveys findings showed the backlash against the Liberal party was highest among undecided voters.

The survey, conducted by ReachTEL for GetUp in two marginal federal Liberal seats, showed that about a third of all voters would reconsider voting for the Liberal party following last weekends deal.

It showed 60.6% of those surveyed in Chisholm in Victoria and 55.8% in Reid in New South Wales were concerned by the Liberal partys decision to preference One Nation in the WA election. And 33.8% and 30.5% respectively the majority undecided voters said it would make them less likely to vote for the Liberal party.

ReachTEL surveyed 676 residents of Reid and 761 residents of Chisholm on Wednesday. Both seats have high proportions of people from non-English speaking backgrounds.

Shen Narayanasamy, human rights director for GetUp, said in a statement the parties that pandered to parties and people explicitly opposed to multiculturalism would find that doing so came at a significant electoral cost.

If you get into bed with racists in the One Nation party, people who are impacted in their everyday lives by racism will be less likely to vote for you.

People are very concerned that the Liberal party appears to have been captured by anti-multiculturalists, and what this means for peoples ability to live safely in a diverse Australia.

GetUp would be campaigning amongst multicultural communities in marginal seats across Australia, she said.

Recent polling suggests One Nation is on track to win several seats in the WA upper house in the 11 March state election, and potentially the lower house as well.

One Nation was on as high a vote as 13% in WA, boosting the Liberal/National state governments chances of securing a third term if the preference deal is effective. Most polls point to a Labor win.

While campaigning in Perth on Friday, the former prime minister John Howard said the decision to deal with the rightwing minor party was very sensible [and] pragmatic.

In 2001, he had instructed state divisions of the Liberal party to put One Nation last on how-to-vote cards. On Friday, he said: Everyone changes in 16 years. ... This is a different set of circumstances. I think its entirely sensible that the [Liberal] party has done what its done.

He went on to add that the only exception to the everyone changes rule was the Greens.

Another former prime minister, Kevin Rudd, criticised Howards about-turn, calling his endorsement of the preference deal as a disgrace on Twitter on Friday.

Utter disgrace from John Howard. He defended Hanson in 1996. Now once again. Pushing the Liberals further to the right.

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Most Liberal voters unchanged after deal with One Nation in WA, poll shows - The Guardian

Whatever happened to liberal Democrats, with their concerns about civil liberties and government surveillance of American citizens?

Liberals once hated the CIA. And they loved the Russians. You can look it up. Their liberal friends in Hollywood made movie after movie about the dangers of The Deep State and its awesome surveillance powers. One of the best was Three Days of the Condor, with liberal icon Robert Redford fighting the malevolent CIA boss John Houseman, who longed for the clarity of world war.

Years later, Edward Snowden became the liberal demigod and WikiLeaks their winged chariot of truth. Liberals fretted about the powers of the intelligence community being used on citizens for political reasons.

So what happened to the ideals of these liberal Democrats? Donald Trump was elected president, thats what.

And now you can clearly see the change in them as Trumps now-former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, has become feast for the crows.

Flynn deserves his punishment. Make no mistake about that. He reportedly lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his phone conversations with a Russian ambassador that included discussion of the Obama administrations sanctions against Russia.

As a former general officer, as a former Defense Intelligence Agency boss, Flynn understands the chain of command. There is no lying to a superior officer.

So Flynn is gone, forced to resign, his head high on a spike upon the Democratic Party ramparts.

Democrats jeer at his head up there. Its as if this episode were street theater in olde England, with Punch and Judy entertaining the small folk.

But what victory are they celebrating, exactly? And at what cost to the republic?

What would have been bothersome to liberals of old (the pre-Trump kind) is that Flynn may have been targeted for a takedown by the Deep State intelligence operatives liberals once loathed.

Flynn and Trump warred with the intelligence community during the campaign, and Trump called out the CIA, tweeting at them, provoking them.

Most recently, Trump was furious that his private conversations with the Australian prime minister became public and were used as a club to pound him in the pages of the Never Trump Washington Post and other establishment newspapers.

The damning news was that there are reportedly transcripts of Flynn speaking with the Russian ambassador before Trump was inaugurated president. This indicates that Flynn was most likely the subject of a warrant issued by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. His conversations were recorded. The American public should know what this is about.

Whats astounding about this is that news reports on Flynns conversations with the Russian ambassador also mentioned something else. They mentioned the existence of many intelligence community sources, and these many intelligence sources presumably read the transcripts and leaked their contents to reporters.

The intelligence community records the conversations of a private citizen and leaks them to damage a president. And liberals who once prided themselves on being civil libertarians are overjoyed. They dont question their good fortune. They celebrate.

Now Trump is in open, public war with American intelligence, and liberals cheer on the intelligence community leakers.

Democrats are on the outs, so they love this story about Flynn. It feeds into their belief that Trump is some tool of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. Its not whether they believe this that matters. What matters is that they see a way to sear this deeply upon the American mind before the 2018 elections.

Democrats will continue to push this theme, even if it means celebrating a possible takedown of administration officials by American intelligence, and the many sources of those reports.

Why arent liberals more concerned, when once theyd be outraged about authoritarian tactics?

For the same reasons they werent concerned about presidential overreach when their guy was president, with his imperial pen and his phone.

Because for many Democrats, just like for many Republicans, its all about power, isnt it? And ideals even those that help preserve the republic be damned.

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Where's the liberal outrage over civil liberties in the Flynn case? - Minneapolis Star Tribune

The early weeks of the Trump administration have widened divides between liberal and conservative Jews, setting off quarrels over anti-Semitism, Israel and the Holocaust.

Well before the 2016 election, discussion over Israel had become so barbed among Jews that Jewish groups began organizing civility training so relationships and holidays wouldn't be ruined. But those disputes have erupted with a new intensity since Donald Trump won the presidency.

They were on display most prominently this week, during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's first visit to the Trump White House and a pair of news conferences during which the president would not directly address questions about anti-Semitism. On Thursday, in one of the most remarkable moments of a riotous back-and-forth with reporters, Trump shut down a Hasidic reporter from an Orthodox magazine who had taken pains to preface his question by saying he knew Trump wasn't anti-Jewish.

Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish civil rights group that has been highly critical of Trump, called the president's response "mind-boggling."

But Mort Klein, president of the hawkish Zionist Organization of America, who has championed Trump as a great ally of Israel, said Trump must have been frustrated by the "relentless and outrageous allegations" of anti-Semitism against him and his White House strategist Steve Bannon. "If there was a hint of anti-Semitism, I would be at their throat," Klein said.

American Jews have been especially on edge because of a surge of anti-Semitic harassment over the course of the presidential campaign and continuing this year. Last month, Jewish community centers and other institutions in 27 states and Canada received what is being investigated as a coordinated series of telephone bomb threats over a period of days, according to the Secure Community Network, formed by Jewish organizations to protect their institutions.

Many Jewish groups and others had seen animus in the White House statement last month on International Holocaust Remembrance Day that did not mention Jews. The president's aides defended the statement as "inclusive" of all who were killed by the Nazis.

At a news conference with Netanyahu last Wednesday, Trump opened by calling Israel a symbol of "survival in the face of genocide." But when an Israeli reporter asked Trump about the rise in anti-Semitic harassment during the campaign and since his election, he responded by touting his Electoral College total and promising "peace in this country." Netanyahu then took up the question, saying he had known the president, his family and some of his aides for many years and "there is no greater supporter of the Jewish people and the Jewish state than President Donald Trump. I think we should put that to rest."

The response rankled some American Jews. Alana Newhouse, editor-in-chief of Tablet, the online Jewish magazine, addressed the prime minister: "I won't tell you what to be afraid of in your country, and you don't tell me what I should fear in mine."

The next day, a confirmation hearing was held for David Friedman, the combative attorney Trump chose as U.S. envoy to Israel. Friedman, who has deep ties to the Israeli settler movement, had said the Anti-Defamation League sounded like "morons" for accusing Trump of anti-Semitism, and he had called supporters of the dovish pro-Israel lobby J Street "worse than kapos," a reference to Jews who helped the Nazis imprison fellow Jews during the Holocaust.

At the hearing, Friedman apologized for using inflammatory language in the past, and said he regretted not expressing his views of J Street in a more respectful manner. Greenblatt said he had spoken with Friedman about his remarks regarding the ADL and had accepted his apology.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, head of the liberal Union for Reform Judaism, the largest American Jewish movement, said he met for 90 minutes with Friedman at the nominee's request, "He simply wanted to have a conversation directly," Jacobs said in a phone interview. "He knows how offensive it was."

On Friday, Reform Jewish leaders announced they opposed Friedman's nomination, the first time the movement had ever opposed a president's choice for the position. The ZOA's Klein, meanwhile, said Friedman has "the potential to be the greatest U.S. ambassador to Israel ever."

Jewish issues came to the fore again in a remarkable way during Trump's question-and-answer session on Thursday.

The reporter from the Brooklyn-based Orthodox Ami Magazine, Jake Turx, sporting curly sidelocks and a skullcap embroidered with his Twitter handle, rose to ask his question. While Hillary Clinton won 71 percent of the Jewish vote, Orthodox Jews who backed Trump have taken comfort in his support for Israel, his many Jewish friends and advisers, and especially his Orthodox Jewish daughter, Ivanka, who converted, and her husband and close presidential aide Jared Kushner. Turx opened his question to Trump by noting the president was a "zayde" which is Yiddish for grandfather then started to ask about the increased reports of anti-Jewish harassment and hate crimes.

But Trump quickly interrupted, saying "not a fair question," and when Turx tried to continue, said "quiet, quiet, quiet ... I find it repulsive. I hate even the question."

The internal Jewish debate will likely rage on in the coming weeks as Trump's policies on Israel, refugees and immigration take shape.

At Friedman's hearing, three young Jews who belong to the activist group IfNotNow, which opposes Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, stood up to interrupt the proceedings. They shook groggers, or noisemakers, used on the holiday of Purim to drown out the names of enemies of the Jewish people.

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Liberal, conservative Jews in US increasingly divided over Trump - Chicago Tribune

The most controversial figure in the Victorian Liberal Party, Marcus Bastiaan, had his audience enthralled as he thundered about the need for change.

Radiating confidence, and with his past as a bellicose Brighton Grammar debater on display, Bastiaan told his Sydney listeners that the Liberals had been overrun by "lobbyists, political staffers or people who have worked in government the entirety of their careers".

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27-year-old Marcus Bastiaan and his outspoken partner Stephanie Ross have torn like a tornado through the Liberals' Victorian branch, aligning with figures such as Michael Kroger along the way.

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One of Melbourne's most notorious mafia figures faces prison and will likely be deported after an old friend he violently tried to extort turned against him.

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CCTV footage shows two black vehicles speeding around a corner near a car park. Courtesy Echo Taskforce detectives.

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Possible getaway car used by one of the two suspects wanted over an armed robbery at an Elsternwick jewellery store in September.

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Virtual reality technology like this will feature in the TAC's new traffic school, dubbed a Road Safety Education Complex, at Melbourne Museum.

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A giant archangel is set to walk the streets of White Night, sending messages of love, understanding and compassion.

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A woman has been freed from a mangled car after a multi-vehicle smash that left two others injured and shut down three lanes of peak-hour inbound traffic on the Monash Freeway on Wednesday morning.

27-year-old Marcus Bastiaan and his outspoken partner Stephanie Ross have torn like a tornado through the Liberals' Victorian branch, aligning with figures such as Michael Kroger along the way.

As Tony Abbott watched at the Octoberforum organised by figures from the Liberals' right wing, Bastiaan said the future of the party founded by Menzies lay in reconnecting with abase "let down by our party's failure to represent them".

Bastiaan fashions himself as the Liberals' new great hope, one of the few in party ranks capable of re-energising disenchanted members by thrusting the party further to the right. Bastiaanalso wants to sweep out state MPs he regards as dead wood. The handsome, wilful 27-year-old has torn like a tornado through the Liberals' Victorian branch, aligning with figures such as Michael Kroger along the way.

As one senior supporter says: "The Liberal party at a state level is a gentlemen's club, Marcus is a brutal operator. Labor are cutthroat, so are the Greens. We need to get tougher; we have to sharpen our spears."

Not everyone is happy. Far from it.

Some senior Victorian Liberals say Bastiaan's campaign to push the party to the right is a Trojan horse. His ultimate mission, critics say, is building an empire while undermining Matthew Guy and Malcolm Turnbull.

More damaging are claims of unethical tactics. His enemies in the party and there are many point to allegedly rampant branch-stacking aimed solely at delivering long-term power and control to the Bastiaan group.

Fairfax Media can reveal that senior party figures are overseeing a confidential vetting committee into Bastiaan'salleged branch-stacking aimed at removing non-genuine members and curtailing his influence. There are also claims that Bastiaan is an ideological wind-sock, prepared to point whatever way the political windsblow.

On Saturday, his partner, ultra-conservative political aspirant Stephanie Ross, 25 -who believes that women who have been raped should be denied abortions-will challenge the oldest man in state parliament, 65-year-old Gary Blackwood, for the safe Warragul-based seat of Narracan. Blackwoodwon Narracan from Labor in 2006 and turned it into a safe seat.

If Ross gets up, it will be the second Bastiaan group figure to win, with James Newbury being pre-selected earlier this year in the seat of Brighton, held by outgoing MP Louise Asher.

Like her partner, Ross believes that too many state MPs are unskilled and out of date. Bastiaan's allies point to the fact that Labor has been in state government for all but four years since 1999, and the Baillieu-Napthine government lasted just one term.

Bastiaan's use of social conservatives to build hisbase have many scared about the damage to the Liberal brand in progressively minded Victoria, with concerns the Bastiaan group's insurgencyis imperillingGuy's hopes of becoming the next premier.

"Theirplan is for Guy to lose the next election and then take over. Guy is furious," says one senior Liberal.

The divisions are coming at a testing time for the party in Victoria.

In an unrelated development, a internal financial dispute has seen business community supremo and fundraising vehicle chairman Hugh Morgan withholding $500,000 from the state branch.

In an extraordinary letter to president Michael Kroger, Mr Morgan says the board of Cormack foundation has identified "fundamental gaps" in the branch's governance.

The governance dispute and the divisions sparked by Bastiaan are spot fires that insiders say risk destabilising the party at a time when the focus should be on exploiting Premier Daniel Andrews' bumpy start to the year.

"We should be focusing on Labor rather than obsessingabout our own internal problems," says an MP.

Twenty-five-year-old Ross hails from a conservative Catholic Church in West Gippsland and has made a name for herself campaigning against abortion.

As the preselection date has drawn closer, so has pressure on her to withdraw from those in the party because of the damage she is causing.

Critics highlight her lack of political, business or life experience. Like Bastiaan,she claims to be focused on returning the party to its members and challenging a parliamentary team that has abandoned its values and lost touch.

To her supporter base, which includes a group from the St Thomas Aquinas community, she has ralliedagainst the Safe Schools program "that is teaching radical gender theory and warped graphic sex education centred around promiscuity".

She has warned Gippsland locals that Australia was "seeing the destruction of religious freedom, free speech, a push towards gay marriage (which won't stop there!) and euthanasia".

"There is a state/nation-wide push to bring conservative politics back into fashion! People like Corey [sic] Bernardi in SA, Andrew Hastie in WA, George Christensen in Qldand Kevin Andrews in Vicare all fighting and need our backing."

Last year, Ross hosted a gala fundraiser for conservative MP Kevin Andrews where the main attraction was former PM Tony Abbott. The Bulleen dinner featured a latin grace and a rendition of God Save the Queen.

She, like her partner Bastiaan, attack Guy's parliamentary team. Most recently, she lashed out at the Coalition's decision to support the Andrews' government ban on fracking and conventional gas exploration.

The Bastiaan camp is privately talking down Ross's chances, perhaps mindful that many senior Liberals are running a furious behind-the-scenes campaign to deny her the prize, fearing Bastiaan would use it as proof positive of his theory that the party's future lies in arresting the decline in membership by proselytising views that resonate with a disaffected base.

But the challenge has sparked fears in the party establishment, with Guy throwing his weight behind Blackwood, pledging a new Warragul hospital (an announcement that would normally be reserved for the election campaign). MPs are lobbying preselectors and the Hawthorn-based shadow Attorney-General John Pesutto will serve as Blackwood's scrutineer.

Bastiaan's ascension from just another wannabe glad-handingoldies at branch meetings to a figure of intense discussion and intrigue across the party has included a familiar rite of passage for many Victorian political aspirants an alliance with veteran Liberal king-maker Michael Kroger.

A federal cabinet member told Fairfax Media that Kroger, who is still regarded as a "political animal of real substance" even by his enemies, believed Bastiaan (currently on the state's powerful administrative committee) would help entrench the veteran's power, not least due to Bastiaan's membership recruiting prowess.

If this is so, Kroger was only half right.

Bastiaan has excelled at recruiting members which equate to votes during key party battles, including those that decide pre-selection but appears not to be wedded to Kroger. Bastiaan is forging his own path, with a focus on seizing greater control at state council.

"It's like Frankenstein's monster. Kroger has lost control," says an observer.

A three-time university dropout, Bastiaan got into business with the aid of his father, dabbling in an antiques dealership while at university, before moving into a software design business.

He nowspends his time leaping betweenan e-commerce start-upandpolitics.

His party operation is under close scrutiny. In the seats held by former treasurer Kim Wells and shadow frontbenchers Nick Wakeling and Heidi Victoria, a vetting committee has been formed to scrutinise the surge in memberships in Melbourne's east that began in the middle of last year but have recently tapered off.

A well-placed source says the committee has identified a small number of members who say they did not pay their party fees or sign the necessary forms. There are many more cases of new members who have no interest in the party beyond casting votes when needed. The vetting committee's work has led to several prospective members being blocked.

The powerful party administrative committee, of which Bastiaan is a member, is aware of branch-stacking claims but has not conducted a formal audit.

With just 12,500 members, many of them "ageing", Kroger has on several occasions publicly praised Bastiaan's work to recruit fresh blood, despite the allegations of branch stacking.

Another supporter, state partyofficer Paul Mitchell, says attacks on Bastiaan are factionally driven.

"Marcus has not just talked about the membership crisis in the Liberal Party, he has gone out and done something about it and the overwhelming majority of party members respect and admire that," he said.

Bastiaan appears to have built his base by making use of membership discounts provided to students and couples. Ultra-conservative churches have also provided a fertile recruiting ground.

"I've had people from different churches approach me and say I've had Marcus ask me to join up. I've got nothing against people who go to church,but this is a blatant stack," says a Liberal MP.

A legitimate recruiter aligned with Bastiaan is medical doctor Ivan Stratov, who once ran for the Family First Party.

A prominent member of the Mormon church, Stratov won't say how many new members he has recruited (there is no suggestion Stratov is doing any branch stacking) or how closely he is working with Bastiaan.

But Stratov says some of Victorian's Mormons "are getting politically aware" and he's encouraging them to sign up. This is being made easier, he says, because of anger over the safe schools program, the push to legalise assisted euthanasia and other progressive policies. For instance, Dr Stratov says there is plenty of support for his views on abortions.

"I wouldn't agree with the vast majority of abortions in this country. I think there arefar too many," he says.

Supporters say concern about the growing influence of ultra-conservative church groups in the party is vastly overstated and servesas a means for underperforming MPs threatened by Bastiaan to create a sense of outrage and unease.

Others see the Bastiaan group's efforts as a genuine "insurgency" that is using conservatives as a rallying point.

Federal Assistant Treasurer and Deakin MP Michael Sukkaris another supporter of Bastiaan.

"The most important take out from the Deakin campaign was the importance of grassroots members and supporters. Modern campaigning is labour intensive andwith ageing and shrinking membership many in the party are grateful of Marcus' efforts to grow the party," Mr Sukkar said.

"I don't seriously believe anybody can seriously argue that Christians can no longer be welcome in the Liberal party."

The Bastiaan group's emergence, championing of right-wing views and divisive nature reflects the battle playing out in federal party ranks, with Abbott and other conservative warriors keeping Turnbull on something of a leash.

Next month, Abbott is the headline guest at a Liberal Party fundraiser organised by Bastiaan.Few doubt Abbott's commitment to long-held conservative values.

But several Liberal MPs say Bastiaan's efforts to portray himself as a conservative warrior is more about political opportunism than any deeply held ideal.

Some Liberals also say thatBastiaanhas privately backed same-sex marriage, a view he wasn't prepared to challenge when quizzed by Fairfax Media.

Blackwood, the group's preselection target, is himself a socially conservative MP and other arch-conservatives including the outspoken Bernie Finn are also in the Bastiaan camps sights.

The risk for Matthew Guy and the party inthe long term is that while conservative views may energise some of the Liberal base and a new generation of members, they won't win an election in Victoria.

The Narracan preselection battle will be a test of Bastiaan's success in organising numbers.

Regardless of whether Stephanie Ross wins or loses, Bastiaan is expected to be appointed vice-president of the state branch in April, a key step to realising his ambition of becoming president.

The most considered political observers say Bastiaan is not the problem.

He's simply using unreconstructed right-wing rhetoric to try to fill a void created by mainstream parties struggling to connect with cynical voters. It's this disconnect that is at the heart of the Bastiaan phenomenon and, to a far greater extent, political movements overseas.Whatever Bastiaan's fortunes, the broader politicalproblem is not going away.

"This is about the failure of mainstream parties to connect. It's not just us but Labor as well," says a senior party stalwart.

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Victorian Liberals: factional fight exposes deep divisions - The Age