Rockefeller Brothers Fund funding pro-Palestinian groups, at least one Israel calls ‘terrorist’ org

 Pro-Palestinian groups such as those who spread hate at the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting this week, have been lavishly funded by the Rockefeller family’s main charitable arm.

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund has links to two groups the Israeli government designated “terrorist organizations,” a review of public records by The Post shows.

Founded in 1940, the famous clan’s $1.3 billion fund — where Justin, Wyatt and David Rockefeller Jr. sit on the board of trustees — has shelled out more than $2.6 million since 2018 directly or indirectly to at least six anti-Israel organizations, several of which openly celebrated Hamas’ Oct 7 terrorist attack on the Jewish state.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, whose logo was affixed to an ad promoting Wednesday’s rally, is a “fiscally sponsored project” of the nonprofit Alliance for Global Justice.

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Pro-Palestinian protesters at the “Flood the Tree Lighting For Gaza Protest” near the Rockefeller Center tree lighting ceremony on Nov. 29, 2023.James Keivom

In August 2022, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund gave the Alliance $100,000.

Israel designated Samidoun a terrorist organization in February 2021 and Germany banned it last month.

Samidoun, founded in 2011, condemned the United Kingdom in 2021 for classifying Hamas a terrorist organization, and cheered the Oct 7 terrorist incursion:

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The Rockefeller Brothers Fund is financing several pro-Palestinian groups.Getty Images

“The resistance is rising throughout occupied Palestine . . . confronting the occupier by land and air, taking control of Palestinian land, seizing occupation settlers and soldiers and launching thousands of missiles as Palestinian resistance forces fight to advance return and the liberation of Palestine,” Samidoun said on the day Hamas terrorists massacred more than 1,200 Israeli civilians.

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund has awarded at least $215,000 to Defence For Children International-Palestine, according to their website and IRS tax forms.

The Israeli government declared the group a terrorist organization in October 2021.

Undeterred, the fund issued a new $50,000 grant to the organization in 2022.

“This is unfortunately a case of reaping what one sows. They were probably fine with these rabid, lefty groups, protesting other people,” said City Councilman Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island). “The lesson we all can take from this is that the woke left isn’t our friend.”

The fund gave at least $490,000 for “general support” to the Jewish Voice for Peace, according to public grant disclosures on their website since 2019.

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The lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas was disrupted by pro-Hamas protesters this week.Getty Images

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The Rockefeller Brothers Fund defended their donations, citing their commitment to DEI.Getty Images

Despite its name, the group is a notorious anti-Israel organization and a front for mainstreaming antisemitic ideas, critics say.

A Grand Central demonstration organized by the group in October led to more than 300 arrests.

“Jewish Voice for Peace is a radical anti-Israel and anti-Zionist activist group that advocates for the boycott of Israel and eradication of Zionism. JVP does not represent the mainstream Jewish community, which it views as bigoted for its association with Israel,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.

The group has been banned by Columbia University for repeatedly holding “threatening” campus events, the school said last month.

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Many of the groups financed by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund have openly expressed their support for Hamas terrorism.James Keivom

The fund has also donated at least $515,000 to the The Tides Center, earmarked specifically to support Palestine Legal, a pro-Palestinian advocacy group, records show. The nonprofit trumpeted the Oct 7 attacks as “one of the most significant acts of Palestinian resistance.”

“There is no equivalence – moral or otherwise – between Israel’s nearly eight decades of ceaseless colonial violence, and the resistance that it has engendered,” Palestine Legal said on Oct 10.

“It’s the height of irony that the Rockefeller Foundation supports the anti-Israel, Soros-funded Tides Foundation and many other antisemitic Israel-bashing groups, that are now holding ugly, disgusting, vile Jew-hating displays at the Christmas Tree event at the Rockefeller Center,” said Mort Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America. “Just desserts I say.”

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund also sent at least $710,000 to the Adalah Justice Project and $605,000 to the Middle East Policy Network (also known as Al-Shabaka).

Both organizations celebrated Hamas’ Oct 7 attacks in public statements.

The fund defended the grants and noted that it donated to more mainstream Israel groups as well, such as J-Street and the The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute.

“We categorically reject any claim that our grantee organizations support, materially or ideologically, acts of terrorism,” said spokeswoman Sarah Edkins “Advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion for people of all races, ethnicities, and genders is critical to our mission, and RBF is deeply concerned about indications of growing antisemitism.”

Edkins added, “The Fund’s only relationship with Alliance for Global Justice is as the fiscal sponsor for one grantee of our Sustainable Development program, South Bronx Unite.”

https://nypost.com/2023/12/02/metro/rockefeller-brothers-fund-funding-palestinian-terror-groups/

‘Sammy the Bull’ Gravano stunned by latest bombshell Hunter Biden allegations: ‘Mind-blowing’

 Former Gambino underboss Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano spoke out to FOX News following the latest bombshell report in the Biden family influence peddling investigation.

Gravano appeared on “Jesse Watters Primetime” on Thursday after a bank investigator tasked with detecting money laundering flagged “unusual” and “erratic” activity in regard to several large-sum wire transfers to accounts belonging to Hunter Biden.

A Bank Secrecy Act manager for one institution said the payments therein didn’t appear to match with “any services rendered” by Owasco P.C., an entity controlled by the current first son. 

“That’s bank lingo for ‘bribe’,” host Jesse Watters claimed prior to introducing Gravano.

Watters added that the bank investigator finished his report by saying activity on the account appears “unusual and with no current business purpose and may require reevaluation of the bank’s relationship with the customer,” which the host said is “bank lingo for ‘the Chinese are bribing the [then]-vice president’s family and we should tell them to bank somewhere else’.”

In response, Gravano – who served time for racketeering and became a government witness against boss John Gotti – called Watters’ rendition of the reports “incredible.”

“It’s mind-blowing. I don’t understand how the country is just sitting back listening to these things and no action is being taken,” Gravano said, adding other people might receive “22 lifetime sentences for this kind of stuff.”

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Former Gambino underboss Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano on Fox News.FOX News

Gravano said it is brave to speak openly and honestly about such topics, adding he is sure there are honest people working within the bureaucracy who may also want to speak out against alleged corruption but cannot.

“Without a doubt,” he said. “I cooperated years ago. Everybody knows it – with the FBI, the federal government, some prosecutors, John Gleeson and different judges. And they were so honest. It was unbelievable. I was proud to be with them for a while. I’m still friends with a lot of them.

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Gravano said the Biden family allegations were “mind-blowing.”AP

“And some of them tell me, ‘Sammy, I spent my whole life in the FBI. I’m embarrassed to tell somebody I’m an FBI agent. And I said, Don’t feel like that. Just get out. Speak. Talk against it. Do something’.”

“I fight for a lot of things. The open borders, poor people pouring in there, invading our country by the million… and we do nothing at all,: Gravano added.

As a veteran, Gravano said, he feels bad for those who served in the military and return to see the government allegedly operating in this way.

“Everything they gave for us, and we’re sitting back and doing absolutely nothing. I don’t care how much power they got on their side. We have the people. The people are the power. If we don’t talk, if we don’t say something, then we’re part of it,” he said.

Watters asked whether Gravano was essentially saying that he is now witnessing things in the federal government that reminded him of his past life in the mob.

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Hunter Biden departs federal court in July.REUTERS
“We did things – I don’t even want to compare. We’re like choirboys compared to these people,” the former mobster claimed. He added that by contrast, an unspoken rule of the underworld was to always protect the public.

Gravano said in that regard that New York was often safer when the mafia was in control of the streets – and that overall the city and cities like it have declined under a rise in unrest and discontentment, viewing the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting as a once-venerated event that has now been tinged by politicized riots.

https://nypost.com/2023/12/02/news/notorious-mobster-salvatore-sammy-the-bull-gravano-stunned-by-latest-bombshell-hunter-biden-allegations-mind-blowing/

As 'Green Energy' Fails, New 'Emergency' Arises

 The swift and startling collapse of the net-zero climate agenda nearly everywhere is leading to political desperation. Don’t be surprised to see the political emergency — especially President Joe Biden’s — become the basis for declaring a formal “climate emergency.” Despite hundreds of billions in new subsides for “green energy” enacted over the last three years in the U.S. and Europe—on top of several trillion dollars spent so far—renewable power projects are being canceled, delayed, or scaled back nearly everywhere.

The green energy lobby, already the beneficiary of some of the most lavish subsidies governments have ever granted for any industry, are saying that the future of green energy depends on even larger subsidies. It was recently revealed that Germany’s off-budget spending for energy subsidies is nearly larger than the regular budget for the entire government, and Germany’s normally deferential Constitutional Court has ruled against the Scholz government’s proposal to divert billions in unspent Covid funds to the green energy rathole.

More expensive mush from the wimp.

The situation in the United States differs only in the timeline. The U.S. is fast catching up with Germany in the sweepstakes for the most green-mad nation, as Biden’s direct subsidies, loan guarantees, tax favors, and green mandates likely exceed $1 trillion in total cost this decade. But already it is running into trouble. One of his largest green slush funds is having trouble spending all the billions, and the projects it has funded are likely to yield the same results as Biden’s favorite green energy project under the Obama Administration’s previous slush fund: Solyndra.

Car buyers aren’t rushing to embrace electric vehicles (that are slated to be mandatory for everyone in a decade), car makers are cutting EV production and canceling planned battery manufacturing plants. Offshore solar wind power projects are being abandoned, and onshore wind projects are facing mounting opposition from the public.

Fanciful claims that renewable energy is cheaper than conventional energy are belied by soaring utility rates in the U.S. and elsewhere. Wyoming, for example, the nation’s leading coal-producing state, is suddenly facing a 30 percent increase in electric utility rates because it foolishly joined the renewable-energy bandwagon. Green energy stocks have collapsed this year. For example, the Invesco WilderHill Clean Energy exchange-traded green energy fund PBW is down 30 percent in 2023, while the S&P 500 is up 19 percent and the NASDAQ is up 36 percent.

While everyone is looking at the mind-boggling green spending totals, a sly move by the Biden administration is drawing little attention outside of the specialized energy press (and Fox News). Two weeks ago President Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to divert $169 million in federal funds to expand the production of heat pumps. While $169 million is hardly rounding error in federal spending these days, this move is notable for several reasons.

First, why the mania for heat pumps? Heat pumps can be more energy efficient than conventional gas or fuel oil furnaces in many circumstances, but usually cost more than conventional furnaces or air conditioning, which is one reason why Britain recently backed off plans to mandate widespread adoption of heat pumps in homes whose heating and cooling systems don’t need replacing.

Heat pumps: this is war!

Heat pumps are the latest obsession of the climate cult with any technology that displaces natural gas, which is now public enemy number one. There are plenty of heat pumps on the market today, and consumers are perfectly capable of making intelligent choices about whether future energy cost savings justify a higher up-front price today. Most American consumers are choosing conventional HVAC systems, to the fury of the climate cultists. Making heat pumps mandatory, like the fanatical drive to ban natural gas stoves and forcing us to use dishwashers and clothes washing machines that don’t work, is the next step.

So why does the Biden administration think it necessary to invoke a power meant for national defense emergencies to juice heat pump production? What do heat pumps have to do with national defense needs? Nothing. But the Biden administration justifies the use of the Defense Production Act because expanded heat pump production will bolster “energy security” and help fight climate change. After all, the Pentagon, which has long experience with the art of embracing any cause that will help secure its budget appropriations, has fallen in line declaring that "climate change" is a significant national security threat.

No one should be the least surprised at this cynical misuse of emergency executive power. It is entirely typical of executive lawlessness of recent Democratic administrations, such as Biden’s student loan forgiveness (struck down by the Supreme Court, though Biden is trying again), or Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which was amnesty for illegal immigrants in all but name, or Obama’s so-called “Clean Power Plan” (also struck down by the Supreme Court).

The invocation of the Defense Production Act may be a tiny warmup for the next big use of executive power on behalf of climate change. Since Biden took office the most vocal climate cultists have been demanding that Biden formally declare a “climate emergency.” Biden and his followers persist in referring to the “climate crisis,” so declaring a climate emergency would seem the sensible next step in this progression. The news hook to justify this step is already in front of us: the hyped-up claims that 2023 is "virtually certain" to be the hottest year on record:

This year is “virtually certain” to be the hottest year in recorded history, the World Meteorological Organization announced on Thursday at COP28, the United Nations climate summit in Dubai where delegates from nearly 200 countries, including many heads of state and government, have gathered.

The organization said 2023 has been about 1.4 degrees Celsius, or about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit, above the global average preindustrial temperature from 1850 to 1990. The past nine years have been the warmest nine in 174 years of recorded scientific observations, with the previous single-year records set in 2020 and 2016. This comes in addition to record greenhouse gas concentrations, sea levels and concentrations of methane. “It’s a deafening cacophony of broken records,” Petteri Taalas, the secretary general of the World Meteorological Organization, said in Dubai.

Broken records, indeed: the supposed “climate emergency” coincides with a real political emergency for Biden’s re-election. With polls showing Biden slipping badly among young voters—a key constituency for him and the Democrats—a formal declaration of a climate emergency under the National Emergencies Act of 1976 would be a sop to a cohort of voters that supposedly cares a lot about "climate change," and who tell pollsters that we aren’t doing enough to fight it.

The declaration of a climate emergency under the National Emergencies Act could have significantly larger consequences than the diversion of funds to heat pumps under the Defense Production Act. One of the ironies of the green energy drive under Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act is that the environmental law and regulations that have been abused to stop development for the last 50 years are currently in the way of wind and solar power installations and aggressive expansions of the electricity grid. Biden could waive or short-circuit a number of these regulatory roadblocks, though a future president named Trump or DeSantis could use the very same power to apply regulatory relief more broadly. This is probably among the reasons Biden has resisted declaring a climate emergency so far. But when you face a political emergency, all restraints come off.

Steven F. Hayward is a resident scholar at the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley, and lecturer at Berkeley Law. His most recent book is "M. Stanton Evans: Conservative Wit, Apostle of Freedom." He writes daily at Powerlineblog.com.

https://the-pipeline.org/as-green-energy-fails-a-new-emergency-arises/