The ADVANCE, April 19, 2023/Page 6A
Stye Aiiuancg
OPINIONS
“I honor the man who is willing to sink
Half his repute for the freedom to think,
And when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak,
Will risk t’other half for the freedom to speak.”
-James Russell Lowell
editorials
Palestinian Arab Terrorism
and The West’s Moral Apathy
By Ben Shapiro
This week, Jews
all over the world
marked Passover, the
celebration of the
Jewish exodus from
Egypt. As we congre
gated around seder
tables to read from
the “Haggadah” —
the compendium of
texts telling the story
of the exodus — we
said the following words: “And this (God’s
blessings and the Torah) is what kept our
fathers and what keeps us. For not only one
arose and attempted to destroy us, but in
each generation, they stand to destroy us,
and God saves us from their hands.”
The Dee family, a family of seven origi
nally from Great Britain but now from
Efrat, Israel — the so-called West Bank,
the heart of Biblical Israel — undoubtedly
said the same words. Then, on Friday, Rina
Dee (15), Maia Dee (20) and their mother
Lucy (48) went on a drive through the Jor
dan Valley on the way to Tiberias, just miles
from where Joshua would have brought the
Jews across the Jordan River. There, they
were attacked and shot to death by a Pales
tinian Arab terrorist who riddled their car
with 20 bullets.
Hamas, the governing Palestinian party
in the Gaza Strip and a powerful force in
Palestinian Arab areas of Judea and Samaria,
celebrated the murders. “We congratulate
the Jordan Valley operation and warn the
occupation against continuing its aggres
sion against our Palestinian people and the
blessed AI-Aqsa Mosque,” they said. Mean
while, husband and father Rabbi Leo Dee
gave a eulogy for half of his family: “Let the
Israeli flag today send out a message to hu
manity which is: We will never accept terror
as legitimate. We will never blame the mur
der on the victims. There is no such thing
as moral equivalence between terrorist and
victim.”
Sadly, the media played the moral
equivalence game, treating the murder of
two sisters and their mother as yet another
round in the supposed “cycle of violence”
between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs. Of
course, in that “cycle of violence,” Palestin
ian Arab terrorists target innocent civil
ians and then hand out candies when they
achieve their evil goals, while the Israeli
Defense Forces seek to root out and destroy
terrorists. But to the media, it’s all the same.
“Daughters of British rabbi die in West
Bank drive by shooting,” touted The Sun
day Times (U.K.), leaving no explanation
for who had committed the shooting or
why. “Two British sisters killed and mother
injured in West Bank shooting,” tut-tutted
The Guardian; “2 killed in West Bank after
Israel strikes Lebanon, Gaza,” the Associ
ated Press lied by omission.
The Biden administration has been lit
tle better. In recent weeks, as terrorism me
tastasized, the Biden administration urged
Israel to “de-escalate,” as though any state
could ignore its moral duty to defend its
citizens from routine acts of terrorism. In
stead, the Biden administration summoned
Michael Herzog, Israel’s U.S. ambassador,
to stress “the importance of all parties re
fraining from actions or rhetoric that could
further inflame tensions leading into the
Ramadan, Passover and Easter holidays.”
This vile moral equivalence motivates
terrorists to murder civilians and step up
other violence. After all, there’s no down
side. When the media treat legitimate self-
defense as terrorism and terrorism as le
gitimate self-defense, terrorists thrive. And
they are thriving today, raising the specter
of violence all across Israel: 18 civilians
have been slaughtered by terrorists in Israel
since Jan. 27. As terror increases, the neces
sity for larger-scale intervention grows, too.
Then, the same media and Left-wing gov
ernments will decry the “cycle of violence”
again, fostering yet more terrorism.
In every generation, the story is the
same: In each generation, there are those
who seek to destroy the Jews, and in every
generation, through the grace of God, they
fail. But that doesn’t relieve those who re
tain any measure of decency from standing
up against evil terrorists. The alternative is
apathetic complicity — and that apathetic
complicity costs lives.
Ben Shapiro, 39, is a graduate of UCLA and
Harvard Law School, host of "The Ben Shapiro
Show," and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a
three-time New York Times bestselling author: his
latest book is The Authoritarian Moment: How
The Left Weaponized America's Institutions
Against Dissent. To find out more about Ben
Shapiro and read features by other Creators
Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the
Creators Syndicate website at www.creators,
com.
COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS.COM.
Muslims Turning the Tide
in the School Culture Wars
By Betsy McCaughey
In a slap to Muslim
girls at Stuyvesant High
School, the school is can
celling single-sex swim les
sons, even though swim
instruction is required to
graduate. That forces the
girls to choose between
preserving their modesty
and getting a diploma.
Count on Muslim fam
ilies to fight back and likely
prevail. Nationwide, Mus
lims are taking up the bat
tle in schools to protect
traditional religious values,
including modesty.
Move over, Roman
Catholics, evangelical
Christians and conserva
tive Jews. Reinforcements
have arrived, and they’re
turning the tide.
Even in the Ivy League.
After weeks of protests by
female Muslim students,
Yale University is switching
its campus housing policy
for the coming academic
year to offer single-gender
dorms and bathrooms.
From Michigan to Vir
ginia, Muslim parents are
showing up at local school
board meetings to oppose
graphic sex education and
gender fluidity indoctrina
tion. Their engagement is
impacting politics. More
Muslims are voting Repub
lican, concluding that the
Democratic Party is tram
pling Islamist values.
In Dearborn, Michi
gan, left-wing Democrat
Rep. Rashida Tlaib op
posed the Muslim parents
in her district protesting
sexually explicit materials
in school.
Meanwhile, the Biden
administration continues
its lurch to the extreme left.
President Joe Biden’s De
partment of Education an
nounced double-barreled
rule changes last week, one
favoring transgender ath
letes in elementary and
middle school, and the
other revoking a Trump-
era commitment by the de
partment to protect reli
gious clubs and associa
tions on college campuses.
Flipping the bird to people
of faith twice in a single
week.
The Democratic Party
is blowing off traditional
values.
Sexual modesty is a
core value in Islam. Mus
lims observe a dress code
and guard against physical
contact between sexes
once students reach ado
lescence.
Title VII of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 protects
an employee’s right to prac
tice religion in the work
place, but there is no com
parable statutory protec
tion for students. Muslims
are waging the battle one
campus demonstration and
school board meeting at a
time, often winning.
Muslims are powerful
at Yale. In 2021, under
grads elected a Muslim
woman to be student body
president. And on March
10, Yale acceded to de
mands from the Muslim
Student Association, Or
thodox Jews at Yale and
Please see McCaughey
page 7A
uieOTeiDtb&\
wy
TftUtAE .TRUMR.TRJMp/
vjevaiTTW/
Deciphering what our
intrepid public servants
say and what it means
The fol
lowing is a Pub
lic Service an
nouncement:
Congress is in
recess and
members are
back home. Ki-
wanians and
Rotarians,
Chambers of
Commerce and
other assorted groups can likely expect
a visit from their intrepid public ser
vants.
If you are tied up and unable to
make it to one of their fly-bys because
you have more important things to do
like scrubbing the bathtub or learning
to yodel, I hereby submit an expert
analysis of what they will be saying and
what they actually mean. Pay close at
tention.
“My friends.” (Actually, you aren’t
my friends. I am only saying that be
cause I want you to like me enough to
vote for me in the next election so I
can stay in Washington where every
body kisses my ring and I don’t have to
find a real job.)
“It is good to be back home.” (Not
really. I prefer Washington because
lobbyists take me to all the best restau
rants in town and laugh at all my jokes.
Here, I have to open my own doors.)
“I want you to know that I am
working hard for you every day.” (In
truth, the hard work is done by my
staff who gets paid peanuts, works in
credibly long hours and then has to
watch me get all the credit.)
“Things in Washington are a mess
these days. (As if I am not a part of the
problem myself.)
“Congress doesn’t function well
because ofthe (name opposingparty.)”
(What this crowd doesn’t know is that
there are 534 other members of Con
gress out in the hustings at this mo
ment making the same speech I am
and all of us blaming the other party
and each other. No wonder we don’t
function well.)
“You have given me the privilege
of representing you in Washington,
and I want to assure you that I am
working hard for you.” (This is where I
dazzle them with my fancy footwork
and talk about stuff that has about as
much chance of passing as I do of be
ing elected Pope.)
“During the last session, I intro
duced bills in Congress to cut wasteful
government spending as well as to give
you hard-working folks back home a
much needed tax break. I am also
working on legislation to increase So
cial Security payments for our senior
citizens, trying to rein in campaign fi
nancing and curb the undue influence
of special interest groups and their
lobbyists in Washington.” (Wow! Lis
ten to the applause! They actually
think I am serious! What they don’t
know is I couldn’t do any of this stuff
even if I wanted to. I don’t have that
kind of influence. I do what the leader
ship tells me to do. The rest of it is
smoke and mirrors.)
By Dick Yarbrough
“I will also be a part of several
Congressional fact-finding missions
that will be traveling abroad to assure
that the interests of the United States
are aligned with our friends and allies
in other parts of the world.” (Actually,
we call these taxpayer-funded junkets.
It’s a perk of being in Congress. I’m not
sure where I am going, but I hope it is
some place warm and that there is a
golf course nearby.)
“You have been a gracious audi
ence today and before we adjourn, I
would be happy to answer any ques
tions you might have.” (They are so
impressed to have a real live member
of Congress as their speaker, there
won’t be a question I haven’t heard
before, and I will give them a long-
winded answer they won’t understand.
It’s like lobbing softballs.)
“Folks, it has been a distinct honor
to be with you today, but duty calls,
and I must get back to Washington and
back to the job you sent me there to
do.” (And, you can be sure I will be hit
ting you up for money as soon as I get
back. There is always another election
coming.)
“Remember, my door is always
open if you happen to be in Washing
ton.” (It’ll be open but I’ll have you in
and out of the office before you can be
seated and then foist you off on one of
my staff members and claim I am late
to some committee hearing. It works
every time.)
“Again, it has been an honor and a
privilege to be with you today. Thank
you for your time and attention and
God Bless America!” (Whew! Glad
that’s over. Hopefully, I won’t have to
do this again for another year. The
meat loaf was terrible.)
You can reach Dick Yarbrough at
dick@dickyarbrough.com; at P.O. Box
725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139 or on
Facebook at www.facebook.com/
dickyarb.
sl,t A&uancE
(The Advance Publishing Co., Inc)
205 E. First Street,
Vidalia, GA 30474
Telephone: (912) 537-3131 FAX: (912) 537-4899
E-mail: theadvancenews@gmail.com
The Advance, U. S. P. S. #659-000, successor to The Advance and The
Lyons Progress, entered weekly at Vidalia, GA Post Office. Periodical
Postage paid at Vidalia, GA 30474 under Act of Congress, March 4,
1886. 205 East First Street, Wm. F. Ledford, Sr. Publisher. Subscription
Rates per year: $40.00 in county, $55.00 out of 304 zip code.
(POSTMASTER: send address changes to The ADVANCE, 205 E. First
St., Vidalia, GA 30474).
Copyright © 2023, Advance Publishing Co., Inc. All rights reserved. The design,
concept and contents of The Advance are copyrighted and may not be
reproduced in part or whole without written permission from the publisher.
R.E. "LID" LEDFORD, PUBLISHER
1924-1976
WILLIAM F. “BILL” LEDFORD SR., PUBLISHER
1976-2013
Publisher & Managing Editor:
WILLIAM F. LEDFORD JR.
Vice President:
THE LATE ROSE M. LEDFORD
Regional Editor:
DEBORAH CLARK
Pagination/Typography:
LEANNE RICHARDSON
Quality Control:
MILLIE PERRY
Staff Writer:
MAKAYLEE RANDOLPH
Graphic Design:
MATTHEW WATERS
Sports Editor/Graphic Design:
MIKE BRANCH
Director of Advertlslng/Sales:
DANIEL FORD
Office Manager:
BONNIE BAILEY
Financial Manager:
CINDY LAWRENCE
Contributing Writers:
JOE PHILLIPS, LORAN SMITH, DICK YARBROUGH & AMBER NAGLE
Upr
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER
ASSOCIATION
Member of the Georgia Press
Association and the National
Newspaper Association
Winning
Newspaper
Belter
Newspaper
Contesls
