12/2/20

New ASI TV Shows – 12/02/20

By: Cliff Kincaid | America’s Survival

Moral Objections to COVID-19 Vaccines

Bishop Joseph Strickland makes a surprise appearance in this interview of Dr. Stacy Trasancos to declare he will not take a COVID-19 shot made from aborted baby parts. In this interview with Cliff Kincaid, Dr. Trasancos examines the science behind the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines rushed into production and now being delivered to human guinea pigs in the U.S. The executive director of the St. Philip Institute, she exposes the use of aborted baby parts in medical “research” and treatments for diseases. Go to www.stphilipinsitute.org.

The “COVID-safe” Post-Pandemic Brave New World

Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC.org) talks to Cliff Kincaid about the risky and dangerous China virus vaccines that could cause numerous long-term health problems in the population. She urges people to use NVIC information to fight for vaccine safety and freedom on the state and local levels, where decisions about the mandatory nature of these experimental shots will be made. Get this information now before it is censored by Big Tech in alliance with Big Pharma.

12/2/20

A Constitutional Roadmap for Conquering Election Fraud

By: Publius Huldah

The following shows what the State Legislatures and each Branch of the federal government have the authority to do to address the monstrous crime which has been committed against our Country.

Article IV, §4, US Constitution

The fundamental Principle which should guide us in dealing with this issue is set forth in Article IV, §4, US Constitution. It reads,

“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government…”

The essence of a “Republic” is that sovereign power is exercised by Representatives elected, directly or indirectly, by The People. ¹

Election fraud strikes at the heart of our Constitutional Republic. Therefore, Congress, the federal courts, and the Executive Branch [i.e., the “United States”] have the duty, imposed by Article IV, §4, to negate the fraud in order to preserve our republican form of government.

As shown below, the States also have the authority to remedy the election fraud committed in their State.

The Constitutional framework governing federal elections

These are the clauses in the US Constitution everyone should study:

I, §4 is the “times, places, and manner” clause: It means what it says! Federal and State judges, and federal and State executive agencies, have no authority to tinker with election laws made by the State Legislatures or Congress. When they tinker with the laws, their acts are usurpations and must be treated as such [link].
II, §1, clause 2: The President & Vice President are to be elected by Electors appointed, in such manner as the State Legislatures shall direct…
II, §1, clause 4: Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors and the Day on which they Vote.
The 12^th Amendment sets forth the procedures for how the Electors are to cast their votes for President & then for Vice President. To our detriment, we have ignored those procedures for a long time.
The 20^th Amendment, §1, says the terms of President & Vice President end January 20; and the terms of Senators & Representatives end January 3.
And §2 of the 20^th Amendment says Congress shall meet on January 3, unless they make a law setting a different date. Congress did make a law which changed that date to January 6.

The Statutory framework

At Title 3, US Code, §§ 1-21 [link], Congress implemented the constitutional provisions.

Congress understood there would be fights in the States over the selection of the Electors. So they provided for the fights:

A. At 3 USC §1, Congress set November 3 as the date for appointing the Electors in the States.

But the next two Sections address what happens when Electors aren’t appointed on November 3.

2 says the Electors may be appointed on a subsequent day in such a manner as the Legislature of each State may direct.
And §3 says Electors are chosen when any controversy respecting their appointment has been finally determined. “Determining the controversy” is, of course, the purpose of the litigation and the hearings in State Legislatures.

B. Article II, §1, clause 4, US Constit., gives Congress authority to determine the Date on which the electors vote:

3 USC §7 sets that date for December 14.
But 3 USC §§12 & 13 provide for what happens when Congress hasn’t received the Electors’ votes by December 23.

So we see that flexibility to deal with fights in the States over the selection of Electors is built into the US Code.

C. Now we get to the counting of the Electors’ Votes in Congress: 3 USC §15 says Congress is to meet on January 6 to count the votes. The President of the Senate [Mike Pence] presides. He is to call for objections to the votes. The rest of §15 and §§16-18 deal with handling the objections in Congress respecting the Electors’ votes.

So the statutory framework recognizes that selecting the Presidential Electors can get messy; and that there would be fights over the Electors in the States and in Congress. We are working through this process right now.

Congress has the power to determine whether the President-elect and Vice President-elect are qualified for office.

Section 3 of the 20^th Amendment shows that Congress has the authority to determine whether the President-elect and Vice President-elect are qualified for office. ² If either is not a natural-born citizen, Congress has the power and the duty to disqualify that person. ³ Accordingly, it was Congress’ duty to inquire into whether Obama was a natural-born citizen; and today it is Congress’ duty to inquire into whether Kamala Harris is a natural-born citizen.

Congress also has the power – and the duty – to disqualify Biden and Harris on the ground that the fraud bringing about their sham “election” was an attack on the States’ Right, guaranteed by Article IV, §4, to have a republican form of government.

Election Fraud is a federal crime

It is the DUTY of the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute election fraud. It is disgraceful that they have done nothing.

The Duty of the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court is surely aware of its Duty, imposed by Article IV, §4, US Constitution, to guarantee to the States a republican form of government where Representatives are elected by The People – and not by corrupt politicians who pay for massive organized election fraud and cheating.

While the Supreme Court obviously cannot enforce its own rulings and must depend on the Executive Branch of the federal government to enforce them; ⁴ the Supreme Court must issue an Opinion consistent with Article IV, §4, which, when enforced by the Executive Branch of the federal government, solves the present crisis.

The State Legislatures should appoint replacement Electors

It is clear that State Legislatures have the power to ignore the fraudulent election and appoint a new set of Presidential Electors. Such is consistent with the Constitution and the statutory scheme laid out in 3 USC §§1-21. Furthermore, the Supreme Court has already acknowledged that State Legislatures may do this.

REMEMBER that Article II, §1, clause 2, US Constitution, says Electors are to be appointed “in such Manner as the State Legislatures” may direct.

Originally, Electors were generally chosen by the State Legislatures. In McPherson v. Blacker, decided 1892 [link], the Supreme Court gave the history of how each State Legislature chose their Electors since the first presidential election. It was only later that State Legislatures began to provide for the popular election of the Presidential Electors.

Congress expressly recognizes that State Legislatures may resume at any time the power to select the Electors. Remember that 3 USC §2, says,

“Whenever any State has held an election for the purpose of choosing electors and has failed to make a choice on the day prescribed by law, the electors may be appointed on a subsequent day in such a manner as the legislature of such State may direct.”

Additionally, in Bush v. Gore, decided 2000 [link], the Supreme Court said that the State Legislature’s power to select the manner for appointing electors is plenary; it may, if it chooses, select the Electors itself; and even after granting the franchise to the People to select the Electors, State Legislatures can resume the power at any time.

So yes, in States where the election was stolen, the State Legislatures may – and should – reassume their plenary power to select the Electors. America urges State Legislators to be bold and do what is right.

Warning

Republican establishment cowards who refuse to confront and defeat the election fraud don’t seem to understand the consequences of their refusal to man up and fight the fraud. Our Country is right now in the process of being overthrown and taken over by profoundly evil people. You better fight while we still can.

Endnotes:

¹ Federalist No. 10 (J. Madison) [link]: “A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, … *** … The two great points of difference between a democracy and a republic are: first, the delegation of the government, in the latter, to a small number of citizens elected by the rest; …”

² The qualifications are set forth in Article II, §1, clause 5, and the 12^th Amendment, last sentence.

³ Whether or not a President-elect or Vice President-elect meets the constitutional qualifications for office is a political question for Congress to decide.

⁴ Federalist No. 78 (A. Hamilton) [link] “…The Executive not only dispenses the honors, but holds the sword of the community. The legislature not only commands the purse, but prescribes the rules by which the duties and rights of every citizen are to be regulated. The judiciary, on the contrary, has no influence over either the sword or the purse; no direction either of the strength or of the wealth of the society; and can take no active resolution whatever. It may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgments.” [Caps are Hamilton’s; other emphasis added.]

12/2/20

Palestine: A Self-Imposed Prison

By: Tabitha Korol

Hayaat loves her grandmother, Sitti, who always reminisces and sings about her previous home and their life before the Arab-Israeli War of 1948. In an effort to restore Sitti’s health, Hayaat and her friend, Samy, set out on a journey to the other side of the wall to bring her a gift of Jerusalem soil. This children’s book exchanges the customary propaganda for Palestinianism for a search for the truth. This is my eighth children’s book review.

Thirteen-year-old Hayaat is the heroine in Where the Streets Had a Name, by Randa Abdel-Fattah. She lives with her Mama and Baba, siblings – older sister Jihan, 7-year-old brother Tariq, 3-month-old Mohammed – and 86-year-old grandmother, Sitti Zayneb. The family is preparing to shop during the two-hour respite from the curfew imposed by the Israeli government. Not explained was that the Israeli army sometimes places refugee districts in the West Bank and Gaza under army curfew as “collective punishment” and “environmental pressures” after a terrorist attack or when they are unable to control population unrest in the streets. We learn nothing of the Israeli victims who are seriously maimed or killed, or of the families left to grieve, but this family is inconvenienced as they rush to the store, each with a list of items by aisles, load the car, and return home in time. The Israelis “confiscated our land,” Sitti laments, and the family of seven must manage in a smaller apartment in a poor Bethlehem neighborhood.

Additionally, Hayaat’s school is closed for the curfew’s duration, and she is tired of comments about her face – the contorted skin she sees in her mirror. Her older sister Jihan is engaged to Ahmad, an Israeli Arab from Lod, who found a reception hall for their wedding in Ramallah, the West Bank, where he works and where they will live as a couple. They grumble about the roadblocks and checkpoints that could delay their timely arrival at the wedding, but similar conditions exist worldwide to maintain security from interlopers and terrorists. In the case of Israel, it is to ensure that Palestinians are unarmed and not bent on a killing spree.

The West Bank is Judea and Samaria, part of what the Israelis re-captured when they defended themselves against the unlawful siege and blockade of Israel by Egypt, Syria, and Jordan’s armies in 1967. Despite the rhetoric, according to international law, this land is not “occupied,” but “disputed.” Inasmuch as the territory never belonged to Palestinians or to any sovereign nation, Israel cannot be an “occupier.” The territory’s ultimate ownership is to be determined by agreement. Further, the “1967 borders” were only the demarcation of an armistice line, the final border to be established by agreement.

Hayaat enjoys spending time with Baba, hearing his stories of their vast property in Beit Sahour, the olive trees, and the harvest. He speaks of the mountain, home to many Christian sites, and the time before the Israeli “settlements” (a term used to delegitimize Israel’s legal housing) and bypass roads were built.

Her only friend is a boy, Samy, who doesn’t seem to mind her scars; they are kindred spirits and share their stories. Samy’s father had been dragged from their house by Israeli security services and imprisoned these past seven years. He was a terrorist, and the boy often acts out at school, angry that his father chose activism over fatherhood. He said, “He traded me for the cause.” His mother died of a heart attack and Samy lives with an aunt and uncle. Hayaat tells Samy that she overheard her Mama speak about a deaf boy who had been killed by a bulldozer that was flattening his house. The author failed to explain that it is Israel’s policy to destroy the terrorist’s family home – sometimes seen as a deterrent; the death was an unfortunate accident.

At home, Hayaat listens to Sitti reminisce about her home in Jerusalem, and the war of 1948, the fighting everywhere. She was terrified of the Zionist fighting forces and pressed to leave, adding “200 men, women and children were massacred.” Perhaps Sitti does not know, but surely the author who undertook this narration does, that the Palestinian Arabs proclaimed jihad against the Palestinian Jews in November 1947, just before the partition vote, and in defiance of the Palestine Commission’s resolution. There were massacres and death throughout. No doubt the Jews were also ill-prepared and terrified when 1,000 armed Arabs descended upon the communities in northern Palestine, as were the British who turned over their bases to the Arab legion, leaving the Jews to suffer severe casualties and devastating defeat. The trapped 1,500 to 1,600 women and children were entrusted to the Red Cross. At this point, the Hagganah, a paramilitary group of immigrants, was renamed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and succeeded in stopping the Arab offensive.

With minimal help from the West, the Jews won with sheer determination and their purchased or smuggled crude British Sten guns, French 65-millimeter howitzers, and other leftovers from World War II, as well as fighter aircraft supplied by Czechoslovakia. Iraq promised, “It would be a war of annihilation,” but the Arabs wound up with less territory than was originally offered, which they’d refused. The cost to Israel was enormous, with $500 million in expenditures and the death of 6,373 Israelis, one percent of their 650,000 Jewish population. An additional estimated 12,000 Jews were killed by Nazi sympathizer and Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini in 1950.

Sitti explains that they fled and could not return to her old neighborhood until after the 1967 War, only to find her home occupied by a Jewish family, Holocaust survivors. Known also as the Six-Day War, it was initiated by the Arab states of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. Again, Israel won and re-captured the Sinai Peninsula, Golan Heights, Gaza Strip, and West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Grandmother was of that warring population and permanently displaced, but the Palestinians are adamant about wanting Israel. Therefore, when Sitti collapses and is taken by ambulance to the hospital, Hayaat devises a plan. She tells Samy that she wants to get Jerusalem soil from the other side of the wall to make her grandmother happy.

And so begins Hayaat and Samy’s journey to Jerusalem, with money “borrowed” from Jihan and an empty hummus jar to collect Jerusalem soil for Sitti. They meet several people along the way, including Wasim, a dirty boy from Aida refugee camp, who speaks of one day playing with a famous soccer team; a cab driver who helps the children, knowing they are illegals with blue passes; bus passengers David and Mali, the story’s requisite young Jewish couple against the occupation, who block bulldozers and dine with Palestinian families; and the checkpoint’s young Israeli soldiers who search cars and bags, delaying some passengers while allowing others to pass. Hayaat does feel some humiliation, but she understands their need to search for weapons and explosives.

They continue their adventure when the driver stops suddenly in front of a six-foot-high, barbed-wire wall. The children exit the bus and follow two others who jump the wall to enter Jerusalem illegally. While on their own, they meet Yossi, an Israeli cab driver who often helps to smuggle people into West Jerusalem. When they reach a roadblock protest, Yossi tells them to jump out and lose themselves among the crowd of protesters.

With the noise of a grenade and smell of tear gas used to quell the crowd, she faints to the triggers of a repressed memory of soldiers, a bulldozer, and homes breaking and falling. She has a flashback of her old friend Maysaa falling to the ground, hit by the rubber-coated bullets used to disperse the people, and feels again her own face oozing blood. She awakens as Yossi carries her to his cab, Samy beside them. Yossi fills Hayaat’s jar with soil and uses his cell phone to call her family to assure them that the children are safe in Jerusalem and he will drive them home.

The family welcomes them and Sitti is again sitting in her bed, singing about her homeland. With the next news report about another curfew, the family readies their pots and pans to resound in solidarity. With the TV announcement about the latest bombing in Tel Aviv, Baba says “revenge does nothing.” As the family dresses for Jihan’s wedding, Hayaat assesses what she has learned – that she wants to live as all human beings do, to be “a free people with hope and dignity and purpose.”

Hope alone cannot bestow freedom to a people who deny others theirs. Hayaat’s own people invented demonstrably false slurs that the Jews live well at the expense of the Palestinians and that killing is permissible. Their differences are also cultural. The Jews returned to their land of malarial swamp and desert, sacrificed blood and treasure to restore their history and ancient language, and toiled to create a successful country, whereas the Arabs, after losing the war they began, were made to abandon their original heritage (Egyptian, Lebanese, Syria, Transjordan, Iraq) and replace it with the false identity of “Palestinians,” and a victimhood mentality. When they accepted the world’s donations, they were robbed of their pride. Palestinian leadership keeps their own people subjugated, their children emotionally focused on envy and weaponized for revenge. This book reveals that they are surrounded by anger and death, with only Baba’s one-time reflection on the consequences of their actions.

It is not the soil of the land that would bring dignity to the Palestinians, but the freedom to live and make choices for themselves. The Arabs have been given a scapegoat, Israel, and countless excuses for their failures, which become self-fulfilling prophecies. Were they told that their opportunities are endless, that they must earn their own wage by building their country, homes, businesses, creating services or products, they would increase their purpose, pride, and individual wealth. Instead, the masses are raised in conformity, rigidity, illiteracy, and fear. They sacrifice their own lives and wellbeing to continue Mohammed’s revenge – a ceaseless condition of discontent.

To her credit, Abdel-Fattah reveals that the previous generation perpetuates the vengeance. Grandmother has confessed her envy of those who live better than she, and we glimpse the trait in Hayaat. Sitti expresses her bitterness and anger against the UN, the Arab countries, and their traitors. The traitors remain undefined, but they must include the Arabs who began the wars as well as those who offered no sanctuary to the dispossessed, those who were abandoned and left for pawns. She reveals that her son-in-law, Baba, had had bad things happen to him (TK: he has learned lessons from his acts of retribution). His generation includes Samy’s imprisoned father, whose political activism destroyed his own family.

We learn of Hayaat’s past when she fainted in the Jerusalem crowd, relived her trauma and the death of her friend. It may well have been the girls’ deeds that resulted in the demolition of their homes.

This story appears to be teaching that the Islamic system, with its lust for what belongs to others, keeps them in a constant state of dissatisfaction. The numerous clues and lessons to be learned exist for the reader, but they may be too obscure for the designated audience of teens and young adults.

12/2/20

Roger Aronoff on Media Malpractice, Fox News, and a Biden “Presidency”

Citizens Commission on National Security

Roger Aronoff of the Citizens Commission on National Security talks with America’s Survival President Cliff Kincaid about the state of the American news media, how liberal bias has been overtaken by actual hatred of conservatives, and whether Fox News is drifting to the left and losing its audience. Part of the focus was based on Aronoff’s recent column, “What Will the Courts Do About the Election? The Future of America is at Stake.”

They also address whether Trump’s legal strategy on election fraud will be ultimately successful and how Joe Biden, if he assumes the presidency, will return to the disastrous Iran deal. What happened to that top Iranian scientist who was just killed? Will Israel strike Iran? Aronoff addresses these topics and more.

During the interview, Kincaid referred to one of the documentaries produced and directed by Aronoff, “TWA 800: The Search for the Truth.” You can read about it and watch it here.

This interview was originally published at America’s Survival YouTube page.

12/2/20

How The Bible Inspired The American Founding From The Beginning

By: Yoram Ettinger | CCNS

The depth and durability of the 400-year-old biblical roots among most Americans have been consistent with the separation of religion and state, but not the separation of religion and society.

The following essay is part of The Federalist’s 1620 Project, a symposium exploring the connections and contributions of the early Pilgrim and Puritan settlers in New England to the uniquely American synthesis of faith, family, freedom, and self-government.

Four hundred years ago, in late 1620, the 102 pilgrims of the Mayflower landed in Plymouth Rock, which they considered the modern-day Promised Land. They were inspired by the Bible, in general, and the Mosaic legacy, in particular, which features a civic covenant, cohesive peoplehood, 12-tribe governance, and a shared vision.

These beliefs and values planted the seeds of the Federalist Papers, the 1776 American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the overarching American political and justice systems to come. These seeds vaulted the United States into the leadership of the Free World, economically, technologically, scientifically, educationally, and militarily.

The 102 pilgrims of the Mayflower viewed themselves as “modern-day Biblical Israelites,” seeking freedom from the bondage of the “British Pharaoh,” King James I. They sought biblical-driven liberty, planting the roots of the uniquely thriving, mutually-beneficial kinship between America and Israel, historically, spiritually, culturally, technologically and geo-strategically.

Indeed, these roots eclipse the political beltway of Washington, D.C., transcend the pertinent role of the Jewish community, and run deeper than geostrategic considerations and formal agreements. They precede both the 1776 U.S. Declaration of Independence and the 1948 reestablishment of the Jewish state, Israel.

These critical bonds have yielded an exceptional bottom-up international relations phenomenon, whereby pro-Israel sentiments among most Americans have played a key role in shaping the mindset of their state and federal legislatures, as well as the actions of the person sitting behind the Resolute Desk of the Oval Office.

The First Pilgrims

The Bible was the most widely read book in colonial America, inspiring the early Pilgrims, the Founding Fathers, educators, the clergy, political leaders, and the public at large. The early Pilgrims referred to King James I as the modern-day Pharaoh; their departure from England as the modern-day Exodus; the sailing across the Atlantic Ocean as the modern-day Parting of the Sea; and the New World as the New Canaan and the New Israel. Truly, they considered themselves the modern-day People of the Covenant and Chosen People.

Hence, the litany of biblically named towns, cities, mountains, deserts, rivers, national parks, and forests throughout the United States for a total of 18 Jerusalems, 30 Salems (the original name of Jerusalem), 83 Shilohs (where the first tabernacle stood), 34 Bethels, 27 Hebrons, 26 Goshens, 19 Jerichos, 18 Pisgahs, and more.

William Bradford and John Winthrop, the leaders of the Mayflower (1620) and the Arabella (1630), were called Joshua and Moses, respectively. Moreover, the 1620 “Mayflower Compact” and the 1639 “Fundamental Orders of Connecticut” highlighted the rights of the individual — and the limits of centralized government — and were partly inspired by the Mosaic laws and covenant.

In 2020, the 400-year-old roots of the special American-Israeli ties are reflected by the statues and engravings of Moses and more than 200 Ten Commandments monuments, which are featured in the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Supreme Court, the Library of Congress, the Justice Department, the National Archives, and throughout important buildings and landmarks across the United States.

Early America and the Hebrew Language

Familiarity with Hebrew was quite common among the early Pilgrims’s intelligentsia and the better-educated clergy. In fact, the initial ten colleges in the colonies offered Hebrew courses.

Moreover, the first two presidents of Harvard University, Henry Dunster and Charles Chauncy, were ardent Hebraists. So were Harvard’s 6th and 11th presidents, Increase Mather and Samuel Langdon, who proposed to make Hebrew an official language in the new colonies. Valedictory addresses at Harvard, Yale, and other institutions of higher learning were offered in Hebrew. King’s College (Columbia University) founding President Samuel Johnson installed Hebrew as a required course, and stated that “Hebrew was part of a gentleman’s education.”

Yale University’s 7th president, Ezra Stiles, spoke, read, and taught Hebrew in addition to astronomy, chemistry, and philosophy. He corresponded with Hebron’s Rabbi, Hayyim Carregal, and noted that “Moses assembled 3 million people — the number of Americans in 1776.” He urged graduate students to be able to recite Psalms in Hebrew, “because that is what St. Peter will expect of you at the Pearly Gates.”

The official seals of Yale University (“Light and Truth”), Columbia University (“Jehovah” and “Divine Light”), and Dartmouth College (“G-d Almighty”) feature key biblical terms in Hebrew. The official seal of Princeton University features an open Bible with the Latin inscription: Old and New Testaments.

The special role of Hebrew in the formation of American culture and university curricula was demonstrated by Prof. George Bush, the great grand-uncle of President George H.W. Bush. The first Hebrew professor at New York University, this Bush wrote books on the Bible and Hebrew, and urged the ingathering of Jews “to the Biblical Zion.”

Hebrew words have been integrated into the English language. For example, the origin of Jubilee is the Hebrew word Yovel (liberty in Hebrew), Jehovah is Yehovah (He was, He is, He will be), amen is a’men (faith in Hebrew), hallelujah is halleluyah (praise God in Hebrew), Abracadabra is Evra keDabra (creating while talking in Hebrew), evil is Eyval (the Biblical Mount of Curse), kosher is kasher (proper in Hebrew), etc.

The Founding Fathers and the Mosaic Covenant

The Bay Psalm Book was the first book printed in 1640 in the New World in Cambridge, Mass. One thousand, seven hundred copies were printed, containing Hebrew characters. In 2013, one of the 11 existing copies was sold for $14.2 million, a record for a printed book. Currently, some 20 million copies of the Bible are sold annually, making it still the best-selling book in America.

According to a February 2020 Pew Research Poll, 49 percent of Americans say the Bible should have at least some influence on U.S. law, including 23 percent who say it should have a great deal of influence.

Even the name of America’s political system — the federalist system — is a derivative of Foedus, which is the Latin word for the biblical covenant between God and Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses, as well as the civic covenant among the biblical Israelites during the 40 years following the Exodus.

Moreover, the inscription on the Liberty Bell is from Leviticus, Chapter 25, Verse 10: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the Land, unto all the Inhabitants thereof.” This inscription is the essence of the Jubilee, which is the biblical role model of liberty — freeing slaves and prisoners and returning land to original owners.

Furthermore, Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense,” which was the moral and intellectual touchstone of the American Revolution, was influenced by the Old Testament: “For the will of the Almighty as declared by Gideon, and the prophet Samuel, expressly disapproves of government by kings.” Harvard University’s 11th president, Samuel Langdon, opined:

The Jewish government … was a perfect republic. … Let us therefore look over [the Israelites’s] constitution and laws. … They had both a civil and military establishment under divine direction, and a complete body of judicial laws drawn up and delivered to them by Moses in God’s name. … Instead of the twelve tribes of Israel, we may substitute the thirteen states of the American union…

James Madison was deeply influenced by his study of Hebrew and the Old Testament at the College of New Jersey (Princeton University). In a 1778 speech at the General Assembly of Virginia, he stated, “We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon our capacity … to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”

John Quincy Adams, the 6th president, asserted, “The Bible is the best book in the world. … The law given from Sinai was a civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code. … The Bible is the book to be read at all ages.”

The Abolitionist Movement and Moses

Moses and the Exodus played a key role in the formation of the Abolitionist anti-slavery movement. Thus, Harriet Tubman, who was born into slavery and escaped in 1849, was called Mama Moses, since she was among the initiators of the Underground Railroad, which freed black slaves through a network of secret routes and safe houses.

In 1862, the anti-slavery informal anthem of black slaves was composed of lyrics from Exodus 8:1: “Go Down Moses, way down in Egypt land, tell old Pharaoh to let my people go.” This black spiritual regained popularity in the 20th century when sung by Paul Leroy Robeson.

Martin Luther King, Jr., a leader of the U.S. civil rights movement from 1955-1968, based many of his sermons and speeches — including “I have a dream” — on Moses and the Jewish liberation from slavery in Egypt, as well as on the biblical books of Psalms, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Amos. His battle cry was: “Let My People Go” (Exodus 5:1).

President Abraham Lincoln was a student of the Bible, which bolstered his determination to abolish slavery. In his second inaugural address, he stated the Bible was “the best gift God has given to man,” and “The rebirth of Israel as a nation-state is a noble dream, shared by many Americans.”

The Bible, in general, and the Moses legacy, in particular, provided American slaves with much hope and strength, striving for their own Exodus, trusting that God opposes black slavery in the United States as he opposed Jewish slavery in Egypt.

400 Years of American Identification with the Jewish State

The chief engine behind the unique U.S.-Israel kinship was the spirit of the early Pilgrims and the Founding Fathers. They considered the idea of a Jewish commonwealth in the land of Israel an authentic implementation of the biblical vision. President John Adams, for example, supported the idea of a Jewish state in the land of Israel: “I really wish the Jews again in Judea an independent nation.”

Most notably, on March 5, 1891 — six years before the convening of the 1897 First Zionist Congress by Theodore Herzl, the father of modern-day Zionism — 431 American leaders, including the chief justice, House and Senate leaders and chairmen of congressional committees, governors, mayors, businessmen, clergy, professors, and editors, signed the Blackstone Memorial, which called for the re-establishment of a Jewish state in the land of Israel. Pastor William Eugene Blackstone was a Christian Zionist, who dedicated his life to the reestablishment of the Jewish commonwealth in its homeland.

In 1917, the Blackstone Memorial influenced President Woodrow Wilson’s support of the Balfour Declaration, and on March 3, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson stated: “… In Palestine shall be laid the foundation of a Jewish Commonwealth,” and “The Bible is the Magna Charta of the human soul.”

In 1918, President Theodore Roosevelt wrote in his best-selling “History of the American West”:

It seems to me entirely proper to start a Zionist State around Jerusalem. … Many of the best backwoodsmen were Bible-readers. … They looked at their foes as the Hebrew Prophets looked at the enemies of Israel. … No man, educated or uneducated, can afford to be ignorant of the Bible.

Highlighting the potency of these roots, on June 30, 1922, Congress passed a joint resolution, introduced by the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Henry Cabot Lodge, R-Mass., and Rep. Hamilton Fish III, R-N.Y., which was signed by President Warren Harding on September 21, 1922. It states its purpose as “Favoring the establishment, in Palestine, of a national home for the Jewish people.” The resolution was opposed by the State Department and the New York Times, which also opposed the re-establishment of Israel in 1948.

On June 10, 1943, Alabama Gov. Chauncey Sparks signed a unanimous Joint Resolution of the Alabama State House and Senate, which called for the establishment in Palestine of a Jewish homeland, following the 1917 Balfour Declaration, as was approved by the 1922 joint congressional resolution and the 1924 Anglo-American Treaty.

On May 12, 1948, during a critical session at the White House, Clark Clifford, a special assistant to President Truman (and defense secretary under President Lyndon Johnson), confronted Secretary of State Gen. George Marshall, who opposed the recognition of the Jewish state: “Behold, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which the Lord swore unto your Fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them (Deuteronomy, 1:8).”

On May 14, 1948, during a special broadcast upon Israel’s declaration of independence, American radio icon Lowell Thomas stated: “Today, as the Jewish state is established, Americans read through the Bible as a historical reference book.”

The Biblical Effect on Modern American Leaders

While the U.S. Constitution does not require presidents to be sworn in on a Bible, almost every chief executive since George Washington has chosen to do so. Furthermore, almost all American presidents have integrated biblical verses in their inaugural addresses and major speeches.

In just one example, on May 3, 1925, President Calvin Coolidge said: “Hebraic mortar cemented the foundations of American democracy … If American democracy is to remain the greatest hope of humanity, it must continue abundantly in the faith of the Bible.”

Still more instances abound. On February 15, 1950, President Harry S. Truman told the Attorney General’s Conference:

The fundamental basis of this nation’s laws was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings which we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul. I don’t think we emphasize that enough these days…

On September 10, 1968, President Lyndon Johnson told a B’nai B’rith conference, “Bible stories are woven into my childhood memories as the gallant struggle of modern Jews to be free of persecution is also woven into our souls.”

In his 1969 inaugural addresses, President Richard Nixon referred to the book of Isaiah: “And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more (Isaiah 2:4).”

President Ronald Reagan was known for his biblical references, such as when he said, “Within the covers of the Bible are all the answers for all the problems men face. … Of the many influences that have shaped the United States of America into a distinctive Nation and people, none may be said to be more fundamental and enduring than the Bible.”

President Bush’s deep biblical conviction was evident during his May 15, 2008 speech at Israel’s Knesset:

When Israel was declared independent, it was the Redemption of an ancient promise given to Abraham, Moses, and David. … The source of our friendship runs deeper than any treaty. … It is grounded in the shored spirit of our peoples, the bonds of The Book, the ties of the soul. When William Bradford stepped off the ‘Mayflower’ in 1620, he quoted the words of Jeremiah: ‘Come let us declare in Zion the word of God.’ The Founders saw a new Promised Land and bestowed upon their towns names like Bethlehem and New Canaan. And, in time many Americans became passionate advocates for a Jewish State. … Our alliance will be guided by clear principles, shared convictions rooted in moral clarity, and unswayed by popularity polls or the shifting opinions of international elites.

President Barack Obama frequently used biblical quotes, such as when reciting Psalm 46 at the unveiling of the 9/11 Memorial upon the 10th anniversary of that Islamic terror attack on the United States: “God is our refuge and strength … therefore we will not fear.”

America’s Civil Religion

The depth and durability of the 400-year-old biblical roots among most Americans have been consistent with the separation of religion and state, but not the separation of religion and society. It is demonstrated by the institutionalization of “In God We Trust,” inscribed above the seat of the speaker of the House of Representatives, and since 1974, Congress opens daily deliberations with a prayer. In 2020, the state constitutions of all 50 states refer to God.

In 2012, the National Democratic Convention reinstated God and Jerusalem into its platform. On October 31, 2011, the House of Representatives voted 396:9, reaffirming “In God We Trust” as a national motto, as did Joint Resolution #396 (July 30, 1956), and a May 26, 1955, resolution to inscribe “In God We Trust” on all U.S. currency.

According to an NBC May 2019 poll, 86 percent of Americans favor “In God We Trust” and retaining “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. An April 2018 Gallup poll showed that 45 percent and 39 percent of Protestants and Catholics attend church each Sunday. About 20 million copies of the Bible are purchased annually in America, there are more than 300 Christian TV (nine in 1974) and 3,000 Christian radio stations across the United States.

On June 28, 2005, Chief Justice William Rehnquist ruled that the Ten Commandment monument on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol was constitutional, underlining the effect and the legacy of Moses and the “Ten Commandments” on American culture and civic life:

Since 1935, Moses has stood, holding two tablets that reveal portions of the Ten Commandments, written in Hebrew, among other lawgivers in the [Supreme Court’s] south frieze. … Moses sits on the exterior east façade, holding the Ten Commandments. … Since 1897, a large statue of Moses holding the Ten Commandments alongside a statue of the Apostle Paul, has overlooked the rotunda of the Library of Congress’s Jefferson Building. A two-tablet-medallion depicting the Ten Commandments decorates the floor of the National Archives.

In the Justice Department, a statue entitled ‘The Spirit of Law’ has two tablets representing the Ten Commandments. In front of the Ronald Reagan Building stands a sculpture that includes a depiction of the Ten Commandments. A 24-foot-tall sculpture, outside the Federal Courthouse [in Washington, D.C.], depicts the Ten Commandments and a cross. Moses is prominently featured in the Chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives … a lawgiver, and a religious leader, and the Ten Commandments have undeniable historical meaning.

The Lasting Kinship

While there has been a gradual erosion of the 400-year-old roots of the shared, core values that created the healthy foundation of relations between Israel and the United States, they have been notably resilient and broadly cultivated by the state of mind of most Americans.

The recent dramatic enhancement of such a unique and mutually beneficial relationship — militarily, industrially, technologically, agriculturally and medically — has evolved in response to mutual threats and challenges, but in defiance of the State Department bureaucracy and much of the “elite” media, which opposed Israel’s establishment in 1948.

Israel remains the top unconditional ally of the United States in the Middle East and beyond, wholeheartedly reciprocating the value-driven heartfelt identification by most Americans with the Jewish State. And, as “The Ethics of the Fathers,” a second-century compilation of Jewish ethical teachings suggests: “Conditional love is tenuous; unconditional love is eternal.”

This article was originally published at The Federalist.