Adieu, UNRWA, stop lying to kids on gender and other commentary

Foreign Desk: Adieu, UNRWAGiven the group’s intimate ties to Hamas, “Why on earth was UNRWA given free rein in Gaza for so long?” asks Commentary’s Seth Mandel.Those days are finally over,” as the Knesset just passed a law “barring UNRWA from Israel and greatly limiting its work in Gaza and the West Bank.” This, UNRWA protests, won’t “strip the Palestinians from their refugee status” — but that, Mandel notes, raises the fact that UNRWA “has inflated the number of refugees” by including “the descendants of refugees.” Where “UNRWA counts nearly 6 million Palestinians among its refugee population,” genuine remaining refugees from 1948 are “closer to 30,000.” “Actual refugees deserve every bit of help they can get from refugee agencies.

But that work isn’t being done by UNRWA.”Eye on education: Stop Lying to Kids on GenderTrans ideology, argues Naomi Firsht at Spiked, pervades all children’s lives “through schools and other activities, distorting truth and reality for young minds.” “We are often told that if you are not trans then this shouldn’t concern you.” But “the affirmative approach affects even those children who don’t identify as trans,” who must “play along” as part of “affirmation.” “Is this denial of biological reality something we should be encouraging?” “We are being asked to tell our children that boys and girls can be born in the wrong body, and that they can magically become the opposite sex.” “To imagine that this will not have a significant impact on how these children grow up is a very dangerous delusion indeed.”Campaign beat: Betting Markets Add Value“The benefits that prediction markets offer” outweigh the potential downsides, argues Charles Fain Lehman at The Free Press.Legalized in in a federal court ruling, these markets have become “big business” in the 2024 race, with users hedging billions of dollars in bets across sites like Kalshi and Polymarket.

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