The assassin’s veto, Venezuela’s migration blackmail and other commentary

Eye on Britain: The Assassin’s Veto

Mike Freer is a “a gay conservative justice minister” in the UK “hounded out of office by threats of violence, including from Islamist extremists,” reports Oliver Wiseman at The Free Press. Indeed, “MPs have been a focus of Islamist intimidation and violence in recent years.” A terrorist murdered MP David Amess in 2021, and later said he’d tried to off Freer first. “Freer is a robust supporter of Israel” who “said his Jewish constituents have also felt greater fears for their safety since Hamas’s attack on Israel.” With reason: “Criminal gangs in the UK are being hired by the Iranian regime to ‘map’ British Jews as a ‘preparation for lethal operations.’ ” Last Sunday, “a theater in central London canceled a pro-Israel event with the journalist . . . Douglas Murray, citing threats to employees.” Bottom line: “The assassin’s veto — the use of violent threats to silence speech — is alive and well in the UK.”

Conservative: Illegal Migrants Not Vital to Biz

“Florida’s progressives made many dire predictions before the state’s tough new immigration law took effect” last July, recalls Dave Seminara at City Journal. Yet “the results so far show the opposite.” Notably, the media sowed panic about forcing large employers “to use E-Verify to check new hires’ legal status” — with predictions about food shortages and a cratering economy. Yet Florida’s economy actually grew 6.1% in the third quarter of 2023, “seventh-best in the nation.” Critics may say six months isn’t enough time to evaluate the law’s impact, but “the fact that every relevant data point” refutes their contentions so far shows employers are likely “a lot more resilient” than they thought.

Foreign desk: Venezuela’s Migration Blackmail

Venezuela’s dictatorship is using “increasing forced migration” as a “strategy for blackmailing President Biden’s administration against reimposing sanctions against the regime,” fumes Arturo McFields Yescas at The Hill. “Last year, the communist regimes of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela carried out massive joint operations to promote irregular emigration to the U.S. Cuba provided the migrants, Venezuela the Conviasa airline and Nicaragua the gateway to begin the northward journey toward the U.S. border.” Now the Maduro regime “has threatened to immediately revoke migrant repatriation flights and review any existing bilateral cooperation mechanism” if Washington restores sanctions. “If we limit ourselves to believing that the migration crisis is solved at the border, we are only addressing part of the problem — the symptoms, but not the disease.”

Libertarian: Tucker Carlson’s No Traitor

“Is a journalist’s trip to a hostile country ‘treason’?” asks Reason’s J.D. Tuccille as “Tucker Carlson’s presence in Russia has excited a frenzy of speculation and protest because of the controversial talking head’s populist politics.” Bulwark editor-at-large Bill Kristol suggested “a total and complete shutdown of Tucker Carlson re-entering the United States.” Ex-Rep. “Adam Kinzinger went further, calling Carlson a ‘traitor.’ ” Sorry, says Tuccille: “It’s not at all uncommon for journalists to interview foreign political leaders, including complete scumbags” — Barbara Walters interviewed Vladimir Putin in 2001. Yes, Carlson seems “overly sympathetic to Putin’s government.” But “it’s to all of our benefit that there’s space for diverse viewpoints espoused by people who don’t need permission from gatekeepers to gather and report news.”

Rubio: Border Bill Wasn’t Tough

“Despite what the legacy media and White House stenographers may say,” the Senate border deal was “in no way ‘tough’ on the border, nor would it curtail the mass migration crisis we face. In fact, it would do the opposite,” explains Sen. Marco Rubio at Newsweek. It would wave in migrants “in the millions every year” and do “nothing about the millions of migrants allowed to enter our country” under President Biden, except grant them “work permits” and so “create an even stronger magnet for even more illegal immigration.” Oh, and it’d bless Biden’s “mass expansion of the humanitarian parole program.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board