Questions: Society & Politics

One of the world’s most important nature groups is weighing a call for a moratorium on allowing genetically engineered plants or animals, such as canines edited to appear like extinct “dire wolves,” from being released into the wild.

Advocates for the temporary ban, which is being considered at a meeting of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), worry about the dangers of engineered organisms upending nature. The consequences of any misstep, they say, may be uncontainable and irreversible.

“We need to put funding towards nature conservation strategies that we know work and not trying to bring back animals that don’t exist,” said Joann Sy, a scientific adviser to a Paris-based conservation group called Pollinis, a lead sponsor of the moratorium. But opponents of the proposal say that beyond “de-extinction” efforts, synthetic biology holds great untapped potential to save nature, not hurt it. Such a blanket ban, even if temporary, only threatens to drive more plants and animals to the brink, they say.

NYT today:

American Jews, long Israel’s strongest domestic backers, have turned sharply critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government over the Gaza conflict. A majority believe Israel has committed war crimes as it has killed tens of thousands of civilians and restricted food aid, and four in 10 believe it is guilty of genocide, a new Washington Post survey found — a charge Israel denies. The shift has created new incentives for even moderate Democrats in Congress to get tough on Israel, including by curtailing U. S. military aid.

The damage is also increasingly bipartisan. Despite Republican efforts to identify their party with Israel and to tag Democrats as providing aid and comfort to its enemies, younger evangelical Christians are breaking with their parents on the issue, seeing Israel as an oppressor rather than as a victim. And the breakup extends beyond evangelicals. "Everybody under 30 is against Israel,” the conservative commentator Megyn Kelly offhandedly told Tucker Carlson on his podcast last month.

The question is whether those younger Americans will be lost to Israel long-term — and what Israel’s advocates will do to try to reverse that. Israel’s dependence on U. S. support had become so glaring over the course of the war — in political, military and economic terms — that Israel would be motivated to treat its possible defeat in the court of American public opinion as an “existential threat.”

What would make the United States any different? There is a difference between welcoming immigration and allowing exploitation.

I wouldn't force my way into another nation, alter the cultures of their area, participate in riots, and wave my nation's flag in defiance. What kind of nation do we live in today to think this is acceptable?

Part of immigration is integration and assimilation.

I grew up at one point thinking liberals and the left were respectful, recognizing, and mindful of different cultures. Part of respecting cultures is not allowing foreign cultures to coerce and trample over one another. It works both ways.

You don't enter a foreign land being abrasive, demanding, and aggressive. You enter being humble and respectful.

Foreign entry into the United States is a privilege, not a right.