Latest Analysis and Commentary
by Gwythian Prins • October 15, 2024 at 5:00 am
Such were the mutilations that not a single corpse of a girl or a woman was in a state fit to be shown to her family before burial. [W]ithin days of the atrocities, the global moral compass had swung 180 degrees. Starting significantly in London, and long before the IDF had marshalled itself to go into Gaza, street protests in Western cities and reporters in mainstream media were portraying Hamas as the victims and Israel as the violent aggressor.... This accusation has been the biggest lie of the past year. If one is among the modern cult "perfecti".... one's inherent virtue confers special privileges and exemptions which are not available to less-perfect people. By definition, one can do no wrong. Any respect for the integrity of history is lost. As in the former Soviet Union, but no longer a joke: the future is certain, only the past is ever-changing.... and the mandatory projection of modern values onto the past is popular among the self-righteous. [I]n Israel's war of self-defence... tactical operations show that minimisation of loss of life of everyone except the terrorist enemies has been a prime concern.... To a degree that is unmatched, the IDF routinely warns civilians to leave targeted zones before attacks. Iran's proxy groups hide their attack tunnels, command posts and weapons caches in Gaza and Lebanon under residential buildings, schools, hospitals and mosques, in an express flouting of the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war.... The tunnel complexes which, in the instance of Gaza, exceed the length of the London Underground, were not built for the protection of civilians in time of conflict, but only for the protection of Hamas terrorists, as Moussa Abu Marzouk, a senior member of Hamas's political bureau, readily admits.... Not by choice, these are the circumstances under which the IDF has been forced to fight. It is all the more so because since October 7, 2023 the IDF's actions on the ground in Gaza, on the West Bank and in Lebanon show the best record of any modern armed forces in discriminate targeting, even in combat with terrorists who deliberately use civilians as human shields.... On the basis of such data, former British Army Infantry Commander Colonel Richard Kemp, CBE, has called the IDF "The World's Most Moral Army." When one's enemy has no war aim other than genocide, and has said so consistently for 90 years, there is most likely zero probability of a diplomatic route to peace. After six refusals of land offered for peace since 1922, there is now no prospect of any diplomacy this side of Israel's total victory, and the terrorists' total defeat. "Mugged by reality" is now... the realisation that, whatever else people may think about him, Netanyahu is the indispensable war leader for present times. The historian Andrew Roberts has called him "The Churchill of the Middle East." By and large the Western administrative class -- whose worldview is framed by the assumption that with enough meetings in convivial places ("diplomacy") deals can be reached that split differences -- still does not rise to a sufficient level of geopolitical and comparative historical appreciation. This weak intellectual grasp only contributes significantly to the risk of a third world war. The need for a strategy of total victory needs to be underscored. For decades, Iran and its proxies have been trying, as Iran's former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad put it, to "wipe Israel off the map." Israel's enemies are still trying. Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad warned a year ago that Hamas would repeat the October 7 attack, time and again, until Israel was annihilated. With the high probability that if Iran were to be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons, it would use them on Israel, the avoidance of World War III now depends upon Israel eliminating that threat. Once again, President Joe Biden must not be obeyed. Products of the Western mind-set, as mentioned, it was the disastrous naivety of President Barack Obama and Biden in seeking to negotiate over Iran's nuclear programme (the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) -- and illegitimately, with no mandate, to boot -- that allowed Iran's regime to play the US for fools and in so doing to acquire vital foreign currency inflow – and time -- that enabled the Iranian theocracy to resume and hasten its road to nuclear weapons. "Iran is reeling... insecure and unsure how deeply its own intelligence has been penetrated. Failing to take full advantage of this opportunity to neutralize the threat is irresponsible." — Jared Kushner, advisor and son-in-law of President Donald J. Trump, X, September 29, 2024. The threat is not just to the Jews but to the world order and the West.... Israel rightly feels unleashed. This tiny nation has both moral mandate and customary international legal right (which long predates the experiment of UN-drafted papers) to be so. Like Ukraine's, Israel's victory matters to the entire free world. The world currently divides unequally into those who understand this and the majority who do not, or who may just not want to admit it.
The murder of 1,200 Israeli men, women and children, rape, torture and mutilation -- both before murder and post-mortem -- these crimes were committed by approximately 3,000 Arabs from Gaza, most of whom – but not all -- were Hamas terrorists, on October 7, 2023. Such were the mutilations that not a single corpse of a girl or a woman was in a state fit to be shown to her family before burial. Pictured: Covered bodies in front of a destroyed house in Kibbutz Be'eri, photographed on October 11, 2023. (Photo by Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images)
One year ago, in the form of armed Hamas terrorists, death arrived on the wings of the morning at the Supernova music festival in southern Israel. Three hundred and sixty-four revellers were murdered there, out of the 1,200 murdered altogether that terrible October 7. At the London memorial gathering on October 6, 2024, all those faces, overwhelmingly of young people, were projected onto a big screen. Standing in a cold English drizzle, it took more than an hour to view them all, in the knowledge that the fate of those smiling faces was one of utter depravity. Rape, torture and mutilation -- both before murder and post-mortem -- these crimes were committed by approximately 3,000 Arabs from Gaza, most of whom – but not all -- were Hamas terrorists.
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by Lawrence Kadish • October 15, 2024 at 4:00 am
A reactor unit in the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania is now scheduled, pending regulatory review, to reopen by the end of this decade, with all the power purchased exclusively by Microsoft for its AI data-centers. It is, in a word, brilliant, and reflects what the American business sector can still do when faced with a challenge and unhindered by the Washington bureaucracy. Pictured: The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, near Middletown, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
There is no small irony that Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to mock the Biden Administration's "green energy" policies and its flawed decision to rely on wind and solar as our nation's future sources of essential electricity. Consider: The exponential growth of AI is now powering the next generation of innovations that range from spacecraft to speech, and it is creating an enormous demand for energy to run the servers that drive this technology. Fortune believes that AI electricity requirements could consume as much as a quarter of all electrical power in the United States within six years. That is a mind-boggling amount of electricity, and it comes at the expense of every other industrial sector as well as our residential requirements. There is just so much electrical power generated in the United States to go around.
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by Alan M. Dershowitz • October 14, 2024 at 7:30 am
"[I]n 1933 a French premier ought to have said (and if I had been the French premier I would have said it): 'The new Reich Chancellor is the man who wrote Mein Kampf, which says this and that. This man cannot be tolerated in our vicinity. Either he disappears or we march!' But they didn't do it. They left us alone and let us slip through the risky zone, and we were able to sail around all dangerous reefs. And when we were done, and well-armed, better than they, then they started the war!" — Joseph Goebbels, Germany's Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda from 1933-1945. Obama has been the "Chamberlain" in this 21st-century version of Great Britain's and France's appeasement of an evil and dangerous regime. The Biden administration has extended Obama's destructive policy, resulting in an even stronger and more dangerous Iran. Under the Trump administration, Iran was considerably weakened economically and thus militarily. Now it is on the verge of acquiring a nuclear arsenal which will allow its proxies to operate under the protection of Iran's nuclear umbrella. The other step that Biden could take would be to work with Israel on preventing Iran from developing a nuclear arsenal. Unfortunately, this cannot be achieved by more treaties or negotiations. As recent history shows, Iran will simply cheat, as it did after Obama's 2015 JCPOA "nuclear deal." The only way to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons is through a military attack against its nuclear facilities, many of which are very deep underground. This can be achieved through U.S.-Israeli military and intelligence cooperation. Israel should not give up any military advantage in exchange for intangible promises. Just look at how Russia violated its commitment, in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, to respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine in exchange for the latter giving up its nuclear weapons. Ukraine gave the weapons up; in 2014 and 2022, Russia invaded anyway. Although the United States, even as far back as the Obama administration, has pledged to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear arsenal, there is no reason why Iran should believe that, considering US appeasement tactics under Democratic administrations. So the only realistic alternative – the least bad among the series of not very good alternatives – is a joint military attack, as surgical as possible, on Iran's nearly-completed nuclear weapons program. To allow Iran to cross the threshold and acquire nuclear weapons would pose a catastrophic threat to world peace. Stopping Iran from having a nuclear arsenal would, on the other hand, be a great accomplishment and a lasting positive legacy for the Biden presidency. The result of inaction will be a terrorist regime with a nuclear arsenal, followed by a global nuclear-arms race. The fault for such a dangerous outcome will lie squarely with the "Chamberlain" Democrats.
The legacy of the last two Democratic presidencies – President Barack Obama's and President Joe Biden's – will be the appeasement of Iran in its efforts to dominate the Middle East and eventually expand its influence through the acquisition of a nuclear arsenal. Pictured: Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House on July 25, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The legacy of the last two Democratic presidencies – President Barack Obama's and President Joe Biden's – will be the appeasement of Iran in its efforts to dominate the Middle East and eventually expand its influence through the acquisition of a nuclear arsenal. Obama has been the "Chamberlain" in this 21st-century version of Great Britain's and France's appeasement of an evil and dangerous regime. In 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain thought he had a secure peace treaty with Hitler – "Peace in our time," he promised the British -- only to have Hitler break it at the first opportunity by invading the rump Czechoslovak Republic. By the mid-1930s, Nazi Germany's plan to dominate Europe should have been clear to western leaders. As Joseph Goebbels wrote in his diary:
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by Daniel Greenfield • October 14, 2024 at 4:00 am
The Israelis informed the Biden-Harris admin about the Pagergeddon attack and the attack on Hezbollah's leader once both were underway. Why did they do that? The same folks hounding Trump over classified documents leak constantly, and they do so deliberately. The goal is to sabotage any Israeli operation, much the way Obama's people sabotaged a planned Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear program by leaking the information.
The Israelis informed the Biden-Harris admin about the Pagergeddon attack and the attack on Hezbollah's leader once both were underway. Why did they do that? The same folks hounding Trump over classified documents leak constantly, and they do so deliberately. The goal is to sabotage any Israeli operation. Pictured: Excavators work in a crater near the site of the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, Lebanon, September 29, 2024. (Photo by Fadel Itani/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
The Israelis informed the Biden-Harris admin about the Pagergeddon attack and the attack on Hezbollah's leader once both were underway. Why did they do that? Here's the latest in a series of anonymous leaked stories about Israel's plans to retaliate against Iran. U.S. officials believe Israel has narrowed down what they will target in their response to Iran's attack, which these officials describe as Iranian military and energy infrastructure. There is no indication that Israel will target nuclear facilities or carry out assassinations, but U.S. officials stressed that the Israelis have not made a final decision about how and when to act. The U.S. does not know when Israel's response could come, but officials said the Israeli military is poised and ready to go at any time once the order is given.
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by Con Coughlin • October 13, 2024 at 5:10 am
Gavriel Mairone, the attorney who is representing the plaintiffs, argues that these shocking allegations demonstrate that, for more than a decade, UNRWA's aid distribution network was involved in widespread fraud and corruption. The lawsuit claims this scheme not only enriched Hamas but also funded terrorism, playing a pivotal role in the October 7 attacks. The first damning evidence of the UN's complicity in the worst terrorist atrocity committed in Israel's history emerged after Israel's military reported that 450 workers employed by UNRWA were "military operatives from Hamas and other armed groups" and has shared this intelligence with the United Nations. The dossier of "a UN crime against humanity" and its demonization of Israel is too long to list, but one can get a glimpse of it... A better idea, given the body's recent woeful record on its handling of the Middle East, would be to demolish the entire infrastructure of this corrupt and institutionally biased body.
Accusations that the United Nations funded Hamas's terrorist infrastructure by transferring $1.3 billion to the organisation, some of which was used to finance the purchase of weapons used in last year's October 7 attacks, will only add to the view that the UN is no longer fit to fulfil the role for which it was originally intended. Pictured: The UN's New York headquarters. (Image source: iStock/Getty Images)
Accusations that the United Nations funded Hamas's terrorist infrastructure by transferring $1.3 billion to the organisation, some of which was used to finance the purchase of weapons used in last year's October 7 attacks, will only add to the view that the UN is no longer fit to fulfil the role for which it was originally intended. A lawsuit filed in US Federal Court by victims of the October 7 Hamas attacks makes damning accusations against the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) that it was involved in orchestrating a large-scale money laundering operation from which the terrorist organisation benefitted. The suit alleges that significant amounts of humanitarian aid intended for Gaza residents were diverted to Hamas.
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by Amir Taheri • October 13, 2024 at 4:00 am
However, it is hard to see how the October 7 attack could be categorized as an act of resistance by freedom-fighters... For Hamas, October 7 was a war of choice, not a war of necessity, and its goal wasn't just to terrorize a real or imaginary foe but to murder as many non-combatants as possible. Terror is used to persuade or force an adversary into doing something you want or stop doing something you don't want and sadly, in many instances it works. However, if an act of terror transcends certain boundaries, it could produce the opposite of what the terrorist hoped for. In other words, it is all a matter of dosage. Without the "Al-Aqsa Storm" raid, no Israeli prime minister, let alone Benjamin Netanyahu, who happened to have hit the nadir of unpopularity, would have dared to launch a total war aimed at flushing Hamas out of Gaza and Hezbollah out of Lebanon. Sinwar isn't the first victim of unintended consequences and won't be the last either. In hindsight, it seems that the late leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, understood the importance of dosage in terror and/or resistance. This is why initially, to the surprise of some, Nasrallah refused to enter the danse-macabre opened by Sinwar. We may never know what persuaded or forced Nasrallah to abandon his usual caution and join an adventure beyond his control. My guess is that he didn't jump, but was pushed. Your guess as to who pushed him.
It is hard to see how the October 7 attack could be categorized as an act of resistance by freedom-fighters. For Hamas, October 7 was a war of choice, not a war of necessity, and its goal wasn't just to terrorize a real or imaginary foe but to murder as many non-combatants as possible. Pictured: Hamas terrorists on their way into Israel from Gaza Strip, on their mission to murder Jews, on the morning of October 7, 2023. (Photo by Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images)
These days, my two favorite bookshops in Paris and London are devoting a full shelf to books on or inspired by Hamas's "Al-Aqsa Storm" October 7 invasion of Israel. Some of these books offer various accounts of what happened on that day and could be classed as extended reportages of the kind news magazines offered in the good old days of print journalism. The most interesting of these, Trey Yingst's Black Saturday, which broadens its scope to offer a portrayal of the subsequent war in Gaza. Because the author is a television reporter, his fast-paced reportage often resembles a newsreel. That, however, does not prevent him from offering often deep insights into the mind-sets of the two adversaries.
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by Lawrence Kadish • October 13, 2024 at 3:30 am
Pictured: The Large Hadron Collider, where the Higgs boson was confirmed in 2012. The section pictured is located in Echenevex, France, on the border with Switzerland. (Photo by Valentin Flauraud/AFP via Getty Images)
Few of us could master the curriculum when we were in school. Atoms, electrons, charged particles; it was a strange and alien world that few of us understood and even fewer could embrace much less master. Yet we live in a 21st Century world that has been defined by the fundamental discoveries revealed, controlled, and directed by the laws of physics. Far more than some distant and mysterious field of study, theoretical studies that began decades ago continue to yield results that few could have foreseen, touching people around the globe.
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by Majid Rafizadeh • October 12, 2024 at 5:00 am
The only country in the Middle East consistently pressured to make concessions "to avoid escalation" was the victim of October 7, Israel. The rapacity of Iran's regime, which apparently feels free to launch attacks on U.S. troops at will -- especially after enjoying massive amounts of US generosity -- is breathtaking. The Biden-Harris administration also infused the regime with "closer to $60 billion" -- which most likely funded its militias; its terrorist proxy organizations, such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis; its expansionist agenda as far away as Venezuela, and its oppressive domestic policies, to which, for decade, the U.S. has turned a blind eye. When widespread protests take place in Iran, citizens bravely rise up against the regime, only to be brutally crushed -- without so much as a glance from the U.S. Iran, taking its cue from the Biden-Harris administration's road-siding of Israel, proceeded, not surprisingly, to escalate its campaign against it. If there are no serious consequences, why stop? Israel now finds itself fighting for its survival on multiple fronts. Thanks to the seeming lack of support from the Biden administration, Israel alone must fend off Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, the UN, much of Europe, the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, professionally whipped-up Western university campuses and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The dangerous reality that unfolds when a once-reliable ally is abandoned, is that enemies can become increasingly aggressive so long as no one stops them. The message being sent is that allies will be left to fend for themselves, and enemies of freedom and democracy can go ahead and demolish them with impunity. The Free World, once a beacon of security, is left vulnerable, isolated and under siege.
The rapacity of Iran's regime, which apparently feels free to launch attacks on U.S. troops at will -- especially after enjoying massive amounts of US generosity -- is breathtaking. The Free World, once a beacon of security, is left vulnerable, isolated and under siege. Pictured: Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian looks on from the dais, as a Fattah ballistic missile is displayed during at a military parade in Tehran on September 21, 2024. Fattah missiles were used in Iran's October 1, 2024 attack on Israel. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)
An ally, a true friend, is someone upon whom you can depend in times of crisis, especially when under attack. Throughout history, alliances have been formed on the basis of mutual support and protection. Yet, one could strongly argue that no administration in the history of the United States has left its allies in such a vulnerable position as the Biden-Harris administration. Iran, no longer content to merely act through its proxies, has taken direct and aggressive action against America's long-term ally, Israel, by attacking not only Israel but, through its proxies and militias, U.S. troops in the region more than 160 times just since October 2023 -- whenever it deems fit. Iran-backed Hamas terrorists murdered 43 Americans in their October 7, 2023 invasion of Israel. The rapacity of Iran's regime, which apparently feels free to launch attacks on U.S. troops at will -- especially after enjoying massive amounts of US generosity -- is breathtaking.
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by Keya Mukherjee • October 11, 2024 at 5:00 am
Meanwhile, it appears as if Yunus is waiting for the result of the November 5 presidential election in the US. A victory by Kamala Harris could pave the way for him to remain in power indefinitely and complete the process of Islamizing Bangladesh. "New Delhi is getting increasingly concerned that banned militant outfits like Jamaat-e-Islami and even radical organisations like Hizb ut Tahrir may soon enter mainstream politics in Bangladesh, thereby posing security challenges not just for India but for the entire South Asian region..." – The Anandabazar Patrika, September 14, 2024. Yunus is already under pressure to lift the ban imposed on Hizb ut Tahrir by Sheikh Hasina's previous government in 2009. "Delighted to see an old friend of my father and the foundation, Nobel Prize winner @professormuhammadyunus, interim leader of Bangladesh, who stepped in to lead Bangladesh towards a peaceful future based on equity and fairness." — Alexander Soros, Instagram, October 2, 2024.
Bangladesh, a country being promptly being shifted towards Talibanization under Muhammad Yunus -- openly backed by Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, George Soros and the U.S. Democratic Party -- is experiencing a total nightmare. Pictured: Yunus at a press conference in Dhaka on October 4, 2024. (Photo by Munir Uz Zaman/AFP via Getty Images)
Bangladesh, a country being promptly being shifted towards Talibanization under Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus -- openly backed by Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, George Soros and the U.S. Democratic Party -- is experiencing a total nightmare. Bangladesh's former leader, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was forced to flee on August 5, following a coup d'état. Now, Hindus in Bangladesh, who constitute a small minority of the population, are facing repeated threats and intimidation from Yunus's men – a thuggish gang of Islamists and jihadists from hardline Islamist groups such as Hizbut Tahrir and Hefazat-e-Islam. To the utter surprise of Hindus, Yunus's regime has asked them, during Muslim prayer times, to avoid playing musical instruments and refrain from activities that are a part of the Hindu Durga Puja festival celebrations, thereby interrupting the holiday.
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by Guy Millière • October 10, 2024 at 5:00 am
"[Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar wants everyone to be a martyr—except for him." Now he appears to want to have discussions again on the condition that the Israelis will not try to kill him during the negotiations on a deal. — David Greenfield, CEO and executive director of Met Council, August 28, 2024. When Israelis clamor for the release of their hostages, they are, unfortunately, just letting Hamas know what a valuable bargaining chip it has – so the price goes up. For Hamas, if the families of the hostages succeed in getting Netanyahu pushed out of office, so much the better: he will likely be replaced by a "peace" coalition who will grant massive concessions to Hamas and allow it to stay in power. As far as the Biden-Harris administration is concerned, a new Israeli prime minister it hand-picks to replace Netanyahu would presumably agree to US demands to let the Palestinians in Gaza set up a sovereign terrorist state on Israel's border, from which to continue attacking Israel until it is destroyed. A new prime minister installed by the Biden-Harris administration would also agree to Iran having as many nuclear weapons as it likes. Iran, after finishing off Israel, which Iran's former President Ali Akhbar Hashemi Rafsanjani called a "one-bomb country," could then resume trying to take over its oil-rich neighbors, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Biden-Harris administration also appears to want Hamas to stay in power because that is what Hamas's patrons, Iran and Qatar (America's supposed ally) want. Meanwhile, back in Gaza, the Associated Press reports, "Sinwar wants to end the war — but only on his terms." These terms include a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, including the "Philadelphi Corridor" border between Egypt and Gaza. That is where immense cross-border underground tunnels are located, allowing the resumption of unlimited supplies of new weapons to be smuggled to Hamas in Gaza, as well as the ideal gateway for Hamas leader Sinwar to escape to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula -- with the remaining Israeli hostages in tow. For Hamas and Sinwar, the bottom line for is to stay in power to be able to attack Israel "time and again until it is annihilated," as one of its officials, Ghazi Hamad, straightforwardly said. Israel's opposition political leaders, journalists, trade unionists, and many senior security officials all appear to be walking into a trap that Hamas has laid out for them: having Israeli anti-government demonstrators demand new elections to force Netanyahu out and a US puppet -- agreeable to terrorist Palestinian state, Hamas's continued rule in Gaza, and a nuclear-armed Iran -- in. Hamas, remember, never offered to release all the hostages, only a few, alive or dead. Sinwar will undoubtedly try to string out the negotiations as long as he can – refusing to provide hostage names again, and so on. His job will be to keep as many hostages as long as possible, to buy time for Hamas to resupply and regroup. For months, Hamas has rejected any agreement, and blamed Netanyahu. They have, of course, been helped by the Biden-Harris administration, which snubbed Netanyahu at the airport in Washington DC in July as well as at his address to the United States Congress. The snubs evidently only succeeded in giving Hamas the impression that the US was done with Netanyahu, that a Hamas victory was in the bank, and that all Iran and its proxies had to do was sit back and wait. For months, Hamas has rejected every agreement: its leaders apparently think that the pressure on Netanyahu and his government by the Biden-Harris administration would win their war for them. Hamas has now seen that murdering hostages results in even more pressure for Israel to surrender. "We're asked to make concessions? What message does this send Hamas? It says, 'Kill more hostages, murder more hostages! You'll get more concessions! The pressure internationally must be directed at these killers, at Hamas, not at Israel." — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to the protestors demonstrating against him, September 2, 2024. The Biden-Harris administration has, in fact, been funding Israel's anti-government protests since Netanyahu was elected two years ago, to try to oust him. Shortly after the October 7, 2023 invasion by Hamas, the Biden-Harris administration continually pressured Israel to make concessions and withheld or slow-walked weapons shipments, but never applied even the slightest pressure on Hamas, Iran, or the major funder of all Islamic terrorist groups, Qatar. In the meantime, Iran appears to be gearing up to take over Sudan. Such an acquisition would complete the regime's "ring of fire" -- a multi-front war encircling Israel. "Iran is trying to establish an eastern terrorist front against Israel in the West Bank by smuggling weapons from Jordan and financing terrorists." — Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, August 29, 2024. Worse, this week the Biden-Harris administration announced that it is sending Lebanon an additional $157 million – for "humanitarian relief." In Hezbollah-speak, that means funding for more weapons to attack Israel. Does anyone really think that the battered Lebanese people will see a cent? This bounty brings the Biden-Harris administration's prize money for Hezbollah's war machine to $385 million -- all of which will most certainly be diverted to attacking Israel. Vice President Kamala Harris has repeatedly called for a rapid ceasefire in Gaza – meaning the survival of Hamas – and said that a "two-state solution is the only path forward" -- meaning, undoubtedly, a terrorist Palestinian state. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) recently announced that it "needed more time" to find human rights violations in Israel's "most moral army in history." The ICJ seems to be hoping that if they wait long enough, a few violations might turn up. As Israel turns to the existential danger presented by Iran, it will need all the support it can get, both from its own people and other nations. If they are smart, they will give it.
The Biden-Harris administration appears to want Hamas to stay in power because that is what Hamas's patrons, Iran and Qatar (America's supposed ally) want. The Biden-Harris administration has, in fact, been funding Israel's anti-government protests since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was elected two years ago, to try to oust him. Pictured: Netanyahu meets with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on July 25, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images)
September 1. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announce that the bodies of six hostages, who were abducted alive by Hamas on October 7, were recovered from a tunnel in southern Gaza's Rafah. All of them had received recent gunshot wounds to the head. Several Israeli politicians did not incriminate Hamas. Instead, they tried to incriminate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- as many, both inside Israel and outside it, have been trying do since he won election two years ago. Former Prime Minister Yair Lapid said, "Netanyahu and the 'death cabinet' decided not to rescue the abductees... You can't go on like this," and called for a general strike to shut down the economy. In a view that is seriously disputed, he then sent a letter to Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, saying: "Their deaths could have been avoided. It was possible to reach a deal." Yes, a deal could have been reached -- had Israel surrendered."
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by Daniel Greenfield • October 9, 2024 at 5:00 am
"To that end, the United States will provide nearly $157 million in additional assistance to the people of Lebanon... This additional support brings total U.S. assistance to Lebanon over the last year to over $385 million." — Vice President Kamala Harris, X.com, October 5, 2024. $385 million for an Islamic terrorist state. $20 million to Hurricane Helene survivors.
While there's not enough money for hurricane victims in America, Vice President Kamala Harris announced on October 5 that "the United States will provide nearly $157 million in additional assistance to the people of Lebanon... This additional support brings total U.S. assistance to Lebanon over the last year to over $385 million." $20 million to Hurricane Helene survivors. $157 million to Hezbollah. Those Hezbollah votes in Dearborn, Michigan don't come cheap. Pictured: Harris campaigns in Flint, Michigan on October 4, 2024. (Photo by Dominic Gwinn/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
According to Joe Biden, there's just no money for hurricane victims. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas claims that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is running out of money. (And not because it blew through $1.4 billion on illegal aliens, that's dangerous misinformation.) While there's not enough money for hurricane victims in America, after Israel took out Hezbollah Islamic terrorist leaders, Vice President Kamala Harris announced on October 5:
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by Bassam Tawil • October 8, 2024 at 5:00 am
Palestinians have a custom of celebrating in the streets every time Israel is attacked or a Jew is murdered by terrorists. It is hard, if not impossible, to find one senior Palestinian official who is willing to criticize his own people for celebrating terrorist attacks. It is also hard, if not impossible, to find one senior Palestinian official who is willing to condemn the October 7 atrocities and massacres against Israelis. Palestinian leaders have good reason not to speak out: they are afraid of being killed by their own people. Last month, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly, ignored the Hamas attack and instead accused Israel of committing "massacres," "crimes," and "genocide" against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Needless to say, Abbas also ignored the fact that a large number of Palestinians expressed support for the Hamas-led October 7 attack and took to the streets to celebrate the brutal mass-murder of Israeli women, children and the elderly. Palestinian leaders who do not have the courage, or are unwilling, to denounce terrorism will never be able to call on their people to recognize Israel's right to exist, let alone make peace with it. Palestinians who celebrate the murder of their neighbors are not ready for a state, which will undoubtedly be used as a springboard to slaughter more Jews and to try to destroy Israel. There is no excuse for celebrating murder. A society that celebrates murder will never be a partner for peace. True peace will only come when Palestinian leaders values their people's lives more than celebrating the murder of Jews.
Palestinians have a custom of celebrating in the streets every time Israel is attacked or a Jew is murdered by terrorists, and it is hard, if not impossible, to find one senior Palestinian official who is willing to criticize his own people for celebrating terrorist attacks. Pictured: Palestinian Arabs celebrate Iran's ballistic missile attack on Israel and pose, flashing the "V for victory" sign, with a piece of a downed Iranian missile that they moved to the town square of Dura (near Hebron), on October 1, 2024. (Photo by Hazem Bader/AFP via Getty Images)
Palestinians have a custom of celebrating in the streets every time Israel is attacked or a Jew is murdered by terrorists. The latest Palestinian celebrations took place on October 1, 2024, when Iran launched hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel. The celebrations occurred even though some of the missiles fell in Palestinian areas in the West Bank and the only person killed was, ironically, a Palestinian man in the city of Jericho. In one West Bank village, Palestinians erected a monument from the tail of an Iranian missile to celebrate Iran's attack on Israel. Similar celebrations took place in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and in many countries when Iran launched its first direct missile and drone attack against Israel in April. According to a report by Iran's Tehran Times:
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by Jonathan S. Tobin • October 8, 2024 at 4:00 am
Sadly, the complacency about Hamas was shared by most of Israel's leading politicians, including those opposed to Netanyahu like former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, and former prime ministers Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett, all of whom hope to replace Netanyahu at the next election. The truth is that no one except those considered on the "far right" rejected the notion that Hamas could be contained in Gaza and, if necessary, paid off in funds from terror- and Iran-supporting Qatar in order to keep the border quiet. Belief in the idea of a two-state solution to the conflict evaporated in Israel in the wake of the collapse of the 1993-1995 Oslo Accords.... [I]n the United States... public discussion of the war on Hamas continues to center on myths that should have been rejected long ago. [T]he once-dominant Israeli parties on the left were destroyed when the Palestinians—then led by the arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat, head of the PLO—proved they regarded them as merely a stepping stone to the destruction of the Jewish state. Yet none of this seems to have penetrated the consciousness of the American foreign-policy establishment and, in particular, those like Vice President Kamala Harris, who tout advocacy for a two-state solution as part of what she thinks ought to be the world's response to Oct. 7. While there are individual Palestinians who may believe in the idea of peace with Israel, they are isolated and overwhelmingly outnumbered by supporters of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the so-called "moderates" of the Fatah party (whose nearly 89-year-old leader Mahmoud Abbas serves as the head of the Palestinian Authority). They have all made it clear over and over again in their organizational charters, statements and rejection of every effort at a compromise peace plan over the decades that they deny the legitimacy of a Jewish state, no matter where its borders might be drawn. The widespread support among Palestinians for this effort (and for the atrocities that ensued) lays bare the futility and the insanity of any attempt to force Israel to make territorial retreats to accommodate yet another attempt at a Palestinian state. Palestinian political culture is solely predicated on the premise that Zionism and a Jewish state are incompatible with the minimum demands of their national identity.
The widespread support among Palestinians for the October 7, 2023 mass terror attack (and for the atrocities that ensued) lays bare the futility and the insanity of any attempt to force Israel to make territorial retreats to accommodate yet another attempt at a Palestinian state. Palestinian political culture is solely predicated on the premise that Zionism and a Jewish state are incompatible with the minimum demands of their national identity. Pictured: Covered bodies in front of a destroyed house in Kibbutz Be'eri, Israel, photographed on October 11, 2023. (Photo by Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images)
The first anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacres in southern Israel adds yet another sacred date to a calendar already filled with those devoted to mourning tragedies in Jewish history. But the fresh pain from this most recent instance of Jewish suffering is due to more than the fact that it happened only 12 months ago. The war against Islamist terrorists that began that date is ongoing with hostilities against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon. And more than 100 of the hostages taken on Oct. 7 are still unaccounted for or continue to be held captive by Palestinian terrorists.
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by Robert Williams • October 7, 2024 at 5:00 am
"Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations." — United Nations Charter, Article 51. On October 1, 2024, Iran directly attacked Israel for the second time in six months, launching at least 180 ballistic missiles at Israeli towns cities and towns and sending millions of Israelis into bomb shelters. Iran simply did what it has been doing for decades: trying to obliterate Israel. Iran, both alone and through its proxies, has attacked Israel -- a country smaller than New Jersey – for the past year, non-stop, on seven fronts: Gaza, the West Bank, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran itself. Lately, Iran has been eyeing an eighth front from which to fire on Israel: Sudan. If a country is in danger of being attacked by nuclear weapons, within "one or two weeks," as it is, according to the US Department of State, a request for "proportionality" is nonsensical. What Israel's leadership needs to do is ensure that Iran will not be able to attack the Jewish state ever again, either with conventional weapons or nuclear ones. This obligation, elementary for any country, means that Israel needs to incapacitate Iran's nuclear sites and arguably put an end to Iran's theocratic regime. There is no point in having an "accommodation" with Iran. To have peace in the Middle East, the West will need to defeat Iran. Iran, cordially loathed by many of own its trapped citizens, already controls four countries in addition to its own: Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen. The regime has made no secret of its commitment to exporting its Islamic revolution globally -- including to Sudan, the rest of Africa, the Western Hemisphere and the world. As the founder of the 1979 Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, said: "We shall export our revolution to the whole world. Until the cry 'There is no god but Allah' resounds over the whole world, there will be struggle." "Islam says," he also noted: "Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword! People cannot be made obedient except with the sword!" Yet the Biden-Harris administration, together with the other G7 countries, who represent almost the entire West, apparently cannot agree that the world would be better off if "the leading state sponsor of global terrorism" -- on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons -- were stopped in its tracks. The UN resolution also showed those countries' disregard for Western civilization – a civilization which Israel, with no thanks from anyone, is paying the highest price imaginable to protect from tyranny and barbarism. All this, however, concerns more than "just the Jews." If Western countries actively enable autocracy, terrorism and savagery not just by standing passively by but by disabling a country that is fighting these onslaughts -- where does that leave the West when those forces move on to their next targets?
Iran's October 1 missile attack on Israel was an undeniable violation of international law. There should not be the slightest doubt that the moment the Islamic Republic of Iran acquires nuclear weapons, it will try to use them on Israel. U.S. President Joe Biden nonetheless told reporters that he would not support an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear sites, and that if Israel did defend itself against Iranian aggression, it should only do so "proportionally." Pictured: Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian looks on from the dais, as a Fattah ballistic missile is displayed during at a military parade in Tehran on September 21, 2024. Fattah missiles were used in Iran's October 1 attack on Israel. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)
If there is one rule under international law that is unequivocal, it is that a state that has been attacked by another state has the right to defend itself. "Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations," states Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. This is true for every country – except it seems for Israel. When it comes to the world's only Jewish state, apparently, the rules do not apply.
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by Lawrence Kadish • October 7, 2024 at 4:00 am
It is crucial that in a functioning democracy there be an open, wide-ranging, and energetic difference of opinion among those citizens entrusted with the gift of liberty. Freedom of speech and the ballot box are the legacies that have been dearly bought by generations of Americans in uniform. To see these freedoms perverted and attacked by would-be assassins embracing an ideology repugnant to most Americans is a reminder that their actions can only be described as a capital crime against our democracy. Pictured: Former President Donald Trump is taken off a rally stage by Secret Service agents after he was shot by a would-be assassin in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. (Photo by Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images)
As John Wilkes Booth leapt from the murder scene at Ford's Theater, having just mortally wounded one of the greatest presidents who ever graced the Oval Office, he shouted "Sic semper tyrannis" or "Thus always to tyrants." It revealed a level of venomous hatred that altered the course of American history. And so it is today as not one, but two, assassination attempts have been made on former President Donald Trump. While the motive of the first sniper attack remains muddied, the second planned attack left no doubt as to why the gunman was stalking Trump. He wrote it all down before he left to wait in ambush, much of it seemingly lifted from political propaganda: "You are free to assassinate Trump," he wrote, and "DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose." President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have, on several occasions, "accused Trump of being a 'threat to Democracy.'"
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