Americans Back Israel’s War On Hamas, But Just 37% Support A Palestinian State: I&I/TIPP Poll Terry Jones

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/05/29/americans-back-israels-war-on-hamas-but-just-37-support-a-palestinian-state-ii-tipp-poll/

Given the Biden administration’s official response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and the recent call by several nations to recognize a Palestinian state, you might think that Americans are ambivalent about Israel’s tough stance against Hamas terrorism. But in fact, Americans broadly support Israel’s actions by more than 2-to-1, according to the latest I&I/TIPP Poll.

The national online poll, taken from May 1-3, asked 1,435 adults the following question: “Do you support or oppose Israel taking tough actions, such as eliminating Hamas to ensure its security within its borders?”

Of those responding, 54% said they either “strongly” supported (29%) taking such action, or “somewhat” supported it (25%).

By contrast, only 21% said they either “strongly” opposed (9%) or “somewhat” opposed (12%) Israel’s fight (the poll has a margin of error of +/-2.7 percentage points).

Overall, 24% described themselves as “not sure,” a sign that many Americans have yet to fully sort out the issues involved.

There are some key differences within different demographic categories, particular by political affiliation.

Republicans are far more likely to support Israel (68%) than either independents (49%) or Democrats (48%). Not surprisingly, the reverse is true for opposition: Just 12% of GOP members oppose Israel’s military actions, versus 27% of Dems and 24% of independents.

Climate Hysterics Keep Saying The Quiet Part Out Loud

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/05/30/climate-hysterics-keep-saying-the-quiet-part-out-loud/

The climate alarmists have a long habit of revealing the true motives behind the global warming scare, and of course they have nothing to do with keeping the sky from catching on fire. In the most recent tacit admission, a college professor suggests that the administration sell the climate crisis to black voters by listing all the green energy government handouts they can avail themselves of.

In the New York Times piece published over the weekend, Jerel Ezell, a University of California, Berkeley, assistant professor “who studies environmental politics and race,” expressed concern that “politicians often seem to downplay the crisis when courting black communities.”

“Democratic strategists seem to see climate change as a key political issue only for white liberal elites and assume that other groups, like black voters, are either unaware of or apathetic about it.”

So Ezell suggests that rather than appealing to “​​airy calls for solving a global climate crisis,” Democrats should opt for “a sharp message designed specifically for young black Americans that focuses on how the Biden administration is investing in clean energy hubs, green work force development, tax credits for home improvement measures and community grants.”

Or in the words of blogger and law professor Ann Althouse, Democrats need to let black Americans “know there are billions of dollars ‘waiting to be doled out’ to their specific communities.” 

“That’s ‘how much black Americans care’ — they care about the money that might be doled out to them,” Althouse writes. “That’s what it says in the article.”

Sounds as if Ezell practices the soft bigotry of low expectations against his own community.

Protect Women’s Sports from Transgender ‘Inclusion’ by Senator John Kennedy (R-Louisiana)

https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/05/protect-womens-sports-from-transgender-inclusion/

Allowing boys to compete as girls will harm women’s sports. But many activists believe their feelings and the feelings of transgender athletes are more important.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by several Louisiana newspapers that are part of the Gannett-owned USA Today Network, then removed because it did not meet Gannett’s “editorial standards.” We are republishing it so that readers can judge its argument for themselves.   

Many players on the New Orleans Pelicans probably feel like a kid inside when they’re on the basketball court. They might even miss their days of dominating middle-school basketball tournaments, instead of squaring up against the giants in the NBA.

No one, however, would think it was fair if Zion Williamson joined a youth basketball league simply because he identified as a twelve-year-old. No middle-school boys could stop Williamson from getting to the basket, and they’d probably end up injured if they tried.

Men and women don’t compete for the same reasons. Yet transgender activists want athletic institutions to ignore these obvious physical differences so transgender athletes can feel included, even if it hurts biological girls in the process.

From middle-school gyms to NCAA swimming pools, activists seek to force women and girls to compete against biological men and boys. These activists claim it is a “myth” that transgender athletes have an advantage, but most Americans know this is untrue and unfair.

Starting in the womb and continuing through puberty, men develop physical advantages that help them outperform women in competitive sports. On average, men are taller and have higher bone density than women. When controlled for height, women also have 15 percent smaller hearts and 12 percent smaller lungs than men’s.

The Tawdriest Political Dirty Trick Rich Lowry

https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/05/the-tawdriest-political-dirty-trick/

Alvin Bragg has pulled it off.

If anything has been established in the courtroom the past couple of weeks, it’s that Alvin Bragg doesn’t have much of a legal case. But he doesn’t need one.

The legalities matter here only insomuch as they provide a veneer over an audacious political trick that has kept a major-party presidential candidate off the campaign trail for several days a week, and may — within days — give his enemies a political cudgel to use against him until November.

What’s the Latin for “specious legal case in service of frankly political ends”?

It’s true that if Trump gets off on a hung jury, it will play as a major victory and vindication for the Republican candidate, yet he still won’t be able to get back the time or resources he’s wasted fighting this case.

Even the most hard-bitten, cynical political operative would have been hard-pressed to imagine a way to keep an opponent off the campaign trail entirely. Rummaging through an opponent’s garbage, stealing his debate-prep materials, distorting his record in lavishly funded negative ads — all that looks amateurish compared with abusing the criminal-justice system for political ends the way Alvin Bragg has.

The Cat Is Out of the Bragg By Andrew C. McCarthy

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-cat-is-out-of-the-bragg/

Listening to the prosecution summation by Joshua Steinglass, it is quite amazing how explicitly the state is relying on violations of FECA as the “other crime” that Donald Trump was allegedly concealing by causing his business records to be falsified.

It is impossible to draw any conclusion other than that Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg knew that, as a state prosecutor, his enforcement of federal law would be incredibly controversial since he has no such authority; the federal agencies that do have such authority investigated Trump and opted not to prosecute; and to get this prosecution done, Bragg is simply making up his own version of federal law.

Bragg had the collusion of Judge Merchan, who allowed the state to get away with not putting the “other crime” in the indictment, and rejected defense attempts to force him to provide explicit disclosure pretrial. Prosecutors hid in the tall grass until summation and are now emphatically describing Trump as having blatantly violated federal campaign law.

Rafah reminds us of the evils of Hamas Why are so many in the West washing away Hamas’s responsibility for the Gaza catastrophe? Brendan O’Neill

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/05/28/rafah-reminds-us-of-the-evils-of-hamas/

The anti-Israel set is right about something for once: it is unconscionable that Rafah has been turned into a warzone. It is an affront to humanity itself that a city once teeming with civilians fleeing the ravages of war elsewhere in Gaza should now be reduced to a hellish battleground. But who did this? Who was it that decided to use this former city of civilians as a launchpad for war? Who was it that posted their military commanders there, hid their ammunition there, fired their missiles from there, dragged hostages there? Who was it who hid the machinery of war among the women and children of Rafah, knowing full well bloodshed would ensue?

It wasn’t Israel. Israel helped to facilitate the evacuation of over 900,000 civilians. No, it was Hamas. To see the evils of Hamas, look at Rafah.

There is ‘global outrage’ following Israel’s firing of a missile that hit a camp in Rafah for displaced Palestinians. According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, 45 civilians were killed. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has called it a ‘tragic mistake’. The footage from the burning camp is grim in the extreme. And Hamas bears ultimate responsibility for it. It was Hamas that forced Rafah to become the frontline in its apocalyptic war against the Jews. It was Hamas that turned this former ‘safe zone’ into one of the least safe zones on Earth. Nothing captures the ruthlessness and cynicism of these Islamofascists better than the cruel fate befalling Rafah right now.

Not that you’d know it from the public discussion. Peruse the mainstream media or the tweets of the woke and you could be forgiven for thinking Israel is attacking Rafah for sport. Both the cranky left and batshit right are even referring to the ‘tragic mistake’ in Rafah as the ‘Rafah Holocaust’. This is Holocaust inversion of the most rank variety, where Israel’s rightful pursuit of the fascists who carried out the pogrom of 7 October is rebranded as ‘fascism’; where a war on the genocidal terrorists of Hamas is reimagined as ‘genocide’. War is peace, freedom is slavery, anti-fascism is fascism.

The truth is that Hamas didn’t only start the Israel-Hamas War, with its vile pogrom – it also brought it to Rafah. Consciously, determinedly and without so much as a passing thought for the impact it might have on the people there. Indeed, as some of the news reports begrudgingly acknowledge, Hamas attacked Israel from Rafah just hours before Israel returned fire with the missiles that caused that tragic mistake. Hamas fired eight missiles from Rafah towards Tel Aviv. It gloated about its ‘major rocket attack’. It used Rafah as a staging area for anti-Semitic warfare. It knew what the consequences would be. It invited war to Rafah, and war came.

For some time, Hamas has been making Rafah the main base of its genocidal crusade against the Jewish State. Harried by the IDF from the rest of the Gaza Strip, Hamas spied in Rafah a ‘safe’ site for its warmongering. Israel believes Hamas has six battalions left, and that four of them are operating out of Rafah. Many missiles have been fired from Rafah. One killed four IDF soldiers. Others have rained down on Israeli territory, with the aim of slaughtering the Jews there. Israeli hostages are being held in Rafah. Hamas is using Rafah as a base from which to taunt, blackmail and assault the Jewish State. If you hate what has happened to Rafah, if you hate that it’s been sucked into the vortex of war, then you should hate Hamas.

Of course, the luxuriant moralists of the West, the noisy purveyors of lazy correct-think, prefer to hate Israel. They blame Israel for everything, even for things Hamas did, like the condemnation of Rafah to war. The catastrophe of Rafah ought to have prized open the eyes of Western opinion-formers to the evils of Hamas. To the bracing truth that this is a movement so bereft of basic decency it is willing to hide itself among humanitarian infrastructure, to use a city designated as a safe space from war for war. The IDF is surely right that Hamas’s use of Rafah for arms storage, hostage-keeping and missile-firing represents a ‘systematic exploitation of humanitarian facilities and spaces’.

Hamas Must Be Destroyed Before Any Peace Talks Take Place by Con Coughlin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20670/hamas-must-be-destroyed-before-peace

Do Ireland, Norway and Spain not see how appeasing terrorists anywhere only emboldens the militants in Europe? Last month, in Germany, more than 1,000 demonstrators took to the streets demanding that Germany become a Caliphate with sharia law.

Is [Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez] ready to grant the Catalans in Spain, who for years have been fighting for their independence, a State of Catalonia?

In Ireland, even at its most violent, there were never calls to take over Scotland, England and Wales to displace the British.

The capitulation of Ireland, Norway and Spain also reveals a deliberate misinterpretation of the root causes of Israel’s long-running conflict with the Palestinians, in which the constant refusal of successive generations of Palestinian leaders to renounce terrorism as the primary means of achieving their political objectives has made the concept of a lasting peace between the two sides impossible.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called by Andrew Roberts “The Churchill of the modern Middle East,” remains bitterly opposed to Palestinian independence as a “prize for terrorism”. “A reward for terror will not bring about peace,” said Netanyahu, “and also will not stop us from winning over Hamas.”

Hamas have repeatedly used their own people as human shields and shot at them to prevent them from fleeing to safety.

While the Biden administration’s stance towards Israel in the Gaza conflict has often been hostile, its rejection of the joint declaration by Norway, Ireland and Spain is most welcome.

If Israel could be allowed to succeed in “freeing Palestine from Hamas,” it would significantly improve the prospects of both Israelis and Palestinians.

International Criminal Court Prosecutor Threatens United States Senators by Elliott Abrams

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20666/icc-threatens-us-senators

Many critics thought the International Criminal Court had gone too far when its prosecutor asked for arrest warrants against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

But as the saying goes, “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

Now, the prosecutor’s office has threatened to prosecute criticism of… himself. Those who seek to defend Israel and stop the malicious, deeply antisemitic action against its leaders and against the Jewish state are now being told that their words and actions may also be a crime.

This may sound like something out of Alice in Wonderland, but it is an effort not only to limit freedom of speech, but to limit the constitutional powers of the United States Congress.

After the prosecutor called for the arrest warrants for top Israeli officials, 12 United States Senators wrote to the ICC. The full text of the letter is below. The final paragraphs read:

“If you issue a warrant for the arrest of the Israeli leadership, we will interpret this not only as a threat to Israel’s sovereignty but to the sovereignty of the United States.

“The United States will not tolerate politicized attacks by the ICC on our allies. Target Israel and we will target you. If you move forward with the measures indicated in the report, we will move to end all American support for the ICC, sanction your employees and associates, and bar you and your families from the United States. You have been warned.”

The reaction of the Prosecutor’s office came in a tweet, whose text is also below. The key language is this:

“When individuals threaten to retaliate against the Court or Court personnel…. such threats, even when not acted upon, may also constitute an offence against the administration of justice under Art. 70 of the Rome Statute….”

Wow.

The 12 United States Senators are already criminals, according to the ICC Prosecutor, for writing their letter— even if absolutely nothing else happens. Note that the Prosecutor writes of “individuals” who may threaten the ICC, whereas the Senators write as U.S. government officials about possible official U.S. government actions. In plain language, the Prosecutor is arguing that he and the ICC are above criticism. Forget freedom of speech or national sovereignty. To say that the United States, which is not a party to the Rome Statute, might react to punish the ICC for illegal and immoral actions it and its employees may take is not permitted.

Robert De Niro Melts Down During Biden Campaign Train Wreck Presser in Manhattan By Debra Heine

https://amgreatness.com/2024/05/28/robert-de-niro-melts-down-during-biden-campaign-train-wreck-presser-in-manhattan/

The Biden campaign faced nonstop heckles and jeers during a press conference outside the Manhattan criminal court where former President Donald Trump is listening to closing arguments in his hush money trial.

Joining Biden’s team were “special guests” Michael Fanone and Harry Dunn, two highly political and attention-seeking Jan. 6 Capitol police officers, and far-left actor Robert De Niro, who warned that Trump, if elected, “could destroy the world.”

The actor,  who arrived at the presser wearing a face mask, seemed angry and rattled by the cacophonous anti-Biden catcalls.

“I mean this is really … even these people over here are kinda … it’s kinda crazy,” De Niro complained when it was his turn to speak. “This thing, Donald Trump, has created this,” the actor added bitterly. “He should be telling them not to do this … but he wants to sow total chaos.”

Struggling to be heard over loud chants of  “f-ck Joe Biden!,” De Niro accused Trump of wanting “to destroy not only the city, but the country, and eventually, he could destroy the world.”

The 80-year-old went on to say that it was “weird” that the former president was in the courtroom across the street because “he doesn’t belong in my city.”

“I owe this city a lot. And that’s why it’s so weird that Donald Trump is just across the street because he doesn’t belong in my city. I don’t know where he belongs, but he certainly doesn’t belong here. We New Yorkers used to tolerate him when he was just another grubby real estate hustler masquerading as a big shot,” he said.

Israelis Forced to Bail Out Biden’s Failed Gaza Aid Pier 3 US Soldiers injured. 1 seriously. by Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/israelis-forced-to-bail-out-bidens-failed-gaza-aid-pier/

Biden wasted over $300 million and two months, put the lives of American soldiers to set up a pier that was supposed to provide a permanent port to move materials in and out of Gaza. I argued at the time that it was meant to be a ‘Trojan Pier” that would lock Israel out of the process.

While administration officials describe the pier as “temporary”, a senior official also admitted that “we look forward to the port transitioning to a commercially operated facility over time.”

That means it’s not actually meant to be temporary, but a permanent port for the terrorists.

That looks like it won’t be happening because the whole JLOTS setup didn’t account for the weather.

Portions of the floating pier already had to be brought to the Israeli port of Ashdod after stormy weather. And now portions of the pier have broken off and need to be taken in for repairs. Some US Navy vessels were also apparently beached. 3 soldiers were reportedly injured while one remains in critical condition. And the only end result of the pier was a lot of damage and some limited supplies delivered to Hamas.

The damage, first reported by NBC News, occurred three days after heavy seas forced two small US Army vessels to beach in Israel, according to US Central Command, while another two vessels broke free of their moorings and were anchored near the pier.