HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Urgently Needed: An Economic and National Security ‘War Cabinet’ by Pete Hoekstra

Posted By on November 17th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20149/economic-national-security-war-cabinet

In World War II, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill formed a wartime cabinet to unify the UK to fight the threats the country faced.

In 2023, the political leadership of Israel formed a war cabinet to confront and defeat Hamas.

In light of the recent, stark warnings given by the Five Eyes security leaders on the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party and so many others, it is time for the U.S. to propose an economic and national security “war” cabinet to coordinate, strategize, and implement plans to address the China challenge as well as the national debt’s impact on our ability to confront it.

Voters in a small Michigan township ousted their entire township board over the board’s support for building a Michigan-taxpayer subsidized, Chinese battery manufacturing plant in their midst. History might not remember them as among the first Americans to take a stand against the creeping Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence growing in the United States, but their vote should serve as a historic and valiant wake-up call for all Americans and their leaders.

How then should their leaders respond to the valid concerns over the threat posed by the CCP’s efforts in America?

The Israeli government’s political response to the barbaric Hamas terrorist attack on October 7 shows one potential avenue of response to Communist China’s rapidly increasing national security threat – critically, before a crisis or an attack forces a response.

Later on the day of the attack, leaders of four of Israel’s opposition parties issued a joint statement in which they said, “In times like these, there is no opposition and coalition in Israel.” The statement reinforced the unity of nearly all political parties in Israel to defeat the existential threat posed to Israel by Hamas and Iran.

On October 11, a war cabinet was formed. There was a unity of purpose to protect the Israel today and in the future.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

As he hosts China’s Xi, Biden delivers pitiful 2024 reelection platitudes that Republicans can’t seem to beat By Miranda Devine

Posted By on November 17th, 2023

https://nypost.com/2023/11/15/opinion/as-he-hosts-chinas-xi-biden-delivers-pitiful-2024-reelection-platitudes-that-republicans-cant-seem-to-beat/

It took the arrival of a Chinese dictator for San Francisco to finally clean the filth off the streets — at least temporarily.

Sure, they had to erect cages around the sidewalks to keep them clear until President Xi Jinping leaves California, but better to be seen as a prison than a pigpen.

It’s all theater, of course.

The Chinese and other Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders know that after the facelift, San Francisco will revert to a feces-encrusted slum, as the zombies are released from wherever they have been hidden.

Everyone has seen the videos of addicts bent double in suspended animation or zonked out on the ground among the used needles and human excrement.

TikTok algorithms make sure those videos are seen.

Ahead of Xi’s visit, Chinese media outlets had great sport trashing San Francisco as “garbage city,” “ruined city,” “fallen city” and a “total failure.”

Apart from being an avoidable tragedy, America’s deadly drug crisis makes us an international laughingstock, the marker of a civilization on the fast track to hell.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Hamas Big Fish Who Got Away Israel had an opportunity to kill Mohammed Deif in 2003, and Yahya Sinwar was in prison until 2011

Posted By on November 17th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-hamas-big-fish-who-got-away-79184d1a?mod=opinion_lead_pos6

President Biden warned Israel not to be “consumed by rage,” even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised “mighty vengeance” against Hamas. But revenge isn’t the only anger at play, or even the most corrosive. The fury that’s eating Israel’s war cabinet is regret. No matter how the military responds, there’s a sense that it’s too late.

“We blew it,” Maj. Gen. Yoav Gallant, now Israel’s defense minister, told me following a Sept. 6, 2003, airstrike on Hamas leadership. (I was a Washington Post reporter.) Eight senior Hamas commanders, including bomb makers and developers of Qassam rockets, had met for lunch on the ground floor of a Gaza home. It was a rare daylight appearance of Mohammed Deif, Hamas’s shadowy military leader.

“The terrorist dream team” is how Avi Dichter, then head of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, described the guest list at the time. Mr. Dichter, Gen. Gallant and other Israeli security officials in the 2003 war room plunged into hours of debate about what size bomb to drop in Gaza, weighing the risks of civilian casualties.

Palestinian children were playing outside the home. It was “a tragic dilemma,” one general said, a lose-lose decision of the sort they had argued and anguished over many times before. Mr. Dichter advocated for an all-out assault. The defense minister at the time called it “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” In the long run, several argued, it would save Israeli and Palestinian lives.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

$10 Billion More for Iran Biden renews a sanctions waiver that helps fund terrorism.

Posted By on November 17th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/iran-10-billion-biden-administration-sanctions-iraq-israel-hamas-72bfc33a?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

After the Oct. 7 rampage by Hamas, which is armed and funded by Iran, many Americans wanted to know: Would President Biden still release $6 billion to Tehran? All six Senate Democrats up for re-election in competitive states joined Republicans in calling on the President to freeze the money.

Under pressure, the White House relented, signaling that it will block the $6 billion—for now—but evidently not because it has changed its mind on the wisdom of financing Iran. On Tuesday the State Department reissued a sanctions waiver that gives Iran access to more than $10 billion.

The waiver, first issued in July and now renewed for another four months, allows Iran access to revenue from Iran’s electricity shipments to Iraq. The State Department says this is necessary to keep the lights on in Baghdad. That oil-rich Iraq remains dependent on Iran for gas and electricity is its own scandal, but the excuse doesn’t wash.

The July waiver was part of an unwritten nuclear agreement with Iran. Giving Iran access to these billions could never pass Congress, so Mr. Biden bypassed it. The idea was to quiet the region until after the 2024 U.S. election.

How little peace the money has bought is clear. Even on the nuclear front, new United Nations inspector reports show that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium continues to grow, Reuters reported Wednesday. Iran now has enough for three nuclear bombs.

ISRAEL, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

D.C. March Proves How Broad the Pro-Israel Consensus Is in America By Jim Geraghty

Posted By on November 16th, 2023

https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/d-c-march-proves-how-broad-the-pro-israel-consensus-is-in-america/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=blog-post&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=top-bar-latest&utm_term=first

On the menu today: I hope you had a chance to see at least a little bit of yesterday’s D.C. rally in support of Israel and the American Jewish community on the National Mall. The news was not that figures such as House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, or Iowa GOP senator Joni Ernst gave rousing speeches denouncing antisemitism and pledging to remain steadfast in support of Israel. That’s always good to hear, but we expect that sort of response from them. No, the pleasant surprise was listening to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries declare, “Israel has an absolute right to defend itself against Hamas terror,” and actress Debra Messing declare, “We will pray for the success of the IDF in a war Israel did not start, and did not want, but a war Israel will win, because we must.” Some days, the news will leave you feeling like Americans are hopelessly divided about every issue under the sun. But there is a big and broad bipartisan consensus in support of Israel in this country. I just hope that President Biden and his administration realize how fringe the anti-Israel perspectives are.

The Headline I Never Thought I’d Write: Way to Go, Jeffries and Messing!

Right now, it’s easy for a Republican or conservative to say, “Stand with Israel.” Sure, you can find exceptions such as Candace Owens idiotically claiming that Israel restricts Muslims to the “Muslim Quarter” in Jerusalem, Tucker Carlson griping that Speaker Mike Johnson prioritizes Israel too highly, and Vivek Ramaswamy arguing that the GOP’s concern for Israel is driven by “financial and corrupting influences.”

But by and large, folks on the right see a fight between Israel and Hamas and choose to root for Israel, with no hesitations, qualifications, or caveats. Notice the article in the New York Times, November 3: “Jewish viewers find a refuge in Fox News.”

And it is not, as the occasional celebrity progressive activist insists, primarily driven by some esoteric evangelical belief about the rapture or Israel’s role in the apocalypse. It’s because Israel is a free country and most of the people who claim to be fighting on behalf of the Palestinians are barbaric terrorists — so this isn’t a difficult judgment to make. (With that said, I do suspect a decent number of American Christians have traveled to Israel at some point in their lives to see and follow the paths where Jesus walked, and that they likely came away from those trips with an even more positive attitude toward the Israelis.)

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Catastrophic Death of Fairness By J.B. Shurk

Posted By on November 16th, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/11/the_catastrophic_death_of_fairness.html

Some social psychologists believe that humans are biologically wired to seek “fair” relationships with others.  Some theologians believe that the soul’s capacity for distinguishing right from wrong leads a moral person toward the same result.  Whether genetically or spiritually inclined to prefer fair outcomes, we humans are not comfortable around those who cheat and prosper from duplicity.  Cheating is ugly and therefore despised.

Systemic cheating, however, now dominates Western life.  Elevating “diversity for diversity’s sake” over all other metrics for gauging achievement has reduced merit and hard work to second-class virtues.  Rewarding illegal aliens with amnesty has cheapened the sacrifices of those lawful immigrants who have struggled to integrate into their new home countries.  Allowing delusional men to dominate women’s sports has cheated female athletes of a fair playing field for pursuing excellence.  In ways big and small, “woke” governments, corporations, and academic institutions cheat Western citizens of the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of their own labors.

Of course, systemic cheating is disguised in language that sounds noble.  “Woke” Marxists use “fairness” jiujitsu to force disingenuous and unprincipled change. 

Unfairly promoting a less talented person over a more talented person because of his respective skin colors is celebrated as a victory for “diversity” — a reminder that in the twenty-first century, racists are still obsessed with how a person looks at the expense of what thoughts occupy his mind.  Without any public debates or votes, governments have replaced “equal treatment under the law” with “equitable” redistribution — or, in layman’s terms, “special treatment under the law” — so that certain classes of people can benefit at the expense of others.  

In an amazing instance of Orwellian “doublespeak,” the State categorizes those classes that are unfairly rewarded as “underprivileged” and the people against whom it discriminates as “privileged.”  Never in human history have people with “privilege” felt so marginalized.  All this cheating is done for the stated purpose of “including” many different kinds of people, but it depends entirely on “excluding” people to obtain fraudulently manufactured and prejudiced results.  

ISRAEL Comments turned off

When Has War Even Been ‘Proportional?’ Israel’s conventional disproportionality is proving more effective than the terrorist disproportionality of Hamas By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on November 16th, 2023

https://amgreatness.com/2023/11/16/when-has-war-even-been-proportional/

Proportionality in war is a synonym for lethal stalemate, if not defeat.

When two sides go at it with roughly equal forces, weapons, and strategies, the result is often a horrific deadlock—like the four years of toxic trench warfare on the Western Front of World War I that resulted in 12 million fatalities.

The purpose of war is to defeat the enemy as quickly as possible with the least number of causalities—and thereby achieve political ends.

So, every side aims to find superior strategies, tactics, weapons, and manpower to ensure as great a disproportionate advantage as possible.

Hamas is no exception.

Its savage precivilizational strategy to defeat Israel hinged on doing disproportionate things Israel either cannot or will not do.

First, Hamas spent a year planning a preemptive butchery spree inside Israel. Its ruthless murdering focused on “soft targets” like unarmed elderly, women, children, and infants, mostly asleep at a time of peace and holiday.

Second, it sought to collectively shock Israel into paralysis by the sheer horror of decapitating civilians, burning babies, mass raping, and mutilating bodies.

Another apparent aim of such premodern barbarity was to blame Israel’s “occupation” for turning Gazans into veritable monsters, with hopes of derailing the renewed Abraham Accords.

Third, the gunmen took more than 240 hostages back with them to Gaza.

Again, that was a disproportionate tactic designed to meter out the release of captives in exchange for “pauses” and “cease-fires” to save Hamas.

Additionally, Hamas made implicit threats of gruesome executions of captives unless Israel ceased their retaliation for October 7.

Fourth, all the while Hamas shot rockets into Israel, more than 7,000 in total, and all aimed at civilians.

Not one launch was preceded by dropping leaflets or sending text messages to Israeli civilians to vacate the intended target areas—a protocol often used by the Israel Defense Forces.

The unapologetic aim was to kill thousands of Israelis at random and disproportionately.

In fact, in just the last few four weeks, Hamas has launched more than twice as many rockets into Israel as Nazi Germany managed to launch V-2s into Britain in five months.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

‘More Federal Contractor than Educator’: Universities Allowing Antisemitism on Campus Rake in Taxpayer Dollars

Posted By on November 16th, 2023

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/more-federal-contractor-than-educator-universities-allowing-antisemitism-on-campus-rake-in-taxpayer-dollars/

Several candidates in the 2024 Republican presidential primaries have threatened to enforce consequences for colleges and universities that allow antisemitism on their campuses. Former president Donald Trump said he would revoke visas of international students celebrating Hamas. North Dakota governor Doug Burgum said he would “fully enforce” Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which mandates that institutions receiving federal assistance refrain from allowing discrimination “on the ground of race, color, or national origin.”

Florida governor Ron DeSantis directed public universities in his state to “deactivate” Students for Justice in Palestine chapters (though he is now facing pushback from state education officials). Former United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley vowed to revoke tax-exempt status for colleges and universities that are ignoring antisemitism.

A new report from Open the Books, a nonprofit organization focused on transparency in government spending, demonstrates how much money these elite educational institutions receive from American taxpayers.

During the past five years, ten universities — the Ivy League, plus Northwestern and Stanford universities — received $33 billion in federal contracts and grants. These universities are subject only to an excessive endowment tax, which has them pay 1.4% of their net investment income on endowment assets exceeding $500,000 per student. Of the ten, Stanford came in with the highest total since 2018 at just over $7 billion, while only Dartmouth, with about $755 million, was under the billion-dollar mark.

Open the Books CEO and Founder Adam Andrzejewski told National Review the tax code and federal aid have been distorted beyond their initial purpose.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Charles Fain Lehman The Paradox of Jewish Liberalism What use is a Jewishness that blinds you to hatred of Jews?

Posted By on November 16th, 2023

https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-paradox-of-jewish-liberalism

After the October 7 terrorist attack, many American Jews have stomached two shocks: the shock of Hamas’s brutality, and the shock of their putative political allies’ support for the brutes. Liberal Jews are not only horrified by campus chants of “there is only one solution: Intifada, revolution.” They are also surprised.

Less surprised are those of us among the one in six American Jews who are conservatives. The anti-Semitic elements of the American Left, from funders to campus activists, have been obvious for years, even decades. It is at turns refreshing and off-putting, therefore, to see other Jews wake up to what we already knew.

At this moment, Jewish conservatives should resist any compulsion to tell their liberal brethren “I told you so.” This is an opportunity, rather, for making hard truths plain. Many American Jews are liberals out of a profound, identity-level connection between their Judaism and their liberalism—a connection that developed alongside Jewish-American identity. It is this association that consistently blinds them to the anti-Semitism of others on the left; only by unearthing this tension can they overcome it.

American Jews, it should be emphasized, are remarkably liberal. In Pew’s 2020 survey of Jews, 71 percent identified as Democrats, versus 26 percent as Republicans. Half of Jews describe themselves as “liberal” compared with 16 percent “conservative” and the remainder “moderate.” By these proportions, Jews are more Democratic than Hispanics, Asians, and Muslims; they are more liberal than blacks. Jews are also more Democratic than those who earn as much as the average Jewish household does. As Milton Himmelfarb, the longtime research director of the American Jewish Committee, famously put it, “Jews earn like Episcopalians and vote like Puerto Ricans.”

Most Jews, in fact, express their Jewish identity through liberal values. Asked by Pew which aspects of Judaism were “essential” to what it means to be Jewish, Orthodox Jews said leading an ethical and moral life, observing Jewish law, and continuing family traditions—all of which are, if not the same, then highly related for observant Jews. For the non-Orthodox, though, the top slots went to remembering the Holocaust, leading an ethical and moral life, working for justice and equality, and being intellectually curious. These last two, especially, identify Judaism with liberal values of intellectual independence and commitment to social justice.

This association between Judaism and liberalism is not new. Since Jews first immigrated to the United States, they have articulated their identity in the language of liberalism. Indeed, Jewish ethnogenesis—the process by which Jews became Jewish-Americans—has often entailed making Judaism synonymous with progressivism.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Secularism vs. Theocracies: Bangladesh – and the West – Under Threat by Uzay Bulut

Posted By on November 16th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20148/bangladesh-secularism-islamism

Bangladesh’s first constitution, adopted in 1972, the year after the war for independence, created the legal foundation for secular governance. Secularism was declared one of the fundamental principles of the state, and the use of religion for political ends was prohibited.

“The rise of violent extremism and militancy not only in Bangladesh, but also in the South Asia region and the worldwide phenomenon of religious extremism is one of the greatest contemporary threats to global security that can lead to violence and terrorism, and which can permeate all sovereign borders.” — European Bangladesh Forum, Voice of European Bangladeshis.

It is thus critical to neutralize such radical Islamist forces, as Israel is now doing to Hamas, for both ideological and security-related reasons.

The 1971 Bengali genocide is an urgent reminder of the depths to which political ideologies can lead, and why, if one wants to preserve freedom in the West, it is essential to confront them.

As Bangladesh, a nation that is majority Muslim, prepares for January elections, its secular government has come under increasing pressure from Islamists.

The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), and their allies are holding rallies regarding a single demand: the resignation of the secular government. They insist that the prime minister step aside for an “impartial caretaker administration” to oversee January’s polls.