ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Possibility of a ‘Golden Age’ in the Middle East by Majid Rafizadeh

Posted By on November 16th, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21117/golden-age-middle-east

Iran launched from its own soil hundreds of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and attack drones at Israel, a country smaller than the state of New Jersey — a demonstration of the regime’s fundamentalist commitment to destroying the Jewish state.

President-elect Donald J. Trump at present seems averse to regime change in Iran. Unfortunately — due to the regime’s commitment to “wipe Israel off the map” and, as stated in its constitution, to export its version of Islam across the world — there does not appear to be the possibility for a real long-term peace in the Middle East without regime change. Anything short of that simply invites the regime to wait Trump out, as well as whoever succeeds him.

Not enough can be said to warn nations of the dangers that can arise from a lack of robust leadership, the perils of underestimating the ambitions of adversarial states, and the paralysis of being unable to confront an adversary for fear of escalation. The adversary, not the leader of Free World, is supposed to fear “escalation.”

The repercussions of allowing Iran… to operate without meaningful deterrence, simply underscores the need for a “Golden Age” — especially a new regime in Iran more aligned with the dreams of so many of its citizens — and not a moment too soon.

Never underestimate the power of an administration’s single term or the harm that policies – whether constructive or poorly-informed — can have on the international stage.

As President Joe Biden’s administration approaches the end of its term, it is hard not to see the global volatility, emboldened adversaries, and fractured alliances.

Those are lessons to be learned about the costs of weakness in leadership and the consequences of strategic missteps in foreign policy.

ANTI-SEMITISM, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Intifada Was Globalized in Amsterdam by Alan M. Dershowitz and Andrew Stein

Posted By on November 16th, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21118/amsterdam-globalized-intifada

There is no moral or legal equivalence between non-violent mischief — such as tearing down flags and shouting racial insults — and committing life-threatening assaults upon people based on their religion and ethnicity. The anti-Israel rioters were hunting down Jews…

Muslim extremists have a long history of hurling spears in response to non-violent insults. Recall the numerous deadly attacks — shootings, stabbings, bombings and lethal fatwas—against those who allegedly insulted the prophet by picturing him or authoring books about him. There was also violence against those who burned Korans or otherwise demeaned Islam. Even cartoons provoked deadly responses.

The law in no Western nation grants the victims of non-violent insults the right to respond by violence. If a Jew were to physically assault the many Muslims who have repeatedly demeaned Judaism or its nation-state during recent protests, they would be appropriately punished, as some have been.

[W]e are likely to see more anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish pogroms in other parts of the world as antisemitism moves from the fringes to the mainstream.

Protestors – both pro- and anti-Israel – have the right to express their views verbally and even symbolically, but they have no right to attack individuals or groups based on religion, ethnicity or national origin. Those who engaged in physical assaults – and many were caught on video – must be prosecuted and, if convicted, imprisoned or deported. A clear line must be drawn between lawful, even if immoral, protests, and criminal violence…. It is a bright-line distinction that many in the media are deliberately trying to blur.

The U.S. has a stake in stopping this violence: the call to “globalize the intifada” is not limited to Europe. Those who advocate globalization are inciting violence against Americans of Jewish heritage. The incitement may be too general to be denied First Amendment protection against criminal punishment, but the single standard demands that universities apply the same standard to calls for intifada than they would to calls for lynching of blacks or assaulting of gays. The real difference is that no university student or faculty member would ever call for the latter, and if they did, they would be disciplined or expelled. Yet today it is entirely acceptable, indeed expected, that radical students will call for the lynching and assaulting of Jews and Israelis. That, after all, is what an intifada entails.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Farewell to the “Rising American Electorate” The Obama coalition is not coming back. Ruy Teixeira

Posted By on November 15th, 2024

https://www.liberalpatriot.com/p/farewell-to-the-rising-american-electorate

At one point in the initial rollout of Harris’s campaign, there was much happy (joyful?) talk of getting the band back together—the return of the mighty Obama coalition. The “rising American electorate” would have its revenge on Trump, the Republicans, and their retrograde supporters from declining demographics.

That’s not exactly how it worked out. Instead, Trump won every swing state and the election, carried the national popular vote and made dramatic headway among key demographics that were supposed to buoy the rising American electorate. In short, the rising American electorate didn’t rise, it crashed.

As Democrats dig out from their debacle, it’s important for them to understand just how far away they now are from the salad days of the Obama coalition. In 12 short years, they have lost two of three elections to Donald Trump and huge chunks of support from key demographics, including most of their rising constituencies. They need to face the uncomfortable fact that not only did the Obama coalition not come back, it’s likely never coming back. It’s time for a new coalitional strategy—a strategy that starts with rebuilding their support among working-class Americans of all races and forcefully jettisoning all the political baggage that is preventing them from doing so.

Here are data that illustrate the scale of decline since Obama vanquished Mitt Romney in 2012. For this exercise, I use the Catalist data from 2012, the best retrospective data available, and compare it to the demographic group estimates from AP VoteCast, the best 2024 election data currently available. (It would be preferable to use 2024 Catalist data for this comparison but their data are not yet available.)

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Newsom Wants to be the Leader of the Resistance But Californians are resisting him. by Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on November 15th, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/newsom-wants-to-be-the-leader-of-the-resistance/

California is ready to fight,” Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened. “Whether it be our fundamental civil rights, reproductive freedom, or climate action – we refuse to turn back the clock and allow our values and laws to be attacked.”

But the fight had already been lost in California as state residents rose up against his radical policies. The aspiring leader of the resistance against a new Trump administration is facing his own resistance.

On Election Day, almost 70% of Californians voted for Proposition 36 in spite of Newsom.

“I was wondering what state I’m living in,” Gov. Newsom had complained about a poll showing that Prop 36, a proposition to make crime illegal again, was far ahead. “the public clearly has a different point of view.”

The public’s point of view in California was closer to Trump’s than Newsom’s.

The vast majority of Californians had rejected Gov. Newsom’s attempts to block, undermine, sabotage and campaign against the proposition criminalizing theft and locking up criminals. They ignored his complaints that locking up criminals would lead to “mass incarceration”.

After Election Day, Gov. Newsom is doubling down with an “emergency special session” to fight the newly elected Trump administration and “safeguard California values” by protecting illegal aliens, abortion and green fraud.

The Democrat state government that had tried to outlaw memes also promised to protect “civil liberties”. A federal judge had slapped down the meme ban and who accused it of stifling “the free and unfettered exchange of ideas which is so vital to American democratic debate”.

It wouldn’t be the first time.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence

Posted By on November 15th, 2024

https://jihadwatch.org/2024/11/tulsi-gabbard-director-of-national-intelligence?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tulsi-gabbard-director-of-national-intelligence

Tulsi Gabbard has just been appointed as the Director of National Intelligence. She has criticized the Biden administration for not being sufficiently supportive of Israel since October 7, 2023. She has spoken out about Islamic terrorism. She is a Hindu — she was sworn in as a congresswoman on a copy of the Bhagavad Gita — and that may mean she is aware of what the centuries of Muslim rule meant for the Hindus of India.

She was once a Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, and even ran for president in 2020 in the Democratic primary. But since then she has had a road-to-Damascus conversion, and become a Republican. More on Tulsi Gabbard can be found here: “Trump selects Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence,” by Marc Rod, Jewish Insider, November 13, 2024:

…Gabbard, a military veteran, has been critical of the Biden administration for being insufficiently supportive of Israel since Oct. 7. She has been vocal against Islamic terrorism and has expressed strong support for the Jewish state, including at a speech at a Christians United for Israel conference during her time in Washington.

To see how far she has come, consider that in the past she voted against a House resolution condemning the December 2016 United Nations Security Council Resolution opposing Israeli settlements. In 2019 she refused to condemn Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for antisemitic comments about U.S. support for Israel and voted for a resolution sponsored by Omar that aimed to defend the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. But Gabbard has since then clearly expressed her opposition to the BDS movement and voted for anti-BDS legislation. And in 2020, she even supported Bernie Sanders, a severe critic of Israel, to be President. But that was a world away from Tulsi Gabbard today; the former Democrat has been appearing at rallies for Donald Trump.

By 2022, she had moved rightward. In October 2024 she stood by Donald Trump at a rally and announced that she was joining the Republican Party. She explained that she found she agreed with the Republicans on the most important issues, including immigration. She described the Democratic Party as “unrecognizable” from what it had been twenty years before , and she attacked the “elitist cabal of warmongers” and “woke” ideologue” in the party.

She has said that anti-Israel college protesters are “antisemitic” and have become “puppets” of a “radical Islamist organization.” On October 7, 2024 she posted on Instagram that “Hamas’s horrific attack against Israel one year ago today that took the lives of approximately 1,200 Israelis at a music concert and in their homes, is a stark reminder of the ongoing short and long term threat of Islamist terrorism that continues to spread around the world today. Their goal is to establish a global Islamist caliphate, where all must live under their sharia law. Many leaders in the west have promised to defeat this threat and failed, because they refuse to acknowledge that it must be defeated ideologically and militarily.”

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Talibanization of Bangladesh: ‘Genocidal Campaign against Minority Hindu Population.’ Where is Mohammad Yunus? by Uzay Bulut

Posted By on November 15th, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21116/bangladesh-genocide-hindus

“Hindus targeted in #Bangladesh again. This time in Chittagong. Is administration led by Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus unable or unwilling to help Hindus?” — India Today, November 7, 2024.

Since the collapse of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government in August, the world has witnessed the full Islamization and Talibanization of Bangladesh.

“Ever since the Bangladesh prime minister was forced to flee… images, videos and accounts are streaming in of atrocities against the Hindu minority in Bangladesh, whose numbers have dangerously depleted over decades almost to the point of extinction….” — Sreemoy Talukdar, firstpost.com, August 8, 2024.

“One viral video clip shows radical Islamist lunatics inspecting the genitals of a murdered man, possibly lynched to death, and expressing satisfaction that he was a Hindu.” — Sreemoy Talukdar, firstpost.com, August 8, 2024.

In many instances, members of Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party, are behind these attacks and rights violations. Jamaat-e-Islami was banned by the Awami League government on August 1. Four days later, PM Hasina was forced to resign and her government collapsed.

Jamaat-e-Islami has now gained strength under Bangladesh’s Islamist interim government, led by Muhammad Yunus. Islamist radicals are the ones who brought Yunus to power.

The influence of the Hizb-ut Tahrir — another in Islamist organization that aspires to re-establish the Islamic Caliphate and globally implement Sharia law — also keeps increasing.

“The interim government led by Mohammad Yunus has largely failed to stop the violence against the minorities and has made matters worse by lifting bans on radical Islamist groups and releasing terror suspects from jail that rule the roost on the streets of Bangladesh.” — Raja Muneeb, firstpost.com, September 5, 2024.

If a power such as the US sits back, does nothing and watches as the Talibanization of Bangladesh unfold — as the Biden administration has done — it is likely that the chaos will not remain within the borders of Bangladesh. India will not allow another Islamist state on its borders to wipe out Hindus, Christians and secular Muslims in Bangladesh. India might justifiably decide that its security is threatened enough.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israel is a true American ally by every metric By Col. Lawrence Franklin (Ret.)

Posted By on November 15th, 2024

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/11/israel_is_a_true_american_ally_by_every_metric.html

Americans should be grateful that Israel had the courage and resolve to strike hard against the enemies of civilization. All free world democracies must salute Israel’s initiative when erstwhile allied media and politicians cautioned Jewish state leaders to de-escalate operations and refrain from actions that could lead to a wider war. Sunni Arab countries, especially those on the Arabian Peninsula who are targets for destruction by the Shia regime of revolutionary Iran and its allies, also have reason to be thankful.

While Israel acted resolutely in its own interest by launching crippling blows against Hezbollah’s military assets and political leadership, the beneficent results reverberate around the globe. Israel’s government, aware that Hezbollah was planning an imminent Hamas-style attack against northern Israel (like what took place on 7 October last year), struck first in what could be described as a pre-emptive retaliatory attack. 

Americans particularly owe a debt of gratitude to Israel for the targeted killing of the world’s leading terrorist mastermind, Hassan Nasrallah. The theological and political leader of Hezbollah was responsible for decisions that murdered countless innocents. Hezbollah was directly responsible for killing hundreds of American servicemen in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1983 by dispatching a suicide bomber via a truck bomb that destroyed their barracks.

It’s to be hoped that US Department of Justice (DOJ) bureaucrats wiill notify their Israeli counterparts of their satisfaction that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also eliminated Hezbollah General Faud Shukr, who was the liaison from the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Lebanon-based terrorist group. Skukr was responsible for killing many US soldiers in Iraq and was on the DOJ’s wanted list.

NATIONAL SECURITY AND DEFENSE Comments turned off

Restoring Our Maritime Strength By Jerry Hendrix & Brent Sadler

Posted By on November 15th, 2024

https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2024/12/a-plan-to-restore-the-navy-for-trumps-first-hundred-days/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_

The “first hundred days” myth has had a hold on American politics ever since Franklin Roosevelt’s first inauguration. In March 1933, the president summoned Congress to a three-month special session in which it passed 15 major bills to correct the downward trends of the Great Depression. Nearly every Democratic president to succeed him, and even a handful of Republicans, has tried to recapture the magic of FDR’s accomplishment. As the nation confronts numerous threats amid a deteriorating security environment, that magic is needed more than ever.

The next administration, in its first hundred days, will face an urgent problem: the need to rebuild the U.S. Navy to deter China, which, in its global push for dominance, is backed by a rapidly expanding modern navy, maritime constabulary, and commercial fleet. But an effective effort will involve more than just the Navy. It will also require investing in the broader maritime industry and ensuring that the nation has adequate shipping in peacetime to prevent China from dictating our terms of trade and subordinating our economic interests to its own.

What would a successful maritime first hundred days look like?

It should begin well before the president takes office. The first thing that a president-elect must consider is the national-security team. As is often said, personnel is policy: Without the right people, good ideas remain just ideas. In his first term, despite a campaign commitment to increasing the Navy’s fleet to 350 ships, President Trump was never able to “build the bench” by fully staffing the Pentagon, including the Department of the Navy, and hence was never able to build the fleet that he had promised. As for President Joe Biden, the low priority he has placed on defense, and on the Navy specifically, resulted in a failure to staff the Navy’s political leadership before the final year of his term. Whether Trump or Kamala Harris wins the White House this time, the nation cannot afford to repeat such mistakes.

The secretary of defense and the senior civilian positions in the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force are important, but so too are the Senate-confirmed undersecretaries and assistant secretaries who implement decisions. The day after winning the election, the next president should begin building a national-security team supportive of his or her overall policy goals, possessed of the knowledge and experience to drive required changes through, and able to be confirmed by the Senate. A second priority during the transition should be to review all the Biden executive orders to ascertain whether they impeded the operational or material readiness of the fleet.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

I’d Take Tulsi’s Record in Syria over the CIA’s By Michael Brendan Dougherty

Posted By on November 15th, 2024

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/id-take-tulsis-record-in-syria-over-the-cias/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=right-rail&utm_content=corner&utm_term=fourth

I sometimes wonder what “liberalism” the defenders of the liberal world order have in mind when the subject comes to Tulsi Gabbard. Appalled by radical Islam after 9/11, Gabbard volunteered to serve in the Hawaii National Guard, deploying to Iraq in 2004 and 2005 in a medical unit. She completed officer training at Alabama Military Academy, then served overseas in Kuwait. In 2020, she transferred to the U.S. Army Reserve and attained the rank of lieutenant colonel.

You might think that people who claim to respect the troops so much might hesitate before calling someone with this kind of record a foreign asset or even accusing her of being a foreign agent. You would be wrong.

Since this summer, she has been given the dreaded “quadruple S” status by the TSA — meaning she is being tracked at excruciating expense across every flight she takes — and is subjected to a far more invasive form of search reserved for active terror suspects. This status, for an active Army reservist and officer?

Even the more conventional case against her has some obvious holes. Noah Rothman writes:

She bought wholesale the utterly baseless line retailed by Moscow that Russia and its vassal state were the only countries committed to fighting ISIS. In contrast, she maintained, the United States was helping prop up radical elements within Syria’s anti-Assad rebels (the Assad regime took a hands-off approach to ISIS and even purchased its own oil from the terrorist group while it subdued the more moderate insurgents in places like Homs and Aleppo).

To my knowledge, Gabbard has not repudiated those positions. They cannot be described as “anti-war,” as so many of her boosters would like to claim, because she deploys them in support of war — Syria’s wars, Russia’s wars, and the terrorists’ wars, just not America’s wars.[Emphasis added.]

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Seth Barron Team of Successors Donald Trump’s appointments so far, some startling, share a common thread—comparative youth, an indication that the president-elect is looking beyond his own tenure.

Posted By on November 15th, 2024

https://www.city-journal.org/article/team-of-successors

Donald Trump has announced his first high-level appointments, including some surprising choices. Pete Hegseth, best known for his Fox News appearances, was nominated as Secretary of Defense. Matt Gaetz, who waged an intraparty feud against fellow Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, has been put forward as Attorney General. Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democrat and acerbic critic of the intelligence community, has been named Director of National Intelligence. These nominees, among others Trump has offered, have generated tremendous consternation, in some cases running across party lines. Trump’s nominees have been called unqualified, partisan, and even threats to national security. But a significant and unnoticed thread unites the team that Trump is assembling around himself—their age, or rather, their youth.

Hegseth is 44. Matt Gaetz is 42. Tulsi Gabbard is 43. Vice President-elect J. D. Vance is 40, as is Trump’s proposed U.N. Ambassador Elise Stefanik. Lee Zeldin, Trump’s pick to run the Environmental Protection Agency, is 44. Vivek Ramaswamy, who will work with Elon Musk in non-official, nongovernmental effort nevertheless named the Department of Governmental Efficiency, is 39. Other major appointees are slightly older: proposed Homeland Security nominee Kristi Noem is 52, and Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio is 53, as is Musk. But it’s clear that Trump’s Cabinet-level staff skews young. In this respect it marks a departure from the Cabinet that Trump picked in 2016, when he chose an older, more conventionally qualified team. The average age of his picks for Defense, State, and Justice eight years ago was 67; the average age for those same roles today is 46.