ISRAEL Comments turned off

A humanitarian, holistic plan for Gaza The Gaza enclave can be rebuilt and replaced with an infrastructure that will benefit all residents in the area and the region. Dr. Moshe Dann

Posted By on November 10th, 2024

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/398755

Israeli control of the Gaza Strip is critical for its security and the future of the entire region. Allowing enemies of Israel to resume their control of the area — directly and indirectly — cannot be the basis for its future after the war. Hamas, the PIJ and other terrorist organizations turned the Gaza Strip into a vast underground system for hiding weapons, moving terrorists and attacking Israel. Except for tribal clans in Gaza, the population overwhelmingly supports Hamas. They chose Hamas over the PA/PLO in free elections, and they will do so again.

Although there are some exceptions, an overwhelming majority of Gazans support Hamas – directly and indirectly. They are, therefore, not actually civilians; their support for Hamas makes them accomplices.

Instead of repeating a mistake and trying to reconstruct the Gaza Strip under a new regime, it can become a new regional transportation and communications center under Israeli control that will benefit others as well. The tunnels that Hamas built, for example, can be used to provide a creative future for Israel and serve to promote peace. Smuggling of weapons and terrorists via Gaza will thus end.

After placing the area under Israeli sovereignty, Israel can expand the narrow tunnels to accommodate a light rail – similar to what exists in other urban centers — that will be linked to Israel’s transportation system, especially its airports, and eventually extend to other countries as well.

On the surface, the Gaza enclave can be rebuilt and replaced with an infrastructure that will benefit all residents in the area and the region. It will include new housing and agriculture development, as well as commercial enterprises and industrial use which incorporate ecological innovations and concerns.

Under no conditions should the Gaza area be given to those who oppose Israel’s existence. Arab Gazans who have no connection to any terrorist organization and wish to remain in the area can be allowed to do so providing that they are willing to support Israel and Israeli sovereignty. Those who choose to support terrorism and terrorist organizations will be required to leave and relocate. Israel is under no obligation to allow any threats to its security. Nor are Gazans entitled to pose a threat simply because they consider Gaza to be their “homeland.”

FOREIGN POLICY, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

10 things Trump can do to clean up Biden’s messes abroad by Douglas Murray

Posted By on November 10th, 2024

https://nypost.com/2024/11/07/opinion/10-things-trump-can-do-to-clean-up-bidens-messes-abroad/

Donald Trump’s victory on Tuesday was so overwhelming that even his opponents seem to have gone quiet for a bit. Relatively speaking.

No doubt they will soon start constructing a whole new set of roadblocks to throw in his way. But there is no doubt that the president-elect now has an opportunity to reshape not just America, but the world.

The free world is desperately in need of strong leadership. And the un-free world is in desperate need of containment.

Here are 10 things the Trump administration could do to clean up the Biden-Harris chaos, and bring the peace that Trump-Vance promised in the campaign:

Ukraine

Trump has promised to negotiate a settlement to the war in Ukraine. It is inevitable at this stage that this will include some land compromises for the Ukrainians.

Some of us wish that wasn’t so. But Russia needs a way out, and Ukraine needs to not lose any more of its younger generation.

The quid pro quo should be that Trump makes it clear to Russia’s Vladimir Putin that there’ll be no more invasions on his watch.

And no more actual Russian election interference in neighboring countries like Georgia and Moldova.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Hamas Must Be Defeated, Not Legitimized by Khaled Abu Toameh

Posted By on November 10th, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21106/hamas-must-be-defeated

Hamas should not be permitted to play any role in the Gaza Strip after the war. This would allow the terror group to rearm and regroup and prepare for another October 7-style attack on Israel.

By negotiating with Hamas about the future of the Gaza Strip, Abbas is legitimizing the Iran-backed terror group and sending a message to the Palestinians and the rest of the world that he sees no problem with dealing with murderers and terrorists who committed the most horrific crimes… As we have seen most recently in the Chinese Communist Party, Iran and Afghanistan, negotiating with terrorists and their equivalents simply does not work.

Ever since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, thousands of Palestinians have been killed in wars they initiated with Israel. With the help of Europe, Qatar and Iran, Hamas transformed the Gaza Strip, home to two million Palestinians, into one of the largest bases for Islamist terrorism in the Middle East.

The assumption that Hamas would voluntarily give up its control of the Gaza Strip because of any unity agreement with Abbas is just laughable.

The Biden administration chose to turn a blind eye to Abbas’s efforts to legitimize Hamas. The US offered it a lifeline. A terror group committed to the elimination of Israel should have no role in any Palestinian government — not in the West Bank and certainly not in the Gaza Strip. Such a group should be completely destroyed militarily and politically, and not invited to join any Palestinian government.

As long as Iran’s regime remains in place, torturing both its own people and others… there regrettably will be no peace. That is the only way to secure a truly peaceful future, not only for Israelis but for Palestinians and the Free World.

More than a year after the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, the Palestinian Authority (PA) continues to view the Iran-backed Islamist movement as a legitimate partner.

Last week, representatives of the PA’s ruling Fatah faction (headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas) and Hamas held talks in the Egyptian capital of Cairo to discuss establishing a joint administration to rule the Gaza Strip. An Egyptian source confirmed that the Fatah-Hamas discussions aim at to create a committee to manage the affairs of the Gaza Strip, in addition to pursuing efforts to reach a ceasefire there.

ANTI-SEMITISM, HISTORY Comments turned off

Kristallnacht November 9, 1938

Posted By on November 9th, 2024

On November 9–10, 1938, Nazi leaders unleashed a series of pogroms against the Jewish population in Germany.  This event came to be called Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) because of the shattered glass that littered the streets after the vandalism and destruction of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues, and homes. 

During the pogrom, some 30,000 Jewish males were rounded up and taken to concentration camps. This was the first time Nazi officials made massive arrests of Jews specifically because they were Jews, without any further cause for arrest.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Peace in the Middle East: The First Step by Majid Rafizadeh

Posted By on November 9th, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21104/middle-east-peace

Over the decades, Iran’s regime has embedded itself deeply within the region’s crises, stoking unrest and sponsoring terrorism. If the Middle East is to see any genuine peace and stability, a transformation of Iran’s regime is essential.

Without addressing the regime at the core, these threats will only intensify, especially when Iran acquires nuclear weapons… weeks away.

Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution orchestrated by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Israel has been regarded as a cancerous tumor to be wiped off the map.

[O]nly Israel has demonstrated the courage and determination to confront the Iranian regime head-on, recognizing it as the “tumor” that fuels much of the region’s instability.

It is crucial to recognize that the core ideological mission of the Iranian regime — using religion as a pretext to seize power by force — is deeply ingrained and is not going to change. For years, Iran’s regime has not only been attacking its own citizens, especially women, and it has even been executing children. In the first six months of 2024 alone, “Iranian authorities executed 249 people” and an additional 166 people just in October.

A regime that treats its own people this way is not likely to treat anyone else any better.

The system in Iran was founded on principles aimed at “exporting the revolution” and imposing an Islamist governance structure across other nations. This ideological commitment is even enshrined in Iran’s constitution…

Notably, during significant waves of protests in recent years, the Obama and Biden-Harris administrations remained silent, offering no substantial support to the people risking their lives for freedom.

Often, Western countries have chosen to overlook Iran’s human rights abuses and advances in military power: they might interfere with profitable trade.

If these Western nations lack the will to fight the Iranian regime directly, then they should, at the very least, provide Israel with the necessary support — economically, militarily and politically. This is not an act of charity: supporting Israel in its mission serves their own interests.

Can the West set aside its hypocrisy long enough to stand with Israel in confronting Iran — this source of terror to them as well? If they cannot summon the nerve to act directly, then the least they can do is back those who do.

To embark on the path toward sustainable peace in the Middle East, it is essential to confront a fundamental truth: without addressing a crucial first step, peace across the region will remain nothing more than an illusion. This first step lies in directly confronting and ultimately changing the root cause of much of the ongoing conflict, violence, and terrorism — namely, the Islamist regime in Iran.

Over the decades, Iran’s regime has embedded itself deeply within the region’s crises, stoking unrest and sponsoring terrorism. If the Middle East is to see any genuine peace and stability, a transformation of Iran’s regime is essential.

ANTI-SEMITISM, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

A pogrom in Amsterdam The thuggish attacks on Israeli football fans recall Europe’s darkest days. Tim Black

Posted By on November 9th, 2024

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/11/08/a-pogrom-in-amsterdam/

On Thursday night, in a dark echo of Europe’s darkest days, Amsterdam bore witness to a pogrom.

Following a Europa League football match between Ajax Amsterdam and Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv, ‘pro-Palestine’ thugs went on an organised and seemingly pre-meditated hours-long hunt for Maccabi supporters – because, well, they were Israeli Jews. And that is enough it seems, in this era of keffiyeh-sporting, BDS-fuelled anti-Semitism, to justify hunting people down and violently attacking them.

According to Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema, men riding scooters searched the streets for Israelis and carried out ‘hit and run’ assaults. Other reports tell of masked men ambushing and attacking fans as they walked back to their hotels. Some Israelis were knocked down and beaten up. Others were forced to jump into canals to escape.

One video recording shows a man lying on the ground as a gang of men repeatedly kick his motionless body. Another shows a vehicle being driven at what presumably is a Maccabi supporter. Another shows Jewish football fans being attacked in a crowded street, while a man shouts, ‘That’s for Gaza motherfucker… now you know how it feels’.

According to the Amsterdam police, five supporters were taken to hospital, while 20 to 30 others were treated at the scene. It is likely that many more would have been seriously hurt and worse if it wasn’t for those Amsterdam locals who allowed Maccabi supporters to hide and shelter in restaurants and cafés.

Deborah Lipstadt, currently the US special envoy to combat anti-Semitism, is in no doubt as to the significance of what happened last night. It was a concerted and violent attack on Jews because they were Jews. It was all too reminiscent of ‘a classic pogrom’, she said, before drawing attention to the attacks’ proximity to the anniversary of Kristallnacht, ‘when Nazi-sanctioned and Nazi-led pogroms against Jews erupted across the German Reich’. Striking a similar note, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands told Israel’s President Isaac Herzog: ‘We failed the Jewish community of the Netherlands during the Second World War, and last night we failed again.’

It was all so grimly predictable. Ever since Hamas’s 7 October attacks and the start of Israel’s war in Gaza, anti-Semitism has surged across Europe. Synagogues have been fire-bombed. Jews have been menaced and attacked. And the streets of Western cities have been filled on a near-weekly basis with anti-Israel marches, thronging with anti-Semitism. It was these conditions that made an attack on Israeli Jewish football fans all too possible.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Election, Common-Sense Democrats, and the Long March Institutional dominance by far-left ideologies presents a significant barrier to meaningful change within the Democratic Party By Stephen Soukup

Posted By on November 9th, 2024

https://amgreatness.com/2024/11/09/the-election-common-sense-democrats-and-the-long-march/

Not long before Tuesday’s election, Ruy Teixeira, a Democratic political scientist and commentator, predicted that, regardless of the outcome of the election, the contemporary progressive movement was dead. Harris, he intimated, could still win the election, but the dominant force in Democratic politics for the last two decades was done. Voters had clearly and unambiguously voiced their distaste for the four pillars of contemporary progressivism: open borders/mass immigration, lax law enforcement/social disorder, identity politics, and the war on fossil fuels. As Teixeira astutely noted, the electorate simply isn’t buying what the progressives are selling.

Teixeira, it should be noted, is not alone in his concerns about and disapproval of the contemporary progressive agenda and its alienating effect on average voters. In the few days since Donald Trump handily defeated Kamala Harris, a handful of prominent Democrats have condemned their party’s polarizing platform and have echoed Teixeira’s denunciation of the progressives’ stubbornness. For example, Matt Yglesias, a longtime left-wing journalist and political commentator, posted a short “common sense” Democratic platform to restore the party’s following, overtly rejecting the entirety of the progressive plan. Like Teixeira, Yglesias slammed the progressives’ obsessions with climate, race, and anti-social behavior in particular.

Based on what we all saw the other night—the most improbable political comeback in American history and a realignment of the electorate—it is clear that both Teixeira and Yglesias are right. The progressive movement has enfeebled the Democratic Party and made it unappealing to a majority of voters. In order to stave off long-term minority-party status, Democrats must move on from contemporary progressivism and must realign themselves with the needs and wants of their traditional voters. The party must change.

There’s only one problem—and it reminds me of the old joke:

Q: How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?

A: Only one, but the light bulb really has to want to change.

Teixeira, Yglesias, James Carville, and a host of other Democrats are inarguably correct about the state of their party, the malign influences on it, and the necessity of change. The problem is that the party has to want to change first, which is not as easy as it sounds. Indeed, there are several very important reasons why the Democratic Party will not change—why it cannot change.

The most obvious and overpowering of these is the capture of the institutions.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

A Muslim Mass Street Terror Campaign in Amsterdam “We have become the Gaza of Europe” by Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on November 9th, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/a-muslim-mass-street-terror-campaign-in-amsterdam/

The media is calling it “protests”, “clashes” or at best “riots.” Jews have taken to calling it a “pogrom”. None of those terms are right. What we are seeing in Amsterdam is a systematic organized mass Muslim street terror campaign. It doesn’t rely on firearms or bombs, apart from the usual Car Jihad, but showed its ability to plan out and deploy hundreds of Muslim occupiers in the Netherlands to ambush and attack Jewish fans of an Israeli soccer team, and then to control the streets and terrorize any non-Muslims, forcing them to chant, “Free Palestine”.

The media is dismissing this as soccer riots. It’s not. The game was a friendly match between a Dutch team that has a large Jewish fanbase and an Israeli team. Nor are these “protests”. There isn’t even a pretense that this was anything other than a planned campaign of targeted assaults.

(I’m not going to post videos of it, for the same reason I didn’t post Oct 7 videos, but they’re easy enough to find.)

Geert Wilders has condemned it, called for accountability for the authorities and deportations for the perpetrators. And while this time the targets were Jewish, they eventually will be all non-Muslims in the Netherlands.

The same kinds of campaigns will eventually be fought as insurgencies with hundreds and thousands of armed Jihadis in the streets of Amsterdam once the Dutch save themselves.

This is not the end of the story. Like most acts of Muslim terror, it’s a trial run.

“We have become the Gaza of Europe,” Wilders tweeted. The ugly truth is that Gaza is where Islamic migration is.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Eitan Fischberger The Intifada Is Globalized An anti-Semitic rampage in Amsterdam sends a disturbing message to the West.

Posted By on November 9th, 2024

https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-amsterdam-riots-and-the-global-intifada

One of the most harrowing aspects of the Hamas-led massacre on October 7, 2023, which claimed the lives of 1,200 Israelis, was the glee with which the Palestinian terrorists livestreamed their atrocities for the world to see. Just 13 months later, Jews on social media were once again confronted with footage of an anti-Semitic rampage, one that shook Amsterdam on Thursday evening, following a soccer match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax.

After the game, social media was flooded with videos of hundreds of jeering and cheering attackers marauding through the city, throwing Israeli soccer fans into the river, beating them unconscious, and forcing them to chant “free Palestine” before assaulting them further. “Jewish, Jewish, IDF, IDF,” some shouted as they identified the Israelis. Though Dutch authorities have arrested 62 suspects, the shockwaves from this incident will not fade easily.

“We disappointed Dutch Jewry during the Holocaust, and tonight, we disappointed you again,” the King of the Netherlands told Israel’s president Isaac Herzog on Friday.

This was not the first riot against Jews since October 7. Just a year ago, the world witnessed an anti-Semitic outbreak in Russia’s North Caucasus region, where mobs stormed an airport in Dagestan in pursuit of Jewish passengers arriving from Israel.

What makes the Amsterdam incident particularly disturbing is that it did not occur in some distant, non-Western region but in the heart of “enlightened” Europe, in a city known for its progressive ideals and cultural sophistication. Even more troubling is that the attack appears to have been premeditated and telegraphed, yet nobody with the ability to stop it did so.

On Friday, Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs, Amichai Chikli, posted on X that his office had relayed multiple warnings to local Dutch authorities, who failed in their duty to protect civilians. On November 5, the Jerusalem Post reported that members of Mossad—Israel’s national intelligence agency—had accompanied the approximately 2,600 Israeli fans who traveled to the Netherlands to provide additional security. This involvement spurred some conspiratorial journalists to suggest that the incident was a false flag operation aimed at garnering support for Israel.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Bill Kristol Shows Signs of Advanced Kamalamentia

Posted By on November 9th, 2024

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/11/09/bill-kristol-shows-signs-of-advanced-kamalamentia/

Out of a sense of morbid curiosity, we decided to venture over to the Bulwark, the opinion site founded by alleged conservative Bill Kristol with the single mission of providing readers a daily dose of anti-Trump vitriol.

We wondered if perhaps the folks at Bulwark were celebrating because Donald Trump’s victory means that their reason for existing just got extended another four years. Had Trump lost, their pretense of being a conservative “bulwark” would have shattered.

They aren’t celebrating.

Instead, Trump’s overwhelming victory against overwhelming odds has them struggling to think straight.

Jonathan Last, after lamenting that Biden didn’t pack the Supreme Court and add four Democratic senators by declaring Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., states, then effectively accuses 51% of American voters of not being “committed to … the Constitution and the rule of law.”

Mona Charen reveals how hopelessly out of touch she is with everyday Americans by admitting that she “wrongly attributed (Biden’s unpopularity) mostly to his age,” instead of the economic disaster his policies unleashed on the working class. And then she shows that she has learned absolutely nothing by calling Kamala Harris’ loss “an elite failure of the first order.”

But the worst of the bunch is Kristol.

His response to this unprecedented turn of events is simply to say that Trump’s agenda must be stopped. “There should be no honeymoon for the Trumpists, no honeymoons for authoritarians,” he writes.

“This requires organized opposition,” he continues, “to thwart or delay or impede Trump’s plans.”

And what plans does Kristol want to stop?