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June 2024

Can Israel ‘Win by Winning’? A review of Daniel Pipes’ ‘Israel Victory’ by Daniel Greenfield

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20728/can-israel-win-by-winning

A week before the October 7 Hamas assault on Israel, Daniel Pipes, a longtime respected foreign policy expert, a former board member of the United States Institute of Peace and the president of the Middle East Forum, had turned in his manuscript for his new book.

What emerged in the final months of 2023 was Israel Victory: How Zionists Win Acceptance and Palestinians Get Liberated. The foundational thesis of Pipes’ work, that Israel had spent far too much conciliating the Islamic terrorist groups that dominate Gaza and the West Bank, offering them the promise of peace and prosperity, emerged from the rubble more relevant than ever.

“Israeli leaders seek to improve Palestinian economic welfare: I call this the policy of enrichment,” Pipes writes in Israel Victory, criticizing Israel for not adopting “the universal tactic of depriving an economy of resources, but on the opposite one of helping Palestinians to develop economically.”

The quintessential liberal fallacy also at the root of America’s failures in the War on Terror held that wars were fought against regimes, not people. Even when Israel achieved its victories on the battlefield, it still believed that peace would come through mutual prosperity and befriending foes. This vision is alien to the region and rather than bringing peace has only perpetuated generations of war.

In the months before Oct 7, Arab Muslim workers from Gaza were allowed in increasing numbers to work in Israel. And in the months since Oct 7, Israel, under political pressure, has flooded Gaza with aid. The pre-10/7 appeasement failed to prevent the massacres, rapes and kidnappings and the post-10/7 benevolence only convinced Muslims in Gaza they would win.

Israel Victory contends that Israel can’t win through conciliation, it can only win by winning and that furthermore, victory is ultimately the best possible outcome for both sides. Israel’s reticence to achieve a conclusive and decisive victory, and then to act like winners infused generations of Arab Muslims living in the West Bank and Gaza with the conviction that they can destroy Israel if they transform their societies into killing machines and turn over political power to terrorists.

It is as if instead of defeating Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan, the Allies had left a core regime and population intact and free to plot war for another 50 years. That is what happened in Israel.

Swifties need to grow up The manic fandom over Taylor Swift speaks to the infantilism of our age. Lauren Smith

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/06/24/swifties-need-to-grow

EXCERPTS

Taylor Swift was in London last week, and it felt like a collective mania had briefly taken hold of the capital.

As Swift’s seemingly never-ending Eras tour was in town, you could hardly move for millennial women wearing cowboy hats and glitter. But it wasn’t just hardcore Swifties who were in the grip of Taylor-mania. Transport for London released a special Swift-themed Tube map to mark her presence, with lines renamed after her albums, stations renamed after her songs and the map’s colours jazzed up with sequins. On Friday, the Changing of the Guard outside Buckingham Palace was performed to the tune of Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’. Walls across the city were decked in Taylor Swift murals.

When you think of a ‘Swiftie’, you’re probably imagining a teenage girl – or a thirtysomething professional who thinks she’s a teenage girl. But some of the guests at the London concerts over the weekend were a long way out from even those demographics.

Prince William, the heir apparent to the British throne, posed for a selfie with Swift before attending the concert for his 42nd birthday. Although he did have his two older children, Charlotte and George, in tow, his vigorous, frenetic dancing to ‘Shake it Off’ made it all too clear that he was the biggest Swift superfan of the bunch.

Even Keir Starmer was out among the Swifties. The Labour leader posted a snap of him and his wife, Victoria, at the concert on X, noting that he was making a ‘“Swift” campaign pitstop’, to groans all round.

What is going on here? Why are fully grown, adult politicians fawning over a star who makes pop music for teenagers? Or at least, in any sane era, should be making pop music mainly for teenagers. It surely can’t be down to her underwhelming lyrics. After all, this is the musical genius whose latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, contains such lyrical masterpieces as: ‘We would pick a decade / We wished we could live in instead of this / I’d say the 1830s but without all the racists’; ‘You smoked, then ate seven bars of chocolate’; and ‘Touch me while your bros play Grand Theft Auto’.

Jamaal Bowman’s Profane, Antisemitic Pep Rally By Luther Ray Abel

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/jamaal-bowmans-profane-antisemitic-pep-rally/

Former middle-school principal and current congressman Jamaal Bowman (D., N.Y.), best known for his fire-alarm-pulling antics, strident anti-Israel rhetoric, and membership in the infamous “Squad,” had quite the day on Saturday, when he attended a get-out-the-vote rally in the South Bronx. While complaining about AIPAC’s efforts to unseat him, Jamaal Bowman stomped up and down a stage shouting profanities while trying to get the crowd worked up in favor of its allegedly persecuted representative. President Camacho could be seen taking notes on crowd work for his next State of the Union address.

“We’re all going to show f***ing AIPAC the power of the motherf***ing South Bronx. People ask me why I’ve got a foul mouth: What am I supposed to do? You comin’ after me. You comin’ after my family. You comin’ after my children. I’m not supposed to fight back? We’re going to show them who the f*** we are.”

Pro-Palestinian protesters are proving why Israel is needed Opinion by Mijal Bitton

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/23/opinions/israel-gaza-protests-jews-bitton/index.html

Here’s a secret that many of the protesters in university encampments and on city streets don’t seem to be in on: The more they demonize Israel, the more they reawaken Jewish identity and strengthen Zionism.

As a community leader and Jewish educator in the United States, I have been living in the shadow of the horrors of October 7. We have seen the worst carnage against Jews since the Holocaust, video-broadcast by brutal terrorists. We have witnessed the avalanche of rising antisemitism around the world, including allegations last Saturday that a 12-year-old Jewish girl in France was gang-raped while being subjected to religious slurs. We have found out that too many of our allies right here at home refuse to speak up when Israelis are murdered or when American Jews who care about Israel are excluded from polite society.

While the intensity of the campus protests are simmering down with the end of the school year, the virulence of demonstrators outside college quadrangles are only intensifying the fear Americans Jews are feeling. Last week, protesters in Lower Manhattan targeted an exhibit dedicated to the memory of the hundreds of young Israelis murdered or kidnapped from the Nova music festival. They unfurled a banner proclaiming “Long Live October 7” and held signs declaring that Zionists “are not Jews and not human.” Days earlier, crowds chanted “kill another Zionist now” across from the White House in Washington.

But paradoxically, every day since October 7, I have also seen how this rise in antisemitism and anti-Zionist rhetoric is inspiring Jewish pride and solidarity with Israel among so many young Jews. I have seen this as a visiting researcher studying American Jewry at New York University. And I have seen this as the spiritual leader of Manhattan’s Downtown Minyan, a congregation filled with the diverse, ambitious and socially liberal young professionals who thrive in New York.

Bragg’s Double Standards Persecutes Trump – but drops all charges against . . . guess who? by Joseph Klein

https://www.frontpagemag.com/braggs-double-standards/

Left-wing progressive Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg decided to drop all charges against thirty-one of the forty-six pro-Hamas agitators who were arrested after breaking into and seizing Hamilton Hall at Columbia University’s campus on April 30th. Fourteen of the remaining agitators still facing charges were offered “Adjournments in Contemplation of Dismissal,” which would have resulted in dismissal of their cases if they did not engage in additional criminal conduct during the next six months. They refused the offer. The fifteenth defendant is James Carlson, a forty-year-old privileged scion of a wealthy family who is considered a “possible leader” of the Columbia University rioters who broke into Hamilton Hall and barricaded themselves inside. He has been charged with criminal trespassing, on top of additional charges for other crimes he allegedly committed.

The thirty-one rioters who invaded Hamilton Hall and got off scot-free were initially charged with trespassing in the third degree, which is a misdemeanor. They would have received no jail time in any event with let-the criminals-go District Attorney Bragg still in office. But even a slap on the wrist for the rioters was too much for Bragg to consider.

One of DA Bragg’s prosecutors cited a lack of evidence as justification for the decision to drop the charges against the thirty-one pro-Hamas rioters. He claimed there was no proof sufficient to tie each specific hooligan who was arrested to illegally taking part in the invasion of Hamilton Hall and in the destruction of property or injury of anyone during the course of the building’s seizure and occupation. The prosecutor blamed the problem in part on the absence of security-camera video, thus rewarding the rioters who had disabled or covered the cameras in the first place while wearing masks to hide their identities.

Judge Kevin McGrath went along with the charade by announcing in court that “All these matters are dismissed and sealed in the interest of justice.”

Judge McGrath has it backwards. Dismissing even the mildest of charges against the pro-Hamas thugs is a gross miscarriage of justice. But what else can we expect from DA Bragg’s office, backed up by cooperative criminal judges?

West Wing worry about Bibi’s upcoming speech Ruthie Blum

https://www.jns.org/west-wing-worry-about-bibis-upcoming-speech/

An article published in Politico on Saturday claims that the administration in Washington is worried about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address next month to a joint session of the U.S. Congress.

The reason for the anxiety—say the outlet’s White House bureau chief, Jonathan Lemire, and national-security reporter Alexander Ward, citing “senior officials” whom they “granted anonymity to speak candidly about internal deliberations”—is that “no one knows what he is going to say.”

According to the authors and their nameless contacts, the White House fears that Bibi might take the opportunity of the podium on Capitol Hill to (gasp!) criticize President Joe Biden for not sufficiently supporting Israel’s war effort.

Terrifying indeed.

That ship sailed, of course, as the piece makes sure to stress by referring to Netanyahu’s by-now infamous video urging Biden not to uphold arms shipments—you know, the ammo needed for an Israel Defense Forces victory over Hamas. Naturally, no mention of the Israeli premier’s invoking Winston Churchill’s 1941 request of Franklin Roosevelt to give Britain the tools to “finish the job” against Nazi Germany.

Calling the clip “unhelpful,” the op-ed disguised as a news story quotes one of the unspecified inner-circle denizens as saying that Bibi could make things “far worse up there in front of Congress.”

The clarification for those curious about what this actually means is void of information, but rife with partisan speculation.

“Frictions have deepened between Biden and Netanyahu since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, with Biden aides increasingly believing that the Israeli leader is prolonging the conflict to stay in power,” it asserts. “And that he would prefer Donald Trump return to the White House.”

Beauty contest winners and the death of standards Merit and individual achievement are under attack Don Feder

https://www.washingtontimes.com/staff/don-feder/

Plus-sized beauty queens are another aspect of the war on standards.

Sara Milliken, who has been described as “morbidly obese,” was crowned Miss Alabama 2024 in the National American Miss pageant. The virtue-signaling crowd was ecstatic. “Finally, we have a pageant winner who doesn’t look like Barbie,” they cheered, as if this marked a milestone of tolerance and understanding. Ms. Milliken may have many fine qualities. Getting up from the table isn’t one of them.

Our culture is now dedicated to eradicating standards. 

On June 1, Bailey Anne Kennedy became the first transgender “woman” to win the Miss Maryland USA contest. Why should a contest for women be limited to real women? 

Should academic competitions be open to those with low IQs? What’s wrong with a cooking show including contestants whose idea of fine cuisine is a can of Chef Boyardee ravioli?

The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote of “the hatred directed against the privileged in body and spirit: the revolt of the ugly and bungled souls against the beautiful, the proud and the cheerful. The weapons used: contempt of beauty, of pride, of happiness.”

Where Are the Celebrities After Public Assault on Jews in Los Angeles?by Ronn Torossian

https://www.algemeiner.com/2024/06/24/where-are-the-celebrities-after-public-assault-on-jews-in-los-angeles/

On Sunday, we saw pro-Hamas protestors physically attack Jews in front of a Los Angeles synagogue, as they called for genocide and violence.

We have long heard that Jews control Hollywood, but many Jewish celebrities have been completely silent about the growing attacks against Jews, not to mention the situation in Israel.

I wish Jewish celebrities had half the courage to speak out for Jews and Israel as random influencers do, with posts about “All Eyes on Rafah” and other supposed injustices.

Furthermore, when Jews do speak out, they often do so in a half-hearted way, in order to protect their fan base.Ben Stiller recently came out in public saying that all wars should end, and that he wants peace. Stiller continued, “Antisemitism must be condemned whenever it happens and wherever it exists. As should Islamophobia and bigotry of all kinds.”

It seems like Stiller is apologizing for even speaking out. He can’t just oppose hatred against Jews and Israelis, without implying that attacks on Muslims are happening at a similar level (they are not; almost every domestic act of violence about Israel has been Muslims and other people attacking Jews).

Douglas Murray :All eyes should be on Al Jazeera for being founded, funded — and directed — by terrorists All eyes should be on Al Jazeera for being founded, funded — and directed — by terrorists

https://nypost.com/2024/06/20/opinion/all-eyes-should-be-on-al-jazeera-for-being-founded-funded-and-directed-by-terrorists/

Considering how much attention the American media get, it’s amazing that one piece of actual, unbelievable subversion keeps going on.That is the Al Jazeera network — founded, funded and directed by the terrorist-supporting state of Qatar.

Last month, The Washington Post reported darkly that the Israeli government had shut down the Al Jazeera network’s operations in Israel because of its coverage from Gaza. WaPo portrayed this as a “dark day” for press freedom.

In fact, there were a lot of good reasons for the Israelis to stop the network from operating inside Israel.

Just one being that a number of Al Jazeera journalists reporting on Israel’s war against terrorists in Gaza were — er — terrorists.

Take Muhammad Washah, whom Al Jazeera presented as a stellar part of the press corps merely reporting the truth.Unfortunately for them, their man is also a senior commander in Hamas.

He used to be in Hamas’ anti-tank missile unit, but since 2022 he has been in charge of research and development for aerial weapons.Known to you and me as “rockets.”

What I Saw at a Terrorist Rally Outside a Synagogue “Billions of us will come and kill you.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/what-i-saw-at-a-terrorist-rally-outside-a-synagogue/

Thirty minutes after Hamas supporters first set up their operation outside a Los Angeles synagogue, they maced their first Jew. And the Los Angeles police did nothing.

Not until an hour into the terrorist rally outside a synagogue, did the LAPD finally step in, pushing back masked Jihad supporters in keffiyeh terror scarves from the entrance of Congregation Adas Torah (Congregation of the Bible) which they had occupied.

And then the mob, chanting calls for “intifada” and the destruction of Israel, moved outward to target two smaller synagogues attended by Persian Jewish refugees from Islamic terror in Iran.

“Billions of us will come and kill you,” a heavily accented Middle Eastern man in a keffiyeh unprompted rasped at me as I walked up. Only dozens had actually shown up, but they made up for it with bullhorns, robotic chants, and assaults in the middle of a Jewish neighborhood.

The Jewish counterprotesters had come waving American and Israeli flags while the other side was a sea of terrorist flags. A man wore an Antifa cap, another had come in ski goggles during 90-degree heat, while others toted bear spray, metal bottles, and other implements of violence.

The Jewish community members included older men and women, as well as families, while the Hamas contingent was mostly young and many were masked. A pair of rabbis led a melodic song that could hardly be heard over the harsh clatter of the hateful terror chants.

Despite knowing that a terrorist rally was planned outside a synagogue, the LAPD had allowed the terrorist supporters to take over the entire sidewalk leaving only a thin lane for attendees to walk through to get inside. The LAPD did little to interfere with the terrorist supporters, but did block Jewish counterprotesters from reaching their own synagogue. The police also did nothing as clumps of masked Hamas supporters broke away from the synagogue and began confronting, threatening, and attacking Jewish community members on the street.