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Ruth King

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Two Dozen Israeli Soldiers Killed in Single Deadliest Day of Fighting in Gaza

By on January 23rd, 2024

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/two-dozen-israeli-soldiers-killed-in-single-deadliest-day-of-fighting-in-gaza/

Twenty-one Israeli soldiers were killed after two buildings rigged to be destroyed by the IDF were struck by a Palestinian rocket with the men inside, bringing the day’s IDF death toll to 24 after three paratroopers were slain hours earlier as fighting intensified in the southern Gazan town of Khan Younis.

Israeli Army Radio reported that the twenty-one soldiers, all of whom were reservists, were operating across the border from the Israeli community of Kissufim in the middle of Gaza, attempting to secure a border zone between the Strip’s northern and southern half.

IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said during a press conference that the incident occurred “around 4 p.m., [when] an RPG was fired by gunmen at a tank securing the forces, and simultaneously, an explosion occurred in two two-story buildings. The buildings collapsed due to this explosion, while most of the forces were inside and near them.”

“The mission [was] to create the security conditions for the return of the residents of the South,” Hagari added.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country had “experienced one of the most difficult days since the start of the war,” and vowed to investigate the matter. “We need to learn the necessary lessons and do everything to preserve our soldiers’ lives,” Netanyahu noted in a statement released Tuesday. “We will not stop fighting until complete victory.”

Similar statements were echoed by Israel’s upper military and political echelons. “This is a war that will determine the future of Israel for decades to come,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant tweeted. “The fall of our fighters is a requirement.”

President Isaac Herzog praised the “heroism” of the fallen soldiers affirming, “there is no war that is more just.”

The incident was the deadliest since Israel began its invasion of the Gaza Strip in October. Since October 7, more than 500 Israeli soldiers have been killed in combat.

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FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

American Hegemony Is Not a ‘Distraction’ Noah Rothman

By on January 23rd, 2024

https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/01/american-hegemony-is-not-a-distraction/

If the United States sacrifices its obligations, our threatened partners will seek accommodations with their aggressive neighbors at America’s expense.

Elbridge Colby is the rare Trump administration official who has established a bigger profile for himself outside the administration than in it. Rarer still, he’s achieved this feat while making largely productive contributions to the national discourse. Trump’s former deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development has devoted himself to advocating a vigorous effort to deter China from executing a potentially disastrous attack on Taiwan. But in his singular — at times, prohibitive — focus on the threat posed by China, Colby downgrades the significance of seemingly every other American strategic priority. He appears increasingly committed to a myopia that renders his advocacy unserious and undermines the cause he claims to support.

Like many on the right who are eager to slough off the old Reaganite consensus, Colby sees the conflict in Ukraine as a “distraction.” Even before Moscow launched its second invasion of Ukraine, he and his co-author, Stanford University’s Oriana Skylar Mastro, argued that the United States had succumbed to “delusion” if it thought it could compete against China and Russia simultaneously. Support for America’s partner on the European frontier would necessarily come at the expense of its effort to hem in Beijing. “To be blunt,” they wrote, “Taiwan is more important than Ukraine.”

That’s a debatable proposition. The other side of the argument maintains that Europe, of all places, is no “distraction.” The continent is home to America’s most powerful allies and its foremost trading partners. Its wars have a demonstrated tendency to conflagrate, dragging the United States into them whether Washington is predisposed toward intervention or not. Containing those wars is vital for the preservation of U.S. alliance structure. After all, we’re not talking about Europe’s “neighborhood” — say, for example, Libya, where America’s interests are dwarfed by Europe’s. This is the NATO frontier, a border along which a variety of critical and increasingly nervous U.S. partners reside. Deterring Moscow from testing the integrity of the alliance directly or sowing so much doubt about America’s commitment to the defense of the former Warsaw Pact states that they freelance their way into an infinitely more dangerous situation than the one we are currently confronting is no “distraction.” It’s a core, long-standing, empirically observable feature of American grand strategy.

But let’s concede for the sake of argument that beating back Russian expansionist aggression is a “distraction.” That would be easier to accept at face value if Colby weren’t similarly eager to declare almost every other hot conflict on the planet a “distraction” from his preferred priority.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

Wanted: Palestinian Leaders Who Will Condemn Terrorism by Bassam Tawil

By on January 23rd, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20325/palestinian-leaders-terrorism

If the Biden administration thinks that the Palestinian Authority leaders will cease inciting Palestinians against Israel, they need to think again.

How can Palestinian leaders, who are terrified of Hamas and even more terrified of their own people, be expected to prevent the terrorists from attacking Israel in the event that these leaders were handed a state?

In addition, why would Israel – or anyone else – trust any Palestinian leader who considers Islamist murderers, rapists and baby-killers as “part of the Palestinian national, social and political fabric”?

More than three months have passed since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, during which hundreds of Israelis were murdered, beheaded, raped, mutilated, and kidnapped — and it is still hard to find any senior Palestinian Authority official who is prepared to condemn the atrocities.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who has held a number of meetings over the past few weeks with senior US administration officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, has refrained from publicly denouncing the Iran-backed Hamas terror group for its barbaric attacks on Israelis.

Abbas, it appears, fears a backlash from his people and other Arabs if he speaks out against the murder of Israeli women, children, and the elderly. One word against Hamas and its terrorism, and Abbas’ people might well label him a “traitor” and “collaborator” with Israel.

Abbas’s fear is not unjustified. Almost three out of four Palestinians believe that the October 7 massacre was “correct,” according to a public opinion poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Research Survey (PSR). The poll also found that support for Hamas had risen in the Gaza Strip, and more than tripled in the West Bank, after the carnage.

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IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Human Smuggling Operations by Cartels Turning Border Communities into War Zones By Eric Lendrum

By on January 23rd, 2024

https://amgreatness.com/2024/01/22/human-smuggling-operations-by-cartels-turning-border-communities-into-war-zones/

As the mass migration crisis continues to rage out of control, the increased human smuggling efforts by Mexican drug cartels is having disastrous consequences for border communities on both sides of the wall.

As Fox News reports, cartels are fighting over the money being left behind by illegal aliens in addition to the fees being paid to guide them across the border. The skirmishes have impacted towns in Mexico from Sonoyta to Ciudad Juarez, and their American counterparts lie Lukeville, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas. The cartels are clashing not only with each other, but with Mexican authorities as well.

One recent example was a gunfight in Sonoyta, Sonora, where members of the Sinaloa Cartel fought with members of the Mexican army, leading to an SUV being torched in the streets. By the end of the fight, which lasted for several hours, only five cartel members were arrested.

“This last one (shooting) was probably the most publicized because the videos made it to mainstream news, but it is not the first one,” said eyewitness Joel Perez. “This is all because of the amount of migrants arriving to this town.”

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

And Then There Were Two Roger Franklin

By on January 23rd, 2024

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/america/2024/01/and-then-there-were-two/

The news that Ron DeSantis had thrown in the towel — “suspended my campaign” in the  losers’ parlance of this and every year’s presidential races — broke early in the afternoon, too late, and no doubt by design, for the talking heads of the networks’ Sunday morning pundits to seize the moment and gloat about their prescience in expecting it all along. True, after Iowa and running a poor third in the state polls before New Hampshire’s primary on Tuesday (Wednesday in Australia), bailing out right now made sense for a faltering, cash-strapped candidate. But grim reality is not what aspirants to the Oval Office generally recognise, so often clinging in hope and self-deceit to their ambitions long after the ebb tide of support has left them on the beach. Think here of George Bush the Elder harrying Ronald Reagan in 1980 or, 28 years later on the other side of the aisle, Hillary Clinton refusing to concede until very late in the game that Obama had her whipped. In 2016, she had her own zombie challenger in Bernie Sanders, who terrier-like refused to let go despite knowing for a lead-pipe cinch that the Clinton machine had rigged the Democrats’ selection process to leave him with no chance whatsoever. Politicians in America are much easier to kill than their ambitions.

And that’s what makes the promptness of DeSantis’ decision both remarkable and his candidacy worth mourning. A year ago, there was an air of inevitability about him. Here was the governor of a booming state who represented so much of what Trump voters liked, indeed loved and still do. DeSantis had taken on the teachers unions and beaten them, picked a winning fight with Disney, Florida’s largest employer, and who extolled family values while pinning back the Mouse Factory’s big woke ears. He had served in the Navy – electorally a big plus, especially in the South and Flyover States — which Trump could not match, having waltzed away from military service in the Vietnam years on heels purportedly afflicted with incapacitating bone spurs. DeSantis had the record, the achievements and none of Trump’s personal and legal baggage.

The big-bucks donors — take that to mean corporate money — discerned a winner, set aside their reservations about a governor who gave Disney a good kicking and opened their wallets. That pundits and bookies alike rated him the early frontrunner was only to be expected.

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HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

What We Don’t Know About the Danger of DEI in the Airline Industry is Scarier than What We Know By William Sullivan

By on January 23rd, 2024

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/01/what_we_dont_know_about_the_danger_of_dei_in_the_airline_industry_is_scarier_than_what_we_know.html

United Airlines became the subject of derision and mockery recently as a viral video emerged of United’s CEO Scott Kirby proclaiming his company’s potentially disastrous and deadly mission to have half of their future hires be “women or people of color” as part of its corporate quest for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), an ideological cancer that has been eating away at America’s academic, economic, and societal strength for years.

The reasons for the acute public outrage aren’t mysterious.  Millions of Americans fly commercially, and the idea of plummeting 30,000 feet over several minutes in anticipation of you and your family’s death is a frightening enough prospect for most people that the very idea of prioritizing race or gender in selecting pilots and mechanics seems nothing short of insane. 

And in the past weeks, we’ve learned that the door plug of an Alaska Airlines fuselage blew off of the aircraft at 16,000 feet, depressurizing the cabin and creating a scenario so harrowing and nightmarish that one passenger felt compelled to send a presumedly final text: “Mom our plane depressed. We’re in masks. I love you.”

The Boeing 737 Max was the plane involved, which some may remember was grounded after two deadly crashes overseas in 2018 and 2019, which claimed 346 lives in total and were both deemed the result of faulty equipment on the airplane. 

As many Americans are only now discovering as a sidenote to other outrageous DEI news, such as the FAA being decidedly hellbent on taking DEI to its most ludicrous extent by “actively recruiting” people who suffer from “severe intellectual abilities,” Boeing has also long been suicidally devoted to woke DEI initiatives.  They now claim, for example, that they want their employees to “look like America,” but are looking to have 92.5% of interview slates be “diverse,” i.e., non-white males.  This, of course, means that they are quite illegally prioritizing non-white male applicants for employment, and I am very much looking forward to the forthcoming lawsuits on these grounds. (See: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.)

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IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

SENATOR JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA) ON IMMIGRATION -SILVIO CANTO JR. *****

By on January 23rd, 2024

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/01/johnny_angel_youre_an_angel_to_me.html

EXCERPT

Who knew that common sense about border madness would resurface in the Democrat party with the words of Senator John Fetterman?  Well, it has and many conservatives are happy to see it.  Let’s check out the senator’s words, via Daily Mail:

As for immigration, Fetterman argued he can be both pro-immigration, while also favor policies to restrict the flow of immigrants across the southern border to a manageable level.

‘It’s a reasonable conversation – until somebody can say there’s an explanation on what we can do when 270,000 people are being encountered on the border, not including the ones, of course, that we don’t know about,’ he said.

‘To put that in reference, that is essentially the size of Pittsburgh, the second-largest city in Pennsylvania,’ the Democrat added.

In a December interview with Politico, the lawmaker said: ‘I hope Democrats can understand that it isn’t xenophobic to be concerned about the border. It’s a reasonable conversation, and Democrats should engage.’

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Women’s Rights in Iran An appalling testament to the regime’s deeply entrenched misogyny – and disregard for human dignity. by Struan Stevenson

By on January 23rd, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/womens-rights-in-iran/

The Iranian regime’s approach towards women’s rights is an appalling testament to their deeply entrenched misogyny and disregard for human dignity. Through systematic repression and abuse, the regime has created a society where women are subject to discrimination, restriction, and the denial of basic human rights. For far too long, the international community has opted for appeasement when dealing with the Iranian regime, pursuing a futile policy of ‘constructive engagement’. This approach of compromise and negotiation has only emboldened the mullahs, allowing them to pursue their destructive and repressive agenda unchallenged. It is time to break free from the shackles of appeasement and acknowledge the necessity of regime change as the only viable solution for lasting peace in the region.

The Iranian regime’s systemic oppression of women has long been a cornerstone of their rule. From forcing women to adhere to strict dress codes to limiting their access to employment, and political participation, the regime acts as an enforcer of patriarchal oppression. Such practices not only violate the principles of equality and freedom, but also undermine progress and opportunity for women in Iran. Perhaps one of the regime’s most odious acts is the constant denial of women’s basic human rights. Women in Iran are subjected to domestic violence, sexual discrimination, and arbitrary arrests without due process. Add to this the grossly unfair legal system, where women face unequal treatment, harsh punishments, and a lack of legal recourse, and it becomes painfully evident that change is long overdue.

In January, a young woman, Roya Heshmati, 33, was sentenced to the vicious punishment of 74 lashes, on the fictitious charge of improper veiling. She was accused of encouraging permissiveness by refusing to cover her hair. Showing incredible courage, Ms. Heshmati continued to defy the strict dress code even as she was taken to be whipped in Tehran, refusing to wear the veil. This cruel and degrading punishment was simply the latest manifestation of the repressive treatment of women by the theocratic regime. The brutal murder in custody of the young Kurdish girl, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, by the so-called ‘morality police’ in September 2022, again for the alleged offence of not properly covering her hair, ignited a nationwide uprising that raged for almost nine months. 

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Activists Once Again ‘Shut It Down for Palestine’ Haley Strack

By on January 22nd, 2024

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/activists-once-again-shut-it-down-for-palestine/

January 21–28 is another “Shut it down for Palestine” week. Hamas-loving social activists are supposed to strike for Palestinians by doing a few simple things:

Reschedule your appointments
No eating out
Don’t do any banking
Don’t use social media for anything except Palestine
No shopping! Get essentials like groceries, gas, & medicine ASAP
Stay home as much as possible
If able, call out from school/work! Sick days, time off, delay shifts.
Email your Reps — tell them you’re striking for Palestine and how

A young woman with pink hair and five-inch-long nails who has apparently positioned herself on social media as a champion for the Palestinian cause posted a video yesterday, in response to concerns that such a strike — not working or sending kids to school for a week, not paying bills, not buying food or gas — is unrealistic, and would favor privileged pro-Palestinian individuals.

“Just to be clear, the general strike is a call to action from Bisan, a young Palestinian woman whose entire life now revolves around survival and documenting the atrocities that are happening in Gaza. In English,” the pink-haired girl said. “She lost her home, lost loved ones, and on her last Live, as you could hear bombs going off in the background, she accepted that this may be her final night on earth. She called on us for a general strike.”

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Imaginary ‘Two-State Solution’ Noah Rothman

By on January 22nd, 2024

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-imaginary-two-state-solution/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=right-rail&utm_content=corner&utm_term=second

A fine line distinguishes admirable consistency from blinkered thick-headedness. The Biden administration’s indefatigable commitment to advocating in support of a “two-state solution” in the Middle East long ago ceased to be the former and now verges on the latter.

Within weeks of the October 7 massacre, Secretary of State Antony Blinken recommitted to lobbying for the establishment of an internationally recognized Palestinian state as the only true pathway to “durable peace and stability.” Even as reality in the region shifts beneath his feet, Blinken hasn’t changed his tune. “If you take a regional approach, and if you pursue integration with security, with a Palestinian state, all of a sudden, you have a region that’s come together in ways that answer the most profound questions that Israel has tried to answer for years,” Blinken told a World Economic Forum audience at their embarrassing annual spectacle in Davos.

At a certain point, a rational observer must withdraw charitable assumptions about the fallacies that have motivated Blinken to cling to this unimaginative approach to statecraft. His advocacy likely contributed to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s unequivocal rejection of a two-state process — a rejection that was framed in the international press as a recklessly provocative act of defiance. But Netanyahu didn’t incept this international row into existence — he responded to it. The Israeli prime minister articulated the consensus view in Israel on the viability of a two-state process amid an ongoing existential war against a terrorist outfit in Gaza. Even if Netanyahu’s remarks were intended for a domestic audience, the Biden administration’s lobbying provided the platform for this politicking.

But as to the international media’s account of this controversy, you could be forgiven for thinking that Washington and Jerusalem were the only parties to it. The competing and, oftentimes, conflicting Palestinian factions seem just as eager to reject Blinken’s terms.

It shouldn’t need to be said given its empirically observable bloodlust, but Hamas has no interest in a two-state solution if Israel is one of those two states.

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