RUTHFULLY YOURS

Israeli civilians suffered yet another horrific attack on January 21st by a jihadist, whom Hamas described as “heroic.” This latest act of terror occurred on a bus in central Tel Aviv, where nine people were stabbed. Four of them were seriously wounded. The assailant is in Israeli police custody after trying to flee the scene. Palestinians on social media celebrated the attack with hashtag #JeSuisCouteau “I am a knife,” in a cruel twisting of the worldwide expression of support for the victims of the massacre at the Charlie Hebdo magazine headquarters earlier this month – “Je suis Charlie.”

In recent months, jihadists affiliated with or supported by Hamas have killed about a dozen people, including an infant, by running them over with their cars, shooting them or stabbing them to death. These attacks included an invasion by two Palestinian thugs about two months ago at a synagogue in West Jerusalem during morning prayers. The Palestinians were armed with cleavers, knives and a gun, which they used to murder four Jewish worshippers in cold blood.

For the businessman, the politician, or the police chief, these may be the six most feared words in the English language: “Al Sharpton is on line one.”

The call is not unexpected, but it is nonetheless jarring when it comes. Something has happened, something with racial implications, something that has made it into the news or onto Twitter or Facebook or Instagram or what have you, there to travel at nearly the speed of light until it tickles the finely tuned antennae of the racial grievance industry and triggers an app on Mr. Sharpton’s cell phone, on which is now displayed the phone number, the direct, no-choose-a-menu-option line to the Head Guy himself, the affected businessman, politician, or police chief. And displayed along with the number, the simple question: “Call?”

He calls.

Here we go again.

Last month’s “CRomnibus” debacle underscored a divide between the conservative base that gave Republicans a resounding victory in the midterm elections and GOP leadership on Capitol Hill: The base wants Obama’s lawlessness stopped; leadership wants to show that Republicans can “govern” by working cooperatively with Obama – in effect, codifying his lawlessness.

Prepare for the next betrayal: Republicans are about to surrender on Obama’s amnesty for illegal immigrants. The surrender, which will be portrayed as a reluctant but noble compromise for the sake of “homeland security,” was baked in the CRomnibus cake.

Within what seemed like the bat of an eye, Republicans crushed their supporters’ spirits by following up their November triumph with a monstrous 1,774-page budget bill that forfeited Congress’s major weapon against executive lawlessness, the power of the purse. The CRomnibus underwrote the government through 2015, expending a staggering $1.1 trillion on such Obama priorities as the full funding of Obamacare – notwithstanding Republican campaign vows to work tirelessly to kill Obamacare.

WASHINGTON — Will a reliably liberal Democrat lead the charge to President Obama’s first veto override?

The Senate Banking Committee will take up the Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act of 2015 next week, with a hearing on the bill on Tuesday followed by a markup on Thursday.

Obama vowed in his State of the Union address [1] this week to veto any Iran sanctions legislation. “There’re no guarantees that negotiations will succeed, and I keep all options on the table to prevent a nuclear Iran,” he said. “But new sanctions passed by this Congress at this moment in time will all but guarantee that diplomacy fails, alienating America from its allies, making it harder to maintain sanctions and ensuring that Iran starts up its nuclear program again. It doesn’t make sense. That is why I will veto any new sanctions bill that threatens to undo this progress.”

Why do Europeans feel such revulsion toward Jews? At a certain level, to be sure, European leaders deeply regret the new persecution of Europe’s Jews. Many share the sentiment of European Commission Vice-Chairman Frans Timmermans, who warned yesterday that an exodus of Europe’s Jews would call into question the premises of European society. Last September, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel told a rally in Berlin that it was the duty of every German to fight anti-Semitism. Nonetheless even the best-intentioned Europeans feel their skin crawl in the presence of the sort of Jews who represent the future of the Jewish people: those who follow Jewish tradition, raise Jewish families, and embrace the cause of Zionism. Europeans adore secular Israelis who wallow in existential doubts, for example, the novelist Zeruya Shalev, a bestseller in Germany and the winner of any number of European literary awards. I’ve never read Shalev, but then again, I don’t like fiction. Jews like Naftali Bennett, Israel’s economy minister and leader of the Jewish Home party, give them the creeps.

Barack Obama was 15 minutes into his State of the Union speech when I arrived home to watch it, having just walked back from seeing “American Sniper.”

Watching a movie about a Navy SEAL who served four tours fighting in Iraq was not the best way to enhance the experience of a Barack Obama speech. As a matter of fact, it was pretty unbearable.

Because Clint Eastwood directed “American Sniper” the movie is about more than the story of Chris Kyle, the highly skilled rifle marksman from Texas. In 2006, Mr. Eastwood presented two movies about the famous World War II battle of Iwo Jima. “Letters from Iwo Jima” told the story from the perspective of Japanese soldiers, and “Flags of Our Fathers” from the Americans’ side.

The new base in Syria gives Hezbollah the option of attacking Israel and drawing Israel’s return fire away from Lebanon, where its most precious assets are hidden: well over 100,000 rockets and missiles that might be saved for a future battle over Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Hezbollah, exploiting its presence in Syria, has been attempting to open a new front against Israel.

Over the past 18 months, Hezbollah and its enablers from the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC] have begun launching a series of attacks on Israel from their new center of operations in southern Syria.

As Amir Taheri said: If you want to integrate newcomers, you have to get rid of people who make a living out of integrating them.

Whether or not the majority if Muslims are peace-loving, tolerant and democratic is of no consequence so long as the violent, radical and undemocratic minority call the shots.

It is no help to peace-loving Muslims or to the rest of us that our Western leaders keep portraying Islam as if it is something that might have been concocted by the Salvation Army. One might even say that that the “narrative” of many politicians is the true perversion of a message that is as clear as it could be.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia tried to fool the world by joining France’s “Unity March” for free speech just two days after a young Saudi blogger, Raif Badawi, received the first installment of 50 lashes — out of the 1000 he is to get — “very severely,” the lashing order says. Badawi still has 950 lashes to complete.

Mahmoud Abbas, whose genocidal, jihadi partner, Hamas, was just declared not a terrorist group by the European Union, joined the forefront of the “Unity March” at the same time as a Palestinian human rights groups published a report accusing the Palestinian Authority of “waging war” against university students in the West Bank.

What “Islamophobia” motivated the killing of Jewish customers in a kosher supermarket? What had those victims done to deserve that?

More than a few analysts and political writers have noted that U.S. President Barack Obama ‎seems to enjoy driving his political opponents up a wall. On the domestic front, the strategy has been to get ‎under the skin of Republicans, so the political battles are waged on Obama’s ‎chosen playing field, and his opponents come off as angry if not crazy when they ‎fight back. ‎

At times, the president has sounded like a Chicago gang ‎leader, including this memorable comment at a Philadelphia fundraiser during his initial ‎run for the White House in 2008: “If [the Republicans] bring a knife to the fight, we bring a ‎gun. Because from what I understand, folks in Philly like a good brawl. I’ve seen Eagles fans.”‎

This kind of “elevated” discussion of campaign strategy (often with ‎sports associations) fits with a broader strategy Obama has put ‎into place as president of appearing to consciously shrink the ‎dignity of the office he serves by regularly appealing to the ‎audiences of the lowest common denominator talk shows and ‎interview programs, such as “The View.” On Thursday, two days ‎after delivering the annual State of the Union address, the president will follow up with sure to be weighty discussions with a ‎trio of popular young YouTube filmmakers.‎