Can Israel Win Back What October 7 Took? The choice to clear out an entire part of the country will be remembered as one of the most fateful decisions of this war. Matti Friedman reports from Galilee. By Matti Friedman

https://www.thefp.com/p/can-israel-win-back-what-october

“This was a lesson that Jews learned when they were exiled millennia ago, after which the Land of Israel became a ghostly place in mind and memory—and then learned again, when pioneers like the teenagers at Hanita in 1938 put down physical roots, built a wooden tower, and declared they’d never leave. Right now, as Israeli soldiers advance into Lebanon, and as the evacuees wait in their hotel rooms and temporary apartments, it feels like a lesson being learned again. ”

KIBBUTZ HANITA, Israel — In the late 1930s, when the land that is now Israel was under British rule, a young intelligence officer named Anthony Simonds spent time in Galilee, in remote hills that would eventually become the Israel-Lebanon border. He recorded memories of his time there in a colorful but unpublished memoir now kept in the Imperial War Museum in London. Rereading the officer’s recollections now, a year into the war that has devastated northern Israel and southern Lebanon, is an eerie exercise—a reminder of what Jews created in Israel, then lost last fall, and are now fighting to reclaim.

As I write these lines, Israeli infantrymen are pushing into Lebanon to clear Hezbollah guerrillas from the vicinity of the border while the air force, in strikes throughout southern Lebanon and in Hezbollah’s stronghold in the southern districts of Beirut, is methodically killing the group’s commanders and destroying the vast arsenal supplied by Iran. A direct Israeli strike against HezboIlah’s patron, the Islamic theocracy in Iran, seems imminent.

None of this would have made sense to Simonds of the Royal Berkshires: When he was a young man in uniform more than 80 years ago, Iran was a distant monarchy ruled by the shah, and there was no Hezbollah and no state of Israel. Lebanon was ruled by France. 

“I have driven my car on rough tracks, sometimes in the Lebanon and sometimes in Palestine,” wrote Simonds. On one page of his typewritten memoir he recalls coming across a new frontier outpost. This kibbutz had been established one night in March 1938, and was inhabited by about 100 young Jews, many of them refugees from Europe, who had erected a wooden tower and stockade in a matter of hours on a plot purchased from Arab landowners by the Zionist movement. After their arrival, the pioneers faced an attack in which two of them were killed by Arab guerrillas. As they dug in and farmed in subsequent months, becoming symbols of Zionist pioneering, eight more of them fell.

Trump Vs. Harris Still Knotted Up, But Voters Prefer Trump Policies On Big Election Issues: I&I/TIPP Poll Terry Jones

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/10/07/trump-vs-harris-still-knotted-up-but-voters-prefer-trump-policies-on-key-election-issues-ii-tipp-poll/

ith less than a month to go before the election, who has the edge in the presidential race, Democrat Kamala Harris or Republican Donald Trump? Disappointing as it might be to both sides, the race remains too close to call. But Trump has a solid lead when it comes to voter trust in dealing with the nation’s most serious issues, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.

First, the big question we’ve asked each month since beginning our presidential poll: “If the presidential election were held today, and the following were the candidates, for whom would you vote?”

In the national online poll of 997 likely voters taken from Oct. 2-4, former President Trump garnered 46% support while Vice President Harris received 49% in a head-to-head matchup. Another 1% of those responding said “other” and 4% said “not sure.” The poll’s margin of error of +/-3.2 percentage points means the race remains a statistical tossup.

CHAPTER 39: Cognitive Warfare and the Battle for Your Brain Space Is No Longer the Final Frontier—Reality Is* by Linda Goudsmit

https://goudsmit.pundicity.com/28106/cognitive-warfare-and-the-battle-for-your-brain

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an international military alliance of 31 sovereign nations from Europe and North America. The treaty is a pact between member states that considers a military attack against one member a military attack against all members, and obligates all members to assist the attacked member. A shocking October 8, 2021, article by journalist Ben Norton, “Behind NATO’s ‘cognitive warfare’: ‘Battle for your brain’ waged by Western militaries,”[i] provides a chilling analysis of cognitive warfare. Excerpts from the article follow:

Western governments in the NATO military alliance are developing tactics of “cognitive warfare,” using the supposed threats of China and Russia to justify waging a “battle for your brain” in the “human domain,” to “make everyone a weapon.”

NATO is developing new forms of warfare to wage a “battle for the brain,” as the military alliance put it.

The US-led NATO military cartel has tested novel modes of hybrid warfare against its self-declared adversaries, including economic warfare, cyber warfare, information warfare, and psychological warfare.

Now, NATO is spinning out an entirely new kind of combat it has branded cognitive warfare. Described as the “weaponization of brain sciences,” the new method involves “hacking the individual” by exploiting “the vulnerabilities of the human brain” in order to implement more sophisticated “social engineering.”

Until recently, NATO had divided war into five different operational domains: air, land, sea, space, and cyber. But with its development of cognitive warfare strategies, the military alliance is discussing a new, sixth level: the “human domain.”

What is the meaning of Freedom? Diane Bederman

https://dianebederman.com/what-is-the-meaning-of-freedom/

Freedom is defined by Merriam Webster as the quality or state of being free, such as: the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action: liberation from slavery or from the power of another: boldness of conception or execution.

In the beginning, Adam and Eve lived a lovely life. Everything was given to them. There was one demand – do not eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Eve was seduced by the serpent, she ate of the fruit and convinced Adam to taste the apple and he lied to God.

And so ended Paradise.

I suggest that there is within us a desire to go back to the Garden, where we are cared for, protected. I think it is much like a child, no matter the age, wanting his mommy in times of trouble – a desire to go back to the womb – where it is safe. Fear leads us to submit and when government promotes fear, too many bend the knee and give up their freedom in order to be cared for.

Aung San Suu Kyi: “The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.”

But we live in a world where we must make decisions. In the West, we have free will-because the West is rooted in the teachings of the Hebrew Bible and in that Bible we are taught that all life is sacred, we all have equal intrinsic value and we have free will. “If humans are free then they need a free society within which to exercise that freedom(p120). Free will is not found in countries not based on the teachings of that Bible.

“Bias” Of Debate Moderators In Their Own Words Francis Menton

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2024-10-5-bias-of-debate-moderators-in-their-own-words

Usually, I don’t waste much time watching the presidential or vice-presidential debates; but on Tuesday I watched most of the vice-presidential debate between J.D. Vance and Tim Walz. I applaud Vance on a skilled performance. But I particularly want to comment today on the overt hostility that Vance faced from the moderators, which is unfortunately typical of the hostility of the corporate media toward all Republican candidates.

If you watched some or all of the debate, you probably came away with a general impression of the moderators attempting to help Walz; but without a transcript it is difficult to remember specifics. Fortunately, CBS has produced a transcript of the debate. So I thought it might be informative to go through the transcript and compile some of the more absurd efforts of the moderators to give a boost to Walz. The moderators in this instance were Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan of CBS. What becomes noticeable when you do this is the extent to which the moderators insert into their questions contested, or even clearly false, Democratic Party talking points as if they were uncontested facts.

The second topic of questioning in the debate, introduced by moderator O’Donnell, was stated to be “Hurricane Helene,” which she used as a proxy for supposed climate change. Here is the text of the introductory question:

Let’s turn now to Hurricane Helene. The storm could become one of the deadliest on record. More than 160 people are dead and hundreds more are missing. Scientists say climate change makes these hurricanes larger, stronger and more deadly because of the historic rainfall. Senator Vance, according to CBS News polling, seven in ten Americans and more than 60% of Republicans under the age of 45 favor the U.S. taking steps to try and reduce climate change. Senator, what responsibility would the Trump administration have to try and reduce the impact of climate change?

We Will Not Let Our Country and Continent Be Destroyed by Geert Wilders

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20992/country-continent-destroyed

We choose the power of reason.
And we will win.
Here in the Netherlands and in Israel.

Am Israel Chai. [Israel will live.]

The hatred of extreme left-wing agitators and parts of the left-liberal elite in politics and the media against our Jewish compatriots and the State of Israel since the barbaric massacre of innocent civilians on October 7, 2023, has directly fueled anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews.

It started immediately after October 7 with inflammatory demonstrations of millions of people with false flags and slogans in many European capitals, including many non-Western immigrants, who thereby demonstrated that they do not share any of our values ​​and do not belong here. Then followed the betrayal at universities and in parts of our media and politics. Both nationally and internationally, from the [Netherlands] House of Representatives to the EU and UN, as well as in newspapers and on TV. Every day again. There are now even police officers who refuse to protect Jewish objects and instead of being fired on the spot, their cowardly police chiefs show understanding.

We are as strong as our weakest link. And there are so many weak links. All of whom will be commemorating the massacres of a year ago on Monday with packs of butter on their heads [Dutch expression for hypocrites].

I will always continue to point out their cowardice. And stand up for our values, culture and traditions. That also distinguishes us from the hostile killing machines of Hamas cum suis and the defenders of all their evil. They love death but we love life. And we defend our way of life with everything we have. And so we resist with sincere and unprecedented strength against the unfortunately growing hatred of Jews and Israel.

Against giving away our country and continent to migrants who do not share our values. Against politicians, journalists and education administrators who shamelessly choose the side of evil and whose moral compass now lies in Gaza.

A review of On the Warpath: My Battles with Indians, Pretendians, and Woke Warriors by Elizabeth Weiss.By Glynn Custred

https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/10/the-woke-war-on-the-past/

In 1996 a skull was found on the banks of the Columbia River near the town of Kennewick, Wash. Authorities were notified, and the coroner called in anthropologist James Chatters to examine the remains for further information. In nine visits to the site, Chatters found a number of bones that were parts of a nearly complete skeleton. He determined that the skeleton was decades old, or even older. He also found several artifacts from the 19th century scattered around the discovery site, as well as, embedded in the skeleton’s hip bone, a stone projectile point showing that the man had been wounded by a spear or an arrow.

All this, along with the Caucasoid features of the skull, led Chatters to conclude that the remains were those of a trapper or a pioneer of the 19th century. This meant that the remains were well beyond the time limit when they would be of interest to the authorities. To find out more, he sent a sample of one of the bones to a laboratory for radiocarbon dating. He was surprised to find that the skeleton was actually some 9,000 years old, one of the oldest human skeletons ever found in the Americas.

The skeleton, known as Kennewick Man, caused scientists to reconsider theories of the peopling of the Americas. It also became the subject of a legal dispute between scientists and a coalition of Native American tribes in the area. The tribes claimed possession of the remains under the provisions of a federal law, the Native American Graves Protection Act (NAGPRA), which states that any human remains with lineal descent from a living tribe must be turned over to that tribe. Another reason for the transfer of ownership is “shared cultural affinity,” which is broadly defined to include oral traditions and geographical location. Litigation in such cases, therefore, can drag on for years, as was the case with Kennewick Man. During that time further examinations revealed that over his lifetime Kennewick Man had suffered, besides the arrowhead lodged in his hip, multiple rib fractures, a broken arm, and a head injury, giving us a closer look of life in prehistoric times.

Eventually DNA analysis showed a resemblance of the bones to some South American indigenous populations, and the remains were given to the claimant tribe for burial in an undisclosed location. This ignored the fact that we are all in some degree related and that, without a broad database that includes many tribes, a living tribe cannot reasonably be determined to be related by lineal descent to remains this old. And in this case, cultural affiliation meant simply geographic location. The main thing, however, was to defer to the tribes, for Native Americans have become a favored group in today’s society.

All this coincided with the ever-rising tide of identity politics, whereby the interests of a preferred group are advanced at the cost of the common good. This approach, part of a Marxist-based ideology that has been spreading through the institutions, is known variously variously as “wokeism” and “cancel culture.” It is an ideology that reduces all social, cultural, and political differences to two categories, the suppressed and the suppressers. In the case of American history, the Native Americans are the victims and the majority-white population are the suppressors. Since this movement deals with the acquisition and the holding of power rather than with the advance of science, its advocates do not counter their opponents with rational arguments.

Harris Was Put in Charge of the $42.5 Billion ‘Internet For All’ Plan. Where is it? Rick Moran

https://pjmedia.com/rick-moran/2024/10/05/three-years-ago-harris-was-put-in-charge-of-the-425-billion-internet-for-all-plan-where-is-it-n4933097

We should be used to the idea by now that the Biden administration does not exist in the same time frame of the universe as the rest of us. You might recall the $7.5 billion set aside in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to build 500,000 EV charging stations across the country. As of June, exactly eight charging stations had been built.

Amazingly, in that same Act, Congress authorized the Commerce Department to create an “Internet For All” scheme, which was supposed to bring broadband internet to everyone in America at an affordable price by 2030.

“It is going to help our kids and our business to succeed in the 21st century,” Biden said in his address on April 29, 2021. “I’m asking the vice president to lead this effort because I know it will get done.”

How’s that “broadband for all” rollout working out for ya, Kamala?

Would it surprise you to discover that not a single customer has been hooked up to broadband internet under the program in three and a half years?

“The program has collapsed under the weight of red tape imposed by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration,” said Americans for Tax Reform in August. “NTIA required states to submit multiple rounds of dense paperwork to even qualify for the funds they were given by Congress and has only recently started approving state plans for how to spend the money.”

What Happens to All the Unnecessary DEI Workers? By Robert Weissberg

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/10/what_happens_to_all_the_unnecessary_dei_workers.html

Recall the adage to be careful of what you wish for… you might just get it. This sage advice is currently being demonstrated in the decline of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) crusade. Scarcely a week passes without major corporations and universities ending their DEI programs but unfortunately, these cutbacks hardly mean the end of DEI; it may even get worse. The reality is that the thousands of newly unemployed functionaries plus countless would-be DEI commissars are not about to disappear.

Particularly worrying that DEI functionaries are disproportionately middle-class African Americans, and unlike politically voiceless Kentucky coal miners now unemployed due to the push for green energy, they will not quietly go out to pasture on government doles.

Now for the “you may get what you wish for” bad news: the federal government is likely to pick up the slack, and the armies of now unemployed DEI functionaries and future racial preference experts will undoubtedly find a home in the vast federal bureaucracy. In a sense, this recalls the Great Depression, when the federal government served as the employer of last resort. Now, however, rather than build the next Hoover dam, these new hires will push Washington to ensure that that the federal workforce “looks like America” while prioritizing diversity, equity and inclusion.

The federal government has already gone on a DEI hiring spree. On the first day of his administration (January 20th, 2021), Biden issued an Executive Order, to “…Advance Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.”

CHAPTER 38: BigBrain, BICAN, and “The Evil Twins of Technocracy and Transhumanism” Space Is No Longer the Final Frontier—Reality Is* by Linda Goudsmit

https://goudsmit.pundicity.com/28101/chapter-38-bigbrain-bican-and-the-evil-twins

goudsmit.pundicity.com  and website: lindagoudsmit.com 

Globalism is a replacement ideology replete with a replacement religion—Scientism. Scientism is a political ideology that challenges the foundation of objective, factual science, replacing it with consensus, feeling “science.” Objective science is independently provable and reproducible. Consensus “science” is simply subjective opinion and neither provable nor reproducible.

The Marxification of education (Chapter 29) has yielded a generation of woke young people who have rejected their parents’ Judeo-Christian religion and replaced it with Scientism. The Glossary of Leftist Doublespeak (Chapter 28) defines Scientism as “an exaggerated trust in the efficacy of the methods of natural science applied to all areas of investigation (as in philosophy, the social sciences, and the humanities). It has replaced traditional religion as the moral and ethical authority for woke members of society.”

Joshua Mercer, cofounder of the CatholicVote.org website, describes the conversion in an article posted by Daily Caller News Foundation, April 8, 2023, “Gen Z Traded Church for ‘A New Religion,’ Faith Leaders Say”:[i]

It’s not that Gen Z isn’t religious, it’s that they picked a new religion. They have fervent beliefs and rituals, they have their symbols and sacraments, and they definitely purge their ranks of “blasphemers” or anyone insufficiently dedicated to their faith. Look at how every corporation rushes to embrace the rainbow flag every June, and look at how people adorn their social media platforms with symbols to show solidarity with Black Lives Matter, Covid vaccination, Ukraine, or climate change. They are definitely evangelizing, it’s just not Christianity.