Chit Chat

By Ted Belman

From now on comments on every post must relate to the content of the post.

Comments that don’t relate to the post must go here.

Any person who contravenes this demand will be put on moderation. Also their offending comment will be trashed.

The reason for this demand is so that people who want to read comments which pertain to the post, don’t have to wade through the chatter.

Everyone will be happier.

April 16, 2020 | 9,065 Comments »

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68 Comments / 9065 Comments

  1. Great Jewish Work – Raising Urgent Issues

    Video is by Tal Oran, The Travelling Tat Show. His videos are humorous, very serious and he always really gets to the point. This one is based on the work of a great American journalist who does terrific work interviewing Arabs as they show their depth of hatred of the Jews – even as often living the good life in Israel. This video raises the most urgent questions which I as an Irish Trotskyist will also be running with.

    https://youtu.be/jkwdC0iU_3g?si=HpnrXziBJtgXjlL_

  5. Trump: ‘Hamas wants to die instead of making a deal, Israel must eliminate Hamas’
    US President Donald Trump declared that Hamas sabotaged the hostage deal and that Israel must now ‘fight and clear the area.’ Finance Minister Smotrich added: ‘The humiliating negotiations are over—now is the time for victory.’

    Arutz Sheva

  7. ”
    Hungary Bans Anti-Israel Irish Band Kneecap for Three Years Citing National Security Concerns”

    “…Zoltan Kovacs, Hungary’s secretary of state for international communications, further explained in an English-language social media post on Thursday that Kneecap cannot enter Hungarian territory due to their history supporting “antisemitism and glorifying terror.” Kovacs added, “Granting them a stage normalizes hate and terror, and puts democratic values on the line.”

    Kneecap’s members “repeatedly engage in antisemitic hate speech supporting terrorism and terrorist groups” and Hungary “has zero tolerance for antisemitism in any form,” he continued. “Their planned performance posed a national security threat, and for this reason, the group has been formally banned from Hungary for three years. If they enter, expulsion will follow under international norms.”

    “…Since Kneecap displayed anti-Israel messaging on stage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California in April, two major music festivals in Germany canceled the band’s performances, and their performances were also canceled at the Eden Project concert series and the TRNSMT festival – both in the UK. Kneecap was further dropped from its US booking agency, and television personality Sharon Osbourne called for their US visas to be revoked.”

    The Hungarian music festival refused to cancel them so the governnent took action, according to the article.

    https://www.algemeiner.com/2025/07/24/hungary-bans-anti-israel-irish-band-kneecap-three-years-citing-national-security-concerns/

  8. Pierre Jager on FB:

    “Today we were nine people on the pavement next to the gates of Cape Town Parliament South Africa. The pro Palestinians took our spot at the gates, and to keep the peace we move the pavement, because the pro Palestinians can become very aggressive.
    We have also decided to ignore them and our music box are very loud. We ignore them totally and we did not respond to the intimidation. The one Palestinian whole head were cover with some material and put on glasses. We ignore the one with the head covering totally, this one was full of frustration and could not get our attention. All of them were frustrated, and the plans did not effect us at all. Everything were peaceful.
    During this past week soldiers fell because of the war in the middle east. We want to give our sincere condolences to the families of the fallen soldiers. We pray that Hashem will comfort them in this time of mourn.
    We Pray that the Hostages will be free now.
    To all Israeli”s in Israel, and all Jewish people globally, and all Christians globally, have a wonderful and blessed Shabbat”.

  9. The pilot who threw the Jewish kids off the Vueling flight wrote a book. He was the flying instructor in Florida that trained 2 of the 9/11 terrorists. So it appears at this point. Needs further confirmation.

    – Shukamnit Bachan Dov via Ardie Geldman on FB

  13. from a distinguished Musician Facebook friend visiting Israel with her daughter:

    YG:

    Survived our first rocket and missle attack. Totally jet lagged we woke up in cold sweat to the blaring Home Front Command app on our phones. Idiotically we didn’t researched where is the safe room and I thought I’d leasurly ???? do it the next day. We quickly changed and run down stairs. The employee of the hotel let us to a safe room for downstairs as the sirens were blaring. Claire said “I think this is going to make me grow up fast”. We then were perplexed because we didn’t see anybody else except a few workers.
    Then 10 minutes later the attack was intercepted and we could return.

    We did everything wrong. We should have learned well where is the safe room before doing anything else. We should not have used the elevators as the sirens started to blare. We should have stayed on our floor and gotten to the staircase and sat down (not standing up). We are going to do a thorough research tomorrow, well in a few hours sincere it’s early morning. Stay safe.
    Am Yisrael Chai.

    Comment:
    I think I have finally earned the right to tell all those “on one hand, on the other hand” a giant fuck you.”

  15. Fox News:

    A “Free Palestine” activist will be federally charged after he allegedly set fire to 11 NYPD vehicles—costing the city over $800K in damages. The suspect is now in custody after police searched for him for over a month.

  16. Fox News: Actor Jeff Daniels claims former VP Kamala Harris would have governed like Abraham Lincoln — and even would have made Liz Cheney her secretary of state.

    To which I commented:

    You mean She would have led half the country against the other half in a bloody civil war and suspended habeus corpus, putting some parts of the country under martial law? 😀

    Another celebrity actor: “John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838 – April 26, 1865) was an American stage actor who assassinated United States president Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. A member of the prominent 19th-century Booth theatrical family from Maryland,[1] he was a noted actor who was also a Confederate sympathizer; denouncing Lincoln, he lamented the then-recent abolition of slavery in the United States.[2]” Wikipedia

    “During the American Revolution, one of the first acts of the Continental Congress was to ban theater”. 😀

    https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/12/congress-bans-theatre

  17. Terrific post by Joshua Hoffman and posted by Vivarto on FB:

    There’s an unfortunate trend in conversations about Israel: reducing an entire nation (our history, our values, our existential struggle) to the fleeting drama of politics.
    At a recent event in the U.S. featuring an Israeli speaker, the audience was invited to ask a few questions at the end. Out of five questions, two focused on Israeli politics, yet not a single attendee asked, “How are ordinary Israelis coping after nearly two years of unrelenting war?” or “How are Israeli children doing?”
    It is truly bewildering why people are so obsessed with Israeli politics, and so uninterested in the everyday Israeli people who, more or less, are just like the rest of us.
    In politics, one coalition rises, another collapses. One prime minister dominates the headlines; the next becomes a footnote. And in the process, the world begins to see Israel not as a country, but as a collection of talking points, policy disputes, and partisan divides.
    That is a profound mistake. No country is the sum of its politics and politicians — not America, not France, not Japan, and certainly not Israel. To define Israel by its current government or any of its governments or politicians is to misunderstand what Israel is, and worse, to degrade its very essence.
    Israel is not Benjamin Netanyahu or Bezalel Smotrich or Itamar Ben-Gvir. It’s not the Likud or Labor parties, or the patchwork of parties that form fragile coalitions. Israel is a living miracle — the return of an exiled people to their ancestral homeland after 2,000 years of dispersion, persecution, and genocide. It is the culmination of a story that stretches from the Bible to the ashes of Auschwitz.
    When the State of Israel was declared in 1948, it wasn’t an act of politics; it was an act of survival. A nation of Holocaust survivors and refugees from Arab lands came together to say: “Never again will Jewish life depend on the mercy of others.”
    Governments in Israel come and go as power shifts between the Left and the Right. For decades, the Left-wing Labor party built the foundations of the state and pursued every imaginable peace initiative. Later, the Right-wing Likud party negotiated with Egypt and signed the first peace treaty with an Arab state. Centrist parties have risen and fallen. Unity governments have bridged ideological divides. Through it all, Israel has remained a vibrant, noisy democracy — arguably the most tested democracy on earth.
    But none of that defines the essence of Israel. Because the essence of Israel is not who sits in the Prime Minister’s Office; it is why Israel exists at all.
    Strip away the political noise and you’re left with a handful of truths that rarely make the headlines but explain everything:
    1. Every war Israel has fought has been defensive. In 1948, five Arab armies invaded mere hours after Israel declared independence. In 1967, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan massed forces to annihilate Israel; Israel struck first because survival demanded it. In 1973, Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on the Jews’ holiest day, Yom Kippur. The story repeats: Israelis fight not because we want to, but because we must.
    2. Israel has made peace with 100 percent of the countries that want peace with it. Egypt in 1979. Jordan in 1994. The Oslo Accords in the 1990s. The more recent Abraham Accords with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan. Every outstretched hand has been met with an Israeli handshake, and Israel has never broken a peace pact with any country, ever.
    3. Jews are safer today precisely because of Israel.Before 1948, Jews were slaughtered without recourse — in Kishinev, in Warsaw, in many corners of a hostile world. Today, when Jews are threatened, there is a sovereign state ready to defend them. Israel is the ultimate guarantee that “Never Again” is not just a slogan; it’s a strategy.
    ________________________________________
    Critics like to pretend the Israeli-Arab or Israeli-Palestinian conflict is about settlements or borders. Sorry to spoil it for you, but it isn’t. It has never been about a few settlements in Judea and Samaria (also known as the West Bank) or the exact width of a demilitarized zone.
    It’s about existence, about whether the world’s only Jewish state should live or die.
    Before Hamas, there was the Palestine Liberation Organization, a global terrorist enterprise wrapped in the garb of “national liberation.” Its founding charter didn’t call for two states; it called for Israel’s eradication.
    Today, Hamas takes that same poison and broadcasts it in neon lights. Its charter does not mince words: Israel must be annihilated. Hezbollah’s leaders speak just as plainly, vowing the Jewish state’s destruction. And Iran, the world’s largest state sponsor of terror, doesn’t hide its intent. Its supreme leader brands Israel “a cancer to be removed,” a phrase echoed in propaganda, sermons, and state television.
    Then there are the crowds that chant, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!” It sounds poetic until you remember what it means: Every inch from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea (every Israeli city, every home) emptied of Jews. That is not a slogan for coexistence; it is a call for ethnic cleansing.
    I wish Israelis were simply being paranoid. We’re not. It is written into charters, broadcast on official airwaves, and indoctrinated into children from Gaza to Tehran. Textbooks glorify martyrdom, songs celebrate the killing of Jews, and maps erase Israel entirely. Less than 100 years after the Nazis murdered 6 million Jews, the Jewish People face enemies who openly dream of finishing the job.
    That is the reality in which Israeli politics operates, a reality most of the world ignores because acknowledging it would shatter the convenient illusions of “simple solutions.” It is easier to blame Israeli politics than to confront the truth: This is not a dispute over particular policies; it is a never-ending war against genocide, for survival.
    ________________________________________
    Every democratic nation elects “controversial” leaders, or leaders whose politics we don’t agree with. But there’s a second side of this coin: No one claims that Argentina or Canada or Thailand is illegitimate because of who governs them.
    Why, then, do critics hold Israel to this absurd standard: If they dislike an Israeli prime minister, they question the state’s right to exist. Only a historically illiterate fool would fail to understand that the State of Israel has been governed by a wide variety of Left-wing and Right-wing politicians, yet the Palestinian goal has remained the same since at least the 1930s: to destroy the Jewish state for purely antisemitic reasons.
    That’s why, when detractors demonize Israel for its politics, what they’re really saying is that Jewish self-determination is conditional — that Jews can have a state only if they behave according to someone else’s political compass. That is not criticism; that is prejudice in moral disguise.
    Israel is defined first and foremost by its people — a mosaic unlike any other in the world. It’s gay pride parades in Tel Aviv and ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods in Jerusalem. It’s Druze officers serving in the IDF and Arab doctors saving lives in Haifa hospitals. It’s Ukrainian immigrants building new lives and tech startups shaping the global economy.
    Israel is Nobel Prize-winning scientists and farmers who made the desert bloom. It’s Hebrew poets, symphony orchestras, and open debates in a free press. It is not a perfect country, but it is a remarkable one.
    ________________________________________
    The world forgets too quickly. Less than 100 years ago, Jews were slaughtered while the “civilized” world watched. Today, when Jews insist on defending themselves, the same world lectures them on morality.
    But Israelis cannot live in theory. For us, bad policy doesn’t mean bad press. It means funerals for children killed in their beds. Thanks, but no thanks.
    Ultimately, you can dislike Israel’s leaders. Israelis themselves do — loudly, passionately, and often. That is the essence of democracy: the ability to argue, protest, and hold those in power accountable. In Israel, that freedom is exercised with unrivaled intensity, because this is a society that values debate as much as it values life.
    But don’t degrade Israel by reducing it to politics. A nation is not its politicians, and certainly not its latest headlines. Israel is the homeland of a people who endured exile, persecution, and genocide, only to return and rebuild against every conceivable odd. It is the safeguard of Jewish life in a world that has repeatedly shown what happens when Jews lack sovereignty.
    Don’t confuse the flaws of governance with the moral right of a people to live free in their ancestral land. That right does not expire with an election. It is not contingent on who sits in the Prime Minister’s Office or which party controls the Knesset (the Israeli parliament). It is rooted in 4,000 years of history and sanctified by rivers of Jewish blood spilled for the crime of existing.
    If your support for Israel depends on who won the last election, it was never support; it was a trend, a fashion statement, a pose. True solidarity is not conditional. True solidarity recognizes that Israel’s legitimacy does not rest on perfection but on principle: the principle that the Jewish People, like any people, have the right to self-determination and security in their own land.
    And if that principle can be compromised or even canceled by politics, then it was never a principle at all.

    Joshua Hoffman

  19. Iconic Jewish-American Standup Comic Jackie Mason lecture at Oxford University 16 years ago

    part 1

    https://youtu.be/xQBPMCWAuyY?si=GUTW9kkuGagavTXH

    part 2

    https://youtu.be/0dOLorAbtLw?si=OyyZfaZaXa5-SB5q

    Royal Variety Performance (1991)

    https://youtu.be/gGFYkgjI7_Y?si=UfW2F8hSjzUpPZvU

    Never found him particularly funny (any more than Myron Cohen, Shecky Greene, or Groucho on his game show, whose clips popped up) but this was before the Muslim invasion. Jews were popular! 5 minutes ago that seem like a lifetime! Wow! Just goes to show you, as in Western europe in 1900, things can turn around in a second. The next generations of diaspora jews need to have at least one foot firmly planted in Israel from childhood on.

  22. SEB-

    There is an excellent 1940 movie with Joan Bennett Walter Pidgeon and George Sanders called Manhunt, Where Pidgeon, an expert hunter stalks Hitler just for fun and is captured when Hitler is in his sights-with an unloaded gun.-

    Well worth seeing. I saw it 3 times.

      • Thanks Peloni, Bennett gave a great performance.You’d think she’d been brought up close to Bow Bells all her life.

        One thing struck me immediately. When Walter was “stalking Hitler he moved through the vegetation making an unholy racked, not becoming to a world renowned big Game hunter.

        You may or my not recall this.

        • @Edgar
          Yes, I do recall that. It was an obvious mistake but it didn’t harm the charm of either the cast or movie.

          I liked Director Fritz Langs work, and I think he also did “Cloak and Dagger” with Gary Cooper and Lili Palmer, but I think that one he failed to give a satisfying ending. Still, I loved the cast, and enjoyed the movie, but haven’t seen it in about 20yrs.

          Interestingly, both Lang and Palmer fled Nazi occupied Europe.

    • Good to see you posting again Michael!

      Yes, Mansur Ashkar has been making the rounds of interviews in the past days. We posted his interview with Yishai Fleisher yesterday:
      https://www.israpundit.org/massacre-of-druze-syrian-government-attack-civilians-then-israel-steps-in/

      This matter with the Druze can only be settled by the US and as I have stated for several months ago, Syria will be a product of Trump’s Turkey policy. Upto now, Trump has given Turkey dominance in Syria via its HTS proxy, but he has proven to be either inept or duplicitous. The truth of which of these is more accurate is a moot point. What is relative is that Trump’s support of Turkey in Syria has thus far failed. What remains to be seen is if Trump will double down on pushing a square peg into a round whole, or if something more pragmatic, and more moderate, is chosen to prevail in Syria.

  25. The miracle of the rabbi of Kherson: Vehicle hit by drone, family emerges unscathed
    Vehicle of Kherson’s rabbi struck by Russian drone during drive. Despite heavy damage to the car, the family escapes unharmed.
    Nitsan Keidar
    Published: Jul 18, 2025, 4:43 AM (GMT+3)
    Ukraine
    Chabad-Lubavitch
    Ukraine War

    0:00 / 0:21

    The vehicle of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Wolff, Chabad emissary and rabbi of the Ukrainian city of Kherson, was struck Thursday evening by a Russian suicide drone while he was traveling with his family.

    The car sustained significant damage, yet remarkably, none of the passengers were injured.

    Speaking to Arutz Sheva-Israel National News following the incident, Rabbi Wolff expressed his gratitude: “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. By a miracle of miracles, we are alive. We were on our way to Kherson when, about a kilometer and a half before the military checkpoint at the city entrance, a suicide drone exploded on us.”

    He added, “My wife Chaya, my daughter Raizi, and I are healthy and unharmed. Thank you, God, for the gift of life You have given us.”

    1

  26. The so called truce was either an intentional ruse by Jolani, or he is has an exquisitely ineffective control over his co-Jihadists. Either way, the only basis for him being granted the insane priveledge of running Syria was based on him being able to control his Jihadists, which he has proven he can not, or will not, do.

    Reports of non-stop convoys of Jihadi forces, amassing an army of upto 70K, approaching the Syrian Druze, burning homes as they go.

    Intense IAF activity reported over Syria as well.

  28. After moving to the U.S., a Chinese doctor struggled to find work in a hospital. So, he opened a small clinic with a clever sign out front:

    “Treatment for $20 — If not cured, get $100 back!”

    One day, an American lawyer saw the sign and thought, “What a scam… but hey, easy money!” He walked in confidently.

    Lawyer: “Doctor, I’ve lost my sense of taste.”
    Doctor: “Nurse, bring medicine from Box No. 22. Three drops in his mouth.”
    Lawyer: “Bleh! That’s kerosene!”
    Doctor: “Congratulations — your taste is back. That’ll be $20.”

    Annoyed but determined, the lawyer returned a few days later.

    Lawyer: “I’ve lost my memory. I can’t remember anything.”
    Doctor: “Nurse, Box No. 22 again. Three drops.”
    Lawyer: “Wait! That’s kerosene again!”
    Doctor: “Wonderful — your memory’s back! That’ll be $20.”

    Now thoroughly frustrated, the lawyer made one last attempt to win.

    Lawyer: “My eyesight is failing. I can’t see a thing!”
    Doctor: “I’m sorry. I don’t have a cure for that. Here’s your $100.”

    The doctor handed him a $20 bill.

    Lawyer (squinting): “Hey, wait a minute… this is just $20!”
    Doctor: “Fantastic! Your eyesight is restored. That’ll be $20.”

    https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14DkaaewgrZ/?mibextid=wwXIfr

  29. Hi, Edgar.

    We’re scheduled for a 4-hour power outage in an hour. I don’t plan on firing up the generator for that. The outside temperature is supposedly 63°F; and five hours from now, that should get up to 87° around 6PM.

    I don’t think God wants me here until I het 100. It’s up to Him. This is a nice universe, but not all it’s cracked up to be. It’s like living in Sodom.

    Before the power goes, here’s the latest I’ve seen:

    https://youtu.be/ulogq8szoc8

    Shalom shalom.

    • MICHAEL-

      That is so kind and decent of you, and reinforces our friendship despite our religious differences.

      Yet you DID join a Conservative synagogue and endeaviured to read the Amidah as I recall.

      Your error was in expecting to be able to do so in far too short a time, and not to realise that very many Jews in that Congregation also could not read prayers in Hebrew, and resorted to English which is a part of every Prayer book. Even in Orthodox congregations….
      I said once before, that at heart, you are a devoted Jew and I wish you’d have remailed with us.

      As for me, I am well, except for a bit of enlarged prostate trouble. In fact very shortly I will undergo a procedure called EMBOLIZATION, which is expected to reduce the size back to normal, and ease pressure on the urethra, to promote normal, easy urination. Minimal sedation and no real surgery. Thank G-D.

      It’s actually a very interesting procedure and well described on the internet. Far Far better than any other in my opinion. performed by a radiologist -not a surgeon.

      I say this on a public blog as I don’t have your private email, because I want to answer your kind enquiry properly. I ask others to ignore it.

      1

      • Hi, Edgar.

        I don’t think either of us is very long for this world. Right now, the temperature here in the Willamette Valley is supposedly 87°F — which, to most people I suppose, is “cool as a cucumber”; but to me is oppressive. I’ve gotten up to type, because it was too difficult laying down with labored breathing. I lay down, to keep my feet elevated to let the edema drain. Still, I love life, even when it’s like this.

        Should we be concerned over privacy? I’m not, very much. I’m finishing off my memoirs nowadays. I wondered how much I should disclose; because lots of people lately look for things like this to ridicule and attack people. At length, I decided just to change some names to protect the innocent, and let it rip. My life just boils down to this: I was born, I met Jesus, and I got old.

        I’ve met some interesting people along the way — none if them on Epstein’s Island, I’m happy to say. Soon, I’ll be back with my Maker in Heaven.

        I’m grateful to be able to be alive in these times. If I could have tried to describe ten years ago, what we are experiencing nowadays, nobody would have believed me. Who could have believed, that North America would become New Sodom, straight out of the fire and brimstone? People haven’t changed, not one bit; and neither has God.

        The best of health to you. Next year in Jerusalem 🙂

        • WELL MICHAEL-

          I intend to live as long as possible keeping in mind that my dear sister lived until 103 ……3 of 5 granduncles lived to over 100, one to 105. and that was many years ago. My grandmother was at least 92 or more. My grandfather was 74, pretty young. My beloved father was 86 and had an accident. My sainted mother was 75.
          Don’t forget, in their days med science was minimal compared to today. My grandfather, who died “young” was Barmitzvah age when 2 of Napoleon’s brothers were alive and kicking.

          Right now at just after midnight here in Victoria B.C. it’s 57 F although it was much warmer today about 68-70. I have 2 open windows making a cross breeze. Also a living room large bladed ceiling fan which I’ve never used….so far. Of course indoors the temp is much higher than just quoted.

          And, by the way, I’m a lifetime member of Cryonics Institute and hope to be taken there when the time comes, and then alive again when science progresses to that degree.

          I love life just as you do. Do you not have air conditioning????If not , why not.????? I thought that everyone in the US have enough cash to get it, or if in an apartment it would be already there.
          It couldn’t be expensive.

          PS, when you finish your memoirs please send me a copy. Peloni will give you my email add.

          And so far so good re my compos mentis, Very important for good health.

  31. Israel may soon need to organize massive evacuations of Jews from many countries where their lives have become in jeopardy. This includes the United States, particularly in New York City, if the Islamist is elected. Also from California, where the Jewish community has been under attack from all kinds of people, not just the Muslims. British Jews, Canadian Jews, and South African Jews as well. Israel should organize a task force to deal with any contingency requiring mass evacuations.

    My guess is that New York City will be the most urgent priority if Mamdani is elected. The Islamists, the black nationalists and all the other creeps in the city will immediately be activated to mount pogroms and terrorist attacks on Jews if Mamdani will be elected.

    • I dunno, Israel is a country the size of New Jersey and I’ve been to Jersey. 😀

      Is there also going to be a double toll, but just in one direction?

      “Ask not for whom the Bell tolls, it tolls for thee.” – Ernest Hemingway (also a great movie about WWI. Katherine Hepburn.)

  32. It would be a good thing for Israel if all the the Gazans all took advantage of France’s invitation and moved to France. However, it would then be necessary for Israel to airlife the French Jews to Israel as soon as possible, since the immigration of large numbers of Gazans to France would place the Jews in mortal peril. Of course, the French Jews include many highly skilled and talented people who could make contributions to Israel.

  34. Ardie Geldman

    ? *UN Anti-Israel Inquiry Collapses!*

    All 3 members of the UN Human Rights Council’s “Commission of Inquiry” on Israel — Navi Pillay, Miloon Kothari, and Chris Sidoti — just resigned.
    This marks a massive blow to the UN’s permanent inquisition against Israel.

    ?? It comes days after the U.S. sanctioned Francesca Albanese, the UN’s “Special Rapporteur” on Israel, for inciting antisemitism and whitewashing terrorism. The message: abuse your UN title to target Israel, and you’ll face consequences.

    Hillel Neuer of UN Watch:

    “This week, *the dominoes are falling…* Frightened of also being sanctioned, the architects of the UN’s anti-Israel inquisition are *fleeing the ship*.”

    ? Who are they?

    ? *Navi Pillay* – South African former UN official who called Israel an apartheid state and led this open-ended “inquiry.” Claimed her resignation was due to health and age — but the timing says otherwise.

    ? *Miloon Kothari* – Was condemned by 18 nations for antisemitic remarks, including questioning Israel’s UN membership and spreading antisemitic tropes about “the Jewish lobby.”

    ? *Chris Sidoti* – An Australian legal activist, known for echoing anti-Israel NGO talking points. Worked closely with groups funded to delegitimize the Jewish state.

    ? UN Watch is now demanding the entire inquiry be formally shut down. It was created with no end date, no balance, and no fairness — only to demonize Israel forever.

    ? This is a victory.

  36. Ardie Geldman on FB:

    FRANCE’S FINAL MUSLIM NAIL IN ITS COFFIN – AU’ REVOIR, FRANCE

    *French Court Grants Gazans Full Asylum Eligibility*

    France’s National Court of Asylum (CNDA) has ruled that all Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip are eligible to apply for full refugee status in France, reversing earlier decisions that only granted subsidiary protection.

    The court determined that the Israeli Defence Forces’ warfare methods in Gaza constitute “persecution” under the 1951 Geneva Convention, making Gazans a “persecuted group” based on nationality and identity

    The decision grants Gazans access to 10-year asylum rights previously limited to UNRWA-registered individuals.

    CBN is hearing that EL AL might be offering free evacuation flights for the first 2 million Gazans, and yes, rumor has it they’re even tossing in complimentary halal turkey sandwiches. Can’t confirm just yet…

  37. A Northern Arizona patient died this week after becoming infected with a severe form of plague, according to public health officials.

    “(We) recently cared for a patient in the Flagstaff Medical Center Emergency Department and despite appropriate initial management and attempts to provide life-saving resuscitation, the patient did not recover,” Northern Arizona Healthcare (NAH) said in a statement to USA TODAY on July 11, adding that the patient died that same day.

    The Arizona Department of Health Services has conducted rapid diagnostic testing and issued a “presumptive diagnosis of Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes the plague,” NAH said in a statement.

    Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.

    Plague is the same illness that killed millions of people in Europe during the Middle Ages. Today, it is rare but can crop up mostly in rural parts of the western U.S. and certain parts of Africa and Asia, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on its website.

    The Arizona resident died from pneumonic plague, a severe lung infection, Coconino County health officials said in a press release on July 11. There are an average of seven human plague cases reported each year in the United States and the risk to the public remains low, according to Coconino County Health and Human Services and the CDC.

    Related video: Doctors say plague is treatable & extremely rare (FOX 10 Phoenix)
    Current Time 0:20
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    Duration 2:26
    FOX 10 Phoenix
    Doctors say plague is treatable & extremely rare
    0
    View on Watch
    View on Watch
    Read more: A New Mexico man has died after contracting the bubonic plague: Here’s what to know

    Arizona patient died of pneumonic plague, says hospital
    Citing privacy laws, Northern Arizona Healthcare said it was unable to release more information about the patient who died.

    “The NAH team is saddened by this loss of a community member,” the agency said in a statement.

    “Out of respect for the family, no additional information about the death will be released,” Coconino County Board of Supervisors Chair Patrice Horstman added in a news release.

    In a July 11 statement, Coconino County health officials confirmed this to be the first recorded death from pneumonic plague in the county since 2007. In the previous case, the patient contracted the disease after interacting with an infected dead animal.

    The Arizona Department of Health Services did not immediately respond to USA TODAY’s requests for comment.

    Oy Vay. Given the poor sanitation and the presence of large numbers of homeless people on American streets, all forms of the plague, the illness that killed half the population of Europe in the fourteenth century, and that continued to cause many deaths as late as the eighteenth century, could spread rapidly in the United State over the next few years. Especially pneumonic plague, which can be spread directly from person to person, without even fleas or animals, such as rats, as “mediators.” I request any of our readers with medical backgrounds to comment on this development.

  40. “Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Friday ruled out the prospect of normalizing relations with Israel, though he expressed a desire to end the longstanding conflict with the Jewish state.

    ” – JNS

    My comment: 😀 “It’s good to want things.”

  41. Correction:

    AI Overview

    +4
    The “Augean Stables” refers to the stables of King Augeas in Greek mythology, not the Aegean Sea. The fifth labor of Heracles (Hercules) was to clean these stables, which were notoriously filthy and had not been cleaned for 30 years. Heracles achieved this by rerouting two rivers to flow through the stables, effectively washing away the accumulated dung. The term “Augean Stables” is often used figuratively to describe a task that is incredibly difficult and requires a large-scale, unpleasant effort to clean up, according to Dictionary.com.
    Feature
    Description
    Mythological Significance
    Part of the twelve labors of Hercules
    Location
    King Augeas’s stables in Elis, Greece
    Problem
    Stables had not been cleaned in 30 years, filled with a massive amount of dung
    Heracles’ Solution
    Diverted rivers to flush out the stables
    Figurative Meaning
    A task requiring great effort to clean up a mess or corruption.

    Such as the Deep State, for example, the U.S. State Dept. hired under previous presidents, such as Obama and Biden. President Trump has been transferring the ones he can’t fire or pension off to Nebraska or Wyoming, say. 😀 brilliant. Always thinking outside the box. What so many of us, I know me, have been advocating for many years snd is the fulfillment of a campaign promise.President Trump wants to bring back private sector jobs not pad the government rolls with obstructionist enemies which is the Dem patronage thing.

  43. FELIX-

    I can think of two groups on the spur of tnhe moment who practiced a much purer socialism than you’ve ever spoken about.

    The Hutterites and the Shakers. Both pure and unencumbered by crass outside life.

  44. There’s an article in TOI today saying Israel is falling behind its Arab neighbors in the race for AI. A cartoon popped up in my FB newsfeed yesterday that shows a lot of men at desks facing a wall with many screens showing missiles taking off. The caption read, “Hey Siri, I said, “Lunch!”

  45. Sebastien Zorn

    “Please define your terms. Are there any examples of what you would acknowledge as socialism in history?”

    We have been over this many times

    There was only one revolution that of the Russian Revolution of October 1917

    I will not cover that again

    • AI Overview

      +7
      The Soviet Union’s initial focus on rapid industrialization and heavy industry overshadowed environmental concerns, including the concept of a “carbon footprint” as it’s understood today.
      However, the understanding and concern regarding environmental issues and their link to human activity evolved throughout the Soviet era:
      Early Years (Pre-1930s): There were periods of genuine interest and effort in nature protection and conservation, and even debates about environmentally friendly industrialization, according to Climate & Capitalism.
      Stalinist Era (1930s – 1950s): This period saw a significant shift towards “conquering nature” and prioritizing rapid industrialization at the expense of environmental protection, says Climate & Capitalism. Propaganda even portrayed environmental problems as a capitalist issue, while claiming Soviet policies were inherently environmentally sound.
      Later Years (Post-Stalin – 1980s): Environmental issues like air and water pollution became increasingly noticeable and problematic. While the Soviet government did make efforts to address pollution through laws and regulations, enforcement was often weak due to the prioritization of industrial output, notes EBSCO. Research on climate change began and some officials recognized its importance, though downplaying the role of human activity, according to EHNE.
      Late Soviet Period (Late 1980s – 1991): Public awareness and concerns about air pollution in particular grew significantly, although economic priorities were slow to change. Government officials also engaged more seriously in international discussions about climate change.
      In short, while the explicit term “carbon footprint” may not have been in common usage, the Soviet Union’s awareness and concern for environmental issues, including those related to emissions and climate change, evolved throughout its history.

    • FELIX-

      The Hussites were also very socialistic inclined and the forerunners of Luther also. I just recalled their story, and their unique way of fighting battles with wheeled carts containing artillery, a brand new concept at the time giving them many victories also vastly outnumbered.

    • Mike, I think mine might have. In the ’90s Fin de siècle” 😀 I had a double hernia operation and I was too politically correct to discriminate against the surgeon just because he was old, but he had his student hold the knife and the anesthesia didn’t work and the gallows humor comedic high point of the procedure was when I heard and saw him say to the kid, “no, no, a little more to the left” 😀