There is ultimately only one way to prevent the massive destruction of areas of major Lebanese cities, and that is for Hezbollah to remove the rockets and missiles embedded in those areas. Op-ed.

By Dr. Aaron Lerner   Feb 26, 2024, 9:06 AM (GMT+2)

US expert urges ‘designation of Qatar as state sponsor of terrorism.’

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL | JPOST | FEBRUARY 23, 2024

Officer Nasrallah salutes the Undersecretary of Hamas’ Interior Ministry, General Nasser Maslah (ruc.edu.ps, March 13, 2023) (photo credit: MEMRI)

A shocking new report by the Middle East Media Research Institute revealed that Qatar’s authoritarian state trained Hamas operatives at the country’s police college as recently as 2023.

According to the early February MEMRI report, “Qatar – which is known for supporting Hamas, financing its military activity and sheltering its leaders, and for extending media support to Hamas by means of its Al-Jazeera channel – also trained, in its Police College in Al-Rayyan, officers from Hamas’ Interior and National Security Ministry, which is part of Hamas’ governing authorities in the Gaza Strip.”

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Minister Bezalel Smotrich spoke at the Jerusalem Conference about the attempt to pressure Israel into agreeing to a Palestinian state: ‘I would like to hear Benny Gantz object to this.’

Bezalel Smotrich at the Jerusalem ConferenceHaim Twito

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionism) has said that an absurd situation has been created, according to which Israel is expected to pay a higher price than it did in the previous deal in order to release the hostages.

Speaking to journalist and political commentator Amit Segal at the 21st Besheva Jerusalem Conference, Smotrich said: “Something strange is going on here. We have returned to fighting with all our strength and the IDF is doing amazingly well in Gaza. The previous deal was somewhat reasonable; one to three terrorists for a hostage and 10 hostages for each day of respite. Logically the upcoming deal should be on even better terms, because we have crushed Hamas and [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar should now be sitting in his hole, broken and ready to surrender and give us our hostages.”

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B. Kalman:  This video reviews the way US funded NGOs go into various countries, develop a network of “dissident” political groups, media, corporations, etc, in order to undermine a government that the US has deemed “undemocratic” and then proceed to create a color revolution to overthrow the government.  The US has done this in countries all around the globe.  Navalny’s activities concerned a US State department funded mission to overthrow the Putin government.  Mr. Berletic discusses the evidence for this so it becomes crystal clear who is responsible for what.  In a related substack (links below) there are concerns that the US likewise is now involved in a potential false flag attack in Poland to blame on Russia and Belarus.

By Brian Berletic, THE NEW ATLAS                        20 February 2024

– Alexei Navalny’s political activities were funded by the US government through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) as part of an effort to repeat US-backed 2014 Ukraine regime change inside Russia itself.

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B. Kalman:  This really interesting video explains the efforts that many Islamic countries are making to delegitimize radical and intolerant Islamic voices in the public sphere.  Berman discusses the efforts of Egypt, the UAE, and Indonesia to illustrate that these countries including Saudi Arabia and others have realized that radical Islam will lead their countries to a dead end.  Given that these countries are making their own vigorous attempts to counter intolerant interpretations of Islam with more moderate interpretations, and place national sovereignty above caliphate, shouldn’t US foreign policy play a role in supporting these efforts?

By Ilan Berman, JEWISH POLICY CENTER   22 February 2024

“Multiple conflicts for legitimacy” leave nearly every major country in the Arab-Islamic world “grappling with questions of identity,” Ilan Berman told Jewish Policy Center webinar participants February 22. But pivoting to great power competition with China and Russia from 20 years of counter-insurgency warfare against Islamist movements including the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and al-Qaeda, the United States barely competes in “the war of ideas,” he said.

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Peloni:  Bibi responds quite well to a series of loaded questions.  This openly hostile interview with CBS should be shared widely.  He truly is a national treasure.

Watch Margaret Brennan’s extended interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Feb. 25, 2024.

Janet Levy. If you haven’t viewed the Mike Benz interview in its entirety, you’re uninformed. His brilliant, earth-shattering insights on the demise of our cherished First Amendment and the carefully-crafted misinformation industrial complex installed in place of its protections is essential to understanding what has taken place in our formerly free nation.

Tucker Carlson interviews Mike Benz

pic.twitter.com/t54UvEKWLM

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) February 16, 2024

by Michael Freund, Jerusalem Post   February 23, 2024

https://michaelfreund.org/27568/palestine-is-dead

In recent weeks, various leaders of Western countries have publicly broached the idea of the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, asserting that the time has come to give the Palestinians independence, even in the absence of a negotiating process.

NATO is risking a wider war

By Stephen Bryen, WEAPONS AND STRATEGY          24 Feb 2024

Jens Stoltenberg

Jens Stoltenberg, a former Norwegian Prime Minister and now Secretary General of NATO should be fired now, before it is too late. He announced he is giving Ukraine “permission” to use its soon to be delivered F-16s to launch attacks inside Russia.

Not only is Stoltenberg an uber hawk, but he totally misunderstands NATO’s purpose.  If he is allowed to stay in office, he will lead NATO into a European war that might well include nuclear weapons.  Above all, Stoltenberg doesn’t grasp that NATO is a defensive, not an offensive, alliance.
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Peloni:  This is outrageous.  As Bibi forms a symbol of unity from which the nation might achieve total victory, Barak acts to redeploy his campaign of pressure and protests to stymie the unified support for the war which could only lead to total defeat.  The very claims of personal interests dominating national interests with which he assails Bibi is in fact a suit far bettered tailored for Barak to wear.

Former PM calls on 30,000 Israelis to encamp outside Knesset for 3 weeks to pressure PM Netanyahu to step down.

Israel National News | Feb 25, 2024

Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak shared his plan for how to force the current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to resign.

In an interview with Galai Tzahal (IDF Radio) this morning (Sunday), Barak “We need 30 thousand citizens to encircle the Knesset in tents for three weeks, day and night. When the state is shut down – Netanyahu will realize that his time is up and that there is no trust in him.”

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T. Belman. If you care about free speech, this is a must read.

By Paul Craig Roberts

Don’t let the alarmist sound of this column’s title put you off.  It is not a “conspiracy theory.” This column is a factual report as you will see if you read on.

Everyone needs to understand that the ruling elite in the US are implementing a decision to redefine democracy in a way that eliminates democracy, makes Congress superfluous, voting pointless, and discards the Constitution as an outdated document inconsistent with the power the ruling elite intend to wield over Americans and the rest of the world.
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T. Belman. “Hanegbi said Netanyahu’s key principles for a deal, conveyed to the representatives in Paris, included that “any framework must deal with [the return] of all the hostages” — including those who are dead; that it must provide for “all women and children” to be returned at the start of the process; and that the agreement “can in no way be interpreted” as providing for an end to the war.”

War cabinet votes to send delegation to Qatar for more talks; framework said to include 6-week truce, release of some 40 hostage women, children, female soldiers, elderly, ill

By TOI STAFF and AGENCIES    24 February 2024, 9:37 pmUpdated: Today, 2:29 am

Families of Israelis held in Hamas captivity in Gaza call for the government to find a solution for the release of the hostages in a protest outside the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, February 22, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

An Israeli delegation of top security officials returned from talks in Paris on Saturday as reports spread of growing hope in Jerusalem that a new hostage release deal with Hamas could be within reach.

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By Michael Ordman, VGNI

In Israel, we’re slowly seeing the country emerge from one of the darkest times since the Holocaust. Evacuees are returning to their homes in the South as the threat from terrorists in Gaza is being eliminated. The transformation from darkness to light is reflected in much of last week’s news.

The dark days of displaced Israeli families have been made a little brighter thanks to donations and kind hosts. A wounded Fauda TV star has been able to see the light of day after being discharged from hospital.  A Hamas terrorist emerging from a dark tunnel shaft with a bomb was seen just in time. And from the dark despair after seeing Hamas murder his wife, a brave, stateless Bedouin and his nine children can have a brighter future as permanent residents of Israel.

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Under Biden, important foreign policy interests are being sacrificed for domestic ones.

Dr. Martin Sherman | INN | Feb 25, 2024

Foreign policy is really domestic policy with its hat on.- Hubert H. Humphrey

Under the Biden administration, US foreign policy appears afflicted by several perturbing defects. Indeed, it seems to suffer from both a lack of general strategic perspective and of sound theater-specific understanding. Moreover, it appears to be heavily impacted by extraneous factors not having any discernable relevance for the pursuit of American interests across the globe.

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T..Belman. Natasha is absolutely brilliant. She convincingly points out how misinformed the House of Commons was when it passed a resolution in support of a ceasefire. The House debate embraced propaganda and blood libels against Israel as though they were the truth. What a farce.

Peloni:  Speaker Johnson is a good and true friend of Israel.  I look forward to seeing the great accomplishments which he and Trump might achieve following the next election.

Ambassador David Friedman is absolutely correct. This is a shameful decision. 
 
The Jewish people have a historic and legal right to live in the land of Israel including in Judea and Samaria – the biblical heartland. It is an absolute disgrace the Biden administration would… https://t.co/ZfqO17WIQT

— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) February 23, 2024

E. Rowell:  Ben Carson, MD is at 1 hour and 3 minutes.  He spoke about his growing up, his mother and what he learned from her, and God.  Dr. Carson spoke movingly about learning how to take responsibility for himself and the terrible trap of victimhood.  President Trump began his speech at 2 hours 25 minutes.  Trump has united much of the United States of America under his movement to Make America Great Again.  He has united white and black Americans, Hispanic Americans, and hard working people from all ethnicities and all parts of America, now including inner cities in NY and Chicago.

By Sundance, THE LAST REFUGE                                    23 February 2024

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When “anti-racists” look at great art, they see only one thing.

By Mark Tapson, FRONT PAGE                                  23 February 2024

One of the great tragedies of progressivism is that its zealots are in the grip of – to borrow William Blake’s phrase – “mind-forged manacles.” Perpetually aggrieved by social injustice everywhere (real or imagined, past and present), leftists are hindered from finding selfless joy, spiritual transcendence, and wonder in the world by ideological blinders that allow them to see only a world of oppression, exploitation, and existential misery.

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