By Seth Mandel, COMMENTARY

After all the false alarms, the crisis of British democracy is finally here. The cause is not a nebulous concept like “disinformation” or a prime minister getting ousted by her own party in less time than it took a head of lettuce to brown, as was the amusing case with Liz Truss in 2022. The actual democratic process has come under assault, and London is buckling under the pressure.

This all came to a head on Wednesday. Now there is full agreement across the political spectrum on what happened and why. The unanswered question is whether the “Mother of Parliaments,” as England’s contribution to democracy is known, will do anything about it.
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Peloni:  Don’t miss the response from Amb. Friedman and Sec. Pompeo below the article

Secretary of State reverses policy set by predecessor Mike Pompeo, says Washington views the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria as “inconsistent with international law”.

Elad Benari | INN | Feb 23, 2024

Antony BlinkenREUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/Pool

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday reversed a policy set by the Trump administration, saying Washington views the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria as “inconsistent with international law”.

Speaking at a news conference during a trip to Buenos Aires, Blinken said the United States was disappointed by Israel’s announcement on Thursday of plans to approve new housing units in Judea and Samaria in response to the shooting attack near Maaleh Adumim.

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Out of approximately 12,000 UNRWA workers in Gaza, 440 are active in the military arm of Hamas, meaning terrorists currently fighting against the IDF.

By MAARIV,    FEB 22, 2024

Israeli soldiers operate next to the UNRWA headquarters, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in the Gaza Strip, February 8, 2024. (photo credit: REUTERS/DYLAN MARTINEZ)

Eight UNRWA employees working in the Gaza Strip have been arrested by the IDF due to connections to Hamas, according to a Maariv report on Thursday. Read more…

Hamas says PM plan for demilitarized Strip, ‘local’ leadership ‘will never succeed’

By AFP and ToI Staff 24 February 2024, 12:55 am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads a cabinet meeting at Hakirya base in Tel Aviv on January 7, 2024. (Yariv Katz/POOL)

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby says Washington had been “consistently clear with our Israeli counterparts” about what was needed in post-war Gaza, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented his plan to the security cabinet and later released it to the public overnight in Israel.

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Naomi Kahn | Regavim | February 22, 2024

The United Nations and Israel have a troubled relationship – and that’s nothing new. Can the UN be part of the solution, or is it part of the problem? This webinar explores the unique UN bodies that operate in the Land of Israel and impact the Israel-Arab context.

Experts told JNS that it’s a ‘sick joke’ that the Gulf emirate is hailed as a serious hostage mediator between Israel and Hamas.

By Andrew Bernard, JNS                                               22 February 2024

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken holds a joint press availability with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Doha, Qatar, on Jan. 7, 2024. Credit: Chuck Kennedy/U.S. State Department.

Much of the hope for securing the release of the 134 remaining hostages whom Hamas kidnapped to Gaza—32 confirmed dead and another 20 feared dead—on Oct. 7 lies some 1,300 miles away, in the tiny Gulf emirate of Qatar.

On a nearly daily basis, the Biden administration lauds Qatari “mediation” with Hamas, whose political leaders the Gulf nation hosts in Doha.

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Andrew Bostom, MD, MS posted the following:

Post 10/7/23 extensive monitoring of U.S. mosque sermons, & speeches by U.S. Muslim leaders & orgs?DEVOID of condemnation of Hamas jihad carnage/atrocities; RIFE with Islamic Jew-hatred & calls for jihad violence against Jews https://memri.org/reports/memri-tv-compilation-california-imams-support-october-7-hamas-attack-claiming-attack;

https://memri.org/reports/memri-tv-compilation-%E2%80%93-dearborn-and-detroit-imams-and-protests-prior-and-following-october-7

*** https://memri.org/reports/memri-tv-compilation-california-imams-support-october-7-hamas-attack-claiming-attack

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The state the Palestinian spokespersons are gunning for is also smack in the middle of the land-starved Jewish people’s tiny, zero-strategic-depth homeland.

By SIMCHA ROTHMAN, JPOST   FEBRUARY 22, 2024

Responding to “Israel has no veto power over Palestinian statehood, PA tells ICJ,” Palestinian Arab spokespersons excel in generating rhetoric that always sounds plausible and always presents them as the most deserving of persons, as opposed to Jews who, it seems, barely deserve their own lives.

But this rhetoric is non-factual. In this case, for example, of course, Israel must have, and does have, “veto power” over Palestinian statehood. That’s because preventing that calamity is a matter of life and death for Israel.
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The left’s equivalent of the Koch network, Arabella Advisors, is a powerhouse distributor of mega money to progressive PACs and Democrat campaigns.

By Austin Alonzo, EPOCH TIMES

The firm is deeply involved with some of the most prominent financiers of progressive policies and Democratic Party candidates. It manages a complex network of tax-exempt, nonprofit organizations that quietly funnels money to progressive organizations, political action committees, and the campaigns of Democratic Party candidates.

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IDF soldiers put themselves in danger, and get killed, to please the US.

by Hugh Fitzgerald  Feb 23/24

Recently, The Guardian ran a story with interviews of IDF soldiers that they hoped would make Israel look bad; the result was quite the contrary: “The @Guardian lies to spin IDF soldiers as monsters – but they show that the @IDF remains the most moral army in the world,” Elder of Ziyon, February 9, 2024:

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by Karen Lehrman Bloch, ALGEMIENER

Candace Owens. Photo: Wiki Commons.

Dear Candace,

The last time we chatted (OK, I wrote to you), you were defending Kanye West for his antisemitic tirades. It was unclear whether you were doing this as his friend, or because you agreed with him (though your obnoxious tone suggested the latter).

The past four months have made everything much clearer. Most recently, in a podcast and three rants, you accused a segment of Jews of being dishonest, disgusting, manipulative, thugs, and Marxists.

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Prime Minister Netanyahu brings before the Cabinet his proposal for the “day after” Hamas, which includes the shutting down of UNRWA and a complete demilitarization of Gaza.

Hezki Baruch | INN | Feb 23, 2024

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu>Marc Israel Sellem/POOL

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday evening brought his proposal for the “day after” Hamas for the approval of the Political-Security Cabinet.

“The Prime Minister’s document of principles reflects broad public acceptance of the goals of the war and of the civilian alternative to Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip,” the Prime Minister’s Office said. Read more…

Rise in Mail-in-Voting: A Convenience or Pathway to Fraud? Epoch Times

Government to promote 3,000 homes in Maaleh Adumim Supreme Planning Council will be asked to approve about 2,350 units in Maaleh Adumim, 694 units in Efrat and about 300 units in Kedar.

This is the stupidest era in history By Giulio Meotti.   Applauding Hamas at the Bataclan where its ISIS cohorts murdered 90 people is just one example. it gets worse.

O’biden maps out the death of Israel.  Video with Jonathan Pollard.

SAG-AFTRA Statement on CBS Retention of Reporter’s Files.  CBS has seized Catherine Herridge’s reporter notes and research after terminating her.

Suella Braverman: Islamists are in charge of Britain now

Melanie Phillips:  British MPs melt down over Gaza

Shoshana Bryen: Biden’s Two-Faced Approach to Hamas is Hurting Israel | Top Story

Overwhelming Israeli opposition to rewarding Palestinian terrorism with a state puts the prime minister’s adversaries in a bind

BY Gadi Taub, TABLET  FEB 22, 2024

If the news that the U.S. is going to recognize a Palestinian state that doesn’t exist was intended to break up Prime Minister Netanyahu’s wartime coalition, it’s unlikely to work. Contrary to what the Biden administration assumes, the obstacle to the “two-state solution” is Israel’s electorate, not its prime minister. The more the administration tries to ram this misguided plan down the throat of traumatized Israelis who are in no mood to compromise their security, the more the country’s prime minister will recover political support.

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Peloni:  Bibi’s persistent pursuit of absolute victory over Hamas, combined with his unequivocating opposition to US demands to form a Pal state, will only lead him to greater and greater strengths, as he identifies with and enacts policies which are commiserate with the interests and demands of the Israeli electorate. He is not just the leader which Israel has today, but the leader which Israel actually needs today, one whose policies will secure the nation and provide for its future security. As Biden and his Israeli allies have been trying to break Bibi’s resolve and split his govt, he has actually certified Bibi’s continued leadership with ever greater public support.

Caroline Glick | JNS | February 22

Despite what the media and Biden administration say, new polling suggests that Netanyahu and the right have a lot of public support. Caroline Glick breaks it down and analyzes why we are being fed lies that the Israeli government is on its way to collapse.

The document that reveals: Sinwar claimed to have received a commitment for a Hezbollah attack in the north.

In new documents that the IDF extracted from Khan Yunis, it was revealed that the Hamas leader was sure that Hezbollah would open another front: “We received a commitment that the Axis would participate in the great ‘liberation project.’ forces in the north

Yossi Yehoshua | YNET | Yesterday 00:28

Yahya Sinwar Hassan Nasrallah

This was the great fear immediately after the dimensions of the attack became clear on October 7: while the IDF was shedding blood to cleanse the Otaf settlements of terrorists, Hezbollah would attack the Galilee settlements in a similar format and place Israel in a war on two full fronts after a crushing opening blow. Now we know that Yahya Sinwar didn’t just wish it would be so: he actually built on it and even claimed to have received a commitment on the subject.

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Opinion: A total victory in Gaza is not an empty slogan, but the only way to ensure that October 7 will never be repeated and lead to real peace in the Middle East

Brig. Gen. Amir Avivi| YNET | 02.20.24

As our soldiers are fighting in Gaza and girding up to fight on the Lebanese border, we as leading voices in the Israeli security milieu and reserve officers bear a special responsibility. Our utmost duty, above correctly reading the map and diagnosing the trends around us, is to acknowledge how the system was underprepared for October 7, and how achieving total victory in Gaza will best serve Israel’s security interests not just in the Gaza Strip but vis-à-vis Lebanon and the region. Describing “total victory” as an empty slogan, as Major General Giora Eiland did on this site, could not be further from the truth. Therefore, the worse thing we could possibly do is to politicize what the vast majority of Israelis view as absolutely indispensable.

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By Evarist Chahali, UJASUSI BLOG                         22 February 2024

On 19 February 2024, unknown assailants, and possible Houthi (Ansarallah) hackers, targeted an airplane flying from Thailand to Israel in a cyberjacking attack near Somalia. The hackers successfully imitated the signal of the Aircraft Telecommunications and Information Services Unit (ATSU) server, which transmits ground data, and manipulated it to convey false information about changes in course.

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FBI Director Christopher Wray is driven by Middle East reality, not by alternative, less frustrating but self-destructive fantasy.

By YORAM ETTINGER

FBI Director Christopher Wray, October 2019. Credit: Courtesy of FBI News (FBI.gov).

FBI Director Christopher A. Wray visited Israel on Feb. 14, 2024, meeting with leaders of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency and Israel Police. The goal of the visit was to benefit from Israel’s unique urban and tunnel warfare experience against Islamic terrorists, who are advancing the vision of Iran’s ayatollahs and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Director Wray considers Israel’s to be the most effective battle-tested laboratory for the U.S. armed forces, law enforcement agencies and defense industries.
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