Peloni: Bryen speaks about the Russian election, the Crokus attack and how the Ukraine war might end, nuclear and non-nuclear possibilities.  Also, at the 30min. mark he discusses the US betrayal of Israel.  Additionally, he discusses Taiwan, North Korea and the home threat to America.

War and Peace in the 21st Century – Episode 53

Lyric Hughes Hale, The Hale Report    April 5, 2024

My guest for the 53rd episode of The Hale Report is Dr. Stephen Bryen, now Senior Fellow at the Center for Security Policy and the Yorktown Institute. He is a highly respected security and defense analyst. He served as the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Trade Security Policy and was the founder and first director of the Defense Technology Security Administration. Read more…

E. Rowell:  This is an interesting discussion of the definition of innocence and the idea of responsibility for one’s emotions and actions.  An individual with genocidal aspirations or actions often justifies these through the feeling of being a victim of the other’s aggression.  Throughout the world, supporters of Hamas portray Palestinians as innocent victims of Israeli aggression, as they justify the barbarity of the crimes against humanity committed by Hamas.  But a psychological defense mechanism (i.e. projection) is not a legal defense in a court of law, nor should it be a legal defense in the court of public opinion.

History has presented the Palestinians with the same choice as the “ordinary German” during World War II.

By Saul Goldman, FUTURE OF JEWISH    5 April 2024

There is a difference between the presumption of innocence in a court of law and innocence or virtue in real life.

Significantly, the word “innocence” also connotes ignorance. So even in a court of law, innocence or ignorance cannot be one’s defense.

Read more…

By Gabriel Scheinmann and Michael Doran April 3, 2024

President Biden is calling for a World War I-style armistice for the war between Israel and Hamas, according to Post columnists Gabriel Scheinmann and Michael Doran.Getty Images

Washington is dreaming like it’s 1918, but Jerusalem is fighting like it’s 1945.

President Biden is approaching the conflict in Gaza with the mindset that ended World War I, while the Israelis are fighting with the spirit that transformed Germany 27 years later.

Read more…

By Mudar Zahran, AM THINKER

Over the past few weeks, Jordan has witnessed anti-Israel protests — a little below 3,000 protesters at best, chanting Islamic slogans and support for the Palestinian terror group Hamas.  In this article, I will prove that the protests are staged by Jordan’s regime.

Abdullah II, the king of Jordan, known by Jordanians as “Ali Baba,” is fully allied with the Muslim Brotherhood.  He inherited this defiled marriage from his late father, so it is nothing new.  The Brotherhood is the Hashemite regime’s party just as much as the Baath party is Assad’s.  Abdullah has already acknowledged this in more than one interview with Western media — for example, with The Atlantic, to whom he said, “The Muslim Brotherhood is part of the system.”  The king’s shameless support of the Muslim Brotherhood is not a secret even to the English-speaking reader.  One does not need to look beyond the American Thinker to see the abundant evidence.
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T. Belman. In 2009 I wrote the article, Can the UN impose a solution on Israel?

Please read it and read the excellent comments.

THIS IS A GREAT LEGAL DEBATE. NATASHA DOMINATES.

Peloni:  Unlike the US Congress, Smotrich has great insights into how to wield the power of the public purse.

The decision puts on hold deals worth a combined $9.5 billion to procure a squadron of F-15 fighter jets and a squadron of F-35 fighter jets.

JNS,     April 4, 2024

Aerobatic display of the F-15 fighter jet named as Ra’am, Hebrew for “Thunder,” during the IAF (Israeli army Air Force) flight course 166 graduation ceremony in the Hatzerim Air Base in the Negev Desert on June 23, 2013. Photo by Ofer Zidon/Flash90.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of his intention to freeze the planned purchase of two fighter squadrons until the government agrees to establish a public committee that will advise on the distribution of the increased defense budget, Israel’s Globes business daily reported this week.

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All armies at war make tragic mistakes. But President Biden and Israel’s critics are cynically exploiting the incident as an excuse to shatter the alliance with the Jewish state.

By Jonathan S. Tobin, JNS    4 April 2024

Palestinian workers transfer the bodies of the volunteers from the World Central Kitchen who were killed in an Israeli airstrike from Al-Najjar Hospital to Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip, April 3, 2024, Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90.

The growing chorus of voices on the political left that have been loudly demanding that Israel’s war on Hamas be stopped have been waiting for this. After months of seeking to leverage false stories such as one about a missile attack on a hospital, downplaying or denying the way Hamas embeds its terrorist forces in hospitals, schools and civilian homes, and flogging statistics about Palestinian civilian casualties that are clearly bogus, the anti-Israel lobby thinks that it finally has a way to force the Jewish state to stand down in Gaza.

A mistaken strike that caused the deaths of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers who were bringing food and other supplies into the Strip is being treated as not merely a tragic accident all too common in wars, but as an act of transcendent symbolism that proves that Israel’s tactics are too brutal to be allowed to continue.

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E. Rowell:  One of the things we are noticing is that the US Government/CIA is quietly taking action in preparation for a Donald Trump win in November.  To that end, they are trying to arrange events on the ground such as bringing Ukraine into NATO to preclude Trump from ending the War in Ukraine before its acceptance into NATO and they are creating conflicts elsewhere.  They seem to be looking to overturn governments rapidly, such as destabilizing Bosnia, Azerbaijan, and Israel.  They are hoping to prevent Israel from destroying Hamas and thus the status quo of Iranian hegemony they have been keeping in place since 1979.  This article points out the latest country in which the US military is inserting itself.  All of these actions are not without consequences….

Moldova is the second poorest country in Europe but US Troops are Now There

By Stephen Bryen, WEAPONS AND STRATEGY    4 April 2024

Strategic Dialogue Group (Photo US Embassy Moldova)

Big Trouble may be brewing in Moldova which is starting to look like a staging area for the EU to offset an emerging Russian victory in Ukraine.  Whether this plan will be successful, if it is attempted, is not clear.  But Moldova is not the most stable country in the world, and the country is split between pro-EU and pro-Russian elements.

US troops are now in Moldova, along with Romanians.  It is ostensibly a military exercise called JCET 2024 (Joint Command Exchange Training).  The exercise started on April 1st and will continue until April 19th.  According to a statement released by the Moldovan Ministry of Defense, “The aim of the exercise is joint training and exchange of experience between Moldovan, Romanian and American special forces, as well as to increase the level of interoperability between the participating contingents. This year’s event will also be attended by representatives of the State Protection and Security Service and the Pantera Special Forces.”

The 2024 election is between a dangerous madman and Donald Trump.

By Peachy Keenan, AMERICAN MIND    2 April 2024

Yoram Hazony, Bannon’s War Room     April 4, 2024

By Peloni     April 5, 2024

In a recent commentary posted by Patrick Byrne on Locals.com (Photo linked above) he explained that

There is going to be huge news in a few days. Rather than give you one MASSIVE update in a few days, I am breaking it up, and will give the baseline explanation now, so when the development comes we can hop right into it.

Read more…

By Bill Gertz, THE WASHINGTON TIMES   4 April 2024

Israeli soldiers drive a tanks on the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, Sunday, March 10, 2024. The army is battling Palestinian militants across Gaza in the war ignited by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel. (AP Photo/Ariel)

The war between Israel and Hamas has revealed extensive Chinese support for Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups that the U.S. and Israel consider terrorist organizations, according to strategic analyst Guermantes Lailari.

Mr. Lailari, in a report published by the Jewish Policy Center, said that the Israel Defense Forces uncovered large caches of Chinese-made weapons, intelligence-gathering gear and other military supplies during raids in Gaza.

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T. Belman. This is an excellent article.  I have no quarrel with it. But whatever Russia has done, it doesn’t come close to what the US has done to hurt Israel and continues to do. The US and its lackeys, the UN and the EU,  smear Israel daily hoping to create enough public pressure to restrain her. In addition the US puts many obstacles on Israel’s path to victory and threatens to withhold needed munitions. The US and Israel are totally at odds on the day after. In particular, the US wants a Palestinian State and Israel is adamantly against it.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu treads lightly with President Vladimir Putin. Russia is not responding in kind, with public criticism increasing.

By Steven Erlanger and Adam Sella, NYT  March 19/24

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, with President Vladimir V. Putin in Jerusalem in 2020. Mr. Putin has been a vocal critic of Israel over its war in Gaza.Credit…Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images

Israel, though heavily dependent on support from the United States, Germany and other Western nations, has been noticeably out of step with them when it comes to relations with Russia during its war of conquest in Ukraine.

Long before Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, the country refused Ukrainian requests to send arms or to apply widespread sanctions on Russia, including stopping flights to the country. Despite the eagerness of President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, himself Jewish, to visit the country and show solidarity after the attack, he has never made the trip.

Read more…

By Seth Mandel, COMMENTARY    2 April 2024

Yesterday, Israel’s Knesset passed a law allowing for the temporary license suspension of media organizations that are found to materially aid a wartime enemy outside of their practice of journalism. The bill is clearly aimed at Al Jazeera, the Qatari state propaganda mouthpiece. It is not, however, a reaction to the propaganda itself.

That may sound confusing. In fact, this issue provides a good example of how to spot a good-faith critique of Israeli policy among the mounds of bad-faith straw men you’ll encounter online.

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E. Rowell: Listen to the words of both Mosab Hassan Yousef and Dr. Phil.  Mr. Yousef realizes the American students demonstrating on behalf of Hamas would be hated by Hamas, but he understands these students need a cause.  “Without a cause you don’t exist.”  Dr. Phil also speaks about his upset with American students on campus who say things like “the Jews should be wiped out, just like Hitler wanted.”  It’s a moving interview.

By Catherine Salgado, PJ MEDIA    4 April 2024

The son of one of the terrorist group Hamas’s cofounders has a message for Americans and the world: most Palestinians support Hamas, the terrorists want to commit ethnic cleansing against Jews, and any Americans who support Gaza are insane.

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US officials tell NBC News that, during their phone call on Thursday, Biden warned Netanyahu that the US could condition military aid to Israel on what it does to address humanitarian concerns in Gaza.

By Elad Benari, ARUTZ SHEVA Apr 5, 2024, 12:16 AM (GMT+3)

Netanyahu and BidenAvi Ohayon/GPO

T. Belman.  In the second half of this show Caroline devotes herself to lambasting the Biden Administration for cowering before Iran and releasing billioins of dollers to them and for doing its utmost to prevent Israel from executing her plan to move the civilians our of Rafah in order to be able to quickly destroy Rafah and win the war. Biden isw also preventing any Gazans from leaving Gaza as refugees into neighbouring Egypt.

Caroline Glick Show In-Focus

By Jim Hoft, GATEWAY    4 April 2024

Joe Biden and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei

In November 2023, the Joe Biden administration extended a sanctions waiver that will allow Iran to collect another $10 billion in funds in order for the mullahs to fund their military operations in the region.

This comes one week after Iranian-backed Houthis attempted to shoot down a US drone in the region and one month after Iran-backed Hamas terrorists slaughtered 1,400 Jews in Israel and took another 240 Jews hostage.

It was the deadliest attack on Jews since World War II.

Read more…