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.
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.
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
US President Joe Biden warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their call on Thursday that the US could condition military aid to Israel on what it does to address humanitarian concerns in Gaza and get to a ceasefire as soon as possible, NBC News reported, citing two US officials.
“That was the message,” one of the officials said.
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.
T. Belman. An Israel official who was in the meeting responded about the allegation “a misrepresentation of what occurred in the room. The meeting was constructive and respectful, even during disagreements. There was no yelling at any point.
The meeting grew tense after the Americans questioned an Israeli plan to evacuate more than 1 million Palestinian civilians from Rafah and house them in tents.
WASHINGTON — A virtual meeting on Monday between top U.S. and Israeli officials to discuss Israel’s plans for a ground invasion of Rafah in Gaza grew contentious after the Americans pushed back on Israel’s proposal to evacuate Palestinian civilians sheltering there, said two U.S. officials and one former U.S. official familiar with the meeting.
Ron Dermer, Israel’s minister of strategic affairs, began yelling and waving his arms around as he defended the plan, the officials said. American officials in the meeting, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, kept calm and did not respond in kind, the officials said.
By Victor Davis Hanson, AMERICAN GREATNESS 4 April 2024
When Russia invaded Ukraine, Americans overwhelmingly supported Ukraine—as they did with Israel after October 7.
No wonder: Ukraine was surprise attacked by Russia, and Israel was by Hamas.
It seemed an easy binary of good versus evil: both the attacked Ukraine and Israel are pro-Western. Both their attackers, anti-Western Russia and Hamas, are not.
Now everything is bifurcating. And the politics of the wars in America reflect incoherence.
By Gadi Taub, TABLET MAGAZINE 3 April 2024
Photos of victims at the Nova festival site in Re’im, Jan. 3, 2024/MAJA HITIJ/GETTY IMAGES
Lital Shemesh, a TV news anchor on Israel’s Channel 14, knows terror almost first hand. Last August, her life was suddenly transformed. “I was at home when messages about two murder victims began circulating on the WhatsApp groups of media people,” Shemesh recounts in her new book (in Hebrew). “Shockingly, the Palestinians on the ground snapped photos of the ID cards of the victims, and those pictures were also widely circulated. That is how, on the sofa in my living room, I suddenly saw the beloved faces of my uncle, Silas, and his son Aviad. A terrorist arrived at the workshop where they were having their car repaired, shot them at close range and murdered them.” The next day, Shemesh continues, another terrorist murdered her kindergarten teacher.
“The time has come for more of us to take advantage of this privilege, so we can all join in shaping our extraordinary Jewish nation.”
By Joshua Hoffman, FUTURE OF JEWISH 4 April 2024
A father and son share a moment at the Western Wall (the Kotel) in Jerusalem.
About a week ago, a reader wrote me, saying:
“Is your view of the future entirely bleak, or do you see any rays of hope?”
My response to her was sober: Right now we are in troubling times and we should not pretend otherwise. If we (the Jewish People) want to emerge from this reality with a truly positive, beneficial outcome, I believe we must confront the present situation for what it is, not what we wish it to be.
Will Israel’s government collapse due to the IDF haredi draft crisis? – analysis
By ELIAV BREUER, JPOST APRIL 1, 2024 12:17
The political ramifications of the High Court of Justice’s ruling on Thursday – that beginning on April 1 the state can no longer refrain from drafting haredi men into the IDF, and that state funding to yeshivot will cease beginning on April 1 as well – could go in several directions depending on developments in the coming weeks.
The previous situation was that yeshivot would provide quarterly reports on the number of students, and each student aged 18 and over would receive a yearly deferral until age 26, after which they received a permanent exemption. While different sources include different numbers, the total number of yeshiva students is somewhere in the range of 150,000, and the number of students between the ages of 18-26 is in the range of 60,000.
Peloni: Without support from Bibi’s coalition, Gantz’ departure will only demonstrate his support for American dictates over Israeli victory. The timing of the call for September elections is timed not only to precede the American elections, but to also coincide with the beginning of the new school session in the fall when the families of those families who have been evacuated from the war zone have expectations of returning to their homes, ie the support for continuing the war may be at its weakest.
Netanyahu dismisses coalition partner’s appeal as ‘petty politics,’ claiming elections would harm the war effort, while opposition head Lapid says Israel can’t wait six months
Head of the National Unity party Minister Benny Gantz holds a press conference at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, March 13, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)
War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz called Wednesday for Israel to hold early elections by September, partially wading into a swell of voices urging the government to step down, in light of wide dissatisfaction with the continued captivity of Israelis in Gaza and questions over how the war against Hamas is being waged.
T. Belman. I am not disturbed by his remarks at all. When Trump says “You have to finish up your war. To finish it up. You gotta get it done. And, I am sure you will do that. And we gotta get to peace, we can’t have this going on.”, he isn’t calling for a ceasefire but for total victory.
His remarks about the war on Hamas are spun in a way that recalls every previous controversy about things he’s said—and with just as much accuracy.
By JONATHAN S. TOBIN (April 3, 2024 / JNS)
U.S. President Donald Trump carry a speech during an official welcoming ceremony on his arrival in Israel at Ben-Gurion International Airport, May, 22 2017. Credit: Muhammad Aamir Sumsum/Shutterstock.
Has Donald Trump turned on Israel? That’s the question some people have been asking in the wake of an interview he gave to Israel Hayom. Trump’s presidency was the friendliest to Israel of any in history. But the interview became fodder for the latest controversy generated by something he has said with some willing to interpret it as evidence that he has allowed his personal dislike of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to impact his attitude towards the Jewish state.
By Will Kessler, DAILY CALLER April 3/24
(Photo credit should read DAVID GANNON/AFP via Getty Images)
The effort to rebuild the recently collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge near Baltimore, Maryland, could quickly turn into a years-long quagmire as a result of environmental red tape under the Biden administration, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The Baltimore Bridge was struck by a container ship navigating the Patapsco River out of the Port of Baltimore in late March, sending several cars and workers into the water and rendering the passageway unusable. It is unknown exactly how long the bridge could take to rebuild, as officials could expedite the process, but experts warned the DCNF that government red tape, such as environmental reviews filed by government entities or environmental activists, could slow down its construction after debris is cleared from the site and new plans for a replacement bridge are drawn up. (RELATED: New Biden Admin Rule Is Boon To Insurance Companies At The Expense Of Consumers, Experts Say)
Redacted with Clayton Morris
US foreign policy establishment blindly intent on beating Russia on the battlefield and crushing its economy. Neither will happen
A dark shadow has descended on Ukraine’s war prospects. Image: Instagram Screengrab
Somewhere last weekend a few dozen former Cabinet members, senior military officers, academics and think tank analysts met to evaluate the world military situation.
Douglas Murray, Israel: State of a Nation with Eylon Levy March 27, 2024
Is Our Political System Selling Us Out? | Douglas Murray on Why the West Won’t Fight for Itself [P1]
March 6, 2024: In Part 1, he joins Eylon Levy in studio for an illuminating dissection of the motivations of Israel’s allies and enemies in the West; whether the West could and would fight for its very existence; the Islamist threat to democracy and free speech in the UK, and more.
E. Rowell: California is a perfect test case to study progressive political policies and their consequences. Once beautiful cities have been turned to excrement and needle laden sidewalks infested with crime; safe for criminals but dangerous for the law abiding. The beauty of the United States experiment is that a state can try policies from which other states may then learn.
“Safety” is often a smokescreen to hide an agenda-driven transition from being free to being controlled in everything you do.
By Edward Ring, AMERICAN GREATNESS 3 April 2024
“A liberal program must also be a responsible program, a reasonable, rational, realistic program. We must know how much it will cost and where the money is coming from. Benefits must be measured against burdens. A program which pampers the people or threatens our solvency is as irresponsible as the one which ignores a vital need. But we will always remember that there is a difference between responsibility and timidity, and we are resolved to be governed more by our hopes than by our fears.”
Edmund G. “Pat” Brown
32nd Governor of California
First Inaugural Address, January 7, 1963
E. Rowell: With Biden in the White House, the referee is MIA. A President is a referee of sorts, between competing aspects of government. With the referee missing, agencies do what they want. The neocons are free to run amok and threaten WWIII. So it is not only worth asking “Has NATO outlived its use?” but also we can ask, “Is anybody listening?”
Over three decades after the end of the Cold War, the alliance encourages perverse and dangerous behaviors in its member states.
By James W. Carden, AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE 3 April 2024
Seventy-five years ago, on April 4, 1949, the foreign ministers of 12 European and North American countries convened in Washington and signed the North Atlantic Treaty establishing NATO.
With war raging in Eastern Europe and calls from a number of NATO allies to escalate that war, unpopular yet critical questions need to be addressed with regard to the alliance’s history, its continuation, and its expansion, as well as its ramifications for U.S. national security. Indeed, several articles of faith with regard to NATO’s successes and indispensability turn out to be, upon even cursory examination, highly questionable—if not entirely mistaken.
T. Belman. They won’t succeed. Abdullah will soon be deposed and Jordan will become a republic under the leadership of Mudar Zahran. The Muslim Brotherhood will be banned.
We Should Seriously Consider Revoking Their Jordanian Citizenship
Former Jordanian Minister of Information Samih Al-Maaytah said in a March 31, 2024 interview on Al-Arabiya Network (Saudi Arabia) that since the beginning of the war in Gaza, Hamas’s leadership in Qatar – including Khaled Mashal – have been attempting to incite Jordan’s population to take to the streets. He explained that Hamas’s leadership is attempting to pressure the Jordanian government and to “send a message” that Hamas “owns” the Jordanian public, so that Jordan changes its stance regarding Hamas. In addition, he said that any leader of a Palestinian faction who has Jordanian citizenship and is inciting or provoking riots should perhaps have his citizenship revoked, in accordance with the Jordanian constitution.
By Adam Kredo, FREE BEACON 4 April 2024
A group of Republican senators on Wednesday opened a probe into the Biden administration’s decision to unlock upwards of $10 billion in frozen funds for the Iranian government, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.
The 13 lawmakers, led by Sen. Tim Scott (R., S.C.), are pressing the State and Treasury Departments to detail exactly how much money Iran will be permitted to access in the next several months under a sanctions exemption that permits Iraq to transfer electricity payments to Iran via third-party countries. The White House renewed the waiver in March, days before it was set to expire.
