Monthly Archives: October 2023

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Daily Broadside | “First the Saturday People, Then the Sunday People.” Why Israel Must Defeat Hamas

Circling back to the issue of Israel and Hamas, Bibi Netanyahu announced that Israel, after three weeks of preparation, has entered the “second stage” of their plan to wipe out Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday announced that his forces have entered the “second stage” of its war with the terrorist group Hamas, calling the fight a “second War of Independence.” 

“The war inside the Gaza Strip will be long and difficult, and we are prepared for it,” Netanyahu said during a press conference in the evening, local time. “This is our second War of Independence.”

“We will fight for the defense of the homeland,” he continued. “We will fight and not retreat. We will fight on land, sea and in the air. We will destroy the enemy above ground, and underground. We will fight and win.”

I, for one, am glad to hear his resolve. There can be no waffling on whether or not to destroy Hamas. They are a recognized terrorist organization. They committed unspeakable atrocities on October 7 against innocent, civilians.

Hamas is inhuman, bestial, barbaric, cruel, brutish, primative, unrestrained, unrepentant, savage, sadistic. There can be no quarter taken, and none can be given.

Of course the usual suspects are calling for a cease-fire.

Netanyahu spoke at the end of a difficult week for Israel, with more discussion and frustration on both sides of the conflict as some world leaders called for a humanitarian pause or a ceasefire. The United Nations voted on several motions and passed one calling for a ceasefire, which Israel outright rejected and labeled “despicable.” 

The UN was founded in the wake of the Holocaust. If I had my way, the U.S. would withdraw from the UN and kick them out of our country. They’ve outlived their usefulness.

Fortunately, Bibi stood firm.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu flatly rejected calls for a cease-fire in comments to the press on Monday.

Netanyahu compared the October 7 massacre by Hamas to the Pearl Harbor and 9-11 attacks on the U.S., saying Israel is equally justified in retaliating against Hamas terrorists in Gaza. He went on to say that Israel will continue its war against Hamas “until victory.”

“Calls for a cease-fire are calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terrorism, to surrender to barbarism. That will not happen,” Netanyahu said.

“Ladies and gentlement, the Bible says that there is a time for peace and a time for war. This is a time for war. A war for our common future,” he continued. “Today we draw a line between the forces of civilization and the forces of barbarism. It is a time for everyone to decide where they stand. Israel will stand against the forces of barbarism until victory. I hope and pray that civilized nations everywhere will back this fight.”

Israeli forces entered the second stage of their conflict with Hamas this week, greatly expanding ground operations within the Gaza strip. Military officials have warned that the war will be long and difficult.

I agree with him that this is a time for war — against a savage, primative death cult that wants no less than the eradication of the Jews and of Israel as a nation. You can’t reason with fanatical, irrational, ideologically-blinded hatred.

Hamas and some portion of their civilian population hate Israel so much that they won’t let their own people out of Gaza. Israel has been warning the people in the north of Gaza to leave, to move south. But Hamas wants to make “martyrs” of them all: young, old, men, women, children. All for the glory of dying in service to Allah. When I say it’s a death cult, I mean it.

And if you think this is just a “Jewish” problem, you might want to think again. An Islamist slogan is “First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.” First they destroy the Jews, then they destroy all the Christians. Israel is the “Little Satan” (Jews) but the United States is the “Great Satan” (the Christians).

They are coming for us. As the last three weeks have demonstrated, there are plenty of them in our country due to our insane immigration policies and our open southern border. Don’t think there isn’t great hatred just waiting for its moment to strike.

After the Holocaust, the world declared “Never Again.” Unbelievably, we are at a moment when that declaration is being stress-tested.

The intent of the Islamic jihadists is clear and Hamas is the most high-profile expression of it at the moment, just as ISIS was a decade ago. If you stand for “never again,” as I do, you understand why Isreal can’t dialogue with people like this. You must take the fight to them, destroy them and make sure that any survivors never forget “never again.”

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Daily Broadside | Mike Johnson is the Left’s Worst Nightmare

Ever have one of those weeks that didn’t go as planned? I mean, really didn’t go as planned? I had one of those last week. A number of things I’ve been managing all became priorities and I’ve been dealing with a chronic neck issue that flared up.

The topper was that as I sat down to write my Friday post, the hosting service I used was unavailable because of an upgrade. They probably sent me an email letting me know I wouldn’t be able to logon and I probably missed it.

Anyway.

So the House finally picked a speaker and it’s Mike Johnson. Mike Johnson?

Who’s Mike Johnson?

Mike Johnson is an evangelical Christian and conservative politician who places his deep faith at the center of his life.

Religious conservatives cheered Johnson’s election Wednesday, after which he brought his Bible to the rostrum before taking the oath of office. “The Bible is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority … each of you, all of us,” he said.

“Someone asked me today in the media, ‘People are curious, what does Mike Johnson think about any issue?’” Johnson said Thursday in a Fox News interview. “I said, ’Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview.’”

Johnson was formerly an attorney and spokesman (2002 – 2010) for Alliance Defense Fund, known today as Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal advocacy group that bills itself as “the world’s largest legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, the sanctity of life, marriage and family, and parental rights.”

Is Johnson the real deal for Christian conservativs? He sure sounds like it.

The Left is going apoplectic over his election as speaker.

Far left Mother Jones:

Parker, a longtime advocate for LGBTQ rights, was lobbying against Johnson’s bill, titled the “Marriage and Conscience Act” on behalf of queer and progressive state interest groups who saw it as a license to discriminate. But even as he worked at odds with the legislator, he felt Johnson cultivating a friendly relationship with him. Johnson would phone Parker to inform him of plans to promote the bill or speak to reporters about it, and end conversations by calling him his “brother in Christ.” “We communicated constantly, enough that I felt a genuine personal affinity for him while he was doing something that could have been very bad for myself and my community,” Parker, now deputy director of Out Boulder County, says. “That’s when I knew that he was a very talented politician. And I think that’s terrifying.”

Oh noes! Christians who genuinely love me as a person are only “talented” politicians who seduce me into a “friendly relationship”! I’m helpless against their powers of concern for me!

The New York Times:

“Speaker Johnson really does provide a near-perfect example of all the different elements of Christian nationalism,” said Andrew Whitehead, a sociologist at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. He said those included insisting on traditionalist family structures, “being comfortable with authoritarian social control and doing away with democratic values.”

“Being comfortable with authoritarian social control and doing away with democratic values”? Wow, project much?

Rolling Stone:

Johnson comes with quite a resume. He defended Donald Trump at both of his impeachment hearings, helped plot the Jan. 6 attempted coup, and holds hardline positions on everything from abortion to LGBTQ rights. He worked for the ADF from 2002 until 2010, penning op-eds against marriage equality and endorsing briefs filed by the ADF meant to criminalize sexual activity between consenting adults.

Not conforming with Leftist dogma is holding “hardline postions on everything.”

NBC “News”:

Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, said Johnson would be “the most anti-equality” speaker in U.S. history.

“This is a choice that will be a stain on the record of everyone who voted for him,” Robinson said in a statement Wednesday. “Johnson is someone who doesn’t hesitate to express his disdain for the LGTBQ+ community from the rooftops and then introduces legislation that seeks to erase us from society.”

ABC “News”:

In a 2016 interview that has recently resurfaced, Johnson contends that “we don’t live in a democracy” because America is a constitutional republic.

“And the founders set that up because they followed the biblical admonition on what a civil society is supposed to look like.”

Well, first of all, he’s right — we’re a constitutional republic. This isn’t a question except among the weenies who pretend to journalism. Johnson doesn’t have to “contend” or argue that fact, unless you’re an ignorant mouthpiece for the Democrats who just repeats the literal lie that the U.S. is a “democracy.”

And second, I’d rather live in the civil society that our founders created, as opposed to the one that the cultural Marxists have supplanted us with, having turned a true civil society into a literal shithole experience in places like San Francisco. So I don’t see the problem with his statements.

But of course, ignorant congressmen do. From the same article:

No, you shrill alarmist, Iran is what a theocracy looks like.

So Mike Johnson is charged with being anti-LGTBQ+, anti-abortion, pro-2A, pro-traditional household, pro-Founders, pro-constitutional republic, pro-Trump, pro-prayer, pro-Bible, and a “talented politician.”

Your terms are acceptable. May he live long and honor God.

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Daily Broadside | Incisive Analysis About ME Conflict with “Tucker on X”

A short post this morning as I am running behind on some other priorities. Nonetheless, I can’t recommend strongly enough that you take some time to listen to Tucker’s conversation with Col. Douglas Macgregor about the situation in the Middle East and its threat to the U.S. He covers how this conflict will likely become not just a regional war but a World War, our economic and military weakness, and how our open southern border has placed us at tremendous risk.

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Daily Broadside | The Situation in the Middle East is Volatile

Is the current eruption of violence and conflict in the Middle East a prelude to World War III?

The United States sees the prospect of a significant escalation in attacks on its troops in the Middle East and of Iran seeking to widen the war between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group, the top U.S. diplomat and defense officials said on Sunday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that the United States did not want to see the conflict spread and that recent U.S. deployments to the region were designed to prevent this.

“This is not what we want, not what we’re looking for. We don’t want escalation,” Mr. Blinken told NBC News on Sunday. “We don’t want to see our forces or our personnel come under fire. But if that happens, we’re ready for it.”

Of course, no one can predict the future except God. But there are great risks with the coming fight in Gaza. Israel has already warned both Hezbollah and their state-sponsor Iran to stay out of it.

Israel’s military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the country had increased airstrikes across Gaza to hit targets that would reduce the risk to troops in the next stage of the war.

Fears of a widening war grew as Israeli warplanes struck targets across Gaza, two airports in Syria and a mosque in the occupied West Bank allegedly used by militants.

Israel has traded fire with Hezbollah militants since the war began, and tensions are soaring in the West Bank, where Israeli forces have battled militants in refugee camps and carried out two airstrikes in recent days.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told troops in northern Israel that if Hezbollah launches a war, “it will make the mistake of its life. We will cripple it with a force it cannot even imagine, and the consequences for it and the Lebanese state will be devastating.”

[…]

Israel repeated its calls for people to leave northern Gaza, including by dropping leaflets from the air. It estimated 700,000 have already fled. But hundreds of thousands remain. That would raise the risk of mass civilian casualties in any ground offensive.

Israeli military officials say Hamas’ infrastructure and underground tunnels are concentrated in Gaza City, in the north, and that the next stage of the offensive will include unprecedented force there. Israel says it wants to crush Hamas. Officials have also spoken of carving out a buffer zone to keep Palestinians from approaching the border, though they have given no details.

“Unprecedented force.” That means ratcheting up the power of the munitions and engaging in curb-stomping violence. Israel has also been attacking in Syria to prevent engagement there.

Syrian state media, meanwhile, reported that Israeli airstrikes hit the international airports in the capital, Damascus, and the northern city of Aleppo, killing one person and putting the runways out of service.

Israel has carried out several strikes in Syria since the war began. Israel rarely acknowledges individual strikes, but says it acts to prevent Hezbollah and other militants from bringing in arms from Iran, which also supports Hamas.

And if Iran refuses to stand down?

Israel last night vowed to cut off ‘the head of the snake’ and launch a military attack against Iran if Tehran-backed terror group Hezbollah joins the war.

In an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, Nir Barkat, Israel’s Minister of Economy, warned that Iran’s Ayatollahs will be ‘wiped off the face of the earth’ should Hezbollah, their proxy terror group in Lebanon, attack Israel.

His incendiary comments raise the grave spectre of a rapidly escalating regional conflict and come ahead of an expected Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip to ‘annihilate’ Hamas.

How could Israel wipe Iran off the face of the earth?

Nuclear weapons, my friends.

Israel has a three-stage plan for their war on Hamas.

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant laid out Israel’s war aims in three stages while speaking to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Friday.

The war against Hamas was unavoidable and a “war of no choice,” Gallant told the committee members.

He went on to give an overview of the army’s operations so far, before presenting his strategic aims for the war, which will be reached in three stages.

“We are in the first phase, in which a military campaign is taking place with [air]strikes and later with a [ground] maneuver with the purpose of destroying operatives and damaging infrastructure in order to defeat and destroy Hamas,” Gallant said.

“The second phase will be an intermediate phase, continuing the fighting at a lower intensity and eliminating pockets of resistance.”

“The third phase will be the creation of a new security regime in the Gaza Strip, the removal of Israel’s responsibility for daily life there, and the creation of a new security reality for the citizens of Israel and the residents of the surrounding area,” Gallant explained.

Big changes are coming both there, and potentially here in America. We’re already seeing a surge in Jewish citizens arming themselves.

Firearm instructors and Jewish security groups across the country say they have been flooded with new clientele since Hamas assaulted Israel on Oct. 7. And gun shop owners in Florida say they have seen more Jews purchase firearms in recent weeks than ever before. 

“We’ve definitely seen a tremendous increase in religious Jewish people, Orthodox people, purchasing firearms,” said David Kowalsky, who owns Florida Gun Store in the town of Hollywood, and also offers firearms training classes. “I’ve seen a surge in interest in individual training as well as group training.”

For those of you who cheered the ouster of a president who kept us out of any new wars because of his MeAn TwEeTs, congratulations on your choice. Your adults are back in charge, baby!

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Daily Broadside | Where Is the Earth-Shattering Ka-Boom?

That about sums it up for me as I wait for the Israeli offensive against the medieval barbarian bloodsoaked Jew-hating terrorists in the Gaza strip. Where the heck is the earth-shattering Ka-Boom!?

Speaking from her home in Israel, Glick said, “We are in danger of losing … sovereign control over our military.”

She then presented what sources told her really happened when secretary of state Tony Blinken met with Israel’s war cabinet on Monday.

“From what came out of the meeting, Tony Blinken wasn’t trying to help Israel at all. What he was doing was demanding that Israel enable resupply to Gaza, the euphemism of which is ‘humanitarian aid.’” She continued to say that Blinken threatened to withhold American war materiel from Israel, such as bunker buster bombs and regular ordinance.

And Israel didn’t just decide to invite Biden. His administration demanded that Israel invite him, she said, adding, “I don’t know; ask his presidential campaign.”

While Israel’s forces have been being held in limbo at the Gaza border, those charged with carrying out the mission began demanding they be allowed to go in. They cited difficulties in maintaining the readiness and morale of troops as well as a loss of the momentum they had after the October 7 massacre. Glick said that lapse in time also allowed the international media to turn on Israel. “We have all these Hamas supporters throughout the Western world who are feeling empowered, and not unreasonably given the backing they’re receiving from the media.”

Most disturbingly, Glick said commanders at the southern border were told, “We can’t do anything until Biden leaves. So that Biden is literally acting as a human shield for Hamas — so long as he hasn’t arrived yet, and hasn’t left yet, their terror state is going to be free from invasion.”

Our own illegitimate junta, installed by the anti-American institutions in our country, is undermining Israel’s resolve to decapitate Hamas. Our own United States’ extreme leftist political Marxist administration is protecting Hamas, not Israel.

What a humiliation for us. What a humiliation for Israel.

She continued to stress that demands to get humanitarian aid to Gaza are demands to resupply Hamas because they control every person and inch of land in Gaza…

Making matters worse, the U.S. said they would supply Israel with the bombs, but they weren’t allowed to use them against the missile launching sites — i.e., the UNRWA schools and hospitals.

It is well known that “Hamas military headquarters have been, for years, located under Shifa Hospital,” Glick said.

What Glick described about Blinken’s demands amounted to extortion: if Israel didn’t open up a humanitarian corridor — i.e., allow Hamas to be resupplied — the U.S. wouldn’t provide the bunker buster bombs and the ordinance for Israel’s fighter jets. Without those things, IDF ground forces would likely be slaughtered like the victims of October 7.

Adding insult to injury, Glick’s sources said the U.S. told Israel they weren’t allowed to “open up a war” with Lebanon despite being bombed from Hezb’allah in the north…

In a rare emotional monologue, she pointed out what we’ve known all along: the United States has been arming and funding the enemies of Israel.  (Glick doesn’t gloss over Obama’s contribution to this mess, either.)

So much for a strong alliance with the only democracy in the Middle East. So much for blunting Iran’s hegemony in the region. As J.J. Sefton wrote in a similar post yesterday, “‘We fully stand behind Israel’ Joey Sponge-Brain S***s-Pants declared without a dementia freeze. Yeah, Biden is standing behind Israel ready to shove it off a cliff.”

You know why? Because the Biden administration is saturated with pro-Iranian officials left over from the Obama administration. And not only that, there are actual Iranian spies that have been “discovered” in this administration.

The Biden administration’s now-suspended Iran envoy Robert Malley helped to fund, support, and direct an Iranian intelligence operation designed to influence the United States and allied governments, according to a trove of purloined Iranian government emails. The emails, which were reported on by veteran Wall Street Journal correspondent Jay Solomon, writing in Semafor, and by Iran International, the London-based émigré opposition outlet which is the most widely read independent news source inside Iran, were published last week after being extensively verified over a period of several months by the two outlets. They showed that Malley had helped to infiltrate an Iranian agent of influence named Ariane Tabatabai into some of the most sensitive positions in the U.S. government—first at the State Department and now the Pentagon, where she has been serving as chief of staff for the assistant secretary of defense for special operations, Christopher Maier.

We’ve allowed men and women who are infected with an anti-American and pro-Islamic values to not only infiltrate but wholly govern United States policy toward the East. This, my friends, IS NOT WHO WE ARE, to borrow a phrase.

But it’s what we’ve become.

While Israel waits for Brandon to stumble up the stairs of Air Force One and get his ice cream before being tucked into bed for the flight home, Hamas has had time to regroup, spread out the hostages, and exfiltrate any leaders they want to survive the expected Israeli onslaught to Iran. Iran has had time to position its proxies in Lebanon and Syria, and prepare itself to attack should it think Israel goes too far.

The analysts are right — Israel has lost the momentum, doubts have begun to creep in, the adrenaline has ebbed, and the enemy has had time to dig in.

Maybe by the time you read this, the assault has begun. Maybe not.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Have a good weekend.

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Daily Broadside | Israel Must Utterly Destroy the Life of Hamas

As we watch events unfolding in Israel, waiting for the ground offensive to begin, waiting on whether Hamas will release hostages in return for a ceasefire (nah), waiting to see if Iran will intervene or conduct a “preemptive strike,” waiting to see if two American aircraft carrier strike groups will deter Iran or Hezbollah in Lebanon, I’ve been mulling over where I stand on the issue.

Bottom line for me is this: Israel must totally and utterly annihilate Hamas. They have to go in and destroy the ability of Hamas to attack, regroup or reconstitute itself in any way, shape or form.

I can hear the cries of horror as readers react. “Sure, but what about all the innocent Palestinian women and children? What about the elderly Palestinians and those who don’t support Hamas? What about proportionality? How can you support such bloodshed?”

Here’s my position: Hamas chose this.

Hamas is a terrorist organization. Their attack on Israel wasn’t an act of “war,” it was an act of terrorism. They indiscriminately murdered men, women, children and the elderly in cold blood. And they didn’t just kill them; they tortured them and desecrated their bodies. The committed atrocities against their neighbors simply because their neighbors are Jews.

What they did was indefensible. I don’t care what excuses are made for their savage slaughter of innocent Israeli citizens. They may have grievances with Israel, but civilization is not required to tolerate their barbarism. Hamas has proven that it is incapable of moderating itself; it’s time to eliminate them.

As far as the women and children go — it is a terrible thing to kill the defenseless, even if they are members of the enemy. I do not advocate for the killing of civilians and if it can be avoided, it should be.

But Hamas does not show that level of concern for their own people. They deliberately position their weapons of war in civilian buildings and neighborhoods in order to create a moral dilemma for civilized nations when it comes to killing innocent: Wipe out the terrorists and take innocent lives with them, or allow the terrorists to survive in order to avoid civilian deaths?

In this case, I place that responsibility squarely on the terrorists. Hamas are the violent enforcers of a religious death cult, and the wives and children of Palestinians are indoctrinated to hate Jews. I don’t want to see impressionable children used as pawns or human shields, but I don’t want the terrorists to survive and launch more attacks.

It’s an imperfect metaphor, but I once discovered that paper wasps had built a nest under the eaves of my garage. There were three larvae in the nest and two adults caring for them. They aren’t a particularly aggressive insect, but will attack if they feel threatened. So I ventured out there with my wasp and hornet spray and gave them a maximum dose, killing both the adults and the larvae. Why the kids? Easy—nest building and attacking is in their nature, and I didn’t want them to grow up and be a threat to me or my family (or any other family). I wanted to completely annihilate them, and I did.

Not only so, but in this post by Rev. Donald Sensing, he argues that Israel is not only battling a physical army of psychopaths, they’re battling an ideology, which can survive physical defeat.

Having formed a “unity government” for the war, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has stated clearly that the permanent end of Hamas as the principal war aim. That this objective requires a land invasion of Gaza is also clear. But what can it take to destroy Hamas? Netanyahu has said that killing its terrorists fighters is a specific goal, but Hamas is not merely an organization. It is also an ideology. How does Israel end with not only the present Hamas organization destroyed, but also the ideology?

He goes on to write that both the American Civil War and World War II provide examples of how to achieve the end of Hamas. First, the Civil War:

After more than two years of indecisive, though bloody fighting, the Union’s strategy took a linchpin turn when Gen. U.S. Grant was appointed commander of the US Army and he unleashed Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman to invade the South. Sherman stated his goal very plainly.

“War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want.”

“This war differs from other wars, in this particular. We are not fighting armies but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war.”

Sherman’s tactics were ruthless, but they did do what he set out to do. His and Grant’s maneuvers and battlefield victories made it very plain not only to the Confederacy’s leadership (especially Gen. R.E. Lee) that they could not win the war, it was also crystal clear to ordinary men and women throughout the South, including those never actually touched by the fighting. Slavery was ended by the war and it is worth noting also that no state has attempted to secede since then. 

Then, the objective of the Allies in World War II:

One of the preludes to the massive landings on Normandy’s beaches to “enter the continent or Europe” in 1944 was sustained, large-scale aerial bombing of Germany by American and British aircraft. As the war went on and German (and Japanese) resistance failed to slacken, President Roosevelt decided that the German and Japanese peoples must realize after the war that not only had their armed forces been defeated: the entire nation, as a nation, had been beaten. He and Churchill were well aware that German militarism had survived World War I because its apologists had successfully propagated the myth that the Kaiser’s army had not really been defeated, it had been “stabbed in the back” by disloyal factions at home.

Hence, wrote Roosevelt in a letter to Secretary of War Henry Stimson,

It is of utmost importance that every person in Germany should realize that this time Germany is a defeated nation. . . . The fact that they are a defeated nation, collectively and individually, must be so impressed upon them that they will hesitate to start any new war.

[…]

One notes that Japan and Germany have been well behaved since 1945. But we also have to note that massive, destructive bombing was alone not the reason. It was simply impossible for either country’s armed forces to claim that they had prevailed, or at least held their own, on the field of battle. German and Japanese orphans, widows and grieving parents were in almost every other household, and a lie that their armed forces had not really lost could not possibly have found legs to stand on.

Hamas and the civilians who support them (at least 90% of the population) must be made to see, to feel, to know that they are thoroughly and utterly defeated. They must be made to see that abhorrent tactics they displayed on October 7 will be answered with overwhelming force, and that such savagery will not be tolerated in this world. They must be made to experience “the hard hand of war” and their defeat “must be so impressed upon them” that they spend the next 20 years recovering from their experience.

I am with Israel and pray that God gives them the victory over their enemies.

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Daily Broadside | The Kids Are Not Alright and That’s OK Says Vivek

I hit a milestone birthday last week, so I took a couple of days off from the blog to celebrate with family and friends. My favorite quote: “It’s weird being the same age as old people.”

Israel is gearing up for a ground invasion of Gaza, probably today. There’s a lot of mixed emotions being expressed on social media, ranging from “the Palestinians deserve it” to “what about the innocent women and children?”

It’s raised some heated conversations in this country as pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrations have shown. It has also resulted in many elite college groups, particularly at Harvard, releasing statements of support for the Palestinians and Hamas and blaming Israel for the violence.

That led Bill Ackman, a Harvard grad and founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, who has a net worth of $3.5 billion, to issue a call for Harvard to release the list of students in the groups so that CEOs won’t inadvertently hire any of them.

As the New York Post reported:

The pro-Hamas Harvard groups that signed the letter are African American Resistance Organization, Bengali Association of Students at Harvard College, Harvard Act on a Dream, Harvard Arab Medical and Dental Student Association, Harvard Chan Muslim Student Association, Harvard Chan Students for Health Equity and Justice in Palestine, Harvard College Pakistan Student Association, Harvard Divinity School Muslim Association, Harvard Middle Eastern and North African Law Student Association, Harvard Graduate School of Education Islamic Society, Harvard Graduate Students for Palestine, Harvard Islamic Society, Harvard Law School Justice for Palestine, Harvard Divinity School Students for Justice in Palestine, Harvard Jews for Liberation, Harvard Kennedy School Bangladesh Caucus, Harvard Kennedy School Muslim Caucus, Harvard Kennedy School Muslim Women’s Caucus, Harvard Kennedy School Palestine Caucus, Harvard Muslim Law School Association, Harvard Pakistan Forum, Harvard Prison Divest Coalition, Harvard South Asian Law Students Association, Harvard South Asians for Forward-Thinking Advocacy and Research, Harvard TPS Coalition, Harvard Undergraduate Arab Women’s Collective, Harvard Undergraduate Ghungroo, Harvard Undergraduate Muslim Women’s Medical Alliance, Harvard Undergraduate Nepali Students Association, Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee, Middle East and North African Graduate School of Design Student Society, Neighbor Program Cambridge, Sikhs and Companions of Harvard Undergraduates, and Society of Arab Students.

“We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” the letter states, adding: “The apartheid regime is the only one to blame. Israeli violence has structured every aspect of Palestinian existence for 75 years.”

The letter has since been updated to remove the list of groups that signed it “for student safety.” [All emphasis mine.]

What a very DIVERSE set of student groups reflected at Harvard. Notice how they’ve separated into their own little tribes based on their ethnic, gender or religious affiliations (or some combination of each).

This all led to Vivek Ramaswamy, candidate for president in these United States, making an unwise statement on X the other day.

The Harvard student groups who co-signed the anti-Israel letter are simple fools. But it’s not productive for companies to blacklist kids for being members of student groups that make dumb political statements on campus. Colleges are spaces for students to experiment with ideas & sometimes kids join clubs that endorse boneheadedly wrong ideas. I’ve been as vocal as anyone in criticizing left-wing cancel culture (see my first book “Woke, Inc.”), but it’s bad no matter who practices it. It wasn’t great when people wearing Trump hats were fired from work. It wasn’t great when college graduates couldn’t get hired unless they signed oppressive “DEI” pledges. And it’s not great now if companies refuse to hire kids who were part of student groups that once adopted the wrong view on Israel. This isn’t a legal point, it’s a cultural point. I say this as someone who vehemently disagrees with those Harvard student groups.

Those calling for blacklisting students right now are responding from a place of understandable hurt, but I’m confident that in the fullness of time, they will agree with me on the wisdom of avoiding these cancel-culture tactics.

I take issue with his first sentence that the student groups who co-signed the letter “are simple fools.” A “group” is an anonymized organization, not a person, and therefore cannot be a “simple fool.” Groups are made up of students led by one or more students and only such a student can be a simple fool. Calling a “group” foolish is really calling its leaders and / or its members foolish.

Secondly, what is this idea of being unproductive about? It’s “not productive” for a company to blacklist students? Why not? If I were a CEO, I’d wouldn’t want to hire someone who blames the cold-blooded murder, rape and decapitation of innocent civilians by barbaric terrorists on the victims.

If your ideology won’t let you distinguish between good and evil when it’s that obvious, maybe you have a problem distinguishing between right and wrong at any level. Or perhaps you have a different idea of what “right” and “wrong” are.

And finally, to criticize blacklisting as “wrong” in all cases is to reduce all perceived offences to the same level. Is he really going to argue that refusing to hire someone because they have the “wrong” political opinion (MAGA) is the same as refusing to hire someone who unequivocally and publicly supports the brutal killing of defenseless men, women, children and the elderly?

Are you saying that blacklisting is inappropriate in this case? We shouldn’t do it? Not ever? Not even if it’s Kathy Griffin holding up the severed head of Donald J. Trump?

What is wrong with you?

Former Fox News personalilty Megyn Kelly wasn’t having it either.

This, to me, is a perfect example of how convictions about what is right and what is wrong have been weakened in our contemporary culture. Ramaswamy says he’s making “a cultural point.” Well, at some point the “culture” needs to take a stand on good and evil. And when they do, it might look like blacklisting the overtly hostile instead of trying to “persuade” them that they’re wrong.

The “kids” (as Ramaswamy calls them) may have to learn a harsh lesson — that such extreme ideology has no place in a civilized society.

Like Kathy Griffin.

I’ve soured on Vivek. Nice guy with a lot of energy and some good thinking on some things, but he’s not my candidate, and his thoughts on this matter didn’t help.

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Daily Broadside | Biblical Prophecy Will Be Fulfilled — Are We Watching It Now?

In the wake of the atrocities in Israel one of the questions evangelicals are asking is, Are we seeing prophecy being fulfilled? Pastor Greg Laurie attempted to answer that in his sermon this past Sunday.

A California pastor has suggested that the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel which killed more than 1,000 people, including 14 Americans, were predicted by scripture.

Greg Laurie, the head of California megachurch Harvest Christian Fellowship, made the claims in a sermon he delivered on Sunday. 

‘Interesting how it always comes back to Jerusalem. The Bible predicted, thousands of years ago, that the End Time events would revolve around Jerusalem,’ he said. ‘Not San Francisco. Not Los Angeles. Not Moscow. Not Paris.’

‘But Jerusalem, this tiny little city, in this tiny sliver of land, will play a key role in the events of the last days. It’s the focal point of End Times events,’ he added, quoting Zechariah 12:3, stating: ‘On that day I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock. All the nations will gather against it to try to move it, but they will only hurt themselves.’ 

I’m not one to engage in end times speculation, but I tend to broadly agree that we are seeing the beginning of birth pangs.

Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.

“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

— Matthew 24:4-14

The regathering of Israel was a prophetic fulfillment.

Laurie added that this was a ‘super-sign’ that the ‘prophetic clock ticking is the re-gathering of the nation Israel into their homeland.’

‘On the heels of the Holocaust, who would have ever thought that these Jewish people who lost 6 million of their people to the Nazis would somehow re-gather in their homeland?’ he said. 

‘But it happened against all odds. And on May 14, 1948, Israel became a nation. I’m proud to say the United States was the first nation to acknowledge that.’

The prophets and other scriptures anticipated the restoration of Israel thousands of years ago:

The most widely covered restorative theme in the Bible relates to Israel. God declares through the prophet Jeremiah:

“… I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord…” (Jeremiah 29:14, ESV)

Nearly every Hebrew prophet foresaw a time when God would restore the fortunes of the Jewish people following a long period of exile, destitution and suppression.

Indeed, they would return from the all countries where God had scattered them (Jeremiah 32:37). He would plant them back in the land of their fathers (Jeremiah 24:6). They would rebuild the ancient cities (Isaiah 61:4).

They would turn the desert into a blossoming garden (Isaiah 51:3). God would increase them in numbers (Ezekiel 37:26). And most importantly, God would restore His people not only physically but also spiritually (Ezekiel 36:24).

There are detractors from this view of scripture who argue that Israel is a secular state. While that’s true, it’s also true that the Jewish people are being gathered into the land that was theirs from ancient times. Plus, I’m not sure how Israel being a secular country somehow invalidates biblical prophecy. In my view, it only makes the promise of being restored not just physically but spiritually more likely.

In the ensuing decades, many more Jews would arrive. Finally, in 1948 the State of Israel was established. This reminded many of the question posed by Isaiah long ago:

“Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment?” (Isaiah 66:8 ESV)

In May 1948, the resounding answer was “Yes!” The German theologian Karl Barth later proclaimed: “Now we can read it in the newspapers: God keeps His promises.”

Today, close to half of the world’s Jewish population is residing in Israel, compared to only 0.5% in 1889. They have turned the State of Israel into a hub of technology and innovation. Israel’s ancient cities are not only rebuilt, but they are larger and more beautiful than ever before.

No one can say for sure that what we’re seeing is, in fact, prophecy being fulfilled. But it is interesting that on September 29, 1923 the British Mandate went into effect (making Palestine a political entity for the first time in centuries) thus providing a home for the Jewish people in the region; on October 6, 1973 came the suprise attack of the Arab nations on Yom Kippur; and now, on October 7, 2023 there is the surprise attack by the Arabs in Gaza.

Every 50 years is interesting, but not conclusive. But Israel being reestablished as a nation? Irrefutable.

My advice is to watch developments carefully. Biblical Persia is modern-day Iran, and is predicted to play a major role in the end.

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog [Russia], the chief prince of Meshek and Tubal [region of modern-day Turkey]; prophesy against him and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Gog, chief prince of Meshek and Tubal. I will turn you around, put hooks in your jaws and bring you out with your whole army—your horses, your horsemen fully armed, and a great horde with large and small shields, all of them brandishing their swords. Persia [Iran], Cush [Sudan] and Put [Libya] will be with them, all with shields and helmets, also Gomer with all its troops, and Beth Togarmah from the far north with all its troops—the many nations with you.
— Ezekiel 38:1-6

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Daily Broadside | The U.S. Has Blood on Its Hands

Don’t look away. SEE what the Hamas terrorists are doing. There’s no excusing or rationalizing it.

I hate to say it, but it looks like American policy in the Middle East played a more than significant role in the bloodshed being waged in Israel. I love my country, but I hate what my leaders have done and are doing.

For the better part of the past decade, the United States has pursued a foreign policy designed to strengthen Iran and enable it to form a strong sphere of influence in the region. This is the idea behind what Tony Badran and Michael Doran called “the realignment,” a vision of a new world order in which America partners with Iran in order to “find a more stable balance of power that would make [the Middle East] less dependent on direct U.S. interference or protection.” Those words aren’t Badran and Doran’s; they’re Robert Malley’s, Barack Obama’s lead negotiator on the Iran deal who, as Semafor reported this week, helped to infiltrate an Iranian agent of influence into some of the most sensitive positions in the U.S. government—first at the State Department and now the Pentagon, where she has been serving as chief of staff for the assistant secretary of defense for special operations. Biden himself, in an op-ed in The Washington Post, spoke of “an integrated Middle East,” using the phrase no less than three times to make clear that his administration was intent on pursuing his predecessor’s commitment to seeing Iran not as a U.S. foe but as our collaborator.

We are lead by idiots and treacherous imbeciles.

And the Biden administration wasn’t just talking the talk. It was also walking the walk, from unfreezing billions in assets to make it easier for Tehran to support its proxy Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon to sending huge cash infusions used primarily to pay the salaries of tens of thousands of unvetted “security personnel.” And while the previous administration halted all aid to the Palestinians—directly because of the “pay for slay” policies that support the families of those who slaughter Israelis—the Biden administration was quick to reverse the decision.

At least Trump had the good sense to cut off aid, but it barely slowed Hamas or Hezbollah with the “””election””” of Brandon. We need to not only cut off aid to these animals, we need to get Trump back in the White House.

In addition to creating the external circumstances for terror, the Biden administration did everything in its power to derail Israel’s democratically elected government and prevent it from being able to see an attack like today’s coming. That the Israelis let themselves fall for this was stupidity of criminal order. But the invisible hand here was America’s. Biden himself took to CNN to call Netanyahu’s government “the most extreme” he’s ever seen, and lost no opportunity to lecture his Israeli counterpart about democratic values. The former U.S. ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, took the unprecedented step of intervening in the country’s domestic affairs, announcing ominously that he “think[s] most Israelis want the United States to be in their business.” And if words weren’t enough, the administration also sent American dollars to support the anti-Netanyahu NGOs organizing the protests that brought Israel to a halt for months. Netanyahu was famously denied an invite to the White House; his key opponent, opposition leader Benny Gantz, had no such problem.

It’s outrageous and embarrassing for us, not to mention deadly for the Israelis and the Palestinians who are being killed in the war they’ve started.

We need to get clear-eyed, and quickly. There is no negotiating or “managing” a nation or people group that seethes with hatred toward another nation. Iran and its proxies in Gaza and Lebanon, and other nations around the Middle East loathe Israel and the United States. When they chant “Death to America” or talk about pushing the Jews into the sea, they mean exactly that. More importantly, they mean to do it.

I once told an Arab in Jerusalem’s Arab quarter that I had heard that the Palestinians don’t want to share the land with Jews, but that they want to rid the land of them and he affirmed my statement.

The reason is eschatological: fighting the Jews will hasten the “last day.”

Media analysts are describing the latest attacks as a retaliation for Israel’s supposed desecration of the al-Aqsa Mosque, or for “settlement” activity, and all the usual half-truths, distortions and outright lies that characterize establishment media coverage of Israel. Ultimately, however, this is happening not because of al-Aqsa, or because of any “occupation,” since the “occupation” is a propaganda fiction anyway. It’s happening because of the Islamic imperative to fight Jews.

A hadith says: “Abu Huraira reported Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews.” (Sahih Muslim 6985) Read the beginning of the words attributed to Muhammad again: “The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight the Jews and the Muslims would kill them.”

So this is not a hadith about the “last day.” It is a hadith about the conditions under which the “last day” will come about, and how Muslims can bring about the “last day”: by killing Jews. The true believers of Hamas are busy doing it now.

That’s why Muslim nations don’t rest in their harassment and abuse of Jews, Christians and other infidels. They are commanded to fight in the name of Allah. While territorial claims may be part of the mix, the hostility is driven by an apocalyptic vision of Islam conquering all nations and their part in bringing it about.

It is a fanantical death cult that the U.S. has further enabled.

As far as that $6 billion that Brandon freed up for Iran: even though it hasn’t been distributed yet, here’s a former State Department advisor on Iran explaining to Fox News’s hapless Jennifer Griffin how Iran’s budgeting works. Go read the whole thing here.

How does it feel to know that your country funded the murder and mayhem in Israel?

Awful.

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Daily Broadside | Terrorist Organization Needs to Be Eradicated

What’s there to write about except the war that’s broken out in Israel? Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist organization, attacked southern Israel and of this writing, have launched 3,500 rockets, have infiltrated nearly 30 Israeli communities, have taken more than 100 hostages including the elderly, women and children, and have killed 1,100 in the terrorist attack.

There are reports that several Americans are among the dead and captured.

Israel responded by declaring war—not just an “operation”—and has vowed to crush Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving PM, called for a massive military response after the attack, which occurred 50 years to the week after the surprise attack on Yom Kippur in 1973.

Reports say that 450 Palestinians have been killed so far.

I am an unwavering supporter of Israel. I believe that God has a plan for the Jewish people, and that the hostility we see toward them today is a continuation of the hostility they’ve experienced since they were slaves in Egypt.

I also believe that there are innocents on both sides of the conflict. I don’t doubt that there are Palestinian families who wish for peace just as there are Jewish families who wish for peace. I encourage all of us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, that both Arabs and Jews would come to know the Lord Jesus Christ.

But I will denounce in no uncertain terms that Hamas is a barbaric entity that deserves to be completely annihilated. They may be fighting for what they believe in, but there is no place in a civilized world for such morally repugnant behavior.

Israel has every right to defend itself against this evil.

Here’s his daughter and the video of her being taken prisoner.

Iran is undoubtedly behind the attacks; even Hamas has claimed Iran’s support for their war against Israel. We should cut off funding for Iran, for Palestinians, for any terrorist state or entity of any kind.

But what do our current leaders do? Fund Iran as they chant, “Death to America!”

Insanity.

Here in the states, we’re beginning to see the benefits of all that “diversity” we’ve been importing.

Just wait until our “diverse” citizens and guests start attacking those who support Israel. It’s going to happen.

While the U.S. is moving a carrier group to the eastern Mediterranean, we can hardly afford to enter a third World War. But it’s beginning to look a little dicey.

Pray for peace.