Tag Archives: Hamas

by

Daily Broadside | Our Fake American Leader Now Has Blood On His Hands

Along with those who fortified the 2020 election, who also have blood on their hands.

Three American service members were killed early on Jan. 28 in a drone attack on a small U.S. base in Jordan, the Biden administration said in a statement. At least two dozen other troops were injured in the incident, U.S. officials said.

They were the first U.S. fatalities after months of strikes by Iranian-backed groups against American forces across the Middle East since the start of the Israel–Hamas conflict in Gaza, the White House and military officials confirmed. President Joe Biden vowed to hold the perpetrators to account; so far, no organization or government has claimed responsibility.

“Today, America’s heart is heavy,” the president said in a Jan. 28 statement. “Last night, three U.S. service members were killed—and many wounded—during an unmanned aerial drone attack on our forces stationed in northeast Jordan near the Syria border.”

U.S. officials are still working to conclusively identify the precise group responsible for the attack but have assessed that one of several Iranian-backed groups is responsible.

This loss of life is a direct result of Joe Biden’s intentional, strategic and treasonous subversion of our military fitness and his feckless priorities.

Under President Donald J. Trump, there were no new wars and our enemies understood that if they crossed us, Trump would deal severely with them. Under Brandon we abandoned Afghanistan and gave our enemies $81 billion in war machines, Russia attacked Ukraine, China has openly threatened Taiwan, North Korea has started lobbing missiles from both coasts, and Iran proxy Hamas savagely attacked Israel.

All because Trump said “pu**y.”

Well, not really. All because Trump is a viable threat to the oligarchy’s rule.

But I digress.

We’ve lost three soldiers and have 27 other casualties as a direct result of Brandon’s fake Americanism. What do you suppose our response will be? “President” Mush-for-Brains is in league with the Iranians and is allowing them to develop nuclear weapons to change the balance of power in the Middle East, something that has B. Hussein Obama’s fingerprints all over it.

President Biden’s statement accused “radical” groups backed by Iran operating in Iraq and Syria for the attacks, saying the United States “will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner our choosing,” without providing more details.

Here’s what he’ll do: he will send a couple of missiles into Iran or find a proxy somewhere to be the scapegoat. Whatever Brandon does, Iran will lose very little sleep over it and will instead use our response to gin up the radicals’ hatred with demonstrations and threats of violence.

And then, maybe, those single men of military fighting age from the Middle East who have crossed our southern border unmolested will “hold those responsible to account at a time and in a manner” of their own choosing.

Like on a train, a plane, or in a car in the center of Times Square.

by

Daily Broadside | Don’t Be Fooled. The Palestinians Aren’t Innocent Bystanders

While Israel continues to pound Gaza into submission and to exterminate the Hamas terrorists, the world continues to condemn the “excessive” civilian casualties.

Macron criticises ‘excessive’ civilian casualties in call with Netanyahu

The president of France criticised the “excessive number” of civilian casualties in Israel’s military operation during a phone call with Benjamin Netanyahu.

While reiterating Israel’s “right to defend itself”, Emmanuel Macron told Mr Netanyahu there was an “absolute need to distinguish terrorists from the population and to provide effective protection for civilians”, according to a summary of the conversation.

Mr Macron also reiterated “the importance of establishing an immediate humanitarian truce leading to a ceasefire”.

It is not the first time the French president has made comments of this nature, having called on Israel to stop bombing Gaza earlier this month and saying he hoped the US and the UK would join him in appealing for a ceasefire.

How does one measure “excessive”? Does Macron have a number in mind? Is it purely mathematical? In our world of Diversity, Inclusion and Equity (DIE), is it a life for a life? Or does it include the goal of eradicating the existential terrorist threat presented by Hamas and its groupies in Gaza? When the terrorists build tunnels under hospitals and arranges to protect itself behind civilian human shields, does that somehow make those civilians off limits?

Besides, what do you say when 90 percent of the “civilians” support Hamas and its goals?

A new opinion poll released by the Ramallah-based Arab World for Research & Development (AWRAD) revealed that the vast majority of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip support jihadist terrorism, and that Palestinians overwhelmingly approve of the October 7 slaughter in southern Israel that was carried out by Hamas.

The Palestinians support the most ferocious jihadi terrorist groups while having nothing but contempt for the United States and even Arab countries that had previously attempted to assist them.

The Al Qassam Brigades, which is supported by 89% of respondents, is the militant arm of Hamas. They are known for carrying out suicide bombing missions and terrorist attacks on civilians.

Islamic Jihad (known in the West as Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or PIJ), the second most popular group with 84% approval, is a terrorist organization that operates in Gaza and Lebanon. Their operations also include suicide attacks and indiscriminate violence against civilians.

The Al Aqsa Brigades, which, like the two aforementioned groups, is best known for its suicide attacks, receives an 80% approval rating. They operate mostly in the West Bank.

Hamas comes in fourth place with 76%. In all likelihood, Hamas is taking a back seat to the above groups because they are not committed to enough carnage against Israelis and the greater Western world.

As Jordan Schachtel goes on to note, this poll is not an aberration, but quite in line with other surveys that show a lifetime of radicalization and hatred of Israel and the United States.

If you think “these poor innocent civilians” you’re gravely mistaken. They fully support what Hamas stands for, even if Hamas isn’t as vicious in their terrorism as, say, the Al Qassam Brigades.

I fully recognize that, even if the majority of the civilian population supports Hamas and the atrocities of October 7, that does not qualify them as combatants, per se. However, it puts the lie to the terror apologists who cry about all the “innocent” women and children and grandparents. These are not pure as the driven snow, peace-loving people who just happen to live in a semi-state run by terrorists. They not only voted to put Hamas in power, they support their campaign of terror against the Israeli state.

Unfortunately, that puts them at risk as “collateral damage,” as the war statisticians put it. As General William Tecumseh Sherman put it, “War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.”

To that I would add, Don’t want none? Don’t start none.

by

Daily Broadside | Anti-Semitism Raises Its Ugly Head in The US and Kills A Jewish Man

On Sunday Michael Brown wrote at The Stream:

I am urging you. I am pleading with you. I am imploring you. Wake up! The irrational hatred of the Jewish people and the demonizing of Israel is reaching proportions so dangerous that if people of conscience do not stand up, speak out, and push back, Jewish blood will start flowing in America, England, and many other countries around the world. Wake up!

When Muslims in Sydney Australia are chanting, “Gas the Jews” you know that violence is near.

When Jewish students at a university here in America have to hide in a library in fear for their lives, you know that violence is near.

When Jewish children in Germany are afraid to go to school and parents warn their children not to wear the Star of David in public you know that violence is near.

When I post an image of the Israeli flag on Facebook and draw comments like, “Children killer. Hospital bombers” you know that violence is near.

When a BBC headline reads, “British Jews are ‘full of fear, like I’ve never seen before’,” you know that violence is near.

When Rep. Rashida Tlaib can post a 2024 election warning to President Biden, featuring crowds chanting “From the river to the sea” – meaning, no more State of Israel – you know that violence is near.

Wake up!

What I think he was referring to is the possibility of full-on worldwide Jewish persecution like the Holocaust under Adolph Hitler in World War II. I don’t think he was thinking his prophetic words would be fulfilled that very day—in America, of all places.

A 69-year-old man demonstrating in support of Israel died Nov. 6 after sustaining a head injury during a fight with a pro-Palestinian protester at a weekend rally in Thousand Oaks, about 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

This is the only report I’ve found that says Mr. Kessler’s injuries were the result of “a fight.”

The Ventura County medical examiner has ruled Paul Kessler’s death a homicide, and the county sheriff’s office has not ruled out a hate crime. Mr. Kessler was Jewish, according to the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles.

Officials say Mr. Kessler was attending the rally Sunday afternoon when he became involved in an altercation with a counter-protester who was demonstrating nearby at a pro-Palestinian event.

Below I link to a post from Red State reporting that the pro-Palestinian protestor who assaulted Kessler was led to the corner where Kessler was counter-protesting on behalf of Israel. in other words, this wasn’t the chance encounter of two groups meshing in the same spot.

The incident happened at the intersection of Westlake Boulevard and Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Ventura County.

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office responded to the altercation after several citizens called 9-1-1 to report a battery at about 3:20 p.m.

Deputies arrived to find Mr. Kessler suffering from a head injury. Witnesses told police he fell backwards during the fight and struck his head on the ground. He was taken to an area hospital for treatment but succumbed to his injuries Monday, the sheriff’s office reported.

The Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office determined Mr. Kessler died from blunt-force head injury, according to the sheriff’s office.

Here’s a clip of Mr. Kessler lying on the ground after the assault and LE had arrived.

Over at Red State there’s a more in-depth report with several videos.

During the November 5 protest, eyewitnesses say that [a known agitator] led an older gentleman over to the corner with the Shell station (across from where the bulk of the pro-Hamas faction were located), to where Mr. Kessler was, as if he was pointing Kessler out to the older gentleman.

The pro-Hamas faction were located on the southwest corner of the intersection, in front of Paul Martin’s American Grill.

Eyewitnesses, who have shared this information and their photos and videos, say the attack happened within five minutes of the time the agitators went to the corner where Kessler was. The eyewitness doesn’t have video of the moment the attack occurred, but says that the gray-haired, bearded man in khaki pants is the man who confronted Kessler then hit him in the head with the bullhorn.

The man who allegedly assaulted Mr. Kessler is the heavyset guy in the blue-ish shirt below. He apparently called 9-1-1 and was cooperative with authorities. And while there’s no video of the incident made public (yet) the report in Robby Starbuck’s post says police have seized his phone.

In the screengrab the alleged assailant stands with an officer as Mr. Kessler is prepped inside the ambulance for transport to the hospital. The man is reportedly “a college professor and ardent Muslim.”

Mr. Kessler’s death has been ruled a homicide, which means it was caused by another person. Whether or not it will become a “murder” has yet to be determined. In ultra-liberal California, it’s anybody’s guess.

So now we have the death of a Jewish man in the streets of America. It’s happened before, but not in an environment as hostile as this one. We’ve imported thousands of Middle Eastern Muslim Arabs and Palestinians who are doing what they do in every country they inhabit: agitate and protest in a mob that demands the death of the ultimate Out-Group: the Jews.

#DiversityIsOurStrength

And don’t forget that after the Jews, it’s the Christians. You may want to heed Dr. Brown’s warning:

In light of all this, and with tremendous urgency in my spirit, I urge every person of conscience, every lover of justice, everyone who fears and honors God.

Please, today, speak out against the demonization of Israel and the Jewish people.

Categorically denounce Hamas and distance yourself from those who support Hamas (and Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah and the rest of these terrorist groups).

[…]

But without hesitation and without shame, you must raise your voice in support of Israel and the Jewish people now, letting the haters know that when they come against Israel, they are coming against you. It really is a matter of life and death.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem—and for peace here in the United States.

by

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.”

by

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.

by

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.

by

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.

by - 2 Comments

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.

by

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.