It’s an unfortunate anniversary. Today marks one year since Hamas launched a barbaric terrorist attack against Israeli civilians in the largest one-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. 1,200 Jewish people lost their lives, including women and children, and 250 Jews were taken hostage.
Some of the atrocities are almost unspeakable: burning babies alive, killing fathers in front of their children, and gang raping women. We all saw the videos and the read the reports.
Today, Israel has decimated the leadership of Hamas and has leveled portions of Gaza that were hiding tunnel entrances and the “offices” of Hamas leaders. They’ve targeted Hezbollah in southern Lebanon because they began to harass Jews living in northern Israel with rockets. And now Israel’s military is planning something big for Iran in response to the barrage of missiles it launched at Israel last week.
Of course, Israel is being criticized for its war on the Islamists. Why is it that Western governments and busybodies tell Israel to restrain itself in going after these medieval death cults? Don’t they realize that the jihadis won’t rest until they destroy Israel, kill all the Jews, and then turn their attention to the Sunday people?
As Israel marks one year since the horrific Oct. 7 terrorist attack that was orchestrated by Sinwar, Koubi said the Hamas leader would never agree to a ceasefire, and that peace cannot be restored to the region so long as the Hamas chief still lives.
“Sinwar will never, never, never accept peace,” Koubi said. “As long as he is alive, he will carry out another massacre. He must be killed.”
Israel said last month that the whereabouts of the Oct. 7 mastermind are unknown and that he hasn’t been heard from in weeks.
Unfortunately, one of our two presidential candidates refuses to acknowledge Israel’s leader as an ally.
Kamala Harris refuses to say that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is an ally, one day before the anniversary of October 7th. pic.twitter.com/Uo9AqrGcoJ
There are thousands and thousands of anti-Semites across the globe, and an unfortunate majority of them are agitating for violence. Due to our feckless and anti-American leaders, thousands of them now reside in the United States.
Watch the news today. It should be a barometer of how ingrained the hate has become.
Israel carried out limited strikes in Iran early Friday in retaliation for Tehran firing a barrage of missiles and drones at Israel late Saturday.
Fox News Digital has confirmed there have been explosions in Isfahan province where Natanz is located though it is not clear whether it has been hit. Natanz is the site of one of Iran’s nuclear facilities, though state television has described all sites in the area as “fully safe.”
A well-placed military source has told Fox that the strike was “limited.” Sources familiar said the U.S. was not involved and there was pre-notification to the U.S. from the Israelis.
Pentagon officials have not confirmed the strike. The White House and the National Security Council (NSC) have declined to comment on the unfolding situation.
The attack was “limited” by the United States, no doubt, who accepted a few missiles lobbed into the interior of Iran. But this administration has been trying to manage both sides of this conflict, apparently green-lighting Iran’s first-ever direct attack on Israel over the weekend, and now urging Israel not to retaliate but *wink, wink* approving of a “limited” strike.
Israel no doubt has the capacity and the will to destroy any of its neighbors should it choose to. Iran’s weak attack did almost no damage and looked pathetic in the face of Israel’s multi-layered defensive systems.
This newly opened direct front in the Middle East between Israel and Iran is pulling Israeli attention away from the unfinished job in Gaza, where they still have to deliver the final blow to the Hamas terrorists who attacked Israel back on October 7.
Israel had said it would retaliate against Iran’s weekend attack, which involved hundreds of drones and missiles, in response to a suspected Israeli strike on its embassy compound in Syria. Most of the Iranian drones and missiles were downed before reaching Israeli territory.
Analysts and observers have raised concerns about the risks of the Israel-Gaza war spreading into the rest of the region.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi had warned Israel before Friday’s strike that Tehran would deliver a “severe response” to any attack on its territory.
Iran told the United Nations Security Council on Thursday that Israel “must be compelled to stop any further military adventurism against our interests” as the U.N. secretary-general warned that the Middle East was in a “moment of maximum peril.”
Sirens blared across Israel on Saturday night as hundreds of drones and missiles launched from Iran reached Israel. Drones and missiles were also reportedly launched from Yemen and other countries around the region.
[…]
The IDF has updated that the full Iranian attack consisted of over 300 threats, of which 100 were ballistic missiles launched from Iran. Another 30 cruise missiles were launched from the Islamic Republic, along with drones. There were also two rounds of rockets, around 40 total, fired on Israel from Lebanon, with Israel responding with counterattacks in close to real-time.
None of the drones or cruise missiles entered Israeli airspace. IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari noted that only a small number of ballistic missiles penetrated the Jewish state’s airspace.
Almost all interceptions have been by aircraft, David’s Sling, or the Arrow missile systems. The Iron Dome, which defends well against Hamas and Hezbollah’s simple rockets, is less relevant for drones and fancier long-range missiles.
Israel managed to shoot down 99% of the 300 deadly suicide drones and missiles that Iran launched at the Jewish state on Saturday night using an advanced air defense system known as David’s Sling — in addition to an array of other anti-missile capabilities.
Israel also had help from the US, the UK and an unlikely Arab ally.
Not a single drone or cruise missile fired by Iran and its proxies made it through, according to Israeli media. And only a few of Iran’s more advanced ballistic missiles struck Israel.
Despite facing a direct attack from Iran for the first time in modern history, Israel appears to have suffered very little damage, and only one casualty is known so far — a 7-year-old Bedouin girl.
300+ launches. 99% interception rate. This is the breakdown of Iran's attack last night: pic.twitter.com/aRPvxSutW2
What we’re looking at is one of the most advanced defensive arrays in world history. Israel, because of its existential imperative to survive in the lion’s den of the Middle East, has developed one of the most impressive defensive military systems in the world; even better, perhaps, than what the U.S. can field.
The attack is a response to the killing of top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the death of whom Iran blames Israel.
More importantly, the attack is a direct result of the Biden junta’s jumbled messaging about Israel’s right to self defense and their idiotic pacification of Iran. Of course, they don’t see it that way. They blame—wait for it—Donald J. Trump.
Bream pressed Kirby about the Biden administration’s policies to permit waivers on sanctions and unfreezing assets vis-à-vis Iran. Last month, the Biden administration re-approved a sanctions waiver to permit Iraq to purchase energy from Iran, effectively allowing the state-sponsor of terrorism to access $10 billion. Kirby had said at the time the money would not go to its “mullahs.”
“Could this administration have been tougher on Iran? Did it sense an opening?” Bream asked.
“It’s hard to take a look at what President Biden has done and say that we have somehow gone soft on Iran,” Kirby responded. “It was the previous administration that decided to get us out of the Iran deal. And now Iran is so much dramatically closer to a potential nuclear weapon capability than they were before Mr. Trump was elected.”
That Donald Trump, guys. Out of office for almost four years, and the impact he’s had on this administration. I mean, he’s made it so hard for them to govern.
It’s not hard to believe that this gang of incompetent wokesters hastens to blame the prior administration which has been out of power since January 2020. Blame-shifting is their go-to tactic, especially since all Brandon can do is wag his finger and cough up “don’t” as though Iran has any respect for him at all. He’s all pose and no substance, one of the weakest “leaders” we’ve ever had at the helm of this nation.
Bream pressed Kirby again on whether the White House was soft on Iran, and he again blamed Trump’s foreign policy.
“Is it not fair to say, though, that there have been moves by this administration that have opened up cash and other opportunities for them, which we know are fungible in ways that are not helping the Iranian people but are benefiting the elites and people there who chant ‘Death to America?,'” Bream asked.
Kirby responded by saying, “The additional funds that have been made available to Iran due to the sanctions relief program that the Trump administration put in place, can only be used for humanitarian goods. It doesn’t go to the regime. And the idea that the regime was somehow felt like they were freed up to support these proxies because of that. It just doesn’t comport with the fact that they have been supporting these proxies for years.”
The IDF spokesperson said rightly when referring to those who use ballistic missiles as not planning a “moderate attack,” but intending to hit hard. Ballistic missiles, after all, are like a declaration of war.
This could be the run up to World War III. It’s clear that power centers are shifting and the mullahs are growing bolder. They know what is true about any attack, even against an enemy as well prepared defensively as is Israel: the target has to be lucky all the time. Terrorists only have to be lucky once.
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.
Ep. 33 Looks like we’re actually going to war with Iran. Are we ready for this? pic.twitter.com/Ap09hWnvnj
Washington Post analysis of Hamas videos shows they killed four hostages shortly after taking them captive on Saturday morning. pic.twitter.com/oqcoqRY1gE
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.
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.
🧵I'm sorry Jen but you are simply unfamiliar with Iranian budgeting practices and how the Iranian regime and Hamas make decisions.
1. Iran normally has to allocate its limited foreign exchange reserves for food/medicine months in advance to facilitate trade flows. Not anymore. https://t.co/w2X0wNNANs
Daily Verse | Exodus 12:40-41 Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions left Egypt.
Monday’s Reading: Exodus 15-18
Monday and we’re now into the first full week of Brandon’s second year as Resident as Russia! Russia! Russia! threatens to invade Ukraine at the invitation delivered last week by the dunce in the White House; “minor incursion” and all that. Do you know that Trump was the only president in the last 30 years to not start or escalate existing foreign conflicts or war? Barring some kind of intervention, that’s all about to change as our military service members in their high-heels, pregnancy flight suits and vaccines prepare to defend Ukraine against Russian aggression and mockery of our woke civilian military.
The US and its allies will deliver a “swift, severe and united response” if Russia invades Ukraine, the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, warned on Sunday amid rising tensions.
Maybe. I don’t trust anything that Blinken says nor the administration’s competence to deliver or sustain a smack-down on the Russians. Perhaps their attitude is the same as Megamind’s:
The only reason Russia is even making the move on Ukraine is that Brandon is an empty suit who reads whatever is put on his teleprompter. He’s certainly not a geopolitical genius, as his catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan showed us. Effects of the invasion could be harsh for the U.S.
Treasurys are a traditional haven during periods of geopolitical and economic stress. A rally in Treasurys would pull down yields, which move in the opposite direction of prices. A Treasury selloff has pushed up yields, with the 10-year Treasury rate TMUBMUSD10Y, 1.778% finishing near 1.77% Friday after hitting a nearly two-year high earlier in the week.
The Swiss franc, another popular haven, could also rally, with the euro/Swiss franc EURCHF, 0.12% currency pair likely to fall to CHF1.03 “on a frozen rope if Russia moves,” Donnelly said. The euro bought 1.043 francs Friday.
If Russia invades Ukraine, inflation-weary Americans will likely pay even higher prices at the pump.Oil prices have already shot up to seven-year highs in recent days. A conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which the White House has warned could be imminent, would have the potential to drive them much higher.That’s because Russia is the No. 2 oil producer on the planet, behind only the United States. And Ukraine is a key energy transit hub, where a large amount of Russian natural gas exports to Europe flow through.
An invasion of Ukraine would trigger immediate fears of sanctions from Washington on Russia’s vast energy resources, damage to the region’s energy infrastructure and raise the specter of Vladimir Putin weaponizing exports of natural gas and crude oil.
Investors would buy first and ask questions later.
The Kremlin wants what it says: an end to NATO expansion, a rollback of previous expansion, a removal of American nuclear weapons from Europe, and a Russian sphere of influence. However, Putin may accept less. The Kremlin’s primary goal is a guarantee that Belarus, Ukraine, and Georgia will never belong to a military or economic bloc other than the ones Moscow controls and that Russia will be the ultimate arbitrator of the foreign and security policy of all three states. In essence, this conflict is about whether 30 years after the demise of the Soviet Union, its former ethnic republics can live as independent, sovereign states or if they still must acknowledge Moscow as their de facto sovereign.
The United States has ordered the families of all American staff at the US Embassy in Ukraine to leave the country amid heightened concern that Russia, which has massed troops on the border, is about to invade.
In a statement on Sunday, the State Department also said that non-essential embassy staff could leave Ukraine at government expense and that all Americans should consider departing immediately.
[…]
The US Embassy in Kyiv warned that “military action by Russia could come at any time and the United States government will not be in a position to evacuate American citizens in such a contingency, so US citizens currently present in Ukraine should plan accordingly.”
Take them at their word, embassy staff.
A Russian invasion could lead to a much bigger conflict and pull focus away from Brandon’s problems at home and perhaps trigger aggression by China and Iran, two other foes who have, respectively, designs on Taiwan and avenging the loss of top commander Qasem Soleimani who died by a US drone strike two years ago. If either of them act while we’re dealing with Russia, all bets are off.
But at least the tweets are nice, right NeverTrump?
It’s Saturday and we’ve completed week six of the Beijing Blight lock down. The further along we go, the further along this nonsense recedes into the distance. Today’s links include a knife shop owner who refuses to comply with the Colorado governor’s orders to keep business closed; a threat against ‘400 American targets’ from Iran; a fossilized South American frog a long way from home; a life-and-death lesson on reading the fine print from the Netherlands; and the career of Steve Kerr, one of the supporting players from the Chicago Bulls’ dynasty in the 1990s.
America’s top four nation-state enemies in the world have all shown signs of increased military aggression against the United States over the last 24 hours.
Earlier today, 11 Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) boats swarmed several U.S. naval ships that “were conducting joint integration operations with U.S. Army AH-64E Apache attack helicopters in the international waters of the North Arabian Gulf,” the U.S. Navy said in a statement.
The Navy said that the Iranian boats got within 10 yards of the U.S. vessels and did not respond to “five short blasts from the ships’ horns and long-range acoustic noise maker devices.”
