My dear friends — Democrats and Republicans — despite these times of upheaval, I am hopeful about the future. I am hopeful about Israel because my people, the Jewish people, emerged from the depths of hell, from dispossession and genocide, and against all odds, we restored our sovereignty in our ancient homeland. We built a powerful and vibrant democracy — a democracy that pushes the boundaries of innovation for the betterment of all humanity.

I am hopeful about America because I'm hopeful about Americans. I know how much the people of this country have sacrificed to defend freedom. America will continue to be a force for light and good in a dark and dangerous world. For free peoples everywhere, America remains the beacon of liberty its extraordinary founders envisioned back in 1776.

Working together, I am confident that our two nations will vanquish the tyrants and terrorists who threaten us both. //

anon-89ic
10 hours ago
Part of the problem is that to some extent Trump understands Israel more than Bibi does. It's one of the reasons that our relationship with Israel is so important. it is partnership and an important one, the kind we used to have with what is now Saudi Britain.

CSPAN @cspan
·
Rashida Tlaib holds 'War Criminal' sign as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses Congress.

2:41 PM · Jul 24, 2024 //

The Left only destroys
7 hours ago
Actually, that sign is accurate. Rashida Taliban is a genocidal war criminal - or at least wants to be one.

RedinOR The Left only destroys
7 hours ago
Precisely. It wasn't a protest thing, she was self-identifying.

Iran supplying Samad-3 drones — like the one that hit Tel Aviv — to Mexican drug cartels and Venezuela, Israeli sources say. //

Iran-made drone flew over 1200 miles before hitting Tel Aviv
The Iran-made Samad-3 drone “traveled about 2,000 km from Yemen to Israel through the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt,” the Israeli news website YNET reported Friday. “The drone used different routes to confuse the IDF detection systems. The drone’s payload was relatively small and contained few kilograms of explosives to prolong the aircraft’s distance, allowing it to cross Sinai and enter Israel through the Mediterranean Sea.”

Hallen
an hour ago
The US should have taken care of this a year ago. There is a reason we have to be strong worldwide. When we clean up messes, nobody can do much about it. They may whine. They may call us bullies, but their governments pretty much all smile and wipe the sweat off their brow. They know that since the US did it, there won't be escalations.

With Israel and others having to do these things, it's the perfect excuse for others to escalate.

Anyone who doesn't get this is fooling themselves. It's why Biden's foreign policy is so dangerous. His weakness invites total war. A strong president would have bombed the Houthis out of existence by now -- well, at least their capability of harassing anyone. That would have ended that problem. Now, it's a much, much bigger problem. That's Biden's fault.

Israeli parliament mulls a ban on Hamas-linked UN agency, may brand its a terrorist organization.

The entire proceeding is a farce. South Africa, through a highly distorted set of accusations, doesn’t seek to prevent genocide, it seeks to enable genocide against Jews by preventing Israel from defending itself. //

Here is Israel’s entire presentation today:

https://youtu.be/imn9daDE2dQ

The substance of the ruling is not specific, but generally demands Israel live up to its obligations under the genocide convention. It did not “order” an immediate ceasefire. It’s a toothless order, but will be used against Israel despite it not being a finding that Israel committed genocide. //

If anyone thought the “International Court of Justice” a function of the U.N. General Assembly would give Israel a fair hearing on South Africa’s fraudulent charge of genocide, you don’t understant the U.N. at all. //

The only bright spot was the statement at the end that the ICJ expresses concerns for the hostages and calls for their immediate and unconditional release. //

Anna Ahronheim @AAhronheim
·
Right after ICJ released its ruling on South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, Hamas fires a barrage of rockets towards communities in southern Israel-including those struck by the terror group on Oct.7. Coincidence?
8:08 AM · Jan 26, 2024

We can no more count on Biden to defend our border than to assist Israel. That means states and local communities must take their fates into their own hands. //

“Such is the nature of Evil. Out there in the vast ignorance of the world it festers and spreads. A Shadow that grows in the dark. A sleepless malice as black as the oncoming wall of night. So it ever was, so it always will be.”

These words from the movie adaptation of The Hobbit were quoted by my colleague Dr. David Wurmser, who is presently in Israel reporting as he can between rocket attacks and shelter-in-place orders.

Only Tolkien’s stories of the changeless sweeping malevolence of evil across the ages seem appropriate to encapsulate the tremendous paradigm shift represented by the horrific massacre perpetrated by Hamas over the weekend.

700 dead in a country of 9.3 million people is the equivalent of a terror attack on America in which over 25,000 people were brutally murdered. //

Israel unilaterally withdrew from every last inch of Gaza in 2005, after dismantling the 21 Israeli settlements that had existed in the territory and handing them over to the Palestinian Authority.

The rationale behind Israel’s withdrawal, carried out by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, was the notion of land for peace—that Israel would hand over control of certain territories in exchange for security. The land was handed over. The peace never came.

“We did this repeatedly, at the highest levels and I want to make things clear — we did this behind closed doors. We received various explanations, but the basic situation has not changed. Certain shipments trickled in, but the bulk of the munitions was left behind,” he said.

“After months during which the situation was static, I decided to make it public,” Netanyahu said. “I did this based on years of experience and knowing this step was essential to release the bottleneck. I anticipated it would involve personal attacks against me both from within and without,” Netanyahu said. “I’m willing to endure personal attacks for the sake of Israel’s security,” he added.

 I deeply appreciate the support we were given by President Biden and the United States administration for our war effort from the beginning. President Biden came here, he sent two carrier groups, and he gave us valuable assistance and ammunition and weapons from the beginning of the war. I appreciate that. And I remain appreciative.

We began to see that we had some significant problems emerging a few months ago. And in fact, we tried, in many, many quiet conversations between our officials and American officials, and between me and the president to try to iron out this diminution of supply.

And we haven’t been able to solve it. //

What we learn from Netanyahu's confession of spending months behind the scenes trying to get Biden to do what he says publicly he is doing, is that Biden is playing us all. He says one thing publicly to appease one group, then secretly does another thing to appease a different group. This game of charades has one goal - for Biden to never be held accountable because he maintains the facade that he is giving everyone what they want, while in reality giving them nothing.

A lot of celebrities would have tried to give credence to the heckler when the proper response is ridicule and humor. Seinfeld delivered that in spades. //

heckling a professional comedian is rarely a good idea. You will get leveled. //

emptypockets
2 hours ago
Willfully ignorant but arrogantly self-important lackwits trying to get their own virtue signaling in while it's "the thing to do". Like the BLM was the "thing to do" a couple of years ago. They are not serious people or they would bother with facts. They don't so it's all just performance. //

Magnus
2 hours ago
Their purpose is not to solve the 80 years issue with Trans Jordanians and Jews, but to FEEL righteous in their vapid indignations. It's all about FEELINGS, you know.

The ordeal was a microcosm of Joe Biden's career. For over five decades, across three major federal offices, he has managed to stake out his position as the worst foreign policy mind in history. //

All of this is completely unnecessary. Palestinians do not need a ruling "council" made up of the Palestinian Authority and others who celebrated the October 7th attacks. The Gaza Strip has forfeited its right to self-governance for the time being. Did the United States quickly usher the Taliban back into leadership roles after just eight months of war in Afghanistan? That would have been ludicrous, and this plan for Gaza is just as much so.

What needs to happen is exactly what already happens in the West Bank. Israeli forces need to maintain a presence to ensure security. The Arab nations will cry like they always do, and radicals in America will proclaim it an "occupation." So what? They were calling Gaza "occupied" prior to October 7th despite Israel not having a presence there in nearly two decades.

The only thing that should matter is a workable security plan that ensures Hamas or any similar groups never retake control.

History and current society are exceptionally harsh on conservative leaders. Because conservatism often finds itself on the side of rules and law, the leaders end up like a parent who always has to say no. Modern liberalism is rooted in essentially telling everyone yes, every time. Liberal leaders’ loyalty is to the whims of the crowd. Conservativism is loyal to moral law. Conservatives are willing to draw a line, whether people are offended or not, and it usually doesn’t go over well.

Things change in a crisis, though. //

In a crisis the people want leaders who have something else as their anchor – something above the noise of the crowd – something called conviction.

Netanyahu may be many things. He may be overbearing, he may sometimes come on too strong, and he may sometimes drift amiss in his zeal. But one thing that cannot said of him is that he does not love his country enough to do the hard things for them. He is willing to be hated to do what he believes is right. He has endured criticism on literally every side. He has been immovable when the whole world was against him, literally. //

Whether it be days, weeks, months, or years that Netanyahu has left in office, eventually, the next leader will come. They will have their chance to leave their legacy and make decisions that chart the course for the nation of Israel. We will elect our own president at the end of this year. Whatever the course may be, for both of our nations, let us hope that we are led by strong men or women of courage and moral fortitude, for it is a pitiful thing for a great nation to be led by a coward.

anon-pweq
an hour ago
[Repeating my comment from a sister-site:]
Just a note about the bemoaning of the supposed dis-proportionality between the number of dead Arabs versus rescued Israelis. It's not as if the calculus was "Should we kill X people in order to reach the hostages?". According to all reports, the vast majority of Arab casualties occurred after the initial Israeli rescue. After Israeli forces were "in possession" of the hostages and were trying to retreat, they all came under heavy fire and were forced to respond. Israel was initially carrying out a precise in-and-out rescue operation with minimal casualties; it was Hamas and its supporters who elected to unnecessarily turn it into an all-out battle.

In the wake of the Israel Defense Forces' successful operation to rescue four hostages from captivity in Gaza we're learning more about the conditions in which the hostages lived and who housed them, and once again we're seeing that the native "journalists" covering the conflict are anything but neutral observers.

As we noted in numerous stories about Israel's rescue mission, the four hostages rescued were not held in tunnels or prisons; they were held in the homes of alleged civilians in residential areas in Nuseirat. I say "alleged civilians" because if these people were holding Israeli hostages for eight months they're absolutely part of Hamas and are combatants, not civilians.

One of those alleged civilians, it's now confirmed, was Abdullah Al Jamal, who bills himself as a journalist and who most recently wrote for a United States-based 501(c)(3) NGO, The Palestine Chronicle. He also wrote at least one piece for Al Jazeera. The Israeli government confirmed Sunday that Al Jamal, who was neutralized by IDF rescuers, held three hostages captive in his family home: //

Laocoön of Troy
18 hours ago edited
Actually the "hostages" are slaves taken in "battle". It's an ancient Muslim practice when waging Jihad. It wouldn't surprise me if the families paid Hamas for their slaves.

The issue here probably isn't just optics-related. There's likely a legal component as well given there are laws against American organizations aiding and abetting terrorism. Not only was Al Jamal a "correspondent in Gaza" (which dictates he held an official position for the Palestinian Chronicle), but he was also a spokesperson for the Hamas Ministry of Labor. The ties don't get any clearer than that.

Now ask yourself, if Al Jamal was just an innocent bystander gunned down by ruthless Israeli forces, why would the Palestinian Chronicle try to cover up his connection to their organization? That's a question CNN and other American mainstream news outlets won't be asking as they rush to push the Palestinian line about the hostage rescue.

The popular former military chief joined Netanyahu’s government shortly after the Hamas attack in a show of unity. His presence also boosted Israel’s credibility with its international partners. Gantz has good working relations with U.S. officials.

Gantz had previously said he would leave the government by June 8 if Netanyahu did not formulate a new plan for postwar Gaza.

Although Almog’s father, Yossi Meir, was ill before his death, his family believes he died of grief. //

Yossi Meir’s heart reportedly stopped the night before the rescue. //

Noa Argamani, one of the other three hostages rescued in Operation Arnon, named after the IDF soldier who lost his life in the mission, returned home to a mother, Liora, who is battling brain cancer. Her mother's dying wish was to be able to see her daughter again. //

Chris Co
2 hours ago
One day before the rescue. If Biden/Blinken stopped interfering, he would not have died as his son would have been rescued earlier.

Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 @MarinaMedvin
·
“How dare those Jews rescue their hostages!” — WaPo, outraged.
8:22 PM · Jun 8, 2024

Everything about that headline is carefully crafted to mislead. For one, the claim that "more than 200 Palestinians killed" is completely unverified. Those numbers come directly from the Hamas-controlled "Gaza Ministry of Health." Also absent in them is any admission of how many of the dead were combatants, either because they were members of Hamas or chose to fire on the Israeli forces.

Then there's the labeling of the operation as an "Israeli hostage raid." This was not a "raid," a word that typically produces impressions of aggression (i.e., a bombing raid). It was a rescue in which self-defense was used while securing the safety of the four hostages.

That's nothing, though, compared to what one BBC reporter did while interviewing Jonathan Conricus, a former IDF spokesman.

Brian BJ @iamBrianBJ
·
The prize for most stupid question of the day goes to.... the bbc for asking the following question:

Should the @idf have warned Palestinians before launching the rescue operation ?

Listen to how @jconricus handled that one Show more

4:31 AM · Jun 9, 2024

After allowing Conricus to share his reaction to the rescue, the reporter's first question wasn't about why these hostages were being held by civilians. It wasn't about how the families felt when their loved ones returned after such a daring mission. It was to immediately pivot to "the death toll among Palestinians." //

Long story short: The mainstream press is awful. There is no low its members won't stoop to, and that includes becoming propagandists for terrorists. ///

In one sense, the BBC reporter actually gives an opportunity to defuse and debunk some of the criticism that IDF is going to get.