And Democrats made it so. //

“To make Israel a partisan issue only hurts Israel and the US-Israeli relationship,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had the temerity to say only days after demanding the Jewish state’s duly elected government be toppled.

Schumer was responding to Donald Trump’s hyperbolic contention that Jews who vote for Democrats “hate Israel” and their religion. And to be fair, Trump isn’t exactly right.

Democrats are more inclined to whine about AIPAC’s milquetoast press releases than they are to bring up the fact that Iranian assets are working in the Pentagon.

The only party clamoring to save Hamas right now is the Democrat Party. Biden claims he continues to “affirm that Israel has a right to go after Hamas” but also wants a ceasefire. Those positions are in direct conflict, as the president accidentally admitted in an interview last week. Hamas, Biden told MSNBC, wanted a ceasefire to “survive” and “rebuild.” A ceasefire now, when Israel is at the cusp of eliminating the terror group, is a pro-Hamas position. //

Unlike Obama, Biden is not driven by ideological motivations. He’s just a weak, feckless man devoid of any real principles. Privately, for instance, Biden allegedly told Netanyahu that he is not trying to oust him. Which, if true, means he is only doing so publicly to placate his pro-terror wing.

How is this not a partisan issue?

Even after Israel cleared the hospital complex of Hamas, Hamas returned and started using the hospital again, leading to an Israeli raid last night. The intitial reports were that a “Senior” Hamas official was the target, but until this morning, his identify was not released: //

The hostpital complex was infested with terrorists, with fierce firefights from within, leading to many dead Hamas terrorists: //

Today the IDF revealed the identity of the target, Faiq Habhoud, the head of the Operations Directorate of Hamas’ Internal Security:

The number of civilian casualties in Gaza has been at the center of international attention since the start of the war. The main source for the data has been the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, which now claims more than 30,000 dead, the majority of which it says are children and women. //

Here’s the problem with this data: The numbers are not real. That much is obvious to anyone who understands how naturally occurring numbers work. The casualties are not overwhelmingly women and children, and the majority may be Hamas fighters.

If Hamas’ numbers are faked or fraudulent in some way, there may be evidence in the numbers themselves that can demonstrate it. While there is not much data available, there is a little, and it is enough: From Oct. 26 until Nov. 10, 2023, the Gaza Health Ministry released daily casualty figures that include both a total number and a specific number of women and children.

The first place to look is the reported “total” number of deaths. The graph of total deaths by date is increasing with almost metronomical linearity, as the graph in Figure 1 reveals.

This regularity is almost surely not real. One would expect quite a bit of variation day to day. In fact, the daily reported casualty count over this period averages 270 plus or minus about 15%. This is strikingly little variation. There should be days with twice the average or more and others with half or less. //

Most likely, the Hamas ministry settled on a daily total arbitrarily. We know this because the daily totals increase too consistently to be real. Then they assigned about 70% of the total to be women and children, splitting that amount randomly from day to day. Then they in-filled the number of men as set by the predetermined total. This explains all the data observed.

There are other obvious red flags. The Gaza Health Ministry has consistently claimed that about 70% of the casualties are women or children. This total is far higher than the numbers reported in earlier conflicts with Israel. Another red flag, raised by Salo Aizenberg and written about extensively, is that if 70% of the casualties are women and children and 25% of the population is adult male, then either Israel is not successfully eliminating Hamas fighters or adult male casualty counts are extremely low. This by itself strongly suggests that the numbers are at a minimum grossly inaccurate and quite probably outright faked. Finally, on Feb. 15, Hamas admitted to losing 6,000 of its fighters, which represents more than 20% of the total number of casualties reported. //

The truth can’t yet be known and probably never will be. The total civilian casualty count is likely to be extremely overstated. Israel estimates that at least 12,000 fighters have been killed. If that number proves to be even reasonably accurate, then the ratio of noncombatant casualties to combatants is remarkably low: at most 1.4 to 1 and perhaps as low as 1 to 1. By historical standards of urban warfare, where combatants are embedded above and below into civilian population centers, this is a remarkable and successful effort to prevent unnecessary loss of life while fighting an implacable enemy that protects itself with civilians.

Wednesday, an unsigned statement attributed to a "top Israeli official" was quoted by Israeli media.

“Israeli citizens, and not anyone else, elect the prime minister,” the statement said.

“Israel is not a protectorate of the US but an independent and democratic country whose citizens are the ones who choose the government.

“We expect our friends to act to overthrow the terror regime of Hamas and not the elected government in Israel.”

Israeli media did not name the source but the country’s Channel 12 described the statement as coming from “the most senior Israeli political source you can imagine”. //

The White House's hope to replace Netanyahu with former Defense Minister and Netanyahu rival Benny Gantz took a shot to the teeth Monday—Gantz, who is perceived as much softer on Hamas and the Palestinian Authority than Netanyahu. Perhaps prompted by the US intelligence slam at Netanyahu, Gideon Sa'ar, the former Likud member who now leads the "New Hope" party as part of Gantz's opposition, decided to abandon the opposition coalition and seek closer ties with Netanyahu.

“The food shortage and use of the word ‘hunger’ have been exaggerated,” a senior Israeli defense official told me on Thursday during a briefing. “There is no hunger in Gaza,” he said, explaining that most of the food that Israel has been sending into the Strip has “immediately been taken by Hamas terrorists, who then sell some of the supplies for ten times more than what it’s worth.”

The official further noted that “Every family has enough food to survive…We have been supplying them with aid as well as the US, but unfortunately, it wasn’t distributed to the citizens themselves.”

A former senior Israeli defense official who I spoke to on condition of anonymity has also said that “there is no food shortage in Gaza; there are those who are hungry since Hamas has taken all of the food and they don’t have enough money to pay Hamas on the black market.”

According to this former official, the food does not reach those who need it most since Hamas controls approximately 70-80% of the area. What happens is that Israel and foreign countries bring food and aid into Gaza. Then gangs take the supplies at gunpoint, and a significant portion of the population is left unable to afford necessities.

After President Joe Biden said Saturday that Israel invading the Gazan city of Rafah, where many refugees from northern Gaza have relocated, would be a "red line" regarding America's support, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu replied that Israel will indeed invade Rafah because his own red line is "that October 7th doesn't happen again, never happens again." //

A few minutes later Netanyahu was specifically asked about Biden's "red line" comments, and replied:

My red line is very simple. We're not going to leave Hamas with the capability of pursuing, of perpetrating another Hamas massacre as they did on October 7th. And the only way we can do that is, we cannot leave -- we cannot leave the Hamas terrorist battalions intact. It means that, in fact, we lose the war.

People often ask: why did Pius XII, Eugenio Pacelli, not speak out more forcefully against Hitler? Historian Fr Dermot Fenlon of the Birmingham Oratory looks at the facts and sets the record straight. //

"Those rescued by Pius are today living all over the world. There went to Israel alone from Romania 360,000 to the year 1965."

The vindication of Pius XII has been established principally by Jewish writers and from Israeli archives. It is now established that the Pope supervised a rescue network which saved 860,000 Jewish lives - more than all the international agencies put together.

After the war the Chief Rabbi of Israel thanked Pius XII for what he had done. The Chief Rabbi of Rome went one step further. He became a Catholic. He took the name Eugenio.

Philip Klein @philipaklein
·
New poll finds that 75% of Jewish Israelis and 65% of Israelis overall support operation in Rafah, which Biden says is a “red line.” His efforts to portray the Gaza operation as Netanyahu policy will only help Bibi domestically. https://en.idi.org.il/articles/53305

The Hill @thehill
President Biden says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “hurting Israel more than helping” https://trib.al/67YEzDN
12:02 PM · Mar 10, 2024

Biden is being a duplicitous snake and throwing Israel under the bus, trying to put pressure on Bibi to play both to our left and maybe to theirs. But Joe being Joe, he's wrong again, and he may be actually strengthening Netanyahu in the process.

Great job, Joe!

SLOTown Hoosier
8 hours ago
"can't have 30,000 more Palestinians dead,"- but apparently the number of dead Americans, at the hands of illegal aliens is of no concern //

edhuff SLOTown Hoosier
7 hours ago
Nobody in the Middle East or Ukraine would have had to die if Biden and his team had been even marginally competent in foreign affairs (or anything for that matter). //

houdini1984
8 hours ago

An Israeli expert who frequently consults for US officials is quoted by New York Magazine as saying, “I have been asked by a serious administration figure what it is that will force the Netanyahu coalition to collapse. They were interested in the mechanics, what can we demand which will collapse his coalition.”

I'm old enough to remember when Trump was impeached for asking Ukraine's leaders to look into Biden's corruption in that country. And here we have a President whose administration is actively looking at options to undermine the government of one of our most important allies.

Add that to Biden's unbroken string of failed foreign policy positions. 50 years of being wrong on every major foreign policy issues. You almost have to admire his consistency. //

Mama Bear
4 hours ago
American Jews have had best friends in 3 US presidents:

1) George Washington.

He wrote a letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Rhode Island, saying, among other things:

“May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants—while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.”

Basically, he welcomed the Jewish people to this great country.

2) Thomas Jefferson.

His was one of the few voices in the early republic fervently championing equal political rights for Jews. Jefferson’s Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom in Virginia is a classic American statement of religious toleration.

After the Revolution he wrote a Jewish physician to say:

“Religious freedom is the most effectual anodyne against religious dissension.” Jefferson said he was delighted to see American Jews assuming full social rights and hoped “they will be seen taking their seats on the benches of science as preparatory to their doing the same at the board of government.”

3) Donald Trump.

In his first month in office Trump set about to accomplish the Abraham Accords — specifically taking the Palestinian lynchpin out of the equation and making US aid and support to countries like Saudi Arabia and UAE conditional upon relations with Israel.

In 2019 President Trump signed an executive order that broadened Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to apply to discrimination based on anti-Semitism.

None of the networks carried it. Most Jews don’t even know about it.

In 2017, during his first year in office, Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, helping fulfill a 2000 year old dream for world Jewry.

Trump is also the first and only US president to have Jewish children and grandchildren, and the first to have a rabbi do the benediction at his inauguration.

The list of what Trump has done for the Jewish people goes on and on. You would think American Jewry, including the so-called political leaders like Schumer, Schiff, Nadler, and their ilk would recognize this and be grateful.

It’s time for American Jews to wake up and see reality. The Dems no longer are our friends. But Donald Trump has been a very loyal one.

Retlag Mama Bear
3 hours ago
I agree with your assessment, but I think you would also have to include Harry Truman. He recognized Israel within minutes of their announcement of statehood. Without his support, Israel might never have survived 1948/49. //

A member of Palestine Action, an anti-Israel group, slashed and sprayed paint on a portrait of Arthur James Balfour at Trinity College at the University of Cambridge.

Visegrád 24 @visegrad24
·
A pro-Palestinian protester destroys a painting of Lord Balfour at the University of Cambridge.

As foreign secretary in the Lloyd George ministry, he issued the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which supported a "home for the Jewish people".

10:48 AM · Mar 8, 2024

The UN has confirmed these accounts of necrophilia as part of a broader report, UN Report: “sexual violence occurred during the 7 October attacks in multiple locations … including rape and gang rape”. //

Eylon Levy @EylonALevy
·
Hamas committed acts of necrophilia against murder victims, then its spokesman went on TV and said it was teaching Israelis a lesson and would do it again & again.

I don't understand what part of "this war will end when Hamas is defeated or surrenders" people don't understand.
7:36 AM · Mar 6, 2024

Hillel Neuer
@HillelNeuer
·
Follow
BREAKING: Terror tunnel discovered right below UNRWA HQ, hiding Hamas intelligence data center, with electrical room, industrial battery power banks, living quarters for Hamas server operators. Electric cables from UNRWA powered the Hamas servers. UNRWA chief: “We had no clue.”

Recognition of a Palestinian State after what Hamas did, with the help of Iran no less, is enabling terrorism in the Middle East and across the world. Hamas started this war with a terror attack that killed hundreds. They raped women, defiled the bodies of those they killed, took and later killed hostages, and have routinely stolen from their own people in order to create weapons to launch more terror attacks. These are not the actions of people who deserve statehood in the international community. They are the actions of a group of terrorists who should be eradicated.

Recognizing Palestinian statehood is just one of a "big menu of options," according to the sources who spoke to Axios. But it should not be an option. They should not be rewarded for routinely targeting Israeli civilians in their attacks. They should not be given recognition over an area they don't so much control as much as they rob. The people of Gaza live in poverty because the ruling class, Hamas, takes all resources meant for their citizens and uses those resources to take part in terrorism.

A responsible State Department would hear this suggestion of recognizing Palestinian statehood and dismiss it immediately. But if there is one thing the Biden administration is not, it's responsible.

While Blinken's people were leaking that a policy rethinking was underway, the National Security Council was caught with its jaw hanging down.

• A White House National Security Council spokesperson said it "has been longstanding U.S. policy that any recognition of a Palestinian state must come through direct negotiations between the parties rather than through unilateral recognition at the UN. That policy has not changed."
• The State Department declined to comment.

There are three sticking points. First, the boundaries of this new terrorist empire have to be set. No one knows what that would look like. Second, the obvious impact of what will be an Iranian-controlled terror state bordering Israel that could have mutual defense treaties with other nations hostile to Israel and UN representation doesn't seem to have been considered. Third, everyone appears to be assuming away the high probability that Israel will refuse to accept this terror state.

If this happens, it effectively kills Trump's Abraham Accords by bringing Palestinian demands back to the center of Middle East geopolitics. It will be nearly impossible for any Arab nation to continue relations with Israel if Israel refuses to accept the strategy of rolling bilateral recognition agreements that the White House envisages.

Unless this is derailed, we have effectively abandoned our tacit alliance with Israel and handed a massive strategic victory to the country that will control the government in this new state. //

Mildred's Oldest Son
7 hours ago
The anti-semitism of the democrat party knows no bounds. The Obama/Jarrett pawn, Biden, will throw Israel under the bus to further the Iranian mullahs' goal to destroy Israel. The treachery and the pandering to Iran, and the leftist, pro-Palestinian protesters is disgusting, absolutely disgusting.

Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan
·
“about 10 members of Israeli special forces dressed in civilian clothes went to the third floor [of the hospital], where they killed the men using weapons fitted with silencers”

In any other country, we’d call this a government death squad. Sheesh.
bbc.com
Israeli forces kill three Palestinian militants in West Bank hospital raid
8:42 AM · Jan 30, 2024

I mean, yes, it was a "death squad" in the sense that it was sent to kill dangerous terrorists. Special operations against enemy combatants are not a new concept. Hamas could simply surrender if this is all too messy for people like Mehdi Hasan. //

I've been told repeatedly that Israel must cease all attacks that result in civilian casualties. Well, this was an attack that resulted in no civilian casualties. It's almost as if Hasan and people like him weren't actually concerned about that but just support terrorism. Who could have guessed?

Do you know what I noticed the most about this operation? No one was raped. No one was beheaded. No innocent people were gunned down. Instead, those involved operated as a professional force should. That some find that more upsetting than the October 7th attacks is telling. //

Boblo
3 hours ago
Looked surgical to me! Haha! Get it? Surgical, hospital, no?

Granny Cuyler -> Boblo
3 hours ago
The operation was a success!

Hawkdriver -> Boblo
2 hours ago
Their policies evidently covered the procedures. //

emptypockets
2 hours ago
"They executed the three men as they slept in the room," the hospital's director, Dr. Naji Nazzal, told Reuters. "They executed them in cold blood by firing bullets directly into their heads in the room where they were being treated."

Which was mercy none deserved. They weren't raped or stabbed repeatedly or tortured or made to watch their child cooked in an oven.

Shortly after South Africa made its complaint to the ICJ, Pennsylvania's John Fetterman offered his take on the issue.

Who are they really fighting? In a group of cowards, they hide in tunnels. They hide behind civilians. They attack, kill, and mutilate children and women, and they do that...Stop talking about proportion on that. They shot their best shot on October 7. And they would've taken more lives if they could have, but they couldn't do it. And now, also let's talk about that. Now we're talking about genocide. And now South Africa, now, is bringing that kind of...to trial. Maybe South Africa, maybe you ought to sit this one out when you're talking about criticizing anybody. Sit it out. //

FloridaTransplant
an hour ago edited
Why does the UN even think the Geneva convention s apply? AFAIK the convention was and is an agreement between nations. Members are not bound to the conventions when they are in conflict with a non signatory or a party that has blatantly ignored the conventions. Hamas has never been a signatory and Oct 7 would have been a blatant violation.

In a Friday hearing in The Hauge, Netherlands, the United Nations' International Court of Justice issued a ruling that acted on a request by the South African government that directs Israel to take immediate action to prevent genocide in Gaza. The court was acting on a request from South Africa's government, which had accused Israel of committing mass genocide against the residents of Gaza.

However, the Court did not act on a cease-fire order in the same request.

Stephen L. Miller @redsteeze
·
We must be involved in Ukraine for "as long as it takes" and piecemeal blank checks but he wants Israel to submit to a ceasefire after 90 days.

Axios @axios
SCOOP: Biden last week pressed Netanyahu to scale down the Israeli military operation in Gaza, stressing he is not in it for a year of war.

A Biden adviser told Axios the White House is very concerned about losing young voters.
https://trib.al/6Q2v7OC //

American by Nature -> LightsOnAndAtHome
3 hours ago
Joseph Robinette is a made man. The criminal enterprise (the Deep State) that sponsors him, will support him, for he does their bidding.

A government without a constitution is an organized crime syndicate. When patriotic Americans understand that, what is happening to our country will make sense.
10:33 AM · Jan 26, 2024

James Ray 🔻 @GoodVibePolitik
·
John Fetterman spent the night standing on a rooftop waving an Israeli flag at protestors in Pennsylvania. Just an unbelievable sight to see.
0:27 / 0:27
9:06 PM · Jan 26, 2024

As the tale goes, Hamas and Palestinians have no agency, and it's Israel that has committed "genocide" by daring to try to take out a terrorist group that invaded and murdered well over a thousand people while taking hundreds hostage.

The Spectator Index @spectatorindex
·
BREAKING: Hamas has rejected an Israeli offer of a two-month ceasefire in exchange for the release of all Israeli hostages
9:26 AM · Jan 23, 2024 . //

there can be no ceasefire with an entity like Hamas. There is only its total surrender or Israel's surrender. That's what's so mind-numbing about the "ceasefire now" crowd. If there's not an actual partner for peace on the other side, then you can't have peace. Hamas continues to say it will attack Israel until every last drop of Jewish blood is spilled and the nation no longer exists. You can't have a ceasefire with that, and that's been proven by the fact that there was a ceasefire in place on October 6th. //

anon-0a84
37 minutes ago
cease fire protestors = antifa protestors = BLM protestors = occupy wall street protestors = funding by soros

The Israeli military now believes there are far more tunnels under Gaza.

In December, the network was assessed to be an estimated 250 miles. Senior Israeli defense officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, are currently estimating the network is between 350 and 450 miles — extraordinary figures for a territory that at its longest point is only 25 miles. Two of the officials also assessed there are close to 5,700 separate shafts leading down to the tunnels. //

According to the report, every single civilian and humanitarian facility in Gaza, such as schools, hospitals, and mosques, doubles as an opening for Hamas terror tunnel shafts: //

Marc Zell @GOPIsrael
·
🚨New COGAT Post

“A Hamas chemical lab for weapon production located deep underground in a terror tunnel.

The expertise needed for this operation and the amount of resources are mind-blowing. Gaza could've been a great place if Hamas would invest it all in the civilians…

10:45 PM · Jan 8, 2024 //

mailman | January 16, 2024 at 3:00 pm
How is it no one in the media is asking how much better off Palestinians lives COULD have been had Hamas invested those tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid in improving the lives of the people that are under their care instead of investing all that money in trying to kill Jews. //

JohnSmith100 in reply to mailman. | January 16, 2024 at 3:46 pm
Even worse is that if Pales had made peace they could have prospered riding Israel’s coattails. And if they had not had so many children solely to outnumber Jews, their children could have prospered. This is in my opinion the most damning thing about Pales.