Israel

A border bill footnote

Featured image The Democrats thought it was a brilliant idea to package aid for Ukraine and Israel together and shoehorn it into the Biden border cover protection bill under the rubric of “emergency national security appropriations.” Now that the border/illegal immigration provisions are dying, the White House has threatened to veto a standalone bill providing aid to Israel. The House will vote on the standalone bill today. Its prospects are uncertain. Seeking »

UNRWA: Israel’s dossier

Featured image Drawing on signals intelligence, interrogations of Hamas terrorists, and documents recovered in Gaza, the government of Israel has compiled a dossier of findings that establish UNRWA’s partnership with Hamas promoting terrorism. The Washington Free Beacon has posted it on Scribd along with its accompanying story. I have embedded it at the bottom. Following a briefing of American officials that included the dossier, the Biden administration temporarily suspended funding to UNRWA. »

American Miseducation

Featured image The Free Press has just posted the 20-minute documentary American Miseducation (video below). The documentary is reported by the Free Press’s Oliva Reingold, who provides background on it here. The video is posted on YouTube with this explanation: In October last year, when Hamas attacked Israel, a new form of violent antisemitism instantly exploded onto American streets. This newest strain of the oldest hatred comes not from far-right extremists, but »

Fauda for real

Featured image NRO has posted the breaking news update “Undercover Israeli Commandos Kill Three Palestinian Militants in West Bank Hospital Raid.” The update by David Zimmerman links to a video posted by national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. The tweet below incorporates the video in the upper left panel. Fauda, in real life, CRAZY VIDEO of IDF SF dressed as Doctors and nurses raided a hospital in Jenin where the head of Hamas »

Is Fetterman a better man?, cont’d

Featured image I thought Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman was an unfettered leftist. With his vocal support of Israel, however, I have had to reassess. Fetterman is a better man — a better man than I previously judged. He seems more in tune with old-school Democrats than with the throbbing heart of the current Democratic Party. Last month Annie Karni collected quotes from Fetterman and Bernie bro progressives expressing their disapproval of him »

Speaking of “appalled”

Featured image I subscribe to the (free) Morning Wire news roundup disseminated by the Associated Press. This morning the AP flags the story that is tied to this subject line: “Qatar ‘appalled’ by Netanyahu comments.” The story flagged by the AP story appears under three bylines and this headline: “Qatar, a key mediator in sensitive Israel-Hamas talks, lashes out at Netanyahu over critical remarks.” We are supposed to be “appalled” by Netanyahu »

A scene from the war

Featured image I can’t think of a thing to say about this scene of son and father as the father returns to service in the IDF. Dan Senor leaves it at this: “Everything about this exchange between father & son on Shabbat and what it represents about Israel…😢” I thought readers might find it of interest. This little boy tries to stop his father from returning to the army, telling him that »

Elkana Vizel, of blessed memory

Featured image Elkana Vizel is one of the IDF soldiers killed in Gaza last night. The Times of Israel reports that he was a squad commander, an elementary school teacher, and an alumnus of the Ramat Gan Hesder Yeshiva. He is survived by his wife Galit and their four children as well as his parents and seven siblings. He insisted on returning to reserve duty after being injured during Operation Protective Edge »

The blood libel at the Hague

Featured image Cliff May is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a columnist for the Washington Times. He is a veteran reporter, foreign correspondent, and editor for the New York Times and other publications. Cliff’s current column is “The blood libel at the Hague” (at FDD, where it is posted with links). Cliff has kindly given us his permission to post his columns on Power Line. »

Why not the worst?

Featured image NRO has posted a long article by Zach Kessel and Ari Blaff on mainstream media coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. They find that the Washington Post’s coverage ranks as the worst. According to Kessel and Blaff, “While other U.S. outlets have on occasion fallen into the trap of credulously parroting Hamas propaganda, none as prominent have done so with the frequency and brazenness of the Post…” They make an impressive »

Insane barbarism

Featured image As Secretary Antony Blinken and other high officials of the Biden administration yammer on about the purported “two-state solution,” Israelis continue to absorb what happened to them on October 7. It’s unusual for Israelis to arrive at a consensus on anything, but they have done so on this “solution.” As a solution, they think it ranks up there with the Final Solution. They concur that no Israeli in his right »

A blast from Richard Kemp

Featured image Mainstream media sources repeatedly cite the number of those killed in Gaza by the IDF according to “Palestinian health authorities” or the like. Most recently the number has been set at some 23,000. The Wall Street Journal, for example, takes up the issue this morning in “Israel, Under Pressure to Scale Back Intensity of War, Pulls Thousands of Troops From Gaza” (“More than 24,000 Palestinians have been killed since the »

A word from Ritchie Torres

Featured image Rep. Ritchie Torres is a Democrat whose district sits in the Bronx. He is an outspoken supporter of Israel and the Jewish people. This past Friday he gave the sermon at Manhattan’s Central Synagogue Shabbat service commemorating the life and legacy of MLK. Rep. Torres has posted the video below on his YouTube channel. The video seems to have gone viral among supporters of Israel on X. In his remarks »

The invaluable MEMRI

Featured image Norman Podhoretz observed in one of his Commentary essays that the name of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) appeared to be “the invaluable MEMRI,” because that is how he and other consumers of its information unfailingly referred to it. In a footnote to one of those essays, Podhoretz explained: I am indebted to the invaluable work of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). Under the leadership of »

Talk about the (Hamas) passion

Featured image Pro-Hamas protesters sought to rip down a reinforced fence outside the White House Saturday night. The assault on the White House constituted the culmination of their march. It looks something like what Democrats call an “insurrection” (video below). The New York Post reports: Non-essential personnel were evacuated from the area as a precaution as the aggressive demonstration ramped up, the Secret Service confirmed. Video shows the crowd shaking the fence »

Beyond the Houthis

Featured image The Houthis have conducted more than two dozen drone and missile attacks against commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since November. Following many threats and warnings, the United States launched retaliatory strikes against a dozen Houthi targets in Yemen last night. The Houthis are a terrorist group — a terrorist group delisted as such by the Biden administration foreign policy apparat. They are, moreover, one of »

Voltaire, call your office

Featured image In his Essay on General History and on the Manners and Spirit of Nations, Voltaire observed that the Holy Roman Empire was neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire. To take a current analogue, think of the Southern Poverty Law Center or the International Court of Justice. This is the point Alan Dershowitz makes regarding the ICJ in the opening of his column “The International Court Of ‘Injustice’ Begins Its »