Israel
February 23, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Dan Senor’s most recent Call Me Back podcast features Matti Friedman. Among many other things, Friedman is a former AP Jerusalem bureau staffer. It is his AP experience that prompted him to think through the wide world of sickness that we see in the reaction of the outside world to Israel’s current life-and-death struggle with Hamas. Senor asks good questions and lets the incredibly articulate Friedman speak. Senor has posted
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February 22, 2024 — Steven Hayward
More evidence that the Biden Administration is largely staffed by morons and ignoramuses. A couple days ago I drew a contrast between the late UN Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Biden’s UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who gives Kamala Harris a run for her money in the word-salad platitudes sweepstakes. Thomas-Greenfield outdid herself when, after the Algerian cease-fire resolution was defeated a few days ago, she concluded her statement as follows:
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February 22, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel has issued the special report Silent Cry: Sexual Crimes on the October 7 War. I have embedded it via Scribd below. The Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest distributed the report yesterday with the apt warning: *DISCLAIMER* This report contains graphic descriptions of sexual abuse, torture, and murder. That “disclaimer” understates the atrocities documented in the report. The Times of Israel
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February 20, 2024 — Steven Hayward
I’ll have more to say very shortly about the UN Security Council resolution dance that Scott wrote about this morning, as I agree that it looks like Biden is positioning himself to turn on Israel at a moment’s notice. For the moment, I want to note the contrast between Biden’s UN ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a career foreign service officer who was likely picked for the post for the obvious reason,
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February 20, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Prince William, of whom I generally think highly, has joined the chorus of those urging Israel to stand down: In a statement on Tuesday released by Kensington Palace, Prince William said: “I remain deeply concerned about the terrible human cost of the conflict in the Middle East since the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7. Too many have been killed. “I, like so many others, want to see an end
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February 20, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The Biden administration has prepared a draft United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a temporary ceasefire in Israel’s war against Hamas and warning against an Israeli ground incursion into Rafah. One might say that it formalizes the administration’s stab-in-the-back (or the front) approach to America’s great Middle Eastern ally since support for Israel became politically inconvenient to President Biden. Richard Roth and Tara John report on the draft resolution
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February 16, 2024 — John Hinderaker
The Wall Street Journal has a long article about the Biden administration’s efforts to stop Israel from winning a decisive victory over Gaza: The looming Israeli military plans to invade Rafah have exacerbated tensions between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and the Biden administration, which has grown increasingly frustrated with its attempts to rein in Israel’s military campaign. The consequences of the distrust between President Biden and Netanyahu, who
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February 15, 2024 — Scott Johnson
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 “Sinwar agonistes” (at FDD, where it is posted with links). Cliff has kindly given us his permission to post his columns on Power Line. He writes: Hamas leader
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February 14, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The IDF has released video of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar heading down a Hamas terror tunnel under Khan Younis on October 10 with one of his wives and three children. Among the stories on the video I have found most worth reading are those by JNS and the Times of Israel here and here respectively. “Hamas leaders, wherever they are hiding, should know they are on borrowed time.” Watch the
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February 13, 2024 — Scott Johnson
We haven’t heard much from President Biden about Israel’s exemplary efforts to protect civilians or perform good deeds under excruciating circumstances in the conduct of its war on Hamas. The New York Post recounts an illustrative story (the link is to the Post story by Ronny Reyes) in this editorial today. It begins with a rhetorical question: “How many more times will Hamas demonstrate its utter erasure of the distinction
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February 13, 2024 — Scott Johnson
During the 2020 presidential campaign and first years of Biden’s presidency I repeatedly set the over/under on the decline of Biden’s mental faculties at 40 percent. In early 2021 we were asked by one of the organizations that rates sites for reliability on what basis we disparaged Biden’s capacity. They apparently didn’t want to consider the ocular proof. Now ABC News reports that the overwhelming majority of Americans think Biden
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February 12, 2024 — John Hinderaker
For several decades now, the Western Left has been devoted to an imaginary “two-state solution” to the problem that Muslim fanatics keep trying to kill the Jews. Somehow, the problem and the alleged solution don’t seem to match up. Nevertheless, liberals in both the U.S. and Western Europe have recently been returning to the two-state fantasy. In Britain’s Telegraph, John Bolton argues: “The two-state solution is dead. Israel must achieve
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February 11, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Late last week President Biden dispatched administration officials to conciliate offended opponents of Israel’s war on Hamas. They were sent — where else? — to America’s jihad capital (i.e., Dearborn). The delegation included deputy national security adviser Jon Finer and USAID administrator Samantha Power. Their object was to smooth relations with the locals. Readers with a long memory may recall Samantha Power as the author of “A Problem From Hell“
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February 10, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The Times of Israel has sent out an alert on this breaking news story by Emanuel Fabian: “Directly beneath UNRWA’s Gaza headquarters, IDF uncovers top secret Hamas data center.” Subhead: “Subterranean facility for terror group’s intelligence needs, beneath UN complex in upscale Rimal neighborhood, discovered after interrogations of Palestinian prisoners.” Datelined Gaza City, the story opens this way: Beneath the Gaza Strip headquarters of the controversial United Nations agency for
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February 9, 2024 — Scott Johnson
If one takes Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report at face value, President Biden escaped charges for willfully mishandling classified information because he is mentally incompetent. At a hastily called press event, Biden angrily denied his incompetence. I can’t find a transcript posted at the White House site page that compiles speeches and remarks. I don’t know why it isn’t here. Below is video of last night’s presser posted by the
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February 8, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Israel is engaged in a war of survival against Hamas. It is only one front of its war of survival against Iran, but it is the war that it must win now. President Biden has made a show of support, Biden style. His express support has turned to ambivalence at best and hostility at worst in leaks and statements that falsely defame Israel. These false statements are disgusting under the
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February 7, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The Hamas war on Israel is criminal and barbaric. It is genocidal in the the old-fashioned sense — the sense with which Final Solution familiarized us. The support for Hamas that has emerged in the Democratic Party, on campus, and elsewhere around the country is therefore appalling. The latest news on the fate of Israeli hostages provides a somewhat striking twist in this respect. Drawing on a New York Times
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