Israel
May 27, 2024 — John Hinderaker
It’s not too late: American Experiment is hosting Naftali Bennett, the former (and likely future) Prime Minister of Israel as the speaker at our Annual Dinner on June 6. Follow the link for information and to buy tickets, which I highly recommend if you live in reasonable proximity to Minnesota. The Annual Dinner is a fundraiser, so tickets are intentionally not cheap. On the other hand, going out to dinner
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May 20, 2024 — John Hinderaker
As Scott noted briefly this morning, the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The prosecutor says there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that they “bear criminal responsibility” for Israeli war crimes beginning on October 8, 2023. The fact that the prosecutor also seeks arrest warrants against top Hamas terrorists, now hiding in tunnels under Rafah, simply confirms
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May 20, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Yesterday the IDF released raw video it recovered in Gaza. Hamas filmed the videos of 8-year-old Ela Elyakim and 15-year-old sister Dafna Elyakim. The two sisters were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nahal Oz on 10/7 and held hostage for 51 days before Hamas released them in a hostages-for-murderers deal. The Times of Israel reported the sisters’ release here this past November. The Times of Israel published the story with the family
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May 19, 2024 — Scott Johnson
On October 7 Hamas brutally maimed and murdered — not necessarily in that order — Israelis attending the Nova Music Festival in Re’im. Hamas kidnapped the living and the dead to Gaza. Hamas has sought to Gaza exchange the living hostages and the bodies of the murdered Israelis for a multiple of living Hamas murderers incarcerated in Israel. Hamas seeks freedom for its incarcerated murderers so that they can assist
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May 17, 2024 — John Hinderaker
The Biden Administration insists that Israel must have a plan for the “day after” it completes its victory over Hamas. A reasonable question is: why? Gaza started this war on October 7, and Israel responded as it had to, as any nation would, by fighting and, now, winning the war. Why should it be Israel’s burden to try to make something constructive out of the sickest culture in the world?
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May 15, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The Washington Post has reported that the Biden administration is withholding sensitive intelligence from Israel on the location of Hamas leaders in Gaza. This is how the Post puts it: The Biden administration, working urgently to stave off a full-scale Israeli invasion of Rafah, is offering Israel valuable assistance in an effort to persuade it to hold back, including sensitive intelligence to help the Israeli military pinpoint the location of
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May 13, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Jerry Seinfeld delivered the commencement address at Duke University’s 2024 university-wide commencement ceremony in Wallace Wade Stadium yesterday. Seinfeld took the occasion to make the case for comedy and humor, both by example and by advice (starting at about 11:45). Seinfeld is a man not entirely in tune with the times, either in his defense of humor or otherwise. He urged the graduates to take advantage of their privilege. As
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May 13, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Across Israel at 11:00 a.m. this morning the sirens sounded to mark Israel’s Memorial Day (Yom HaZikaron) for the fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism. This is the day that Israelis, as a nation, honor the fallen from Israel’s military and those casualties from its wars and victims of terror attacks. Since last Memorial Day, 1594 Israelis have been killed. Out of those, 834 are civilians murdered in terror attacks,
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May 12, 2024 — Scott Johnson
It would be a mistake to rely on the United Nations for information about anything, especially anything related to the Middle East. In Israel’s current war the UN operates as an arm of Hamas. It is nevertheless worth noting — as the Foundation for Defense of Democracies does in this Flash Brief: The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) revised its child fatality figure from the Gaza
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May 11, 2024 — Scott Johnson
In February President Biden promulgated National Security Memorandum 20. NSM-20 directs the State Department to “obtain certain credible and reliable written assurances from foreign governments receiving [U.S.] defense articles and, as appropriate, defense services” that they will abide by U.S. and international law. NSM-20 also requires the Departments of State and Defense to report to Congress within 90 days on the extent to which these governments and services are abiding
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May 10, 2024 — Scott Johnson
This past Monday evening our friends at the Manhattan Institute recognized Douglas Murray (“for his unwavering defense of Western values”) and Ross Perot, Jr. (“for representing the best of civic engagement in Dallas and throughout Texas”) at the institute’s annual Alexander Hamilton Award Dinner. In his acceptance speech Murray describes his recent time in Israel and Gaza. He celebrates the spirit and heroism of the living Israelis he met and
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May 10, 2024 — Scott Johnson
In a November 2020 Wall Street Journal column Tevi Troy recalled “When Biden Met Begin” (posted in accessible form on Pundicity). Tevi recounted how Biden and Begin once clashed in a private June 1982 session with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: Mr. Biden, 39, lectured the 68-year-old [Israeli Prime Minister Menachem] Begin over Israeli settlements, jabbing his finger at the prime minister and banging his fist on the desk. Mr.
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May 9, 2024 — Scott Johnson
President Biden publicly acknowledged his betrayal of Israel’s anticipated offensive in Rafah in an interview with Erin Burnett on CNN. The CNN story on the interview is here. As a practical matter, Biden supports Hamas. Biden opposes Israel. Biden’s declaration of “ironclad” support for Israel is “inoperative,” to borrow a term from Watergate. On Tuesday Biden gave a Holocaust remembrance speech decrying those calling for “the annihilation of Israel, the
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May 8, 2024 — Scott Johnson
I want to note a few reports on the campus scene. Attention must be paid. The scene should not be unseen. I have been asking who is behind the kill the Jews crowd on campus. Park MacDougald takes a comprehensive look in his May 6 Tablet column “The People Setting America on Fire.” It is the best effort yet to turn over the rocks and look underneath. Park, by the
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May 8, 2024 — Scott Johnson
President Biden chose to revise and extend his mealymouthed comments on anti-Semitism with a 1600-word speech at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Annual Days of Remembrance Ceremony yesterday. The White House has posted the text of his remarks here. The speech seems to me late and wanting. Revisiting the history of the Holocaust, Biden referred to “the perils of indifference, the complicity of silence in the face of evil that
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May 7, 2024 — Scott Johnson
President Biden is confused. Israel appears to have commenced its long-delayed operation to take Hamas’s refuge in Rafah. John noted it here yesterday. With its “ceasefire deal” card Hamas plays the press for willing tools — because they are. They can’t be that stupid. Biden spoke yesterday with Prime Minister Netanyahu by telephone. The White House has posted its readout of the phone call here. After an exchange of pleasantries,
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May 7, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Mario Torres is the Columbia custodian depicted in the viral photograph that I posted via X here. The photo shows him fighting off one of the thugs breaking into Hamilton Hall last week. I commented that he deserves recognition as a man of the year. He is so much better than the pathetic institution he serves. Now Free Press’s Francesca Block has tracked him down for an interview that is
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