Arab Israel conflict
December 5, 2023 — John Hinderaker
The Biden administration is demanding that Israel take even more extraordinary measures to avoid harming “innocent civilians” as it tries to eradicate Hamas. Around the world, politicians and others express dismay at the alleged number of innocent civilians who have been killed by Israeli bombardments, even while admitting that Hamas’s casualty numbers include its own terrorists, people killed by terrorists’ awol missiles, and so on. But my complaint is more
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December 4, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Among the many leftists who have expressed support for Hamas, seemingly unconcerned with its outrages of October 7, is Greta Thunberg. Thunberg, now 20 years old, is regarded as a heroine by many for her uncompromising demand that the Western world (she hasn’t visited China, to my knowledge) stop using fossil fuels. Just the News reports (see original for links): Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg is dividing the climate movement
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December 2, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Bill Bennett is a great American who, after a lifetime of public service, continues to be active in a variety of ways, including hosting a top-notch podcast. On Thursday I was Bill’s guest. We talked mostly about the Israel-Gaza war and the sickness of American’s campuses, but also touched on the 2024 presidential race and one or two other topics. You can listen here or on Apple, Spotify and the
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November 28, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Several weeks ago, anti-Semitic demonstrations broke out around the world, calling for the destruction of Israel and for a cease fire between Israel and Gaza–i.e., an end to Israel’s counter-offensive. The demonstrators got their wish, and so far, the cease fire is playing out as I had feared. Israel’s military momentum is gone, and Israel has lost control over the situation. All focus now is on the hostage/prisoner exchanges. That
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November 26, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Are journalists, as a group, the least intelligent of any profession? I think they may be, and the war between Israel and Gaza is bringing out the worst in them. Check out this exchange, in which a clueless reporter floats the theory that the ratio of terrorists to innocent hostages released under the recent agreement is evidence of Israeli racism: The first question that left me speechless (but only for
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November 23, 2023 — John Hinderaker
For reasons that are hard to fathom, “mainstream” news outlets are nearly unanimously biased in favor of the genocidal maniacs of Hamas, and against the Israelis whose only goal is self-defense. Thus this rather snippy tweet yesterday by ABC News: I think that most reporters for outlets like ABC News are less well-informed than the average person. And they can’t understand why no one pays any attention to them.
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November 21, 2023 — John Hinderaker
An agreement between Israel and the government of Gaza for a partial hostage release apparently is about to be finalized. The details are not yet clear, but it looks something like this: Various reports of the deal have indicated that somewhere between 50 and 100 Israeli and foreign hostages would be released, in exchange for a five-day break in fighting and the release of somewhere between 150 and 300 Palestinian
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November 19, 2023 — John Hinderaker
That is the question posed by Henry Kopel in this long essay. Israel will win the war with Gaza, but what comes next? The Biden administration is already demanding that Israel not occupy Gaza. What then? Kopel writes (links in original): [M]uch like what faced the victorious World War II allies upon Nazi Germany’s surrender, there will remain the critically important job of expunging from Gaza’s institutions and society, Hamas’s
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November 19, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Commentary on the war between Gaza and Israel has descended to a level of epic cluelessness. As, for example, this headline in the Star Tribune: “Their families wiped out, grieving Palestinians in Gaza ask why.” Why? Because you started a war, dummies. Maybe this will teach you not to do it next time.
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November 19, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Free Press founder/editor Bari Weiss has posted the text of her Federalist Society Barbara K. Olson lecture “You are the last line of defense” together with video at The Free Press. Weiss’s lecture runs to some 4,000 words, but nothing in it is superfluous. Nothing is expendable. Events have not superseded it. The message remains urgent. Here is an excerpt taken from the top of Weiss’s remarks: Some Israelis were
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November 16, 2023 — John Hinderaker
I know, that isn’t exactly a news flash. But has there ever been more definitive proof than the silence of most feminists in the face of Gaza’s brutal assault on Israeli women? Caroline McCaughey writes in the New York Sun: One of the first videos uploaded to social media of the Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7 showed the kidnapping of a 26-year-old Israeli, Noa Argamani, on the back of
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November 15, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Britain’s BBC has been left-wing for as long a I can remember, and in recent decades, being left-wing means hating Israel. Every time there is a conflict in the Middle East, the BBC can be relied on to carry water for the Arabs and to denigrate Israelis. Within the last couple of days, the network reported–absurdly–that the IDF had entered Gaza’s main hospital, and was targeting medical teams and Arab
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November 13, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Lately there hasn’t been a lot of hard news about Israel’s progress in destroying Hamas. But this is a watershed moment: Israeli soldiers pose in Hamas’s “Parliament” building, which they have captured: Defense Minister Yoav Gallant describes the campaign’s progress: “There is no force of Hamas capable of stopping the IDF. The IDF is advancing at every location. The Hamas organization has lost control in Gaza: Terrorists are fleeing south,
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November 7, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Our “elite” universities–a designation that doesn’t mean their students know anything about history, can do math, know anything about science or are acquainted with Western (or any) literature–have come down heavily on the side of Hamas in the current Middle Eastern conflict. This may be due to the fact that Islamic countries have poured billions of dollars into their coffers, or maybe it is just the usual perversity of American
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November 7, 2023 — John Hinderaker
The IDF is methodically destroying Hamas’s military capability in Gaza. That is, in a sense, the easier part. The obvious question is, what comes next? Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel will need to maintain a presence in Gaza indefinitely: “I think Israel for an indefinite period will have the overall security responsibility because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have it. When we don’t have that security responsibility, what
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November 5, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Yesterday, many thousands of Islamofascists and leftists turned out across the globe for pro-Hamas demonstrations, celebrating the massacre of October 7 and demanding the extermination of Jews. Trafalgar Square was packed to overflowing: Hundreds of thousands turned out in Paris: Some might find the idea of a “kill the Jews” rally in Berlin alarming: And, of course, many thousands rallied to support genocide against the Jews in Washington, D.C. It
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November 5, 2023 — John Hinderaker
The root cause of the violence we have seen in Israel and Gaza over the past month is the sick culture that prevails in Gaza. Jew-hatred is the only value in that culture, and terror its only product. You can see the insane hate that prevails in Gaza in the video below. I don’t know whether the Israeli was killed in Israel and his body brought to Gaza for this
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