Hamas
April 11, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Tucker Carlson must be one of the most popular conservative commentators in the country. His show on X attracts clicks by the hundreds of thousands. This week he sought falsely to blacken Israel’s reputation by promoting the views of a Bethlehem pastor that Israel mistreats Christiand. In so doing, he obviously seeks to drive wedge between Israel and Christian supporters of Israel. While Israel is engaged in a fight for
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April 10, 2024 — Scott Johnson
In an interview that was recorded last week but aired last night on Univision — transcript and video here — President Biden criticized Israel’s conduct of the war and called for a ceasefire without tying the demand to the release of the hostages held by Hamas. Indeed, the name “Hamas” does not appear in the interview. “Well, I will tell you, I think what [Prime Minister Netanyahu is] doing is
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April 10, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Tucker Carlson devoted the October 9 episode of his X show to the Hamas/Israel war. He opened by searching for “the wise path forward” and asking what we should “do next in this chaotic moment.” For some reason, he didn’t directly answer his own question. We were to infer, however, that it’s none of our business. It might be best to avert our eyes. “War begets more war,” he advised.
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April 9, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The IDF has released video of the highlights of its interrogation of Palestinian Islamic Jihad spokesman Tariq Salami Otha Abu Shoulf. As IDF Lt. Col. (reserve) Peter Lerner puts it, “In his interrogation he reveals in simple terms how they organize the mass manipulation of the media.” As we have all seen over the years, it’s not too difficult. The terrorists and their allies have had it worked out for
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April 9, 2024 — Scott Johnson
We are given to understand that the Dearbornistan vote has something to do with the Biden administration’s turn toward Hamas. In the category of what’s wrong with this picture?, the invaluable MEMRI tuned in to the International Al Quds Day rally in front of Dearborn’s Henry Ford Centennial Library (perfect!) this past Friday (video below). Chants of “Death to America” were joined with chants of “Death to Israel” among the
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April 8, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The site formerly known as Twitter covers a lot of news that you won’t easily find anywhere else, if at all. When it comes to the Hamas-Israel conflict, most of it is of the heartbreaking or infuriating variety. The tweet below, for example, falls into both categories — “Hamas Negotiators have reportedly told International Meditators in Cairo that it has No Ability to Release the 40 Hostages in the Humanitarian
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April 7, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Very discouraging news out of Israel today that the IDF is pulling its forces out of southern Gaza, supposedly to “rest, regroup, and re-supply” after four months of hard fighting. Let us hope this is true, but one can’t help but suspect that this move may be in response to demands from the Biden Administration that will inevitably lead to a permanent cease-fire which will amount to a Hamas victory,
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April 7, 2024 — Scott Johnson
President Biden used the IDF’s accidental killing of the seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza to demand that Israel capitulate to Hamas. That’s my translation of the White House readout of Biden’s April 4 phone call with Prime Minister Netanyahu. I posted the crucial excerpt here last week. I also noted that Secretary of State Blinken added a twist in his April 4 press conference. He declared that
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April 5, 2024 — Scott Johnson
We have traced President Biden’s retreat from the public defense of Israel in its war on Hamas to his adoption of the Hamas line. He has now taken up the strategery of Dr. Jill to demand an immediate ceasefire. The White House readout of Biden’s call yesterday with Prime Minister Netanyahu has Biden demanding Israel’s agreement to Hamas’s terms: [Biden] made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement
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March 31, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Let’s hope so. Kill-the-Jews protesters broke into St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York last night, chanting “Free Palestine” and the like, and disrupting an Easter mass. They were hauled out after a couple of minutes: The protesters carried a sign that said “Silence is Violence.” That is dumb, of course. Speech isn’t violence, let alone silence. Still, they might have a point in this sense: the Left’s silence about the
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March 31, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri awarded the Associated Press with a Pictures of the Year award for photos including Hamas savages absconding in a pickup truck with the corpse of Israeli/German victim Shani Louk (below, in the Team Picture Story of the Year category). The citation accompanying the award is itself a piece of work, but never mind that. (Credit: Ali Mahmud/Associated Press) Controversy
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March 29, 2024 — John Hinderaker
From Foreign Policy magazine comes a breathtakingly obtuse article by Jon Hoffman of the Cato Institute. The article’s title, “Israel Is a Strategic Liability for the United States,” only hints at the venom that Hoffman directs at Israel. The piece is a lengthy denunciation of the “special relationship” between the United States and Israel and of Israel’s conduct of the war against Gaza, which–astonishingly–never once mentions Hamas’s October 7 massacres,
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March 26, 2024 — Scott Johnson
We’ve traced the drift of President Biden and his team away from Israel toward the side of Hamas in the current war. You might say they’re selling Israel out, but it’s not clear what they’re getting in return. You might say they don’t know what they’re doing, but one fears that they do. They seek the survival of Hamas as Israel seeks to complete its campaign to eliminate it as
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March 25, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari is the IDF spokesman. I posted his briefing on the current IDF operation at Gaza’s Shifa Hospital last week. The operation continues. Yesterday Hagari provided a three-minute update on the operation (video below). This is what he said: Today is day 6 of the IDF’s operation against Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Shifa Hospital. 170 terrorists were neutralized in or around the Shifa Hospital compound while
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March 24, 2024 — Steven Hayward
The Biden Administration’s diplomacy with Israel over its war against Hamas has reached the Animal House “double-secret probation” stage, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken warning Israel that it may find itself diplomatically “isolated” in the world if it attacks Rafah. Is it possible for Israel to be any more “isolated” than it already is in the joke that is called “the diplomatic community”? Dean Wormer could hardly have done
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March 24, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The Times of Israel provides updates on Palestinian casualties according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, but suggests that skepticism is warranted. Indeed, the Ministry of Health is best understood as the functional equivalent of the Ministry of Truth (“Minitrue”) conceived by George Orwell in 1984, i.e., the ministry of propaganda. In its update on Palestinian casualties in Gaza today, the Times of Israel states the numbers of dead and wounded
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March 23, 2024 — John Hinderaker
It is widely believed that Joe Biden’s anti-Israel, pro-Hamas policy is driven by his desperate need to carry Michigan if he is to have any hope of re-election. That seems like a reasonable assumption, although, to be fair, it is also possible that he shares his old boss’s anti-Israel animus. But here is another one: Scoop: The US has urged Ukraine to halt attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure, warning senior
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