Israel
June 17, 2019 — Scott Johnson
The Tikvah Fund has posted an intensely interesting podcast with Jerusalem Post editor Yaakov Katz here; I have embedded it below. Katz is the author of Shadow Strike, a new and deeply reported account of Israel’s strike on Syria’s nuclear reactor in 2007. The story remains of current interest in various aspects. Tikvah introduces the podcast as follows: On September 6, 2007, shortly after midnight, Israeli fighters advanced on Deir
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May 31, 2019 — Scott Johnson
In his Commetary essay “The Gaza conundrum,” Jonathan Schanzer describes a senior Israeli official in Tel Aviv speaking to him in private. “He was in a foul mood. He looked as if he hadn’t slept much,” he writes. “He rubbed his eyes, scratched his stubble, and blurted suddenly, ‘Gaza is a problem from hell.’” Hamas and Iran are the source of this particular problem from hell. The original Hamas charter
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May 26, 2019 — John Hinderaker
On Friday, PJ Media headlined: “Report: Declassified Docs Will Show That Samantha Power’s 2016 Unmasking Efforts Were Related to Israel.” Government documents that will soon be made public will reveal stunning information about former U.N. ambassador Samantha Power’s voluminous unmasking efforts in 2016, according to multiple sources. On Thursday, President Trump gave Attorney General William Barr the authority to declassify documents from multiple agencies related to surveillance of the Trump
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May 14, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Seeking to follow the path blazed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, someone called Mckayla Wilkes is challenging House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer in the Democratic primary in Maryland’s 5th congressional district. Wilkes doesn’t quite have Ocasio-Cortez’s credentials. As far as I can tell, she never tended bar. Instead, Wilkes is (according to The Intercept) a 28-year-old administrative assistant, part-time student, and mother of two. Thus, even without bartending, her resume is sufficiently
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May 13, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Rep. Rashida Tlaib is under fire for saying this: I think two weeks ago or so we celebrated, or just took a moment I think in our country to remember the Holocaust. There’s always kind of a calming feeling I tell folks when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors — Palestinians — who lost their land and
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May 13, 2019 — Scott Johnson
I noted on Power Line that I was sideswiped by the New Yorker’s Benjamin Wallace-Wells earlier this year. I also noted that Victor Davis Hanson was blindsided by the New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner around the same time. I wish Israel’s former Ambassador to the United States and former Deputy Prime Minister Michael Oren had been following along on Power Line. He might have avoided Chotiner’s call this past Friday for
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May 3, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Israeli model Bar Refaeli is one of the world’s most glamorous women. She first achieved international fame as a swimsuit model: In her early days, Bar was ambitious and perhaps self-centered. She dodged normally-compulsory service in the Israeli Defense Force, explaining: I don’t regret not enlisting, because it paid off big time. That’s just the way it is; celebrities have other needs. In those early days, Refaeli’s judgment was not
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April 11, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Israeli politics are more complicated and sometimes more entertaining than ours. Take the case of Ayelet Shaked, who is, or was last I knew, the Minister of Justice in Netanyahu’s government. Shaked is a software engineer, an IDF special forces veteran, and a solid conservative. She left the Jewish Home party at the end of 2018 and was one of a small group who formed the New Right party. I
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April 10, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
That’s how it looks, anyway. The ballots of soldiers, prisoners, and hospital patients have not yet been counted. With all the other votes in and counted, Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party has apparently captured 35 seats in parliament. The main opposition party, Blue and White, appears to have won the same number. But parties willing to form a new government with Netanyahu in charge have won enough additional seats to give
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April 9, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Israel held elections today. Both sides are claiming victory. Neither can claim it conclusively. Exit polls suggest that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party will win 33 seats in Parliament while the Blue and White Party of former military chief of staff Benny Gantz will win 37 (though one exit poll shows the two parties winning the same number of seats). However, it takes 60 seats to form a government.
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April 8, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Campaigning in Iowa, Beto O’Rourke had this to say about Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and the U.S.-Israel relationship: The US-Israel relationship is one of the most important relationships that we have on the planet. And that relationship, if it is to be successful, must transcend partisanship in the United States, and it must be able to transcend a prime minister who is racist. Much of the reporting on this statement
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March 27, 2019 — Scott Johnson
If you’re an American supporter of Israel, these are the good old days. We have to deal with the resurgence of anti-Semitism on the left among Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and the regressive left, but the Trump administration represents a new level of American support of Israel’s cause. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is not only on board with the critical elements of the administration’s support, he obviously feels it
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March 26, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Star Parker is an author, commentator and activist. She runs Urban CURE, which seeks to “[b]uild awareness that a conservative agenda of traditional values, limited government and free markets is of the greatest marginal benefit to low-income Americans.” Last Friday, Star was in St. Paul to host a CURE gathering primarily for black Twin Cities pastors. The event included two panels; I was part of the first one, which was
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March 21, 2019 — John Hinderaker
When freshman Congresswoman Ilhan Omar came out with smears whose anti-Semitic nature couldn’t be denied, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer responded rapidly, with unequivocal denunciation. But when Pelosi tried to steer a resolution condemning anti-Semitism through the House, her party’s young radicals, who rightly view themselves as representative of the Democrats’ base, rebelled. Omar and her fellow “progressives” won the day, and Pelosi replaced her anti-Semitism resolution with one so
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March 19, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Today’s Washington Post includes a story about a meeting among Muslim and Jewish Democratic members of Congress that took place on March 5. The story got a lot of play, but it included an extraordinary error–an error that was mostly covered up, rather than revealed, by the correction the Post subsequently ran: CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story did not make Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s position on Israel clear. The
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March 11, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Unless one is familiar with the New York Times’s coverage of issues related to Israel (i.e., Alice in Wonderland style), one might wonder at what Michael Schwirtz is talking about in his story “Trump Envoy to Middle East Lashes Out at Palestinian Authority” (accessible here via Outline). Schwirtz asserts in the opening of the story: “One of President Trump’s lead Middle East peace negotiators lashed out at the Palestinian Authority
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February 14, 2019 — Scott Johnson
The Washington Examiner’s Naomi Lim reports that yesterday the House passed an amendment to a resolution with a message to Ilhan Omar: “In rare vote, House sends a message on anti-Semitism to Ilhan Omar.” We have Rep. David Kustoff (R., Tenns.) to thank for this: The House on Wednesday unanimously passed a broad condemnation of anti-Semitism days after Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., received widespread criticism over her comments on Israel.
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