Israel
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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February 6, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The Democrats thought it was a brilliant idea to package aid for Ukraine and Israel together and shoehorn it into the Biden border cover protection bill under the rubric of “emergency national security appropriations.” Now that the border/illegal immigration provisions are dying, the White House has threatened to veto a standalone bill providing aid to Israel. The House will vote on the standalone bill today. Its prospects are uncertain. Seeking
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February 2, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Drawing on signals intelligence, interrogations of Hamas terrorists, and documents recovered in Gaza, the government of Israel has compiled a dossier of findings that establish UNRWA’s partnership with Hamas promoting terrorism. The Washington Free Beacon has posted it on Scribd along with its accompanying story. I have embedded it at the bottom. Following a briefing of American officials that included the dossier, the Biden administration temporarily suspended funding to UNRWA.
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January 31, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The Free Press has just posted the 20-minute documentary American Miseducation (video below). The documentary is reported by the Free Press’s Oliva Reingold, who provides background on it here. The video is posted on YouTube with this explanation: In October last year, when Hamas attacked Israel, a new form of violent antisemitism instantly exploded onto American streets. This newest strain of the oldest hatred comes not from far-right extremists, but
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January 30, 2024 — Scott Johnson
NRO has posted the breaking news update “Undercover Israeli Commandos Kill Three Palestinian Militants in West Bank Hospital Raid.” The update by David Zimmerman links to a video posted by national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. The tweet below incorporates the video in the upper left panel. Fauda, in real life, CRAZY VIDEO of IDF SF dressed as Doctors and nurses raided a hospital in Jenin where the head of Hamas
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January 27, 2024 — Scott Johnson
I thought Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman was an unfettered leftist. With his vocal support of Israel, however, I have had to reassess. Fetterman is a better man — a better man than I previously judged. He seems more in tune with old-school Democrats than with the throbbing heart of the current Democratic Party. Last month Annie Karni collected quotes from Fetterman and Bernie bro progressives expressing their disapproval of him
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January 25, 2024 — Scott Johnson
I subscribe to the (free) Morning Wire news roundup disseminated by the Associated Press. This morning the AP flags the story that is tied to this subject line: “Qatar ‘appalled’ by Netanyahu comments.” The story flagged by the AP story appears under three bylines and this headline: “Qatar, a key mediator in sensitive Israel-Hamas talks, lashes out at Netanyahu over critical remarks.” We are supposed to be “appalled” by Netanyahu
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January 25, 2024 — Scott Johnson
I can’t think of a thing to say about this scene of son and father as the father returns to service in the IDF. Dan Senor leaves it at this: “Everything about this exchange between father & son on Shabbat and what it represents about Israel…😢” I thought readers might find it of interest. This little boy tries to stop his father from returning to the army, telling him that
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January 23, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Elkana Vizel is one of the IDF soldiers killed in Gaza last night. The Times of Israel reports that he was a squad commander, an elementary school teacher, and an alumnus of the Ramat Gan Hesder Yeshiva. He is survived by his wife Galit and their four children as well as his parents and seven siblings. He insisted on returning to reserve duty after being injured during Operation Protective Edge
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January 23, 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 “The blood libel at the Hague” (at FDD, where it is posted with links). Cliff has kindly given us his permission to post his columns on Power Line.
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January 23, 2024 — Scott Johnson
NRO has posted a long article by Zach Kessel and Ari Blaff on mainstream media coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. They find that the Washington Post’s coverage ranks as the worst. According to Kessel and Blaff, “While other U.S. outlets have on occasion fallen into the trap of credulously parroting Hamas propaganda, none as prominent have done so with the frequency and brazenness of the Post…” They make an impressive
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