A blonde heard that milk baths would make her beautiful.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
She left a note for her milkman to leave 25 gallons of milk.
When the milkman read the note, he felt there must be a mistake.
He thought she probably meant 2.5 gallons. So he knocked on the door to clarify the point.
The blonde came to the door and the milkman said,
'I found your note asking me to leave 25 gallons of milk. Did you
mean 2.5 gallons?' The blonde said, 'No, I want 25 gallons.
I'm going to fill my bathtub up with milk and take a milk bath so
I can look young and beautiful again.'
The milkman asked, 'Do you want it pasteurized?'
The blonde said, 'No, just up to my shoulders. I can splash it on my eyes.'
More thoughts to ponder.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Does Palestinian logic carry the day? (See 1 below.)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Fighting back and about time. (See 2 below.)
And:
We know where Democrats stand. (See 2a below.)
Finally:
My friend , Avi, speaks out about Israel's responsibility to prevent a nuclear attack. (See 2b below.)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dick
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1) Making Sense of Palestinian Logic
Palestinians do weird things: A few days ago, the Palestinian Authority (PA), which rules most of the West Bank, refused to accept the tax revenues it is owed by the Israeli government. Today, Hamas, which rules all of Gaza, launched more than 200 rockets against Israel.
Both of these are, on the surface, self-defeating steps that make no sense. Not taking the money means the PA could collapse; firing rockets means Hamas is getting battered militarily by the far superior Israeli forces.
So, why do the leaders of these quasi-governmental entities take such apparently self-defeating steps? Because they bring results. Follow the logic:
- Israel is thriving in nearly every domain, from demographics to economics, from democracy to cultural creativity.
- The Palestinians feel isolated and weak because the Arab states have basically come to terms with its existence, leaving the struggle to secondary players such as Iran, Turkey, and the global Left.
- No matter their weakness, leaders of the PA and Hamas remain committed to the elimination of the Jewish state, meaning that they cannot live in peace next to Israel.
- Contrarily, the Israeli public cherishes normality and especially since the 1993 Oslo accords, has been ready to pay a price to keep the quiet.
One sign of Israel's success: It is the only developed country with a growing indigenous population.
|
Therefore, the Palestinians play a game of chicken, disturbing the quiet in return for an Israeli pay-off. The Palestinian Authority says, give us the money you're holding back that we use to fund attacks on Israelis or our whole structure will come crashing down and you'll have a much bigger mess on your hands. Hamas says, give us access to the money Qatar is sending us or we will make life miserable for you, with rockets raining down during your Memorial Day, Independence Day, and the semi-finals of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Palestinian logic boils down to blackmail: You Israelis are rich, strong, and happy, so we will make you miserable unless you give us or give us access to more money. It's weird, it's sick, but it usually works, especially given an Israeli security establishment for whom quiet is the first priority.
So, expect these tactics to succeed and be deployed time and again into the future.
Daniel Pipes is president of the Middle East Forum.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
2) Across the country, TPUSA activists are wrapping up another successful school year of fighting on the front lines to save our country.
Over the course of a single school year, our TPUSA Chapters have hosted more than 250 events on campuses across the country!
California State University at Bakersfield - TPUSA Free Speech Event 8/7/208
University of Nevada at Las Vegas TPUSA - Free Speech Event 8/16/2018
North Carolina State University - University Activity Event 8/26/2018
University of Texas at El Paso - TPUSA Free Speech Event 8/30/2018
College of Charleston - "Free Trade vs. Protectionism" with Larry Reed 8/30/2018
San Diego State University - "Gun Rights Are Women's Rights" with Anna Paulina 9/8/2018
Mesa Community College University - Activity Event 9/11/2018
Chandler Gilbert Community College - University Activity Event 9/11/2018
Creighton University University - Activity Event 9/12/2018
Grand Canyon University University - Activity Event 9/17/2018
Chandler Gilbert Community College - University Activity Event 9/20/2018
University of Hawaii at Manoa - "Prove Me Wrong" with Charlie Kirk 9/20/2018
University of Georgia - "Liberal Privilege" with Cabot Phillips 9/25/2018
Arizona State University University - Activity Event 9/27/2018
Grand Canyon University - "The Kanye Effect" with Brandon Tatum and Kevin Jackson 9/27/2018
Texas State University University - Event with Lawrence B. Jones 9/27/2018
San Diego State University - "Gun Control Doesn't Work" with Michael Schwartz 9/28/2018
California State University at Northridge - University Event with Will Witt 10/2/2018
Colorado State University - University Activity Event 10/2/2018
Texas A&M University - "Liberal Privilege" with Cabot Phillips 10/2/2018
University of Colorado at Boulder - "Campus Clash" with Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens 10/3/2018
University of Colorado at Boulder - "Prove Me Wrong" with Charlie Kirk 10/3/2018
Sam Houston State University - TPUSA Free Speech Event & Voter Registration Drive 10/3/2018
University of Arizona - "The Kanye Effect" with Brandon Tatum and Kevin Jackson 10/9/2018
University of Georgia - "Campus Clash" with Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens, Donald Trump Jr., and Kimberly Guilfoyle 10/9/2018
University of Michigan - "Walk Away" with Lawrence Jones and Dr. Linda Tarver 10/10/2018
Texas A&M University - "Liberal Privilege" with Cabot Phillips 10/11/2018
Penn State University - "Conservative Energy Forum" with Chad Forsey 10/11/2018
California State University at Long Beach - TPUSA Free Speech Event 10/15/2018
University of Pittsburgh - "Conservative Energy Forum" with Chad Forsey 10/15/2018
Depaul University - "Campus Clash" with Charlie Kirk and Anna Paulina 10/16/2018
Bowling Green State University - University Event with Kassy Dillon 10/16/2018
Rider University - "Liberal Privilege" with Cabot Phillips 10/16/2018
University of Oregon - "Prove Me Wrong" with Charlie Kirk 10/17/2018
University of Southern California University - Event with Will Witt 10/17/2018
Arizona State University - University Event with Brandon Tatum 10/17/2018
Portland State University - "Prove Me Wrong" with Charlie Kirk 10/18/2018
University of Washington - "Campus Clash" with Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens 10/18/2018
Mesa Community College - University Activity Event 10/18/2018
California State University at Long Beach - TPUSA Free Speech Event 10/22/2018
Rutgers University - "Campus Clash" with Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens 10/22/2018
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - University Event with Col. Kemp 10/23/2018
California State University at Long Beach - "Campus Clash" with Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens 10/23/2018
University of Nebraska at Lincoln - "Big Gov Scares" with Benny Johnson 10/24/2018
Tulane University University Event - with "Kasim Hafeez" 10/24/2018
University of Colorado at Boulder - University Activity Event 10/28/2018
Colorado State University - "No School Like The Old School" with Dennis Prager 10/29/2018
University of Nevada at Las Vegas - University Activity Event 10/30/2018
University of Georgia University - Activity Event 10/30/2018
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign - "Liberal Privilege" with Lawrence Jones 11/1/2018
Tarleton State University - TPUSA Free Speech Event 11/1/2018
Louisiana State University - University Activity Event 11/6/2018
University of Texas at Austin - University Event with Katie Hopkins 11/6/2018
University of Missouri at Saint Louis - University Event with Dr. Thomas Kosloski 11/8/2018
Cleveland State University - "Campus Clash" with Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens 11/8/2018
Purdue University - "How Conservatives Can Use Social Media Effectively" with Benny Johnson 11/8/2018
Orange Coast College - "Change My Mind" with Slightly Offensive 11/12/2018
University of Utah - "Liberal Privilege" with Cabot Phillips 11/12/2018
Liberty University - "Campus Clash" with Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens 11/12/2018
California State University at Northridge - "Liberal Privilege" with Cabot Phillips 11/13/2018
University of Missouri at Columbia - University Event with David Blair 11/14/2018
Principia College - University Activity Event 11/14/2018
University of California at Riverside - TPUSA Free Speech Event 11/15/2018
Mesa Community College - University Activity Event 11/15/2018
University of Oregon - "Liberal Privilege" with Cabot Phillips 11/16/2018
Brigham Young University at Idaho - University Event with Will Witt 11/16/2018
Rider University University - Event with Mark Meckler 11/17/2018
Long Beach City College - "Gun Control Doesn't Work" with Michael Schwartz 11/27/2018
University of Nebraska at Omaha - "Coming Out Conservative" with Brandon Tatum and Anna Paulina 11/28/2018
University of Kansas - "Prove Me Wrong" with Brandon Tatum and Anna Paulina 11/29/2018
Kansas State University - "Coming Out Conservative" with Brandon Tatum and Anna Paulina 11/29/2018
Belmont University - University Event with Will Witt 11/29/2018
Southern Connecticut State University - "Coming Out Of The Conservative Closet" with John Paul 11/29/2018
Sacred Heart University - "Coming Out Of The Conservative Closet" with John Paul 11/29/2018
Lock Haven University - University Event with Rabbi Yaakov Menken 11/29/2018
University of Massachusetts at Boston - "Coming Out Of The Conservative Closet" with John Paul 11/30/2018
Brigham Young University at Provo - "Freedom Home Evening" with Jon Willis 12/3/2018
California State University at Long Beach - "Where's My Free Speech" with Fleccas Talks, Elijah, and Black Mic 12/4/2018
California State University at Long Beach - University Activity Event 12/4/2018
Princeton University - University Event with Kyle Kashuv 12/4/2018
University of Minnesota at Twin Cities - "Being Black in Trump's America" with Brandon Tatum 12/4/2018
Orange Coast College - University Activity Event 12/6/2018
University of Wyoming - "The Left is No Longer Liberal" with Dave Rubin 12/6/2018
University of Virginia - "Gun Rights Are Women's Rights" with Anna Paulina 12/6/2018
Indiana High School - University Activity Event 12/6/2018
University of California at San Diego - University Activity Event 1/22/2019
University of Toledo - "Second Protects the First" with Fleccas and Kyle Kashuv 1/23/2019
University of Nevada at Las Vegas - "Should Americans Be Allowed to Discriminate?" with DeRoy Murdock 1/24/2019
Ohio State University - "Second Protects the First" with Fleccas and Kyle Kashuv 1/24/2019
University of Virginia - "Liberal Privilege" with Cabot Phillips 1/29/2019
University of California at Los Angeles - "Where's My Free Speech Panel" with Fleccas, Slightly Offensive, Black Mic, and Johnathan Miranda 1/31/2019
Washington and Lee University - University Event with Charlie Kirk 2/4/2019
South Dakota State University - "Sex Trafficking and Liberal Policies" with Jaco Booyens 2/5/2019
University of Colorado at Boulder - University Activity Event 2/6/2019
University of Minnesota at Twin Cities - "Sex Trafficking and Liberal Policies" with Jaco Booyens 2/6/2019
Utah Valley University & Brigham Young University - "Lies of the Left" with Fleccas Talks 2/7/2019
North Carolina State University- University Activity Event 2/7/2019
Old Dominion University - University Activity Event 2/7/2019
Horizon High School - University Event with Will Witt 2/8/2019
Glendale Community College - University Event with Anna Paulina 2/12/2019
Tulane University - University Activity Event 2/12/2019
Southeastern Louisiana University - University Activity Event 2/13/2019
San Diego State University - "Blacks in America: Fleeing the Liberal Plantation" with Brandon Tatum 2/14/2019
Orange Coast College - University Activity Event 2/15/2019
Louisiana State University - TPUSA Free Speech Event 2/18/2019
University of Oregon University - Event with Brandon Tatum and Anna Paulina 2/19/2019
California State University - at Long Beach University Activity Event 2/19/2019
Colorado State University - University Activity Event 2/19/2019
Tulane University - University Activity Event 2/19/2019
Kennesaw State University - "Liberal Privilege" with Cabot Phillips 2/19/2019
University of Georgia - University Activity Event 2/19/2019
Henry M. Jackson High School - University Event with Kyle Kashuv 2/20/2019
University of California at Los Angeles - "Hoax Hate Crime Awareness" with Fleccas Talks 2/21/2019 University of California at Berkeley "Prove Me Wrong" with Charlie Kirk 2/26/2019
University of Georgia - University Event with Typical Liberal 2/26/2019
Arizona State University - The Future of Liberty with Austin Peterson 2/25/2019
Texas A&M University - University Event with Will Witt 2/27/2019
University of California at Los Angeles - University Event with Robert Spencer 3/4/2019
Utah Valley University - "Campus Clash" with Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens, and Kyle Kashuv 3/4/2019
University of Nebraska at Omaha and Creighton University - University Activity Event 3/4/2019
University of Georgia - University Event with James O'Keefe 3/5/2019
Rider University - University Event with Will Witt 3/5/2019
College of Charleston - University Activity Event 3/6/2019
University of South Carolina - University Activity Event 3/6/2019
University of Georgia - University Activity Event 3/6/2019
Santa Clara University - "Gun Rights Are Women's Rights" with Anna Paulina 3/7/2019
Grand Canyon University - "Winning The Meme Wars" with Benny Johnson 3/7/2019
West Boca Raton Senior High School - University Activity Event 3/7/2019
Hinsdale Central High School - High School Event with Kyle Kashuv 3/8/2019
Orange Coast College - University Activity Event 3/9/2019
University of Louisiana at Lafayette - TPUSA Free Speech Event 3/11/2019
California State University at Long Beach - "Trump's Not That Bad" with Fleccas and Elijah 3/12/2019
University of Akron - TPUSA Free Speech Event 3/12/2019
Towson University - University Activity Event 3/12/2019
University of Cincinnati - University Activity Event 3/13/2019
Central Michigan University - "#WalkAway" with Brandon Tatum 3/14/2019
University of Texas at Austin - University Activity Event 3/15/2019
University of Florida - University Event with Will Witt 3/15/2019
Tulane University University - Event with Matthew Charles 3/16/2019
Broward College - "Parkland Town Hall Redemption" with Hunter Pollack 3/18/2019
Pittsburgh - State University University Activity Event 3/19/2019
University of Akron - "Ohio Conservative Energy Forum" with Tyler Duvelius 3/19/2019
Arizona State University - "Campus Clash" with Charlie Kirk, Brandon Tatum, and Graham Allen 3/20/2019
University of North Texas - TPUSA Free Speech Event 3/20/2019
Kennesaw State University - TPUSA Free Speech Event 3/20/2019
Florida Atlantic University - TPUSA Free Speech Event 3/20/2019
Lock Haven University - University Event with Mike Adams 3/21/2019
Fort Hays State University - University Event with Will Witt 3/25/2019
University of Hawaii at Manoa - University Event with Will Witt 3/26/2019
Nicholls State University - TPUSA Free Speech Event 3/26/2019
University of South Carolina - "Campus Clash" with Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens, and Anna Paulina 3/26/2019
West Boca Raton Senior High School - University Activity Event 3/26/2019
Florida International University - "Liberal Privilege" with Cabot Phillips 3/26/2019
California State University at Fresno - University Event with Cesar Chavez 3/27/2019
Creighton University "Immigration Panel" - with Anna Paulina, and Dr. Mark Christian 3/27/2019
Saddleback College - "Where's My Free Speech" with Fleccas Talks 3/28/2019
Louisiana State University - TPUSA Free Speech Event 3/28/2019
University of Georgia - University Activity Event 3/28/2019
University of Mississippi - University Activity Event 3/28/2019
Campo Verde High School - University Event with Kyle Kashuv 3/29/2019
University of South Carolina - TPUSA Free Speech Event 3/29/2019
Hyatt Regency O'Hare Midwest Regional Conference 3/29/2019
Park City High School - University Event with Will Witt 4/1/2019
University of Utah - University Event with Will Witt 4/2/2019
University of Nebraska at Lincoln - University Activity Event 4/2/2019
Cleveland State University - TPUSA Free Speech Event 4/2/2019
Rider University - "White Privilege Is A Myth" with Brandon Tatum and Anna Paulina 4/2/2019
Louisiana State University - "Campus Clash" with Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens, Kyle Kashuv, and Dave Rubin 4/3/2019
University of Nevada at Las Vegas - "Check your Liberal Privilege" with Cabot Phillips and Black Mic 4/4/2019
Kansas State University - "Lies of the Left Panel" with Fleccas, DC Draino, and Slightly Offensive 4/4/2019
Texas State University - University Activity Event 4/4/2019
Cleveland State University - "What's A True Conservative" with Brandon Tatum 4/4/2019
University of South Carolina - University Activity Event 4/4/2019
Towson University - "Winning The Meme Wars" with Benny Johnson 4/4/2019
University of Mississippi - "Campus Clash" with Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens, Kyle Kashuv, and Graham Allen 4/4/2019
University of Hartford - University Event with Will Witt 4/5/2019
Utah Valley University - University Activity Event 4/6/2019
Montana State University - University Event with Jeff Sessions 4/8/2019
Minnesota State University - "Immigration in Modern America" with Anna Paulina 4/8/2019
California State University at Long Beach - "Culture Shock!' with Brandon Tatum 4/9/2019
University of Iowa - "Liberal Privilege" with Cabot Phillips 4/9/2019
Michigan State University - TPUSA Free Speech Event 4/9/2019
Purdue University University - Event with Dennis Prager 4/9/2019
University of Connecticut - "Campus Clash" with Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens, and Dave Rubin 4/9/2019
University of Colorado at Boulder - University Activity Event 4/10/2019
Oklahoma State University - Free Speech Event 4/10/2019
Kennesaw State University - "Guns Save Lives" with Brandon Tatum and Kyle Kashuv 4/10/2019
Old Dominion University - "Winning The Meme Wars" with Benny Johnson 4/10/2019
Broward College - University Activity Event 4/10/2019
California State University - at Northridge University Event with Black Mic 4/11/2019
University of California at Los Angeles - University Event with David Yerushalmi and Fleccas Talks 4/11/2019
Grand Canyon University - University Activity Event 4/11/2019
Wichita State University - University Activity Event 4/11/2019
Central Michigan University - "Human Trafficking on Your College Campus" with Jaco Booyens 4/11/2019
State University of New York at Albany - "Winning The Meme Wars" with Benny Johnson 4/11/2019
University of Central Florida - University Event with Will Witt 4/11/2019
University of Texas at San Antonio - University Activity Event 4/12/2019
South Dakota State University - "Liberal Privilege" with Cabot Phillips 4/15/2019
Virginia Tech - "Gun Rights Are Women's Rights" with Anna Paulina 4/15/2019
University of Pennsylvania - University Event with Candace Owens 4/15/2019
Florida International University - "Life, Liberty and Happiness Tour" with Joel Patrick 4/15/2019
Texas A&M University - TPUSA Free Speech Event 4/16/2019
Michigan State University - "Campus Clash" with Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens, Brandon Tatum, and Anna Paulina 4/16/2019
University of Georgia - "Why Socialism Makes People Selfish" with Dennis Prager 4/16/2019
Florida Atlantic University - TPUSA Free Speech Event 4/16/2019
Ave Maria University - University Event with Hayden Williams 4/16/2019
University of Washington - "Liberal Privilege" with Cabot Phillips 4/17/2019
Arizona State University - "Social Media Influencers Panel" with Fleccas, DC Draino, The Typical Liberal, and Black Mic 4/17/2019
University of Nebraska at Omaha - University Event with Dave Rubin 4/17/2019
Texas State University - University Event with Chip Roy 4/17/2019
University of Georgia - University Activity Event 4/17/2019
James Madison University - "Winning The Meme Wars" with Benny Johnson 4/17/2019
Florida Atlantic University - "Life, Liberty and Happiness Tour" with Joel Patrick 4/17/2019
University of Alabama at Birmingham - University Event with Brandon Tatum 4/17/2019
Montana State University - "Prove Me Wrong" with Charlie Kirk 4/18/2019
Montana State University - "Campus Clash" with Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens, and Kyle Kashuv 4/18/2019
Sacramento State University - University Event with Craig DeLuz 4/18/2019
Mesa Community College - University Activity Event 4/18/2019
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign - University Activity Event 4/18/2019
University of Texas at San Antonio - TPUSA Free Speech Event 4/18/2019
Southeastern Louisiana University - University Activity Event 4/18/2019
Central Michigan University - "#SOS - Survivors of Socialism" with José Villamediana, Carlos Ron, and Samuel Machado 4/18/2019
College of Charleston University - Event with Brandon Tatum 4/18/2019
University of North Carolina - University Activity Event 4/18/2019
Florida Polytechnic University - University Activity Event 4/18/2019
Northern Arizona University - University Activity Event 4/22/2019
Tulane University - University Event with Tom Palmer 4/22/2019
Michigan State University - "The War Against Fake News" with Mike Cernovich 4/22/2019
University of Florida University - Event with Jalen Johnson 4/22/2019
University of Washington - University Event with Hayden Williams 4/23/2019
California Polytechnic University at Pomona - "Prove Me Wrong" with Black Mic 4/23/2019
University of New Mexico - University Event with Will Witt 4/23/2019
University of New Hampshire - "Liberal Privilege" with Cabot Phillips 4/23/2019
University of Washington - University Event with Hayden Williams 4/24/2019
Arizona State University - "Prove Me Wrong" with Dan Crenshaw 4/24/2019
Augustana University - "Modern Feminism Isn't Real Feminism" with Elisha Krauss 4/24/2019
University of Missouri - "Campus Clash" with Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens, Brandon Tatum, and Anna Paulina 4/24/2019
Penn State University - "Campus Clash" with Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens, Donald Trump Jr., and Kimberly Guilfoyle 4/24/2019
Arizona Christian University - University Event with Herman Cain 4/25/2019
University of Arizona - "Winning The Meme Wars" with Benny Johnson 4/25/2019
West Boca Raton Senior High School - University Activity Event 4/25/2019
Lock Haven University - University Event with Nigel Farage 4/26/2019
George Mason University - University Activity Event 4/26/2019
Texas A&M University - "Conservative Values Forum" with Hayden Williams 4/27/2019
University of Nevada at Las Vegas - University Activity Event 4/29/2019
Sacramento State University - "Where's My Free Speech" with Fleccas Talks 4/30/2019
Santa Clara University - "Diversity: Identity Vs. Thought" with Dave Rubin 5/2/2019
New York University - University Event with Charlie Kirk 5/2/2019
Corona Del Mar High School - University Event with Kyle Kashuv 5/29/2019
2a)
Gravel, decades out of office and an outlier among the candidates, called for dismantling Israel as a Jewish state. “The bloodshed in Palestine and Israel will not cease until the fundamentally unjust existing structure is jettisoned,” he said on Twitter. “We cannot support a right-wing racist regime committed to annexation and gradual ethnic cleansing. There must be a binational state with equal rights for all.”
Otherwise, the Democratic candidates were silent, from the usually vocal pro-Israel figures like Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who took time out to attend an American Israel Public Affairs Committee event in Boston, to the usually Israel-critical, like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who had referred to Gaza the day before hostilities erupted, at a town hall in Perry, Iowa. He repeated his call for a more evenhanded U.S. approach to the region.
One likely Democratic candidate, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, sounded a pro-Israel note. “Innocent civilians lie dead in the wake of Hamas’ brutal rocket attacks in Israel,” de Blasio, who is expected to announce this week, said on Twitter. “It’s an affront to humanity. This city stands united against this indiscriminate violence and we join the world in mourning the lives lost.”
Congressional leaders, across the board, were more willing to pronounce on the issue and were overwhelmingly on Israel’s side.
“Hamas must immediately stop launching rockets into Israel,” U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said on Twitter. “The targeting of innocent communities is never acceptable. The United States Congress, in a bipartisan fashion, stands strongly in support of our ally Israel and its right to protect its citizens.”
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, was as unequivocal. “Israel has every right to defend itself against the 600 rockets that Hamas has fired during the last 48 hours,” he said on Twitter. “The United States will continue to stand with our ally Israel and the Jewish people.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the Senate minority leader, told Jewish Insider: “Israel has every right to defend herself from indiscriminate rockets attacks, the same right as any other nation. The United States stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the people of Israel.”
Five Jewish House Democrats, including three committee chairmen, said Israel had a right to defend itself, and praised the Iron Dome system, in part funded through congressional appropriations, for keeping more missiles from hitting targets.
“In response to the continued, indefensible attacks by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terror groups, Israel has a right and responsibility to defend itself and its citizens militarily from further violence. Israel must be able to sustainably protect its people as it continues to pursue a ceasefire,” said the statement by Reps. Eliot Engel of New York, the Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, Rep. Nita Lowey of New York, the Appropriations Committee chairwoman, Ted Deutch of Florida, the Ethics Committee and Middle East Subcommittee chairman, and Brad Schneider of Illinois and Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey.
One dissenter: Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., a Palestinian American who criticized The New York Times for a headline on a story about the clashes. In suggesting Hamas rockets prompted Israeli retaliation, the headline promotes a “lack of responsibility on Israel,” she said.
2b)The Ultimate Shadow Strike to Safeguard Israel
Yaakov Katz writes a page-turning account of the never-before-told story of how Israel took out Syria’s nuclear reactor.
“Daddy, how do you know that Israel won’t die?” my eight-year son recently asked me, looking very scared and worried. He had come home from school that day, where he’d heard about rockets raining down from Gaza into Israeli cities. He was grappling in his own way with the fragility of Israel’s existence. I told him that Israel would always be here for us because of the countless people who would give their soul and life to protect the Jewish state and the values it holds dear. Yaakov Katz, the Israeli-American editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post, provides an extremely clear answer to my son’s question in his latest book, Shadow Strike: Inside Israel’s Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power. This exposéprovides the full story behind Israel’s operation to destroy the al-Kibar nuclear reactor, which was built under the veil of secrecy and ultimately destroyed by the IDF in September 2007. Full of espionage, political courage and psychological warfare, this book is sure to thrill both the casual James Bond fan and the most serious followers of Middle Eastern politics.
In the 70 years since Israel’s founding, the country has faced enormous challenges, confronting diplomatic and economic isolation, an immense growth in its population and a war every decade. Its neighbors have often threatened its very existence and the lives of its inhabitants – Christian, Muslim and Jew. Katz describes in gripping detail the Begin doctrine, which set out Israel’s counter-proliferation policy, including preventative strikes to ensure the country’s enemies do not obtain weapons of mass destruction. Twice Israel has had to stare down the barrel of a hostile neighbor with a nuclear bomb – and in both cases it took out that capability with precision. No other country has had to act in the same way to ensure its survival.
The first strike took place in June of 1981, when Israel launched Operation Opera to destroy Iraq’s Osirak reactor. Despite worldwide condemnation, the Israeli government vowed never to allow an enemy to possess nuclear weapons. “This attack will be a precedent for every future government in Israel,” said Prime Minister Menachem Begin, in a haunting harbinger of what was to come. “Every future Israeli prime minister will act, in similar circumstances, in the same way.”
Shadow Strike begins with a daring raid on a hotel room in Vienna, where Ibrahim Othman, head of Syria’s Atomic Energy Commission, was staying. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gave permission to Mossad’s Keshet Branch – known for covert overseas operations to collect secret data – to track Othman and to hack his computer if the chance arose. Katz describes the nail-biting scene in which the agents broke into the room and placed a Trojan horse on Othman’s laptop, providing the Mossad with permanent access to one of Syria’s most important computers. The organization very quickly learned that Othman was careless, savings hundreds of incriminating photos on the laptop.
What Israel’s intelligence community learned was shocking – and within a few weeks, Mossad head Meir Dagan, one of Israel’s most notorious spies, walked into the White House and met with the senior national security staff of President George W. Bush. Not one for small talk, he got right down to business. “Syria is building a nuclear reactor,” said Dagan in his thick Israeli accent. “For Syria to have a nuclear weapons program, to have a nuclear weapon, is unacceptable.” Dagan showed Vice President Dick Cheney and two senior national security experts, Stephen Hadley and Elliot Abrams, dozens of photos, including North Korean scientists posing as they helped build the reactor. Until then, the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence to support what Dagan was claiming. But soon, they pieced enough of the puzzle together to know it was true.
Prime Minister Olmert offered President Bush the opportunity to take out the reactor, but he made it clear that if America chose not to, Israel would. After months of consideration, Bush decided not to act – in part because of the consequences of faulty intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq war. Some members of Bush’s national security team, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, were adamant that the issue of Syria’s nuclear program had to be dealt with at the UN using diplomacy. But Bush told his “buddy” Olmert that he would not stand in his way and would allow Israel to act as she saw fit.
After significant deliberation, political intrigue and fighting among Israel’s elected leadership, Olmert decided to carry out a discreet raid to allow Assad to maintain plausible deniability about the bomb. But Olmert knew he needed to bomb the reactor before it went live, or he would be forced to consider an attack that would emit nuclear waste over a wide area, killing an untold number of Syrian civilians.
Katz describes the beginning of Operation Out of the Box, which began just before midnight on September 5, with four F-15Is and four F-16Is taking off from the Hatzerim base in southern Israel. They carried around 20 tons of bombs, more than enough to destroy a building less than 2,000 square meters. Going out over the Mediterranean and then straddling the border with Syria, the pilots maintained radio silence. The fighter jets commenced their bombing raid just after midnight, diving towards the reactor, and one after the other dropped their lethal load. Everything was captured on camera – the explosives were consecutive and massive – and the building was destroyed beyond repair. The pilots broke their radio silence to utter one word, “Arizona,” the code word for “mission accomplished.” A round of applause was heard and hugs exchanged in Tel Aviv.
Katz tells the story of an operation with which most people are not familiar, nor have they had the opportunity to consider what would have happened if the Syrian reactor had gone live. Had Israel not acted, it might have found itself living in the shadow of an ISIS armed with a nuclear bomb, which would have allowed it to morph from a terrorist organization into an existential threat to Israel and the entire Western world.
Shadow Strikeconcludes by asking readers to consider what Israel should do about Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. Katz makes a compelling argument, but not about who is right or wrong. Rather, he demonstrates that Israel takes seriously its historic role in preserving the Jewish people and its tie to the land – and in ensuring that the answer to my son’s question is never taken for granted.
Avi Jorisch is the author of Thou Shalt Innovate: How Israeli Ingenuity Repairs the World (Gefen Publishing). He is also a Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council and the Israel Project.
2a)
Three Democratic presidential
candidates weighed in on the Gaza
violence
By JTA/RON KAMPEAS
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump volunteered a view on the deadly flareup in clashes between Israel and terrorist groups on the Gaza Strip border this weekend.
Of the 21 Democrats running for president, only three weighed in — two, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., favoring Israel’s version of events, and one, former Alaskan Sen. Mike Gravel, who was very much on the Palestinian side.
Trump’s statement was pro-Israel. “Once again, Israel faces a barrage of deadly rocket attacks by terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad,” Trump said on Twitter. “We support Israel 100% in its defense of its citizens. To the Gazan people — these terrorist acts against Israel will bring you nothing but more misery. END the violence and work towards peace — it can happen!”
Hickenlooper sounded a similar note in a tweet, although he urged restraint from “all parties.” “The random rocket fire by Hamas into Israel must stop,” he said. “My heart goes out to the families of the Israelis killed, and those wounded in these grievous attacks. I call on all parties to show restraint and de-escalate this situation immediately.”
Booker spoke on CBS News. “We support Israel’s right to defend itself, full stop,” Booker said. “You have a terrorist organization that actually suppresses its own people, conducts acts of violence and human rights violations against people who live in Gaza. And so Israel has a right to defend itself and it should do that.”
Of the 21 Democrats running for president, only three weighed in — two, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., favoring Israel’s version of events, and one, former Alaskan Sen. Mike Gravel, who was very much on the Palestinian side.
Trump’s statement was pro-Israel. “Once again, Israel faces a barrage of deadly rocket attacks by terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad,” Trump said on Twitter. “We support Israel 100% in its defense of its citizens. To the Gazan people — these terrorist acts against Israel will bring you nothing but more misery. END the violence and work towards peace — it can happen!”
Hickenlooper sounded a similar note in a tweet, although he urged restraint from “all parties.” “The random rocket fire by Hamas into Israel must stop,” he said. “My heart goes out to the families of the Israelis killed, and those wounded in these grievous attacks. I call on all parties to show restraint and de-escalate this situation immediately.”
Booker spoke on CBS News. “We support Israel’s right to defend itself, full stop,” Booker said. “You have a terrorist organization that actually suppresses its own people, conducts acts of violence and human rights violations against people who live in Gaza. And so Israel has a right to defend itself and it should do that.”
Booker’s comment was solicited by the reporter — unlike Hickenlooper, he did not volunteer a statement — but he appeared eager and prepared for the question.
Gravel, decades out of office and an outlier among the candidates, called for dismantling Israel as a Jewish state. “The bloodshed in Palestine and Israel will not cease until the fundamentally unjust existing structure is jettisoned,” he said on Twitter. “We cannot support a right-wing racist regime committed to annexation and gradual ethnic cleansing. There must be a binational state with equal rights for all.”
Otherwise, the Democratic candidates were silent, from the usually vocal pro-Israel figures like Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who took time out to attend an American Israel Public Affairs Committee event in Boston, to the usually Israel-critical, like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who had referred to Gaza the day before hostilities erupted, at a town hall in Perry, Iowa. He repeated his call for a more evenhanded U.S. approach to the region.
One likely Democratic candidate, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, sounded a pro-Israel note. “Innocent civilians lie dead in the wake of Hamas’ brutal rocket attacks in Israel,” de Blasio, who is expected to announce this week, said on Twitter. “It’s an affront to humanity. This city stands united against this indiscriminate violence and we join the world in mourning the lives lost.”
Congressional leaders, across the board, were more willing to pronounce on the issue and were overwhelmingly on Israel’s side.
“Hamas must immediately stop launching rockets into Israel,” U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said on Twitter. “The targeting of innocent communities is never acceptable. The United States Congress, in a bipartisan fashion, stands strongly in support of our ally Israel and its right to protect its citizens.”
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, was as unequivocal. “Israel has every right to defend itself against the 600 rockets that Hamas has fired during the last 48 hours,” he said on Twitter. “The United States will continue to stand with our ally Israel and the Jewish people.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the Senate minority leader, told Jewish Insider: “Israel has every right to defend herself from indiscriminate rockets attacks, the same right as any other nation. The United States stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the people of Israel.”
Five Jewish House Democrats, including three committee chairmen, said Israel had a right to defend itself, and praised the Iron Dome system, in part funded through congressional appropriations, for keeping more missiles from hitting targets.
“In response to the continued, indefensible attacks by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terror groups, Israel has a right and responsibility to defend itself and its citizens militarily from further violence. Israel must be able to sustainably protect its people as it continues to pursue a ceasefire,” said the statement by Reps. Eliot Engel of New York, the Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, Rep. Nita Lowey of New York, the Appropriations Committee chairwoman, Ted Deutch of Florida, the Ethics Committee and Middle East Subcommittee chairman, and Brad Schneider of Illinois and Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey.
One dissenter: Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., a Palestinian American who criticized The New York Times for a headline on a story about the clashes. In suggesting Hamas rockets prompted Israeli retaliation, the headline promotes a “lack of responsibility on Israel,” she said.
2b)The Ultimate Shadow Strike to Safeguard Israel
Yaakov Katz writes a page-turning account of the never-before-told story of how Israel took out Syria’s nuclear reactor.
“Daddy, how do you know that Israel won’t die?” my eight-year son recently asked me, looking very scared and worried. He had come home from school that day, where he’d heard about rockets raining down from Gaza into Israeli cities. He was grappling in his own way with the fragility of Israel’s existence. I told him that Israel would always be here for us because of the countless people who would give their soul and life to protect the Jewish state and the values it holds dear. Yaakov Katz, the Israeli-American editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post, provides an extremely clear answer to my son’s question in his latest book, Shadow Strike: Inside Israel’s Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power. This exposéprovides the full story behind Israel’s operation to destroy the al-Kibar nuclear reactor, which was built under the veil of secrecy and ultimately destroyed by the IDF in September 2007. Full of espionage, political courage and psychological warfare, this book is sure to thrill both the casual James Bond fan and the most serious followers of Middle Eastern politics.
In the 70 years since Israel’s founding, the country has faced enormous challenges, confronting diplomatic and economic isolation, an immense growth in its population and a war every decade. Its neighbors have often threatened its very existence and the lives of its inhabitants – Christian, Muslim and Jew. Katz describes in gripping detail the Begin doctrine, which set out Israel’s counter-proliferation policy, including preventative strikes to ensure the country’s enemies do not obtain weapons of mass destruction. Twice Israel has had to stare down the barrel of a hostile neighbor with a nuclear bomb – and in both cases it took out that capability with precision. No other country has had to act in the same way to ensure its survival.
The first strike took place in June of 1981, when Israel launched Operation Opera to destroy Iraq’s Osirak reactor. Despite worldwide condemnation, the Israeli government vowed never to allow an enemy to possess nuclear weapons. “This attack will be a precedent for every future government in Israel,” said Prime Minister Menachem Begin, in a haunting harbinger of what was to come. “Every future Israeli prime minister will act, in similar circumstances, in the same way.”
Shadow Strike begins with a daring raid on a hotel room in Vienna, where Ibrahim Othman, head of Syria’s Atomic Energy Commission, was staying. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gave permission to Mossad’s Keshet Branch – known for covert overseas operations to collect secret data – to track Othman and to hack his computer if the chance arose. Katz describes the nail-biting scene in which the agents broke into the room and placed a Trojan horse on Othman’s laptop, providing the Mossad with permanent access to one of Syria’s most important computers. The organization very quickly learned that Othman was careless, savings hundreds of incriminating photos on the laptop.
What Israel’s intelligence community learned was shocking – and within a few weeks, Mossad head Meir Dagan, one of Israel’s most notorious spies, walked into the White House and met with the senior national security staff of President George W. Bush. Not one for small talk, he got right down to business. “Syria is building a nuclear reactor,” said Dagan in his thick Israeli accent. “For Syria to have a nuclear weapons program, to have a nuclear weapon, is unacceptable.” Dagan showed Vice President Dick Cheney and two senior national security experts, Stephen Hadley and Elliot Abrams, dozens of photos, including North Korean scientists posing as they helped build the reactor. Until then, the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence to support what Dagan was claiming. But soon, they pieced enough of the puzzle together to know it was true.
Prime Minister Olmert offered President Bush the opportunity to take out the reactor, but he made it clear that if America chose not to, Israel would. After months of consideration, Bush decided not to act – in part because of the consequences of faulty intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq war. Some members of Bush’s national security team, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, were adamant that the issue of Syria’s nuclear program had to be dealt with at the UN using diplomacy. But Bush told his “buddy” Olmert that he would not stand in his way and would allow Israel to act as she saw fit.
After significant deliberation, political intrigue and fighting among Israel’s elected leadership, Olmert decided to carry out a discreet raid to allow Assad to maintain plausible deniability about the bomb. But Olmert knew he needed to bomb the reactor before it went live, or he would be forced to consider an attack that would emit nuclear waste over a wide area, killing an untold number of Syrian civilians.
Katz describes the beginning of Operation Out of the Box, which began just before midnight on September 5, with four F-15Is and four F-16Is taking off from the Hatzerim base in southern Israel. They carried around 20 tons of bombs, more than enough to destroy a building less than 2,000 square meters. Going out over the Mediterranean and then straddling the border with Syria, the pilots maintained radio silence. The fighter jets commenced their bombing raid just after midnight, diving towards the reactor, and one after the other dropped their lethal load. Everything was captured on camera – the explosives were consecutive and massive – and the building was destroyed beyond repair. The pilots broke their radio silence to utter one word, “Arizona,” the code word for “mission accomplished.” A round of applause was heard and hugs exchanged in Tel Aviv.
Katz tells the story of an operation with which most people are not familiar, nor have they had the opportunity to consider what would have happened if the Syrian reactor had gone live. Had Israel not acted, it might have found itself living in the shadow of an ISIS armed with a nuclear bomb, which would have allowed it to morph from a terrorist organization into an existential threat to Israel and the entire Western world.
Shadow Strikeconcludes by asking readers to consider what Israel should do about Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. Katz makes a compelling argument, but not about who is right or wrong. Rather, he demonstrates that Israel takes seriously its historic role in preserving the Jewish people and its tie to the land – and in ensuring that the answer to my son’s question is never taken for granted.
Avi Jorisch is the author of Thou Shalt Innovate: How Israeli Ingenuity Repairs the World (Gefen Publishing). He is also a Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council and the Israel Project.
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