HONEST REPORTING:
It’s that time of year when we reflect on the last 12 months, revisiting the articles, interviews and television packages that were so blushingly bad that we feel they deserve some kind of special recognition. And: Third-party bid for president gaining steam, ex-Sen. Joe Lieberman says: ‘Give us another choice!’ BY Carl Campanile A push for a third choice for president is gaining momentum because Americans are disgusted with the prospect of a likely rematch between President Biden and former President Donald Trump, ex-Sen. Joe Lieberman said Sunday. Lieberman, 81, the first Jew to run on a national ticket for vice president in 2000, said, “I’ve never seen this much anger at the two major parties and this high disappointment that we may be left with a choice of President Trump and Biden once again. “Sixty to 70% of the American people say, ‘Please! Give us another choice!,'” Lieberman told host John Catsimatidis on the Cats Roundtable WABC 770 AM radio. Lieberman, chairman of the No Labels group seeking an independent or third-party “bi-partisan unity ticket” for the White House as an alternative to the Democratic and Republican parties, said the organization is making “good progress” in securing ballot lines in all 50 states. “We’re focused now on getting a third line on the ballot in all 50 states. We’re making good progress. We want to leave open the option to put together a bipartisan unity ticket for America,” Lieberman said Former Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman says there’s a groundswell of support for third-party candidates this election cycle due to voters dreading a likely matchup between Biden and Trump. He said “maybe we’ll even have a chance to win,” though history has not been kind to third-party candidates. Lieberman said West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat who is not running for re-election to Congress and former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a moderate Republican, would be worthy candidates for the White Hous A one-time Democrat serving as senator from Connecticut, Lieberman became an Independent after losing the Democratic Primary in 1996. He then won the general election as an Independent. He also issued a warning to President Biden and the Democrats, saying they will be punished at the polls next November if they fail to address the border crisis Lieberman said it’s just as important — if not more so — to put resources into border enforcement as it is to provide funding to Israel and Ukraine. Lieberman, 81, has issued warnings to President Biden and Democratic congressional leaders that failing to adequately protect the border will hurt them at the polls in November. “You can’t have open borders. You have to have rules. I’ve never seen it like this. It’s out of control,” said Lieberman. He said if the border crisis festers, voters will consider it as important an issue as inflation and the economy when they cast ballots for president and Congress in November 2024. Biden and the Democratic congressional leadership must stare down the leftists in their party who don’t want to restrict illegal immigration and instead forge a bipartisan agreement with Republicans, Lieberman said. “It has to be led by President Biden. He’s the leader of the Democratic Party,” he said. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I have a vey astute friend who believes the GOP will lose because they remain on the wrong side of abortion and should adopt Haley's stance. I believe they can win with a simple campaign if they will all embrace the same message. That message is to work in the following in a simple easy to understand format: The nation's dangerous porous borders, the drug inflows, the increase cost of most everything purchased, the threats from China and Iran, the weakness and failure to protect our troops and respond to adversary attacks, the alleged corruption which is being stonewalled by the FBI, IRS, 52 intelligence personnel, the Justice Department, the president's physical and mental issues, that he has spent 40% of his time in office on vacation and the mass media's failure to be honest in their reporting as they protect him. In the final analysis, it is doubtful any, but the well off ,can look in the mirror and say they are better off personally and America is more secure and remains the respected leader of the Western Alliance. +++ Hunter Comes Home to Roost Joe Biden managed to escape scrutiny for his son’s business in 2020. Not this time By Kimberley A. Strassel One hazard of political campaigns is the unseen junction—a key moment that nobody recognizes at the time. Such a moment came for Democrats on April 19, via a letter to Congress about the federal probe into Joe Biden’s son Hunter. Team Biden might be forgiven for ignoring the missive. Hunter’s legal team was quietly negotiating with U.S. Attorney David Weiss, working to close his probe with no charges. The sordid laptop aside, the Biden circle had good reason to believe the drama would soon be over, that Americans would (again) be denied further details of the Biden family business. Instead, the letter introduced the country to the first of two Internal Revenue Service agents who’d been tossed from the Hunter investigation after flagging irregularities. Their whistleblower testimony blew open the ugly details of Hunter’s foreign business escapades. Follow-up interviews suggested Joe’s tacit assistance. The Justice Department came under fire. Hunter’s plea deal fell apart. Mr. Weiss obtained indictments against him. Yet to come: Hunter’s trial proceedings, a possible Hunter contempt of Congress citation, and a possible Joe Biden impeachment. That April day was in retrospect the moment for the Biden team—and Democrats more broadly—to reconsider the wisdom of a re-election campaign. The president was already beginning to sag under polls that show sweeping dissatisfaction with his job performance and age. Hunter has since become another big drag on the president’s hope for a second term. So far, the Biden campaign—and the media—remains in full denial, insisting the story is a political nonstarter so long as House Republicans fail to prove Joe “profited” from Hunter’s largess. That misses the Burisma board for the political trees. The Hunter damage comes from the stench of family influence peddling, the intersection of it with Mr. Biden’s office, and the potential for the hits to keep coming. Mr. Biden cast himself in 2020 as the restorative “light” to Donald Trump’s “darkness.” Hunter muddies such distinctions. Americans don’t generally like IRS probes, but they make exceptions for wealthy tax cheats, and Hunter makes an unsympathetic defendant. He is accused of evading $1.4 million in taxes on $7 million of income. The tax-avoidance figure alone is a sum most Americans can only dream of. (Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said he had paid all his taxes and accused Mr. Weiss of having “bowed to Republican pressure” in seeking the indictment.) The president’s problem is that whether he profited or not, the evidence suggests that he facilitated this behavior, enabling the influence peddling, whether by getting on speakerphone when his son was with clients, or dropping by his son’s business meals. This behavior also weakens the campaign’s hope that voters will sympathize with a family struggling over drug addiction. Many Americans genuinely identify with that awful problem, though few likely think the solution is a ride on Air Force 2 to sell the Biden brand. Joe Biden beat Mr. Trump in 2020 in no small part on the claim his opponent lacked the moral fitness for a second term—and he is banking on a repeat. But the Hunter drama is a direct hit to Joe’s own supposed fitness, as it presents a story line of an extended Biden family grifting for years on Joe Biden’s public standing—with his implied agreement. It puts both sides in the mud. The Justice Department’s initial kid-glove handling of Hunter phenomenally backfired, landing the mess square in the presidential campaign cycle. Hunter’s legal team will no doubt angle to push any trials past 2024. But it’s unclear Mr. Weiss is done seeking indictments, and in any event his botched probe has already provided House Republicans enough leads to keep headlines humming through November. And that’s not taking into account the growing possibility of impeachment hearings—which would dominate the news cycle for weeks. Hunter’s new “aggressive” legal strategy by necessity will make him a headline. See his stunt of a few weeks back, flouting a congressional subpoena in favor of a press conference outside the Capitol. That may yet earn him a contempt citation. Would the Justice Department bring charges? Maybe not, though that in itself would add to the scandal—Biden officials refusing to hold to account a presidential son who scorned a lawful subpoena. The president’s former press secretary Jen Psaki recently acknowledged that the White House team was surely wishing that Hunter would “please stop talking in public.” Though it also might help if dad stopped inviting him to state dinners. All this explains polls showing the Hunter millstone. An October poll by the Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 68% believed Joe Biden acted illegally or unethically with regard to his son’s business dealings. That includes 74% of independents. It’s difficult to think of a Biden excuse that would suddenly make these numbers better. Joe Biden was spared the Hunter narrative in 2020 thanks to a cabal of obliging press, social media and former intelligence officials that deep-sixed the laptop story in the runup to the election. It’s acting as if it can similarly disappear the new Hunter drama. It’s too late for that, and Democrats might consider what that means for 2024. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Show me a city run by mostly Black Democrats and you will see a hell hole where crime is out of control and citizens, who can, are fleeing. Savannah, fortunately, has a black Mayor who is outstanding. +++ Mayors from hell By Don Feder Democratic mayors are turning our once proud cities into “Freddy Krueger’s Playhouse.” On Christmas Day, two teens from South America were stabbed as they had breakfast in New York’s Grand Central Terminal by a man shouting, “I want all the White people dead.” The alleged assailant had 17 prior arrests. The last time he was in court, on Nov. 7, a judge put him back on the street. Welcome to the hell of urban America. Thanks to far-left mayors, blue cities are on a downward spiral of crime, drugs, homelessness and despair. Those with a survival instinct are getting out fast. New York has lost 100,000 residents since 2022. The New York Times reports that 25,000 college graduates have left San Francisco since 2021. Apparently, they had a problem with human feces on the street where they lived. San Francisco spends $1 billion annually on its street people. Democratic mayors keep shoveling money at the problem, which keeps getting worse. If they understood basic economics, they’d know that you get more of what you subsidize. Democrats control big cities the way Hamas used to run Gaza. Of the 25 most populous U.S. cities, all but three are in the hands of Democrats. Boston and Chicago haven’t had a Republican mayor in almost 100 years. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu recently made headlines for holding a segregated holiday bash — her “Electeds of Color” party. A graduate of Harvard Law School and protegee of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Ms. Wu is a shameless racebaiter. At a St. Patrick’s Day breakfast, she complained that she was used to “dealing with problems that are expensive, disruptive and White.” Her honor often whines about how “invisible” and “othered” she felt growing up. As mayor, she sold out Asian parents by limiting the number of White and Asian students admitted to the city’s elite exam schools. New York Mayor Eric Adams blames the exodus from the Big Apple on the city’s rat population. If only he could find hotel rooms for them. He’s handling the influx of illegal immigrants (116,000 since April 2022) not by calling for border security or pushing to repeal New York’s sanctuary city status, but by bleating that Washington isn’t giving him enough money. He’s become a cheerleader for the Titanic. “We’re not coming back. We are back!” Mr. Adams beams in his custom-made $2,000 suits. He should be handling publicity for the president’s reelection campaign. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser agrees with Ms. Wu that it’s all about race. The Metropolitan Police Department has lost 500 officers since 2020. Even members of Congress are getting carjacked and robbed at gunpoint. But Ms. Bowser has her priorities straight. She had a stretch of pavement in sight of the White House designated Black Lives Matter Plaza. She appointed a commission to decide which monuments to dead White oppressors should be removed from the nation’s capital. In 2018, police officers were required to take critical race theory indoctrination. All of this must make residents and visitors alike feel safer. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson may be new to the job, but he has excellent knee-jerk credentials as a former official of the city’s radical teachers union. When a juvenile mob looted stores in the South Loop and assaulted passersby, he cautioned, “It is not constructive to demonize youth who have been starved of opportunities in their own neighborhoods.” Unfortunately, the starved-for-opportunities youth — who’ve turned the city’s streets into a shooting gallery — aren’t deprived of bullets. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has a history of radical activism going back to the 1960s when she was a member of the pro-Castro Venceremos Brigade. When the city’s Korean stores were targeted by rioters, Ms. Bass explained, “If people burned down those stores, they must have been unhappy with them.” In 2020, her office co-sponsored a briefing that designated policing as “a core institution of white supremacy.” How have we come to this? It’s as if a zombie apocalypse happened in blue cities, and the undead are eating voters’ brains. As more solid citizens are forced to flee, those remaining are part of what H.L. Mencken called the Booboisie — dupes who believe that all of their problems are caused by government not giving them enough stuff, and of course, White supremacy. Blue cities are the result of a cancer of greed and ignorance on which Democrats thrive. Mayors from hell are the Pied Pipers of perdition. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ An Article I Wrote 2 Months Ago — and More True Today Than Ever: Israel’s Ground Incursion Won’t Look Pretty, But Let It Be By Rabbi Dov Fischer Oct. 22, 2023 — Israel next faces the compelling existential urgency to undertake a very horrible ground invasion into Gaza. Had she done it fifteen or even ten years ago, it would have been like the way Ariel Sharon crushed the “Palestine Authority’s” PLO and Fatah (same thing) in Jenin and throughout Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”) in 2002 during Israel’s “Operation Defensive Shield” that substantially ended the Second Intifada. But Prime Minister Benjamin (“Bibi”) Netanyahu later chose an approach Israelis came to call “mowing the lawn.” Instead of fiercely responding to terror by land, Israel would aerially bomb strategic Hamas targets in Gaza to set them back by approximately three years. Every Triennial or so, the cycle would repeat: Hamas would launch a war, and Israel would “mow the lawn.” Recall that Israel handed all of Gaza unilaterally to the Arabs and Abu Mazen (the “Palestine Authority” chief, Mahmoud Abbas) in 2005. The Gaza “occupation” ended 18 years ago. Gaza’s population responded by electing Hamas to uproot Abu Mazen’s “West Bank” Fatah terrorists, effectively demonstrating that Gaza and “the West Bank” are two completely different entities, not one “unified Palestine.” Two decades and six wars later, the policy of “lawn mowing” has allowed Hamas to build an unprecedented nationwide terror infrastructure of tunnels, sniper nests, drone and missile factories, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), Russian Cornet and Iranian Dehlahvieh anti-tank missiles, rockets and bombs. Gaza is worse than Faluja or Afghanistan. Eighteen years of Israeli dallying, and fearing worldwide condemnation if she would invade Gaza, allowed Hamas to build a Bora Bora meticulously. This means many Israeli boys may not come home alive from Gaza or may be permanently disabled during the imminent ground war. It will be a ground invasion that, no matter how successful, will be horrible. Historically, Israel has fought handcuffed by her own superimposed military ethic known as “tohar ha-neshek” (purity of arms). This policy has cost countless Jewish lives as Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers act with such excessive care to “fight with purity” — that is, not to hurt non-combatants — that they get killed by snipers and by apparently “innocent civilians” who in fact are carrying rifles or grenades under their long white robes. Therefore, anyone who even whispers “tohar ha-neshek” this time around will be reviled. The green light must be given Israel’s armed forces to shoot and grenade and bomb as they feel they must. Be prepared for messy pictures that will send thrills up the legs of BBC reporters seeking to vilify Jews and Israel. If Arabs fire from an ambulance, Israel will take out the ambulance. If from a school, they will take out the school. If from a residential apartment building, take out the building. If thousands must be killed inadvertently as collateral damage of Hamas hiding behind human shields, this time they will take out human shields. In preparation for the Gaza incursion, Israel must do its preliminary best to eliminate as many snipers’ nests and attack tunnels as it can. Weapons depots must be destroyed from the air. Rockets, grenades, anti-tank missiles must be spotted as best as Israel’s intelligence can and obliterated before her boys march in. Those tunnels must be closed off on both ends, whether by bombing all ingresses and egresses, or flooding or smoking them. Gaza in its entirety must be blockaded completely. Not only no electricity and fuel but also no food, no water, and no medicine. There are more than 200 hostages now in Gaza. Historically, Arab terrorists hold Israelis until they induce lopsided exchanges. In the 1985 Jibril Agreement, Israel released 1,150 Arab terrorists in return for three Israelis. In the Gilad Shalit exchange, Israel had to release 1,027 Arab terrorist prisoners. Not this time. If it takes 500-1,000 Arabs to equate one Jewish life — think about that — Israel would have to release all Arab prisoners she holds to get only some of the Jews back. Israel must be firm this time. Her full blockade should be comprehensive — again: not even water, food, or medications until all hostages are free. Let Gazans die in the streets if the hostages are not freed — all 200 plus Hadar Goldin, Oron Shaul, and Avera Mengistu. There will be horrible accounts in the left media and 100,000-Arab demonstrations in London and Paris, augmented by the depraved and morally perverse college students of America’s elite training grounds for tomorrow’s anti-American revolution and next Civil War here in America, condemning Israel. A simple solution: stop reading the left media and watching the BBC and America’s equivalent anti-Semites. Ignore them all. After all, people have been falsely accusing Jews for two thousand years of wantonly shedding innocent blood: Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln, William of Norwich, the Blois French Blood Libel, the Black Death, Pogroms. Jews are born with a Blood Libel target on their backs. Rashida Talib and her Dearborn Arabs, Ilhan Omar and her Minneapolis Somalians, and Ocasio and her Bronx Puerto Ricans are new participants in this proud history. No amount of outside condemnation should deter Israel in her battle plan. Don’t aim to kill innocents, but if they get in the way, they become collateral damage. When governors of Florida and North Carolina warn residents to evacuate before a predicted hurricane, car lines stretch for miles as people race to get out. They are not idiots. When Washington State did the same before Mount St. Helens blew, everyone got out except for one nut, Harry R. Truman, who became an American icon and got himself incinerated to death a week later when the volcano erupted as predicted. In the same manner, every Arab in northern Gaza has been warned to evacuate. And, by the way, if every past Israel-Arab Hostage Release has been an exchange at which one Israeli has equaled between 383 Arabs (Jobril Agreement) and 1,027 Arabs (Shalit Exchange), then the Hamas murder of 1,200 Jews on Shabbat Sh’mini Atzeret of October 7 equals the loss of between 459,600 Arabs (Jibril Formula) and 1,232,400 Arabs (Shalit Exchange). Israel must not target a single innocent Gazan. Torah law would not permit indiscriminate purposeful random shootings of pure innocents. Jews are not Germans, a people who have done that. Or French. Or Italians. Or Spanish. Or Portuguese. Or British. Or Irish. Or Russian. Or Ukrainian. Or Chinese. Or Africans. Etc. So Jews are not the entire rest of the world. But there inevitably will be collateral damage, and anti-Jewish media will bewail “proportionality.” At the exchange rate the Arabs themselves have dictated, no one has the right to speak of “proportionality” for the purposeful murder of 1,200 Jews until at least 459,600 Arabs inadvertently and unintentionally are killed as well. Israel will be compared to Hitler Germany, and Israel’s ground invasion will be compared to Hitler’s blitzkrieg. But the Nazis here are the Hamas-ISIS subhuman vermin who raped women alongside others they murdered, slaughtered as many as 40 babies at a time, beheaded men, women, and children, and burned corpses. They cut fetuses out of living women’s wombs, and then slaughtered both. They put babies in ovens to bake while alive. Even Hitler did not do that. For that same reason, Israel now must begin conducting public Nuremberg/Eichmann War Crimes trials. Every Arab in Israeli prisons with a murder conviction needs to be tried publicly, the same as Eichmann was and as the West tried 21 of the most important surviving leaders of Nazi Germany and six German organizations. These War Crime trials will educate. Although previously convicted for murder, new charges should be proffered against such Arabs for “Crimes Against Humanity.” Especial charges should be brought against Hamas Massacre perpetrators, if they can be brought back alive. Those convicted should be incarcerated secretively as Eichmann was. Israel already has, from its Hadar Goldin negotiations, Hamas lists of prisoners they want returned. As convictions come, Israel should announce that, for every Jewish hostage Hamas kills, Israel will execute the next ten Arab War Crimes murderers on the list. Or Israel can just skip the Nuremberg/Eichmann trials, and make the announcement. Israel can kill them as she did Eichmann and America did Bin Laden: no fanfare, just dead and dumped in the Mediterranean or incinerated with the trash. Finally, Israel must “let the cat out of the bag” and break the secret news to Joe Biden, the European Union, and the United Nations: no way is there ever going to be an independent Arab country in Judea and Samaria on Israel’s east but west of the Jordan River. The “Two-State Delusion” already has been dead and even cremated. Now, with the Hamas Shabbat Sh’mini Atzeret Massacre, the remaining ashes have been buried. No Arab leader or negotiator will agree to allow the 850,000 Jews of the eastern communities of Jerusalem and the rest of Judea and Samaria to remain permanently in “Palestine.” Yet, no Israeli government can logistically — or dare — remove them. They barely could uproot and relocate 8,500 from Gush Katif in 2005. By contrast, Judea and Samaria are home to 850,000 Jews: one hundred times the number forced out from Gaza in 1985. Impossible to uproot even if they would try. Impossible to relocate even if they would try. Impossible to build housing, schools, and infrastructure overnight for one million dispossessed people. And no Israeli government could survive agreeing to such madness. Moreover, even Tel Aviv’s socialist Ashkenazi elite class — Israel’s quintessential peaceniks — face the reality that a “Palestine” entity opens a third front if Israel gives dictator and terrorist-in-a-suit Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) what Ehud Barak gave Hezbollah’s Nasrallah in Lebanon to Israel’s north, and Sharon gave Hamas in Gaza to the south. Missiles and rockets will rain everywhere over Israel all day and night, from the north, from the south — and from the east — covering every centimeter from the Golan and Galilee in the north to Beersheva, Ashkelon, Ashdod, and Sderot in the south. Rapists, beheaders, and baby killers from newly independent “Palestine” will be in Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Ra’anana, Petach Tikvah, Hadera, and Haifa just as at the kibbutzim of the south. Arabs already are building rockets in Jenin on the “West Bank.” Accordingly, the Hamas Massacre has taken “Two-State” off the table, even if Biden and Harvard students don’t know yet, and Israel can and must continue populating Judea and Samaria to one million in the immediate months ahead These are things that come next (e.g., a strangling blockade followed by a ground invasion), others that ought to come next (e.g., Nuremberg/Eichmann Trials) — and some that never will come (e.g., a “Palestine” polity). Plain and simple. Let it be. Published by the writer here on October 23 in The American Spectator. These were his predictions and analyses more than two months ago, before the ground incursion ever began. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ From: Natan Nestel The widespread support for Hamas's heinous atrocities (or: barbaric actions) on October 7 in North America and Europe, especially by the younger generation and numerous young Jews, shocked many people. It didn't emerge from thin air. What mainly contributed to the phenomenon is a pervasive (or: permeated) modern anti-Semitism that has been in the making (or: gestating) for years—namely, the false anti-Israel narratives, effectively instilled in the young (Jewish and non-Jewish) generation’s minds, portraying “the Israeli army as an army normatively committing war crimes,” and Israel as an "apartheid, genocidal, illegitimate entity, an occupied colonial endeavor, …..” This insidious (or: ….) indoctrination campaign has been led by a network of organizations that, under the radar, systematically (or: methodically) and effectively using cult style brainwashing methods radicalized the young generation turning it against Israel. I have been diving into these subversive organizations and for years following their manipulative methods. Using advanced social media techniques, the false narratives have echoed across the land affecting more and more people. More recently, in an effort to evoke the kind of the George Floyd protests, young Americans have also been indoctrinated into believing that the Jews are “white” and “privileged” and that Israel is a “colonial oppressor." The anti-Israel indoctrination efforts have been very effective. A recent survey by Harvard-Harris polling, found 51% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 think Israel should ‘be ended and given to Hamas. This pervasive poisonous indoctrination convinced the future generation that Israel is a pariah state, an evil entity that fighting it is a moral obligation. Recently, in an effort to evoke the George Floyd protests the young American generation has also been flooded with narratives that the Jews are “white and privileged” and that Israel is a “colonial oppressor. ...." This pervasive poisonous indoctrination convinced the future generation that Israel is a pariah state, an evil entity that one is morally obligated to fight and destroy. Today, all this has fueled, and amplified Hamas terror proxy networks blatantly anti-Semitic activities and messages in the U.S. and Europe. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Iran, in a desire to surround Israel on all fronts, may unleash Hezbollah. It is time to attack Iran even if that means expanding the war which will happen, over time, anyway. Israel's Defense establishment fears Hezbollah may attempt to invade from Jordan Following a spike in smuggling from over the border, fears rise that Iran's proxies may attempt to attack Israel from Jordanian territory. The Israel-Jordan border The IDF is fundamentally changing its operational preparedness on the Jordanian border in light of an uptick in weapons smuggling from the kingdom and the fear of Iranian-backed terror attacks that may occur along it during 2024, Israel Hayom reported on Monday. According to the report, the scenario of reference for which the IDF Central Command is preparing is an attempt by Hezbollah, or other pro-Iranian militias, to infiltrate the Jordanian border into nearby Israeli communities. Israel's eastern border with Jordan is 309 KM (192 miles) long, and it is Israel's longest border with any of her neighbors. In the past two years, there has been a dramatic spike in arms smuggling from Jordan into Judea and Samaria, and the IDF estimates that Iran is behind the parcels. Over 1,000 weapons of different varieties were caught along the border. Among other things, the smugglers bring in air-soft M16 assault rifles, which have their parts switched out in Israel to allow them to fire actual bullets. In one instance, an Iranian-made claymore mine was caught. The IDF knows that only some of the smuggling attempts are caught. This is one of the explanations for the rise in terror attacks and the availability of weapons in Judea and Samaria in the past two years. The IDF has already doubled the scope of its forces along the border, and its 2024 work plan is even more extensive. The IDF is expected to ask the cabinet to build a barrier along the border as there is between Israel and Egypt. In addition, watch posts will be erected, security will be increased, and additional means will be installed to contend with smuggling and foil possible terror attacks. In recent weeks, Israeli inhabitants of the Jordan Valley have been reporting frequent sounds of gunfire from the area of the border. In light of the residents' complaints and as a lesson from the Hamas attack, the community security squads were reinforced with the goal of stopping a possible invasion. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ DEI is on the run By Washington Examiner Diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, in higher education was deceptively sold as a set of policies designed to promote "the fair treatment and full participation of all people," particularly groups that "have historically been underrepresented." But DEI offices have proved to be epicenters of division and ideological conformity, stirring hostilities and imposing an intolerant monoculture. Universities nationwide use mandatory diversity statements to enforce ideological conformity in disciplines as varied as physics, history, and psychology. Junking these loyalty oaths is a key step to diversifying thought on campuses. Diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, in higher education was deceptively sold as a set of policies designed to promote "the fair treatment and full participation of all people," particularly groups that "have historically been underrepresented." But DEI offices have proved to be epicenters of division and ideological conformity, stirring hostilities and imposing an intolerant monoculture. Fortunately, 2023 saw more than a dozen states start to take action against the DEI hydra, with six achieving concrete steps that other states should follow. In Florida, colleges and universities are no longer allowed to allocate any money to DEI programs. Institutions across the state have, in consequence, eliminated DEI jobs, such as chief diversity officers. This is greatly to the good of real education and social cohesion. These officers are often in charge of college "bias response teams" that function as "woke" police on campuses. A Supreme Court case is set to shut many of these programs down, but states can take proactive steps now to solve the problem faster. Texas passed its law curbing excesses this year, eliminating all DEI office training for staff and, more importantly, eliminating diversity statements in hiring. Universities nationwide use mandatory diversity statements to enforce ideological conformity in disciplines as varied as physics, history, and psychology. Junking these loyalty oaths is a key step to diversifying thought on campuses. In Iowa, the board of regents, which governs state institutions of higher education, eliminated all "college, department, or unit-level DEI positions" not necessary for compliance or accreditation. The board also required all university programs to be "broadly available to all students and/or employees," regardless of race. Georgia barred its 26 state colleges from requiring job applicants to fill out diversity loyalty oaths and took the further step of banning all DEI training for existing staff. Schools can still ask prospective employees about "their experience supporting different student populations," but they can't make a commitment to diversity a requirement for any position. Wisconsin Republicans agreed to a compromise with the state's Democratic governor that traded pay raises for university staff in exchange for limitations on DEI programs. The Republican-controlled legislature secured a freeze on all DEI hiring and the elimination of 1 in 3 existing DEI staff. It's not as far as other states were able to go, but it was a step in the right direction. Finally, Gov. Kevin Stitt (R-OK) in Oklahoma signed an executive order that, like Iowa, eliminated DEI programs and staff not needed for compliance or accreditation. Stitt's order also banned compulsory diversity statements for new hires. There is a limit to what states can accomplish. Democratic governors and legislators will not manage what is possible in states fully controlled by Republicans, such as Florida and Texas. But as private companies also turn away from DEI bureaucracies, there is clear bipartisan momentum toward a solid response to DEI excesses. Ending mandated diversity statements for higher education hires is an easy first step all states should take. Eliminating DEI training for existing staff is another commonsense move Nobody likes to be lectured, and all evidence shows these trainings don't work. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ |
