https://victorhanson.com/weimar-america-2/

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https://open.substack.com/pub/claritywithmichaeloren/p/the-ovens-of-auschwitz-still-burn?r=1104ts&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

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Demonstrating against Jew-hatred isn't enough

A direct line runs between defamation of Israel and attacks on Jews

By MELANIE PHILLIPS

The enormous demonstration against antisemitism in London last Sunday provided a much-needed morale boost to the beleaguered Jewish community.

There is profound shock that the barbaric Hamas pogrom in Israel on October 7 has given rise to a tsunami of incitement, intimidation and abuse of Jews. In this appalling situation, the emergence of tens of thousands of decent British citizens declaring their support for the Jewish people was heartening indeed.

However, declaring abhorrence of antisemitism needs to be backed by action if it is to mean anything.

The government has stated its solidarity with Israel over the massacre and has vowed to combat antisemitism. Yet if it really wanted to tackle this eruption of the oldest hatred, it would be addressing what’s driving it.

It would be speaking out against the virulent Islamic antisemitism that’s now on display in Britain and worldwide. It would be shutting down mosques where imams are preaching incitement against Jews and Israel.

It would be educating the country about the extraordinary lengths to which Israel goes in order to avoid harming Gaza’s civilians, unmatched by any other country.

It would be declaring that anyone who portrays Israel as genocidal, Nazi or guilty of illegality or human rights abuses is perpetrating a grotesque lie about the Jewish state that incites abuse and violence against Jews everywhere.

But the government has said none of these things. Instead the new Foreign Secretary, David Cameron, has actually fuelled the demonisation of Israel.

Echoing the malign barbs delivered by the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, Cameron lectured Israeli leaders that “they must abide by international humanitarian law, that the number of casualties are too high and that they have to have that top of their mind”.

By “high casualties” he meant the Palestinians that Hamas use as cannon fodder and whom Israel goes to enormous lengths to avoid harming wherever possible.

Presenting Israel’s deeply moral defense against genocidal assault as wanton aggression, Cameron thus fueled the wicked lie that the Israelis are callous child-killers.

This was shocking, and has consequences. For what’s fueling Jew-hatred is a massive campaign of defamation.

Media outlets, led by the BBC and Sky, have accepted patently misleading Hamas casualty figures at face value while going to extreme lengths to cast doubt on everything the Israelis say — even when, as in the discovery of the sophisticated Hamas tunnel complex underneath Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, this turns out to be absolutely true.

With the release of some of the Israeli hostages, the media has drawn a depraved moral equivalence between those who were kidnapped by barbaric murderers and Palestinian terrorist prisoners who were being let out under extortion.

The media simply airbrushed out the Palestinians’ terrorist records, along with their chilling threats of repeat performances. The intention was as ever to obscure the truth — that the Israelis are the victims of the Palestinians, not the other way round.

Classical antisemitism isn’t just prejudice or hatred. It’s based upon defaming Jewish people with the murderous lie that they are the source of all evil in the world.

If Israel (as implied by Cameron and Blinken) recklessly and needlessly kills huge numbers of Palestinian innocents, its behaviour is so abhorrent it doesn’t deserve to exist. If the Jewish state doesn’t deserve to exist, then Jews don’t deserve to exist. So there’s a direct line between defamation of Israel and attacks on Jews.

Moreover, this war against the Jews has been facilitated by the fantasies of western governments. The US and Britain deny the truth of the Palestinians’ war of extermination against Israel, because such a war requires not a “two-state solution” but the defeat of the Palestinians whom they refuse to acknowledge as aggressors.

Similarly, the US and Britain have catastrophically appeased Iran in the inane belief that it could be tamed by extending the hand of friendship.

Denying that Islamic extremism is rooted in an interpretation of Islam currently dominant in the Muslim world, the British government still refuses to outlaw Hizb ut-Tahrir, seen on the streets of London these past few weeks screaming for jihad, or ban the seditious and insurrectionary Muslim Brotherhood.

The more the Palestinians and the Iranian regime have waged war and terrorism again Israel, the more America and Britain have pressured Israel to compromise its security. The more extreme the violence perpetrated by Islamists against the west, the more the west fell over backwards to avoid any challenge to the Muslim world.

The result has been 100 years of Arab war against Israel, the empowerment of genocidal Iran, the progressive Islamisation of the west, the re-emergence of violent antisemitism and, exacerbated by Israel’s own catastrophic errors of judgment, the Hamas pogrom of October 7.

Those (of whom I am one) who have warned for years about these trends have been ignored, demonised and vilified as “right-wing,” “extremist” and “Islamophobic”, by Britain’s Jewish leadership no less than the wider establishment. And they still don’t get it.

The result is what we are now seeing playing out in front of our horrified eyes.

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HOOVER DAILY:

The Center for Revitalizing American Institutions (RAI) marked its launch with a conference on Thursday, November 30, and Friday, December 1, where scholars and policy leaders addressed various challenges threatening the efficacy and stability of America’s democratic institutions.

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The Ivory Tower Of Ideology And How To Fix It

by Russell A. Berman via The Caravan

The outbreak of anti-Israel sentiment in American universities after the Hamas attack of October 7 has been widely documented. Students as well as professors rushed to celebrate the atrocities: one Cornell professor found the murders “exhilarating,” while a Columbia colleague declared the slaughter “awesome.”

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I did not get to hear the entire questioning of the three Ivy Presidents (Tuesday 5 Dec.) but I did catch enough to conclude they all should be fired. If this is the best we can hire to run our supposedly premier Universities no wonder America is in decline.

Their testimony and responses to questions were obviously written for them by lawyers.

I favor donors voting with their feet but as long as Islamist money continues to flood into these schools whatever money is withdrawn by Jewish Alumni, generous as it may be, it will not be missed.

It is up to our government to withdraw funding these schools and students and start taxing their endowments. That should get their attention because money speak more than morals.

And:

It ain't much better at our Biden run Military Universities apparently if you want to believe the attached which was sent to me by a very dear friend, a graduate of one of these schools and an active memo reader.

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For you who still financially support the Naval Academy, read down to understand that when ADM Rickover told my gathered class in the Fieldhouse, August 1963, that if USNA was not going to turn out superior engineering-ready officers that USNA should be CLOSED ... ADM Rickover was CORRECT, just 13 years too early. Close the place.

Women in the Brigade is an ongoing dumbing down, failed social experiment ... TODAY's ROTC and OCS turn out as many Admirals as does USNA, why is that? Below are eighteen increasing examples from grads as to why USNA has changed from when we honorably served.

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A time-honored tradition at the US Naval Academy inappropriately scrubbed by the leadership's inept, politically correct policy, and cancel culture enforcing Superintendent’s administration and his female Mafia who appear to actually be in control of USNA policy.

1. Providing Safe Spaces for nervous Midshipmen to hide in

2. A policy of no dismissals for repeated violation of the Honor Code[sic]

3. The allowing of worship of Satan on the Academy grounds

4. A policy that Midshipman are no longer be dismissed for failing academics. They retake the subject instead of getting professional experience on summer cruise.

5. A policy that if a female midshipman cries during plebe year she can no longer be pressured by upper classmen, like male plebes

6. Homosexual male couples photographed kissing at the Ring Dance

7. Photos of slovenly dress by Midshipmen at dress parades common

8. Female Midshipmen who had sex with Instructor allowed to graduate

9. Violation of Supreme Court order that college acceptance cannot by preset by quotas by gender and race

10. Elimination of Civil War monuments honoring graduates

11. For first time in academy history, football players are relieved of regulation all other Midshipmen must follow.

12. The cancel culture in violation of “Freedom of Speech” aimed at a Midshipman made on social media that has nothing to do with the Naval Academy,

13. Political indoctrination of Midshipmen at USNA in Karl Marx's “Critical Race Theory” in a violation of the Executive Order signed by the President of the United States on September 22, 2020

14. Lionizing the stupidity of C. David ‘88 on Wave Tops who opposed Law Enforcement Officers under attack by ANTIFA in Portland

15. Giving Midshipmen a heads up the night before drug tests.

16. Ten Midshipmen were charged with heading a drug ring selling drugs to the Brigade who were not charged for over for three months

17. Where female Senior Officers (the Female Mafia) on the staff threatened to demonstrate if the Honorable James H. Webb, Jr. '68 (USMC) (Former Secretary of the Navy and former US Senator) was honored as a Distinguished Graduate [This outrage alone is basis for withdrawing any support for USNA or USNAAA.]

18. With no discipline done at all to those female officers who threatened to demonstrate

19. And so much more.

Joseph R. John, USNA ‘62

Capt USN (ret) / Former FBI Chairman, Combat Veterans For Congress PAC

Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us? Then I said, Here am I. Send me!” -Isaiah 6:8

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On Dec 8, 2020, Peter Hekman '58 wrote:

I gave up giving a long time ago. And the final straw occurred two years ago when my grandson, already informed he had an appointment, was suddenly called and told his appointment was cancelled. Reportedly USNA had not met their female quota, so USNA dumped some guys who were enroute in order fill the quota.

Pete

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Thanks? Hopefully , they won't find something systemically wrong about John Paul Jones ... and demand his immediate removal from the Naval Academy crypt. The radical, politically correct element of the Socialist-Democrats may soon have the power to do most anything they deem expedient ... to erase the memory and recognition of the Founding Fathers and other formerly admired leaders of the past. Tighten your seat belts. It is going to be a bumpy ride. You are the second person ('51 grad) today who told me something like that. What next?? USNA is getting no more $$ from me!

Tom

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So they don't want to offend the Indians by painting Tecumseh? By the way, this below paragraph about Tamanend says he was a friend of William Penn. When construction began on USS Tecumseh (SSBN-628) she was going to be named USS William Penn. But when the Quakers found out about that they didn't want a Polaris sub named after their guy Penn, so they changed the name to Tecumseh. Actually Penn might have liked it because the whole purpose of the Polaris subs was to serve as a strategic deterrent to prevent nuclear holocausts. “The builders of the ‘Delaware’s intended the figurehead to portray Tamanend, the great chief of the Delaware, a lover of peace and friend of William Penn,” a description from the U.S. Naval Academy Public Affairs Office reads. “But to the Midshipmen of the period, there was nothing in the name of Tamanend to strike the imagination. The effigy was also known by various other names -- Powhatan, King Phillip, and finally Tecumseh -- a great warrior and thus heroic and appropriate to the Midshipmen.”

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U.S. Naval Academy spokesperson[sic] CDR Alana Garas '01 told the Capital Gazette on Monday the longstanding tradition of painting the Tecumseh statue will not happen this year. “During the pause, we are listening to those who consider the practice of painting Tecumseh inappropriate and offensive, as well as those who view it as a time-honored tradition,” SHE told the newspaper. Instead, Midshipmen will paint the panels underneath the cannons at the entrance of Tecumseh Court, according to the newspaper. Traditionally, the U.S. Naval Academy before the rivalry game and on other special occasions such as Commissioning Week painted Tecumseh in war paint. Garas told the Capital Gazette that the U.S. Naval Academy took input from alumni [does this sound like a lie to you? it does to me], faculty, and staff when making the decision to nix painting the statue. Garas said it’s the only statue on the grounds that honors Native Americans. According to the paper, the statue is named after the leader of the Shawnee tribe but is modeled after the chief of the Delaware Indians, Tamanend. The bust was originally made of wood and was salvaged from the wreck of the old USS Delaware, which sunk during the Civil War. “The builders of the ‘Delaware’ intended the figurehead to portray Tamanend, the great chief of the Delaware's, a lover of peace and friend of William Penn,” a description from the U.S. Naval Academy Public Affairs Office reads. “But to the midshipmen of the period, there was nothing in the name of Tamanend to strike the imagination. The effigy was also known by various other names -- Powhatan, King Phillip, and finally Tecumseh -- a great warrior and thus heroic and appropriate to the midshipmen.” The Naval Academy says the statue has also been dubbed “god of 2.0” [anybody recall it was 2.5 when we were Midshipmen?] the minimum GPA to pass the academy. In tribute, the Midshipmen would toss pennies toward the statue for good luck before tests and sporting events. The Army-Navy game is set for Saturday afternoon.

From Dick Fitzgerald '62

From: John Schmidt '58, '60, '76, '92 (?)

From: Tom Fleming '58

From: John Norman '00

2023 MORE outrageous PC at USNA. Maury (father of oceanography) Hall has been renamed because Maury was from the south. So they renamed it the Jimmy Carter Hall ... who incidentally is also from the south. Does their duplicity make you sick? Pass this outrage along as you see fit.

Smokestack

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The Inside Story of How Palestinians Took Over the World

By Gary Wexler

Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume.

The brilliant Palestinian plan to capture the pliable minds of American college students was laid out in front of me 25 years ago, during a very sinister business meeting in Israel.

It was around the time of the Oslo Accords. I had been hired by the Ford Foundation to create a marketing institute for their grantees in the country. Ford was funding the operations of both Jewish and Arab organizations within the Israeli green line, in an effort to help build a vibrant liberal civil society.

Ford put me in partnership with a young Israeli woman, Debra London. (Debra, now one of my closest friends, has just been selected to head up fundraising for the rebuilding of Kibbutz Be’eri.) She and I drew up a plan to interview each of the grantees, as well as Israeli ad agencies and media firms. While we wanted to learn about the grantees, we also planned to secure free marketing work and media to be an essential part of the institute.

When we interviewed the Jewish organizations, the atmosphere was almost giddy with hope, possibility and belief in Shimon Peres’s new Middle East. Each organization we interviewed talked excitedly about peace and co-existence, a flourishing economy among both the Jews and the Palestinians, collaborative projects and interchanges.

But when we interviewed the Arab organizations, the word “peace” never passed their lips. They spoke of independence, dignity, self-rule, a state. One person even told me she would never use the word “du-kiyum” (co-existence). “There is no such thing as co-existence,” she stressed. “We are just the tenants living on the property that the Jews now own. That’s not a balanced co-existence.”

I tried to explain to my fellow Jewish liberals that we — the Jews and the Arabs — were having two very separate conversations. We were talking “peace.” They were talking “independence.” But as the weeks of interviews progressed, I found the Arab organizations were talking about a whole lot more.

I asked hard questions of both the Jews and Arabs in the interviewing process. With the Arab organizations, when I brought up any sensitive, and not-so-sensitive, issues—like terrorism, cooperation and even budget—the interviewee would slam on the brakes.

And then from each organization, the same words were spoken: “When you are in Haifa meeting with Itijaa, you can ask that question to Ameer Makhoul.” Itijaa was an Arab civil rights organization. Ameer Makhoul was its executive director. It became clear to me that Ameer Makhoul had some type of control over all the Arab NGOs I was speaking to.

Finally, Debra and I arrived at the offices of Itijaa. Skinny, bespectacled, young Ameer Makhoul emerged from his office, took a look at me and said, “So this is the Gary Wexler who has been asking all the questions.” And then he ticked off every question I had asked along with the name of each person I had posed the question to.

He brought us into his office and began pacing. “So, Gary Wexler, let me answer your questions in the following way. One: Gary Wexler, who is sitting in front of me now, went to Los Angeles City College for two years where you were an Israel activist and editor of the school newspaper. You wrote a lot about Israel. And continued to do so at California State University, Northridge. You spent five summers as a volunteer on Kibbutz Ayelet Hashachar. Through your marketing agency, Passion Marketing, you service the following clients of the Jewish world and in Israel.” He named every one.

I knew this guy was trouble.

“And now, Gary Wexler,” he sat down, “let me give you more direct answers.” He looked me straight in the eye. “Just like you were a Zionist campus activist, we will create, over the next years, Palestinian campus activists in America and all over the world. Bigger and better than any Zionist activists. Just like you spent your summers on the kibbutz, we will bring college students to spend their summers in refugee camps and work with our people. Just like you have been part of creating global pro-Israel organizations, we will create global pro-Palestinian organizations. Just like you today help create PR campaigns and events for Israel, so will we, but we will get more coverage than you ever have.”

He stood again this time, right over me. “You wonder how we will make this happen, how we will pay for this? Not with the money from your liberal Jewish organizations who are now funding us. But from the European Union, Arab and Muslim governments, wealthy Arab people and their organizations. Eventually, we will not take another dollar from the Jews.”

Then he approached real close. “What do you think of this?”

I took a breath. I remained professional. “Nothing. I’m here on behalf of the Ford Foundation collecting information for a planned marketing institute.”

He came even closer. “I am asking what does Gary Wexler think of what I just said. You, Gary Wexler.”

I repeated my answer.

He came even closer. “I ask again. What does Gary Wexler think of what I just said.”

Debra and I got up. I took my writing pad. “I feel that you are threatening me and we are leaving.”

The next morning I received a call from the program officer at the Ford Foundation. “Gary, we have a problem. We received a call from Ameer Makhoul and we understand you spewed out all sorts of Zionist propaganda and he felt very threatened by you.”

I told him it was a lie.

The program officer continued to press me as to what I had said. I related the conversation word for word. He repeated what Ameer Makhoul had said. I told him to call Debra London who was with me through the entire interview, and verify it with her. I also told him that they better check their funding to these Arab organizations, because Ameer Makhoul appeared to be controlling all of them with some very hateful behaviors.

He backed down.

Debra and I wrote up our recommendations for how they needed to build the marketing institute, including a recommendation for using the pro bono work, worth nearly 1 million shekels, that we had secured from the ad agencies. The program officer, a former academic focused on the nonprofit sector, couldn’t understand the value of businesses being involved and rejected it out of hand. A few weeks later, he told Debra and me that he had hired an NGO consulting team to finish the work. They would be giving several hours of consultation to each organization.

Several years later, I learned Ameer Makhoul had been arrested by the Israelis as a spy for Syria.

As the years went on, I began to see what Ameer Makhoul had laid out to me taking shape. The PR coverage was first: The Muhammad al-Durrah incident in Gaza, when a 12-year-old boy was shot to death on the second day of the Second Intifada, capturing global headlines. The Mavi Marmara, the Turkish Flotilla to Gaza that the Israelis stormed, killing several Palestinian activists, grabbing global headlines. I knew the Mavi Marmara was manufactured for the exposure it would gain.

Then the campuses: The creation of Apartheid Week worldwide. The growth of BDS. The student volunteers who began by the thousands to work in the Palestinian territories and its refugee camps. The shocking creation of anti-Zionist Jewish student groups.

As an award-winning copywriter and creative director in ad agencies and a professor of Communication at USC, I have developed an intuitive antenna to detect similarities between writing styles, idea styles and conceptual creation. In the early years of this pro-Palestinian campaign, I could see the commonalities of excellence, style and manipulation across all their platforms. Teaching on a university campus gave me a front-row seat at this theater of darkening skies.

People of color, particularly antisemitic Black groups like BLM, were organizing to identify with the Palestinians. Many organizations representing people seen as oppressed were moved to identify with the Palestinians. Students of every variety were swayed. I could see the commonalities of language creation and transfer — my field — being applied to the Jews. Many of them were old antisemitic tropes into which new life was being breathed:

Israel and Jews are colonialists just like other white oppressors around the world. Israel is an apartheid society, the same as South Africa was.

Jews have white privilege, even though more than 50% of Jews are dark-skinned people from the Arab world, Iran and Africa.

Jews hold power in media and banking, making them the enemy.

Jews center themselves as capitalists and donors.

Jews don’t hold space for anyone but themselves.

Jews need to be held accountable for the pain they are causing.

If you challenged any of this you were a racist, the worst thing you could possibly be accused of.

(Except if you are racist against Jews. Then you prove you are a true ally of the oppressed.)

Our enemies have had a real success. They have formed a winning international communication army with trained troops everywhere.

Israeli writer, producer and former antisemitism envoy Noa Tishby recently said that students, particularly Jewish ones who are protesting against Israel, have been “played,” but I don’t know if even she understands the background and extent of it. They haven’t just been played, they’ve been turned. Many of them are alumni of Jewish day schools and camps. Those students believe they have joined the other side because they were the victims of a propagandized Zionist education and have now seen the light. No, they are the victims of a propagandized, slow, well-crafted plan, laid out to me by Ameer Makhoul.

And what has been the Jewish world’s response to all of this?

Funders are now putting up pro-Jewish and pro-Israel billboards in American cities. As if a clever one-line message can combat all these brilliant, strategized organizing efforts on behalf of our enemies.

Others are organizing TikTok and Twitter troops. But that work is in response to the playing field that has been established and won by the enemies of the Jewish people. We show ourselves in a defensive mode. We are playing on the field they have drawn. We need to draw our own, in a very big way.

There are many good organizations being funded and working on our behalf, but their work, alone, is not the answer.

It is imperative we have overall strategizing and coordinating. Right now, it is every organization for itself. It’s an uncoordinated battlefield where each squadron is moving in its own direction, rather than toward the same hill—the only way for victory. It is imperative that we create big, brilliant, creative ideas of engagement. We must view this as a pervasive Jewish community organizing effort for communication purposes, in collaboration with the Israelis.

American Jews are sending cans of food and socks to Israel while the Palestinians are conceptualizing bigger and better worldwide actions. We’re still fighting and demonizing one another. Many organizations have not yet woken up that it is no longer business as usual.

In the last three weeks I have received no fewer than 200 solicitations for 200 separate efforts. American Jews are sending cans of food and socks to Israel while the Palestinians are conceptualizing bigger and better worldwide actions. We’re still fighting and demonizing one another. Many organizations have not yet woken up that it is no longer business as usual. I’m on the board of one that I’ve had to rattle, saying, “No, we cannot position what we are doing just as we always have. Everything now has to be repositioned against the background of this war on Israel and the Jewish people.”

In the propaganda war, we could be learning a lot from our enemies, who have learned a lot from us. Maybe we need our own Ameer Makhoul and all his buddies? Is any leadership team, that we can all get behind, going to step forward?

Gary Wexler was recently honored by the National Library of Israel with the creation of The Gary Wexler Archive, a 20 year history of Jewish life told through the advertising campaigns he created for Jewish organizations in the US, Canada and Israel.

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Revive Trump’s ‘Vision’ for Israeli-Palestinian Peace - WSJ

Yet if speaking about peace is helpful to Mr. Biden, it’s vital to recall that a U.S. proposal for a realistic two-state solution already exists and was approved by a previous Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu.

The proposal is called “Peace to Prosperity: A Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People”—or simply the vision. Presented by the Trump administration in 2020, it called for the establishment of a Palestinian state similar in size to the pre-1967 area of the West Bank and Gaza, with unprecedented investment in the Palestinian economy. The vision estimated that within a decade a million new jobs would be created, doubling Palestinian gross domestic product and significantly reducing the poverty rate. The vision provided for the integration of Palestinians into the regional and global economy and for major development projects in Gaza.

Israel, for its part, would receive the security provisions it needs to prevent attacks akin to Hamas’s Oct. 7 assault. Neither Jews nor Palestinians would be forced out of their homes, and both would be given access to their holy sites. Jerusalem would remain united under Israeli sovereignty with a capital created for the Palestinians in its eastern suburbs.

The vision also called for the construction of a high-speed rail line between the West Bank and Gaza, as well as a system of bridges, roads and tunnels between noncontiguous Palestinian territories in the West Bank. The Palestinians would have their own port in Gaza as well as access to Israeli ports, and designated roads would connect the Palestinians to Jordan and the broader Arab world. Under the vision, Palestinians would be able to chart their own destiny, supported by massive sums of money.

Mr. Netanyahu hailed the plan as an opportunity “Israel will not miss,” but Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas rejected it with “a thousand no’s.” The vision, he claimed, would give the Palestinians less land than previous proposals would have and prohibit the Palestinian Authority from paying stipends to reward Palestinian terrorists who attacked or murdered Israelis. Today, in the 19th year of his four-year term, Mr. Abbas opposes the vision’s requirements for democratization.

The Palestinians weren’t alone in rejecting the proposal. Most of the media denounced it as too pro-Israel, despite its several territorial concessions to the Palestinians. Many commentators likewise overlooked that right-wing Israelis rejected the vision precisely because it would result in a Palestinian state—albeit one without full sovereignty and subject to overriding Israeli security control.

Mr. Biden has no doubt satisfied his party’s progressive base by abandoning many of his predecessor’s initiatives. Yet his administration continues to maintain the Abraham Accords, which Mr. Trump forged, and hopes to expand it by creating peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia. He ought to extend similar sympathy, and exert equal political capital, to advance the vision.

Talking about peace while Hamas continues to hold more than a hundred people hostage strikes many as tone-deaf. But at least 20 Democratic senators think otherwise and may seek to revive a failed two-state formula. To give Mr. Biden the backing he needs to maintain his principled opposition to a total pause—and provide time and space for Israel to defeat Hamas—the U.S. should renew the vision, at least as the basis for future negotiations. It is the only proposal Israelis might approve if and when the time is right, and it is an opportunity the Palestinians would be wise not to miss.

Mr. Oren has served as Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., a Knesset member and deputy minister in the prime minister’s office. Mr. Greenblatt is director of Arab-Israel diplomacy for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and author of “In the Path of Abraham.” He served as White House Middle East envoy, 2016-19.

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IDF Reveals Proof Of Hamas Armaments Stashed In Hospital

During a raid on al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on November 15, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) found guns, ammunition, and Hamas uniforms. IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus gave a tour of the Prince Naif facility for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Radiology (also known as the hospital’s “MRI facility”). Conricus displayed two weapons discovered in a closet as well as bags containing an AK-47, ammo, grenades, and militant clothing as evidence of Hamas activities. The IDF has previously identified al-Shifa Hospital as the “primary center for Hamas’ terrorist operations” and said the discovery was the “tip of the iceberg.”

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus from the IDF filmed the evidence obtained in the Shifa Hospital. After showing what was found in the MRI room, Conricus proposes moving on to the next room after discovering a backpack with crucial information, including a laptop. The remaining supplies are standard hospital items like bandages and medical equipment. According to Conricus, Hamas is responsible for the presence of items in a hospital where such weapons have no business being.

Behind another MRI machine, there were more items like those seized in previous locations. A live grenade, ammo, a combat vest with Hamas insignia, boots, clothes, and a standard AK-47 are all discovered in a duffel bag belonging to a member of the Hamas military wing.

In the video, they decide to check the same medicine cabinet where they found the emergency bag with the insignia and the knife. According to Conricus, the contents of this bag include tactical radio communications, multiple CDs, and a computer that appears to hold damning information and belongs to Khatib al-Qassam, the military arm of Hamas.

In conclusion, Conricus is filming a single take of evidence discovered in the Shifa Hospital, showing that Hamas routinely uses hospitals for military activities in defiance of international law.

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I sent this e mail to a dear liberal friend regarding Rep. Connor's revelations and attach his response.

E Mail: 78 pages of documentation of money movement

which came from China and testimony today by

whistle blowers but this means nothing because the

mass media will protect Biden.

Response: BS. NO PROOF. NO DOCUMENTATION.

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The People Who Mobbed a Jewish-Owned Restaurant in Philly Are Total Psychopaths

By Jim Geraghty

Posted By Ruth King

On the menu today: If you thought the angry mob that gathered outside a Jewish-owned restaurant in downtown Philadelphia Sunday night couldn’t get any more outrageous, wait until you hear how the organizers justified their decisions a day later. It’s rarely been clearer that those who are taking to the streets and chanting aren’t merely pro-peace, as they claim, they’re pro-the-other-side, even when the other side is Hamas and the stakes are therapy for traumatized children. There was a Kristallnacht vibe to the decision to harass a Jewish-owned restaurant and to treat it as an extension of the Israeli government. Meanwhile, the White House apparently believes that a one-paragraph statement of rebuke is all the moment needs. The president who said he chose to run for the Oval Office because “the soul of America is at stake” is strangely quiet at this moment.

I’m Sorry, but These People Are Psychopaths

On today’s Wall Street Journal op-ed page, under the headline, “Higher Ed has become a threat to America,” University of California Santa Cruz professor emeritus John Ellis concludes, “The biggest threat to our future isn’t climate change, China or the national debt. It is the tyrannical grip that a hopelessly corrupt higher education now has on our national life. If we don’t stop it now, it will eventually destroy the most successful society in world history.”

That’s an awfully big accusation. Hyperbolic, probably; let’s not hand-wave away the threats of our runaway $33.8 trillion national debt or Beijing’s aggressive buildup of the People’s Liberation Army. But it’s not completely inaccurate, either. Leftist professors and administrators have cultivated an environment where whoever can organize the biggest, angriest mob wins; left-wing violence is forgiven as de facto speech while right-of-center-speech is restricted for being de facto violence; and your constitutionally protected rights can be completely abrogated without warning or review. And that mentality has spilled out from campuses into our legislatures, courtrooms, newsrooms, and the public square. The politically motivated violence we see in our country today is not all driven by backwoods yokels marching through the streets of Charlottesville with Tiki torches.

I’m sorry, I can’t just drop the topic of that angry mob that gathered outside a Jewish-owned restaurant in downtown Philadelphia Sunday night. I know that a whole lot of people might think it was just an ugly, dumb thing that happened, but it’s over now, damage to the restaurant was minimal, and even the owner, renowned Israeli-born chef Michael Solomonov, doesn’t want to comment on Sunday’s incident. I can’t begrudge him the desire to move on and get back to business.

I have only the most tenuous connection to the city of Philadelphia, and yet hearing this story about the angry mob outside Goldie, accusing the owner of committing genocide, left me seething and spitting mad that these snot-nosed punks thought it was okay to harass a Jewish business because they deemed it a de facto extension of the Israeli government. I mean, just crack a history book. I’m begging you.

This is America. We’re not supposed to have angry mobs forcing Jewish students to hide in a college library. We’re not supposed to have people running around telling others to boycott a business just because the owner, manager, or staff is Jewish. And we’re not supposed to have people wondering if it’s safe to visit a falafel restaurant on a Sunday night, for fear that some angry mob might come along and accuse them of assisting genocide through their dining choices.

From this morning’s Philadelphia Inquirer:

The Philly Palestine Coalition refuted the allegations of antisemitism, defended the practice of boycotting businesses, and accused elected officials of ignoring the underlying demand of the protest: a cease-fire.

Did the organization “refute,” as in disprove the allegations of antisemitism, or did they “rebuke,” the allegations, as in reject? You’re a major newspaper staffed with professionals. Word choice matters. If the organization did refute that their choice to bring an angry mob outside the restaurant was anti-Semitic, how did they do this?

I suppose the argument is that that crowd wasn’t anti-Semitic because it made a similar chant outside a Starbucks:

Goldie is one of several eateries in the CookNSolo restaurant group, co-owned by renowned Israeli-born chef Michael Solomonov. Protesters contend that Goldie was not targeted for simply being a Jewish business, as some elected officials alleged, but rather because CookNSolo fundraised over $100,000 for the Friends of United Hatzalah, an Israeli nonprofit that describes itself as volunteer EMS organization. The organization provided emergency relief services to Israeli Defense Forces soldiers after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. Sunday’s demonstration included a near-identical chant outside a local Starbucks, due to what the coalition described as the corporate coffee giant’s support for Israel.

You see, this group couldn’t possibly be anti-Semitic because it also made a similar chant outside a giant coffee chain founded and built by Howard Schultz, Zev Siegl, Jack Benaroya, Herman Sarkowsky, Sam Stroum, Leonard Maltz, Jeff Brotman, Howard Behar, and Dan Levitan. It’s just entirely coincidental that every establishment they accuse of genocide was founded and built by Jews!

Except . . . the belief that Starbucks has some sort of ties to the Israeli government, or that it supports the Israeli government, is itself an antis-Semitic conspiracy theory: “Neither Starbucks nor the company’s former chairman, president and CEO Howard Schultz provide financial support to the Israeli government and/or the Israeli Army in any way.”

What the current management of Starbucks did do is sue the union Starbucks Workers United after the union posted “Solidarity with Palestine!” two days after the Hamas massacre. The argument from Starbucks management is that because Starbucks Workers United is using the Starbucks name, logo, and intellectual property, people think that Starbucks the company called for solidarity with Palestine two days after the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

(If you’re a unionized Starbucks employee, how thrilled are you that your union is taking a public stance that is functionally pro-Hamas? Also notice that Starbucks Workers United is telling customers to not buy Starbucks gift cards this year.)

You can tell that the organizers of the Philly Palestine Coalition have the vaguest recognition that they did something they shouldn’t have, because they’re emphasizing how brief their harassment of Goldie was. Relax, everyone, it was just a little bit of Kristallnacht vibes, not a long stretch of it!

“We made a two-to-four-minute pit stop,” Natalie Abulhawa, a coalition organizer, said Monday. “We are marching to call for an end to a genocide to Palestinians. We’re calling on our reps to do something — to stand up for what’s happening.”

Take a good look at why the Philly Palestine Coalition considers these Philadelphia-area restaurants a legitimate target for boycotts and protests:

According to a Philly Palestine Coalition, [sandwich shop] Huda was “raising money for the Zionist State,” which owner [Yehuda] Sichel considers an unfair characterization of his fundraiser for the southern Israeli town of Sderot, which was severely affected by the October attacks. His business raised $3,000 to pay for children’s therapy there.

I’m sorry, these people are psychopaths. If you contend helping traumatized children is “raising money for the Zionist state,” you’re declaring those traumatized kids to be your enemy.

We live in a world with no shortage of things to be angry about. You can find injustices and misfortunes of every kind. You can find highly rated charities that tackle every imaginable social problem: hunger, homelessness, domestic abuse, paralyzed veterans, poverty, educational opportunity, the unemployed, animal rescue. We all need some sense of purpose, some cause to fight for, and some sense that we’re trying to make the world a slightly better place.

You have probably heard some version of that old quote, “You can judge a man by the quality of his enemies.”

And these folks in the Philly Palestine Coalition are really, really angry that a sandwich shop is raising money for children traumatized by the Hamas attack. That’s the enemy it has chosen to fight.

Finally, in a demonstration that some people will put out disinformation like chaff countermeasures from a fighter jet, by Monday morning, there was a new rumor that the protesters — who mentioned Goldie in their chant — weren’t really there to protest the restaurant, but “the Embassy for Israel is right above the restaurant. [sic] idk why that information was withheld in the posts last night.” First, the Israeli embassy is in Washington, D.C.; what’s in Philadelphia is a consulate, and that consulate was three blocks away from the location of the restaurant. That information “was withheld in the posts last night” because it’s made-up horsepucky.

Following up on a point in yesterday’s newsletter, at around 10:15 a.m. Eastern Monday, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates issued this statement:

It is anti-Semitic and completely unjustifiable to target restaurants that serve Israeli food over disagreements with Israeli policy, as Governor Shapiro has underlined. This behavior reveals the kind of cruel and senseless double standard that is a calling card of Antisemitism. President Biden has fought against the evil of Antisemitism his entire life, including by launching the first national strategy to counter this hate in American history. He will always stand up firmly against these kinds of undignified actions.

Now, that’s a perfectly appropriate statement. But that is, apparently, all we will be getting from this White House with a semi-Philadelphia-based president and “proud Philly girl” first lady and the first Jewish Second Gentleman, and it just feels so pro forma and check-the-box.

By Monday afternoon, Axios was reporting, “1 big thing: Biden condemns Philly antisemitism.”

Except . . . there wasn’t any new statement from Biden, just the statement from Bates.

Is it too much to ask that a headline that includes the words “Biden condemns” be above a news story that includes a statement attributed to the president himself? Was it absolutely impossible for the president — with no public events on his Monday schedule — to make some on-camera statement about this?

Or was Monday one of those days where Biden just doesn’t feel up to making on-camera appearances? Is he still tired out from attending the Kennedy Center Honors Sunday night?

The president is fine, everyone. It’s entirely normal for a president to have one public appearance between Thursday night and 1:45 p.m. on a Tuesday afternoon at a reelection-campaign reception.

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From Which River to Which Sea? - WSJ

Would learning basic political facts about the conflict moderate students’ opinions? A Latino engineering student from a southern university reported “definitely” supporting “from the river to the sea” because “Palestinians and Israelis should live in two separate countries, side by side.” Shown on a map of the region that a Palestinian state would stretch from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, leaving no room for Israel, he downgraded his enthusiasm for the mantra to “probably not.” Of the 80 students who saw the map, 75% similarly changed their view.

An art student from a liberal arts college in New England “probably” supported the slogan because “Palestinians and Israelis should live together in one state.” But when informed of recent polls in which most Palestinians and Israelis rejected the one-state solution, this student lost his enthusiasm. So did 41% of students in that group.

A third group of students claimed the chant called for a Palestine to replace Israel. Sixty percent of those students reduced their support for the slogan when they learned it would entail the subjugation, expulsion or annihilation of seven million Jewish and two million Arab Israelis. Yet another 14% of students reconsidered their stance when they read that many American Jews considered the chant to be threatening, even racist. (This argument had a weaker effect on students who self-identified as progressive, despite their alleged sensitivity to offensive speech.)

In all, after learning a handful of basic facts about the Middle East, 67.8% of students went from supporting “from the river to sea” to rejecting the mantra. These students had never seen a map of the Mideast and knew little about the region’s geography, history or demography. Those who hope to encourage extremism depend on the political ignorance of their audiences. It is time for good teachers to join the fray and combat bias with education.

Mr. Hassner is a professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley.

And:

IDF endangered due to Palestinian humanitarianism strategy.

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Mothers of soldiers to IDF: Unthinkable that our sons be harmed for 'humanitarian' reasons

Mothers of soldiers fighting at the front protest unnecessary dangers to their sons. 'We must crush the enemy without mercy, we will not allow our soldiers to be harmed by foreign considerations.'

The Soldiers' Mothers Headquarters, which includes hundreds of mothers of soldiers currently fighting at the front, on Tuesday morning responded to reports that two soldiers from Battalion 601 fell while battling terrorists - even though the building could have been demolished in an air strike.

The mothers called on the IDF to fight while protecting the lives of Israel's soldiers, without bringing in foreign considerations or humanitarian, legal, or international considerations - and take into account only operational considerations.

"The lives of our soldiers come before the lives of the enemy's civilians," they said. "There must not be any considerations which stop the strong hand of the IDF. We must crush the enemy without mercy. We see the publications, that we lost two of our sons in close battle, instead of first bringing down the building from the air. We must say out loud to the IDF and the political echelon: We will not allow our soldiers to be harmed by foreign considerations. Wherever there is a doubt - there is no doubt."

"The IDF is strong, and we are behind you. Activate all of the tools for victory - without endangering our soldiers needlessly. We are strong, the nation is strong, our sons are strong - you must also be strong in the face of all the pressures. Together we will trample our enemy, until we win."

The statements follow an incident filmed in real time, in which soldiers from Battalion 601 can be seen fighting in a built-up area, at short range, and afterwards entering a building in which terrorists were hiding.

According to reports, Sergeant first class (res.)Ben Zussman and Sergeant Binyamin Yehoshua Needham fell during that battle, and two other soldiers were injured.

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Democrats are confused because they can't figure out how moral and/or political they should be.

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