I hope you and your family are doing well. Mike
Over the past several weeks, the IDF has implemented a different approach to the war in Gaza. As the battle shifted from the first phase, and geographically from north to south, Israel is relying less on aerial bombings and is now operating in an urban warfare environment.
The New York Times issued a new report today that acknowledges the pivot in Israel’s war strategy and that it has resulted in a lowered civilian death toll among Palestinians.
"The changes in Israel’s war strategy have been significant — and somewhat overlooked. Israel has responded to international pressure in ways that suggest its harshest critics are wrong to accuse it of wanting to maximize civilian deaths."
Building collapse in Gaza causes large number of IDF deaths.
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President Herzog: 'An unbearably difficult morning - in a just war'
Israel's political figures lamented the loss of 21 IDF reserve soldiers in a tragic incident in Gaza.
President of Israel Isaac Herzog released a message on Tuesday morning regarding the disaster in Gaza in which 21 IDF reservists were killed.
"An unbearably difficult morning, during which more names of the best of our boys - a silver platter in every sense - are added to the list of heroism, in a war which is more just that any," the President wrote.
"Behind every name, there is a family whose world was destroyed in a moment, a family that we adopt to our heart with sorrow and pain, and at the same time with pride - for the heroism of this generation, for the duty and the comradery, for the determination and the love for nation and country," he added.
"The fighting in Gaza takes place in a very challenging area, we send support to the IDF troops and security forces who are working with endless determination to obtain the war's objectives. On behalf of the entire nation, I send condolences to the families and pray for the recovery of the wounded. Even on this difficult morning, we are strong and remember that together we will be victorious," the President concluded.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich lamented: “We received heartbreaking news this morning. My most heartfelt condolences to the families of the heroes. All of Israel embraces you with a broken and aching heart. It is our responsibility to make sure they did not die in vain.
“These heroes were the pillar of fire before the camp that showed us the way to continue the just war of the nation of Israel until we defeat evil and cut down the darkness. May their memories be blessed.”
Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Liberman expressed his sorrow for the soldiers killed in a building collapse in Gaza: "We bow our heads and salute the heroic soldiers who risked their lives protecting our birthright. My condolences to the families of the fallen and a speedy recovery to the wounded. May their memories be blessed."
Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter commented on the disaster: "There are dates that painfully repeat themselves. Yesterday, January 21, 2024, twenty-one IDF soldiers were killed by an uncontrolled explosion of demolition charges they had planted to destroy buildings and establish a security belt for the Gaza region. Most of them were reservists, who left whole families shocked and grieving.
"On January 21, 1995, twenty-two soldiers were murdered by suicide bombers who began in Gaza and traveled to Beit Lid junction. The great pain will not stop our soldiers in Gaza until they have achieved the goals of the war and recovered the hostages. Our hearts are with the families, and we pray for the recovery of the wounded. Am Yisrael Chai - the nation of Israel is alive."
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir lamented: "This is a tragic and painful morning, our hearts are broken and shattered. I send condolences and an embrace to the families. Now more than ever, it Is clear that the war must not be stopped, and that the fighting must not be reduced. We must continue to defeat and destroy the Nazi enemy in Gaza with all our strength The blood of hundreds of our best sons and soldiers was not shed in vain. May we be worthy of it, and fulfill their last will, written in blood - the collapse of Hamas and the recovery of the hostages. May their memories be blessed."
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana stated: "This is a very painful morning for the nation of Israel, with news that cuts the heart in half, the fall of many of our brave soldiers, heroes of Israel, in their mission to defend our birthright.
"In the name of the Knesset, I send most heartfelt consolations to the families of the fallen. Each of them was a world of families, hopes, and dreams that were cut down prematurely. We all pray for the speedy recovery of the wounded, body and soul. For the fallen, for the wounded, for them all - we must continue to stand together, shoulder to shoulder, side by side."
Minister Benny Gantz lamented: "This is a painful morning for all of Israel, with the news of the terrible disaster that took place yesterday in southern Gaza.
"I support and send most heartfelt condolences to the families of the fallen and wish a speedy recovery to the wounded. On this painful morning, we must be united, and remember the high price we must pay for our most just war and the lofty goals for which our heroes have fallen - to protect our future, to recover our children, and to ensure our victory. Specifically today, we support all IDF soldiers and commanders. We are all behind them."
Trump will never get anything positive from the DC Circuit Judges.
Appeals Court Denies Rehearing for Trump Gag Order
Over 100 days into the war between Israel and Hamas, media outlets have apparently forgotten who started it.
The headlines this week on Israel’s rejection of a Hamas proposal for a ceasefire made the terror group look like an anti-war movement, while the Jewish state has been painted as the aggressor that wishes to prolong everyone’s suffering.
This impression was created by news outlets that have taken at face value Hamas’ suggestion of a ceasefire or its justification for the October 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war, while completely ignoring the group’s genocidal ideology and its leaders’ statements.
But you would never know because the rational allow the boisterous to take over the forum:
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Americans Overwhelmingly Support Israel Over Hamas: Poll
By Charles Hilu
An overwhelming majority of Americans supports Israel in the Jewish state's war against Hamas, according to a poll released Monday.
Eighty percent of the 2,346 registered voters in the poll from Harvard University's Center for American Political Studies, HarrisX, and the Harris Poll said they supported Israel over the terror group, while 20 percent said they supported Hamas. Although the percentage who supported Israel over Hamas is down 1 percent, many other indicators pointed to the American people's support of the Jewish state either not changing or increasing.
Two-thirds said that Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza and is just trying to defend itself and eliminate Hamas, up 3 percent since last month. A similar percentage also said they believed that Hamas could not be negotiated with and is dedicated only to the destruction of Israel. Two-thirds of the respondents also said that a ceasefire in the conflict should happen only after the release of all the hostages Hamas took on Oct. 7 and after the group is no longer in power, a measure that is likewise up 3 percent from last month.
At the same time, 2 percent fewer respondents said this month than in December that Hamas needed "to be removed from running Gaza." Additionally, 30 percent said that Israel should control Gaza after the war, 31 percent said the Palestinian Authority should administer the enclave, and 39 percent said a new authority set up in conjunction with Arab nations should be in control. The percentage who wanted Israel to be in power in Gaza fell by 4 percent, while those who wanted the Palestinian Authority rose by the same number.
Younger voters are also less approving of Israel's actions in the conflict. Fifty-seven percent of voters aged 18-24 said Israel was committing genocide, as did half of those ages 25-34. Additionally, 63 percent of the former favored an unconditional ceasefire, while 54 percent of the latter felt the same way. Still, all age groups broadly agreed that Hamas wants to commit genocide against Jews in Israel and supported Israel over Hamas.
Researchers this month introduced a collection of new questions focused on attacks from Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis—who 77 percent said were a terror group—on ships in the Red Sea. Almost three-quarters backed the retaliatory strikes on the group, while 84 percent said the United States and other countries should increase the strikes if the Houthis keep up their attacks. Majorities of all age groups shared those opinions.
Last month's poll from the three supervising organizations made headlines for the responses of young voters. In that survey, 51 percent of respondents ages 18-24 said Israel should be "ended" and turned over to Hamas and the Palestinians, while 67 percent of that age group said that Jews "as a class are oppressors and should be treated as oppressors." That same poll did, however, find traces of support for the Jewish state among young voters.
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And Musk finally sets the record convincingly straight:
Elon Musk: 'Sometimes I think, ‘Am I Jewish?’'
X (Twitter) Chairman addresses first major Jewish conference to Auschwitz since 10/07.
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Has it been worth it? Seems we have paid a heavy price for no reward.
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2024—America’s Year of Living Dangerously Add it all up, and the world abroad agrees America is in rapid decline and will not or cannot defend its interests, or for that matter itself. By Victor Davis Hanson
Posted by Ruth King
https://amgreatness.com/2024/
Lame-duck presidencies, especially in the last six months of their final term, in general can offer opportunities for America’s enemies to take advantage of a perceived vacuum as one government transitions to the next.
But these normal changeover months are especially dangerous when a perceived weak or appeasing lame-duck president is likely to be replaced by a strong deterrent successor that will likely serve as a corrective to his disastrous policies.
James Buchannan (1857-1861), a northern but pro-South president, was a particularly anemic chief executive. He had done little if anything to try to deal with the growing rift between North and South, especially the furor over the Dred Scott decision and Bloody Kansas. Even when warned, Buchannan did little to beef up the U.S. Army or increase its weapon stockpiles to deter any potential secessionist state.
After Buchannan declined to run for a second term, the South understood that the abolitionist and anti-slavery Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln might well be elected in 1860—given the North/South split within the Democratic Party. And they understood that President Lincoln might well use force to stop secession.
Therefore, in the waning days of the Buchannan administration, after Lincoln’s victory, seven southern states seceded during the presidential transition, a confused North reacted little, more would follow, and a terrible Civil War became inevitable.
During the waning days of the crippled second term of Richard Nixon in summer 1974, communist North Vietnam saw a once deterrent president fatally weakened by Watergate. It was encouraged by a renewed antiwar movement, a likely soon anti-war Congress, and the next president, Gerald Ford—a probable caretaker soon to be replaced by an anti-war Democrat. And so in late 1974 and 1975, the communists renounced ignored peace accords, judged correctly that the directionless US would not help South Vietnam stop a massive invasion from the North, and thereby won the 12-year-long war.
As the Jimmy Carter administration began to wind down and as it was increasingly judged as weak abroad, the new theocratic revolutionary government in Iran stormed the U.S. embassy and took hostages in November 1979. Throughout the next year, Tehran systematically humiliated the U.S., mocked an impotent Carter administration, and rebuffed all U.S. efforts to secure the return of the hostages.
The Soviet Union as well saw the dying and still inert Carter term as ripe for exploitation and so invaded Afghanistan a month later, in December 1979. It too concluded that there would be a year of continued timidity in Washington before a likely remedy from a Republican president—in this case, Ronald Reagan, who had declared his candidacy a little over a week after Iran took hostages with clear promises to restore U.S. deterrence abroad.
We are now once again entering one of these dangerous moments, compounded by a weakening of the armed forces. During Biden’s tenure, the U.S. military has suffered historic shortfalls in recruitment, the disastrous humiliation in Afghanistan, a new DEI commissariat that wars on meritocratic promotions and assignments, the politicization of generals and admirals, the hyped but otherwise inane effort to root out mythical white supremacists and “domestic terrorist” bogeymen from the ranks, and the expulsion of some of our best soldiers for their reluctance to be vaccinated, many of them having developed natural immunity from prior infection.
The Pentagon is short on ships and planes. U.S. weapons stocks are dangerously low, drained by the abandonment of billions of dollars of equipment to the Taliban, the resupply efforts to Ukraine and Israel, the failure of the Biden administration to fund the restocking of our munitions and to ramp up resupply production—and a $35 billion national debt fed by $2 trillion annual deficits.
Add eight million illegal aliens who pranced over a nonexistent southern border, nearly uninhabitable big-city downtowns, an epidemic of violent crime, and a president who resuscitates mostly to blast half the country as “semi-fascists” and “ultra-MAGA” extremists.
Add it all up, and the world abroad agrees America is in a strange, self-inflicted decline and will not or cannot defend its interests, or for that matter itself.
In particular, both enemies and neutrals have accordingly drawn a number of self-interested conclusions about the waning Biden administration and what may follow:
- That Joe Biden, to their apparent delight, has in the last three years reversed the Trump deterrence policies and thus has green-lit their aggressions.
- That given the ensuing chaos, they have further agreed that Biden’s growing unpopularity with the American people makes it likely that both he and his appeasement policies will be gone by January 2024.
- That Donald Trump may well return to office. That would mean a much worse deal for Russia, China, Iran, and its terrorist satellites, and thus recognition that 2024 is a brief window of opportunity for aggression.
Putin remembers that Trump blasted 200 Russian mercenaries in Syria, got out of a bad missile deal with Moscow, upped sanctions on Russian oligarchs, flooded the world with cheap oil, destroying Russian oil export profits, sold once-canceled offensive weapons to Ukraine, and warned what would happen if Putin invaded Ukraine. Of the last four administrations, Trump’s was the only one that saw no Russian cross-border invasions.
China remembers that Trump slapped tariffs on its mercantilist market economy, accused China of birthing the COVID virus at its Wuhan virology lab, increased military spending, forced NATO to spend another $100 billion on munitions, and jawboned more alliance members into upping their military contributions. Beijing knew that to send a spy balloon across the continental United States between 2017-21 would have meant its destruction the minute it entered U.S. airspace. China did not serially threaten Taiwan during the Trump era—and may believe that this year could be the last chance in a decade to confront Taiwan.
Iran has concluded two things about 2024: 1) they do not wish to see another Trump presidency on the horizon that took out its top-ranking terrorist-general Qasem Soleimani, slapped sanctions on its oil, yanked the U.S. out of the flawed Iran Deal, declared the Iranian Houthi satellites a foreign terrorist organization, cut off all aid to the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, moved the U.S. closer to Israel, and warned Hezbollah of consequences should it start a war with Israel; and 2) that the present Biden abdication will likely be short-lived and thus now may be the time to take advantage of a currently directionless global superpower that either will not or cannot deter Iranian aggression.
So what should we expect in 2024? Lacking a strong U.S. patron and sponsor, Israel will be subject to more international calls to leave Gaza, to negotiate with Hamas, and to give up the idea it can “destroy” Hamas.
Hezbollah will likely up its daily barrage of missiles into Israel.
Iran will become more overt in supplying Russia, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis with weapons.
China will increase its threats to Taiwan and weigh carefully the costs-to-benefits of attacking the island.
The common denominator? All our enemies are right now calculating how best to use their gift of the next 12 months from a non-compos-mentis president and his neo-socialist team that either believes the U.S. is at fault for much of the world’s pathologies or is too terrified to do anything about them.
In sum, adversaries believe there is a rare window of opportunity in which the U.S. uncharacteristically does nothing to deter its enemies, back its allies, or win over neutrals. And over the next year, we can only pray they are mistaken.
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He agrees but will Hunter show?
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| Biden AGREES - Deposition Date is Finally Set! |
| Read it Here >> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ |
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