The National Interest
January 25, 2024
Why Benjamin Netanyahu Rejects Palestinian Statehood
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rejection of a post-Gaza War Palestinian state spurred a predictable global response—with UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres calling it “unacceptable,” President Joe Biden reiterating support for the “two-state solution,” and the European Union threatening “
But the back and forth between Jerusalem (which is fighting a gruesome war with a genocidal terrorist group) and the world (which watches it peacefully from afar) masks a far more complicated reality.
The question is not whether Netanyahu is wrong to reject the two-state solution for the foreseeable future. The question is whether he’s wrong to say publicly what many in his position would think privately.
To be sure, Netanyahu can’t seem to resist the temptation to portray himself as a Jewish “Horatius at the bridge”—the only thing standing between his people and their destruction. With Israelis outraged by intelligence failures that enabled the slaughter of October 7, a weakened Netanyahu will likely try to reinforce that image at home and not worry about the consequences abroad.
But set aside that it’s the controversial Netanyahu who’s presiding in Jerusalem. And set aside the conventional wisdom that hails the two-state solution as the obvious path to Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Let’s consider the two-state solution through the eyes of a generic Israeli leader—one elected by the people and responsible for their safety.
The two-state solution is predicated on Israel and a new Palestine “living side by side in peace.” True peace, however, must not only emerge from the negotiating table but also infuse the hearts of the populace. Otherwise, pursuing the two-state solution is misguided and potentially dangerous.
Yes, Israelis are as split on this issue as they seem on everything else. Some 75 percent on the left support progress toward the two-state solution, compared to 45 percent in the middle and 21 percent on the right, according to polling from late November.
Opposition to peace, however, is far more deeply entrenched on the Palestinian side. In fact, 72 percent of Palestinians expressed support for Hamas’ attack of October 7, and support for the group has risen in Gaza and surged in the West Bank. Even before October 7, just a third of Palestinians supported the two-state solution.
Since October 7, top Palestinian officials have applauded or justified the attack, rejected a two-state solution, and vowed to create a Palestine “from the river to the sea”—that is, destroy the Jewish state in between.
“People are saying now that the October 7 war has opened a new horizon for a vision of a political settlement,” Khaled Mashal, Hamas’ leader abroad, told a Kuwaiti broadcaster this month. “...[W]e have nothing to do with the two-state solution... because it means you would get a promise for a [Palestinian] state, yet you are required to recognize the legitimacy of the other state, which is the Zionist entity...”
Nor are more hopeful prospects emanating from the supposedly more moderate Palestinian Authority (PA), which runs the West Bank and which President Biden suggests should run Gaza after the war.
PA officials suggested Israel itself bombed the music festival where Hamas slaughtered Israelis and fabricated evidence to justify its attack in Gaza. Jibril Rajoub, an official of Fatah (the PA’s political party) and possible successor to President Mahmoud Abbas, warned of “the next explosion, far more violent,” in the West Bank and said Hamas is part of the Palestinian “national fabric.”
Day to day, Palestinians are indoctrinated at school, in mosques, on TV, and on social media to hate Jews and reject Israel’s legitimacy, virtually guaranteeing that they’ll oppose the notion of two states “living side by side in peace.”
The PA continues to describe Palestinian terrorists who lose their lives as “martyrs” and portray them as innocent youth who are gunned down for no reason by Israeli forces. It also continues to pay monthly stipends to families of dead or jailed terrorists—the more murderous the attack, the higher the stipends. Among its latest libels, the PA has said Israel is stealing organs from dead Palestinians in Gaza and claimed the Talmud permits cutting open pregnant Palestinian women and stealing their fetuses.
At least eleven Palestinian schools, eight of them run by the PA, celebrated October 7, with children at one elementary school drawing pictures of terrorists paragliding into Israel and students at a high school holding a demonstration to praise Hamas.
“This conflict,” Netanyahu said, “is not about the absence of a state, a Palestinian state, but about the existence of a state, the Jewish state.”
He has a point. And, under these conditions, any reasonable leader in Jerusalem would be hesitant to risk Israel’s security by supporting a Palestinian state and assuming it wants to live “side by side in peace.”
Lawrence J. Haas is a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council and the author of, most recently, The Kennedys in the World: How Jack, Bobby, and Ted Remade America’s Empire (Potomac Books).
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The Crazy Story Behind the Disturbing News. Part One Victor Davis Hanson
Posted By Ruth King
The Unspeakable Precivilizational Barbarity of Hamas
A recent report from Israel chronicles the tragic, more than two-months-long hunt of a bereaved father, David Tahar, for the head of his slain son, Adir—a young Israeli soldier murdered by terrorists on October 7.
Tahar had been warned by Israeli authorities not to view the remains of his son. But he insisted, and thus discovered the mutilation perpetrated by Hamas killers and then sought to find the missing remains of his son.
Israelis, however, recently captured two terrorists who knew firsthand of the incident—given one was the perpetrator. And then the story descended further into barbarism.
Or in the words of the news report from The Times of Israel:
“Two terrorists who were captured by Israeli forces and interrogated by the Shin Bet security service revealed that one of them had tried to sell an IDF soldier’s head for $10,000 and gave details on where it could be found.”
Further macabre questions arise: is there a market for severed Israeli heads? Does the $10,000 dovetail with the earlier reports that Hamas was offering $10,000 bounties to Gaza “civilians” who tagged along opportunistically as soon as word spread that the wall was breached, Israeli civilians were being robbed, raped, and murdered—and bounties offered for ad hoc killing and hostage-taking?
Acting on such details from the captured terrorist, an Israeli patrol went out and recently found the head of Adir Tahar.
The details of the gruesomeness only mounted:
“Orders were given for an elite unit, backed up by tanks, to enter a central Gaza location where they found the head in a bag inside a freezer in an ice cream store… The severed head had also apparently been further abused… It was returned to Israel. DNA and dental records showed that it was Adir’s head and it was later buried.”
So decapitation was not savage enough for the Hamas ethos, and the bartered head of the slain soldier was then further mutilated? Was the civilian proprietor of the ice cream store at all bothered that his refrigeration appliances were used to store a human head? Was he the purchaser of the human head from the terrorist decapitator? Or was he the seller? Or was he simply the transactional middleman?
The Times of Israel also referenced a CNN-released video from October 7 of Hamas terrorist gunmen filmed while sawing off the heads of dead IDF soldiers, and an account of the decapitation by a shovel of an Israeli woman in the act of being raped—yet another sick crime to be added to the others of the simultaneous raping and lethally stabbing of Israeli women.
At some point can the diseased mind of the Western world do the simple enough moral calculus between these two sides of this war? It is not that hard.
Or to put it another way: one side decapitates and then sells severed heads, and one does not, and millions cannot see a difference.
To be continued…
And:
Gullible Americans are funding Hamas, not starving children
Just like the international aid that built their tunnels, funds for Gaza civilians promoted by celebrities like Doug Emhoff’s daughter are helping terrorists.
The images from the war Hamas launched against Israel on Oct. 7 have tugged at the heartstrings of Americans. By that, I don’t refer to the charred ruins of Israeli communities in southern Israel that were devastated by the Hamas pogroms. Nor do I refer to the horrifying evidence of that terrorist rampage of murder, rape, torture and kidnapping that is too graphic for most people to bear. As far as the international media is concerned, those victims were quickly forgotten almost as soon as the murder spree happened and then erased from the collective memories of the West. The pictures and videos of the Palestinians of Gaza, however, who have suffered as a result of the war started by the organization that most of them supported have been a staple of the corporate media’s coverage.
The suffering of the people of Gaza is real. Regardless of Hamas’s popularity or the widespread support of its people and other Palestinians for its genocidal goals, the destruction of the Strip and deaths of many of its civilians (even if the claims of the Hamas health ministry that are frequently cited by the mainstream press are completely unreliable) is a tragedy, as well as a completely avoidable situation. The ceasefire that Hamas apologists, their fellow travelers and other useful idiots are calling for existed on Oct. 6 and need never have been broken. And it wouldn’t have been had the Islamist group not decided that carrying out the largest mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust—and creating the circumstances under which their own people would be exposed to the hazards of war as Hamas’s human shields—was in their interest.
But none of that matters much to the many Americans who think that there is no worthier cause in the world right now than aiding the people of Gaza.
Keeping aid flowing to Gaza
Part of their concern is manifested in the efforts of the American government to ensure that international aid continues to flow into the Strip. That continues even though much, if not most, of the supplies of food, fuel and medicine are hoarded by Hamas terrorists rather than distributed to residents. That Israel has been compelled by American pressure to allow this aid to go to the terrorists they are fighting—a concession that is unheard of in the annals of war—is bad enough. Yet this is happening while the fate of the more than 100 hostages is still unknown, with no proof of life or evidence that they are receiving adequate care. It’s an outrage that has sent some Israelis to the border to try to block the convoys.
Following the voluntary charitable tradition that has always been a hallmark of American life, many people are donating millions to charities that claim to be bringing aid directly to Palestinians in need. If that assistance was actually going to feed, clothe and house Palestinians impacted by the war, then those acting on the laudable impulse to assist those in need would deserve our applause.
Except there is very little evidence that the money raised in the United States is reaching its intended targets. Even worse, there is good reason to believe that it is likely winding up in the hands of the Hamas terrorists who seek not only to perpetuate the bloodshed but believe that they benefit from the suffering of their own people.
That was made clear by the report published this week by Bloomberg,which noted that Hamas has been receiving between $8 million to $12 million in donations raised in the United States since the war began.
Charitable donations for Palestinian relief organizations have surged since Oct. 7 as Americans—motivated by ties to Gaza, ideology or simple sympathy for the victims of war—have ponied up millions for various causes that claim they are helping those in need. But it’s clear that, like everything else that goes into parts of Gaza that are still under the control of Hamas, there’s little reason to believe that the funds are feeding starving children. Instead, money is being snatched up by the same Islamist terrorists who have been stealing the finances and other types of goods that have been sent their way since they seized control of Gaza in 2007.
Many of the groups raising money for Gaza are brand-name charities like OxFam or Save the Children. Others have the imprimatur of the United Nations like UN Crisis Relief or UNRWA USA. Still others are longstanding donors to this cause like the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF).
A GOP Border Reckoning
We’ll soon know if the party really wants to solve the problem.
The Editorial Board
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Cahill's final chapter begins with the reign of Solomon who is David's youthful successor and son. Solomon became wealthy beyond belief but eventually spent himself and his kingdom into poverty, thereby, needing to tax exorbitantly, causing an eventual rebellion which his son, Rehoboam, stupidly resisted.
Consequently, in 3 generations, The House of David went from wealth to disaster. Meanwhile, during this period Hebrew literature was born. as well as the establishment and embrace of monarchial government.
However, monarchial expectations were never met so a desire to return to a Kingdom of David grew. This desire also went unmet. Thus, who would become God's mouthpiece failed to blossomed.
By the 2nd quarter of the 9th century Ahab and Jezebel came to the throne. Cahill writes, the Bible treats Jezebel as a Canaanite Lady Macbeth. Elijah, a Tishbite, challenges the prophets of Baal, engages in conversation with God and is pictured as and old style Samuel. Along comes Elijah, who styles himself merely as a herdsman, who witnesses grand scale conspicuous consumption in the streets of Samaria.
Elijah begins to be critical of what he sees and the Israelites become revulsed, lose their earthly possessions, are defeated by Assyrians and the remnants of their population come to be know as Samaritans. Their weakness was caused by intermarriage and colonization. This period marked the breech in the "holy marriage" between Israel and God, begun in "The Exodus." The "Ten Lost Tribes "disappeared, no trace left.
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By Salena Zito |
BOONE COUNTY, West Virginia — Not many people in the national press were paying attention to the Democratic presidential primary results in West Virginiaon May 8, 2012. Barack Obama was the incumbent president, and few outside local press noticed that Keith Russell Judd, a Texasconvict sitting in a federal prison for extortion, had sent in the proper paperwork and paid the $2,500 filing fee necessary to be on the ballot.
Even had they paid attention, chances are no one expected him to have an impact. Yet he won a whopping 41% of the vote in West Virginia’s Democratic primary, earning 72,000 votes to Obama’s 106,000.
While Nelson did not win, his impact was lost because the Democrats did not recognize that in Obama’s reformation of the party, future candidates might not be as gifted or lucky as he was in winning.
Case in point: Here in Boone County (rather than statewide), Judd actually beat Obama in that primary. Why did that matter? Well a few months later, Obama would lose this county in the general election against Republican Mitt Romney, marking the first time since 1924 that a Democrat had not won Boone.
In places like that, voting against a party you have considered part of your lifelong identity is a pretty big deal.
This matters. While some will argue West Virginia was never going to vote for Obama because of racial reasons, what they miss is that it was a foreshadowing of why legacy Democrats — white, working class, with generationslong local attachments who work in industries that national Democratic politicians wanted to eliminate — were all about to hit the exit doors if the party didn’t stop edging them out.
Obama could afford to shed a portion of those voters that year; his focus on building the coalition of the ascendant young people, college-educated women, and minorities was enough for him.
The person it was not enough for was Hillary Clinton, who went for getting the same number of voters as Obama did in 2012, and she did, but not from the states where she needed them.
full story here: https://www.
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Here's the Additonal Layer of Security Israel Is Establishing in the Gaza Strip
By Matt Vespa
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After These Remarks by UAW President, The Biden Coalition Is Leaking Like a Sieve
By Matt Vespa
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Global Forecast for the Next YearBy: George FriedmanThis is not a detailed forecast of the fate of every country for 2024. Rather, it is an attempt to identify the main trends that will affect the future direction of the international system. The United States Note: Our longer, formal U.S. forecast was previously published. The United States remains an ineluctable factor in global affairs. Its status as the world’s largest economy and strongest military power inevitably entangles it in almost every significant global and even regional issue. Financially, the U.S. is often drawn in not because of anything the government does but because crises usually depress prices, which in turn attracts private U.S. capital. When it gets involved militarily, the U.S. is typically seeking to prevent or contain instability that could directly or indirectly threaten a vital U.S. interest. In essence, the U.S. is repeatedly pulled into conflicts, whether by choice or by the actions of foreign players. Forecast: The United States will experience more intense economic problems, as well as social and political strife, until the November elections. These are laid out in the full U.S. forecast. The Ukraine War The ongoing war in Ukraine remains the most persistent military issue, enduring for two years without a decisive victor. Ukraine, hindered by logistic limitations, has been unable to mount a significant advance toward Russia. Its American and European sponsors are increasingly focused on preserving a sovereign Ukrainian state without dramatically escalating or extending the war. Initially, Russia relied on the deployment of massed but inadequately supported tanks, but it has long since shifted to attritional warfare, aiming to gain terrain and break the Ukrainian line. Despite some successes, Russia has not come close to either crippling the Ukrainian army or breaking through and encircling even relatively small areas. Russia’s primary problem is demographics. An infantry-centric strategy against a prepared adversary demands a substantial number of troops. The Russians are now discussing drafting large numbers of civilians and recruiting foreign nationals. However, it takes many months to train a competent soldier, and sending poorly trained novices to the front is inefficient and likely to fail. A cease-fire in 2024 is increasingly unlikely. Conditions were right for an agreement last year, but exploratory talks went nowhere. Though a more static battlefield normally would favor a deal, the Russians have not offered one. Having initiated the war and absorbing massive casualties, they do not want to return home with nothing to show for it. Cease-fire or not, Russia will continue to seek out allies. Most significant would be partnerships with neighboring countries that can serve as a buffer with NATO. Hungary appears open to such a role, while the Balkans are as volatile as they’ve been in some time. Meanwhile, NATO’s expansion to include Finland and Sweden will tighten part of the containment line. Forecast: Regardless of the war’s outcome, Russia will intensify efforts to create areas of influence designed to block foreign, particularly American, intrusions. The Balkans will be a key focus, as will Iran, Saudi Arabia and others in the Middle East. As is the case with many Russian maneuvers, this strategy will appear offensive but is actually defensive. The U.S. will respond with economic and military countermeasures short of war. The Israel-Hamas War An analysis of the Gaza conflict must start with two realities. First, no Arab power has meaningfully contributed to the defense of Hamas. The Arab world is deeply divided and afraid of upsetting the regional balance of power. Second, Israel’s worst intelligence failure since 1973 preceded Hamas’ attack. Fifty years earlier, the Israelis knew Egypt and Syria were massing troops, but they underestimated the likelihood of an imminent attack and were unprepared when it came. In 2023, Israeli intelligence failed to recognize what Hamas was doing close to Israeli territory. From Israel’s point of view, the common thread between the intelligence failures was a tendency to discount the significance of the threat even after detecting it. Forecast: The outcome of the war and the failure to aid Hamas will inflame the Muslim world. Islamic groups’ struggle to regain credibility will lead to more attacks on Israel, but nothing significant. More important are the deep divisions evident within the Muslim world. Between the Islamic State’s suicide bombing in Iran and the ensuing exchange of missiles and drones between the Iranian and Pakistani governments, the signs of trouble are clear. In Israel, the intelligence failure and the performance of the military will come under scrutiny, but the most intense focus will fall on the politicians who presided over the war. In the months before Hamas’ surprise attack, controversial judicial reforms spawned widespread protests, including within the military, which likely contributed to the lack of attention on Gaza. The Israelis will also need to re-examine their relationship with the United States, with an eye toward more security agreements. Before the war, Israel had assumed it had sufficient force to protect itself without U.S. help. Its assumption was correct, but not by the margin it thought. China In most recent years, China would have been near the top of any global forecast. However, in the past two years or so, the Chinese economic miracle ended. China’s spectacular rise was based on exports and investment, and its most important economic partner was the United States. But the cracks that were already apparent – weak domestic consumption, excessive investment and a tired growth model – were greatly exacerbated by the outbreak of the pandemic. Growth stabilized in 2023 but at a level too low to restore public confidence, forcing the regime to reconsider the foundations of its claim to legitimacy. Despite a summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden, investment from the U.S. and demand for Chinese goods have not, and likely cannot, return to pre-pandemic levels. Obviously, this has rattled the Chinese regime, as evidenced by the increasingly common disappearance of senior officials in the military and foreign ministry. Militarily, although China continues to focus its rhetoric on Taiwan, more of its attention has gone toward the Philippines. Beijing and Manila were engaged in promising talks when Washington persuaded the Philippines to expand their defense alliance to include four more U.S. bases. The U.S. then reached a defense cooperation agreement with Papua New Guinea. Together, these developments strengthened the U.S. line of bases, stretching from the Aleutians to Australia, directed at containing China and retaining U.S. dominance over the South China Sea. China’s aspiration to control its access to the Pacific and beyond therefore remains blocked, and the U.S. would likely contain any attempt by Beijing to break out violently. Forecast: China’s economic problems are more visible to Chinese and others than are its military problems, but the regime is painfully aware of both weaknesses and will be focused on rectifying them. Chinese businesses and workers will be under intense pressure to increase production, with a particular eye on raising exports. Significant foreign investment will not return until China’s basic economic situation improves. Therefore, we expect Beijing to concentrate on stabilizing its regime and society while increasing production. It took several years for China to decline to this point, and it will take at least that long to recover. Conclusion We regard these nations and conflicts as the most consequential for the rest of the world. Many others went unmentioned in this wrap-up, not because they don’t matter but because we do not expect them to change significantly enough to impact the geopolitical system. In the United States, we anticipate more social, economic and political instability, but we see this as part of a historical cycle likely to end in a fundamental shift, not with this election but in 2028. The Israel-Hamas war will continue but at a slower tempo. The Russians will be the most active, trying to secure their country and regain their status as a significant power. They have a long time to go to achieve this. Finally, China is in the midst of malaise, and in our view it will remain there for an extended period. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ An investment person I have great respect for castigated Biden and his energy gurus relative to Liquid Natural Gas. He pointed out, there is a significant amount of gas available in America and placing restraints on our ability to sell this gas in Europe creates two negatives which he attributes to administration "idiots' First, it allows Russia to sell more gas to European countries and second, causes flaring of gas in America. Obvious these administration "idiots" have little comprehension of what flaring is about and does to the atmosphere. Gas is also a by product of oil discoveries and drilling. +++ A retired Israeli Lt. Col, who was formerly connected with Israeli Special Forces, stated he felt encouraged America's CIA Director was meeting in France regarding a solution to Hamas' escalating demands which were unacceptable because they are tantamount to a Hamas victory. The defeat of Hamas and return of hostages is an absolute goal in the minds of Israel. Anything less is deemed unacceptable. His comments were validated subsequently by a retired Israeli General. Reports of rape, mutilation etc. of women remaining in captivity by released hostages has also had a profound effect on Israeli society and several of these former hostage women have told their story in the Knesset. Israeli women are discouraged at the silence among the world's women groups. +++ Will alleged Corruption by entire Biden family members ever come before a jury? +++
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