Biden Still Shills For Obama, Undermines Israel? They Do Not Want To Get It. Ret. Lt. Col Kemp Clearheaded. 137th Day. I Believe Essay.

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Learning to scratch our left trade ear with our right hand:
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Houthi Missiles in the Red Sea? The Land Solution
with Hanan Fridman

It got little attention at the time, but the U.S.-sponsored India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) initiated in September 2023 answers China’s Belt and Road Initiative. IMEC also helps deal with threats to maritime security in the Middle East by routing trade from Asia via the United Arab Emirates to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Israel, then on to Europe. How great is the potential of this “land bridge”? How does it affect global trade? Does it offer an alternative to vulnerable shipping routes?


Hanan Fridman founded Trucknet Enterprises in 2016 with the aim of best matching cargo companies and available empty space in trucks; Trucknet Enterprise has quickly become a leader in servicing IMEC. Mr Fridman worked logistics at Israel’s Ministry of Defense and is actively involved in the Prime Minister’s Office Fuel Substitutes and Smart Transportation Development Program. He holds a BBA from The College of Management Academic Studies.

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Biden to go to UN Security Council to force temporary cease-fire on Israel, halt Rafah offensive

A senior administration told Reuters they didn't believe 'a rush to a vote is necessary or constructive'

 The Biden administration is reportedly taking its goal of a temporary cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war to the U.N. Security Council as early as Tuesday. 

The administration is said to have proposed a draft U.N. Security Council resolution which in part would call for a temporary cease-fire and call on Israel not to go into Rafah in the Gaza Strip. 

According to Reuters, the U.S. text states in part that it "determines that under current circumstances a major ground offensive into Rafah would result in further harm to civilians and their further displacement including potentially into neighboring countries."

Richard Goldberg, a former NSC official during the Trump administration, told Fox News Digital, "The United States should be vetoing pro-Hamas resolutions, not proposing them. By putting forward a resolution calling for a ceasefire and opposing Israeli military action in Rafah, the White House is effectively pushing for Hamas to survive to massacre another day. This is a complete betrayal of U.S. interests and values."

UN, HUMAN RIGHTS, MEDIA GROUPS RELY ON HAMAS DEATH TOLL IN 'SYSTEMATIC DECEPTION': EXPERT

A senior administration official speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity said, "We don't believe a rush to a vote is necessary or constructive and intend on allowing time for negotiations."

The Jewish state has hitherto opposed President Biden’s attempts to torpedo its slated seizure of Rafah where one of the last bastions of Hamas terrorists and hostages, including Americans, are believed to be located.

On Friday, President Biden made clear his feelings about Israel going into Rafah, telling reporters, "I'm hoping that the Israelis will not make a massive land invasion."

Biden added during the same press conference that he had engaged with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the situation and that he had made the case in calling for a temporary cease-fire so that hostage negotiations can continue.

"The world must know and Hamas leaders must know if our hostages are not home by Ramadan, the fighting will continue and expand to Rafah," said Benny Gantz, an Israeli security cabinet member and leader of the opposition party. Ramadan starts on March 11.

On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the decision was one Israel would take on its own: "Hamas is left with marginal [forces] in the central camps and with the Rafah Brigade, and what stands between them and a complete collapse as a military system is a decision by the IDF."

Commentators have noted that the hostage release talks in Cairo are stagnate and Israeli forces have managed to free two hostages via limited incursions into Rafah last week.

Gallant fired back at the international voices opposed to an invasion into Rafah: "There is no one here to come to their aid, no Iranians, no international aid."

He continued, "There were 24 regional battalions in Gaza – we have dismantled 18 of them," Gallant said during a media briefing last week. "Now, Rafah is the next Hamas center of gravity."

A U.S. State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, "We have also been clear that a full-scale Israel military operation in Rafah should not proceed until there is a credible and executable plan for ensuring the safety of and support for the more than 1 million people sheltering there."

According to the State Department spokesperson, "The best way to achieve an enduring end to the crisis in Gaza that provides lasting peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike, is our strong commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state. As such, the United States continues to support the two-state solution and to oppose policies that endanger its viability or contradict our mutual interests and values."

BIDEN ADMIN CONTINUES PUSH FOR 2-STATE SOLUTION AS CRITICS WARN: 'EFFORTS REPEATEDLY FAIL'

Yigal Carmon, who was a colonel in Israel’s military intelligence service, told Fox News Digital, "The Rafah crossing was the major area through which the worst smuggling operation went on for years when it was in the hands of the Egyptian government. If this is not stopped, there will be no end to the war and no end to war, particularly heavy missiles on Tel Aviv and its surroundings. The seizure of Rafah will limit the war significantly."

He added, "If the U.S. administration has a miraculous way to convince Egypt to fulfill its commitment, then there would be no need for an operation. Unfortunately, the United States does not pressure Egypt even though it has all the capabilities to do that. But what remains is to pressure Israel, but this will not work because what is at stake is missiles on Tel Aviv, and Netanyahu cannot afford to end the war with [a] continued flow of missiles on Tel Aviv."

Carmon, the founder and president of the Middle East Media Research Institute, on Aug. 31 predicted an Iran-backed Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, which became reality on Oct. 7.

When asked why Biden is imposing pressure on Israel, Goldberg, a senior advisor at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies said, "There are lines being pushed that it’s all about Dearborn, or that it’s all about securing Saudi-Israel peace, but the polling out of Michigan and the strategic priorities in Riyadh don’t back up these arguments. It looks more like left-wing ideologues using the pretext of political necessity and the potential of a Saudi-Israel normalization deal to jam through all the bad ideas that never made it into policy for years."

Fox News Digital reported that Biden is putting Israel in a vice in order to win over the large American-Muslim vote in Dearborn, Michigan, which is a critical swing state in his 2024 reelection campaign.

Pro-Palestinian protesters are shown in New York City on Nov. 8, 2023. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)

On Sunday, Netanyahu told the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, "The release of hostages can be achieved through strong military action and tough negotiations, very tough negotiations. That tough position has to involve the exertion of pressure. And the exertion of pressure is not merely on Hamas itself but on those who can exert pressure on Hamas, beginning with Qatar."

 

Netanyahu added, "Qatar can press Hamas as no one else can. They host Hamas leaders. Hamas is dependent on them financially. I urge you to press Qatar to press Hamas because we want our hostages released. I hope that we can achieve a deal soon, to release more of our hostages. But deal or no deal, we have to finish the job to get total victory."

A separate draft resolution sponsored by Algeria on behalf of the Arab group calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza is expected to be voted on Tuesday. The U.S. has signaled it would veto it. 

The U.S. Mission to the U.N. didn't immediately respond to Fox News Digital for comment.

Reuters contributed to this report.

And:

American-Proposed UN Security Council Resolution Would Undermine Israel’s War Strategy Against Hamas

By Benny Avni Read more »

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Many do not want to get it because they would rather retain their biases.

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What Americans don’t get about Israelis fighting for their lives

They fail to understand a traumatized nation facing genocidal foes—one that is united behind a war whose aim is the preservation of their very existence.

 

By JONATHAN S. TOBIN

The world looks a lot different from Kibbutz Kfar Aza than it does in the United States or any other point on the planet. The difference is obvious in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem or anywhere else in Israel. Throughout the world in most mainstream media accounts and commentary from supposedly enlightened members of the chattering classes, the current war being fought in Gaza between Israel and Hamas is seen as merely the latest twist in a long cycle of violence between Israelis and Palestinians. From that perspective, it’s just more evidence of the cruelty of war to which the only possible moral response is to tell everyone involved to stop it, especially when the alleged underdogs—the Palestinians—are being defeated.

To those who look on from afar, the history of the conflict or the rights and wrongs of how the war started—even the unspeakable atrocities committed on Oct. 7 at Kfar Aza and 21 other Israeli communities when Palestinians associated with Hamas violated a ceasefire, crossed the border and murdered, raped, tortured and kidnapped people—are just details that act to incite the combatants.

But those details matter, especially if they involve the right to live in safety and relative peace.

A just war

This war is between a democratic nation fighting for its existence against an Islamist movement whose goal is the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people. Yet many outside of Israel, even those who do know the history and essential nature of the two sides in this struggle, such as President Joe Biden and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, are increasingly speaking as if the only thing to do is to end the war as soon as possible. They say the aftermath of the war must mean that Hamas survives—and gets away with mass murder. That means the Palestinians are rewarded for such abominations with an independent state that will likely have the ability to pursue the terrorist organization’s goal for many more days like Oct. 7. Somehow, that makes sense in Washington and other places.

But not in Israel.

The overwhelming majority of Israelis, including many, if not most, of those who oppose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, see it very differently. And to understand why, maybe you need to go to Kfar Aza and see the ruins and makeshift memorials to the people who lived in that small kibbutz near the Gaza border who were brutally murdered, raped or kidnapped by Palestinians.

If so, you’ll soon realize that the battle with Hamas isn’t one about Israelis ruthlessly harming Palestinians. Nor is it about “white” oppressors seeking to dominate powerless “people of color,” as many left-wing Americans think. Nor is it one in which tired diplomatic theories about a “two-state solution,” which have repeatedly been rejected by the Palestinian people, can be employed to get a messy situation under control, not to mention ease some of Biden’s political problems.

To be in Israel during this war is to experience both the strength and the fragility of the Jewish state. Yet the general public wouldn’t necessarily think that if all they know of the Middle East is what’s seen on news shows. After all, life goes on pretty much as normal, even if some businesses and farming areas in southern and northern Israel have clearly suffered due to the absence of employees because so many people have been called into active military service. The buses and trains are running, and people still go to the movies and concerts, as well as other normal activities.

The hotels are also full, but not with tourists. That is a key giveaway that something isn’t right. Walk into many hotels in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv, and something is a little off. They’re packed with people but not tourists on vacation from abroad. Chat with even a few of the hundreds of thousands of Israelis—families with small children and elderly people prominent among them—who were forced to flee their homes in the south near Gaza and the north near Lebanon, and you get a view of the war that is omitted in the breathless coverage of Palestinian suffering.

These people were chased out of their homes by either the Oct. 7 attacks and continued rocket fire by Hamas, or the ongoing missile fire from Hezbollah. They can’t go home until the terrorist threat at both borders is eliminated.

A country united by grief and determination

To understand what’s going on, you need to talk to Israelis who have been called back into the military and willingly risking their lives fighting in Gaza. Though they’re eager to resume their regular lives, many I spoke with are just as ready to return to the battlefield because they know the job of destroying a deadly threat to their country isn’t finished. While international opinion deplores the possibility that Israel will attack the city of Rafah—Hamas’s last major enclave inside Gaza—few Israelis I spoke to, including those who have served, are prepared to halt the war until all of the perpetrators of the Oct. 7 massacres are stripped of the ability to repeat their crimes.

You don’t have to do a lot of reporting before you realize that morale among Israeli soldiers is high and stretches across all the cultural, political and religious debates that divide Israeli society. It’s not because they relish war or bloodshed. They don’t want to kill Palestinians and also grieve the loss of so many of their comrades—casualties made more likely because of the strict rules of engagement that prevent the Israel Defense Forces from fully utilizing the firepower at their disposal to lower the number of civilians killed because Hamas uses them as human shields.

Their spirit remains strong. They know that what they are doing has nothing to do with the lies about “apartheid,” settler-colonialism,” “occupation” or “genocide” that are thrown about at antisemitic demonstrations in U.S. cities or on college campuses and are treated as acceptable discourse in mainstream publications like The New York Times.

Israeli soldiers—young conscripts and veteran reservists alike—aren’t down about the war because they know that what they are doing is defending their homes and families. It’s the civic faith in the justice of their cause that resonates throughout Israeli society and pervades the thinking of those who have sent their loved ones to battle. It is also felt by the grieving families of those who didn’t come home. Israel is a nation that is united by both anguish and determination.

Americans understand war differently

This may come as a shock to Americans, who are used to thinking of wars in a very different way.

Since World War II, Americans were sent to fight dismal and bloody proxy wars in Korea and Vietnam, where the rhetoric about defending democracy against communism rang hollow for many. That was just as true about the attitudes toward the wars fought in Afghanistan and Iraq in this century. Despite any initial enthusiasm about punishing the perpetrators of 9/11 or toppling dictator Saddam Hussein, those conflicts turned into messy quagmires that most Americans—whether on the right or the left—wished to escape. Though the opponents of the United States were clearly evil, by the time both wars ended in what history will record as defeats, they hardly seemed worth the sacrifice of blood and treasure that had been expended on them. Even before the final rout of Americans during the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, these wars had already been sealed in the country’s collective memory by both popular culture and the opinion of most serious commentators as terrible mistakes.

Coverage of Israel’s war against Hamas makes it seem as if it is another version of hapless and brutal Westerners fighting Muslims in futile efforts that cannot succeed, similar to the way Americans failed in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the overwhelming majority of Israelis—from secular left-wing Tel Avivians to pious Jerusalemites and all points in between—know their war is different.

They understand that their opponents are not in far-off lands like America’s in recent decades, and their raw violence directly threatens them. Though Israel has prospered in the 75 years since the Jews regained sovereignty in their ancient homeland, it hasn’t known a day of complete peace. Palestinian Arabs, their foreign allies and enablers in the Muslim and Arab world, as well as those in the West and international community, have never given up their quest to destroy the one Jewish state on the planet.

The horrors of Oct. 7 were not a one-off act of despicable and pointless anti-Western terrorism like the Sept. 11 attacks. Israel has suffered many terrorist attacks in which large numbers of civilians were killed by Islamist murderers, but Oct. 7 was the worst of them all. Despite the barbarism shown by the Palestinians involved, what made it resonate throughout Israeli society was the certain knowledge that it was intended as a trailer for what Hamas—and the majority of the Palestinian population that supported and still supports those actions—intends to do to the rest of Israel.

Places of pilgrimage

That’s why the view from Kfar Aza, and other Israeli kibbutzim and towns throughout southern Israel, is so different.

The sites of the massacres have become places of pilgrimage for Israelis and visitors to the country—and rightly so. To see the homes in places like Kfar Aza that were riddled with bullets and/or burned by the terrorists, and to learn of the horrible fates of their inhabitants, is a searing experience. The same is true for the fields where the Nova music festival took place, and where hundreds of young people were slaughtered, raped and kidnapped—and which are now filled with makeshift memorials to the victims and those taken hostage. Just as haunting are the nearby fields where the wreckage of hundreds of burned-out cars of festival attendees have been piled up and for the time being, left as a gruesome reminder of their fate.

After a brief period of interest and empathy, most of the international media lost interest in the story of Oct. 7. Americans don’t hear from those who survived the attacks or those who risked their lives to rescue some of the victims. But their stories do resonate with fellow Israelis, who understand that they could have just as easily found themselves the prey of Hamas murderers hunting for Jews to torment and kill on that terrible day.

The fate of the hostages also hangs over the country. The pain of the families of those who are still held in captivity by Hamas is felt by everyone there. And while politics has intruded into the discussion—as the anti-judicial reform movement that paralyzed the country has taken control of the weekly “hostage square” protests in Tel Aviv and focused their animus at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rather than Hamas—support for the war effort remains largely unshaken.

The notion of stopping the fighting to allow Hamas to survive while still armed and in control of part of Gaza is widely considered reasonable elsewhere, but not in Israel. There, they understand that if Hamas is allowed to fully escape the consequences of the war it started, it will only mean that it will be allowed to make good on its promise to repeat the Oct. 7 atrocities again and again.

The widespread assumption in America—even among major Jewish organizations that are supposed to have Israel and the Jewish people’s best interests at heart—that a Palestinian state must be created after the war ends is opposed even by most on the Israeli left. They know that rewarding Hamas and its supporters with such a gesture isn’t just an invitation to more bloodshed. It’s also immoral and will ensure that the conflict never ends. The independent Palestinian state in all but name ruled by Hamas in Gaza before Oct. 7 was evidence of what such a “solution” would mean for Israel. They understand that a state in Gaza, as well as one in Judea and Samaria, controlled by genocidal terrorists and their morally equivalent political rivals—the Palestinian Authority and the Fatah Party—could place the entire country in danger.

But that’s hard to see in Washington, even by those not motivated by leftist ideologies to hate Israel and to cheer the slaughter of Jews. Still, it’s a truth that is hard to escape when looking at the ruins of Kfar Aza.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate). Follow him: @jonathas_tobin.

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In an upcoming memo posting, I review a video by Ret. British Col. Richard Kemp where he discusses ratios of civilian casualties.  Even taking Hamas propaganda at face value the IDF's civilian casualty rate is 1.5 and the U.N has all wars at 1.9.

Col. Kemp went on to state all militaries make adjustments in troop force etc. in all wars and the IDF's recent adjustments still leave them capable of doing significant damage to Hamas infrastructure as well as their leadership.

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Dear Dick,

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." 

Read the Times piece here.

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Not Your Father's Democratic Party

By Derek Hunter

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Israel’s 137th Day of War

By Sherwin Pomerantz

In the north, the IDF on Monday struck two Hizballah weapon depots near Sidon, 30 km. north of the border with Lebanon, in response to a drone attack on northern Israel. The explosive-laden drone struck an open field near the town of Arbel in the Lower Galilee, close to the Sea of Galilee, 30 km. south of the border with Lebanon.

The US has proposed a draft UN Security Council resolution calling for a temporary ceasefire in the war against Hamas and opposing a major ground offensive by Israel in Rafah. The move comes after the US signaled it would veto an Algerian-drafted resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.   The US draft resolution would see the Security Council "underscore its support for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza as soon as practicable, based on the formula of all hostages being released, and calls for lifting all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale."  The U.S. does "not plan to rush" to a vote and intends to allow time for negotiations, a senior U.S. administration official said Monday.

Future Leadership 

Another candidate for future leadership is Mati Gill, CEO of AION Labs, a venture studio with a first-of-its-kind company creation model for new start-ups utilizing AI for drug discovery and development.

Prior to founding AION Labs, Mati was a senior executive at Teva Pharmaceuticals and served as Chief of Staff for Israel’s Minister of Public Security.

Mati is an experienced healthcare innovation leader and manager with more than 10 years of leadership experience in the biopharma industry.  Adept at accomplishing complex tasks and establishing new entities, his expertise lies in coalition building, alliance management, corporate innovation, strategic relationship development, team leadership, and partner management. He is results-oriented and skilled in recruitment, coalition development, operations, policy, innovation, business development, and entrepreneurship.

Matti has an extensive network, both within the Israeli ecosystem and globally, having served on numerous advisory boards and boards of directors.

He is an IDF veteran (Maj. res.)`and currently serves on the boards of the Israel Advanced Technology Industries Association (IATI) and the Israel America Chamber of Commerce (AmCham).  He holds LLB and MBA degrees from Reichman Universsity (formerly IDC Herzlia).

By now my readers should have realized that we have no shortage of capable people who, if willing, can be engaged to redesign post-war Israel and set us on a path to achievement even beyond what we had accomplished in the first 75 years of independence.

To understand the real spirit of this country take a few minutes and watch this short video….

http://tinyurl.com/2uh8ptjy

May the Lord bless them all and bring the troops and the hostages home safely and whole.

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I have not written about markets for a while and in a few days first quarter earning will end. It has been a very elective period but if you owned stocks reporting higher earnings and/or earnings above expectations you received a lot of eye candy.

AI stocks have been the rage and , though currently ahead of their skis, have more to go. I also believe health care, energy remain favorable though I acknowledge drilling has improved and lesser rigs are needed.  As interest rates decline financial stocks should swing back into favor and if we finally rid ourselves of an albatross president basic industry stocks should do better. 

I remain selectively positive.

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I Believe

I believe progressives and radical Democrats are a peculiar lot and a mixture of many personality types simultaneously. 

They are aggressive, mean spirited, have little regard for ethical restraint, are didactic, insecure yet, comfortable in their cocoon of always being right,. If they say it, it becomes so

.I believe they awake each morning disgruntled that the world is imperfect and only they have the answer how to change it into a better one. They profess to mean well and to have their fellow "man" always in mind.

Take President Johnson who had the "chutzpah" to believe he could end poverty.  After spending literally trillions of dollars poverty remained and those he sought to help were actually worse off because expectations were raised and ended dashed.  Meanwhile, after he left office, there was an entire "cadre" of do "gooder" progressives and radical Democrats ready to correct his mistakes claiming they only needed more time and, as always, more money.

After all, who is against elevating the underclass? How can one argue against such a worthwhile endeavor? All it takes, we are told, is more time, more tax dollars. Who, in their right mind, could be so heartless as to question both their motive and methods? All they ask is a free pass to solve the intractable. Their discontent is assuaged by the fact they also have power beyond the voting booth. 

The number of registered Democrats and Republicans is about the same. Democrats may have a modest numerical edge and certainly are more organized because power and control means everything. They do not believe government can function if it is small.  In order to accomplish their goals, bigness and distance are the answer.  

Where do progressives and radical Democrats obtain power beyond the voting booth and their organized spirit? 

I submit, they control the entire federal bureaucracy, the entire educational apparatus, large corporate boardrooms and C-suites. However, their power does not stop there because it extends to state and local governments of America's largest cities and their elected boards. They control the entertainment and sports industry and the sports media, as well as the mainstream media, and due to Soros' munificence, the state and district attorney's of some our largest urban populations. The ability to control education, alone, gives them generational power over America's future thought process.  What about the FBI attacking parents for being domestic terrorists because parents want to raise their children and not abdicate their responsibility to some neo-Marxist school board dictator?

Political Correctness became the sperm that eventually birthed CRT.  How can anyone be against lowering curbs so "the handicap" have greater mobility? When has anything government engaged in ever ended? It is as if "Topsy" controls everything to which  "we the people" are subjected.

Obama Care was shoved down our throats. Obama knew it would exceed projected costs, would break the bonds between  patients and their choice of doctors.  He sought  to transform America and lied to accomplish this and other nefarious goals. 

Progressives and radical Democrats are also ruthless. They will do anything to gain control.  Their attacks on Trump, regardless of what you think about the man, are outrageous and unconstitutional. They, evidently, will stop at nothing, even if it means breaking him,  his family, his real estate empire and opportunity to run for office. If accomplishing this perverse goal means running roughshod over our judicial system so be it because the end justifies the means.

Perhaps the greatest threat progressives and Radical Democrats engage in is creating factions and thus, societal discord. The United States of America was established by brilliant men. The Constitution and Bill of Rights they crafted was unique, beautiful and has lasted beyond any past effort by others to create a continuing republic. Because "we the people"  fell asleep and unresponsive, we allowed our society to be penetrated by "evildoers" who feel threatened by our freedoms and democratic ways and seek to destroy America.. 

Consequently, our ship of state is taking on water and is floundering in rough seas.  

I have no idea what the end story brings but I am not hopeful because the tooth paste is out of the tube. Yesterday, a poll revealed a large number of Americans cannot even name the three branches of our government. Basic civics and history are no longer taught. Why would one support and/or defend that of which they are ignorant?

Time will tell. It always does.

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