Final WSJ Op Ed's and Editorials missed posting while in Fl. Now off to N Litchfield Beach, N.C for annual vacation with "family" from former Atlanta Days.
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Post Trump Inauguration Essentials Essay
By Dick Berkowitz
Should Biden be re-elected, which I seriously doubt and pray he will not be, then you can kiss America goodbye and it will simply become an historical asterisk.
The odds favor Trump, at this point. I hope, if elected, it will be an overwhelming victory so Trump will have sufficient voting advantages allowing him to govern against those who will array themselves again to destroy his administration.
If Trump is re-elected, and has the voting plurality to accomplish these goals, what should we expect?
In no particularly strict order, I submit the following:
1) He will address Border issues and probably complete the building and re-plug where it has been destroyed and/or penetrated.
2) He will make sure border staffing is adequate.
3) I suspect he will begin a series of returning illegal immigrants back to their countries of origin.
4) After addressing border issues, he should turn his attention to those universities and colleges who have violated America's Civil Right laws and threaten them with taking away their government funding while calling for the resignation of their presidents, administrators and board members.
5) After that, I suspect he will fire the head of The FBI and demand this corrupt agency enforce the law in at least two ways:
a) Begin an investigation to determine who has been financing the rioting marauders engaged in anarchy.
and
b) Gather and present evidence, to a newly constructed and staffed Department of Justice, that will form the basis of trials of rioters who broke the law.
6) The next neo-Marxist group Trump must attack is the Education Union for their illegal activities of subjecting students to a curriculum which results in teaching them to hate America and to be free to act outside parental authority and rid the description of parents as domestic terrorists.
7) Next, he should do his best to lay the groundwork for The Saudis to join the Abraham Accords so Israel, in conjunction with the other members, can begin to craft a post Hamas War, Self-governed Palestinian entity void of any Hamas and PLO involvement/connections.
8) He must unshackle BIBI and allow him to pursue the war as BIBI sees fit and re-instate delivery of any requested and approved arms deliverance including all approved Congressional approved funding.
9) In terms of America's economy, Trump will discuss with Powell, if The Fed has not already reduced rates, to do so immediately.
10) All of the above and more, if possible, could be implemented in the first 2 weeks after his inauguration and, in addition, he will outline all of this in A Major Presidential Speech To The Nation.
11) He should pardon all of his former administration personnel who have been jailed because of their association as a result of the weaponization of politics and I would hope he would establish a government fund to reimburse them for their legal fees etc..
12) I would hope/expect he would allow any impeachment of Biden and his family members be allowed to continue without any personal demands, pressures or personal involvement. Leave that to Congress.
Were I one of his advisors, I would inform him if he did not do the above and more, if he chooses, I would no longer support him.
The above are minimum essentials to get America's train back on the rails. Even if the above is accomplished, I still remain fearful too much paste is out of the tube and I seriously doubt America The Beautiful will ever be the nation the founding father's intended because too much institutional damage has already occurred.
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We Need Regime Change in Iran and Russia
The free world’s strategy should be to isolate both countries politically and economically.
By Garry Kasparov
The $95 billion aid bill for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan finally passed after months of obstruction by the MAGA coalition in the House and a destructive blame game played by the White House. Amid the bill’s essential weapons and money for Ukraine, a critical detail shouldn’t be overlooked.
On page 32, a provision requires the Biden administration to present “a strategy regarding United States support for Ukraine against aggression by the Russian Federation” within 45 days of its enactment on April 24.
In supporting Ukraine, the U.S. and Europe have failed to establish the most basic element of strategic planning—a clearly defined goal.
Abraham Lincoln, a true strategist, began his 1858 “House Divided” speech: “If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.” Where are we today? We are at war, but one side doesn’t want to admit it. Whither are we tending? In an impossible two directions at once, yearning for a return to the status quo ante of profitable and corrupt dealings with Russia while giving Ukraine just enough support to prevent a Russian victory that would spark a crisis in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
European leaders like Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz act as if they are eager to get back to business as usual with Vladimir Putin’s mafia state. They provide defensive weapons to Ukraine but waver when it comes to arms that would help Ukraine strike back, creating a perpetual cycle of civilian deaths.
The Biden administration is still guided by Obama-era aides and failed Obama-era concepts of constraining American power and allies while indulging American enemies. Supporting Ukraine “for as long as it takes” isn’t a goal. Supporting Israel while telling it not to root out Hamas terrorists isn’t a goal. Supporting Ukraine until it is whole and free is a goal. Promoting long-term peace in Europe and the Middle East by doing everything possible to accelerate the downfall of hostile regimes in Russia and Iran is a goal.
The aid bill also mentions seizing the hundreds of billions in Russian assets held abroad and using the money to defend and rebuild Ukraine. It’s a natural course of action, and the Renew Democracy Initiative, which confronts dictatorships and promotes liberty worldwide, has led the way in proving its validity and legality.
Russia’s response to this threat is instructive. Mr. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that if the assets were seized, Russia would retaliate in court. Yes, a threat of litigation from an illegitimate dictatorship that is invading neighbors in Europe, forming partnerships with terrorists from Syria and Iran to Afghanistan, and carrying out election interference across the free world.
That this bluster is taken seriously proves that we in the West still don’t believe we are in a war. This delusion also prohibits the European Union and NATO from imposing sanctions on or expelling Mr. Putin’s partners in Hungary and Slovakia and from pursuing Western companies that still do business with Russia. Europe and NATO haven’t acted to halt the booming business of being a middleman in Russia’s trade, especially in China and Central Asia.
For years, the U.S. has pointed to the size and strength of its military, how easily and decisively it could respond to any threat. But deterrence works only when military might is matched by reputation. If your enemies believe you will use overwhelming force, it forestalls the need to use that force. When a red line is crossed, there is no choice but to respond. Otherwise, credibility disintegrates and violence becomes more likely.
In 2012 President Obama told Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad that using chemical weapons in Syria would be a “red line.” Mr. Assad did, and he is still there, slaughtering people with impunity. Mr. Biden told Iran it couldn’t strike Israel from its own territory. It did.
Likewise, the international institutions the U.S. has long championed have lost credibility. NATO is only a piece of paper unless its leaders have the will to act. The bad guys know that, so they will keep escalating until, inevitably, they overstep. We risk a global catastrophe the likes of which we have never seen, given new technologies in today’s interconnected world.
Are you better off than you were four years ago? For Mr. Putin, Xi Jinping, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Nicolás Maduro, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Viktor Orbán—nearly every dictator and strongman—the answer is yes. There is still time for the Biden White House to correct course now that the aid bill has passed and the weapons are flowing, but the clock is ticking.
A war can’t be won by following the rules set in peacetime. The only way to win this long war is through regime change in Moscow and Tehran. Such change will be brought closer by isolating Russia and Iran politically and economically and by halting their foreign aggression.
The aid bill must be a new beginning, not the end. On a recent trip to Washington, I heard from former top-level defense officials about a growing recognition of what is at stake and a willingness to fight for it. Russia has shifted to a permanent war footing, and China is supporting Mr. Putin’s efforts to destabilize the Western world order. The U.S. and Europe must rise to the challenge.
I believe in America and I believe the free world will prevail. Its economic, technological, cultural and military advantages are so great that only self-destructive politics can prevent success. They have already delayed it.
We need goals, a strategy for victory, and bold leadership, starting with the recognition that we are at war and the courage to take political risks to change its course. The future of American democracy—and of the entire free world—depends on it.
Mr. Kasparov is a co-founder of the World Liberty Congress and chairman of the Renew Democracy Initiative.
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Biden’s Bad Weapons Message to Israel
A report says the U.S. put a hold last week on a weapons shipment to our ally. That won’t help end the war.
By The Editorial Board
President Biden is desperate to end the Israel-Hamas war, starting with the cease-fire the Administration has been trying to broker. Hamas has refused so far, and now the Administration is squeezing Israel even harder to abandon its plan to take Hamas’s last Gaza stronghold in the city of Rafah.
That’s the meaning of the Axios report on Sunday that the U.S. put a hold last week on a shipment of U.S.-made weapons to Israel. The dispatch by reporter Barak Ravid cites two Israeli sources, adding that the White House and other parts of the U.S. government declined to comment. The fact that the U.S. didn’t deny the report is telling. The Israelis view Mr. Ravid as the Biden Administration’s preferred media conduit for its leaks about U.S. policy on the Israel and Gaza conflict.
The news arrives as the U.S. is working with Qatar and Egypt to persuade Hamas to agree to the latest offer of a cease-fire in exchange for releasing some hostages. CIA director William Burns was in Cairo on the weekend to meet with Arab negotiators. We’re told that Hamas hasn’t budged on its negotiating demands, which include a permanent end to the war, not merely a cease-fire.
Perhaps the weapons delay was intended as a message to Hamas that the U.S. is willing to arm-twist Israel to stop the Rafah campaign. But that’s the diplomatic logic that has kept the war going as long as it has since Oct. 7. Israel’s government can’t end the war with Hamas’s military brigades intact, and that means going into Rafah, as difficult as it may be.
The U.S. should be putting pressure on Hamas to surrender and release the hostages. The more Hamas thinks it might be saved by U.S. pressure on Israel, the less likely Hamas is to agree to a cease-fire. That’s a recipe for extending the war for several more weeks, or longer.
Mr. Biden’s strategy of pressuring Israel to make concessions that its government and citizens are united against hasn’t worked. It hasn’t won concessions from Hamas and its allies in Iran and Lebanon. And it hasn’t tamed the anti-Israel protests in the U.S. that threaten his re-election.
Mr. Biden was in a stronger position, politically and strategically, when he spoke with moral clarity about Hamas and in support of Israel after Oct. 7. The fastest way to end the war is with an Israeli victory, and withholding weapons is exactly the wrong message to send an ally under siege.
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IInteresting but implausible idea because Israel can not trust Palestinians making secret ammunition etc. They were employed in Israel and turned on them on 10/7. Palestinians are an untrustworthy and hateful lot and were even turned down entry by their own brethren into their countries.
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Biden’s Worst Mistake of the Gaza War
He provided Egypt cover as it denied Palestinians their human right to flee the conflict as refugees.
By Elliot Kaufman
President Biden speaks at the White House, May 2. PHOTO: NATHAN HOWARD/REUTERS
When campus protesters accuse President Biden of facilitating Israel’s destruction of Gaza, he has no good answer. He can quibble, but having abandoned the moral case for the war and condemned Israel for its toll, what can he really say in defense of his policy?
When supporters of Israel accuse Mr. Biden of standing in the way of Hamas’s defeat, he again has no good answer. His goal-line defense of Rafah, Hamas’s southern stronghold where terrorist leaders, four military battalions and many hostages reside, has for months preserved Hamas’s power.
How did the president get here? Mr. Biden isn’t “Genocide Joe” any more than he is “pro-Hamas.” He has been boxed in and brought low by his own mistakes.
I have criticized the president’s treatment of Israel since the early days after Oct. 7, when most Israelis were singing his praises. But Mr. Biden’s greatest error in this war lies elsewhere, in his betrayal of Gazan civilians and cruel disregard for their humanity. This set in motion a cascade of problems that have bedeviled the war ever since.
When you hear that Gazans are “trapped,” you are encountering a Biden policy choice. It didn’t have to be this way. Gaza’s Rafah borders Egypt, a U.S. ally that relies on $1.3 billion in U.S. aid a year. In contravention of international law, Egypt has sealed its border to Gazan refugees next door. Mr. Biden hasn’t lifted a finger to stop it.
On the contrary, the administration embraced Egypt’s position early on and demanded that Israel not “displace” civilians into Egypt. “No forcible displacement” became Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s absurd mantra as Gazans were massing at the border and begging to be allowed out.
Along with the United Nations and the NGO complex, Mr. Biden provided Egypt cover as it denied Gazans their human right to flee war. As the Journal’s editorial board noted, “Only when it can damage Israel does it become the liberal position to close the borders and keep refugees penned in a war zone.”
Egypt’s excuses don’t hold water. Rafah, crammed with civilians, borders Egypt’s empty Sinai Peninsula, a desert of nearly 25,000 square miles. The problem of where civilians can flee is entirely artificial. It has always been possible to fence off a few square miles of Egyptian desert, for a limited time, without unleashing Hamas on faraway Cairo or permanently exiling Palestinians.
Having secured U.S. backing, Egypt even threatened to abrogate its peace treaty with Israel should refugees spill over its border. As one senior Israeli official put it to me, “It isn’t over the killing of Palestinians that Egypt threatened to rip up the peace treaty, but over us asking them to save Palestinian lives.”
The ask was never so great. It could have been for women and children only. Other nations would have paid and aid groups would have outfitted the area. But there is no evidence Mr. Biden even tried, let alone exercised leverage. The war would gone very differently if he had.
When Israel invaded Gaza City in late October, hundreds of thousands of civilians fled south. With a true safe haven available, more would likely have gone, and many of those who did flee would have continued south to Sinai. Instead, these Gazans have been used as Hamas’s human shields in city after city, Khan Younis and now Rafah.
Fewer civilians in the war zone means fewer casualties. Thousands of civilian lives could have been saved, while Hamas fighters could have been eliminated more easily. But like Egypt, the Biden administration seemed to think of ordinary Gazans not as humans to be saved but as bearers of a Palestinian nationalism whose interests had to be preserved and pride salved.
It would have been a defeat for Palestine had Gazans fled the strip, their lives saved. The State Department would have protested. Dearborn, Mich., and the campus left would have been outraged.
Yet they haven’t exactly been appeased by Mr. Biden’s course. Forcing civilians to stay in Gaza has yielded a large casualty count and dragged out the war. Israel has had to delay and slow its operations at every stage, and the large civilian presence has led the Biden administration to pressure Israel into using less firepower and fewer troops. Israel offers daily pauses, neighborhood by neighborhood, fighting the worst kind of urban warfare at great risk to its own forces.
Hamas got what it wanted. The longer the war continued, the more Gazans were killed, the more international pressure mounted on Israel, and the more humanitarian aid became a challenge. Of course it did: All the civilians are still in the war zone, where Hamas can hijack aid trucks and draw Israeli fire. The results have been a resource bonanza for Hamas, suffering for other Gazans, accidental Israeli killings of aid workers, and a breach in U.S.-Israel relations that encouraged Hamas to reject hostage deals and Iran to risk a direct strike on Israel.
Aid could have been distributed freely to civilians in the Sinai, away from the fighting. Hamas would have tried to stop people from fleeing there, but it likely would have been overwhelmed by the flow, especially with Israeli help in key spots.
The clash also could have broken Hamas’s control over the population, affecting the war and the day after. Any Hamas men who hid among the refugees would be in for a rude awakening during an Israeli-run readmission process to follow.
Mr. Biden never wanted a long war and is now desperate to end it and stanch the political bleeding. But his own policy error leaves him no good way out.
Supporting an attack on Rafah would, at a political cost, endanger the civilians whom he allows Egypt to trap there, no matter how well Israel plans their evacuation. Opposing an attack, however, has prolonged the war, and imposing a cease-fire would, at greater political cost, ensure Hamas’s victory.
Mr. Biden tries to thread the needle. He admits the goal of a hostage deal is a cease-fire that would lead to the end of the war and a normalization of Israeli relations with Saudi Arabia, a deal so spectacular that everyone forgets about Hamas and remembers the Biden foreign policy as a glittering success.
Brilliant, except that Hamas can hear him talking. Announcing that a cease-fire would clear the path to Riyadh has been a great way to kill a hostage deal. For Hamas, stopping Saudi normalization was half the point of Oct. 7.
Mr. Biden repeats his mistake, coercing Israel instead of using U.S. leverage with the Arab ally that holds the cards. Qatar funds Hamas and hosts its leaders. Yet rather than apply pressure, Mr. Biden quietly extended the U.S. military’s stay at Al Udeid air base in Qatar for another decade, CNN reported in January.
Relocating that base could threaten the Qatari monarchy’s survival, but again there is no sign the Biden administration ever played its card, even while Americans languish in captivity. Mr. Biden could have demanded on Oct. 7 that Qatar expel the Hamas leaders—or better, arrest them and hand them over and then start hostage negotiations.
Instead, Mr. Biden has spent months strong-arming Israel into concessions while Qatar and Egypt play the mediator. Unmoved, Hamas rejects each cease-fire offer and demands total victory. The only way Hamas takes a deal is if Mr. Biden guarantees it victory or Israel leaves it no other choice to stave off defeat. But the president stands in the way of Israel’s military and gives Hamas reason to expect to win even without a deal.
Mr. Biden’s errors have made this war longer and bloodier than it had to be, increasing the suffering of Gazan civilians while keeping Israel from realizing its objectives. He has no one to blame for the political costs he bears but himself.
Mr. Kaufman is the Journal’s letters editor.
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Crime and Progressive Lack of Punishment
The failure to impose penalties on bad behavior, on campus and elsewhere, produces much more of it.
By Allysia Finley
Hundreds of unruly campus protesters have been arrested in recent days, but how many will spend more than a few hours behind bars, if even that? Lawbreakers at the University of California, Los Angeles were given food as they were being booked and then released with a citation. Some said they planned to return to campus to cause more disorder. “We’re definitely not done,” one woman said. “I’ve never felt more proud of myself.” No doubt.
Why should they be deterred? Shoplifters and even violent criminals in America’s biggest cities repeatedly get arrested and let loose. Progressives don’t believe in punishing anyone for anything—except Donald Trump, his supporters and wealth creators.
Too busy protesting to study? No problem. Columbia this spring extended its deadline to April 29 for deciding whether to take classes pass-fail. How many students who barricaded themselves in Hamilton Hall last week planned to “mail it in” for their finals?
Columbia administrators threatened to suspend protesters. That’s no punishment. Many would enjoy spending another semester in college since dad or Uncle Sam is footing the bill. If they don’t want to repay their student loans, the government will forgive them. The students’ credit reports won’t even get dinged. Thanks, President Biden.
If they forget to pay other bills, the government has their backs. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has effectively capped all credit-card late fees at $8. The CFPB also plans to cap bank overdraft fees at a nominal amount, meaning spendthrifts needn’t worry about getting penalized for overdrawing their checking accounts. And if they don’t want to pay rent, cities including New York and Los Angeles have imposed regulations that make it prohibitively difficult to evict tenants.
Once upon a time, children were taught that choices bore consequences. No more. Don’t want to study or finish your homework? Schools are adopting “equity” grading systems, the Mercury News reported last month, with “some choosing to eliminate D’s and F’s, while others move away from zero grades or eliminate late penalties.”
Dublin Unified School District in California’s Bay Area will “remove extra credit and bonus points that elevated grades, and provide students with multiple chances to make up missed or failed assignments and minimize homework’s impact on a student’s grade.” Many school districts have banned homework altogether. Pedagogues wonder why kids spend countless hours a day on TikTok. Cause, meet effect.
Here’s another example of causality. A Gallup and Institute for Family Studies report last year found that children whose “parents invest heavily in discipline, monitoring, and loving support” have better mental health than those who don’t. No surprise. Yet disciplining children has recently fallen out of liberal fashion too. Parents instead are told to encourage their children to reflect on why they misbehave. Our 77-year-old former president probably couldn’t explain why he acts out. Good luck getting a 7-year-old to do so.
Teachers unions and progressives oppose tough school-discipline policies, arguing that they discriminate against minorities. There’s scant evidence of that, but the Obama administration nevertheless told schools to drop their “zero tolerance” policies. Many did. The Biden administration has even threatened to investigate public schools that impose tough discipline for violating civil-rights laws.
But would so many protesters be flouting the law if they had been disciplined more as kids? The Catholic school I attended in the early grades forbade children from playing during lunch break unless they had finished the frequently nauseating cafeteria meals. Students dutifully shoveled down the grub. Perhaps colleges ought to hire nuns to bring their campuses under control.
UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said he didn’t call police in sooner to dispel protesters because he wanted “to discuss options for a peaceful and voluntary disbanding of the encampment.” Administrators at other colleges have similarly expressed fear of “provoking” protesters—only to see them escalate their rebellion.
It’s reminiscent of the feeble Obama and Biden foreign policies. Both presidents failed to enforce sanctions and their own declared “red lines,” which resulted in adversaries’ becoming more belligerent. The Biden administration has refrained from strictly punishing China for helping Iran and Russia wage war on Israel and Ukraine.
Last week the State Department said Russia has used chemical weapons in Ukraine, and that it wasn’t “an isolated incident.” The department vowed to impose sanctions on entities linked to Russia’s chemical and biological weapons programs. Why not do so earlier? Perhaps for the same reason college administrators refrained from clearing encampments sooner.
The failure to punish bad behavior is a failure of deterrence. Only those living in the Ivory Tower could have been surprised when protesters, after facing little resistance to their take-over of campus yards, seized and vandalized buildings.
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Why Israel Must Take Rafah
It’s the last sanctuary for Hamas’s military battalions in Gaza.
By The Editorial Board
The battle for Rafah has begun in Gaza, and it’s an essential part of Israel’s war of self-defense against Hamas. The terrorist group’s leaders have dragged out negotiations for a cease-fire for months, with no intention of freeing hostages while President Biden shielded their stronghold from attack. Now the masterminds of Oct. 7 are learning that Mr. Biden can’t protect them.
No amount of pressure, no decision by any international forum, will stop Israel from defending itself,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday. “If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone. But we know we are not alone, because countless decent people around the world support our cause.”
Early Monday morning Israel ordered the evacuation of eastern Rafah, directing civilians to safety. In the afternoon Israeli tanks advanced. The plan is to evacuate and fight in the city piece by piece, swiftly moving civilians north and west without leaving Hamas free to tie down the people as human shields.
Objections are pouring in from the usual suspects. France says displacing Rafah’s civilians is a crime. Would it prefer that Israel fight among them, or simply leave Hamas alone? Unrwa says that it will resist evacuation. The United Nations refugee agency again puts its anti-Israel ideology above the safety of Palestinian civilians.
The invasion of Rafah was made necessary on Oct. 7, when Hamas slaughtered 1,200 Israelis. At that moment it became impossible for Israel to allow Hamas to control territory, remain in power and plan the next massacre, as the terrorists pledge.
Mr. Biden’s decision to set himself against any move on Rafah is hard to understand. Since there was no other way Israel could achieve its objectives, it put the President on the side of Israeli defeat and Hamas victory.
He now has a chance to reset and support Israel so it can finish its Hamas campaign as quickly as possible. As a senior Israeli official points out, “This Administration never supports anything we do until we do it.” In October the White House privately opposed any ground invasion of Gaza. It came around when Israel did what it had to do—as it’s doing now.
Rafah hosts Hamas’s leaders, four terrorist battalions, hostages and border crossing with Egypt, from which it controls incoming aid and smuggles in military supplies. It is the crucial city for the terrorist group’s future. Only when Rafah is in danger of falling will Hamas be ready to hand over its remaining hostages.
After Israel announced the civilian evacuation on Monday, Hamas finally moved fast to submit a counteroffer. Interesting what real pressure can accomplish. Recall that after Israel blitzed Gaza City in November, Hamas released 105 hostages for a breather.
Despite media reports, by Monday night Hamas hadn’t “accepted” a genuine cease-fire-for-hostages deal. It made its own offer that Israel end the war, which means accepting defeat. In reply, Israel’s war cabinet, which includes Mr. Netanyahu’s main political rival, unanimously decided to move forward in Rafah while sending negotiators “to exhaust the possibility of reaching an agreement.”
If Mr. Biden wants a cease-fire that matters, he will support Israel and let Hamas remember what it’s like to negotiate with its back against the wall.
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