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Israel News Politics
Media Mourns ‘Moderate,’ ‘Pragmatic’ Hamas Leader Who Wanted to Kill All the Jews
A Frazzled Israel on Tenterhooks, Bracing for Iranian Attack
By Dov Lieber
After attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president among the festive chants of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh found death waiting for him.
“We always shout: ‘Death for the sake of Allah is our loftiest aspiration,’” Haniyeh had claimed.
The Hamas billionaire who lived in luxury in Qatar hadn’t actually wanted to die, but he should have been careful what he wished for before the missile granted him the death he cheered for.
After the Hamas atrocities of Oct 7, Haniyeh had declared that we need the “blood of the women, children, and elderly” to awaken the “revolutionary spirit”. But his his dreams of killing all the Jews and seizing Israel ended when he left the protection of U.S. terrorist “allies” like Qatar and Turkey, and visited Iran.
Haniyeh never left Iran.
Earlier, Israel had taken out Fuad Shukr, the number two figure in the Hezbollah Islamic terrorist group, still wanted by the United States for his role in the Marine Corps Barracks bombing in Beirut which killed 241 American military personnel. It followed that up by taking out Haniyeh even as he was staying under the terrorist regime’s military protection in the heart of Tehran.
Allies from Doha, Moscow, Beijing and D.C. to CAIR to BLM to the BBC mourned his death.
“Never say that those martyred in the cause of Allah are dead—in fact, they are alive!” CAIR San Francisco head Zahra Billoo tweeted. “Tonight, we mourn Ismail himself but know his martyrdom is not in vain.”
White BLM leader Shaun King, who recently converted to Islam, cried that, “the United States and Israel have just assassinated the dear brother Ismail Haniyeh,” he declaimed. “These genocidal monsters think that this weakens Hamas, or weakens the resistance, but it does neither. It will only strengthen both.”
Haniyeh had previously condemned America for killing Osama bin Laden, describing the Al Qaeda leader as a “Muslim Mujaheed” or Islamic Jihadist, and hailed Abdullah Azzam, the brains behind Al Qaeda’s theology, as “a knight of Jihad and resistance against the enemies of Allah.” But the media still rushed to redefine him as a “pragmatic” peace-seeking “moderate.”
The BBC described Haniyeh as “moderate and pragmatic”. Reuters confusingly claimed that, “tough-talking Haniyeh was seen as the more moderate face of Hamas”. “Ismail Haniyeh was the pragmatic face of Hamas,” Sky News told viewers. The Guardian hedged a little by describing Haniyeh as “relatively pragmatic” compared to, say perhaps, the Caliph of ISIS.
Relativism was also the order of the day at the New York Times which quoted someone from the European Council on Foreign Relations describing Haniyeh as “a relatively pragmatic counterpoint”. The Washington Post lauded Haniyeh as “a more moderate force in Hamas.”
The very moderate Hamas leader had previously bragged that his Arab Muslim colonists in Israel “sacrifice their children, their sons, for the sake of Palestine and for the sake of the land of Islam and the Muslims. The might of the nation of Jihad is revealed on the land of Palestine, as well as in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Sudan, and in all the fronts of confrontation with the enemies of Allah.” By “enemies of Allah”, the Hamas leader meant Christians, Jews and all non-Muslims.
But the media had its pragmatic and moderative narrative. The Wall Street Journal jumped in with “Strike in Iran Kills Hamas’s Leading Advocate for a Gaza Cease-Fire”.During the Oct 7, Haniyeh had prayed in gratitude to his god ‘Allah’ for the initial Hamas successes in killing Israelis. He had then urged Muslims to wage war to ethnically cleanse all the Jews from Israel.
Stories quickly followed about the “dangers of escalation” and a “regional war”, as they do every time Israel fights back against Islamic terrorism. Islamic terrorism is never an escalation, only defending against it is. Muslim terror victims are just statistics, but the death of Muslim terrorists is always the subject of worldwide concern in the international capitals of terrorist appeasement.
The Putin regime in Moscow, which has been responsible for ‘suiciding’ political opponents around the world, declared that “the elimination of Haniyeh is a political murder that is completely unacceptable to us.” As opposed to the ones that are acceptable to it.
China, which had recently hosted a Hamas delegation, condemned Haniyeh’s execution and claimed that the Communist regime, which keeps threatening to invade Taiwan, “has always advocated resolving regional disputes through negotiation and dialogue.”
The Biden administration worried that the death of a murderous terrorist who had urged a “Jihad of Swords” and proclaimed that “we should hold on to the victory that took place on October 7 and build upon it” would undermine its attempt at “peace negotiations” with Hamas.
Oct 7 was a horrifying lesson in the fact that peace doesn’t come from making deals with terrorists but by standing up to them and putting them down. The Big Lie of negotiating with terrorists is based on falsely describing them as “pragmatic” and “moderate”. Every Jihadist, no matter how horrifying, is characterized as a leader looking to make a deal for the right terms.
No one takes Islamic terrorists at their word. And they should.
Jerusalem, unlike D.C. and Brussels, has begun taking Islamic terrorists at their word. When they talk about destroying Israel and killing all the Jews, they no longer assume that’s a negotiating position, but a plan. And when the terrorists say that “Death for the sake of Allah is our loftiest aspiration”, they don’t assume that’s empty rhetoric, but a genuine aspiration.
And Israel is fulfilling their pragmatic and moderate dreams of being martyred for Allah.
“We love death like our enemies love life,” Ismail Haniyeh, pragmatic moderate, once claimed.
A man should do what he loves. And politicians and the media should stop lying about what he is. And about what Hamas is. And about what Islam is.
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Obviously Blinken, Biden and Kamala are too dumb to understand Israel has a"Citizen Military" and depend largely upon reservists who work in agriculture, have normal jobs, own technology companies etc. They are even too dumb to equate 350 million versus 10 million.
This is why these 3 idiots would rather pacify Iran and have placed Israel at peril because Israel cannot waste time. They need to end their wars quickly and are geared/structured to do so.
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‘Everything Is Collapsing’: Israeli Reservists Confront Toll of Protracted War
As Gaza conflict drags on, reservists are exhausted, constraining Israel’s options as it weighs war with Hezbollah
For Israeli reservist Adi Hazan, a long deployment has come at a steep cost to his business and personal life. Tanya Habjouqa/NOOR for WSJ
By Carrie Keller-Lynn and Dov Lieber
A day after Hamas attacked Israel and sparked war on Oct. 7, Adi Hazan drove to a rally point in southern Israel and began what he thought would be one or two months of emergency military-reserve service.
Nearly 10 months later, the machine-gunner is still deployed—and the rest of his life is in shambles. His construction business is failing, he is sinking into debt, and his family relies on handouts from friends and charities. And he doesn’t see an end in sight.
“I don’t know what will happen,” said Hazan, 41, who first served in Gaza and now is in the West Bank, where Israel has funneled troops to clamp down on tensions exacerbated by the war. “No one knew this situation would continue for so long.”
A small nation with fewer than 10 million people, Israel relies heavily on reservists such as Hazan to keep its military functioning in times of crisis.
But now, with the war in Gaza heading into its 11th month, and long-running exchanges of fire with regional militias such as Hezbollah heating up, many of those fighters are close to a breaking point. Exhausted and in some cases demoralized, they are struggling to balance family and work with military service, while the economic toll from their absences mounts.
The strain on military manpower is one reason Israeli officials are hesitant to launch an all-out war against Hezbollah, which would require the same cohort of weary reservists to fight against a military power far superior to Hamas.
It is also exposing longer-term vulnerabilities for Israel as it confronts the possibility of conflicts with hard-to-conquer militias on its borders for years to come.
“Israel did not prepare itself for a long war; we thought about a big strike of the air force and then a fast maneuver by the ground forces,” said former Israeli National Security Council head Yaakov Amidror. “The longer the time, the more problematic it is to maintain the support and the readiness” of the fighting forces.
Built for speed
Historically, Israel has thrived at fighting short wars, during which it can rely on reservists and its overwhelming technological advantages, with firepower such as its squadron of F-35 jet fighters procured from the U.S. It defeated four Arab armies in six days in 1967 and, six years later, needed less than three weeks to repel attacks by Egypt and Syria.
This time is different. Armed militias, funded and trained by Iran, now control swaths of territory neighboring Israel’s. Dislodging them could take years, if it is possible at all. Hamas and Hezbollah have powerful missiles, tens of thousands of trained fighters and significant infrastructure, including tunnel networks, while Iran-backed militias in Yemen, Iraq and Syria also pose threats.
While Israel says the war in Gaza is shifting into a lower-intensity phase, the enclave is expected to be mired in violence and instability for the foreseeable future.
Even if Israel reaches a cease-fire deal with Hamas, it also faces the potential for full-blown war with Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, on its northern border with Lebanon. Israel said it killed one of Hezbollah’s top military leaders in late July in an airstrike in Beirut intended as retaliation for an earlier attack on the Israel-controlled Golan Heights that killed 12 young people.
Exhaustion in the ranks
Rather than develop a professional army of paid volunteers, Israel requires all Israeli Jews to serve in the military, usually upon completing high school. In practice, however, less than half of draft-age Israelis serve. Many Jews secure exemptions for family or religious reasons, and some Arab minorities are also exempted.
That has left the military heavily dependent on reservists, who outnumber full-time soldiers by more than two to one. Typically, they are former conscripts who continue to train and serve about one month annually until they are 40, or 45 for officers.
At the height of the war in Gaza, about two-thirds of Israel’s fighting power was drawn from reservists—some 300,000 drafted reserve personnel, compared with a standing army of around 150,000, security analysts estimate.
Israel’s military would face further strain if its cross-border fight with Lebanon-based Hezbollah spirals into all-out war. Photo: dpa/Zuma Press
Although official figures on current deployments aren’t publicly available, security analysts say the number of reservists deployed has come down significantly. Even so, thousands are still engaged and others say they have been told to be ready to be recalled at a moment’s notice.
Unlike conscripts, reservists are regular citizens who have jobs and are raising families. Many have now served multiple rounds and faced fierce fighting. More than 300 soldiers have been killed and over 4,000 have been injured since Israel started its ground war in Gaza, according to Israel’s military, which doesn’t break out figures for conscripts versus reservists.
Impossible choices
Many reservists have had to shut businesses and delay investments. Nearly 150,000 have missed work days, including many in Israel’s crucial tech sector.
With so many disruptions, the Bank of Israel forecasts that the country’s economy will grow only 1.5% in 2024, after contracting 5.7% in the last quarter of 2023. It says growth should rebound to 4.2% in 2025—but only if the war ends by early next year.
Assaf Mor, 45, says he rushed into action when he was called for reserve duty on Oct. 7. While he fought for 100 days in Gaza, his holistic-medicine business bled cash, teetering on collapse.
During the evening, he would run logistics convoys into Gaza with his unit. In the morning, he would open his laptop at his base and try to work out financing options with his accountant to keep his clinic afloat. Balancing the two ran him ragged.
Assaf Mor says he had to choose between returning to military service as a reservist and keeping his holistic-medicine business afloat. Photo: Tanya Habjouqa/NOOR for WSJ
Some reservists are simply refusing to show up when called. Although that can lead to punishments, including jail time, Israel hasn’t been prosecuting them, because commanding officers are familiar with the stress reservists are under and typically don’t press the matter.
When the army called up Mor again in April, he declined. While he worried he was letting his unit down, he felt like he had no choice but to stay home and fight for his family’s financial survival.
“It’s unbearable, one of the hardest crises I’ve had in my life,” said Mor, who is relying on grants from civil-society organizations as he tries to rebuild his business.
No easy answers
Israeli lawmakers generally agree a fix is needed to meet the military’s needs. Israel’s Defense Ministry is promoting legislation to extend mandatory military service to 36 months from 32, increase annual reserve-duty commitments by 45 days a year and raise the age of obligatory reserve duty by up to five years, and in some cases, to age 52.
But some lawmakers have debated how much to ask from reservists, especially amid concerns that taking people out of work for longer periods would hurt the economy. Israel’s parliament is still debating the proposal.
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The potential new demands have also angered Israel’s serving public. Many Israelis would rather see the country expand the pool of people who serve as conscripts. Yet the most obvious way to do that, by forcing ultra-Orthodox Israelis to serve, is potentially explosive.
A recent Supreme Court ruling found there was no legal basis for exempting ultra-Orthodox Israelis, a policy established decades ago to let such men focus on preserving Jewish traditions. The Defense Ministry started sending initial draft notices in July. Ultra-Orthodox Jews are expected to account for 41% of potential draftees by 2050.
For most ultra-Orthodox, however, military service is a threat to their cloistered way of life. Thousands have attended protests against serving. Their political leaders, key to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, say they could bring down the government rather than accept mandatory draft quotas.
A funeral ceremony for Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, whose killing in an Israeli strike in Beirut last month raised the risk of a new war. Photo: Khaled Desouki/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
While that drama plays out, Hazan, the reservist now in the West Bank, said he is feeling more trapped by circumstances.
He initially expected to close his construction business east of Tel Aviv only briefly when he was called up to serve in a unit responsible for evacuating casualties in Gaza.
As his duties have stretched on, he has been unable to resurrect his business. It relies on a staff of 13 Palestinians from the West Bank who were all blocked from entering Israel when the country tightened its borders after the outbreak of war.
Wrapping up his service could bring its own headaches, forcing him to deal with creditors, to whom he says he owes $250,000. He is currently covered by protections afforded to people who are serving.
“I feel that everything is collapsing,” he said. “At the end of the day, I also need to deal with life. I’m not a conscripted soldier—I am a soldier with a family.”
Write to Dov Lieber at dov.lieber@wsj.com
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Chicago Crime and Democratic Values
To showcase his city, the mayor puts his antipolice policies on hold until after the convention.
By Heather Mac Donald
The Democratic National Committee presented its 2024 convention site as a show of confidence. “Chicago is a world-class city that looks like America and demonstrates the values of the Democratic Party,” Brandon Johnson, then mayor-elect, said in the DNC’s April 2023 announcement.
Fast-forward to this July 4. Over the four-day holiday weekend in Chicago, 19 people were fatally shot and more than 100 wounded by gunfire. One of them, 8-year-old Bryson Orr, was killed along with two women in a drive-by shooting. This wasn’t unusual. On Memorial Day weekend, 10 people lost their lives to gun violence, including 5-year-old Reign Ware. On Father’s Day weekend, more than 70 people were shot and eight killed. The child victims this summer include 7-year-old Jai’Mani Amir Rivera, fatally shot in the chest while walking to a neighbor’s house on June 18. A 3-month-old boy named Jemimah—his parents, fearing for their safety, have kept the family name out of the news—was shot in the chest on July 27 while riding in a car and remains in critical condition. On Thursday, a 3-year-old boy was grazed by a bullet fired by an adversary of his father.
Juveniles are well-represented among perpetrators as well as victims. Sixteen-year-old Raysean Comer has been charged in Jai’Mani’s murder. On July 8, an 11-year-old girl and three other minors allegedly assaulted and robbed a 63-year-old man on a subway train. Teenagers populate the gangs that use stolen cars and weapons to commit back-to-back carjackings.
Is this what happens when you govern in accord with the “values of the Democratic Party”? Convention speakers will likely argue that crime has gone down since Joe Biden and Kamala Harris arrived in the White House. In Chicago as of July 28, there had been 29 fewer homicides than during the same period in 2023, an 8% drop, and 76 fewer shooting incidents, a 5% drop. But those decreases don’t begin to erase the crime spike that began with the George Floyd race riots of 2020. The seven major felonies tracked by the federal government were up 55% in 2023 compared with 2019. Through July 21 of this year, major felonies were up 53% from the same period in 2020.
Mr. Johnson’s explanation for Chicago’s anarchy: racism. “Black death has been unfortunately accepted in this country for a very long time,” he said after the July 4 shooting spree. Indifference to “black life,” Mr. Johnson maintains, led to “generations of disinvestment” in black communities. The teens who rampage on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, beating and stomping on passersby and breaking car windows, have been “starved of opportunities in their own communities.”
After Memorial Day weekend 2023, when 11 people were killed and at least 30 more shot, Mr. Johnson reminded the city that “poverty didn’t go away over the weekend.” Communities have been “disinvested in and traumatized,” he added, and “you are seeing the manifestation of that trauma.”
It is hard to square that claim of poverty with the ubiquity of smartphones among juvenile looters and shooters. Social media is the police’s friend, since youthful gangbangers often post videos of themselves showing off their guns and stolen money. As for “disinvestment,” Chicago has been pouring billions into high-crime neighborhoods for decades. Illinois has thrown in hundreds of millions more over the past 5½ years, dedicated to therapy, job training, substance-abuse counseling and other social services to little avail.
Mr. Johnson will find a kindred spirit in Ms. Harris. Ms. Harris, too, believes that systemic racism “seeps into every part of American life,” to quote a 2020 address. In an April 2021 speech, she said that Floyd’s death showed America the “racial injustice” that keeps the country from “fulfilling the promise of liberty and justice for all.” Like Mr. Johnson, Ms. Harris also blames the lack of “investment” for crime. “If you want safe communities,” she said in the 2020 address, “you have to invest in the health of those communities.”
As California attorney general in 2015, Ms. Harris implemented “implicit bias” training for police officers, the first such statewide program in the country. She wants more police departments to come under federal consent decree for alleged civil-rights violations. She rejects the idea that putting more cops on the street improves public safety. She opposes trying juvenile gang murderers as adults, and she opposes extended sentences for most convicted felons who commit a third felony.
Ms. Harris can even take partial credit for Chicago’s crime policies. In 2016 then-Attorney General Harris co-chaired a transition team for Kim Foxx, the newly elected Cook County state’s attorney. The team’s report urged Ms. Foxx to address “racial inequalities in the justice system,” in part by cutting back on the “destabilizing overincarceration” that plagues “communities of color” and in part by further limiting the detention of juvenile criminals. Ms. Foxx immediately followed California’s lead and declared that her office would stop prosecuting felony shoplifting for all thefts under $1,000. Property crime skyrocketed. Avoiding disparate impact on black criminals became the guiding philosophy of Ms. Foxx’s tenure.
Convention-goers this month may be deprived of a full demonstration of Mr. Johnson’s depolicing philosophy. Despite its depleted ranks, the Chicago Police Department will flood the convention zone with manpower by eliminating officers’ days off and requiring back-to-back shifts.
A disfavored technology has been granted a temporary reprieve. ShotSpotter uses audio sensors to alert the police to gunshots, the vast majority of which aren’t called in to 911. (On July 24, for instance, ShotSpotter alone notified the police of a wheelchair-bound man who had been shot in the back.) Mr. Johnson had refused to renew ShotSpotter’s contract, claiming that the technology leads to overpolicing of black neighborhoods. The company was ready to pull out in February 2024, but Mr. Johnson insisted on a temporary extension of its contract through August. Apparently racial justice isn’t as urgent as electing Democrats.
While conventioneers may be insulated from the Chicago way, if Kamala Harris becomes the next president, the country may not be so lucky.
Ms. Mac Donald is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of “The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe.”
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Kamala Harris and the Too-Late Solution
Not to spoil the vice president’s Mideast plans,
but the "two-state solution" will not happen.
By DOV FISCHER
Most Israelis are not expert on matters pertaining to New Hampshire, Iowa, or Delaware. In similar vein, residents of New Hampshire, Iowa, and Delaware are not expert on matters regarding Israel. As a result, we get people like Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Queen Nancy Pelosi, King Obama, and Kamala Harris foolishly and ignorantly pronouncing their support for a “Two-State Solution” that would divide Israel by allotting the Jews the western portion of the land and crafting a pseudo-nation for Arabs on the eastern portion of the land. Actually, “Israel” and “Palestine” are the same thing, just like “Siam” and “Thailand.” Until May 1948, the Jewish country under British colonial rule was called “Palestine.” After the Jews decolonized and liberated the land, it was named “Israel.”
The Arabs of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza have shown even Israel’s “peace camp” that they never will recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish country in the Middle East.
There already are 22 Arab Muslim countries. There is only one Jewish polity. The proponents of this “Two-State Solution” would call the Jewish half “Israel” and the Arab Muslim half “Palestine.” It would matter no differently if they would call the Jewish half “Palestine” and the Arab Muslim half “Israel.” It is one and the same land, even less divisible than the United States was when several southern states declared that they would create their own country from the whole. They called it the “Confederate States of America.” They could just as well have called it “Palestine.” It was not going to happen.
Those who live in a world of reality know that the “Two-State Solution” is now the “Too Late Delusion.” That train has left that station just as Pete Buttigieg perhaps finally can confirm that the train has left East Palestine, Ohio.
“Back in the day,” there was an illusion and delusion that the Arab Muslims of Judea and Samaria wanted to “make peace” with Israel. There was the “Rogers Plan” proposed by President Nixon’s Secretary of State, William Rogers. Then Gerald Ford sent Henry Kissinger to shuttle and create such a deal. Jimmy Carter sent Cyrus Vance. George H.W. Bush had James Baker. Bill Clinton sent Madeleine Albright. George W. Bush sent Condoleezza Rice. Obama had Hillary. A “Two-State Solution” never happened. It was and always will be a delusion. President Trump and his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, were the first and only who figured out it will never happen.
The Arabs of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza have shown even Israel’s “peace camp” that they never will recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish country in the Middle East. They deny there was a Jewish Holy Temple, which thereby denies all of Christianity, too. Indeed, they have driven great Christian communities out of the region. Jewish “peace camp” types did not fully grasp Arab Muslim designs until Yasser Arafat was offered 97 percent of Judea and Samaria plus control over East Jerusalem plus extra land from northern Israel, where the population is majority Arab. That is, he was offered everything by Israel’s weakest and most hated Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, who was ousted after his first term. Only then did we and even Bill Clinton, who brokered that disastrous Oslo deal, come to realize that, sonovogun, the guy does not want peace but, rather, Israel utterly eradicated. Ever since then, the Israeli majority understands that the Arab Muslims on their east will not recognize Jews’ right to any country.
Obama spent eight years pressuring Israel to give those Arab Muslims anything they asked for. They never had so pliable a White House. But they opted instead to keep going to war. They elected a lifelong Arab terrorist, Abu Mazen (also goes by Mahmoud Abbas), as head of a “Palestine Authority.” He is in the 19th year of his four-year term. Got that? Nineteen years ago, he was elected to a four-year term by the Arabs of Judea and Samaria, and he never allowed another election. Democrats have no qualms about deeming Abu Mazen/Mahmoud Abbas as the rightful leader of the Arabs of Judea and Samaria.
Jews in Israel tried to see whether they could get anywhere with Arafat or this successor, and they even entered into the Oslo Accords of 1993. A material term of that deal required Arafat and Abbas to stop inculcating their schoolchildren to murder Jews. They breached the contract and instead intensified such training, even setting up summer camps for kids to learn to be terrorists. In American schools, kids have to learn Longfellow’s description of Paul Revere’s midnight ride or Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. By contrast, in the section of Judea and Samaria presently run by Muslim Arabs like Abbas, the children spend summer learning to recite songs and poems about slaughtering Jews. This has continued 30 years unabated since the Oslo “peace deal” was signed. Israelis have learned the hard way: Arab Muslims do not honor sworn peace deals they sign with Israel. They simply want Israel dead. “Peace negotiations” merely are a tactic to break Israeli morale and induce Western governments to pressure Israel.
In the Oslo Accords, the Arabs promised — as a material element of the contract — that they no longer would agitate against Israel in international forums. That means all the recent activity in the “International Court of [In]justice” and “International Criminal Court” aimed against Israel violates the 1993 Oslo Accords. The treaty has been breached over and over, and it is null and void.
The Israeli political center and moderate left were told they would have peace with Gaza if they handed it over to the Muslim Arabs, so they did in 2005. Israel got Hamas in Gaza. They were told they would have peace with Lebanon if they handed over a swath of neutral demilitarized territory to the Muslim Arabs. So they did. Israel got Hezbollah. Over time, Hamas developed and received from Iran rockets and missiles that almost can reach central Israel from the south, and Hezbollah has developed and received from Iran rockets and missiles that almost can reach central Israel from the north. Accordingly, times have changed forever.
Not only the Israeli center-right but also the middle-of-the roaders and the moderate left absolutely now are on record that Judea and Samaria are off the table. If Arab Muslims ever got a sovereign country there, in light of October 7 and its aftermath, the Jewish country would not be able to function. As a result, the Knesset recently voted 68-9 — that is, 88.3 percent to 11.7 percent, a proportion of 8-1 — that Judea and Samaria are permanently part of Israel. The resolution:
The Knesset of Israel firmly opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan. The establishment of a Palestinian state in the heart of the Land of Israel would pose an existential danger to the State of Israel and its citizens, perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and destabilize the region.…
As of last December 31, there are some 340,000 Jews living in eastern parts of Jerusalem and its surrounding neighborhoods and 517,407 more throughout the rest of Judea and Samaria. Thus, there are now 860,000 Jews there, comprising approximately one-tenth of the entire Israeli population — and they would have to be uprooted from their homes to meet the demands of a “Two-State Solution.” The very notion is preposterous. It is not going to happen.
Here is why this discussion is important to all Americans in the Kamala Harris context: As so many have written, Kamala Harris is not a thinker. She will start off well by holding big rallies and delivering to each assemblage a speech written by someone else who can think. She can read fine, and she will read and cackle. Her cackling and personal character stains will not derail her. Rather, she will run into trouble over the next three months when she has to talk off-script: maybe in TV and radio interviews, maybe in debates, but it will come up. That is when she becomes a deer in headlights because (i) she will stumble into territory she does not know, and (ii) does not know how to know. So she will spout plans and programs and parrot others’ ideas, presenting them as her own. Her abysmal ignorance will emerge when she is forced by circumstances to go off script.
When she lectured Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that she expects Israel to pursue a “Two-State Solution,” she simply muttered an old and tired proposal from the 1970s and 1980s that is as obsolete, out of touch with the times, as are most cars from those years. Half a century has passed. Circumstances have changed. Even Israel’s moderate left has learned the lesson taught by Hamas on the ceded south and Hezbollah on the ceded north. Israelis have watched the advancement of missiles and rockets these past 50 years. Moreover, one million Jews, a tenth of the population, now live in Judea and Samaria. The Knesset now is on record at 8-1 that there will never be an Arab sovereignty west of the Jordan. Israel’s haters on American campuses can thank themselves, in part, for chanting “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free.” They reopened the question whether the area is suitable to accommodate two countries. They make an excellent point; Israel’s Knesset now agrees. The point and message have been heard all over Israel: only one country, not two, can exist between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
Kamala Harris, reading from someone else’s script advocating a “Two-State Solution,” does not grasp that such a proposal instead is a Too Late Delusion. Judea and Samaria will remain under Jewish sovereignty. Watch closely as Harris, despite all the early media hype, starts stumbling over facts, proposals, and ideas she does not understand. The Harris excitement will abate, and her unsuitability will become palpable with the passage of time as we unburden what has been.
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Today's market sell off was a consequence of several factors.
First, there are few investors around so computers have taken over.
2) August is historically a lousy month.
3) The market was overdue for a correction.
4) The market is being confronted by a series of uncertainties. The Fed is behind the market rate of interest structure and people are worried we are going into a recession.
5) The market is in the process of a sector shift.
I have not embraced the idea we are in a recession but I acknowledge unemployment figures are rising and that is a negative while the working family continues to struggle.
In fact I bought more SMCI on the opening today and have a nice paper profit.
5) If and when Kamala debates Trump there are those who believe her honeymoon is over and she can only duck, weave and stay in Biden's basement for a few more weeks.
It is still Trump's to lose but attacking Georgia's Governor is simply another dumb move of his shooting himself in the feet whereas others are busy shooting him in the ear.
With respect to the latter, we now have learned an incompetent woman was in charge so that re-emphasizes my belief Biden and Comey knew what was going on and had a hand in planning the attack on Trump.
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