Critics see 'reward' for terrorism as UN General Assembly expands Palestine's rights - Ben Whedon

 

by Ben Whedon

Only nine countries voted against the resolution, among them the United States and Israel.

 

The United Nations General Assembly on Friday approved a resolution to grant expanded rights to Palestine, permitting it to operate within the U.N. framework in a form of non-voting pseudo-membership. The move drew considerable scrutiny from Washington and Jerusalem, which argued it would undercut efforts to forge a lasting peace in the region.

Only nine countries voted against the resolution, among them the United States and Israel. A further 25 abstained while 143 approved the measure. Roughly 140 U.N. member states recognized Palestine independently before the vote, according to the Jerusalem Post. The decisive vote was something of a rebuke to the U.S. and Israel, the latter of which had insisted it would effectively reward Hamas for the Oct. 7 raid on Israel.

“Today the United Nations General Assembly condoned Hamas’ savage terrorist attacks on Israel by voting overwhelming[ly] in favor of admitting the Palestinians,” former Trump Deputy National Security Advisor Victoria Coates told Just the News. “The events of Oct. 7th should have led to the revocation of the Palestinians’ non-member observer status, not this legitimization of their terrorist tactics against Israel, a UN member state. Instead, the UNGA stood with Hamas," he continued.

The U.S. previously vetoed a Palestinian membership bid at the U.N. Security Council in April, though the UNGA resolution was not subject to a veto and recommended that the UNSC revisit its own decision.

While the Friday vote will likely have minimal impact on the situation on the ground in Gaza in the immediate future, the expanded rights will offer the Palestinian government a greater degree of legitimacy and create options for it to advance its own initiatives on the world stage.

What did the UNGA approve?

The UNGA vote did not grant full membership to Palestine. Instead, it asserted that the state should “be admitted to membership” and recommended that “the Security Council reconsider the matter favorably.”

The passage of the resolution did grant Palestine the right to be seated among the member states, the ability to speak on matters unrelated to Palestine or the region, the right to speak on behalf of a group, to introduce proposals and amendments, to raise procedural motions, and to fully participate in U.N. conferences, among others.

It notably did not grant Palestine any voting rights in the UNGA. The full U.N. body cannot formally grant full membership, though the granting of procedural rights to Palestine could function as what the Jerusalem Post described as a “de facto recognition.”

Who voted against it?

Apart from the U.S. and Israel, only Argentina, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, and Papua New Guinea opposed the measure, according to The Hill.

The U.S. explained its vote by asserting that, while it does support Palestinian statehood, it believes Israel and Palestine must negotiate directly first.

“Our vote does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood; we have been very clear that we support it and seek to advance it meaningfully,” Alternative Representative for Special Political Affairs Robert Wood said. “Instead, it is an acknowledgement that statehood will come only from a process that involves direct negotiations between the parties.”

“The United States is committed to intensifying its engagement with the Palestinians and the rest of the region to advance a political settlement that will create a path to Palestinian statehood and subsequent membership in the United Nations,” he continued. “This resolution does not resolve the concerns about the Palestinian membership application raised in April in the Security Council through the Admissions Committee process. And should the Security Council take up the Palestinians’ membership application as a result of this resolution, there will be a similar outcome.”

Israel, meanwhile, offered stern warnings ahead of the vote, with Israeli U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan symbolically shredding the U.N. charter during remarks.

“I told the ambassadors that today will go down in infamy and I want the world to remember when they shredded the UN Charter to advance a Nazi regime into the UN’s ranks,” he posted after the vote.

“The UN, in a shameful violation of its own charter, will vote to grant the Palestinian Authority the rights and privileges reserved only for UN member states even though it doesn't meet the criteria for statehood and failed to receive the recommendation of the Security Council,” Erdan told USA Today beforehand.

“This is a reward for terrorism and will only strengthen Hamas and make peace impossible. It is one of the most destructive resolutions ever presented in the UN made possible due to the antisemitism and political interests that are so prevalent at the UN,” he continued.

U.N. Security Council rules require the affirmative vote of nine members of the Council, including the concurring votes of the five permanent members: China, France, Russian Federation, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America. A draft does not pass if it fails to win nine votes, or a permanent member casts a negative vote.

What impact will it have on the Israel-Gaza conflict?

While American and Israeli analysts and officials have suggested the decision would prove a boon to Hamas, it remains unclear that the terrorist group would be the primary beneficiary of the vote.

The West Bank-based Palestinian Liberation Organization has represented Palestine in the U.N. for decades, with Riyad Mansour acting as the Palestinian U.N. ambassador since 2005. The PLO does not govern the Gaza Strip, which is currently held by Hamas, though it does regard the region as part of its legitimate territory. Hamas seized control of the strip in 2007.

Though a degree of enmity does exist between Hamas and the PLO, the Ramallah-based government has criticized Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Last month, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas urged the U.S. to use its influence to prevent Israel from attacking Rafah, saying “America is the only country able to prevent Israel from committing this crime,” according to Al Jazeera.

Earlier this week, Israel seized the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, which is situated on the edge of the city itself.

President Joe Biden on Wednesday said that he would halt arms shipments to Israel if it proceeded with an attack on the city.

“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah – they haven’t gone in Rafah yet – if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that deal with that problem,” he said at the time.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X.

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/security/wkdcritics-see-reward-terrorism-un-expands-palestines-rights

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Biden sides with terrorists over a U.S. ally *UPDATE* - Andrea Widburg

 

by Andrea Widburg

This is, quite simply, evil. Biden is holding Israel to a standard that no other nation in the world has ever had to meet and that no modern rules of “civilized” warfare require.

 

Israel is at war with Hamas. Guess which side Joe Biden has chosen to support and which side he’s chosen to undermine.

Let’s talk about the combatants in the Israel-Hamas War.

Israel:

• A nation on land that Jews have occupied continuously for around 4,000 years;*
• A liberal democracy that extends full civil rights to all citizens, including women and the LGBTQ+ spectrum;
• A majority Jewish nation that allows freedom of worship, including for its Arab citizens, who make up over 20% of the population;
• A country that expends enormous sums of money to protect its civilian population; and
• A nation that wages war with such exquisite regard for protecting enemy civilians that it puts its own troops at risk and reveals its own battle plans in advance, even while it provides supplies to those enemy civilians.

Hamas:

• A designated terrorist organization that represents a people who are relatively recent arrivals in the land;**
• An entity that has its raison d'être killing Jews;
• A fanatic Islamic organization that kills, terrorizes, or expels Christians from territory it controls;
• A misogynistic people who subordinate women;
• A band of sexual sadists that recently engaged in one of the most primitive, sadistic, sexually perverse mass slaughters of civilians in modern history; and
• A military that has deliberately intertwined its military, including its weapons storehouses, into its civilian population so that civilians become an integral part of its defense.

According to Biden, in an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett, the problem is that the war is killing civilians in Gaza, and it’s all Israel’s fault. Israel, says Biden, may not wage an offensive war. Biden will only help it defend itself against Hamas’s attacks (which will continue indefinitely, of course, unless Hamas is destroyed):

 

Biden tells CNN that he won’t provide continued offensive military support to Israel if it pursues the full defeat of Hamas in Rafah.

This is an American President, betraying its greatest ally in favor of radical jihadists who call for Death to America. #StandWithIsrael pic.twitter.com/KuZwqof6bV

— The Persian Jewess (@persianjewess) May 8, 2024

BIDEN: Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers.

And I made it clear that, if they go into Rafah -- they haven’t gone into Rafah yet. If they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, to deal with that problem.

We’re going to continue to make sure Israel is secure, in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks like came out of the Middle East recently.

But it’s -- it’s just wrong. We’re not going to supply the weapons and the artillery shells used -- that have been used...

(CROSSTALK)

BURNETT: Artillery shells as well?

BIDEN: Yes, artillery shells.

BURNETT: So, just to understand, what they’re doing right now in Rafah, is that not going into Rafah, as you define it?

BIDEN: No, they haven’t gone into the population centers. What they did is right on the border.

And it’s causing problems with -- right now, in terms of with Egypt, which I have worked very hard to make sure we have a relationship and help. But I have made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet they’re not going to get our support if, in fact, they’re going into these population centers.

We’re not walking away from Israel’s security. We’re walking away from Israel’s ability to wage war in those areas.

Let me reiterate: Biden has just told Israel, a long-standing ally, that America will undercut it if it wages war against a designated terrorist organization because that war might kill civilians (civilians, incidentally, who provide material and moral support to Hamas).

Biden says this even though Hamas (and Hezbollah) have deliberately targeted civilians for months, not just with the October 7 slaughter but with tens of thousands of rockets that rain down daily on Israel. The only reason Israeli civilians survive is because, as I said, Israel protects its civilians while Hamas uses its civilians as part of its military defense system. Thus, Biden has just rewarded a terrorist group for hiding behind women and children.

This is, quite simply, evil. Biden is holding Israel to a standard that no other nation in the world has ever had to meet and that no modern rules of “civilized” warfare require.

The assistance that Biden is offering Hamas is to withhold sophisticated weapons from Israel...the kind of weapons that, through pinpoint targeting abilities, avoid civilian damage. He is forcing Israel to kill more civilians if it wishes to defeat Hamas in its stronghold.

In addition to revealing himself as a moral black hole, Biden is also a political coward and someone who has just qualified for impeachment under the Trump standard.

Biden is a political coward because he intentionally withheld news about his undermining Israel until after he got to give his generic speech opposing genocidal antisemitism:

 

“The White House National Security Council sought to keep the decision out of the public eye for several days… until Biden could deliver a long-planned speech on Tuesday to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day.” https://t.co/Qn9Er7sfbv

— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) May 9, 2024

Biden has also set himself up for impeachment because he has refused to expend funds that Congress specifically designated for an ally, and he’s doing that for the manifest purpose of achieving a political benefit in an election (i.e., winning Michigan by gaining the Hamas vote). We know this is impeachable because Biden said so himself:

President Trump withheld Congressionally appropriated aid to Ukraine unless they granted him a political favor. It's the definition of quid pro quo.

This is no joke—Trump continues to put his own personal, political interests ahead of the national interest. He must be impeached. https://t.co/puPgevx568

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 19, 2019

What Biden just did is so bad that even CNN called him out:

CNN's @ScottJenningsKY absolutely DESTROYS Biden for the double standard of the first Trump impeachment over holding Ukraine aid while he's now doing the same thing with aid to Israel pic.twitter.com/tW62SlJ4KP

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) May 8, 2024

Scott Adams had his usual pithy take on what just happened:

This removes all doubt about the outcome of the election.

Now the leaders in both parties, plus Israel, want Biden to lose.

For confirmation of this prediction, see CNN's interview with Biden in which Erin Burnett crushes him. https://t.co/8EeRFiqtDy

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) May 9, 2024

Indeed, it’s so bad that an ardent leftist on my Facebook page, who also happens to be Jewish, finally bestirred herself to wonder why progressives don’t like Israel. Americans are figuring out that the man in the White House a dangerous to the civilized world.

UPDATE: Not only is Biden refusing to supply Israel with myriad necessary weapons, effectively preventing her from engaging with Hamas's remaining forces, but Biden has also authorized arms sales to Qatar and Lebanon. That effectively means arms sales to Hamas because Hezbollah controls Lebanon, and Qatar is the home base for Hamas. So Biden isn't just handicapping our ally in its existential fight against a genocidal enemy, but it's also arming that same genocidal enemy. 

Image: Biden (edited). CNN screen grab.

___________________

*Jewish ties to the land existed even during to time of the Ottoman Turk’s colonization.

**The Arabs who claim eternal ties to the land mostly have roots no deeper than the 1830s or even less than that.

 

Andrea Widburg

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/biden_sides_with_terrorists_over_a_u_s_ally.html

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State Department raises ‘serious concerns’ about arms transfers to Israel - Andrew Bernard

 

by Andrew Bernard

The new U.S. report finds it “reasonable to assess” that Israel has acted inconsistently with international law but does not conclude that it violated arms transfer agreements with Washington.

 

Israeli Air Force F-35 Stealth Fighter jet flying during an airshow at Hatzerim on June 28, 2018. Credit: Andreas Zeitler/Shutterstock.

The U.S. State Department issued a report to Congress about U.S. arms transfers to Israel on Friday that is deeply critical of the Jewish state but stops short of concluding that it is violating international law.

All seven of the countries detailed in the 46-page report are deemed by the U.S. government to have provided “credible and reliable” assurances that they are complying with international law and that Washington can therefore continue to provide them with arms.

The report was sent in response to U.S. President Joe Biden’s National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20), which requires the U.S. State and Defense Departments to report annually on whether countries that receive U.S.-provided weapons are using them “in a manner not consistent with international law, including international humanitarian law” or whether the country has impeded American humanitarian aid.

Those standards are in line with existing U.S. requirements on arms transfers known as the Leahy Laws, named for former Democratic senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont. But Friday’s report is the first time an administration has delivered a broad outline to Congress about whether countries receiving foreign military assistance are violating international law.

While the report does not conclude that Israel is in violation of the requirements for U.S. arms transfers, it says that Israel has provided only “limited information” about the use of U.S.-made munitions in “incidents that raise concerns about Israel’s international humanitarian law compliance.”

“It is difficult to assess or reach conclusive findings on individual incidents,” the report says. “Nevertheless, given Israel’s significant reliance on U.S.-made defense articles, it is reasonable to assess that defense articles covered under NSM-20 have been used by Israeli security forces since Oct. 7 in instances inconsistent with its international humanitarian law obligations or with established best practices for mitigating civilian harm.”

The report adds that individual violations of international humanitarian law do not mean that a country is not committed to following the law. It also notes that Israel has “a number of ongoing, active criminal investigations pending and there are hundreds of cases under administrative review” about its own conduct.

John Kirby, the White House national security communications advisor, told reporters on Friday before the report’s release that its delivery late on a Friday was not intended to reduce its impact in the media.

“It almost sounds like you think we’re trying to bury something on a Friday afternoon,” Kirby said. “I understand that it’s a Friday, and I can look at the clock and see where we are, but I can tell you that whatever the timing is of the eventual submission of this report, it’s based on the spade work that had to get done to get it ready.”

Kirby declined to describe the contents of the report but said that U.S. President Joe Biden had been briefed on it. Biden told CNN on Wednesday that Israel had used U.S. weapons to kill Palestinian civilians.

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden said. 

Biden issued NSM-20 in February, calling for the first reports to be submitted to Congress within 90 days—a deadline that the State Department missed on Wednesday.

In March, the Israeli government provided a written letter to the Biden administration declaring that it abides by international law when using U.S. weapons, which was another requirement of Biden’s memorandum.

The State Department assessed in April that three Israeli battalions and two “civilian authority units” were credibly “alleged to be responsible for incidents of gross human rights violations against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.” 

But in a letter to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.), U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said those incidents “long predate Oct. 7, 2023,” adding that no actions had been taken against the units.

Andrew Bernard

Source: https://www.jns.org/us-arms-transfers-report-not-expected-to-accuse-israel-of-violating-intl-law/

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Defending Freedom: A Tribute to the Warriors of Israel - Nils A. Haug

 

by Nils A. Haug

Israel... is fighting for the values of civilization opposing terrorist barbarism so that the rest of us in the West will not have to. We should be sending whatever they need to end the terrorism, not withholding precision-guided weapons -- especially, as we sanctimoniously claim, if we do not want to harm civilians.

 

• These assaults are not only aimed at Israel and its inhabitants but, ultimately, at the West.

• Adversaries of the West -- whether religious fundamentalists or authoritarian states such as China, Russia, and Iran and its allies -- appear intent upon imposing a new totalitarian world order. To do so, they seek destruction of the two main countries standing in their way: United States of America and Israel, the global champions of democracy, freedom, Western values, and human rights.

• Regrettably, with freedom often comes the need to protect it, at times by force, from those who would take it away. Sometimes, this requires measures open to criticism by those who may have a different goal....

• "Therefore, having judged that to be happy means to be free, and to be free means to be brave, we do not shy away from the risks of war." — Pericles, funeral oration, 432 BCE.

• Israel... is fighting for the values of civilization opposing terrorist barbarism so that the rest of us in the West will not have to. We should be sending whatever they need to end the terrorism, not withholding precision-guided weapons -- especially, as we sanctimoniously claim, if we do not want to harm civilians.

• "I have faith in the Jewish people. Let Israel be given a chance, let hatred and danger be removed from her horizons, and there will be peace in and around the Holy Land." – Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, December 10, 1986.

• As people of peace, the warriors and all citizens of Israel long for such a time with all their hearts, but first there are battles to be won.

As with the warriors of King David, the soldiers of Israel are again surrounded by enemies driven by hatred for the values represented by the Jewish nation and seeking their eradication. Once more, Israelis are called upon to resist forces threatening their destiny. Pictured: Israeli soldiers inspect the entrance to a Hamas terror tunnel just oustide an UNRRWA compound in Gaza City, on February 8, 2024. (Photo by Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)

The initial defenders of Jewish destiny -- which later gave birth to the West's Judeo-Christian cultural heritage -- were a rather insignificant Middle Eastern tribe of Hebrews guided by somewhat obscure precepts recounted in five small books, and led in battles by their legendary leader, King David.

These early warriors were not only defenders of an ancient civilization, but early progenitors of the modern Jewish democratic nation and the West's political tradition. Through their priests, kings, and prophets they became custodians of a Holy Writ that provided definitive truths, morality, ethics, freedoms, human rights, and principles of righteousness essential for future generations of humanity.

The motivating factors driving King David and his men apply equally to the current cohort of Israeli warriors, facing lethal attacks by terrorists little different in nature from King David's earliest opponents. These assaults are not only aimed at Israel and its inhabitants but, ultimately, at the West. The underlying cause has not changed much through the ages.

It can be traced to tribes determined to impose their ideals, religion, and ideology on others everywhere. Adversaries of the West -- whether religious fundamentalists or authoritarian states such as China, Russia, and Iran and its allies -- appear intent upon imposing a new totalitarian world order. To do so, they seek destruction of the two main countries standing in their way: United States of America and Israel, the global champions of democracy, freedom, Western values, and human rights.

Regrettably, with freedom often comes the need to protect it, at times by force, from those who would take it away. Sometimes, this requires measures open to criticism by those who may have a different goal, or unable fully to understand the issues at play. Despite dissenting voices of the world, the soldiers of Israel, like the citizens of Ukraine, understand that if they wish to ensure their freedom, they must fight for it.

The Greek leader Pericles, in 432 BCE, declared in his funeral oration for the great Athenian warriors who sacrificed their lives in the first Peloponnesian war: "Therefore, having judged that to be happy means to be free, and to be free means to be brave, we do not shy away from the risks of war."

Even with the risks involved, the soldiers of Israel, as inheritors of King David's indomitable spirit, are, according to Yael Eckstein president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, "more alive now than ever before, more motivated, passionate, and heroic than ever imagined."

Although Israel's soldiers originate from many nations, they possess the same intentions as their predecessors: to retain possession of their ancient homeland, providing a sanctuary for the unwanted Jewish scatterlings of the world in a safe setting they can call home; a shelter from the many nations despising them. To the soldiers of Israel, their country is a "city of refuge," a place where their people can live in peace and, above all, a place they can worship their Creator in freedom.

The land of Israel can therefore be understood as a figurative cave of Adullam – where King David once assembled a motley collection of uprooted individuals of various origins but bound by mutual faith in their people's right to be. As expressed by the ancient prophet Micah, "But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid."

In the spirit of Judas Maccabeus, rebelling against threats to their faith and possession of their land, the soldiers of Israel now fight not only to rid the province of enemies seeking to eradicate them but to ensure peace, freedom of worship, and harmony with all those who call Israel home. The late UK Chief Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, pointed out that although the Maccabees were small in number, they "had a double portion of the Jewish spirit that longs for freedom and is prepared to fight for it."

Israel's soldiers have inherited that same spirit, inspiration and determination, the purpose and faith of a people baptized into battles necessary for survival of their nation. Rabbi Sacks metaphorically describes this continuity as a song where no single note or chord makes the song complete in itself for, "as music connects note to note, so faith connects episode to episode, life to life, age to age, in a timeless melody that breaks into time."

Israel's soldiers remember, perhaps, the fragility of King David's struggles in securing the land from the Philistinian and Amalekite assaults; they might also recall when the tribe's wives and children were abducted by enemies, how the Israelites pursued them and rescued their families. Those events were repeated by the unspeakable acts of Hamas on October 7^th 2023 when Israel's men, women, children and infants were beheaded, burned alive, raped, abused and abducted. The soldiers of Israel need to ensure, not out of vengeance but for the nation's survival, that their adversaries can never commit such savage atrocities against their people again.

It is no coincidence that Gaza was the historic home of David's avowed enemies, the Philistines. Goliath was a Philistine; David killed him not far from the caves of Adullam in the Kingdom of Judah, present-day Judea, in Israel's heartland. In similar mode, Israel's enemies invaded Judea in October 7th. Statements by these enemies openly acknowledge that they will continue hostilities and repeat attacks until all Jews are eliminated:

"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews (related by al- Bukhari and Moslem) – Hamas Covenant, Article 7, (from the Hadith: "The Book of Tribulations and Portents of the Last Hour," 54:18)

Hamas official Ghazi Hamad has clearly said that the terror group will repeat the October 7 attack, time and again, until Israel is annihilated. He added that "Everything we do is justified."

Clearly, many in Gaza and the West Bank remain enemies of Israel and are little different, if at all, in dedication and purpose, from their forebears. The October 7 massacre and the odious Western response to it has compelled Jews to confront a new generation of enemies determined to eradicate them.

The Israelite warriors of the past trusted the dictates of their leader, King David. Not only was he their commander, he was respected as a man of combat experience, as his encounter with Goliath testified. Similarly, Israel's leaders in the war cabinet, commanders of their forces, are not only men of extensive combat experience in the current confrontation with jihadist terrorists, but, go to unprecedented lengths to honor the laws of ethical warfare as befits a nation dedicated to principles of human rights.

In contrast, Hamas, the instigators of hate, torture and murder, conduct terror operations against civilian targets – including their own (here and here). It is time for Western unity with Israel, which is fighting for the values of civilization opposing terrorist barbarism so that the rest of us in the West will not have to. We should be sending whatever they need to end the terrorism, not withholding precision-guided weapons – especially, as we sanctimoniously claim, if we do not want to harm civilians.

Henry Kissinger noted the importance of supporting a nation's leaders in times of crisis: "Societies become great not by factional triumphs but by common purpose and reconciliation."

As with the warriors of King David, the soldiers of Israel are again surrounded by enemies driven by hatred for the values represented by the Jewish nation and seeking their eradication. Once more, Israelis are called upon to resist forces threatening their destiny. That is the crux of the matter: the battle is both religious and nationalist: a mortal contest between terrorists and a people who insist on the values of individual freedom and the right to think without restriction.

Encouraged by the words of Yitzhak Lamdan, "Never again shall Masada fall," Israel fights for all that is beautiful, free and democratic, and shall protect civilization to the end. It is therefore incumbent upon a new cohort of great men and women, the latest giborei Yisrael - heroes of Israel – to secure the nation so that its hard-won freedoms, values, and moral-ethical precepts, can be enjoyed by subsequent generations.

Finally, Israel's brave warriors might identify with Eli Wiesel's statement in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech of December 10, 1986:

"I have faith in the Jewish people. Let Israel be given a chance, let hatred and danger be removed from her horizons, and there will be peace in and around the Holy Land."

As people of peace, the warriors and all citizens of Israel long for such a time with all their hearts, but first there are battles to be won.

 
Nils A. Haug is an author and columnist. A lawyer by profession, he is member of the International Bar Association, the National Association of Scholars, the Academy of Philosophy and Letters. Retired from law, his particular field of interest is political theory interconnected with current events. He holds a Ph.D. in Apologetical Theology. Dr. Haug is author of 'Politics, Law, and Disorder in the Garden of Eden – the Quest for Identity'; and 'Enemies of the Innocent – Life, Truth, and Meaning in a Dark Age.' His work has been published by First Things Journal, The American Mind, Quadrant, Minding the Campus, Gatestone Institute, National Association of Scholars, Israel Hayom, Jewish News Syndicate, Anglican Mainstream, and others.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20625/warriors-of-israel-defending-freedom

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GOP senators press IRS to investigate revoking tax breaks for groups that fomented campus unrest - John Solomon

 

by John Solomon

Joni Ernst and Ernst 14 colleagues noted victims of Oct. 7 atrocities in Israel sued some groups for being a Hamas propaganda division.

 

Fifteen Republican senators are demanding the IRS investigate whether nonprofit groups that helped foment pro-Hamas unrest on college campuses violated their tax-exempt status by supporting a designated terrorist group.

In a letter led by Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, the senators identified the National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), the AJP Educational Foundation (AJP), the Tides Foundation, the Westchester Peace Action Committee Foundation (WESPAC Foundation), and others and asked IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel to determine if they “engaged in conduct warranting revocation of their tax-exempt statuses on the basis of their financial support of NSJP.”

Ernst and her colleagues noted victims of the Oct. 7 atrocities in Israel have sued AJP and NSJP for being a Hamas propaganda division in the United States and cited their “control” over Students for Justice in Palestine chapters, which have been protesting on campuses. 

“It is long-established precedent that when 501(c)(3) organizations have ‘planned activities that violate laws’ or engage in activities designed ‘to induce the commission of a crime or if the accomplishment of the purpose is otherwise against public policy,’ the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has grounds to revoke their tax-exempt status,” the senators wrote.

“In fact, the IRS has set the precedent that ‘organizations have been held not to qualify for IRC 501(c)(3) on grounds that the activities of the organizations in question contravened public policy even though the organizations did not violate any federal statutes or state or local laws,’” they added.

The senators also pointed out Friday that these organizations and the protests are blatantly supporting Hamas, even though it is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).

“In light of this abhorrent support for an FTO, we call on you to initiate an investigation to determine whether financial supporters of NSJP, including but not limited to AJP, the WESPAC Foundation, and the Tides Foundation, have engaged in conduct warranting their tax-exempt status to be stripped,” they added.

The groups have defended themselves, insisting they are engaged in a good cause, even as they urge protests to be part of a larger violent movement known as intifada.

The National Students for Justice in Palestine recently posted in X that its members “are developing a generation of disciplined, politicized young leaders who will carry the torch of our struggle.” The group added: “Long live the Student Intifada.”

You can read the senators full letter here:

2024_05_09_letter_to_irs.pdf

John Solomon

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/congress/gop-senators-press-irs-investigate-tax-exempt-groups-fomented-campus-unrest

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'Bad, bad, bad,': Major Israeli-American Biden donor criticizes US threat to halt weapons - Yuval Barnea

 

by Yuval Barnea

Haim Saban is an Israeli-American billionaire and long-time supporter of Israel and Jewish political causes and has been a consistent donor to the Democratic party since the 1990s.

 

Israeli-American media mogul Haim Saban.

(photo credit: WIKIPEDIA)

A major donor to President Joe Biden's reelection campaign has criticized his handling of the weapons shipments to Israel, calling it a "Bad, bad, bad, decision, on all levels" in a text published online on Thursday.

Haim Saban is an Israeli-American billionaire and long-time supporter of Israel and Jewish political causes and has been a consistent donor to the Democratic party since the 1990s.

Democratic mega-donor Haim Saban wrote an email to Biden's aides Steve Ricchetti & Anita Dunn about Biden's decision to put on hold a weapons shipment to Israel: "Let's not forget there are more Jewish voters who care about Israel than Muslim voters who care about Hamas" pic.twitter.com/HdeI9iOL3W

— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) May 9, 2024

Saban criticized Biden's threat to halt arms shipments to Israel. He asked Biden whether his actions were consistent with the belief that Hamas should be defeated and whether this sent the best message to other US allies in the region.

"This sends a terrible message to our allies in the region, and beyond that, [that] we can flip from doing the right t[h]ing to bending to political pressure."

He then reminded Biden that "There are more Jewish voters who care about Israel than Muslim voters that care about Hamas."

US President Joe Biden delivers remarks during a visit to Gateway Technical College in Sturtevant, Wisconsin, US, May 8, 2024 (credit: REUTERS/KEVIN LAMARQUE)

Biden threatened to halt arms shipments to Israel due to Israel's push to invade Rafah, telling CNN, "If they [Israel] go into Rafah… I’m not supplying the weapons that have historically been used to."

One shipment has already been stopped due to the US administration's concern over the invasion of Rafah, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a Senate committee.

Who is Haim Saban?

Saban was born in Egypt and made aliyah with his family in 1956. He fought in both the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War.

From here, Saban began playing in a band, finding mild success. His rise in the business world came when he and his production company created several iconic 80s children's TV show theme songs, including He-Man, She-Ra, and Inspector Gadget.

His company, Saban Entertainment, grew and would go on to produce more iconic TV shows such as Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers, the company would later merge and form fox Kids Worldwide.

Saban has been a major supporter of pro-Israel causes in the US for decades, having donated to major Democratic campaigns like the 2000 Presidential Election when he was the largest donor to the Democratic National Committee in the 2001-2002 cycle.

After the October 7 attacks, he signed messages of support for Israel along with other major figures in the entertainment industry.

Yuval Barnea

Source: https://www.jpost.com/american-politics/article-800681

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The Right Take Audio: Victor Davis Hanson on ‘The End of Everything’ - Frontpage Editors

 

by Frontpage Editors

How wars descend into annihilation.

 

[Order David Horowitz’s new book, America Betrayed, HERE]

In the most recent episode of the Freedom Center’s podcast The Right Take, host Mark Tapson speaks with brilliant historian Victor Davis Hanson about his new book The End of Everything: How Wars Descend Into Annihilation, and the lessons America can learn from past societies that were destroyed because they thought, “It can’t happen here.”

 

Frontpage Editors

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-right-take-audio-victor-davis-hanson-on-the-end-of-everything/

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Terrorist watch list apprehensions at northern border continue to break records - Bethany Blankley

 

by Bethany Blankley

This is after the greatest number of foreign nationals were apprehended illegally entering through the northern border than at any time in U.S. history during the same time period, The Center Square reported.

 

(The Center Square) -

The number of known or suspected terrorists (KSTs) apprehended at the northern border in the first six months of fiscal 2024 continue to outpace those apprehended at the southwest border.

There have been 143 KSTs apprehended at the northern border through the first six months of this fiscal year compared to 92 at the southwest border, according to the most recent CBP data.

Those apprehended are known to law enforcement and in the national Terrorist Screening Dataset, a federal database that contains sensitive information on terrorist identities. It originated as a consolidated terrorist watchlist “to house information on known or suspected terrorists but evolved over the last decade to include additional individuals who represent a potential threat to the United States, including known affiliates of watchlisted individuals,” CBP explains.

This is after the greatest number of foreign nationals were apprehended illegally entering through the northern border than at any time in U.S. history during the same time period, The Center Square reported.

The greatest number of KSTs to ever be apprehended in U.S. history was at the northern border in fiscal 2023 of 484. The next greatest number to be apprehended in U.S. history was 313 at the northern border in fiscal 2022, according to CBP data.

Overall, the greatest combined number of KSTs apprehended at both the northern and southerns borders was in fiscal 2023 of 736, The Center Square reported. The greatest number of KSTs have historically been apprehended at the northern border, outpacing those apprehended at the southwest border for years, The Center Square first reported.

“The alarming conclusion from these numbers is every day we have individuals that are on the FBI terrorist watch list that could have an intention to harm our country and are entering every single day,” former Border Patrol Chief Mark Morgan told The Center Square. “It’s not if or when the threat tries to come to our country. We already know that’s happening already. The threat is already here,” he said, referring to the at least two million gotaways, those who illegally entered the country and evaded capture.

While total illegal entries at the northern border are “minuscule” compared to the southwest border, “the threat is not,” he said. “While there are shortages of resources across the board, the northern border doesn’t have the infrastructure, technology, personnel that the southwest border has. The northern border represents a threat.”

In his 30-plus-year law enforcement career, Morgan also served as acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. He also served for 20 years with the FBI in multiple capacities, targeting organized crime, gangs, and counterterrorism operations, among others.

Morgan was among a group of retired FBI counterintelligence officials to warn Congress in January that the presidents’ border policies had facilitated a “soft invasion” into the U.S. of military-age men coming from terror-linked regions, China and Russia.

“It would be difficult to overstate the danger represented by the presence inside our borders of what is comparatively a multi-division army of young single adult males from hostile nations and regions whose background, intent, or allegiance is completely unknown,” they warned. “They include individuals encountered by border officials and then possibly released into the country, along with the shockingly high estimate of 'gotaways,' meaning those who have entered and evaded apprehension.”

Of the more than 11 million foreign nationals who have illegally entered the U.S. since January 2021, the majority are single military age men, The Center Square has reported.

Every year the numbers break previous records; this fiscal year is no different. More than 1.7 million foreign nationals illegally entered the U.S. in the first six months of fiscal 2024, the greatest number for this time period in U.S. history, The Center Square reported.

Among them are individuals with ties to the terrorist group ISIS, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned earlier this year, after making repeated remarks about heightened terrorist threats since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

House Republicans have demanded answers from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on how many KSTs have been released into the country.

U.S. Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, introduced a bill to require federal agents to screen everyone who enters the country illegally against the terrorist watch list.

Morgan praised the work of CBP and Border Patrol agents apprehending KSTs but also raised concerns about those who weren’t being caught due to the sheer volume coming in and the fact that agents have been pulled away from their national security mandate.

“Every single day we have individuals on FBI terrorist watch list who are trying to come into the country,” Morgan told The Center Square. “If you think we are catching everybody, you live in a dream world. If you think we are able to identify everyone on the watch list as well, that’s not happening either.

“How many on the watchlist that we’ve apprehended who illegally came into the U.S. were released? How many have claimed asylum and we’ve let them in?

“Countless national security threats have gotten by us, and they are in the United States. We know nothing about them, where they are at, or what they are planning to do.”

 
Bethany Blankley

Source: https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/terrorist-watch-list-apprehensions-northern-border-continue-break

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Truth or Censorship: The Legacy Media’s Death Spiral - Thaddeus G. McCotter

 

by Thaddeus G. McCotter

There is nothing more dangerous than a censor—especially one who makes their living off the very God-given liberty they seek to deny to their fellow citizens.

 

One of the consequences of the Communications Revolution has been the deterioration of the traditional news media into just another endangered industry clamoring for protectionism.

Once, legacy television and print news outlets believed the technological hurdles and exorbitant costs entailed in providing content to their audiences formed an insurmountable barrier to entry for any potential competitors. To wit: for decades, there had existed only three major national news broadcasts and a handful of newspapers “of record,” like The New York Times and The Washington Post. Further, the number of local stations and newspapers, while competitive, were in effect capped by their respective audiences and advertisers. Over time, this technological and financial insulation resulted in a virtual monopoly upon mass information and, inevitably, the hubris, typified by their claim to be “opinion makers.”

Yet, fate humbles the haughty.

The rise of the internet destroyed both the financial and technological barriers faced by the legacy media’s prospective competitors. The legacy media’s arrogance rendered them slow to recognize the threat and, in many instances, deride their challengers as basement dwelling ne’er-do-wells cosplaying journalists on-line in their parents’ basements.

But these competitors and the social media platforms, such as (then) Twitter and YouTube, were, by circumstances and economics, necessarily designed to be an affordable, efficient, and effective disseminator of original content, including news and opinions. Perhaps more importantly, as business entities specifically designed for social media, these platforms knew how to monetize their users and content.

The legacy media, both nationally and locally, was too slow in responding—if they even could. The shrinking power, profits, payrolls, and prestige of their industry have led to calls for bailouts, most notably for local newspapers, and government protection from competition, including demands for something past generations of legacy media luminaries would find equally inexplicable and unconscionable: censorship.

In fact, this was not the first time the legacy print media faced challenges in its business model and sought government assistance. The Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970, which, in its Congressional Declaration of Policy:

…it is hereby declared to be the public policy of the United States to preserve the publication of newspapers in any city, community, or metropolitan area where a joint operating arrangement has been heretofore entered into because of economic distress or is hereafter effected in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.

Per the learned one who litigated a case involving the law, “effectively let metropolitan dailies combine their business (but not editorial) operations in a Joint Operating Agreement because local markets could no longer support both papers.”

The present situation for legacy media is similar to the one faced by record companies in the 1980s, when they colluded with radio stations to control the music industry and shape public tastes. The inability to monetize their product within the bounds of cyber-space proved a disaster for their corporations, artists, record stores, et. al. Yet, it also proved a boon to individuals who now had a means to produce and disseminate their own music to the masses. In their death throes, the music industry’s corporations and artists appealed for government help to prevent their product—the music created by the artists and purchased and produced by the corporations—from being sold online by unauthorized entities. What the music industry and artists did not do was demand that the works of individual artists who created, produced, and disseminated their own music from being placed online.

But this is precisely the demand made by the legacy media to protect its privileged position as the elite opinion makers in our republic—namely, the stifling of the democratization of information through censorship.

In the legacy media’s death spiral, their opinion-shaping wordsmiths are rarely as honest as that in expressing their motives and aims. Make no mistake, however, when a free press begins advocating for the euphemistic “content moderation” to end “disinformation” and “hate speech” for the alleged sake of “safety” or some other such risible pretext, one can be sure they are not talking about curbing their First Amendment rights.

Colluding with their political cronies, both elected and otherwise, and ironically with Big Tech, the legacy media is targeting any American seeking to participate in the Communication Revolution’s “democratization of information.” In return, there is reciprocity on the part of the legacy media: recall their willingness to falsely condemn and conceal the reportage of another legacy media outlet (the New York Post) when the Hunter Biden laptop story threatened the legacy media’s aligned and preferred candidate’s presidential prospects.

Ah, yes, who better than the legacy media that spent years spreading Russia-gate lies to undermine a duly elected president to determine what the truth is? Still, nothing screams honesty more than a politician, who everyone just loves to death. Why not let the people who are known for their humility, rectitude, and subtlety—the legacy media, politicians, and beloved Big Tech multinational corporations—determine what an appropriate level of “content moderation” is? What is true? What is real? What you can talk about? What you can think about?

What could go wrong?

Everything. There is nothing more dangerous than a censor—especially one who makes their living off the very God-given liberty they seek to deny to their fellow citizens.

You can have either truth or censorship. Unlike the legacy media and their political cronies, choose wisely.

An American Greatness contributor, the Hon. Thaddeus G. McCotter (M.C., Ret.) served Michigan’s 11th Congressional district from 2003-2012, and served as Chair of the Republican House Policy Committee. Not a lobbyist, he is a frequent public speaker and moderator for public policy seminars; and a Monday co-host of the “John Batchelor Radio Show,” among sundry media appearances.

Thaddeus G. McCotter

Source: https://amgreatness.com/2024/05/11/truth-or-censorship-the-legacy-medias-death-spiral/

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New research discovers that wind turbines create a ‘turbulent wake’ that can steal almost 40% of energy from other ‘nearby’ turbines - Olivia Murray

 

by Olivia Murray

When are we going to say that enough is enough? These “green” schemes are killing our planet, and us.

 

Is there a better example of putting the cart before the horse than “green” energy boondoggles of the left?

The answer is a resounding no.

Force conversions to electric vehicles without putting the proper and sufficient charging infrastructure in place? Check.

Manufacture millions (billions?) of solar panels with no disposal plan in place? Check.

Build countless offshore wind “farms” without conducting studies to determine the impacts? Check.

Jo Nova, who runs an eponymous blog, credited a watchdog organization for discovering this story by Kirk Moore:

Downstream turbulence from offshore wind turbines can reduce power generation at nearby turbines, substantially reducing the total potential from planned U.S. offshore wind projects, according to recent research from the Colorado University Boulder and National Energy Technology Laboratory.

This “downstream turbulence” event is known as the “wake effect,” explained in a breakdown at a CU Boulder publication like this:

When wind passes through turbines, the ones at the front, or upstream, extract some energy from the wind. As a result, the wind slows down and becomes more turbulent behind the turbines. This means the turbines downstream get slower wind, sometimes resulting in lower power generation.

Now, per the study, that “wake effect” isn’t responsible for a negligible amount of stolen power, but diminishes the wind turbine’s efficiency severely—if one can even use “efficient” in the context of wind turbines, but that’s beside the point. From Moore:

‘Using computer simulations and observational data of the atmosphere, the team calculated that the wake effect reduces total power generation by 34% to 38% at a proposed wind farm off the East Coast,’ according to the University of Colorado. ‘Most of the reduction comes from wakes formed between turbines within a single farm.’ 

‘But under certain weather conditions, wakes could reach turbines as far as 55 kilometers (34 miles) downwind and affect other wind farms. For example, during hot summer days, the airflow over the cool sea surface tends to be relatively stable, causing wakes to persist for longer periods and propagate over longer distances.’

An almost forty percent reduction in power, with some wakes reaching as far as 34 miles away? What an utter joke that the current wind “technology” is pushed as practical and progressive.

And isn’t that just great—during the hot summer days the wake effect is a far greater detriment than normal. I guess we can all just switch off our AC units and melt in the sweltering summer heat (I live in Alabama), fixing to (apparently, though I do not believe it) only get worse because of global warming and climate change—at least that’s what the leftist climate “scientists” pushing the wind turbines are also telling us. 

So what’s the fallout of all these premature political games?

Well, in the case of the electric vehicles, the extra strain on the grid causes brownouts and blackouts and people are left stranded.

In the case of the solar panels, we now have landfills leaching toxic waste from the rare earth minerals, and at the current manufacturing rate, with no disposal solution yet, this problem is set to become catastrophic in the coming decades.

And the wind turbines… dead birds, dead whales, dead kelp forests, dead fish, ugly disruption in landscapes and seascapes, and now even less power, which means higher bills for the consumer and less freedom.

Not to mention the obvious—the trillions of wasted dollars for all three of these stupid ideas.

When are we going to say that enough is enough? These “green” schemes are killing our planet, and us.

Hat tip: John McMahon, Kolonga, Qld Australia.

Image: patano, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, unaltered.

Olivia Murray

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/new_research_discovers_that_wind_turbines_create_a_turbulent_wake_that_can_steal_almost_40_of_energy_from_other_nearby_turbines.html

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Try a Little Honesty About Israel - Victor Davis Hanson

 

by Victor Davis Hanson

Here are ten of their most common untruths about October 7 and the war that followed.

 

 

Scan news accounts of anti-Israel campus and street protestors. Read their demands and manifestos. Collate the confusion after October 7 from the Biden administration.

Here are ten of their most common untruths about October 7 and the war that followed.

“Progressive Hamas”: Gay and transgendered student protestors in America would be in mortal danger in Gaza under a fascistic Hamas that has banned homosexual acts and lifestyles. Anyone protesting publicly against Hamas or its allies would be arrested and severely punished.

Women are segregated in most Hamas-run educational institutions. Under the Hamas charter, women are valued mostly as child-bearers. By design, there are almost no women in high positions in business or in government under Hamas.

“Colonists and Settlers”: Students scream that Israelis are “settlers” and “colonists” and sometimes yell at Jewish students to “go back to Poland.”

But the Jewish presence in present-day Israel is deeply rooted in ancient tradition. Dating back at least three millennia, the concept of “Israel” as a distinct Jewish state, situated roughly in its current location, is ingrained in history.

By contrast, the much later Arab invasions of the Byzantine-controlled Levant and their arrival in Palestine occurred about 1800 years after the establishment of a Jewish Israel.

“Two-state Solution”: When student protestors scream “from the river to the sea,” that is not advocacy for a two-state solution. It is a call to eliminate the state of Israel—lying in between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea—and its 10 million Jewish and Arab citizens. The Hamas charter is a one-state/no-Israel agenda, which we saw attempted on October 7.

“Occupied Gaza”: Gaza was autonomous. The Israeli border is closed, but so is the Egyptian border. There have not been any Jews in Gaza for nearly two decades.

So on October 7, Gaza was not occupied by Israel. It was under the control of Hamas, designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization. After being elected to power in 2006, Hamas cancelled all subsequent elections and ruled as a dictatorship. Gaza forbids Jews from entering Gaza and has driven out most Christians. Israel hosts two million Arabs, both as Israeli citizens and residents.

“Netanyahu is the Problem”: The U.S. and Europe claim that the conservative government of Benjamin Netanyahu is alone behind the Israeli tough response in Gaza. Thus, both the EU and the U.S. are doing their best to undermine or even overthrow the elected Netanyahu administration.

Yet, most Israelis support Netanyahu’s coalition government’s agenda of destroying Hamas in Gaza. There is no evidence that any other alternative Israeli government would do anything differently from the present policies toward Hamas.

“Targeting Civilians”: After murdering nearly 1,200 Israelis on October 7, Hamas scurried back to Gaza and hid in tunnels and bases beneath hospitals, schools, and mosques. Its preplanned strategy was to survive by ensuring Gaza civilians would be killed. Hamas has indiscriminately launched more than 7,000 rockets at Israel, all designed to kill Jewish civilians.

Outside assessors have concluded that Israel has not inadvertently killed a greater ratio of civilians to terrorists compared to most other urban fighting conflicts elsewhere, and perhaps even fewer than American engagements in Mosul and Fallujah.

“Protestors Are Pro-Palestine”: Increasingly, protestors make no distinction between supporting “Palestine” and Hamas. Their chants often echo the original Hamas eliminationist charter and recent genocidal ravings of its leadership. Some protestors wear Hamas logos and wave its flag. Many cheered the Hamas massacre of October 7.

“Anti-Israel Is Not Anti-Semitic”: When protestors scream to Jewish students to “go back to Poland” or call for the “Final Solution,” or assault them or bar them from campus facilities, they do not ask whether they are pro-Israeli. For protestors, anyone identifiable as Jewish becomes a target of their anti-Semitic invective and violence.

“Genocide”: Israel has not tried to wipe out the Palestinian people in the fashion of Hamas’s one-state solution plan for Jews. Before October 7, some 20,000 Gazans a day requested to work in Israel—on the correct expectation of much higher wages and humane treatment.

If Hamas had come out of its tunnels, separated from its impressed civilian shields, released its surviving Israeli hostages, and either openly fought the Israeli Defense Forces or surrendered the organizers of the October 7 massacre, no Gaza civilians would have died.

According to Hamas’s questionable “genocide” figures, roughly 4 percent of the Gazan population died during the Israeli response to October 7. At least a third to almost half of those deaths, according to various international observers, were Hamas terrorists.

“Disproportionate Response”: Iran tried to send 320 missiles and rockets into Israel. Israel replied with three. Hamas launched 7,000 rockets into Israel and slaughtered 1,200 Israelis before the IDF responded in Gaza, often dropping leaflets and sending texts to forewarn citizens.

Israel has been disproportionate only in the effectiveness of its response. Hamas and its Iranian benefactor intended disproportionately to hurt Israel but utterly failed.

So Israel proved to be competent, and Hamas incompetent in their similar efforts to use disproportionate force.

 
Victor Davis Hanson

Source: https://amgreatness.com/2024/05/09/try-a-little-honesty-about-israel/

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Republicans slam Biden for pausing Israel arms shipment - Andrew Bernard

 

by Andrew Bernard

“This is obscene. It is absurd,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). “Give Israel what they need to fight the war they can’t afford to lose.”

 

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff testify at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the Department of Defense fiscal 2025 budget request and Future Years Defense Program in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on May, 8 2024. Credit: Chad J. McNeeley/U.S. Department of Defense.

House and Senate Republicans slammed U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to pause an arms shipment to Israel and demanded that the administration explain why it failed to notify Congress.

Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Ted Budd (R-N.C.) wrote to the Biden administration on Monday asking for answers about the frozen arms deal.

“We are shocked that your administration has reportedly decided to withhold critical ammunition to Israel,” the senators wrote.

“You promised your commitment to Israel was ironclad,” they added. “Pausing much-needed military support to our closest Middle Eastern ally signals otherwise.”

The Biden administration withheld the approval of the sale of two types of precision-guided bombs, the first such delay of an arms sale since Oct. 7, Politico reported on Tuesday.

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The administration informed Congress of the potential $260 million sale of “up to 6,500 Joint Direct Attack Munitions—kits that enable unguided bombs to be steered to a target” in January, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing officials familiar with the deal.

The Biden administration has not taken any action on the sale since, and the U.S. State Department is reviewing the sale, per the Journal. The paper cited a senior administration official who said that Washington paused a shipment of weapons, including 1,800 bombs that weigh 2,000 pounds each and 1,700 bombs that weigh 500 pounds each.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin confirmed the pause during testimony at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday about the Defense Department fiscal 2025 budget request. 

“We have paused one shipment of high payload munitions,” Austin said. “We’ve not made a final determination on how to proceed with that shipment.”

Austin added that the administration continues to oppose any Israeli ground offensive in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza. He also said that the paused arms sale is not connected to the recently passed foreign aid bill, which includes billions of dollars in military aid for Israel.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) hit back at Austin’s comments in the hearing, saying that pausing the arms shipment sends the wrong signal to Israel during an “existential” battle with its enemies.

“Israel’s been hit in the last few weeks by Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas—dedicated to their destruction—and you’re telling me you’re going to tell them how to fight the war, and what they can and can’t use when everybody around them wants to kill all the Jews?” Graham said.

“This is obscene. It is absurd,” the South Carolina senator added. “Give Israel what they need to fight the war they can’t afford to lose.”

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) said that the decision to withhold the arms shipment is proof that the Biden administration has accepted the claims of anti-Israel activists.

“Israel is continually held to a double standard by members of the international community that far too often overlook the conduct of other countries with some of the worst human-rights abuses in the world,” Lawler said. 

“That should come as no shock when U.N. employees were found to have direct ties to Hamas,” he added. “What is shocking, however, is that the Biden administration would buy into the lies and create distance between us and Israel.”

Speaking on the Senate floor on Wednesday, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) applauded the president’s initial support for Israel after Oct. 7 but said that Biden’s recent actions have undermined his claims that he is an “ironclad” supporter of the Jewish state.

“We’ve seen that iron bend under the heat of domestic political pressure from his party’s anti-Israel base and the campus communists who decided to wrap themselves in the flags of Hamas and Hezbollah,” McConnell said.

“I speak with some experience in the difficulties of standing up to extreme elements in one’s own political party,” McConnell added. “But the president’s apparent inability to keep the most radical voices on his left flank out of the situation room isn’t just a shameful abdication of leadership, it’s actually dangerous.”

Andrew Bernard

Source: https://www.jns.org/republicans-slam-biden-for-pausing-israel-arms-shipment/

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