Israelis welcome home Emily Damari, Romi Gonen, and Doron Steinbrecher - Corrine Baum

 

by Corrine Baum

Israel welcomes home Emily Damari, Romi Gonen, and Doron Steinbrecher.

 

Israelis joyfully welcomed home released hostages Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, and Doron Steinbrecher from Hamas captivity on Sunday evening.

Romi Gonen's grandmother Dvora Leshem praised her granddaughter to Israeli media.

"She looks great," Leshem told Channel 12 after seeing footage of Gonen being transferred to the Red Cross. "I am glad to see her on her feet," she added. 

When asked if she believed that Romi would return, her grandmother said, "of course I believed this would happen, I just don't understand why it took so long." Her grandmother praised Romi, saying she is wonderful, and remarking on her survival of the past nearly 500 days. 

She emphasized the need to bring all remaining hostages home, saying that her heart is with all of the hostages.

Israelis react to the hostages' release. (credit: Chen Schimmel/The Jerusalem Post)

Hostage and bereaved families forums

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum called the three's release a light in the midst of the darkness.

"After 471 agonizing days in captivity, Emily, Doron, and Romi are finally returning home – to their families who worked tirelessly for their release, to friends who prayed for their well-being, and to an entire nation that never lost faith this day would come," the forum said in a statement.

"Their return today represents a beacon of light in the darkness, a moment of hope and triumph of the human spirit. For their families and for all of us, this is a moment that will be forever etched in our memory."

 ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The forum reminded citizens that the war was not over until all of the hostages returned home. 

"Their return reminds us of our profound responsibility to continue working towards the release of everyone - until the last hostage returns home."

 

Thousands of people are now gathering in Hostages Square for a collective viewing alongside the families of the hostages during these deeply moving, historic moments.

Join us 🎗️

Photo credit: Paulina Patimer#BringThemHomeNow#UntilTheLastHostage #AllTogether pic.twitter.com/yuJNRZGMa1

— Bring Them Home Now (@bringhomenow) January 19, 2025

The Tikva Forum, which represents some families of hostages and pushes for more pressure on Hamas, wrote that it was "deeply moving to see the girls returning home. We share the joy of the families who now get to embrace their daughters."

The Valor Forum, a group of 150 bereaved families whose loved ones have fallen in the Israel-Hamas war and who support increased military action, wrote that it was "deeply moved, together with all of Israel, by the return of Romi, Emily, and Doron and their release from the hands of Hamas terrorists."

"We all hope and pray to witness the release of all our hostages as part of achieving the full objectives of the war, including the dismantling of Hamas and restoring security to the residents of the South," the statement read.

Israeli politicians

President Isaac Herzog expressed his joy at the return of the three women. 

"This is a day of joy and comfort, and the beginning of a challenging journey of recovery and healing together," the president wrote on X/Twitter.

Romi, Emily, and Doron – so beloved and missed – an entire nation rejoices at your return.

We send you and your families a huge embrace. This is a day of joy and comfort, and the beginning of a challenging journey of recovery and healing together.

“The eyes weep bitterly,…

— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) January 19, 2025

Former defense minister Yoav Gallant expressed his condolences on how long the deal took. 

"Thank you for surviving the ordeal; we’re sorry it took too long," he wrote. 

אמילי, דורון ורומי - ברוכות השבות הביתה.

התמונות המרגשות הממלאות את הלב מדגישות בצורה המוחשית ביותר את חובתנו המוסרית, הערכית, היהודית והציונית, להשיב את כל החטופות והחטופים לישראל.

תודה ששרדתן את התופת,
סליחה שזה לקח יותר מדי זמן.

כמה טוב שבאתן הביתה 🇮🇱

— יואב גלנט - Yoav Gallant (@yoavgallant) January 19, 2025

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who voted against the deal that brought Gonen, Damari, and Steinbrecher home, welcomed the women home in a post on X/Twitter.

אמילי, דורון ורומי, ברוכות השבות הביתה!
הלב יוצא אליכן אחיות יקרות שלנו! עם שלם גאה בכן, דומע איתכן, ומחבק אתכן בלי סוף!

— בצלאל סמוטריץ' (@bezalelsm) January 19, 2025

MK Simcha Rothman, who heavily opposed the deal, congratulated the three women on their return. 

"My opinion on the current framework is well-known to everyone, but the emotional and powerful moment of these three girls being handed over to the IDF and reunited with their families crystallizes the essence of the difference between us and them – every Jewish soul is, for us, a world in its entirety," Rothman said. 

 

Corrine Baum

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-838256

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Former CIA analyst pleads guilty to leaking classified info on Israeli plans to attack Iran - Nicholas Ballasy

 

by Nicholas Ballasy

Asif William Rahman, 34, of Vienna, Virginia faces 10 years in prison

 

A former CIA analyst pleaded guilty in federal court in Virginia on Friday to downloading and leaking classified information about Israeli plans to attack Iran and faces 10 years in prison. 

Asif William Rahman, 34, of Vienna, Virginia, was arrested in Cambodia last year and transferred to Guam. The charges included retention and transmission of classified information related to national security. 

Rahman worked for the CIA since 2016 and had a top-secret security clearance, according to the Justice Department.

Nicholas Ballasy

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/white-house/former-cia-analyst-pleads-guilty-leaking-israeli-plans-attack-iran

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Educational Changes and Peace in the Middle East - Dr. Shmuel Katz and Chaim Silberstein

 

by Dr. Shmuel Katz and Chaim Silberstein

The absolute must of changing nefarious messaging.

 

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The Middle East remains in turmoil, lurching from one crisis to the next.

Israel is fighting a war on seven fronts, primarily against irregular forces under the control of Iran, and against the well-financed, international deception and misinformation propaganda machine, which is supported by nefarious actors. The Arabs of Judea and Samaria, the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Syria, despite the suffering inflicted upon them by the brutality and evil foolishness of their self-serving leadership, are still largely hostile to Israel’s existence and rife with Jew-hatred. Unfortunately, local and international support for terror organizations like ISIS, Hamas and Hezbollah is still inexplicably strong.

International terrorism is becoming more evident across the free world. Consider the recent attacks on innocent people in New Orleans, in Berlin, in Milan, in Paris, in London and elsewhere.

What can be done to reverse this trend and set the world on a better course toward peaceful coexistence?

Some answers are related to the region’s turbulence and persistent hatred, which preceded the re-establishment of the modern-day State of Israel in the Jewish ancestral homeland.

The Arab media and the educational establishment in most Arab societies inculcate hostility toward Jews, toward Israel as a Jewish state and toward the infidel. This situation has been ameliorated in countries that have made peace with Israel, but elsewhere, the rabid hatred of Jews and infidels continues unabated. From a very early age, Arab children and others are reared on the malicious ideology to remove the dangers and the threats from the infidel, the illegitimacy of Israel, and the malevolence of Jews to Arabs and Islam all across the globe.

The intentional spread of disinformation and misinformation, if unchallenged, will guarantee the intensification of the conflict with serious consequences for the free world.

For example, Palestinian media now flatly denies that Hamas operatives committed any atrocities on Oct. 7, 2023, terming reports of mass murder, rape, burnings of babies, decapitations and other horrific acts that occurred as “Israeli propaganda.” The fact that such lies are refuted by the very video and audio recordings that Hamas perpetrators filmed themselves is not addressed or confronted. The whole point is to sow confusion that creates different narratives of the recent conflict from which the oblivious viewers can choose.

Palestinian Authority textbooks still teach arithmetic by counting dead Jews. Some textbooks lionize suicide bombers such as Dalal Mugrabi, a female terrorist who participated in the murder of 38 Israeli civilians in 1978.

Revisionist history recently propagated by the Arab media depicted Jesus as “the first Palestinian martyr,” an absurd twist that should offend not only Jews but Christians and all lovers of truth. This incongruity denies that Jesus was a Jew, and falsely suggests that there was a Palestinian national identity some 2,000 years ago.

Palestinian schools falsely deny any historical connection between the Jewish people, the Land of Israel, and the city of Jerusalem. Such incitement occurs even in schools in Jerusalem and in schools that are nominally under the supervision of the Israeli Ministry of Education. Palestinian children who learn that there never were Jewish temples in Jerusalem and that Jews are colonialist usurpers in the region will rarely reconcile themselves to Israel’s legitimacy or its right to exist. Many students will adopt as their life’s goal the elimination of any affront to Islam, even at the cost of their own lives. In addition, the Palestinian educational curriculum still reinforces the war against the Jews, not peace and coexistence. These and other malicious messages are being amplified across the globe, including in respected educational institutions and media outlets.

It is extremely difficult for young students to dislodge themselves from the grip of peer pressure, and these corrupt ideologies, which are so influential that they continue to spawn terrorists and suicide bombers, entice Arab parents to aspire to their children’s martyrdom.

Unfortunately, the yearning for martyrdom as a religious and national imperative to eradicate the so-called illicit and repugnant State of Israel or that of the other infidels across the globe cannot be undone by good living conditions or prosperity. Osama bin Laden may have been a multimillionaire, but he was a terrorist first. Vladimir Lenin, who boasted that “the capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them,” would recognize its modern application as Palestinians and other radical Muslims are lavished with Western money used to educate Palestinian children and others to hate and kill Israelis, as well as to despise and eliminate Westerners.

A fundamental change in thinking is indispensable to prepare the Middle East and the free world for a better future.

Here are some ideas to help get us there:

• Israel, as well as freedom-loving countries, must do more to promote and monitor a better curriculum within the Arab educational system, everywhere, especially in Jerusalem.

• Malicious Arab teachers who were trained by the Palestinian Authority to use the noxious P.A. curriculum need to be replaced with peace-loving Israeli Arabs from the north and south of Israel. These educators should be financially incentivized to move to Jerusalem and other relevant locations and teach the proper curriculum in Arab schools, which should include proficiency in Hebrew.

• Children in Gaza will need to be deradicalized and will benefit from contact with honorable Israeli educators for there to be any hope of progress.

• Given that this is an important issue for the entire free world, a serious multinational educational effort should be implemented to share valuable information through all educational institutions. Additionally, media outlets need to address the truthful and relevant facts as they relate to Israel, the Middle East and the peaceful version of Islam.

• Western states and institutions must withhold financial and political support from the P.A.-run schools and other educational institutions, including those run by the U.N. Relief Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA, a leading fomenter of incitement in the Middle East, until they stop incitement against infidels, Jews, Israel and the West.

• The glorification of martyrdom and the eternal war against the West, Israel and the infidel must end everywhere, including in mosques, educational institutions and media outlets. Many terror organizations like ISIS, Hamas and Hezbollah remain popular because their evil and violent ways are frequently glorified in the public sphere.

• A special monitoring and implementing task force should be established to expose, marginalize and eliminate all the bad operatives to prevent terror attacks, malicious incitement and indoctrination.

In her autobiography, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir wrote that “peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.” That is as true today as it was 50 years ago.

Dr. Shmuel Katz and Chaim Silberstein

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/educational-changes-and-peace-in-the-middle-east/

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Ben-Gvir, Otzma Yehudit MKs resign from coalition over hostage deal - Jerusalem Post Staff, Eliav Breuer

 

by Jerusalem Post Staff, Eliav Breuer

"This deal forfeits the IDF’s hard-won achievements in the war, involves withdrawing forces from Gaza, and halts the fighting in a manner that capitulates to Hamas," Itamar Ben-Gvir said.

 

Itamar Ben-Gvir of Otzma Yehudit party resigns from the government in Jerusalem, January 16, 2025

(photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and members from his Otzma Yehudit party submitted resignation letters from the government and coalition on Sunday, as they had previously promised if the deal was approved.

"The reckless approval of an agreement with the Hamas terror organization, which includes releasing hundreds of murderers with the blood of men, women, and children on their hands—some to Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria—represents a disgraceful surrender," The party stated.

"This deal forfeits the IDF’s hard-won achievements in the war, involves withdrawing forces from Gaza, and halts the fighting in a manner that capitulates to Hamas."

In his official resignation letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir expressed his “personal appreciation” for the prime minister and claimed that the government had done “wonderful things”. Ben-Gvir, however, repeated a previous promise that while the party would vote based on its “ideology and conscience” from here on out, it would not support a vote to bring down the government.

Otzma Yehudit ministers Yizhak Wasserlauf (Negev and Galilee Minister) and Amichai Eliyahu (Heritage Minister) also submitted their resignation letters on Sunday morning. According to law, the letters will come in to effect in 48 hours.

Itamar Ben-Gvir of Otzma Yehudit party resigns from the government in Jerusalem, January 16, 2025 (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

The Otzma Yehudit MKs who are not ministers, Zvika Fogel, Limor Son-Harmelech, and Yizthak Kreuzer, will also leave their parliamentary positions, Ben-Gvir said. Fogel was the chairman of the Knesset National Security Committee, and Kreuzer was a member of the Judicial Selection Committee. It is unclear who will replace them.

MK Almog Cohen, who was also elected to the Knesset as part of the Otzma Yehudit party, fell out with his party and is likely to act independently.

Ben-Gvir has threatened to leave the government if the deal were to be approved as early as last week.

“The deal that is taking shape is a reckless deal,” Ben-Gvir said in a televised statement on Thursday. He said the deal would “erase the achievements of the war” by releasing hundreds of Palestinian terrorists and withdrawing from strategic areas in Gaza, leaving Hamas undefeated.

Other MKs threaten to resign

Four other ministers, three from the Religious Zionist Party (Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Missions Minister Orit Strock, and Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer), and one from the Likud (Diaspora Affairs and Combatting Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli), previously threatened to leave the government if a permanent ceasefire was implemented.

In addition to the three ministers from Otzma Yehudit, the three from RZP, and Chikli, Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem also voted against the deal in the deciding vote in the government late Friday night. 

Jerusalem Post Staff, Eliav Breuer

Source: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-838187

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Newt Gingrich offers Trump three-point plan to extinguish wildfires and California’s blue crisis - Nicholas Ballasy

 

by Nicholas Ballasy

Gingrich: Musk, Ramaswamy at DOGE 'true breakthrough,' shows Trump is back 'dramatically bolder'

 

Former House Speaker and historian Newt Gingrich suggested a three-point plan to President-elect Trump and other elected officials to end the California wildfires, including mobilizing the U.S. military if needed.

"We ought to have three goals, end the fires, whatever it takes, if you have to mobilize the military, whatever you have to do, end the fires," he said on the "John Solomon Reports" podcast.

"Second, find a way, at the lowest cost and the quickest speed, to get people back into their homes, which means suspending and overriding an amazing number of rules in California, all of them designed to take longer, etc.," he added.

Gingrich also said elected officials have to ask themselves what needs to be done so this situation doesn't occur again.

"Not from climate change"

"These fires were a man made problem. They're not from climate change. We've had fires in California for thousands of years. They were probably caused by humans, maybe at a campground," he said. "And then, of course, the Santa Ana winds are not new. We have them every single year."

He praised the Los Angeles fire chief Kristin Crowley for showing "real courage in telling people bluntly and publicly that her requests for funds were cut again and again were rejected."

He continued, saying, "I think they had over 100 fire vehicles that were in maintenance that had not been fixed yet because the budget was too low. I mean, these things are just, I think, criminal, and I think that the the city and county and state governments should be held accountable."

The former 2012 GOP presidential candidate said the California state government passed a referendum in 2014 to build four new reservoirs for water but "not one of them has been built."

"I think that we need to look at a very serious way, at forcing both that they clear out all the problems, see if things rebuild rapidly and inexpensively, and then forcing that they do things," he said. "It's liberal incompetence at its worst."

A "true breakthrough"

Gingrich described Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, led by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, as a "true breakthrough" that shows Trump is "coming back dramatically bolder than when he left" office in 2020.

"I'm very excited by this. I think it is a true breakthrough, and it's typical of what you're going to see with Donald Trump, which is he's now had four years to think about how bad government is, having seen it from the inside, and he's coming back dramatically bolder than when he left," said Gingrich.

"I was looking at a study of how much paperwork there is in healthcare and it's absolutely staggering. We think that 25% of U.S. health care spending is in administrative costs. Now half of that, just half of that, would be $600 billion a year in savings. So you look at that stuff, and you say, you know, bring me Musk and Ramaswamy," he added.

Gingrich called Musk a "genuinely serious guy" who has "relentlessly" reduced costs at his companies. "When he took over Twitter and turned it into X, I think he reduced costs by 70%," he said. He said Ramaswamy is a "brilliant entrepreneur who has already founded two different companies that are worth over $1 billion dollars"

Gingrich cautioned DOGE to be "very careful not to get sucked into marginal improvements of failed systems." 

"He [Musk] did not invent a cheaper version of Boeing. He invented at SpaceX, a totally new system. And we are on the verge of so many potential breakthroughs that it's just unbelievable," he said.

Gingrich also said that Trump won the November, in part, by appealing to sports fans. "In a sports centered country, you believe in winners and losers," he said. 

As an example, Gingrich said that if someone suggested that in order to be fair, a football team should let its "weakest, poorest quarterback play" because he "really felt bad not being allowed to" play because he will feel better about himself.

"Everybody who is a sports fan would say, 'are you just nuts?'" he said. "Meanwhile, Georgetown University has a grief room where you can get cookies and warm milk if Trump's victory overwhelms your ability to function."

Nicholas Ballasy

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/white-house/gingrich-musk-ramaswamy-doge-true-breakthrough-shows-trump-back-dramatically

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Ted Cruz files bills to repeal natural gas tax, offshore drilling ban - Bethany Blankley

 

by Bethany Blankley

“Democratic policies have forced Americans to endure historic inflation and economic pain, and have jeopardized American energy independence and national security,” Cruz says

 

(The Center Square) -

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, filed a new bill to bolster U.S. energy production, led by the Texas oil and natural gas industry.

Cruz on Thursday filed a bill to repeal a tax on natural gas imposed on the industry through the Inflation Reduction Act. The IRA solely passed with Democratic support and imposed several new taxes and regulations on the U.S. oil and natural gas industry.

“Democratic policies have forced Americans to endure historic inflation and economic pain, and have jeopardized American energy independence and national security,” Cruz said. “It’s time to unleash American energy. The 2024 election was a mandate for new policies.”

Cruz’s bill would eliminate “what would be a crippling tax” on the U.S. natural gas industry. If signed into law, it would repeal Section 136 of the Clean Air Act related to a methane emissions and waste reduction incentive program for petroleum and natural gas.

On Friday, Cruz filed a bill to repeal executive orders Biden issued this month that ban offshore drilling exploration on more than 625 million acres of offshore territory. Both of his bills have several Republican cosponsors.

“President Biden’s ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling is an attack on American energy independence, jobs, and national security,” he said. “His action is a gift to our adversaries and once again confirms that this President has failed to protect the livelihood of American energy workers.”

With only two weeks left in office, Biden issued unprecedented sweeping orders banning new offshore oil and gas drilling in federal waters on the East and West Coasts, eastern Gulf of Mexico, and part of Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea.

Cruz’s bill would rescind two orders Biden issued on Jan. 6. One is Biden’s “Memorandum on the Withdrawal of Certain Areas of the United States Outer Continental Shelf from Oil or Natural Gas Leasing,” related to the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic, and Pacific areas of the outer Continental Shelf. The other is a “Memorandum on the Withdrawal of Certain Areas of the United States Outer Continental Shelf from Oil or Natural Gas Leasing,” related to the Bering Sea areas of the outer Continental Shelf.

Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. achieved energy dominance led by Texas. Despite Biden administration actions taken to stifle production in the Permian Basin in west Texas and in the Gulf of Mexico, Texas producers set production and emissions reduction records, The Center Square reported.

Texas continues to break records in production and emissions reductions because the industry has the full support of Gov. Greg Abbott, the Texas legislature and state government, production primarily occurs on private land, minimizing federal interference, and the industry leads in technological advancements, industry advocates have explained to The Center Square.

Texas’ crude oil production represents 44% of the national total; its natural gas marketed production accounted for nearly 30% of national production last year. Methane emissions from oil and natural gas production operations in the Permian Basin alone decreased 26% in one year, equal to the total amount of carbon emissions avoided by every electric vehicle on the road in the U.S. last year, The Center Square reported.

Bethany Blankley

Source: https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/cruz-files-bills-repeal-natural-gas-tax-offshore-drilling-ban

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The Last Question is the Most Important Question - James E. Fanell and Bradley A. Thayer

 

by James E. Fanell and Bradley A. Thayer

Senator Tim Sheehy emphasized rebuilding America’s shipbuilding industry as vital to countering China’s growing naval power during Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing.

 

 

This past week, the U.S. Senator from Montana, Senator Tim Sheehy, asked the very last, but the single most important question of the day during Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing: “How are you going to lead the reinvigoration of our national shipbuilding industry and restore our Navy?” While much of the rest of the hearing was a spectacle of hysterical accusations and a cavalcade of calumnies, Senator Sheehy’s last question of the day brought up the most important issue facing America’s national defense. Pete Hegseth was well prepared for this question and responded by quoting President Trump, who has said that “shipbuilding will be one of his absolute top priorities” and that Mr. Hegseth, once confirmed, will be pulling this issue up into the Office of the Secretary of Defense so that “the bureaucracy does not strangle important initiatives that need to happen.” Mr. Hegseth went on to say that America “needed to reinvigorate our capacity” by making “rapid investment, rapid fielding,” and then “to incentivize outside entities to fill the gap” as we make historic investment into our defense industrial base.

This may seem like a new challenge for most Americans who are tired of endless wars in the Middle East, so it is worth setting the stage as to why such an effort is urgently needed. It is for three major reasons.

First, the focus of the Pentagon for the last 35 years has been land wars in the Middle East and support of the land war in Ukraine; however, the fight that is brewing from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) will not be a land war. It will be a contest of war at sea across the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. This struggle will be one where the U.S. will face the great challenge, not seen since WWII, of taking the fight to the PRC and sustaining the sea lines of communication to allies and partners in the region. The Pentagon is in a difficult process of rethinking and recapitalizing its forces as it confronts the intense security threat from the PRC. This burden falls on the totality of the U.S. military, but the U.S. Navy has pride of place in the current cold war with the PRC.

Second, the Indo-Pacific’s geography is tyrannical and poses a major problem for the U.S. military. The distances are so vast that they are difficult to comprehend. For instance, the area of responsibility for the Indo-Pacific, the most likely area of conflict, is one-half of the earth’s surface. From Hollywood to Bollywood, American naval forces would have to travel nearly 10,000 miles and 12 time zones. Forces flowing from San Diego into the First Island Chain, from Japan through Taiwan to Luzon, would need two weeks to transit, while naval forces forward deployed to Guam would need just four days. Time and distance matter for deterrence. To deter the PRC, or in the worst-case scenarios, defeat the PLA Navy, the U.S. needs a naval force that is large enough to allow for forces to be present consistently in the region and for reinforcements to be able to flow forward rapidly to the theater. These critical components, a muscular presence backed by even more muscle, are elements for deterrence and warfighting that the U.S. is desperately short of today.

Third, for the past two decades, the world has watched as the naval balance of power has shifted in the Indo-Pacific from the U.S. to the PRC. This fact has brought into the open the debate about the future of the U.S. Navy, which has been exacerbated by the poor state of the U.S. shipbuilding industry. For example, in April 2024, the U.S. Navy announced significant delays in its shipbuilding schedule. The new Constellation-class frigate may be up to three years late, the aircraft carrier Enterprise (CVN-80) is expected to be 16 to 18 months behind schedule, and the lead boat for the Columbia-class ballistic missile nuclear submarine could be delayed by 12 to 16 months.

Additionally, the Virginia-class Block IV and V fast-attack nuclear submarines are facing delays of two to three years. Furthermore, the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ships, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, and the John Lewis-class fleet replenishment oilers are all “late to contract,” affecting their delivery times. Building vessels is never easy. But U.S. national security depends upon it. The U.S. must possess a shipbuilding industry that is broad, deep, and flexible and can meet the great demands U.S. national security requires.

The balance of naval power in the Western Pacific has undeniably shifted in favor of the PRC, which now maintains an advantage over the U.S. Navy in terms of total warships. The PRC’s overall naval battle force is expected to grow to 395 ships by 2025 and 435 ships by 2030, with most of this growth occurring in major surface combatants, including at least six aircraft carriers. By comparison, the U.S. Navy, which stands at 292 naval combatants as of January 29, 2024, is projected under the Biden administration’s last budget submission for 2024 to include only 290 battle force ships by the end of the fiscal year in 2030.

The issue of reinvigorating our national shipbuilding industry is not limited to the U.S. Navy; the PRC also has the biggest coast guard in the world, standing at 500 ships, some of which are larger (over 10,000 tons) than the U.S. Navy’s largest destroyers. In addition, the PRC has a very large maritime militia of vessels that protect and assist the PRC’s fishing fleet, the largest in the world, as it expands Beijing’s economic interests around the globe. Thus, the U.S. Navy faces not only the PRC’s Navy but also its coast guard, maritime militia, and fishing and merchant fleets, which add formidable capabilities.

Numbers matter for deterrence and warfighting—and that means numbers today, not tomorrow. As it relates to the Constellation-class frigate deal that President Trump negotiated during his first administration, he expressed his frustration in a radio interview on 6 January. He stated that “they were going and really doing a good job, and the generals, you know, the Biden admirals and generals and all of the people that are involved, they started playing around and tinkering and changing the design,” and “when you start making it wider, you start making it slower.” Thus, Trump identified that we have fewer warships than we need for being able to deter the PLA Navy, or in the worst case, to win a war at sea that would be launched by Beijing.

In this context, it is useful to recall U.S. Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger’s remarks in the early 1980s about the new Army M1 Abrams main battle tank. The 120mm main armament was not yet ready, and rather than delaying production, Weinberger recognized that an M1 with a 105mm gun was a significant improvement today—that is, right now—over the Army’s M60A3 to meet the formidable threat from the Warsaw Pact. An improvement in capabilities today on the Central Front was critical, while future improvements would come along in due course.

With the election of Donald Trump and his “America First” agenda, the ongoing debate in Washington about the future of the U.S. Navy may soon find resolution. The outcome will not only affect America’s national defense but will likely also alter the naval forces and security postures of both Asia and Europe. These changes will determine the future of global naval supremacy, whether “freedom of the seas” remains available to all nations or is crushed by the PRC, and a hyper-aggressive PRC remains undeterred to achieve its goal of destroying America.

***

James E. Fanell and Bradley A. Thayer are authors of Embracing Communist China: America’s Greatest Strategic Failure. The views expressed are their own.

 
James E. Fanell and Bradley A. Thayer

Source: https://amgreatness.com/2025/01/19/the-last-question-is-the-most-important-question/

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Bill introduced in Congress to reinstate 8,400 troops forced out over COVID vaccine - Alan Wooten

 

by Alan Wooten

The acronym is short for the formal title of Allowing Military Exemptions, Recognizing Individual Concerns About New Shots Act of 2025.

 

(The Center Square) -

North Carolina’s freshman congressman, a Green Beret veteran, and Texas’ third-term junior senator, have introduced legislation reversing Biden administration policies in the military tied to the COVID-19 vaccine.

U.S. Rep. Pat Harrigan’s AMERICANS Act, filed Thursday morning, would reinstate 8,400 service members he says were wrongfully discharged. It clears their records, restores benefits and “ensures no future administration can weaponize mandates against our armed forces,” a release says.

The acronym is short for the formal title of Allowing Military Exemptions, Recognizing Individual Concerns About New Shots Act of 2025.

Harrigan’s release said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, would have companion legislation in the upper chamber. At time of publication, more information on his bill was yet to be made available.

Republicans, led by President-elect Donald Trump, have long said throughout the election campaign the action was coming.

“This mandate wasn’t about science or readiness – it was about control,” Harrigan said in the release. “Thousands of patriots were cast aside by the very nation they swore to defend, stripped of their careers, their benefits, and their dignity – not because they failed to serve honorably, but because of political overreach.”

He emphasized it wasn’t just about restoration; it’s preventative in future administrations.

“It ensures,” Harrigan said, “no administration can ever again use its power to undermine the honor and integrity of our armed forces.”

Cruz, in the release, said the consequences of President Joe Biden’s actions with vaccine mandates are still impacting readiness for armed forces. Retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin was secretary of the Defense Department at the time of the Aug. 23, 2021, decision.

“Even though I led the successful charge for Congress to repeal that mandate, there is still more work to be done,” Cruz said in the Harrigan release. “The AMERICANS Act would provide remedies for servicemembers whom the Biden Department of Defense punished for standing by their convictions. It’s the right thing to do.”

Harrigan is a graduate of West Point twice deployed to Afghanistan. Before Congress, he had been a businessman producing American-made defense products.

Cruz, with Ivy League degrees from Princeton (undergrad) and Harvard Law, has worked in the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission and served as solicitor general of Texas. The worksheet includes nine oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court.

 
Alan Wooten

Source: https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/americans-act-would-reinstate-8400-armed-forces

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Trump’s Second-Term Nominees: Competence Under Fire Amid Partisan Hearings - Roger Kimball

 

by Roger Kimball

Trump’s nominees showcase strength and competence in confirmation hearings, clashing with Democrats' partisan tactics and grandstanding.

 

 

Here we are, more or less midway through the confirmation hearings for Donald Trump’s key nominations.  Among those we’ve heard from are Pete Hegseth (nominated to be Secretary of Defense), Pamela Bondi (Attorney General), Marco Rubio (State), Scott Bessent (Treasury), Doug Burgum (Interior), Lee Zeldin (EPA), John Ratcliffe (CIA), and Kristi Noem (Homeland Security). Among the most notable still to come are Kash Patel (FBI), RFK Jr. (Health Human Services), and Tulsi Gabbard (National Intelligence).

I have listened to longish bits of several of the hearings. I think there are two main takeaways from the festivities.

One is the coordinated, ideologically fired attack-dog tactics of the Democrats.

The other is the strength, seriousness, and general competence of Trump’s nominees. The contrast with the dramatis personae for Trump’s first go-around is striking. Even more striking is the contrast with Joe Biden’s consiglieri. Could there be more disparate personalities than Pete Hegseth and Lloyd Austin, Marco Rubio and Antony Blinken, Pamela Bondi and Merrick Garland, and Scott Bessent and Janet Yellen?

As to the first, the behavior of the Democrats makes the term “hearing” totally inappropriate.  These struggle sessions are not hearings but yappings. One and all, the Democrat senators seem to be pursuing two ends. One is to take as much airtime as possible to preen and publicize their own views. The focus is not on eliciting the opinions or gauging the experience or competence of the candidates. Rather, it is to grandstand.

The second end is to cater to the far-left Democrat playbook.  Do you think that the 2020 election was fairly won by Joe Biden?  Are you a mindless Trump loyalist?  Do you have an enemies list?  Will you pursue the enlightened “green energy” policies favored by the Biden administration?

Many of the exchanges—no, “exchanges” is not right, because that suggests a respectful give-and-take.  Make that, “harangues”: many of the harangues demonstrated the Democrats’ mastery of the art of projection: accusing your opponents of the bad behavior that you yourself are guilty of. (One witty commentator offered this pithy formulation: “Shorter: I accuse them of doing what we did and they must be stopped.”)

The Democrats seem terrified that Trump’s DOJ will do to them what they have been doing to Trump and his supporters these past four years. That would include denying the legitimacy of Trump’s 2016 election; cooking up groundless accusations of Trump’s “collusion” with Russia; pretending that the self-guided tour-cum-protest at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, was an “insurrection” more deadly than the attack on Pearl Harbor or 9/11; impeaching Trump not once but twice, the second time after he had left office; saddling him with groundless felony lawsuits in at least four jurisdictions; attempting to bankrupt or incarcerate him, the man who for many months has clearly been the chief political rival of the regime party. The phrase “turnabout is fair play” must have been ringing in the ears of the Democrats.

One of the most egregious inquisitors was Alex Padilla, a senior senator from California. He began his cross-examination of Pamela Bondi by reminding the audience that Donald Trump had been convicted of 34 felonies (“Objection your honor! Relevance?”). Possibly, some viewers at home will be a bit vague about the fact that those “34 felonies” were fabricated out of a single bookkeeping error that might have been a misdemeanor or might have just been a bookkeeping error with no criminal taint attached.

Like some other inquisitors (notably the Hawaiian belle Mazie Hirono), Padilla wanted to know whether Bondi thought the 2020 election was on the up-and-up. I thought her answer to Hirono was spot on: “Joe Biden is the president of the United States.” And the election itself?  Padilla invoked the hoary phrase “the Big Lie” to impute conspiracy inclinations to Bondi.  In fact, the deployment of the phrase “the big lie” by Democrats is yet another example of their projection. Perhaps the most (unintentionally) amusing bit of Padilla’s performance came when, noting that Bondi had described Donald Trump as a “friend,”  he said, “I continue to have reservations about your ability to function as a truly independent attorney general.”

What a card!  Would that be a “truly independent attorney general” like Eric Holder, who repeatedly described himself as Barack Obama’s “wingman” and thumbed his nose at a citation for contempt of Congress? (Beginner’s quiz: Who was John F. Kennedy’s attorney General?  Did that person function as a “truly independent” counselor?  Asking for a friend.)

Pamela Bondi distinguished herself in her responses. Perhaps my favorite moment came from her first session with Padilla. The senator from California asked Bondi if she could explain what the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment says. Of course, she could. Bondi was a long-time prosecutor and former attorney general of the state of Florida.  What Padilla did not say is that the meaning of the clause is highly contested.  Some say it establishes so-called “birthright” citizenship: drag your body over the border and give birth and your spawn is thereby a U.S. citizen. Many others dispute this claim. With supreme condescension, Padilla said, “I gave you an opportunity to study overnight. Can you tell this committee” what the clause says? “Senator,” Bondi coolly replied, “I am here to answer your questions. I am not here to do your homework and study for you.” A hit, a palpable hit.

One of my other favorite moments came during Scott Bessent’s testimony.  Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon (I know, it already sounds funny) told Bessent that the U.S. is in an “arms race with China for clean energy.” China? Clean energy?  China and “clean energy?” No, replied Bessent.  “China will build 100 new coal plants this year. There is not a clean energy race. There is an energy race.” Point. Set. Match.

So far, almost all of Trump’s nominees have performed brilliantly. All, I predict, will be confirmed. There has been a lot of talk about Trump’s second term ushering in a new “golden age” for America. I think that is very likely to be true. Donald Trump’s pick of so many superb lieutenants will be a major enabling fact in this success story.

 
Roger Kimball

Source: https://amgreatness.com/2025/01/19/trumps-second-term-nominees-competence-under-fire-amid-partisan-hearings/

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Guterres: More than 100 arms caches found in Southern Lebanon - JNS Staff

 

by JNS Staff

The U.N. secretary-general accused Israel of war crimes.

 

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres briefs reporters on the situation in Gaza on April 5, 2024. Credit: Eskinder Debebe/U.N. Photo.

Peacekeepers have found more than 100 weapons caches in Southern Lebanon since the Israel-Hezbollah truce went into effect on Nov. 27, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said on Friday.

“The presence of armed personnel, assets and weapons that do not belong to the Lebanese government or UNIFIL between the Blue Line [border with Israel] and the Litani River constitutes a flagrant violation of [Security Council] Resolution 1701 and undermines the stability of Lebanon,” the Beirut-based National News Agency as saying.

The U.N. chief, who arrived in Beirut on Thursday, accused Israel of ceasefire violations, saying that the Israel Defense Forces attacks in Southern Lebanon were “unacceptable.”

“Attacks against U.N. peacekeepers are completely unacceptable. They violate international law and international humanitarian law and may constitute a war crime,” he was quoted as saying.

Israel has been attacking terrorist targets in the area, some of which operate near U.N. posts.

In a meeting with Guterres on Saturday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said the IDF must immediately withdraw from Southern Lebanon. He also expressed concerns over recurring Israeli attacks in the country.

Aoun said via the Lebanese Presidency account on X, “The continued Israeli violations on land and in the air, especially in terms of blowing up houses and destroying border villages, completely contradicts what was stated in the ceasefire agreement and is considered a continuation of the violation of Lebanese sovereignty and the will of the international community.”

The Lebanese Presidency account quoted the U.N. secretary-general as saying, “We will do everything in our power to secure the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the south within the specified deadline [in the ceasefire agreement, i.e. Jan. 26] and work to secure the international community’s support for what Lebanon requires in the process of revival and removing the repercussions of the events of recent years.”

The Israeli military has carried out attacks in Southern Lebanon as part of its commitment to enforce the terms of the ceasefire agreement.

IDF troops conducted targeted raids and reconnaissance operations against terrorist infrastructure in urban areas and thicketed terrain used by Hezbollah in the western sector of Southern Lebanon, the IDF said on Thursday.

Defense Minister Israel Katz warned earlier in the month that the truce will be void if the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization refuses to withdraw from Southern Lebanon in accordance with the terms of the accord.

“Israel is interested in the implementation of the agreement in Lebanon and will continue to enforce it fully and without compromise to ensure the safe return of the residents of the north [of Israel] to their homes,” Katz said.

JNS Staff

Source: https://www.jns.org/guterres-more-than-100-arms-caches-found-in-southern-lebanon/

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Freedom Center Targets Pro-Terror Professors on Social Media - Sara Dogan

 

by Sara Dogan

Exposing the “Hamas Loyalists” who are teaching terror on our campuses.

 

[Want even more content from FPM? Sign up for FPM+ to unlock exclusive series, virtual town-halls with our authors, and more—now for just $3.99/month. Click here to sign up.]

A paid social media ad campaign launched this week by the David Horowitz Freedom Center is targeting pro-terror “Hamas Loyalist” professors at ten prestigious American universities who choose to promote the ideology of the genocidal terrorist cult, often in direct violation of university policy.

The professors targeted in the campaign not only defend Hamas’s brutality—the slaughter of over a thousand Jews, the rape and mutilation of women, the beheading of children—but outright celebrate it as a form of liberation that should be emulated across the globe.

Consider San Francisco State University professor Rabab Abdulhadi. On October 7^th 2023, following Hamas’s massacre, mutilation, and rape of over 1200 innocent Israelis, and the taking of hundreds more as hostages, Professor Abdulhadi quote-tweeted Rep. Ilhan Omar—who has her own long record of anti-Semitism—not to agree with the Congresswoman’s remarks but to chastise her for condemning Hamas’s actions. Abdulhadi tweeted: “Seriously @IlhanMN? ‘Senseless’ #PalestineUnderAttack are merely defending themselves. Are you saying that #Palestinians should be exceptionalized from the right to defend themselves against colonial & racist violence? Check your facts! #FreePalestine #IsraeliCrimes.”

Cornell Professor Russell Rickford spoke at a pro-Hamas rally to extoll the virtues of the terrorist group. “Hamas has challenged the monopoly of violence,” Rickford said, adding that the Palestinians “were able to breathe for the first time in years” thanks to the bloody October 7^th massacre.

“[I]t was exhilarating! It was exhilarating! It was energizing! And if they [Palestinians] weren’t exhilarated by this challenge to the monopoly of violence, by this shifting of the balance of power, then they would not be human. I was exhilarated!” Rickford concluded, expressing sheer joy at the extent of Hamas’s slaughter.

UC-Berkeley Professor and Students for Justice in Palestine co-founder Hatem Bazian lauded the massacre as a “transformation.” Speaking at a public rally on October 8, 2023, one day after Hamas militants murdered, raped, and mutilated over 1200 innocent Israeli Jews, Bazian was joyful.

“I wanted to contextualize what is taking place today in Palestine,” Bazian explained, stating “When the colonized take matters into their own hands…a new man is born” and jubilantly declaring “What is taking place today is a transformation.”

University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Samer Alatout tweeted his support for Hamas just days after October 7, writing, “Hamas fighters r precisely the kids & grandkids of those who were displaced from Palestine in 1948. They r the Palestinians if one comes to think of it. In refugee camps, they live legacies of that war and hold tight to the right of return (enshrined in international law).” While most leftist critics of Israel were attempting to draw a moral distinction between Hamas and the larger mass of Palestinian people, Alatout was doing precisely the opposite—and justifying the actions of Hamas.

These are only a sampling of the professors targeted by the Freedom Center’s social media ad campaign.

The Freedom Center’s social media blitz will place eye-catching graphics and posters exposing each professor’s celebration of Hamas’s barbarism directly into the Facebook and Instagram feeds of individuals with a connection to each campus.

Each post will also link to a detailed report documenting the professor’s comments and actions supporting Hamas.

The Freedom Center’s campaign will lay bare the blatant hypocrisy of these universities and their leaders, who claim to be horrified by anti-Semitism on campus yet hire and promote faculty members that promulgate that same Jew hatred and express loyalty to a terrorist cult.

See images from the Freedom Center’s social media campaign: HERE.

Sara Dogan is the National Campus Director for the David Horowitz Freedom Center. She has written extensively on issues including academic freedom and anti-Semitism on campus.

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/freedom-center-targets-pro-terror-professors-on-social-media/

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Is Global South Going South? - Amir Taheri

 

by Amir Taheri

In what is labeled "the Greater Middle East", another shibboleth that is best avoided, there is an overwhelming desire for social reform, economic development and political participation, in other words for heading "north" rather than "south."

 

• In Iran itself, even figures within the "southern" system are beginning to realize that their regime may be heading south.

• In what is labeled "the Greater Middle East", another shibboleth that is best avoided, there is an overwhelming desire for social reform, economic development and political participation, in other words for heading "north" rather than "south."

• A new generation of leaders has understood that unless they turn change into an ally, they risk turning it into a mortal foe.

(Image source: iStock/Getty Images)

Always anxious to portray the Islamic Republic of Iran in a world leadership position, the official media in Tehran have been trumpeting a three-day visit by President Masoud Pezeshkian to Dushanbe and Moscow as a "significant strengthening of the global south."

You might wonder what the "global south" is all about.

This is a cliché invented in the 1970s to distinguish "Third World" countries from the two blocs of East and West, without abandoning its sister cliché of "non-aligned world."

With globalism in decline if not actually moribund yet, the "global south" is gaining new adepts in circles seeking to divide humanity on ideological grounds, with Western democracies cast as villains as authoritarian regimes as choirboys.

Dividing the world on pseudo-geographical lines has a long history. The Roman Empire regarded the Persian Empire on its east as a cultural alternative, if not an existential threat. In medieval times, the concept of the Orient alternately depicted a seductive or a repulsive model for the Occident.

Karl Marx, who pretended to have discovered laws of human history, found it necessary to acknowledge that his analysis didn't apply to "Asiatic societies," by which he meant the whole world outside Europe and North America.

The English imperialist poet Rudyard Kipling, a literary giant but a political pygmy, played a similar chord: "East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet."

After the fall of the Soviet Empire some assumed that Francis Fukuyama's "end of history" also included the end of geography, and advocated a one-size-fits-all model of governance labeled globalization.

Trying to understand history without understanding geography is always problematic, and vice versa.

This is why the various geography-based concepts mentioned above ended up as short-lived comets in stormy skies.

Needless to say that both Tajikistan and Russia, where Pezeshkian was a visitor, are located to the north of Iran. In fact, Russia, touching on the North Pole, is located north of almost every other country. In contrast, Australia, a firm member of the "north" bloc in political, economic and cultural terms is, as its name indicates, geographically part of the south.

The idea that "global south" could describe the Iran's relations with either Russia or Tajikistan because they don't have a Western democratic system, is misleading.

Trade between Iran and Russia in 2023, valued at $1.9 billion, represented about one percent of Iran's foreign trade. Iran's biggest export to Russia was green pepper, while gold was Russia's biggest export to Iran. Iran's exports to Tajikistan were valued at $50 million, the price of a posh penthouse in Manhattan.

While almost three million Iranians lived in the United States, part of the "global north", Russia was host to just a few hundred Iranian officials and students.

The "global south" cliché is another version of the "West and the Rest", the place for obfuscating political, economic, cultural and historical factors that identify the 200 or so nations that form the human community and fan the flames of an anti-capitalist, especially anti-American, discourse.

Interestingly, the Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto, who first popularized the term "global south," used it to describe the failure of anti-West, specifically anti-American, regimes.

In his books, The Other Path and The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else, he argued that capitalism cannot succeed without democracy.

A non-democratic system might achieve dramatic results thanks to capitalism, as did Germany under Hitler and in an obviously different context the "Asian tigers" in recent decades. However, such achievements could quickly disappear in the fog of internal discord or the tsunami of war.

Since the end of the Cold War the "global south" concept has also appeared in abridged versions including BRICS (Brazil; Russia, India, China and South Africa) invented by Wall Street bankers and sold to rulers who wished to do as Americans did while boasting that they were shaping their own model.

The expression "going south" in English is used when things are going badly or leading to failure.

The good news is that more and more of the countries classed together as part of "global south" aren't going south in that sense.

In sub-Saharan Africa, at least 10 nations, among them Senegal and Ghana, recently have held democratic elections while the Freedom Index indicates progress in some 20 other countries.

To be sure, the continent is still gripped by deadly internal wars in Sudan, Somalia and, on a smaller scale, Libya and the Democratic Republic of Congo. But even then we are witnessing a relatively less dangerous situation across the continent.

Even South Africa, with its latest general election, has taken a major step away from the one-party system imposed by the ANC since the end of Apartheid.

In Latin America, too, outside fossilized regimes such as Cuba and Nicaragua, the trend is towards going "north" rather than south.

Asia offers a mixed picture.

While Bangladesh experienced a backlash against an authoritarian regime that produced an economic "miracle," there are as yet no signs that it is heading "south" full Monty.

The latest general election in India also showed that economic success may have tempered rather than comforted authoritarianism.

In the Middle East, the end of the 50-year-long Assad nightmare may not lead to capitalism and democracy, but could still become a step away from the most barbarous version of "the south" model.

Lebanon, which had been part of the "north" by playing a leading role in shaping the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and for the first decades of its existence as a nation-state a haven of freedom and diversity, is emerging from the "southern" nightmare imposed on it by the Iran and its local hirelings.

In Iran itself, even figures within the "southern" system are beginning to realize that their regime may be heading south. Just before he flew to Tajikistan, Pezeshkian made this astonishing admission: "The situation we are in isn't worthy of the Iranian nation."

In what is labeled "the Greater Middle East", another shibboleth that is best avoided, there is an overwhelming desire for social reform, economic development and political participation, in other words for heading "north" rather than "south."

A new generation of leaders has understood that unless they turn change into an ally, they risk turning it into a mortal foe.

If China, Russia and the Islamic Republic of Iran believe they are leading "the global south" all they need to do is to ask anyone in any part of that fantasy-land what they think about the claim.

This article originally appeared in Asharq Al-Awsat

Amir Taheri was the executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979. He has worked at or written for innumerable publications, published eleven books, and has been a columnist for Asharq Al-Awsat since 1987. He is the Chairman of Gatestone Europe.

  Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21324/global-south

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King Smokey: What California Needs Is a Strong Dose of Old Fashioned Progressive Scientific Forestry - Michael S. Kochin

 

by Michael S. Kochin

Los Angeles must prioritize human-centered forestry to combat wildfires and protect the city, embracing policies that balance survival with the harsh realities of its natural environment.

 

 

As famed author John McPhee explained long ago in “Los Angeles against the Mountains,” (republished in his 1989 collection The Control of Nature) that teeming metropolis is fundamentally at war with its setting because that setting is at war with itself. The main natural foliage of the Los Angeles hills is chaparral, a scrubland of vigorous shrubs whose reproductive strategy hinges on piling up lots of inflammable biomass while having seeds better equipped than their rivals to survive what the hot winds and mixture of dry and wet spells ensure will be the inevitable conflagration.

More than a century ago, progressive activists and politicians brought a lot of change to America, much of it imported directly from Germany. Among these German imports was the notion of scientific forestry, the idea that by careful mapping and quantification, a forest could be optimally managed for human needs.

As a science, scientific forestry has long suffered from two maladies, which in the context of the horrific Los Angeles basin wildfires turn out to be blessings in disguise. Because scientific forestry came to America as a tool of federal forest management, university schools of forestry have never had full academic freedom. Their funding has always depended on following the political line set by officials in the federal Department of Agriculture and its daughter agency, the United States Forest Service, which maintains national forests.

Second, as James Scott demonstrated in his 1999 political science classic, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, scientific forestry has suffered from what prior to 2025 could be seen as a myopic focus on human needs. Foresters and forestry professors took decades to grasp that the forest is a living web of organisms—vegetable, microbial, and animal—make up an ecological community in which the flourishing of each form of life was necessary for the continued health of the forest. Like other kinds of managerialism, scientific forestry (at least in its original form) assumed that forest could be optimally managed by a limited number of quantitative indicators—over-attention to those indicators invariably produces, in the short run or the long run, what subsequent generations of foresters came to call “forest death,” and thus failure even according to those preferred indicators.

To 2025 Angelenos, “forest death” would be preferable to city death, and land management focused on human needs rather than ecological preservation might look ideal. One should not oversimplify the problem of managing the natural environment of Los Angeles for the safety and prosperity of the city of Los Angeles: as McPhee explained to a wiser generation of readers, the same chaparral that threatens to burn the city after the rain dries is also what holds down the hills to keep them from undermining and flooding the city when the rain doesn’t stop.

Still, at least from the federal level, the policy tools seem clear, even if the forestry details require a lot of elaboration, experimentation, and rethinking. Use the USDA’s leverage over forestry to put old-fashioned human-needs-centered forestry at the center of forest management and academic forestry science. Replace the biologists who have been calling the shots on behalf of the welfare of supposedly endangered species of animals and plants with foresters taught to put human needs first. For us humans, the primary endangered species in the Los Angeles basin is homo sapiens, and while it is helpful for biologists to tell us what we are doing to our environment to survive it, our first priority is to survive it. Sorry fish, sorry, toads, sorry scrubland flora and fungi, we can’t always afford to look out better for you than you are capable of looking out for us.

Smokey the Bear is still king: only you, not the bears and not the tortoises, solo ustedes, damas y caballeros, can prevent forest fires.

 
Michael S. Kochin

Source: https://amgreatness.com/2025/01/19/king-smokey-what-california-needs-is-a-strong-dose-of-old-fashioned-progressive-scientific-forestry/

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