Sunday, May 12, 2024

The Betrayal of Israel by the US Administration Is Almost Complete - Guy Millière

 

by Guy Millière

Meanwhile in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where anti-government demonstrations began again, one of their leaders, Ami Dror, revealed on social media that the demonstrations and riots are part of a plan by the Biden administration to bring down the Netanyahu government.... The US State Department has, for more than a year, been providing financial support for protests hostile to the Netanyahu government.

 

  • The Biden administration does not appear ever to have issued the slightest threat, warning or ultimatum to the authors of the war: Hamas, Iran or Qatar.

  • US Senator Chuck Schumer, after declaring himself a friend and defender of Israel, suggested overthrowing Israel's democratically elected prime minister, and -- as if Israel, and not America, were within his jurisdiction -- called for new elections.

  • Meanwhile in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where anti-government demonstrations began again, one of their leaders, Ami Dror, revealed on social media that the demonstrations and riots are part of a plan by the Biden administration to bring down the Netanyahu government.... The US State Department has, for more than a year, been providing financial support for protests hostile to the Netanyahu government.

  • Biden, it seems, is frustrated that Netanyahu is objecting to humanitarian aid -- which basically resupplies Hamas. Hamas, Israel's argument goes, released hostages only after unremitting pressure. Relieving that pressure by backing Hamas makes the probability of seeing any more hostages released less likely. Biden is also reportedly frustrated that Netanyahu, for some inexplicable reason, objects to the creation of a terrorist Palestinian state next door.

  • One cannot leave aside that the Biden administration, through ignoring sanctions on Iranian oil, has allowed the Iran's regime to earn up to an estimated $100 billion... Without those funds, the massacre of October 7 would not have been possible, Hezbollah would not have been able to fire so many missiles into Israel from Lebanon, and Iran itself would not have been able to launch more than 300 drones and ballistic missiles at Israel in April, and to attack US troops more than 150 times on, just since October 7, 2023 -- evidently in an attempt to drive the US out of the Middle East.

  • The Biden administration, it seems, does not want a definitive end of the conflict -- as with Ukraine as well -- especially if the end would entail the defeat of Hamas or Russia. Hamas is a protégé of Qatar and Iran, the world's two leading state sponsors of terrorism. The Biden administration has been rewarding them -- Iran with money and Qatar with renewing its protection by Al-Udeid Air Base, headquarters of America's CENTCOM, as well as controlling the new terror pier the US has built in Gaza At the same time, the Biden administration is falsely accusing Israel of violating human rights.

  • The Biden administration may even be complicit in the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and other Israeli officials that might be issued by the International Criminal Court – possibly as a way to dispense with him.

  • The mullahs are, in effect, using their proxies – Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and so on -- as their "human shields".

  • The Biden administration has placed the existence of Israel in danger to protect Biden from the dangerous voters of Michigan.

  • Worse, with the Biden administration now having come down squarely against Israel and on the side of Iran, Qatar and Hamas, they have to feel no inclination to agree to anything. Why should they? Iran's mullahs have a new proxy, the United States, backing their terrorism for them.

  • Even worse, at almost the same time as the US told Israel it was withholding arms shipments that Congress had already approved (a move for which Democrats tried to impeach then President Donald Trump), the Biden administration waived sanctions for arms purchases by Lebanon, Qatar and Iraq -- countries that host groups working to destroy Israel.

  • Worst of all, if you are Ukraine, Taiwan, China, Russia, Japan – just about any US ally or foe -- you probably cannot avoid thinking something like: We have watched the supposedly mighty US surrender Afghanistan, its ally of 20 years, to a bunch of terrorists, the Taliban. Now we are watching the US surrender its closest ally in the Middle East, Israel, the only democracy there, to terrorists: to Hezbollah in Lebanon with 150,000 rockets and missiles pointed at Israel, and to Hamas in Gaza by sending "humanitarian aid," that will used by terrorists.

  • Where are any prosecutions or sanctions by the UN and international courts for war crimes and human rights violations on countries such as Qatar (here and here), China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Nigeria, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Yemen and Sudan?

  • Currently, the Biden administration appears to want three things: Netanyahu OUT – reportedly to be replaced by a puppet who will do whatever the US tells him; a terrorist Palestinian state IN, and to preserve Iran and Qatar's client, the terrorist group, Hamas. So far, all the pressure from Washington has been on Israel, none at all on Hamas or on its patrons, Qatar and Iran. The fighting could indeed stop tomorrow if either of them or the US seriously ordered Hamas to stop fighting and immediately return the 132 remaining hostages.

  • Did the Biden administration even ask?

The Biden administration, it seems, does not want a definitive end of the conflict -- as with Ukraine as well -- especially if the end would entail the defeat of Hamas or Russia. Hamas is a protégé of Qatar and Iran, the world's two leading state sponsors of terrorism. The Biden administration has been rewarding them. Pictured: US President Joe Biden meets with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, Israel on October 18, 2023. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

The genocidal anti-Semitic attack on October 7, 2023 by the Islamic terrorists of Hamas at first aroused horror throughout the Western world. It took only a few hours, however for the horror to fade -- long before Israel had even begun to respond. Demonstrations against Israel, and in support of the terrorist group, Hamas -- sometimes "cleaned up" to be labeled "pro-Palestinian" -- exploded just hours later on October 8, before hundreds of charred bodies had been removed from their homes. These well-planned and well-funded professional demonstrations, complete with instant Palestinian flags and, later, instant identical tents -- rapidly metastasized throughout North America and Europe.

The slogan, "From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free" -- calls for the total destruction of Israel, which, by coincidence, happens to be located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea – and "Death to America" were chanted by tens of thousands of self-described "progressives," Muslims and their followers. The campuses of several American and European universities -- including, among other places, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia and New York University -- became sites of acts of pure anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic violence, under the guise of "free speech." If the demonstrations had been against gays or Blacks, does anyone think that "free speech," or violence masquerading as "free speech, would have lasted five minutes? Whatever happened to all those demonstrations against China's genocide of the Uyghurs, or crushing Hong Kong; or Russia's scorched-earth war in Ukraine; or Iran's rape, torture and execution of women, children and, now, rappers, or North Korea's "murder, enslavement, torture, [and] enforced disappearances"?

"Stop Calling Them 'Pro-Palestine' Rallies,'" wrote the Rochester Institute of Technology's A.J. Caschetta. In blunt Australia, euphemisms were dispensed with altogether in favor of "Gas the Jews" and "F---k the Jews."

The whitewash of the terrorist group Hamas had begun. European politicians in France and Belgium, supporting Hamas, call it a "resistance movement."

As Israel's military response in the Gaza Strip progressed -- meticulously crafted to avoid harming Palestinian civilians -- many European leaders turned on Israel. They falsely accused it of acting "disproportionately" while Hamas's widespread use of its own civilians as human shields was almost totally ignored. As Hamas also meticulously plans, the gullible international community accuses Israel of killing innocent civilians, not the Palestinian officials in Gaza who intentionally place them in harm's way, even shooting at them to keep them from fleeing to safety in the south as the Israelis were urging them to do.

Also ignored is that Hamas officials seize virtually all of the free humanitarian aid, then give it to their terrorists or sell it to civilians on the black market for extortionate prices.

Although there is "'no food shortage' in Gaza," several of Israel's most steadfastly hostile critics, such as EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell, nevertheless falsely accuse Israel of causing a "famine" in Gaza.

As early as March 19, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, like so many European political leaders, falsely accused Israel, not Hamas, of "causing a famine" in Gaza. He even added that "100 percent of the population in Gaza is at severe levels of acute food insecurity". Israel is now forced to allow hundreds of trucks into Gaza that Israeli soldiers escort. Gaza, in fact, reportedly receives far more food than the population of Gaza needs. Gee, what could be happening to it?

Soon, all the mainstream European media stopped talking about the horrors of Hamas and instead turned their attention to the suffering Palestinians of Gaza – without noting that the people responsible for their fate and the death count are Hamas. Hamas even freely admits that its strategy is to use human shields. As far as Hamas is concerned, the higher the Palestinian death-count, the better.

The United States has been Israel's main ally for decades, discounting occasional fluctuations here and there. Historically, American leaders' support for Israel has been unwavering – until now. In February, America's Democrat politicians voted to block aid to Israel. As the Israeli author and historian Gadi Taub noted last week:

"The U.S. is holding Israel on a leash by rationing the American-made ammunition on which the war effort depends; it has forced us to supply our enemies with 'humanitarian aid' which Hamas controls and which sustains its ability to fight; the U.S. is building a port to subvert our control of the flow of goods into Gaza; it refrained from vetoing an anti-Israel decision at the U.N. Security Council at the end of March; it leaked its intention to recognize a Palestinian state unilaterally; it allowed Iran to attack us directly with a barrage of over 300 rockets and drones without paying any price whatsoever; and then told us that Israel's successful defense against that strike (which was mostly stopped by a combination of superior Israeli tech and faulty Iranian missiles that crashed all over the Middle East, and to some extent by U.S. interceptors) should be considered "victory"; it consistently protects Hezbollah from a full-fledged Israeli attack; it did all it can to prevent the ground invasion of Rafah, which is necessary for winning the war; it is trying to stop the war with a hostage deal that would ensure Hamas' survival.

"The U.S. is not protecting Israel from the kangaroo courts in The Hague which now threaten to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu and others. Instead, it is goosing those warrants, in part by itself threatening to impose sanctions on a unit of the IDF, thus subverting the chain of command and pressuring IDF units to comply with American demands rather than with orders from their superiors. "

By now, most mainstream American media are as negative towards Israel as most mainstream European media.

In the days that followed October 7, the Biden administration generously provided arms and ammunition to Israel, as well as positioning several warships in the area, presumably to keep the conflict from spreading. Yet even then, pressure was put on Israel's government. US President Joe Biden bizarrely asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "not to be consumed by rage". Soon, as the Israeli military countered the terrorist threat in Gaza, US pressure on Israel was accompanied by harsh –and curiously public -- criticism.

On January 9, despite unprecedented Israeli precautions to avoid harming civilians, Blinken announced, "the daily toll of war on civilians in Gaza is far too high", and accused the Israeli Defense Forces of "indiscriminate bombing" -- an accusation, as Blinken must have known, that could not have been less accurate.

John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute (MWI) at West Point, wrote:

"The Israel Defense Forces conducted an operation at al-Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip to root out Hamas terrorists recently, once again taking unique precautions as it entered the facility to protect the innocent; Israeli media reported that doctors accompanied the forces to help Palestinian patients if needed. They were also reported to be carrying food, water and medical supplies for the civilians inside

"None of this meant anything to Israel's critics, of course, who immediately pounced. The critics, as usual, didn't call out Hamas for using protected facilities like hospitals for its military activity. Nor did they mention the efforts of the IDF to minimize civilian casualties."

Not only were Blinken's comments untrue, they seemed intended to give arguments to Israel's enemies.

On February 7, Blinken went further and said that the October 7 massacre did not give Israel -- trying to defend itself in a war it did not start -- a "license to dehumanize others." Unfortunately for Blinken, that is the last thing Israel is doing, but the main thing Hamas, Hezbollah, Qatar and Iran are doing.

On February 8, Biden himself said abruptly, "A lot of innocent people are starving. A lot of innocent people are in trouble and dying. And it's got to stop."

All right. If it has "got to stop", why not demand that Hamas, Iran and Qatar stop it?

On March 25, the Biden administration refused to use the American veto and allowed the United Nations Security Council to adopt a resolution, proposed by Algeria, demanding an immediate unilateral ceasefire from Israel -- with no condemnation of Hamas.

On April 4, Blinken tried to create a false moral equivalence between a terrorist group and a liberal democracy by charging that Israel had no reverence for human life and that if Israel did not do more to protect civilians in Gaza, Hamas and Israel could become "indistinguishable". He then cited an old Jewish saying -- that "whoever saves a life, saves the entire world" – contortedly, grotesquely implying that the Israel's attempt to defend its own country and people is in contravention of the values of Judaism itself.

On April 4, according to journalist Barak Ravid:

"President Biden laid out an ultimatum to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in their call on Thursday: If Israel doesn't change course in Gaza, 'we won't be able to support you,' he said, according to three sources with knowledge of the call."

According to the Times of Israel:

"During a security cabinet meeting after the call, Netanyahu noted that the White House readout similarly didn't explicitly condition a ceasefire on a hostage deal. It said that Biden told the Israeli premier 'that an immediate ceasefire is essential to stabilize and improve the humanitarian situation and protect innocent civilians...'"

The Biden administration does not appear ever to have issued the slightest threat, warning or ultimatum to the authors of the war: Hamas, Iran or Qatar. Hamas in Gaza, like the Taliban in Afghanistan, is now most likely seen universally as the tail wagging the American dog.

Although the UN Security Council resolution of March 25 was not binding, any further ceasefire would mean Hamas won the war, simply by surviving to repeat the October 7 attack, time and again, until Israel is annihilated, as Hamas official Ghazi Hamad said.

Hamas, on October 6, 2023, had a ceasefire with Israel. On October 7, Hamas violated it. Hamas did accept a second ceasefire a few weeks into the war and exchanged nearly half the hostages it held. A ceasefire now, especially a "temporary" one that would surely be pressured into becoming permanent, would just enable Hamas to regroup, rearm, and replenish its supply of terrorists from Israeli prisons.

US Senator Chuck Schumer, after declaring himself a friend and defender of Israel, suggested overthrowing Israel's democratically elected prime minister, and -- as if Israel, and not America, were within his jurisdiction -- called for new elections:

"If Prime Minister Netanyahu's current coalition remains in power after the war begins to wind down and continues to pursue dangerous and inflammatory policies that test existing US standards for assistance, then the United States will have no choice but to play a more active role in shaping Israeli policy by using our leverage to change the present course."

Schumer's speech, yet again putting America's outsized foot in the middle of Israel's domestic policy, and ordering its ally to take direction from the Biden administration -- including accepting a terrorist Palestinian state on its borders -- and effectively disregard what the Israeli people have democratically chosen -- was seen by most in Israel as a vicious blow.

Biden immediately backed Schumer up. "He made a good speech," the president said in the Oval Office during a meeting with Ireland's prime minister. "I think he expressed serious concerns shared not only by him but by many Americans".

Biden, it seems, is frustrated that Netanyahu is objecting to humanitarian aid -- which basically resupplies Hamas. Hamas, Israel's argument goes, released hostages only after unremitting pressure. Relieving that pressure by backing Hamas makes the probability of seeing any more hostages released less likely. Biden is also reportedly frustrated that Netanyahu, for some inexplicable reason, objects to the creation of a terrorist Palestinian state next door.

Hamas would doubtless love as many humanitarian aid workers in Gaza as possible; they would provide Hamas with a fresh batch of human shields to prevent Israel from entering Rafah and removing Hamas's remaining four battalions and terrorist leaders. Hamas is apparently already killing aid workers to steal food. How much better if they could be used to obstruct Israeli soldiers from entering the tunnels where the remaining hostages are believed hidden.

Netanyahu, accused by his adversaries of needing a war to avoid new elections, is being praised by others as "Israel's Churchill." Israelis remember that he was the leader who had the courage to address the US Congress in 2015 to counter President Barack Obama lethal, illegitimate "Iran nuclear deal," officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Netanyahu, who has not been short on courage, either in combat or in refusing to submit to US pressure to go along with the JCPOA -- despite the Obama administration's interference in an Israeli election -- may feel an overriding obligation, as he has said from the beginning, to make sure that Hamas will never again be able to launch another October 7; to take out the terrorist leaders presumed to be concealed in tunnels, as well as the four remaining Hamas battalions in Rafah, and above all, to rescue the hostages -- many of whom may have since been murdered.

Meanwhile in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where anti-government demonstrations began again, one of their leaders, Ami Dror, revealed on social media that the demonstrations and riots are part of a plan by the Biden administration to bring down the Netanyahu government.

The US, according to Gadi Taub, is intent on removing the democratically elected Netanyahu and replacing him with someone more, shall we say, compliant:

"In the eyes of the Biden administration Hamas is the smaller problem. The bigger problem is Benjamin Netanyahu. The U.S. is willing to live with Iran's proxies everywhere, as part of its "regional integration" policy—i.e., appeasing Iran. But they are unwilling to live with Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition.... Netanyahu clearly does not want to learn from his would-be tutors like U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken how to "share the neighborhood" with genocidaires in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, Lebanon, and Tehran, whom his electorate understands to be bent on murdering them.

"If the Netanyahu problem is too big to contain, then it follows that it must be solved. And it seems that the Biden administration has zeroed in on...finding a local proxy who will impose the U.S. agenda on a reluctant Israeli electorate.....According to the leaders of the Never-Bibi demonstrators, the White House is in constant touch with them for coordination."

The US State Department has, for more than a year, been providing financial support for protests hostile to the Netanyahu government. They took place every week in Israel for three quarters of 2023, and were accompanied by Israeli military reservists proclaiming that they would refuse to serve -- a vow that no doubt helped to invite Hamas's October 7 invasion.

One cannot leave aside that the Biden administration, through ignoring sanctions on Iranian oil, has allowed the Iran's regime to earn up to an estimated $100 billion. Some of these funds were most likely used by the mullahs to finance their own militia, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), in addition to Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthi militias, and of course to accelerate Iran's nuclear weapons program.

Without those funds, the massacre of October 7 would not have been possible, Hezbollah would not have been able to fire so many missiles into Israel from Lebanon, and Iran itself would not have been able to launch more than 300 drones and ballistic missiles at Israel in April, and to attack US troops more than 150 times on, just since October 7, 2023 -- evidently in an attempt to drive the US out of the Middle East.

The Biden administration, it seems, does not want a definitive end of the conflict -- as with Ukraine as well -- especially if the end would entail the defeat of Hamas or Russia. Hamas is a protégé of Qatar and Iran, the world's two leading state sponsors of terrorism. The Biden administration has been rewarding them -- Iran with money and Qatar with renewing its protection by Al-Udeid Air Base, headquarters of America's CENTCOM, as well as controlling the new terror pier the US has built in Gaza At the same time, the Biden administration is falsely accusing Israel of violating human rights.

As the great historian Bernard Lewis wrote, "America is harmless as an enemy but treacherous as a friend."

The Biden administration may even be complicit in the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and other Israeli officials that might be issued by the International Criminal Court – possibly as a way to dispense with him. So far at least, the US administration has not lifted a finger to stop it.

Without the billions of dollars the Biden administration bestowed on Iran through sanctions waivers, the situation for Israel -- and the stability and security of the entire region, including that of the United States -- would have been quite different.

On April 1, a strike attributed to Israel destroyed a building defined as an annex of the Iranian Embassy in Damascus and eliminated seven members of the Quds Force, including General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who had reportedly been directing hostile operations in Israel. Once an embassy – or a school or a mosque or a church – is used to engage in military operations, it loses its status as a site that is officially "protected". Iran blamed Israel and vowed retaliation. US Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood said that the Biden administration had "no involvement or advanced knowledge" in the attack, but he did not condemn Iran's threats to Israel.

A report in the Jerusalem Post noted that Iran informed Turkey of its desire to strike Israel and that Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, in turn, informed the Biden administration. The Biden administration the report adds, asked that the Iranians remain "within certain limits" –implying that the Biden administration accepted Iran's attack on Israel, the same way he implied that he would accept a "minor incursion" into Ukraine by Russia.

On April 13, Iran in fact launched a massive strike against Israel: 300 attack drones and ballistic missiles launched at a country smaller than New Jersey. Sadly, a 7-year-old Bedouin girl was wounded. Fortunately, apart from that, not much damage was done. American, British, Jordanian and Saudi militaries helped as well.

Biden then told Israel to "take the win" -- not to retaliate and risk escalating the conflict. He warned that that the US would not help in any military offensive against Iran. Thwarting an attack, however is not the same as a "win", and certainty does not prevent an aggressor from trying again.

Israel's subsequent strikes nevertheless revealed that if Israel decided to strike Iran's nuclear facilities near Isfahan, they could be hit. Iran seems eager not to have strikes on its territory; presumably that is why it has proxies in the first place -- to launch attacks so that any retaliation will have to be absorbed by them, not Iran. The mullahs are, in effect, using their proxies – Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and so on -- as their "human shields".

"What happened last night [in Isfahan]", Iranian FM Hossein Amir-Abdollahian nevertheless insisted "was not a strike".

The Biden administration has placed the existence of Israel in danger to protect Biden from the dangerous voters of Michigan.

When Israel shows unshakable determination, noted the American journalist Jonathan Tobin, Israel is respected. He recommended, Israel should fight without wavering. It is because Israel appears invincible, he stated, that its enemies do not attack it; Israel must reestablish its invincibility.

Another American journalist, Matthew Continetti, wrote:

"The political heroes of this moment are the men and women who have retained the ability to make clear distinctions ... between freedom, equality, and the rule of law and violence, terror, and fear".

Continetti emphasized the need for "moral clarity". What is threatened in the Middle East today, he wrote, are the values of our civilization."[T]he fate of our society, our nation, and our civilization depends on Israeli victory."

It is to be hoped that the Biden administration, which, right after October 7 had been supportive of Israel, will regain its moral clarity.

"There is no way to describe Biden's actions except as a complete betrayal of Israel", wrote political commentator Eric Levine. In a devastating about-face, presumably aimed at the voters of Michigan, the Biden administration is "delaying" precision-guided weapons to Israel. The irony, of course, is that after the Biden administration complained to Israel that its attacks were "indiscriminate", it is actually forcing Israel to be indiscriminate, and then will presumably blame Israel.

Worse, with the Biden administration now having come down squarely against Israel and on the side of Iran, Qatar and Hamas, they have to feel no inclination to agree to anything. Why should they? Iran's mullahs have a new proxy, the United States, backing their terrorism for them.

Even worse, at almost the same time as the US told Israel it was withholding arms shipments that Congress had already approved (a move for which Democrats tried to impeach then President Donald Trump), the Biden administration waived sanctions for arms purchases by Lebanon, Qatar and Iraq -- countries that host groups working to destroy Israel.

Worst of all, if you are Ukraine, Taiwan, China, Russia, Japan – just about any US ally or foe -- you probably cannot avoid thinking something like: We have watched the supposedly mighty US surrender Afghanistan, its ally of 20 years, to a bunch of terrorists, the Taliban. Now we are watching the US surrender its closest ally in the Middle East, Israel, the only democracy there, to terrorists: to Hezbollah in Lebanon with 150,000 rockets and missiles pointed at Israel, and to Hamas in Gaza by sending "humanitarian aid," that will used by terrorists.

Israel, meanwhile, surrounded by a terrorist "ring of fire", is fighting for its existence.

Even some Democrats, such as US Senator John Fetterman (D-PA), are telling the Biden administration:

"Innocent Israelis were the victims of a terrorist attack... We must support Israel in their efforts to eliminate the Hamas terrorists who slaughtered innocent men, women, and children. Hamas does not want peace, they want to destroy Israel. We can talk about a ceasefire after Hamas is neutralized."

The Biden administration has failed to counter attacks on Israel by the United Nations, the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court -- all prosecuting Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israel Defense Forces officials for alleged but unsubstantiated "war crimes". Israel and the US are not even affiliated with the ICC . Where are any prosecutions or sanctions by the UN and international courts for war crimes and human rights violations on countries such as Qatar (here and here), China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Nigeria, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Yemen and Sudan?

The Biden administration was even considering placing unprecedented sanctions on units in the Israel Defense Forces, based on unfounded allegations coming from an anti-Israel non-governmental organization, DAWN, "Democracy for the Arab World Now." According to the meticulous NGO Monitor:

"[A] number of DAWN officials, including board members, have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and have voiced support for the Hamas terrorist group. According to the NGO, 'Many of DAWN's donors remain anonymous'; however, NGO Monitor was able to identify the sources for approximately 44% of DAWN's 2022 income, including from Open Society Foundations, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Arca Foundation."

The Biden administration also does not even try to cut the funding used for the murder-for-hire program, run the Palestinian Authority and its President Mahmoud Abbas. Palestinians are incentivized to murder or attempt to murder Jews by being rewarded with a salary for life, as well as an apparently supra-official promise of Paradise.

Currently, the Biden administration appears to want three things: Netanyahu OUT – reportedly to be replaced by a puppet who will do whatever the US tells him; a terrorist Palestinian state IN, and to preserve Iran and Qatar's client, the terrorist group, Hamas. So far, all the pressure from Washington has been on Israel, none at all on Hamas or on its patrons, Qatar and Iran. The fighting could indeed stop tomorrow if either of them or the US seriously ordered Hamas to stop fighting and immediately return the 132 remaining hostages.

Did the Biden Administration even ask?



Dr. Guy Millière, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27 books on France and Europe.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20636/betrayal-of-israel

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Biden lauds anti-Israel congresswoman: ‘more courage, chutzpah, stamina than anyone’ - JNS

 

by JNS

At a Seattle-area fundraiser, the U.S. president also said “I guess I shouldn’t get into all this about Israel.”

 

U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) on Oct. 18, 2021 in the Red Room of the White House. Credit: Adam Schultz/White House.
U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) on Oct. 18, 2021 in the Red Room of the White House. Credit: Adam Schultz/White House.

U.S. President Joe Biden praised Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, as “a woman with more courage and chutzpah and stamina than anyone I know” at a Medina, Wash. fundraiser on Saturday evening.

Jon Shirley, former president and CEO of Microsoft, and his wife Kim held the fundraiser at their home near Seattle.

“Before I begin, let me answer a question related to the hostages,” Biden said, per the pool report. “I keep getting asked by the press and all the other folks out there. You know, there would be a ceasefire tomorrow if Ira—Hamas released the hostages, women, the elderly and the wounded.”

“Israel said it’s up to Hamas if they wanted to do it, we could end it tomorrow,” the president added. “And the ceasefire would begin tomorrow. It all has to do … you know, we’ve not … anyway, I guess I shouldn’t get into all this about Israel but….”

“You know…,” Biden added, before pausing “for a full five seconds,” per the pool. “Well, I don’t want to get going…”

Jayapal, whose courage, chutzpah and stamina Biden praised, has a history of anti-Israel statements.

On May 1, she was one of 55 members of Congress who urged the White House to withhold military aid to the Jewish state.

In December, the congresswoman twice hedged her condemnations of Hamas terrorists raping Israeli women.

“I said it’s horrific, and I think that rape is horrific. Sexual assault is horrific. I think that it happens in war situations,” she told CNN at the time. “Terrorist organizations like Hamas obviously are using these as tools, however, I think we have to be balanced about bringing in the outrages against Palestinians.”

Also in December, she accused Israel of “indiscriminate bombing.” The prior month, she said that Israel has committed “war crimes.”

In July 2023, Jayapal told protesters at a conference, “I want you to know that we have been fighting to make it clear that Israel is a racist state.”

During an interview with CNN last week, Biden threatened Israel that he would withhold weapons if it launched an attack in Rafah, the final stronghold of the Hamas terror organization.


JNS

Source: https://www.jns.org/biden-lauds-anti-israel-congresswoman-more-courage-chutzpah-stamina-than-anyone/

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Report: US withholding ‘sensitive intelligence’ on Hamas from Israel - JNS

 

by JNS

The Biden administration is willing to share "valuable" information regarding the whereabouts of Hamas's leadership and tunnels to stave off an Israeli invasion of Rafah, according to the Washington Post.

 

U.S. President Joe Biden in Tel Aviv, Oct. 18, 2023. Photo by Miriam Alster/Flash90.
U.S. President Joe Biden in Tel Aviv, Oct. 18, 2023. Photo by Miriam Alster/Flash90.

The Biden administration will share key intelligence with Israel about the whereabouts of Hamas’s leadership in Gaza if Israel agrees not to go ahead with its military operation in Rafah, according to The Washington Post.

“The Biden administration, working urgently to stave off a full-scale Israeli invasion of Rafah, is offering Israel valuable assistance if it holds back, including sensitive intelligence to help the Israeli military pinpoint the location of Hamas leaders and find the group’s hidden tunnels, according to four people familiar with the U.S. offers,” said the report.

The United States is seeking to delay the operation, concerned that Israel is not doing enough to ensure the safety of the over one million Gazans sheltered in Rafah should a full-scale invasion move forward, according to the sources cited by the Washington Post.

In addition to intelligence, American officials have also offered to help provide Israel with assistance for Rafah evacuees, including “thousands of shelters so Israel can build tent cities—and to help with the construction of delivery systems for food, water and medicine,” the sources said.

Israel’s military has already evacuated hundreds of thousands of people from eastern Rafah to an expanded humanitarian zone at Al-Mawasi as part of a limited operation in the city that began on May 6. As part of the operation’s initial stage, Israeli forces took control of the Gaza side of the Rafah Crossing between the Strip and Egypt.

IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said on Saturday night that dozens of terrorists have been killed, underground tunnels uncovered and weapons confiscated during the operation so far, stressing that the activities there “remain limited in scope and focus on tactical advances; tactical adjustments; and military advantages—and have avoided densely populated areas.”

The Rafah operation, which Israel estimates will last around two months, is being carried out in phases as opposed to a sudden, full scale invasion, according to Israel’s Channel 12.

The phased nature of the operation allows for it to be paused should a hostage release deal be reached between Israel and Hamas, according to the report.

The Biden administration last week announced the halt of offensive arms shipments to Israel over the looming operation in Gaza’s southernmost city.

In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden said, “If they [the IDF] 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 went on to state that his administration wasn’t walking away from Israel’s security and would “continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks that came out of the Middle East recently,” such as Iran’s April 14 ballistic missile and drone attack.  

However, with regard to offensive armaments of the type that would likely be used in Rafah, “it’s just wrong,” he continued. “We’re not going to—we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells,” he said.

The announcement led to widespread backlash both in Israel and the United States.

“This may give them encouragement, the enemies of the Jewish people and of the State of Israel,” said Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan.

“If Israel is restricted from entering such an important and central area such as Rafah, where thousands of terrorists, hostages and the leaders of Hamas are still present, how exactly is the goal of destroying Hamas supposed to be achieved?” he continued.

According to Israel, defeating Hamas’s remaining four battalions in Rafah are essential to winning the war and securing the return of the hostages still being held by the terrorist group.

Rep. Ritchie Torres tweeted, “As the leader of the free world, America cannot claim that its commitment to Israel is ‘iron-clad’ and then proceed to withhold aid from Israel. The mixed messaging makes a mockery of our credibility as an ally. No one will take our word seriously.”

Biden’s CNN announcement came a few days after Israel was blind-sided by Hamas’s public “acceptance” of a ceasefire deal the Jewish state had not even seen.

According to Axios, Israeli officials were reportedly surprised to see “many new elements” in the deal, that were not contained in the previous proposal to which Israel had agreed and which had been presented to Hamas by the American, Egyptian and Qatari mediators 10 days earlier.

The U.S. and the other mediators had drafted “a new deal” and were not transparent about it, two Israeli officials told Axios. The officials went on to state that they suspect the Biden administration gave Hamas guarantees via the Egyptians and Qataris about ending the war, which the terror group demands but which Jerusalem says is a nonstarter until Hamas is defeated, the hostages are released and Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel.


JNS

Source: https://www.jns.org/report-us-offers-israel-sensitive-intelligence-on-hamas-to-avoid-rafah-op/

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Senate proposal strips Hamas-sympathizing students of federal aid - Alan Wooten

 

by Alan Wooten

Bill would revoke federal financial assistance for students who are convicted of trespassing, rioting, or damaging property while protesting.

 

(The Center Square) -

Legislation to “cut off federal aid for grown adults who are breaking our laws, spewing antisemitism, and openly embracing terrorists” has been proposed by a North Carolina senator and eight other Republicans.

The No HAMAS Act – as the acronym is played in No Higher education Assistance for Mobs of Antisemitic and terrorist Sympathizing Students – would revoke federal student financial assistance for students who are convicted of trespassing, rioting, or damaging property while protesting at a higher education institution. Students convicted would lose their eligibility for any federal grant, loan, or work assistance.

“Mobs of pro-Hamas students have flagrantly violated the law, destroyed campus property, and resorted to violence against fellow students and law enforcement,” said U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who led introduction of the proposal with eight other Republican senators. “Hardworking taxpayers shouldn’t have to keep paying for the college tuition of convicted lawbreakers. The No Hamas Act is commonsense legislation that will cut off federal aid for grown adults who are breaking our laws, spewing antisemitism, and openly embracing terrorists.”

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona appeared Tuesday for the lower chamber’s Education and Workforce Committee. He was asked point-blank by U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., chairwoman of the panel, if the Biden administration’s program shifting repayment of college loans from students to taxpayers should include taxpayers paying off those students who are antisemitic and stopping Jewish students from going to class.

Cardona gave neither yes or no for an answer. He said students breaking the law and disrupting the educational environment should be held accountable; said his department is committed to campus safety; and said he condemns hate and violence on campus. Foxx never got a yes on three attempts.

Campus Safety Magazine, a leader in tracking the protests of the war between Israel and Hamas, on Friday listed 88 campuses impacted. Situations have grabbed significant media coverage at the Ivy League’s Columbia University in New York City, Southern Cal and UCLA in Los Angeles, in Oxford at Ole Miss, at Northwestern in Evanston, Ill., and in the nation’s capital at George Washington University. Throughout the country, evidence has emerged that not all protestors are students.

In North Carolina, the famed Polk Place quad at UNC Chapel Hill was the scene of the American flag being lowered and replaced with the flag of Palestine. Interim Chancellor Lee Roberts, a security detail and some fraternity brothers were instrumental in Old Glory's return atop the pole. UNC Charlotte and Wake Forest are also on the Campus Safety Magazine list.

Other Republican senators with Tillis on Senate Resolution 4302 were Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch of Idaho, Ted Cruz of Texas, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Steve Daines of Montana, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska.

“In Joe Biden’s America, hardworking taxpayers are forced to aid Hamas-sympathizing students who blatantly violate the law by trespassing and destroying campus property,” Blackburn said.

Chapel Hill native Keith Siegel, whose family was hosted by U.S. Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., at the State of the Union last month, is among the Americans being held hostage by Hamas.

Separate legislation filed by U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., would prevent any college or university student convicted of any offense while protesting at a higher education institution from having their federal student loans forgiven, cancelled, waived or modified.

 
Alan Wooten

Source: https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/senate-proposal-strips-hamas-sympathizing-students-federal-aid

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Condorcet Gets a Keffiyeh - Amir Taheri

 

by Amir Taheri

Today's protesters know little about what they are rebelling against and, at least in our experience of talking to some of them in Paris and reading and/or hearing what their counterparts say on American campuses, don't even wish to know.

 

  • [T]he protest feeds on media attention. As soon as TV cameras are switched off, the shouting of slogans dies down.

  • [E]even if all the UN resolutions were implemented, they would not reassure Israel and won't quench Hamas' "from the river to the sea" thirst.

  • For seven decades, Israelis accepted the "advice" of the US and its European allies to accept a fish-tail end to its wars rather than the victory won on the battlefield. Beyond Hamas, which wants everything, Palestinians, too, have realized that listening to advice from "well-wishers" like Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W Bush, the inventor of the "roadmap" to a two-state solution, will not provide even half a state for them.

  • Today's protesters know little about what they are rebelling against and, at least in our experience of talking to some of them in Paris and reading and/or hearing what their counterparts say on American campuses, don't even wish to know.

Today's protesters know little about what they are rebelling against and, at least in our experience of talking to some of them in Paris and reading and/or hearing what their counterparts say on American campuses, don't even wish to know. Pictured: Anti-Israel protesters in front of the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) on April 26, 2024. (Photo by Antonin Utz/AFP via Getty Images)

To those of us old enough to remember the good (or bad) old days of student revolt in Western universities in the 1960s, current disturbances in a number of European and American universities appear as a bad remake of a controversial original.

The current disturbances are on a much smaller scale.

In the US, they have affected a handful of universities and attracted a few thousand students out of a total college enrollment of over 15 million.

In France, the "uprising" is centered on the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po), which boasts between 12,000 and 15,000 students, a third of them foreign, from more than 100 countries.

The Palestine Group that organizes and leads the "uprising" boasts a membership of around 200, of which between 50 and 60 are involved in actions including breaking windows, barring entrances and threatening a hunger strike.

The smallness of numbers, however, is compensated by a media presence that was unimaginable in the 1960s.

Protests at the Paris Institute of Political Studies have attracted TV channels from over 50 countries and often benefited from live reporting on a Franco-Belgian channel.

Add to that the countless accounts on the ever-growing jungle of the Internet and you get an exposure that the rebellious youths of the '60s couldn't imagine.

Spending the good part of a day around Sciences Po, and talking to a number of protesters and student observers of the "struggle," revealed another fact: the protest feeds on media attention. As soon as TV cameras are switched off, the shouting of slogans dies down.

The student revolts of the 1960s were prompted by two issues: the war in Vietnam and the rejection of a cultural inheritance that some students regarded as a relic of colonialism.

American students calling for an end to the Vietnam War had a direct interest in the issue because they didn't wish to be drafted to fight in what they saw as a bloody civil war in a distant land.

Student protesters in England and France also had direct interests at stake.

In England, John Osborne's play "Look Back in Anger" encouraged an Oedipus revolt against the British Empire and its paternalistic Victorian culture a key feature of which had been colonialism.

In France, the Algerian war of independence, which was seen as a civil war because Algeria had never been a colony in the classical sense and at the time formed two French provinces, furnished the template for a revolt that later morphed into the May '68 Revolution.

It may be argued that the '60s protesters ultimately failed.

In the US, the protests may have prolonged the Vietnam War for at least four years by persuading the silent majority shocked by scenes of mayhem to vote for Richard Nixon who, on Henry Kissinger's delusional advice, chased some form of victory as a prelude to peace. On the way, the Nixon-Ford administration expanded the war to Laos and Cambodia.

In England, those who had looked back in anger soon found out that they had to look to the future in boredom.

In France, protests helped partisans of Algérie française to expand their audience and make it difficult for shaky IVth Republic governments to negotiate a peaceful disengagement from the North African provinces as they had done in Morocco and Tunisia.

In political terms, the May 1968 "Revolution" in Paris also achieved the opposite of what it had hoped for, by enabling Gaullists to maintain their monopoly on political power for 13 more years.

The 1960s student rebels forged a neo-colonial narrative in which the West was responsible for whatever was wrong with the world. That in turn denied "the rest" any free will, reducing them to an object in its own history.

In the Arab-Israel war of 1967, that belief persuaded rebellious students to support Israel against its Arab neighbors.

In Paris, Sciences Po was adorned with the Star of David flags and shaken with cries of "Israel Vaincra!" ("Israel shall be victorious").

In London, New York and Chicago, Israel was seen as a victim of "feudal Arab regimes" backed by the old colonial power in Great Britain.

At that time, Israel was the darling in the left because it owed its birth to armed rebellion against British colonialists while obtaining the weapons it needed from the Soviet bloc via Czechoslovakia with money that came from America.

Israel's special place in the global left was illustrated by a vice-presidential slot it held in the Socialist International.

If support for Israel in those days was prompted by ideological considerations that had nothing to do for its struggle to survive, a mirror image of the same considerations inspires today's student rebels in the West to be anti-Israeli.

Talking to some of the Sciences Po activists one sees Israel branded as "an outpost of "American Imperialism" in the Middle East and Benjamin Netanyahu as a key player in the resurgence of "the hard right" in Europe and the US.

There are other differences today.

In the 1960s, student rebels focused on issues their respective governments were directly involved in.

Today, anyone who thinks that any Western power could set the tune for either Israel or Hamas needs a refresher course in political psychology. Sciences Po rebels mumble about "enforcing UN resolutions" -- resolutions that have been meaningless for more than seven decades.

In any case, even if all the UN resolutions were implemented, they would not reassure Israel and won't quench Hamas' "from the river to the sea" thirst.

For seven decades, Israelis accepted the "advice" of the US and its European allies to accept a fish-tail end to its wars rather than the victory won on the battlefield. Beyond Hamas, which wants everything, Palestinians, too, have realized that listening to advice from "well-wishers" like Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W Bush, the inventor of the "roadmap" to a two-state solution, will not provide even half a state for them.

It may sound like a nostalgia-stricken voice from the past.

But, in the old golden days of campus rebellion, student rebels took time to learn about what they were protesting against. Instead of wrecking campus furniture, they organized what were called "teach-ins" to discuss and debate the issues and hear different views.

Today's protesters know little about what they are rebelling against and, at least in our experience of talking to some of them in Paris and reading and/or hearing what their counterparts say on American campuses, don't even wish to know.

Meanwhile, as flags are waved or burned and as the statue in Paris of the philosopher Condorcet is coiffed with a keffiyeh, people die in a distant land.

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/20635/condorcet-gets-a-keffiyeh

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Multi-front blows in Gaza could destabilize Hamas - analysis - Seth J. Frantzman

 

by Seth J. Frantzman

Hamas now has to fight in three areas of Gaza against three IDF divisions with fewer resources than before October 7.

 

IDF soldiers operating in Gaza. May 2024 (photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
IDF soldiers operating in Gaza. May 2024
(photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Hamas is now facing an Israeli offensive in Gaza on three fronts. Two of the fronts are in the north, in Jabalya and Zaytun. A third is in Rafah. For Hamas, which has felt it was winning the war, the multiple fronts it now faces the IDF on may pose a challenge.

So far, Hamas has proven that it can withstand seven months of war and return to control almost ninety percent of Gaza, as well as rebuild its capabilities. Hamas may now be facing a more complex challenge, and despite its propaganda, it could be destabilized by this current round of fighting. It depends a lot on whether Hamas can reconstitute itself in Khan Younis and how it will seek to respond to the opening of new fronts in northern Gaza. Hamas is already showing that it can respond with rocket fire.

For instance, Hamas fired rockets at Beersheba and Ashkelon twice in the last several days. It has also targeted the Kerem Shalom crossing systematically since May 5. This illustrates how Hamas thinks. It is trying to cut off aid to Gaza via Kerem Shalom. It knows Egypt has closed the Rafah crossing since IDF tanks rolled in there on May 7. Therefore, it hopes it can create chaos in southern Gaza and lead to pressure on Israel to stop the offensive. Israel has instead increased the depth of its forces and called for more people to evacuate Gaza.

Hamas battalions may be evacuating Rafah and moving back toward Khan Younis. Khan Younis is the hometown of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. The fact the IDF left Khan Younis in April has allowed Hamas to return there. Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett noted on X on May 11 that he didn’t “understand why we pulled out division 98 that had been sealing the Hamas fighters trapped in Rafah. Sort of like removing the lid on a can in which they were trapped, allowing them to disperse all across the Gaza Strip.” Hamas may have benefited from this lack of pressure around Rafah, but it will also have to try to deal with the IDF incursions into Jabalya and Zaytun.

 Israeli soldiers operating in Gaza. May 2024 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)Enlrage image
Israeli soldiers operating in Gaza. May 2024 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

While some 300,000 people evacuated Rafah, another 100-200,000 have been leaving Zaytun and Jabalya. Hamas claims that it continues to fight the IDF in Zaytun and Jabalya and that it is coordinating with other terrorist groups, such as Islamic Jihad. This has been the usual Hamas claim over the last weeks, in which it says it is working with several other groups in Gaza to target IDF forces in the Netzarim corridor. The operations in Zaytun and Jabalia have forced Hamas to shift forces and fight in Jabalya and Zaytun, where it was previously gathering forces and capabilities.

Hamas unable to resist IDF advance

Hamas claims via the pro-Iran al-Mayadeen channel do not appear to amount to serious obstacles to the IDF. The terror group says it has used various types of short-range rockets and mortars in the battle. This is not going to be enough for the group to actually “resist” the IDF advance. Therefore, Hamas will make claims that it has “succeeded” in fighting, and then it will wait for the IDF to withdraw and it will return. It has gotten used to this kind of “cat and mouse” like game in Gaza. It is adapting to the new methods of fighting.

The fact Hamas now has to fight in three areas of Gaza against three IDF divisions is clearly going to be difficult for a terrorist group that has less fighters and less capabilities than in October. It now faces the IDF’s 162nd division in eastern Rafah as well as two IDF reserve brigades in the Netzerim corridor and the IDF’s Nahal brigade in Zaytun as well as the IDF’s 98th division in Jabalya, according to various Israeli reports. Hamas has faced these units before and it has lost. However, the Hamas tactic is to withdraw and disperse its men and wait until the IDF leaves and then re-emerge. Meanwhile Hamas will continue to put out statements to Al-Mayadeen and other outlets highlighting its supposed abilities to continue attacks within Gaza, and also rocket fire at Israeli cities such as Ashkelon, Beersheba and other places.

The question is now whether Hamas could be destabilized via this multi-front battle that is unfolding. Hamas has more limited resources than in the past to try to coordinate all these fronts. It relies on local squads and units. But it has to manage a more complex battle against a far superior IDF. 


Seth J. Frantzman

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-800907

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Just the News Exclusive: At current rates of consumption, the U.S. has at least two centuries of oil, report says - Kevin Killough

 

by Kevin Killough

Predictions that the U.S. and the world would run out of fossil fuels go back decades, and these predictions have so far turned out to be wrong. A new report shows the U.S. has 227 of oil, 130 years of gas, and 485 years of coal.

 

For years, activists argued for an energy transition away from fossil fuels because, they said, we were hitting “peak oil,” the point at which we can no longer produce oil because there’s little left in the ground or it’s too expensive to recover.

In 2023, the U.S. produced nearly 13 million barrels per day, more than any other nation in history. Predictions that the U.S. and the world would run out of oil go back decades, and these predictions have so far turned out to be wrong.

Tom Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research (IER), a free market think tank focusing on energy, told Just the News that anti-fossil fuel activists latched onto “peak oil” to push for alternatives, and with the U.S. leading the world’s production, their rhetoric has evolved.

“First, they said, ‘We don't have the resources. We're big consumers, but we don't have the energy. So we have to get off of the resource. Then it became evident and clear that that was not the case,” Pyle said.

Centuries of energy

In 2011, IER produced its first North American Energy Inventory.

“It was really for the purpose of shattering this myth of energy scarcity. To my knowledge, prior to that, nobody had taken the effort to compile, using government data …. the amount of energy that we have in North America,” Pyle said.

In that 2011 report, Pyle stated: “Thanks to new and continuing innovations in exploration and production technology, there’s every reason to believe that today’s estimates of reserves are only a fraction of what will be produced and delivered tomorrow.”

The statement turned out to be accurate. The Shale Revolution, which combined technologies in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, made available large deposits of previously unrecoverable oil throughout the U.S.

The IER’s 2024 North American Energy Inventory update shows that North America has 1.66 trillion barrels of technically recoverable resources, and at current rates of consumption, the report calculates that it would take 227 years to deplete it all.

IER 2024 North American Energy Inventory

 

“Technically recoverable resource” refers to oil and gas that can be produced based on current technology, and it doesn’t consider economic factors that might make it unprofitable under current technologies.

The 1.66 trillion barrels is 15% higher than the estimates from the 2011 report.

By the numbers

If all the oil in North America’s technically recoverable reserves was devoted exclusively to gasoline production, according to the report, the North American transportation sector would have enough energy for 539 years at 2023 usage rates.

There are 4.03 quadrillion cubic feet of technically recoverable natural gas reserves, which is a 47% increase in the 2011 estimate. At current rates of consumption, there’s enough gas for 130 years.

Proved reserves of coal, arguably the most abundant fossil fuel, can satisfy 485 years of demand at 2022 consumption rates, and the U.S. has 53% more proven coal reserves than Russia, the country with the next largest coal reserves.

Proved reserves are the resources that geologic and engineering data demonstrate with reasonable certainty to be recoverable in future years from known reservoirs under existing economic and operating conditions.

Pyle points out that production in the U.S. has increased to record highs, rather than depleting reserves, they’ve grown.

“As production increases, we find even more of a resource,” Pyle said.

Economic impact

The high levels of energy the U.S. is producing may be what’s allowing the economy to tread water as inflationary pressures weigh it down. Doomberg, a team of analysts who publish their work on Substack, argue that economies awash in fossil fuels are likely going to grow rather than shrink.

“Energy is not an input into the economy, it is the economy,” the analysts write. “Humanity organizes its economic activities to ensure a steady growth in the extraction and exploitation of primary energy because energy is life, standards of living are defined by how much energy is available to be exploited, and all humans everywhere are perpetually seeking a higher standard of living.”

In 2008, U.S. oil production had dropped to 5 million barrels per day in 2008, the lowest level since 1947. Then, America’s oil and gas producers began to figure out how to use hydraulic fracturing to recover oil and gas from shale profitably. U.S. production by 2011 had risen to 5.67 million barrels of oil per day, and it was just under 13 million barrels per day in 2023.

North Dakota gained a lot of attention as the state experienced an oil boom that started about 2005. The state went from 35.7 million barrels of oil produced in 2005 to 429.6 million barrels in 2015.

In the 2008-2009 recession, the U.S. unemployment rate topped out at 10% in October 2009. North Dakota’s unemployment rate never got above 4% until the 2020 pandemic.

Pyle said an irony of the Shale Revolution is that it likely kept the U.S. from a much more serious economic crisis in 2008, and that helped Obama get reelected.

“The sheer amount of economic activity generated after the housing crisis is probably what saved the Obama economy. And the same can be said, I think, is that it’s giving President Biden a fighting chance. And that is the ultimate irony of the situation,” Pyle said.

Free market energy

The IER report looks only at North America, but there are shale deposits all over the world.

Pyle said the U.S. was fortunate to have the technology, the know how, and the resource base to become a leading producer. However, what’s often overlooked in making the nation the leader in energy production is a unique system of private mineral ownership. This allows private owners to get royalties from oil produced from the mineral rights they own.

“It gets people’s skin in the game,” Pyle said.

In most other countries in the world, the minerals are controlled by the government. The U.S. federal government actually owns the largest mineral estate in the county, and despite this, oil and gas production is much higher on state and private lands than on federal land.

“It's that unique system of private property ownership that allowed this to flourish here and to blossom and to create the environment that we're now enjoying,” Pyle said.

 
Kevin Killough

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/energy/exclusive-current-rates-consumption-us-has-more-two-centuries-oil-report

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North Dakota Gov. Burgum emerges as a potential VP pick for Trump, may be able to draw moderates - Charlotte Hazard

 

by Charlotte Hazard

Burgum launched a GOP presidential bid for 2024, but suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump in January.

 

With his appeal to moderate voters, North Dakota GOP Gov. Doug Burgum is emerging as a potential vice presidential pick for presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

The latest signals came Saturday evening when Trump flew the 67-year-old Burgum on his jet to a rally in Wildwood, N.J., and put him front and center on stage, where he forcefully made the case for a second Trump term.

“President Trump respects state’s rights. He cut regulation. He lowered taxes," he argued. "Working under the Biden regulatory regime is like having a gale-force wind in your face."

Trump heaped his own praise on Burgum, citing his deep expertise on an issue important to voters.

“He probably knows more about energy than anybody I know,” the former president said.

Then he offered a big tease. “So, get ready for something, okay? Just get ready," Trump said, without elaborating.

Sources recently told Axios that Trump likes Burgum's gubernatorial experience and the fact that he doesn't get involved in drama.

Trump and former First Lady Melania Trump also reportedly hosted Burgum and his wife, Kathryn, at Mar-a-Lago for an Easter Brunch.

Burgum launched a GOP presidential bid for 2024, but suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump in January. He also announced that he would not seek a third term as governor. 

Before jumping into politics, Burgum was most well known for being the cofounder of "Arthur Ventures," a company that leads investments in B2B software companies in the U.S. and Canada. 

Overall, Burgum has a conservative record when it comes to his position as governor. He signed a law that bans abortion after six weeks, but doesn't support a federal ban and that the issue should be left up to the states. 

He has been outspoken about illegal immigration and has sent the North Dakota National Guard to the U.S. southern border to assist with the crisis of multiple people coming in. 

When Burgum was on the presidential campaign trail, his main priorities included making energy more affordable and cutting taxes. 

Burgum has been critical of Trump in the past and said that he didn't believe the 2020 presidential election was stolen, a talking point the former president repeated. 

"I believe that Joe Biden won the election," Burgum said during a 2023 interview, according to NBC News

Burgum recently did a wide-ranging interview with CNN where he said the main issues for the upcoming 2024 election are national security and public safety. 

"2016 was about immigration," Burgum said. "Now it's about national security and public safety and open borders is something the majority of Americans are concerned about.”

He also added that unrest breaking out in other countries and inflation are also major concerns from Americans. 

"The first rule of VP selection is reminiscent of a doctor’s Hippocratic oath – 'first do no harm,'" Kyle Kondik, the managing editor at Sabato's Crystal Ball, told Just the News. "Burgum seems like a fairly inoffensive choice, and I think that would be fine for Trump. At this point I don’t think Trump needs much help on his right – he did back in 2016, which is why Mike Pence was a decent choice."

When Burgum was asked on CNN if he would serve as Trump's vice president if asked, he said that him being on the "VP List" is speculation and the main reason he is supporting Trump is due to his energy policies because of the positive impact they have had on his state.

 
Charlotte Hazard

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/holdnorth-dakota-gov-burgum-emerges-potential-vp-pick-trump-may-be-able-draw

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Pelosi rebuked to her face during Oxford debate after condemning Americans clouded by 'guns, gays, God' - Kyle Morris

 

by Kyle Morris

Pelosi suggested Americans refuse to listen to Democrats about certain issues due to their beliefs about 'guns, gays, [and] God'

 

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was rebuked as an "elite" during a recent Oxford Union debate, where she argued that populism in the United States is a threat to democracy.

Pelosi — a self-described "devout" Catholic — said during the April 25 debate that certain Americans, whom she considered to be "poor souls who are looking for some answers," refuse to accept the answers Democrats give them on particular topics due to their beliefs about "guns, gays, [and] God."

Challenging Pelosi's position in the debate about populism, Winston Marshall, a musician who was once a part of Mumford and Sons and now hosts the "Marshall Matters" podcast for The Spectator, spoke in opposition to the Oxford Union motion that "This House Believes Populism is a Threat to Democracy." 

The Oxford Union at the UK's famed university holds itself as a defender of free speech, and has hosted events with numerous U.S. politicians in the past, including former Republican House Speakers Newt Gingrich and Kevin McCarthy.

Marshall argued at the April 25 debate that the meaning of the word "populist" has been changed by "elites [who] have failed" to align with their own narrative.

PELOSI UNIVERSITY SPEECH INTERRUPTED BY ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS: 'WARMONGER'

Nancy Pelosi

Pelosi – a self-described "devout Catholic" – claimed that populism is a threat to democracy and appeared to suggest that certain Americans refuse to accept the answers Democrats give them on particular topics due to their beliefs about "guns, gays, [and] God." (Getty Images)

"'Populism' has become a word used synonymously with ‘racist.’ We've heard ‘ethno-nationalist,’ we have ‘bigot,’ we have ‘hillbilly,’ ‘redneck,’ we have ‘deplorable,’" Marshall said. Pelosi had argued in her remarks that contemporary American populism currently had an ethno-nationalist character. 

"Elites use it to show their contempt for ordinary people," Marshall said.

Marshall argued that the change in meaning of the word "populist" is "a recent change," and pointed to a 2016 speech delivered by then-President Barack Obama, who he said "took umbrage with the notion that Trump be called a populist."

"If anything, Obama argued that he was the populist. If anything, Obama argued that Bernie was the populist," he said. "Something curious happens. If you watch Obama's speeches after that point, more and more recently, he uses the word ‘populist’ interchangeably with ‘strong man,’ ‘authoritarian.' The word changes meaning. It becomes a negative, a pejorative, a slur."

Pelosi bristles at the comparison between January 6 and the Portland BLM riots

Highlighting the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021, which he believed to be "a dark day for America, indeed," Marshall said: "I'm sure Congresswoman Pelosi will agree that the entire month of June 2020, when the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon, was under siege and under insurrection by radical progressives, those, too, were dark days for America."

At that point, Pelosi raised her hand and said: "There is no equivalence there. . . .  It is not like what happened on January 6th, which was an insurrection incited by the President of the United States."

"My point, though, is that all political movements are susceptible to violence and, indeed, insurrection," Marshall said. "Populism is not a threat to democracy. Populism is democracy. And why else have universal suffrage if not to keep elites in check?"

Marshall said he was "rather surprised" that Pelosi was arguing in favor of the motion as he thought "the left was supposed to be anti-elite" and that the "left was supposed to be anti-establishment."

"Today, particularly in America, the globalist left have become the establishment," he continued. "I suppose for Mrs. Pelosi to have taken this side of the argument, she'd be arguing herself out of a job.

Marshall went on to claim that "populism is the voice of the voiceless" and that the "real threat to democracy is from the elites."

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Winston Marshall

Winston Marshall claimed that "populism is the voice of the voiceless" and that the "real threat to democracy is from the elites." (Getty Images)

"Now, don't get me wrong, we need elites. If President Biden has shown us anything, we need someone to run the countries," he said. "When the president has severe dementia, it's not just America that crumbles, the whole world burns."

Marshal shifted his focus to examining the elites, saying he believes that Trump should have accepted the results of the 2020 presidential election.

"So should Hillary in 2016, so should Brussels and Westminster in 2016, and so, too, should Congresswoman Pelosi instead of saying the 2016 election was, quote, ‘hijacked.’"

"It was," Pelosi interjected, drawing laughter from those in attendance.

"That doesn't mean we don't accept the results of it," she added.

During his speech in opposition of the motion, Marshall also took aim at the social media companies that suspended Trump from their platforms following the January 6 Capitol protests and the mainstream media.

"Mainstream media elites are part of a class who don't just disdain populism, they disdain the people. If Democrats had put half their energy in delivering for the people, Trump wouldn't even have a chance in 2024 … you've had power for four years. From the fabricated Steele Dossier, to trying to take him off the ballot in both Maine and Colorado, the Democrats are the anti-Democrat party," he said.

"Populism is not a threat to democracy. But I'll tell you what is: It's elites ordering social media to censor political opponents," Marshall said. ". . . It's Brussels, D.C., Westiminster, mainstream media, big tech, big Pharma, corporate collusion and the Davos cronies."

Delivering remarks prior to Marshall, Pelosi said, "Democracy is the rule of law, democracy is free and fair elections, democracy is about independent judiciary, it's about freedom of the press to have transparency and to have accountability of elected officials to the people."

"It's about all of that, and that is everything that the populist regime in Washington, D.C., is against," she added. "Ethno-nationalistic populism, as is the threat to democracy, is about threatening what they call elites, a free press," she said. "It's about fighting issues that relate to free and fair elections, where we have voter suppression to the nth degree under this regime and its resistance to passing the Voting Rights Act, the John Lewis Act, all of that."

At one point, while speaking about those who may consider themselves a part of the populist movement and/or are "poor souls who are looking for some answers," Pelosi said, "We've given them to them, but they're blocked by some of their views on guns – they have the three Gs, guns, gays, God, that would be a woman's right to choose — and the cultural issues cloud some of their reception of an argument that really is in their interest."

The motion debated by Marshall and Pelosi ultimately received a passing vote from those attending the Oxford Union event, 177 to 68.


Kyle Morris covers politics for Fox News. Story tips can be sent via email and on X: @RealKyleMorris.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pelosi-rebuked-oxford-debate-condemning-americans-clouded-guns-gays-god

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