How an addiction to the Iron Dome doctrine has eroded Israel’s deterrence - analysis - Seth J. Frantzman

 

by Seth J. Frantzman

It was once believed that the Iron Dome would buy Israel the time to make rational decisions rather than be plunged into wars in haste.

 

Iron Dome anti rockets system seen in the city of Haifa, Israel, August 30, 2013

(photo credit: GILI YAARI/FLASH90)

 

Over the past decade Israel’s air defense, particularly Iron Dome, provided Israel the time and protection to avoid a major war in Gaza. That all changed on October 7, 2023 when Hamas invaded Israel, massacred and kidnapped more than 1,200 people using a human wave invasion that easily penetrated Israel’s hi-tech defenses.

 A decade of relying on technology and reducing ground forces led to an extreme neglect of basic security doctrines.Since October 7, Israel has continued to rely on air defenses to protect itself against rocket fire from Gaza, from Hezbollah and from other Iranian-backed proxies in Yemen, Syria and Iraq. In each case the decision to rely on a strategy rooted in air defense, has reduced Israel’s deterrence.

For instance, in the North Israel preferred to evacuate civilians rather than fight Hezbollah.

Israel’s historic leadership going back to David Ben-Gurion understood that the best way to defend against Israel’s enemies was to go on the offensive and defeat them quickly.

Ben-Gurion understood that letting Israel’s enemies encircle it with advanced weapons systems would imperil the Jewish state.

This is why Israel always sought to root its doctrine in acquiring new advanced game-changing weapons and denying its enemies similar weapons. When necessary Israel was prepared to make sacrifices and send soldiers on daring missions, to do everything possible to protect the state.

Israel's Iron Dome intercepts projectile over the North. June 13, 2024. (credit: SCREENSHOT/X)

This all changed in the last 15 years under the Netanyahu governments. The country shifted from being ready for daring, rapid wars, to becoming a society surrounded by walls and fences.

It allowed enemies like Hezbollah and Hamas to become exponentially more powerful and Israeli security experts told the public this was fine because Israel was also advancing in its military abilities. Israelis were told that precision munitions could neutralize threats.

Iran has advanced closer to Israel’s borders since 2015, moving forces into Syria and expanding militias in Iraq and Yemen.

As the militias acquired new missiles and drones, Israel relied on unchanged air defenses and doctrine.Even as Israel told itself it had a new “momentum” doctrine in the army, it didn’t really seem to believe it. This was because it trained for multi-front wars, but when it came down to it, it didn’t actually want to engage in wars that required the kind of rapid maneuvering and short-term sacrifice required.

Since October 7, Israel has continued to rely on a doctrine rooted in air defense as a strategy. It has evacuated the North and South and believes air defenses continue to buy it time.

The concept of Iron Dome buying Israel time to decide worked when Israel’s enemies couldn’t penetrate the air defenses and when the Israeli public wasn’t affected much by the war. However, even in those previous conflicts, which were short, living under endless rocket fire and evacuating the borders was not a doctrine for success.

Israel’s enemies today are not deterred. They believe they have caught Israel in a trap in which Israel continues to rely on precision strikes and proportional attacks.

ISRAEL’S FIRST LEADERS understood this would be a recipe for disaster. Israel can’t meet its enemies man-for-man. Israel is a small state and it can’t afford to end up like Lebanon or Iraq. It is a modern state that relies on trade and wants to be part of the first world. Endless wars against Hamas, Hezbollah and a half dozen other Iranian proxies are not a recipe for Israel’s historic success.

It was once believed that Iron Dome would buy Israel the time to make rational decisions, rather than plunge her into hasty wars. Today it is clear that relying on this concept as a strategy has led to endless caution and a fear of fighting large wars to deter enemies.

Instead, the preference is to continue letting groups like Hezbollah dictate the tempo of the war. Hezbollah says that it will stop its attacks when Israel ends the war in Gaza.

An Iron Dome rocket interceptor battery deployed near the southern Gaza Strip in southern Israel March 29, 2019. (credit: AMIR COHEN/REUTERS)

In essence this means every time Israel clashes with Hamas, Hezbollah has carved out a “right” to rain down rockets, drones and missiles on northern Israel.

The most destructive aspects of the October 7 war are now being felt on multiple fronts. Hezbollah’s ability to carve out a security zone inside Israel and fight a war between the wars inside Israel is a historic disaster for Israel.

What is the "new norm" in the Middle East?

This week, Hezbollah killed two Israelis in the Golan. Its drones continue to wreak havoc.

A year ago when an IED was planted by a man near Metulla who had penetrated Israel from Lebanon, it was seen as a big deal. Today 6,000 Hezbollah rockets and drones are seen as the new norm.

The killing of Israelis in the North is becoming a new norm, all because strategists put all their faith in air defense alone.

This recalls previous historic marches of folly, such as the Maginot Line between France and Germany.

Countries that rely solely on walled defenses are doomed to end up with enemies who learn how to pierce the defenses. History teaches us this. Israel’s historic leaders understood this.

Israel will need to rethink its reliance on air defense which went from buying time, to eroding Israel’s deterrence, preventing her from making tough decisions necessary to secure the country. 

Seth J. Frantzman

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-809891

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Why Palestinian Leaders Cannot Make Peace With Israel - Bassam Tawil

 

by Bassam Tawil

Barghouti's critics -- do not distinguish between a right-wing and left-wing Israeli Jew. For them, all Israeli Jews, including those who support a two-state solution, are enemies.

 

• The latest "scandal" erupted after a video that appeared on social media featured [Mustafa] Barghouti warmly hugging former Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami during a meeting of parliamentary factions in Italy.

• Barghouti's critics, however, do not distinguish between a right-wing and left-wing Israeli Jew. For them, all Israeli Jews, including those who support a two-state solution, are enemies.

• The smear campaign against Barghouti serves as a reminder of how Palestinian leaders and officials have radicalized their people against Israel to a point where it has become impossible, if not dangerous, even to be seen in the company of an Israeli Jew. Barghouti can only blame himself for the backlash he is facing for appearing together with Ben-Ami at the conference in Italy.

• Given the enormous uproar caused by this brief interaction between an Israeli Jew and a Palestinian, one can only imagine the consequences for any Palestinian leader who dares even to discuss or consider peace with Israel. The outcry over the meeting in Italy crystallizes the basic reason why Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has refused to return to the negotiating table with Israel for the past decade. Abbas knows full well that his recurring attacks on Israel have radicalized Palestinians against Israel to such an extent that most of them support the October 7 massacre of Israelis, are in favor of Hamas over his Palestinian Authority, and would be happy to kill him at a moment's notice for being a traitor over whatever they considered the slightest transgression.

Prominent Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti has been facing sharp criticism from many Palestinians after he was filmed hugging a former Israeli foreign minister during a recent conference in Italy. Barghouti is being accused of betraying the Palestinians by "promoting normalization" with Israel. Pictured: Barghouti (R), and Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar (C) and Mahmoud Zahar (L), attend a rally in Gaza City on October 1, 2022. (Photo by Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images)

Prominent Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti has been facing sharp criticism from many Palestinians after he was filmed hugging a former Israeli foreign minister during a recent conference in Italy. Barghouti is being accused of betraying the Palestinians by "promoting normalization" with Israel.

The latest "scandal" erupted after a video that appeared on social media featured Barghouti warmly hugging former Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami during a meeting of parliamentary factions in Italy. Ben-Ami, a historian, is known for his role in the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians more than two decades ago. He is also known for his support for the establishment of a Palestinian state next to Israel.

Barghouti's critics, however, do not distinguish between a right-wing and left-wing Israeli Jew. For them, all Israeli Jews, including those who support a two-state solution, are enemies.

Barghouti, who heads a party called the Palestinian National Initiative Movement, is now getting a taste of his own medicine. For many years, Barghouti has been a steadfast supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. He has also taken part in BDS activities, stating: "We are now in the early stages of a campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions directed at this Israeli government for its refusal to abide by international law."

"International law" often refers to resolutions by the United Nations and other international bodies that call for the establishment of a Palestinian state next to Israel. Such a state, according to Palestinian public opinion polls, will be controlled by murderers and rapists from the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group.

Barghouti is also the president of Palestinian Medical Relief Society, a group that has ties with the terrorist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In 2019, he participated in a conference organized by the PFLP, titled "The Crime of Normalization [with Israel] and ways of Confrontation." The conference was held in honor of the 11th anniversary of the death of PFLP founder George Habash. During the conference, Barghouti presented a paper on "The role of parties and factions in promoting the boycott concept."

Barghouti has even justified the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, during which hundreds of Israelis were killed, raped, beheaded, mutilated, burned alive, tortured, and kidnapped to the Gaza Strip:

"This initiative (attack) is... a response to those who thought that through normalization with the Arab countries, they can liquidate and marginalize the Palestinian issue. It is coming back in the most possible forceful way... It shows that Israel is not almighty and also it shows what Palestinians can do when they are determined to resist for their freedom..."

Barghouti, in other words, is saying that he is happy that the attack could thwart attempts to achieve peace between Israel and some of the Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia.

Barghouti's anti-Israel campaigns and support for the October 7 atrocities, however, are now being ignored by many Palestinians, who are accusing him of committing a crime by hugging the Israeli ex-minister. Some Palestinians have even posted a photoshopped image of Barghouti dressed in an Israeli military uniform to back up their charge that he is a traitor.

Alarmed by the accusations, Barghouti was forced to apologize to the Palestinians for daring to appear in public with an Israeli Jew. "This was an unintentional mistake that should have been avoided and not made," he said. "I have the courage and self-confidence, which I hope everyone has, to admit a mistake when it occurs."

He further pledged to continue opposing normalization with Israel:

"Our position has not and will not change. During my short visit to Italy, I was invited to participate in a political symposium that included eight speakers, including the mayor of Rome, parliamentarians and Italian diplomats. It was an open public symposium and not a Palestinian-Israeli meeting, as some malicious people claimed. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time, I did not have the opportunity to adequately research the identities of all the participants in the symposium, which was attended by the Israeli politician and opposition figure who works as a lecturer at Spanish universities, Shlomo Ben-Ami."

The smear campaign against Barghouti serves as a reminder of how Palestinian leaders and officials have radicalized their people against Israel to a point where it has become impossible, if not dangerous, even to be seen in the company of an Israeli Jew. Barghouti can only blame himself for the backlash he is facing for appearing together with Ben-Ami at the conference in Italy.

Barghouti has been inciting the Palestinians and the rest of the world against Israel for a long time. He has long advocated boycotting Israel and has spoken out against normalization with Israelis. He therefore has no right to be upset about the attacks on him or to lament the defamation campaign Palestinians have launched against him.

Given the enormous uproar caused by this brief interaction between an Israeli Jew and a Palestinian, one can only imagine the consequences for any Palestinian leader who dares even to discuss or consider peace with Israel. The outcry over the meeting in Italy crystallizes the basic reason why Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has refused to return to the negotiating table with Israel for the past decade. Abbas knows full well that his recurring attacks on Israel have radicalized Palestinians against Israel to such an extent that most of them support the October 7 massacre of Israelis, are in favor of Hamas over his Palestinian Authority, and would be happy to kill him at a moment's notice for being a traitor over whatever they considered the slightest transgression.

Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East. The work of Bassam Tawil is made possible through the generous donation of a couple of donors who wished to remain anonymous. Gatestone is most grateful.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20773/palestinian-leaders-cannot-make-peace

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The Iron Beam - Rafael

 

by Rafael

IRON BEAM is a 100kW class High Energy Laser Weapon System (HELWS) that is expected to become the first operational system in its class.

 

 

 High Energy Laser Weapon

IRON BEAM is a 100kW class High Energy Laser Weapon System (HELWS) that is expected to become the first operational system in its class. It quickly and effectively engages and neutralizes a wide array of threats from a range of hundreds of meters to several kilometers. Engaging at the speed of light, IRON BEAM has an unlimited magazine, with almost zero cost per interception, and causes minimal collateral damage. Complementing RAFAEL’s IRON DOME, it can be integrated with a range of platforms and can become part of any multilayer defense system. RAFAEL is considered a global leader in the field, developing Directed Energy systems including HEL systems for over 30 years. The company works closely with Israel’s Defense Ministry and serves as the HEL National Center for Excellence and the National Lethality Lab. 

 

 Rafael

Source: https://www.rafael.co.il/system/iron-beam/ 

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Our Brezhnev, Our Pravda, Our Soviet Union. . . - Victor Davis Hanson

 

by Victor Davis Hanson

Like the late-stage Leonid Brezhnev, Biden is now a president in name only. What is next for our increasingly Soviet state?

 

Leonid Brezhnev led the former Soviet Union as General Secretary of the Communist Party until 1982. But like most Russian apparatchiks who excessively smoked, drank, and gained weight, he aged prematurely. Also like them, his disabilities never led to his abdication.

By Brezhnev’s late sixties and early seventies, he was too ill to travel abroad or make public appearances. Indeed, his debility left the Soviet Union without a real leader for the final six or seven years of his tenure.

Brezhnev got away with it because the Soviet state-controlled media doctored photos and videos to attest to his supposedly vigorous health and constant hands-on involvement.

“Journalists” sent out false communiques. They spun narratives that Brezhnev was robust, hale, and working long hours on behalf of the Russian people. Any dissenting journalists who sought to report the true, sad state of affairs were in danger of losing their jobs, freedom—or even their lives.

Instead, the “reporters” of Pravda (“Truth”), the official print megaphone of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, wrote lies about Brezhnev’s busy workdays. Pravda’s handlers spun fables about the respect (and fear) the rest of the world held for such a dynamic leader—even as Brezhnev became an ill virtual recluse.

The cynical Russian people shrugged because they had long been accustomed to their lying media and the falsehoods they peddled. And besides, Brezhnev was a doctrinaire Stalinist communist. So his job was not to rock the boat or upset the Russian communist hierarchy.

Instead, he reigned over the penultimate Soviet “era of stagnation,” while an ossified communism increasingly destroyed all incentives and hope, leaving the Russian people poor, cynical, and helpless.

Something similar has happened to a calcified America under President Joe Biden. Like the late-stage Leonid Brezhnev, Biden is now a president in name only. He has outsourced his administration to a vestigial hard-left apparat from the Obama years.

Now, Biden can no longer even perform his assigned ceremonial tasks of putting a moderate veneer on radical, nihilist agendas that are stagnating the country.

Yet our Pravda journalists have sworn to the American people that, in private, the reclusive, three-day-a-week Biden outpaces the energy and drive of those half his age. Obsequious staffers plant stories in the Soviet-like ears of reporters about Biden’s singular dynamism.

Any dissenters are publicly demonized as peddlers of “cheap fakes.”

When Biden’s reclusiveness prompts too much gossip that he is near senile, he is wheeled out for a staged interview that must be edited before release. Or he answers questions secretly shown to him in advance.

On sporadic occasions where the state media and the Biden nomenklatura cannot control events—such as rare presidential debates or international summits—our Pravda media go into overdrive to convince the public that what they see and hear is not real.

In the end, Brezhnev could not even hobble to the May Day dais to celebrate communism’s national holiday.

He soon reached the point that his debilities were so manifest that even his hirelings and the media could not hide them. He then vanished from public view, leaving the Russian people with no idea as to who was running their communist nation.

Then one day, Soviet propagandists announced suddenly but matter-of-factly that the dynamic Brezhnev had died and that his successor, Yuri Andropov, was now brilliantly running the Soviet Union.

Biden, too, is at that point of stasis. He cannot do press conferences, town halls, debates, or real interviews. To do so would confirm to the public the truth: that Biden is too cognitively challenged to continue his presidency.

And yet the cloistered Biden can no longer hide during a campaign season with his accustomed three-day workweek.

The media has done its best to continue its Orwellian ruse. They claim that Trump interrupted Biden (he did not) in the recent debate and that he lied (if so, not as much as did Biden). Sometimes, the press corps just blurts out that an inert, left-wing Biden is still preferable to a dynamic, conservative Trump.

What is next for our increasingly Soviet state?

We will continue to be lectured on the vigor of Biden—until one day we aren’t, when Biden either steps down—or worse.

Then, our Pravda will likely present the new official narrative. They will convince us that his successor, Vice President Kamala Harris, is an underappreciated genius whose past portfolios led to solving the border crisis and renewing American dominance in space.

One day, the same reporters who swore Biden was a virtual Socrates behind closed doors and then suddenly just confessed he was not when their lies were no longer operative will sing the praises of our new comrade leader—the brilliant, accomplished, eloquent, and articulate Kamala Harris.

Victor Davis Hanson

Source: https://amgreatness.com/2024/07/11/our-brezhnev-our-pravda-our-soviet-union/

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'Big blow to big government': Major SCOTUS decision strips power of 'faceless leviathan' of federal agencies - Brianna Herlihy

 

by Brianna Herlihy

Republicans praised the decision, saying the previous rule gave 'unelected bureaucrats' too much power

 

The Supreme Court this term took a hammer to decades-old legal doctrine that largely saved executive branch agencies in legal disputes. Now, experts say Congress and the next president will have no choice but to work more closely together and stop relying on the "faceless leviathan" of federal agencies.

In a David vs. Goliath dispute, a group of fishermen sued a government agency that mandated the fishermen pay $700 for "at sea monitors," arguing that the rule is out of the bounds Congress set for the federal agency.

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the fishermen in a 6-3 decision last month, and, in doing so, overruled what is known as the Chevron doctrine — a legal theory established in the 1980s that says if a federal regulation is challenged, the courts should defer to the agency’s interpretation of whether Congress had granted it authority to issue the rule, as long as the agency's interpretation is reasonable and Congress had not addressed the question directly.

Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor dissented from the majority, warning that eliminating Chevron could give judges without expertise authority in legal disputes regarding regulation of food, medicine, the environment, etc. 

SUPREME COURT SIDES WITH FISHERMEN IN LANDMARK CASE DECIDING FATE OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE

Experts say Congress and the next president will have no choice but to work more closely together and stop relying on the "faceless leviathan" of 3-letter government agencies. (New Civil Liberties Alliance and Cause of Action)

But conservatives and Republicans, who argued Chevron gave the government too much power to rule through bureaucratic red tape, praised the decision. 

"The Supreme Court’s decision in Looper Bright v. Raimondo is a big win for the little guy and a big blow to big government. Power ought to reside with Americans and those they elect and not the faceless leviathan of 3 letter agencies that has thrived under Joe Biden," said Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo.

"I think what this decision should mean is that our elected leaders in Congress should be the ones who are making the laws that impact Americans' everyday lives, and not unelected bureaucrats in cubicles in Washington, D.C.," Casey Mattox, vice president of legal strategy at Stand Together, told Fox News Digital. 

"It should mean the president having to work with Congress instead of just simply major swings from one direction to the other every four to eight years. That has not served America well," he said. 

"Congress should not be passing the buck to unelected people to make the decisions," Mattox added. "And so, I think essentially what the decision to overturn Chevron means is that when Congress is passing laws, it needs to actually get the expertise it needs and then be politically accountable for the decisions it's making."

HOW MAINE LOBSTERMEN TURNED A ‘SLAP IN THE FACE’ FROM THE WHITE HOUSE INTO A POLICY VICTORY

The Supreme Court this term took a hammer to decades-old legal doctrine that largely saved executive branch agencies in legal disputes. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)

With Chevron eliminated, Congress will now be forced to write laws with more clear language and less ambiguity. 

John Vecchion, counsel for New Civil Liberties Alliance, who represented some of the fishermen in the case, said that one of the damages of the Chevron doctrine was that it incentivized Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, not to compromise on clear language when writing bills that become law. 

"Because they would make a bet that when their friend was in executive office, either the Republican or the Democrat, the regulation would be made in such a way that helped them, and they could then say ‘this is the law’ but not take the blowback if there were bad results from that," he explained.

Republicans in Congress have already shifted focus to legislation that would eliminate more executive red tape. 

Reps. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., and Derrick Van Orden, R-Wisc. and Sens. Schmitt, Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, held a press conference Wednesday to press forward on regulatory reforms.

"It should infuriate Americans that for decades some of the most important policy questions have been decided by unelected bureaucrats and not their elected representatives," Cammack said. 

SUPREME COURT SIGNALS INTEREST IN HEARING A MAJOR CLIMATE CHANGE CASE THAT COULD BE A ‘NIGHTMARE’ FOR LIBERALS

With Chevron eliminated, Congress will now be forced to write laws with more clear language and less ambiguity. (Getty Images)

She added that the Supreme Court’s decision "cracked open the door" and that lawmakers need to "ensure that Congress is the chief lawmaking body, not bureaucrats."

That assurance could come in the form of the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act, or REINS Act.

The bill would broaden the scope of the Congressional Review Act to require every new "major rule" proposed by federal agencies to be approved by Congress before going into effect.

Specifically, the House and Senate would be required to pass a joint resolution in order for a major rule to be approved by Congress.

The bill defines a "major rule" as any federal rule or regulation that may result in an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more; a major increase in costs or prices for consumers, individual industries, government agencies or geographic regions; or significant adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity, innovation or the ability of U.S.-based enterprises to compete with foreign-based enterprises.

"The REINS Act would… reverse the problem that we’ve got now today, where you can be deprived of life, liberty and property… simply by violating something that’s never even darkened the door of either chamber of Congress, let alone passed in the manner required," Lee said. 

Additionally, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., on Tuesday sent letters to federal agencies to "demand the review of various overreaching regulations" in an effort to "free the American people from the power-hungry administrative state."

"With their ruling in this case, the Supreme Court restored proper constitutional separation of powers as our Founding Fathers intended by overturning Chevron deference and requiring the courts to decide disputes over interpretation of statutory text," he said Wednesday.

"Agencies can’t be allowed to run free without any checks on their power — we’ve already seen how frequently federal agencies will abuse their authority," Scalise said.

 

Brianna Herlihy is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/big-blow-big-government-major-scotus-decision-strips-power-faceless-leviathan-federal-agencies

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Democrats lump conservative views with child porn, terrorism to justify advertising boycotts - Greg Piper

 

by Greg Piper

"Like Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, if they say 'Project 2025' enough their presidential candidate becomes alive again," Ben Shapiro jokes at antitrust hearing on campaign to starve conservative publishers like The Daily Wire of ad revenue.

 

   

Faced with communications among international advertising giants, their "brand safety" consortium and tech platforms that suggest coordinated campaigns to starve conservative and heterodox publishers of ad revenue, Democrats went nuclear at a Hill hearing Wednesday.

They lumped conservative views, Donald Trump's presidential campaign and skepticism of elite consensus, especially on COVID-19 and Hunter Biden's laptop, with child and adult pornography, domestic violence, rape, terrorism and foreign propaganda to justify the blacklisting efforts by the Global Alliance for Responsible Media and its members.

Advertisers don't want to be associated with someone who "went into Bergdorf Goodman and got a woman and took her into a locked dressing room and molested her," said Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., alluding to jury finding Trump liable last year for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996. 

In the House Judiciary Committee hearing, Republican members repeatedly called GARM, whose members control 90% of the global advertising market, a "cartel" that is violating antitrust law by informally directing members which outlets and platforms to blacklist or pressure to censor content.

Through their probe of the Brussels-based World Federation of Advertisers' initiative, Republicans want to force brands to advertise alongside "exploitative images and videos of children …. disinformation and racist and violent propaganda" among many other objectionable categories, said New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, the committee's top Democrat. "This hearing is an exercise in intimidation of free speech.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., invoked "anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, child sexual abuse material or content promoting terrorism." And Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., referred to "child porn, or ISIS videos, or hate speech, or an advertisement from the Heritage Foundation about Project 2025," one of many Democratic denunciations of the proposed roadmap for the next administration should Trump win the presidency in November.

"Like Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, if they say 'Project 2025' enough their presidential candidate becomes alive again," conservative commentator and The Daily Wire cofounder Ben Shapiro, Republicans' star witness, joked when Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., asked if he supported the proposal.

Swalwell went much further, interrogating the Orthodox Jew about his religious beliefs on abortion, sexuality and same-sex marriage, to demonstrate why major brands would shy away from his publication. Shapiro retorted that most major religions agree with his distinction between legally recognized relationships and private sexual behavior.

Advertising revenue is crucial to startups because they don't have subscribers yet, Shapiro told Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis. While The Daily Wire is flush with subscribers now, Shapiro said he's concerned about new entrants locked out of the ad market for political reasons. 

GARM is pushing a collective boycott on conservative outlets.

This stifles not only free speech but also ad revenue that news outlets rely on to grow their businesses.

Listen to this exchange between @RepFitzgerald and @BenShapiro. pic.twitter.com/WJs6TBCdPt

— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) July 10, 2024

 

He assailed the "informal pressure system created by Democratic legislators, this White House, legacy media, advertisers and pseudo-objective brand safety organizations." 

Social media companies adopted GARM standards "under duress" from legislative threats, Shapiro said. He blamed the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., for a 1,000% increase in "content enforcements" against The Daily Wire's YouTube channel over two years.

Shapiro called out Johnson and Jayapal by name.

"You're using the tacit threat of government action to compel private companies to throttle viewpoints you don't particularly like," he said.

The Daily Wire, Breitbart and Fox News are specifically mentioned as news outlets GARM and its members were closely watching to find grounds for blacklisting in the communications disclosed by the committee GOP's interim staff report Wednesday.

Executives for GroupM, the world's largest media buying agency, discussed whether to blacklist Shapiro's publication given that it hadn't done so against Breitbart despite "hat[ing] their ideology and bullshit," as Executive VP for Global Brand Safety John Montgomery said.

It wouldn't make sense to block The Daily Wire and not Fox News, Montgomery said. Joe Barone, then-managing partner of Brand Safety Americas, responded that The Daily Wire was already on its "Global High Risk exclusion list, categorized as Conspiracy Theories."

 

The GARM Steer Team member who had issues with Spotify was Joe Barone of GroupM.

GroupM didn’t buy ads on Joe Rogan. Barone said so himself in an email.

So, there wasn’t a “brand safety concern” for GroupM. They appear to have just wanted to silence Rogan’s views anyways. pic.twitter.com/geFOLSbwqL

— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) July 10, 2024

 

The only person to sit for a transcribed interview with the committee was GARM leader Robert Rakowitz, who denied discussing GroupM's "list of news outlets that are worthy of monetization" when he talks to the GARM cofounder. 

Rakowitz played into GOP talking points by telling WFA colleagues in 2019, shortly after cofounding GARM, that the ad industry was plagued by the "extreme global interpretation of the US Constitution," which was written by "exclusively white men."

He recognized the antitrust implications when telling a GARM member he "can’t publicly advise all clients to do X" because it "gets us into hot water by way of anticompetitive and collusive behaviors," but offered to “help [brands] formulate a [point of view] 1:1," the GOP report says.

It emphasizes the alleged contradictions between Rakowitz's internal communications and his interview. 

He bragged in 2023, months after Elon Musk purchased Twitter and exposed its prior censorship, that the platform is "80% below revenue forecasts" since Rakowitz "challenged Musk on brand safety issues." (X, formerly Twitter, recently rejoined GARM.)

While he told GOP staff this was a "self-effacing joke" about his viral Musk tweet, Rakowitz's email shows he was elated by the attention his tweet was getting. An employee of WFA told a potential GARM member they had "extensive debriefing and discussion" about Musk's purchase, which Rakowitz denied.

He denied only that GARM or WFA recommended a Musk-owned Twitter boycott a month after GOP staff asked about several months of emails from GARM member Ørsted, a Danish energy company.

The firm asked GARM about a "possible boycott from many companies" when Musk's purchase went through and told Rakowitz in April 2023 that Ørsted had stopped advertising "based on your recommendations" but wanted to return to Twitter, "an important platform for us to reach our audience."

.@RepJerryNadler: This hearing has nothing to do with antitrust law...instead it is another dangerous effort by the Majority to bully companies into promoting and supporting far-right extremist views—views that brands, understandably, do not want to be associated with. pic.twitter.com/qnfXAfLR7u

— House Judiciary Dems (@HouseJudiciary) July 10, 2024

Democrats frequently went to their expert witness, Spencer Waller, a Loyola University Chicago law professor, to explain why the coordination didn't affect antitrust law. GARM participants aren't competitors, they have "legitimate business justifications" for ad-placement choices, and Supreme Court precedent immunizes "publicity campaigns" against antitrust liability, Waller said, comparing the initiative to the NAACP's civil rights boycott of white merchants. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., questioned Waller's analysis in light of his former role as senior adviser to Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, whose investigations have "found everything to be antitrust." GARM "clearly smells like a cartel," but Waller seems to think it's the only exception to Khan's rule, Issa said. The FTC "destroyed the evidence" of Waller's advice to Khan when he left the agency, Issa said. Because Waller said he didn't take the records either, Issa deemed his testimony suspect. Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., said GARM's objectives were "clearly political" and a "manifestation of the ESG movement," but cautioned the GOP against adopting the "strictly situational" ethics of the political left by using antitrust unless the government is involved. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., pressed GARM cofounder Unilever USA President Herrish Patel why its vice presidents Rob Master and Luis Di Como emailed Facebook employees a month before the 2020 election to ask whether a Trump ad, which said challenger Joe Biden "REFUSED drug test & DECLINED an earpiece inspection," violated Facebook's policies. This was "not some intern at your company," Gaetz said. When Patel said he didn't know what their intention was, Gaetz noted what GARM's Rakowitz told a colleague after Facebook said the ad did not threaten "real world harm" and was exempt as presidential candidate speech: "Honestly reprehensible." 

 

Greg Piper

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/congress/democrats-lump-conservative-views-child-porn-terrorism-justify-advertising

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Media makes fossil fuel the heat wave villain but scientists say asphalt, cityscapes bigger culprit - Kevin Killough

 

by Kevin Killough

Research by Dr. Alec Feinberg, a climate scientist, industrial physics consultant, finds that nearly 13% of global warming is a result of the urban heat island effect.

 

Las Vegas broke its all time high-temperature record over the Fourth of July weekend when the thermometer climbed to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. That event was part of a heat wave that’s been blanketing the western U.S.

Heat waves anymore bring a barrage of dramatic media reports. This summer’s heat wave solicited a headline in the San Francisco Chronicle that claimed that 120 degrees is comparable to a pizza oven. Commercial pizza ovens are actually closer to 1,000 degrees, and home-baked pizzas are cooked at 500 degrees.  

With the heat wave bearing down on the West Coast, the Los Angeles Times editorial board argued that life would be better if we just got rid of fossil fuels. 

"We are living in a dangerous new era of more frequent, more destructive and deadlier disasters fueled by humanity’s continued spewing of greenhouse gas pollution," the Times board opined.

Average global temperatures are rising, and carbon dioxide emissions are a contributing factor to that rise. But the science on how much warming is caused by carbon dioxide and how much is natural is far from settled. 

When it comes to mitigating warming, even if we eliminated all carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels today, it would be over a century before concentrations in the atmosphere would decline to pre-industrial levels. And since eliminating emissions would require eliminating most energy humans consume, any subsequent heat waves, even if they were less severe and shorter, would likely be endured without air conditioning. 

Urban Heat Ovens

Dr. Alec Feinberg, a climate scientist, industrial physics consultant, and founder of DfrSoft, told Just the News that there are more effective ways to deal with rising temperatures by addressing what’s called “the urban heat island effect” (UHIE). Feinberg explained that the UHIE is the result of heat flux. 

“Heat flux is just a fancy scientific word for heat,” he said. It includes the heat that comes off of pavement, as well as the heat from air conditioning. Air conditioners cool spaces by removing heat, which is then ejected out of a building, raising temperatures within cities. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations consortium of the world’s leading climate researchers, Fienberg said, dismisses the UHIE as having any meaningful impact on temperature trends, but he disagrees. 

“It has a very large local effect,” Feinberg said. 

Early cherry blossom blooms illustrate this. While the media last spring were blaming emissions for the early cherry blossom blooms in Washington, D.C., research meteorologist Ryan Maue, argued in a post on X that land-use changes and urbanization were likely driving the earlier blooms more than the impact of carbon dioxide. 

Chris Martz, an atmospheric science senior at Millersville University, told Just the News in March that the Global Historical Climatology Network Daily has five stations surrounding the D.C. metro area. Martz compiled the data from those stations, which have spring average temperatures going back to 1893. The data, Martz found, shows no warming trend since at least 1921 in the rural and suburban areas around D.C.

Feinberg has published papers on the UHIE, and his research found that urbanization contributes 12.7% to the global average annual mean surface air temperature. About half of that, according to Feinberg, is caused by the energy people consume, such as running air conditioners. The other half is caused by impermeable surfaces, which is the building materials, asphalt and concrete that doesn’t soak up water. 

His research found that about 6.5% of global warming comes from dark surfaces that soak up heat from the sun. By making these more reflective, he said, we could reduce warming. 

“If those roads were concrete, we would have about 5.5% less global warming. So, in other words, we can make them more reflective, because concrete is about four to five times brighter,” Feinberg said. 

Reducing global emissions, on the other hand, requires international cooperation, which is hard to achieve, especially when developing nations are trying to grow their economies. Likewise, reducing or eliminating fossil fuels is costly, and is causing serious economic impacts on European nations that have aggressively pursued net zero goals. 

Making cities more reflective, on the other hand, can be done by local government ordinances and have a much more immediate impact. 

“There’s a lot of mitigation capabilities in cities,” Fienberg said. 

What happens in Vegas

Dr. Matt Wielicki, former assistant professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Alabama, says on his “Irrational Fear” Substack that Las Vegas provides a good example of how urban areas can drive temperature increases. 

The 10 hottest days in Las Vegas history in the last 22 years ranged from 114 degrees in 2002 and 2006 to 120 degrees on July 6.

Between 1980 and 2020, the population of Las Vegas grew from 273,000 to 2.3 million. While the July 6 record was the highest in recorded history, the temperatures in Las Vegas in the last two decades aren’t unprecedented. The thermometers hit 116 degrees in 1942, for example. 

Temperature monitoring stations are often placed on airports, and the Las Vegas airport expanded from 1 million passengers annually in the 1950s to 50 million in 2019. 

“This expansion has included multiple runway extensions, terminal upgrades, and increased tarmac area, all contributing to the Urban Heat Island Effect by replacing the natural desert landscape with heat-absorbing infrastructure,” Wielicki wrote.

Martz, the Millersville meteorology student, noted in a post on X that the weather station at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, sits less than 200 feet off a six-lane avenue and 500 feet off the runway. 

“The assertion that GHGs (greenhouse gas emissions), particularly CO2, are solely responsible for the record temperatures in Las Vegas is overly simplistic and ignores significant local factors,” Wielicki wrote.

Kevin Killough

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/energy/media-blast-fossil-fuels-over-heat-waves-researchers-argue-smarter-ways-beat

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House passes GOP-led SAVE Act that bans non-citizen voting in federal elections - Misty Severi

 

by Misty Severi

The SAVE Act was introduced by Texas Rep. Chip Roy, a Republican, earlier this year, but could be vetoed by President Joe Biden if it reaches his desk later this year.

 

The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the Republican-led Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act in a 221-198 vote, which requires voters to prove their citizenship in the United States in order to vote in federal elections.

The SAVE Act was introduced by Texas Rep. Chip Roy, a Republican, earlier this year, but could be vetoed by President Joe Biden if it reaches his desk later this year.

The Biden administration said it opposes the bill because it is already illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections.

“The alleged justification for this bill is based on easily disproven falsehoods,” the administration said in a statement on Monday. “Additionally, making a false claim of citizenship or unlawfully voting in an election is punishable by removal from the United States and a permanent bar to admission.”

 
Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just the News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/congress/house-votes-gop-led-save-act

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More Bad News on the Electric Vehicle Front - Chris Talgo

 

by Chris Talgo

All is not well for the Electric Vehicle (EV) industry these days. More

 

Suffice to say, all is not well for the Electric Vehicle (EV) industry these days. Despite ample subsidies from the federal government, EV sales are slumping.

Some of the largest automakers, such as Mercedes Benz, admit they won’t come close to hitting their EV sales estimates over the next few years. And Tesla, the king of EVs, just announced its lowest quarterly profit over the past two years. After the Tesla news broke, the company’s shares cratered, leading to a $138 billion decline in value.

Even worse, Hyundai Motor North America is facing a lawsuit that contends the auto manufacturer “has emphasized sales-volume growth in its Hyundai branded EVs, leading the public to believe these increasing EV sales are occurring organically because of the desirability of Hyundai EVs and customer demand for these vehicles.”

What’s more, the lawsuit, filed by Napleton Aurora Imports, a dealership based in the Chicago suburbs, alleges Hyundai pressured dealerships to “artificially inflate” EV sales numbers; created a perverse incentive system in which dealerships that “played ball” were rewarded while those who did not were “punished,” issued several press releases trumpeting “fake” EV sales figures, “created a multitiered scheme to cause its dealers to report false [EV] sales,” and deliberately pushed a “false narrative” that its EV sales were due to “organic growth fueled by desirable vehicles and consumer demand.”

Aside from the lackluster sales figures and alleged scams, the EV industry is facing several vexing problems that seem almost insurmountable at this point in time.

For instance, over this summer alone, there have been numerous reports of people being trapped inside EVs due to dead batteries. In some of these cases, toddlers have been locked inside of sweltering cars.

In one example, on June 20, Renee Sanchez was eager to take her two-year-old granddaughter to the Phoenix Zoo. Early that morning, Sanchez strapped the toddler into the backseat of her Model Y Tesla. After closing the rear door, Sanchez attempted to open the front door. However, it would not open because the battery was dead.

“I could not get in. My phone key wouldn’t open it. My card key wouldn’t open it,” Sanchez told a local news network. In a panic, Sanchez called 911. Within minutes, thankfully, the fire department showed up.

“The first thing they said was, ‘Uggh, it’s a Tesla. We can’t get in these cars,’” Sanchez said. “And I said, ‘I don’t care if you have to cut my car in half. Just get her out.’”

Fortunately, the firefighters used an ax to break the back window. Then, they climbed in and unstrapped the toddler, literally saving her life.

Although the toddler was okay, Sanchez said they both were traumatized by the incident. After her granddaughter was rescued, Sanchez couldn’t help but think, “oh my God, this could have been so much worse.” She was angry. And rightfully so.

“When [the Tesla] works, it’s great. But when it doesn’t, it can be deadly,” she warned.

Make no mistake, this is not the first time someone has been trapped inside an EV. Nor will it be the last.

Another major concern for EV owners is the possibility of chargers catching fire. Consider what recently happened to NFL star receiver Randall Cobb, whose home burned down after the Tesla charger in his garage caught on fire.

“The Tesla charger caught on fire in the garage late last night and quickly spread. We got out of the house with nothing but the clothes on our back and no shoes on our feet,” Cobb’s wife, Aiyda, posted to Instagram. “We are lucky to be alive,” she added.

According to Cobb, “We got out of the house and I was able to go back in and get our dog, Louie. We can’t thank Chief Caruthers, Captain Irvin, and the Nashville Fire Department enough for their swift action.”

“I can’t get the image of the brave firefighter getting into position out of my head; he didn’t even have water to shoot yet,” Cobb continued. “I truly thought the cars were going to explode and that we would lose him to this tragedy. He is a true hero.”

Cobb is right. EV fires are extraordinarily dangerous.

As the National Transportation Safety Board notes, “Fires in electric vehicles powered by high-voltage lithium-ion batteries pose the risk of electric shock to emergency responders from exposure to the high-voltage components of a damaged lithium-ion battery. A further risk is that damaged cells in the battery can experience uncontrolled increases in temperature and pressure (thermal runaway), which can lead to hazards such as battery reignition/fire. The risks of electric shock and battery reignition/fire arise from the "stranded" energy that remains in a damaged battery.”

In fact, EV fires are so dangerous that fire departments cannot use regular equipment to fight them.

Of course, the EV charger-sparked fire that destroyed the Cobbs’ home is far from the first this has happened. Over the past few years, similar incidents have occurred throughout the country. Sadly, scores have died from these nightmares. And, in all likelihood, more will.

As they say, you only have one chance to make a first impression. And, based on Americans’ reluctance to purchase EVs, I think it’s safe to say at this point that the EV rollout has been a disaster so far.

Image: Pexels/Stuyves Exantus

 
Chris Talgo (ctalgo@heartland.org) is editorial director at The Heartland Institute.

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/07/more_bad_news_on_the_electric_vehicle_front.html

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The Normalization of Terrorism and Jew-Hate - Robert Williams

 

by Robert Williams

If you do not want a "bloodbath," do not take hostages, hide them among civilians, try to prevent a rescue, then if they are rescued, profess shock at the fallout that you yourself have teed up.

 

• It apparently never occurred to either the heads of the UN or the EU to consider that if you are a terrorist organization that commits war crimes, you do not get to choose how a war that you started is waged against you.

• If you do not want a "bloodbath," do not take hostages, hide them among civilians, try to prevent a rescue, then if they are rescued, profess shock at the fallout that you yourself have teed up.

• BBC news asked with a straight face if, to spare the lives of the Gazan "civilians" who were keeping the hostages locked up in their homes, Israel had given prior warning before launching its rescue operation. The Israeli spokesman, also keeping a straight face, politely answered that a warning might have endangered the hostages and made the rescue more difficult.

• The irony of all this seems completely lost on the political and media elites, who kept insisting that the Israeli rescue operation was somehow immoral. By condemning Israel's rescue operation, they suggest that massacring and kidnapping 240 people is moral, and an act that should not require a military response.

• The new purported Hamas agreement to a ceasefire apparently comes with "a major hurdle: The Iran-backed terror group is now demanding 'written guarantees' that mediators will continue to negotiate a permanent truce, once the first phase of the plan goes into effect, the Hamas rep said."

• Essentially, this demand means that Hamas and its handlers, Iran and Qatar, would like to start wars and then have someone else stop them when they do not like how they are going.

• In contravention of the Geneva conventions, Hamas has refused to allow the Red Cross to check on the welfare of the hostages. One can imagine why.

• To this day, there seems little-to-no interest in the fate or condition of the hostages still in Gaza. Instead, there is denial that the October 7 atrocities even took place, compared to an almost obsessive regard for the safety of, and humanitarian aid for Gazans. When the UN is unable to deliver the aid, Israel, not the UN, is blamed.

• The Hamas murders, rapes, burning alive of babies and abductions – all the reasons why Israel was forced to go to war with Hamas to begin with -- have retreated into the background.

• What seems to matter instead to those who set the political and media agendas is to use the Hamas war once again to demonize the Jews as the world's most inhuman people for wanting to live peacefully on their historical land without daily massacres from Iran and its proxies -- Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and the Houthis -- which apparently plan to encircle them in a "Ring of Fire" -- "six fronts of aggression against Israel" -- as part of Iran's attempt at hegemony in the Middle East.

• Western elites seem happy to assist them in that fight.

It apparently never occurred to either the heads of the UN or the EU to consider that if you are a terrorist organization that commits war crimes, you do not get to choose how a war that you started is waged against you. If you do not want a "bloodbath," do not take hostages, hide them among civilians, try to prevent a rescue, then if they are rescued, profess shock at the fallout that you yourself have teed up. Pictured: Naama Levy, an Israeli woman abducted and taken to Gaza by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, when she was 19 years old. She is still being held hostage by Hamas. (Image source: Hamas)

Nine months after the Iranian-orchestrated October 7 Hamas massacre of 1,200 mostly Israeli civilians, 116 hostages remain in Gaza, including at least 42 whom Israeli officials estimate were murdered by Hamas, after suffering unfathomable mental, physical and sexual abuse.

On June 8, Israel rescued four hostages in a heroic mission, in which Israeli special forces entered the private Gazan homes where four Israeli hostages -- three men and one young woman -- were held by "ordinary" Gazan civilians, one an Al-Jazeera "journalist."

What should have been hailed worldwide as an amazing rescue operation that finally brought some hostages back from their daily torture was instead condemned as "disproportionate" -- further proof of how normalized Jew-hatred and support for terrorism have become when political and media elites root for terrorist organizations instead of hostages. The EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell even called Israel's rescue operation of people who had been kidnapped a "bloodbath."

"Reports from Gaza of another massacre of civilians are appalling. We condemn this in the strongest terms," Borrell said on X. "The bloodbath must end immediately."

If you do not want a "bloodbath," do not take hostages, hide them among civilians, try to prevent a rescue, then if they are rescued, profess shock at the fallout that you yourself have teed up.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres voiced his "condemnation" for what he claimed were the deaths of "hundreds of Palestinian civilians" -- as usual unquestioningly parroting whatever figures Hamas tossed out.

General Onno Eichelsheim, Chief of Defense of the Dutch Armed Forces, said that Israel, "in its operation to rescue the hostages," had used "disproportionate force to achieve its objectives." The comment drew immediate criticism from Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom. Wilders, on X, called the comments "incomprehensible, inappropriate, incorrect."

As is usual for Hamas, which uses its civilians as human shields, the rescued Israeli hostages had been held in family homes in high-rise buildings in a densely populated part of Gaza. It apparently never occurred to either the heads of the UN or the EU to consider that if you are a terrorist organization that commits war crimes, you do not get to choose how a war that you started is waged against you.

There were even some who suggested that Israel should be put on trial for rescuing its own citizens. "The international criminal court should investigate Israel's hostage rescue raid," wrote former executive director of Human Rights Watch and currently visiting professor at Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs, Kenneth Roth, reportedly the owner of an "immoral anti-Israel obsession."

There were also "questions about its necessity," Roth added. Oh, so, according to him, it is not "necessary" to rescue Jews who are being raped, starved and tortured for nearly a year. Good to know. Estimates are that a third of the 120 hostages who remain in Gaza are no longer even alive.

BBC news asked with a straight face if, to spare the lives of the Gazan "civilians" who were keeping the hostages locked up in their homes, Israel had given prior warning before launching its rescue operation. The Israeli spokesman, also keeping a straight face, politely answered that a warning might have endangered the hostages and made the rescue more difficult.

The irony of all this seems completely lost on the political and media elites, who kept insisting that the Israeli rescue operation was somehow immoral. By condemning Israel's rescue operation, they suggest that massacring and kidnapping 240 people is moral, and an act that should not require a military response.

Meanwhile, the hostages that have returned to Israel -- those who were freed in an agreement with Hamas and those that were rescued -- spoke of starvation, beatings, rape, slavery and unfathomable torture. In contravention of the Geneva conventions, Hamas has refused to allow the Red Cross to check on the welfare of the hostages. One can imagine why.

To this day, there seems little-to-no interest in the fate or condition of the hostages still in Gaza. Instead, there is denial that the October 7 atrocities even took place, compared to an almost obsessive regard for the safety of, and humanitarian aid for Gazans. When the UN is unable to deliver the aid, Israel, not the UN, is blamed.

Meanwhile, the main condition set by Hamas, Iran and Qatar to free the hostages -- apart from releasing an infinite number of terrorists, whom they get to choose, from Israeli prisons -- has been a "permanent ceasefire" and "permanent Israeli withdrawal from Gaza." The new purported Hamas agreement to a ceasefire apparently comes with "a major hurdle: The Iran-backed terror group is now demanding 'written guarantees' that mediators will continue to negotiate a permanent truce, once the first phase of the plan goes into effect, the Hamas rep said."

Essentially, this demand means that Hamas and its handlers, Iran and Qatar, would like to start wars and then have someone else stop them when they do not like how they are going.

The UN, with main inciter-in-chief Guterres at the helm, has made it clear that Israel deserved the slaughter and had it coming, The October 7 massacres "did not happen in a vacuum," he said, thereby justifying them.

The Red Cross, which has not sought to gain access to the hostages since their abduction, presumably could not care less about their fate, and are being sued for neglect by families of the abducted.

The Hamas murders, rapes, burning alive of babies and abductions – all the reasons why Israel was forced to go to war with Hamas to begin with -- have retreated into the background. The October 7 atrocities have been squeezed into a small parenthesis, left largely unmentioned for months by mainstream media outlets and Western elites. What seems to matter instead to those who set the political and media agendas is to use the Hamas war once again to demonize the Jews as the world's most inhuman people for wanting to live peacefully on their historical land without daily massacres from Iran and its proxies -- Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and the Houthis -- which apparently plan to encircle them in a "Ring of Fire" -- "six fronts of aggression against Israel" -- as part of Iran's attempt at hegemony in the Middle East.

"Israel is a country that has no place on our land," said Ghazi Hamad, a leading Hamas terrorist, in an interview with Lebanese TV channel LBC.

"We must remove that country, because it constitutes a security, military, and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation, and must be finished. We are not ashamed to say this, with full force. We must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do this again and again. The Al-Aqsa Flood is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth, because we have the determination, the resolve, and the capabilities to fight."

Recently, a former senior member of the PFLP, Khaled Barakat, wrote in the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, "The extinction of the Zionist project is only a matter of time thanks to armed struggle, Jihad in Palestine, Lebanon and Yemen."

Western elites seem happy to assist them in that fight.

Robert Williams is a researcher based in the United States.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20770/normalization-terrorism-jew-hate

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