Chit Chat

By Ted Belman

From now on comments on every post must relate to the content of the post.

Comments that don’t relate to the post must go here.

Any person who contravenes this demand will be put on moderation. Also their offending comment will be trashed.

The reason for this demand is so that people who want to read comments which pertain to the post, don’t have to wade through the chatter.

Everyone will be happier.

April 16, 2020 | 7,908 Comments »

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  1. Is it just me, or are these people approaching the conflict in the Red Sea like a bad joke:

    The German Type 124 Sachsen-class frigate Hessen, currently in the Red Sea, almost shot down a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper, but both SM-2s that were launched suffered technical issues.
    – German AAW frigates are also expected to run out of their SM-2 Blk IIIAs since the production of the missile is no longer taking place and no efforts were done to stock said missiles.
    – Some ammunitions that the Hessen needs are no longer be procured. Once the stocks are deleted on the ship, it is expected to withdrawal from the region.
    – The ammunition shortage was not fully realized until the Hessen was deployed to a real-world situation.

    How do you deploy a warship without knowing that you are about to run out of ammo for that ship, with no possibility of supply?

  2. @Michael

    No administration will got to war for Israel and no administration will continue the present aid level no matter what Israel does or concedes. The frantic search for human allies will end as unsuccessfully as those Jews in the past who forgot what faith in the Jewish G-d was and who turned to Egypt or Assyria or other “allies” for help, only to learn to their dismay that the allies betrayed them.

    https://barbaraginsberg-kahane.blogspot.com/2012/12/israel-us-and-stinking-fish-1976.html

  6. SEB_
    No bet. It’s a given that there will be some sort of mob violence. But not nearly as widespread as if Ben G’vir’s policy had been in place. Then there would not have been confined mainly to the Mount but all throughout the country. There’d have been outright murders much more than our daily quota..

    I have urged for years for Israeli Police to track down the means that the terrorists smuggle all the rocks and bolts of wood etc into their Mosque.

    I suggested that it was most likely that they would ise a 3 l3gged stand with a block and tackle at the Aksa edge to bring up their ammunition.

    Or a similar mechanical metho./

    Another possibility might be the unauthorised construction and “repairs” that are always going on there by the Arabs. There’s be lots of building materials -blocks and etc lying around.

  7. @Sebastien
    @Edgar
    I think Ben Gvir”s policy change would have resulted in an owned error by Israel, even as the policy was soundly based.

    In fact, the reasons behind Ben Gvir’s decision was the correct one to make, but we should consider what would have occurred if he had been allowed to move forward with such a bold but correct change in policy. If he moved forward with it, how easy do you think it would be for Bibi to keep his united opposition to the US in place? Maybe 5 minutes? In fact, the US would have turned the tables on Israel, brought down the hammer on them, and could have left the coalition in a far more damaged position than where it stands today. They would have condemned Israel under the pretense of Religious freedom and access to the Holy Sites and few if anyone would have come to support Ben Gvir’s changed policy.

    I do agree that the yearly tradition of violence at Al Aqsa will likely be more exacerbated (read as more violent) than before, as will the calls for Jihad against Israel as a consequence. And let us not forget that Hamas is openly calling for terror attacks to take place over Ramadan, so there is that to consider as well.

    Yet, I don’t see any way that the new policy would have been left intact even if the US allies in Knesset had not blocked Ben Gvir’s from implementing it as they just did. Hence, the move to block the policy change today only resulted in avoiding what would have been used as a scathing rebuke towards Israel, and there should be little doubt that that policy would not have ultimately been withdrawn after a great hellabaloo between Israel and the US.

    This being stated, as I noted, we should all expect Ben Gvir’s warnings will likely prove to be prophetic, but there is little which could be done to implement that policy at this time and keep it in place due to the US-Iran realignment policy and/or the Biden Dearborn strategy. Just my own thoughts of course.

  8. @Raphael
    Well, to your point, they have already begun with a renewed Russia Hoax which they unveiled last week and all the usual Leftist Looneytoons have been pushing it as hard as they can, but I think the public will not bite on the . You may prove more accurate on this point, but I believe that this dog won’t hunt a second time, but time will tell.

    1

  9. @Peloni1986

    The lies are comprehensive — but they will work [because the liars control the narrative.]

    My apologies to you and to Mr. Sacks. The last comment about “liars controlling the narrative” was added by me, hence the brackets. (Maybe there is an official convention for annotating other peoples’ work.) In any case, I think the liars do still control all the important narratives, because they “own” the media, academia, and the government. Every now and then, we can detect a crack in their armor, but they are far from losing control. We will see them operating at full force when the US presidential campaign begins.

  10. @Edgar Well, he lost and we shall see who was right. Do we have a bet? (gentleman’s bet, of course.) Anybody else want to get on in this and make this a non-profit betting pool? How many think we shall see a repeat of 2021?

    Just to refresh everyone’s memory:

    “The Al Aqsa Mosque became a flashpoint for tensions during Ramadan in 2021, when an 11-day conflict broke out between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and rioting and violence by Arab citizens erupted inside Israel. Israeli police clashed with Palestinians at the mosque during Ramadan in 2022 and last year.2 hours ago

    Ramadan Looms as Flashpoint in Fight Between Israel and …”

    -WSJ

  11. SEB-

    Ben G’vir’s position on this matter at THIS time is WRONG. Just to flex his muscles is asking for the 5th Column to come out, millions of Jew Haters, and cause such internal disruption at such a critical time in the middle of a bitter War is asinine, and should NOT happen.

    We can’t expect a Daniel to go into and emerge safely from today’s Lions’ Den”

  13. @Raphael
    I have read several comments by Sacks. He is very much on target most of the time, but I would disagree with the final line in this thread.

    The lies are comprehensive — but they will work [because the liars control the narrative.]

    The liars don’t control the narrative any more. This is why the Ukraine aid has not passed even as Ukraine is going from defeat to defeat more rapidly than by the day. They stand exposed and the ruses which have worked so well for them in the past do not have the means to convince the majority of the cover stories for their schemes. Time will tell what point of manipulation will be used to turn the funds back on, but the people are openly opposed to doing so, and that alone is a statement of their loss of control over the narrative. If their blame game narrative held any strength at all with the general public, the Ukraine aid package would be passing on its own.

  14. This short summary of the Ukrainian war is the best I have ever read. There are important lessons for Israel to learn here.

    A WAR OF LIES
    by David O. Sacks
    February 17, 2024 12:09 PM

    The war in Ukraine is based on lies — lies about how it started, how it’s going, and how it will end.

    We are told that Ukraine is winning, when in fact it is losing. We are told that the war makes NATO stronger, when in fact it is depleting it. We are told that Ukraine’s biggest problem is a lack of funds from the U.S. Congress, when in fact the West can’t produce enough ammunition — a problem that will take years to fix. We are told that Russia is suffering greater casualties, when in fact Ukraine is running out of soldiers — another problem money can’t fix.

    We are told that the world is with us, when in fact the Global Majority believes U.S. policy is the height of folly. We are told that there is no opportunity to make peace, when in fact we have rejected multiple opportunities for a negotiated settlement. We are told that if Ukraine keeps fighting, it will improve its negotiating position, when in fact the terms will only get much worse than what was already available and rejected.

    Nevertheless the lies will succeed in dragging out the war. Congress will appropriate more funds. Russia will take more territory. Ukraine will mobilize more young men and women to feed into the “meat grinder”. Discontent will mount. Eventually there will be a crisis in Kiev and the Zelensky government will be toppled.

    And then, when the war is finally lost, when the whole country lays in smoldering ruins on a funeral pyre of their own making, the liars will say, “Well, we tried.” Having prevented any alternative, having smeared anyone who told the truth as puppets for the enemy, the liars will say, “We did our best. We stood up to Putin.”

    In fact, they will claim, “We would have succeeded but for the fifth column of Putin apologists who stabbed the Ukrainians in the back”. Then, having shifted blame, and patted themselves on the back, they will blithely move on to the next war, as they moved onto Ukraine after their disasters in Afghanistan and Iraq.

    The lies are comprehensive — but they will work [because the liars control the narrative.]

    1

  16. Mr. Zorn, if I may add one thing to your list. If the Pal’s storm the Temple mount after being warned not to “disturb the Peace” Then Israel should take it away from them and completely control it and not allow pal’s to visit, except on the second day of the third week of Ramadon. 🙂

    1

  18. Hamas’s Haniyeh calls for terror attacks during Ramadan
    The terror leader called on Palestinians to storm the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem on the first day of the Muslim holy month.

    Israel must act pre-emptively and issue a warning, as well, that if they do this, the immediate response will to be to approve more Jewish settlements and dismantle illegal Arab settlements.

    Moreover, that the homes of terrorists will not be blown up but, rather will be expropriated by the state, using Eminent Domain, but without compensation, and transferred to the families of the victims.

  20. Anti-Israel Groups Planning NJ Protest Against Shiloh Winery
    By Hana Levi Julian – 18 Adar I 5784 – February 26, 2024 0

    Four pro-Palestinian Authority organizations are spreading lies about an Israeli winery located in the Binyamin region of Samaria.

    The groups are claiming the Shiloh Winery was built on land stolen from the villages of Qaryut and Turmusayya and should therefore be boycotted.

    Several Judea and Samaria wineries, including Shiloh Winery, are slated to participate in an international wine conference scheduled for February 27 in New Jersey, organized by the Jewish Link newspaper. The groups are planning a protest outside the conference.

    The pro-Palestinian Authority groups are trying to prevent the participation of the Judea and Samaria wineries with claims the wineries are built on “stolen land”.

    Israel Ganz: Governor of the Binyamin Region “This is a campaign motivated by antisemitism.”

    Israel Ganz: Governor of the Binyamin Region
    Amichai Lurie, of Shiloh Winery, clarified that the winery is built on legally registered land in the Shiloh Industrial Zone.

    “I purchased this land from the Israel Lands Administration, paid the Ministry of the Economy for the development of the land and fees to the Binyamin industrial zone administration, and all the vineyards are registered and legal,” Lurie said.

    “This fallacious campaign is motivated by antisemitism.

    “Anyone who deliberately slanders law-abiding Israeli citizens and spreads lies about them is siding with Hamas and barbaric radical Islam, whose sole aim is to oust the Jewish People from the Land of Israel, including by raping and murdering women and children. It is shameful for anyone to act this way against Israel.”

    If readers do a little research, you will discover that Palestinian Authority leaders have been lying for years about “stolen land” and claiming the State of Israel was established on “Palestinian land: — a claim that has become the basis for the mantra “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, meaning a Palestinian state will replace Israel.

    https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/settlements-israel/pro-palestinian-authority-groups-spread-lies-about-israeli-wineries/2024/02/26/

  22. An astonishingly delusional TSS piece today. In the comments, I wrote: “This is complete Fantasy,” And then, I wrote: “I’m reminded of the Monty Python’s Flying Circus skit about “The Ministry of Silly Walks” which is on Youtube. If only there were one about “The Ministry of Wishful Thinking” it would be highly appropriate. Quite.”

    and, just now:

    “Has the author forgotten Gaza which was supposed to become the Singapore of the Middle East? Well, maybe it did – in an alternate – I was going to say dystopian but this one isn’t so hot, either – reality universe in which Singapore becomes a terrorist hotbed determined to destroy neighboring countries, conquer the world, and murder everyone who had 3 or 4 grandparents who ever left chewing gum on a seat. ”

    Like it or not, there will be two states – opinion
    There is only one solution that holds any promise for a productive future for both of us, and that is to find some way to live together so that we are not constantly trying to kill each other.
    By SHERWIN POMERANTZ
    FEBRUARY 28, 2024 01:34

    https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-789233

  25. AP, Reuters sued by Nova victims’ families
    News agencies are responsible for their reporters, photographers who were present since the first moments of the Hamas massacre on October 7, documenting and participating in the atrocities, the filing claims

    https://www.ynetnews.com/article/s1ra90h3p

    My screen froze repeatedly when I tried to get out of the pop up ads.

  26. Hi, Tanna (I made a mistake. This should be on the “Breaking: Ukrainian…” )thread.

    A Rabbi recently suggested that Nato was Magog and our own Muslim president Obama was gog.

    I saw a big banner to this sort of effect in 1979 at the university, put up by pro-Iranian-Islamist students. They had the Soviet Union as Gog and the US as Magog. Of course, the Iranians reject the Bible.

    NATO is just part of the Western coalition: South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand and others are also helping out. Four of the original 5 permanent UN Security Council members are in this coalition, as well as all the G7 countries.

  27. Anti-Zionist Jews are fringe voices – it’s time we ridicule them
    This article was originally published in the Jerusalem Post on February 18th, 2024, written by Adam Milstein

    (From an emailed post. The original says, “ignore.”

    https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-787566

    Since the Soviet Union, the Arab League boycott, and the Iranian Revolution, antisemites have tried to hide their anti-Jewish bigotry behind politically acceptable “anti-Zionism.”

    Get two Jews in a room, get three opinions. True of most things, but one thing most Jews agree on is that Israel is the indigenous homeland of the Jewish people and that their connection to it is a core tenet of their Jewish identity. Despite this majoritarian view, there is a loud minority of radical anti-Israel Jewish voices. Although unrepresentative of the broad Jewish community, our detractors and the media weaponize them, turning them into “token Jews” used to attack Israel and sow division within the Jewish community. It’s time we ridicule them.

    From the Soviet Union to the Arab League Boycott, from the Iranian Revolution to October 7th and anti-Israel protests today, antisemites attempt to hide their anti-Jewish bigotry behind politically acceptable “anti-Zionism”. Jews who support this charade willingly provide political cover for this generation’s loudest and proudest antisemites.

    The normalization of anti-Zionist Jews in public life has three glaring issues:

    1. Israel-hatred doesn’t exempt you from the Jewish collective future

    Jewish life in the diaspora is directly dependent on the continued survival and flourishing of the Jewish state. Groups like Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and If Not Now (INN), deploy and weaponize their Jewish identity in their anti-Israel activism. The effect? The re-assurance of non-Jewish groups that anyone can target Israel without fear of alienating the “Jewish community”. JVP and INN are a collection of radical left, mostly Jewish ideologues who use their ancestry to leverage attacks against Israel. They cite Jewish ritual, reference texts, and use our people’s language to validate their radical attacks against the homeland of the Jewish people, the state of Israel.

    What they fail to realize is that their misplaced activism allows virulent antisemites to turn them into useful idiots. They’re ephemeral political fronts weaponized by antisemites until they no longer serve their purpose. Antisemites hate all Jews – “good Jews” or “bad Jews”, those from the right and from the left alike. So, if Israel ceases to exist, as JVP and INN desire, where will these Jews turn when antisemites inevitably turn on them? By normalizing and validating the progressive movement’s exclusion of Zionist Jews (most Jews) they are essentially digging their own graves.

    JVP and INN should forever be contextualized properly and referred to for what they are – useful jesters for Jew haters around the globe. And once contextualized, they should be ridculed.

    2. Institutions empowering “token” Jews endanger all Jews

    Radical leftist orthodoxy continues to permeate American institutional life. This ideological capture is perhaps most obvious throughout American universities. Since October 7th, university leadership keen to balance the appearance of caring about antisemitism while maintaining their progressive bona fides, use token Jews as proof that their progressive agendas are not antisemitic. For example, recently, Stanford named Ari Kelman, a Jewish professor aligned with anti-Israel groups, and who concluded antisemitism wasn’t a problem on campuses in 2017 paper, as the Co-Chair of their Committee on Antisemitism.

    In an effort to redefine what constitutes antisemitism, Kelman alongside Jewish Voice for Peace, argued that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism is “flawed and overly expansive” and “silences Palestinian voices.” Deborah Lipstadt, the US Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism called IHRA “one of the most fundamental tools we have to combat [antisemitism].” Stanford selected someone to combat antisemitism whose views are directly at odds with the State Department’s pre-eminent defender of the Jewish people. And after Kelman essentially offered his Judaism as political cover to defend San Francisco State University’s (SFSU) antisemitism, the school admitted to allowing antisemitism on its campus.

    More recently, Harvard selected Jewish professor Derek Penslar, a known anti-Israel proponent, to lead an antisemitism task force on campus. In August, Penslar signed an open letter accusing Israel of running “a regime of apartheid” and employing “Jewish supremacism”. And following Claudina Gay’s resignation, Penslar downplayed the antisemitism on campus, telling JTA that outsiders had “exaggerated” the issue. As Larry Summers wrote, “Could one imagine Harvard appointing as head of anti-racism task force someone who had minimized the racism problem,” as Mr. Penslar has done with antisemitism at Harvard.” The double standard glaring.

    When selecting leadership and given the centrality of Israel for most Jews, institutions would be wise to listen to the fears and concerns of Zionist Jews. Committees, task forces, and organizations are constantly formed to combat “Muslim, Palestinian, and Arab hate” – lumping in ethnicity, religion and state-based hatred. But Jews aren’t afforded this same protection. Institutions who solely elevate Jews with anti-Israel views perpetuate this double standard.

    3. Anti-Israel views are not pro-peace. They’re anti-Jewish future.

    Since 10/7 it’s hard to find a “pro-Palestinian” rally that isn’t drenched in antisemitic rhetoric, anti-Jewish venom, or stereotypical tropes. Anti-Israel Jews, aligned with radical leftist ideology, have taken part in many of these rallies. They have joined the growing numbers who view the world through over-simplified binaries and hypothetical pyramids of power and oppression. These activists enthusiastically point to Israel as a unique perpetuator of oppression.

    But JVP and INN activists have no interest in peace. One of their allies, Omar Barghouti, the co-founder and co-leader of the BDS movement, explains: “You cannot reconcile the right of return for refugees with a two-state solution. . . A return for refugees would end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.” And he makes clear that this is precisely his goal. “Most definitely we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine.” And he hails JVP as a “key partner in the BDS network.”

    Sunlight is the greatest disinfectant, thus JVP and INN should be exposed as radical, fringe, and anti-peace. They harbor views that not only fail to represent the broad Jewish consensus, but they also directly endanger the Jewish people.

    Since 10/7, what many Jews have feared for a long time has been made crystal clear–our place in the world is tenuous, our footing is fragile, and there aren’t many of us. Jews who openly call for the destruction of Israel threaten our future as a people, and we must see them as who they really are –tools that are used by the hands of our enemies.

    This op-ed is published in partnership with a coalition of organizations that fight antisemitism across the world. Read the previous article by Roi Yanovsky

  28. Countering ‘Pro-Palestine’ Propaganda: Part 1: Resistance is Justified When People Are Occupied – title from reprint in Jewish Press. https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/countering-pro-palestine-propaganda-part-1-resistance-is-justified-when-people-are-occupied/2024/01/24/

    IPT Series on Countering ‘Pro-Palestine’ Propaganda
    by A.J. Caschetta
    Special to IPT News
    January 23, 2024

    facebook sharing buttontwitter sharing buttonemail sharing buttonwhatsapp sharing buttontelegram sharing button

    Washington, DC – Dec 31, 2023: Protest calling for Ceasefire in Gaza – Image Credit: Shutterstock.com/Johnny Silvercloud

    Hamas and its allies in the media, Congress, and especially in academia have saturated the nation with propaganda meant to sway the “hearts and minds” of Americans against Israel. They appear to be winning. The proliferation of anti-Israel protests across the nation since October 7, attests to the failure of the American educational system and the success of the “Palestine” lobby.
    At the forefront of Hamas’s propaganda victories are legions of uninformed college students, aided by professional agitators and biased media figures. Shutting down roads, bridges, and airports with seeming impunity, they have made it impossible for even people with no interest in politics to avoid the war in Gaza.

    Anti-Israel propaganda depends on ignorance. Students chanting “From the river to the sea” can’t identify either the river or the sea in question. Few have even heard about UN Resolution 181, and fewer still know how a piece of territory roughly the size of New Jersey came to be known as “Palestine.” They have been misled into believing “a truth” far removed from truth.

    To counter the assault of anti-Israel propaganda on the streets of American cities and on American college campuses, the Investigative Project on Terrorism introduces a new series aimed at debunking the ubiquitous “pro-Palestine” claims. Some entries focus on the various slurs leveled at Israel and on disingenuous representations of Israeli law, for instance the accusations that Israel is an “apartheid, settler-colonial state,” and is practicing “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” against the Palestinians. Others focus on elements of the “Palestinian resistance” narrative, such as the charge that Gaza is an “open-air prison” and that Palestinian “refugees” have a “right” to return to Israel and claim land lost in the 1948 War of Independence.

    Hamas is the enemy of both Israel and the U.S. While Israel fights the military battle to destroy our common enemy, the least Americans can do is fight the propaganda battle at home.

    Part 1: Resistance is Justified When People Are Occupied

    Washington, DC – Oct 8, 2023: Free Palestine “Resistance is Justified When People are Occupied! – Image Credit: Shutterstock.com/Johnny Silvercloud

    With their chants and banners, anti-Israel protesters minimize Hamas atrocities by claiming it is a “resistance group” engaged in a “liberation struggle.” The National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) released a “Day of Resistance Toolkit” one day after the October 7 pogrom, praising the “historic win for the Palestinian resistance” and urging campus chapters to participate in a “national day of resistance.” It advised them to “ground our campuses and communities in a narrative which centers the legitimacy of resistance,” and to frame the massacre of civilians as a “natural and justified response to decades of oppression.”
    But Hamas is not a resistance group. Legitimate resistance groups don’t butcher infants, abduct grandmothers, or brand children. They don’t send storm troopers to prey on children and elderly civilians. They don’t use rape as a tactic to desecrate their victims and satisfy their violent sexual desires. They don’t defile corpses or kill family pets. Any group that does so crosses the line from “resistance” to “terrorism.” Hamas’s feral humans did these things, bragged about doing so, to their mothers even, and made videos of themselves doing so. And they promise to do it again.

    According to International law, non-state “resistance” groups must “ensure respect for the [Geneva] Convention in all circumstances.” To be considered a legitimate “resistance” group they must always be “in compliance with the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict.” But Hamas defies all the rules of war, as do all the other Palestinian organizations that hide behind the “resistance” label.

    Hamas is a terrorist group and is designated so by many countries, including the U.S., Canada, Australia, Paraguay, Japan, the European Union (comprising 27 nations), and of course Israel.

    Jordan banned Hamas in 1999. In 2017, Saudia Arabia’s foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir rejected Hamas’s claim to the term “resistance” and called it a “terrorist organization.” Not only has the United Arab Emirates designated Hamas a terrorist organization, but, in 2021, it chastised all nations that have not done so. The UAE’s foreign minister Abdullah bin Zayed called it “unfortunate that some countries do not act more clearly in classifying … Hamas, Hezbollah or the Muslim Brotherhood” as terrorist organizations.

    Another false claim is that the “Palestinian resistance” targets Israel only. The Americans killed on October 7 and those taken as hostages back to Gaza, so goes the argument, weren’t targeted as Americans per se, but were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time and were mistaken for Israelis. Noura Erakat, an associate professor at Rutgers University who calls Hamas “a nascent sovereign of the Palestinian people,” also claims that it “has only targeted Israel.”

    Does anyone believe that the 32 Americans murdered on October 7 didn’t identify themselves as Americans to their executioners? And if the Americans kidnapped by Palestinians and held hostage in Gaza were initially mistaken for Israelis, Hamas soon learned that they were American and yet continues to hold them.

    Various members and factions of the “Palestinian resistance” have been deliberately targeting Americans for decades, long before Hamas was founded. In 1968, Palestinian nationalist Sirhan Sirhan assassinated Robert F. Kennedy because of his support for Israel. In 1973, Yasser Arafat of the P.L.O. – the allegedly secular half of the “Palestinian resistance” – ordered the execution of U.S. Ambassador to Sudan, Cleo Noel, and Chargé d’Affaires, George Moore, after they were taken captive at a party in the Saudi Arabian embassy in Khartoum, Sudan.

    In addition to killing Americans who were mistaken for Israelis, Hamas is also responsible for killing Americans because they were Americans.

    On October 15, 2003, Americans in Gaza were targeted with a massive bomb buried under a road at the Beit Hanoun junction. The bomb was detonated remotely as a convoy of SUVs easily-recognized as U.S. State Department vehicles drove over it. Palestinian police arrested three members of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) for the bombing. They were identified as residents of the Jebaliya Refugee Camp (a Hamas stronghold). According to the Israeli government, the PRC is “supported, subsidized and trained by the Hamas terrorist organization.”

    What was a convoy of State Department SUVs doing in the Gaza Strip in October 2003? The answer should sicken every American. They were interviewing Palestinian students for Fulbright Scholarships. That’s right. U.S. taxpayers paid for diplomats to travel to the heart of Hamas-land in order to dispense more tax dollars to subsidize Palestinian students, offering them a free college education.

    Three Americans serving on the security detail of those diplomats were killed in that attack. As the State Department spokesman in 2003, Richard Boucher, put it, “We have employees on contract, in this case from DynCorp, who help supplement our security resources.”

    John Eric Branchizio from San Antonio, Texas was a 9-year veteran of the Navy Seals. He was the oldest of those killed by Hamas, having turned 37 years old two days before the attack.

    Mark Thaddeus Parsons from Yonkers, New York, was 31 years old.

    John Martin Linde Jr. from Missouri was the youngest killed, only 30 years old. He served 10 years in the U.S. Marine Corps and retired at the rank of Sergeant.

    President George W. Bush issued a press release on October 15, 2003, condemning the attack and explaining the circumstances.

    For Immediate Release
    Office of the Press Secretary
    October 15, 2003

    President Condemns Terrorist Act in Gaza Wednesday

    I condemn in the strongest terms the vicious act of terrorism directed against Americans in Gaza today. We are working closely with the appropriate officials to bring the terrorists to justice.

    Palestinian authorities should have acted long ago to fight terror in all its forms. The failure to create effective Palestinian security forces dedicated to fighting terror continues to cost lives. There must be an empowered prime minister who controls all Palestinian security forces, reforms that continue to be blocked by Yasser Arafat. The failure to undertake these reforms and dismantle the terrorist organizations constitutes the greatest obstacle to achieving the Palestinian people’s dream of statehood.

    The Americans who were attacked today were pursuing a vision for a better future for the Palestinian people. The U.S. embassy officials traveling in Gaza were there to interview young Palestinian candidates seeking Fulbright scholarships to study in the United States. This is another example of how the terrorists are enemies of progress and opportunity for the Palestinian people.

    On behalf of the American people, I send my heartfelt condolences to the families of the brave Americans who were killed and injured serving our country and its ideals.

    Bush left out some details, such as the fact that when American investigators arrived at the scene, rock-throwing Palestinian “youths” – perhaps some of the same youths the diplomats risked their lives to interview – forced them to retreat and wait for military back-up.

    So the next time someone says that the “Palestinian resistance only targets Israelis,” explain the difference between a resistance group and a terrorist group. Then remind them who killed Robert F. Kennedy, Cleo Noel, George Moore, John Branchizio, Mark Parsons, and John Linde.

    Coming soon, “Part 2: Israel is a Settler-Colonial State”

    IPT Senior Fellow A.J. Caschetta is a principal lecturer at the Rochester Institute of Technology and a fellow at Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum where he is also a Ginsberg-Milstein fellow.

    Copyright © 2024. Investigative Project on Terrorism. All rights reserved.

    Related Topics: A.J. Caschetta, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Journalism, Media, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Anti-Israel Propaganda, From the River to the Sea

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    https://www.investigativeproject.org/9356/ipt-series-on-countering-pro-palestine-propaganda

  29. @Sebastien

    This is no longer a landslide. This is a tsunami.

    Precisely.

    Trump now needs to focus on who should replace McDaniels as head of the RNC after she resigns following Super Tuesday. That will leave only one of the Mc’s still needing to be replaced, ie Cocaine Mitch.

  30. Israel’s Municipal Elections: Lapid Sustains Major Blow in Tel Aviv; Haredim and Hardalim Take Jerusalem
    By David Israel – 19 Adar I 5784 – February 28, 2024 0

    https://www.jewishpress.com/news/elections-news/israels-municipal-elections-lapid-sustains-major-blow-in-tel-aviv-haredim-and-hardalim-take-jerusalem/2024/02/28/

    “It was a huge victory for the Haredi and Hardali (Haredi Zionists) parties.”

    “National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir congratulated the presumed winner of the post of Mayor of Tzfat Yossi Kakon who is supported by the Otzma Yehudit faction.”

    1

  31. …
    Trump wins the Michigan Republican primary
    Trump has defeated Nikki Haley in another Republican presidential primary contest, according to NBC News projections.

    Feb. 27, 2024, 9:00 PM EST / Updated Feb. 27, 2024, 9:46 PM EST
    By Henry J. Gomez
    Former President Donald Trump has won Michigan’s Republican primary, NBC News projects.

    The victory continues Trump’s dominant run through this year’s presidential primaries and caucuses, despite the lingering candidacy of former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.

    Michigan is a two-part nominating contest for the GOP. Only 16 of the state’s 55 delegates to the Republican National Convention will be awarded based on Tuesday’s primary results. The remaining delegates will be decided at a state party convention Saturday.

    Follow live coverage here.

    Trump called in to a Michigan GOP watch party in Grand Rapids shortly after the race was called to thank supporters.

    “We have a very simple task — we have to win on Nov. 5,” Trump, referring to the general election, told the crowd by phone. “We win Michigan, we win the whole thing.”

    Trump’s influence in the state remains deep. He was heavily involved in the 2022 midterms, endorsing a slate of statewide candidates who won their primaries with his help — but all of whom all lost in the general election.

    At a Feb. 17 rally in Waterford Township, his only pre-primary rally in Michigan, Trump largely looked past the contest and focused on a November rematch with President Joe Biden.

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    “We want to send a signal, but we want to win Nov. 5,” he added. “Nov. 5, we’re going to get this guy out. We’re going to change our country. We’re going to bring our country back.”

    Haley campaigned Sunday in the Detroit suburb of Troy and Monday in Grand Rapids. Winless in every primary and caucus ahead of Tuesday — including in her home state of South Carolina — she has been focusing more on what she sees as Trump’s lack of electability this fall. She has emphasized how she received nearly 40% of the vote in South Carolina and suggested her vote share indicated problems for Trump.

    Hours before the polls closed in Michigan, Haley spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas sought to drastically lower expectations, suggesting that even a 10% share would signal an “appetite” for a Trump alternative in the GOP. When early results showed Haley losing Michigan by an even wider margin than past contests, Perez-Cubas reinforced that assertion.

    “Joe Biden is losing about 20% of the Democratic vote today, and many say it’s a sign of his weakness in November,” Perez-Cubas said. “Donald Trump is losing about 35% of the vote. That’s a flashing warning sign for Trump in November.”

    The primary and Saturday’s convention come amid major turmoil for the Michigan Republican Party. A judge on Tuesday intervened in a long-building dispute between former Rep. Pete Hoekstra, whom the Republican National Committee has recognized as the new state party chair, and Kristina Karamo, who was ousted from that role by activists unhappy with her management.

    Karamo had refused to give up the post. She also had vowed to go ahead with plans for a rival GOP convention Saturday in Detroit — Hoekstra is holding his convention in Grand Rapids — but Tuesday’s court order prohibits her from conducting party business.

    Trump had endorsed Hoekstra, his former ambassador to the Netherlands. The former president congratulated Hoekstra on his court victory during the call to the watch party Tuesday night.

    “When we finally get access to all of the information from the previous leadership of the Republican Party, we’re not going to find a campaign plan,” Hoekstra said last week in an interview. “And I’m expecting we’re not going to find any financial resources. And so, yeah … we’ve got eight months to do what a political party normally does in 18 to 20 months.”

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-win-michigan-republican-primary-haley-loss-rcna139692

    —
    My comment: So, my takeway from this nbcnews article is a) Trump won 16 delegates out of 55 in the primary because the remainder will be decided at the party convention Saturday. b) The old ousted RINO chairman refused to step down in favor of the Trump endorsed candidate the Republican National Committee annointed and tried to set up her own alternate convention which was cancelled by the court (the Court ruled in favor the Pro-Trump candidate!) c) Under her leadership, the Republican party had no plan for winning the general election.

    And Haley suggests that if only 10 people vote for her, justice and righteousness will have won the day. Where have I read something like that before? Hmmm. I dunno. 😀 Well, she might lose the election but at least she’ll have her minyon. Her minions’ minion.

    Michigan is an open primary state. Dems can vote in the Republican primary. I wonder how many of them voted for Haley in Michigan.

    But, Trump still won.

    This is no longer a landslide. This is a tsunami.

  32. President Trump projected for big victory in Michigan. This is expected to be a far bigger victory than in South Carolina, and this would be all the more important, given that it is in Michigan, one of the 6 ‘contested’ states, ie states where the fraud was not just massive but decisively needed to overturn the election and overthrow the will of the people. We will see how large Trump’s victory turns out to be, but it is an important point that his strength in this state remains quite significant.

    1

  33. Hochul, SUNY system threaten legal action against anti-Israel group
    An organization spewing antisemitic rhetoric was told to stop all further use of the name and trademarks associated with the State University of New York.
    MIKE WAGENHEIM

    (February 27, 2024 / JNS)
    It took a media inquiry to the New York governor’s office for a BDS group to be condemned and threatened with legal action by a state university.

    “SUNY BDS” sprung up about a month ago, purporting to represent all 64 State University of New York branches in a hateful campaign against Israel. The BDS movement calls for the boycott and divestment from and sanctions on Israel.

    Unauthorized by any campus or state system entity, the group has been using the SUNY name and other trademarks without permission.

    It bills itself as “SUNY students, staff, faculty and alumni working to make New York State divest from Israeli apartheid.” It describes Israel as a “murderous settler colonial and genocidal state project.”

    Like many anti-Israel organizations, SUNY BDS puts the word “Israel” in quotes, signaling it doesn’t recognize the existence of the Jewish state.

    The group accused New York Gov. Kathy Hochul of illegally attempting to block the virulently antisemitic Students for Justice in Palestine organization from opening a campus chapter. SJP has been suspended by Columbia University and other institutions for the use of anti-Jewish rhetoric, threats and intimidation.

    SUNY BDS also alleges ties between SUNY and Israel through university partnerships, including to “the weapons manufacturers supporting Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.”

    Evidence for such claims is unclear.

    After an inquiry from the New York Post, Hochul’s office issued a statement denouncing the group’s activity and messaging.

    “To be clear, both Governor Hochul and the SUNY System do not endorse this group or their mission,” wrote a representative for Hochul, noting that she has “repeatedly condemned all forms of antisemitism and has taken significant steps to keep our students safe, including launching a nation-leading initiative to combat hate crimes, investing hundreds of millions of dollars to protect schools, places of worship and community centers and advancing a comprehensive plan to eradicate hate and bias at public colleges in New York.”

    ‘Using intellectual property’

    Hochul, who made a solidarity trip to Israel in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks, has come under fire in recent days after stating that “there would be no more Canada” if that country perpetrated a massacre against the United States on the level of Hamas’s, signaling support for Israel’s military operations against Hamas in Gaza.

    Additionally, SUNY sent a cease-and-desist letter to SUNY BDS, warning it against “using intellectual property” of the state university system.

    “It has come to our attention that your unincorporated organization, SUNY BDS, uses images and other written references that utilize one or more SUNY trademarks,” wrote Kapil Longani, senior vice chancellor for legal affairs and general counsel.

    SUNY made it clear that the group must “cease and desist from all further use of the SUNY name, the SUNY trademarks and any other designations likely to cause confusion with same.”

    The letter further cautioned that SUNY “takes an aggressive position against infringement of its intellectual property.”

    https://www.jns.org/hochul-suny-system-threaten-legal-action-against-anti-israel-group/

  35. PA Arabs Carjack Far-Left Activist’s Vehicle in Jordan Valley

    “… more than 2,600 Palestinian terrorist attacks in the area, including 760 cases of rock-throwing, 551 fire bombings, 12 attempted or successful stabbings and nine vehicular assaults.” Feb. 18, 2024

    https://www.jewishpress.com/news/terrorism-news/pa-arabs-carjack-far-left-activists-vehicle-in-jordan-valley/2024/02/18/

    Arab couple indicted for stabbing 12-year-old girl
    Man lured Jewish minor to Haifa apartment where his partner stabbed her.

    Feb. 24, 2024

    https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/385839

  36. TED-

    Very well deserved Encomiums, and heartily seconded by me, as I’m sure you know.

    The onewho send Israpundit articles around to his friends has better luck than I.

    Neither the Logo “M” nor the Logo “envelope” work for me, although I keep trying. They used to until fairly recently. Perhaps you have made changes that my computer can’t handle.

  40. Israeli flags everywhere in São Paulo today as Brazilians show their opposition to President Lula’s recent antisemitic statements.

    What could be one of the largest protests in Brazil’s recent history will start in 1h

    They want Lula impeached for authoritarianism.

    –Visegrád 24

  42. Thousands, including Ministers & MKs, Gather to Declare Oslo and the Gush Katif Expulsion Dead
    By David Israel – 19 Shevat 5784 – January 29, 2024 0

    The central lobby of the International Convention Center in Jerusalem on Thursday evening featured booths with signs inviting the thousands of participants of the “Returning to the Gaza Strip” conference to register to join settlement gar’inim (nuclei).

    There was a Haredi gar’in planning to settle near Rafah, alongside a planned green city in the Strip, which declared: “You have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to participate in the rebuilding of the Hebrew city of Gaza, as a technological, green city, open to all and unifying the parts of Israeli society.”

    According to the organizers, dozens of families have already registered for each of the six nuclei that were soliciting members. A huge map of the Gaza Strip hung on the wall, with the names of Gush Katif settlements whose residents were expelled by the Sharon government to save the PM from criminal charges of the State Prosecution. Between 8 and 10 thousand Jews lost everything so the corrupt ex-general got to stay out of jail. Shortly thereafter Sharon had a stroke and became a vegetable, much like the hydroponic lettuce that was abandoned in the Gush Katif hot houses.

    The head of the Samaria Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, who was expelled by Sharon and his DM Shaul Mofaz from his home in northern Samaria, spoke to the crowd that included Bezalel Smotrich and Orit Struck (Religious Zionism), Itamar Ben Gvir, Amichai Eliyahu and Yitzchak Wasserlauf (Otzma Yehudit), Haim Katz, Amichai Chikli, and Shlomo Karai (Likud) and many others, calling: “Say after me: ‘The Oslo Agreement is dead, Am Israel lives.’” The huge crowd repeated the ecstatic chant three times, and it seemed for a moment that this united cry had the power to become a reality.

    As Finance Minister Smotrich put it, “There is something in the natural health that exists here, in the strength, joy, and devotion to the Land of Israel that has the potential to deliver enormous strength.”

    When Minister Ben Gvir took the stage, he was greeted by the crowd like a rock star.

    “I remember myself back then, standing and saying that deportation would encourage terrorism, prostrating myself on the road in demonstrations, shouting that the missiles will reach Sderot and Ashkelon and being slapped with an administrative removal order to keep me away from the area and shut my mouth,” he recalled.

    “What didn’t they didn’t say about us then?” he continued, “That we don’t understand security, that I wasn’t Chief of Staff, that if so many former members of the security establishment say that disengagement is a good thing, then it is a good thing.”

    “It was all said there, 19 years ago, when the conceptzia dominated. I wasn’t the only one standing there. We all stood with you and your parents and yelled and warned from every stage.”

    Ben Gvir continued: “I’ve been in the cabinet for a whole year, and when I said that there should be targeted countermeasures in Gaza, they again said that I don’t understand security. When I said that workers from Gaza should not be allowed in, they again said that I was not Chief of Staff, and when I said that Hamas was not deterred, all kinds of security experts claimed that if they say that everything is fine, then everything is fine.

    “And again, the same mistake of the conceptzia that this time cost us not only in the deportation of thousands of people but in a massacre, murder, rape, looting – a war.

    “Part of the fixing of the mistake, the recognition of the sin of the conceptzia that led to the expulsion and to October 7, is to return home!”

    Ben Gvir concluded: “We must return home and control the territory, and also offer a moral and logical solution to the humanitarian problem: encourage immigration and pass the death penalty for terrorists.”

    Daniela Weiss, who was one of the organizers of the conference, made no bones about her solution to the Gaza threat: “There are two options on the table, either Gaza will be Jewish and flourish or it will return and be Arab and murderous,” she told the conference. “Millions of war refugees move from country to country all over the world, and only these monsters must be connected to their land? Only they must stay on the land that they turned into a hell? October 7 changed history. Gaza, our southern gate, will open wide, Gazans will move away to the whole world and the people of Israel will settle Gaza.”

    Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf of United Torah Judaism delivered the support of the Haredi community to the conference. “I will support correcting the injustice and returning to Gush Katif and the Gaza Strip,” he said on stage, to great applause. “The settlement of Gush Katif will burn in the enemy’s consciousness and increase the security of the people of Israel… If indeed the Israeli government makes such a decision, as the Minister of Construction and Housing I will work to implement the government’s decision and restore our days as before,” he promised.

    Minister Gadi Eisenkot (National Union), the former IDF chief of staff who did his best to reduce the fighting capability of the IDF and Israel’s capacity to produce its own weapons and ammunition, on Monday morning tweeted his condemnation of the ministers and MKs who “find time for an event that divides Israeli society.”

    “Everyone who participated yesterday in the event at the ICC didn’t learn anything from the events of the past year about the importance of actions with a broad national consensus and solidarity in Israeli society,” Eisenkot rebuked.

    Like the Royal Bourbons, the retired General has learned nothing and forgotten nothing. Luckily for the rest of us, the segment of the nation that was attacked brutally by him and the rest of the security apparatus, will never again be punched in the face and say it was a loving caress from our brothers and sisters on the other side.

    https://www.jewishpress.com/news/left-vs-right/thousands-including-ministers-mks-gather-to-declare-oslo-and-the-gush-katif-expulsion-dead/2024/01/29/

  43. @Laura

    The question has always been is whether Trump can win the general election.

    This is actually not the question. The question is whether Trump can overcome the election fraud. There is no doubt he will win the election process, as he did in 2020, but to take control of the White House, he has to defeat the Selection process, and that remains a question yet to be answered.

    2

  44. This is completely irrelevant. The question has always been is whether Trump can win the general election.

    Trump defeated Haley 94 to 5 percent in CPAC Straw Poll.

  47. California Gov. Gavin Newsom praises Nikki Haley for helping Democrats make the case against Trump: ‘One of our better surrogates’ https://trib.al/KlKvr1o

    Actually, they only hope she could make a case against Trump. In fact she is about to be squashed in a primary in her own state, demonstrating how well Democrat surrogates fair in Rep primaries.

  48. @mirib

    “changing the subject, but today I took an Uber, driver female, from Russia, but she doesn’t like Putin, supports Ukrainia!”

    In the aftermath of the last war between Azerbaijan and Armenia, an older probably Jewish woman that I just happened to speak with in a store in my neighborhood said proudly that the Turkish owner of another store – that also carried canned stuffed graped leaves. I llke the Greek ones – supported Armenia. Well, I didn’t have to time to ask her if maybe it was because he hates Israel, since Armenia is aligned with Iran and Azerbaijan with Israel but even if that wasn’t the case and with regard to the pro-Ukraine Russian expatriate you mentioned, all I can do is quote my late father who frequently opined:

    “

    That’s what makes horse racing.

    and

    As long as it doesn’t frighten the horses.