Category Archives: FA/FO

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The demented mind of Yahya Sinwar

The psychopath Yahya Sinwar. You can see the crazy in his eyes.

To me, the most amazing thing about Hamas’ October 7, 2023 surprise attack on Israel was that they thought that they could get away with it. The New York Times reported, five months ago:

As an architect of the Oct. 7 attacks, (Yahya) Sinwar masterminded a strategy that he knew would provoke a ferocious Israeli response. But in Hamas’s calculus, the deaths of many Palestinian civilians — who do not have access to Hamas’s subterranean tunnels — were the necessary cost of upending the status quo with Israel.

That sounds like utter stupidity to me, but I’m a product of Western civilization, not Islamic barbarism. I’ve said it before: Mr Sinwar’s actions resemble, to me, those of Adolf Hitler, holed up in his Führerbunker, unwilling to surrender to save the Germany he supposedly loved so much from the oncoming destruction and devastation that the inexorable Allied advance and bombing campaign would continue to cause.

Now there’s more insight into his diseased mind:

Secret Documents Show Hamas Tried to Persuade Iran to Join Its Oct. 7 Attack

The Times reviewed the minutes of 10 meetings among Hamas’s top leaders. The records show the militant group avoided several escalations since 2021 to falsely imply it had been deterred — while seeking Iranian support for a major attack.

By Ronen Bergman, Adam Rasgon, and Patrick Kingsley | Reporting from Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Doha, Qatar | Saturday, October 12, 2024 | 9:55 AM EDT

For more than two years, Yahya Sinwar huddled with his top Hamas commanders and plotted what they hoped would be the most devastating and destabilizing attack on Israel in the militant group’s four-decade history.

Minutes of Hamas’s secret meetings, seized by the Israeli military and obtained by The New York Times, provide a detailed record of the planning for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, as well as Mr. Sinwar’s determination to persuade Hamas’s allies, Iran and Hezbollah, to join the assault or at least commit to a broader fight with Israel if Hamas staged a surprise cross-border raid.

Hezbollah certainly did agree to that “broader fight,” though perhaps the Hezbollah leadership, at least those who are still breathing, might regret it now. I’ve seen speculation that Hassan Nasrallah might not have been killed instantly by Israel’s bombing attack on his location, but might have been trapped in an unventilated pocket and suffocated, perhaps giving him time to realize just how badly he had f(ornicated) up.

Iran? Several Iranian big wigs have been killed in Israeli attacks on Hezbollah sites, and, more embarrassing of all, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed when a safe house in Tehran where he was staying was destroyed by a planted bomb. But, even with that, Iran has limited its direct action to two mass ballistic missile attacks against Israel, both of which were largely intercepted. And now CNN has reported:

Iran’s government is extremely nervous and has been engaging in urgent diplomatic efforts with countries in the Middle East to gauge whether they can reduce the scale of Israel’s response to its missile attack earlier this month and – if that fails – help protect Tehran, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

Iran’s anxiety stems from uncertainty about whether the US can convince Israel not to strike Iranian nuclear sites and oil facilities, and the fact that its most important proxy militia in the region, Hezbollah, has been significantly weakened by Israeli military operations in recent weeks, the sources said.

Mr Sinwar must be so disappointed! Back to the Times:

The documents, which represent a breakthrough in understanding Hamas, also show extensive efforts to deceive Israel about its intentions as the group laid the groundwork for a bold assault and a regional conflagration that Mr. Sinwar hoped would cause Israel to “collapse.”

The documents consist of minutes from 10 secret planning meetings of a small group of Hamas political and military leaders in the run-up to the attack, on Oct. 7, 2023. The minutes include 30 pages of previously undisclosed details about the way Hamas’s leadership works and the preparations that went into its attack.

This is what makes the article really interesting, and I urge you to follow the link and read it; the Times has done very useful journalism here, but I cannot just plagiarize it and reproduce the whole thing.

Mr Sinwar and his minions clearly wanted, and perhaps even expected, Hezbollah and Iran to follow Hamas into the fight, but, as the above CNN story told us, while Iran might like striking at Israel, even the mad mullahs aren’t particularly interested in what happens if Israel strikes back.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has publicly denied that Iran had any role in the Oct. 7 attack. And American officials have described intelligence showing key Iranian leaders were caught by surprise, fueling doubts that Iran played a direct role in planning. But Hamas leaders have spoken broadly about the support they have received from regional allies, and there have been scattered and sometimes conflicting reports that Iranian and Hezbollah officials helped plan the attack and train fighters.

So, maybe Iran and Hezbollah helped Hamas, and maybe they simply spewed hot air; we just don’t know. But we do know one thing: whatever training the Hamas fighters were given, it wasn’t very good. They were able to kidnap and rape and burn and murder, but if there was any actual military goal, they didn’t achieve it. Instead, they engaged in an orgy of death and destruction, one which made the denizens of Gaza deliriously happy, right up until the IDF got its response organized and entered Gaza.

The Gazans aren’t so happy now!

And Mr Sinwar isn’t too happy, either. What he expected isn’t what happened. Gaza is heavily damaged, Hamas seriously weakened, Hezbollah has lost almost all of its previous leadership, and has perhaps a thousand of its lower-level people seriously injured by the diabolically brilliant pager attack. Iran has made two expensive but ultimately futile ballistic missile attacks, and is now shuddering in fear over what Israel might do in retaliation. Like the Führer he’s now emulating, he’s waiting in his underground bunker, waiting for a miracle deliverance to keep him from adjourning to Jahannam. He guessed wrong, and he’s going to pay for it. Sadly, tens of thousands of innocent people have also paid the price for his fantasies and delusions.

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Hit the road, Jack! Three anti-Semitic Columbia deans 'were resigned'

The First Street Journal previously reported on three anti-Semitic deans at Columbia University being permanently removed and placed on indefinite leave from their administrative jobs over offensive texts during an alumni weekend event about Jewish life on campus. An audience member, who was seated behind one of the deans took photos of the administrators’ texts and first shared them last month with the Washington Free Beacon.

Well, the indefinite suspension is now over. From The New York Times:

3 Columbia University Deans Who Sent Insulting Texts Have Resigned

The deans were put on leave earlier in the summer after sending messages that disparaged Jewish panelists. A fourth dean, who is tenured, will remain at the university.

by Sharon Otterman | Thursday, August 8, 2024

Three Columbia University deans who exchanged disparaging text messages that the university president said “touched on ancient antisemitic tropes” during a forum about Jewish issues in May are resigning, a spokeswoman said Thursday.

The deans, who had responsibility for undergraduate student affairs, sent the biting and sarcastic messages as they reacted in real time to Jewish speakers expressing concern about antisemitism on campus during the two-hour event.

In June, Nemat Shafik, the university president, placed the three deans on indefinite leave as an investigation proceeded.

In the texts, one dean suggested that a Jewish speaker was playing up concerns for fund-raising purposes. Another sent vomit emojis in reaction to the mention of a college newspaper opinion piece written by one of the school’s rabbis.

So, they’ve ‘resigned.’ The Times subtitle tells the reader everything that he needs to know: a fourth dean, who has academic tenure, did not resign, which means that the three who did leave resigned ahead of being fired. Firing a tenured person is much more difficult, so professor Josef Sorett, a scholar on religion and race, who did not participate to the same extent as Susan Chang-Kim, vice dean and chief administrative officer, Cristen Kromm, dean of undergraduate student life, and Matthew Patashnick, associate dean for student and family support, gets to keep his job. Dr Sorett, who publicly apologized, stays while the other three are wailing at the song “Hit the Road, Jack“.

If it took over a month to force the three to resign, one thing is obvious: there were lawyers involved. The only question not answered by the Times is: how much of a golden parachute were the three given?

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Democrisy: the leftists who loved outside money in their campaigns hate it when Other People use it to defeat Democrats

When she first moved to the Bluegrass State, my younger daughter was employed by the United States Postal Service, working out of the Post Office in Versailles. One thing about which she complained was the huge volume of mail sent out by Amy McGrath Henderson[1]Even though she did not respect her husband, Erik Henderson, enough to have taken his last name, I shall not show similar disrespect to him. during her campaign, first for the Democratic nomination and then the general election in 2018 for the Sixth Congressional District seat held by Representative Andy Barr (R-KY). Overall, Mrs Henderson wound up spending $8,274,396 to Mr Barr’s $5,580,477, but she still lost, 51.0% to 47.8%. Much of Mrs Henderson’s money came from outside of the Sixth District, and outside of Kentucky altogether.

Amusingly enough, Mr Barr’s campaign found a video of Mrs Henderson fund raising . . . in Massachusetts! It was there in which she uttered those unforgettable words, “I am further left, I am more progressive, than anyone in the state of Kentucky.” Perhaps, just perhaps, that didn’t help her much in the Bluegrass State. Including mostly liberal Lexington, the Sixth District is less solidly Republican and conservative than the rest of Kentucky, but she still couldn’t win here. And yes, I live in the Sixth District.

Undeterred by her defeat, Mrs Henderson decided to challenge Senator Mitch McConnell in 2020. In her Senate campaign, Mrs Henderson raised $94,120,557 and spent $90,775,744 compared to Mr McConnell’s $71,351,350 and $64,787,889, only to lose 38.2% to 57.8%. As it happens, Mrs Henderson had the lowest percentage total against Mr McConnell of any of his opponents save sacrificial lamb candidate Lois Combs Weinberg in 2002.

$90+ million is a huge amount to spend in a conservative state like Kentucky:

An analysis of the money raised in the Kentucky race shows much of it is coming from people who live outside the state.

The Metro areas that have contributed the most to both campaigns are from New York City, Washington DC and Los Angeles California, according to the non-partisan website Open Secrets.

I thought of that as I read with amusement how Representative Cori Bush Merritts[2]Just because she didn’t respect her husband, Cortney Merritts, enough to have taken his last name does not mean I shall show him similar disrespect. (Hamas-MO) and her supporters whined about outside money following her primary loss. This is from the far left magazine, Mother Jones:

One of the Most Vocal Proponents of a Ceasefire in Gaza Just Lost

First, it was Rep. Jamaal Bowman in New York. Now, it is Rep. Cori Bush in Missouri. In a race with a lot of AIPAC money, another member of the Squad is defeated.

by Sophie Hurwitz | Tuesday, August 6, 2024

In one of the most watched primaries this year, Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) — among the first members of Congress to call for a ceasefire — lost to St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, who jumped into the race late, and with the backing of millions of dollars from pro-Israel groups. The Associated Press called the race for Bell around 10:00 PM local time.

“Organized people beat organized money,” Bush’s campaigners have repeated. This race, however, has tested whether that’s true: as of election day, it is the second-most expensive Congressional primary in American history — and the money has, indeed, made a difference.

Bell dropped out of his bid to dethrone Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri and chose to challenge Bush soon after the war began in Gaza. Bell has benefited from an incredibly well-funded advertising campaign since then.

Over half of all the outside money spent on the race came from the United Democracy Project (UDP), the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)’s electoral arm. The money UDP spent here is second only to that which they spent on a successful campaign to defeat Rep. Jamaal Bowman in New York. In total, UDP spent nearly 9 million dollars in MO-01, bolstered by $1.5 million from the crypto PAC Fairshake. Bush and her backers also attracted some outside spending: Justice Democrats, a progressive PAC founded by former campaigners for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), sent $2 million her way.

Then comes the author’s major complaint:

Bell’s choice to take that money has been divisive. Mike Jones, a 75-year-old former alderman and Board of Education member with a long career in St. Louis politics put it this way: “I think everybody knows that the race is not about the issues that have surfaced. It’s about the issue nobody’s talking about.” On most issues, Bell and Bush’s stances are near-identical. “So, literally, the only reason for this campaign, at a political level, is AIPAC money,” Jones said.

It doesn’t take much perusing of Sophie Hurwitz’s Mother Jones author page to see that she’s totally in the bag for the ‘Palestinian’ cause. Her article on the defeat of Mrs Merritts’ fellow squadristi,[3]I use the term ‘squadristi,’ the singular of which is ‘squadrista,’ to mock the so-called ‘squad.’ ‘Squadristi‘ was the Italian nickname for Benito … Continue reading Jamaal Bowman (Hamas-NY) noted that he “did not back away from pro-Palestine rhetoric” and that he lost to “a lot of AIPAC money”. Of course, the editorial slant of the entire magazine is pro-‘Palestinian’.

Shockingly enough, American Jews mostly support Israel, the officially Jewish state. Is it any surprise that, when Israel is locked in an existential struggle against Hamas terrorists, that American Jews would support Israel? American Jews are mostly politically liberal, and normally give about ¾ of their votes to Democrats, but I have heard it said before that while support for Israel and Zionism is far from universal among them, there is a bare minimum requirement that candidates support the survival of Israel. Squadristi like Mr Bowman, Mrs Merritt, and the rest have threatened that bare minimum of support. Add to that the anti-Semitic demonstrations on so many college campuses, on which this site has frequently reported, and it’s no wonder that so many American Jews are concerned.

The truly laughable part is how the same Democrats who used outside money in 2018 and 2020 are so very upset about other people marshaling outside money to defeat certain candidates. Perhaps Mrs Merritts and Mr Bowman would not have lost their elections without outside money, but it’s just as probable that the Democrats wouldn’t have seized control of the House of Representatives in the 2018 elections without it.

References

References
↑1 Even though she did not respect her husband, Erik Henderson, enough to have taken his last name, I shall not show similar disrespect to him.
↑2 Just because she didn’t respect her husband, Cortney Merritts, enough to have taken his last name does not mean I shall show him similar disrespect.
↑3 I use the term ‘squadristi,’ the singular of which is ‘squadrista,’ to mock the so-called ‘squad.’ ‘Squadristi‘ was the Italian nickname for Benito Mussolini’s fascist paramilitary Black Shirts, and today’s American far-left are nothing if not fascist themselves. As I have said many times before, they are pro-choice on exactly one thing, prenatal infanticide, and support government control over every other choice Americans have.
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A good news update: three #Antisemitic Columbia University deans permanently removed from their jobs

We reported, five days ago, on three Columbia University deans who were suspended for anti-Semitic texts during a panel discussion titled “Jewish Life on Campus: Past, Present, and Future,”. Now comes better news. From The Washington Post:

Columbia puts deans on leave after texts evoking ‘antisemitic tropes’

University leaders took action after learning of messages sent during a panel discussion on Jewish life on campus.

by Susan Svrluga | Monday, July 8, 2024 | 12:53 PM EDT | Updated: 4:07 PM EDT

Columbia University has permanently removed three administrators from their roles and placed them on indefinite leave for texts sent during an alumni weekend event about Jewish life on campus. Continue reading →

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No Riots: Dexter Reed will not get his George Floyd moment And a gunfight at the Eid al-Fitr Corral.

Councilwoman Jamie Gauthier (D-Philadelphia). Photo from her city biography page and is a public record. Click to enlarge.

When you have a 21-year-old, two 16-year-olds, and two 15-year-olds, carrying guns and opening fire when “two groups of young people started shooting at one another for reasons that remain under investigation,” naturally the response from the local councilwoman is to call for more gun control. Of course, it’s already illegal to carry a firearm in Philadelphia without a license, and it’s already against the law for minors to be carrying guns, yet Jamie Gauthier wants more gun control laws for these fine people to violate:

City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, who represents parts of West Philadelphia, said in a statement Wednesday that the incident was “heartbreaking” and called on lawmakers in Harrisburg and Washington to pass gun safety laws “that will stem the flow of guns into our neighborhoods.”

Robert Stacy McCain has the story of 26-year-old Dexter Reed, Jr, formerly of Chicago and now a resident of Hell. Mr Reed: Continue reading →

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The Associated Press make story about rescue of two Israeli hostages all about the poor, poor Palestinians! Maybe Hamas shouldn't have started a war they knew they couldn't win?

The Israel Defense Force have rescued two elderly hostages seized by Hamas in the October 7th terror raid, but Associated Press reporters Najib Jobain, Josef Federman, and Samy Magdy want you to sympathize with the Palestinian Arabs who held them captive!

Israeli forces rescued two hostages in a Gaza raid that killed at least 67 Palestinians

Israel says about 100 hostages remain in Hamas captivity.

by Najib Jobain, Josef Federman, and Samy Magdy, Associated Press | Monday, February 12, 2024 | 7:37 AM EST

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli forces rescued two hostages early Monday, storming a heavily guarded apartment in the Gaza Strip and extracting the captives under fire in a dramatic raid that was a small but symbolically significant success for Israel. Heavy airstrikes that provided cover for the operation killed at least 67 Palestinians, according to health officials in the beleaguered territory.

The plight of the hostages has profoundly shaken Israelis, and the rescue in densely populated Rafah briefly lifted the spirits of a nation still reeling from Hamas’ cross-border raid last year that started the war. Israel has described Rafah — a city on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip where 1.4 million Palestinians have fled fighting elsewhere — as the last remaining Hamas stronghold in the territory and signaled that its ground offensive may soon target the city.

In Gaza, the operation unleashed another tragedy in a war that has killed 28,340 Palestinians in the territory, displaced over 80% of the population, and set off a massive humanitarian crisis.

More than 12,300 Palestinian minors — children and young teens — have been killed in the conflict, the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Monday. About 8,400 women were also among those killed. That means minors make up about 43% of the dead and women and minors together they make up 73% of the dead.

As Messrs Jobain, Federman, and Magdy lament the “at least 67 Palestinians” killed in this operation, the 28,340 Arabs killed overall, and the “73% of the dead” being women and children, I am reminded of what would have saved their lived, namely Hamas not launching the October 7th terror assault in the first place!

The Wall Street Journal already documented how Hamas were using civilian facilities as shields:

Hamas Military Compound Found Beneath U.N. Agency Headquarters in Gaza

Subterranean complex had air-conditioned room with computer servers, office space

by Dov Lieber and David Luhnow | Saturday, February 10, 2024 | 3:52 PM EST

GAZA CITY—Hidden deep below the headquarters of the United Nations’ aid agency for Palestinians here is a Hamas complex with rows of computer servers that Israel’s armed forces say served as an important communications center and intelligence hub for the Islamist militant group.

For those who are stymied by the Journal’s paywall, you can also read the article here, for no charge.

Part of a warren of tunnels and subterranean chambers carved from the Gaza Strip’s sandy soil, the compound below the United Nations Relief and Works Agency buildings in Gaza City appears to have run on electricity drawn from the U.N.’s power supply, Israeli officials said.

A Wall Street Journal reporter and journalists from other news organizations visited the site this week in a trip organized by Israel’s military. A tunnel also appeared to pass beneath a U.N.-run school near the headquarters.

Gosh, I’m shocked, shocked! that the Hamas facilities were drawing power from the UNRWA’s building power. Are we supposed to believe that no one at UNRWA noticed the power drain?

The location of a Hamas military installation under important U.N. facilities is evidence, Israeli officials say, of Hamas’s widespread use of sensitive civilian infrastructure as shields to protect its militant activities. Tunnel complexes have also been found near or under some of Gaza’s largest hospitals.

Israel’s discovery of the Hamas operations below Unrwa offices is likely to put further pressure on the agency, which is facing international scrutiny after Israeli allegations that at least 12 of its employees had links to Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which authorities say killed 1,200 people.

Israeli military officials assert that people working at Unrwa would have been aware of the tunnel complex, either from activities during its construction or by what they said would have been a jump in electricity usage when the complex started operating.

I’m trying to figure out just how Hamas could construct concrete-lined tunnels and excavate the material as they dug those tunnels with nobody noticing? The answer, of course, is that they couldn’t. It took a great deal of effort, mostly by hand, to excavate and line those tunnels, and the obvious question is: if the work effort put forth to construct those tunnels had instead been put to use building Gaza’s housing and infrastructure, how much better would that miserable place have been?

Next to the room with computer servers, which was air-conditioned, was an electricity-supply room fitted with massive batteries, apparently to serve as a backup if power was disrupted.

The electricity room and server room were beneath the Unrwa compound’s own electrical supply room, the officer said. He said wires snaked down into the underground base from the Unrwa compound, allowing Hamas to steal electricity from the U.N agency to power its underground facility.

If Hamas had computer servers in the tunnels, then the odds are that they were also stealing internet services from UNRWA, even though such is not mentioned in the article.

The three Associated Press reporters who wrote this article were certainly aware that Hamas were using the civilian population to shield themselves and their facilities from the IDF, but never mentioned that. They did, of course, have to give us a oh-the-poor-Palestinians bit:

In Hamas’ cross-border raid on Oct. 7, an estimated 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed, and militants took 250 people captive, according to Israeli authorities. .  .  .  .

Mohamed Zoghroub, a Palestinian living in Rafah, said he saw a black jeep speeding near the Shaboura refugee camp in the town followed by clashes and heavy airstrikes.

“We found ourselves running with our children, from the airstrikes, in every direction,” he said, speaking from an area flattened by the heavy strikes overnight.

Footage circulating on social media from Rafah’s Kuwaiti hospital showed dead or wounded children. The footage could not immediately be verified but was consistent with AP reporting.

A young man can be seen carrying the body of an infant who he said was killed in the attacks. He said the girl, the daughter of his neighbor, was born and killed during the war.

“Let Netanyahu come and see: Is this (infant) one of your designated targets?” he said.

When the fighters use the civilian population as shields, civilians will get killed. This is all on Hamas!

The three Hamas-sympathetic reporters seem to want you to believe that Israel should not defend itself, and should not carry the fight to its enemies. They want you to believe that the IDF’s response is wholly disproportionate, in that 28,340 Palestinians have been killed compared to roughly 1,200, as though this ought to be a matter of competing body-counts rather than a war against enemies. They want you to believe that the lives of 67 Arabs were far too high a price to pay to rescue two Israeli citizens, two Joooos! Stories like this are designed to further inflame passions in the civilized West against the Israelis.

Hamas have made their goals clear: they want to destroy the Jewish state. And Prime Minister Netanyahu has made Israel’s policies clear: they must destroy Hamas. In the end, one has to destroy the other.

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An uplifting story in the Lexington Herald-Leader

It seems that a car thief from the greater Cincinnati area helped himself to an early Christmas present: someone else’s car. What he didn’t realize was that he was in f(ornicate) around, find out territory.

Couple tracks stolen car to Kroger and shoots accused thief, Kentucky police say

by Mike Stunson | December 20, 2023 | 9:01 AM EST

The vehicle into which the stolen Ford Focus smashed. It’s just a Chevy, so it couldn’t have been worth much anyway. Screen grab from WKRC.

An accused car thief was shot outside a Kroger when the car owners tracked their vehicle across state lines, Kentucky police say. Continue reading →