Category Archives: Foreign Policy

Posted on by

Will Yahya Sinwar meet his end the same way Adolf Hitler did?

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

We have previously reported on Yahya Sinwar, the now official leader of Hamas, several times in the past, most recently on how he reportedly wants any ceasefire agreement with Israel to include a guarantee that his life will be spared.

Now there’s this, from Sunday’s New York Times:

Israel’s Hunt for the Elusive Leader of Hamas

Yahya Sinwar’s ability to evade capture or death has denied Israel a military success in a war that began after he planned the Oct. 7 attacks.

by By Mark Mazzetti, Ronen Bergman, Julian E. Barnes, and Adam Goldman | Mark Mazzetti and Julian Barnes reported from Washington. Ronen Bergman and Adam Goldman reported from Tel Aviv and Rafah. | Sunday, August 25, 2024

In January, Israeli and American officials thought they had caught a break in the hunt for one of the world’s most wanted men.

Israeli commandos raided an elaborate tunnel complex in the southern Gaza Strip on Jan. 31 based on intelligence that Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader, was hiding there, according to American and Israeli officials.

He had been, it turned out. But Mr. Sinwar had left the bunker beneath the city of Khan Younis just days earlier, leaving behind documents and stacks of Israeli shekels totaling about $1 million. The hunt went on, with a dearth of hard evidence on his whereabouts.

Since the deadly Oct. 7 attacks in Israel that he planned and directed, Mr. Sinwar has been something of a ghost: never appearing in public, rarely releasing messages for his followers and giving up few clues about where he might be.

He fled without the money? 🙂 I guess he understands that you just can’t take it with you! Previous ‘official’ Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, found out just a month ago that his estimated $4 billion personal fortune wasn’t enough to Israel from sending him from being sent to Jahannam and his 72 bacha bazi boys.

Mr Sinwar, along with several other Hamas leaders, have been hiding in the sophisticated Hamas tunnel network in Gaza, and the Times’ report tells readers that they have ceased using sophisticated electronics communications, as Osama bin Laden famously did as well, to avoid being tracked by American and Israeli intelligence. Rather, these 7th century minds are using a very 7th century method of communications, human couriers. I’d note here that Adolf Hitler served as a dispatch courier from regimental headquarters during World War I, and there’s probably some irony in that.

The Times reported that messages to and from Mr Sinwar used to be completed within days, but that it has recently become more difficult and time consuming. If Mr Sinwar’s approval is required for any ceasefire agreement to be concluded, then such automatically draws out any negotiations. But, to me, the entire idea of ceasefire negotiations is ridiculous: the losing side in a war does not get to dictate terms to the winners. In the last war the United States actually won, the terms to Germany and Japan were simple: unconditional surrender.

The ‘Palestinians’ cannot do much more than lob a couple of harmless rockets at Israel at this point, and Israel can decide to stop shooting at the ‘Palestinians’ any time they choose. The only sticking point is the roughly 109 hostages Hamas currently holds. CNN reported, on June 13th that a senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, stated that no one really knows how many of the 120 remaining hostages are even still alive. The Israel Defense Force recently recovered the bodies of six more hostages, which ought to indicate that relatively few of them remain alive.

Speaking to CNN in the Lebanese capital Beirut, Hamdan said the latest proposal on the table – an Israeli plan that was first publicly announced by US President Joe Biden late last month – did not meet the group’s demands for an end to the war.

Hamdan told CNN that Hamas needed “a clear position from Israel to accept the ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from Gaza, and let the Palestinians to determine their future by themselves, the reconstruction, the (lifting) of the siege 
 and we are ready to talk about a fair deal about the prisoners exchange.”

Wait, what? The current proposal “(does) not meet the group’s demands for an end to the war”?

Mr Hamdan is saying, in effect, that Israel has to give Hamas something that they have not won on the battlefield to end the war!

Unlike bin Laden in his last years, Mr. Sinwar is actively managing a military campaign. Diplomats involved in cease-fire negotiations in Doha, Qatar, say that Hamas representatives insist they need Mr. Sinwar’s input before they make major decisions in the talks. As the most respected Hamas leader, he is the only person who can ensure that whatever is decided in Doha is implemented in Gaza.

This has been previously reported, including the fact that Mr Sinwar’s consent had to be obtained even when Mr Haniyeh was the nominal leader of Hamas. That’s the beauty of an unconditional surrender demand: no ‘negotiations’ are required, and the IDF can keep shooting and burning and bombing until the rats come out of the tunnels with their hands up.

Adolf Hitler never surrendered. Instead, as the Red Army were closing in on Berlin and the FĂŒhrerbunker, he poisoned his wife and shot himself in the head, his last loyal aides taking their bodies outside and burning them in the garden. After living underground for over none months, that might be a fitting end for Mr Sinwar. After all, he hates Jews just as much as did der FĂŒhrer!

Posted on by

What did we achieve?

Captain Harry Wales in Afghanistan.

There was little choice for the United States to go into Afghanistan following the September 11th attacks. There were 2,459 American military deaths, along with 20,769 Americans wounded. Along with that were 1,822 civilian contractors and 18 Central Intelligence Agency operatives killed in the two months short of twenty years we were there. 457 British soldiers were killed there, and another 2,209 wounded seriously enough to be admitted to field hospitals.

Even His Royal Highness, Prince Henry of Wales, before he went bat guano insane over Meghan Markle, served in Afghanistan, as an Apache helicopter pilot.

Al Qaeda was routed reasonably quickly, although Osama bin Laden wasn’t killed until May 2, 2011, at a compound hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan. His successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, lasted until July 31, 2022, after the United States had evacuated troops from the country, by an American drone strike at a villa in Kabul that he used.

Al Qaeda Is Back—and Thriving—in Afghanistan

The architects of 9/11 are profiting from gold and gem mines in the Taliban-led country.

By Lynne O’Donnell, a columnist at Foreign Policy and an Australian journalist and author. | March 22, 2024

Al Qaeda is back to its old tricks in Afghanistan. Much as it did before masterminding the 9/11 attacks, the terrorist group is running militant training camps; sharing the profits of the Taliban’s illicit drug, mining, and smuggling enterprises; and funneling the proceeds to affiliated jihadi groups worldwide.

An unpublished report circulating among Western diplomats and U.N. officials details how deeply embedded the group once run by Osama bin Laden is in the Taliban’s operations, as they loot Afghanistan’s natural wealth and steal international aid meant to alleviate the suffering of millions of Afghans.

The report was completed by a private, London-based threat analysis firm whose directors did not want to be identified. A copy was provided to Foreign Policy and its findings verified by independent sources. It is based on research conducted inside Afghanistan in recent months and includes a list of senior al Qaeda operatives and the roles they play in the Taliban’s administration.

To facilitate its ambitions, al Qaeda is raking in tens of millions of dollars a week from gold mines in Afghanistan’s northern Badakhshan and Takhar provinces that employ tens of thousands of workers and are protected by warlords friendly to the Taliban, the report says. The money represents a 25 percent share in proceeds from gold and gem mines; 11 gold mines are geolocated in the report. The money is shared with al Qaeda by the two Taliban factions: Sirajuddin Haqqani’s Kabul faction and Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada’s Kandahar faction, suggesting both leaders, widely regarded as archrivals, see a cozy relationship with al Qaeda as furthering their own interests as well as helping to entrench the group’s overall power.

There’s more at the original.

So, after going in and spending almost twenty years there, spending trillions of dollars and seeing over 2,000 American soldiers coming bad in body bags, all to destroy al Qaeda, the terrorist group are back.

The younger President George Bush included in the mission ousting and, supposedly, destroying the Taliban, the hardline Islamist faction which governed the country at the time. It wasn’t too difficult for American soldiers and Marines to kick the Taliban out of power, but, as we all know, the US, under President Donald Trump, negotiated a withdrawal from that abysmal place, though it wasn’t accomplished until August of 2021, under President Joe Biden. Naturally, under Mr Biden, the final departure was a complete mess and foul-up, in which 13 more Americans were killed, and the US handed power right back to the same Taliban President Bush swore would be driven from power.

And now we have this:

Taliban publish vice laws that ban women’s voices and bare faces in public

The Taliban say it’s mandatory for Afghan women to conceal their voices and bare faces in public

by The Associated Press | Thursday, August 22, 2024 | 12:19 PM EDT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have issued a ban on women’s voices and bare faces in public under new laws approved by the supreme leader in efforts to combat vice and promote virtue.

The laws were issued Wednesday after they were approved by supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, a government spokesman said. The Taliban had set up a ministry for the “propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice” after seizing power in 2021.

The ministry published its vice and virtue laws on Wednesday that cover aspects of everyday life like public transportation, music, shaving and celebrations.

They are set out in a 114-page, 35-article document seen by The Associated Press and are the first formal declaration of vice and virtue laws in Afghanistan since the takeover.

“Inshallah we assure you that this Islamic law will be of great help in the promotion of virtue and the elimination of vice,” said ministry spokesman Maulvi Abdul Ghafar Farooq on Thursday.

There’s more at the original

Al Qaeda are back and the Taliban are back, returning to the same basic Islamist and authoritarian principles they imposed in their previous regime. And that, along with the failure of democracy in Iraq, raises the obvious question: what the f(ornicate) did we gain from all of the blood spilled and all of the treasure burned up and blown up?

President Bush was seduced by Natan Sharansky’s and Ron Dermer’s book, The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror, in which the authors argued that the only moral foreign policy is to expand democracy across the world, and that once a people experience democracy, they will want to keep it. More, democracies will never be aggressors against their neighbors. Mr Bush tried to impose democracy on Iraq and Afghanistan — remember the purple-stained ‘I voted’ fingers? — but once American soldiers were not there to enforce democracy, it just never took.

Democracy is an artifact of Western civilization, a development of northern European and American culture. We managed to impose democracy on Japan and South Korea, but only after they had been completely devastated by war, and much of their military aged male population were killed or wounded. Those nations have copied and assimilated Western culture to the extent that they could. Israel is a Western democracy because it was resettled by Jews fleeing from Europe.

But let’s tell the truth here: We will never see true democracy or Western civilization in the Muslim Middle East, and we should not be naĂŻve enough to waste our money and our blood on trying to push it. Iraq and Afghanistan are abject lessons in this.

Posted on by

LOL! Yahya Sinwar is afraid of the death he inflicted on so many others Israel needs to send him to his 72 Bacha bazi boys!

Following the extermination — I will not use the word assassination to reference the killing of a cockroach — of Ismail Haniyeh as the political leader of Hamas, the leadership of the terrorist group decided that Yahya Sinwar should be their new Fearless Leader.

Well, now the distinguished Mr Sinwar has added a new demand for a ceasefire: to save his own skin!

Oct. 7 mastermind and Hamas leader Yaya Sinwar reportedly adds new demand for cease-fire deal: Don’t kill me

By Ronny Reyes and Reuven Fenton | Wednesday, August 21, 2024 | 5:26 PM EDT

Hamas chief and Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar, who previously claimed that it would be an honor to die fighting Israel, has made his own survival a condition of any cease-fire in Gaza, according to a new report

Sinwar allegedly emphasized that his safety must be guaranteed, and that Israel must not try to kill him, a senior Egyptian official told Ynet.

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

“Sinwar insists on a guarantee that his safety and security are assured,” the official said.

Sinwar, who rose to the top of Hamas following the assassination of former chief Ismail Haniyeh last month, allegedly claimed that if Israel could agree with his demands, then a cease-fire deal would be possible.

The new position comes after months of Sinwar intervening with the cease-fire and hostage exchange talks, with the terror chief calling on Hamas to continue fighting until Israel is destroyed.

As The New York Times pointed out on May 12th, Mr Sinwar was among 1,027 ‘Palestinian’ prisoners traded for one Israeli soldier, Staff Sergeant Galid Shalit, in 2011. It is the sad irony of the Middle East that Mr Sinwar planned what turned out to be the deaths of about 1,200 innocent Israelis on October 7th, along with the capturing of roughly 250 hostages.

The Israeli government has already stated that Mr Sinwar is a dead man walking, and that he is to be killed, period.

It’s a strange notion, that the losers in a war could demand a ceasefire. Israel can stop shooting whenever they choose. Then, if Hamas and the ‘Palestinians’ decide to keep shooting, the Israelis can start destroying what’s left of Gaza all over again.

Hamas only bargaining chip is that they still hold 109 hostages, but the Israel Defense Force just recovered the bodies of six more. As the rescues keep ‘rescuing’ hostages who are already dead, it becomes ever more clear that there are few, if any, of the hostages still alive.

It’s a tough thing for the Israeli government to do, but at this point — actually, that point passed long ago! — they need to declare all of the hostages unfortunate casualties, and just proceed with the war to exterminate Hamas. Western nations cannot let concern for hostages guide their policies, because all that does is to put a premium on hostage taking. If some few of the hostages get rescued in the end, that will be great, but concern for their lives must not stop Israel from doing what it must.

Declaring all of the hostages casualties removes any leverage Hamas have left in ceasefire negotiations; all that will remain for them is unconditional surrender or a fight to the death.

Posted on by

Kamala Harris Emhoff’s campaign communications director tells us she “shares the goals” of the outside rabble

It was buried far down, as in the 15th paragraph of the article, before Michael Tyler, the campaign communications director for Kamala Harris Emhoff told us a truth he might regret. In an article in The Hill by Alex Gangitano entitled “How Harris wants to handle Gaza at the Democratic convention“, the author told readers that the Democratic National Convention isn’t spending much time on the Israel/Hamas war, because other issues are of greater importance to American voters, but far down, she gave us this:

When asked about the war protesters in Chicago this week, Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler argued that Harris is “somebody who understands the goals of the people who are showing up to demonstrate here and frankly who shares the goals.”

As the campaign’s communications director, one would assume that Mr Tyler understands the importance of words and choosing his words carefully, so when he tells everybody that Mrs Emhoff “shares the goals” of the pro-Hamas demonstrators, I believe him.

NBC News reported:

Tuesday night’s protest was organized by Behind Enemy Lines, a leftist group with militant leanings. Another group behind the protest was Samidoun, which Germany and Israel have banned over allegations that it has ties to terrorist groups. (The U.S. has not declared Samidoun a terrorist group.)

The hyperlinks in the quoted paragraph were not in the original, but added by me. These organizations seek to disrupt civilization itself in their advocacy of fighting for the ‘Palestinians’ and freeing ‘Palestinian’ terrorists in Israeli jails. As we have previously noted, one of the infamous prisoner exchanges, 1,027 ‘Palestinian’ prisoners exchanged for a single Israeli hostage, Corporal Gilad Shalit, was Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind behind the October 7th massacre. Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank reported that the demonstrations were smaller than anticipated, but he heard “clarion calls for the destruction of Israel: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. From the sea to the river, Palestine will live forever.”

Most of the credentialed media failed to publish images of the Hamas flags being waved, but at least Fox News managed to do it.

So, if Mrs Emhoff “shares the goals” of the outside demonstrators, it has to be asked: which of their goals does she share? Most called for the ‘liberation’ of Palestine, but as Mr Milbank noted, there were also chants supporting the elimination of Israel; that’s what “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” means! Those waving the Hamas flag are telling us that they support the kidnapping, rapes and murders that Hamas committed last October 7th; when the Democratic presidential nominee “shares the goals” of the protesters, does she support that as well?

Posted on by

Rubbing my hands in glee Could the pro-Hamas radicals recreate the 1968 Democratic National Convention?

1968 Democratic National Convention.

Regardless of their denials, Vice President Kamala Harris Emhoff did not select Governor Josh Shapiro (D-PA) to be her runningmate because he is Jewish. More, his wife, Lori Shapiro, is also Jewish, as is the Vice President’s husband, Douglas Emhoff. Mrs Emhoff and her campaign staffers had a big picture of how the anti-Semitic far left of the Democratic Party would react to having three Jews out of four on the ticket.

So, she instead selected Governor Tim Walz (D-MN), as the least offensive candidate, but it still might not work. From The Washington Post:

Pro-Palestinian protesters vow massive showing at Democratic convention

Activists say the replacement of President Joe Biden with Vice President Kamala Harris does not affect their plans for a show of anger and dissent.

By Yasmeen Abutaleb | Sunday, August 11, 2024 | 6:00 AM EDT | Updated: 3:45 PM EDT

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. — The scenes and stenches that greeted Hamza AbdulQader when he crossed Egypt’s border into Gaza in mid-March were far worse than the devastating videos he had watched as war raged in the territory.

I have deleted three useless paragraphs at this point, in which the practitioners of the ‘new’ journalism begin with a small story as a segue into the larger story.

Democratic leaders hoped that Vice President Kamala Harris’s ascent to the top of the ticket would shrink the protests, since she was not the architect of President Joe Biden’s Gaza policies and has been more vocal in challenging Israel and voicing empathy for Palestinians. But to many activists, Harris has not done nearly enough.

“We don’t expect any changes — we’re still anticipating that there will be tens of thousands of people in the streets,” said Hatem Abudayyeh, national chair for the U.S. Palestinian Community Network and a spokesman for the Coalition to March on the DNC, an amalgamation of more than 200 advocacy groups and community organizations. AbdulQader added, “Unless she clearly takes a stance and says this is not okay 
 that door is shut.”

The night that Biden dropped out of the presidential race on July 21, more than 80 people logged in to the coalition’s weekly Zoom meeting, Abudayyeh said, and organizers said they were moving ahead as planned even though it looked like Harris would soon become the Democratic nominee. They asked if there were objections, and no one raised concerns.

The same night, the coalition put out a statement saying, “Democratic Party leadership switching out their presidential nominee does not wash the blood of over 50,000 Palestinians off their hands. When it comes to the genocide in Gaza there is no difference between Biden, Harris, or any of the likely candidates for the nomination.”

Hey, that’s great! Recreate 1968, please!

I have a difficult time picturing many of the pro-‘Palestinian,’ pro-Hamas demonstrators voting for former President Donald Trump, but I’d be perfectly happy if they were just so angry that they don’t vote at all: that not only takes potential votes away from the top of the ticket, but in the ‘down-ballot’ races as well.

American Jews normally give roughly Ÿ of their votes to the Democrats, but if they see the Usual Suspects rioting in front of the Democratic National Convention, and Mrs Emhoff and her minions trying to mealy-mouth platitudes to the pro-Hamas crowd, that number just might change. They’ll realize the two-faced actions, and then remember that it was President Trump and his Jewish son-in-law, Jared Kushner, engineered the Abraham Accords between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and which was later supported by Bahrain and Oman. They’ll also remember that it was President Trump who finally ended the practice of American Presidents certifying every six months that the American embassy in Israel could not be moved to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, as required by a 1996 law, and moved our embassy to the Israeli capital.

There’s still a lot that can happen, and only the Lord knows who will win the elections, but anything that weakens the Democrats is a good thing.

Posted on by

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?

Posted on by

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 Ÿ 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.
Posted on by

Cori Bush Merritts continually trashed Israel, but she thinks it’s wholly unfair that she gets called to account for it She lost, and she is royally pissed!

Paul Szypula tweeted out the outraged rant of Representative Cori Bush Merritts[1]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) after she realized that she had been defeated in the Democratic primary for renomination to Missouri’s 1st congressional district. Perhaps she realized that, serving four full years in that seat does not make her eligible for a congressional pension. 🙂

So, who needs to be afraid? Why, the Joooos, of course!

Squad Member Bush Vows to Fight Pro-Israel Group After Loss

by Christian Hall and Bill Allison | Wednesday, August 7, 2024 | 3:06 PM EDT

(Bloomberg) — US Representative Cori Bush said that she will go after the American Israel Public Affairs Committee after she lost a bitter and expensive primary battle driven by Democratic divisions over the war in Gaza.

“AIPAC, I’m coming to tear your kingdom down,” the Missouri Democrat said in a fiery speech following her defeat to local prosecutor Wesley Bell.

Wesley Bell is hardly a great guy, himself a ‘progressive’ prosecutor, but he apparently isn’t an anti-Semite like Mrs Merritts, and he’s not completely insane. In 2020, he decided that he would not press charges against Darren Wilson, the Ferguson police officer who justifiably shot and killed Michael Brown Jr, the oversized thug who roughed up a bodega owner half his size in a robbery. He didn’t say that such exonerated Mr Wilson, but said he could not prove murder or manslaughter beyond a reasonable doubt. Nevertheless, he is a liberal, and will almost certainly win the general election in the one-sided first district.

The loss is the second for a member of the “squad” — an informal group of progressives in the US House. Just weeks earlier, Representative Jamaal Bowman, another Israel critic, lost a primary in the New York suburbs to George Latimer, who was also backed by AIPAC.

I refer to them as the squadristi, the Italian nickname for Benito Mussolini’s Black Shirts. Today’s far left are every bit as fascist as the Italian dictator. I’ve said it many times before: today’s left are pro-choice on exactly one thing.

Bell, who benefited from $9.5 million in ad spending from pro-Israel groups, according to AdImpact, had implored voters to “stand with Israel,” drawing a sharp contrast with the two-term Democrat who has accused Israel of committing war crimes in its response to the Oct. 7 attack on Israeli civilians by Hamas. The US and European Union deem Hamas a terrorist organization.

Mrs Merritts refused to call Hamas a terrorist organization.

Next up is squadrista Representative Ilhan Omar Mynett[2]Just because she didn’t respect her husband, Tim Mynett, enough to have taken his last name does not mean I shall show him similar disrespect. (Hamas-MN), who is facing a primary election next week.

Progressives argued that the massive amounts raised by Israel supporters are intrusive in local races.

“This would not be a race without AIPAC lifting up this man,“ said Usamah Andrabi, the communications director of Justice Democrats, a PAC that supports Bush and other squad members.

How odd. I can’t seem to recall “progressives” complaining when they spent multiple millions of dollars of ‘outside’ money propping up Democratic candidates in the 2018 and 2020 congressional elections. In Kentucky, my home state, they helped make the 2018 sixth congressional district race extremely expensive, propping up Amy McGrath Henderson[3]Just because she didn’t respect her husband, Erik Henderson, enough to have taken his last name does not mean I shall show him similar disrespect. in her nevertheless losing general election campaign against Representative Andy Barr (R-KY), or the same Mrs Henderson in her nevertheless losing general election campaign against Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), a race into which the left pumped $100 million.

Sauce for the goose, Mrs Merritts.

References

References
↑1 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.
↑2 Just because she didn’t respect her husband, Tim Mynett, enough to have taken his last name does not mean I shall show him similar disrespect.
↑3 Just because she didn’t respect her husband, Erik Henderson, enough to have taken his last name does not mean I shall show him similar disrespect.
Posted on by

Dead man walking: Hamas declare Yahya Sinwar as their new political leader

Following the extermination — I will not use the word assassination to reference the killing of a cockroach — of Ismail Haniyeh as the political leader of Hamas, the leadership of the terrorist group decided that Yahya Sinwar should be their new Fearless Leader.

Israel had long ago declared that that Mr Sinwar is a dead man walking.

Middle East Crisis: Hamas Names an Architect of Oct. 7 Attacks as New Political Leader

Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Hamas announced on Tuesday that it had chosen Yahya Sinwar, one of the masterminds behind the deadly Oct. 7 attack, as the next head of the group’s political office, consolidating his power over the militant group as it continues the 10-month war with Israel.

Mr. Sinwar, who spent two decades in Israeli prisons, has been long viewed by Israeli officials as a sophisticated strategist with a keen understanding of their society. He has been Hamas’s leader in Gaza since 2017. But he will now also replace Ismail Haniyeh, the group’s top political leader, who was a key liaison in the indirect cease-fire talks with Israel.

As The New York Times pointed out on May 12th, Mr Sinwar was among 1,027 ‘Palestinian’ prisoners traded for one Israeli soldier, Staff Sergeant Galid Shalit, in 2011. It is the sad irony of the Middle East that Mr Sinwar planned what turned out to be the deaths of more than 1,027 innocent Israelis on October 7th, along with the capturing of roughly 250 hostages.

In saving one soldier, Israel paid the price of over a thousand innocent non-combatants, plus over 600 soldiers and policemen killed in the current war. I understand the tremendous pressure on the government concerning the return of the remaining hostages, an unknown number of whom are already dead, just as there was during the five-year captivity of Staff Sergeant Shalit, but at some point Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government have to realize that releasing multiple numbers of ‘Palestinian’ bad guys in exchange for a few surviving Israelis is not a wise trade.

The Times reported:

While the talks are mediated in Egypt and Qatar, it is Mr. Sinwar — believed to be hiding in a tunnel network beneath Gaza — whose consent is required by Hamas’s negotiators before they agree to any concessions, according to some of those officials.

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

Due to Mr Sinwar’s concealment, it takes considerable time to get any new negotiations communicated to him, and time to get his responses back. If his consent has been required in the past, while Mr Haniyeh was still alive, how much more so is that true now?

He is supposedly hiding in a deep, deep tunnel network, protected by several captured Israelis being used as human shields.

The decision to appoint Mr. Sinwar is an indication that, ten months into the war, the Palestinian group’s leaders remain firmly behind the decision to attack southern Israel on Oct. 7, analysts said. And it signals that Israeli efforts to try and cripple the group by killing off its leaders may have only entrenched the hard-line position Hamas has taken, they said.

Gaza has been, if not completely destroyed, heavily damaged. Whatever jobs they had, whatever infrastructure they had, are gone now.

“This is more about the overall vision for what Hamas wants, which is focusing more on liberation and less on being a governing power,” said Diana Buttu, a lawyer and former legal adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organization, the official body representing Palestinians internationally.

Israel’s current military campaign in Gaza has driven the Islamist group underground, but Hamas had ruled over the enclave since 2007, fashioning itself into the new government of Gaza and exerting oppressive control over the enclave’s people.

Under Mr. Sinwar’s leadership, Hamas, designated by many Western governments as a terrorist group, had sought to free itself of the challenge of running a civilian government in Gaza, while remaining the ultimate power through its military might.

Mr. Sinwar’s selection was an affirmation of that vision, one that aims to put a greater focus on confronting Israel.

After the Oct. 7 attacks, Hamas leaders said they wanted to ignite a permanent state of war with Israel on all fronts to revive the Palestinian cause, knowing Israel’s response would be aggressive.

In other words, they’re fanatics.

As much as they might have thought the Arab or Muslim nations would come to their aid, that hasn’t been the case. Some Islamist groups like the Houthis and Hezbollah have tried to bring the battle to Israel, none of the Arab nations have done so, because Arab governments have a responsibility to their nations and people, and the last thing they want is another devastating war with Israel. Iran, which is Persian, not Arabic, and Turkey, which is Turkish, not Arab, have made threatening noises, but Iran is 1,000 miles away from Israel, and Turkey 500 miles away.

Hamas would prefer death before surrender, and Israel just might give it to them.