Wash. Post admits Hamas is to blame

In a rare instance of willingness to acknowledge savages are to blame for causing a "cease-fire" to collapse, the Washington Post admits the Hamas is the one at fault here, but that's otherwise all:

After just a week, the fragile Gaza peace is fraying. Israel halted the transfer of aid to Gaza on Sunday and launched airstrikes after it said Hamas fighters killed two Israeli soldiers. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have threatened to withhold reconstruction funds so long as Hamas stays in power. Given the continued barbarity of Hamas, a happy future for the people of Gaza is probably out of reach in the near term. Yet full war is also unlikely to resume.

Consider this a win for President Donald Trump, who brought about the ceasefire. It’s also an acceptable outcome for Israel, which has seen the return of all living hostages. And, perhaps most important, this might the best anyone can really hope for in the Middle East.

Naturally, they vehemently refuse to acknowledge Islam's got any accountability here, and if they don't think it should stop being indoctrinated, then no wonder nobody can hope for much in the middle east. And of course, they fail to acknowledge that any crowds in Gaza who cheer when alleged collaborators with Israel are murdered execution style by the Hamas only make clear they're as barbaric as the overlords are. One of the biggest tragedies in this case is that the Gazan Muslims are "happy", but for all the wrong reasons. If any of them are leaving for other countries, hopefully ones like the UAE and even Indonesia, it'll be far better as a result.

National memorial for October 7, 2023

Today there's been a national memorial held for victims of October 7, 2023 at Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park:

Israel’s national memorial event marking two years since Hamas’s brutal October 7, 2023, onslaught — in which over 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage — has begun in Tel Aviv, drawing some 30,000 attendees.

The ceremony, organized by Kumu (“Rise Up”), a movement founded by families of victims, hostages, and survivors of the attack, is being held at Yarkon Park, Tel Aviv’s largest outdoor venue.

Speakers include former hostage Omer Shem Tov and Anat Angrest, mother of hostage Matan Angrest, alongside performances by Israeli artists Yuval Rafael, Idan Amedi, and more.

Unlike last year, the Israeli government chose not to hold an official state memorial, instead designating a national day of remembrance on the day after Simchat Torah — the Hebrew anniversary of the massacre — on the 24th of Tishrei, which this year, falls on October 16. As a result, Kumu’s event has become the country’s main memorial ceremony for the October 7 attacks.

Here's more on Sky News, and on Israel National News. This was an utter disaster that will take years to recuperate from.

USAF conducts strikes on 3 nuclear sites in Iran

It looks like Donald Trump followed through on serious action in the USA when it comes to Iran's nuclear sites, joining the Israeli military and taking out key targets in Iran:

US President Donald Trump confirmed overnight Sunday that the US Air Force carried out extensive strikes on three key nuclear facilities in Iran, marking a dramatic escalation in the Israel-Iran conflict and the first time since the 1979 Iranian Revolution that the US has attacked major military targets inside Iranian territory. The sites targeted were Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.

"We have completed a very successful strike," Trump wrote on his social media platform, TruthSocial. "All aircraft returned safely. Now is the time for peace!"

According to reports, the US Air Force used GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs, each weighing 30,000 pounds (13,600 kg), capable of penetrating the mountain over the Fordow facility. The decision came after weeks of internal deliberations in Washington, during which Trump weighed giving diplomacy another chance. But with no sign of progress from Tehran, he opted for military action.

Senior Israeli officials believe the US has been preparing to join the wider campaign and had begun logistical preparations well in advance.

Just hours before the airstrikes, Steve Bannon, Trump's former adviser and a leading voice among isolationist conservatives who oppose foreign interventions, hinted at the looming operation on his podcast, saying: "The party's starting."

One must wonder: does this mean Bannon, who was taking up a negative position through isolationism, was coming around and accepting Trump's stance after all? Well, that's why it's good Trump approved of this mission, because these isolationists can't be allowed to impede upon efforts to defeat evil entities abroad.

On the other hand, Democrat Charles Schumer has voiced his opposition to Trump's mission:

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who once claimed to be Israel’s “guardian” in Congress, put out a statement late Saturday night opposing President Donald Trump’s airstrike on Iran’s nuclear sites.

After a delay of several hours, and long after his colleagues — Republican and Democratic — had reacted, Schumer issued a statement criticizing the attacks and backing legislation to limit Trump’s war powers.

The criticism from Schumer and other Democrats echoes their criticism of his successful airstrike on Iranian terror general Qasem Soleimani, when they again cited constitutional limitations on the commander-in-chief.

In reality, Trump’s actions are constitutional, provided that he complies with deadlines established by the existing War Powers Resolution of 1973, which allows the president to conduct war, provided that he report to Congress within 60 days. Few Democrats objected when President Barack Obama used his war powers — even in excess of those allowed by the War Powers Resolution, as Breitbart News has noted in the past:

So once again, Schumer's proven himself a most repellent person, who'd rather rag upon Republicans no matter the deed than prove he recognizes serious issues when he sees them. Nobody should associate with such a reprehensible man. Donald Trump is the winner today, and Schumer's the disgrace.

How Ben Shapiro defends Israel

Columnist Ben Shapiro was interviewed ahead of his visit to Israel on Independence Day (which, if transsexual singer Dana International is attending, I won't be watching, unfortunately), and makes a point that facts matter:

Shapiro's uncompromising advocacy for Israel has earned him many enemies worldwide. This week, when it was announced he had been chosen to light a torch at the Independence Day ceremony, it surprisingly became apparent that he has critics in Israel as well. A vocal minority from the left attacked Shapiro and those who selected him, attempting to portray him as "controversial" – a familiar tactic used whenever Israel decides to honor someone who fights relentlessly for the country without self-pity or selfish calculation, but doesn't belong to the "correct" left-wing circles.

Shapiro remains unfazed by attempts to smear him as "backwards" regarding homosexuality, abortion, and transgender issues. "I've seen many attempts to distort my actual positions from many on the Israeli left, particularly in the media," he says in an exclusive interview with "Israel Hayom." "It's not particularly surprising – their way of distortion is well-known. I have never said homosexuality is a mental illness, nor do I believe that. Here are my actual positions: I believe in the traditional definition of marriage, and that the state should offer benefits to such marriages because it's in the state's inherent interest to support father-mother-children nuclear families. I do not believe in the regulation of same-sex relationships. I am entirely pro-life because I believe unborn human beings deserve to live. I believe men cannot become women, that there are only two sexes (male and female), and that men with gender dysphoria remain men."

But more than anything, he doesn't understand what connection his positions on these and other issues, whether someone likes them or not, have to the underhanded attempt to disqualify his selection to light the Independence Day torch – and along with him, the vast majority of Israelis don't understand either: "After all, even those who disagree with me on these issues should celebrate and honor the establishment of the State of Israel, which represents the fulfillment of God's promise to the Jewish people and stands as a bulwark against enemies of the West. While I'm always happy to discuss my views and do so daily – for instance on my podcast, which is listened to by millions of people – what's far more important, particularly at this time in history, is recognizing that despite all our disagreements, we must not undermine the unity of celebrating Israel's Independence Day."

In this unifying message, he is right. Few know better than he how to distinguish between the essential and the trivial, between allies and enemies. It's no wonder that due to his willingness to defend Israel in every forum and at all times, he's often called "Israel's defender."

"That label is a great honor for me," Ben Shapiro (41) acknowledges. "I'm certain every decent person should defend Israel in its war against genocidal and monstrous enemies like Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and their sponsor – Iran. Today, defending Israel simply means telling the truth about it – there are too many people willing to lie or hedge to avoid controversy. For me, that has meant using my platform to spread the truth about what's happening in Israel and the region, appearing in some of the world's largest media outlets to do the same, debating on behalf of Israel at Oxford and Cambridge, and so on. It has also meant launching a musical called 'We Will Rise' in Israel, with music and lyrics by my father, to demonstrate our love for Israelis during this critical time. And it has meant giving more charity, speaking more, writing more, arguing more."

You can read more at the article. I hope that, if he speaks with Dana International, Shapiro will ask that man in drag if he recognizes that what the Hamas did to the women they graphically raped murdered on October 7, 2023 is wrong even in the guise of transsexual surgeries. That said, it's a shame culture minister Miri Regev had to take a woke path and invite Dana to attend, because it won't change anti-Israelists' view of Zion, and it doesn't help Israel's moral image either. What helps is if actual women who support good causes are elevated to heroic statuses. That's what's important now, and even Shapiro, it can be said, is supporting that.

And I'm glad to see that, if anything, Shapiro isn't making the mistake of obscuring Islam's darkest parts this time, as he once did 2 years ago. That was entirely uncalled for.

110th year since the Armenian Genocide by Turkey's Islamic Ottoman empire

This year marks the 110th since Turkey committed the Armenian Genocide during WW1, a horrifying history that Turkey and even Azerbaijan still won't clearly acknowledge and definitely haven't apologized for:

April 24 marked the 110th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, during which up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottman Empire.

Tensions always rise between the Armenians and the modern Turkish government at this time of year, and many Armenians are now taking time during the day to reflect on Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing of Armenians from the Nagorno-Karabakh region in late 2023.

Modern historians look upon the events of 1915-1916 as the first of several genocidal events in the 20th Century, while Turkey disputes the allegation that its Ottoman predecessors were attempting to systematically eliminate the Armenian people, as Nazi Germany would later treat the Jews, or the Hutus of Rwanda would treat the Tutsis.

[...] There were numerous international witnesses to these atrocities, including foreign reporters and military officers. Modern Turkish politicians are generally willing to admit that Armenian civilians were killed and abused in great numbers, but they insist there is no documented proof that the Ottoman government was deliberately trying to exterminate the entire Armenian people.

The Armenians say the Ottomans wanted to eliminate them because they were an inconvenient Christian people standing in the way of the Young Turks’ vision for a mighty Turkic empire that would stretch from the Caucasus all the way to China.

[...] Many Armenians today accuse Azerbaijan of ethnic cleansing – eliminating a people by forcibly relocating them, rather than murdering them all – after its military conquest of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in 2023.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a swath of territory that fell inside the borders of Azerbaijan after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but most of its inhabitants were ethnic Armenians, who had dwelled in the area they called the “Republic of Artsakh” for centuries, ever since the height of the greater Armenian kingdom.

If the aforementioned Hen Mazzig were really concerned about forced relocation, he would've taken up topics like this, and thrown his support behind the community that really needs backing, here being Armenia's. Instead, he took the side of the savages.

Writing at the Christian Post last Sunday, religious freedom advocate David Curry urged the U.S. government to hold Azerbaijan accountable for abusing Armenians and other Christians, including the ethnic and religious cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The above columnist is absolutely correct. And it's vital to note that Armenia's current premier has to shoulder blame for much of what's befallen the country lately:

Some in the Armenian diaspora have criticized the government of Armenia for stepping back from its efforts to get the other nations of the world to formally recognize the 1915 genocide, in part because the government believes it is making diplomatic progress with Turkey and Azerbaijan.

In March, Armenian President Nikol Pashinyan told Turkish reporters that obtaining international recognition of the Armenian Genocide “is not among our foreign policy priorities today.” He hinted that insisting on recognition of the event was an obstacle to signing a treaty with Azerbaijan or normalizing relations with Turkey.

So not only did he allow Azerbaijan to take over Arsakh without a genuine fight, he's also selling out on the issue of recognition of a serious issue. This too is very chilling, and Pashinyan doesn't deserve to be a politician.

Here's some more history (via The Daily Wire) of some of the most obscene incidents during tragedy:

While the death toll is in dispute, photographs from the era document some mass killings. Some show Ottoman soldiers posing with severed heads, others with them standing amid skulls in the dirt. The victims are reported to have died in mass burnings and by drowning, torture, gas, poison, disease and starvation. Children were reported to have been loaded into boats, taken out to sea and thrown overboard. Rape, too, was frequently reported.

Just one more reason it's a disgrace anybody lets countries governed by the Religion of Peace off the hook. Of course, CNN is still making things worse by using that line "death toll in dispute". It is most definitely not.

Donald Trump makes historic comeback, reelected to 2nd presidential term

It's simply amazing. Donald Trump, who'd been robbed of his victory for a 2nd term 4 years earlier, has now made a historic comeback in another election this year, one where he also won my native Pennsylvania's vote. And here's some more on this amazing milestone in history:

The Fox News Decision Desk projects former President Trump has defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in a stunning victory, delivering him a second term in the White House after a historic election cycle filled with unprecedented twists and turns and two attempts on his life.

Trump defeated Vice President Harris, who entered this race just over 100 days ago after President Biden, who won the Democratic primaries, was convinced to stand down.

Trump was projected to have breached the 270 electoral vote threshold after stunning wins in the battleground states of North Carolina, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia.

In Trump's victory speech, he spoke about how his life was spared for a reason. And he's very lucky to have made it past all the terrible attempts by the left to destroy his comeback chances. He'll no doubt continue to face serious challenges. That's why he'll need the support of everybody who voted for him for the platform of improving living conditions going forward. For now, we must wish him luck in working on cleaning up the mess the left has made all these 4 years.

Update: Benjamin Netanyahu was the first Israeli politician to congratulate Trump on his comeback victory.

OneFamily, much like 911 Families, is something Europe needs

This article talks about the Israeli support group OneFamily, which has a similar purpose to movements like 911 Families for a Safe and Strong America:

On Monday, May 13, sirens will sound again in observance of Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Remembrance Day for the fallen soldiers and victims of terror, reopening the wounds of the thousands who are reeling in the aftermath of the horrific October 7 massacre and ongoing war with Hamas. For Shira Mark-Harif, this day symbolizes the endless cycle of loss and pain that she has endured for more than eight years.

In 2016, at the age of 24, Shira was a new mother of two living in Har Hevron, surrounded by her large, enveloping family, 9 siblings and loving parents, when her entire world came crashing down. On July 1, 2016, Shira’s father, Rabbi Miki Mark was driving his car along Route 60, along with his wife and two of his children, when terrorists opened fire, killing Miki and injuring Shira’s mother and two siblings. Her mother suffered extensive brain damage, leaving Shira, the second oldest child, to assume the role of the primary guardian for her younger four siblings.

With her life shattered and faced with the impossible task of now caring for six children, along with her mother, Shira began to lose herself.

“My father was my entire world, but because I was over the age of 21, I fell through the cracks,” Shira shares, just ahead of Yom Hazikaron, adding that aside from basic support as a foster parent and emotional therapy, she was not entitled to any other support from the Israeli government, “It was through the support of OneFamily that I felt that there was somebody to check on me, to feel connection and that community has helped me build strong lifelong friendships.”

Founded in 2001 by Marc and Chantal Belzberg and inspired by their daughter after the Sbarro Suicide Bombing, OneFamily steps up where others do not bring together Israel’s victims of terror into one, national, self-supportive family. For Shira, like the more than 7,200 families supported by the organization since 2001, it helped her find herself again.

Understanding the emotional complexities of the families of the victims of terror, OneFamily took the initiative to gradually reach out to Shira and her siblings, first attending the shiva of her father, and then over time developing a budding relationship that has turned into the central force that has allowed the Mark family to continue living.

“At first, it is just chaos,” she recalls. “I had no idea what I needed, but OneFamily continued to reach out and provide us with everything we needed.”

“My mother and I began to attend ceramics classes in Jerusalem and group activities with other families of victims of terror,” Shira explains, adding that her mother continues to travel two hours to Jerusalem from their new home in the Golan Heights each week just so she does not miss a single ceramics class. “They truly see you, and give us strength, the ability to breath and a connection with the larger community.”

But unfathomable tragedy struck again, just two and a half years after the death of her father, as Shira’s oldest brother, Shlomi, was killed in a traffic accident while on his way to work at the Prime Minister’s office in 2019.

That's absolutely terrible more tragedy occurred. And people like her should have the backing of the government considering what they've been through.

While OneFamily has created a model for national support in the face of terrorism, a stark reality that many Western countries do not share, more than 60,000 Israelis have joined the list of victims of terror will statistically leave thousands to fall through the cracks, just as Shira would have without the immediate response of the organization.

Well this is something European countries need to emulate, not to mention Latin American and Asian countries that could've been struck by similar tragedies too. So let's hope somebody in said countries will draw some ideas from this, since there's only too many there who've suffered enough and need a good movement's backing for a change.

Kenya president visits Israel and the Western Wall

Kenya's president, William Ruto, visited Israel this week, and also paid a visit to the Western Wall at the Jerusalem Old City region:

The President of the Republic of Kenya William Ruto visited the Western Wall while in Israel.

"Despite the difficulties in the world, I am very happy to visit the Holy Land of Israel. It is a great privilege,” Ruth said.

Ruto and his wife, together with a large delegation from Kenya, visited and prayed at the Western Wall.

The President and the delegation were greeted by the director of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, Mordechai Eliav, who presented fascinating findings from the Western Wall Tunnels and explained the connection of the Jewish people to Jerusalem and its yearning for it throughout the generations.

The President was very moved by the visit and was interested in the history of the site and of the Jewish people. Ruto said a personal prayer for a long time and placed a note between the stones of the Western Wall.

At the end of the visit, Ruto signed the guestbook: "May G-d bless the people and the State of Israel. Humanity should never face the isolation and prejudices against our brothers and sisters of the Jewish nation. That we shall be united as a people in peace as one people under G-d.”

The guy makes excellent points, and it's great to have him visit.

21 years after 9-11, lessons still unlearned

Bruce Thornton's written about how the elitists running the political store in the USA still learn no lessons from the horrible tragedy on September 11, 2001:

Twenty-one years have passed since the worst terrorist attack ever on American soil, and our foreign policy establishment and ruling elite still have not learned the lessons of that horrendous carnage. The Romans thought even fools could learn from experience, but our credentialed mavens can’t break free of their institutional orthodoxy and narratives. As a consequence, our foreign policy and international relations continue to put our national security at risk.

This misinterpretation of modern Islam’s traditional resistance to infidel hegemony began with the Iranian Revolution, the first of subsequent jihadist attacks on the U.S. that culminated on 9/11. The West filtered that religious revolution through the old ideas of anticolonialism and national self-determination encoded in the Versailles settlement. Barack Obama, in his cringing flattery of Islam during his 2009 Cairo speech, recycled this stale received wisdom, blaming “tensions” between Islam and the West on “colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations.”

[...] Oblivious to this traditional religious imperative, during the Nineties the Clinton administration didn’t take seriously enough the string of al Qaeda’s anti-American rhetoric he backed up with violent attacks on our military and diplomatic personnel. Instead, the Clinton team treated them as criminal matters, or heretical distortions of Islam by renegade Muslims, rather than as salvos in a jihad that climaxed in 9/11.

On the other hand, the George Bush administration, after its swift punishment of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq, changed the goals of those conflicts into a misguided, naïve effort to democratize peoples whose creed and its supreme law, Koranic-based sharia, are incompatible with liberal democracy and its cargo of religious tolerance, sex equality, unalienable rights, and separation of church and state. The latter was particularly myopic, given that, as Karsh writes, Islam “was inextricably linked with the creation of a world empire and its universalism was inherently imperialist. It did not distinguish between temporal and religious powers.” Muhammad could thus “cloak his political ambitions with a religious aura.”

This mistake by Bush’s foreign policy team was in part the fruit of the wrong lessons taken from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, which arrogantly encouraged the primacy of the Western liberal “rules-based internal order” as the master political paradigm for the whole world. And this hubristic mentality persisted all the way to Joe Biden’s skedaddle from Afghanistan last year, where the U.S. had sponsored seminars on women’s liberation for Afghan males.

Of course, Bush also made clear where he really stands when last year, he used the Memorial service as a cheap excuse to attack Trump, no matter how indirectly, and soiled what should've been a solemn moment. It was most utterly insensitive to 9-11 Families, not to mention victims of the botched Afghanistan withdrawal. And then of course, there's the problem of a liberal guilt mentality that only applies to the west, but not to Islamic forces continuing to occupy countries they captured in the past:

Moreover, whereas the Western colonial powers abandoned colonialism and continue to provide aid to their ex-colonies, Muslims still inhabit and rule most of the territories they conquered centuries ago: all of North Africa, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Turkey had been Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian, i.e. proto-Western, for as long as nearly 3000 years before Islam even existed.

Nor is this ancient history: Muslim Turkey still occupies Northern Cyprus, which it invaded and has illegally occupied and colonized since 1974, ethnically cleansing Greek Cypriots; destroying, looting, and vandalizing more than 550 churches; and refusing to this day to inform the Greeks about the fate of over 2000 of their compatriots who disappeared during the invasion. Bullying Israel over its “occupation” of the lands their ancestors inhabited 3000 years ago reveals the West’s shameful sacrifice of history and justice in order to pursue its own economic and ideological interests.

Yes, that's another sad topic to consider. Northern Cyprus continues to remain under Turkish rule, and nobody in the west does anything to reverse it. And back in the USA, who knows what more mistakes will be made, as the elitists continue their own misguided approach to the issues?

QUEEN ELIZABETH II'S DIAMOND JUBILEE

The Diamond Jubilee Celebration begins today and continues through June 5.  The only other British monarch to celebrate a diamond jubilee was Queen Victoria in 1897.


The schedule is HERE.


I plan to watch some of the live coverage. I know that I will enjoy the pageantry and the elegance, both of which will surpass the pageantry and elegance of the royal weddings.

25 Years Ago Today

On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch.

President Ronald Reagan's eloquent address to our nation: