Category: moslems & jihadis

IDF Eliminated Over 8,000 Gaza Terrorists Since October 7.

Amid reports that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has eliminated more than 8,000 terrorists after eleven weeks of campaign in Gaza, the military is closing in on Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, Israel’s defense minister said.

“One thing is clear – Yahya Sinwar now hears the IDF tractors above him, the Air Force bombs and the IDF’s actions. He will soon meet the barrels of our guns,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared Friday. Sinwar, who is regarded as the key architect of the October 7 massacre, is believed to be hiding in southern Gaza as Israeli ground troops bring most of the Hamas stronghold in the north under their control.

The Israeli news website Arutz Sheva reported defense minister’s remarks:

Speaking at the conclusion of a daily assessment of the situation with senior members of the defense establishment, Gallant said, “The activity of the IDF and the defense establishment continues. In the north of the Gaza Strip – the operation is gradually completing the goals we set: Disbanding the Hamas battalions and denying their underground capabilities. We also operate in the Khan Yunis area and the south of the Gaza Strip, and we will operate in other places in the future.”

“One thing is clear – Yahya Sinwar now hears the IDF tractors above him, the Air Force bombs and the IDF’s actions. He will soon meet the barrels of our guns,” the Defense Minister vowed.

“We will go and deepen our activity and complete all our goals – first of all, the elimination of the Hamas terrorist organization, the denial of its military and governmental capabilities, and the return of the hostages to Israel,” Gallant added. “The operation will be a drawn-out operation, requiring patience, but we will reach an achievement.”

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I remember an article titled; Where’s Vlad (the impaler) when you really need him? I’ll try to find it.

Civilization Has to Go Medieval on Terrorists.

“Remember we have only to be lucky once, you will have to be lucky always,” the IRA warned the world after an assassination bombing at Brighton’s Grand Hotel barely missed killing British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1984. The same story is being told today in the vital lanes of the Red Sea, where Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels are waging a missile war against the world’s shipping — and major shippers are getting out before their luck runs out.

Oil giant BP is just the latest firm to announce it will “pause” all shipments through the Red Sea due to the “deteriorating security situation,” according to a company statement. Taiwan-based Evergreen Line made a similar announcement, “For the safety of ships and crew, Evergreen Line has decided to temporarily stop accepting Israeli cargo with immediate effect, and has instructed its container ships to suspend navigation through the Red Sea until further notice.”

Those announcements came on the heels of similar decisions made over the weekend. On Saturday, two other major shipping firms — Mediterranean Shipping Company and CMA CGM — ceased Red Sea operations. “The CMA CGM Group is deeply concerned about the recent attacks on commercial vessels unfolding in the Red Sea Region. The situation is further deteriorating and concern of safety is increasing,” one statement said. All of their ships currently in passage have been instructed to “reach safe areas and pause their journey in safe waters with immediate effect until further notice.”

The BBC explained Monday that Houthis are “targeting ships traveling through the Bab al-Mandab Strait – also known as the Gate of Tears – which is a channel 20 miles (32km) wide, and known for being perilous to navigate.”

One or two American guided missile destroyers — dispatched from a navy that is already stretched too thin — is not enough to shoot down every Houthi missile. Shipping firms understand this and are skedaddling accordingly.

For my isolationist-minded readers who are certain this is just “a quarrel in a faraway land between people of which we know nothing,” nothing could be further from the truth. The Red Sea — and the Suez Canal that connects it to the Mediterranean — is one of the world’s most vital sea lanes.

Oil prices are up — way up — on the news. That quarrel in a faraway land is about to make itself felt at your neighborhood gas pump, and that has nothing to do with a lack of production in this country. Oil is a global commodity, so a disruption anywhere leads to higher prices everywhere.

About one in six container ships travels through the Suez Canal, carrying everything from crude oil to consumer goods. Supply chain expert Chris Rogers told CNN today, “Consumer goods will face the largest impact, though current disruptions are occurring during the off-peak shipping season.”

American prosperity has been built on international trade since before the Revolutionary War and it almost certainly always will be. The same goes for the rest of the West, including our non-Western (but friendly) commercial cousins in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Maybe even China has a role to play here. But the world’s wealthy trading nations can either get as Medieval on terrorists and pirates as they are on us, or we can kiss our prosperity goodbye.

Christian Nationalism

We’re being told that we should be afraid of this:

And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set down, his disciples came unto him. And opening his mouth, he taught them, saying:
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land.

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God.

Blesses are the peacemakers: for they shall be called children of God.
Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you.

     [Matthew 5:1-12]

And this:

And behold one came and said to him: Good master, what good shall I do that I may have life everlasting?

Who said to him: Why asketh thou me concerning good? One is good, God. But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
He said to him: Which? And Jesus said: Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness. Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

     [Matthew 19:16-19]

And this:

But the Pharisees hearing that he had silenced the Sadducees, came together: And one of them, a doctor of the law, asking him, tempting him: Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law?
Jesus said to him: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets.

     [Matthew 22:34-40]

But we’re not supposed to be afraid of this:

“Islam says: Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword! People cannot be made obedient except with the sword! The sword is the key to Paradise, which can be opened only for Holy Warriors! These are hundreds of other psalms and Hadiths urging Muslims to value war and to fight. Does all that mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim.” — Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

“The minarets are our bayonets; the domes are our helmets. Mosques are our barracks, the believers are soldiers. This holy army guards my religion. Almighty Our journey is our destiny, the end is martyrdom.” — Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime minister of Turkey

Those who believe fight in the way of Allah, and those who disbelieve fight in the way of the Shaitan. Fight therefore against the friends of the Shaitan; surely the strategy of the Shaitan is weak. [Koran, Sura 4:76]

“I will instill terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their fingertips off them.” [Koran, Sura 8:12]

“But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem…” [Koran, Sura 9:5]

“Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Apostle have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, of the people of the Book, until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.” [Koran, Sura 9:29]

“O Prophet! Struggle against the unbelievers and hypocrites and be harsh with them.” [Koran, Sura 9:73]

Puzzling, eh?

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It’s becoming rare that my boiler gets lit over anything, these days. I’ve said too much…written too much. But among my remaining hot buttons, this one may be the hottest: people who promote contempt toward Christianity and malice toward Christians. From the way they whine and rave, you’d think we had our hands in their pockets, if not down their pants.

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Hamas Calls for Violence Against Americans, and So Does This Michigan Imam

Could the war in Israel spread to the United States? Sure. Some people want it to.

Hamas has never made a secret of the fact that its goal of destroying Israel is just part of a larger jihad to conquer the entire world for Islam. And so it was inevitable, both in light of that aspiration and the Biden regime’s shaky but still subsisting support for Israel’s defensive effort, that Hamas jihadis would call for violence against Americans. What is more surprising, at least for those who have bought into the comforting establishment fictions that have been circulating since 9/11, is that one such call came from right here at home.

Hamas operative Sami Abu Zuhri recently proclaimed that Biden regime Secretary of State Antony Blinken, despite pressuring Israel to go easy on the warriors of jihad, was just as bad as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “When Blinken is justifying the killing of women and children, the sons of our nation should say to him: You are the enemy, just like Netanyahu, and you must pay the price, just like Netanyahu. We should keep this in mind.” Yes, we should indeed.

If you’re wondering when exactly Blinken justified the killing of women and children, the answer, of course, is never. Blinken has actually parroted Hamas propaganda in warning Israel that it must do more to reduce civilian deaths, when in reality the number of civilians killed in Gaza compares favorably to the death toll of civilians in other recent conflicts, notably the battle of Mosul against ISIS in Iraq.

Nevertheless, Abu Zuhri wants to see American blood: “Now it is our nation’s turn to pressure the Americans to stop this war. We need violent acts against American and British interests everywhere, as well as the interests of all the countries that support the occupation.”

It’s hard to see how those who call for violence against people who have nothing to do with the conflict have the moral high ground, and those who are doing all they can to limit civilian casualties deserve the opprobrium of the entire world; we’d need an American university student to explain that.

Meanwhile, an echo of this call for jihad terror attacks against Americans came from a Muslim cleric, Ahmad Musa Jibril. Jibril, “whose hate-filled sermons,” according to a Friday report in the New York Post, “were said to have inspired the London Bridge terrorist attack,” is not in Britain, or in Baghdad or Balochistan. Jibril was born in Dearborn, Michigan, and while his current whereabouts are murky, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) identifies him as a “Michigan Islamic scholar,” and the Twitter/X account that posted his call for jihad in America states that it is operating out of Chicago and is “managed by students.” Jibril, who did hard time in the Terre Haute Federal Correctional Complex for fraud, money laundering, unlawful possession of firearms and more, clearly has considerable influence among Muslims in the United States.

Contradicting the false narrative Americans have been fed for two decades now, Jibril declared: “Yes, there is holy war in Islam, it is jihad. This may be a surprise to many who grew up in the West, especially those who were born or grew up post 9/11, because of the growing number of hypocrites, who are spreading the American-Zionist Islam, and it has nothing to do with Islam, that version of Islam is and Islam that suits the enemies.” He added that “the one who has been spreading that there is no holy war in Islam, has been defecating heresy out of his mouth for the past 20 years, downplaying the legislation of Allah and the Islamic punishments.”

That would include virtually all of the prominent Islamic spokesmen in the U.S. As far as Jibril is concerned, the only people who had it right about jihad and Islam were the ones who were (and still are) vilified, marginalized, and silenced as “Islamophobes.” And now he wants Muslims in the U.S. to start taking this holy war seriously: “The Muslims in the West, especially the youth in the West, especially the youth in America, need to wake up. The current events are a wake-up call for Muslims to start normalizing mentioning jihad’s proper meaning, and putting it back into their vocabulary. Jihad must be a common, normal term on your tongues, on your social media, and in the mosques and elsewhere.

This should, he said, be a matter of lifelong indoctrination: “It’s time the mothers nurse their infants with the love of jihad and the ambition to become a mujahid and a martyr.” A martyr in the Islamic sense is one who acts upon Allah’s promise of paradise in the Qur’an to those who “kill and are killed.” America said Jibril, is “a vicious enemy of Muslims.” And so the import of his words was clear: Muslims need to wage jihad against America. While the Biden regime’s FBI hunts for “white supremacist terrorists” and Jan. 6 “insurrectionists,” some young men in America right now are heeding the words of Ahmed Musa Jibril.

That wasn’t a ‘mistake’, it was HAMAS intent to have that happen

IDF says it accidentally killed three Israeli hostages in Gaza after mistaking them for Hamas terrorists.

Following the incident, Israel's ground forces were given new protocols to help identify hostages to avoid more hostage deaths.

Three Israeli hostages were killed after the Israel Defense Forces mistook them for a “threat” during crossfire in Gaza Friday, leaving the military expressing “deep sorrow” for the deaths.

Yotam Haim, Samer Talalka and Alon Shamriz were killed when they were accidentally “targeted” in Shejaiya and shot dead by the IDF.

It believes the three hostages “fled or were abandoned by the terrorists who held them captive.”

Haim and Shamriz were abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7 in Kfar Aza, while Talalka was taken from Nir Am, according to the Times of Israel.

Haim, 28, was a heavy metal drummer in the band Persephore. He was taken from his home at the start of the war and his house was set on fire by Hamas fighters.

Talalka, who was in his early 20s, was taken from a hatchery, where he and his father worked. The young man often worked early weekend shifts in the henhouse, according to the outlet.

Shamriz was a 26-year-old computer engineering student whose parents are from Iran, the Times of Israel reported.

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Netanyahu, Israeli FM to Biden: We’re Destroying Hamas Whether You Like It or Not

Before we get to this direct rejection of the Biden/Blinken ‘credit’ argument, let’s go over the background that led to it. Under pressure from progressive anti-Semites in his party, Joe Biden growled yesterday about Israel’s supposedly “indiscriminate” bombing campaign in Gaza. His comments at a campaign event yesterday sent shock waves through the US media:

“Israel’s security can rest on the United States,” Biden stated during a campaign event Tuesday, as he touted his government’s strong support of Israel. …

“But they’re starting to lose that support by the indiscriminate bombing that takes place” in Gaza, Biden said, in a statement that implied Israel was needlessly targeting civilians.

The context of the event mattered in this case. Biden was in campaign mode, and as such, Biden apparently felt compelled to pander to his progressive wing on Israel. While agreeing that Hamas are “animals” and need to be held “accountable,” Biden then compared Israel’s campaign in Gaza to World War II, and claimed “Bibi” made the comparison:

It was pointed out to me — I’m being very blunt with you all — it was pointed out to me that — by Bibi — that “Well, you carpet-bombed Germany. You dropped the atom bomb. A lot of civilians died.”

I said, “Yeah, that’s why all these institutions were set up after World War Two to see to it that it didn’t happen again — it didn’t happen again. Don’t make the same mistakes we made at 9/11. There was no reason why we had to be in a war in Afghanistan at 9/11. There was no reason why we had to do some of the things we did.”

I’m not sure what point Biden thinks he was making. Is he criticizing the Allied war actions of World War II, which destroyed the Nazis and liberated half a continent? Would he have recommended cutting a deal with Hitler instead and leaving the Nazis in place? Is he criticizing Truman for dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? (As I explained in August, there were good reasons to make that choice, some of which apply in this conflict.) Does Biden think we “carpet-bombed” Afghanistan? If the answer to any of these is “yes,” then Biden is far more ignorant than even we assumed.

At any rate, it seems unlikely that Netanyahu actually made an argument based on “carpet-bombing,” because that is clearly not what the IDF is doing in Gaza. (That part smells like Biden’s typical self-serving fabulism.) The IDF has chosen to use ground troops and narrow targeting of Hamas-infiltrated infrastructure rather than use bunker-busters that would eliminate some of the risk to its own soldiers. Even the New York Times tacitly acknowledged the falsity of Biden’s claim in a rather useful deep-dive analysis of “proportionality” today. Steven Erlanger debunks the idea that “proportionality” has anything to do with equating body counts, as well as that “symmetry” is a legal requirement in wars, especially when one side starts it as part of an annihilation effort.

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Egypt Reportedly Has Mortal Fears About This Scenario Regarding Israel’s War With Hamas

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza isn’t going to end until the terror organization is destroyed or hobbled to the point where its impact on Gazan civilian life would be de minimis. No more can the strip be used to launch terror attacks against Israel. The IDF will remain in the strip, taking over its security responsibilities for the foreseeable future. And Israel might invade southern Lebanon to curb Hezbollah’s footprint so close to its northern border. Yet, neighboring Egypt has also been monitoring the situation. They deployed tanks to its border with the Gaza Strip, bolstering its presence near the long-closed Rafah border crossing.

The reason for its closure, which isn’t a new development, isn’t shocking: Egyptians don’t want Palestinian terrorists flooding into their country. That’s not just Cairo’s position. Every Arab nation knows the Palestinians are a problem, bringing nothing but trouble wherever they go. Reportedly, Arab nations have been quietly telling Israel that they hope their forces wipe out Hamas and that the IDF shouldn’t stop their campaign until the terror group is eliminated. For Egypt, being a neighboring state, they also don’t want millions of Palestinians pouring across the border. It’s an issue that Egyptians are warning Jerusalem could lead to a “rupture” in their relations (via Axios):

Egypt warned the U.S. and Israel that if Palestinian refugees flee into the Sinai as a result of the Israeli military operation in southern Gaza, it could create “a rupture” in relations between Egypt and Israel, according to four U.S. and Israeli officials.

Why it matters: The close relations between Egypt and Israel, especially between the military and intelligence services, have been critically important at several points in the war, including around the release of hostages.

Egypt sees the war in Gaza as a threat to its national security and wants to prevent Palestinian refugees from crossing the border into its territory.

As of 3 December, according to UNRWA, almost 1.9 million people in Gaza, or nearly 85 percent of the population, were estimated to be internally displaced.[…]

Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority have been concerned since the early days of the war that Israel would push Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt — and not allow them to return after the war.

Israeli officials denied this both in private and in public and gave assurances to Egypt that any wounded Palestinian permitted to leave Gaza for medical treatment would be allowed to return to the enclave.[…]

Behind the scenes: Israeli officials say that over the last few weeks Egyptian officials, including in the military and in the intelligence service, told their counterparts in the IDF and the Shin Bet that they are highly concerned about the implications of an operation in southern Gaza for Egypt.

The Egyptians expressed anxiety that a crisis on their border with Gaza would result in thousands of Palestinian refugees crossing the border barrier and trying to find shelter in the Sinai, according to three Israeli officials.

One Israeli official said Egyptian officials told their Israeli counterparts they are concerned that militants from Gaza could also then escape into Egypt.

Egypt has already declared that they’re willing to sacrifice millions of its people to keep its border and nation safe against a flood of Palestinian refugees. Israel can’t upset the apple cart with Egypt, whose peace treaty they share is strategically important. It’s not just significant regarding inroads for peace in the region. It was a historic milestone. Egypt became the first Arab country to recognize the Jewish state’s right to exist. They won’t let this deteriorate; we should all hope they don’t.

This is why our foreign and domestic enemies wanted a cease fire. They knew HAMAS was near collapse and the intel the IDF will gather is likely to implicate people and organizations that secretly supported them.

Netanyahu: It’s the ‘Beginning of the End’ for Hamas as Even More Terrorists Surrender, Give Vital Intel

More than 100 Hamas terrorists reportedly surrendered on Saturday in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

Maybe “strip” was also the right word, since the IDF was making them strip to make sure that they didn’t have any weapons or bombs on their person. We reported on this before, but now even more terrorists surrendered Saturday, and what those people who raised the white flag are revealing is helping the IDF.

N12 News shared the clip of the men standing in line across a rubble-strewn street in Jabaliya as IDF soldiers trained automatic weapons on them and ordered them to drop their own weapons across the street. One of the men gingerly crossed the street, his automatic weapon held over his head, before dumping into a pile of seized arms.

“In Shejaiya and Jabaliya, terrorists who surrendered handed over weapons and equipment,” said IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari Saturday, the Times of Israel reported, adding that many of the men told Israeli forces that Hamas leadership underground “does not care about the public in Gaza who are above ground.”

Hagari said that interrogations of the captured operatives already provided valuable intelligence for the Israeli military and “aids us in operational activities.”

Sounds like the Hamas members have had enough, especially of their leaders, particularly if they’re providing intel to the Israelis.

Now, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, has called on the rest of the terrorists to surrender. 

“The war is still ongoing but it is the beginning of the end of Hamas,” Netanyahu said as he urged the terrorist group’s fighters not to sacrifice themselves for their leader Yahya Sinwar.

“I say to the Hamas terrorists: It’s over. Don’t die for Sinwar. Surrender – now!”

“In the past few days, dozens of Hamas terrorists have surrendered to our forces. They are laying down their weapons and turning themselves in to our heroic soldiers.” Netanyahu said.

Meanwhile there are reports that Sinwar has fled south to Khan Younis. Sounds just like the coward he is.

Some continued to flip out that the people were being held in their underwear by the IDF.

Warning for graphic language

But the IDF has to make sure that they don’t have any weapons. Notice they are taking prisoners, unlike Hamas who just rapes and slaughters civilians. This is real, and so is the war that Hamas started. Treating them with safety isn’t a war crime, unlike what Hamas did. Hamas is outgunned and outsmarted, and they’re going to find out it wasn’t a good idea to open up this can of worms by attacking Israel.

People upset about conditions in Gaza should be calling on Hamas to surrender because once they are gone, things will get immeasurably better for everyone. Calling for a ceasefire, as many on the left are doing, only saves the terrorists from being wiped out. What they’re doing is helping Hamas, not the people of Gaza.

But it may be too late for the leftists to save them. It’s the beginning of the end and it’s only going to get worse for Hamas.

Giveaways

 When a man shows you who he is, believe him.– Maya Angelou

Among the great weaknesses of the Right is our powerful desire to believe that our opponents are fundamentally just as decent as we are. There’s actually some rationality behind that assumption. If our opponents are not fundamentally decent – that is, if they don’t share our core convictions about good and evil – we have no chance of reasoning with them. As we’re determined to prevail politically with logic and evidence rather than through bloodshed, the assumption is vital to keeping our guns in the closet.

But the evidence is strong that the Left does not agree with our convictions about good and evil. Now and then we get more of it.

Quite recently, Pramila Jayapal sought to deflect discussion from HAMAS’s rapes and other brutalizations of Israeli girls.
From an open HAMAS supporter, the impulse to dismiss their atrocities might be understandable…but giving in to it indicates a missing moral foundation. Either that, or she’s seriously stupid. And yes, I suppose it could be both, though that leaves her tenure in Congress unexplained.

A few days later, a New York University law professor tried to justify those rapes as less evil than Israel’s military response:

It’s difficult to believe someone that morally empty could hold a law professorship at a prominent law school, but this is 2023.

The most illuminating giveaway of all is a few years old. Regard the little video below: a segment from a “debate” over what European policies should be toward the waves of “refugees” flooding Europe:

Note that the leftists, Simon Schama and Louise Arbour, scoff at the plague of sexual violence – rape, often gang rape, and often of underage girls – that the “refugees” have inflicted on the women and girls of Europe, and imply that the position of the Right is founded on prudery or “newborn feminism.” Mark Steyn’s riposte devastates them, simply by citing a handful of the known incidents the leftists were determined to dismiss with weak sarcasms.

But what does it really signify that Arbour and Schama regard violent sexual predation as something they can dismiss with a flip remark? Are these persons to whom you would entrust the care of a young girl? Would you be confident that they would protect her from the sort of vermin Mark Steyn cited? Or might their attitude be “Well, different cultures” or perhaps “Hey, these things happen” – ?

A man who’s willing to countenance the sacrifice of women’s and young girls’ bodies to debatable “humanitarian” priorities, or for the sake of some political or economic advantage, or perhaps merely to prevail over an ideological opponent, has embraced evil. Arbour and Schama have shed all pretense to the contrary. They have shown us who they are, and we should believe them.

Good men don’t compromise with evil. They don’t try to reason with evil. They fight evil. They do their utmost to destroy it. The rest is left as an exercise for the reader.

American Forces Attacked by Iranian Proxies 84 Times in 52 Days and Biden Does Nothing

US military installations in Iraq and Syria have been attacked by Iranian proxies nine times since Friday. According to senior defense officials, this brings to 84 the number of attacks on US forces since October 17, resulting in injuries to 66 American servicemen. The highest profile of those attacks was an attack on the US embassy in Baghdad. It was hit by a volley of 60mm mortar rounds on Thursday, and there were no casualties

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin used the occasion of his phone call with Iraqi President Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to condemn the attacks as “acts of terrorism” that “endanger Iraq’s internal security.”  He also “made clear that attacks against US forces must stop.”

As Austin made clear, it is no secret that Iranian proxy groups are behind the attacks (New Drone Attacks on US Forces in Syria, Iranian Proxies Claim Responsibility).

The same provocations are taking place in the Red Sea by the Iranian-back Houthis in Yemen. A US Reaper drone was shot down over international waters (Yemeni Houthis Shoot Down US Reaper Over Red Sea, the White House Response Is Crickets). Houthi drones targeted a US destroyer.

I’m sure that the usual isolationist fringe will say, “Why do we have troops in those countries? Why are our ships sailing in international waters? Shouldn’t they be on our southern border?” Those may be fair questions, but it is also immaterial and a shameless dodge. The National Command Authority has ordered our military to those locations to carry out American foreign policy. But in an environment where our troops have been attacked on 84 separate occasions in 52 days, we have launched a grand total of six airstrikes in the same time frame.

We allow Iranian proxies to lob rockets and mortar rounds at our troops. We’ve accepted, on average, one American casualty per day since October 17, and It is only a matter of time until Americans get killed. And the reason they do it is that there is zero risk attached to attacking Americans or American ships or aircraft because Joe Biden is so afraid of offending the Iranians that he’d rather see the coffins arrive at Dover AFB than have panties soiled under the man-dresses in Tehran.

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A Rocket Attack Targets the US Embassy in Baghdad, Causing Minor Damage but No Casualties

BAGHDAD — A rocket attack on the sprawling U.S. Embassy in Baghdad caused minor damage but no casualties Friday morning, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

The attack is the first on the embassy located in the heavily fortified Green Zone of Iraq’s capital to be confirmed since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war. The Green Zone houses Iraqi government buildings and embassies on the west bank of the Tigris River.

Iran-backed militias in Iraq have claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks that targeted bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria since Israel declared war on Hamas two months ago. The U.S. military says 78 attacks have been carried out against U.S. facilities over the past weeks, of which 37 were in Iraq and 41 in Syria.

An Iraqi security official said 14 Katyusha rockets were fired Friday, of which some struck near one of the U.S. Embassy’s gates while others fell in the river. The official said the rocket attack caused material damage but no casualties.

A U.S. military official said a multi-rocket attack was launched at American and coalition forces in the vicinity of the embassy complex and the Union III base, which houses offices of the U.S.-led coalition. The official added that no casualties and no damage to infrastructure were reported.

An embassy spokesperson said the U.S. Embassy was attacked by two salvos of rockets at approximately 4:15 a.m. (0215 GMT).

“Assessments are ongoing, but there are no reported casualties on the embassy compound,” the official said, adding that no specific group had claimed responsibility for firing the rockets as of Friday morning but early indications pointed to Iran-aligned militias.

“We again call on the government of Iraq, as we have done on many occasions, to do all in its power to protect diplomatic and Coalition partner personnel and facilities,” the official said. “We reiterate that we reserve the right to self-defense and to protect our personnel anywhere in the world.”

The three officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said in a statement that “targeting diplomatic missions is something that cannot be justified.” He called the attack an “insult to Iraq, its stability and security,” and promised to “pursue the perpetratrors of the attack …and bring them to justice.”

Sudani came to power with the support of a coalition of Iran-backed parties. But he also wants continued good relations with the U.S. and has backed the ongoing presence of American troops in his country.

While no group claimed responsibility for the embassy attack, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias, issued statements claiming separate attacks Friday on the al-Asad airbase in western Iraq, which is used by U.S. forces, and on a base located at the Conoco gas field in eastern Syria.

There are roughly 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq and around 900 others in eastern Syria, on missions against the Islamic State group. In both countries, Iran has militias loyal to Tehran.

In response to attacks against American troops, the U.S. has retaliated with airstrikes three times in Syria since Oct. 17, targeting weapons depots and other facilities linked directly to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and the militias. The U.S. also struck multiple sites in Iraq late last month after a militia group for the first time fired short-range ballistic missiles at U.S. forces at al Asad air base.

This CNN Reporter Just Had a Come to Jesus Moment About Hamas.

A veteran CNN Middle East reporter with two decades of experience now admits that “too many of us treated the group more like an opposition party with occasional violent outbursts than a terrorist organization.”

“Journalists working in conflict zones,” Ilene Prusher wrote in a CNN op-ed this week, “too often pull punches in the interest of appearing neutral, or perhaps to ensure that they stay in the good graces of the gunmen in charge.”

Prusher concludes that “if journalists continue to interview members of Hamas, we should report their words more critically and not take their comments at face value. We should provide context that notes how unverifiable their information is and how poor their track record for accuracy has been.”

There’s a word for that: journalism. Let’s give Prusher two cheers for encouraging her colleagues to actually commit some for a change.

I might fairly ask Prusher, “What took you so long?” It isn’t as though she were ignorant of the Middle East and its major players. But since it’s my policy never to interrupt someone when they’re busy talking their way over to my side of an issue, I’ll leave her be.

“By and large, we reporters ate it up,” she explained without prompting, in no small part because “Our editors wanted us to have access to this shadowy group.”

What is access, anyway?

Last month when I was in Miami for the previous GOP presidential debate, Yours Truly (and the rest of the Townhall crew in town that night) were granted access to the post-debate spin room. That meant we would have the chance to speak one-on-one with the candidates or maybe their managers and surrogates.

Please note: It’s called the spin room because that’s where the candidates, their managers, and their surrogates go to put their spin on what just happened. Spin can be anything from putting a friendlier face on a fierce debate performance to literally (not really) polishing a turd and hoping some know-nothing reporter will pick it up and run with it.

But getting and keeping access can be a whole lot more complicit than anything that happens in a spin room between candidate and reporter.

Infamously, CNN used to downplay Saddam Hussein’s atrocities against the people of Iraq to maintain the network’s access to the Hussein regime. That was a case where the appearance of reporting the news — “Hey, we’re talking to all these Iraqi officials, so it must be real news!” — was more important to CNN than actually reporting the news. They were happy to be lied to and to repeat those lies because it filled airtime and sold commercials.

The mainstream media’s dirty little secret is that so much reporting involves little more than getting and maintaining access to important people by giving them the airtime they desire.

And yet, “How often did that stop us from reporting what they told us?” as Prusher asked in her come-to-Jesus column. “That dynamic was on display last month when many mainstream media outlets immediately repeated Hamas’ claim that an Israeli air strike had devastated a hospital and killed a big round figure of 500 Palestinians.”

Prusher and so many others are — or in her case, was — happy to trade integrity for the allure of access to a “shadowy group” who expertly preyed on their vanities.

Except, of course, for the mainstream media’s reporters and stringers who are all-in with Hamas to begin with and never had any integrity to begin with.

Hamas fighters surrender in droves, and their photos tell an interesting story

Since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended, Israel has been pushing forward relentlessly to destroy every Hamas stronghold, whether above or below ground. In Khan Younis, one of Hamas’s last redoubts, the Hamas fighters finally decided against martyrdom and surrendered en masse. There are a few notable things about the surrendering Hamas troops, and they destroy some of the propaganda we’ve heard so much about.

First, here are the stills and video of the surrendered Hamas men:

What you should immediately notice is that they’re not being slaughtered or tortured. In this regard, the Israeli approach is very different from what happens when Arabs get their hands on enemy soldiers that they don’t intend to keep alive as hostages for bartering. In 2000, when West Bankians got hold of two Israeli soldiers, they ripped them apart and showed their blood-stained hands to the cheering crowd. In warfare, the Arabs are indistinguishable from stone-aged tribes.

The Hamas prisoners have been stripped down to their undies, which is the most obvious way to protect against any of them having concealed weapons or explosives. Their semi-nudity allows one to see the other notable thing, which Bonchie pointed out at Red State:

The war against Hamas is now two months old, with the initial attack from the terrorists coming on October 7th. During that time, we’ve been assured that everyone is starving in Gaza due to the evil siege being carried out by Israel. In that picture, though, I see a whole lot of man boobs and beer guts. What does that tell you? It tells you that Hamas has been stealing aid and keeping its fighters well-fed as they cower underground.

Yes, they’re fat. That being the case, you can recognize the lie behind the claim coming from Hamas and its fellow travelers that the men detained are civilians:

If these fat men are civilians, the claimed food shortages have been greatly exaggerated. Alternatively, if they are, indeed, Hamas fighters, then Gaza operates on the North Korean principle, which is that you feed the soldiers and starve the citizens. Either way, it’s not a good look for Hamas.

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CAIR APPLAUDS MASSACRE OF JEWS

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR, masquerades as a civil rights organization and is taken seriously as such by the liberal press. In fact, however, it is a front for jihadists. CAIR was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism case. It has a long history of anti-Semitic agitation and propaganda. It added to that ignominious history on November 24, at the 16th Annual Convention for Palestine in the U.S..

CAIR’s Executive Director, Nihad Awad, expressed glee at the Gazans’ mass murders and gang rapes of October 7:

“The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege — the walls of the concentration camp — on Oct. 7,” said Awad. “And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land and walk free into their land that they were not free to walk in.”

He continued, “And yes, the people of Gaza have the right to self-defense — have the right to defend themselves. And yes, Israel as an occupying power does not have that right to self-defense.”

This is the idiotic formula that the global Left has been parroting ever since October 7. Awad went on to complain about the Jews’ control over the U.S. Congress:

AIPAC and its affiliates have been controlling the United States government and the United States Congress,” Awad said. “And if someone says, ‘Oh, Nihad Awad said this about the Congress,’ I tell you, ‘Yes, I say it today, and I will say it tomorrow — unless we free Congress, we will not be able to free Palestine.’”

So first Congress, then the Middle East can be judenrein.

Awad identifies closely with the younger generation of Democrats who have generally supported Hamas:

The CAIR director also lauded the efforts of younger Democrats dissatisfied with President Biden’s continued support of Israel over Hamas.

“Brothers and sisters, young people in the Democratic Party have sent a clear message to this administration and to the Democratic Party,” Awad told the audience. “That you have betrayed our votes, you have betrayed our support, and you have betrayed young people who aspire for the United States of America to reposition itself as a moral leader in the world. They have betrayed us.”

Like Yasir Arafat and many other predecessors in the jihadist movement, Awad says one thing when he is among friends, and something else when speaking for mainstream consumption. He apparently didn’t expect his remarks to the Convention for Palestine to be reported, so he claimed to have been “taken out of context.”

Deputy Executive Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell provided a statement attributed to Awad.

“…[A]n anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian hate website selected remarks from my speech out of context and spliced them together to create a completely false meaning.”

Maybe Awad should apply to be President of Harvard. He, like current President Claudine Gay, believes that context is everything.

Nature, Tooth, Claw And All

Yesterday, by accident, at night, I read about the barbaric things done to women in Israel by the Hamass terrorist attack on 10/7. I enjoin you not to follow that link, if you don’t want my nightmares last night.

And I woke up and was thinking… well, about a lot of things.

The only thing unusual about the way Hamass treated those women (and children) is that they killed most of them. Unusual, I mean from an historical perspective.

I was thinking of the rape of the Sabines, upon which the founding of Rome rested. Bunch of young braves, (given Romulus and Remus’s origin probably expelled from some community for being outlaws) claims land, then kills all men in a neighboring tribe and kidnaps every woman: crone, pregnant mother, young woman, barely pubescent child, rapes them and sometimes — sometimes — marries them. “Marries” them.

There are certain beats to this horror throughout history. And variables. Whether old women are killed is a variable. How young the age of “women” kidnapped is another. We know for a fact Plains Indians kidnapped girls as young as 6 and subjected them to the same treatment as all women. The horrific beats of this treatment included beatings, starving and serial rapes. It might or might not include the killing of the first child born. (Why? well, because it could be the woman’s murdered husband’s.) And everyone was subjected to this, from very young to very old.

The purpose, evolutionary was to break these women, to give them what was later described as Stockholm syndrome, so that they would, by the time they were given to a single man, cling to him as a protector and give him all their loyalty. So that they became willing broodmares for those who had killed their own families in front of them.

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IDF: We Broke Through Hamas Lines; Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar is Underground

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Wednesday evening that it had broken through Hamas lines in both northern and southern Gaza, and that it had surrounded Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, whom it said was hiding in an underground tunnel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said earlier, in a statement, that the IDF had surrounded Sinwar’s house, which had been found vacant: “Last night I said that our forces could go anywhere in the Gaza Strip. They are currently surrounding Sinwar’s house. His home is not his castle, and he can flee, but it is only a matter of time until we find him.”

IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari then clarified that the military had surrounded Hamas positions in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, not Sinwar’s house specifically. He added, however, that Sinwar was underground, and implied that Israel knew where he was.

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State Dept. Reveals Horrific Reason Female Hostages Haven’t Been Released by Hamas

The State Department revealed Monday the reason why Hamas continues to hold hostages  underground is the Gaza Strip. More specifically, why they are refusing to release female hostages.

According to State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, the Iranian backed terrorist organization isn’t releasing additional female hostages, who were violently taken from their homes and a music festival in Israel on October 7, because they know and have experienced too much while in captivity. In other words, they don’t want them speaking out about what has been done to them.

“Right now Hamas is refusing to release civilian women who should have been part of the agreement and it is that refusal by Hamas that has caused the end of the hostage agreement and therefore an end to the pause in hostilities,” White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan added during the daily press briefing, saying the administration is still working to get Americans out. “Israel is insisting on the release of those women.”

The revelation comes 24 hours after Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal downplayed the atrocities during an interview with CNN.

Hamas is still holding a number of Americans hostage. The White House claims they are still working to get them home.