In order to avoid WW III, Defense Secretary-designate Pete Hegseth will need to overhaul the bureaucracy and cut waste

Posted on November 15, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

WALL STREET JOURNAL
Pentagon Has Two Years to Prevent World War III
Mike Gallagher
November 13, 2024

Xi Jinping has ordered the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to seize Taiwan by 2027. Whether he launches an invasion may depend on President Trump’s defense secretary. If confirmed by the Senate, Army National Guard veteran and Fox News host Pete Hegseth, Mr. Trump’s nominee, will have to confront the collapse of deterrence in Europe and the Middle East, resource constraints on Capitol Hill, recruitment challenges, and a deteriorating balance of power in the Indo-Pacific. The only way to promote peace is to go to war on day one—not with China, Russia or Iran but with the Pentagon bureaucracy. READ MORE

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Forty years ago the Democrat party was in the political wilderness. Then a band of centrist insurgents took on the left wing—and got Clinton in the White House.

Posted on November 15, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

FREE PRESS
The History Lesson Democrats Can’t Afford to Forget
Eli Lake
November 16, 2024

Well, that was a thumping, wasn’t it? Even optimistic MAGA fans didn’t see Donald Trump winning the popular vote, taking control of the Senate and the House, and sweeping all seven swing states. He came within five points of taking New Jersey! Exit polls showed more than half of Latino men voting for him! The results are devastating for Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Chuck Schumer, and the rest of the Democrats: They lost the nation. So what on earth do they do next? One approach would be to repeat what they’ve been doing. Resist! It’s what they chose the last time Trump won. READ MORE

CITY JOURNAL America’s Cities Want to Be Great Again Last week’s election showed that urban voters want sane, smart policies that address the issues they care most about. For the Right, that means leaning into what Manhattan Institute external affairs director Jesse Arm has called “conservative popularism.” Voters are with conservatives when we talk about fiscal responsibility; merit in higher education; safe streets; skills-based immigration and a secure border; growth and the right to work; and a rejection of gender insanity. Those issues can win not just in deep-red states and counties, but in big cities, where residents are fed up with dysfunction, disorder, and dismissiveness from their elected leaders.

FREE PRESS Bari Weiss: A Free Press Conversation with Natan Sharansky The Soviet dissident says that the most important conflict in the West is not between Democrats and Republicans. It’s between liberals and progressives. BW: Why does the left tend to have such poor leadership? NS: They are more willing to appease terrorists or totalitarian regimes. But in the case of America, the big challenge is how to divide between people with totalitarian ideals and real liberals. That’s why I’m reclaiming the label of “liberal.” Being for or against abortion doesn’t mean you’re for or against American values. Are you ready to defend the values on which America was built? That’s the question.

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Tehran recalculates planned strikes against Israel as Trump gains political momentum. Removal of current leadership would cut financial lifelines to anti-Israel proxies

Posted on November 14, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL HAYOM
Trump team preparing plans to topple Iran regime, Israeli sources say
Shirit Avitan Cohen
November 14, 2024

High-level Israeli sources have revealed to Israel Hayom that the Trump circle is formulating strategic plans targeting Iran’s current regime, marking a potential dramatic shift in US policy toward Tehran. These sources, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, emphasized that Israeli-American strategic cooperation would focus specifically on challenging Iran’s current leadership structure. Iranian sources, speaking to Sky News Arabia yesterday, confirmed that Tehran is suspending its planned response to Israel in light of Trump’s recent primary victories in the US presidential race. READ MORE

I24 NEWS Israel prepares Lebanon ceasefire plan as ‘gift’ to Trump Netanyahu’s aide told president-elect and Jared Kushner that Israel is rushing to advance a ceasefire deal in Lebanon, officials told The Washington Post

ISRAEL HAYOM Kushner returns to advise Trump on administration New details emerged Sunday morning about Donald Trump’s developing administration. Israel Hayom has learned that Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has returned to closely assist the president-elect in preparations for building the new administration.

JEWISH INSIDER Lawmakers condemn Turkey after Erdoğan says he will cut ties with Israel Erdoğan said his coalition ‘is resolute in its decision to cut ties with Israel, and we will maintain this stance in the future as well.’

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President-elect Trump’s associates have delivered an explicit promise that as soon as he enters the White House, he will remove all restrictions on the supply of military equipment and ammunition to Israel

Posted on November 14, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

ARUTZ SHEVA
Trump’s first promise to Israel
November 15, 2024

US President-elect Donald Trump’s associates have promised Israel that on his first day in office, immediately after the inauguration ceremony on Capitol Hill, he will lift any delays and any embargo on shipments of weapons and military equipment to Israel, Channel 12 News reported on Thursday evening. There is currently a de facto US embargo on one shipment and some equipment related to the war. Diplomatic sources claimed that there is a connection between Trump’s promise and the apparent Israeli agreement to a ceasefire in Lebanon. READ MORE

NEWSWEEK Donald Trump Picks Mike Huckabee for US Ambassador to Israel President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday named Mike Huckabee as his nominee for U.S. ambassador to Israel. Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel, and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel’s interests as it wages multi-front wars against the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups.

TIMES OF ISRAEL Trump announces real estate investor Steven Witkoff will be his special envoy to Mideast Witkoff will fill a role that did not exist in the current administration, as US President Joe Biden believing that the conditions weren’t in place for another high-stakes Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative and instead sought to prioritize other foreign policy issues. Witkoff is not known to have any experience diplomacy or the Middle East, but those have not been criteria for previous Trump appointments. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who similarly lacked such experience, managed to broker the Abraham Accords during the Republican politician’s first term as president.

FOX NEWS Jonathan Turley: Ignore the tears and rage of ‘objective’ media The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.” Those words came to mind as leading scientific and media figures lost any semblance of restraint or neutrality in bemoaning the results of the presidential election. After regaining their composure, the public was told to ignore what they had just seen. It was not surprising that the sweeping Trump victory last week produced near hysteria among some Harris supporters from women pledging to break up with men to others cutting off their hair to those pledging to flee the country. 

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As small but growing numbers of Haredi men enlist in the Israeli military, attitudes in their strictly observant communities start to shift

Posted on November 14, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

TABLET MAG
The IDF’s New Recruits
Hillel Kutler
November 13, 2024

Haim Traitel reclined in bed in a third-floor room at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba on a late-October afternoon. During a two-hour interview, he discussed the battle injury he suffered the previous week in the Gaza Strip, his service in the Israel Defense Forces, and his motivation for enlisting. Traitel spoke on the record and OK’d his photo appearing with this story. But he declined to name the specific Hasidic sect to which he and his family belong, beyond saying that it’s an “important” group in the Haredi-majority town of Bnai Brak, where he lives with his parents, brother, and sisters. READ MORE

JPOST IDF issues a thousand draft notices for haredi recruits, 6,000 more planned One thousand haredi IDF draft orders were sent out on Sunday, and 6,000 more are planned for the coming two months. However, the IDF is weak on arrests, leaving the real fight to the government. These draft notices come despite Defense Minister Israel Katz replacing Yoav Gallant last week and despite general opposition from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his haredi coalition partners to changes of policy other than solidifying the existing blanket exemption from military service.

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Murray: “Thursday’s mob in Amsterdam, which viciously attacked Israeli soccer fans, is a reminder of how little has changed in two decades and what must be done”

Posted on November 14, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

FREE PRESS
Ayaan Hirsi Ali and the ‘Strange Death’ of Europe
Douglas Murray
November 10, 2024

…I remember the atmosphere back then [2004], and the way Dutch politicians and other elites seemed to blame the likes of Fortuyn [murdered], van Gogh [murdered], and Hirsi Ali [threatened with murder to the point she had to flee country] for the issues they were trying to bring attention to. There was this implication that, if they had just kept their heads down and not been so provocative—if they hadn’t been so intolerant as to suggest that Islam and liberalism might be incompatible—things would have been different. For them and for the country. The murders, and the reactions to them, were an early sign of Europeans’ mounting cognitive dissonance—their refusal to acknowledge troubling facts about their Muslim neighbors that undermined their core beliefs about inclusivity and multiculturalism. READ MORE

FREE PRESS Last Night’s Pogrom in Amsterdam Israeli soccer fans were ambushed, beaten, and pleaded with their assailants: “not Jewish, not Jewish.” I grew up in the Netherlands. I wasn’t surprised.

JNS ‘Sorry, sir, we are unable to help you right now For three long hours, Jews were getting beaten up in the streets of Amsterdam, and the police did nothing.

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“Their founding collective and advisory board is a who’s who of professional antisemites — comprised of people who literally make their living spreading lies about Israel and Jews”

Posted on November 14, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

CANARY MISSION
Antisemitism Posing as Academia
An Expose on The Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism
November 13, 2024

A collective of activist professors have started an institute dedicated to delegitimizing Zionism, Zionists and the State of Israel after receiving objections to their academic vilification of Israel. Founded in mid-2023 by prolific antisemitic professors, some of whom were instrumental in advancing the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement in academia, the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism (ICSZ) disregards academic integrity and historical accuracy. Instead, it is laser-focused on the myopic agenda of depicting Zionism as the greatest ill of the world. READ MORE

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It’s a start: Germany passes historic law to cut funding to Israel boycotters

Posted on November 10, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

BARRON’S
German Parliament Passes Controversial Antisemitism Text
Agence France Presse
November 7, 2024

The German parliament on Thursday overwhelmingly backed a resolution aimed at tackling a spike in anti-Semitism linked to the war in Gaza. However, critics of the resolution — including voices from the Jewish community — say it could restrict artistic and academic freedom. The text calls for a ban on public funding for any group “that spreads anti-Semitism, calls into question Israel’s right to exist or calls for a boycott of Israel”. In cases of anti-Semitic acts in schools and universities, it calls for those responsible to be excluded from classes or even expelled. The resolution was proposed and supported by MPs from the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), the conservative CDU-CSU, the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats (FDP). READ MORE

FUTURE OF JEWISH The Hidden Message From Nazi Germany’s ‘Night of Broken Glass’ This weekend marked the 86th anniversary of Kristallnacht, a German term meaning: “Night of Broken Glass. Starting on the evening of November 9th, 1938, a meticulously planned pogrom — intended to look like a spontaneous uprising — took place against Jews across Nazi-controlled Germany and Austria. Hundreds of synagogues were set on fire. Jewish homes and shops were attacked, vandalized, and looted. About 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps. At least 91 Jews were murdered, with more dying later due to their injuries and by suicide.

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In the end, an Arab Israeli helped us. He said, ‘No one will mess with you. You’re with me.’ He ordered two taxis for us, and we escaped.”

Posted on November 9, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

THE TELEGRAPH
Revealed: How Pro-Palestinian mob organised via WhatsApp to ‘Hunt Jews’ across Amsterdam
Gordon Rayner
November 8, 2024

…Now it has emerged that the attacks on the Jewish football fans were planned in advance and co-ordinated using WhatsApp and Telegram. The Telegraph has seen messages from a group chat called Buurthuis, a Dutch word for a type of community centre, which were posted on Wednesday, the day before the match. One message says: “Tomorrow after the game, at night, part 2 of the Jew Hunt. “Tomorrow we work them.” Another member of the group says: “Who can sort fireworks?” adding, “We need a lot of fireworks”. Participants refer to “cancer dogs”, a particularly vile insult in the Netherlands…Another video shows a man who appears unconscious on the street being repeatedly kicked as he lies in the fetal position. READ MORE

COMMENTARY John Podhoretz: Pogrom 2024 For hours, the streets were not clear of them, as the authorities in the Dutch city had no clue what to do or how to engage. The mobs had been prepositioned at stadium exits, subway station entrances, and near and around the hotels at which Israelis who had come to town to support their team were staying. This was a pre-planned attack. We are mere days away from the 86th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the day when Jews and Jewish businesses were specifically targeted for arrest, injury, and destruction.

FREE BEACON Uber Working With Police To Investigate Drivers’ Alleged Involvement in ‘Abhorrent’ Anti-Semitic Amsterdam Attacks Uber denounced the “abhorrent” anti-Semitic attacks in Amsterdam and said it’s working with law enforcement to identify whether any of its rideshare drivers were involved in the violence, following calls from Jewish activists to boycott the company…Uber’s comments follow news reports that police are investigating the role that rideshare and taxi drivers may have played in the mob violence against Israeli soccer fans visiting Amsterdam for a game on Thursday. Images posted on social media appeared to show taxi driver groups coordinating the attacks on chat apps such as Telegram.

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Qatar to Hamas: You’re done here.

Posted on November 9, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

FDD
Qatar will reportedly oust Hamas after months of failed Gaza hostage talks
Natalie Ecanow
November 9, 2024

Hamas is no longer welcome in the State of Qatar, a senior U.S. official told Reuters on November 8. According to the unnamed official, Qatari officials ordered Hamas to exit the emirate after the Biden administration told Doha that Hamas’s presence in Qatar “is no longer acceptable.” Qatar has long sheltered Hamas’s political elite, many of whom live in the emirate as multi-billionaires…The news of Qatar’s move against Hamas comes days after more than a dozen Republican senators sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Attorney General Merrick Garland urging the Biden administration to “reverse” its “policy towards the State of Qatar” and compel the Gulf emirate to crack down on Hamas. READ MORE

NEW YORK POST Qatar pulling out of Gaza mediation role, confirms ousting of Hamas Qatar is stepping back from its mediator role between Israel and Hamas — marking a shocking turning point in the faltering year-long negotiations. Doha told Hamas officials late last month to leave the country, a diplomat familiar with the issue told the Times of Israel — confirming earlier reports in the US.

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