Profile in courage, Gaza style; plus failed hostage rescue attempt

The New Neo Posted on by

In other war news, a hostage rescue attempt has failed, Israel reports:

Two Israel Defense Forces soldiers were seriously wounded in a failed attempt to rescue hostages held by the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip overnight, the army said Friday, adding that several of the hostage takers were killed.

The rescue attempt comes as the military increased its push into Hamas strongholds across the Strip amid what it said were signs the terror group’s defenses were cracking.

“The troops raided a Hamas site, killed terrorists who took part in the abduction and holding of the hostages,” said IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, speaking to the press.

The death of Sahar Baruch, a 25-year-old man who was held hostage by Hamas has been announced, although it’s not known for certain whether this was related to the failed rescue attempt. His story is heartbreaking, as are so very many:

Baruch, a Ben-Gurion University engineering student was with his grandmother, Geula Bachar, as well as his brother, Idan Baruch, 20, a soldier in the IDF’s Education Corps.

He ran back into his grandmother’s burning house to look for an inhaler for his brother.

Idan Baruch was fatally shot when he left the burning house, which he ran from because he was asthmatic and couldn’t breathe in the smoke. He and his grandmother were both killed by the terrorists, while Sahar was taken hostage to Gaza.

Hamas has issued a propaganda video purporting to show Sahar Baruch’s body. They also have said about the hostage rescue attempt:

“Today at dawn, fighters of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades thwarted an attempt by the Zionists to reach one of the hostages. A Zionist special force unit was spotted advancing toward the enemy hostage, and [the Hamas fighters] engaged in a fight with the military, causing casualties among the troops,” the Hamas terrorists said, claiming that Baruch Sahar was killed in the clash.

There is no way to tell if he died in the clash, or if so, who killed him. However, note the missing news: that some of the terrorists died in the clash as well.

I will add this, which is an apt symbol of one of Hamas’ favorite tactics: “IDF says troops found sniper rifle hidden inside large teddy bear at Gaza school.”

A video worth watching

The New Neo Posted on by

Here Douglas Murray interviews Israel’s President Isaac Herzog. The latter doesn’t pull his punches for the most part, which is interesting because Herzog is a man of the Israeli left. This shows you how leftists in Israel have come to give up their previous hopefulness about relations with the Palestinians and Hamas:

To give you an idea of Herzog’s history, here’s an example:

In June 2014, Herzog criticized PM Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to engage the international community, failing to present a proposal for peace with Palestinians, and failure to work effectively with the President of the United States, Barack Obama. Herzog declared that Netanyahu’s “loathing and hostility for Barack Obama” was one of his greatest failures, since it put Israel’s security at risk.

CAIR further reveals itself as Jew-haters and Hamas-supporters, and the White House acts surprised

The New Neo Posted on by

The story:

The Biden administration said Thursday it had ended its work with the Council on American-Islamic Relations on crafting a national antisemitism strategy after one of CAIR’s top executives declared he was “happy” to witness Hamas’ terror attack against Israel on Oct 7.

No; not the Onion and not the Babylon Bee.

We are left with the age-old question: was the White House really so dumb as to think CAIR would be fighting anti-Semitism? I find that hard to believe even of this White House. Fools vs. knaves? The latter, IMHO.

At any rate, CAIR has been a mouthpiece for Israel-hatred, Jew-hatred, and claims of Palestinian victimhood for as long as I can remember hearing about them, and if I recall correctly I first heard about them shortly after 9/11 in connection with their claims of rampant “Islamophobia” in the US.

The first mention I can find of CAIR on this blog occurred in this post published very early in my blogging career. I mentioned CAIR plenty of other times, but I’ll just link to this post published in 2011. The following quote is an excerpt I used in that post, and the origin of these words is a piece by Andrew C. McCarthy (unfortunately, that NR link appears to be dead). When you read this, keep in mind that it was written almost thirteen years ago by McCarthy [emphasis mine]:

The Obama administrationhas courted Egyptian Islamists from the start. It invited the Muslim Brotherhood to the president’s 2009 Cairo speech, even though the organization is officially banned in Egypt. It has rolled out the red carpet to the Brotherhood’s Islamist infrastructure in the U.S. – CAIR, the Muslim American Society, the Islamic Society of North America, the Ground Zero mosque activists – even though many of them have a documented history of Hamas support. To be sure, the current administration has not been singular in this regard. The courting of Ikhwan-allied Islamists has been a bipartisan project since the early 1990s, and elements of the intelligence community and the State Department have long agitated for a license to cultivate the Brotherhood overtly. They think what Anwar Sadat thought: Hey, we can work with these guys.

There is a very good chance we are about to reap what they’ve sown. We ought to be very afraid.

Biden has continued that partnership, although perhaps this break with CAIR will actually mean something for the future. I wouldn’t bet a great deal of money on it, though.

What did the CAIR head say, by the way, to cause CAIR to no longer be considered by the current administration to be a partner in combating anti-Semitism? This:

You can read his fuller remarks here, and note that word “context”: “the subject of this discussion is Gazan context.” Now, where have we heard that word prominently featured recently? Why, from the heads of Harvard, Penn, and MIT. The source? The left in academia, and pro-Hamas propagandists such as CAIR. Calling for obliteration of Israel and Jews is okay in the proper “context.”

[NOTE: Related story here.]

Hunter Biden is being charged in California …

The New Neo Posted on by

… with nine counts of tax evasion:

The latest indictment, which was filed in California, accuses Biden of failure to file and pay taxes, tax evasion, and filing a false return. The 56-page court document alleges that Biden “engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019” and that he “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills.”

Some people think this is a prelude to dumping father Joe in 2024. However, I still don’t think Joe will be jettisoned, although I’m less sure of this than before. For Biden’s entire administration I have believed that Joe will only be dumped if and when they find a better replacement. None of the possible realistic replacements are presently polling well against Trump, and so for now Joe is still going to be the nominee – barring some sort of catastrophic event that makes it literally impossible for him to run.

I don’t see how even a Hunter conviction on tax evasion implicates father Joe. The are plenty of other possible charges that would implicate Joe, but they are not forthcoming.

Nor do I think Hunter will get more than a slap on the wrist, perhaps from a plea bargain.

Those are my predictions.

Roundup

The New Neo Posted on by

(1) Kevin McCarthy is leaving the House at the end of 2023. Unsurprising, but not laudable. There will be a special election, and his district is very red. Who might replace him?

(2) Liz Cheney is thinking of a third-party presidential run. She hasn’t a chance to be anything but a spoiler, but whose candidacy she would most spoil isn’t quite clear. The author of the article I just linked seems to think she would hurt Biden and help Trump, which is surely not her intent.

(3) Did you know there was a Republican debate last night? I ignored it. But apparently Vivek took on Christie and Haley. By the way, why is Christie still there?:

“Your version of foreign policy experience was closing a bridge from New Jersey to New York,” Ramaswamy said. “So do everybody a favor, just walk yourself off that stage, enjoy a nice meal, and get the hell out of this race.”

And Vivek’s version of foreign policy experience is – what?

(4) White House interns aren’t very impressive these days. They’re mad at Biden because he’s not demanding a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. They also seem to think Israel is committing genocide. The leftist brainwashing is apparently quite complete with this group.

(5) Republicans block Ukraine and Israel aid unless there is money allocated for better border control.

Tonight’s the first night of Chanukah

The New Neo Posted on by

[NOTE: This is a heavily revised version of a previous post.]

This is the first night of Chanukah, and I wish everyone a happy one. Chanukah is about a successful revolt and a miracle of light:

The miracle of the one-day supply of oil miraculously lasting eight days is first described in the Talmud, committed to writing about 600 years after the events described in the books of Maccabees. The Talmud says that after the forces of Antiochus IV had been driven from the Temple, the Maccabees discovered that almost all of the ritual olive oil had been profaned. They found only a single container that was still sealed by the High Priest, with enough oil to keep the menorah in the Temple lit for a single day. They used this, yet it burned for eight days (the time it took to have new oil pressed and made ready).

The words of the following Chanukah song are in Yiddish. It was written in 1924 before the Holocaust and before the establishment of Israel – and the lyrics are not happy. But I didn’t know that when I first heard it, because I think it’s very beautiful:

Here are the lyrics in translation:

Oh, you little candles,
You tell histories,
Uncountable stories.
You tell of bloody deeds,

Of resourcefulness and courage,
Miracles of long ago.
When I see you sparkling
A vision comes flickering

Telling a dream of old:
Jew, you fought once,
Jew, you prevailed once,
God, it’s hard to believe.

Oh, you little candles
Your moments of history
Awaken my torment;
It moves me deep in my heart
And, tearfully, it wonders
What will happen now?

Written in 1924, and it seems prescient. Two-thirds of the Jews of Europe were murdered during the Holocaust, and vibrant Jewish communities in country after country were destroyed. When this song was written those communities still existed, as did others in the Arab countries of the Middle East as well as Persia (modern-day Iran). No more. Now the Jewish population is centered mostly in the Western Hemisphere – particularly the US – and Israel.

Israel was established after the war, and its existence has been threatened time and again right from the start. Now it faces one of its toughest challenges ever. The “dream of old” in the song: “Jew, you fought once, Jew, you prevailed once” was fulfilled in Israel, but the threat of destruction remains and seems unending.

What will happen now? What, indeed?

Pearl Harbor Day

The New Neo Posted on by

[NOTE: This is a revised and expanded edition of a post first published in 2006.]

Eighty-two years ago today Pearl Harbor was attacked.

That’s long enough ago that only a vanishing few remember the day and its aftermath with any clarity. Many generations—including my own tiresome one, the baby boomers—have come up since then, and the world has indeed changed.

Prior to 9/11, the Pearl Harbor attack of December 7, 1941 was the closest thing America had to 9/11. The differences between the two are profound, however: at Pearl Harbor we knew the culprit. It was clearly and unequivocally an act of war by the nation of Japan, which was already at war in the Pacific.

But it was, like 9/11, a sneak attack that killed roughly the same number of Americans – in the case of Pearl Harbor mostly (although not exclusively) those in the armed forces. And the Pearl Harbor attack, in the reported (but disputed) words of Japanese Admiral Yamamoto, awakened the “sleeping giant” of the US and filled it with a “terrible resolve.”

In the case of Pearl Harbor, that resolve lasted the duration of the war, an all-out conflagration that required far more sacrifice of the US (and the world) in money, comfort, and the all-important cost of human lives. The scale of such a loss is not even remotely comparable to that of our present conflicts. In addition, the first years of World War II featured many losses and much peril. It was a different world, however, and failure was not considered an option.

Yes, mistakes were made in World War II and in the war that began on 9/11 and has not ended yet. Mistakes always will be made in war. The tactics and even the strategies of World War II don’t fit today’s wars. But tactics and strategies aren’t the issue – although they are extremely important. The overarching issue is will. Without that, a war cannot be won. And, in that respect as in many others, current generations don’t compare to the one known as “The Greatest Generation.”

For some contrast, go back to FDR’s “Day of Infamy” speech (a misquote, it turns out: he actually said “date which will live in infamy”). Following are some of the less famous quotes from the speech; I have selected them because they speak to the question of will. FDR was assisted in mustering that will by the relative clarity of the enemy and its intent in World War II. But it still seems to me, on reading these words, that such unequivocal determination could not be summoned today in the US, even if given the exact circumstances of the infamous attack of December 7, 1941. It may, however, be present in Israel at the moment, but I’m not completely sure:

…No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.

I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.

Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger.

With confidence in our armed forces – with the unbounding determination of our people – we will gain the inevitable triumph – so help us God.

Yes, of course many hostages were sexually assaulted

The New Neo Posted on by

Women and men were assaulted:

In a report detailing allegations of severe and widespread sexual abuse by Hamas terrorists during their October 7 onslaught and later against hostages, a doctor who treated some of the 110 hostages released from captivity told the AP that at least 10 men and women among those freed were sexually assaulted or abused.

He did not provide further details, and spoke on condition of anonymity to protect the hostages’ identities.

The doctor’s comments corroborated similar accounts shared at a meeting on Tuesday. The meeting, held between the Israeli war cabinet and a group comprising recently freed hostages and family members of those still held in Gaza, featured firsthand testimonies from some of the released captives. These individuals detailed their experiences of sexual abuse during their captivity, participants said.

And those are the ones Hamas has released. It is logical to assume that the people they are still holding were – and are – even more badly mistreated.

There’s much more at the link about the sexual abuse and torture of Israelis on October 7, as well. It makes for very grim reading.

The was also plenty of abuse of the hostages that wasn’t sexual:

“Those held captive were subject to starvation, to beating, to sexual abuse. They were being held in inhumane sanitary conditions. Extremely severe psychological abuse was inflicted on them, including separation from family members, separation of siblings, separation of children from their mothers. They were held in solitary confinement and spent long days in total darkness until they developed severe hallucinations,” Eitan claimed. “Children were forced to watch brutal videos. They were under constant threats by weapons and threats to harm them even after they were released. They refer to the forced use of psychiatric drugs and other substances.”

At the moment, I can’t find another article where I read the following: one woman was able to mark how many days were passing by counting Muslim prayers, because she knew that Muslims pray five times a day. I also read that many captives were not allowed to wash for the entire time they were held, and wounds became infected as a result. Many also had lice. The trauma was very very severe for many of them, perhaps all of them. And of course, well over 100 people are still being held – that is, if they’re alive.

Most of us feared something of the sort was happening. It was and it is.

The FBI’s war on Catholics

The New Neo Posted on by

The FBI’s pursuit of supposed Catholic terrorists [emphasis mine]:

The Committee on the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government have been investigating the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) categorization of certain Catholic Americans as potential domestic terrorists. While the FBI claims it “does not categorize investigations as domestic terrorism based on the religious beliefs — to include Catholicism — of the subject involved,” an FBI-wide memorandum originating from the FBI’s Richmond Field Office did just that. Under the guise of tackling the threat of domestic terrorism, the memorandum painted certain “radical-traditionalist Catholics” (RTCs) as violent extremists and proposed opportunities for the FBI to infiltrate Catholic churches as a form of “threat mitigation.” The FBI’s Richmond memorandum is a startling reminder that Americans’ civil liberties and core Constitutional rights must be vigorously guarded against government overreach, including in this case from an overzealous law enforcement agency.

The FBI has been mighty busy lately, hasn’t it?

The documents received pursuant to the Committee’s subpoena show there was no legitimate basis for the memorandum to insert federal law enforcement into Catholic houses of worship.

• The basis for the Richmond memorandum relied on a single investigation in the Richmond Field Office’s area of responsibility in which the subject “self-described” as a “radical-traditionalist Catholic” (RTC). However, FBI employees could not define the meaning of an RTC when preparing, editing, or reviewing the memorandum. Even so, this single investigation became the basis for an FBI-wide memorandum warning about the dangers of “radical” Catholics. …

• The two FBI employees who co-authored the memorandum later told FBI internal investigators that they knew the sources cited in the memorandum had a political bias — sources including the Southern Poverty Law Center, Salon, and The Atlantic.

• The documents received pursuant to the Committee’s subpoena show that the FBI singled out Americans who are pro-life, pro-family, and support the biological basis for sex and gender distinction as potential domestic terrorists. The memorandum recognized “the run-up to the next general election cycle” as a key time frame and cited the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned Roe v. Wade as a flash point.

More at the link.

The FBI has become a very dangerous institution.