It’s donation time! [I’ll be bumping this up for about a week, so scroll down for new posts]

The New Neo Posted on by

Ah yes, here we go again.

It’s been awhile since I’ve asked for donations. In the meantime, many readers have donated anyway, and I thank you all profusely. Some of you even have a setup whereby you make a monthly payment, which is also great. I appreciate it so very much, and it helps to keep this blog going.

If anyone wants to contribute to thenewneo, please click on the “Donate” button either to the right or at the bottom of the page, depending on what sort of device you use when reading the blog. If the Donate button is not showing, disable your adblocker and that should make it visible.

I thank everyone in advance. If it weren’t for you readers and commenters, I’d probably be doing something other than this in my dotage.

Middle East pessimists versus Middle East optimists

The New Neo Posted on by

The Middle East pessimists have certain things in common with each other, and a prominent one is that they think Trump is a gullible fool.

I don’t see evidence for that description, although I know a lot of people believe it. It seems absurd to me that Trump didn’t expect what just about every blogger and commenter on the right expected – which is that Hamas would not comply with the deal and disarm, and probably would not cooperate in myriad other ways. I think it was always part of Trump’s expectation.

But the deal accomplished three very important things:

(a) It got some other Middle Eastern countries to commit to backing it. And they might end up being in non-compliance, too, although they have some economic incentives to fulfill their part of the deal.

(b) It got the hostages back at the outset. That was vitally important to untie Israel’s hands.

(c) It gave the world notice that it’s the Israelis who are willing to “give peace a chance.” It throws the spotlight on the continuing violence of Hamas, and if and when Israel has to go back to dealing with them harshly, Israel’s justification will be clear – not that most of the world will ever give them credit. I’ll add that the NeverNetayahu crowd in Israel will never give Bibi credit, either.

None of these things mean the deal will work out. But it’s part of the plan’s brilliance that it accomplishes these three things at once. Neither Trump, Kushner, Rubio, or Witcoff are naive enough to not understand the perils and risks, which are obvious. I doubt they are without a plan for contingincies, although they’re not telegraphing exactly what it is.

In other words, as this article says, “No one is under any illusions.” From the piece [emphasis mine]:

A total of 154 of the 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences or lengthy terms who were freed in the first stage of the hostage deal and the end of the war were transferred through the Rafah Crossing to Cairo. They are currently under Egyptian supervision in a hotel, in coordination with Israeli security officials. These prisoners, classified as deportees, are undergoing medical checks and receiving humanitarian support under the oversight of Red Cross representatives.

Meanwhile, Israeli intelligence continues to monitor those who have returned to their homes in the West Bank. “The terrorists understand that the situation has changed, but no one is under any illusion—they are not lovers of Zion,” a senior security official said. …

Palestinian sources estimate that some of the released prisoners may eventually settle in Turkey, Qatar, or other Arab states, while others are expected to remain in Egypt and rebuild their lives there. The 154 exiles are staying in a Cairo hotel under Egyptian security supervision, undergoing medical checks and humanitarian processing.

Turkey and Qatar have both expressed willingness to receive some of the released prisoners, though no official announcements have been made. Each prisoner’s destination was preapproved by Israel and included in the release agreement, and permission to remain in Cairo depends on the Egyptian authorities. …

Alongside the operational deployment, the IDF continues real-time intelligence collection and sensitive outreach to the families of released prisoners to prevent potential friction or violent incidents. Monitoring of the prisoners and their relatives will continue closely, with increased military presence in certain areas.

And that’s just what’s being reported. I’m going to assume there’s a lot more going on.

On many websites I’ve seen jokes about equipping the released prisoners with beepers. No, that’s not happened. But I wouldn’t underestimate the Israeli authorities and their creativity.

I repeat: all of this doesn’t mean everything will be as rosy as the rhetoric has been. But I don’t think that either the Israelis or Trump and his negotiators are naive about the nature of Hamas and the Palestinians.

Bolton’s been indicted

The New Neo Posted on by

We knew this was coming:

John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser-turned-adversary, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Maryland.

He now faces 18 charges: eight counts of transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of retention of national defense information.

Prosecutors wrote in the indictment that during the time he was national security adviser to Trump, Bolton shared “more than a thousand pages of information about his day-to-day activities” with two unauthorized individuals. Both of those people were related to Bolton and didn’t have the authority to access classified information, prosecutors said.

He pleads persecution and Trump-vengeance, of course. But why should he not be subject to the rules? Did he violate them or not? I don’t know the answer, but I certainly don’t assume he didn’t. I find it fascinating that he claims this as evidence that he did nothing wrong [my emphasis]:

He said that his book, “The Room Where It Happened,” was reviewed and approved by “the appropriate, experienced career clearance officials” and that the FBI was made fully aware of his email hack in 2021. In the four years of the prior administration, he said, no charges were filed against him.

You mean, when Bolton was dumping on Trump, Biden’s FBI and Biden’s DOJ didn’t indict him for anything? Well then, since we know how very evenhanded they were, that must mean Bolton is innocent.

Bolton goes on to add:

“Then came Trump 2 who embodies what Joseph Stalin’s head of secret police once said, ‘You show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime,’” Bolton said.

Funny thing, we used to say that about Trump’s prosecutors/persecutors. And what did Bolton say about them? Well, let’s see what Bolton said back in August of 2022 about the FBI’s search of Mar-al-Lago for classified documents:

Former national security adviser John Bolton on Thursday said the Department of Justice (DOJ) is “overwhelmingly” professional, pushing back against claims the agency conducted a politically motivated search of former President Trump’s Florida estate this week.

On CNN’s “New Day,” Bolton told hosts John Berman and Brianna Keilar he’s had “long experience” with the DOJ and believes in the integrity of the department.

“Overwhelmingly, they are professional in carrying out of their duties,” he said. “I don’t recognize a lot of the criticisms that are being made of these institutions.”

I guess he “recognizes” those criticisms now.

Also, in February, 2024, Bolton had a curious evaluation of Trump’s pursuit of the presidency, in light of the fines levied on him through lawfare:

In an interview with MSNBC’s Jen Psaki on Sunday afternoon, Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton said the former president’s growing debt amid his legal cases makes him vulnerable to foreign influence and unfit for office. …

“I think this is one of the demonstrations why Trump is really not fit for office because he is consumed by these troubles, his family is consumed by them, and I think foreigners will try to take advantage of it one way or another. They may be doing it already.”

Bolton added that the financial impact will affect Trump as he could see the former president needing to liquidate some of his properties.

Unfit for office because ridiculous and vindictive lawsuits in deep blue venues might bankrupt Trump. Sounds like justice, right?

Senator John Fetterman …

The New Neo Posted on by

… makes me nostalgic for a time when the sort of reasonable opinions he expresses about the opposition were commonplace in Democrats. Back then, I was a Democrat, too.

It’s ironic that it’s Fetterman who’s not on the “Republicans are evil fascists” bandwagon, because when he was elected no one would have predicted this; at least, I certainly didn’t predict it. In addition, his physical health seems to have improved far more than expected. So, color me surprised.

Here’s the latest from Fetterman:

Fetterman made several comments during NewsNation’s live town hall at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday that demonstrate why he is considered a maverick among Democrats in the Senate.

“I follow country, then party,” he explained. …

“You don’t hold the government hostage,” Fetterman added, noting that the Schumer shutdown is “what the Democratic Party wants to do.” …

“It’s the wrong thing for the country, and in a period of chaos, I refuse to shut our government down,” he said. …

“I know and I love people who voted for President Trump. But they are not fascists, they’re not Nazis, they’re not trying to destroy the Constitution and those things,” he insisted. “I refuse to call people Nazis or fascists. I would never compare anybody — anybody to Hitler.” …

“Let people grieve [Charlie Kirk] — give people the space. I’m not going to use that terrible thing and that tragic assassination to make my argument and try to put out my views,” he told a now-hushed crowd.

Fetterman went on to point out that the country was almost plunged into utter chaos when President Trump narrowly avoided a bullet in Butler.

“It’s like, my God, he’s a father that had his neck blown out by a bullet. And now people have forgotten President Trump was — in my state — was shot in the head. Could you imagine where our nation would be if he were hit in the same way with Kirk?” he asked.

“We’ve really got to turn the temperature down.”

I read those words and felt a sense of relief that at least one prominent Democrat was saying them. Yes, Fetterman votes with the Democrats on policy. But he seems to be a very decent human being who’s not afraid to express sentiments that used to be expected of all politicians, and used to be demonstrated by many. No more.

I said that Fetterman is with his party on policy – but that’s not completely true, because he’s probably its most pro-Israel member. That’s another stance of his that’s a throwback to an earlier time, when both parties agreed on strong support for Israel.

The apparent result of Fetterman’s outspoken disagreements with the current party line is that Democrats are planning to primary him. Can’t have that sort of kindness extended to the GOP enemy, or to the genocidal Israel:

According to a Thursday report in Axios, Democrats are in active recruitment mode in their efforts to take out Fetterman.

-Potential Democratic challengers are already bashing Fetterman — and each other — years ahead of schedule.
-Some Democratic officials are openly contemplating running against Fetterman or keeping the door open to a Senate bid in the event he retires.

Some names being bandied about to take on Fetterman in the primary include current Reps. Brendan Boyle and Chris Deluzio and former Rep. Conor Lamb.

It’ll be a long wait. Fetterman was elected to the Senate in 2022 and therefore doesn’t go up for re-election until 2028. Meanwhile, he may continue to be a thorn in Democrats’ side. His political future really depends on which path the Democrats choose to take, and at present they seem determined to go ever and ever leftward.

Curtis Sliwa: ego or principles?

The New Neo Posted on by

From NY GOP mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa:

Said Sliwa: “I’m the only one standing between Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo, who I call Zohran lite.”

I suppose it’s the case that Sliwa is standing between them, since otherwise it would be a 2-person race. But calling Cuomo “Zohran lite” obscures the fact that “lite” is different from “heavy.”

More importantly, though, it depends what’s meant by “stand between.” You can stand between two people and get crushed, which is what it appears will almost inevitably happen to Sliwa. His polling hovers in the teens, but if he dropped out and all his support went to Cuomo – which certainly might happen if Sliwa were to drop out – “Zohran lite” would be the victor rather than Zohran heavy.

If I’m reading Sliwa correctly, he has no intention of dropping out. But the net effect of his staying in the race is to assure the election of Mamdani. Therefore you might say he’s acting as a Mamdani enabler.

Why? Is it ego? If so, does he really think there will be such a late surge for him that he will win?

Or perhaps he feels it’s his duty to give New Yorkers on the right a choice, and if there aren’t enough of them and as a result Mamdani wins, that’s the voters’ fault and not Sliwa’s. He may just think that New York will get what it deserves if it rejects him.

Or maybe he really does feel that Mamdani or Cuomo, it doesn’t matter which because they’re so similar (a sentiment with which I don’t agree). So why drop out just to enable Cuomo?

Then again, perhaps I’m reading Sliwa wrong and he will drop out. I just don’t think so.

According to Obama …

The New Neo Posted on by

… Republicans are trying to steal seats and rig the next election:

I guess it’s okay when Democrats say it.

What a pernicious influence he’s been on this country. And even though his influence has waned, unlike other ex-presidents before him he’s remained very heavily in the game for a long time. Also, he moved the Overton window substantially on many fronts, and for the most part that window is quite resistant to being moved back in the opposite direction.

Trump’s dealmaking style on the international front

The New Neo Posted on by

Trump put out a book on the subject back in 1987, The Art of the Deal. That’s almost forty years ago, so you can’t say he’s kept his methods a secret.

But when Trump first ran for president, I was skeptical that his acumen in real estate deal-making would transfer over into the world of politics in all its manifestations, including statecraft with other nations. But early on in his first term I was pleased to note that the carryover was far better than I’d expected.

Now, in Trump’s second term, it’s even more clear.

I’m well aware that the present deal may end up in more fighting rather than peace; Hamas is already fighting (and murdering) rival Gazans, for example. But what Trump did seemed impossible just a short while ago, and that was this: he got Hamas to surrender all the living hostages. Yes, thousands of terrorists were exchanged, but that had been offered before by Israel and refused by Hamas. Trump changed the equation by marshaling some of Hamas’ erstwhile allies to put pressure on it, as well as by letting Netanyahu fight more aggressively and assisting him along the way (particularly in Iran).

Failure is an orphan and success has many fathers, and so Blinken and Biden and Warren and other Democrats say they were instrumental in this plan. But they were not. The were unwilling or unable to do those two very important things, and therefore the pressure on Hamas was inadequate.

I think the following is the best analysis I’ve seen of Trump’s deal-making approach to foreign affairs. I’ve cued up the part I mean, which lasts about fourteen minutes:

And by the way, I have little doubt that the peace plan implementation will not go smoothly, and that the IDF or some other entity or entities will have to go further into Gaza to disarm Hamas. That’s almost a given. But Trump’s genius was to get all the living hostages out in one fell swoop first, and to get some of Hamas’ financial backers to (supposedly) back off.

It turns out transgenderism had become a fad …

The New Neo Posted on by

… pumped up by propaganda in schools and online (especially social media), the medical establishment, leftist activism in general, and trans activism in particular.

Transgenderism had existed for years. But it was extremely rare and mostly – although not entirely – confined to grown men who wanted to be women or at least to look like women and attempt to pass as women. The explosion of rates of transgenderism in recent years was mostly driven by enormous increases among adolescent girls fleeing from womanhood. That’s the exact same demographic that has traditionally succumbed to crazes, whether it be witches in Salem, starving oneself for beauty, or cutting oneself to feel alive.

Among them, transgenderism has acted like a fad, as has been obvious for at least a decade. Now we have more evidence of it:

A newly released study shows the number of young Americans who identify as nonbinary has dropped by nearly half since peaking in 2023, an indication that the identification is going “out of fashion.”

The percentage of university students “not identifying as male or female” plunged from 2023-25 in three of five surveys evaluated by Eric Kaufmann, politics professor at the University of Birmingham in England and director of the Centre for Heterodox Social Science.

“Trans, queer and bisexual identities are in rapid decline among young educated Americans,” said the report, “The Decline of Trans and Queer Identity among Young Americans,” which was released Tuesday. …

The surveys used include the annual Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s annual poll of more than 50,000 college students, which found that those “not identifying as male or female” fell from 6.8% in 2023 to 3.6% in 2025.

Other sources showing a decline were the annual Andover Phillips Academy poll and the Brown University student survey conducted by the Brown Daily Herald.

The Andover Phillips Academy survey showed 9.2% of students identified as neither male nor female in 2023, a figure that plummeted to 3% in 2025.

That’s a significdant and fairly sudden decline. However, the rates are still very much more than they had been for all those years prior to the popularization of the trans phenomenon. The true incidence of people who would have come up with the desire to change sexes – a desire persisting into adulthood and not a transient childhood wish – is probably far far lower.

Meanwhile, much damage has been done to young people. And it’s not over yet.

Roundup

The New Neo Posted on by

The peace deal and the hostage return still dominate the news:

(1) As if all the love from Israel wasn’t enough, now Trump has received Egypt’s highest state honor:

During his speech, El-Sissi also awarded Trump the Order of the Nile, the country’s highest state honor.

“The Collar of the Nile, sometimes referred to as the Order of the Nile, is Egypt’s most prestigious decoration, symbolizing the unity of Upper and Lower Egypt through the life-giving Nile River. Made of gold and adorned with Pharaonic motifs and precious stones, it is traditionally awarded by presidential decree to heads of state and figures whose efforts have offered exceptional service to Egypt or humanity.

“Past recipients include Nobel laureates Ahmed Zewail, Mohamed ElBaradei, and writer Naguib Mahfouz, as well as heart surgeon Magdi Yacoub and late President Anwar El-Sadat.

“On the international front, honourees have included Queen Elizabeth II, King Hussein of Jordan, Emperor Haile Selassie, and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who received the honour in June 2023.”

(2) The left hardly knows how to handle Trump’s Middle East deal and the return of the hostages, so some seem to have fastened on the idea that Trump is mostly copying those negotiating geniuses, Joe Biden and Anthony Blinken:

On Monday, Blinken said Trump’s 20-point peace plan for the Gaza Strip was based on one developed by the Biden administration. …

“It starts with a clear and comprehensive post-conflict plan for Gaza,” Blinken wrote. “It’s good that President Trump adopted and built on the plan the Biden administration developed after months of discussion with Arab partners, Israel and the Palestinian Authority.”

Biden’s statement was somewhat better.

Others leave Trump’s name out of it. For example, Elizabeth Warren doesn’t mention him (nor does Obama), but Warren implies that her own “calling for” the hostages to be released might have somehow been involved.

For two excruciating years, I have called for the return of the hostages brutally kidnapped on October 7th and held in Gaza.

Today is a good day. Surviving Israeli hostages are finally home and reuniting with loved ones. I’m thinking of them and their families on this joyful day and praying for their full recovery. I’m also grieving for all those who can’t come home today.

Oh, and of course she calls for none other than a two-state solution now:

Today must also be an important step toward lasting peace in the region — peace for both Israelis and Palestinians. We must end the war in Gaza, surge humanitarian aid, and negotiate a two-state solution now.

(3) And then there’s Pakistan’s prime minister:

And today, again, I would like to nominate this great president for Nobel Peace Prize because I genuinely feel that he is the most genuine and most wonderful candidate for Peace Prize because he has brought not only peace in South Asia, saved millions of people — their lives. And today, here in Sharm El Sheikh, achieving peace in Gaza is saving millions of lives in the Middle East.

Mr. President, I would like to salute you for your exemplary leadership…and I think that you [are] the man this world needed most at this point in time. [The] world will always remember you as a man who did everything, went out of the way, to stop seven — and today, eight — wars.

(4) No doubt you want to know what the Democratic Socialists of America had to say on the subject of the peace deal. It’s just about what you’d expect them to say [emphasis mine]:

The Democratic Socialists of America — the organization backing New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani — denounced the “conditional” cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas and called for continued resistance against the Jewish state in a statement released Monday.

The DSA declaration titled “Until Palestinian Liberation” came days after Israel and Hamas agreed to halt fighting and begin exchanging hostages and prisoners under a US- and Arab-brokered deal.

The far-left group said the truce “will not end Israel’s assault on the Palestinian people or the theft and occupation of Palestinian lands,” describing it as a “conditional cease-fire” that “does not wash the hands of the ruling class that … continued to fuel and arm genocide while stoking regional war.”

(5) The newly-released hostages’ stories are now starting to come out:

The mother of freed Israeli soldier Matan Angrest said her son was beaten so savagely by his Hamas captors that he blacked out — in one of many chilling accounts emerging since the release of 20 surviving hostages under the Israel–Hamas peace deal this week. …

“They covered him with black sacks and dragged him away,” she told Haaretz. …

Several of the freed hostages — among them Ariel Cunio and Rom Braslavski — were kept in complete isolation, Haaretz reported.

Cunio told Israel’s public broadcaster Kan that he spent his entire captivity alone, unaware for months that his brother David and partner Arbel Yehoud were still alive.

Braslavski, 21, was also held alone and told relatives he was starved, shackled, and forced to sleep barefoot on cold ground.

Survivors said Hamas guards ate in front of them while they went hungry. …

Channel 13 News said the hostages were never given shoes and that some were kept chained continuously.

(6) Hamas doing what Hamas does best: killing. This time it’s other Gazans:

As Israeli troops withdraw from most of Gaza’s populated areas, the residents of the enclave are again getting a taste of what a ‘Palestinian state’ might look like under their current leadership.

With the U.S.-brokered ceasefire providing a breather, Hamas terrorists have crawled out of their tunnels and fanned out into the streets of Gaza — massacring political rivals and opposing Arab clans to reestablish their reign of terror. It is worth noting that the massive Hamas tunnel network was exclusively for terrorist warfare, and not to shield a single Gaza civilian during the two-year-long war.

Hours after the Israeli pullout, Hamas publicly executed dozens of Gazans. “A greatly weakened Hamas has sought to reassert itself in Gaza since a ceasefire took hold, killing at least 33 people,” Reuters reported Monday.