October 10, 2023 Good morning, Leading the News . . . We encourage everyone to pray for Israel and for the United States of America. America’s Betrayal of Israel. A decade of perverse U.S. policy sets the
stage for mass murder . . . BY LIEL LEIBOVITZ. For the better part of the past decade, the United States has pursued a foreign policy designed to strengthen Iran and enable it to form a strong sphere of influence in the region. This is the idea behind what Tony Badran and Michael Doran called “the realignment,” a vision of a new world order in which America partners with Iran in order to “find a more stable balance of power that would make [the Middle East] less dependent
on direct U.S. interference or protection.” Those words aren’t Badran and Doran’s; they’re Robert Malley’s, Barack Obama’s lead negotiator on the Iran deal who, as Semafor reported this week, helped to infiltrate an Iranian agent of influence into some of the most sensitive positions in the U.S. government—first at the State Department and now the Pentagon, where she has been serving as chief of staff for the assistant secretary of defense for special operations. Biden himself, in an op-ed in The Washington Post, spoke of “an integrated Middle East,” using the phrase no less than three times to make clear that his administration was intent on pursuing his predecessor’s commitment to seeing Iran not as a U.S. foe but as our collaborator. And the Biden
administration wasn’t just talking the talk. It was also walking the walk, from unfreezing billions in assets to make it easier for Tehran to support its proxy Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon to sending huge cash infusions used primarily to pay the salaries of tens of thousands of unvetted “security personnel.” And while the previous administration halted all aid to the Palestinians—directly because of the “pay for slay” policies that support the families of those who slaughter Israelis—the Biden
administration was quick to reverse the decision. Tablet Ron Paul: Hamas was created by Israel and the US to counteract Yasser Arafat… Hamas is widely
recognized as a radical Muslim terrorist group committed to the destruction of Israel. Hamas holds the official designation of a “terrorist group” by both the United States and the European Union, and they govern Gaza with a ruthlessly firm hand. Hamas owes its existence to Israel and the United States, which played a significant role in the formation and creation of this terror group.
Back in the 1970s, the U.S. and Israel took a fringe group of Palestinian Islamists and transformed them into one of the world’s most notorious and deadly terror organizations ever. Listen to former Israeli officials such as Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Segev, who was the Israeli military governor in Gaza in the early 1980s. Segev later told a New York Times reporter that he had helped
finance the Palestinian Islamist movement as a “counterweight” to the secularists and leftists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Fatah party, led by Yasser Arafat (who himself referred to Hamas as “a creature of Israel.”) “The Israeli government gave me a budget,” the retired brigadier general confessed, “and the military government gives to the mosques.” Revolver News Stop exploitation of your personal information with Incogni . . . Hundreds of companies are collecting & trading your personal information. Data brokers create shadow profiles on you that include a frightening amount of personal details. These insights are then used by scammers, total strangers, insurance companies, banks, businesses, and even the government. Remove your personal data from data brokers' hands and keep your information secured with Incogni. Stop robocalls, spam, stalkers & identity theft now. Protect Your Personal Information
Israel war: Biden cash to Iran and Gaza under congressional scrutiny after Hamas attack . . .
Members of Congress are raising concerns over how the Biden administration released aid to Iran and Gaza before the terror group Hamas launched a deadly attack against the Jewish state of Israel. The $6 billion the U.S. government agreed to transfer on Sept. 11 to Iran in exchange for American prisoners and hundreds of millions of dollars in Palestinian aid under President Joe Biden are being scrutinized by congressional Republicans days after the Israel-Gaza conflict began. At least 900 people
in Israel have been killed, while the death poll is expected to climb, and Hamas warned Monday it plans to broadcast executions of Israeli hostages if Gaza continues to be hit with airstrikes. Washington Examiner Blinken deletes social media post calling for Israel-Hamas 'cease-fire' . . . Secretary of State Antony Blinken took to social media Sunday regarding Hamas' deadly strikes on Israel, but one post was taken down following some online backlash. "Turkish Foreign Minister @HakanFidan and I spoke further on Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Israel. I encouraged Türkiye’s advocacy for a cease-fire and the release of all hostages
held by Hamas immediately," read Blinken’s post on X, formerly Twitter. Fox News Israel war: Tlaib still has a Palestinian flag hanging outside her House office . . . Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) still has a Palestinian flag hanging outside of her House office after the invasion of Israel by Hamas, during which hundreds of Israelis and some Americans were killed. Over the weekend, Hamas, a Palestinian militia group whose mission is to destroy Israel, invaded Israel and bombarded the country with missiles. Washington Examiner RFK Jr. goes independent. Does that hurt Biden or Trump? . . . Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is poised to be the most formidable independent presidential candidate in more than two decades. And already, operatives in both parties are moving to head off the impact. A combination of his famous name and widespread voter dissatisfaction with both likely major party nominees puts him in position to earn the largest share of the vote for an independent candidate since Ross Perot drew nearly 19 percent in the 1992 election. Given the recency of Kennedy’s flirtation with an independent bid, there isn’t a lot of polling testing a
three-way race with President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. Politico Nikki Haley Can Beat Donald Trump . . . By Will Hurd. DeSantis isn’t up to the task, and it’s too late for a new entrant. Donald Trump is the front-runner for
the Republican presidential nomination, but his selection isn’t inevitable. To beat him once and for all, we can’t continue to propagate three fallacies: First, that someone who hasn’t yet declared can swoop in to defeat Mr. Trump. Running for president is a complicated undertaking. It requires time to assemble an effective organization that can create a grassroots apparatus in multiple states, execute multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns, establish ballot access across the nation and
territories, and institute sufficient fundraising operations. This is impossible if you aren’t already in this race this late. Wall Street Journal Wishful thinking. But okay. McCarthy flips, doesn’t rule out being Speaker again . . . Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — who was publicly ousted from his post last week, making him the first Speaker in history to be voted out during his term — said Monday that he’d be open to retaking the position. “Whatever the conference wants, I will do,” McCarthy said during an interview on Hugh Hewitt’s syndicated radio program when asked
about a possible return to the job. The Hill
Hamas attack puts new attention on terrorism at U.S. border . . . Hamas’ sneak attack into Israel
across a heavily fortified border has focused new attention on American borders, where Republicans say the next 9/11-style attackers may be planning to enter — or already have. Lawmakers demanded that President Biden acknowledge the risks to the U.S. and respond with more border walls, troop deployments and an end to the catch-and-release free-for-all that has allowed millions of unauthorized migrants to disperse to communities across the country. Washington Times US not ruling out commando mission to rescue American hostages held
by Hamas in Gaza . . . With 11 Americans confirmed dead at the hands of Hamas terrorists and others feared to be among the hostages Hamas has threatened to execute, the United States has not ruled out conducting a high-risk special operations commando rescue mission if U.S. citizens are confirmed among the kidnapped. “We take the safety and security of Americans overseas very, very
seriously. And you have seen us act as efficiently and effectively as we can to get Americans that are being held hostage or wrongfully detained, in some cases, back home with their families. We will continue to do that in this case as well,” NSC spokesman John Kirby said during a series of media appearances yesterday. Washington Examiner Missed intel on Hamas attack, explosion
of suspected terrorists at border raise alarm inside U.S. . . U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies missed the Hamas attack plot. Senate Intelligence Committee released redacted threat assessment three weeks ago. The failure of American and Israeli intelligence to detect the Hamas attack on Israel coupled with the rising number of suspected terrorists at the U.S. border are raising
national security concerns inside the United States. Signs of the alarm were evident Monday when U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a “lookout” for males between 16 and 40, with one-way tickets to Jordan, and purchased last minute. The agency told staff the alert was being issued out of an abundance of caution, and not about any specific threat. Just the News Well, the spy agencies are focused on the real threat -- "domestic terrorists,"
i.e. the MAGA crowd and parents who haven't bought into the transgenderism cult. High-Level Iranian Spy Ring Busted in Washington . . . The trail that leads from Tehran to D.C. passes directly through the offices of Robert Malley and the International Crisis
Group. The Biden administration’s now-suspended Iran envoy Robert Malley helped to fund, support, and direct an Iranian intelligence operation designed to influence the United States and allied governments, according to a trove of purloined Iranian government emails. Malley had helped to infiltrate an Iranian agent of influence named Ariane Tabatabai into some of the most sensitive positions in the U.S. government—first at the State Department and now the Pentagon, where she has
been serving as chief of staff for the assistant secretary of defense for special operations, Christopher Maier. Tablet National Security Advisor Sullivan Said Mideast Is "Quieter" Than Any Time Since 9/11 -- Eight Days Before Massive Hamas Attack . . . Eight days before Hamas launched its largest-ever single attack on Israel, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said at "The Atlantic Festival" that the Middle East was "quieter" than at any time since 9/11. "We want to depressurize, deescalate, and ultimately integrate
the Middle East region. The war in Yemen is in its 19th month of truce, for now, the Iranian attacks against U.S. forces have stopped, our presence in Iraq is stable -- I emphasize for now, because all of that can change. And the middle east region is quieter today than it has been in two decades," Sullivan said beginning around 58 minutes into the full event video below. Real Clear Politics Discover the wine you love with Bright Cellars . . . 
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Israel launches massive airstrikes on downtown Gaza City, Netanyahu says: 'We have only started' . .
. Israel's counteroffensive into Gaza extended through the night, including airstrikes in Gaza City, home to Hamas' centers of government. Israeli warplanes pounded downtown Gaza City with relentless bombardments into early Tuesday, after Israel’s prime minister vowed retaliation against the Islamic militant group that would "reverberate for generations." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a nationally televised address, where he said: "We have only started striking Hamas." Fox News Israel Was Prepared for a Different
War . . . Israel spent three years building a 40-mile-long, state-of-the-art, high-tech security barrier along the Gaza Strip, with radar and sensors designed to detect furtive incursions by Palestinians bent on carrying out covert attacks in Israel. On Saturday, Hamas used bulldozers and other rudimentary means to punch through the 20-foot-high fence and flooded men through the gaps in pickups and on foot, a frontal assault on southern Israel that was the largest breach of the
country’s borders since the 1973 Yom Kippur war. It was a stark illustration of the limits to the Israeli military’s shift in focus to cyber capabilities, intelligence-gathering and advanced weaponry and its concentration on countering terrorist attacks. The armed forces were caught off guard by a relatively low-tech ground assault. Wall Street Journal Putin Offers Muted Response to Attack on Israel. That Speaks Volumes. . . . President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has long cast himself as a friend of Israel and the Jewish people. He helped establish visa-free
travel between Russia and Israel in 2008, presided over the construction of a sprawling Moscow Jewish Museum in 2012 and, side by side with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem in 2020, unveiled a memorial to the victims of Nazi Germany’s siege of Leningrad. But amid the worst attack on Israel in 50 years, the high regard that Mr. Putin has shown for Israel in the past appears remarkably absent. More than three days after the start of the incursion by Hamas, there has been no message
of condolence from the Kremlin, even though Mr. Putin previously published such notes of sympathy in the wake of terrorist attacks in Israel. And he has not yet called Mr. Netanyahu, even though he spoke with Israeli leaders at least 11 times in 2022 and developed a close relationship with Mr. Netanyahu over more than a decade of meetings and phone calls. Instead, Mr. Putin’s spokesman on Monday struck a neutral stance, saying that Russia was “extremely concerned” and calling for an immediate
halt to the fighting. New York Times Israel and Russia, both governed by real politik-minded
heads of state, had a pragmatic and stable relationship until the incompetent State Department forced Israel to provide military aid to Ukraine, turning Putin against Bibi, who used to be on good, cooperative terms. Strategic thinking has never been Washington's forte but during the Biden Administration, the incompetence has reached catastrophic proportions. Is Russia Behind Hamas Attack on Israel? What We Know . . . The stunningly successful surprise attack launched by Hamas from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel at the weekend has opened a dark new chapter in the years-long war between the Islamist militant group and its Israeli enemies. Amid swirling speculation of foreign involvement, the infiltration attack may yet precipitate
seismic shifts in Israel's foreign affairs. Hamas justified "Operation Al-Aqsa Flood" as a response to Israel's recent police actions in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem and to violence by Israeli settlers illegally occupying parts of the Palestinian West Bank. The operation is believed to have killed at least 700 Israelis, wounded more than 2,100, and resulted in dozens of captives being taken back into the Gaza Strip. Israel's response is underway, with airstrikes in Gaza killing at
least 413 people, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Newsweek
Money Walgreens employees planning walkouts over pharmacy working conditions: source . . . Pharmacy employees at some Walgreens stores in the U.S. are planning walkouts next week over challenging working conditions, a source with knowledge of the action confirmed Saturday to Fox News Digital. Employees, including pharmacists and technicians, say their current workload that includes administering various vaccinations, could
affect patient safety, making it more difficult to fill prescriptions accurately, according to a CNN report. The walkouts are excepted to take place from Monday to Wednesday. Fox Business Consumers starting to buckle for first time in a decade, former Walmart U.S. CEO Bill Simon warns . . . As three of the nation's biggest retailers kick off a key sales week, former Walmart U.S. CEO Bill Simon warns consumers are starting
to buckle for the first time in a decade. He's blaming a list of headwinds weighing on consumers including inflation, higher interest rates, federal budget wrangling, polarized politics and student loan repayments — and now new global tensions connected to violence in Israel. "That sort of pileup wears on the consumer and makes them wary," the former Walmart U.S. CEO told CNBC's "Fast Money" on Monday. "For the first time in a long time, there's a reason for the consumer to pause." CNBC IMF warns of ‘heightened risk’ from bond
market turmoil . . . The IMF has urged regulators to sharpen their scrutiny of threats from rising bond yields, as a continuing surge in global borrowing costs triggers “heightened risk” in financial markets. “When you see large moves that are very fast, it has more potential to trigger instability, because market participants have to reposition and there are these accelerators in the system that could kick in,” Tobias Adrian, director of the fund’s monetary and capital markets
department told the Financial Times. “Hopefully, calm will prevail at some point, but there is certainly heightened risk [now].” Financial Times
Culture Schools Cut Honors Classes to Address Racial Equity. It Isn’t a Quick Fix . . . Menlo-Atherton High School, where Richards has worked for a decade, is among a number of high schools nationwide that are trying to reduce racial segregation on campuses by eliminating two-tiered systems of honors and regular classes, primarily during freshman year. The theory goes that starting everyone on equal footing gives more
students the confidence and skills needed to enroll in honors and Advanced Placement courses in later years. The changes typically target Black and Latino students, who are underrepresented in advanced courses in most states. Wall Street Journal Dumbed down citizenry is so much easier to control. San
Francisco paying $12,000 per month for homeless RVs while tech workers sleep in $700 ‘pods’ . . . San Francisco is pouring millions of dollars into an RV park for the homeless, while young people trying to get a break in their careers are reduced to living in 4-feet high by 3.5-feet wide “pod” spaces for $700 a month. The city opened a “safe parking site” at Candlestick Point in January 2022, which is home to 30 RVs — each of which cost the city $12,000 a month to keep there, according
to the San Francisco Chronicle. New York Post
Progressives are deluded to march for Palestine . . . By David Kaufman. One evening,
just before the pandemic set in, I was invited to a dinner party in Queens filled with the types of LGBT Lefties for whom virtue signaling is a competitive sport. Somehow the conversation turned to Israel and the Gaza Strip, a topic few had much interest in except for the host himself. Both queer and Jewish, he began to bash Israel’s Gaza blockade with the kind of linguistic excrement typical of full-time woke-folk. Words like “systematic” and “colonial” and “oppressor” – you get the idea.
Well aware of the crowd around me, I crafted my response to both affirm the consequences of the blockade while still suggesting its necessity. “Let’s not forget,” I began, “the threat against Israel is very real. If the Gazans were to ever break through the border, I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t head for the closest kibbutz looking to compare hummus recipes.” As the events of the past few days confirm, I was tragically onto something. Telegraph UK Why Is The Biden Admin Demanding Israel Negotiate A Cease-Fire But Not
Ukraine? . . . The Biden administration’s demand that Israel — which radical Islamists have been attempting to annihilate since its founding — lay down its arms and negotiate with terrorists is stunning when considering that these same officials have openly encouraged the exact opposite policy when it comes to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While giving a speech in Finland in June, for example, Blinken pressed U.S. allies to not support a cease-fire or peace talks between Kyiv and
Moscow, arguing that Ukraine must be “stronger” and “capable of deterring and defending against any future aggression” before it can “negotiate on its own terms.” The U.S. secretary of state also claimed in March that countries’ push for a cease-fire in Ukraine could be “a very cynical trap” allowing Moscow to maintain control of Ukrainian territory it acquired during its invasion. The Federalist The Effect of Immigration on U.S. Population . . . The Center for
Immigration Studies (CIS), a policy group that favors lower immigration, compiled the following table from data from the U.S. Census Bureau. It shows that immigration (including illegal immigration) has increased the U.S. population by about one million people per year for the last two decades, with the exception of the last two years of the Trump administration and the first year of the Biden administration when Trump’s more restrictive policies and the pandemic cut immigration by about half. Real Clear Politics Mystery solved as
Iran-backed judge, who seeks Trump’s arrest, confirms invite to Washington, DC . . . Iraq’s top judge, Faiq Zidan, who seeks the arrest of former President Donald Trump, confirmed through his spokesperson to Fox News Digital that he has indeed been invited to Washington, D.C. There had been confusion about the controversial judge's visit to Washington, D.C., when it was revealed that he was to meet with officials at the Department of Justice. A State Department spokesperson told Fox
News Digital last week, "The Supreme Judicial Council President Faiq Zidan is going to be hosted by the Department of Justice, so we defer to the DOJ to discuss their meetings. We engage with a wide range of counterparts in Iraq, and we value engaging the Iraqi judiciary. The DOJ meets regularly with foreign judicial leaders." Yet conflicting with the State Department spokesperson's statement, a source familiar with the situation told Fox News Digital last Thursday that "Zidan will not be
meeting with any DOJ officials." Fox News Biden interviewed in special counsel investigation . . . President Biden sat this week for an
interview with the special counsel overseeing an investigation into his handling of classified documents from his time as vice president, the White House confirmed Monday. White House Dossier
Zelensky Asks If This Is A Bad Time To Maybe Get A Couple More Billion . . . Amid large-scale
terrorist atrocities in Israel and an active hostage situation with Hamas, Ukrainian President Zelensky cautiously asked if now would be a bad time to maybe get a couple billion dollars of US aid. "So, um, I know you all are pretty busy with all the Israel stuff," said Zelensky while nervously fidgeting with the new $40,000 Omega Speedmaster watch on his wrist. "But if it's not too much trouble or whatever, do you all have an extra billion or maybe two or three lying around that you're not
using? I need it for, um, important war stuff." "Democracy depends on it. If it's not too much trouble." Babylon Bee
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