COMMENTARY / OPINION
Israeli Expert Sounds Alarm Over Qatar’s Double-Game [55:58] Caroline Glick
Yigal Carmon, founder and president of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), joins JNS senior contributing editor Caroline Glick for an exclusive interview that exposes Qatar’s corrosive influence on western society.
January 19, 2025 JNS TV | The Caroline Glick Show
Learn about Doha’s campaign to weaken Western powers and increase Islamic influence while simultaneously benefiting from economic cooperation.
Carmon and Glick discuss what should and can be done to defeat this new adversary on this episode of “The Caroline Glick Show!”
The lump in my throat Hillel Fuld
I badly want to believe that with this deal, there is more than meets the eye and it will end well. Op-ed.
Jan 19, 2025, 6:55 AM (GMT+2) Israel National News – (JNS) You know I am an optimistic guy, or at least I am in the public sphere. I definitely have my moments, but I try not to bring others down with me. Usually, I snap out of it quickly. It is 5:38 a.m. as I write these words after I was woken up by the pit in my stomach. I can’t shake the feeling.
Now, I know I’ve shared multiple posts expressing the nuance in this deal and specifically the joy we will all feel seeing live hostages hug their loved ones again. That is true. I await that moment. We all do. We’ve waited for that moment for a year and a half.
Usually, with most events, that positive thought will outweigh the negative. I’d write a post focusing on the positive, hope for the best, and move on. This time is different. I know from past experiences that I should never watch those videos of our enemies celebrating what they call a victory. I know how deeply it disturbs me to see those things. I also know that their celebrations are baseless and that they won nothing.
This time is different.
I do badly want to believe that with this deal, there is more than meets the eye. I so badly want to believe that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was given a massive incentive to agree to this. Perhaps, there was a guarantee of an Abraham Accords 2.0. Maybe a guarantee that the United States will join Israel when it attacks Iran’s nuclear facilities. Or, maybe, it was a large financial or military incentive. Maybe, if one of those things is part of this deal, then I’d understand why Netanyahu agreed to this deal.
The thing is, I am told by someone in the know that there is no such incentive. I am told that Netanyahu agreed to this months ago, and now that Hamas agreed to it, the pressure was on him to accept “His plan” that he offered all those months ago. I am told that my brother Ari’s murderer could be part of this deal. (I am not saying we know he will be, but it is a possibility.) I find it hard to believe that there is nothing else going on behind the scenes, and I told that to my “source.”
He told me, again, that there aren’t any incentives.
I refuse to believe it. But chances are I am wrong, and I’m being optimistic where there is no room for optimism.
I try to grasp onto the good things, here. We’re getting our people back. “Only 200” out of the thousand we’re releasing are actual murderers. Yes, I fully understand the absurdity of celebrating 200 murderers going free, but I’m grasping here. We will have a few months of relative quiet. Of not losing soldiers. Our soldiers get a breather. My son, Tzvi, is in less danger. (Call me selfish all you want. You can’t understand how it feels until your son enters the hell on earth that is Gaza.)
These things are true, and they are good.
But I simply can’t get rid of this lump in my throat. I can’t get rid of this feeling that this is a disengagement 2.0. That our threats of “If they break the ceasefire …” are bogus. That’s what we said after we left the Gaza Strip in 2005, “If one rocket is fired … .” I can’t shake this feeling that, in the very near future, we will regret this deal when it comes back to haunt us.
Now, many have reassured me that all of this will change when President-elect Donald Trump takes office next week. Maybe they’re right. But how? Will Trump reverse the deal? Obviously not. He’s bragging about it. In fact, there are rumors that he was the one to pressure Netanyahu to take the deal. So, what exactly can Trump do for us when he enters office?
I can’t, for some reason, find optimism here that will overpower the pit in my stomach. Why not? Because this time is different. This deal is killing me. Tragically, I am asking myself, for the first time ever, if those lunatics dancing in the streets of Gaza have a right to dance. Did they win? Now, hold up. There is no universe in which Hamas won this war. No matter how you spin it, they did not win. But did we? Is the war over? Did we fail to achieve both our objectives of obliterating Hamas and bringing our hostages back?
Maybe the war isn’t over, and Netanyahu knows exactly what he’s doing. Maybe. It wouldn’t be the first time. Maybe this is the thought I need to hold onto. Maybe that’ll calm me down. This war isn’t over. We will still win. Maybe Trump promised Netanyahu that as soon as he enters office, he’ll send over a massive amount of weapons that President Joe Biden refused to send and that Netanyahu will be able to instruct the Israel Defense Forces to end Hamas once and for all.
Maybe … but this darn deal. It’s so terrible. Releasing all those monsters? Pulling out of Gaza? Sending in insane amounts of aid to be stolen by Hamas? Not even getting all the hostages back? What the heck, Bibi?! I have muted my social media accounts, and I am going to try hard to ignore all the negativity. I won’t watch their celebrations. I won’t read all the pundits explaining why Israel just shot itself in the foot. I don’t want to know. Call it sticking my head in the sand. I call it maintaining my mental health.
So, here is my take. I can’t wait to see our people back home. The deal—if, indeed, it is simply what you see is what you get—is a disaster of historic proportions. Yet, it can’t be that simple. There must be more to it. And, honestly, the thing that brings me back from the sadness, fear and anxiety that this deal is causing me is one very big thing I am guilty of forgetting. There IS absolutely one thing that guarantees that this ends well: Hashem.
Hashem, God, has our back. We’ve been through darker times. We’ve been through much harder things. And we made it out alive and stronger. I don’t know how He is going to do it, I don’t know what role Trump will play, but I do know that it’ll be OK. Somehow.
So that’s it. I found the thing I need to grasp to feel optimistic again. Hashem. There. Solved. Thanks for listening. It was very therapeutic for me. Hashem has got our backs. We got this. Now we wait to cry tears of joy together as our loved ones cross the border into the Land of Israel. It is time for me to put away my political science degree, stop watching those infuriating videos, and bring out my prayer book. It is time to turn to God and say, “Hashem, we did what we can. Now it’s your turn. Do your thing. Work your magic. Because magic is what we need now for this to end well.”
Hillel Fuld is a technology expert turned warrior for Israel whose parents made aliya from the US. His brother Ari was killed by a terrorist stabber in 2018.
Given my joy at seeing the hostages come home, why am I so sad? Prof. Phyllis Chesler
Perhaps the answer is in what a wise Israeli just said to me: “Israel has two choices. Bad. And worse.”
Jan 19, 2025, 11:10 PM (GMT+2) Israel National News – First, Hamas delayed the hostage release, delayed disclosing the names of who was being released. More psychological torture? Doesn’t this delay rise to the level of breaking the “cease fire”?
Second, as Hamas is sending the first three female hostages back to Israel, they are out there in force, fully masked and armed. They are still terrorizing the hostages on their way out to freedom.
Third, none of the Gazan men and boys who are mobbing and blocking and slowing down the Red Cross ambulance which is holding the three Israeli female hostages on their way back to Israel, look emaciated. No one seems to have been starved or genocidally exterminated. They are all holding up the cellphone cameras which they need electricity to charge. The streets are chaotic.
Fourth, the IDF is planning for every eventuality even as the Israeli government is collecting and transferring Gazan Arab terrorists from Israeli jails. Men with a great deal of blood on their hands; men who will commit mass murders again and again; men who will be living in Yehuda and Shomron, East Jerusalem, and possibly in Gaza. What is wrong with this picture?
Fifth, let’s take careful note of how well fed, housed, educated, and medically serviced these barbarian terrorists have been in Israeli hands.
Sixth, Israelis are, even now, in the streets, demonstrating both for and againt this deal.
Seventh–the Red Cross never once visited the Israeli hostages. I have nothing to say about such an egregious omission.
Eighth, I cannot begin to imagine the torture these three women must have suffered nor can anyone predict what they will need to recover “well enough” to rejoin their former lives.
By the way, the IDF had to rescue a corpse from 2014, a corpse that Hamas refused to hand over.
Given my joy at the release of these three Israeli captives, why am I so sober, so sombre, not at all in a celebratory mood?
Why are there tears behind my eyes today of all days?
Well, here are some of the reasons why.
I’ve just watched masked, armed, Hamas barbarians storm the departing Red Cross Vehicle in which three female Israeli hostages were being transported out of captivity. With guns and hoarse cries of, “Kill the Jews,” these sadistic fiends banged on the windows, jumped on the car roof, surrounded the car/van, blocked it from moving.
This is precisely the type of terrorist that has just been released back into Israel. More than 700 of them in return for these three, precious Israeli hostages.
In addition to refusing to release the captives’ names beforehand; in addition to delaying the planned release; this last-minute terrorization, in and of itself, is the third time that Hamas has broken the hostage release–and just in a single day.
This is what Israel’s enemies are like.
I want the world to watch this scene, again and again, as it is being replayed in the media, especially on Israel 24, which is being broadcast into my living room.
At first, I did not believe what I was seeing. Perhaps I did not want to believe my eyes. Thus, I watched it many times before I accepted and understood what I was seeing.
Here is the naked proof, but one example, of whom Israel and all infidels are dealing. After these three young women have already spent 471 days hovering between life and death in dark tunnels beneath the earth–the sadists had not had enough. They needed to remind the women and the world of who they are. Barbarian fascists, a greater threat to world peace than any Western right-winger could ever be.
A wise Israeli just said to me: “Israel has two choices. Bad. And worse.”
Another wise pro-Israel journalist told me: “It will be open season on Jews and infidels everywhere now. Clearly, the Islamists and Caliphaters will not stop–not until they are stopped.”
Hamas’s display was also meant to deny that they’ve lost the war, thus far, militarily. And they have. Further, without the IDF in Gaza even these three hostages would never have been returned. However, in terms of propaganda–Hamas and their Western and other Islamist supporters won. Oh, how they’ve won.
Just as “progressive” Westerners adored Stalin, Mao, and Fidel/Che, they’ve continued their “Mephisto Waltz,” their dance with death and the devil, in terms of their adoration of terrorists, torture, and violence. I am about to read what looks like an excellent book on this very subject by Dr. Jon Mills, a British philosopher and psychoanalyst. It is titled: “End of the World. Civilization and Its Fate.”
What next? Quo Vadis? How many Israeli hostages are still alive? When will PM Netanyahu be allowed to vanquish every last Islamist in Gaza and in Yehuda and Shomron?
My edgy thought: Israel must immediately institute a death penalty for terrorists with blood on their hands. Israel must also kill them in battle on sight. No more prisoners for future trades. There must never again be living terrorists with blood on their hands in Israeli jails.
I’m thinking even darker thoughts.
[Ed.: But I disagree that “we have only two choices.” We have three. It is the one instruction that Hashem repeated to us in every war we ever had. We’re not considering that one. And Rabbi Meir Kahane ‘was a terrorist’ that IINO had a musloid assassinate…]
Post ceasefire: There is no such thing as a demilitarized Palestinian state Prof. Louis René Beres
A ‘Two-State Solution’ would be urging nothing less than the creation of a criminal aggressor state, one for whom the barbarism of October 7 represents a template for future actions against Israel. It would not be bound by pre-state compacts. And there is more. Op-ed.
Jan 19, 2025, 8:48 PM (GMT+2) Israel National News
– As an Israel-Hamas agreement is beginning to be carried out, participants and observers are again discussing Palestinian Arab statehood. To blunt the conspicuous perils of such an enemy state for Israel, proponents insist that a mutually-satisfactory remedy could lie in Palestinian Arab demilitarization. But even if an impressive number of existing states would argue forcefully for recognition of “Palestine,” these approvals would not satisfy the authoritative expectations of international law. The Convention on the Rights and Duties of States (1934) – the treaty that defines all requirements of statehood – explicitly identifies all pertinent criteria.
These binding standards do not include recognition.
In principle, perhaps, national declarations of support for “self-determination” could be reasonable if the Palestinian Arab side were authentically committed to a “Two-State Solution.” Yet the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas still agree unambiguously that there can be only one legitimate state in the disputed areas; that state must be “Palestine.”
Respecting jihadi underpinnings for their new state, Palestinian Arab leaders in ‘West Bank'(Judea/Samaria) and Gaza continue to support the view that Israel per se represents an abomination of the Dar al-Islam (the world of Islam). Always, in this non-negotiable and inherently annihilationist view, Israel remains nothing more than “Occupied Palestine.” It follows that states in world politics that will now seek a Two-State Solution would be urging nothing less than the creation of a predictably criminal aggressor state, one for whom the barbarism of October 7, 2023 represents a reliable template for future actions against Israel.
Much earlier, this wittingly lawless urging stemmed from a diplomatic framework known as The Road Map for Implementation of a Permanent Solution for Two States in the Israel-Palestinian Dispute. Together with Palestinian Arab refusal to reject the genocidal “Phased Plan” (Cairo) of June 1974 and a correlative Palestinian jihad to “liberate” “Occupied Palestine” in increments, the Road Map revealed a largely unforeseen peril. Even those plausibly well-intentioned states favoring “Palestine” were being misled by overly-optimistic hopes concerning “demilitarization.”
Back on June 14, 2009, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to accept another enemy state. but also made such agreement contingent on Palestinian Arab demilitarization. Presently, Mr. Netanyahu, again as prime minister, joined by a majority of Israelis, opposes Palestinian Arab statehood in any form, even if accompanied by demilitarization. This is a correct position because Israel’s survival could not possibly coincide with such a bestowal of sovereignty.
In law, now as a presumptively sovereign state, ‘Palestine’ would not be bound by pre-independence compacts. Nonetheless, what if the government of ‘Palestine’ were in fact willing to consider itself bound by its pre-state agreements? Even in such relatively favorable circumstances, the Arab government of an openly irredentist terror state would retain legal pretext to implement lawful agreement terminations.
It’s time for greater specificity. For example, ‘Palestine’ could withdraw from the agreement because of a “material breach,” an alleged violation by Israel that credibly undermined the object and/or purpose of the accord. Alternatively, it could point toward what international law calls a “fundamental change of circumstances” (rebus sic stantibus). Here, if a Palestinian Arab state were to declare itself vulnerable to previously unforeseen dangers, even from forces of other Arab or Islamist armies, it could lawfully end its previously “guaranteed” commitments to stay demilitarized.
There is another method by which a treaty-like arrangement obligating a new Palestinian Arab state to accept demilitarization could lawfully be invalidated. In essence usual grounds that may be invoked under domestic law to invalidate contracts could apply equally to treaties and treaty-like agreements under international law. This means that a new state of ‘Palestine’ could point to alleged errors of fact or to duress as appropriate grounds for terminating any negotiated pacts with Israel.
Per the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969), any treaty or treaty-like agreement is void if, at the time it was entered into, it conflicts with a “peremptory” rule of general international law. This means a rule accepted and recognized by the international community of states as one from which “no derogation is permitted.” Because the right of all sovereign states to maintain military forces essential to “self-defense” is such a rule, ‘Palestine’, depending upon the particular form of its institutionalized authority, could be within its rights to abrogate any prior arrangements designed to compel its demilitarization.
Thomas Jefferson, the third American President, wrote interestingly about obligation and international law. While affirming that “Compacts between nation and nation are obligatory upon them by the same moral law which obliges individuals to observe their compacts…,” he also acknowledged: “There are circumstances which sometimes excuse the nonperformance of contracts between man and man; so are there also between nation and nation.” Very specifically, Jefferson continued, “…the law of self-preservation always overrules the law of obligation to others.”
In crafting a post-Gaza accord with Hamas and PA, Israel should draw no reassurances from any promises of Palestinian Arab demilitarization. Should the government of a new state of Palestine choose to invite foreign armies and/or terrorists onto its territory (possibly after the original government authority is displaced or overthrown by even more militantly Islamic, anti-Israel forces), it could do so without practical difficulties and without violating international law.
In significant measure, any prevailing plan for Palestinian Arab statehood would still be built on the moribund Oslo Accords, the ill-founded agreements destroyed by persistent Arab violations. To the point, for the Palestinian Arabs, Oslo-mandated expectations were never anything more than a cost-effective method of dismantling Israel. For the Israelis, these expectations were always taken as a more-or-less unavoidable way of averting future Palestinian Arab terror crimes and Islamist aggressions.
What does all of this ultimately mean, for any alleged Palestinian Arab demilitarization “remedy” and for Israel’s life or death security? In essence, the Arab world and Iran still have only a “One-State Solution” for the Middle East. It is a “solution” that eliminates Israel altogether, it is unassailably a “Final Solution.” Even today, official Palestinian Authority maps of “Palestine” show the new jihadi state comprising all of the “West Bank” (Judea/Samaria), all of Gaza and all of the State of Israel itself.
On September 1, 1993, Yasser Arafat affirmed that the Oslo Accords would remain an integral part of the PLO’s 1974 Phased Plan for Israel’s destruction: “The agreement will be a basis for an independent Palestinian State, in accordance with the Palestinian National Council Resolution issued in 1974.This PNC Resolution calls for “the establishment of a national authority on any part of Palestinian soil from which Israel withdraws or is liberated.”
Later, on May 29, 1994, Rashid Abu Shbak, then senior PA security official, remarked straightforwardly: “The light which has shone over Gaza and Jericho will also reach the Negev and the Galilee.”
Since these early declarations, nothing has changed in the Palestinian Arab definitions of Israel and “Palestine.” This is true for the leaderships of both Hamas and PA. It may make no tangible difference whether one terror group or the other is in power. Both would intend a State of Palestine that is irredentist and crime-centered. The egregious crimes of October 7, 2023 would remain a proud symbol of Palestinian “self-determination.”
There is more. Those who would consider accepting Palestinian statehood in any form should consider the following: The Islamic world contains 50 states with more than one billion people. Islamic states comprise an area 672 times the size of Israel. Israel, together with Judea/Samaria, is less than half the size of San Bernardino County in California. The Sinai Desert, transferred by Israel to Egypt in the 1979 Treaty, is three times larger than the State of Israel.
Any Israeli plan for accepting Palestinian Arab demilitarization on promises of diplomatic comity and regional peace would be built upon sand. Accordingly, Israel should never base its assessments of Palestinian Arab statehood on any such illusory foundations. In the end, no Palestinian Arab leadership would ever accept the idea of demilitarization. an Israel-supported idea of “limited” Palestinian Arab statehood.
There is one last point: The many-sided threat of Palestinian Arab statehood is part of a larger and more portentous strategic whole.
This means, ipso facto, that such a crime-based jihadi state would become a tangible “force-multiplier” for Israel’s extant enemies, both state and sub-state. In a worst-case but still realistic scenario, the creation of “Palestine” would heighten the probability of a catastrophic international war in the region. At some not-too-distant point in time, this could mean a no-holds-barred unconventional conflict, including a nuclear war
LOUIS RENÉ BERES was was born in Zürich at the end of World War II, educated at Princeton (Ph.D., 1971) and is the author of many books and scholarly articles dealing with Israel and international law. His writings have appeared in Jurist; The New York Times; Yale Global; Harvard National Security Journal (Harvard Law School); The Atlantic; U.S. News & World Report; Los Angeles Times; Oxford University Press; The Hill; BESA Perspectives; INSS Strategic Assessment (Israel); Herzliya Conference Papers (Israel); The National Interest; Israel National News; and The Jerusalem Post. Dr. Beres’ twelfth and latest book, Surviving Amid Chaos: Israel’s Nuclear Strategy, was published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2016, 2nd edit., 2018. In Israel, he was Chair of Project Daniel (Iranian nuclear weapons, 2003-2004).
Americans have been deceived into thinking in terms of Democrat-Republican with one ‘side’ being good, the other evil. The two ‘sides’ play good cop-bad cop with a common goal of advancing the system.
JAN 19, 2025 – There’s a tension in the land heading into Monday’s inauguration in Washington, D.C. Is it just me, or do you feel it too?
Hardcore leftists are whining about Trump coming into office, fearing he will exact revenge on them. They are positive he is going to “round them up” and cast them into concentration camps.
On the flip side, the internet is full of conservative hand wringing about an imminent terrorist attack or some other “big event” that will take place and stop Donald Trump from being inaugurated on Monday.
Some of this is just content creators looking for clicks. But many are genuinely worried about Monday.
Anything is possible, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that I believe Donald Trump will be sworn into office Monday as the 47th president of the United States as scheduled.
Why do I believe that?
Let me explain.
These false narratives feed the left-right paradigm that has divided our country for decades. The latest iteration of this paradigm uses Donald Trump as a lightning rod. He is capable of appearing simultaneously as ultra-hero superman and sinister villain, depending on one’s political persuasion.
I don’t buy that the globalist, elitist predator class is truly scared of Trump, or that they are dreading the next four years. Did Barack Obama appear the least bit worried about a Trump presidency while speaking with Trump at last week’s funeral for former President Jimmy Carter? No, in fact the two men looked quite chummy and happy to be in each other’s presence.
I believe the globalist elites see Trump as an opportunity. In the eyes of the Bill Gates’ and Peter Thiels of the world, Donald Trump is just another politician who can be managed. They did it during his first term, when they got him to launch Operation Warp Speed, which was the biggest gift handed to the globalist depopulation-obsessed elites since World War II.
And they will get Trump to hand them another prize in his second term, whether that be another set of death shots, digital IDs for all, or the next big World War.
You see, these political jitters where the left fears the right and the right fears the left, are solely a symptom of the working-class and middle-class masses.
Most of those in the billionaire class see themselves as above petty politics. They know they can cozy up and get the ear of whoever is in office, whether it be Donald Trump or Joe Biden.
This has been clearly evident over the past several weeks. We’ve seen members of the globalist predator class such as Mark Zuckerberg, Mika Brzezinski and Bill Gates go and kiss the ring of Donald Trump and pledge their fealty to him. Or is he pledging his fealty to them? Either way, I find it very telling.
Upgrade to paid
Bill Gates just completed an over three-hour “very congenial” meeting with Trump a couple of days ago.
Watch the short clip below and tell me, does Gates look or sound the least bit worried that he’s now having to deal with Donald Trump instead of Joe Biden in order to keep the U.S. government on board with his nefarious “public health” agenda?
Note that Trump had his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, a promoter of the death shots and a professional Big Pharma shill, in the meeting with himself and Gates. Noticeably absent from a meeting on the topic of “public health” was Trump’s own pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
It appears Kennedy is in the process of being edged out of Trump’s inner circle, at least the part of Kennedy that represents sanity on vaccines.
A January 18 article in Zero Hedge reports that Trump has “sidelined” all “anti-vaxxer” advisors from his transition team. The article noted:
While “anti-vaxxers” are reportedly getting the boot from Team Trump because the issue is a “political loser,” per insider sources familiar with the drama, Trump is seemingly very open to the insights that Bill Gates has on offer.
Would Trump really be interested in the views of Bill Gates if he agreed with us that Gates is a psychopathic technocrat bent on depopulating the world?
Here’s the bottom line: IT’S ALL A GAME!
All of the major political figures on the world stage today, whether they know it or not, are playing roles in a larger stage production owned and operated by “the system.” In fact, I would posit that this is the beast system described in the Bible that has placed the earth on a fast-track to destruction, and the politicians are playing along, dutifully approving taxpayer funding of AI data centers and the digitital enslavement of humanity. The mission for Donald Trump’s White House will be to advance the system’s goals of digitizing Americans. If at the end of his term we do not have biometric digital IDs for all citizens and the launching of an alternative national “reserve currency,” I will be shocked.
Trump will do some things that continue to contribute to his image as a larger-than-life super hero in the eyes of conservative Americans. He will deport or cause the self-deportation of several million illegal aliens. He will build a border wall. He will shore up the voting system with a new digital voter ID law. And he will clamp down on crime mostly through surveillance technology and re-empowering police. But in the final analysis, he will not slow down one iota the advancement of the growing beast system, which is being brought in under the guise of technological prowess and making America great again.
There will be no MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. That is a bunch of clever Madison Avenue marketing that is giving people one last gasp of false hope that the system can be somehow reformed and brought back into a position where it serves the freedom-loving people of America, rather than the people slavishly serving the system as it has been for many decades now.
Republican presidents tend to play set up for their Democrat counterparts. Bush created the Department of Homeland Security and gave us the USA Patriot Act, with its secret FISA Court spying powers under Section 702, and said it was needed to root out foreign terrorists, then Obama weaponized the same national-security apparatus against conservative American citizens. Trump used Operation Warp Speed to create the toxic death shots, then Biden took office and weaponized the shots, mandating them on our military, law enforcement and health-care professionals.
It also works in reverse. Joe Biden and Lloyd Austin feminized the military, encouraging the trannies to dress up in skirts and take showers with our military men. Talk about demoralizing. This drastically reduced the ability of the military to recruit real men, and emboldened Russia and other nations to make the geostrategic moves that they had been holding back on making but felt were necessary to maintain their soveriegnty.
But not to worry. Enter Trump and Pete Hegseth to reinvent the military with much fanfare, bringing back, as Hegseth has repeatedly said, a “warrior” mentality, just in time to beef up recruiting efforts for the planned war with Russia.
Biden infected the left with anti-law enforcement sentiments, and Trump will build these forces back up, perhaps so a future Democrat president can weaponize them against Trump supporters.
Biden opened the border to everyone who wanted to come to America, regardless of their intentions or talents, leading to a wave of violent crime. Trump will use the public dissatisfaction from Biden’s open-borders policy to finish building the wall and normalizing the appearance of armed federal agents searching the streets of America for undesirables. This sets up a future Democrat president to turn those federal agents against we the people and use Trump’s border wall to keep Americans in, rather than foreigners out.
People are on edge. You can sense it in the general public when you’re out and about running errands or amongst your friends and family in dinner-table discussions.
This is to be expected in a time of rapid change. People sense that things are about to change quite dramatically and they’re not sure if they are ready for it. They’re not sure if Trump is who they hope he is. But they’re not ready to suspend their hope in the man they elected.
People are scared for their jobs, their businesses. Will they survive in a new era dominated by artificial intelligence?
And these are the smarter ones. Most aren’t even aware that AI is taking over the world, much less their jobs and their lives over the next five years.
Lord help us. Only your Son Jesus Christ can rescue us from the attacks of Satan and his minions here on Earth. We place our faith in You and Your Son and the Almighty Triune God. Not in any human messiah figure. Amen.
Cuomo: We saw the enemy at Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing | Cuomo [9:36]
Jan 15, 2025 NewsNation – Chris Cuomo criticized the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing for prioritizing divisive culture war topics over pressing national security concerns during Pete Hegseth’s defense secretary nomination.
[Ed.:Even Cuomo gets it!]
Once Again, Having No Faith in the Smartest Guy in the Room by Joan Swirsky
Jan. 18, 2025
Oy vey! The glass is not half empty—it’s completely empty!
Oy gevalt! The sky really is falling!
That’s what our purportedly most astute and seasoned political commentators would have you believe about the ceasefire agreement that was reached just a day or so ago between Hamas and Israel.
These pearl-clutching, handwringing, anxiety filled savants have now become 2025’s Doomsday Squad. But it sounds to me like they all participated in the same Zoom session, so similar are their dire messages and predictions.
And so wrong-headed!
The esteemed Harvard Law professor emeritus, Alan Dershowitz, opined that “it wasn’t a deal; it was a crime.”
“This was not the result of a negotiation between equals. If an armed robber puts a gun to your head and says, ‘your money or your life,’ your decision to give him your money would not be described as a deal,” he said.
“Would you call it a deal if somebody kidnapped your child, and you ‘agreed’ to pay ransom to get her back? Of course not. The kidnapping was a crime. And the extortionate demand was an additional crime,” Dershowitz continued.
The estimable Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch and prolific author, asked, “How bad is it? It makes a replay, and quite likely more than one replay, of Hamas’ massacre of 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023, a very real possibility…the deal also involves ‘the release of 50 Palestinian Arab terrorists serving life sentences. These are essentially convicted murderers with Jewish blood on their hands who are likely to murder Jews again.’”
The widely known commentator and President of the Middle East Forum, Daniel Pipes, called the deal “momentous” and “horrific.”
“The deal, Pipes concluded, “releases many hundreds of hardened Islamist criminals, now free to return to their murderous ways. It nearly assures continued Hamas rule in Gaza. It boosts Islamist morale worldwide. It humiliates the West’s foremost Middle Eastern ally.”
The prolific British writer Melanie Phillips also weighed in, writing that negotiating with Qatar was “dealing with the devil,” and that the jubilant Arabs were ecstatic because they believed that the deal “would enable them now, finally, to destroy Israel and the Jews.”
In addition, the formidable Morton Klein of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) issued this stern warning: “No responsible Israeli government should agree to such a dangerous surrender deal. Didn’t the government learn from the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal, in which Israel received one Israeli hostage for releasing 1,027 Palestinian Arab terrorists (including October 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar) who were collectively responsible for killing 569 Israelis? The Shalit deal resulted in October 7, numerous other terror attacks, the murders of more than 2,000 innocent Jews and the maiming of many thousands of innocent Jews and others.”
And to top it off, several high-ranking members of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s coalition threatened to leave if he signed the deal, which was predicted to result in total chaos in the Knesset. They include National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who called the deal “reckless,” as well as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amihai Chikli.
Bottom line, each of these critics––and dozens of others––denigrated both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President-elect Donald Trump for agreeing to and participating in one of history’s worst deals!
OTOH
My question to these critics: What do you think the conversation was when the Israeli Prime Minister visited the President-elect at his Mar-a-Lago estate last July? Do you suppose they discussed the poetry of Emily Dickinson?
Do you think they studiously avoided discussion of the ongoing and escalating war not between but among Israel and Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Syria, Yemen, and Iraqi groups, and what to do about this existential threat to the tiny Jewish state?
Do you think they wished each other well and parted ways with handshakes and smiles?
I don’t.
THE PLAN OF ACTION
I think that President-elect didn’t pressure PM Netanyahu at all, that he simply suggested a strategy that would work.
And it did!
Given his solution-oriented nature, Mr. Trump told the PM that he would threaten to annihilate the mass murderers who not only threatened to obliterate the entire state of Israel but to extinguish the lives of every Jew in the world. That this threat…this promise…was actually written down in their charter and mission statement and boasted about by like-minded advocates of this death cult.
Well…. POOF! As soon as Mr. Trump posted those “hell to pay” words––because they believed him––magic! Hamas agreed to negotiate and Israel, wisely, agreed.
Why wisely? Because Mr. Trump never took back his original words––there would be “hell to pay” if the hostages were not released before his inauguration….in just a couple of days…. January 20th, 2025!
SOME PEOPLE “GET” IT
Right off the bat, U.S. Representative Mike Waltz, President-elect Trump’s choice for National Security Adviser, announced that he vowed that the Trump Administration would support Israel resuming operations in Gaza if Hamas violated the ceasefire deal.
And Douglas Altabef, Chairman of the Board of Im Tirtzu and a Director of the Israel Independence Fund, writes that “it is too soon to be too distraught about the hostage deal.
“Again,” says Altabef, “I would urge us all not to jump to a definitive conclusion quite yet. Hopefully, as happened in November 2023, we will look back and say, yes there was disruption, yes, our job got more difficult and complicated, but we were able to secure the release of (most, all, many??) hostages, and then got back to the required task of dismantling Hamas.
“We need to remember,” Altabef continues, “that Trump has appointed very pro-Israel people to key leadership roles in his government. The Secretaries of State and Defense, Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth (who is likely to be approved despite initial concerns), are both firmly in Israel’s corner, and are knowledgeable about the situation in this neighborhood.
“I believe that Trump himself is very much with us and will regard supporting Israel as part of a key strategic construct needed to face down China, Russia and Iran.
“He now is starting off his tenure with the geo-political wind at his back, and he knows that Bibi and Israel helped him to get exactly where he wanted to be. Getting Trump to have a latter-day version of the 1980 Iranian hostage release, as Reagan assumed office, is an enormous credibility boost for him.”
Concluding, Altabef says: “I for one would like to think that Trump knows that Israel helped him to achieve it, and that he will be returning the favor as his term unfolds.
So, friends, grit your teeth, and take a longer view. God willing, we will emerge from this intact, more unified, and ultimately, strengthened.”
To these inspiring words, can we all say a hearty Amen!
Joan Swirsky is a New York based journalist and author. Her website is www.joanswirsky.com, and she can be reached at joanswirsky@gmail.com,
Exclusive-Diana West Exposes Globalist Plot Behind Lahaina and LA Fires: War on Property and Freedom [VIDEOS] Amy Mek
January 17, 2025
“This is an act of war against our country. These fires are not isolated natural disasters or the result of incompetence—they are part of a deliberate strategy to dismantle private property and force populations into controlled urban centers.” – Diana West
In an exclusive interview with RAIR Foundation USA, renowned journalist and author Diana West shared her incisive analysis of the recent catastrophic fires in Los Angeles and Lahaina, Hawaii. Known for her fearless critique of communism, Islamization, and Western decline, West offered a deep dive into the broader implications of these events, drawing connections to globalist agendas, environmental policies, and the calculated erosion of individual freedoms.
WATCH [42:36]
The Fires: A Catalyst for Deeper Reflection
West’s personal connection to the Los Angeles fires brought an emotional edge to her analysis. Having grown up in the Hollywood Hills, she spoke about the psychological impact of witnessing idyllic neighborhoods turned to ashes. “I grew up in Laurel Canyon,” West shared, “and the idea of fires burning these areas to the ground feels deeply personal.” Yet, beyond the personal, West framed these events as emblematic of a larger war on Western civilization.
“This is such an act of war against our country,” West asserted, emphasizing that these fires are not isolated natural disasters or the result of incompetence. Instead, she argued that they are part of a deliberate strategy to dismantle private property and force populations into controlled urban centers, aligning with globalist objectives such as the UN’s 2030 Agenda.
Echoes of Lahaina: A Pattern of Destruction
The devastation from the August 2023 fires in Lahaina, Hawaii, served as a chilling precedent for the West. Comparing the two events, she noted similar patterns of poor media coverage, restricted access for residents and journalists, and the absence of rebuilding efforts. “Lahaina could have been rebuilt by now,” West said, pointing out, “Its small structures—restaurants, gift shops, and family homes—should not have taken over 17 months to restore.”
Instead, Lahaina remains locked down, with discussions underway to transform the area into a national park. A resident, finally granted access, captured footage exposing not just the devastation but the deliberate roadblocks to any rebuilding efforts. Meanwhile, the Biden administration’s signing of the Lahaina National Heritage Area Study Act has fueled suspicions of a federal land grab under the guise of preservation.
WATCH [43:13]
West described this as a sinister example of how disasters are exploited to strip individuals of their property and autonomy, advancing the agenda of concentrating populations into tightly controlled urban zones.
“Checkpoint Charlie-style controls in Lahaina echo similar tactics in LA,” she noted, “with access restricted and information suppressed, further demonstrating the lengths to which authorities will go to hide the truth.”
The Controlled Narrative: ‘Limited Hangouts’ and Deception
A recurring theme in the interview was the concept of “limited hangouts,” a term West used to describe controlled releases of information designed to give the appearance of transparency while concealing critical truths.
“It’s a tactic to give the appearance of being a truth-teller but holding back the crux of the issue,” she explained, emphasizing, “If they don’t tell you something new, you can’t trust them.”
West pointed to figures like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who recently attempted to walk back Facebook’s history of censorship. “Zuckerberg’s recent mea culpa is an obvious contrivance,” she argued. “If he truly wanted to come clean, he’d name names and reveal the mechanisms behind the censorship.”
West also drew parallels to historical examples of narrative control, highlighting the role of figures like Walter Durante, the New York Times reporter who covered up Stalin’s genocidal policies in Ukraine. “Just as Durante’s reporting shielded Stalin’s atrocities from the West, today’s media obscures the malevolent intent behind these fires and other disasters,” West explained. She argued that this form of narrative manipulation keeps the public focused on surface-level narratives while the true scope of destruction and its implications remain hidden.
Environmentalism: The New Vehicle for Totalitarianism
West traced the roots of the current environmental agenda back to the early 1990s, citing the UN’s Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro as a pivotal moment.
“Victory in the Cold War was swiftly followed by Western leaders signing onto Agenda 21,” she noted, “despite its communist roots and its intent to erode middle-class prosperity.” West argued that environmentalism has been co-opted as a vehicle for communism, with policies like bans on brush clearing and weather manipulation exacerbating natural disasters.
The journalist also called attention to geoengineering and weather modification, practices she described as underreported but significant contributors to modern environmental crises. “Look up at the skies,” she urged. “They don’t look normal anymore, and these weather engineering projects are not just benign—they’re destructive.”
Malice, Not Incompetence
West’s sharpest critique was reserved for those who dismiss these events as mere incompetence.
“At a certain point, incompetence becomes a cover story for purposeful recklessness,” she declared. Citing examples such as lax enforcement of fire safety regulations, the intentional mismanagement of water resources, and the presence of known arsonists in vulnerable areas, West argued that these failures are deliberate and designed to destabilize and control.
She also connected the dots to broader policies, such as mass immigration and the push for “15-minute cities”—urban areas where residents live within tightly controlled grids. These initiatives, she suggested, align with efforts to depopulate rural and suburban areas under the guise of environmentalism and sustainability.
A Civilizational War
West characterized the ongoing crises as part of a “civilizational war” waged not just through physical destruction but psychological manipulation.
“By showing us the destruction of places like Pacific Palisades, they condition us to accept the unimaginable,” she said. “It’s a psychological assault, preparing us for the worst.”
This war, she noted, goes beyond environmental policies. “The fires are only one front,” she said. “Mass migration, educational indoctrination, and economic destabilization are all part of the same overarching strategy to destroy the pillars of Western identity—family, private property, and sovereignty.”
Hope and Action
While West expressed skepticism about political solutions, she acknowledged the potential of leaders like Donald Trump to act as disruptors. “Trump was an interrupter of the process,” she said, adding, “but even he was surrounded by globalist interests in his cabinet.”
West’s ultimate message was one of vigilance and the need for individuals to take responsibility for seeking truth.
“The authorities and media will not put the pieces together for you,” she warned. “You have to do it yourself.”
Understanding and Resisting
Diana West’s analysis serves as both a warning and a call to action. By exposing the malevolent forces behind disasters like the fires in LA and Lahaina, she challenges us to look beyond surface explanations and question the narratives fed to us. In a world increasingly shaped by deception and control, her insights offer a roadmap for understanding—and resisting—the forces reshaping our lives.
To read Diana West’s books, please see below:
- The Red Thread: A Search for Ideological Drivers Inside the Anti-Trump Conspiracy (2019)
- American Betrayal: The Secret Assault on Our Nation’s Character (2014)
- The Rebuttal: Defending ‘American Betrayal’ from the Book-Burners (2013)
- No Fear: Selected Columns from America’s Most Politically Incorrect Journalist (2013)
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Everything to Know about the Israel-Hamas Hostage Deal [50:31] Caroline Glick
Jan 16, 2025 JNS TV | The Caroline Glick Show – If you’re confused about the impending Hamas-Israel ceasefire agreement, you aren’t alone. JNS senior contributing editor Caroline Glick has all the details and analysis on the deal and breaks it down in this episode of “In-Focus.”
