Ben-Gvir, who was apparently one of those targeted by the president, said that “The president must internalize that we are not just another star on the American flag. In what way am I extremist? In that I believe Israeli citizens should defend themselves? In that I distribute weapons to Israelis to defend themselves? In that I give backing to our soldiers and policemen?” (VIN News, July 10, 2023)
“These days require us to focus on the security mission and the cohesion that supports it so that we are ready for any challenge that presents itself. In the current reality, no one has the privilege not to show up for every challenge and mission.” — Chief of Staff Lt. Col. Herzi Halevi addressed rumors that IDF reserve officers have threatened to leave the army if legal reforms are approved in the Knesset. (Israel National News, July 9, 2023)
Kyiv “supports 90% of the anti-Israel resolutions in the UN.” — Israel’s Ambassador to Ukraine Michael Brodsky. He added that this “is unusual, considering Kyiv often turns to the Israeli authorities for various requests. If Ukraine sees Israel as a friendly nation and makes requests from it, then it needs to support us in the matters that are important to us just as Israel works with Ukraine on matters important to it.” (WIN, July 9, 2023)
“I see Anjana Gadgil from @BBCNews @BBCWorld has disabled her account. Guess she didn’t like being called out for her outrageous interview with PM Bennett.” — International human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky responding to BBC journalist Anjana Gadgil’s preposterous comment to former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett that “The Israeli forces are happy to kill children,”since many of the Jenin terrorists killed were teenagers. (WIN, July 7, 2023)
“To conduct an operation of such intensity in an urban area without killing any uninvolved civilians at all is a remarkable achievement by the IDF and probably unprecedented in modern warfare. Casualty ratios in most such operations have often been 3 to 5 civilians killed for every fighter, and that is by Western armies that do their best to avoid civilian casualties and adhere to the laws of war. I doubt any other army in the world would be able to achieve what the IDF did in Jenin.” — Colonel Richard Kemp, the former commander of the British military forces in Afghanistan, onOperation Home and Garden. (Israel National News, July 9, 2023)
“The ammunition that they [Ukrainians] used to call them 155-millimeter weapons. This is a war relating to munitions, and they are running out of that ammunition and we’re low on it. And so what I finally did, I took the recommendation of the Defense Department to, not permanently, but to allow for in this transition period where we have more 155 weapons, these shells for the Ukrainians, to provide them with something that has a very low dud rate.’ – US President Joe Biden to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on why he is supplying Ukraine with bombs that 100 countries banned. He faced a backlash from those claiming that Biden revealed sensitive intelligence information. (Daily Wire News, July 9, 2023)
“Opposition to COVID-19 vaccines; opposition to COVID-19 masking and lockdowns; opposition to the lab-leak theory of COVID-19; opposition to the validity of the 2020 election; opposition to President Biden’s policies; statements that the Hunter Biden laptop story was true,” the federal judge said. “All were suppressed.” It is quite telling that each example or category of suppressed speech was conservative in nature. This targeted suppression of conservative ideas is a perfect example of viewpoint discrimination of political speech. American citizens have the right to engage in free debate about the significant issues affecting the country.” – Ari Blaff. (National Review, July 6, 2023)
“The United States government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth’. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has exceeded it’s understanding of ‘infratructure’ to include ‘the spread of false and misleading information’—judged, naturally, by CISA. The agency asserts that the ‘most critical’ infrastructure ‘is our ‘cognitive infrastructure’”. It views our minds as public property, to be protected through censorship.” — Philip Hamburger quoting Judge Terry Doughty’s preliminary injunction in Missouri vs. Biden, which “stands to become one of the most important free-speech cases in the nation’s history”. Doughty also points out that the censorship alleged in this case, involving a largely secret system, “almost exclusively targeted conservative speech”. (WSJ, July 5, 2023)
” Horror at the scene in Nanterre, where the monument to the martyrs of deportation and the resistance was vandalized and a nearby building was painted with the slogan ‘We’ll make a Holocaust out of you bitches’. [And] desolation at. . .this new brand of riots without purpose and without words. . . upheavals that take aim at the elderly, the poor, the defenceless, as if saying ‘Leave us alone to destroy. We don’t want rights, only zones of lawlessness’. . . However unjustifiable the killing of Merzouk was, nothing justifies this ‘mad fury’ that, as Hannah Arendt said in ‘On Violence’, is turning into a nightmare for us all. …” Bernard-Henri Lévy. Lévy argues that “once peace is restored and the spiral of retaliation broken, we will have to work toward a significant strengthening of mutual tolerance. . .repairing the social bond. . .keeping our banlieus from remaining ghettos. …”. (WSJ, July 5, 2023)
“So what, exactly, will it take to get the liberal media activated on the Biden mafia? A videotape of Joe accepting a suitcase of cash? Even then, it seems our in-the-tank press would find a way to run interference. Remember The New York Times, The Washington Post and other marquee media spent years hyping up the fabricated claims of the Steele Dossier and other Russiagate nonsense. Yet when a genuine presidential corruption scandal has broken out (and it has, despite the best media efforts), our fearless journos display only utter disinterest. . . This hypocritical dereliction of duty adds insult to the very real injury our ‘see no evil’ media are doing to the nation.” — “Editorial” on the building evidence of the unfolding Biden family criminal empire. (NY Post, July 6, 2023)
“The president and the first lady and their family were not here this weekend. They left on Friday and returned just yesterday.” — White House press secretary Karine Jean- Pierre, commenting on the mysterious cocaine discovered in the White House over the weekend. (Washington Times, July 5, 2023)
“It saves lives. For high-risk Black newborns, having a Black physician more than doubles the likelihood that the baby will live.” — Supreme Court Justice Ketangi Brown Jackson, dissenting on last week’s ruling against racial preferences in college admissions. (WSJ, July 5, 2023)
“White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has answered just 2% of the questions put to her this year about President Biden’s scandals–including just one about allegations of corruption involving disgraced first son Hunter, according to a damning study. . . This contrasts with the president’s pledge to bring transparency and truth back to the government.” (Of 252 questions asked, just six, “a measly 2%”, got a definitive answer, and all but one of these were vague responses to questions related to boxes of evidence; 35 questions about corruption received just one response.”) — Lee Brown. (NY Post, July 6, 2023)
“If you think that Putin is so malicious and vindictive that (Mr. Prigozhin) will be killed tomorrow, no, this will not happen. At the moment, all agreements are being observed.” — Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko. The whereabouts of Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenaries, are currently unknown. (Washington Times, July 6, 2023)
KNESSET PASSES BILL TO RESTRICT SUPREME COURT POWERS (Jerusalem) — The Knesset overnight Monday passed along partisan lines a bill to restrict the use of the “reasonableness” standard by the Supreme Court. The bill was advanced by a vote of 64-56. MK Simcha Rothman, chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee said Sunday he would immediately prepare the bill for the two additional plenum votes necessary for it to become law. The goal of the coalition is to pass the bill before the end of the summer session on July 29. (WIN, July 11, 2023)
ISRAELI SECURITY CABINET VOTES TO PREVENT COLLAPSE OF THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY (Jerusalem) — Israel’s security cabinet – by a majority of eight to one, with one abstention – voted Sunday evening to prevent the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, adopting a draft decision submitted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. However, PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s ruling Fatah party has called for an “armed intifada” that would include indiscriminate attacks on Israeli targets all over the country. (WIN, July 9, 2023)
MOSSAD ABDUCTED TERROR LEADER INSIDE IRAN TO THWART CYPRUS ATTACK (Jerusalem) — The Mossad announced its method for recently thwarting a Cyprus terror attack: It kidnapped the mastermind from within Iranian territory. The stunning revelation, including the identity of the mastermind, Yusef Shahabazi Abbasalilu, was the latest in the saga which itself first broke on Sunday. (Jerusalem Post, June 29, 2023)
ISRAEL NO CLOSER TO ATTACK ON IRAN NUCLEAR SITES, OFFICIAL SAYS(Jerusalem) — Israel is not nearing an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser said as talks between Tehran and Washington have sought to cool tensions. Tzachi Hanegbi said it was still unclear what will come of talks Israel’s main ally the United States has held with Iran in recent weeks to outline steps that could limit Teheran’s nuclear program and de-escalate tensions. Nonetheless, no agreement would obligate Israel, which views a nuclear-armed Iran as an existential threat, Hanegbi told Channel 13 television. (Reuters, June 30, 2023)
ISRAELI PROFESSOR ALLEGES BIDEN FAMILY ACCEPTED CHINESE MILITARY BRIBES (Jerusalem) — An Israeli professor claims that he was arrested in Cyprus to prevent him from testifying to The House Oversight Committee that the family of U.S. President Joe Biden accepted payments from the Chinese military. The events occurred when Biden was running for the presidency, Gal Luft claimed. He provided a 14-minute video to the New York Post, which was published in a column by Miranda Devine. Manhattan federal prosecutors have since charged him with acting as an unregistered agent of China and seeking to broker the sale of Iranian oil. (VIN News, July 10, 2023; Jerusalem Post, July 11, 2023))
BIDEN STATE DEPARTMENT DID NOT CONSULT ANTI-SEMITISM OFFICE ON ISRAEL BOYCOTT, CRUZ SAYS (Washington) –The Biden administration’s State Department sent shockwaves through the pro-Israel advocacy world late last month when it decided to boycott all scientific cooperation projects with Jewish Israelis living in so-called settlements throughout East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Golan Heights. But “the State Department’s own Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism–Holocaust historian Debra Lipstadt–was excluded from deliberations over this guidance and did not clear it,” according to a draft investigatory letter authored by Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) making the rounds on Capitol Hill. (Washington Free Beacon, July 7, 2023).
HADASSAH SURGEONS REATTACH BOY’S HEAD TO HIS NECK AFTER INTERNAL DECAPITATION (Jerusalem) — In an extremely rare and complex operation, Hadassah Medical Center surgeons have reattached a 12-year-old boy’s head to his neck after a serious accident in which he was hit by a car while riding his bicycle. Suleiman Hassan, a Palestinian from the West Bank, was airlifted to Hadassah hospital’s trauma unit in Ein Kerem, where it was determined that the ligaments holding the posterior base of his skull were severely damaged, leaving it detached from the top vertebrae of his spine. The condition, bilateral atlanto occipital joint dislocation, is commonly known as internal or orthopedic decapitation. The injury is very rare in adults, and even more so in children. (Times of Israel, July 5, 2023)
US INTELLIGENCE SAYS IRAN NOT CURRENTLY DEVELOPING NUCLEAR WEAPONS (Washington) — A US intelligence assessment released on Monday said Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons now but has ramped up activities that could help it develop them. The assessment from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Iran has moved to increase its capacity to produce an atomic bomb since 2020 but has stopped short of that so far. (Times of Israel, July 11, 2023)
‘OPEN-AIR PANOPTICON’: UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ALLEGES ISRAEL HAS IMPRISONED ENTIRE WEST BANK (Geneva) — The UN’s Special Rapporteur for Palestine issued a report alleging that all of the West Bank and Gaza is now an open-air prison. Citing the work of French postmodernist philosopher Michel Foucault, Francesca Albanese’s report says that “the Israeli regime has turned the occupied territory into a ‘panopticon.’” (Algemeiner, July 10, 2023)
RUSSIA SAID TO BE MEDIATING ISRAEL-IRAN PRISONER EXCHANGE TALKS(Moscow) — Russia is mediating a prisoner exchange between Israel and Iran that would see the release of dual Israeli-Russian citizen Elizabeth Tsurkov. The Iran-backed Shi’ite militia Kata’ib Hezbollah is currently holding Tsurkov hostage in Iraq. (WIN, July 10, 2023)
NYPD INVESTIGATING ATTACK IN CROWN HEIGHTS AS ANTISEMITIC HATE CRIME (NYC) — The New York City Police Department (NYPD) Hate Crimes Division is investigating an assault that took place early Saturday morning in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn as an antisemitic assault. According to the NYPD, a 22-year-old Israeli Yeshiva student, who was identifiably Orthodox and visiting New York City for the summer holiday, was stabbed with a screwdriver by one of two men who attacked him after asking whether he is Jewish and had any money. The other punched him in the face. (Algemeiner, July 10, 2023)
U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: ISIS LEADER KILLED IN AIRSTRIKE BY US DRONES THAT WERE HARASSED BY RUSSIAN FIGHTER JETS (Washington) —U.S. Central Command conducted a strike in Syria, resulting in the death of Usamah al-Muhajir, an ISIS leader. The strike, which occurred in eastern Syria, was carried out by MQ-9 drones that had been harassed by Russian aircraft shortly beforehand. CENTCOM said no civilians were killed in the strike, but they are “assessing reports of a civilian casualty. (Washington Examiner, July 9, 2023)
BEN & JERRY’S HQ IS ON ‘STOLEN’ NATIVE AMERICAN LAND, VERMONT CHIEF SAYS (Vermont) —Ben and Jerry’s has called on the US to give back “stolen Indigenous land” including Mount Rushmore — and now Don Stevens — chief of the Nulhegan Band of The Coosuk Abenaki Nation, one of four tribes descended from the Abenaki that are recognized in Vermont said he’d like to talk about the land that’s under the ice cream maker’s headquarters. Unilever, Ben and Jerry’s parent corporation has lost nearly $2 billion in market capital since the spread of protests over the ice-cream company’s July 4 “stolen indigenous land” tweet went out—Ed.) (NY Post, July 7, 2023)
NO WHITE KNIGHT’: JACK SMITH’S RECORD RIFE WITH MISTRIALS, OVERTURNED CONVICTIONS, JUDICIAL REBUKES (Washington) — Special counsel Jack Smith, who has brought federal charges against former President Donald Trump, is an “overzealous” prosecutor who relies on ethically dubious tactics, including media leaks and enticing witnesses, say those who have been caught in his snare. The script earned Mr. Smith a reputation as a hard-driving, intense prosecutor, but a string of mistrials and overturned convictions led to sharp rebukes from federal judges, including U.S. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. (The Washington Times, July 4, 2023)