We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

Closing the ol’ tabs …

Advertisement

===

Although President Joe Biden bluntly declared that “we need a cease-fire now” in Lebanon, his administration appeared to subdue its messaging on a push for a temporary truce between Israel and Hezbollah, as U.S. officials on Monday acknowledged Israel intends to scale up operations in Lebanon. …

It also coincides with the State Department’s public admission that it has again hit a wall in its efforts to push forward a cease-fire in Gaza because Hamas has refused to engage with Egyptian and Qatari mediators for weeks, leaving the Biden administration unable to pull together what senior U.S. officials advertised as a “final” proposal for a deal.

“We can’t get a clear answer from Hamas of what they’re willing to entertain and what they’re not willing to entertain,” Miller said.

Ed: That’s been true since October 7. Only the Biden-Harris administration didn’t have the intelligence to realize it. That’s why the Israelis have long since stopped relying on Joe Biden’s advice, which is why the White House now admits they don’t have any influence any longer in this situation. 

===

===

The widespread ignorance about this region of the world, far from a handicap, is an asset: no need to know, for instance, what river is referenced in the Palestinian slogan “from the river to the sea,” since the point is Justice, with a capital J. Where Western support for the Palestinians is concerned, we find ourselves in the realm of pure ideas—abstractions—not flesh-and-blood human beings. Intellectuals, students, and politicians look to this east coast of the Mediterranean less to investigate a specific antagonism—a litigation over real estate between two landowners with historical claims—than to redress a grievance against Western culture.

Advertisement

The actual fate of millions of men and women subjected to daily humiliation and to precarious life circumstances, governed by a corrupt Palestinian Authority and, in Gaza, by Hamas, a terrorist group, seems to matter little. The reason: the Middle East has become the site of a global contest for the title of victim—a title that must be wrested from the descendants of the Shoah. 

===

===

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees confirms that Fateh Sherif, named by Hamas as its leader in Lebanon, was employed by UNRWA, but notes that he was being probed over his political activities.

Sherif was killed today in an airstrike on the al-Bass refugee camp in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, along with his wife and children. Reports indicate he had been the principal of the UNRWA-run Deir Yassin Secondary School in al-Bass.

Ed: Aaaaand this is why the UN also doesn’t have any influence in Israel any longer too. 

===

Advertisement

===

A spokesperson for the Iran-backed Yemen-based Houthi terror group claimed that the group shot down an American MQ-9 drone on Monday, over X, formerly Twitter. 

The Houthi official claimed that the drone had flown over the Saada airspace as part of a joint American-Israeli campaign, adding the claim that the attack had resulted in the deaths of five civilians. 

Ed: Possibly true in regard to the downed drone, although we don’t have any other confirmation. On the other hand, this is pretty weak bragging after the destruction the Houthis took over the last 24 hours or so. 

===

Ed: This is worth keeping in mind over the next few days. Israel got burned twice by invading and occupying Lebanon. They will want to eventually strengthen the non-Hezbollah factions in Lebanon, so they can’t afford to turn this into a lengthy occupation. But they will need to ensure that the terrorist infrastructure is degraded enough to remove its threat to northern Israel, too. 

===

Iran, like China and Russia, constantly creates fake accounts on U.S. social media platforms in attempts to shift Americans’ opinion, U.S. intelligence officials say. It’s unclear that such operations have had much effect.

Advertisement

But Iran’s 2020 election interference efforts stand apart from what have become well-recognized interference patterns, according to an indictment from the Justice Department, Treasury Department sanctions, researchers and media reporting, and comments from current and former U.S. officials. Experts say that the 2020 operations marked the first time that Iran seriously targeted U.S. elections, and that the efforts reflect Iran’s desire to find ways to exacerbate discord in American society around partisan politics and free elections.

===