I became your enemy because I tell you the truth
“You can fool some of the people all the time and all the people some of the time,
but you can’t fool all the people all the time.” A. Lincoln
Political virtue-signaling over the weekend’s attacks in Israel predictably began blooming like wildflowers here in the United States, with smug trans and silly LGBTQ++ folks showing the strongest support for Hamas militants, who would toss them off the roof in a hot Palestine second if they were left unattended for more than a couple minutes in Gaza:
Moving on. Official casualty figures mounted to over 700 dead for Israel, including around 50 soldiers, over 2,000 wounded, and unofficial estimates of over 130 kidnapped as hostages (or worse). That’s just so far; the numbers are still climbing. Meanwhile, yesterday when asked, U.S. propaganda minister Tony Blinken did not deny reports that the casualty figures included some Americans who were killed or captured in the weekend’s fighting.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal lit the fuse of a broader regional conflict yesterday when it ran a controversial story bluntly headlined, “Iran Helped Plot Attack on Israel Over Several Weeks. Specifically, the sub-headline boldly claimed that, “The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps gave the final go-ahead last Monday in Beirut.”
The Journal, citing unnamed “senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah,” noted that on the other hand, U.S. officials are saying there is “no evidence” of Iranian involvement. If there were evidence, it would be highly inconvenient to the Peters Administration, since Biden just bribed Iran with a $6 billion-dollar package in trade for five kidnapped Iranian-American political hostages. But despite those denials, according to the Journal’s militant sources, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard officers have been working with Hamas since at least August to devise the highly-coordinated, multi-modal air, land and sea attack—a wide front producing the most spectacular breach of Israel’s borders since the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the deadliest single day for Israelis since the horrors of World War II.
Iran, of course, denies any involvement except expressing satisfaction with Hamas’s success.
It only took me a few seconds of digging to find a prophetic Wall Street Journal story from April headlined, “Iran Is Recruiting Militant Allies to Launch Attacks Against Israel.” Um. The sub-headline added, “Quds Force commander has met leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah in recent weeks to coordinate strikes.”
Here’s a lightly-edited recap of April’s prescient report from the Journal’s sources, which apparently was completely ignored by Israel’s main intelligence agency, Mossad:
General Esmail Qaani, who leads the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force, has held a series of clandestine meetings with militant leaders across the region. The Quds Force chief was in Lebanon last week, where he met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his deputy Saleh al-Arouri (and others) at the Iranian embassy in Beirut.
Around the same time, militants in southern Lebanon fired a barrage of rockets at Israel, the largest such attack since the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.
Israel has cause for concern. Gen. Qaani’s effort to unite Tehran’s allies is a sharp escalation in the undeclared war between Iran and Israel after Israel carried out hundreds of attacks targeting Iran and its proxies across the Middle East.
Among Tehran’s chief objectives is to prevent its neighbors from establishing diplomatic ties with Israel.
In other words, Israel has not yet started its ground assault, which is surely coming.
Meanwhile, not waiting around for predictable citizen outrage, Israel has shredded its draconian gun-control regulations that required highly-invasive and annoyingly-repetitive “gun safety” testing, and limited citizens to having 50 bullets. They are trying to get guns into Israeli hands as fast as possible, to stop them from being “shelter in place” sitting ducks.
Too bad they didn’t do it a week ago.
The developing media narrative is that the weekend attacks are Israel’s 9/11. I think what the media means by this is that the attacks shattered Israeli preconceptions about their internal security and kicked off an endless conflict. But there is a secondary meaning too, and that is the loss of Israel’s naive belief in the good intentions of their government.
Remember back when we found out that the 9/11 hijackers had all trained at flight schools around the U.S. but didn’t care about learning how to land the airplanes? And how the FBI ignored all those clear warning signs and even concerned citizen reports? And then remember how we held a useless 9/11 Commission, which created the Orwellian Department of Homeland Security, which is now busily censoring health information on American’s social media accounts?
Good times.
Welp. That definition of ‘9/11’ now applies to Israel, too. Their own 9/11 commission is coming. A Times of Israel headline this morning reported, “Egypt intelligence official says Israel ignored repeated warnings of ‘something big’.” Huh. How about that. Very much like what happened leading up to 9/11. And we’re just starting to find things out.
When you think about it, the two attacks are indeed oddly similar in many ways. Right-from-the-same playbook similar. Same bad guys. Same use of low-tech techniques. Both surprise attacks. Both massive, inexplicable intelligence failures. There are profound similarities between the two events’ inflammatory, horrifying media imagery and righteous anger from the top.
Over here in the U.S., the barbaric destruction unleashed at Israel’s failed border is raising some awkward questions about our own American border. The unrest is currently welling out of the GOP’s right wing, but I’m betting the notion will quickly spread toward the political middle, since there is really no effective rebuttal.
Here’s Representative Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) comments from Saturday:
Former Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake asked an obvious question yesterday: where are all the women?
There’s a lot I could say about this disastrous border issue, and I probably will say a lot more in coming days. But one thing the Israel attacks have proven beyond argument is that citizen fears about uncontrolled illegal immigration in the U.S. are not hypothetical, exaggerated, or fantastical, these undocumented people are legitimately a clear and present danger.
Republican governors should immediately consider two things. First, if it’s not already done, declare a state of emergency and do everything possible to thwart the federal relocation of illegal migrants into red states. Second, immediately start organizing civilian militias and training citizens how to fight back against a sudden sneak attack like Israel just endured.
There’s no time to waste.
It’s a unique political moment, and Governor DeSantis could seize it. Organize community militias in every Florida city and county and start training them. I intend to draft an open letter to the Governor today. Keep an eye on my Twitter feed.
Now how about some other news.
All it takes for Evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing
Michael Loyman