This is an attempt to “break out” memes, links, and my commentary about the situation in Israel / the Middle East so as to not overload the standard meme posts that I do.  My last “normal” meme post.  In these Israel-related posts I don’t just have memes such, but lots of informative links as well as hopefully-insightful commentary.

Note that this is not meant to be a day-by-day update about what’s going on.  Rather, to highlight uncomfortable truths about the actual nature of the conflict, deep-history background, and so on, as well as to show the at-present immutable nature of Islamic Jew hate and why that matters to today’s events.

Note that these posts do not repeat information – so there is a lot of stuff in prior posts.  Please do check them out too if this is a topic of interest to you,  In reverse chronological order:

Israel: Ongoing Links, Memes, and Commentary – Granite Grok

Israel: Ongoing Links, Memes, and Commentary – Granite Grok

Israel: Ongoing Links, Memes, and Commentary – Granite Grok

Israel: Ongoing Links, Memes, and Commentary – Granite Grok

Israel: Still More Links, Memes, and Commentary – Granite Grok

Israel: Ongoing Memes, Links, and Commentary – Granite Grok

Israel: Ongoing Memes, Links, and Commentary – Granite Grok

Israel: More Memes, Links, and Commentary – Granite Grok

Israel: Even More Memes, Links, and Commentary – Granite Grok

Israel: More Memes, Links, and Commentary – Granite Grok

Israel: Memes and Commentary – Granite Grok

Israel: Memes and Commentary – Granite Grok

With some Israel-related materials here:

Meme Overflow – Granite Grok

 

 

 

TOP OF THE FOLD

MEQ Features Bleak Assessment of Israel’s Oct. 7 Response :: Middle East Forum (meforum.org)

While the inflamed mood in Israel immediately after Hamas’ murderous rampage appeared to indicate that the conciliatory ethos would be a thing of the past, signs of a return to business-as-usual abound, from the resumption of fuel supplies to Gaza and an increase in Israel work permits for West Bank Palestinians to a hostage deal that disrupted IDF military operations in Gaza and helped ensure the bargaining process for future releases “will continue indefinitely.” Less than two months after October 7, “talk about destroying Hamas had nearly vaporized.”

Why the reversion? Pipes suggests that the Netanyahu government’s failures made it more vulnerable to myopic pressure from the Israeli public and scolding by foreign states. Avoiding future mistakes requires that Israelis “adopt a radically different attitude toward the Palestinians … and seek Israel Victory.”

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Avi Shlaim’s Fantasy Land – Tablet Magazine

Shlaim’s idyllic vision, based on the social and economic mingling of upper crust Arabs and Jews in Baghdad during a brief period of time in the 1930s, is not a precedent or pointer to anything. My prediction? Were a one-state solution ever tried, it would collapse in anarchy and drown in rivers of blood, compared to which today’s violence is a mere trickle.

There is something of a utopian nature in us Jews.  We long for a return to Eden, having somehow forgotten that this is not possible.  Consider this idiot: Why I, as a Jewish member of MCSG, voted for resolution 13 – The Mac Weekly

 

I want you to consider how this level of delusion helps our enemies.

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WAR & WHEN WILL IT END?

 

 

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Not since the Yom Kippur war in 1973, has Israel been allowed to win a war (barenakedislam.com)

America too.  Vietnam was a watershed loss – not on the field, where we were winning, but in the minds of the people at home.  And it was a clear and bright lesson learned by all enemies.  And while the below is about America in war, it applies to Israel – and more broadly the West in general:

Afghanistan Vet: Every Enemy Knows How to Defeat the United States Now – PJ Media

In fact, we have abandoned everyone who has ever helped us in a major conflict since 1953. Since Vietnam, our adversaries have learned that all it takes to defeat the most powerful, technologically advanced military that has ever existed is to simply be patient. We think in two- to four-year election cycles, whereas our enemies think in decades to centuries. When you’re up against supersonic fighters, ten carrier strike groups, stealth bombers, and the most elite force on the planet, all you must do is wait it out. Poke and prod and kill enough Americans to keep the war on the front page of the news, and eventually, an election cycle will come up with the slogan: “Bring our boys home.”

Related to that:

This is Why America Forgot How to Win – Daniel Greenfield / Sultan Knish articles

In the real world, you win the war by defeating the enemy, not by winning the support of the people. Wars are not democratic elections and the battlefield isn’t a political campaign. When wars are run by politicians, the end result is a defeat that comes from never really trying.

Why don’t we win wars anymore? Listen closely to Austin, McChrystal and virtually every military head honcho in the last twenty years and the answer is obvious. We don’t set out to win wars by defeating the enemy on the battlefield, but on the battlefield of ideas. Our forces are led by a generation of politicians in uniforms who have been indoctrinated, beginning at the academy level, to think of wars as contests for the hearts and minds of enemy civilians.

…

Without a military leadership that understands the purpose of war, the next time we may not lose thousands, we could lose millions. And we could lose the United States of America.

IMHO the West in general.  Echoing the above, wars are won when the enemy is crushed and sues for peace.  Or dies.  Related:

Hamas calls on UN Security Council to end Gaza’s ‘brutal’ war – Insider Paper

UN invokes ‘most powerful tool,’ Article 99 on threats to international peace, to demand Gaza ceasefire (jihadwatch.org)

The moral collapse of the West – JNS.org

How Israeli forces take big risks to avoid harming civilians (nypost.com)

Everybody Is Upset About Civilian Casualties in Gaza, but Where Do the Numbers Come From? – PJ Media

Netanyahu calls out Western leaders for pressing Israel to end Gaza war | World Israel News

Hamas and the Arabs can always count on the useful idiots in the West to take its side and force an end to the war before they lose.

The End Is Nigh: Hamas Operatives Surrendering ‘In Large Numbers’ (jihadwatch.org) (bolding added):

What will Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif do as their Gazan empire crumbles around them? I think they’ll do everything they can to escape. If they should manage to slip away to Egypt through a tunnel, the Egyptians won’t return them to Israel but will promptly imprison them as members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood (Hamas is the Gazan branch of the MB). If they can’t get out of Gaza, and don’t dare try to survive in the underground tunnels that may at any minute be flooded with seawater by the IDF, they’ll meekly surrender, or try to. Let’s hope that the IDF makes an exception in this case to its usual policy of taking alive those who surrender; Sinwar and Deif deserve special treatment.

I still think these leaders deserve the Jack Pershing treatment.  Publicly.

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Iran warns of ‘explosion’ after US veto on Gaza war – Insider Paper

Not good.  And being deeply suspicious of the current administration, I would suspect that – while I support the veto – inflaming the world against Israel is an ulterior motive.  More:

Iran’s Regime Soon to Have Nuclear Bombs; Hezbollah Is Next :: Gatestone Institute

Stopping the Mullahs vs. Getting Them All Set Up :: Gatestone Institute

 

 

ISLAM: PRACTICES, HISTORY, AND MENTALITY

Why Did Hamas Attack Israel? – PJ Media

The absurd justification for Hamas’ atrocities against civilians that Hamas is fighting for land and orchards taken from them ignores the entire history of Islamic imperialism and the exterminationist approach that Muslims take toward people they define as enemies. Yes, genocide is an issue here, but it is the genocide that Hamas plans for Israelis and Jews around the world.

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‘Life under Hamas is like under ISIS,’ says Syria-born journalist deported from Gaza | The Times of Israel

This person has personal experience.  So, naturally, expect her experience to be dismissed by the SJW set.

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Why Are Islamists Claiming Non-Muslim Land? :: Gatestone Institute

Because Islam, ultimately, views the entire earth as its rightful due.  No less than every square attometer.  Especially if it was once, ever, held by Islam – as Israel was, as many lands were (italics replaced by underlining; link in the original):

Islamists believe that once a land has come under Islamic occupation and colonialism, the land conquered is forever Islamic. The Greek city of Thessaloniki, for instance, was once under Ottoman Muslim occupation. According to the official website of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, while it was under Ottoman rule (1430-1912), almost all Christian churches, parishes and monasteries were converted into mosques. Thessaloniki was liberated from the Ottoman Empire in 1912.

Islamic supremacists such as Erdogan believe that because Thessaloniki was once under the occupation of the Islamic Ottoman Empire, it is a Muslim land eternally and must be returned to its rightful owner.

More on that:

Why Are Islamists Claiming Non-Muslim Land? :: Gatestone Institute

And:

Brewing Islamic Storm: Geopolitical Fallout in India as Palestinian Conflict Sparks Alarming Rise in Calls for Ghazwa-E-Hind and Muslim Genocidal Aspirations Against Hindus (Videos) – RAIR (rairfoundation.com)

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Hamas using safe zone in Gaza to fire rockets at Israel: reports (nypost.com)

“This is further proof that Hamas exploits the IDF’s humanitarian zone for terrorist activity,” the IDF said.

The IDF published a graphic showing the locations of the rocket launches from al-Mawasi, as well as an image showing a rocket launcher.

Of course.  Hamas wants Israel to retaliate, to create more camera fodder.

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Some history of Israel regarding 1964 (rumble.com)

Rumble video on my channel.  It echoes a video of Golda Meir who was being interviewed and said “Pull back to the borders of 67 and there will be peace…  we were at the borders of 67, why was there war”?

 

 

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Israel’s Work Permits for Gaza Enabled the Hamas Attack – Daniel Greenfield / Sultan Knish articles (link in original):

The Hamas invasion succeeded so well because the terrorists had an intimate knowledge of the communities they were targeting because they had worked there or had intelligence from those who had worked there. The attackers had detailed maps and building layouts. One woman whose husband and son were murdered said that the Hamas terrorists knew the names of the people, how many children they had and even which of them owned dogs.

…

There’s no win-win scenario with Islamic terrorists: there is only a win-lose scenario. Anyone who thinks that they’re in a win-win scenario with those who want to kill them has already lost.

And that’s the thing about the utopian mindset of many people, including a staggering amount of Jews.  Repeating a video about the pro-peace, “Team Humanity” people who got slaughtered by the people they embraced and to whom they reached out, employed, and thought they had befriended:

 

https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Message-to-sjws.mp4

 

When someone says they want to kill you, believe them.

 

 

ATROCITIES

HAMAS savages using Israelis for target practice while the bodies pile up (barenakedislam.com)

Video.  I really want confirmation that this is Hamas using Israelis.  Note – horrific regardless, but confirmation would be good.  We cannot be so enamored with “proof” of what we want to believe that we ignore the required vetting process.

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Nazis, Muslims and the Jews (israelnationalnews.com)

Berl Katznelson, the foremost leader of Labor Zionism until his death in 1944, was a witness to Arab massacres of Jews in the 1920s and 1930s. He referred to “the Palestinian Nazis who succeeded to unite here in [Eretz] Israel the zoological antisemitism of Europe and the lust for the dagger of the Orient.” The connection between Nazis and Palestinian Arabs led the esteemed songwriter Naomi Shemer to offer a remarkable insight:

“Arabs like their murder hot, moist, and steamy, and if they will ever be free to fulfill themselves, we [Jews] will yearn for the good sterile gasses of the Germans.”

One only need look at the horrors Islam has perpetrated – not just on Jews but all its conquered peoples – to understand what will happen if Israel succumbs.  Related:

HAMAS BARBARIANS shot Israeli female soldiers in the crotch and breasts as part of ‘systemic genital mutilation’ (barenakedislam.com)

PURE EVIL: Hamas depravity that defies comprehension (barenakedislam.com)

Jew are considered “filth” to be killed:

Brigitte Gabriel – short ship on Islamic view of Jews (rumble.com)

Video at my Rumble channel.  More:

Jews are “human waste,” Europe and the US will do anything to keep them in Israel, says Palestinian political commentator

Related:

Savages – Daniel Greenfield / Sultan Knish articles

Civilizations have become too sophisticated and decadent to understand such concepts. When faced with barbarism, they go down a dialectic rabbit hole that explains the savages in terms of how civilized people interacted with them. Did they hurt their feelings, overthrow their governments or draw mean cartoons? Did capitalism leave them adrift in the world economy? How did we fail to integrate the newest generation of immigrants with all the welfare checks?

These sophomoric sessions are pointless. A hyena doesn’t eat your chickens because you failed to integrate it. That’s just what hyenas do. Man at the base state is a predator and savages strive to be the alpha predators. Civilizations become superior predators because they provide room for arts and sciences, because they think about something other than how they are superior to their neighbors and will prove it by killing their sons and raping their daughters.

But when civilizations spend too much time thinking, they forget that one reason they came into being was to build something better than a state of savagery. Decadent civilizations internalize all the criticism and their peoples endlessly quarrel and think that the worst possible things in the world are the ones that exist among their own people. Savages remind us otherwise.

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This is not about Hamas atrocities, but part and parcel of Islam itself:

Iranian security forces raped and sexually assaulted male and female protesters as young as 12 – with six victims subjected to gang-rape by groups of up to ten | Daily Mail Online

 

 

It’s Islam, Stupid – Daniel Greenfield / Sultan Knish articles

During the first siege of Vienna in 1529, when the invading Muslim horde decided that “children were cut out of their mothers’ wombs and stuck on pikes”, was that a protest against colonialism or capitalism? When a Muslim chronicle boasted that during the genocide against the Sikhs in the 18th century, “the shrieks of the women captives who were being raped, deafened the ears of the people”, was this a response to globalism or Zionism? Or was this just Islam.

Everything Hamas did during the bloody High Holy Days massacres has been done by Muslims throughout history and is still being practiced today. There is nothing new here whatsoever. Medieval barbarism never went away because Islam kept those grisly practices alive. It endures side by side with the modern world of smartphones, electric cars and AI because its worst crimes are an object of religious law and faith.

A Yazidi girl abducted by the Islamic State when she was only 12 described how the Jihadist who raped her explained to her that because she “practiced a religion other than Islam, the Quran not only gave him the right to rape her — it condoned and encouraged it”. He “bound her hands and gagged her. Then he knelt beside the bed and prostrated himself in prayer before getting on top of her. When it was over, he knelt to pray again”. The girl begged him to stop, but he “said that by raping me, he is drawing closer to Allah.”

Meanwhile, an Iranian voice supports Israel (link to video):

An Iranian woman voices support for Israel (rumble.com)

 

 

ON INTERSECTIONALITY / LEFTIST SUPPORT

SICK. Presidents of Harvard, MIT and Penn Tell Congress that Calling for the Genocide of Jews Does Not Necessarily Violate their Campus Code of Conduct – Unless It Leads to Actual Genocide (VIDEO) | The Gateway Pundit | by Jim Hoft

But if you dare misgender someone… or strip Hams fighters after capture:

Dozens of Hamas Terrorists Surrender. Can You Guess Who Isn’t Happy About It? – PJ Media

I guess capturing terrorists is not a good thing for these people. Seriously, it’s amazing, after what happened on October 7, that these men would actually have the audacity to complain about how Hamas terrorists are treated — especially when the reason these men have been stripped is to protect the Israeli soldiers from hidden explosives.

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Flirtation With Evil Will Not End Well for Leftists › American Greatness (amgreatness.com)

It is curious how people romanticize evil and insanity. The habit, I believe, is born in part of naiveté, or at least inexperience. The college student who prances about in a T-shirt bearing the image of Che Guevara, for example, generally has no idea of what a malignant figure Che was, how treacherous, how cruel, how murderous. He sees only a handsome “freedom fighter” swaddled in the gauze of exotic Latin flamboyance. The grubby reality escapes her entirely. Ditto with respect to Hamas.

Related:

J Street Lobbies Against Israeli War on Hamas | Frontpage Mag

The Unhinged Among Us | Frontpage Mag

For the first time in their lives, many of the ignorant protestors suddenly professed concern about refugees, colonialism, disproportionality, innocent civilians, and the rules of war.

But none could explain why the Palestinians who fled Israel in 1947-48 still self-identify as victimized “refugees” when 900,000 Jews ethnically cleansed from Middle-East Arab cities about the same time do not.

The 200,000 Greek Cypriots driven out from norther Cyprus by Turkey apparently do not warrant “refugee’’ status either.

Victor Davis Hanson is always a must-read, and very insightful.  Speaking of useful idiot support of monsters:

Jewish woman kicked out of “Caliphornia” cafe after complaining about Jew-hating graffiti in the restroom (barenakedislam.com)

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The depravity of the unholy alliance between Leftists and Islamofascists (barenakedislam.com)

Video embedded, about 10 minutes.

 

 

PALLYWOOD & MEDIA IN GENERAL

Everybody is Upset About Civilian Casualties in Gaza | Frontpage Mag

If you follow an asterisk down to the small print, you’ll see that the UN attributes its figures for Palestinian casualties in Gaza to the “Ministry of Health” and the “Government Media Office.” Which Ministry of Health? Which government? The UN doesn’t say, and its reticence on this point is likely due to the fact that the government and Health Ministry in question are those of Hamas in Gaza. The Guardian likewise attributes its figures to “the Gaza health ministry.” Yes, that’s right: the one that Hamas runs.

This would be like the New York Times during World War II reporting massive German civilian deaths in an Allied offensive and attributing its data to Josef Goebbels’ Propaganda Ministry. Hamas obviously has very good reasons to inflate the number of Palestinian civilian casualties: the higher the numbers, the angrier Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, and Antony Blinken get, and the closer the Biden regime moves to cutting ties with Israel and isolating the Jewish state completely.

 

https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/sometimes-civilians-get-hurt.mp4

 

Also to be found on my Rumble account:

Englishman speaking on civilian casualties (rumble.com)

Again, dead civilians make good CAMERA FODDER.

UN and Hamas: Partners in Crime :: Gatestone Institute

The propaganda campaign’s main aim – besides smearing Israel – appears to be to build overwhelming international pressure on Israel to agree to an indefinite ceasefire , which will give Hamas the needed time to regroup and replenish to continue its terrorist activities and to avoid being eliminated by the Israeli Defense Forces.

Remember, lying and deception are so entrenched in Islam they have separate terms for different means of doing so:

Taqiyya: Deception and Lying in Islam (thereligionofpeace.com)

Related is this video:

 

https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/urban-combat-casualties.mp4

 

Same video at my Rumble channel:

Urban combat fatalities – and the reality in Israel (rumble.com)

As is this one (link only):

2024 Oscars go to… Pallywood (rumble.com)

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Somehow I do not see obesity as being consistent with “open air concentration camp”.  Also take a look here at what this journalist misses about Gaza.  Some “concentration camp” – link to video:

Gaza Journalist misses her home (rumble.com)

My great uncle, his wife, and their teenage son were murdered in Auschwitz.  Somehow I don’t think that place was like this.

I, and others, have pointed out multiple times that Gaza could be the Singapore of the eastern Mediterranean Sea.  Beautiful beaches, prime trade location, arable land…

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No, There Has Been No Sixteen-Year Israeli Siege of Gaza (jihadwatch.org)

There has been no 16-year “siege,” but only a narrowly-tailored blockade of “dual-use” materials, such as cement and steel rods, that can be used to build tunnels and bunkers. The fact that there is not enough work in Gaza is hardly Israel’s fault; it is due entirely to the corruption and mismanagement by Hamas itself, three of whose leaders (Khaled Meshaal, Mousa Abu Marzouk, Ismail Haniyeh) have stolen from the aid meant for Gaza the colossal sum of eleven billion dollars. Israel has tried to alleviate the problem by providing well-paying jobs for 20,000 Gazans — a number it was about to increase before October 7, but of course since then, no Gazan workers have been allowed into Israel, given the belief that some of those guest-workers provided intelligence to Hamas about the layout of both kibbutzim and the house shelters, and the placement of security details.Contrary to Bartov, the Israeli “siege” never included food or medicine; Israel also had been supplying Gaza, until October 7, with food, water, and 50% of its electricity. None of this is taken into account by Omer Bartov. It is entirely possible he knows none of this, but more likely, he is counting on his audience not knowing.

This quote from fiction applies to reality:

“Never underestimate the power of the human mind to believe what it wants to believe, no matter the conflicting evidence.”

― Brian Herbert, House Harkonnen

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Another video I uploaded with several people talking about “apartheid” in Israel.  The first woman is an Arab Muslim woman.

Arab Woman in Israel describes her experiences in “apartheid” Israel (rumble.com)

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If not for their double standards, the Western and Arabic media wouldn’t have any standards at all (barenakedislam.com)

Two videos.  More:

HAMAS THREATS: ‘Cut off heads,’ ‘Slit Throats,’ and ‘Slaughter Every Jew on the Planet,’ isn’t worthy of media coverage in America (barenakedislam.com)

 

 

TERROR COMING TO THE WEST?

UK: Two women beat a Jewish woman unconscious as passersby ignore the whole thing (jihadwatch.org)

London 2023 has become Berlin 1938. And it’s not just London.

Coming?  It’s here.  More:Man Fires Shots Outside Albany Synagogue, Screams ‘Free Palestine,’ FBI Working to Find Motive (jihadwatch.org)  University of Pennsylvania’s Jewish students taunted on campus with chants of “We are Hamas” and signs that say “Jews are Nazis” (barenakedislam.com)

 

MARYLAND Muslim teacher put on administrative leave because of of her email signature that supports the genocide of Jews (barenakedislam.com)

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Now ‘Jihadi’ Joe Biden wants to take in the 1.7 million Afghan illegal aliens that Pakistan expelled last month (barenakedislam.com)

And Palestinians.  And the already-ongoing stream.  Say, doesn’t a ban on immigrants from Muslim countries look good about now?

—

 

https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/islamic-plans-in-france.mp4

 

Another French incident:

France: Muslim Migrant Stabs Elderly Couple With Butcher’s Knife Inside Crowded Mall Food Court | Frontpage Mag

 

TREADING ON THE POLITICAL

American Jews Never Learned to Fight Leftist Jew-Hatred – Daniel Greenfield / Sultan Knish articles

The actual Socialist, the actual USSR, hated Jews.  Why, then, the fascination and attraction?

The pact between Islam and the Left manifested once again in the response to the Oct 7 atrocities should be met the same way. The Left should be rejected the same way the Communists were. The ‘Communazis’ have been replaced by ‘Commuhamasniks’, but that is the only thing that has changed. American Jews must relearn how to fight this enemy.

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David Sacks Explains Why Jews Are Becoming Republicans . . . Where They Belong (rumble.com)

Video, about 3 minutes.  I suspect a longer version exists.

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Biden’s schizophrenic Middle East policy is disastrous – he vetoes anti-Israel UN resolutions, but lets Iran attack US forces 76 times without decisive military response | All Israel News

MHO?  Playing to make Jews think he’s on Israel’s side, while he’s actually not.

 

 

MISCELLANEOUS

POETIC JUSTICE: Prominent law firm rescinds job offer to Muslim attorney because of her support for Hamas (barenakedislam.com)

Hey, cancel culture works both ways.

 

 

GIVING SUPPORT TO ISRAEL

You can’t go wrong with a donation here:

Connections Israel

And please share this post far and wide.  There’s a lot of info here that many people don’t know.  Post it, email it, share widely.

Also, if you’re willing:

Buy Me a Coffee

 

A CONCLUDING THOUGHT FOR THIS POST

 

 

Weimar America – Victor Davis Hanson (victorhanson.com)

At Hillcrest High School in Queens, New York, hundreds of students rioted on news that a single teacher in her private social media account had expressed support for Israel. Waving Palestinian flags, and screaming violent threats, the student mob rioted, destroyed school property, sought the teacher out and tried to crash into her classroom—before she was saved from violence by other teachers and an eventual police arrival.

…

A pro-Israeli demonstrator in Los Angeles was hit on the head and killed by a pro-Palestinian university professor.

Jewish students were trapped in a Cooper Union university library surrounded by pro-Hamas demonstrators. At MIT, Jewish students were warned to keep away from particular areas of the campus deemed dangerous for them.

…

Once a society mainstreams the values of thuggish brownshirts, and ignores their “from the river to the sea” eliminationist chants and screams of “beat the f—king Jew,” then the next emboldened step is foreordained.

Familiariaze yourself with this.  Pin, in your own mind, where we are now:

 

 

I was listening to those Ivy League Presidents unable to answer a simple YES (or NO) to a question about whether calling for genocide and/or the destruction of an entire nation rises to an actionable item under their own codes.  The legalese bob-and-weave that they all did utterly disgusts me.

Universities Contextualize Calls for Genocide of Jews | Frontpage Mag

The students, of course, are no better:

Survey: Students Who Hate Israel the Most Know the Least About It | Frontpage Mag

I’ve seen students asked “Which river, which sea”? and they have no idea.  It’s the Current Thing, the trendy thing, and they have no idea what they’re supporting other than eeeeeevil colonizers being taken down.  But this is how it starts.  And we’ve seen how this ends.

Stop pretending otherwise.

Don’t let “Oh that’s just not possible” or “That can’t happen here” be what you continue to intone, mantra-like, until you get dragged from your home or worse.

Don’t be a TWENTY-NINER.

 

Nazi Book Burning

 

 

My transcription starting about 7:41, bolding added:

“…my mother who, when I asked her if we had to worry about a guy like Hitler, she said: ‘No, we are living in a Democracy, we have the protection of the police, nobody is going to hurt us’, so talk about warning signs there were plenty of them.  Did we take them serious, my family didn’t, never believed the Germans would stoop so low they would implement the threats one fanatic uttered…”. 

James Woods Advises Jews to Arm Themselves in Response to Shocking Poll – Twitchy

The post Israel: Ongoing Links, Memes, and Commentary appeared first on Granite Grok.

Some of the current Progressive stands taken by the Left cost them dearly in the pocketbook. That financial hit is the best way to get the attention of a Liberal. Some of the results of elections at home and worldwide are evidence that voters are anxious to get the radical liberals out of office.

It shows we are heading to a more moderate, even Conservative, place in politics.

First, look at two elections where voters might want a second chance. In Chicago, the Homicide Capital of America, Lori Lightfoot was replaced with, hard to believe, a more radical leftist, Brandon Johnson. In addition to the kill rates climbing, he has made other decisions that will further add to the decline of the Windy City. Chicago had a chance and blew it. They will not next time. (Related: Signs The Pendulum Is Swinging To The Right … Part 1)

In California, Gavin Newsom survived a recall election. You cannot find one parameter that indicates positive growth for the Golden State except for the salaries of the Los Angeles Dodgers. As bad as the gem of the West Coast has become, Gavin Newsome is considered the next Democrat in line for the White House. Newsome has to be the poster child for the Peter Principal. God have mercy on us if Newsom’s next stop is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

But some recent elections have moved their countries sharply right. Europe is not known to be a bastion of Conservatism, but the conservative Popular Party won the elections in Spain. However, it fell short of its hopes of scoring a much more significant victory and forcing the removal of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Instead, the party led by candidate Alberto Núñez Feijóo performed below the expectations of most campaign polls. A split ticket is a win for Conservatives.

Sweden and Norway have also seen Conservatives win in major political positions. Paraguay and Guatemala have also elected Conservative leaders. These countries have been known for their Liberal leanings for some time. That tide has changed and in a big way. We hope these hot spots become the epicenter for a Conservative wave.

The elections of 2023 showed the winning key for Liberals in our country. If any Abortion related question was on a ballot, Democrats came out in droves. Abortion is the hot-button ticket in politics, and Democrat candidates are riding the emotional power that Abortion conjures.

Sheila Jackson Lee was a force in Congress and left the House to run for Mayor of Houston. She thought the election was a slam dunk, but she was on the losing side of a landslide win by a more moderate candidate, state Sen. John Whitmire. Ms. Lee wasted no time announcing she would run to regain her seat in the House. Lee is a member of the aging Democrat party that has been in power far too long. The young Radicals are proving not to be worthy heirs, and people on both sides have tired of their hatred and disrespect for our country. The Squad may be the poster children for the Conservative rebirth. Representative Cortez was seen polishing her shaker!

 

The post Signs The Pendulum Is Swinging To The Right Part 2 appeared first on Granite Grok.

There is one and only one way to determine the “true cost” of an adequate education. That is to create a competitive education marketplace. Alas, that is not the approach New Hampshire has taken.

Instead, legislators have tried to set the cost by decree. Public school districts, asserting with some justification that the amount is too low, have asked courts to… set the cost by decree.

Now a court has done so, and the results are as absurd as one would expect.

On November 20th, Rockingham County Superior Court Justice David Ruoff ruled that the Legislature’s decreed amount ($4,100 per pupil; he excluded differentiated aid) was unconstitutionally low. But, he said, the plaintiff school districts’ asserted amount ($9,929) was too high. The actual minimum constitutionally permissive state per-pupil expenditure was, he figured, $7,356.01. 

Note the penny. Such precision carries the weight of both mathematical and legal certainty. 

Except, the entire number, including the penny, is merely a guess offered as a suggestion for legislators to consider because the court lacked enough information to find the true figure. So says… Justice David Ruoff.

“Although the evidence demonstrates that a base adequacy aid level of $7,356.01 would be constitutionally insufficient, the Court cannot set a higher threshold at this time,” Ruoff wrote. “Such a step is precluded by the limitations of the evidence presented at trial, as well as the involvement of certain policy considerations. The Court is confident, however, that the guidance offered here will empower the legislature to meaningfully consider and appropriately respond to the relevant issues.”

Well, glad that’s cleared up. 

How did Justice Ruoff conclude both that $7,356.01 was the minimum threshold of constitutionality and that he had too little information to make such a conclusion?

After reviewing the statutory and regulatory requirements for adequacy, and examining actual school district spending, he undertook the following policy analysis: 

He used “common sense” to guess that some district spending wasn’t essential for adequacy, lopped off an arbitrary percentage from some figures (without examining others that would be relevant, such as public charter school spending), and wound up with a back-of-the-envelope guess that can’t quite be called educated, but probably could pass as educated at a cocktail party if it didn’t talk too much. 

Justice Ruoff tasked himself with deciding three questions:

“[T]here are three inquires before the Court: (I) what are the necessary components or cost-drivers of a constitutionally adequate education, as defined by the legislature, exclusive of additional services provided to students eligible for differentiated aid?; (II) what funding is necessary for school districts to provide those components and cost- drivers?; and (III) how does that amount compare to the funding currently provided via base adequacy aid? As the third inquiry is a matter of simple mathematics, the evidence presented at trial largely focused on the first two inquiries.”

To answer these questions, Ruoff considered state requirements and district expenditures. At no point did the court consider whether there might be other, more effective, more efficient and less costly ways to satisfy the state requirements.

Damning for the decision is that the word “market” appears just nine times in the 69-page ruling. Plaintiffs use it to argue for higher teacher compensation, as competition for good teachers drives up wages, and the court uses it to argue that professional development funds are part of adequacy. 

The word is used to justify higher spending, never lower. That’s odd, given that competitive market forces have been shown to improve productivity and drive down costs in K-12 education. 

• A 2010 Harvard University Graduate School of Education study found that “competition from private schools boosts achievement and lowers costs.” According to the study, “a 10 percent increase in enrollment in private schools improves a country’s mathematics test scores on PISA by almost half a year’s worth of learning. A 10 percent increase in private school enrollment also reduces the total educational spending per student by over 5 percent of the OECD average.”
• A 2012 study of open enrollment policies in Wisconsin found that “schools respond to competitive forces by improving quality.”
• A 2003 study found that “regular public schools boosted their productivity when exposed to competition.” That productivity increase typically took the form of higher performance rather than lowered spending. Nonetheless, the study shows that schools can produce better results without higher spending when competition is introduced.
• A 2019 study of private schools participating in Wisconsin’s voucher program found that “private and independent charter schools tend to be more cost-effective than district-run public schools in the state overall and for the vast majority of individual cities.” Particularly, private schools received 27% less funding than district public schools overall but generated “2.27 more points on the Accountability Report Card for every $1,000 invested than district-run public schools, demonstrating a 36 percent cost- effectiveness advantage for private schools.”

Any examination of school spending that ignores chartered public schools and non-public schools is incomplete at best. And any that doesn’t even consider the effects that competition could have on the system is negligent. 

The understatement of the ruling came in Justice Ruoff’s caveat that he was hindered by the “limitations of the evidence presented at trial.” Those limitations, he acknowledged, prevented him from determining with certainty how much an adequate education should cost. But the limitations were greater than he realized. 

Not only did the court lack sufficient school district data to make an accurate cost determination, but it lacked equally important data on the efficiency gains created by competition. Going forward with an analysis despite such huge gaps in available data was a critical error. 

The ruling was plagued with numerous problems, the first being its roots in the wrongly decided Claremont decision. But even accepting the Claremont fallacy, the ruling was doomed by fatal methodological flaws and a devastating shortage of information. 

The information problem should have been obvious from the start. Prices are information. Prices absent competition are woefully inadequate information. Since no competitive education market exists in New Hampshire, the court is left applying legal analysis and back-of-the-envelope math to discover something that only the market can discover: the best available cost of a service. 

It’s clear that legislators set a low figure in the hope that this will press district spending downward. Districts, however, encourage local voters to approve ever higher budgets, which counters the Legislature’s intent. Districts then use those higher levels of spending to claim that the state appropriation is too low. Given these dynamics, it’s impossible to determine with any accuracy just how low district spending could go while meeting the state mandates for adequacy.

Until New Hampshire introduces some form of robust market competition, Granite Staters will never know what an adequate education really should cost. 

 

Andrew Cline | JBartlett

The post Markets, Not Judges, Set Prices, Even for Education appeared first on Granite Grok.

Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs sent Joe Border Bender Biden a bill. She says he owes Arizona a 512 million dollar handling fee for illegal border crosser management. Those aren’t the words she used, but that’s what this is. She also wants more troops, not to stop the invasion but to manage it.

 

In a letter to President Joe Biden, Hobbs is requesting that the 243 National Guard troops already on federal orders in the Tucson Sector be redirected to helping with the Lukeville Port of Entry’s reopening.

She also said that she wants “additional National Guard members currently on federal active duty orders to be reassigned to Arizona to assist U.S. Customs and Border Protection to reopen the Lukeville Port of Entry.”

In addition, the governor included in her letter a request for the federal government to reimburse $512.5 million to the state over border security-related costs including “migrant transportation, drug interdiction, and law enforcement.”

 

Hobbs abrogated the sovereignty of her state and its people to the will of the Federal government and its open border policy but needs them to step up and help her manage their mess.

Here’s an idea. Send your own troops and block the border. Keep the illegals out. Make them stay in Mexico. Send a message that the law as written – not as reimagined by a doddering fool named Biden – will be enforced. Don’t make the trip. Don’t risk your life. Stop selling your children. We won’t let you in. We can’t. There are too many here already.

That won’t happen. Hobbs’ Arizona is a franchisee of the Progressive Cloward Piven agenda. Overwhelming the system is the goal. But if that’s the point, why ask for help preventing the system from being overwhelmed? It’s not like you need votes from actual voters to stay in office.

And what if Biden says no? What do you do then?

 

HT | Just the News

The post If Overwhelming the System is the Point, Why Are You Asking for Help? appeared first on Granite Grok.