On June 21 around 8:50 p.m. . . .

The secrecy and deception needed for this attack on Iran's nuclear facilities against a country that has promised to wipe out the USA is stunning. Even our Democrat presidents had their spies and enemies within (and Biden had a bevy), but they have tried so hard to destroy Trump. No one leaked! Democrats/Socialists/Communists have put all their effort into creating cells and chaos with the infiltration and bussing-in our enemies. Once Trump stopped that within weeks, they moved to plan B of creating riots and stupid "insurrections" beyond anything seen on Jan. 6. Trump held his ground, did his deals, worked for peace, gave it a chance, and then took aim. The man is amazing. ALL the middle east is safer now, our Democrats have been dealt another blow in their plan to destroy the Constitution and Democracy. But be vigilant. They are the party of KKK and Jim Crow. They know how to gaslight and confuse the innocent.

A letter from City Journal about the Middle East situation (via e-mail)

 Dear Friends and Supporters [of City Journal],

As horrific events continue to unfold in the Middle East, the initial shock of the terrorist attacks has given way to a series of troubling questions. Why have Western institutions responded to the assault by blaming the victims? Could similar dangers emerge in the United States and, if so, what measures should we take to prevent them? How will Israel wage the war for its own survival?

City Journal has been busy seeking answers, providing reporting, analysis, and commentary on the crisis. Be sure not to miss our coverage of:

Universities and woke institutions sympathizing with Hamas

• Eitan Fischberger on the history and terrorist connections behind Students for Justice in Palestine;
• Tal Fortgang and Jonathan Deluty on how SJP is more pro-Hamas than the terror organization itself;
• Abigail Shrier asks how universities can so brazenly abandon their Jewish students;
• Paul du Quenoy eviscerates Harvard’s reaction to the Hamas attacks;
• Max Eden exposes university leaders’ morally perverse responses.

Western moral confusion and a civilizational crisis of confidence

• Hannah E. Meyers on the parallels between BLM activists and Hamas apologists;
• Christopher F. Rufo on the radical Left’s endorsement of civilizational suicide;
• Guy Sorman on religion’s underappreciated influence over today’s geopolitical conflicts;
• Juliana Geran Pilon and Eitan Fischberger on the disturbing moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas espoused by America’s mainstream media;
• Theodore Dalrymple explains the delight Hamas and its supporters take in genocide;
• Nicole Gelinas on the Democratic Socialists of America’s depraved demonstration against Israel.

How to think about the security of Israel, America, and Jews around the world after the attacks

• Mark P. Mills on how advanced defense technologies often provide a false sense of safety;
• Liel Leibovitz explains how constitutionally dubious restrictions on gun ownership facilitate violence against Jews;
• Martin Gurri explores whether domestic infighting will prevent Israel—and the U.S.—from forcefully resisting Hamas (and Tehran);
• Judith Miller analyzes the next steps for Hezbollah and Iran and the intelligence failures that led to “Israel’s 9/11”;
• Ari David on how the attacks have shattered Jews’ sense of safety worldwide;
• Shlomo Brody explains how global naïveté and Hamas’s exploitation of civilians put Israel in a no-win situation regarding its own defense;
• Ellen R. Wald on the threat the conflict poses to global energy markets;
• Seth Frantzman analyzes the tactical challenges of waging urban warfare in Gaza;
• Andrew A. Michta explains how the attacks should prompt a reassessment of U.S. national-security priorities.

City Journal will continue to investigate what the conflict means for our culture and institutions, our cities and security, and our democracy and civilization.

Watching i24News for Israeli-middle east coverage

CONGRATULATIONS to our President on the 3rd anniversary of recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, something other Presidents had promised, but then backed down. Since 1995 when it was approved by Congress with a bi-partisan majority, other presidents took the out using a waiver, refusing to recognize Jerusalem as the capital. Most politicians don't keep their promises, but a man who wasn't a politician and who has received 4 years of criticism and hate for not being part of the good-old boys club, got the job done.

Also this week-end Israel is participating in a trade show with the UAE. Another result of Trump's brokering a peace between Israel and its Muslim neighbors. Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met the first commercial flydubai flight, and this week he wished well the pilots of the first Israir flight going to Dubai. And on Wednesday Israelis sent greetings to the United Arab Emirates as it celebrated its national day. Again, this breaking out of peace angered the boys in both parties, who thought nothing could move things ahead except more meetings held over years.

Thank you, Mr. President, for showing the way to get things done, and especially for Warp Speed and the vaccine.

For information on Israel and the middle east that you probably won't get from MSNBC or CNN, try i24NEWS, an Israeli English language international 24-hour news and current affairs television channel located in Jaffa Port, Tel Aviv. It began broadcasting in Feb. 2017.

Who benefits from revisionist history about the Crusades

Don't be put off by references to Catholicism in this video--that WAS Christianity at the time of the Crusades.  But even when I was learning world history as a child, we were being misinformed, and eventually lied to. Europe would have become totally Muslim if it had not been for Christians uniting and fighting Islam in formerly Christian territory in the middle east. Dan Brown's novels have convinced millions that Christians were the aggressors, when in fact, Islam came along 700 years after Jesus told his disciples to GO. They "converted" much of the middle east from Christianity to Islam, with the same methods ISIS uses today. President Clinton in 2001, continued that evil myth.  This 30 minute video may not get it all correct, but will help balance the ignorance and anti-Christian myths we've learned in the U.S.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErybW9oJ3Cg

Dr. Paul Crawford, Crusade historian

Mission Accomplished. . . oops

“As he precipitously pulled out all U.S. peacekeepers from Iraq, the president had his own “Mission Accomplished” moment when declaring the country “stable,” “self-reliant,” and an “extraordinary achievement.” “ VDH

But Obama showed himself to be a weak and confused leader after the war was essentially over and won by the time he took office in January 2009 with nothing left to do but stabilize the victories.  His supporters didn’t seem to notice, but the terrorists certainly took note.  Now that ISIS has overrun the region, he is looking around for someone to blame.  Bush and the Republicans, of course.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/381831/how-obama-lost-middle-east-victor-davis-hanson

Cheat sheet for ISIS players

Here's a cheat sheet on the players of ISIL, aka ISIS, aka IS, 2004-2014. Although they've only popped into the headlines lately, you'll see they've got deep roots. Probably difficult to read on your phone, but note that ISIS targets both Assad and the U.S. Twelve groups sometimes killing each other, sometimes cooperating. http://www.start.umd.edu/pubs/START_EvolutionofISILRelationships_FactSheet_June2014.pdf

The price of oil shot up today

Just today I think I heard someone in the Obama regime pining for European prices for gasoline so we could be pushed further into green energy schemes. Now with the problems in Egypt, maybe he'll get his wish. Egypt's Regime on the Brink. Oil prices went up over 3%--oil goes through the Suez Canal as do our military fleets.

The Iconoclast at New English Review says: Stop giving aid to Egypt, to Jordan, to Pakistan, to Afghanistan, to the "Palestinian" Authority. No American aid will win friends among Muslims for Infidels. But American aid, and European too, can increase hatred for the Americans and the Europeans, not among those who are most fervently Muslim, for they are already suffused with such hatred, they batten on it, but among the more advanced (a term of relative rather than absolute value when applied to primitive, semi-savage societies with a political class even more coarse and ignorant and clownish than that to be found in much -- though not all -- of the present-day West), and secular.

Have they considered WMD?

Remember how the left poo-pooed WMD--like biological and virus warfare--after it was Bush's problem? They were all worried when Clinton was in office--even had the intelligence to show the dangers.

Iraq is a long way from [here], but what happens there matters a great deal here. For the risks that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons against us or our allies is the greatest security threat we face." — Madeline Albright, Feb 18, 1998

Now physicians and scientists are struggling to understand the causes of persistent health problems reported by veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. The Department of Defense can't seem to find out what this particulate matter is.

“The U.S. Army asked the National Research Council to evaluate the Enhanced Particulate Matter Surveillance Program. The committee of experts it convened concluded that, despite the limited data collected, the Program's results clearly document that military personnel deployed in the current Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts are exposed to high particulate concentrations. The committee strongly endorses the Department of Defense's effort and recommends continuing and expanding the research.”

Report

International affairs and radicalism links

David Durant, Heretical Librarian, turned in his blogger keys and left the building a little over a year ago. In a profession that is 223:1 liberal to conservative, he is missed. But here's a refresher list on some of the links he followed. With the O-Admin moving quickly to silence critics through increased regulation who are very slowly waking up to the wasp nest of marxists surrounding this President, this will be a handy list to browse. Not all are working, but I'll try to weed out those that have given up, changed direction, or lost their domain name.

The War on Terror and International Affairs

Across the Bay
American Enterprise Institute
American Footprints
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Committee on the Present Danger
Council on Foreign Relations
The Counterterrorism Blog
Defend America
Foundation for the Defense of Democracies
The Jamestown Foundation
Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA)
Long War Journal
Michael Yon
The National Interest
9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America
Small Wars Journal
StrategyPage
Threats Watch
Victor Davis Hanson's Private Papers
Winds of Change

Radical Islamism, The Middle East and Reforming Islam

Ali Eteraz
Apostasy and Islam
Arab Media & Society
Asharq Alawsat
Big Pharaoh
Center for Liberty in the Middle East
Center on Islam, Democracy, and the Future of the Muslim World
Daily Star (Lebanon)
Daniel Pipes
Faith Freedom International
Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism
Hammorabi
Healing Iraq
Initiative for an Open Arab Internet
Interfaith Strength
Iraq Blog Count
Iraq the Model
Iraq Updates
Irshad Manji
Islamist Watch
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
Jihad Watch
Martin Kramer on the Middle East
The Mesopotamian
Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)
Middle East Transparent [click on English]
Secular Islam
Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Watch

Featuring today: MEMRI, where you can stop by and read or hear Osama bin Laden's September message to the American people, which sounds extremely close to our own leftists; he even recommends reading Jimmy Carter.-- "The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) explores the Middle East through the region's media. MEMRI bridges the language gap which exists between the West and the Middle East, providing timely translations of Arabic, Persian,Turkish, Urdu-Pashtu media, as well as original analysis of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends in the Middle East.

Founded in February 1998 to inform the debate over U.S. policy in the Middle East, MEMRI is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501 (c)3 organization. MEMRI's headquarters is located in Washington, DC with branch offices in London, Tokyo, Rome, Baghdad, Shanghai, and Jerusalem. MEMRI research is translated to English, German, Hebrew, Italian, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese."

3500 Donating books to a library

If your public library is worth diddly squat, you shouldn't have to donate books which balance, common sense and current events require be on the shelves. CAMERA, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America has a list at its website of suggested titles for you to purchase and donate to your public library. First of all, donations are not "free"--it costs a lot of money to process and add a book to a collection; second, why should your library, supported by your tax money, be taking sides on the middle east question? If they've bought everything President Carter and leftist, anti-semitic organizations have written on the topic in multiple copies, why shouldn't they include some titles from the pro-Israeli camp? Third, I think this list needs some updating.

Do your homework, and then submit the list to the library director. If you get no response, ask some questions about fairness when the next bond issue comes up. Librarians, as a profession, lean heavily to the left, and occasionally have to be reminded about what they learned in library school.