Victor Davis Hanson is a man not known for short-term thinking. Indeed, while his analysis does not always contain the same scope of datapoints reviewed here, his opinions are generally rooted in accepting things as they are, not as he would pretend them to be.
Recently during an interview with Tucker Carlson, as he contrasts the targeting of President Donald Trump, VDH was far more distraught than previously noted in his analysis. He increasingly sees our American options for a peaceful approach to retain our constitutional republic, diminishing.
Today, VDH takes the overall geopolitical landscape and outlines his thoughts below on the Hamas terror attack against the nation state of Israel. Victor Davis Hanson:
A 50th Anniversary War?
Why did Hamas stage a long-planned, carefully executed and multifaceted attack on Israeli towns, soldiers, and civilians—one designed to instill terror by executing noncombatants, taking hostages, and desecrating the bodies of the dead?
And how were the killers able to enter Israeli proper in enough numbers to kill what could be hundreds and perhaps eventually wound what could be thousands?
a) Ostensibly, radical Palestinians wanted to stop any rumored rapprochement between the Gulf monarchies—the traditional source of much of their cash—and Israel, by forcing the issue of Arab solidarity in times of “war”, especially through waging a gruesome attack aimed at civilians and encompassing executions and hostage taking. Iran likely was the driving force to prompt the war—given its greatest fear is a Sunni Arab-Israeli rapprochement.
b) Arab forces have had only success against Israel through surprise attacks during Israeli holidays, as in the Yom Kippur War (i.e., was it any accident that the present attack began 50-years almost to the day after the October 6, 1973 beginning of the Yom Kippur War?). And so they struck again this Saturday during Simchat Torah, coming at the end of a weeklong Jewish celebration of Sukkot—in hopes that others will join in as happened in 1973. (So much for the Arab warnings not for Westerners to conduct war during Ramadan).
c) Hamas may have reckoned that recent Israeli turmoil and mass leftist street protests over proposed reforms of the Israeli Supreme Court had led to permanent internal divisions and thus a climate of domestic distraction if not an erosion of deterrence.
But, more importantly, in a larger sense the Biden administration has contributed both to the notion that Hamas was a legitimate Middle East player, and to the perception that the U.S. was backing away from its traditional support for Israel—to the delight of Hamas—based on the following inexplicable policies:
1) In February Secretary of State Blinken had bragged that not only had the Biden administration resumed massive aid to the PLA cancelled by Trump, but cumulatively had transferred $1 billion—even as Palestinian authorities bragged that they would continue to pay bounties to the families of “martyrs” (i.e., those killed while conducting terrorists attacks against Israel).
And millions of American dollars also went into Gaza, run by Hamas—despite the Biden administration’s efforts to keep mostly quiet the resumption of such inexplicable support. In this regard, note the current shameful State-Department (“U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs”) website news release that was posted after today’s attack. It ended with this quite embarrassing, morally equivalent admonition:
“We urged all sides to refrain from violence and retaliatory attacks. Terror and violence solve nothing.”
“All sides?” “Refrain from retaliatory attacks?”
So Israel is the moral equivalent of terrorists executing civilians and brutalizing their corpses? And the IDF then is not supposed to retaliate against these killers?
This Biden State Department insanity cannot stand. So expect some apparatchik to take down this Munich-like posting as soon as possible.
2) The Biden administration had recently released some $6 billion to Iran through a prison swap deal that saw South Korea hand over embargoed Iranian money to Qatar—despite Tehran’s increased anti-Israeli rhetoric and its loud brag about the escalation. We should assume money for rockets (Hamas claims they have launched 5,000, and have received 100,000 of them via the Damascus airport) and weapons in general for Hamas were supplied by Iran, which again is likely the chief catalyst for this surprise attack.
3) Almost immediately, after his inauguration Biden mobilized to resume the bankrupt Iran deal. And in unhinged fashion he appointed the anti-Israeli bigot, pro-Iranian journalist Robert Malley as America’s chief negotiator. Note that Malley is now under FBI investigation for security breaches, involving disclosing classified U.S. documents and also for allegedly helping pro-Iranian activists and propagandists land influential billets inside the U.S. government.
In short, there was a general Hamas and Iranian perception that the Biden administration had resumed the discredited Obama madness of empowering Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas. This discredited agenda was to “balance” the power of Israel and the moderate Arab Gulf governments to achieve “creative tension”, exacerbated by Biden’s loathing of the government of Benjamín Netanyahu (who has been snubbed by Biden and never invited for an official visit).
Note as well that the Biden administration has siphoned off key weapons and munitions from stockpiles inside Israel to transfer them to Ukraine. The so-called “War Reserve Ammunition—Israel” is all but depleted of just the sorts of weapons needed in the present crisis.
In this regard is there not a pattern here?
Upon the ascension of Biden and his woke military agendas, we saw the following: the complete humiliation of the U.S. in Kabul in its most shameful flight in 50 years and greatest abandonment of equipment in its history; followed by Vladimir Putin’s opportunistic invasion of Ukraine; followed by China’s new belligerence and escalating threats to Taiwan; followed by Turkey’s new de facto alliance with Russia and recent drone encounter with the U.S. air force in Syria; followed by the Hamas/Iranian inspired attack on Israel—with more to come unfortunately.
And will Biden finally get the message from the attacks on the Ukraine and Israeli borders, that borders matter and we too are being invaded, with the encouragement of the Mexican government and to the advantage of the cartels whose fentanyl exports kills 100,000 Americans a year?
What to expect in Israel?
Expect the following: the usual Hamas/terrorist selling and/or execution of Israeli hostages, the use of Israeli hostages as “human shields” in Gaza, the bargaining/sale of the remains of Israeli dead, occasional killings of Jews inside Israel by Arabs who falsely believe there will be a winning Middle East-wide existential war against Israel. And finally, a devastating Israeli counter-response that will eventually earn a U.S. rebuke.
What should the U.S. instead do?
It should quit talking to Iran and restore full sanctions against it. It should cut off all aid immediately to all the Palestinians. It should undertake a 1973-like massive arms lift of key munitions to Israel and warn Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and others in the Middle East not to intervene or else, given that Israel will need several weeks to deal with Hamas and Gaza. And if it shows any hesitation or weakness, other terrorist groups will opportunistically jump in.” (link)
**ahem**
maybe the u.s. should reform it’s election processes so the outcomes are factual, transparent and accurate cause maybe the leaders chosen thru that process would’ve never made this atttack possible
Essentially, my simple question may have pushed this button.
It really that simple.
Yah, I know it all just tangential.
Circumstances of circumspects and all that.
Still the question remains.
Look treepers, it comes down to the answer to this simple question.
Just how many of Podesta’s vetted and slated politicians that ran for office turned out to be strawmen for the corrupt bums the Ukrainians revolted against.
Many of us can be excused of just not understanding the means and methods this slate of politicians run under.
The background is thus..
This is unvanished Truthism.
Ukraine, like much of the post Soviet world strove to steel whatever was not nailed down with loyalties ingrained with past connections to Moscow Soviet block.
If Ukraine has a fly over political demographic.
Just how can it GAMED?
To much of this Ukrainian demographic, their by-word is Nationalism forged by profound identity.
So in this backdrop, the scope of political identity is being defined by East-West terms and realpolitik encompassed therein.
What set this all in motion was Ukraine forging ahead with integration toward EU intergation. Blazing a path.
That is the backdrop.
On one hand, desire to fully establish their independence and ally with Western Europe and on the other hand the carrot and stick need of dependency on Moscow to subsidized energy concessions at below market rates.
The Ukrainian people voted freely and overwhelming to suffer the pain breaking the subsidized energy relationship with Moscow to seek integration with Western Europe.
When the Ukrainian political house defied the will of this vote and rejected this outcome.
The Ukrainian population revoted and forced from office the entrenched politicians aligned with the old East-West Soviet model.
This is very critically to understanding my simple question.
Under this backdrop, Ukraine was now very much in play in off the radar power plays.
On one hand there are very strategic balance of power outcomes and on the hand there are very real world realities.
In all of this back drop is the reality, “That Podesta was very much involved in presenting a slate of advised candidates that would turn the corner for Ukraine to turn the corner and break from the Russian federation of States.
So when I ask my very simple question, “Just how many of these vetted politicians turned out to be straw men for the powers to be aligned to Moscow that where just thrown out of office”
I mean precisely that as indictive of underlying directives of global state powers and manipulations.
As an American, this inquiry naturally relates and falls under the convergence of questions of inquiry related to the so called prefect phone call.
Look the history of post WWII aftermaths is very ugly in Eastern Europe.
On on hand is the sins of the father.
This is a very known history albeit buried to Western Minds
So when, so many years later a group of assembled politicians run on slate of resurrecting grievances of the past that has a very dark past to win the day at the polls.
Far be it from me to inquiry that the nature, the desire to be modern free from the past, to express a desire to aligned to the future to elect Representative governance that expresses the will of the people.
Yes, I am most definitely speaking in terms that Urkrainians of many walks of life when they found out and realized the outcome of their post revolution vote resulted in an election of officials that represented nothing more than the status quo of corruption.
That is when totally of the obvious of this is when a shooting war became very real.
Just what are the cross current global goals that supersede the murder wholesale in Ukraine.
It is very much a very simple question.
A question that devolves at the end of day, “Did powers in the Western world knowingly strive to take advantage of grievances of the past to shape an outcome that runs counter and delivers an outcome slated to disadvantage because fundamental and ideologically these entrenched western politicians are beholden to a false prophet.
Conspiracy nut I am much.
Measured observation calls for much circumspection?
Alex Jones is right again . Just as we have some evil politicians in our own government , dont make the mistake of putting Israel on a pedestal . The people are one thing , the governments are another . We know the biggest colluders of the NWO are Natanyahu and his Ilk , just as the leaders of the Shites in Iran running Hezbollah .
Who was about to lose power in Israel? Netanyahu. Who is about to lose billions to Ukraine ? Biden. Who just got 6 Billion from Biden ? Hezbollah/ Hamas.
After living years in the ME, one thing I learned is the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
NWO 👹
Less verbage.
Cut to the chase.
The people are fodder.
Obviously the cut to chase verbage observation rings true.
Wolverine much, not with standing.
I still afford hope that, “We can still be of our better nature.”
Sadly, though I am not looking away, “Just HTF can I effect change in hearts and minds.”
I have spoken plainly, let you require less verbage.
What verbage do you require of me add to Truth at hand. Out right call.
That would be very pleasing to certain folks
Seems and appears by lest verbage, you require me to cross lines and cut my throat beyond MY protected speech.
Let me clear…
Truths spoken will never cross lines aligned to deprogramming postulates being framed in the corrupt/colluding mass corporates media.
The truths I speak of will nail the falsehoods into a thousand wounds long after I gone. Under their own cult framework.
Can this evil amougst us say the same?
That is their fear, not mine.
Oops
Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah….
A whole lot of nothing.
I suggest less alcohol consumption.
Less alcohol compensation is your only argument counter point.
Haw, alcohol consumption is is the only sanity left to your reasonimg that provides weight of argument to
your reasoning.
Clearly, weight of recourse of argumentation is your defect.
I truly stand corrected if my inquiry touch a nerve.
Incoherent gibberish. He must be a politician who loves to hear himself speak.
I’m thinking English is not his first language. Impossible to read.
You are on a thread about ISRAEL, yakkin up a profoundly circumspect barf bag of thoughts about UKRAINE. Your thread shifting and style are not welcome here.
Perhaps it’s time for you to read the posting guidelines?
You are completely missing the point.
This IS about corruption, and trillions of dollars.
You pretend not to know things. Is that on purpose or what?
If you are a regular reader here, you understand that the Uni-Party has been sucking the place dry for a very long time, and ALL of this insanity, is about the massive coverup operation.
What you wrote is pretty much nonsense.
None if this is about the balance of power. It is about balancing bank accounts, and Putin having enough of NATO screwing around on his borders, when the West promised it would not.
Put down the drugs or drink. Honestly….
What? You say “let me clear” I assume you meant “let me BE clear.” Your post needs proofreading for us to understand what you’re talking about.
And my earlier comment was purged. Kind of like the purging of the Armenian Christians . When are people going to wake up to the fact that the Israeli Govt. Is not the ally of We the People.
https://apnews.com/article/armenia-azerbaijan-nagorno-karabakh-weapons-israel-6814437bcd744acc1c4df0409a74406c
Two replies now censored here . Wow. Just wow. Had no idea Sundance was also controlled opposition .
I see comments are still there after all. I apologize for rash judgement .
I find the timing is the thing. I suppose once the mighty hand of our in-house assistant makes their judgment to publish, it falls into the timeline.
Always note what time you hit Send, allow for your time zone. With this post, it’s almost 2:00 Eastern, when now it’s only almost 1:00 here. This is a test; it is only a test!
the article is about Israel, you comment on ukraine? and even at that you’re wrong.
“The Ukrainian population revoted and forced from office the entrenched politicians aligned with the old East-West Soviet model.” – no, obama, brennan, soros and the nazi thugs they arranged for overthrew an elected president.
Huh?
What a load if incoherent, barely literate, pathetic bullshit. Go back to PornHub mtk.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2023/10/07/what-went-wrong-how-hamas-managed-to-stagger-israel-n1733128
I wonder if we could wake up to learn that we’ve been attacked, foreign or domestic.
That’s what this attack on Israel immediately brought to my mind.
They tested the emergency alert system in our area again tonight for the 2nd time in one week. They must know there are serious terrorist threats against the US also and aren’t telling us. Biden has cheerfully set us up with the likelihood of a multitude of terrorist sleeper cells who have been pouring over our open border since he took office.
In case anyone has forgotten, the Democrats became openly allied with Islamic terrorists during Trump’s presidency. (They were sneaky about this alliance during Obama, who illegally delivered secret planeloads of unmarked cash to Iran but got outed for this) You may recall that when Trump took out one of the main Iranian terrorist leaders who organized terrorist attacks against Americans, Democrats & their media sycophants were horrified and accused him of being a war criminal. Speaker Nancy Pelosi even apologized to the Iranian terrorists.
It should be of NO surprise that Biden has been openly financing the Islamic terrorists since he took office. In addition to what was outlined in this article, he lifted sanctions on Iran’s oil production, which has now increased dramatically and Iran has reportedly made $300 billion since Biden took office. All while this pathological liar says out of the other side of his mouth,”The US stands with Israel.”
It makes sense that Marxists within the Democrat Party (which is all of them now?) and Islamic terrorists have united when one considers the common goal of these ideologies: To destroy/destabilize Western civilization. This alliance is being played out all over Europe also. When Notre Dame Cathedral was burned down a few years ago, who was cheering on social media? It was Islamic terrorists along with the international communist terrorist groups BLM and Antifa. These groups hate the Christian church. They want our history, monuments destroyed. And as we know, they want even more than that because they tell us all the time, “Death to America.” The Biden Regime, RINO enablers, & feckless treasonous DHS, FBI have been their ticket to invade our country and make their plans to destroy us.
IMHO it’s impossible to believe US intel didn’t know anything about this imminent and barbaric attack on Israel. The question is, who ordered them to keep quiet about it? Did they deliberately give misleading information to the Israelis? After what they did to try to frame President Trump as a Russian spy, as well as the Wuhan Lab cover-up, we shouldn’t put ANYTHING past them.
Conversely it is to make sure citizens are disabled to fight back. Lose contact for help from government or law enforcement) in more ways than one.
Wait for it.
said. Joe Biden.
No .. no coincidence if this is the biggest distraction that has (largely) succeeded in taking focus off on the closing in on the Biden family’s corruption .. with the aid of all others with interests to protect or preserve.
Yes. The day this happens here is when these millions of able-bodied aliens (millions already here) rise to the signal to do the same i.e. on all American cities simultaneously; (though now, there are those some causing trouble about their rights, conditions of living; as well as cases of burgling, raping and attacks on citizens and businesses) .
No conspiracy theories .. This has all been foreseen; just the reality behind all that will transpire. England, Germany, France have long lost control – been gone with their invasions as such.
As I’ve said earlier “(NOW)” it is Israel …..
With our strongest ally gone, who in the world is next?
Was Victor Davis Hanson’s Twitter (I refuse to call it X) post removed? When I select it, it just tells me something went wrong.
Same here.
Still there —
Great, your link worked for me! I tried the link that Sundance provided right after trying yours and still get the same message, “Something went wrong”.
Thanks!
I call it HeX.
Another question is how many of our 200 Billions were exfiltrated to Israel by the Ukrainian ruling class. We are adding fuel to the fire of WW III.
On the good side we cannot afford to pay for two proxy wars, so the Ukraine will have to stop extorting US. I still remember the Ukraine impeachment of our President. I also remember how Israel was the very first country to recognize the fraudulent election of Biden.
I hope all the stupid, smug leftists who voted for this turkey are feeling really regretful right now. But who am I kidding, the left never admits to any wrongdoing.
Consider the immature rantings of Gen Z and their influencers.
They should be told: If you don’t vote for sanity, YOU WILL BE DrAFteD.
I don’t think they have any idea of what it means to be Drafted. As per some on Twitter, they seem to think serving in the military will be still be optional for them. No surprise there. The Left think there will never be any consequences for their crazy ideologies.
I imagine that many of the Jews in NY and elsewhere will CONTINUE to support the Dems. Unreal!
Sundance, thanks for posting VDH in full today. I’ve read his writings for a few years now, and have brought salient links here, usually to get jumped on by a few thuggish treepers. Thanks for showing that VDH does indeed have some insights worth at least considering.
Think he is calling it pretty straight here.
Well, we thought the first 2 1/2 years of Biden were bad, looks like they are pulling out all the stops, having laid the groundwork by impoverishing our stockpiles and treasury. Thankfully, Americans are responding in a way that is perplexing to these demons.
Churchill, and I paraphrase, made the point that Americans are slow to start, but when they get going, watch out!
Most probably assumed he was talking about our Govt. , while I suspect he was talking about our PEOPLE.
It sadden me when VDH said Trump should go away. He was the only one who supported Israel. The other globalist presidents, HW, BJ, W, Obama, and Biden are anti-Zionists.
None of this would be happening if Trump were still president. Unfortunately the GOPe supported Hillary and Biden over Trump.
VDH for some reason has never supported Trump the only president who actually represents what VDH says he wants. People like that give me a pain.
Cites please.
From what I have read, VDH has not been cheerleading for any current day politicians.
Trump or otherwise.
Here he calls out BIDEN and puts this situation squarly on Biden’s shoulders.
Cites Please? When and where did Hanson say that?
“a 1973-like massive arms lift of key munitions to Israel” good luck with that. the u.s. has bitten off a good deal more than it can chew; its utter defeat in ukraine is approaching at an accelerating pace. a new world is coming and u.s. hegemony is over. the u.s. best make peace with that or face the less attractive consequences. a gold-backed ruble is also coming and with it the end of the dollar’s reserve status and anything like its current value versus gold, its replacement.
JMO.
VDH is hard core RNC / GOPe / RINO / NRO, not MAGA.
Always has been, always will be.
Pretend he isn’t at your own risk.
I hope your assessment is wrong.
I think he is sincere and knows a lot, but is cocooned and blinded by a preference to turn the clock back. History is important but the new thing is substantially different from the old thing. There is an arc to history. There is a long long story being told.
Somethings wrong but I haven’t listened to enough of his speeches to prove what his alliances are. The only thing I know is he has never supported President Trump in anything I did read. I guess that should be a tell.
On one of his interviews he said that he voted for Trump, he has also defended Trump in other interviews.
Cites please, CACTUS?
I see Hanson as a man who deals in historical facts rather being entangled with the politics and people of today.
Do not recall him backing RNC,GOP, RINO positions.
You’d apparently be surprised that there are people who are not MAGA, but who still have valuable insights.
VDH lives in a fantasy world if he thinks that Biden is ever going to get ANY message whatsoever.
The US government is turning on us. It doesn’t have time or interest in assisting Israel.
Sorry. But we no longer have the massive surplus of arms we had in 1973. The “ending” of the Cold War with Russia has enabled our “leaders” in Congress to neglect our military stockpiles with impunity for five decades. To quote Obama’s favorite Man of God, “Our chickens done come home to roost!”
Antibiotics like amoxicillin too
People never get it: it’s not about the surface-level conflict. It’s about keeping SOME kind of s**t going in the world so the American arms dealers can continue selling to all parties and turning a profit. The whole Ukraine thing proved to be unpopular, so after f**king us out of billions of our own dollars, the MIC is turning to Israel again for some of that good ol’ reliable religious war.
Exactly right. Cheney, Nuland and the other NeoCon demons must be dancing in the streets along with Hamas.
A great day for : Raytheon . Just think of how many more missiles they can sell ! Ain’t capitalism great ? How many more rebellions are needed before we can declare this WW III ? Why are our elected ‘leaders ‘ so eager to fight every country in the World ? Because they get a lot of money from the RTX’s of the World . Gen. milk toast Milley will make millions from some defense company . Besides , politicians sons & daughters never have to fight .
This is all because of a stolen election.
“We urged all sides to refrain from violence and retaliatory attacks. Terror and violence solve nothing.”
Yeah No.
This is BS. Truth is “Si Vis Pacem, Parrabellum” ” If yoy want peace, prepare for war”.
Israel will have to stand up for herself once again. Now that the US has shown it is not the ally Israel once had,
there is no reason for them to listen anymore. Obama started this with the 6 billion payout that was held up by Trump
and delivered by Biden. This has been premeditaed for whatever the outcome is detremined to be.
This administration has done all this…by design! Obama’s design using the creepy, corrupt puppet in the White House. This is not mistaken or bad policy, it’s intentional by a corrupt and comprimised regime that needs to be extracted!
As always VDH is right on the money- Corrupt. senile , evil Joe Biden pays Iran $6 BILLION to release 6 American hostages (Trump got Americans released from Iran without paying them a dime) and a month later, on a Jewish Holiday, Iran attacks Israel…..Coincidence? I think not. Biden and his puppeteer, Obama, hate Israel AND America…….
Notice, Hanson in the first sentence of his last paragraph failed to say that what he proposed was exactly what President Trump had done.
Please, C.B. Does EVERYthing always have to be viewed through the lens of TRUMP?
Perhaps due to his employment, VDH cannot overtly support Trump, but can support what Trump has done?
And don’t forget Biden’s sneaky support of leftist rioting trying to disrupt Israel.
Time for all the illusions of good guys snd bad guys to end . David Icke is spot on , the ancient global anti-human cabal is behind all of it , and innocent lives of Israelis and Palestinians are the pawns.
https://madmaxworld.tv/watch?id=6522ba4814094f1a3d97b753
I wonder if history will look back at 10/7/23 as the beginning of WW III. I hope not.