“Today, America’s heart is heavy. Last night, three U.S. service members were killed—and many wounded—during an unmanned aerial drone attack on our forces stationed in northeast Jordan near the Syria border. While we are still gathering the facts of this attack, we know it was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq.” (LINK)
A few more details are starting to emerge including the number of “many wounded.” According to recent media reports 25 were wounded along with the 3 killed.
Yahoo – “Biden said the United States “will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner our choosing.”
There was no immediate reaction from Jordan, a kingdom bordering Iraq, Israel, the Palestinian territory of the West Bank, Saudi Arabia and Syria.
U.S. troops long have used Jordan as a basing point, and the attack took place in northeast Jordan near the Syrian border. U.S. Central Command said 25 service members were injured the attack in addition to the three killed.
President Donald J. Trump was accused of withholding U.S. military aid to Ukraine in order to force compliance with his requests. This was the exact claim of those who attempted to impeach President Trump in 2019; this was their originating justification.
Today, NBC is reporting that Joe Biden is looking at what military aid can be withheld from Israel in order to force compliance with their requests. I doubt the insufferable dolts in the media can see the ridiculous hypocrisy in this story.
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is discussing using weaponry sales to Israel as leverage to convince the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to heed long-standing U.S. calls to scale back its military assault in the Gaza Strip, according to three current U.S. officials and one former U.S. official.
At the direction of the White House, the Pentagon has been reviewing what weaponry Israel has requested that could be used as leverage, said the sources. They said no decisions have been made.
Evidence has been shown to the Biden administration and the United Nations that 12 members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) were actual participants in the October 7th Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel.
Yes, you read that correctly. The U.N. was an actual participant in the premeditated slaughter of Israeli citizens.
(Via Axios) The State Department on Friday said it is pausing additional funding for the UN Palestinian refugee agency after Israel alleged 12 UNRWA employees were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack.
The big picture: It’s the first step by the Biden administration against UNRWA since renewing U.S. funding to the agency after the Trump administration completely cut it off.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the U.S. is “extremely troubled by the allegations” and the administration has “temporarily paused additional funding for UNRWA while we review these allegations and the steps the United Nations is taking to address them.”
State Dept – “The United States is extremely troubled by the allegations that twelve UNRWA employees may have been involved in the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. The Department of State has temporarily paused additional funding for UNRWA while we review these allegations and the steps the United Nations is taking to address them.
I don’t write much about the myriad of sick and twisted stories that surround Jeffrey Epstein, because everything in that rabbit hole is a matrix of perversion and manipulation by sick people, sick government officials, and blackmail material in a world of darkness and evil.
Additionally, all of the previous claims about Donald Trump being associated with that perverse industry and assembly are false {Citation Here}. However, I can understand how the merge of exploitation, sex trafficking of young women, sexual blackmail and politics can hold ramifications for our current state of affairs.
The link to the recently released documents IS HERE.
If you want to discuss and share information as discovered by others, consider this a thread where that conversation can take place.
Finally, almost two months later, CTH suspicions are confirmed {GO DEEP}. You might remember when the USS Carney intercepted 15 drones and cruise missiles in the Red Sea in October, we said something was sketchy about the Western media reporting on it. The political narrative (not from the Pentagon) was that the missiles were heading to Israel, but that didn’t pass the proverbial sniff test {GO DEEP ##2}.
Given the nature of the political climate at the time, and accepting the limited range of Yemeni cruise missiles, CTH surmised the actual target of the October 19th attack was the U.S. naval fleet, not Israel. However, people poo-pooed our analysis and said, unlikely. Well, today the Pentagon admits the U.S. naval fleet is being targeted.
This is a very big deal, because the reality of the U.S. being targeted changes the political calculation and risk metric. The Biden administration would not want American citizens to think about our own military being involved in an expanded Israel-Hamas war directly, but that’s exactly what is happening. THAT my friends was the motive for being obtuse in the first wave of attacks in October.
The AP is correct when they say, “the attack potentially marks a major escalation in a series of maritime attacks in the Mideast linked to the Israel-Hamas war.” ‘Potentially’? Nonsense. It is a major escalation. The other big revelation is that WE were the likely target two months ago.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Three commercial ships in the Red Sea were struck by ballistic missiles fired from Houthi-controlled Yemen on Sunday and a U.S. warship shot down three drones in self-defense during the hourslong assault, the U.S. military said. Responsibility for the attack was claimed by the Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran.
While it is good news, excellent news, the Israeli and foreign ‘hostages’ are slowly being released by Hamas, the politics of the dynamic are abundantly clear.
Biden was under extreme political pressure to gain the release of “American” hostages held captive by Hamas and affiliates in Gaza as a result of the October 7th attack and kidnappings. Prior to Joe Biden taking a victory lap for the release of 4-year-old Abigail Mor Edan, an Israeli-American dual citizen, all of the key players in the region made advanced notification of the impending release.
Qatari [think Muslim Brotherhood] Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told Face the Nation the release was imminent. U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan also made the same prediction, as did several people associated with Gaza relief efforts and the larger agenda to create the two-state solution for Palestinian and Israeli citizens. In essence, politically Biden needed an American release, and that message was the driving force from Qatar to their allies in Hamas. Abigail Mor Edan was released as a result. Biden immediately took a victory lap.
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden confirmed Sunday that the 4-year old American Abigail Mor Edan who was held hostage by Hamas in Gaza is now free. “She’s free and she’s in Israel now,” Biden told reporters Sunday from Nantucket, where he was spending Thanksgiving weekend with his family. (more)
The background effort is also very clear. The aligned interests of the Muslim Brotherhood and the U.S. Biden administration is to maintain a gauntlet approach where the two-state solution is the only option for Israel, backing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into a corner.
[…] “Abigail was among 13 hostages released today from Gaza under the brokered and sustained though intensive U.S. diplomacy. She is now safely in Israel. And we continue to press and expect for additional Americans will be released as well,” Biden said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, and Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi hold a joint press conference at the conclusion of their discussions. The video and transcript are below.
Overall, the Egyptians and Jordanians want a cessation of hostilities, an end to the bombing and Israeli war response against Hamas. In part, they appear motivated by concerns of regional instability; in part, they seem driven toward resolution because they do not want life-long radical Palestinian jihadists crossing into Egypt and Jordan; and in part it’s because their country was not attacked.
I find it interesting that none of the remarks in the group mention the influence of Iran at all. The U.S. and Israel talk about the influence of Iran when speaking individually and together, but add an Arab country into the discussion and Iran is never brought up.
JORDAN – DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER SAFADI: Good evening to you all. I’ll start in Arabic and then I’ll switch to English if you don’t mind. So —
(Via interpreter) In the name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Gracious, I welcome Their Excellencies Sameh, Tony and the other colleagues, the foreign ministers of United Arab Emirates and Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and the secretary general of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, at this hardship – at this extremely difficult time, a time that reflects that – reflect our interest to protect our peoples from the destruction of war and to work together continuously to stop this disaster that erupted on the 7th of October and actually evolved into the war that Israel is waging against Gaza.
Washington DC saw a massive assembly of pro-Hamas, pro-Palestinian groups today. Tens of thousands of people protesting against Israel in support of Hamas and the Palestinian cause shouted, “from the river to the sea,” an increasingly popular slogan calling for the elimination of the nation state of Israel.
After the march and protest, the angry pro-Hamas groups converged on the White House, scaling the fence and waving the Palestinian flag. The chant changed to “long live the Intifada,” a nod of approval to the protests against Israel from within the West Bank and Gaza.
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WASHINGTON DC – Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters massed in Washington, DC, Saturday afternoon before descending upon the White House to chant, “Allahu akbar” and “F–k Joe Biden” as they accused the president of genocide and demanded a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” the crowd dotted with Palestinian flags and signs cried at the start of the event, which drew attendees from across the country.
It’s an odd dynamic to watch the professional political left support extremism yet pretend not to support the violent outcomes of the extremists.
We saw this dynamic domestically with Occupy Wall Street violence; we saw this with the Ferguson violence; we saw this with the Baltimore violence; we saw this with Black Lives Matter violence; we see this dynamic with the Antifa violence, and we continue to see this dynamic unfold on the streets and college campuses with the pro-Hamas terror rallies and sympathetic politicians.
There is a lot of pretending needed in order to reconcile how the professional political left embraces violence, then claims to desire peace. The easier approach is always to just accept things as they are, not as we would pretend them to be. However, if you understand this confliction, then you can well imagine how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must feel each time he talks to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
Today, Secretary Blinken is back in Israel and gave remarks to the press after his meeting with Netanyahu. There were actually some good questions raised during the press Q&A segment. One question about the “ultimate goal and vision in the aftermath” was particularly interesting. WATCH:
[TRANSCRIPT] – SECRETARY BLINKEN: Good afternoon, everyone.
“Days after Hamas’s attack on October 7th, I came to Israel, followed soon thereafter by President Biden, to make clear that as long as the United States stands, Israel will never stand alone. Today, in my fourth visit to Israel since October 7th, I reiterated that in all my discussions – with Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Herzog, the security cabinet. I reiterated and made clear our support for Israel’s right to defend itself, indeed its obligation to defend itself. That includes through the additional assistance that we’ve worked with Congress and we’re working with Congress now to provide for Israel’s defense, as well as for urgent humanitarian needs in Gaza.
If it was a Democrat sponsored bill, the media would be highlighting the bipartisan nature of the vote. However, because it is a Republican sponsored bill, the media immediately say the stand alone measure to support Israel is dead upon arrival in the Senate.
Joe Biden has said he will veto the House version of the bill, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said he will not entertain the bill due to the pay-go funding mechanism (removal of $14.3 billion in IRS funding) and the fact it is not a package bill that includes support for Ukraine. Biden wants his $106 billion bill with funds for Israel, Ukraine, Hamas (via USAID), Taiwan and support for arriving migrants. Chuck Schumer is working with Mitch McConnell to put the combined package together.
Twelve Democrats supported the $14.3 billion House bill, and two Republicans voted against it (MTGreene and Massie). The vote was 226-196 for passage.
WASHINGTON – […] While aid to Israel is something both parties strongly agree with, Democratic support for the legislation broke down after Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) added a provision in the bill that would cut $14.3 billion in funding from the Internal Revenue Service to offset the cost of the aid to Israel — prompting Democratic leaders to encourage party members to vote against it.
The White House released the following statement:
