On COI #496, Kyle Anzalone discusses the latest news about the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
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Who Is Drinking Netanyahu’s Amalek Kool-Aid?
“You must ‘remember what Amalek has done to you,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admonished on October 28, announcing the “second phase,” a ground invasion, of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Amalek, in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), is a nation that ambushed the Israelites making their way to the Promised Land. Following the attack, which they were able to beat back, God instructed that they must never forget and must wage an eternal war until no trace of Amalek’s existence remains. Generations later, King Saul killed all but the Amalekite king, whose descendent, Haman, generations after that, in the story of Purim, plotted to kill all the Jews in Persia.
Netanyahu is notoriously secular in his private life. But, ever the shrewd politician, scripture is his language of choice to sell his war to Jewish supremacists in Israel and right-wing Evangelicals in the U.S.
Continue reading “Who Is Drinking Netanyahu’s Amalek Kool-Aid?”
White House: ‘Many Thousands’ of Innocents Killed in Gaza… But Weapons to Israel Will Continue!
From today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:
The White House admitted through National Security Council spokesman John Kirby that “many thousands” of innocent civilians have been killed in Gaza and that many more civilians would continue to be killed… but it refused to slow down weapons shipments or caution Israel over the death toll. Also today, only four House Republicans stand up for free speech in the censure of Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.
US Corporate Media Outlets Allow IDF to Vet ‘All Materials’ From Embedded Reporters in Gaza
U.S. corporate media outlets have granted Israeli military commanders pre-publication review rights for “all materials and footage” recorded by their correspondents embedded with the Israel Defense Forces during the invasion of Gaza, a precondition condemned by press freedom advocates.
“Journalists embedded with the IDF in Gaza operate under the observation of Israeli commanders in the field, and are not permitted to move unaccompanied within the Gaza Strip,” Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN‘s “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” explained in a segment on Sunday.
Conflicts of Interest: Israel Is Destroying Gaza, But Not Hamas
On COI #495, Kyle Anzalone breaks down the latest news from Ukraine and Israel.
Subscribe on YouTube and audio-only.
Regime Change Is Not the Answer
Surprising no one, Danielle Pletka wants the US to seek regime change in Iran:
Rather, it is the Reagan doctrine and the collapse of the Soviet Union that should guide a policy for change in Tehran. Like the Soviet Union and its satellites, Iran’s regime is deeply unpopular with its own people. Three major uprisings took place in 2009, 2019, and 2022, despite the government’s increasingly repressive police state.
In none of those instances, did any Western country provide more than token support for the Iranian people.
Regime change is a misguided and destructive policy. If it “worked,” it would be destabilizing for the wider region and it would probably trigger civil war in Iran. The current regime would not go quietly. That could create a disastrous conflict like the one that engulfed Syria, but on a much larger scale. If the Reagan Doctrine’s record is anything to go by, the US would be plunging Iran into years of bloodshed and atrocities committed by death squads, but the casualties and the number of refugees would be far greater than in Nicaragua or Angola.
If the US managed to bring the current system down, there is no guarantee that it would lead to a better government. It is not at all certain that it would lead to the changes in Iranian foreign policy that many Westerners want to see. The assumption that this “solves” anything is baseless. More to the point, the US has no right to interfere in Iranian affairs, and I suspect most Iranian opponents of their government would want nothing to do with Washington’s “help.”
Read the rest of the article at Eunomia
Daniel Larison is a contributing editor for Antiwar.com and maintains his own site at Eunomia. He is former senior editor at The American Conservative. He has been published in the New York Times Book Review, Dallas Morning News, World Politics Review, Politico Magazine, Orthodox Life, Front Porch Republic, The American Scene, and Culture11, and was a columnist for The Week. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Chicago, and resides in Lancaster, PA. Follow him on Twitter.