the definite article 38
whaddya expect? mostly politics this week
Do you remember Dr. Ludovico Zamenhoff? He believed that if everyone spoke the same language, there would be less international conflict. He even created an artificial universal language called Esperanto for that glorified and naïve purpose. That was at the beginning of the 20th century, the bloodiest century in the history of the world. In this essay, Peter Berkowitz introduces us to the Commission on Unalienable Rights, founded by former Sec. of State Mike Pompeo, which aims to do with values what Esperanto was to do to language. It is a laudable goal. Let us hope he has better success than Dr. Zamenhoff.
This is a short study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies that examines the success of Jihadi organizations in planning and carrying out terror attacks in the US. In their opinion, we have not much to worry about.
https://www.csis.org/analysis/jihadist-terrorism-united-states
Researcher Kochava Elyakin-Ley focused her study of the October 7 invasion on the preponderance of particularly brutal terror acts that were performed in a family setting, seemingly in order to increase the suffering of both victims and witnesses. This is being defined as a new category of crime called kinocide, from the word kin.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-840279
If you’re looking for a brief and informative update on the Hamas war and relevant topics, this piece by Ron Ben Ishai on Ynet does fine. He publish before the Trump-Netanyahu summit but seems to have anticipated some of the ideas.
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/b1vcvihojg
Some of the most brutal murderers released in the current hostage deals with Hamas are those who planted bombs or carried out acts that killed American citizens. Joseph Frager believes that America should extradite those terrorists and put them on trial in America.
https://www.jns.org/us-should-demand-the-extradition-of-terrorists-who-killed-its-citizens/
Brendan O’Neill, Chief Political Writer for Spiked, note the irony of the virtually simultaneous release of British citizen Emily Demari’s release from terrorist captivity, some periods of which she was hidden in an UNRWA facility, and Britain’s sending over $20m in financial aid to that very same UN agency. While the Palestinian Authority pays stipends for Palestinian terrorists serving terms in Israeli prisons, the British government funds a terrorist affiliated UN agency to keep its own citizen captive.
I like Eve Barlow (not personally, but I read her stuff) but she does get repetitive. This is a strong and important piece, and I recommend it.
Alex Winston of the Jerusalem Post believes that Trump’s stunning proposal for Gaza is a case of “take me seriously but not literally.” The goal was to shake things up and induce some players who have been jawing but sitting on the sidelines (Egypt, Jordan, and the Gulf states) to get involved.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-840776
Ending with three pieces from the Free Press. The first is a debate between two scholars, both associated with FIRE, discussing Trump’s executive order which would allow the government to deport foreign students who express pro-jihadi sympathies or engage in violent demonstrations that support terrorist movements.
These last two pieces are by Charles Lane, and it’s just an example of the good side of the Free Press. The first article, publish a day or two after Trump saized the executive order placing large tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico unless they tightened up security on their borders, excoriated Trump for unnecessary and insulting moves against our two closest neighbors. The second article, published two days later after both Mexico and Canada too strong measures to secure their borders with the US and Trump;s suspension of the tariffs, brought Lane to admit error and reconsider his original article. The same dedication to truth can be found also in the Free Press’ treatment of MAHA and the candidacy of RFK Jr. as Secretary of HHS – there are several articles, articulate articles presented on both sides. This is the approach to news that is mostly missing in our days.