Starting in the Johnson administration, in 1964, Israel has relied on its military and economic ties with the United States for the supply of personal weapons. A high point in this support was the “air train” that transferred military equipment from the US to Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and the 2023 Iron Swords War. Israel purchases from the US most of its small arms: the M16 and M4 rifles, and sniper rifles.
An attack in northern Israel on Monday killed Patnibin Maxwell, a thirty-one year old from India working in Israel with a wife seven-months pregnant, India Today reported. Nine others were wounded.
“The incident happened near Margaliot, targeting agricultural workers, Israel confirmed,” the report said.
It’s not known if they were the target, but Hezbollah’s attacks are calculating. In addition to thousands of unguided rockets, it has also used anti-tank guided missiles to target many specific locations on the border. It has damaged 500 buildings in this war, since October 8 in support of the Hamas massacre the day before.
Hezbollah is only displaying the threat that could emerge in a larger war, enabled by the international community the past two decades. Israel left Lebanon in 2000 and Hezbollah became exponentially more powerful. This happened in Gaza too Israel left it in 2005.In both instances terror groups moved closer to Israel’s border and with the backing of Iran and connivance of other countries, the groups became massively powerful. In essence, Hamas today is like Hezbollah was a decade ago. Hezbollah is considered the stronger of the two groups. However, Hamas showed on October 7 that it poses an existential threat. We now know the number of Hamas tunnels was underestimated. In addition we know Hamas likely pushed messages via third countries that were designed to lure Israel into a false sense that Hamas was “deterred.”
Canada intends to announce the renewal of UNRWA funding next week, Maariv reported on Wednesday.
This comes in the backdrop of an expected visit by Canadian foreign minister Mélanie Joly to the Middle East, where Joly will first visit Israel and meet her counterpart, Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz, alongside other Israeli officials.
Maariv added that foreign diplomatic sources reported that Canada, which stopped funding UNRWA following investigations into the connections between UNRWA members and Hamas, including participation in the October 7 massacre, will renew its funding of the organization.
This is a developing story.
In a study led by scientists at Mass General Brigham, deep brain stimulation (DBS) was able to pinpoint dysfunctions in the brain that are responsible for four cognitive disorders: Parkinson’s disease, dystonia (a muscle disorder condition that causes repetitive or twisting movements), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and Tourette’s syndrome.
The discovery, published in Nature Neuroscience on Feb. 22, could potentially help doctors determine new treatments for these disorders.
The study included 261 patients worldwide — 70 had dystonia, 127 were Parkinson’s disease patients, 50 had been diagnosed with OCD and 14 had Tourette’s syndrome.
The researchers implanted electrodes into the brains of each participant and used special software to determine which brain circuits were dysfunctional in each of the four disorders.
“In simplified terms, when brain circuits become dysfunctional, they may act as brakes for the specific brain functions that the circuit usually carries out,” Andreas Horn, M.D., PhD, associate professor of neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said in a press release.
“Applying DBS may release the brake and may in part restore functionality.”
Horn, one of the 39 researchers from 16 institutions who co-authored the study, went into more detail in a conversation with Fox News Digital.
Everything he touches turns into a crisis.
Like Carter, Biden has presided over an inflationary economy, spiking interest rates, shortages of essential goods, and danger and disaster abroad.
Carter offered the world Christian meekness and no “inordinate fear of communism.”
The world responded with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the agonizing hostage crisis in Iran.
Biden’s self-inflicted rout from Afghanistan was followed by the release of $6 billion to the religious mafia that rules Iran.
In return, the Iranian regime has encouraged its proxies to kill American soldiers and attack American warships.
Forces of ‘Our Democracy’
The most important way in which Biden resembles Carter is this: voters have made up their minds about him.
They think he’s a loser, and they want him gone.
That’s true even of Democrats, a majority of whom think he’s too old and dotty to stick around for a second term.
Biden is a loser.
If 2024 were a normal presidential election, Donald Trump would beat him like a drum.
Nikki Haley would beat him.
Spongebob Squarepants would beat him.
Yet these are not normal times, and there’s a high degree of probability that Biden will be reelected.
Remember when rape was a sickening crime, and not a form of resistance?
Remember when #MeToo was a universal movement against sexual violence that brooked no excuses or exceptions?
Those landmark advances came after long struggles, and now they are being riddled with exclusions and in danger of being gutted.
All because the latest victims are Israelis.
Or, as an Instagram meme put it, “Me Too Unless You’re a Jew.”
Antisemitism takes many forms, and we must add to the list the refusal to accept as fact the horrific scope of rape and sexual mutilation carried out by Muslim terrorists on Oct. 7.
The claim by Hamas that there were no sexual atrocities has given license for despicable apologists in America and abroad to insist such crimes never happened.
Or if they did, well, there were only a few.
Besides, the Israelis had it coming.
A new report from the United Nations, though belated and imperfect, puts the lie to the denial and excuses.
But there is one very tangible outcome that will define success after this tragic war is over: UNRWA must be abolished.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was established in 1949, just after Israel's independence, to provide aid to new Palestinian refugees, not just in Gaza but in Jordan, Lebanon, and across the Arab world. For the past 75 years, it has failed to help Palestinians build a stable future while actively perpetuating conflict. Recordings released this week provided further evidence of UNRWA workers' participation in the October 7 attacks. It's long past time for another entity to take over.
Start with the fact a refugee agency should be getting refugees off its rolls and reducing the number of people who need to be supported by the global community. If more refugees are coming onto the rolls year after year, that agency, by definition, is doing something very wrong.
L.A. - disturbing video footage captures Mark Nakagawa, President of the United Methodist Church, taking a marker and drawing a swastika on a Jewish woman's package of soda. pic.twitter.com/pMnmauW6z1
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) March 4, 2024
A West LA mother of two recalled an “ugly” incident with her neighbor, in which he allegedly drew a swastika on the grocery delivery order on her porch.
It happened back on Dec. 4, 2023. Leah Grossman said it was after 10 p.m. when she got an alert from her security system. The camera showed a man, who she identified as her neighbor, appearing to look around, before bending over and drawing something on a box of soda on her porch.
Grossman immediately left her home and confronted the man, who turned out to be a former president of the Methodist church, Mark Nagakawa.
“As soon as I looked at the box to see what he wrote, I said, ‘Is that a Nazi symbol,’” Grossman said. “He said ‘No.’ Right away, ‘no.’ And then I said, ‘What is it then? Can you just explain that to me? What am I looking at?’ And he really just kind of played dumb until I said, ‘You know I have a camera right there?’”
Grossman filed a police report, and said she was told by police that this was not a hate crime, but rather a hate incident. She said she also contacted the property managers and the homeowner’s association.
Grossman said relations with her neighbor turned chilly after she displayed an Israeli flag on her banister on Oct. 7, and he became angry.
“I didn’t put that flag up to be a fascist,” Grossman said. “I didn’t put that up to say I hate anyone. I put it up to support the people that were feeling the same as me, and that was it.”
The former first lady maintains a star power within Democratic politics, despite largely removing herself from the political scene in recent years.
'As former First Lady Michelle Obama has expressed several times over the years, she will not be running for president,' said Crystal Carson, director of communications for her office, told NBC News.
'Mrs. Obama supports President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris' re-election campaign.'
A recent Rasmussen survey found that nearly 50 percent of Democrats support replacing Biden at the top of the ticket, and of them more Democrats would like to see Michelle Obama, 20 percent, than Vice President Kamala Harris, 15 percent.
Israeli intelligence revealed Monday night (March 4) that more than 450 terrorists belonging to terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, mainly Hamas, were — and in some cases still are — also employed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) tasked with providing humanitarian aid and educational services to the Palestinian Authority and Gaza populations.
The IDF has revealed two recordings incriminating two UNRWA teachers who took part in the October 7 massacre.
The first recording is of a terrorist working as an Arabic teacher at an UNRWA school in ‘Deir al-Balah’ describing his entry into Israeli territory and stating that he is holding female Israeli hostages.
“We have female captives (sabaya). I caught one,” an UNRWA “teacher” says. “We entered. I saw… They shot them in the eyes. I saw two, me and another guy from our group… Wow, what they did. Listen, they did actions for liberation Inshallah (Allah willing).”
The FBI is on a manhunt for an Iranian intelligence officer allegedly overseeing a plot to assassinate current and former federal government officials as revenge for the Trump administration's 2020 airstrike killing of an Iranian military official.
Last Friday, the agency's Miami field office issued an alert that Majid Dastjani Farahani "is wanted for questioning in connection with the recruitment of individuals for various operations in the United States." Those operations, the alert adds, include the assassinations of "current and former United States Government officials as revenge for the killing of IRGC-QF Commander Qasem Soleimani."
Watch this. It’ll remind that humans are GOOD. Grab a tissue. pic.twitter.com/6T8T5nJetn
— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) March 4, 2024
A Texas husband moved in with his wife’s critically disabled ex and devoted himself to helping care for him — even to changing him and giving him baths.
James Armstrong, 36, married wife Kris in 2016, but their relationship came with an unusual arrangement.
Kris, 38, is the legal guardian of her high school sweetheart and ex-husband, 38-year-old Brandon, who suffered severe brain damage in a car accident two years after their 2006 wedding.
As a result, Brandon was left with dramatically reduced mental and physical capacity, and unable to care for himself.
After years of caring for Brandon as his wife, Kris decided she needed to move on with her life — but did not want to give up on him. So she divorced him, then filed paperwork to become his legal guardian.
When James met Kris, he knew Brandon would be a part of their lives, but was more than happy to welcome him into his life — and assume with his wife all the responsibility of caring for her ex-husband.
“He needs us. He needs people that love him.”
Together the couple do everything with Brandon — from changing and bathing him, to feeding him and bringing him to medical appointments. Kris and James are with Brandon every step of the way.
“I think in the physicality of him helping Brandon, that’s one piece. The fact that we change Brandon together, I can do it by myself but it’s very, very hard,” Kris said.
“James helps me, that is such a gift of love,” she added.
The blended family also includes James and Kris’ kids, who dote on Brandon and refer to him as their “uncle.”
Despite the life they’ve created together, James said he would give it all up in a moment if there were an opportunity for Brandon to recover.
“He said if some miracle treatment happens for people with a brain injury and Brandon can be healed, he said, ‘I would want you to be with him, you were with him first,'” Kris said.
“And I don’t think that’s gonna happen, but just the fact that, you’re a very special person, you really are,” she told James in the interview with “CBS Mornings.”
James maintains he’s just doing what he thinks is right.
“I do what my heart tells me to do,” he said.
James’ love for Brandon is so profound, he said, he would still take care of him even if Kris were no longer around to do so herself.
“I also told her if anything happens to her or she passes away, I will fight for guardianship. He will have another advocate,” James said.
Brandon lives in a nursing home, but Kris and James regularly drop in to visit and take care of him, and document their life with him on their TikTok account.
In the month of April in the year 711, the governor of Tangier, Tariq ibn Ziyad, with only 9 thousands of his soldiers landed in Iberia. By 719, the Arabs were already standing near Toulouse, and in 720 – they were at the Rhone delta. The Iberian Peninsula was captured in less than 10 years. This was a stunning success; medieval Europe was not ready for anything like this.
Arabs are excellent psychologists. They “feel their enemy”, analyze his weaknesses and strengths, draw conclusions from their victories and defeats - at different times and in different places. And they are infinitely faithful to their dream: the revival of the Caliphate. This aim justifies all means.
The key event that changed the collective consciousness of the Arab world was the victory in Afghanistan over the Soviet army. A powerful totalitarian superpower that had neither moral doubts, nor reflections was defeated by irregular formations of the “Mujahideen.” That was the first turning point. If the “Mujahideen” were able to win the Soviet army, then what would prevent them from coping with the loose, insecure, notorious, and confused West?
This gave impetus to Islamic ambitions, the consequences of which were 9/11, mass terror, al-Qaeda, ISIS.
Yair Mor of the Tikva Forum, brother of Eitan Mor, who was taken hostage to Gaza, participated in a Knesset debate on Monday and said he did not understand the discussion on easing restrictions for Palestinian Authority Arabs during Ramadan.
"Hamas destroyed the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah for us, so the simple equation is that they should not have Ramadan either. They talk to us about the easing restrictions for them, that we should reach some wanton deal before Ramadan. Why? Because it's a so-called holy holiday. So no, Ramadan is a holiday of murdering Jews. It's not a holy holiday. Who cares about their Ramadan? We care about our hostages. Because we care about the hostages, we should be increasing the military pressure, especially during Ramadan, so that they see not to mess with us," said Mor.
"I don't understand how all the Israeli media is talking about Ramadan and not about military pressure that will lead us to the hostages? Common sense says is that we should be increasing military pressure throughout the month of Ramadan. Any normal, life-seeking country, anyone who wants the hostages alive and home now, will increase military pressure, especially during Ramadan," he added.
He stressed that, "We must not agree to a partial and dangerous deal that will sentence my brother to more years in captivity, because there is talk of a deal for 40 hostages now. Any deal that doesn't include everyone is bad."
"In order to reach a deal, we must come from a position of power. We should be the local bully, not Hamas. I don't understand how they still dictate the terms of the deal to us. How come we still don't have a list of all the live hostages who will be released in any deal? I support the Prime Minister who is not willing to move things forward until we receive a list of all the hostages, whether alive or dead. Already 150 days have passed and we have no idea who is alive and who is dead. This is just ridiculous.
"I call on the War Cabinet not to take Ramadan into account in any way, [and] to increase the military pressure, because if the Cabinet says that military pressure will lead to the release of the hostages, then we must increase the military pressure," Mor concluded.
The Supreme Court on Monday unanimously restored Donald Trump to 2024 presidential primary ballots, rejecting state attempts to ban the Republican former president over the Capitol riot.
The justices ruled a day before the Super Tuesday primaries that states cannot invoke a post-Civil War constitutional provision to keep presidential candidates from appearing on ballots. That power resides with Congress, the court wrote in an unsigned opinion.
Trump posted on his social media network shortly after the decision was released: “BIG WIN FOR AMERICA!!!”
The outcome ends efforts in Colorado, Illinois, Maine and elsewhere to kick Trump, the front-runner for his party’s nomination, off the ballot because of his attempts to undo his loss in the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold expressed disappointment in the court’s decision as she acknowledged that “Donald Trump is an eligible candidate on Colorado’s 2024 Presidential Primary.”
Trump’s case was the first at the Supreme Court dealing with a provision of the 14th Amendment that was adopted after the Civil War to prevent former officeholders who “engaged in insurrection” from holding office again.
Colorado’s Supreme Court, in a first-of-its-kind ruling, had decided that the provision, Section 3, could be applied to Trump, who that court found incited the Capitol attack. No court before had applied Section 3 to a presidential candidate.
The justices sidestepped the politically fraught issue of insurrection in their opinions Monday, but some Trump critics pointed to the silence on that topic as a victory of sorts because the court failed to absolve him of responsibility for the Capitol riot.
The court held that states may bar candidates from state office. “But States have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the Presidency,” the court wrote.
While all nine justices agreed that Trump should be on the ballot, there was sharp disagreement from the three liberal members of the court and a milder disagreement from conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett that their colleagues went too far in determining what Congress must do to disqualify someone from federal office.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson said they agreed that allowing the Colorado decision to stand could create a “chaotic state by state patchwork” but said they disagreed with the majority’s finding a disqualification for insurrection can only happen when Congress enacts legislation. “Today, the majority goes beyond the necessities of this case to limit how Section 3 can bar an oathbreaking insurrectionist from becoming President,” the three justices wrote in a joint opinion.
It’s unclear whether the ruling leaves open the possibility that Congress could refuse to certify the election of Trump or any other presidential candidate it sees as having violated Section 3.
Derek Muller, a law professor at Notre Dame University, said “it seems no,” noting that the liberals complained that the majority ruling forecloses any other ways for Congress to enforce the provision. Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California-Los Angeles, wrote that it’s frustratingly unclear what the bounds might be on Congress.
Hasen was among those urging the court to settle the issue so there wasn’t the risk of Congress rejecting Trump under Section 3 when it counts electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2025.
“We may well have a nasty, nasty post-election period in which Congress tries to disqualify Trump but the Supreme Court says Congress exceeded its powers,” he wrote.
Both sides had requested fast work by the court, which heard arguments less than a month ago, on Feb. 8. The justices seemed poised then to rule in Trump’s favor.
Trump had been kicked off the ballots in Colorado, Maine and Illinois, but all three rulings were on hold awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision.
