Displaying posts published in

October 2023

HOMELAND SECURITY, IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Border Crisis Invites Terrorists Officials also need to consider the risk of a copycat attacker inspired by Hamas’s brutality. By Paul Mauro

By on October 14th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/american-border-crisis-invites-terrorists-to-attack-c7f154bc?mod=opinion_lead_pos7

What does war in Gaza mean for U.S. homeland security? The sudden outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Hamas creates three broad categories of risk for domestic counterterrorism officials. First among them is America’s porous southern border.

I worked in counterterrorism with the New York City Police Department for 15 years. During that time, an undocumented border-crosser with a bad-guy footprint was a rarity. It’s hard for a foreign terror group to project power overseas. Not only is it expensive to deploy operatives on foreign soil, but doing so is rife with potential points of failure. The discovery of one in New York would have caused a “spin-up” involving major resources from surveillance teams to phone and cyber forensics.

The disaster at the southern border has made it easy for a potential terrorist to slip into the country. Such a “clean skin” is virtually untraceable. To make matters worse, we are inviting these border-crossers to come and paying their way to major terror targets like New York.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL Comments turned off

What Israeli Victory Would Look Like To achieve its objectives in Gaza and secure the Jewish state, Jerusalem needs to turn the tables on Tehran. By Elliot Kaufman

By on October 14th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-israeli-victory-would-look-like-hamas-war-b5a2ee80?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

“Mr. Falk says, “I truly hope, and I actually expect, that the civilized world will support us not only when we’re the victims, but also when we’re the victors here.” Victory might also save the prospects for a peace agreement with Saudi Arabia. “In this neighborhood, the strong survive,” Mr. Falk says. “The main reason that prior peace agreements were reached was because we’re strong.”

“I’m driving south to the Gaza corridor, the place Hamas invaded on Saturday,” Yonah Jeremy Bob says in our first phone conversation. “But it’s a straight drive, so let’s talk.” Mr. Bob is an expert on the Israeli shadow war with Iran, the subject of his new book, “Target Tehran,” and he covers the Israeli intelligence agencies and military for the Jerusalem Post. He’s busy tracking down answers to the questions every Israeli wants answered: How could this have happened? What’s the plan? Who will pay?

Continue reading →
ISRAEL Comments turned off

Benny Avni: America’s Lloyd Austin, Who Stared ‘Evil in the Eye’ While Commanding GIs Against ISIS, Emerges as a Powerful Ally of Israel in the War Against Hamas The defense secretary’s clarity could go a long way toward muzzling the growing international criticism of Israel as ground operations begin in Gaza.

By on October 14th, 2023

https://www.nysun.com/article/americas-lloyd-austin-who-stared-evil-in-the-eye-while-commanding-gis-against-isis-emerges-as-a-powerful-ally-

When, even as Israeli special forces are entering Gaza in preparation for a massive invasion,  a top official says that Hamas is worse than ISIS, what jumps out is the identity of the speaker: In this case it’s the U.S. defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, who has devised much of America’s war on ISIS, and he knows the pitfalls of battling terrorism. 

“In countering ISIS, I felt that we were staring evil in the eye. What we are seeing with Hamas is taking that evil to another level,” Mr. Austin said Friday during a Tel Aviv press conference alongside his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant.

The retired four-star general’s clarity could go a long way toward muzzling the growing international criticism of Israel, which on Thursday urged northern Gaza civilians to evacuate and move farther south. On the Strip’s roads, long lines of cars were seen traveling away from Gaza City, where Israel is expected to concentrate its complex operation to dismantle Hamas’s military capabilities.

On Friday afternoon, special IDF units entered northern Gaza as the air force  constantly pummeled buildings at Shujaiyeh, Gaza City’s home to top Hamas leaders. The special forces reportedly discovered several bodies of abducted Israelis. 

Self-described international human rights bodies are complaining that 1.1 million Gazans living in the city and north of it have no place to go. Some accuse Israel of committing a war crime. The United Nations “considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” its spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said. 

“All who can influence Israel must push for this madness to stop and the order to evacuate reversed,” a former UN official and current leader of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, wrote on X. Even as similar organizations have, at best, weakly condemned the Hamas atrocities that launched the war, they are now urging America to muzzle Israel.

Continue reading →