RELIGION Comments turned off

Will the faithful inherit the Earth? The election of Pope Leo arrives at a time of rapid Christian revival. Joel Kotkin

Posted By on May 25th, 2025

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/05/24/will-the-faithful-inherit-the-earth/

The elevation of the new pope from Chicago may have excited progressive ideologues with hopes for another wokeish papacy. But the rise of little-known Robert Prevost to his new status as Pope Leo XIV comes amid a profoundly unwoke recovery of religious feeling in the West. After generations of decline, Christianity is making a comeback.

To be sure, this revival is still tentative and faces enormous headwinds. The decline of religion remains a fundamental reality in most Western countries, particularly in Europe, where well over 50 per cent of people under the age of 30 do not identify with any religion. In the US, the trajectory has been similar, albeit at a slower pace. In 1965, 70 per cent of respondents to a Gallup poll said religion is ‘very important’ in their lives. Today, fewer than half of Americans – 45 per cent – say religion is ‘very important’.

This decline has led some religious conservatives, like Ross Douthat of the New York Times, to predict a coming ‘age of extinction’ – a world bereft of churches, community and families. Others, like Christian intellectual Rod Dreher, suggest that religious people, like the early Christians, should create their own separate communities – what he calls ‘the Benedict option’ – to cope with an increasingly post-religious world.

Yet the pessimists may be overstating their case. In America, at least, there is evidence of a lingering spiritual hunger: more than half of ‘religiously unaffiliated’ Americans, for example, still believe in God or some kind of universal spirit. Meanwhile, one recent survey shows that young people are increasingly embracing religion, with millennials among the biggest drivers of Christianity’s revival in the US.

There is even evidence of renewal in decidedly secular Europe. France’s Catholic Church claims to have baptised 45 per cent more people this Easter than it did last year. According to the Bible Society, the UK is undergoing a similar conversion. It reports that the number of 18- to 24-year-olds who attend church at least monthly has quadrupled, from four per cent in 2018 to 16 per cent today. The Bible Society said there are two million more people attending church now than there were six years ago.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

POSITIVE NEWS FROM ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN *******

Posted By on May 25th, 2025

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

There are more new Israeli medical discoveries and treatments; the secrets of the DNA exposed in the human microbiome; an Israeli medical innovation outpost opened in Boston. US care staff explained how to support children suffering from cancer; and a German TV network shown how an Israeli hospital treats trauma patients. Plus the truth about Israel’s inclusive society, as told by two Israeli Arabs and a visiting Bahraini Moslem woman.

Read how Israeli technology is showcased in the US and European militaries, US healthcare and Japanese telecoms providers, and in the financial centers and institutions of London, Germany and Singapore.  Europeans were stunned when Israel’s Yuval Raphael showcased her transformation from Nova festival survivor to Eurovision singing sensation. And US motor racing enthusiasts gasped as an Israeli rookie rocketed to pole position at the start of the Indy 500. Michael Ordman

 

POSITIVE NEWS IN A WAR
 
Saving lives on the battlefield. A tragic fact of war is the number of casualties. But even here, Israel is setting global standards. We already know about the record low ratio of civilian to combatant ratios. But the IDF Medical Corps is also achieving the world’s fastest casualty evacuation times, saving hundreds of lives.
https://www.jns.org/idf-sets-global-standard-in-combat-casualty-evacuations/
 
Israeli hospitals innovate to rehabilitate. (TY Hazel) One of Israel’s major achievements post 7 Oct 2023 has been how Israeli hospitals have developed protocols for treating the 139 returning hostages from Gaza. They had to cater for children who had suffered abuse and adults suffering severe psychological and physical injuries.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/facing-a-hostage-situation-without-precedent-israeli-hospitals-innovate-to-rehabilitate/
 
Movie about female tank brigade heroines. (TY Yanky) On 7 Oct 2023, Israel’s first all-female tank unit (see here previously) pitted their three armored vehicles against hundreds of Hamas terrorists in a battle lasting over 17 hours. The story of these fearless female soldiers is now to be featured in a new movie, entitled “Tankistas”.
https://deadline.com/2025/05/swell-ariel-or-october-7-film-tank-unit-tankistas-1236388126/
 
Honoring Oct 7 victims at the highest level. Minyan Everest, a group of Jewish climbers, pray and unfurl a banner of 7th Oct 2023 victims’ names at the top of the highest mountains. On one climb their sherpa guides told them that Hamas had murdered 10 of their fellow Nepalese in the attack. Their names were on the banner.
https://www.jns.org/french-jewish-mountaineers-bring-solidarity-to-new-heights/
 
One in five combat soldiers is a woman. The IDF has reported that women now account for 20% of troops serving in both active and reserve combat units. It highlighted efforts to integrate women into additional roles and units.  https://www.ynetnews.com/article/ryk15009xeg
 
Wounded Fauda star performs at airport. Israeli singer-songwriter and Fauda actor Idan Amedi was filmed giving an impromptu performance at Miami airport. He was about to fly to New York on his first US tour since being wounded in battle in Gaza. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/408305
 
New El Al plane named “Acheinu”. El Al’s 17th Boeing 787 “Dreamliner” has not been named after an Israeli city, rather “Acheinu Kol Beit Yisrael”, meaning “Our brothers, the entire House of Israel.” It is from the morning prayer, asking G-d to protect and have mercy on Jews in captivity and bring them home in peace.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/408633
 
German TV features Herzog hospital Jerusalem. (TY Yanky) The German news network RTL featured how Herzog Medical Center in Jerusalem  has helped Israelis cope with trauma during the war. The RTL Foundation also made a significant donation to the hospital. Turn on captions and auto-translate into English.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsqOXgttsVY
 
Israeli Arabs reject Hamas. After Oct 7, Israel’s 2-million-strong Arab minority didn’t riot, wave Hamas flags or cheer. Arab medics treated the wounded. Arab mayors calmed tensions. Arabs donated blood, delivered aid and helped evacuate families. Arab enlistment in the IDF grew. Israeli Arabs stood with Israel.
https://nypost.com/2025/05/15/opinion/arab-israelis-stand-with-their-country-reject-hamas-hate/

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

The Consequences of Trump Walking Away from the Russia-Ukraine Conflict by Con Coughlin

Posted By on May 25th, 2025

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21647/trump-russia-ukraine-conflict

Far from helping to end the war in Ukraine, all the indications suggest that US President Donald Trump’s mediation efforts are not only prolonging the conflict, but increasing the likelihood that Russia will ultimately emerge victorious.

Indeed, far from showing any interest in ending Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine, the Russian leader has given every intention that he intends to continue fighting until victory has been achieved.

Nor does there appear to be any serious prospect that Trump will be willing to hit the Kremlin with further sanctions, let alone military encouragement, if it fails to show any serious interest in peace negotiations.

The problem with Trump’s hands-off approach to the Ukraine conflict is that it could ultimately prove counterproductive for the US and its allies, as the more Washington indicates it is losing interest in the conflict, the more encouraged Moscow becomes that it will ultimately achieve victory.

This outcome would be a disaster for the entire Nato alliance — including the US, which would see its extensive trade ties with Europe threatened by Russian aggression.

In addition, Trump walking away from the conflict would be seen worldwide as a green light to other US adversaries, such as Iran and China, that it is open season, as the US is not serious about defending any allied territory.

As someone who shows a keen interest in expanding America’s trade ties, Trump of all people should understand the disastrous implications another Putin-inspired war would have for the US economy.

Far from helping to end the war in Ukraine, all the indications suggest that US President Donald Trump’s mediation efforts are not only prolonging the conflict, but increasing the likelihood that Russia will ultimately emerge victorious.

Trump’s pledge to end the conflict within 24 hours of taking office now seems but a distant memory.

NATIONAL SECURITY AND DEFENSE Comments turned off

The Centenary of Buckley and the Crisis of Free Speech William F. Buckley Jr.’s centenary arrives as free speech falters and truth-telling grows perilous—a reminder that every generation must fight anew for civilization’s soul. By Roger Kimball

Posted By on May 25th, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/05/25/334453/

William F. Buckley, Jr., who died in February 2008, would have been 100 years old in November of this year. There are many tributes planned to celebrate his centenary. The huge, authorized biography by Sam Tanenhaus will be out in just a few weeks. I will not say anything about that book apart from noting that its subtitle—“The Life and the Revolution That Changed America”— is apt.

For five or six years at the end of his life, I would generally see Bill at least weekly. We sailed and dined, emailed, and spoke on the phone very often. I find it hard to believe that seventeen years have passed since he died. In some ways, it seems like yesterday.

It is interesting to ask what Bill would make of the contemporary cultural and political scene. He had witnessed similar follies throughout the 1960s and 1970s. And after all, the Sage of Ecclesiastes was right: there is nothing new under the sun, though many of our most prominent cultural figures seem to believe that they occupy a unique perch at the very apogee of virtue and moral rectitude and are therefore entitled, O how entitled, to discard the achievements and admonitions of the past as so many false starts and dead ends on the way to true enlightenment, which is to say, to whatever they happen to believe at the moment.

It is important to remember how general the assault on our civilization was in the 1960s. It wasn’t just protests against the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, or the new hedonism. What was aimed at was nothing less than what Nietzsche called the “transvaluation of all values.”

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

To President Trump: The Iranian Regime Will Always Seek Your and America’s Death by Majid Rafizadeh

Posted By on May 24th, 2025

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21644/iran-death-to-america

“When you chant ‘Death to America!’ it is not just a slogan – it is a policy.” — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Channel 1 (Iran), November 1, 2023.

What did Iran do with this windfall of billions in cash and at least $100 billion in unfrozen assets received during Obama’s term? They funneled the money into Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, the regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and a sprawling regional terror network. Iran enriched uranium and built long-range ballistic missiles — some with a range far beyond what is needed to attack Israel. Iran expanded its influence in Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and Venezuela — all while promising America’s destruction with renewed fervor.

The dangerous reality is that while the United States continues to dangle olive branches, Iran continues to rebuild its air defense systems and enlarge up its ballistic missile arsenal for future attacks.

Like Russia’s and China’s, Iran’s is not a regime seeking peace.

The willingness of many American foreign policy elites to believe that everyone can be “brought in from the cold” is what continues to place the U.S. in constant danger. The cruel fact is that the China, Russia and Iran have different goals than the United States. The US and Trump want peace and prosperity. China, Russia and Iran do not give a flying lawbook about their citizens; they want conquest

We are not victims of Iran’s deception; we are victims of our own delusions.

[E]very time a new U.S. president takes office, the same tired fantasy sprouts up: “This time, it will be different.” No, it will not. The regime has not changed. We keep forgetting, and keep hoping that if we are nice enough or bribe them enough, or if they bribe us enough, they will give up their dreams of an Islamist empire.

America, and especially Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and all Congress need to wake up and acknowledge that the U.S. cannot find peace through isolationism, and that Iran, Russia and China will not be America’s partners in peace.

Since the founding of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979, its regime has operated with one unshakable and unwavering ideological mission: to defy, destabilize and ultimately destroy the influence and presence of the United States and its allies, especially Israel. This is not speculation. It is in the slogans shouted in their streets, in the sermons delivered by their clerics, and in the laws enshrined in their constitution.

Iran’s constitution explicitly declares its goal to export the Islamic Revolution beyond its borders. Jihad is not merely permitted — it is prescribed.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Graduation Hijacked: Columbia Ceremony Marred by Antisemitic Protests, Parents Left Outraged Liz Peek

Posted By on May 24th, 2025

https://lizpeek.com/daily-rant/graduation-hijacked-columbia-ceremony-marred-by-antisemitic-protests-parents-left-outraged/

Imagine being a parent who scrimped and saved to put your kid through college, only to have Graduation Day, a day that should be a joyous celebration of achievement, turned wretched by ill-informed antisemites railing about Palestine and disrupting the proceedings. That happened yesterday at Columbia University, of course, with students showily burning their diplomas and otherwise wrecking the festivities.

There have long been student protests, of course, but anti-Jew and anti-Israel protests are something new. To have antisemitism increasing across our country, and across the world, is hideous, and far too little has been done to stop it.

The acting president of the school, Claire Shipman, could barely get through her address as students booed her appearance, shouted “free Palestine” and also called for the freeing of Mahmoud Khalil, a former student who was arrested by ICE and is now cooling his heels in a detention center in Louisiana awaiting deportation. Khalil led some of the school’s ugliest protests; the Trump administration claims he has allegiance to Hamas, which they have designated a terrorist organization. It was Khalil’s group CUAD, which demands divestment from Israel, that called for agitators to disrupt graduation.

Notwithstanding the interruptions to her speech, and the intentional undermining of the festivities, Shipman chose to reward the agitators by saying, “I know many in our community are mourning the absence of our graduate, Mahmoud Khalil”, infuriating Jewish students in the audience and, undoubtedly, their parents.

But this is the time of year when college presidents can make headlines through commencement speeches that blast President Trump, or glorify Hamas, or otherwise appeal to the New York Times. Parents be damned.

What do parents actually think about what’s going on in our schools? A conservative group called Defending Education recently did a poll to find out. Turns out, most parents don’t want either admissions or hiring based on DEI, they don’t want biological men in women’s sports or bathrooms, and – guess what – over two-thirds think schools should introduce antisemitism bias training for faculty and staff. No surprise, parents are a voice of common sense.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Charles Lipson What to do about Iran? Tehran is trying to run out the clock on negotiations

Posted By on May 24th, 2025

https://thespectator.com/topic/what-to-do-about-iran/

China is surely America’s most dangerous threat over the medium term, but Iran is surely the most dangerous right now. The Islamic Republic would be even more dangerous if the Israelis had not decimated the Mullah’s deadly “ring of fire,” the proxy forces across the Middle East funded, armed, trained, and directed by Tehran. But removing these proxies (all except the Houthis in Yemen) does not remove Iran’s nuclear threat. That threat now faces the Trump administration and Netanyahu’s coalition in Israel, leaving only difficult choices.

To understand the current problems, we need to grasp a series of fundamental issues surrounding Iran’s nuclear program.

• What are Iran’s objectives?

• Why might nuclear deterrence, which has worked against other countries, not work against Iran?

• How has the United States responded so far?

• What was Trump’s Iran policy in his first term?

• How did Biden’s policy differ, and what were the consequences?

• What is the minimal acceptable solution for the Trump administration and Israel, as publicly stated?

• What is Iran’s negotiating strategy with the United States?

• How will the Trump administration respond if it is clear that Iran is simply delaying and will not meet America’s minimum requirements to dismantle its nuclear program?

• If Trump refuses to act militarily, will Israel make the dangerous decision to go it alone?

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Douglas Murray: Israel can’t afford to leave Hamas in Gaza The British author downplayed the weight of foreign efforts to end the war prematurely, which he argued would cost more than seeing it through. Canaan Lidor

Posted By on May 24th, 2025

https://www.jns.org/douglas-murray-israel-cant-afford-to-leave-hamas-in-gaza/?utm_campaign=Daily%20Syndicate%20Emails&utm_

Despite mounting international pressure and war costs, Israel cannot afford to end it war “with Hamas in power in any form,” British public intellectual Douglas Murray told JNS last week.

A prominent author, associate editor of the British magazine The Spectator and regular contributor to The Times and The Daily Telegraph, Murray in an interview with JNS justified Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to keep fighting until Hamas’s dismantlement, and downplayed concerns that it would leave Israel isolated.

“Anything short of victory is defeat,” Murray told JNS at a conference organized by the European Jewish Association in Madrid on combating antisemitism.

Israel’s decision this month to intensify the fighting until Hamas is removed from power in Gaza has triggered a coordinated effort within the European Union and beyond to punish the Jewish state for what its critics call war crimes.

.

On Monday, the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Canada published a joint statement threatening “concrete actions in response” to the war. The European Commission on Tuesday decided to review its trade agreement with Israel, citing concerns of human rights abuses.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Anti-Israel Congressman Invited D.C. Shooter’s Dad to Trump Address How deep does this go? by Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on May 24th, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/anti-israel-congressman-invited-d-c-shooters-dad-to-trump-address/

As Front Page Magazine already documented, Elias Rodriguez, the D.C. shooter, was part of a network of radical leftist and anti-Israel groups some of which have publicly come out in support of his crimes.

One of those groups had ties to Rep. Rashida Tlaib. But now it turns out that the shooter’s family also had ties to another radical member of Congress who hates Israel and America almost as much as she does.

The father of the terror suspect accused of gunning down two soon-to-be-engaged Israeli Embassy staffers at the Capital Jewish Museum was honored by a far-left member of Congress with an invitation to President Trump’s joint address this past March, The Post has exclusively learned.

“Eric Rodriguez was our guest during the President’s Joint Speech to Congress, but we don’t know his family,” a spokesperson for Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D-Ill.) told The Post Thursday night.

Rodriguez also appeared in a Service Employees International Union video that same day, and said he was an Iraq War vet and an employee with the Veterans Affairs Department, the New York Times reported.’

SEIU is a radical leftist union. It’s also anti-Israel and had demanded that Israel stop attacking Hamas.

Even stranger…

A worker at a shop near Eric Rodriguez’s Chicago home confirmed he approached the clerk, asking for a translation of an Arabic-language article about his son and the shooting on Thursday.

… that one sends off all sorts of red flags.

But back to Rep. Chuy Garcia who is for BDS, against Israel, for an arms embargo on Israel, accused the Jewish State of atrocities and demanded a ‘Palestinian’ speaker at the DNC. After the murders, Garcia put out a statement condemning the attack, but if a right-wing congressman had invited the father of a white supremacist mass shooter to an event, the media would be asking questions. It’s not going to do that here, but we ought to. Maybe this is a coincidence, but maybe it reflects another network, one that is embedded in a somewhat more ‘mainstream’ Left.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Joe Biden, the Mainstream Media, and the Republic We Couldn’t Keep Calls for soul-searching over Biden’s decline ring hollow in a nation where power trumps principle and no one pays for political deceit—because winning is all that matters. By Stephen Soukup

Posted By on May 24th, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/05/24/joe-biden-the-mainstream-media-and-the-republic-we-couldnt-keep/

I like Megan McArdle, the conservatarian political columnist for The Washington Post. I really do. I think she’s smart and talented and interesting. Best of all, she’s not someone who is bound by ideology or political allegiances. Ideology and allegiance are good in some cases and in some occupations, but not in hers and not at her paper. McCardle is as close to a “truth teller” as exists in the mainstream media today, and I appreciate that.

All of that said, McArdle’s column this week leaves me nearly despondent, mostly because it’s hopelessly naïve and, as a result, exposes the ridiculousness of the current American predicament. McArdle starts her piece by expressing sympathy for former President Joe Biden with his recent cancer diagnosis, but then jumps right in, openly and aggressively criticizing those who hid Biden’s mental incapacity from the nation for the better part of four years. So far, so good. Biden deserves our sympathy, while his enablers deserve our detestation. Unfortunately, it’s downhill from there, as McArdle uses her platform to call for Democrats and even her colleagues in the media to reflect on their treachery and determine how best to fix things going forward:

I’m convinced that deep institutional soul-searching is due in many quarters and that this conversation is too important to delay, even at the risk of adding to the Biden family’s distress. It is impossible to read “Original Sin” … without reaching a horrifying conclusion: The most powerful nation in the world and its nuclear arsenal were left in the hands of a man who could not reliably recognize people he’d known for years, maintain his train of thought, or speak in coherent sentences.

That’s great. I agree that these are reasonable conclusions, but I still have some questions. How is it that some of us reached those same conclusions in 2020? How did some of us already know this would happen before he won the White House? Why do some people—Democrats and the mainstream media—pretend that they need this book to explain to them now what many of us knew all along? More to the point, does anyone actually believe that the people who need to do soul searching will actually do it? Or, if they do, that they will come to the conclusion that they screwed up and put the nation in great jeopardy?

Here are some predictions, although not particularly bold ones: No one, save maybe Megan McArdle, will do any soul-searching. No one will resolve to do anything differently in the future. No one in the media will suffer any negative career repercussions for hiding Biden’s decline and openly lying to the American people. Indeed, some—like the execrable Jake Tapper—will get rich off it. Most notably, no one in the Democratic Party or Joe Biden’s inner circle will suffer any sort of legal, financial, or professional consequences for their overt and inarguable criminality. If anything, they’ll be lauded by their fellow partisans as heroes and saviors, brave men and women who did what had to be done to save “our democracy” ™ from the bad people. In short, nothing good will come of any of this.