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The average debt an American owes is $59,580 across mortgage loans, home equity lines of credit, auto loans, credit card debt, student loan debt, and other debts like personal loans. Data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Household Debt and Credit breaks down the average amount of debt Americans have by type, ages, and location … Overall, the average debt per person has increased steadily over the past few years. In the fourth quarter of 2018, the average total debt per person was $50,090 compared to $55,480 in 2021, and $59,580 in 2022.

Americans now owe $1.08 trillion on their credit cards, according to a new report on household debt from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Credit card balances spiked by $154 billion year over year, notching the largest increase since 1999, the New York Fed found … Credit card delinquency rates also rose across the board, according to the New York Fed, but especially among millennials, or borrowers between the ages of 30 and 39, who are burdened by high levels of student loan debt. With most people feeling strained by higher prices — particularly for food, gas and housing — more cardholders are carrying debt from month to month, or falling behind on payments, and a greater percentage of balances are going more than 180 days delinquent …

The United States experienced a dramatic 12 percent increase in homelessness as soaring rents and a decline in coronavirus pandemic assistance combined to put housing out of reach for more Americans, federal officials said Friday. About 653,000 people were experiencing homelessness during the January snapshot. That’s the highest number since the country began using the yearly point-in-time survey in 2007 to count the homeless population. The total represents an increase of about 70,650 homeless people compared to January 2022. The latest estimate also indicated that people becoming homeless for the first time were behind much of the increase, and it ended a downward trend in family homelessness that began in 2012.

Cities across the United States have seen huge increases in retail theft since 2019 with New York City and Los Angeles suffering the most. There have been 8,453 more shoplifting incidents across 24 cities in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period in 2019, according to data from the Council on Criminal Justice. Crime-ridden New York City has seen the biggest impact with a 64 percent increase in retail theft, followed by Los Angeles with a 61 percent jump and Virginia Beach, Virginia, which has seen a 44 percent rise. Dallas and Raleigh, North Carolina, round off the top five with an increase in shoplifting of 20 percent and 19 percent, respectively. But other cities have seen levels of crime reduce dramatically …

Donald Trump said on Tuesday he has never read Adolf Hitler’s manifesto ‘Mein Kampf,’ and is not quoting the German dictator when he says illegal immigrants inside the U.S. are poisoning and destroying the blood of America. In a rally in Iowa, Trump – the clear frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination – repeated language he has used in recent campaign events about illegal immigrants that has been criticized for being xenophobic and similar to language used by Hitler. “It’s true. They are destroying the blood of our country,” Trump told a crowd of supporters in Waterloo, Iowa. “They don’t like it when I said that. I never read Mein Kampf.” Trump said Hitler used language “in a much different way”.

President Joe Biden’s campaign on Wednesday posted a graphic directly comparing former president Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler, replete with images of the two men on each side. The graphic, shared in a post on X, marks an even more aggressive turn in a highly charged attempt by the Biden campaign to link its likely Republican general election opponent with the Nazi leader … Comparing a political opponent to Hitler was once nearly verboten in political campaigns. But it has become routine for the Biden operation … Trump has scoffed at the comparison. But he has not backed away from his comments. At a rally on Tuesday, he once again said immigrants are “destroying the blood of our country” and added that he had “never read ‘Mein Kampf” — Hitler’s manifesto.

There seems to be no end to the West’s obsession with Nazism, Hitler and the Third Reich, says prominent British journalist Simon Jenkins. What’s behind this? In spite of decades of hateful propaganda, this fascination seems to grow with time, and millions of people around the world even regard Hitler and the Third Reich positively. The dreaded “anti-Semite” label has been hurled so often and so recklessly in recent times that it’s lost much of its impact. Gertrude Stein was an influential, “modernistic,” twentieth-century Jewish-American writer. In spite of her background, in 1938 she nominated Hitler for the Nobel Peace Prize. Runtime: 49:35 mins.

“Hitler — You knew him — What was he like?” I have been asked that question a thousand times since 1945, and nothing is more difficult to answer … Hitler’s most notable characteristic was ever his simplicity. The most complex of problems resolved itself in his mind into a few basic principles. His actions were geared to ideas and decisions that could be understood by anyone … His intellectual curiosity was limitless. He was readily familiar with the writings of the most diverse authors, and nothing was too complex for his comprehension … The universality of Hitler’s knowledge may surprise or displease those unaware of it, but it is nonetheless a historical fact: Hitler was one of the most cultivated men of this century.

It has become a great legend of World War I. But what really happened when British and German troops emerged from their trenches that Christmas Day? / … During the first Christmas of the war, a few brief hours during which men from both sides on the Western Front laid down their arms, emerged from their trenches, and shared food, carols, games and comradeship. Their truce – the famous Christmas Truce – was unofficial and illicit … While it lasted, though, the truce was magical … The most detailed estimate, made by Malcolm Brown of Britain’s Imperial War Museums, is that the truce extended along at least two-thirds of British-held trench line that scarred southern Belgium. Even so, accounts of a Christmas Truce refer to a suspension of hostilities only between the British and the Germans.

… The West has been sinking beneath the waves of its Cultural Revolution – the deliberate cancelling of virtues and legacies of traditional civilization, to be replaced by a cultural hierarchy that upends and inverts the societal paradigm that is close to conquering all … The revolutionaries’ diversity and identity politics has resulted in the absolute prioritising of ideology over practical governance (or even common sense). This cultural transition has signally failed to improve life for the majority, but on the contrary has spawned system dysfunctionality. Nothing works properly anymore; entropy prevails … Into this simmering brew, the revolutionaries have further injected their ideological opposition to national borders, and the embrace of something like open-door immigration.

It will be a sad, silent night in Bethlehem. The city of Jesus’ birth has canceled its annual Christmas celebrations out of respect for the ongoing siege of the Gaza Strip, nearly three months into the war between Israel and Hamas. Bethlehem – or Beit Lechem, located in what is now the Israeli-occupied West Bank – is typically flooded with pilgrims and other celebrants in late December. This year, however, the festivities are pared back to a nativity scene at the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church of an infant Jesus wrapped in a keffiyeh, surrounded by rubble, NPR reported. A similar installation will also be placed in Manger Square before Sunday, which is Christmas Eve. Meanwhile, the Church of the Nativity – which dates back to the sixth century – included razor wire and tarp-wrapped figures in its nativity scene.

Revered as the birthplace of Christ, the town of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank is usually bustling with thousands of pilgrims and tourists in December. A giant Christmas tree, parades, and religious ceremonies typically inaugurate the season’s celebrations in Nativity Square. But this year, none of these things are happening because of Israel’s continuing assault on the Gaza Strip, and because of economic hardship. The streets and courtyards in Bethlehem are largely empty, the roads leading to the city have been sealed off by Israeli forces, and several towns in the area have been violently raided by armed Israeli soldiers. Churches across Palestine announced the cancellation of all Christmas festivities in an expression of unity with Gaza – limiting activities to services and prayers.

… Television producer Norman Lear … probably influenced American culture more than any other single figure in the 1970s … Lear was said to have written, created, or produced over 100 shows over his lifetime. But he was mostly known for his massively successful and monstrously subversive sitcoms of the 1970s … When he was well into his 90s, a friend said that he described himself as a “total Jew.” … At the peak of All in the Family’s reign in the 1970s, an estimated 60% of American TV sets would tune in on Saturday nights to watch … Lear was a major player amid a trend of American Jews who outwardly professed that they were attempting to cure a “sick” society … In 1999, President Bill Clinton awarded Lear the National Medal of Arts …

Former President Donald Trump’s bid to win back the White House is now threatened by two sentences added to the U.S. Constitution 155 years ago. The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday barred Trump from the state’s ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits anyone who swore an oath to support the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” against it from holding office. It’s the first time in history the provision has been used to prohibit someone from running for the presidency, and the U..S. Supreme Court is likely to have the final say over whether the ruling will stand. If it does — which many legal experts say is a longshot — it’s the end of Trump’s campaign because a Supreme Court decision would apply not just in Colorado, but to all states. It also could open a new world of political combat …

Syrian President Bashar Assad earlier this week declared that there is no evidence that six million Jews were killed during the Holocaust and accused the United States of funding the German Nazi party. In a video of a speech by Assad translated and published by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) on Monday, Assad can be seen telling a listening crowd that “there is no evidence that six million Jews were killed” during the Holocaust. “True, there were concentration camps, but what shows you that this is a politicized issue, not a humanitarian one and not a real one, is that we talk about these six million, but why don’t we talk about the 26 million Soviets who were killed in that war? Are the six million more precious?”

Judaism is not just another religion. Its core values are markedly unlike those of Christianity and the other great faiths. A central message of the Hebrew scriptures is that Jews are a divinely “chosen” people – a unique community distinct from the rest of humanity. Some recent news items reconfirm this point, which is important for an understanding of the reality of cultural and political life in the United States, the US relationship with Israel, and the issue of war and peace in the Middle East and in the world. Runtime: 48 mins.

As 1914 drew to a close, Europe had been at war for months. On the Western Front, opposing armies faced each other across a stalemated front line running from the North Sea to the Swiss border. On December 24, 100,000 soldiers from both sides of that line decided to create some peace on Earth. They decorated their trenches with holiday spirit. They sang carols to each other across “No Man’s Land,” then walked into the space between their trenches, met, smoked and drank together, and exchanged what gifts they could round up. Chaplains conducted Christmas services for all comers. Impromptu football matches were played between shell craters … A similar truce occurred on the Eastern Front between Austro-Hungarian and Russian troops.

A Georgia middle school teacher was arrested last week and accused of threatening to behead a student who told him the Israeli flag in his classroom was offensive, authorities said. Benjamin Reese, 51, a seventh grade teacher at Warner Robins Middle School, was arrested Dec. 8 on charges of terroristic threats and cruelty to children in the third degree … An incident report from the sheriff’s office lists 18 juvenile witnesses and multiple teachers and adults who overheard Reese’s alleged comments … A teacher said they heard Reese yelling about a flag and calling a student antisemitic, the incident report said. The educator also told officials Reese shouted that he was going to slit the student’s throat, drag her outside and cut her head off, according to the report.

… The Colorado Supreme Court … ruling on Dec. 19 that Trump cannot appear on Colorado’s 2024 presidential ballot because of his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. The reason is the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1868 … Taken as a whole, the structure of Section 3 leads to the conclusion that Donald Trump is one of those past or present government officials who by violating his oath of allegiance to the constitutional rules has forfeited his right to present and future office … Significant numbers of Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate agreed that Donald Trump violated his oath of office immediately before, during and immediately after the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “lied” to world leaders in the past when he spoke of supporting a two-state resolution to the Palestinian conflict, charged former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk. “So all those promises to world leaders about his commitment to a two-state solution were a bunch of lies. And all those enablers who swore Bibi was serious about peace have some explaining to do,” Indyk wrote in a post on X on Sunday. He spoke one day after Netanyahu boasted that he had thwarted the creation of a Palestinian state during his more than 16 years in office. “I am proud that I prevented the creation of a Palestinian state because today everyone understands what this Palestinian state could have been now that we saw the small Palestinian state in Gaza,” Netanyahu said on Saturday night during a press conference.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday night that he was “proud” he prevented the establishment of a Palestinian state, and took credit for “putting the brakes” on the Oslo peace process, during a press conference at the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv. Speaking alongside Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, the premier … described the Oslo Accords as “a fateful mistake” and said the results of the “little Palestinian state in Gaza” brought about by the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 demonstrated the danger of allowing Palestinian sovereignty in the West Bank.

A majority of young Americans said they believe Israel should “be ended and given to Hamas,” according to a shocking poll. The survey, conducted by This Week by Harvard-Harris polling, found 51% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 said they believed the long-term answer to the Israel-Palestinian conflict was for “Israel to be ended and given to Hamas and the Palestinians.” Only 32% said they believed in a two-state solution … The figure was in stark contrast to other age groups .. When asked if “Israel is committing genocide against those in Gaza or is it just trying to defend itself and eliminate Hamas,” 60% of Americas age 18-24 said Israel was committing genocide … A full 67% of 18-24 year olds said they believed Jews “should be treated as oppressors” — a position which 73% of Americans disagreed …

It was just one result among a blizzard of other poll results in a single survey. But one data point in the Harvard-Harris monthly survey of public opinion not only jumped out at observers like a five-alarm fire but also called into question the future security of American Jewry. Amid many other questions, the pollster asked a random sample of 2,034 registered voters the following question: “Do you think that Jews as a class are oppressors and should be treated as oppressors, or is that a false ideology?” The question may have been loaded, and its results are, at least to some extent, contradicted by the answers to some of the other questions in the survey. But the fact that 67% of participants ages 18 to 24 responded that Jews are “oppressors” is deeply shocking though hardly surprising.

Israel should be sending Palestinian Gazans fleeing the fighting to refugee camps in Lebanon, with the entire Gaza Strip being emptied and leveled and turned into a museum like the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, Metula Council head David Azoulai told 103FM. “After October 7, instead of urging people to go south, we should direct them to the beaches. The Navy can transport them to the shores of Lebanon, where there are already sufficient refugee camps. Then, a security strip should be established from the sea to the Gaza border fence, completely empty, as a reminder of what was once there. It should resemble the Auschwitz concentration camp,” he said in an interview … “The entire Gaza Strip should be emptied and leveled flat, just like in Auschwitz.”

Today, U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) joined Senators Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) in introducing the Never Again Education Reauthorization Act to reauthorize the bipartisan Never Again Education Act, which established a federal fund through the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to provide teachers with resources and training to teach students the important lessons of the Holocaust. This bill would reauthorize the program through 2030, as it is currently set to expire in 2025 … Said Senator Cardin. “The Never Again Education Act supports the work necessary to reinforce a complete and accurate representation of history in our education system while combating antisemitism through education.”

The Bulgarian authorities began on December 12 the long-delayed dismantling of a monument of the Soviet army, seen as a symbolic step towards Sofia’s liberation from Russian influence. The Soviet army monument, erected in 1954 during the communist era, commemorates the arrival of Soviet forces in the country at the end of World War II. In September 1944, Soviet Union-backed communists took power in Bulgaria. Soviet troops entered the country and were involved in the murders and expulsions of thousands of people, including writers, journalists, middle-class Bulgarians and educated pro-Western people. Their property was seized and their relatives were either killed, sent to prison or displaced to villages and forced to live in poor and difficult conditions, often dying of hunger or lack of medical treatment.

The dismantling of a 37-meter tall monument honoring Soviet soldiers who liberated Bulgaria, a nation that was allied with Nazi Germany during World War II, commenced in Sofia on Tuesday. The removal has faced opposition from local politicians, with Russia condemning it as “barbaric.” … Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned the demolition of the Red Army monument, adding that Sofia’s “barbaric actions” cannot be justified or forgiven … “Bulgaria has long been, without noticing it, following the path of rehabilitation of Nazism.”

I do not believe that anything I say about what is happening in Gaza will affect Israeli or American policy in that conflict. But I want to be on record so that when historians look back on this moral calamity, they will see that some Americans were on the right side of history. What Israel is doing in Gaza to the Palestinian civilian population – with the support of the Biden administration – is a crime against humanity that serves no meaningful military purpose … Israeli leaders talk about Palestinians and what they would like to do in Gaza in shocking terms, especially when you consider that some of these leaders also talk incessantly about the horrors of the Holocaust … It is commonplace for Israeli leaders to refer to Palestinians as “human animals, ”human beasts,” and “horrible inhuman animals.”

… All these children – the dead, dying, bleeding, groaning, wounded, disabled, the orphans, the terrified, the homeless and penniless, have siblings and friends who grow up with them. They’re the next generation, and they’ll never forget … An unbridled and terribly cruel attack against Gaza creates hatred of Israel at levels we’ve never seen before, in Gaza, in the West Bank, in the Palestinian diaspora, in the Arab world and everywhere in the world where people are seeing what the Israelis don’t see and don’t want to see. And what’s even more terrible is this hatred will be justified. Nothing will be more justified … Can one see the horrors in Gaza and not hate those who are inflicting them? Experience what’s happening in Gaza and not dream of revenge?

North American Jewry raised about $1 billion for Israel in the first month of its war with Hamas, the authors of a new report estimated. The Jewish Federations of North America raised more than $600 million for Israel within a month of the outbreak of war, according to the report by scholars at Haifa University’s Ruderman Program for American Jewish Studies published Wednesday. The remaining $400 million figure is an estimation of donations raised in multiple campaigns by other communal and private organizations with a Jewish affiliation, including friendship associations supporting Israeli hospitals, universities and emergency services …

The US should place “no limit” to civilian casualties Israel might inflict in Gaza in response to the Hamas terror attacks of 7 October, a senior Republican senator said. Speaking to CNN, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was asked: “Is there a threshold for you, and do you think there should be one for the United States government, in which the US would say, ‘Let’s hold off for a second in terms of civilian casualties?’” Graham said: “No. If somebody asked us after world war two, ‘Is there a limit what would you do to make sure that Japan and Germany don’t conquer the world? Is there any limit what Israel should do to the people who are trying to slaughter the Jews?’ “The answer is no. There is no limit.” Graham said Israel should “be smart” and “try to limit civilian casualties the best we can.” …

… Bombing was not exclusively a German phenomenon, it was a fact of life for almost every country on the Continent. Nearly a third of the bombs that the Allied air forces dropped on Europe fell not on Germany but on countries they were supposed to be liberating. France suffered as many casualties to bombing as Britain did during the Blitz … The disproportionate nature of such campaigns caused enormous resentment among people who felt that they were being “bombed into liberation” … Overy’s greatest criticism is reserved for the attempt by the Allies to terrorise the people of Germany into open revolt through the non-stop pounding of their cities. Not only did this quite consciously cross a moral and legal line, but it did so without any evidence that it would work.

Remarkable color film footage of Allied-occupied Berlin just weeks after the end of World War II in Europe. Berliners work to restore their lives and rebuild their city, which was devastated in furious Allied bombings and in the fiercely fought battle to defend it against Soviet forces. Runtime: 7:04 mins.

… If everyone who voted in the election had been aged under 35, Geert Wilders, the far-right populist whose Party for Freedom (PVV) shocked Europe by winning the most parliamentary seats, would have won even more. In last year’s French presidential runoff, Marine Le Pen won 39% of votes from people aged 18-24 and 49% of those aged 25-34. Before Italy’s election in September last year, Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy was the largest party among under-35s, on 22%. Across the continent, the image of the radical-right voter – typically white, male, non-graduate and, above all, old – is changing, and studies suggest that in several countries, support for the far right is growing fastest among younger voters.

Fraudulent quotations attributed to Hitler and other Third Reich leaders have been widely circulated for years. Such quotes are often used by polemicists — of both the left and the right — to discredit their ideological adversaries by showing that Nazis held similar views. This tactic works because people have been educated to believe that anything Hitler and other Nazi leaders thought or said was malevolent, wrong-headed or evil, and that no reasonable or ethical person could hold similar views. Here’s a look at a few of the many remarks falsely attributed to Hitler and other top Nazis.

The Senate on Thursday voted down a resolution that would have directed President Biden to withdraw all US troops from Syria, where US forces have come under frequent attack in response to President Biden’s support for Israel’s Gaza onslaught. The bill failed in a vote of 13-84 and received support from seven Democrats, five Republicans, and one Independent, Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT). The resolution was introduced by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who argued the US occupation of eastern Syria risks a major regional war. “Keeping 900 US troops in Syria does nothing to advance American security. Rather, our intervention puts those servicemembers at grave risk by providing an enticing target for Iranian-backed militias,” Paul said.

… Leading Republicans and Democrats alike support a proxy war in Europe, back murderous conflict in the Middle East, and threaten catastrophic war in Asia. Fervent critics of “isolationism,” like Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, seem determined to defend everyone except Americans … There’s always more money for arms, even though the United States is racing toward insolvency … It is one thing to risk your life and health for America. But to instead die in such foolish wars? And to have your sacrifice so shamefully wasted? Patriots should preserve their lives for something better … Uncle Sam’s determination to be forever entangled in foreign wars is a very good reason not to join the armed services. The best way to solve the recruitment problem is to end frivolous interventions on behalf of peripheral interests.

… In the early 1950’s, my mother, a journalist and lecturer, went to Palestine sponsored by a number of US newspapers and, secretly, by the US State Department … Those who opposed creation of a greater Israel on lands owned by Palestinians were viciously assailed in the US. The newspapers for whom my mother wrote were cowed into silence. Newspapers were threatened with boycotts by their vital advertisers if they did not eliminate my mother’s writings and lectures on Palestine … My mother was eventually terrified into silence … Americans who rely for news on the big six news outfits get data prepared for them by Israel’s mighty propaganda machines. That’s why the Mideast news in France, Italy and Spain is so very different.

The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to demand a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza in a strong demonstration of global support for ending the Israel-Hamas war. The vote also showed the growing isolation of the United States and Israel. The vote in the 193-member world body was 153 in favor, 10 against and 23 abstentions … The United States and Israel were joined in opposing the resolution by eight countries … The United States has grown increasingly isolated in its support for Israel’s military campaign in Gaza … In tougher language than usual, though, President Joe Biden warned before the vote that Israel was losing international support because of its “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza.

The United States vetoed a United Nations resolution Friday backed by almost all other Security Council members and dozens of other nations demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza. Supporters called it a terrible day and warned of more civilian deaths and destruction as the war goes into its third month. The vote in the 15-member council was 13-1, with the United Kingdom abstaining. The United States’ isolated stand reflected a growing fracture between Washington and some of its closest allies over Israel’s months-long bombardment of Gaza. France and Japan were among those supporting the call for a cease-fire.

One-fifth of US citizens between the ages of 18 and 29 believe that the Holocaust is a myth, according to a new poll from the Economist/YouGov .., In response to the statement “The Holocaust is a myth,” 20 percent of participants between the ages of 18 and 29 said that they agreed with it, and an additional 30% said that they did not agree or disagree. .. Overall, 7% of Americans believe that the Holocaust is a myth … Similarly, 23% of those aged 18-29 said that they agreed with the statement: “The Holocaust has been exaggerated,” and 26% said they neither agreed nor disagreed … Asked whether they agreed with the statement “Jews have too much power in America,” … 28% of people aged 18-29 agree that Jews have too much power.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) was the lone member of the House to vote against a resolution equating criticism of the modern state of Israel with antisemitism. The resolution passed in a vote of 412-1-1, as Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) voted “present.” The bill states that the House “reaffirms the State of Israel has the right to exist” and “recognizes that denying Israel’s right to exist is a form of antisemitism.” Massie explained his opposition in a post on X. “I agree with the title ‘Reaffirming the State of Israel’s Right to Exist’ and much of the language, but I’m voting No on the resolution because it equates anti-Zionism with antisemitism. Antisemitism is deplorable, but expanding it to include criticism of Israel is not helpful,” he wrote.

Last week, the United States House of Representatives declared via H.Res. 888 that “denying Israel’s right to exist” is antisemitism — an interpretation divergent from the common meaning of the word … Then, on Tuesday, the House again defied common understanding of the meaning of antisemitism by declaring through approval of H.Res. 894 that antizionism is also antisemitism. Who do these House members voting for these resolutions think they are? Noah Webster? … So what additional expansion of the meaning of antisemitism will the House decree by majority vote next week? How about looking to the television show Curb Your Enthusiasm for inspiration, and adding liking music composed by Richard Wagner to the growing list of opinions that Congress proclaims make a person an antisemite?

It should already have been evident from the scale of death and destruction inflicted on Gaza over the past eight weeks that Israel was implementing a policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide against Palestinians in the besieged enclave. Now Israeli whistleblowers have provided details of how these crimes against humanity are being carried out – and how they are being rationalised internally within Israel’s military and political echelons. An extraordinary series of testimonies jointly published by the Israel-based publications 972 and Local Call last week established that the huge death toll of Palestinian civilians is, in fact, integral to Israel’s war aims, not an unfortunate side effect.

Over the years, particularly during the wars of 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, and 1982, the Israelis have lied about their military campaigns, and have tried to deceive U.S. administrations about their actions … In the 1980s, the Israelis denied that Jonathan Pollard was spying on behalf of Israeli intelligence … In 1967, Israelis officials at the highest level lied to the White House about the start of the six-day war. The Israeli Ambassador to the United States assured the Johnson administration that the Israelis would not attack first under any circumstances, ruling out even a preemptive attack. Israel then attacked and claimed it was preemptive … The Israelis were even more deceitful three days later when they attributed their malicious attack on the USS Liberty [June 1967] to a random accident.

The Pentagon failed its sixth audit in a row last month. And “failed” is putting it generously. The department actually received a “disclaimer of opinion.” According to the Government Accountability Office, that means “auditors were unable to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a basis for an audit opinion.” So the outcome is more like an “incomplete” than an abject failure. But semantics aside, one major reason the Pentagon keeps failing audits is because it can’t keep track of its property. Last year, the Pentagon couldn’t properly account for a whopping 61% of its $3.5 trillion in assets. That figure increased this year, with the department insufficiently documenting 63% of its now $3.8 trillion in assets. Military contractors possess many of these assets, but to an extent unbeknownst to the Pentagon.

The Wall Street Journal published details about the White House’s secretive arms transfers to Israel since October 7. The US has provided Israel with 57,000 artillery shells and 15,000 bombs, including over 5,000 with 2,000-pound warheads. According to a list of weapons obtained by the Journal, the US has shipped Israel “more than 5,000 Mk82 unguided or ‘dumb’ bombs, more than 5,400 Mk84 2,000-pound warhead bombs, around 1,000 GBU-39 small diameter bombs, and approximately 3,000 JDAMs.” The US has additionally shipped 57,000 155 MM shells to Israel. NBC News previously reported in October that Washington sent Tel Aviv artillery rounds that are cluster munitions.

Israel’s foreign minister accused United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of supporting Palestinian terror group Hamas, called for his resignation, and said his tenure as head of the world body was “a danger to world peace,” in a furious reaction on Wednesday to a letter Guterres wrote pressing for an immediate ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas and his invocation of a rare clause in the UN charter to urge Security Council intervention. Eli Cohen said Guterres’ call for a ceasefire in the two-month war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 atrocities in southern Israel, “constitutes support” for the Palestinian terror organization and was “an endorsement of the murder of the elderly, the abduction of babies, and the rape of women.”

The House on Tuesday passed a resolution that says “anti-Zionism is antisemitism,” the chamber’s latest piece of legislation conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism. The resolution, which is presented as a resolution condemning antisemitism, passed in a vote of 314-14-92. Only thirteen Democrats and one Republican voted against the legislation, while 92 Democrats voted “present” in protest of a line buried in the bill that explicitly claims anti-Zionism is antisemitism. The Republican-drafted resolution declares that the House of Representatives “clearly and firmly states that anti-Zionism is antisemitism.” Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), the most senior Jewish member of the House, criticized the language of the bill ahead of the vote.

… A Zionist Jew, by definition, owes his primary loyalty to the Jewish community and to Israel. Zionism is not compatible with patriotism to any country or entity other than Israel and the world Jewish community … Zionist Jews and their non-Jewish supporters embrace a blatant double standard. Jewish-Zionist organizations, along with their non-Jewish allies, support one social-political ideology for Israel and the world Jewish community, and a completely different one for the United States and other non-Jewish countries. They insist that ethnic nationalism is evil and bad for non-Jews, while at the same time they vigorously support ethnic nationalism — that is, Zionism — for Jews.

… The same people who so vehemently call for Israel to be Jewish lack that same vigor when calling for France to be French, Germany to be German, or Sweden to be Swedish … Those same Zionists, by and large, fight against the nationalist sentiments in Europe … They are the same groups that push for the death of Europe and her people … He is a hypocrite because he wants his country, the US, to protect the nationalist and ethno-centric aspirations of Israel, his homeland, but not those of Europe … The peculiar position of these Jews is not so much in their exclusive nationalist desires for one state. It is in their exclusive denial of such nationalist rights to the peoples of Europe. For some strange reason, there is a hate for the European race, and that hate translates into a desire for its ultimate destruction.

The eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt will require individuals seeking to become naturalized citizens to confirm in writing, “that they recognize Israel’s right to exist and condemn any efforts directed against the existence of the State of Israel.” Speaking on Wednesday, ahead of a meeting of state and federal interior ministers, Saxony-Anhalt Interior Minister Tamara Zieschang called on Germany’s 15 other states to adopt similar rules … The decree instructs authorities to pay close attention to whether an applicant exhibits antisemitic attitudes … In a letter to local authorities, the Saxony-Anhalt state Interior Ministry said naturalization is to be denied to foreigners who engage in activities directed at Germany’s liberal democratic order as outlined in the country’s Basic Law.

The New York Times reported Saturday [Nov. 25] that Israel is killing Palestinian civilians in Gaza at a historic pace. The huge civilian death toll in Gaza is explained by the scale of the bombing campaign and Israel’s willingness to drop US-provided 2,000-pound bombs on densely populated areas that are packed with civilians … Israeli officials have frequently cited the Allied strategic bombings of Japan and Germany during World War II to justify their onslaught in Gaza. The comparison includes the US fire bombings of Japanese cities, which killed around 100,000 civilians in Tokyo in one night in 1945, as well as the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. … The Israeli onslaught also dwarves the civilian casualties in the war in Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022.

One of the most controversial campaigns of the Second World War was the bombing offensive against Germany. British, and to a lesser extent American, air commanders believed that Germany could be defeated by bombing alone. Max Hastings, a distinguished British war correspondent, has written a masterful history of the British Bomber Command … Bomber Command launched a massive series of assaults against the Ruhr, Hamburg, and Berlin during 1943 and early 1944. Thousands of acres were burned and hundreds of thousands of Germans were killed. The RAF lost over 4,100 bombers. Yet German arms production increased … An Associated Press dispatch reported that the “Allied air chiefs” had begun “deliberate terror bombing of German population centers …”

It is not often that one is privileged to review a book of monumental import, a truly significant “breakthrough” from obscuran­tism to historical knowledge and insight. But such a book is the magnificent work by A.J .P. Taylor, The Origins of the Second World War … The central theme of Taylor is simply this: Germany and Hitler were not uniquely guilty of launching World War II (indeed they were scarcely guilty at all) … Basically, Hitler has no “master plan”; he was a German intent, like all Germans, on revising the intolerable and stupid Versailles-diktat, and on doing so by peaceful means, and in collaboration with the British and French … Not only did Hitler do this with insight, he did it with patience, as Taylor excellently shows …

The anarcho-capitalism that Murray Rothbard favored differed entirely from the American system of government, and he saw the State as a gang of robbers. It by no means followed from this, though, that he was uninterested in politics. Quite to the contrary, he was passionately absorbed in it. I have never known anyone with as great an ability to amass and retain information as Murray Rothbard … Naturally enough, Rothbard had strong likes and dislikes. He loathed Bill Clinton, and Joey told me that when he was watching Clinton speak on television, she had to restrain him from rushing to the TV set and kicking on the screen.

Homeschooling has exploded in popularity since 2017, now outpacing private and public school enrollment, according to a new analysis. In research recently conducted, the number of homeschooled children has soared by 51% in the last six years, while private school enrollment has only increased by 7% and public school enrollment has decreased by 4% … Homeschooling popularity has continued to grow despite pandemic restrictions being pulled back. In 2019, homeschooling families prioritized their concern about the school environment, dissatisfaction with academic instruction, and desire to provide religious instruction, according to the Reason Foundation. A September poll found that 46% of parents were not satisfied by their local schools being “influenced too much by liberal viewpoints.”

There is a growing body of compelling evidence showing that Russia and Ukraine were involved in serious negotiations to end the war in Ukraine right after it started on 24 February 2022. These talks were facilitated by Turkish President Recep Erdogan and former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and featured detailed and candid discussions on the terms of a possible settlement. By all accounts, these negotiations, which took place in March-April 2022, were making real progress when Britain and the US told Ukrainian President Zelensky to abandon them, which he did.

Gangland shootings and bombings that have plagued Sweden’s biggest cities have spread to quieter suburbs and towns, shattering its reputation as a safe and peaceful nation … Sweden has been a European hotspot for gang-related shootings and bombings for several years. But recently the violence has shifted beyond low-income, vulnerable urban areas, and police say one reason is that gang members are increasingly targeting rivals’ relatives. Detectives suspect some of the latest violence has been organised by criminal leaders based in other countries, including Turkey and Serbia. More than 50 people have been killed in shootings so far in 2023, and there have been more than 140 explosions. Last year, more than 60 people died in gun violence, the highest number on record.

In one of the defining moments so far of Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza, a deadly explosion at the al-Ahli Arab Hospital on October 17 killed close to 500 people, according to Palestinian health authorities. Two days later, Israel bombed the Church of Saint Porphyrius, the Gaza Strip’s oldest, killing at least 18 people. The deadly attacks on the hospital — an Anglican institution — and the church have brought into sharp focus the enclave’s embattled Christian minority, which, like the rest of the Gaza Strip, is under assault from relentless Israeli bombardment. The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem described the attack on the church as a “war crime”. The Christian community was left reeling, yet most have not left the besieged city, which lays claim to a rich seam of Christian heritage going back two millennia.

China says it will work with the international community to help end the ongoing Israeli violence in the Gaza Strip, noting that the core of the conflict is Israel’s “illegal occupation of the Palestinian territory.” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks during a press briefing on Tuesday … “The root of the cycle of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict lies in the long-term illegal occupation of the Palestinian territory, the long-term neglect of the right of the Palestinian people to independent statehood, and the lack of a fundamental guarantee of the basic rights of the Palestinian people,” Wenbin said, stressing, “This historical injustice should not continue.”

The Israeli army’s expanded authorization for bombing non-military targets, the loosening of constraints regarding expected civilian casualties, and the use of an artificial intelligence system to generate more potential targets than ever before, appear to have contributed to the destructive nature of the initial stages of Israel’s current war on the Gaza Strip, an investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call reveals. These factors, as described by current and former Israeli intelligence members, have likely played a role in producing what has been one of the deadliest military campaigns against Palestinians since the Nakba of 1948 … This number is calculated and known in advance to the army’s intelligence units, who also know shortly before carrying out an attack roughly how many civilians are certain to be killed.

A report from +972 Magazine published on Thursday detailed how Israel is intentionally targeting civilians in Gaza as part of its war strategy even when Israeli forces know strikes will kill young children. The report, which cited current and former Israeli intelligence officials, said the massive civilian casualties in Gaza since October 7 are due to Israel expanding its authorizations to bomb non-military targets and the loosening of restrictions related to civilian deaths. Israel’s operations in Gaza have had a very high civilian casualty rate, but never at the scale of the current conflict. Sources told +972 that the Israeli military has files on many potential targets that give them a good idea of the likely civilian casualties their strikes will cause.

… The fact is, Uncle Sam is flat-out broke. Washington cannot afford a single dime of the $106 billion package that Biden is trying to shove down the collective throats of America’s hapless legislators. That especially includes the utter waste of another $61 billion for Washington’s insane proxy war against Russia in Ukraine and the $14 billion for Israel … Uncle Sam’s checking account is massively overdrawn. Now is not the time to fund wars which do nothing for America’s homeland security (Ukraine) or to provide purely symbolic aid to an ally that has more than enough resources to fund the unwise war policies it insists on pursuing.

Moody’s Investors Service on Friday lowered its ratings outlook on the United States’ government to negative from stable, pointing to rising risks to the nation’s fiscal strength. The ratings agency has affirmed the long-term issuer and senior unsecured ratings of the U.S. at Aaa. “In the context of higher interest rates, without effective fiscal policy measures to reduce government spending or increase revenues,” the agency said, “Moody’s expects that the US’ fiscal deficits will remain very large, significantly weakening debt affordability.” Brinkmanship in Washington has also been a contributing factor, Moody’s said. “Continued political polarization within US Congress raises the risk that successive governments will not be able to reach consensus on a fiscal plan to slow the decline in debt affordability,” the ratings agency said.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claimed on Monday that “there are two million Nazis” in the occupied West Bank. Smotrich made the comments on X, formerly known as Twitter, in response to an interview given by a Palestinian official … “A reminder to those who have not yet sobered up and think that the Nazis in Judea and Samaria are different from the Nazis in Gaza,” said Smotrich, referring to the occupied West Bank by its biblical names. “We will strengthen the settlement and cripple the Nazis wherever they are to ensure ‘never again!’,” he added. Since the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on 7 October, Israeli officials have sought to draw a parallel between Hamas and the Nazis.

In an Israeli classroom, Jewish boys are encouraged to express hateful and murderous attitudes toward non-Jews. Runtime: 1:09 mins.

The author, who was raised as an Orthodox Jew, shows how the arrogant and invidious Jewish chauvinism of modern Israel is rooted in the Talmud and Jewish rabbinical laws. Shahak, who came to Israel in 1945 after surviving the notorious German concentration camp of Belsen during World War II, condemns Israel’s systemic discrimination against the non-Jews under its rule. He insists that the Jewish religion, especially in its classical and Talmudic form, is “poisoning minds and hearts.” Israel’s identity as an emphatically Jewish ethno-religious state, and policies based on that outlook – he contends – constitute a danger not only to itself and its inhabitants, but to Jews everywhere, as well as to the peoples and states of the Middle East.

Elon Musk called his recent endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory “foolish” and said he was “sorry for that post” on X, the social media platform he owns and renamed from Twitter … During the interview, Musk expressed regret for his Nov. 15 tweet in which he called a user’s antisemitic post “the actual truth.” “I should have, in retrospect, not replied to that particular person and I should have written in greater length as to what I meant,” Musk told Sorkin. “I mean, look, I’m sorry for that post. It was foolish of me,” he added. “Of the 30,000 it might be literally the worst and dumbest post I’ve ever done. I’ve tried my best to clarify six ways from Sunday, but you know at least I think it’ll be obvious that in fact far from being antisemitic, I’m in fact philosemitic.”

… The Biden administration’s current policy of unconditional support for the Israeli government’s war on Gaza carries with it no upsides and only downsides in regards to U.S. interests … Steadfast U.S. support for Israel has been typically justified on the basis that, for all the criticism leveled at the United States over it, it holds more benefits than drawbacks for U.S. interests. But it is impossible to make that argument for the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s current war, which is doing profound reputational damage to the United States and risks the deaths of untold numbers of Americans.