https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/03/politics/biden-iran-balancing-act/index.html
President Joe Biden’s decision to strike 85 targets in Iraq and Syria on Friday in response to the death of three American soldiers last weekend amounted to a middle ground: short of a direct strike inside Iran, which would almost certainly spark a wider war, but still more expansive than any action the US has taken so far against the groups it accuses of destabilizing the region.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/21/elise-stefanik-trump-vp-new-hampshire/
Stefanik, the No. 4 House Republican, symbolizes the shift of GOP officials in the Trump era. Once a Trump critic — a view for which she was celebrated among Republicans who had opposed his 2016 presidential bid — Stefanik has risen within the party over the years and fully embraced Trump. But her drop-in trip to New Hampshire, as well as visits from Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), has prompted speculation beyond the state’s primary: Whom would Trump pick as his vice president if he becomes the nominee?
Long Island, where the district is located, has more commonly been electing Republicans in recent years. Nassau County, which makes up most of the district, has leaned Democratic at the presidential level but is led by a Republican county executive, and a majority of the members of the county legislature are Republican.
The congressional district comfortably voted for former GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin in the state’s 2022 gubernatorial race.
Pilip’s campaign has centered its attacks on Suozzi around immigration, an apparent effort to tie him to Biden, whose policies on the issue have been rated poorly. Voters in the district say immigration is one of their most important issues.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/11/trump-nato-remarks-democrats-putin-00140848
“NATO has been a success story for the last 75 years. But what bothers me about this is, don’t take the side of a thug, who kills his opponents. don’t take the side of someone who has gone in and invaded a country and half a million people have died or been wounded because of Putin,” Haley said Sunday during an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“Now, we do want NATO allies to pull their weight. But there are ways you can do that without sitting there and telling Russia, have your way with these countries. That’s not what we want,” she added.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-786343
A teacher from northern Israel was arrested after providing Hamas with the location of a defense industry plant in the north to help Hamas fire rockets toward the plant, the Shin Bet and police said on Sunday.
The suspect was identified as Rami Habibullah, a resident of Ein Mahil, a town near Nazareth. The Shin Bet and police found that, in light of the conflict in Gaza, Habibullah decided to contact Hamas operatives abroad and offer to help promote terrorist activities in Israel.
Habibullah provided a Hamas operative with a photo of a defense industry plant near his home and the exact location of the plant, intending to have Hamas fire rockets toward the site. He also collected funds for the terrorist group and provided information on several sensitive locations.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/al-jazeera-journalist-is-also-a-hamas-commander-idf-says/
A Palestinian journalist working for Al Jazeera appears to also be a commander in Hamas’s military wing, according to images and documents recovered by the IDF in the Gaza Strip during the ongoing war against the terror Palestinian terror group.
“In the morning, he’s a journalist on the Al Jazeera channel, and in the evening, a terrorist in Hamas!” wrote Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, in a Sunday post to social media platform X.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com
IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari on Monday morning gave a statement on the Sunday night rescue of two hostages, Fernando Simon Marman (60) and Louis Har (70), during an IDF operation in Rafah.
In his statement, Hagari said, "This was a complex rescue operation carried out under fire in the heart of Rafah, and based on quality intelligence. The ISA's operational unit, the police, Southern Command, Shayetet 13, and Brigade 7 of the Armored Corps carried out this professional and precise action. This is an operation which we prepared for over the course of some time - the necessary preparations were made and we waited for conditions which would allow it to be carried out."
At 1:49a.m. the special forces broke into the building in Rafah. The hostages were on the second floor. From the moment we began the operation, the soldiers embraced Louis and Fernando and began a difficult gunfight. Aerial support allowed the force to cut contact and hit the Hamas terrorists. The soldiers pulled the hostages out of the apartment, and they were rescued under fire until they reached the safe area. It was a very stressful and very moving night."
Reacting to her comment in an interview on CNN, Crenshaw denounced Stefanik’s snub of former Vice President Mike Pence, arguing the position does not have the ability to decertify an election.
“The only reason I’m not worried is because what she’s saying is so completely incorrect,” Crenshaw told CNN’s Dana Bash Friday. “The Constitution gives you no power — you, being the vice president — gives you no power to decertify the election. It’s very clear.”
“I mean, we could pull it up on the screen and read it. Mike Pence read it, and he came to the conclusion that he has no power to decertify election,” he continued. “The word ‘certify’ is not even in there. So, this idea that there even is this mechanism for Congress to certify or decertify an election is just — it’s totally wrong.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/09/garland-decision-release-hur-report-00140806
Other Justice Department veterans and Biden allies described the report as “gratuitous,” particularly his remark that challenged Biden’s memory of the timing of his son Beau’s death.
“Mr. Hur seems to have gone beyond the limits of what he can write by adding what appear to be simply unnecessary comments about the president’s age and memory, especially the gratuitously bold assertion about forgetting when his son passed,” said Gene Rossi, a former federal prosecutor.
Jamie Gorelick, a deputy attorney general under President Bill Clinton, agreed.
“The language that Hur used, I thought, was remarkable and unfortunate,” Gorelick said. “I think he could have listed his reasons for not recommending a charge or not charging without that kind of gratuitous slam.”
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-mocks-haley-asking-where-deployed-husband-where-gone
"Where's her husband?" Trump questioned. "Where is he? He's gone. He knew, he knew."
Haley did not mince words when she shot back at Trump two hours later in a social media post.
"Michael is deployed serving our country, something you know nothing about," the former South Carolina governor wrote on X.
Hidden deep below the headquarters of the United Nations’ aid agency for Palestinians here is a Hamas complex with rows of computer servers that Israel’s armed forces say served as an important communications center and intelligence hub for the Islamist militant group.
Part of a warren of tunnels and subterranean chambers carved from the Gaza Strip’s sandy soil, the compound below the United Nations Relief and Works Agency buildings in Gaza City appears to have run on electricity drawn from the U.N.’s power supply, Israeli officials said.
A Wall Street Journal reporter and journalists from other news organizations visited the site this past week in a trip organized by Israel’s military. A tunnel also appeared to pass beneath a U.N.-run school near the headquarters.
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/10/politics/trump-russia-nato/index.html
Former President Donald Trump on Saturday said he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to any NATO member country that doesn’t meet spending guidelines on defense in a stunning admission he would not abide by the collective-defense clause at the heart of the alliance if reelected.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-786004
In the past four months, a newfound closeness to God and Judaism has emerged among many Israelis. A survey, carried out by Lazar Research and published on Friday exclusively for The Jerusalem Post, reveals a dramatic shift in spiritual sentiment: a third of those polled have found their faith in God deepened during these challenging four months. This significant finding points to a collective search for comfort, understanding, and strength in adversity.
A man who was detained in Times Square by Curtis Sliwa’s vigilante group the Guardian Angels Tuesday night live on Fox News was not a “migrant,” as Sliwa claimed, but a Bronx resident, according to the Associated Press.
Tuesday’s broadcast of Hannity took an odd turn when members of his group were shown physically engaging with an unidentified individual and detaining them on the ground. Sliwa declared that “our guys have just taken down one of the migrant guys right here on the corner of 42nd and 7th.” He later asserted that the person “had been shoplifting.”
But a New York Police Department spokesperson told the Associated Press Wednesday that the man was actually a New Yorker, with the outlet noting that the department “provided no evidence” to confirm whether he was charged with the crime of shoplifting. However, the man was given a summons for disorderly conduct, the NYPD said.
