Wednesday Potpourri

First, from David Goldman’s Twitter, two pieces of information that cut through the misinformation and help us to keep things in perspective.

Israeli diplomat in the Persian Gulf says, "The message we're getting from the Saudis and Emiratis is, 'Waste them' [Hamas]."

And also:

The Russian government has been officially neutral on Israel-Hamas, but the Russian press has been overwhelmingly sympathetic to Israel. Article on what Russia really thinks will appear in Asia Times later this week.

Second, some people talk the talk. Others walk the walk. While our government was charging American citizens for trips out of Israel, Florida governor Ron DeSantis sent a plane to bring hundreds of Floridians back-- at no charge.

Guy Benson reports on a conversation he had with DeSantis. The governor--

-Hits Biden admin over billing US citizens for being evacuated from a war zone, noting that the administration routinely flies illegal immigrants all over the US for free (says FL not charging for its rescue flights) 

- Rejects Haley’s suggestion that Gaza refugees could be adequately vetted for potential entry into the US (he says Arab nations should take them) 

- Supports Rubio proposal to deport Hamas-supporting foreign students studying at American universities 

- Condemns apparent reprisal killing of Palestinian-American child in Illinois

Third, apparently, members of the Harvard student associations that blamed the Hamas massacre on Israel are suffering from mental health problems.

The Daily Mail has the story:

Harvard's Arab Alumni Association has appealed for donations to help students' mental health after they were subjected to 'relentless bullying and intimidation' for blaming Israel for the Hamas attacks of October 7.

The Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee issued a letter on October 7, co-signed by 33 other Harvard student organizations, stating: 'We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.'

I hope you feel sorry for these poor put-upon students, who just discovered that their actions have consequences.

Fourth, in New York City, an emergency room physician at Lenox Hill hospital, by name of Dana Diab, was fired from her job for saying the following:

Zionist settlers getting a taste of their own medicine.

A site called Stop Antisemitism explains that Dr. Diad was 

“...rejoicing Zionist settlers [aka jews] were murdered, raped, beheaded, and kidnapped by the Hamas terror group on Saturday October 7th.”

Fifth, as for what American policy should be, we turn to Niall Ferguson, who was interviewed by Bari Weiss for her Free Press site:

What the Biden administration should be doing is saying—either privately or publicly, I don’t care—that if Iran’s proxies launch further attacks on Israel, then the U.S., with its two carrier strike groups in the region, will carry out attacks on Iranian proxies and, I would argue, on Iran’s nuclear facilities. That’s the kind of threat that might just deter Iran from continuing this concerted attack on Israel. I don’t think that’s going to happen. And that means that I don’t think they’re going to deter Iran.

In reality, the Biden administration is leaning on Israel and calling for restraint. It only tends to prove a point that Sen. John McCain once made, namely that Antony Blinken is a gutless coward.

Sixth, speaking of Palestinian refugees, the King Abdullah of Jordan has stated that his country will not accept any refugees and that Egypt will not do so either.

Fear not, Nikki Haley wants to bring these anti-Semites to America. Could this be the end of the Haley campaign?

Perhaps it is time that we started questioning who we have let into the country. And not just us, Europe, too. How many of those who are out on the streets protesting for Hamas were Muslim migrants.

Sixth, just before Hamas launched its murderous attack on Israel, Biden’s National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan proclaimed that the Middle East has never been quieter.

When caught out in an obvious error, Sullivan, like other members of the Biden administration refused to admit to the error. 

He represents an administration that is all about spin, not results.

Seventh, the latest on the work being done by diversity officers in schools, from Joanne Jacobs:

Hiring a "chief diversity officer" doesn't close achievement gaps, concludes an analysis by Jay P. Greene and Madison Marino of the Heritage Foundation's Center on Education Policy.

Black and Hispanic students had "significantly greater learning loss during the pandemic in school districts that had hired chief diversity officers than in districts without one."

Even controlling for pre-pandemic achievement gaps, minority students lost more than their white classmates, especially in math, they found. "Racial achievement gaps went from bad to worse in these districts."

Eighth, the country has now awakened to the influence of radical leftist professors. Gerard Baker summed it up well in the Wall Street Journal:

The near-total control of the most prestigious universities and colleges by intolerant extremists of the left is breeding not only generations of entitled little authoritarians but legions of apologists for violence against their own perceived enemies.

And, of course, as noted in the case of Judith Butler on this blog yesterday:

There can have been few more weirdly humorous spectacles this week than the protests of gay-rights groups expressing solidarity with Hamas, under whose jurisdiction homosexual activity can get you executed. Israel is the only country in the Middle East that tolerates sexual nonconformity.

Ninth, a useful piece of policy analysis for Walter Russell Mead. Clearly, Biden’s show of strength-- like slamming the barn door shut after the horse escapes from the barn-- does not extend to Iran. The Biden team refuses to declare that Iran is responsible for the massacre. And he is refusing to take steps to stop them from getting nuclear weapons.

Mead wrote in the Wall Street Journal:

Even now, Team Biden does not seem to have internalized the reality that the American policy of “conciliate to evacuate”—to develop a U.S.-Iranian détente that would allow the U.S. to reduce its role in the region—remains, as it has since President Obama first began to implement it, a destabilizing force in the Middle East. It has discomfited our friends, disrupted our alliances, emboldened terrorists, and provided Iran’s mullahs with the resources to turn both Hezbollah and Hamas into formidably destructive forces.

Instead, administration spokesmen continue to minimize Tehran’s involvement with and responsibility for the murders. Iran, which at this point seems to have little fear from an administration it believes it has cowed, is more open. 

Tenth, from Laura Marcus on Twitter:

Leftists love to fantasise about how heroic they’d have been when Jews were being rounded up in the 1930s. ‘I’d have said something’, they insist. Well, Jews are being rounded up again… And leftists are definitely saying something. They’re saying: ‘Good’.

Eleventh, John Hayward on Twitter regarding the bombing of the Gaza hospital yesterday:

After delivering years of sermons about "disinformation" and "fact checking," major media just ran wild with Hamas propaganda about Israel bombing a hospital, without making the slightest effort to verify the claims of a gang that murders children and rapes women.

Twelfth, as the world burns, the Republican Party is making a fool of itself in failing to elect a House Speaker. On Twitter Harmeet Dhillon, a woman who should have been leading the Republican National Committee, wrote this:

Hard to believe so many Republican party leaders would ignore the will of the grassroots and cast leadership votes based on personal interest, jealousy, grudges, transactional “friendship” etc.

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