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* Guy Millière: Defending Israel and Western Civilization More Urgent than Ever
* Amir Taheri: Trump's Tariff Fire Works


** Defending Israel and Western Civilization More Urgent than Ever ([link removed])
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by Guy Millière • April 13, 2025 at 5:00 am
* [A]ll Hamas needs to do to prevent this destruction is return all the hostages it should not have kidnapped in the first place. Amnesty International has served up a remarkable inversion of facts.
* "What's shocking is that people in the Cease-Fire Now crowd don't appear to have much interest in making any demands of Hamas equivalent to those they make of Israel. They want Israel to stop firing. But do you often hear them insisting that Hamas return the favor? They want Israel to provide Gaza with humanitarian relief in the form of electricity, fuel and other goods. But I haven't seen those protesters in the street demanding that Hamas provide Israel with humanitarian relief in the form of immediately freeing all hostages.... For Israelis, what 'Cease-Fire Now' means is 'Surrender Now.' No wonder they decline to heed the call.... Whatever else one thinks of Israel, no country can be expected to sign its own death warrant by indulging those who, if given the chance, would annihilate it." — Bret Stephens, New York Times, November 21, 2023.
* Clearly a massive dark-money problem obscenely exists within far too many universities and cities both in the US and Europe.
* It is also important to highlight the unabashedly toxic role of the United Nations.... [T]he United Nations quickly became the world's leading organization for, among other unsavory practices, propagating hatred of Israel and a general hatred of Jews.
* The Palestinian Authority to this day pays its citizens to murder Jews -- the more Jews, the larger the payments.
* In Europe, organizations that fight anti-Semitism.... Often left-wing, they primarily denounce far-right anti-Semitism, but never far-left anti-Semitism, and never ever Islamic anti-Semitism -- currently the only form of anti-Semitism in Europe that attacks and kills Jews. Most Jewish organizations in Europe support Israel, but more often than not advocate for dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians and still support the mirage of a "two-state solution."
* The vast majority of Israelis seem finally to have understood that the goal of Palestinian organizations is not to create a state living in peace alongside Israel, but to destroy Israel.

The vast majority of Israelis seem finally to have understood that the goal of Palestinian organizations is not to create a state living in peace alongside Israel, but to destroy Israel. The West, wrote the columnist Melanie Phillips, needs "to take off its blinders, join up the dots and fight like Israel to survive." Pictured: Hamas terrorists on their way into Israel from Gaza Strip, on their mission to murder Jews, on the morning of October 7, 2023. (Photo by Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images)

In the mainstream European and American media, the unspeakable October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre in Israel seems largely forgotten. The media rarely describe Hamas as a terrorist organization with genocidal aims. When the word "genocide" is used, even by self-described "human rights organizations," it is to accuse the victim of the attacks, Israel.

Israel forcibly removed every Jew from Gaza in 2005 – long before the October 7, 2023 massacre. Nevertheless, one of Amnesty International's current campaigns, "End Israel's Genocide against Palestinians in Gaza," continues to refer to the "occupied Gaza Strip." Gaza has not been occupied for twenty years; it is not occupied now. Gaza is the theater from where Palestinians are still firing rockets and missiles at civilian targets in Israel.

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** Trump's Tariff Fire Works ([link removed])
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by Amir Taheri • April 13, 2025 at 4:00 am
* Even the European Union, which initially threatened hell and high fire, is beginning to realize that if you are in a hole, you stop digging.
* Even China, which seems to have embarked on a game of chicken against the US, is almost certain to realize that it cannot afford a full-scale trade duel with the US.
* Trump is accused of protectionism. But here, too, a measure of protection is conducive to economic development. Without protectionism, Victorian England would not have been able to build its industrial revolution and create a global empire.
* It is obvious that achieving parity in most if not all those domains isn't a realistic aspiration, and that in any trading relationship one partner is at a disadvantage.
* Now in his second term, Trump intends to go further by addressing other problems inherent in the global system, including the vulnerability of supply chains and the danger inherent in strategic dependency on foreign sources of vital goods and services.

Despite the great deal of sound and fury that it has generated, it is perhaps too early to assess the lasting impact of President Donald Trump's latest fireworks on tariffs. Trump also intends to go further by addressing other problems inherent in the global system, including the vulnerability of supply chains and the danger inherent in strategic dependency on foreign sources of vital goods and services. Pictured: Trump displays a chart listing the tariffs he is introducing on imports, on April 2, 2025 at the White House in Washington, DC. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

Despite the great deal of sound and fury that it has generated, it is perhaps too early to assess the lasting impact of President Donald Trump's latest fireworks on tariffs.

Some things, however, are certain.

Contrary to assertions by talking heads on the small screen, we are not heading for a global trade war.

True, the US is the world's biggest economy and ranks second as a trading power. But its share of world trade hovers around 12 percent, or under 10 percent of its GDP. The remaining 88 percent of world trade by 192 nations won't be immediately affected.

Moreover, almost half of US foreign trade is with its two neighbors, Canada and Mexico which had a tussle over tariffs with Trump in his first term but managed to reach a deal and are poised to do the same this time.

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