Recently, the “Squad” – the name given to four so-called “progressive” Democrats in the House — Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayana Pressley – joined by two other “progressives,” Betty McCollum and Pramila Jayapal, threatened to vote against, and thereby block the passage in the House, of Biden’s budget bill that would prevent a government shutdown, until one item in the bill, the pledge of one billion dollars to Israel so that it might replenish its supply of Iron Dome interceptors, was removed. That item was duly removed by the ever-compliant Nancy Pelosi, only to be reintroduced as a separate bill just two days later; it passed, but the Squad’s sinister attempts to weaken Israel will continue. A look at the significance of their latest anti-Israel effort is here: “The immorality of Democratic ‘progressives’ targeting Iron Dome,” by David Horovitz, Times of Israel, September 22, 2021:
Were it not for the astonishing Iron Dome missile defense system, the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror group would have been able to reduce Israel’s residential areas to rubble in recent years, rendering much of the country unlivable. It would also have condemned Israel to international isolation: A single rocket from Gaza that evaded Iron Dome and fell near Ben Gurion Airport in 2014 prompted most foreign airlines to suspend their flights to Israel.
In this past May’s 11-day conflict alone, an estimated 1,500 rockets fired from Gaza were heading directly into Israeli civilian neighborhoods. In excess of 1,400 of them were knocked out of the sky by Iron Dome interceptors. In the little more than a decade since the system was first rushed into service, it has stopped thousands of the terror groups’ indiscriminate rocket launches from killing and maiming Israelis, with an intercept rate somewhere between 85 and 90 percent.
The Iron Dome anti-missile system is purely defensive; it knocks out of the sky the rockets that the terror group Hamas continues to launch from Gaza into Israel’s southern cities. It manages to intercept close to 90 percent of the incoming rockets. In the Hamas-Israel war in mid-May, of the 1,500 rockets aimed at civilian areas, Iron Dome missiles managed to stop 1,400 of them, potentially saving thousands of lives.
While simultaneously protesting to a gullible world the Israeli security blockade on Gaza that prevents a more rapid development of its capacity to wreak destruction in Israel, Hamas works feverishly to outwit Iron Dome — altering the range of its rockets, modifying their warheads, attempting to overwhelm the system with multiple launches, and, most recently, by utilizing drones to carry its warheads across the border.
Acutely conscious of the lives at stake, Iron Dome’s developers continually upgrade it, racing desperately to stay one step ahead of the terrorists.
Israel’s security blockade on Gaza, so bitterly complained of by Hamas as preventing humanitarian aid from reaching suffering civilians in the Strip, is nothing of the sort. No food or medicine is kept out by Israel. The only items blockaded are those which have a military use, either in the manufacture of weapons, or building of launching pads, or fortifying command-and-control centers, or in the construction of terror tunnels.
The United States has been a core, consistent partner in the development and funding of Iron Dome. This is an immensely expensive enterprise: Each of the dozen or so Iron Dome batteries reportedly deployed by Israel costs upwards of $50 million, and each interceptor rocket costs $20,000-$100,000. The Gaza rockets they stop, by contrast, range in cost from hundreds of dollars to the low thousands….
The expense of the Iron Dome system, where each interceptor rocket costs $20,000-$100,000, is a terrific financial burden on Israel. Hamas is well aware of this; even if almost all of its rockets are intercepted, it can bleed Israel financially, with its own rockets each costing about 1% of what each Iron Dome interceptor costs. Israel’s need for funds to replenish its stock of Iron Dome interceptors is palpable and immediate, as Hamas threatens at any moment to reinstitute its rocket barrage.
Despite his perceived antipathy to Israel, even Barack Obama did not stint when it came to the Iron Dome project, pushing funding for it swiftly through Congress. That is some indication of just how extreme the Squad has become in its obsessive anti-Israel efforts. The Squad, and such fellow-travelers as Betty McCollum and Primala Jayapal, appear obsessive in their desire to undermine the Jewish state, including their efforts to deny funding for Israel’s most important defensive weapon.
For seeking to deny funds to Israel for Iron Dome is indeed immoral. This is a military system whose sole purpose and capability is defensive. It keeps people alive despite terrorists’ best attempts to kill them. It is the vital first line of defense against the war crime of indiscriminate rocket fire directed at civilians.
Iron Dome is purely defensive, and the Squad knows this full well. But it apparently thinks that depriving the Jewish state of the defensive weapons it needs to protect itself, thereby causing more casualties among Israeli civilians, will be a suitable way to bring Israel to heel, to stop its supposed “aggression” against the Palestinians in Gaza, and to force it to end its blockade of the Strip.
Those US legislators doing their utmost to deprive Israel of its protection are attempting to abandon Israelis to that deadly fire. They are opposing Israeli civilians’ right to a shield against murderous terrorism.
Iron Dome’s principal deployment, moreover, has been facing a territory, Gaza, in which Israel has no military or civilian presence — having withdrawn to international acclaim in 2005 — an enclave that is ruled by a globally reviled terrorist organization.
It would also be crucial in any war against Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terror army with far greater rocket and missile capabilities than Hamas and the shared goal of destroying Israel….
At any moment, Hezbollah could launch its own rockets into the Galilee. It could do so to deflect the Lebanese public’s fury, for many reasons, with the terror group: first, for being responsible for the Beirut port blast on Aug. 4, 2020, that resulted in 230 dead, 6,500 wounded, and $15 billion in property destroyed; second, for Hezbollah’s violent suppression of protestors demanding that the mismanagement and corruption of the Lebanese ruling class come to an end; third, for Hezbollah’s practice of holding Lebanese civilians hostage by placing its weapons inside civilian structures, including houses, schools, hospitals, and even mosques which, as a consequence, ensures that these buildings will become targets in any future war with Israel; fourth, for building a gigantic network of terror tunnels where both men and weapons can be moved about without being seen by the Israelis, but should those tunnels be hit by Israel, the buildings on top of them are likely to collapse as well, and the civilians inside them, despite Israel’s best efforts to warn them of impending attacks, will suffer.
Hezbollah might also launch its rockets at Israel to open up a second front, should the IDF go to war with Iran to destroy, in the nick of time, its nuclear program. It’s important to note that Hezbollah has ten times the number of rockets – 150,000 – that Hamas has in Gaza, which means many more Iron Dome interceptors will be needed in a future war against Hezbollah. In such a war, were Hezbollah able to fire gigantic barrages day after day until its store of rockets were used up, Israel would need an equal number of Iron Dome interceptors, at a total cost of $15 billion. Given Hezbollah’s vast armory of rockets, the provision of $1 billon in American aid to replenish Israel’s stock of Iron Dome interceptors is most modest.
If there are insufficient funds for Israeli to replenish its stock of Iron Dome missiles, then there will be more Hamas rockets that will not be intercepted, but land in Israel where some will kill or wound civilians. The IDF will then have to become much more violent in its response, in order to bring the conflict with Hamas, and its rockets quickly to an end. This means more airstrikes, on more targets, and more massive ordnance likely to be used. And that means more Palestinians, including civilians, will be wounded or killed in Gaza. Is that what Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar want? Because that would be, as David Horovitz says in his article, the inevitable consequence of the denial of aid money to Israel for replenishing its store of Iron Dome missiles. It looks as if they don’t really care what happens to the Palestinians, as long as Israelis are harmed.
Leading Democrats are assuring Israel and Israel’s supporters in the US that the capitulation to the progressive legislators is a short-term setback that will be swiftly reversed. Anything else would be unthinkable….
That is what has happened. The new, separate bill providing Israeli with $1 billion in supplementary aid for replenishing its store of Iron Dome missiles was introduced on September 22, just one day after it had been removed from the budget bill, was passed. The Squad is furious.
This time the Squad has been foiled in their scheming to make it harder for Israel to defend itself against intense rocket barrages launched by its enemies, as the terror group Hamas did in mid-May. Its members have shown that they are ready to do anything at all to strip Israel of its most effective weapon of self-defense. They are obsessed with weakening the Jewish state and making Israelis more vulnerable. Who will help to shrink “the Squad”? It will be difficult. Maybe impossible. In 2020, Omar received 68% of the vote in her primary; Tlaib did even better, with 78% of the votes cast ; Ocasio-Cortez won 73%, and Pressley 98.6%.
But it’s not too soon to find exceptionally attractive candidates to run in the 2022 Democratic primary against each of the Squad’s members, to fund those candidates far in advance of the primary campaign, and to coach them on public presentations and messaging, none of which was done in 2020. And if those challengers lose in the Democratic primary, then those who supported them can transfer their support to the Republicans now facing the Squad members. If the President continues to decline in popularity – Biden now has an approval rating of only 43%, and more than half the country “disapproves” of his presidency — he may drag down House Democrats, including members of the Squad with him. If Rashida Tlaib continues to vocally support recognized terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, and becomes known as Rashida Tlaib (D.-Ramallah), this may damage her, even among Democrats. Ilhan Omar’s personal peccadilloes – her spending almost all of her campaign money at the company run by her new husband, in a scandalous act of both self-dealing and nepotism, her bizarre marital history that strongly suggests the possibility of a fraudulent “marriage” to her own brother in order to get him a green card — all this make her vulnerable to charges of malfeasance and fraud. Even if the Squad’s members are reelected, the headache of having to fight off well-financed challengers, in both the primary and in the general election, might dampen their current enthusiasm for constantly antagonizing supporters of Israel.
Meanwhile, the $1 billion in aid money to replenish Israel’s store of Iron Dome missiles has been approved. So far so good. The Squad barks, the caravan moves on.
Kesselman says
No doubt, ”The Squad” is like all red fascists without morality. To confuse terrorists Hamas and Hezbollah with the sympathy of the underdog is not only downright wrong but intentional genocidal to the Jewish State of Israel.
OTTER says
Women in public life are a security threat. Most of them collude and collaborate with the enemy. In the ever bubbling cauldron of the culture wars in the US, that will take it down, the part played by these clueless women will be massive. If you want to read how women in public life are destroying the US, read a column by Maureen Dowd that blamed American men for 9/11 in effect. Women do not belong in public life as they have different roles given to them by evolution. And yes, we may think we have finished with evolution, but it has not finished with us.
I am irrelevant. Don’t attack me, find fault with my arguments on merit. Over to Gravenimage.
Daniel Triplett says
FUN FACT: Since women’s suffrage with the 19th Amendment in 1920, no Democrat POTUS would’ve ever been elected had the women’s vote been subtracted.
Charlie in NY says
I doubt that’s the case for either FDR or LBJ who mostly won in landslides. Do you have a particular source you can share?
Daniel Triplett says
I’ll see if I can find it. I remember the stat from 5 years ago but can’t remember the source. I think it may have been a news/opinion show like O’Reilly Factor when he was still on Fox. You may be correct about 1964 LBJ though. A quick glance at wikipedia shows men voted for LBJ 60/40 over Goldwater, even after subtracting women’s 62/38 vote.
Infidel says
Only 2 or 3 exceptions I can find to contradict your arguments. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Lauren Boebert. Debbie Schlussel
Noone else comes to mind
gravenimage says
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Jayda Franzen, Pamela Geller, Caroline Glick, Brigitte Gabriel, Wafa Sultan, Nonie Darwish–just off the top of my head.
norman says
Thatcher, Merkel and Golda Meir come to mind. I like Liz Cheney as well.
Infidel says
Thatcher was pretty anti-Israel, Merkel is rotten to the core and Golda Meir is dead. Liz Cheney is pretty shot as well. You could have picked worse examples, but not much more
gravenimage says
OTTER knows that I am going to expose his agenda here.
I see that OTTER has changed his shtick–before he claimed that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was a “white woman”–whom he has said should all be prevented from getting an education, voting, or working outside the home, and that they should be forced to breed; in other words, treated as sex slaves. Of course, AOC is not white–she aggressively identifies as a “woman of color”. In fact, none of the “Squad” are white.
So have OTTERs ideas here changed? Does he now want to enslave all women–or just white women? Does he want to force women of color to breed, as well? I doubt he is mentally organized enough to be able to elucidate further.
He says that no one should be able to expose his grotesque agenda here–he found out some time ago that Anti-Jihadists do not actually want to act like barbaric Muslims. Poor him…
As for the supposed merits of his argument–such as it is–no, most women are nothing like the appalling Muslim and Marxist Squad. They are not “clueless”–their anti-Americanism and hatred of Israel is completely intentional.
His claim that evolution means that women want to destroy civilization is just bizarre–can he point to *any* aspect of evolution that says this? Of course not–which is why he doesn’t even attempt to back up this crap.
The appalling “Squad” is not really different from the many male Muslims and Leftists in public life in the west–but OTTER has no problem with them that he says. Then again, he likely has no interest in using them as sex slaves, so this does not surprise.
OTTER says
Please see another article on Jihad watch. ‘Rutgers professors mark 20th anniversary of 9/11 by assaulting America.’
Who are most of the speakers? Women.
You are right. My position has evolved. Now I consider women in the public life of all colors as foolish stooges for Islam.
Stop attacking me. Look at the data. The evolution argument is simple: men hunted, women stayed at home. They did not develop the evolutionary capabilities to judge threats. Women are not warlike, but men can be. Men start wars, not women.
Why would the West want its defense in the hands of women when they know nothing about it. Gravenimage: you remember the famous silence by German feminist women after the New Year mass sexual assault. The evidence that women are not suited for public life is EVERYWHERE.
China is a male-dominated country and is far more aggressive than the US. Why? In part because women have gained so much power in the West that our decline is certain.
gravenimage says
Yet more from OTTER:
Please see another article on Jihad watch. ‘Rutgers professors mark 20th anniversary of 9/11 by assaulting America.’
Who are most of the speakers? Women.
……………..
They are also mostly hard Leftists, which is more important. Gender is not actually ideology, despite OTTER’s bizarrely believing that it is.
More:
You are right. My position has evolved. Now I consider women in the public life of all colors as foolish stooges for Islam.
……………..
Does OTTER also want to enslave and force non-white women to breed? Really, he seems incapable of answering my questions here. Really, this is not a difficult question. No doubt it is just impolitic for him to do so, since Anti-Jihadists do not actually want to adopt the horrors of Shari’ah as OTTER does.
More:
Stop attacking me. Look at the data. The evolution argument is simple: men hunted, women stayed at home. They did not develop the evolutionary capabilities to judge threats. Women are not warlike, but men can be. Men start wars, not women.
……………..
Even if OTTER’ reductive view of evolution were correct, his claims here still make no sense. Until the development of agriculture, no one could “stay home” and gather foodstuffs. Just absurd.
Then, the idea that what we need here is for someone to start wars is really odd. That is what the Jihadists are doing–we need defensive warfare. There is nothing weak about effective defense, despite what OTTER may believe.
Then, his constant claims that women are incapable of identifying threats actually makes no sense, nor is it borne out. Of course he cannot point to anything that backs up his bizarre claims, because it does not exist.
Then, the existance of Anti-Jihad women clearly shows that this is mistaken–but this does not fit OTTER’s narrative, so he desperately tries to ignore it.
Then, the idea that I have to stop attacking slavery and sex slavery and those who advocate for it is just grotesque–but then, just like many pious Muslims, he has realized that his sick views do not actually go over well here–so much better to soft-pedal them, then. Bad dhimmis!
More:
Why would the West want its defense in the hands of women when they know nothing about it. Gravenimage: you remember the famous silence by German feminist women after the New Year mass sexual assault. The evidence that women are not suited for public life is EVERYWHERE.
……………..
Now he is confusing starting wars with defense–his lack of rational thinking is pronounced.
I have condemned the reaction in Germany to the Muslims’ sexual attacks on women on New Years many times here. The response by most men *and* women in Germany and internationally was woefully inadequate. The idea that only women should oppose this is bizarre–but given OTTER’s stumping for using women as sex slaves, it scarcely surprises.
The fact is that men *and* women should step up to defend the West. I support patriots of either gender who do so.
More:
China is a male-dominated country and is far more aggressive than the US. Why? In part because women have gained so much power in the West that our decline is certain.
……………..
China is a totalitarian, unfree mess–the idea that China is or should be a model for the civilized world is pretty sick. But not even China goes far enough in the oppression of women for what OTTER is advocating. Only the Muslim world does so.
somehistory says
What would a psychologist have to say?
There are rotten men throughout history, and there are rotten women throughout history.
Gender is not the most important aspect of ‘good’ and ‘evil,’ or ‘able’ or not able to do a good job.
There is an account in the Bible where a man was told to go to a woman…Deborah… for direction….because she was a prophetess. And it was a woman who put the evil Sisera to death…her name was Jael.
And one of the Christians who carried instructions to the Christian congregations in the First Century was a woman.
Besides that Jesus told a woman that He was the Christ, the One expected, and furthermore, Jesus appeared first to a woman after He was resurrected.
Women have their strengths and their weaknesses. As do men. Each has a role that fits them best in life, but there are times when one must recognize a special assignment, so to speak.
These women in the “squad” are evil and they would be evil wherever they were. But, they don’t represent women anymore than biden, ‘o,’ or the members of the taliban represent men.
gravenimage says
+1
James Lincoln says
OTTER is controversial, but this much is true:
According to Pew Research, women have slightly higher rates of voter turnout than men.
Women are also more likely to vote Democrat.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/08/18/men-and-women-in-the-u-s-continue-to-differ-in-voter-turnout-rate-party-identification/
OTTER says
Four women again destroying the West. Most women do not belong in public life.
gravenimage says
See above.
Mike says
these woman should never be allowed to have children
this would be like if Hitler ever had off spring
somehistory says
The empty-headed cortez got on camera to pretend to cry after the vote and tlaib…also empty-headed, pretended with empty words afterward…but their snake attempts are all too-evident.
They aren’t ‘thinking’ about how much the fake palistenians are “suffering” due to Israel trying to protect itself…it doesn’t hurt anyone for the iron dome to destroy the missiles before they hit anyone…but it’s the whole idea of Israel not being the victims cortez, tlaib and the others want to see them become.
Fools. One day, these fools will have to face reality. The sooner, the better. They actually believe that some others will believe them…what fools these ugly women are.
Ugly, inside and out.
Graham Bryant says
these fools will have to face the Creator in his wrath when he bursts through the clouds of heaven -he shall then deal with ALL islam in the earth in his anger!!
somehistory says
No one will escape Judgment Day…and some judgments will result in destruction, just as some will result in everlasting life being granted.
“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God,” says the Bible.
Dan says
I honestly…
Truly
With all my heart and soul…
Wished these pitiful excuses for human beings LIVED under full Shariah Law.
somehistory says
They are so stupid, foolish, and such cruel liars, they would probably help the males to hurt the little girls.
gravenimage says
I am sure they would, Somehistory.
wpm says
Ironic all these women under Sharia law would be stone to death in a public square if they publicly came out with their policies on homosexual marriage in a Sharia law ruled country, .They would never be able to even walk around in public without being fully covered up and not having a male protector or relative with them to protect them from being raped. As honor killing, people being “though of being gay” thrown off roof tops, rape of unbelievers ,grooming gangs, burning of Christian Churches in Africa ,Hundi Temples in Pakistan ,women forced into sexual slavery, all done and approved by Sharia law these women turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to millions of suffering men, women and children .The Israeli iron dome shield system does not kill one person anywhere in the world it saves thousands of Israel citizens, Jews ,Christians and yes Moslems! These same idiots that want to defund the police in American cities are shocked when the murder rate goes thru the roof in blue cities that cut police funding and castrate cops who do their jobs.
gravenimage says
+1
Jim says
The voters who elect these women should have a better sense of morality, they do not have to be in Congress. They should all be put out to pasture.
somehistory says
The people behind getting these scum “elected” are also scum. The young turks worked to get cortez into office, and tlaib used fraud, as did i elmi, alias omar…all with evil intent once in office. They make satan a proud ‘father.’
gravenimage says
The Squad’s Latest Attempt to Undermine Israel
……………..
Just appalling–and half of them are Muslim. None of these thugs are “progressive”.
VICTOR COWEN says
I betcha. none of these animals goes out alone at night…
That’s where being “progressive” gets you.
David M says
When are we going to drop The Squad off in Kabul to make them live the life they squawk about? Let them stay at home, wear a burqa & only go out with a male guardian. They would quickly relent & start appreciating the west after that.
OLD GUY says
These three are the mouth piece of their foreign sponsors money. Sadly there will be more just like them coming in Americas future through the migration invasion of muslims/islamic refugees.