The Jewish Passover holiday starts tonight. I will not be posting during the holiday. The single most important thing I want to say before this break is that there are still 133 hostages that have not been released. I suspect that between 40-60 of them are no longer alive. It’s hard to be specific about this because Hamas won’t allow anyone to check on their welfare, or even release a list of who they actually are holding. This, of course, is in open violation of international law. But Hamas was already in violation by failing to immediately and unconditionally release the civilians they kidnapped on October 7th. Why is this ignored by the international media? They waste thousands of words spreading Hamas data regarding so-called civilian deaths (some of which is obviously not true). Why are imprisoned Israeli victims being left out?
The US House of Representatives passed an aid bill for Israel. The total amount was $26 billion. Few places discussed how that aid was to be broken down. Here are the numbers: Israel will receive $4B for replenishing defensive missiles. Another $1.2 is earmarked for development of the Iron Beam laser defensive weapon. Some $6B will go to munitions replacement, and at least $2.5B toward rebuilding the reserve munitions of US Central Command that were drawn down to provide immediate assistance to Israel. Israel usually receives about $3.8B annually for buying US manufactured equipment and weapons. That leaves around $9B which will be going for aid to (Gazan?) Palestinians. Since other US laws prohibit American funds going directly to Hamas (or UNRWA) what is that money going to buy? It amounts to a donation of at least $3,000 per person for people in Gaza. Is it going to keep them from starving (fictional Hamas claim)? Will it be used to pay for aid that Hamas will steal and resell at a profit? The Palestinian authority recently used its own TV station to denounce Hamas for doing exactly that, and the broadcast was in Arabic.
Wetherhorn 