Welcome! Why is the IRS targeting low-income families?
NOTE: The Federal Reserve announces its next interest rate move at 2 PM.
WATCH: Josh Hawley roasts DHS Secretary Mayorkas for not firing a DHS employee who celebrated the Hamas terror attacks. – Twitter
MUST READ 1: For the Times, Beheading Is Now Subjective – Commentary Magazine
MUST READ 2: Why Are Married People Happier If They Have Less Free Time? IFS
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Blaming Israel & Historic Antisemitism
The Israeli military conducted a series of airstrikes on a known Hamas base inside a refugee camp in northern Gaza killing a number of terrorists including one of the masterminds behind the October 7th attacks.
Outrage: Progressive Democrats are outraged over the airstrikes due to the mounting unconfirmed civilian death toll. However, Israel has repeatedly warned civilians for over two weeks to flee the region noting airstrikes were imminent.
Rafah: Palestinians with dual citizenships and some of the seriously injured have been allowed to leave Gaza through Egpyt’s Rafah Crossing for the first time since the war began. This is the first time anyone has been allowed to leave Gaza in three weeks.
🚨 Antisemitism: The FBI is reporting that antisemitic threats are reaching historic levels in the US following the October 7th attacks. In yesterday’s Senate hearing, FBI Director Christopher Wray said “For a group that represents only about 2.4% of the American public, they account for something like 60% of all religious-based hate crimes.”
Europe: Similar reports are coming out of Europe with this quote coming from The New York Times
Perhaps not since the Holocaust, which saw the annihilation of about two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish community, have the Jews of Europe lived in an atmosphere of fear so acute that it feels like a fundamental shift in the terms of their existence. Across a Europe of daubed Stars of David on apartment buildings, bomb threats to Jewish stores and demonstrations calling for Israel’s eradication, Jews speak of alarm as pro-Palestinian sentiment surges.
Hamas and 9/11
Following the attacks of September 11th, 2001, US intelligence quit spying on Hamas and delegated the task to Israeli intelligence in order to prioritize other threats that posed a more direct threat to the United States. To put it mildly, this appears to be a mistake. This is from The Wall Street Journal (paywall):
U.S. intelligence agencies all but stopped spying on Hamas and other violent Palestinian groups in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., instead directing resources to the hunt for the leaders of al Qaeda and, later, Islamic State, according to U.S. officials familiar with the shift.
Current and former officials said U.S. intelligence agencies, principally the CIA, had a handful of analysts tracking events in the Gaza Strip before the attacks but relied on Israel to penetrate Hamas with human sources and surveil the group with eavesdropping technology.
Biden administration officials said that neither Israeli nor U.S. intelligence warned of the lightning raid, in which Hamas penetrated Israel’s border defenses and killed more than 1,400 people.
Related A Hamas spokesperson said yesterday they will “repeat October 7-like attacks until Israel is annihilated.”
Bonus: West Bank Risks Becoming a New Front for Israel – Bloomberg (paywall)
Home schooling’s rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education
Home schooling has become — by a wide margin — America’s fastest-growing form of education, as families from Upper Manhattan to Eastern Kentucky embrace a largely unregulated practice once confined to the ideological fringe, a Washington Post analysis shows.
The analysis — based on data The Post collected for thousands of school districts across the country — reveals that a dramatic rise in home schooling at the onset of the pandemic has largely sustained itself through the 2022-23 academic year, defying predictions that most families would return to schools that have dispensed with mask mandates and other covid-19 restrictions.
Full story at The Washington Post (paywall)
Trending news:
- I Said Hamas Raped and Beheaded. The Yale Daily News Issued a Correction. – Free Beacon
- Las Vegas Raiders fire head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager after rocky start to season – CNN
- Calling a black conservative “uncle” is acceptable? – World Magazine
- Tim Scott’s a Good Guy. But Is That Enough? – The Dispatch
- Stanley Druckenmiller says government needs to stop spending like ‘drunken sailors,’ cut entitlements – CNBC
- Stanford Law School Taps Organizer of Shout-Down Protest To Help Find New Dean – Free Beacon
- White House Warns Biden Would Veto House GOP Standalone Israel Funding Bill – The Messenger
- Toyota raises its outlook as strong hybrid demand juices profits – CNBC
- Deep split erupts between Democrats on Israel-Hamas war – Axios
- It Isn’t Just Golf. The Justice Department Is Very, Very Interested in Sports. – WSJ (paywall)
- China’s Property Sector Loans Contract for First Time on Record – Bloomberg (paywall)
