The Gaza Hostilities Have Ceased, But President Trump Has Clearly Warned Iran to Stay Out of It

WORLD CONDEMNS MASSIVE HAMAS ATTACK ON ISRAEL. As Egypt brokers yet another ceasefire and President Trump warns Iran. • • • US CARRIER AND BOMBERS DEPLOYED TO THE MIDDLE EAST. Newsmax broke the news late on Sunday under the headline "Bolton : US Deploying Carrier, Bombers to Middle East in Warning to Iran." Newsmax reported : "The United States is deploying a carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the Middle East to send a clear message to Iran that any attack on US interests or its allies will be met with 'unrelenting force,' US national security adviser John Bolton said on Sunday. Amid rising tensions between the United States and Iran, Bolton said the decision was 'in response to a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings. The United States is not seeking war with the Iranian regime, but we are fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or regular Iranian forces.' " Bolton's full statement was : "The United States is deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the US Central Command region to send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force." Bolton did not provide any other details. A US official said the forces "have been ordered to the region as a deterrence to what has been seen as potential preparations by Iranian forces and its proxies that may indicate possible attacks on US forces in the region." The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the United States was not expecting any imminent attack on US forces. • Newsmax reminded us that : "Washington has said it will stop waivers for countries buying Iranian oil, in an attempt to reduce Iran's oil exports to zero. It has also blacklisted Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Trump administration's efforts to impose political and economic isolation on Teheran began last year when it unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal it and other world powers negotiated with Iran in 2015." And, according to Newsmax, Axios is reporting that President Trump is set to announce a new set of sanctions this week against the Iranian economy in an attempt to increase its campaign of economic pressure on Teheran and isolate its regime as long as its nuclear ambitions continue. The Axios report comes, says Newsmax, "two days after the Trump administration banned all Iranian oil purchases after May 1, ending exemptions for eight nations, including China, India, South Korea, Japan and Turkey. 'The decisions today enhance our ability to constrain Iran's nuclear program while pursuing maximum economic pressure,' Brian Hook, the State Department special representative on Iran, told CNN Friday. 'We are looking at the region from Yemen to Syria and the regime using the resources they got from the [nuclear deal] to spread human misery across the region instead of spending on its people at home,' a senior administration official told NBC News last August. 'We can have no further illusions about their intent.' " • What Newsmax didn't say was that the "proxy" is almost certainly Hamas and the "clear message to Iran" was to stay out of the then-ongoing Hamas-Israel Gaza flare-up. • • • A TRUCE IN PLACE BETWEEN HAMAS AND ISRAEL. Israel Hayom with Reuters reported on Monday morning that : "Hours after Palestinian media announces Egyptian-brokered truce, IDF confirms cease-fire with Hamas, says civilians can resume normal routines. Terms of truce unclear. Trump: We support Israel 100%." • Israel Hayom/Reuters stated : "After three days of intense fighting between Israel and Hamas that claimed the lives of four Israelis, a cease-fire between the sides was reached early Monday morning. Speaking just before noon on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that latest round of escalation had ended but warned that 'this is not the end; this battle requires stamina and levelheadedness, and we are preparing for more fighting.' Netanyahu stressed that 'our goal has always been to ensure calm and security for the residents of the south,' noting that Israel hit more than 350 targets during the three days of fighting. Earlier on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces announced that Israeli civilians can resume their normal daily routine and that schools would operate as usual as the special emergency precautions were no longer necessary. The IDF also announced that the roads that had been closed near the Gaza Strip have been opened. The announcement came several hours after Palestinian media claimed a truce had been reached following international mediation efforts....Two Palestinian officials and a TV station belonging to Hamas said on Monday morning that a ceasefire had been reached and that it would take effect at 4:30 a.m. (1:30 GMT), apparently stopping the violence from broadening into a conflict which neither side seemed keen on fighting. The IDF said that more than 600 rockets and other projectiles, of which 150 were intercepted by its Iron Dome anti-missile system, had been fired at southern Israeli cities and communities since Friday. It said it attacked about 320 targets belonging to Gaza terrorist groups. But the violence, the most serious border clashes since a spate of fighting in November, appeared to abate early on Monday. Rocket sirens in southern Israel, which had gone off continuously over the weekend, sending residents running for cover, were quiet for a few hours straight before dawn. Egypt and the United Nations, which have served as brokers in the past, were apparently involved in the mediation efforts. The violence began two days ago when a sniper from the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad fired at Israeli troops, wounding two soldiers, according to the Israeli military. PIJ accused Israel of delaying implementation of previous understandings brokered by Egypt. This time, Israeli strategic affairs analysts said, both Islamic Jihad and Hamas terrorists appeared to believe they had some leverage to press for concessions from Israel because Independence Day celebrations begin on Wednesday. Hours before the cease-fire was announced, US President Donald Trump said on Sunday the United States fully supported Israel’s response to a barrage of rockets fired from Gaza and called for an end to the Palestinian attacks, warning Gazans such actions would bring them 'nothing but more misery.' 'Once again, Israel faces a barrage of deadly rocket attacks by terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. We support Israel 100% in its defense of its citizens...To the Gazan people -- these terrorist acts against Israel will bring you nothing but more misery. END the violence and work towards peace -- it can happen!,' Trump said in a message on Twitter." BUT, the Jewish Press reported on Sunday that : "Nevertheless, Israel approved the transport of fuel into the Gaza Strip through the Erez crossing, as part of the decision not to push Gaza into an even more difficult humanitarian situation." • BBC's report stated that : "...at least four Israelis and 25 Palestinians were killed....The violence flared up on Friday during a protest against the blockade of Gaza....Egypt is said to have brokered it -- assisted by the United Nations and Qatar....Early on Monday the IDF said militants had fired 690 rockets into southern Israel during the past 48 hours -- 240 of which had been intercepted by the country's Iron Dome missile defense system. In response, Israel had targeted 350 sites belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the IDF said. Mr Netanyahu had earlier warned that forces around the strip would be 'stepped up with tank, artillery and infantry forces'....Palestinian reports suggest that an understanding previously brokered by Cairo will now be implemented. That was meant to see an easing of the tight blockade on Gaza with the transfer of millions of dollars of Qatari aid money -- in return for calm." • The BBC added that Islamic Jihad and Hamas may have calculated that this was a good time to pressure Israel -- "as it prepares to mark two national holidays -- its memorial day and independence day -- and host the Eurovision song contest. Next week, will be the anniversary of the deadliest day of protests along Gaza's boundary fence with Israel and Hamas, in particular, wants to show achievements. Palestinian Moslems are now beginning the holy month of Ramadan - a time when they strongly feel the economic crisis." • BBC's report asked : "What do we know about casualties? Four people have so far died from the violence in Israel : A 58-year-old man died from injuries in a rocket strike on a house in Ashkelon on Saturday night; A worker died in Ashkelon on Sunday when a rocket hit a factory; Another man, 67, was killed when his car was apparently struck by an anti-tank missile; A fourth man, who was 21, was killed in the southern city of Ashdod. The Gaza health ministry says 25 Palestinians have died across the weekend. The Islamic Jihad group said seven of the dead were its members. Civilians, including a 12-year-old boy and two pregnant women, were also among those reportedly killed. Israel has contested the account of the death of one woman and her 14-month-old niece on Saturday. They blamed their deaths on a Palestinian rocket that fell short of its target. A car, apparently belonging to a Hamas militant, was one of the sites targeted by Israel on Sunday. On Sunday, the Israeli military admitted a targeted assassination of a Hamas commander named Hamed Hamdan al-Khodari -- sharing a video of the apparent moment they hit his car. The sites Israel says it has destroyed include a multi-storey building in Gaza City, which it said included Hamas intelligence offices. Turkey said its state news agency Anadolu had an office there." • According to BBC, "The latest violence began during protests in Gaza on Friday against the blockade of the area -- which Israel says is needed to stop weapons reaching militants. A Palestinian gunman shot and wounded two Israeli soldiers at the boundary fence. Israel retaliated with an air strike that killed two militants. The rocket barrage from Gaza began on Saturday morning, hitting a number of homes in Israeli towns and villages." • • • INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL. The BBC reported on international reaction : "Nickolay Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, has condemned the recent violence and said the UN is working with both sides to restore calm. President Donald Trump said the US supported Israel 100% and warned Palestinians that 'these terrorist acts Israel will bring you nothing but more misery.'....Iran's foreign minister condemned what he labelled as Israel's 'savage' attacks on Gaza, while also hitting out at 'unlimited American support' of Israel. • HOWEVER, BlabberBuzz quoted a New York Post article showing much more support internationally for Israel : "Italy released a statement in support of Israel, noting the 'extremely heavy missile attack' and expressing solidarity. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Matteo Salvini : 'Extremely heavy missile attack against Israel, all my solidarity to Prime Minister @netanyahu and all Israeli people.” https://t.co/wewsYsfn0F— Italy in Israel (@ItalyinIsrael) May 5, 2019.' The European Union also condemned the attacks on Saturday evening. 'The rocket fire from Gaza towards Israel must stop immediately. A de-escalation of this dangerous situation is urgently needed to ensure that civilians’ lives are protected,” a spokesperson for EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said. 'Israelis and Palestinians both have the right to live in peace, security and dignity. Only a political solution can put an end to the violence. Efforts by Egypt and the UN to calm the situation have the European Union’s full support.' French Ambassador to Israel Hélène Le Gal expressed 'solidarity with the population in Israel’s South.' Germany also blasted the 'massive rocket fire' on Israel. 'There is nothing that could justify attacks on civilians. Israel has the right to defend itself and to protect its citizens,' its foreign ministry wrote on its Twitter account. Berlin added that it was 'very concerned about the ongoing military confrontation and urges all sides to exercise restraint and safeguard proportionality.' Austria said it fully supports 'Israel’s right to defend itself. Austria firmly stands behind Israel as the security of the country and its population is a raison d’état for Austria,' Austrian government spokesman Peter Launsky said. The US also expressed its full support for Israel’s right to defend itself. 'The United States strongly condemns the ongoing barrage of rocket attacks by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad from Gaza upon innocent civilians and their communities across Israel. We call on those responsible for the violence to cease this aggression immediately,' State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said in a statement. 'We stand with Israel and fully support its right to self defense against these abhorrent attacks,' she added. • • • HAMAS AND ISLAMIC JIHAD MAKE OMINOUS THREAT. The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday morning that : "Defiant Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials said on Sunday that they don’t rule out the possibility that the current round of fighting in the Gaza Strip could lead to an all-out war with Israel. The warning came as leaders of the two Palestinian groups continued their discussions in Cairo with senior Egyptian intelligence officials on ways of ending the current round of fighting with the Jewish state. Unconfirmed reports on Sunday evening claimed that Hamas has indicated its readiness for a ceasefire with Israel. Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip did not comment on the reports. Islamic Jihad spokesman Musab al-Braim said that the 'resistance was on the threshold of a new phase in repelling the [Israeli] aggression that could lead to an open war.' He said that in light of the continued 'aggression on our people and the targeting of children, houses and the implementation of the policy of assassinations, we are on the threshold of this phase, and we will not have mercy on this enemy.' Ahmed al-Mudalal, a senior Islamic Jihad official, said that the 'current Zionist escalation on the Gaza Strip is a serious attempt to break the will of the Palestinian people and divert attention from the March of Return [weekly protests near the border with Israel].' Mudalal warned that the Palestinian terror groups will not stand idly by toward the 'Zionist aggression against the Palestinian people, and have the full right to respond to these attacks.' In a statement issued on Sunday evening, Islamic Jihad said that it was ready to wage an 'open confrontation' with Israel. It said that the continuation of Israeli military strikes 'will be met with a similar and large-scale response' targeting all Israel....Israel’s threats against the Palestinian 'resistance don’t scare us,' said Mushir al-Masri, a senior Hamas official. 'We are confident that the resistance is capable of teaching the enemy harsh and painful lessons.' Israel, he added, will not 'see security as long as the blockade, sanctions and aggression continue.' The Hamas official called on the Palestinian Authority to lift the sanctions it imposed on the Gaza Strip about two years ago. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum held Israel fully responsible for the 'consequences of its crimes and violations against the Palestinians and failure to implement the recent Egyptian-sponsored ceasefire understandings. 'The resistance won’t allow Israel to repeat its crimes and will continue to defend the Palestinian people,' Barhoum said. Another Hamas official, Fathi Kar’awi, condemned the 'cowardly' Israeli military strikes against the Gaza Strip and called on the international community to hold Israel to account for its 'crimes against the people of the Gaza Strip.' Meanwhile, Palestinian political analyst Hassan Lafi told the Islamic Jihad-affiliated Palestine Today news site that by resorting to targeted assassinations in the Gaza Strip, Israel could pave the way for a new stage that may lead to an open war. Israel, he said, has 'changed the rules of engagement that followed the 2014 war' -- a reference to Operation Protective Edge. Lafi, however, said he believes that Israel’s decision to resume targeted assassinations 'proves that it wants to end this round of escalation quickly.' " • • • HAMAS AND JIHADIST PROPAGANDA ROLLS ON. It is truly breath-taking that Islamic Jihad and Hamas can accuse Israel of "aggression" and "escalation" and "crimes" when they started the current 'flare-up' -- as Gaza area hostilities are often labeled by the media -- by lobbing 690 rockets into Israel. On Saturday, Israel Today had already reported that : "Terrorists operating out of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Saturday launched a steady stream of rockets and mortar shells numbering over 250 into southern Israel. The rockets reached as far as Beit Shemesh, in the foothills outside Jerusalem, and also hit the coastal port cities of Askhelon and Ashdod. Into the evening, a fresh salvo of terrorist rockets were fired at Beersheva. At least two Israelis were injured, and several family homes sustained direct hits during the hours-long assault." Israel Today said on Saturday that : "Israel responded with massive aerial assaults against Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza. The IDF also reported that it had demolished an Islamic Jihad attack tunnel running under the border into southern Israel. Both Hamas and especially Islamic Jihad have vowed to violently disrupt Israel's hosting of the Eurovision Song Content in Tel Aviv scheduled to begin in less than two weeks. Eurovision is the largest televised event in the world, and the Palestinians hope to crash Israel's hosting of the competition in hopes of reinvigorating world sympathy for their nationalist cause." • On Sunday, Israel Today reported : "Palestinian terrorists operating out of the Gaza Strip have since Saturday morning fired more than 400 rockets and mortar shells at Israeli towns and villages. A predawn barrage around 2:30 am Sunday morning targeted the nearby port of Ashkelon....Israel responded to the incessant terrorist rocket fire by bombing more than 200 Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets across the Gaza Strip. The terrorists then issued a counter-threat, saying they would extend the range of the rocket attacks to Tel Aviv and beyond if Israel did not halt its military reprisals. Already overnight, the terrorists added Beersheva to their list of targets. Israel's vaunted Iron Dome managed to intercept most of the missiles fired at the capital of the Negev, but two rockets did reach the city, one hitting a local school and the other a private home. Nor did the terrorist rockets discriminate between Jews and Arabs. Two people were wounded in the Bedouin town of Lakia. Schools across the southern region of Israel were closed on Sunday, and some 200,000 children were told to stay home and close to a bomb shelter." • • • THE AMERICAN SITUATION. The Hamas / Islamic Jihad propaganda is rather reminiscent of the US Democrat Party propaganda that raves on -- although without rocket attacks -- that President Trump is a criminal and should be impeached, while all the evidence shows that it was the Democrat Party that started the illegal cabal to prevent his election and then to oust him from office. • On May Day, WND reported that : "Samaritan’s Purse CEO Franklin Graham is calling on President Trump to designate the Council on American-Islam Relations a terrorist organization. CAIR, which was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror-financing case, already has been given that designation by the United Arab Emirates. Calling itself a Moslem civil-rights organization, it aggressively tries to stamp out criticism of Islam with its “lawfare” campaign. Graham, on Facebook, discussed the reports that Trump is thinking about designating the Moslem Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. 'While he’s at it, the label should also be applied to CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations), which is the mouthpiece in Washington for radical Islam,' [Franklin] wrote." • CAIR, stated WND, "was created by operatives of Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Moslem Brotherhood." Graham said the President “is right about the Moslem Brotherhood -- they should definitely be designated a terrorist group. The Moslem Brotherhood has been behind the killing of Christians around the world for decades. The destruction this group has brought to the churches and Christian population in Egypt is incredible. They are also responsible for killing other non-Moslems and even turning their violence on peaceful Moslems who disagree with them. They are already considered a terrorist organization by the governments of several countries including Bahrain, Egypt, Russia, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. I’m thankful we have a President who is not afraid to take on extremist groups like this.” • It’s “working its way through the internal process,” according to White House press secretary Sarah Sanders. WND says : "The designation would penalize any individual assisting the group or any company doing business with it....The Trump administration recently stunned the Islamic world by designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization." • Columnist Michelle Malkin reminded her readers of CAIR’s background : “Following the horrible massacre at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, CAIR flacks were out in full force decrying ‘Islamophobia’ and calling for crackdowns on ‘hate speech’ (by which they mean any and all negative thoughts or words about CAIR or Islam). CAIR executive director Nihad Awad was first out of the gate to blame President Donald Trump; target Fox News hosts Jeanine Pirro and Tucker Carlson, whom the left wants to silence; and renew opposition to White House efforts to tighten our immigration and entrance policies, including the travel ban affecting terror-sponsoring countries upheld by the US Supreme Court. While they drape themselves in the mantle of ‘civility,’ the CAIR brigade speaks viciously and cavalierly about their enemies. [Rep. Ihlan] Omar says Trump is not ‘human.' On an Arab-American talk show, she mocked a college professor who treated terrorist organizations al-Qaida and Hezbollah with gravity. She cackled at how he named them with a sternness in his voice and questioned why the words ‘Army’ and ‘America’ are not uttered with equal contempt. I can hear the ululations of agreement at the CAIR banquet now....They thrive on violence whether Moslems are the victims or the perpetrators. CAIR operatives are first to claim systematic oppression and fear of a ‘backlash’ if bloodthirsty Islamic jihadists slay innocent Americans. It’s always our fault and it’s always our responsibility -- to curtail our speech, give up our gun rights, undergo sensitivity training, accept inflated statistics about ‘hate crimes’ and apologize for everything. CAIR wants to shut up its critics in the name of ‘stopping the hate’ because it doesn’t want us talking about its dirty, dangerous deeds....Never forget : CAIR works every day to silence Moslem reformers, apostates, Christians, Jews, infidel scholars, border security advocates, anti-Shariah activists and investigative independent journalists, on college campuses, TV airwaves and the internet, to prevent us from exposing the truth about Islamic supremacism.” • • • DEAR READERS, that the Left -- Progressive-Socialist-Globalists -- in the West support and re-enforce the virulent anti-Semitism displayed by the Palestinian Authority leaders, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Islam itself, was forcefully underlined by the horrific New York Times 'cartoon' that was published the day before the San Diego synagogue attack. While there can never be a sure connection between media anti-Semtism and the acts of deranged individuals, American Thinker's Abraham H. Miller wrote on May 1 : "On the eve of the shooting at a San Diego synagogue, the New York Times published a despicable anti-Semitic cartoon that could have come from the pages of Der Sturmer. The cartoon used the same tropes and images that the Nazis used to stoke anti-Semitism in Europe. The Times’ subsequent apology was as disingenuous as it was meaningless. Indeed, days later, even as the emotional shock waves from the San Diego synagogue attack were still being felt, the Times published another vile cartoon recapturing the same characterizations. Before the second cartoon hit the wires, Times opinion writer Bret Stephens called out the paper for its anti-Semitic cartoon while describing the accusation that the Times was purposefully anti-Semitic as a 'calumny,' a false and despicable accusation. Stephens’ colleagues rose almost immediately to deny the Times’ obsession with depicting Jews in the vilest ways, its description of the Arab/Israeli conflict as resting solely on the shoulders of Israel, and its role as a bully pulpit for the emergent anti-Semitism of the left. Despite years of documentation of these trends by Honest Reporting and Algemeiner, Stephens’ colleagues dismissed his observations as fantasies." • Fantasies? asked Miller : "This is a newspaper that attributed the measles outbreak in New York City to Orthodox Jews. While the views of Orthodox Jews on vaccination are perfectly fair game, it is interesting that the Times barely noted outbreaks in other communities that have resistant attitudes toward vaccination -- such as the Amish or the Somalis in Ilhan Omar’s congressional district. Rather it is the historic Jew as the transmitter of disease and the infamous black death that the Times seizes upon. Really, a calumny? This is the newspaper that in 1922 glossed over Hitler’s anti-Semitism. This is the newspaper that buried the Holocaust and took decades to apologize for it. This is the newspaper that on Easter Sunday published an opinion piece that stated that Jesus, a Jew from Judea, was a Palestinian." • Miller says : "American Jews want to belong to the leftist and progressive clubs. In their alacrity to have a place among the left, they are willing to ignore that a new breed of anti-Semitism is emerging from the left. They are willing to ignore the Times’ anti-Semitism because it is still their secular bible. The Democratic Party could not muster a resolution to condemn the anti-Semitism of Rep. Ilhan Omar. In the wake of the synagogue shootings perpetrated by right-wing fanatics, the left is quick to blame guns, and, of course, President Donald Trump. But they are reluctant to note that the extreme right in this country, while despicable and violent, has little to no access to either the corridors of power or the pages of the New York Times. The new climate of anti-Semitism springs from both the left’s inability to confront its own bias and the far right’s use of social media that manipulates a teenager with a Hitler fantasy who wishes to achieve heroism by shooting unarmed people at prayer. Both are dangerous. But in the long run, the climate of opinion shaped by the New York Times and the likes of Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib is more dangerous. For a fanatic with a gun can kill dozens, but a political regime finding legitimacy in hatred can justify the killing of millions. Jews should wake up. The left values their votes but not their lives." • Without demeaning the deeply repulsive wave of anti-Semitism that is sweeping America, I am reminded of the Sunday Washington Times article on a rather frivolous topic -- the Kentucky Derby. Washington Times contributor Charles Hurt wrote : "In the stunning confusion of Saturday’s Kentucky Derby as we tried to comprehend why Maximum Security’s jockey had been disqualified after appearing to win the race, my first thought -- naturally -- was : 'I cannot wait to see what President Trump tweets about this!' As usual, President Trump did not disappoint. 'The Kentucky Derby decision was not a good one,' his thumbs opined the next morning. 'It was a rough & tumble race on a wet and sloppy track, actually, a beautiful thing to watch.' This alone, while highly Trumpian, might have been an actual disappointment for its lack of fullness and context. So he continued. 'Only in these days of political correctness could such an overturn occur. The best horse did NOT win the Kentucky Derby -- not even close!' Ahhh. He scratched the itch. Nailed it! Somebody got robbed. It was a miscarriage of justice. The whole thing was rigged. Somebody really needs to knock the hell out of them. Time to Make America Great Again! Aside from reminding me yet again that I never want Donald Trump to stop being President, the episode reveals a larger, more troubling conundrum for the regular American citizen seeking truth these days. When Maximum Security clearly crossed the finish line first and then was disqualified, I was completely perplexed. I was incensed. I wanted to know exactly what happened. Had, in fact, a great injustice occurred? These questions are, after all, the very lifeblood of self-governance. I certainly wasn’t going to trust the announcers on television. After hours and hours of their non-stop boosterism of the Kentucky Derby, I did not trust them to give it to me straight. They would say whatever Derby officials told them to say. There was a time when I might toddle on over to The New York Times or pick up The Washington Post. But after years of constant lies about a story that never happened, I no longer trust a word either paper prints. If I read anything in either paper, these days, it is only as a spy behind enemy lines, trying to pick up local propaganda that is clearly untrue. But horse racing? Both papers, after all, have been breathlessly spinning so many elaborate lies about really important things, such as : Did America elect as President a Russian double agent? If they will lie about such important things, then they will lie about anything. There is no topic they will not infuse with insidious agenda. I know a lot about politics and follow politics pretty closely. I can spot their lies a mile away. About horse racing, however, I know very little. I could easily be bamboozled by them." • Charles Hurt's real point relates tightly to the seeming belief of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and to the New York Times and the rest of the Fake media that we readers or former readers are dunces who believe whatever they throw at us, without ever imagining that we actually are on to them. As Hurt put it so well : "The stunning loss of credibility has been a grievous blow to many reporting outfits that were once widely respected. Once your credibility is shot, it is very hard to get it back. Without credibility, you have no power. You can hear these death wheezes everywhere these days. The once much-vaunted Poynter Institute that preaches the religion of 'journalism' came out last week with a list of 'fake news' publications. The list included several publications that produce very good reporting, including a few that have been on the cutting edge of exposing what a hoax this whole Russia fairy tale has been these last two years. By week’s end, the pointy-headed poobahs at the Poynter Institute had withdrawn their list of 'fake news' outlets, admitting that they themselves were peddling the very same such fake news. The really great thing about President Trump’s pronouncement about the Kentucky Derby is that I didn’t have to go to The New York Times or The Washington Post or any other fake news outlet to sift through all the nonsense to find Mr. Trump’s comments. No, Mr. Trump sent me his comments directly -- unfiltered -- over Twitter. Thank God for Twitter. And thank God for President Trump." • Amen, Mr. Hurt. As for Hamas and Islamic Jihad -- we know aggression when we see it -- and you were the aggressors against Israel. And, as for the NYT, we know anti-Semitism when we see it -- and your 'cartoon' was virulently anti-Semitic.