In this episode, Victor Davis Hanson and cohost Jack Fowler discuss Israel in the face of know-nothing, do-nothing policy of the Biden-Harris admin, unelected Jill Biden presides at cabinet meeting, our “experts” and their letters of warning, how right-wing turncoats turn to socialism, and should one join the military.
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When I listened to Dennis Prager on his radio show as a child, he always said when America abandons Israel, it will no longer be blessed by God. I feel that American citizens haven’t been blessed in a LONG TIME!
I always took it as gospel truth. But now I have a lot of questions.
Why only Israel? America abandoned Vietnam and recently Afghanistan. What about them?
Also, it seems to me, if you have the luxury of abandoning wars and let the people on the ground get Slaughtered, maybe you shouldn’t be in that war in the first place. Victor, what does Thucydides say about that?
Dennis Prager may be referring to Genesis 12:2,3 where God promises blessings to Abram and those who bless Abram and his descendants.
“And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Abram’s name is changed to Abraham in Genesis 17:5, for Abraham means “father of many nations,” as his new name foretells Gentiles becoming followers of Abraham’s God through faith in Jesus Christ (Romans4:13-17).
Correction: …I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you (Abram) all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Through Abram’s descendant, Jesus Christ, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Romans 4:13 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring (Jesus Christ) that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.
Galatians 3:7-9 Know then that it is those of faith wo are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
Galatians 3:16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.
Genesis 22:18 “…and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
Eric Hoffer said essentially the same thing in a famous 1968 LA Times column.
“Israel is our only reliable and unconditional ally… And one has only to imagine what would have happened last summer (1967) had the Arabs and their Russian backers won the war, to realize how vital the survival of Israel is to America and the West in general.
“I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish, the Holocaust will be upon us all.”
Whenever I hear today’s leftists refer to Israelis as “settler-colonialists” in one breath, and then the average American as a “settler-colonialist” also, I am reminded of Hoffer’s words.
Prager also says that the Jews are the canary in a coal mine, which is an apt observation. The evils that befall them will eventually befall others. The same can’t be said for Vietnam or Afghanistan. Neither of those countries and their people has the same history and impact on the rest of the world, as the Jews have had and have.
Professor
Kudos for pointing out that not only do words have meaning, but the absence of a necessary word is also conspicuously meaningful. In this podcast you adroitly highlight that Tony Blinken’s 50 former intelligence experts parsed their opinion on the Hunter Biden Laptop with the plausible deniability clause “has all the hallmarks of a Russian Information Operation”. During the 2020 debate, Biden purposefully left out the lynchpin word “hallmarks”. He hesitated in the debate, halting on using the substitute surrogate word “characteristics” (he got out the syllable “char”), then referenced “5 former heads of the CIA-both parties-says what he [sic] says is garbage,” then introduced the word “disinformation”. With that, as you pointed out, the entire escape clause was conveniently jettisoned; what Biden said was a cunning misrepresentation of fact, a.k.a. a lie. A purposeful, known, calculated, provable lie.
All by one conspicuously unspoken word, and one half-spoken word.
A grateful fellow philologist,
Verumipsum
In days past I enjoyed George Will parsing Madisonian wisdom, or Jonah Goldberg’s humorous takes on events, or the rest of the conservative intelligentsia pontificating on values and principles. Then I and my fellow countrymen had the temerity to vote for someone they didn’t approve of, and the masks fell away and they were exposed for who and what they were. Shams and shills. Never again to be trusted or even paid attention.
I disagree that Jill Biden forced him to run again, Victor. If she tried to dissuade him, it was just for show.
I think Biden wanted to run again; he had to be pried out of his candidacy. Even in his senility, he knew what the position means. He has striven for this all his life-the supreme legal position from which to use power and influence for grifting.
And she also understands what that position means. She’s no more eager to leave the White House than he.
This story has played out like “I, Claudius”, except the central character in our story truly is a fool.
Hi Victor – thank you for another great podcast.
I spent 30 years in Naval Aviation as a fleet aviator and supporting the Naval Air Systems Command as an acquisition professional (active and reserce). I have seen first hand what you describe with the Flag Officers retiring and immediately landing a job as VP of Business Dev at some large defense contractor. Interestingly, acquisition professionals are prohibited from doing this.
On a related topic – the debate of quality vs quantity in weapon systems development been around for many years. Quality (or capability) is key to supremacy and deterrence. What took a large quantity of B-25s dropping their entire payload to destroy a runway can be achieved today with a single weapon and delivery platform which has obvious advantages. The spin off technologies developed have also enabled things like the iPhone. On the other hand, we are using $1M missiles to shoot down $50K rockets so there is strong case for having both capabilities. I would argue our current defense strategies which the services use to determine what capabilities are needed are generally written for large state actor threats (e.g. fight two near peer competitors simultaneously) so less complicated and costly systems do not get the attention until you see huge overmatch in capability.
On a separate note I would be happy to sign an endorsement 100 times so you can say you have “100 experts” who have endorsed VDH podcasts. Just say the word.
I would sincerely appreciate someone investigating and reporting on the NGOs who are facilitating the mass immigration of millions moving up Central America into Mexico and waltzing across our southern border. Most appear clean, well fed, well dressed and no worse for wear, while the mass media continues to lionize their heroic, dangerous journeys through the Darian Gap. How does a person travel 2000+ miles and look so good if they’ve walked through jungle, been raped, paid their last pesos to cartel mules, etc. The only answer that makes sense is … NGOs! I’m a faithful practicing Catholic and it disgusts me how much $$ Catholic Charities and their counterparts are making from this situation. May I challenge you VDH to bring your listeners some data, facts and commentary on NGOs that the mass media will not re: the 21million who have invaded our country during the Biden-Harris administration and how NGOs are facilitating lawlessness and making a killing off us taxpayers ?