The Biden Administration chose this past week to inform Congress that it would be releasing millions of dollars in US assistance to the Palestinians, as armed clashes between the Israeli Defense Forces and Hamas intensified in the aftermath of Jerusalem Day on Monday.

The funds are part of $100 million in aid the Administration has designated for Palestinian causes, which represented a huge policy reversal from the Trump Administration, which had cut off nearly all financial assistance for Palestinians. //

Here is the earlier statement issued by Secretary of State Nod — I mean Blinkin — on the resumption of the aid program announced last month.

The United States is pleased to announce that, working with Congress, we plan to restart U.S. economic, development, and humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people. This includes $75 million in economic and development assistance in the West Bank and Gaza, $10 million for peacebuilding programs through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and $150 million in humanitarian assistance for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). We are also resuming vital security assistance programs.

Advocates of the funding will no doubt claim that the money is targeted for groups involved in “promoting peace” with Israel, but those last 8 words sort of stick out.

To set your default (preferred) editor on your Unix account, you must define the VISUAL and EDITOR environment variables. When you have done this, most Unix programs that use text editors (for example, trn, tin, and nn) will use the editor you have set.

The way to set these environment variables depends upon which Unix shell you use.

If you use csh or tcsh, at the shell prompt, enter:

 setenv VISUAL editor setenv EDITOR editor

Replace editor with the editor you want to use (such as Emacs, Pico, or vi).

If you use sh, ksh, or bash, at the shell prompt, enter:

 VISUAL=editor; export VISUAL EDITOR=editor; export EDITOR

Replace editor with the editor you want to use (such as Emacs, Pico, or vi). You may want to include the full path to the editor (for example, /usr/local/bin/emacs, /usr/local/bin/pico, or /bin/vi), rather than simply the name.

All year, we’ve been planning a family trip back to Tanzania in June–the precise window of time when our kids’ new school would be finished and Haven of Peace Academy would still be in session. We had such a traumatic ending last March. All year, our family has talked about going back and finishing better.

But U.S. immigration won’t let us leave the country with Johnny. So that means Grace, Lily, and I will still go to Tanzania this June–only half of us. I’m excited to go, but this is not what I wanted. So I lament.

Yet this isn’t my first struggle with U.S. immigration. It’s been going on for fifteen years.

I think part of the reason why I have compassion for immigrants is because I have four of them in my family. Maybe this is news to some, but children adopted internationally by Americans don’t automatically become U.S. citizens. In the fifteen years I’ve had my children, I’ve often been prevented from bringing them into the United States. And now I’m being prevented from taking one out.

Douglas Adams, the noted author of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” was a prolific writer whose creative work encompassed essays, books, screenplays and television. I can’t say I’m a devoted fan, but I think I read Hitchhiker some years ago. After his death in 2001, an unfinished novel called the “Salmon of Doubt” was published by his estate. I saw a quote from it recently in an essay attempting to explain our sometimes knee-jerk response to the remorseless march of progress.

“I’ve come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies,” Adams wrote. “1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. 2. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. 3. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.”

Sound at all familiar? Do you see yourself anywhere in the taxonomy of that observation? The quote is quite meme-worthy, but like all memes, it’s a generalization that isn’t universally true if it’s true at all. You almost want to overlay a standard distribution curve on it to see what percentage of which cohort embraces the attitudes described. I invite you to click on the comments addressed at our video on electric airplane air racing to see examples of what I’m talking about and you can then surmise who hews to the Adams hierarchy. Dismissiveness ahead of rational analysis is a disease every bit as virulent as wide-eyed Pollyannaism.

With all due respect to Planet Money, batteries don’t “suck”, you just don’t know why/how they work. Inherent to all batteries is a mix of (super duper) interesting and competing tradeoffs that are exceptionally sensitive to the application at hand. It is a testament to 150 years of careful research and engineering that they work at all. //

But there are at least two major factors in batteries not addressed by this plot, and one is hidden in plain sight. We’ll start with that.
The Ragone plot shows energy vs. power; dimensional analysis shows that the diagonal lines must in the units of time, specifically charge or discharge duration. Point 3 tells us that for a given application duration at a given power drain we need a certain size of battery. In a perfect world we multiply power by time to figure out what the battery size should be, in an imperfect world Ragone corrects for this.

So hidden in the Ragone plot is the tradeoff of Safety vs. Power, or at least part of it. We want a battery with a near unlimited power density, but this must be tempered against the mediocrity of the bomb we’d like to carry around.

If Hamas wanted to protect Palestinian life, they wouldn’t launch thousands of rockets into population centers; they would not use their own people as human shields; and they would not invest in weapons instead of defense, food, or shelter for their own people.

As writer David French correctly notes, “There is absolutely no equivalence — either in morality or the laws of armed conflict — between firing unaimed rockets directly into civilian population centers and responding with aimed fire at militants hiding in civilian population centers.” One of the two governments in this conflict is a terrorist government, but it is certainly not Israel’s. //

It has also been suggested that anger over the evictions of four families from Sheikh Jarrah, a neighborhood in East Jerusalem, is responsible for the violence. While this legal dispute going back to the 1970s understandably flared tensions, a more significant reason for the violence is the myth that Israel denies Palestinians the right to self-determination — a myth Hadid amplified.

In truth. the entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict comes down to a basic fact: the Jews want to have a state where they can live in safety and security while the Palestinians will do anything in their power to prevent a Jewish state that is safe and secure. This has been evidenced by the fact Israel has accepted every peace plan offered while the Palestinians have rejected every peace plan offered. //

In Einat Wilf and Adi Schwartz’s book, “The War of Return,” they point out that the reason for this continuous violence is that many Palestinians truly believe the war of 1948 is not over and that Israel is simply a temporary project. But if both sides can simply accept that the other has a right to live safely in a country of their own, then this conflict would be over.

After all, Israel was able to make peace with Egypt just two years after they said they wanted peace, a fact further bolstered by the openness to peace Israel displayed through the 2020 Abraham Accords. Until Palestinian leaders reach out a hand for peace, however, this tragic cycle of violence will continue.

The administration’s mishandling of these matters presents a prime opportunity for the GOP to go on the offense. However, the opportunity will be wasted if their strategy is only to criticize the president’s inability to properly address these issues. It is a mistake the party has made time and time again.

While it is important to expose the administration’s poor performance, it won’t matter if the right fails to put forth its own solutions to these situations. While pointing out the deep flaws in Biden’s handling of these problems, the GOP must also put forth viable solutions that would work better than the White House’s current strategy.

You might be thinking: “But won’t the Democrats just reject anything Republicans suggest?”

Of course, they will.

In fact, when they rebuff these recommendations, it will only work in the Republicans’ favor. As the Biden administration continues to ensure that these crises end up in a FUBAR-type situation, it will make the Republicans’ solutions look far more attractive, which will help them immensely in 2022 and 2024.

It is not enough to simply point out that the Democrats are screwing things up – conservatives must compete by coming up with sane, rational solutions. Instead of being only the opposition, Republicans must focus on being the competition. Otherwise, Biden’s incompetence might not be enough to ensure a GOP victory.

Yesterday, the Israeli Defense Forces publicly stated, “air and ground troops are currently attacking in the Gaza Strip.”

Israel Defense Forces
@IDF
IDF air and ground troops are currently attacking in the Gaza Strip.
5:22 PM · May 13, 2021

Turns out, it was a military trick to make Hamas identify where their tunnels were as Hamas responded to what they thought was an attack coming in on the ground. Which then exposed them to getting hit from the air by IDF. //

Daniel Pipes دانيال بايبس
@DanielPipes
The @IDF apparently faked a ground assault on Gaza by making announcements & moving troops. This brought #Hamas troops out of their tunnels & exposed them to a heavy air attack.

• That's the IDF of old–clever & innovative
• Go Chief of Staff #AvivKochavi //

A pretty neat military trick. They then became identifiable for the fighter jets. //

Israel Defense Forces
@IDF
The target: The Hamas ‘Metro’ tunnel system in Gaza.

The operation: 160 aircraft, tanks, artillery and infantry units along the border.

We struck 150 targets and damaged many kilometers of the Hamas ‘Metro’ network. //

Soldiers and tanks with drones equipped with night vision lay in wait for survivors as they surfaced, hitting them with aerial and ground fire. Snipers and missile units were also waiting for them on the ground as the IDF said it had carried out a ‘complex’ operation to destroy Hamas tunnels underneath Gaza City, which the military refers to as ‘the Metro’. //

The Original John Doe
28 minutes ago
8 hours ago (10 AM California time and 8 PM Israeli Time on Friday 5/14) according to the "Times of Israel" live blog "Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal tells a Turkish news agency that the Gaza terror group is ready for a ceasefire but has not received a response from Israel."

This means Hamas is running out of rockets. If Hamas runs out of rockets before a ceasefire they can't claim victory like they always do. This is also why Biden was holding off on asking for a ceasefire because Hamas wasn't ready for one. Now watch as Biden the UN and all other nations bend to Hamas and pressure Israel into a ceasefire.

Now is not the time to stop. When they run out of rockets, it is the time to send in the ground troops and take them out once and for all. Political ramifications be damned. Cease fire now and in 5 years they will be right back at it.

Iron Dome

More than 2,000 rockets have been fired towards Israel by Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in five days.

But about 90% of the rockets have been intercepted by its flagship Iron Dome missile defence system, according to the Israeli military.

The Iron Dome was specially designed to protect against a range of incoming short-range threats.

The system has its roots in the war Israel fought with Lebanon's militant Hezbollah movement in 2006, when thousands of rockets were launched into Israel - causing huge damage, mass evacuations and dozens of deaths.

After that Israel said a new missile defence shield would be developed.

Play stupid games...
May 14, 2021

Sounds like DarkSide learned what dictators and cybercriminals alike have known for decades:

Want to shut down international logistics and shipping? Ok. Kill people by shutting down hospitals? The FBI will get around to investigating it. Commit some war crimes here and there? Maybe a condemnation and some sanctions.

F*** with America’s oil? Get ready to learn about American liberty. And by liberty, I mean you’re going to liberated from everything you hold dear.

“The FAMs are now taking agents off of regularly scheduled “high risk” flights to put them on flights with members of Congress, that in most cases have their own armed federal security details onboard already. It has become akin to a type of extremely expensive concierge service for Congressional members.”

Members of Congress are supposed to be serving us, but with this, they’re taking away protection that’s actually needed elsewhere for Americans. The marshals aren’t supposed to be servants or security for Congress. This has the potential of putting national security at risk.

With the gas shortage seeping more deeply into the public consciousness, in what was clearly a “Squirrel!” move, the CDC made a public announcement yesterday that fully vaccinated adults are safe to return to normal life activities without the need of wearing a mask or observing forms of social distancing we have all become accustomed to over the past 13 months.

As has been noted by many others, its comical how this revelation — “Neanderthal thinking” only two months ago — happened to fall so short in time after 1) a terrible jobs report for April, 2) a terrible inflation report, 3) outbreak of near-total war between Israel and radical Islamic forces in Gaza, and 4) the cyberattack on an energy products distribution pipeline that caused several states along the East Coast to pretty much run out of gasoline in less than 4 days.

Julie Pace
@jpaceDC
So stunned. Our @AP bureau in Gaza has been destroyed by an Israeli airstrike. //

LIVE footage of the moment an Israeli air raid bombed the offices of Al Jazeera and The Associated Press in Gaza City ⬇️

🔴 LIVE updates: https://t.co/RvtP1lEX1x pic.twitter.com/RBO1ZiDAl0

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) May 15, 2021 //

This was decision by the AP to place their bureau offices within a known Hamas safehouse; the reason they did it was for journalistic access, never imagining that something like this might happen. Hamas, of course, WANTED either defense or for it to happen for propaganda. https://t.co/8c7vH9T5zU

— Jeff B. tried to do his best, but he could not (@EsotericCD) May 15, 2021 //

Pro tip:
Make sure your landlord isn’t Hamas.
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) May 15, 2021 //

Israel Defense Forces
@IDF
Here's some important context to the headlines you’re seeing about Israel Defense Forces operations in the Gaza Strip

1/ Hamas has turned residential areas in the Gaza Strip into military strongholds.

It uses tall buildings in Gaza for multiple military purposes such as intelligence gathering, planning attacks, command and control, and communications.

2/ When Hamas uses a tall building for military purposes, it becomes a lawful military target.

3/ The Israel Defense Forces struck a number of such buildings in recent days, but before we did so, we took steps to try and ensure that civilians would not be harmed.

4/ We called the building's residents and warned them to leave. We sent SMS messages. We dropped "roof knocker" bombs; they make loud noises and hit only the roof. We provided sufficient time to evacuate.

5/ We'll say it again: When Hamas places military assets inside such a building, it becomes a lawful military target. This is clear international law.

This is the thread the world needs to see. //

Ben McDonald
@Bmac0507
The irony of mainstream media being headquartered in a Hamas building is too much for one Saturday