The Israeli media reported this week that a group of hostages' families traveled to Doha, Qatar, to speak directly to the regime that has close ties to Hamas and is acting as an intermediary.
They came back telling the Israeli media that the only way to free the hostages is to enact an immediate ceasefire. So... they amplified Hamas's message as the terror group tries to save itself from defeat.
I do not begrudge these families the opportunity to do whatever they can to free their relatives. But they should not be able to do this. They should not be able to go around their country's representatives.
They didn't get a different answer than Israel's diplomats got. They just presented it with a willingness to comply, even though they do not bear responsibility for the consequences of stopping the war.
This is why the U.S. has a Logan Act to prevent private citizens from conducting diplomacy. It is rarely prosecuted, and was abused to go after an innocent Michael Flynn. But the principle still remains.
This week's show will be slightly different from the norm: we'll focus on clips and topics, rather than guests -- and that, hopefully, will mean more input from the callers (unless you are all watching football on opening weekend).
Topics:
- The state of the economy
- The fight against crime
- The midterm election fight
- The struggle for peace between Russia and Ukraine
- The airstrike on the Venezuelan drug cartel
- The attempt to sink Kennedy
- The war in Gaza
- The case against Harvard
- The Trump presidency
Tune in: SiriusXM Patriot 125, 7-10 p.m. ET / 4-7 p.m. PT
Call: 866-957-2874
This week's Torah portion includes several laws about conduct in civic and personal life, the common theme of which is boundaries -- setting bounds to what one may do at home, at work, and even in the battlefield.
One noteworthy passage concerns Amalek, the evil nation that attacked the Children of Israel as they made their Exodus from slavery to freedom. Deuteronomy 25:17-19 commands Jews to obliterate Amalek's memory.
The South African government accused Israel of genocide on the basis of a story about Amalek in the Book of Samuel, in which King Saul was commanded to wipe out the entire evil Amalekite nation.
Because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quoted this week's portion -- "Remember what Amalek did to you" (25:17), the South African government claimed he was commanding soldiers to commit genocide.
It was an absurd and malevolent misreading of the Bible and of Jewish tradition. The commandment, as observed by Jews today, is to remember the evil of Amalek and fight ...
