War watch: How Israeli Intel Failed
“There is only one way Hamas could have pulled off Saturday’s massive surprise,” argues Edward N. Luttwak at Tablet: “by feeding valuable, indeed ‘actionable’ information to individuals who were Israeli intelligence sources” and allowing “the Israelis to destroy rockets before they could be launched” — paying “no price to thus fill the ‘espionage horizon’ below which yesterday’s attacks were planned,” since the rocket attacks came from Hamas’ “chief competitor,” Islamic Jihad. “Israel’s political misjudgments about Hamas’ intentions” likely have “played a background role in lowering the country’s vigilance. But it is no excuse” for this “massive intelligence failure.” “It is now Israel’s turn to act — and not just by bombing Hamas headquarters. A new approach altogether is needed, with nothing off the table.”
Centrist: Book ‘Ban’ Falsehoods
“The major flaw in the argument warning about book bans is that the people who are questioning the content of a school curriculum or the children’s section of a public library aren’t really seeking to ‘ban’ books. The issue is simply what is suitable for the intended audience of kids,” writes Jeffrey M. McCall at The Hill. “Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union” are spreading “fearful messaging about book banning,” yet “parents groups questioning content only swung into action after recognizing an activism to change reading lists and push ideological hobby horses.” Indeed, most “so-called banned books” are “still widely available for purchase and in countless libraries around the country.” “Discretion in the selection process of kids’ books is not the same as banning.”
Albany desk: State Education Dept. Tests Scam
New York’s State Education Department “lifted the embargo on last year’s state test scores in reading and math,” but no chance for the public to see those results will com ’til December, grumbles the Empire Center’s Emily D’Vertola. A “sneak peek” posted by the city Department of Education showing “students there scored proficiently in ELA and Math at higher rates than last year” was marred by “a historic change in the state’s definition of ‘proficient.’ ” Other states use “modern, high-tech assessments” to give teachers and parents “meaningful and timely data.” SED’s failure to update “prevents timely intervention for the students and schools who may be falling behind,” and keeps the public in the dark about “how their school stacks up around the district, the state, and the rest of the country.”
Mideast beat: Joe Should Back Ousting Hamas
Hamas’ “surprise attack” offers “a strategic opportunity for Israel, the U.S. and democracies everywhere,” argues Daniel Pipes at The Wall Street Journal. “Most Gazans loathe Hamas,” which keeps them impoverished, but “they dare not rise up” against it. It’s time for “American leadership”: In 2003, President George W. Bush called for Hamas to be dismantled, and in 2014, President Barack Obama said he had no sympathy for it. President Biden should now “urge Israel to remove Hamas” and “rid the world of this scourge.” Many Gazans would be “ready to start over and build productive lives rather than focus endlessly” on Israel’s destruction. Hamas’ charter “calls for Islam to ‘obliterate’ Israel. After this vicious assault, the time has come for Israel to obliterate Hamas.”
Eye on ’24: Look to Middle America
Middle Americans are “lower middle and working-class families between the thirty-first and seventy-first income percentiles,” notes Jeff Bloodworth at The Liberal Patriot. Once mostly working-class whites, “almost half of today’s Middle Americans are non-white.” And they “should be Democrats. They aren’t because liberals ignore” their core values via “activist stances on structural racism, green energy, policing, and transgender issues” and economic ideology that ignores “the bond between labor and economic security.” That’s why “from 2012 to 2020, non-white working-class support for Democrats fell by 18 points” and why “Trumpism today is becoming more of a multiracial Middle American movement.” “Such voters “constitute the majority of the electorate. Democrats need to decide. Do they prefer ideological purity or a Trump presidency?”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
