The Better Part: He Won the Peace but Not the Prize. Letitia James Wins NIAL Award. Senator Scott: Stop Funneling Money to Prop Up ‘Affordable’ Care. More
Nope, he didn’t get it.
The Jerusalem Post’s historic cover—featuring a mosaic of President Trump’s distinctive silhouette composed of pictures of the hostages, with the banner headline “He’s Bringing Them Home”—is not the Nobel Peace Prize (more on that later).
But it’s a wonderful cover that celebrates the sense of epic gratitude and joy President Trump richly deserves. Israel says the ceasefire has begun as Israeli troops begin leaving parts of Gaza.
It made an impression that Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, born and bred and educated in the bosom of the Trump-hating beltway establishment, said on TV yesterday that Trump did what former President Joe Biden couldn’t do (and he wasn’t talking about walking up steps). Ignatius followed it up this morning with a column. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal is headlined “The Lessons of Trump’s Gaza Peace Deal.” The editors write:
The lessons of Mr. Trump’s method are also worth noting. First, sustained U.S. pressure was needed on Hamas, not Israel. The more Mr. Biden restrained Israel or blocked arms shipments, the less reason Hamas had to cut a deal. The terrorists expected Mr. Biden to force Israel to stop if they held out long enough.
Mr. Trump reversed Hamas’s calculus. Neither protests nor Iranian escalation would cause him to rein in Israel. Instead his threats to Hamas garnered a January hostage deal, after which he encouraged Israel to conquer Gaza. That was nearing completion when Hamas took this new deal.
Second, there was no substitute for Israeli military pressure….
Qatar seems to have been influenced by Israel’s much-denounced Sept. 9 strike on Hamas leaders in Doha, which endangered the ruling al-Thani family’s lucrative double game. That threat, along with U.S. conciliations that followed, coaxed Qatar to demand its Hamas client sign on the dotted line. The deal now opens the prospect of expanding the Abraham Accords between Israel and the Arab states.
Don’t miss Rich Lowry’s “The Gonzo Brilliance of Trump’s Gaza Diplomacy.” Here’s what to know about the deal. Okay, so what about that Nobel Peace Prize? U.S troops are arriving in Israel, but only to monitor ceasefire implementation, not to go into Gaza. Okay, so what about that Nobel Peace Prize? The Nobel Committee awarded it to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. Here’s a Wall Street Journal profile of Machado, who was briefly imprisoned by the Maduro regime.
Machado appears brave and worthy. She has been in hiding from the Maduro regime for more than a year. A Scott Johnson post at Powerline, headlined “Maria Corina Machado? Whodat???,” however, makes an interesting point:
In its story on this year’s recognition of Maria Corina Machado, Reuters invokes what “experts” have had to say (link in original): “Ahead of the announcement, experts on the award had said Trump would not win it as he is dismantling the international world order the Nobel committee cherishes.”
Former President Barack Obama on Thursday hailed the Gaza cease-fire deal brokered by President Trump – but failed to mention the commander in chief’s name.
New York AG Letitia James has won the not coveted Nobody Is Above the Law Award. “Letitia James Is Indicted as Trump Takes Over Justice Department” is the New York Times headline. Even those of us who are all qualmy over what seems to us too close to a continuation of lawfare find it hard to sympathize with the smug Ms. James. The New York Times acknowledges that the case against James—real estate fraud—mirrors the case she brought against then-candidate Trump. Fox host and former Congressman Trey Gowdy observed that she will get a fairer trial than did President Trump. James has even lost CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
The partial federal government shutdown enters Day 10 as the Dems and GOP remain far apart. Tempers have flared (what does House Minority Leader Hakeen Jeffries call somebody who gets in a verbal set-to with him? Why “a malignant clown,” of course). The sticking point remains the extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies. Florida Senator Rick Scott addresses this in a Wall Street Journal op-ed:
Congressional Democrats have said the quiet part out loud: They want the federal government to keep cutting massive checks to insurance companies forever, using your tax dollars to shore up the sinking ship of ObamaCare. They’ve even shut down the government to demand it.
ObamaCare didn’t deliver on its promise of healthcare affordability and stability. …
To keep ObamaCare afloat, the federal government has propped it up with hundreds of billions of dollars in handouts directly to the insurance industry while failing to lower costs. These handouts lacked any accountability or eligibility requirements, opening them up to fraud, waste and mass confusion that lined the pockets of insurance companies and brokers, and failing Americans who need help. The whole system is misconceived—but Washington has done its best to hide that from the American people….
It is time to end this madness …
Political Round-up. The New York Post reports that the latest poll delivers bad news for New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani (but it’s not so bad that he’s not still sitting on a sizeable lead). … Politico says that Virginia gubernatorial candidates Winsome Earle-Sears and Abigail Spangberg “tussled over violent political rhetoric in only debate” last night. Translation: Spangberg repeatedly affirmed her support for assassination dreamer Jay Jones for Attorney General of Virginia. … In the heated New Jersey gubernatorial race, Republican Jack Ciattarelli says he will sue opponent Rep. Mikie Sherrill for claiming he killed New Jersey residents because of a medical textbook his company published.
Bad Weather. Sane environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg urges the U.S. to halt the World Bank’s foolish climate fantasies that hurt the world’s poor. Lomborg writes:
At Monday’s World Bank Annual Meeting, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent must demand that it explicitly scrap its wasteful climate targets — and redirect its attention to its true objective.
Remember, the Bank’s purpose has always been lifting poor people out of poverty.
But as the climate-change narrative took hold, poverty was implausibly linked to 100-year temperature changes….
Tackling poverty through nutrition, health and education can quickly help hundreds of millions of people live better lives at low cost.
Tackling poverty through climate action will do next to nothing — yet climate policy costs easily run into the trillions, while harming the world’s poor by driving up costs of fertilizer and energy.
Parents Are No Longer Waiting for Bad Public Schools to Reform Themselves. American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Robert Pondisco writes that recent developments in education are empowering parents:
Parents are no longer waiting for reforms to arrive or bear fruit. They are seizing new opportunities to direct their children’s education, aided by policies that allow dollars to follow students instead of funding systems. Education savings accounts (ESAs) are the leading edge of that change. …
The idea is simple but profound: Public funding for education no longer has to mean attendance at a single assigned school—or a school at all. A new report suggests this shift is not only real—it’s sticky. The University of Arkansas’s Department of Education Reform has released its second annual evaluation of the state’s Education Freedom Accounts….To my mind, however, the most telling data point is the program’s 91 percent retention rate into year three. That number suggests that families are not dabbling impulsively with alternatives to traditional public schools or leaving them in a fit of pique only to return. They’re making durable changes. If this trend holds and is replicated in other ESA states, it should set off alarm bells in public school districts nationwide. It suggests that once parents exercise choice, they rarely go back.
It’s not too late for regular public schools to improve and become competitive.
We’re Looking to Hire an Illegal Alien with an Extensive Arrest Record. Meet the expensive search firm behind the Des Moines public school system’s hiring of Ian Roberts as superintendent. Mister Roberts was once described as “a beloved” school official “with a criminal past.” See the above item.
We’ll be off Monday. It is Columbus Day. Yes, it is.
