A BIZARRE MAYORAL ELECTION

In Kiryat Shmona, a city with no residents holds elections with no voters

Mayoral race, delayed for 15 months due to the war, takes place with almost 80% of northern border city’s uprooted residents scattered across Israel. Many of them won’t return

 

By Shalom Yerushalmi

 

The Times of Israel

Feb 19, 2025

 

Kiryat Shmona mayoral candidate Eli Zafrani (left) speaks with two residents of the city outside his campaign HQ on election day, February 18, 2025 

 

KIRYAT SHMONA — The municipal elections held on Tuesday in Kiryat Shmona — delayed 15 months from their original date due to the war — were the strangest I have ever covered.

The three mayoral candidates roamed the streets of an empty city that once had 24,000 residents. All three tried to rally those who had not left or who had agreed to return during the war — or those who had just come back briefly to tend to their homes.

A day after the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023, Hezbollah too began waging war on Israel in the north, leading to an unprecedented mass evacuation of some 70,000 residents of northern communities and cities close to the Lebanese border. The residents of Kiryat Shmona, just over a mile from the border, were among those evacuated.

Now, nearly 19,000 of Kiryat Shmona’s residents — almost 80% — are scattered across the country. Many have no intention of returning. It is likely that many were not even aware that elections were taking place in their city on Tuesday. This was a city without residents, holding elections without voters.

Under these circumstances, the mayoral candidates had to campaign far from Kiryat Shmona. They traveled to many of the 500 communities and 400 hotels across Israel where the city’s displaced residents are currently living, and where most of the polling stations were set up on election day.

“I felt like a candidate in a general election, running to find supporters everywhere in the country — just not in Kiryat Shmona,” said Eli Zafrani at his campaign headquarters here.

 

Charred campaign ad for mayoral candidate Ofir Yehezkeli on a bus hit by Hezbollah missile in Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel, on November 27, 2024 

Outside his offices, a van with a loudspeaker and flags stood ready to embark on a citywide get-out-the-vote drive. It looked somewhat absurd in this ghost town.

The chaos surrounding the election — held to choose both a major and the city council — has made it impossible to release final results quickly. Votes from polling stations outside the city will likely only be counted in the next few days.

At polling stations in Kiryat Shmona itself, close to 5,200 people voted. Incumbent mayor Avihai Stern received 39.2% of these votes; Zafrani 30.5%; and Ofir Yehezkeli 28.6%. For an outright win, a candidate must receive 40% of the vote. Based on these partial results, Kiryat Shmona will have to do it all over again in a runoff election.

Zafrani, 55, is the Likud candidate, and filmed a campaign clip with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “He never stops drilling holes in my head on behalf of Kiryat Shmona,” Netanyahu said by way of endorsement.

 

Supporters of Kiryat Shmona mayoral candidate Ofir Yehezkeli seen at the entrance to the city, on the morning of the Municipal Elections, 18 February 2025 

 

Netanyahu’s endorsement of any candidate in Israel is contentious. In a city where almost all the residents fled in fear of a Hamas-like invasion by Hezbollah, where many homes were destroyed in rocket attacks during the war, and where many feel abandoned and neglected to this day, it’s unclear whether the prime minister is the best person to vouch for a candidate.

But the situation is complex. In the last national elections, in November 2022, 50% of Kiryat Shmona residents voted for Netanyahu and Likud. People I spoke with on Tuesday said that voting for Netanyahu and Likud is still second nature for them. Even if they were furious with Netanyahu and his government after the October 7 disaster, several said, they have since changed their minds in light of Israel’s wins against Hezbollah.

On Tuesday, the IDF ostensibly completed its withdrawal from southern Lebanon as part of the ceasefire agreement — though it remains in five outposts for now. Kiryat Shmona was quiet, with no tension in the air. “I’m angry at Netanyahu,” said a young man wandering through town, “but I’m even angrier at those attacking him.”

On the other hand, Mayor Stern, 39, built his campaign around attacks on Netanyahu. “He should have resigned as prime minister immediately after October 7,” Stern has repeated throughout the war. Election day found members of the mayor’s campaign still complaining about the government’s treatment of the city.

 

Kiryat Shmona mayoral candidate and incumbent mayor Avichai Stern casts his vote at a voting station on the morning of the municipal elections in Kiryat Shmona, February 18, 2025. 

 

Based on those initial votes counted in Kiryat Shmona, it appears that the combative mayor was not harmed politically. As far as his residents are concerned, Stern ensured relatively comfortable conditions for the displaced residents.

The mayor also has enough resources and influence to mobilize voters — after all, he is the largest employer in a city where most factories have either shut down or relocated to safer areas. Unseating him may not prove easy.

The third candidate, Yehezkeli, served as Stern’s deputy before becoming an opposition figure and was now running against him at the head of a slate called “New Way.” Yehezkeli, 45, stood Tuesday outside the polling station at Metzudot School, claiming, “Kiryat Shmona has no father.” The residents milling around nodded in agreement.

“We’re stranded in Tiberias,” complained Yehuda Dahan, who came back to the city with his family to vote. “There’s so much uncertainty. We don’t know where to send our kids or when, whether there will be schools here or not. You can’t live like this.”

 

An abandoned residential building in Kiryat Shmona seen on election day at the city, 18 February 2025 

Conversations with local leaders and city residents reveal that many of those who left have settled well in their new locations, receive generous stipends from the government, and have built comfortable lives in central Israel. Many are not considering returning to their old lives in Kiryat Shmona after a year and a half away.

“The residents in hotels in Tel Aviv are enjoying themselves. In Eilat too. But they don’t like being in Tiberias,” said a senior municipal official. “Soon, the state will stop funding them, give them a one-time grant, and then they’ll take the money and return. The question is, how many will come back?”

On Tuesday, Kiryat Shmona looked like a city just waiting to wake up — a sleeping beauty in the Upper Galilee, with excellent weather, facing Mount Hermon, which is already snow-covered at its peak. Everyone understands that whoever wins the mayoral election will have to rebuild the city and boost employment, education, healthcare, and culture to entirely new standards to lure residents back.

 

Residents of the northern city of Kiryat Shmona check the damage caused to the city’s Central Bus Station and Mall after a Hezbollah missile attack, 27 November 2024. 

 

Most importantly, they will have to ensure their residents’ security. The deadline of the IDF withdrawal from southern Lebanon passed without incident, despite the assassination of senior Hamas figure Muhammad Shahin in Lebanon on Monday.

The question is, what comes next? Kiryat Shmona still has homes in ruins from direct rocket hits — sights that continue to deter residents and serve as a stark reminder of the danger of living in a city located so close to the border.

TO MUCH OF THE WORLD, ARIEL AND KFIR BIBAS WERE JUST ZIONIST PROPAGANDA, NOT HUMAN BEINGS WHO WERE BRUTALIZED FOR THE CRIME OF BEING JEWISH

The Hamas baby killers and a broken global moral compass

Fashionable antisemitism has caused leftist myths about Israeli “oppressors” to dismiss justified anger and grief about the fate of the Bibas kids. 

 

By Jonathan S. Tobin

 

JNS

Feb 19, 2025 

 

 

 

Mom Shiri, toddler Ariel and baby Kfir Bibas are dead at the hands of Hamas

 

As much as anything else, two little red-haired boys and their mother symbolized the barbaric cruelty of the Hamas assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The video of a terrified Shiri Bibas, 32, clutching and comforting her two children—Ariel, 4, and Kfir, just 9 months old at the time—as they were being pushed away by Hamas terrorists into captivity in Gaza should haunt the conscience of humanity in much the same way as some of the most iconic images of the Holocaust.

But it did not. Or at least, it didn’t do so sufficiently to prevent a sizable portion of the international community from thinking of their captors as the good guys in the war that the Palestinians started on Oct. 7. Now, 500 days after that infamous and tragic date, as their fate has been revealed, we are also being forced to come to terms with the extent of the moral failure of the world to respond appropriately to this brazen act of genocidal terrorism.

To much of the world, the Bibas children were just Zionist propaganda, not human beings who were brutalized for the crime of being Jewish. Their likenesses were not to be tolerated—let alone viewed with sympathy. Posters of them and others kidnapped by Hamas were put up around the world only to be torn down by brazen antisemites.

Yet now that Hamas has announced that the bodies of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir are to be handed over to Israel this week as part of the first phase of ceasefire/hostage deal that has, at least for the moment, halted the fighting, attitudes toward the fate of the Bibas family has become an unavoidable test of our common humanity.

Vestiges of decency

That is a test that much of the international community is failing miserably. And it’s important for the rest of us, even as we mourn for the Bibas family, to take note of this and ask why it should be so.

It’s not just that Hamas wants to destroy Israel and commit genocide against its population. The terror group that, contrary to the claims of former President Joe Biden, has the backing of most Palestinian Arabs, planned and executed a massacre in which more than 1,200 people of all ages and places in society were murdered. It did so not only by shooting missiles or sending suicide bombers into crowded buses, cafes and dance clubs. Its “fighters” and the Palestinian civilians who followed in their wake when Israeli communities were attacked on Oct. 7, engaged in an orgy of murder, torture, rape and kidnapping in a way that made it clear that they had shed any vestige of humanity or decency.

More than that, it boasted proudly of these bestial crimes by posting photos and videos of their actions on social media to make it clear that their attack was a trailer for what they aim to do to the rest of Israel—or at least it did so before their foreign supporters perversely began to deny any of it actually happened.

When stated that way, the atrocities of Oct. 7 are, as awful as they were, still something of an abstraction. But when you look at the images of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir as they cowered in the face of their kidnappers after their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz was attacked, we see it in a different light. They are not just statistics. They are human beings with whom anyone can identify.

That’s why so many decent people came to care so much about them.

We knew that Yarden Bibas—Shiri’s husband and the children’s father—had left their house’s safe room in a futile attempt to save his family, and had also been kidnapped. We prayed that they would all be reunited and brought home. But when Yarden was among the few Israelis released under the current ceasefire deal, and his wife and children were not, it quickly became obvious that they had died in captivity.

That should force even those most inclined to rationalize Palestinian actions to conclude that the so-called “resistance” against Israel that Hamas and its allies aren’t just garden variety terrorists; they are baby killers.

 

  

A half-ripped poster in Ventnor, N.J., of Kfir Bibas, an Israeli child abducted to Gaza with his 4-year-old brother and parents on Oct. 7 by Hamas terrorists who attacked southern Israel, April 28, 2024.

Motivation for antisemitism

Regardless of the details of the crime that we don’t yet know, the unavoidable truth is that a toddler, an infant and their mother were all murdered by their Palestinian captors.

Once we arrive at that sad conclusion, it is incumbent to ponder how it is that even after learning about this so many people, including a large number of those who consider themselves humanitarians and opposed to barbarism, still support Hamas and oppose Israel.

How is that possible? The answer isn’t complicated.

An increasingly significant proportion of international opinion, as well as of Americans, has turned on Israel since Oct. 7. While, as always is the case with polls, it depends on how you pose the question, a number of surveys show a decline in backing for Israel, and its right to defend itself and the war against Hamas it has been fighting for the last 16 months. Though most Americans still back Israel, this shift to support the war on the Jewish state is especially apparent when it comes to young people.

Muslim and Arab sympathy for the Palestinians, coupled with a long tradition of Jew-hatred so prevalent in the Islamic world, is part of the reason. But throughout the West, this development is the result of the spread of toxic leftist ideologies like critical race theory, intersectionality and the woke catechism of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) that pointedly excludes Jews from its alleged crusade for better treatment of minorities.

Like other neo-Marxist theories, those indoctrinated in such beliefs—a demographic that includes most of those who have gone through the mainstream American education system in recent years—encourage the dehumanization of those who hold the wrong identity and/or the wrong views about the world, according to fashionable leftist doctrine. And that is what has fueled the post-Oct. 7 surge in Jew-hatred worldwide.

It is also why so many college and university students, especially those attending elite schools, have come to believe that the Bibas family simply doesn’t fall into the category of people who deserve the empathy of fellow human beings. As was the case for European fascist and Nazi ideologues a century ago, left-wing intellectuals and those who have fallen under their influence believe that Israelis and Jews are undeserving of compassion.

To those who buy into the anti-Zionist mindset, by living in Israel—even within the 1967 borders and in communities where support for peace with the Palestinian Arabs was prevalent—Jewish residents and often pacifists in places like Kfir Oz had it coming on Oct. 7.

It didn’t matter to them that Gaza wasn’t “occupied” on Oct. 7. The fact that every Israeli soldier, settler and settlement had been withdrawn from the Strip in 2005 and that since 2007, it had been an independent Palestinian state run by Islamist terrorists was irrelevant.

Lies and rationalizations

Since Oct. 7, they have spewed forth a series of often-contradictory arguments and narratives justifying Palestinian conduct. They falsely claimed that Gaza was an “open-air prison” whose inhabitants had a right to “resist” Israeli oppression. They further argued that even though Hamas had initiated this round of fighting with unspeakable atrocities, it was Israel’s efforts to defend itself against this Palestinian terrorism that was the real crime.

They cite the suffering of Gazans during the subsequent war as a reason not to care about the Bibas family. While that suffering is real, they refuse to accept that the people who started the war are the ones who are responsible for the horror inflicted on both sides of that conflict.

No doubt we will hear in the coming days that it wasn’t Hamas that killed the Bibas boys and their mother—that it was the Israelis who did it in the course of their war on the terrorists. We don’t know if this is true. Even if they were killed by Israeli fire on terrorist enclaves and fortresses that were deliberately constructed to increase civilian casualties, the idea that Hamas is innocent of their deaths is risible. They were in Gaza and exposed to danger not because the Israeli government was heartless or complicit in their murders but because they were dragged there by terrorists that ruled the Strip.

Despite the dogmatic justification of their crimes by Israel’s enemies, which is morally equivalent to Holocaust denial, other mothers and children, as well as fathers and sons, were murdered on Oct. 7, with many slaughtered by horrific methods that are hard to think about.

Yet once you’ve been convinced that Jews have no rights, those crimes become just details to be dropped down an Orwellian memory hole. Those who have romanticized “resistance” to Israel—like best-selling author Ta-Nehisi Coates, who has spoken of his wish to have taken part in Oct. 7—the murder of one mother and her children is an act that is justified by Jews simply living in the one Jewish state on the planet.

In this way, Palestinian Arabs who deliberately set out to kill Jewish babies can be depicted as heroes and the Israelis who seek to avoid civilian casualties while trying to defeat the Oct. 7 criminals are the bad guys. Those with an unbroken moral compass recognize the difference between the baby killers and people trying to stop them.

That’s why we shouldn’t expect the news that Shiri, Ariel and Kfir died at the hands of their captors or their funerals to shift public opinion about Israel or the war on the part of those who have been taught that Israel has no right to exist.

 

  

Shiri Bibas and her sons Ariel, 4, and baby, Kfir, were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023. 

A broken moral compass

For generations, decent people have wondered how it was that the citizens of what was arguably the most civilized and scientifically advanced society in Europe—Germany—behaved as they did during the Holocaust.

The answer was that they didn’t believe in the humanity of the Jews. Ordinary Germans looked the other way as their Jewish neighbors were taken away and sent to their deaths. The best and brightest of their young men fought to preserve the Nazi regime and/or took part in the slaughter of 6 million Jews, including 1.5 million children, and millions of other victims.

The point being is that if you cheer for or justify these Hamas baby killers, it isn’t just that you’re mistaken about the origins and causes of the post-Oct. 7 war or have been misled by the misinformation about it spread by the Palestinians. It means you are no different from those ordinary Germans who stood by with indifference or actually facilitated the Holocaust.

During World War II, the people of the Allied nations instinctively understood that there was no moral equivalence between those murdered by the German Nazis and their collaborators and civilians killed as a result of military actions that led to the liberation of Europe. But that wise understanding of the nature of war is not shared by much of liberal and leftist elite public opinion today. Instead, they have accepted the big lies about Israel committing “genocide” and Hamas terrorism being justified “resistance.”

This sort of broken moral compass is to be found among so many of those who consider themselves good people and can be discerned in many ways. It’s evident among those who think that democracy can only be preserved by trashing its basic values through censorship of dissent against leftist orthodoxies. It’s also present among those who have come to reject the canon of Western civilization because it doesn’t conform to divisive woke ideas about race.

But at the core of the argument are those who take the side of the Hamas baby killers and spread hatred for a moral and democratic Israel, as well as for the Jewish people. Not for the first time in world history, antisemitism has provided a justification for the murderers of Jewish children.

MUSK NEEDS TO PURGE EVERY LAST ONE OF THE OBAMA HOLDOVERS

Obama-Biden Arabists are still sabotaging Israel

Three administrations couldn’t manage to stymie Iran from getting nuclear weapons. It is left to Trump in his second term to figure out how. 

 

By Mitchell Bard

 

JNS

Feb 19, 2025

 

Demonstrators hold Iranian flags and a huge inflated figure representing Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei holding a nuclear bomb as they protest against the Iranian regime as a main source of war and crises in the Middle East at Odeonsplatz Square in Munich, the venue of the Munich Security Conference, Feb. 16, 2024

 

Like zombies rising from the grave, former officials—likely Arabists from the CIA, State or Defense departments—have resumed their relentless campaign to sabotage Israeli plans to eliminate Iran’s nuclear threat. Holdovers from the Obama and Biden administrations, who President Donald Trump has not yet purged, may be responsible for leaking the latest intelligence to block Israeli military action. These individuals will stop at nothing, including leaking classified information, to protect Iran.

Former President Barack Obama made no secret of his opposition to an Israeli strike on Iran. He promised a reformed Islamic Republic that would have no path to a nuclear weapon when he negotiated the loophole-filled nuclear deal with Iran—the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Often ignored was his admission that “in year 13, 14, 15, they have advanced centrifuges that enrich uranium fairly rapidly, and at that point, the breakout times would have shrunk almost down to zero.” Obama was wrong; it took less than 10 years.

In 2012, just before negotiations were set to begin, the Obama administration feared Israel might preemptively attack Iran and was determined to prevent it through selective leaks. For example, results of a classified war game that predicted an Israeli strike were leaked to The New York Times, anonymous officials told Foreign Policy Israel had been given access to Azerbaijani air bases from which it could launch an attack, and Bloomberg was provided a congressional report that questioned the impact of an Israeli strike.

Commentator Ron Ben-Yishai observed, “In recent weeks the administration shifted from persuasion efforts vis-à-vis decision-makers and Israel’s public opinion to a practical, targeted assassination of potential Israeli operations in Iran.” Ben-Yishai said. “The campaign’s aims are fully operational: To make it more difficult for Israeli decision-makers to order the IDF to carry out a strike, and what’s even graver, to erode the IDF’s capacity to launch such strike with minimal casualties.”

That same year, Obama officials also exposed Israel’s role in cyberattacks on Iranian computer systems, further damaging Israel’s ability to operate covertly. Obama later pardoned a general who pleaded guilty to falsely denying to the FBI that he was the source of classified information about U.S.-Israeli cyberattacks on Iran’s nuclear program.

A Kuwaiti newspaper claimed that the Obama administration had threatened to shoot down Israeli planes if Israel went through with a planned attack in 2014. The administration denied the report.

 

A Kuwaiti newspaper claimed that the Obama administration had threatened to shoot down Israeli planes if Israel went through with a planned attack on Iran in 2014. 

 

The Biden administration spent about two years in fruitless efforts to negotiate a stronger nuclear deal with Iran. The Iranians strung the United States along while continuing to advance its program. By the time Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Biden had abandoned any hope of an agreement but remained adamantly opposed to military action by America or Israel.

After Iran attacked Israel in April 2024 with ballistic missiles and drones in response to Israel bombing what the Iranians claimed to be their consulate in Syria, Washington knew it was inevitable that Israel would retaliate. Then-President Joe Biden pressured Israel not to launch a major attack that might escalate and draw the United States into a conflict with Iran. He was particularly concerned that Israel would strike Iranian nuclear and energy facilities. Netanyahu ultimately decided on what amounted to a pinprick strike on air defenses in two cities where nuclear facilities were located that did not cause any casualties or significant damage and reduced the fear of Iran upping the ante.

In October, however, Iran launched a larger missile attack ostensibly in revenge for Israel assassinating the leader of Hezbollah, a top Hamas official while he was in Tehran, and a commander of the Revolutionary Guards. This time, a few of the 181 ballistic missiles did some damage at two air bases.

Again, the United States knew Israel had to respond, and Biden cautioned Netanyahu to exercise restraint. In a clear effort to sabotage Israel’s plans, top-secret Pentagon documents revealing U.S. intelligence on Israel’s plans for its retaliatory attack on Iran were leaked and published on a pro-Iranian Telegram channel on Oct. 18. A CIA official, Asif William Rahman, was later arrested and charged with the willful transmission of national defense information.

Now, in the latest case of sabotage, warnings of a potential Israeli strike that appeared in multiple intelligence reports spanning the end of the Biden administration and the beginning of the Trump administration have been leaked to the press. According to The Washington Post, “current and former U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence” revealed that Israel would probably attack Iran in the first six months of 2025. The short-term impact was to damage Israel’s operational security and provide Iranians with sufficient warning to strengthen their defenses.

As in other discussions by critics determined to prevent Israel from acting, the leakers emphasized the view that a strike would have minimal impact, perhaps setting Iran back only weeks. History does not support such cynicism. Israel destroyed the nuclear facilities of Iraq and Syria, and neither was rebuilt. Granted, the Iranian case is more complex, but that doesn’t make it impossible. Furthermore, even if it is a short-term fix, who knows what might happen in the interim? Israel might develop more sophisticated anti-missile defenses like its soon-to-be-deployed Iron Beam laser-defense system, or the Iranian regime might be overthrown. A military attack, if directed at the regime as well as the nuclear targets, might hasten that outcome. Also, if need be, Israel could take military measures to prevent rebuilding or hit any reconstructed facilities again.

The notion that Iran will voluntarily end its nuclear ambitions is delusional. President Donald Trump thought he could negotiate a better deal than the one Obama signed but failed and left office with Iran closer to a bomb than when he arrived despite his “maximum pressure” campaign. Having apparently learned nothing, Trump is repeating the same strategy, insisting that he can negotiate a deal and counterproductively saying that he doesn’t support regime change. Some believe he would not get in the way of an Israeli attack, though he might not give Israel any help. On the other hand, allowing Israel to strike risks escalation and his goal of world peace.

All evidence points to Iran accelerating its effort to build a bomb since Israel laid bare the country’s vulnerability. Iran has enough uranium for at least nine bombs when it increases enrichment purity from 60% to 90%. Depending on who you ask, it will take a matter of months or as much as two years for Iran to then have a useable weapon.

Time is running out if Tehran is to be stopped. Obama, Biden and first-term Trump all pledged to prevent Iran from getting the bomb but failed to neutralize the danger. Trump now says, “Everyone thinks Israel, with our help or our approval, will go in and bomb the hell out of them. I would prefer that not happen.” Emphasizing diplomacy, he said, “I would love to make a deal with them without bombing them.”

Meanwhile, defenders of appeasing Iran and Israel’s enemies inside and outside the administration will leak whatever information they can to stymie Israel’s plan.

GAVIN NEWSOM MAY HAVE SLIGHTLY REMOVED HIS HEAD FROM HIS ASS

By Bob Walsh

 

 

 

Gavin Newsom, the God-Emperor of the formerly great state of California, has just announced that he intends to SUPPORT a Republican move to prohibit the spending of state funds to pay the legal expenses of illegal aliens who are credibly accused of certain violent crimes.  

I can't imagine he is doing this out of the goodness of his heart.  I also don't think he is really afraid of the latest recall attempt aimed at him.  It seems much more likely that he STILL has his eye on being President in four years and wants to appear as a semi-reasonable semi-centrist instead of the raving lunatic arrogant liberal that he really is.

CARB SLAPPED DOWN, AT LEAST TEMPORARILY

By Bob Walsh

Site of California Air Resources Board world-class lab, headquarters in Riverside

 

The California Air Resources Board has a lot of power and very little effective oversight.  Once in a while however the public outcry does reach even them, albeit indirectly.

They recently enacted some new rules for gas mixture for the formerly great state of California.  Originally they speculated that this would cost as much as $0.47 per gallon in compliance costs.  They then announced that it would be less than that.  They then announced that they weren't going to fucking tell us how much it would cost because it is none of our fucking business.

The Office of Administrative Law has just put the brakes on the CARB rule, at least for the nonce.  The OAL determined that the CARB had failed to provide sufficient information into how they arrived at their conclusions and failed to provide information on costs to the taxpayer of the new rules.  CARB collectively squealed like a sack of mashed cats.  They are not used to the peasants questioning them, even indirectly.

Even the uber-liberal California legislature is getting in on the action a little bit.  CA is moving from it's winter blend gas to summer blend gas and the cost at the pump has gone up almost $0.50 per gallon in the last couple of weeks.  Much of this is due to temporary refinery shutdowns to make the changeover and a consequent drop in availability. 

MOTHER NATURE CAN BE A NASTY BITCH

By Bob Walsh

 

A Canadian couple were on holiday a couple of days ago on the Turks and Caicos Islands when they were hanging out in about three feet of exceptionally clear water to take photos of the critters swimming there when the woman, 55-years old, was bumped by a seven-foot bull shark.  The shark took a small exploratory bite out of her leg.  She then attempted to protect herself further from the shark.  The shark wasn't deterred and bit off both of her hands.

Her husband managed to wrestle the shark away from her and she fled to the beach and collapsed.  She was shipped by air ambulance back to Canada for further medical treatment.

Shark attacks in the Turks and Caicos are rare with only four in the last four years.  None were fatal.  

The Island Environment Department seemed a tad dismissive, pointing out that the woman deliberately went into the water to get close to what was known to be at least a potentially dangerous animal in order to photograph it.  Bull sharks are known to be somewhat aggressive. 

ZELENSKY NO LONGER HAS THE SUPPORT OF THE BIDEN-HARRIS ADMINISTRATION

Trump savages Zelensky and green lights Europe putting peacekeeping troops in Ukraine

 

By Geoff Earle

 

Daily Mail 

Feb 18, 2025

 

 

 

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky can no longer count on the Biden-Harris administration for support in the war with Russia

 

President Donald Trump tore into Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after U.S. negotiators opened talks with Russia without him that are meant to find a way to end Russia's war on Ukraine.

Trump blamed Zelensky for failing to head off the war inside his country, and the president said he himself was behind a push to require Ukraine to hold new elections before any peace plan can go through.

‘You have leadership now that's allowed a war to go on that should have never even happened, even without the United States,’ Trump said from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida Tuesday – even as he said ‘I like him personally’ when speaking about Zelensky.

'You should have ended it – three years, you should have never started it,' he said, appearing to blame Zelensky for Russia's 2022 invasion.

Trump offered a positive assessment when asked about the talks, saying he was ‘much more confident’ than before Tuesday's meeting between Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and Vladimir Putin aide Yuri Ushakov. Trump said the talks were 'very good.'

‘Russia wants to do something. They want to stop the savage barbarianism,’ Trump said, amid reports it had launched new drone attacks on Kyiv after the talks ended.

 

President Trump tore into Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in remarks at Mar-a-Lago, blaming him for Russia's war on his country. ''You should have ended it – three years, you should have never started it,' Trump said

 

Speaking to reporters, Trump was asked if he would accept Russia's push for new elections in Ukraine – amid fears that the Kremlin would install a pro-Moscow puppet regime. Trump indicated that he himself was for the idea.

'We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine, where we have martial law, essentially martial law in Ukraine, where the leader in Ukraine – I mean, I hate to say it, but he’s down at 4 per cent approval rating, and where a country has been blown to smithereens.'

Then Trump described some of the massive destruction in Ukraine, suggesting Moscow could have imposed even more if it wished.

'You got most of the cities are laying on their sides. The buildings are collapsed. It looks like a massive demolition site. The whole – I mean, so many of the cities, I mean, they haven't done it in Kyiv because, I guess they don't want to shoot too many rockets in there. They've done it 20% but they haven't done it 100%. If they wanted to do it 100% it would probably happen very quickly, but you have cities that are absolutely decimated. 

'And, yeah, I would say that, you know, they want a seat at the table, you could say the people have to, wouldn't the people of Ukraine have to say, like, you know, it's been a long time since we've had an election?

'That's not a Russia thing. That's something coming from me and coming from many other countries also,' Trump said. 

 

Zelensky has demanded that Ukraine be included in any talks about its future

Smoke rises in the sky over the city after a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine February 17, 2025. The attack came after U.S.-Russia talks ended in Saudi Arabia

Trump stressed the thousands of military deaths on both sides, although Ukrainian civilians have also suffered under relentless Russian fire. A general view of the bombed Zoopark Bilytske on February 17, 2025 in Bilytske, Ukraine. All primates, birds, bears and large felines, such as tigers and panthers, were evacuated due to the frequent bombings by Russian forces

 

Asked to respond to Ukraine being left out of the first talks, Trump instead spoke about the death toll of thousands. ‘And I think I have the power to end this war,’ he said.

Former Biden NSC spokesman Sean Savett posted on X, 'Sounds like Trump bought Putin’s propaganda hook, line, and sinker. A reminder no one should need: Putin started the war by invading Ukraine unprovoked and his forces have committed war crimes against the Ukrainian people. Russia is the party responsible for this war continuing.' 

Zelensky has demanded Ukraine be involved in any peace talks, which Trump indicated could start as soon as this month.  

Trump also commented on the potential for European troops taking a peacekeeping role in the event of a ceasefire. 'If they want to do that, that's great. I'm all for it. If they want to do that, I think that's that'd be fine.' As for U.S. forces, 'we won't have to put any over there, because, you know, we're very far away,' Trump said.

That came after Lavrov blasted British PM Keir Starmer's peacekeeping plans, saying NATO nations can't patrol Russia's border with Ukraine 'under some other flag'.

'Any appearance by armed forces under some other flag does not change anything. It is of course completely unacceptable,' Lavrov said.

Trump dismissed complaints by Ukrainian leaders about being left out of talks about their fate. It was a sharp turnaround from the Biden Administration's mantra of 'no Ukraine without Ukraine', while shipping billions in military aid. 

'And I think I have the power to end this war, and I think it's going very well. But today I heard, oh, well, we weren't invited. Well, you've been there for three years. You should have ended it – three years, you should have never started it. You could have made a deal,' Trump complained.

'I could have made a deal for Ukraine that would have given them almost all of the land, everything, almost all of the land, and no people would have been killed, and no city would have been demolished, and not one dome would have been knocked down. But they chose not to do it that way. 

Trump remarks came as the U.S. and Russia eye potential cooperation on Arctic oil drilling.  Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia's Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), told Politico the two sides discussed 'specific areas of cooperation.'

'It was more a general discussion — maybe joint projects in the Arctic. We specifically discussed the Arctic,' he said. 

He also spoke to the New York Times about the potential for U.S. oil and gas firms to return to projects inside Russia, which ended in the years after Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine.

'U.S. oil majors have had very successful business in Russia,' he said. 'We believe at some point they will be coming back, because why would they forego these opportunities that Russia gave them to have access to Russian natural resources?'

JODER CALIFORNIA LIBERAL

Deep red state set to become America's most populous as liberals flee California

 

By Will Potter

 

Daily Mail 

Feb 18, 2025

 

People are moving to Texas in droves. Celina, a small Texas town of just 1850 residents in 2000, now has a population of close to 50,000

 

Texas is on track to become America's most populous state as disgruntled liberals continue to flee California in droves. 

The deep red state is set to claim the top spot by 2045, according to a new data from Realtor.com, as its population soars from 31 million to a predicted 42 million. 

The Lone Star State is currently the second most populous state to California, which counts 39 million residents. The Golden State has been suffering population declines in recent years. 

Residents cite its high cost of living and poor quality of life as factors in driving them away, and from 2019 to 2022 the population continually plummeted. 

California's population rose slightly, by 0.17 percent, in 2023, the most recent year of data. If it remains on the same growth trajectory, the state won't reach pre-pandemic levels until 2032. 

While California has struggled to bounce back from the pandemic, Texas has seen a boom as residents flock to cities such as Dallas, San Antonio and Austin. 

'In the years since the Covid-19 pandemic, the Texas economy has boomed, especially in high-demand industries like technology, education, manufacturing and construction,' Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale said. 

'Texas has responded by building more and smaller homes to meet demand, helping the market settle and housing inventory climb back to pre-pandemic levels ahead of the nationwide recovery.' 

 

Texas is on track to become America's most populous state as disgruntled liberals continue to flee California in droves, as residents cite cost of living and housing as key reasons 

Californians condemned soft-on-crime policies and rampant homelessness in the state as reasons for their migrations to red states 

 

Realtor.com released the report as the company itself announced it was leaving its California headquarters and relocating to Austin. 

The company said its migration to Texas 'follows a rapid influx of businesses and new residents moving to Texas in recent years.' 

The moves from California are fueled by a 'search of more affordable housing, a strong labor market, and relief from wildfires that are growing more frequent and deadly', the company said. 

Texas' population boom began over a decade ago, and from 2013 to 2023 the state's population increased by almost 4 million, more than any other state. 

From July 2023 to July 2024, the US Census Bureau said Texas gained another 562,941 people, and its annualized growth rate of 1.8 percent was the third highest in the time frame, only behind Florida and the District of Columbia. 

One of the primary reasons Texas saw such a huge surge during the pandemic was due to the state's lenient health restrictions at the time. 

Realtor.com said its own data found that in 2019, roughly one in five people who bought a home in Texas did so from out of state. 

This figure rose to one in three homebuyers by April 2023. 

 

While California cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco have been plagued by rampant homelessness and vagrancy in recent years, residents in stricter states such as Texas say they are not as burdened by the issue 

In 2023, California's state population rose 0.17%, marking the first year of growth since the mass exodus that began in 2019

California's population declined in recent years amid the pandemic 

 

While California cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco have been plagued by rampant homelessness and vagrancy in recent years, residents in states such as Texas say they are not as burdened by the issue.  

A survey by the outlet found that those who moved from California to Texas said they did so for housing, jobs and climate. 

One of those who made the move, Jackie Burse, told Business Insider last year that she moved from California to San Antonio because she felt overpowered by the locals' liberal agenda.

'I'm a conservative and I feel like it's difficult to have any opinions in California other than liberal,' Burse told Insider. 

'Especially when you're living in the cities.' 

Burse said she is religious and feels more comfortable being open about her faith in Texas than in California.

'For now, I don't have any plans to leave Texas anytime soon. I've found a great church, made many friends, and feel safe here.'

Another person to make the switch, Janelle Crossan, said she moved with her son from Costa Mesa, California to New Braunfels, Texas, one of the fastest growing cities in the US, in 2020. 

 

Critics point to the steady stream of people leaving California as an indictment on the state's policies, which are set by Governor Gavin Newsom and his fellow Democrats

Those that moved said they preferred Texas' climate and standard of living, such as in the idyllic town of New Braunfels (pictured) 

According to a 2023 report from the New Braunfels Economic Development Foundation, the city's gross regional product reached $2.8 billion in 2021, nearly double the amount from a decade earlier as new arrivals flocked to the town 

 

While in Costa Mesa, she paid $1,750 for a 'crappy' apartment in an unsafe area.

'I never felt safe in my area. I felt like a prisoner in my apartment,' she said.

Not only has she found a higher-paying job, she now pays $1,800 a month for a three-bedroom home she purchased - property taxes included.

'Something as simple as moving across the country has made my life go in such a different direction,' she said.

THE PALESTINIANS SHOULD PAY A HEAVY PRICE FOR THE DEATHS OF SHIRI BIBAS AND HER CHILDREN

6 hostages to be freed Sat.; Hamas says bodies of Bibas mom, kids set for Thurs. return

Family of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas ‘in turmoil’ over Hamas announcement, has not received Israeli confirmation; only 3 living hostages were to go free this week, but Hamas will instead release all 6 of phase 1’s remaining living hostages

 

By Lazar Berman

 

The Times of Israel

Feb 18, 2025

 

 

Mom Shiri, toddler Ariel and baby Kfir Bibas are dead at the hands of Hamas

 

All six remaining living hostages slated to be released in the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal will be freed Saturday, Israeli and Hamas officials said Tuesday, in a surprise move reportedly linked to growing worries that the ceasefire and captive release deal in the Gaza Strip could collapse.

Encouragement over the expedited release, which will include two Israelis held in the Strip for over a decade, was tempered, however, with an announcement from the terror group that it would also transfer the bodies of mother Shiri Silberman Bibas and her two young children Ariel and Kfir back to Israel, dampening hopes that the three might still be found alive.

The Bibas family said it was “in turmoil” over the announcement and had not received confirmation from Israel.

Hamas leader in Gaza Khalil al Hayya said that among the six living hostages will be Israelis Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who have been held by Hamas since entering the Strip on their own in 2014 and 2015, respectively.

 

 

Row 1 (L-R): Omer Wenkert, Eliya Cohen, Tal Shoham; Row 2: Omer Shem-Tov, Avera Mengistu, Hisham al-Sayed.

 

The other four — Tal Shoham, Omer Shem-Tov, Omer Wenkert, and Eliya Cohen — were kidnapped during the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel.

Al Hayya said that the releases would be conditioned on Israel living up to its side of the first phase of the deal, which includes the release of hundreds of Palestinian inmates, including many serving life sentences for murder, a cessation of fighting in the Strip and the entry of aid and other equipment into the beleaguered enclave.

Under the original agreement with Hamas, only three living hostages were scheduled to go free on Saturday, and the remaining three a week later. Israel had been pushing hard to get all six out as early as possible, spurred by US President Donald Trump’s call last week for all Israeli hostages to go free in a single group.

An Israeli official said the updated terms had been reached during talks in Egypt last week.

“If the agreement in Cairo is carried out, it will be an important achievement for Israel,” the official said.

The families of the living hostages have been updated, The Times of Israel has learned.

 

The 14 remaining hostages slated to be returned in phase one of the Gaza ceasefire deal as of February 18, 2025 after the first six rounds saw 19 Israeli hostages freed. Row 1 (L-R): Ohad Yahalomi, Oded Lifshitz, Tsahi Idan, Hisham al-Sayed, Itzik Elgarat; Row 2: Omer Wenkert, Eliya Cohen, Avera Mengistu, Tal Shoham, Omer Shem-Tov; Row 3: Ariel Bibas, Kfir Bibas, Shiri Bibas, Shlomo Mantzur.

The Prime Minister’s Office also confirmed that four dead hostages would be released on Thursday, but did not name them. The only name on the phase one list whose death Israel has confirmed is Shlomo Mantzur.

Israel has said it has “grave concerns” for the fate of Silberman Bibas and her young sons.

Hamas’s al Hayya said earlier Tuesday that members of the Bibas family would be among the four bodies to be handed over on Thursday.

Responding to the announcement, the family stressed: “Until we receive definitive confirmation, our journey is not over.”

“We ask the media and the public to respect our privacy and refrain from contacting us about this matter,” relatives added.

Silberman Bibas, 32 at the time, was kidnapped from her Nir Oz home on October 7, with her young boys Kfir, 4 at the time, and Ariel, who was only nine months old. Husband and father Yarden Bibas, who was kidnapped separately from their home after he left the safe room hoping to distract the gunmen and save his family., was freed from Gaza on February 1.

 

People walk by photographs of Israelis held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, including baby Kfir Bibas, at “Hostages Square” in Tel Aviv. February 14, 2024. 

 

Footage from October 7 showed Silberman Bibas clutching the boys as they were led away by Hamas gunmen, and the IDF later released video it found showing them being moved between buildings in Khan Younis, but their fate has remained unknown.

Hamas claimed in November 2023 that Silberman Bibas and the kids were killed in an IDF strike. Israel called the claim cruel propaganda and did not confirm it.

 

Yarden Bibas, flanked by his sister Ofri and father Eli, is seen on an IDF helicopter on his way to a hospital in central Israel on February 1, 2025, after his release from Hamas captivity. In his message on the whiteboard, he thanked all of Israel for its support. 

In his first statement, days after his release, Yarden appealed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “Bring my family back. Bring my friends back. Bring everyone home.”

He added: “Sadly, my family hasn’t returned to me yet. They are still there. My light is still there, and as long as they’re there, everything here is dark.”

 

A rally marking 500 days since hostages were kidnapped by Hamas-led terrorists to the Gaza Strip, at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, February 17, 2025. 

Hamas is also required by the agreement with Israel to release four more bodies of hostages next week, according to the PMO, completing the release of the 33 Israeli hostages in phase one.

The annex of the ceasefire agreement that deals with the release of the bodies was revealed on Monday evening but has not been officially published.

Hamas will, in turn, be securing the early release of 47 Hamas members who were released in the 2011 exchange for former IDF soldier Gilad Shalit but later rearrested by Israel. The original deal had stipulated that those 47 prisoners be released by the final day of phase one in early March.

The terror group first raised the idea of expediting the release of the remaining living hostages listed under phase one, two Israeli officials told Axios.

“Hamas feared that the agreement will not last until day 42 when these 47 prisoners were supposed to be released because Israel will blow it up,” an Israeli official told Axios.

The decision to expedite the releases indicates that both sides think that the hostage deal might collapse before the 42nd day of phase one, Axios speculated.

 

Illustrative – A view of Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv on January 4, 2024. 

 

Identifying the bodies

Israel on Tuesday was preparing to receive and identify the four bodies on Thursday. The bodies will be transported to Israel’s National Center of Forensic Medicine (Abu Kabir) in Jaffa by Israel Defense Forces ambulances for identification.

Families will be updated when the bodies have been properly identified, according to Hebrew media, and only after that will the details be released to the public. Some news outlets have said they will not broadcast photos or footage of the bodies or coffins distributed by Hamas out of respect for the bereaved.

The Health Ministry reminded the public that these are “sensitive times” for the loved ones of the slain hostages and urged everyone to respect their privacy.

The Kan public broadcaster reported that the bodies would be identified within 48 hours at Abu Kabir, which has been renovated to provide areas for the families to gather if necessary according to the circumstances in which the remains are received.

The head of the Israel Police’s forensics division, Lt. Col. Aliza Raziel, told Channel 12 on Tuesday that together with Abu Kabir and the IDF, the authorities were “ready to receive the bodies and activate all existing scientific identification methods.”

 

Illustrative – Prof. Gila Kahila Bar-Gal assisting with DNA extraction and amplification at the National Center of Forensic Medicine (Abu Kabir), November 2023. 

 

She said that authorities began collecting biometric data from hostages, including dental records, fingerprints, and DNA, soon after the hostages were taken “so that when the time comes, we could compare and identify them accurately.”

Volunteer dentists have been trained to identify the bodies, Raziel told Channel 12, adding that fingerprints could also be used, depending on the condition of the remains.

“And in cases where these options cannot be used, the DNA test remains, for which we have prepared all the data in advance,” she explained, noting that the identification system used in Israel is considered one of the most advanced in the world.

Phase two talks this week

Israel, meanwhile, will in the coming days begin negotiations on the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal, including an exchange of the remaining Israeli hostages for more Palestinian security prisoners, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said, adding that Israel is demanding a complete demilitarization of the enclave.

It is believed that another 24 living hostages could be released under phase two of the deal.

Sa’ar told foreign journalists in Jerusalem Tuesday that the talks will begin “this week.”

 

Foreign Affairs Minister Gideon Sa’ar leads a faction meeting of his New Hope party in the Knesset, February 17, 2025. 

“We had a security cabinet meeting last night. We decided to open negotiations on the second phase. It will happen this week,” he said of the talks, which were originally supposed to start on February 3.

Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer will lead talks on phase 2, according to Channel 12, replacing Mossad chief David Barnea, who led previous rounds.

However, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel that the negotiating team was still awaiting approval to head to Qatar for the talks.

Hayya, the senior Hamas official, said in a statement that Hamas is prepared to immediately begin negotiations regarding phase two of the deal.

Sa’ar said Israel will not accept any scenario in which Gaza terror groups retain weapons.

A “Hezbollah model” in Gaza would not be acceptable to Israel “and therefore we need a total demilitarization of Gaza and no presence of the Palestinian Authority,” he said in a press conference.

He added that Israel was aware of an alternative plan by Arab states for Gaza made to counter US President Donald Trump’s proposal to redevelop the Strip under US control, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said is worthy of exploration.

 

Bulldozers and trucks carrying caravans wait to enter Gaza at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. 

Israel will not support a plan that would see civilian control of Gaza transferred from Hamas to the Palestinian Authority, Sa’ar said.

The ceasefire stipulates that the parties must begin negotiations regarding phase two of the deal no later than the 16th day of the first phase, which was on February 3, but talks have yet to begin. The second phase provides for the end of the war and the withdrawal of all IDF troops from Gaza.

Hamas has so far released 24 hostages — 19 Israeli civilians and female soldiers, and five Thai nationals — during the current ceasefire, which began on January 19. The terror group also freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that.

 

Israeli captives, from left to right, Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy, who have been held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, 2023, onstage before being handed over to the Red Cross in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Feb. 8, 2025. 

Seventy captives remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 35 confirmed dead by the IDF.

Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.

Hamas is also holding al-Sayed and Mengistu, the two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014. The body of another IDF soldier, also killed in 2014, was recovered from Gaza in January.