“There is a glaring dissonance to the charge that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza,” contends The New York Times’ Bret Stephens. “Why isn’t the death count higher?” After all, “it’s not that Israel lacks the capacity to have meted vastly greater destruction.” The answer: “Of course” Israel is “manifestly not committing genocide,” and the deaths in Gaza are just a side effect of war. “What is unusual,” though, “is the cynical and criminal way Hamas has chosen to wage war”: embedding itself in civilian areas and hoarding food aid. “The war in Gaza should be brought to an end in a way that ensures it is never repeated. To call it a genocide does nothing to advance that aim, except to dilute the meaning of a word we cannot afford to cheapen.”
The National Education Association is facing a move “to revoke [its] national charter,” enthuse Daniel Buck & Anna Low at National Review. Though federal charters are “largely symbolic,” they’re not “powerless.” Charter holders have a “special national distinction” that helps them raise money. But today’s NEA is “a lobbying and funding juggernaut with almost 3 million members,” and though ostensibly an educational organization, “its real purpose is political.” Over 97% of the “millions” it spends on lobbying and donations goes to Democrats, and its “calls to action” are always for liberal causes. If Congress chooses not to revoke the charter, it could still at least “place limitations on the NEA’s lobbying and political activity.”
“Russia wants to break the Ukrainian will as it seeks to dismantle Ukrainian identity,” thunders The Wall Street Journal’s Jillian Kay Melchior, noting Vladimir Putin’s relentless “missile and drone attacks on the Ukrainian capital and other cities.” Yet instead of the attacks breaking their will, many “enraged” civilians “donate to support the military,” and “the raids could boost voluntary enlistment.” Bottom line: Ukrainians are “becoming more united.” There’s little doubt that, “Putin wants to erode the American and European will to arm Ukraine” by “promoting the myth that Russian momentum is unstoppable and Russian victory is inevitable.” Zelensky adviser Mykhailo Podolyak admits, “We’re not winning right now” — but he also adds: “Moscow isn’t winning either.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and her fellow Democrats are hypocrites for saying ICE agents “spread fear in immigrant communities,” thunders the Washington Examiner. That’s because Dems like them are the ones who “amplify hoaxes and demonize law enforcement officers” — by saying that “masked men in unmarked cars” are “kidnapping people.” ICE agents who wear masks have genuine security concerns. Considering that “activists in Portland have been posting ICE agents’ addresses in officers’ neighborhoods,” officers’ “desire for anonymity” is “understandable.” If Bass is so concerned about calming people’s nerves, she “could start by not spreading illegal immigrant hoaxes.” Her labeling of federal law-enforcement officers as “outrageous and un-American” puts them “in danger and makes donning a mask a necessary precaution to protect their families.”
“With neither Democrats nor Republicans appearing willing to reduce benefits or increase the retirement age, the only way to make Social Security solvent is to increase revenue,” reports Reason’s Jack Nicastro. “While this can be done, it will come at the great financial detriment of young people entering the work force.” Calculations show that “to eliminate Social Security’s projected $25 trillion deficit over the next 75 years while maintaining planned benefits,” payroll taxes would need to be increased from 12.4% percent to 16.05%. Other options would be “lifting the income ceiling on the payroll tax and borrowing to cover deficits.” The latter could “precipitate a systemic debt crisis in the U.S.” and “massive inflation . . . resulting in another situation in which working-age people are forced to subsidize the retirements of the elderly.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board