A Ceasefire in the Middle East, and Other News

Editors note: this piece is by Ben Connelly. Due to technical difficulties on my end I cannot change the author line to his name, but it is he who deserves the credit.

As the week of Thanksgiving often is, last week was a slow news week. As is fitting. People should be spending time with their families, enjoying the great bounty of American prosperity, and pausing to reflect on that for which they are grateful. It is a time to turn inward, not to look outward.

Some think that an inward turn is problematic – it causes people to ignore problems in the world, isolates them in small locales, balkanizes our society. And to be sure, there is much to be said for active citizenship – upon which a free republic depends. But our free republic is built atop a foundation of families and friendships. All societies rest upon such a foundation, without which they break down. Indeed, much of the breakdown we see today is thanks to the astonishing rate of out of wedlock births (one out of every two), which have the greatest cost on those who can least afford it (the poor).

Thanksgiving is the most conservative holiday, the holiday at which we honor our past and gather with our family and enjoy our abundance. It is fitting that we turn inward to our families, who are, after all, the people who were with us at the very beginning and for whom we will be there at the end. Each year, we are treated to annoying cliches about the need to tolerate our bratty nieces and nephews or drunk uncles. (Meanwhile, out in real America, many people like their families.) But the point about family is that you do have to tolerate the relatives you wouldn’t choose for yourself if you could design the perfect family, because you don’t get a choice. There is something deeply conservative about recognizing that much of what irks us in the world is impossible to change, and that the only solution is for us to change our own attitudes and behaviors in response.

I thought A.D. Tippet’s post on Thanksgiving Day was quite fitting. I’ll also link to an article Noah Smith (no conservative) wrote about the idiocy of land acknowledgements, which are designed to make us feel guilty on Thanksgiving about imaginary sins our ancestors supposedly committed against the Native Americans. To be sure, some white people did bad things to Sioux and Iroquois and Apache individuals. And members of those tribes did terrible things to white people too (and to each other). But the myth that Native Americans lived in harmony on the land until white people came along is facially absurd and historically nonsensical.

Over the holiday, I visited one of America’s national parks, which contained a plaque stating something to the effect that the park sat on land where several tribes had thrived for “ten-thousand years.” If true, this would be the first instance in the history of the human race in which several different tribal groups occupied the same land simultaneously and shared it without committing atrocities against each other for ten millennia.

More likely, none of those tribes occupied the land in the years before the birth of Christ, and all of them slaughtered or exiled the previous inhabitants sometime before white settlers reached it. I don’t remember the different tribes, but I doubt they were at peace with one another for any great length of time either.

Even if they must make nods to silly woke sensibilities, America’s national parks are one of the great national gifts for which I am grateful. The national parks and the Smithsonian Museums (one of the greatest collections of art and history in the entire world) are among the great birthrights of American citizens, and something for which we should feel pride and give thanks. Sometimes, these gifts are listed alongside police, roads, and sanitation as “the stuff everybody likes about government, which proves that we need government to do good things.”

Of course, if all the government did was police the crime, clean the streets and water systems, build roads, manage national parks, and curate world-class museums, taxes would be incredibly low and government would be incredibly small. I’m actually open to privatizing the national parks and the Smithsonian, but even if I weren’t, they cost the average American pennies per month, which is an incredible return on investment, and a much better one than much else the government provides.

A “Ceasefire” in Lebanon

One bit of news last week from the Middle East caused great puzzlement here in the United States, if it went acknowledged at all. The Israeli government signed a ceasefire agreement with Lebanon, with whom it was not at war. According to the agreement, Israel will cease operations against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon for sixty days, and Hezbollah will retreat north of the Litani River. Supposedly, the agreement will be enforced by Britain, France, and the United States, but no serious person imagines that American boots will be on the ground in Lebanon to enforce this.

Those of us who thought that this ceasefire sounded suspiciously similar to 2006’s U.N. Resolution 1701, which also required Hezbollah to stay north of the Litani River, are correct. If that resolution had been enforced, we wouldn’t be having this discussion at all. Israel wouldn’t have any troops in Lebanon, because Israel wouldn’t have any troops in Lebanon if Hezbollah didn’t use Lebanon as a staging ground for attacks on Israel. Israel has no interest in occupying southern Lebanon. It does have an interest in ensuring the Israeli families who have been displaced from the northern part of Israel by rocket attacks can safely return to their homes.

But in order for that to happen, the threat will need to be eliminated. Israel would be doing Lebanon a favor by eliminating Hezbollah, which has been severely weakened but not destroyed. The Lebanese government should be thanking Israel and joining it in the fight to destroy an Iranian proxy which has killed countless Lebanese civilians over the years.

If the reports that the American government pressured Israel to agree to the ceasefire are true, that is shame upon the Biden administration. As skeptical as I am of Donald Trump’s instincts on foreign policy, the incoming administration will almost certainly be a major improvement when it comes to Israel and Iran, and I am glad that the incompetent Biden staff are on their way out.

Still, some in Israel are reasonably pleased by the agreement, which gives Israel something Resolution 1701 did not – the right to go into southern Lebanon to police it when the ceasefire breaks down and Hezbollah resumes its activities.

Which appears already to be the case. So much for a cessation of fighting.

President Biden Pardons His Son

In a totally unsurprising turn of events, President Biden this past weekend broke his pledge not to pardon his son, Hunter, absolving him of his tax and gun crimes. Everyone knew this was in the cards. Still, it is something which manages to shock when it happens. Most fathers would do the same in Biden’s position, but that doesn’t make up for the unseemliness of it.

Biden did Donald Trump a favor by pardoning Hunter. Now, there will be no reason for the incoming administration to be stained with the prosecution of a predecessor’s son. More importantly, Biden’s pardon negates much of the Democratic talking points about Donald Trump being corrupt. Whether or not it was corrupt, the pardon of Hunter looks corrupt, and it makes voters scratch their heads when told that one of the problems with letting Donald Trump back in the White House is that he is going to abuse the pardon power. Trump won in part due to the perception that the other side is no better than him on the very issues they spend so much time criticizing him over.

In handing his son a pardon, President Biden offered a slap in the face to his own party. This hurts their case against Trump and it does not enamor voters with the Democratic brand. Of course, Biden might even consider that a perk of doing it. His party pushed him out, after all. If one of his last acts in Congress saves his family’s skin while screwing his party, it would be a fitting end to a career spent prioritizing himself and his family over his country and party. President Biden’s legacy may suffer, but what does he care about that now?

Trump has already teased pardons for the execrable January 6thrioters, in response to President Biden’s nepotistic pardon of his own son. Who can blame him at this point? National Review’sJim Geraghty and others like to say that Trump is blessed by his enemies, and that only continues to prove true.

The Cabinet List Continues

Briefly, I’ll mention some of the picks I’m pleased with, many of whom I haven’t covered before. I’m very pleased with Doug Burgum at Interior. I hope that he finally gives western states the vast holdings of land the federal government has been holding. There are potential cities to be built, resources to be exploited, and pipelines to be installed. Together with Chris Wright at Energy (another solid pick), Burgum will help unleash America’s vast wealth of oil and natural gas.

Marty Makary is a great pick for FDA. I’ve never read The Price We Pay, but it’s on my list. He understands the shackles handicapping our medical system, and he may go some way towards reducing the regulatory burden which drives up costs and slows down innovation. While most of the problem is beyond the scope of his agency, he will still be able to do some good.

I also like Jay Bhattacharya for NIH. Bhattacharya was right about the Great Barrington Declaration during the COVID-19 pandemic, and events have proven that the castigation he endured at the time from the media and Anthony Fauci was slander. Sweden ended up with a much lower death rate than the United States, but Fauci has never apologized for his disgraceful handling of the pandemic. Bhattacharya will rightly be vindicated with his new position, and I think he may stand to do some good.

The Beginning of Advent

December 1st was the first Sunday in Advent, the season in which Christians celebrate the coming of our savior, Jesus Christ, and look forward to His return. Black Friday may mark the kickoff of the holiday shopping season, but the real holiday season is not the consumerist freakout, but the season of Advent followed by the twelve days of Christmas (Christmas Day through Epiphany on January 6th).

It’s important now and again to take time out of our busy political calendar to reflect upon the more important calendar – the one marked not by elections or votes, but by prayer and dedication. Richard Dawkins admitted this past year that he likes living in a culturally Christian society, even if he isn’t entirely apologetic for his anti-Christian diatribes two decades ago. In an increasingly secular society, it sometimes seems difficult to recognize much cultural Christianity these days.

Except for the Christmas season. This is the time every year when our strip malls and coffee shops play hymns and carols. Many of the most popular songs don’t mention Christ or the Bible, but many do. And musicians who under no other circumstances would consider giving thanks to God feel some obligation to sing about Christ being our king and God sending a Son to be the hope of all humanity. A culturally Christian society is one in which even secular singers feel compelled to sing Christian songs. I’ll take that at least. For one month, it almost feels like we’re living in a society which isn’t sick with spiritual emptiness.

I hope all readers who celebrate Christmas enjoy this festive season.