Of course, the big story is the barbaric Hamas attack on Israel, killing innocent people in Gaza, beheading children, murdering grannies in bed. Taking Israeli and American hostages, and at last count killing 1,799 Palestinians, 1,300 Israelis, 27 Americans and there are still 14 Americans unaccounted for. President Biden gave a speech calling the attack evil and pledging to stand with Israel but made no mention of Iran.
Speaking of Iran, the Wall Street Journal editorial today referred to Iran as the ventriloquist for Hamas. Spot-on there. We have learned that after the Afghanistan pullout catastrophe by the Biden administration, Hamas started a two-year planning process to attack Gaza, and one of the top Hamas spokespeople noted clearly that none of this could have been done without the financing and planning capabilities of Iran.
Then Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen came out and claimed there’s been no relaxation of the Iranian sanctions mandated by U.S. congressional law, but she had no explanation for the facts that Iranian oil revenues have jumped from almost nothing three years ago to somewhere north of $60 billion today; oil export sales to China have increased from roughly $7 billion to over $30 billion in two years and Iranian foreign exchange reserves somehow sky-rocketed from roughly $4 billion to something like $70 billion. We’re still waiting for further explanations from Madam Secretary.
The Israeli air force began its counter-attack against Hamas with special operations spotters on the ground to assist in the precision bombing. Israeli defense forces began infiltrating Gaza to scope out hostages and outline their strategy. As of this reporting, IDF ground forces have begun the campaign in Gaza city with perhaps 300,000 troops or even more to complete the mission.
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What’s the mission here? Take a listen to the brilliant Gen. Jack Keane on this show last night:
RET. GEN. JACK KEANE: And, Larry, I mean, we got to be upfront about what needs to be done here. We need to kill them. That’s the only thing that stops these guys. They are absolutely committed to this barbarism and we got to go in and kill them, just like we did with ISIS, just like we did with the al-Qaeda.
Gen. Keane, a great warrior himself, is spot-on right, and I don’t understand why I’m watching so many hosts and guests on TV with their continued hand-wringing that casualties will be suffered. This is war. Israel didn’t start this war. Iran-backed Hamas started this war. They wanted to wipe Israel off the face of the map. They also want to wipe America off the face of the map.
Israel, the only democracy in the region, America’s greatest ally — Israel and America have to fight back to defend their freedom and their very existence. That is war, but of course, our nation’s elite universities don’t understand any of this, and they’re all coming out in favor of Hamas, which is the most bizarre cultural political development with a strong dose of antisemitism that’s been brewing for three decades from the battles of the insane far-left. With some exceptions, most of the university presidents refuse to stand up and fight against antisemitism and in favor of freedom and democracy. Pathetic. Fortunately, some business people and even finally some students have revolted against the crazies.
Meanwhile, all my friends in the House Republican conference have not distinguished themselves this week because they can’t settle on a new speaker. Steve Scalise won a vote but couldn’t sustain it. Jim Jordan, another distinguished conservative, can’t seem to put it together. Kevin McCarthy doesn’t want to go through it again.
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New names are appearing. The conference is meeting around the clock, but seems to be spending most of its time getting in touch with its feelings rather than voting in a new speaker. Personally, I love 12-step meetings, but the GOP needs a speaker ASAP. Then on more mundane matters, two important inflation reports came in stronger than expected, guaranteeing that high interest rates are going to stay high or even move higher in the period ahead. Consumer confidence fell and inflation expectations rose. Mortgage rates are closing in on 8%.
Ten-year treasuries heading toward 5%. Stocks have survived, and thus far no oil blow-up in the Middle East. We’ll talk about that later in the show with Mr. Wonderful, Kevin O’Leary. So, there are threats to freedom and democracy everywhere, at home and abroad, but I still don’t believe that America is in decline. I think the Washington, D.C., swamp is in decline and we can and will save America. That’s my riff.
This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s opening commentary on the October 13, 2023, edition of “Kudlow.”