Analysis: Hamas under pressure as Israel makes progress on tunnels

 

Hamas's military wing, faced with the prospect of losing its trump card, is escalating the situation.

 

For the first time since the August 2014 cease-fire came into effect ending Operation Protective Edge, Hamas launched cross-border mortar attacks throughout Wednesday.

Hamas is targeting IDF units engaged in hi-tech tunnel detection work on the border between Israel and northern Gaza. It is escalating the situation due its fear that it is about to lose its trump card.

Hamas has invested much treasure and blood in its cross-border tunnel network, and its military wing is alarmed by what it perceives as one Israeli breakthrough after another in tunnel detection.

Although Hamas is keen on honing its rocket, drone and sea-based attack capabilities, its tunnel construction program remain its crown jewel.

During the two-month conflict in 2014, those tunnels terrorized civilians in southern Israel.

Hamas fighters popped up from seemingly nowhere to attack and kidnap soldiers.

The IDF responded to Wednesday’s stream of mortar shells with pinpoint tank fire at Hamas positions. Yet the cease-fire is now facing its first real challenge, and an escalation could easily occur in the near future. This is also a test of previous claims by defense officials of a zero-tolerance policy to Hamas breaches of the truce.

AP FACT CHECK: Bringing coal jobs back to Appalachia

AP News

DALLAS (AP) — Donald Trump says he would bring back lost coal-mining jobs, and he is positioning for the November election in big coal states by portraying Hillary Clinton as a job killer.

Trump, however, has yet to explain exactly how he will revitalize Appalachia's coal industry. To pull it off, he will have to overcome market forces and a push for cleaner fuels that have pummeled coal.

Coal's slump is largely the result of cheap natural gas, which now rivals coal as a fuel for generating electricity. Older coal-fired plants are being idled to meet clean-air standards.

Another hurdle for reviving coal mining in Appalachia: less coal. Reserves of coal still in the ground are smaller than in western states like Wyoming, the leading coal producer.

There is no question that there are fewer mining jobs today. According to the Labor Department, there were 56,700 jobs in coal mining in March, down from 68,000 just a year earlier. In March 2009, shortly after President Barack Obama entered office, there were 84,600 coal-mining jobs.
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TRUMP: "We're going to get those miners back to work ... the miners of West Virginia and Pennsylvania, which was so great to me last week, Ohio and all over are going to start to work again, believe me. They are going to be proud again to be miners."

THE FACTS: It is unclear what Trump would do to increase mining jobs. He has long criticized the Obama administration's Environmental Protection Agency, saying that its proposals to tighten emission standards on coal-burning power plants are killing American jobs. A Trump adviser said that a Trump administration would review many EPA regulations including those affecting the coal industry.

A Tale of Two Recoveries: Reagan vs. Obama

Veronique de Rugy / Townhall Columnist

In an interview about his legacy recently published by The New York Times, President Barack Obama took a shot at the Reagan revolution to make the case that contrary to conservative dogma, tax cuts and other free market policies -- such as cutting spending -- weren't good at jump-starting the economy. The implication seems to be that his preference for big-government policies produced superior results.

Now, not everything about the Reagan revolution was as free market as we think. For instance, Reagan wasn't as big of a spender as George W. Bush, but he still presided over large spending increases during his two terms in office -- 23 percent in real terms (though the federal government shrank slightly as a share of gross domestic product). A lot of the growth came from defense spending increases. Contrary to what some conservatives believe, defense spending is still spending, and not every dime spent by the Department of Defense is productive. Reagan also expanded Social Security taxes and failed to deliver on much of his promise to devolve powers to the states.

Yet he did deliver on major tax reforms. Not every economist agrees about the impact the Reagan tax cuts had on economic growth during the 1980s, but they do agree that the long-term impact of making large changes to the tax system can be incredibly productive. Regarding the changes to the tax system during the Reagan years, economist Michael J. Mandel wrote in 2004 for Bloomberg, "Making changes to the tax system and regulatory policies of a mammoth economy like the U.S. is like turning the rudder slightly on a supertanker: The initial effects are small, but it leads to a big shift in course over time."

Bosch Fawstin’s winning Muhammad cartoon removed by eBay on ‘technicality’
By Robert Spencer / Jihad Watch

 

EBay submits to Sharia blasphemy restrictions, and validates the assassin’s veto by bowing to it — thereby assuring that we will be bullied much, much more, until we submit entirely to Islam. “Bosch Fawstin’s winning Muhammad cartoon removed by eBay on ‘technicality,’” by Jessica Chasmar, The Washington Times, May 4, 2016: The artist who won […]
 
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Failed State: Obama ‘losing Iraq completely to Iran’

Pamela Geller / Atlas Shrugs

The Obama wrecking ball continues to wreak havoc the world over. Libya, Syria now Iraq.

Behind the chaos in Iraq is Iran, which Obama funded, sanctioned and gifted with atomic weapons.

The enemedia will never highlight or report on Obama’s catastrophic failures, but the consequences of Obama’s jihad will be keenly felt the world over.

U.S. on verge of ‘losing Iraq completely to Iran’ By Greg Cormbos, WND, May 4, 2016:
Gen. McInerney: ‘It’s a very dangerous situation. It’s perilous’

Thousands of angry protesters storm parliament in Iraq’s Green Zone (Photo: Twitter)

Escalating protests in Baghdad threaten the Iraqi government as Shiite Muslim factions battle for control for the...

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