Townhall Review | Commentaries

The murderous, premeditated attack at Bondi Beach in Australia forces us to look at two undeniable patterns. The first is the pattern of anti-Semitic violence. The second is the larger pattern of terror tied to immigration and Islam. This was not just a targeted terrorist attack on Jewish Australians, it was also a dagger thrust in the heart of Western civilization. Freedom of assembly means nothing if citizens are too afraid to assemble. Some people recoil at the suggestion that immigration and Islamic terrorism had anything to do with this and other recent attacks, but the facts are plain to see. Western civilization now faces a direct threat to both liberty and civilizational survival. Simply put: The vast majority of Muslims around the world do not want to join the civilizational project of the West, including the national project of the United States—we know it because they say it out loud. Folks, we need an honest conversation—and we need it now.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Just after 9/11, there was a good deal of introspection within the Muslim community living in the West—there was even more good will toward the Muslim community from non-Muslim Westerners.  The good will has stayed the same, perhaps even accelerated into encouragement; the self-introspection has now become self-expression. Whether we are talking of the October 7th bloodbath that received countenance all over the West, the recent attack in Bondi Beach, the thwarted upcoming New Year’s Eve bombings, we could not spend enough time detailing the examples.  Toleration for all of this and more must end.  In his autobiography, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair wrote: “In the mindset that is modern Islam, there is one spectrum, not several…. including too many who buy into bits of their [extremist] world-view.” If ten percent of the Muslim world population is near this point of view, we who want to preserve the West had better awaken from our lethal slumber.  Too much tolerance is already devastating Judeo-Christian values, and Jews, and Christians.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People of good will around the world were rightfully horrified by the terrorist attack on an outdoor Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Australia. The attackers reportedly pledged allegiance to ISIS, the Islamist extremist group. For Australia’s Jewish community, open-air, a beachside religious observance may now be a thing of the past. And this is hardly an isolated case. Across Europe, public celebrations are being cancelled. Many of Germany’s Christmas markets are not opening this year. And Paris has canceled its iconic open-air New Year’s Eve celebration over similar concerns. The political left has been vocal in opposing President Trump’s immigration policies. But events like these make something increasingly clear: border security is also terrorism security. A society unwilling to protect its way of life will eventually discover it has no way of life left to protect.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When pro-Palestinian activists chant “globalize the intifada,” Bondi Beach is what they want. A father-son Islamist terror team has massacred 15 Australian Jews celebrating Hannukah. Australia’s Prime Minister went on television to address his nation about the lessons of this terrorist attack. He promised to increase gun restrictions in a country that had already effectively disarmed its population. Anthony Albanese also declared that the biggest threat to Australians is “right wing extremism.” This is utter nonsense. The terrorists had a license to own and carry the weapons they used to slaughter Jews on the beach. At least one of them had come to the attention of Australian counter-terrorism agents for contact with radical Islamist terrorists. The Australians not only chose to do nothing about that, they refused to disarm them. The greatest threat to Western security is not “right wing extremism.” It is radical Islamist terrorism and the globalized intifada.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jamie Dimon—the head of JPMorgan Chase—just announced that he’s leading a $1.5 trillion initiative focused on investing in national security. Dimon has assembled a council of big names to advise on where to invest the bank’s own money in defense industries, as well as others money and in the hopes to spark others to follow their lead. We wish him well. This sort of recognition of the actual threat from the Chinese Communist Party, and their People’s Liberation Army and Navy is great news.  Better news is that a new generation of business titans like Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, Palmer Lucky and of course Elon Musk have been aware of the threat to the freedom of the seas for many years and their initiatives and companies are already about the work of next generation weapons systems we need to overcome the advantage China has built up via sheer numbers and massive war making capacity. It’s time to get serious and put money where the initiative has to be.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A billionaire tech executive has just made one of the most strategic philanthropic gifts in American history. Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Technologies, and his wife Susan are giving more than six billion dollars to seed saving accounts for 25 million American children 10 and younger. Each child will receive 250 dollars. This won’t lift families out of poverty. But it will offer 25 million children a concrete reason to master financial literacy—and their own stake in America’s economic system Generosity is always noble. But too often, giving on the left relies on top down programs that breed dependency. The Dells have taken the opposite approach: a bottom up investment that nurtures ownership, hope, and a sense of belonging. This is philanthropy with a heart— and a brain. America owes the Dells a true debt of gratitude.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

George Washington Plunkitt was born into poverty in 1842 but rose through the ranks of the Democratic Party machine of New York the famed “Tammany Hall” to become a state legislator who also became quite wealthy along the way. Now: We have a new sort of Democratic Party machine—with the latest grift exposed in Minnesota. Boss Plunkitt would admit it brazenly, saying: “I seen my opportunities and I took ‘em.” And today’s Democrats sure have “taken ’em” as well. It’s not just Minnesota. California—and other blue states—are drowning in fraud. The connecting thread are the various schemes associated with COVID—state government “initiatives” that were porous and loaded with fraud funded by the Feds. The president should create and team and dig deep on all of it.  We need a report—and we need it fast. Give them a deadline: Maybe end of August next year. Voters deserve to know how their state governments worked during COVID—or how they didn’t—before they vote again.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Supreme Court heard a case just recently that all conservatives and, and all Christians should be paying very close attention to. It comes out of New Jersey and First Choice Women’s Resource Center—which is a crisis pregnancy center. New Jersey’s Attorney General issued a hostile subpoena against First Choice—demanding they give the Attorney General 10 years’ worth of documents, on abortion pill reversal, information it provided to clients and donors, documents identifying personnel, organizations that the pregnancy center works with and information on their donors. It's chilling stuff—and a horrible precedent. The details are downright Orwellian. It is—quite simply—oppression from the state. It’s targeting this Crisis Pregnancy Center. The center turned to the Alliance Defending Freedom, the ADF—and Erin Hawley from the group argued the case before the Supreme Court. Justices seemed receptive to the arguments of the Crisis Pregnancy Center. They should be our arguments as well. We’ll be watching closely.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"The problem with socialism," Margaret Thatcher famously observed, "is that you eventually run out of other people's money." New data shows that France is on the verge of exhausting this resource – but the US is not far behind. This week, Michael Arouet published what he calls "probably the scariest chart you'll see today," showing that only one-third of France’s population works in the private sector. “How are they supposed to feed the remaining two-thirds with their taxes?” Arouet wondered. Well might we wonder, too. The most recent data in the US shows that only 40% of the population works in the private sector. Seven percent work for the government. More than half of the population does not work at all. In fact, the percentage of American adults classified as “not in the labor force” by retirement, disability, or other reasons comes to 37.6% – slightly higher than France. Arouet highlights the unsustainability of France’s social state as workers dwindle. We need to start talking about that unsustainability in the US as well.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The man accused of attacking National Guard members last month came here from Afghanistan — arriving without identification. President Trump has how announced a pause on immigration from “third world” countries. The goal is to ensure people from unstable regions can be properly vetted, and to remove those who hate America. Predictably, critics on the left—like Senator Mark Kelly—are objecting, and just as predictably, they’re crying “racism.” What nonsense. The issue isn’t race. It’s common sense. No responsible nation knowingly imports people who hate our country, our people and our way of life—whatever color they are. The first duty of American leaders isn’t to third world migrants. It’s to protect their fellow citizens—the people who elected them—and to safeguard this country’s security, stability, and freedom. If that means a pause on third-world immigration, then so be it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There’s a great debate today about what America First foreign policy means or should mean—and what “no more forever wars” entails.  Meanwhile, President Trump is showing a fluidity and flexibility in foreign policy in real time—all under the justifiable notion of keeping America and Americans safe. He did this in backing Israel against the world’s worst terrorists who also had targeted and killed vast numbers of Americans, including attempts to kill President Trump, himself.  He did this in taking out the nuclear capability of the leading state sponsor of such terrorism and threat.  And he’s now putting pressure on the Fidel Castro of Latin America, Nicholas Maduro and his outlaw regime, which is also responsible for sending criminal gangs and illegal drugs into the United States. The Monroe Doctrine is not dead, and neither should be the Roosevelt corollary. What should end is Hezbollah’s and China’s involvement in Venezuela and Maduro’s criminality.  Donald Trump took an oath to protect and defend us.  That’s America, and Americans, First.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last month, six Democrats released a video urging the military to defy orders from the president and secretary of war. They implied that the military was being told to do something illicit. Yet when pressed, none of them could name a single illegal order. The goal is obvious: sow doubt inside the ranks, then point to the turmoil they’ve created and call it “chaos” under President Trump. It’s a reckless political tactic. Undermining trust in civilian control of the military isn’t a game. It poisons the heart of a constitutional republic. And it’s striking: many of the same people who damaged trust in our judicial system by weaponizing it during Trump’s first term are now targeting one of the last institutions most Americans still respect — our military. If the goal were to destabilize the country, they couldn’t be doing it more effectively.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The president has been getting plenty of criticism from sitting members of Congress and a bunch of more purported “Con Law experts” on X who worry Trump may escalate to “kinetic actions” against Maduro, cartels and other narco-states. They argue Trump is violating “international law,” but they do not evidence even a basic understanding of the Article II grant of authorities to the president. Constitution doesn’t change as presidents leave and arrive. Trump has the same authority President Washington’s, Lincoln’s, FDR’s and Ike. Good presidents and failed presidents alike … their powers are the same. Very few “X experts” seem to know of the relevant decision in U.S. v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp.—the 1936 decision when the Supreme Court held that a “political society cannot endure without a supreme will somewhere. Sovereignty is never held in suspense.” If and when Congress directs the president to stop, then the issue would be joined. Until then: That key precedent from 89 years ago holds. The president has vast power and he’s using it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Everyone’s heard of “Minnesota nice” — state residents’ reputation for being polite, mild-mannered, and tolerant. So it’s hard to believe Minnesota taxpayers have become a major funder of a terrorist group. But it’s true. A massive welfare-fraud scheme took millions meant for Minnesotans — and funneled the money to a Somalian branch of Al Qaeda. Minnesota has seen the rapid growth of a Somali migrant community over the past three decades. Many send money home — in 2023 alone, transfers to Somalia totaled $1.7 billion dollars, more than Somalia’s national budget. What’s more, Somali-based gangs in Minnesota have become a serious public-safety threat, deeply involved in violent crime and drug trafficking. In short, a state once known for being “nice” is grappling with some serious problems.  There’s a heavy cost when America encourages immigration but refuses to insist on assimilation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s been said that gratitude is the mother of all virtue and ingratitude the father of all vice. We do well to reflect on that this Thanksgiving. We find ourselves in a social and political moment of great self-importance attached to impatience, and an inability to recognize the wisdom of others. We have example after example where ego trumps reason—and “my truth” is preferred over the truth itself. With our political tendencies trending toward the extremes, we diminish the greatest set of social relations ever gifted, as they were by our Founding and Constitution. This Thanksgiving, on the eve of our nation’s 250th anniversary, let’s consider a prayer at our tables for our country and those who delivered us such a great gift with their lives, fortunes and sacred honor. Let’s giving thanks for those who gave us so much. Let’s give thanks to the God who showed His hand behind it all. On behalf of Salem Media, I’m Seth Leibsohn wishing you a very Happy Thanksgiving!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s been said that gratitude is the mother of all virtue and ingratitude the father of all vice. We do well to reflect on that this Thanksgiving. We find ourselves in a social and political moment of great self-importance attached to impatience, and an inability to recognize the wisdom of others. We have example after example where ego trumps reason—and “my truth” is preferred over the truth itself. With our political tendencies trending toward the extremes, we diminish the greatest set of social relations ever gifted, as they were by our Founding and Constitution. This Thanksgiving, on the eve of our nation’s 250th anniversary, let’s consider a prayer at our tables for our country and those who delivered us such a great gift with their lives, fortunes and sacred honor. Let’s giving thanks for those who gave us so much. Let’s give thanks to the God who showed His hand behind it all. On behalf of Salem Media, I’m Seth Leibsohn wishing you a very Happy Thanksgiving!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The US Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, recently delivered to the Ukrainian government a 28-point proposed agreement for cessation of hostilities and at least some promise of enduring peace between Russia and Ukraine. First: You need to state clearly: Russia is the invading force and Russia is at fault. We also have to say The American government has finally come to a realistic assessment that there is no plausible argument that, given its military situation, Ukraine is going to be able to dislocate all Russians from its claimed territory. And that brings us back to the 28-point agreement and political realism: Realism means that sometimes that the best that you can achieve is the least-worst option. And let’s be honest, that’s what we’re facing here. Short of NATO going to war with a nuclear-powered Russia, what has been proposed here is pretty much where any intelligent person knew this was going to have to end. And honestly, we knew this at the beginning. We should be hoping that the war does, in fact, end and praying for that end.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This weekend, Israel targeted Hezbollah’s top military commander in Beirut. American media wondered what that meant for the ceasefire in Lebanon. That concern is directed at the wrong party. Israel signed that ceasefire one year ago, which brought an end to conflict with Hezbollah – with the condition that Hezbollah disarm and leave the southern part of the country. Hezbollah has defied those terms ever since, and had begun rearming itself. Israel has the same problem in Gaza. Donald Trump’s ceasefire also requires Hamas to disarm and relinquish control, which the terrorists refuse to do. Both proxy armies expect Israel and the West to ignore their violations and repudiations in order to preserve political gains from pauses in fighting on both fronts. It’s the strategy they’ve employed for years. However, the October 7 massacres forced Israel and the US to change their strategies in dealing with terror. This time, we must see disarmament through to the end – or let Israel finish both jobs.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Recent reports show that 48 new mosques have opened in Texas since 2023. Today, that brings the total to roughly 330—part of a 35-percent increase between 2010 and 2020. The First Amendment protects every American’s right to worship freely. And no one should be denied that right. But it’s also true that Islam isn’t just a religious tradition. In many parts of the world, it also functions as a political ideology—one that often conflicts with core American principles like freedom of speech, equal rights for women, and yes, freedom of religion itself. America has always welcomed newcomers of every faith and background. But we’ve also been clear about one expectation: Those who come here must embrace our constitutional values and the civic culture that flows from them. That obligation applies to everyone—without exception.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you love America and want it to flourish—and most Americans do—it is necessary to understand that America’s most important ally is Israel. Period. Full stop. In the 25 months since the invasion of Israel by Hamas and rampaging massacre by the terrorist army from Gaza—followed by IDF grinding battle on six other fronts—we saw American support for the Jewish state slip. But support for Israel is rebounding now—and that’s great news for both the U.S. and Israel, and for the region and the world. The reason is simple: Free states must balance the power of the world’s evil regimes—lest the latter overcome the former. The United Kingdom was, for all the 20th century, America’s most important ally. Now, it is Israel, and it will likely remain Israel for decades to come. I could sum it up this way: Israel is as inseparable from America’s future as America is inseparable from the future of the West.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.