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Israel: A 78-year-old miracle

National Columnists

On May 14, 1948, Israel declared its independence. It did so following a United Nations vote to partition British-ruled Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. The fact Israel is still here and still flourishing 78 years later is a modern-day miracle. On the very day of its declaration, that beleaguered nation with fewer than 1 million people was attacked by Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, a coalition with a combined population more than 30 times greater. Since then, Israel has resisted aggression undertaken by its neighbors in 1967, 1973 and 2023. A loss in any ...

Court's redistricting rejection more than footnote

National Columnists

When White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair decided to push mid-decade congressional redistricting, Republicans had reason to be nervous. Redistricting battles are messy, procedurally arcane and easy to lose in the court of public opinion even when you win in a court of law. But Blair saw something others missed: Democrats had already boxed themselves in with maximum partisan redistricting and constitutional restrictions in some states that would prohibit radical gerrymandering. The Virginia Supreme Court's recent rejection of the Democrats' redistricting effort is more ...

No one can question Trump's resilience

National Columnists

Andrew Jackson is the only president of the United States who got the better of his attempted assassin. The aged Jackson was at the Capitol for a congressional funeral when a crazed man named Richard Lawrence aimed a pistol directly at his chest and pulled the trigger. It misfired. Jackson bull-charged his assailant with his cane and, incredibly, Lawrence pulled out another pistol. It, too, misfired. As bystanders intervened, an enraged Jackson supposedly yelled, "Let me alone! Let me alone! I know where this came from." Lest we think we live in a uniquely inflamed, conspiratorial ...

Call it 'divine intervention'

National Columnists

The U.S. government produced a net of 178,000 jobs in the month of March. But, Connecticut contributed just 100 of those jobs. Terrible. But in comparison to February when the state lost about 4,000 jobs, one could call it an "improvement" of sorts. To be fair, Maryland and the District of Columbia combined lost around 90,000 jobs in March. One could contribute at least part of that lost to President Donald Trump's overt attack on the federal workplace. Where were the states with the highest net job growth? Texas at 46,800 and California at 28,100. It should be noted that a much ...

When businessmen enter Beltway

National Columnists

Something strange is happening in Washington. A generation of investors and entrepreneurs who built careers championing private capital and intuitively understood the power of market discipline and limited government have joined the Trump administration, taking charge of hundreds of billions of dollars of other people's money. They assure us that they are deploying it strategically, with accountability and a businessperson's rigor. From Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick (who is apparently convinced he can rearrange the American economy through tariffs and industrial policy as ...

Capitalism makes life better for most

National Columnists

Young people now blame capitalism for poverty, racism, high prices, even climate change. They listen to people like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who says, "Capitalism ... is the absolute pursuit of profit at all human, environmental and social cost. That is not a redeemable system." Yes, capitalism is often ugly. It brings out greed in some, exacerbates wealth differences, creates pollution (creating an actual need for government regulation, which capitalism funds) and leaves some people behind. But nothing else works! Nothing else makes life better for most people, ...