I’m a survivor of a medical gender transition that began when I was only 12-years-old. I travel the country sharing my story in hopes of saving other children from the horrors of the “gender-affirming care” I received. I advocate before state and federal governments to pass laws that will prevent kids from accessing these mutilating surgeries and drugs. According to a recent hit piece from the Los Angeles Times, this simply makes me a “right-wing icon.” The rhetoric used in their so-called journalism is not only wrong but flat out dangerous. Let me be clear: I am not a pawn for a particular politician or party. I never wanted to be famous, especially not as a result of the most traumatic years of my life. I am sharing that trauma — which I’m still working through to this day — and partnering with those who want to pass laws that protect kids from being coerced into dangerous and unnecessary procedures. I know this coercion firsthand. At 12-years-old, I was struggling with several mental health problems. I spent hours and hours on social media listening to transgender activists who convinced me that I must have been born in the wrong body. If only I was a boy, my problems would all go away. I went to doctors who took advantage of my youth and naivety. Rather than treat my numerous comorbidities with mental health counseling, they handed me — at age 12 — a prescription pad for permanent pharmaceutical and surgical intervention. No one warned me about the lifelong ramifications of this decision. No one told me about the ever-growing mountain of evidence undermining the pro-transition propaganda I was being bombarded with. It’s the same evidence that the LA Times irresponsibly dismissed. Several European countries — including those who pioneered these treatments — have stepped back from recommending that kids undergo these drugs and surgeries. Just this week, a High Court judge upheld the British government’s emergency ban on puberty blockers because the treatment has “very substantial risks and very narrow benefits,” and the area of gender medicine is based in “remarkably weak evidence.” A recent leak of files from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), confirmed that the “standards” for transgender care that doctors like mine use to treat kids aren’t grounded in medical or scientific research. Multiple WPATH doctors admitted that there are huge uncertainties in this field of medicine. They also discussed how they actively suppress scientific studies that disprove their claims about gender-affirming care. And when it comes to treating kids, one WPATH doctor compared explaining potential side effects for fertility with a 14-year-old to “talking to a blank wall.” Such casually horrific admissions confirm that there is no such thing as informed consent when it comes to “gender-affirming care” for kids. This is the “evidence” that my doctors ignored and manipulated when they told my parents there were only two options: a dead daughter or a living son. This was a disgusting lie. And it’s a lie that changed the course of my life forever. It’s not my fault that Democrats are too afraid of radical transgender activists to support commonsense protections for kids. They’re willing to ban kids from smoking, from alcohol, and in some states even from tanning beds. But they draw the line at drugs and surgeries that kids cannot fully understand, that doctors regularly coerce kids into signing up for, and that turn kids into lifelong patients. When young adults who support token Leftist causes take a stand and advocate for their beliefs, they’re held up as courageous activist icons. When I speak out against kids getting double mastectomies and taking experimental drugs, I’m torn down, and my reputation is shredded. I urge those who would leap to conclusions about me to truly listen to my story. Think about the teenage girls you know and ask yourself if you would want this for them. My story is important. All detransitioners’ stories are important. * * * Chloe Cole is a poised and articulate 20-year-old young woman who passionately advocates against the practice of transitioning minors. Driven by a noble mission to safeguard children from potentially harmful ideologies and medical interventions, Chloe draws from her personal experiences to shed light on the distressing consequences of gender-affirming care for adolescents. Having embarked on her own transition journey at the tender age of 12, only to subsequently detransition at 16, Chloe speaks with firsthand authority on the deeply traumatic effects experienced by minors undergoing such treatments. Represented by the Center for American Liberty, Chloe is suing the “medical professionals” who mutilated her. Follow her: @ChooCole The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Daily Wire. WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — MATT WALSH’S EXPOSÉ ON DEI

A pair of illegal immigrants who attempted to break into a Marine Corps base have been released from jail and will be allowed to stay in the United States. Jordanians Mohammad K. Dabous and Hasan Y. Hamdan posted bail in June, the New York Post reported Thursday. In May, the pair were arrested for attempting to break into the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Virginia. The duo, who were disguised as delivery drivers, then attempted to ram their truck through a gate when ordered to halt. The pair appeared in court on July 22 with an Arabic interpreter. Prosecutor Alexander Amico said the charge could carry six months in prison, but did not ask for the men to be held in jail until trial or deportation. “We ask that the defendant be required to show up to all future court appearances, to all future immigration proceedings, and that he be reminded not to trespass onto Marine Corps Base Quantico or any other military installation,” Amico told Magistrate Judge William B. Porter, according to documents obtained by the Center for Immigration Studies. Porter signed off on Hamdan and Dabous’s release, stipulating that the pair must appear for future court dates. Their bails were set at $15,000 and $10,000, respectively, the Post reported. WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — MATT WALSH’S EXPOSÉ ON DEI Hamdan allegedly took part in the May 3 intrusion days after illegally crossing the southern border. Hamdan was apprehended by immigration authorities but released into the country, the Post reported. Dabous received a student visa to study in the United States, but stayed in the country after the visa expired. Quantico did not initially report the attempted break-in, doing so only after a local news outlet reported the story. That outlet, Potomac Local, also reported that one of the men was on the terror watchlist. The Biden administration refused to confirm or deny this fact. Hamdan and Dabous were not criminally charged at all until weeks after the incident, which prevented their names from showing up in court records. The Center for Immigration Studies said the Biden administration also blocked a Freedom of Information Act request, claiming it was an “unwarranted invasion of personal privacy” into the illegal immigrants, and that the intrusion on a military base was of “minimal public interest.” “The administration has gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid characterizing motivations for the incident or do what most interested parties want: rule out the incident as an attempted terror attack by an illegal border-crosser,” the Center said. It is unclear why the pair attempted to break into the base.

The media are such trash. After Donald Trump appeared at the National Association of Black Journalists, walking into the fire and confronting hostile questions, CNN’s Abby Phillip put out a tweet saying, “Folks, this is why you let JOURNALISTS ask questions. The country deserves answers.” Here’s a question for the media: Why don’t you ask Kamala Harris a question? One question. For the last three and a half years, she has covered up her boss’s senility and continues to do so today. She is complicit in every policy of the Biden administration. Every failure is on her. She’s the vice president. She’s shifting all of her positions in real time. Meanwhile, the media are asking Trump about the time he said something about the Central Park Five back in 1998. You have got to be kidding me. “Somebody must ask Trump tough questions.” Right. No one has asked Trump anything for the past 10 years. We don’t know anything about him. He’s a mystery wrapped in enigma. Or alternatively, you are all abdicating your job because you’re all campaign apparatchiks for Kamala Harris. You go shopping with her. WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show Do you remember the story from a few years back when Harris went shopping with a journalist? It’s amazing. Go back a few years, and she actually went shopping with a journalist during the 2019 campaign. And the journalist recommended what she should buy. “You should buy this amazing sequined jacket.” February 22, 2019. It’s pathetic. “On the campaign trail, Kamala Harris tries on a sequined jacket, and men go nuts,” the Los Angeles Times gushed. “The political reporters covering Harris’ South Carolina visit tweeted videos and photos of her as she preened in front of a mirror wearing the coat. It was a spontaneous campaign-trail moment, unexpected and a little bit playful.” Fox News anchor Brit Hume tweeted, “This is just embarrassing. So now journalists are going shopping with Harris, helping pick out clothes and then putting out glowing tweets about it.” James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal echoed, “This is a CBS reporter noting, without evident disapproval, that a CNN colleague is helping dress a Democratic candidate she’s supposed to be covering.” Now Harris is getting the kind of coverage she received early in the 2019 campaign. The media are deliberately not going to do their job. They’re going to lie; they’re going to cheat. They’re going to hide. This is what they’re going to do. They’re going to let Kamala Harris go 12 full days without answering a question, without being asked any questions at all. None. Zero.  She’s going to get all the way through the end of next week before anyone even thinks about asking her a question. * * * WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — MATT WALSH’S EXPOSÉ ON DEI

A powerful media executive who is the chairman of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles has been accused of having multiple affairs with women who worked for him while he was married. The Daily Mail reported that 50-year-old Casey Wasserman, CEO of Wasserman, a leading sports and entertainment agency, allegedly had “a chronic condition of sleeping with people who work for him.” Wasserman, who has given millions of dollars to the Democrat Party and had ties to notorious child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein, allegedly “love bombed” the women whom he had romantic interest in, showering them with lavish gifts that included designer items and Range Rovers. “When he dumped me I was in shock and disbelief that he could go from 100 to zero in just hours,” one alleged former mistress of his told the British tabloid. “I truly think he underestimates the pain and long-term damage he causes women like me who believed him.” Guests who attended his birthday party earlier this summer included former president Bill Clinton, ex-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), California Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom, and Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff. His alleged affairs started approximately five years into his marriage with his wife Laura Ziffren, according to some of the nearly dozen sources who spoke to the publication. Ziffren filed for divorce in 2021. WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — MATT WALSH’S EXPOSÉ ON DEI The women with whom he is accused of having affairs include various assistants ranging from secretaries to his former private jet flight attendants. The Daily Mail obtained an email that one of his mistresses allegedly sent to his wife, which was “widely shared” among his friends, that said: “Him and I have been together for 7 years which he’s lied to you about. He f***ed me in your bed at Redford. And also robin. And also Cancun in the house. You should know all he’s done to you. Multiple ti[m]es on the plane with you in the back.” “He f***ed Christine multiple times. And have relationship w[i]th Patricia who still works for multiple times for years,” the email added. One of the women who was accused of sleeping with him said that the allegation was false. A friend of his told the publication that he was a “s*** husband,” but that he was a “completely devoted dad” who “loves his kids deeply and profoundly.” Wasserman’s team did not provide comment for the story, the report said.

'Protections under our state constitution'

'He will need to figure out another solution'

'I need hospitalization. I need to go to a hospital'

The success of a congressional investigation shouldn’t be measured by scoring an impeachment, but by getting to the truth, House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer says.  “History will show Joe Biden and his family were the most corrupt occupiers of the White House of any family in the history of America,” Comer, R-Ky., told The Daily Signal in an interview late last week. “And a big footnote will be the investigative work that our committee did and made public.” During the course of its probe, Comer’s committee obtained records revealing that the Bidens and their associates received over $20 million in payments from foreign entities and individuals, largely through numerous limited liability companies, or LLCs, established by the family. Sources of  the millions of dollars include China, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, and Kazakhstan, the committee showed.  The committee found a $200,000 check from James Biden to brother Joe Biden written the same day in 2018 that James Biden received $200,000 from a rural health company known as Americore. Comer’s panel also discovered a $40,000 check cut by James Biden to Joe Biden in 2017 that appeared to be tied to the China-linked company CEFC China Energy. Both checks bore the notation “loan repayment.” “Our investigation was a huge success because we got the truth [for] the American people that no one would have ever known about otherwise,” Comer said. “No one knew about all the different LLCs the Bidens had. No one knew they had all these bank accounts, and no one knew that Joe Biden actually met with these people.”  Biden consistently has denied any involvement in the business dealings of his family, including son Hunter Biden and brother James Biden. Family members have made similar denials. In June, three House committees made criminal referrals to the Justice Department to investigate Hunter Biden and James Biden for alleged perjury to Congress.  The referrals from the Oversight, Ways and Means, and  Judiciary committees will be sent to the next presidential administration as well, Comer said.  “There are criminal referrals that will go to the next administration for charges of perjury against the president’s son and the president’s brother for lying to Congress,” the Kentucky Republican said.  The three committees allege that Hunter Biden wasn’t truthful during his deposition to the panels about his position at Rosemont Seneca Bohai. The corporate entity’s bank account received millions of dollars from foreign individuals who met with Hunter’s father, then vice president under President Barack Obama. The RSB account then transferred funds to Hunter Biden.   The House committees also allege that Hunter Biden wasn’t truthful about text messages he sent to Chinese business partners, invoking his father’s physical presence with him.  The committees also allege that James Biden wasn’t truthful in a deposition when he said that Joe Biden didn’t meet with family business associate Tony Bobulinski in 2017 to pursue a deal with CEFC China Energy. The president’s brother was contradicted in depositions by Hunter Biden as well as Bobulinski. “The bar has been set,” Comer said, referring to the Justice Department’s prosecutions of two former Trump White House advisers, Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, for contempt of Congress. Both men declined to testify before House Democrats investigating the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021.   Attorneys for the president’s brother and his son have said the two men were truthful during the depositions.  Reason for Impeachment Inquiry Midway through the Oversight and Accountability Committee’s probe of alleged influence peddling by the Bidens, the House authorized an impeachment inquiry that also brought in the Judiciary Committee and the Ways and Means Committee. Then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., deemed the three panels’ investigation to be an impeachment inquiry. Later, under new Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., the full House voted along party lines to approve an impeachment inquiry.  Getting a vote to proceed with impeaching Biden was never the priority of the inquiry, Comer told The Daily Signal. As a constitutional process, impeachment makes it difficult for a presidential administration to invoke executive privilege over either documents or witnesses’ testimony.  “This is something that I’ve stated that’s been written very seldom,” Comer said. “When Kevin McCarthy made the decision to go from a regular investigation to an impeachment inquiry, he did so to help give us more leverage in court, because the Biden administration was obstructing our investigation.” “It was never necessary to impeach. … It was to give us more standing in court because of all the obstruction,” he added. “Every single thing we subpoenaed in the private sector we got. We got every bank record, we got every bank statement. But if it had to do with the government,  emails, testimony from people in the White House, we were blocked.” Comer said he recognizes some angst on the Right over the fact that the House didn’t vote to impeach Biden. But he pointed to the House impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, after which the Democrat-controlled Senate dismissed the charges without holding a trial.  “People say, ‘Well, you didn’t impeach him.’ The Senate was never going to convict,” Comer said. “You saw what happened with Mayorkas.” “If you can’t even get rid of someone for leaving our southern border wide open, then what can you do?” the Kentucky Republican said. “And no president in history has ever been removed from office because of impeachment.” The House investigation did gain testimony from Biden business associates who talked about Joe Biden’s in-person or video meetings with family business associates while serving as vice president or as a former vice president.  One associate of Hunter Biden’s, Devon Archer, identified Joe Biden as “the brand” for raking in money by joining meetings and teleconferences related to family business dealings.  “That’s kind of incriminating evidence that his dad was involved,” Comer said, referring to Hunter and the president. “The mainstream media didn’t think so.” That Bribery Accusation One sticking point that the committee didn’t prove emerged from an FBI form known as an FD 1023, which records raw, unverified statements from informants. One such form shows that a longtime FBI informant alleged that the head of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid a $5 million bribe to Joe Biden.  The potential of a bribery case gave public momentum to the impeachment inquiry, Comer said, but it was never a necessary aspect of it.  An FBI whistleblower—not the informant—turned the document over to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. The FBI did not name the informant.  “When that document was discovered, we wanted to investigate it. You investigate every aspect,” Comer said, adding that the committee discussed the FD 1023 form with FBI Director Christopher Wray.  “Christopher Wray said that this informant was one of our highest-paid and most successful informants we have used in prior convictions, because we wanted to interview the informant,” Comer said. “We just wanted to interview the informant. And then, lo and behold, they indicted him.” The name of the informant, Alexander Smirnov, became known in February when he was indicted for allegedly lying to the FBI.  Comer noted that it wasn’t clear what the informant was charged with lying about.  “I don’t know if the informant was telling the truth or not, but I know the way that Christopher Wray told everyone that he was credible and highly paid and then turned around and coordinated with the mainstream media that he lied. That was as shady as hell,” Comer said.  The FBI didn’t respond to inquiries from The Daily Signal before publication of this story.  Democrats Claim ‘Fruitless Investigation’ The White House also didn’t immediately respond to The Daily Signal’s inquiries for this story.  However, Ian Sams, senior adviser to the White House counsel’s office and spokesperson on investigations, has been dismissive of the impeachment inquiry on several occasions.  “Comer knows 20+ witnesses have testified that POTUS did nothing wrong,” Sams posted on X in March, after the committees invited the president to testify. “He knows that the hundreds of thousands of pages of records he’s received have refuted his false allegations. This is a sad stunt at the end of a dead impeachment. Call it a day, pal.” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., ranking member of Comer’s committee, blasted the criminal referrals in June as the end of a “fruitless investigation.” That probe, Raskin said, showed the president “was not part of, did not profit from, and took no official actions to benefit his family members’ business ventures.” “Of course, the chairmen’s 60-page letter is a last-ditch effort to distract from the exoneration of President Biden by offering ‘gotcha’ accusations against the president’s son and brother based on their efforts to recollect years-old financial transactions, text messages, and conversations in the course of this interminable fishing expedition,” Raskin said in a public statement.  Regarding the criminal referrals to the Justice Department alleging perjury before Congress, lawyers for Biden’s son and brother scoffed in their own written statements.  In June, Hunter Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell said the criminal referral regarding the president’s son “is nothing more than a desperate attempt by Republicans to twist Hunter’s testimony so they can distract from their failed impeachment inquiry and interfere with his trial.”  James Biden’s lawyer, Paul Fishman, said: “This baseless partisan action is a transparent and cynical attempt to distract from and retaliate for Donald Trump’s recent criminal conviction.” Truth vs. Media Narrative Legacy media outlets generally joined Democrats’ narrative during the Biden probe.  The legacy media narrative consistently portrayed Joe Biden as completely outside family business activities.   “All along the way, the media said ‘Well, Joe Biden didn’t know anything about it,’” Comer told The Daily Signal. “Then we proved Joe Biden knew everything about it and that he was the central figure in the influence peddling scheme. Joe Biden was the brand that they were selling.”  Comer said the most biased media coverage of the investigation came from “The Associated Press, The Washington Post, [and] MSNBC, in that order.”  “When we started the investigation, the media narrative was that [Hunter Biden’s abandoned] laptop was Russian disinformation. We’re the ones that pushed that narrative to the wayside when we had the Twitter hearings,” Comer said. “We’ve done a great job getting the truth out there, and that’s all we can do.”  Media coverage became worse after the investigation officially became an impeachment inquiry. And, without naming names, Comer said some Republicans weren’t helpful.  “People in our conference that are obsessed with impeachment felt like they could get retweets on impeachment,” Comer said.“The mainstream media fueled impeachment because they knew in the end no one would ever be impeached.”  Only after the June 27 presidential debate between Biden and Trump did media outlets begin to raise concerns about the clout that Biden’s son had with him.  “The media says, ‘Why are you picking on Hunter Biden? Hunter Biden’s not got anything to do with the administration,’” Comer added. “Well, then The New York Times, when they’re trying to get rid of Joe Biden, they start saying, ‘Yeah, Hunter Biden is calling the shots up there.’” The post Comer: Biden Family ‘Most Corrupt Occupiers of White House’ in History appeared first on The Daily Signal.

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—An investigation into a Maryland school system’s electric bus initiative found that it resulted in millions of dollars in “wasteful spending” due to issues with the vehicles, according to a report from the county’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released in late July. In February 2021, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Maryland announced it was replacing 326 diesel school buses with electric buses as part of its sustainability initiative, the county OIG concluded in the report. Due to delayed deliveries and frequent mechanical issues with the electric buses, the county has had to partially resort back to diesel buses despite the roughly $170 million it paid for the new fleet. “All of the buses received during fiscal years (FY) 2022-2024 were delivered beyond the contractually required delivery date,” the OIG report stated. As a result, the school system spent “over $14 million to acquire diesel buses to compensate for not receiving the anticipated electric school buses.” In addition to the delays, many of the electric buses have been “inoperable for extended periods,” with the inspector general estimating that “MCPS should have assessed the [electric bus] contractor approximately $372,000 for failing to provide serviceable buses between FYs 2022 and 2024.” “MCPS Financial Manual defines waste as ‘the extravagant, careless, or needless expenditure of MCPS funds, or the consumption of MCPS resources that results from deficient practices, systems, controls, or decisions.’” the report reads. “MCPS’s failure to hold the contractor accountable to the terms of the contract and their decision not to include a provision to offset incurred expenses has led to millions of dollars of wasteful spending.” The now-former MCPS superintendent, Monifa McKnight, originally claimed electric school buses would save the county money. “We are going to be saving upwards of 6,500 gallons of diesel fuel per day,” McKnight said during a 2022 press conference touting the initiative, according to Electrek. “Immediately, this is going to cut costs by 50%.” Rollouts for electric buses across the country have been plagued with issues, including reports of the vehicles bursting into flames due to battery malfunctions in Wichita, Kansas; Philadelphia; and Hamden, Connecticut, since July 2022. Additionally, eight electric buses purchased by a Democratic enclave in Wyoming became indefinitely inoperable in 2023 after the buses began experiencing mechanical issues and their manufacturer, Proterra, went bankrupt. Despite these issues, the Biden administration has continued to push for electric buses and electric vehicles more broadly, including handing out, or announcing plans to hand out, roughly $10 billion to states and territories for the purchase of electric and low-emission buses. In May, the Biden administration announced it was handing out an additional $900 million to pay for green school buses in its bid to lower carbon emissions. MCPS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Originally published by Daily Caller News Foundation The post Maryland County’s Electric School Bus Program Resulted in Millions of Dollars in ‘Wasteful Spending’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Israel soon could find itself locked into a multifront war against the terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas, a scenario that experts say the Israelis may need additional time to prepare for after a grueling conflict with Hamas that so far has lasted 10 months. Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander Tuesday in an airstrike in Lebanon. Hours later, another strike in Iran killed the political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh; Israel has not taken credit for that strike, but it prompted promises of revenge from Iran regardless. Former U.S. officials and defense experts who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation said that while Israel is the chief military superpower in the Middle East, it urgently needs to restock its defensive and offensive systems to be truly prepared for another war. “Israel does not have an infinite amount of interceptors, bombs, munitions. The military feels taxed, they’re feeling strained,” Gabriel Noronha, executive director at Polaris National Security and a former State Department official, said. “When I talk to Israeli officials, there’s a desire for them to have a little bit more time before they go to war … they want more time to replenish their stockpiles. They don’t feel quite ready for it today.” Hezbollah, operating just north of Israel in Lebanon, has far greater manpower and access to weaponry than does Hamas or any of Iran’s other terror networks. While Hamas receives only about $120 million a year from Iran and $120 million a year from Qatar, Hezbollah receives over $700 million a year from Iran and makes additional hundreds of millions of dollars from illegal activities. Hezbollah is estimated to possess somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 operatives, including its elite Radwan fighting force. It also has access to over 150,000 rocket, missile, drone, and mortar variants. Israel is ranked as one of the world’s top military powers, having access to high-level equipment and weapons, as well as a host of ground, aerial, and sea assets, according to the Global Firepower Index. IThe Jewish state maintains approximately 170,000 active personnel and 465,000 reserve personnel. Hezbollah has become increasingly hostile along Israel’s northern border, prompting Israeli officials to warn in recent weeks of a dramatic and escalatory response should attacks continue. In April, Iran and Israel directly engaged in conflict with each other in a rare confrontation that required U.S. and Western defensive intervention. It isn’t immediately clear how Hezbollah or Iran intends to respond to the strikes Tuesday in Beirut and Tehran, although Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei reportedly will order a strike directly inside Israel, Iranian officials told The New York Times. “It wouldn’t be the first time Israel has fought a war on multiple fronts, so that’s not the issue. The issue is the fact that Israel has been fighting a 10-month war … so the army needs a refractory period,” David Daoud, senior fellow on Middle Eastern affairs at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the DCNF. “You need to restock weapons and you need to harden critical infrastructure.” Although war ultimately could arise, it’s possible that Hamas Gaza head Yahya Sinwar and Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah will intervene to cool down temperatures and ward off a full-scale confrontation, Shoshana Bryen, senior director at the Jewish Policy Center, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “There are two possibilities—one is that, yes, things get hotter. The other is that Yahya Sinwar and Hassan Nasrallah want to stay alive” and will therefore avoid a serious confrontation with Israel,” Bryen said. “If they don’t [avoid confrontation], then yes, there will come a point at which Israel will be stretched. No one knows the full extent of Israel’s capabilities, and so at some point, it will want to be able to call on its allies.” Sinwar, elected as Hamas’ Gaza head in 2017, was a key player in establishing the terror organization decades ago, The New York Times reported. Like Sinwar, Nasrallah has decadeslong ties to Hezbollah, becoming the group’s head in 1992, NPR reported. The U.S. would come to Israel’s defense in the event of a large-scale attack or invasion, which could factor into Iran and Hezbollah’s calculus, experts said. The combined U.S. and Israeli effort could be enough to deter Hezbollah or Iran from striking Israel too harshly, although the Biden administration’s approach to foreign policy—criticized for appeasing Iran—may make Tehran believe it can get away with war, said Jason Brodsky, policy director at United Against Nuclear Iran. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reiterated Wednesday that the U.S. would be there to defend Israel should Iran attack the country in the way it did in April, The Times of Israel reported. On the Hezbollah issue, however, U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman C.Q. Brown told reporters in June that the U.S. would have limited ability to intervene, given the environment on the ground. “The Islamic Republic [of Iran] does not want to get involved in a direct conflict with the United States. If there’s a direct conflict between the U.S. and the Iranian regime, it could be a regime-ending situation. And they know it,” Brodsky said. “My concern is that the Biden administration appears crippled by fear of escalation, and if you’re constantly giving off that impression to an adversary, that makes the U.S. and its allies more vulnerable.” U.S. officials have spent months working to lower the temperature in the Middle East, urging Israel to show restraint in going after its enemies while also maintaining a commitment to Israel’s defense. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday during a trip to Singapore that the U.S. was not warned in advance or involved in the strike against Haniyeh, Reuters reported. The focus, Blinken said, remains on achieving a cease-fire in Gaza, which the U.S. hopes would extend to the broader region. The Israeli prime minister’s office and Israel Defense Forces didn’t respond immediately to requests for comment. Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation The post ‘They Want More Time’: Israel Could Be Walking Into War It Might Not Be Ready For, Experts Say appeared first on The Daily Signal.