Three stories from Wednesday. Israel created Hamas, used it as an excuse to level Gaza, and is now running the same playbook in Lebanon. The Pentagon loaned CBP a laser cannon for the Texas border and they used it to shoot down party balloons. And the Trump administration got caught switching its story mid-lawsuit about who’s running the White House ballroom demolition.
How Israel Grew Its Own Wars
Israel funded Hamas in the 1970s and 80s to split the Palestinian opposition. Hamas tried to destroy Israel. Israel spent decades bombing Gaza over it. Gaza is now rubble. And right now, Israel has moved on to Lebanon – ground troops pushing south of the Litani River, over a million people displaced, 912 dead in two and a half weeks, all while the United States and Israel are simultaneously at war with Iran.
The kindling was laid fifty years ago by the people now holding the matches. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin ran a Gaza-based charity that Israel registered, licensed, and looked the other way on. That charity became Hamas.
Party Foul at Fort Bliss
The Pentagon loaned Customs and Border Protection a high-energy laser cannon called LOCUST and told them to go zap cartel drones on the Texas border. CBP fired it near Fort Bliss without telling the FAA. The FAA shut down all airspace within 10 miles of El Paso International Airport. Medical evacuations were grounded. Flights were canceled. Nearly 700,000 people had their city turned into a no-fly zone overnight.
The punchline: CBP wasn’t shooting down cartel drones. They were shooting down party balloons. Mylar balloons floating over from Mexico. The Trump administration went on TV and said they’d neutralized a cartel drone incursion. Mexico’s president said there was no indication any cartel drones were even operating near the border.
The Alteration
The Trump administration has been playing a shell game with the White House ballroom lawsuit. For months, the DOJ told courts the project was run by the White House Executive Residence – an office conveniently outside the Administrative Procedure Act. When a judge denied the first injunction, that was a big reason why.
Then the administration quietly changed its story. Now the project is being managed by the National Park Service – which is absolutely subject to federal rulemaking laws and absolutely reviewable by federal courts. Judge Richard Leon raised his voice from the bench and asked the DOJ lawyer directly: “Who is directing this project?”
All three stories and the full archive are on rachelandthecity. The Suspects page tracks the people. The Connections page maps how they’re linked.
// Go Deeper on rachelandthecity
How Israel Grew Its Own Wars
Ehud Barak
Trump & Epstein
The Alexander Brothers