Save the Gazans

The best way to protect the innocents in Gaza is to remove the genocidal Hamas terrorists in their midst. That way no more rockets or mortar rounds will fall short of Israel and kill innocent Gazans. That way, there no longer be terrorist "work accidents" where innocent Gazans will no longer be blown up as terrorists have mishaps while preparing their bombs or explosive suicide vests. That way PLO members will not be thrown to their deaths from tall buildings because they are not radical enough for Hamas. That way Christian Gazans will not be murdered or chased from Gaza. That way so-called collaborators who are actually decent Arabs trying to protect innocent life will not be publicly executed in barbaric ways by Hamas. Unfortunately, the IDF must kill some Arab women and children because Hamas murderers are using them as human shields as they try to kill Jews, but once the world is rid of Hamas, both Jews and Muslims will be safer.

Our Muslim Forefathers

Robert Wilde of Breitbart.com graces us with the story of Barack Hussein Obama's Eid message to Muslims. Obama declared Muslims built "the very fabric of our nation". I had never heard this fact and would like to hear some substantiation. Can the President tell us what Muslims built in America? Can Obama tell us how Muslims strengthen democracy? Can Obama show us where in the Arab world that democracy flourishes now or ever has? Can Obama tell us where in the Islamic world there is tolerance for homosexuals? Would Obama tell us how Islam enhanced America's Judeo-Christian underpinnings? Have you ever heard such balderdash as Muslims building the fabric of America?

America's Best Diplomacy

I do not know if the United States has the worst leadership we have ever had in terms of foreign relations, but if we do not, it is certainly a close run thing. Carter allowed the Shah of Iran to be deposed and replaced with Shia madmen who continue to threaten the world to this day. Johnson made sure America was ever more involved in Vietnam but tied the hands of the war fighters, blocking any avenue they had to win. Truman sat by and allowed Stalin to enslave half of Europe and develop the capacity to drop atomic bombs to menace and blackmail America and the West and permitted China to go Red. I believe the buffoon in Foggy Bottom and his unbelievably dangerous master in the White House have done more damage to freedom in the world than any previous foreign policy team. They dropped the ball with the "red line" with no consequence for the Assad regime in Syria and have not been able to recover yet. Kerry and Obama never will right the ship of State; they only have the capacity to make the situation far worse.

Both Sides' Crimes

Ban Ki-moon today spoke of "accountability and justice for crimes on both sides" in regard to the conflict in Israel and Gaza. The only crime by Israelis of which I am aware was the abduction and murder of a Palestinian Arab teen. Israel has arrested the alleged perpetrators and will subject them to the full force of law. The UN and Ban need not interfere with Israel's administration of justice on this entirely internal matter. Every action by Hamas on the other hand has been conducted against international law. Hamas has targeted civilians almost exclusively, firing rockets at the Jewish State using Palestinian civilians as human shields, so that Israeli return fire inevitably produced dead Palestinian women and children. The IDF even took the extra step of warning Palestinians where Israeli forces would be operating in advance, so that they could leave safely. Hamas committed yet another crime by demanding their civilians remain in place. I do not for a second think Ban or international courts will hold Hamas accountable for their action, but I am sure that these Jew-hating bodies already hold Israel guilty for crimes that the government of Israel did not commit.

Real Moral Courage

Two missionary medical providers from America have just been diagnosed with the deadly Ebola virus. These humanitarians were safe back in the United States. Medical need certainly remains in the US, but the situation is far more desperate in Africa. These Americans uprooted their careers to go and risk their lives to serve thousands of miles from home. In Africa, they contracted a disease for which there is no curative treatment while performing one of the most selfless acts known to mankind. In a world where cruelty is all too common, may these missionaries be blessed for their charity and kindness.

The Present Tense

Israel has agreed to yet another ceasefire brokered and in reality, demanded by John Kerry. Hamas has mostly complied with this recent break in the action, not because they actually want peace, but because they needed a strategic pause after being dealt so much of a setback by the IDF. The terrorist group is using this tense truce to rearm and retrench, making Israel's job that much harder when the fighting resumes, which Hamas will assure, on their terms. There is no way for Hamas on their own to defeat Israel militarily, but Hamas is delighted with an increasing body count among civilians, with dead babies in Gaza being used as macabre props to claim a public relations victory over the Jews, who much of the world automatically blame for carnage that is actually solely the fault of Hamas. Those dedicated jihadists are content to see Gaza reduced in service of their ultimate aim, which is to eliminate the Jewish State. Kerry's effort to advance the cause of peace by pulling Israel up well short of victory saves Hamas to fight another day. Hamas will never be adherents of peace because jihad is more sacred to them than their own lives and those of their wives and children. Kerry and Obama could end the fighting if they openly declare that the US will back Netanyahu completely in every action until the terror tunnels are captured and destroyed and the rocket fire from Gaza ceases, which they will never do, because Obama believes Israel to be an illegitimate colonial enterprise that needs to be confined within the 1967 suicide borders with Jerusalem internationalized and East Jerusalem given over to the Palestinians, who would still not be satisfied with all of those Israeli concessions and who would still make war on the Jewish remnant.

Commemorating Dear Redi

She very easily could have believed that life was perpetual disappointment, punctuated by incomprehensible tragedy. Her first husband died in a B-24 when she was twenty. Her second and last husband was killed when his private plane crashed. Her four year old son was run over and killed two weeks after her husband's demise. She had almost been killed in a car wreck and was scarred badly, not monstrously disfigured, but she had been beautiful and after being ejected through the windshield, was no longer attractive, She was eaten away by cancer and taken very young. Through it all, to her dying breath, her faith only increased, and I marvel at that.

The Welcome Mat

If you lived in a country with no social safety net, rampant crime, and no chance to advance economically, would you not want to come to the United States? If you saw an American President essentially giving young illegals amnesty through the so-called "Dream Act", would you not want your impoverished children to have the same opportunity? I do not blame Latin American mothers for wanting to send their children north for a better life. I blame Obama and the other politicians of both parties who sold out their own nation to pander to Latino voters by turning our southern border into a fiction. If Latin parents knew their children probably could not make it into the United States but if they did, would be summarily sent back to their country of origin, do you think Central American children would still take the risk? If you reward any activity, you will have more of it and the craven establishment in Washington has rewarded illegal immigrants so much that America faces a tsunami of them.

The Ceasefire Nonsense

How can Israel stop her defensive action in Gaza? Rockets are still raining down on Israel. Hamas says they will not implement any ceasefire unless Israel agrees to conditions that are tantamount to suicide, as Hamas demands open borders for Gaza that would enable them to build up a virtually limitless supply of weapons. Israel has accepted temporary ceasefires several times during the current conflict, only to watch Hamas violate each truce. Hamas started the conflict and is determined to continue attacking Jews. Nothing Israel does short of an IDF victory will change that. Kerry is twisting Israel's proverbial arm quite a bit, when what he should be doing is shaking Netanyahu's hand for being an ally in the war against Islamist aggression.

Scales of Injustice

Israel is not held to a double standard. The Jewish State is held to an impossible standard wherein international leaders give lip service to Israel's "right of self-defense", but then urge "restraint" on Israel's part and ultimately condemn the Jewish State for casualties among Gazans that actions by Hamas, not Israel, have made inevitable. Hamas should be called to account for exploiting Palestinian women and children as human shields. The mainstream media has lambasted Israel while immunizing Hamas, an organization that is causing all the bloodshed. Millions of innocent Japanese and German women and children were killed by the Allies in World War II, but did that make the Allies the culprits or take the blame away from the Axis as the Axis started that war of aggression? War is an inherently unsavory undertaking, even when carried forward for a moral cause. The innocent are killed alongside the guilty. War is tragic but when a group or country is bent on the destruction of another people, they must be stopped by any means necessary, even though non-combatants, even babies die because they are hostages to a genocidal enterprise, whether that be Nazism in the 1940s or jihad today.

Fighting Without Honor

The brave warriors of Hamas break every law of war in their current campaign. First, their rocket and mortar barrage is intended to cause indiscriminate slaughter. They are simply lobbing bombs at populated areas where any IDF combatant killed or wounded would be purely incidental. Hamas bases mortar and missile-launching crews and hides their arsenal in and around schools, hospitals, and mosques in a deliberate effort to spark return fire from Israel which will damage or destroy those institutions. Hamas terrorists use ambulances to transport themselves and their weaponry. Hamas gunmen are now routinely deployed in IDF uniforms, and when they are captured in Israeli garb, they should be summarily executed. Israel has instructed Gazans exactly where the IDF is about to strike and warned them to leave. Hamas has ordered Palestinian civilians to remain in the line of fire after IDF warnings. In short, Israel does all it is humanly possible to do to protect non-combatants on both sides, while Hamas does all it can to create maximum carnage among civilians, even among Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Yet, few condemn Hamas and commend Israel on her effort to defeat terror. Too many, including the State Department and Secretary Kerry himself, and the UN and Ban Ki-moon castigate Israel as it is waging as careful a war as can be waged to eradicate the genocidal fanatics of Hamas.

Dream Act Nightmare

Barack Hussein Obama has wanted to have it both ways when it comes to illegal immigration, so that very little concrete action is taken to stem the flow of criminal border breakers. When Arizona passed local laws to discourage illegal alien entry, Obama's Justice Department and Attorney General Eric Holder sued that state saying that immigration was a solely Federal purview, but when it serves the purposes of the administration to wash their hands of the border crisis that their lax enforcement of immigration law has engendered, the White House says that thousands of unaccompanied minors sneaking over is a "local problem" as is evinced in a Washington Post report Saturday by David Nakamura, Jerry Markon, and Manuel Roig-Franzia. Obama really should not be able to have it both ways, wherein the Federal government does not protect the US Southern border and blocks Arizona from protecting itself but then, places the responsibility for a surge of young foreigners trying to take advantage of special status under the "Dream Act" on the border states themselves. Obama is only able to engage in this blatant dereliction because of a handmaiden media that refuses to hold him and his administration to account.

Thwarting the Tunnelers

Many years ago, my mother suggested the solution to Chernobyl before the disaster was addressed in exactly that way. Now, she has suggested that the infiltration tunnels from Gaza into Israel can be severed by digging a forty meter deep trench, wide enough to monitor and block any attempt to dig through from the Strip. This would seem to be a technically feasible and relatively cost efficient way to make it harder for jihadists to terrorize Israelis. A trench or even that trench being filled with water and turned into a modern moat would make Hamas' effort at digging tunnels a much more difficult undertaking without more risk to innocent life. As it is now, street to street and even house to house fighting extract a terrible toll on both sides. No one could argue a trench or moat is aggression. Israel can perform a purely defensive measure that ultimately will save lives not only in Israel but in Gaza as well by digging what amounts to a deep ditch.

Idea for Peace

Could a peace agreement be reached in the Ukraine? Could the restive area that has more loyalty to Moscow than Kiev be given a semi-autonomous status? Could Kiev and Moscow agree that the area be demilitarized with police there being drawn with proportional representation of ethnic Ukrainians and ethnic Russians and their focus be on policing only in their own ethnic communities? Would declaring an amnesty for past crimes, even the Malaysia jet massacre, secure a peace if the aforementioned circumstances are met? I know it bridles any sense of justice to let nearly three hundred murders go unpunished, but if doing so brought lasting peace and ultimately saved thousands of lives, it could not be said that the airline passengers died in vain. Swiss, despite having Italian, French, and German ethnic groups, have lived peacefully for generations despite differences in language and ethnicity through a cantonment system that respects the rights of all three collective groups. Perhaps, the two groups in the Ukraine will see this great human tragedy as a reason to cease fire and use the Swiss example to settle differences with no more blood being shed.

No Restraint Displayed

A deliberate action brought down the Malaysia Air passenger jet and killed almost three hundred people. The government of the Ukraine had nothing to gain, and no logical reason to bring down the plane. The government of Russia had no motive to fire a missile at a commercial jet. Only Russian separatists in the breakaway portion of the Ukraine had reason to attack an aircraft where the jet went down. I suspect that those who fired the ground to air missile were pro-Russian rebels who thought they were firing at a Ukrainian military aircraft. They were, of course, absolutely wrong and the jet was not a legitimate target for anyone. Those who knocked the jet down were undisciplined thugs who have transformed themselves into murderers by an act so careless that it became callous to the extreme. The missile attack was not a military action, but an act of such thoughtless negligence that it must be called "terrorism".

Malaysia Air Murder

No matter who shot down the Malaysia 777, the event surpasses human tragedy. A missile fired at a passenger jet is wanton murder in all but the most exceptional circumstances. The only instance where such an act may be tolerable is when the plane itself is being used as a missile as the world saw on September 11,2001. There is no indication that this was the case with the plane over the Ukraine. It is evident Americans were on board. All souls aboard are feared lost. Nearly three hundred are thought to have died on the plane, and more may have died from falling debris. Facts must be ascertained and the guilty must be held to account.

Jews Fleeing France

How bad is the plight of Jews in France? Today,four hundred French Jews made aliyah to Israel. These emigres feel safer under rocket fire in the Holy Land than they would have if they remained in the country of their birth. The Jewish State is certainly in peril now, but French Jews feel they face even greater threat by remaining in France. In fact, after multiple attacks against Jews including the deliberate murder of children, I too would seek a haven far from France. It seems that just as in the late 1930s, there are few places where it is wholly safe to be Jewish.

My Abundant Appreciation

Today, I thank and celebrate the most influential person throughout my life. The unconditional love you have showered me with is beyond measure. What we went through together is beyond comprehension. I wish I could be in two places at once. Know my thoughts and best wishes are with you. The aspects of my life I enjoy most with my new wife are often how she reminds me of you, with her conviction and determination to have a Jewish home and the care (which is almost maternal) that she shows me. You know why I dedicate this column to you today as you hold down the fort.

About the Border

The Southern border of the United States is so porous as to appear nonexistent. If unaccompanied children are able to "sneak across", do you not think that drug dealers can bring narcotics across the border with relative ease? If a Guatemalan ten year old can make his way all the way to Boston, then could a Middle Eastern terrorist not do the same thing? Do you not realize people with highly communicable illnesses are entering the US through Mexico and bringing that sickness to a community near you? If you give these gatecrashers amnesty, then you will have rewarded lawbreaking and have made citizenship virtually worthless. If a nation voluntarily relinquishes control of their own border, are they even a country anymore?

In Occupied Paris

Those who really disdain the Jewish State often claim that hostilities continue only because Jews refuse to relinquish so-called "occupied territory". This claim would seem false on its face since most of the fire Israel is facing now is coming from the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip that Israel evacuated (or expelled) all Jews from nearly a decade ago. Jews and Jewish institutions in Paris, France are now being besieged by Muslims. I suppose that means the synagogue attacked in the heart of Europe must sit on some of that land stolen by those Jews. The violence directed against Jews by Muslims in Europe should enlighten the world to the true nature of the conflict. It is not that Jews reside in Jerusalem or remain in Hebron (Hevron). The root of the conflict is the Koran which demands believers kill the Jews. Those adherents could not care less about peace and never will so long as any dare not tow the line on full submission to the will of Allah. If the fight is about the "occupation", what Arab land are Jewish worshipers in Paris occupying?

No Conflict Resolution

Goals of the Palestinians seem to exclude the survival of the Jewish State. Israel apparently has some bizarre desire to continue to exist and the temerity to want to do so as a pluralistic, democratic society. Those stubborn Jews simply refuse to walk into the sea or throw themselves from Masada. No, they will not willingly lay down their arms and die, or have their men slaughtered, women mass-raped, sold into prostitution, or their children stolen from them to be raised as Muslims. Those bad Israelis just refuse to make good dhimmi. Hamas, which represents the sentiment of the majority of the Palestinian street remains irrevocably committed to the immediate destruction of the Zionists (those being in reality any breathing Jew who will not submit) while the Palestinian Authority as represented by Abbas still wants to eliminate the Zionist Entity in stages. No matter how many arbiters try to intercede to end the violence, there is no resolution possible when one side simply wants to live and the opposing side is determined to liquidate them.

Family Unification Project

A report appears today linked by Drudge from Luis Carlos Lopez and published on the website of The El Paso Times that a Border Patrol official speaking "on background" informs us that "a plane carrying undocumented immigrants from Central America" had landed in El Paso. The criminal aliens were not summarily deported or the plane forced back carrying the border breakers to their country of origin, and in all likelihood, these invaders will stay. They will receive food, clothing, shelter, medical care, and education at the expense of citizens. They will be given access to all the welfare perks Obama has to offer. They will soon be given the right to vote which they will use to continue to elect those that will keep their gravy train rolling. Then, they will demand we accept their fourth cousin to claim the same benefits at our expense, and the Democrats that they have voted in will accommodate this desire and my America will have been transformed into an entity that in no way resembles what the Founding Fathers envisioned, and that I do not recognize.

Hamas Defeating Israel

Somehow, Hamas using unwitting or willing human shields is winning the public relations war. In the conflict that Hamas initiated, Hamas is evidently demanding that Gazans ignore IDF instructions to leave buildings or vacate areas that the IDF is planning to pacify. Civilian casualties become inevitable when Hamas uses innocents to shield combatants. Hamas is not condemned by most of the world so far for deliberately exposing Arab civilians to risk while Hamas uses women and children in a most cynical and dangerous way by attacking Jewish civilians from highly populated area, hoping to draw a response bound to create carnage. Israel must protect her civilian populace and return fire, yet when they do, Israeli actions of self-defense are almost universally criticized. The essence of Jew-hatred is denying Jews the very right to live, and that is what people and countries are doing when they know full well that Hamas is the aggressor with a purposeful plan to kill as many Jews as possible and force an Israeli reaction that kills scores of Arab women and children. In the minds of those who gave us the Holocaust or sat silent and their progeny, it is remarkably easy to condone Hamas tactics and condemn Israel for trying to keep Jews alive.

On Defeating Hamas

Hamas is a terrorist organization that has no qualms about hiding behind Arab women and children to attack Jewish civilians. This strategy is a win-win for Hamas. If they kill Jews, they are ecstatic, as this aim writ large is their primary purpose, that supreme mission being defined as the eradication of the Zionist Entity. The next win for these jihadis happens when the Jews defend themselves. If a mortar or rocket crew is killed, they are enshrined as martyrs who receive the sexual services of dozens of girls who died virgins but are available to shahid in the afterlife. If Arab civilians are killed, even better, Hamas gladly displays dead Muslim women and children that they alone had placed in harm's way by hiding behind them to a world media eager to portray the Jewish State in the worst possible light. Hamas wins with the macabre spectacle of violent death their actions cause on every side. If a fighter dies, score virgin brides in paradise. If an Arab or Muslim civilian dies, thumbs up all around as most of the world is predisposed to absolve the terrorists of the death and blame the Jews, even though the IDF is acting only in self-defense for the State of Israel. If Hamas rockets, mortars, bombs, or gunfire hit their mark and kill a Jew, slam dunk victory dance, that is one less of the thirteen million spawn of apes and pigs all over the globe that it is Hamas' (and incidentally, Hezbollah's) aim to wipe out. In a world filled with Jew-haters, every action that the genocidal jihadists take is a win for them, even if they and their neighbors that they hide behind are killed by Jewish attempts at self-defense.

Israel Strikes Back

With rockets raining down on the Jewish State, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been left with no alternative but to fight back. The Prime Minister finds his coalition government crumbling from the Right as Avigdor Lieberman seems ready to leave the "unity" government. Netanyahu remains a bugbear to Barack Obama who pointedly endorsed Palestinian leader Abbas for his actions in recent days but pointedly did not praise Netanyahu. Israel, whoever leads it, can not allow a stream of constant attack from Gaza, and so must act. Israel must act with sufficient force to stop the bombardment, but must consider the international condemnation that the Jewish Statte is bound to receive for this act of self-defense. The IDF must not be deterred in reestablishing deterrence when the UN demands Israel end "acts of aggression" (or even "war crimes"), even if the US State Department and Barack Hussein Obama echo those calls. The survival of the Jewish State hangs in the balance.

Cart Before Horse

Hillary Clinton is thought by some to be the "inevitable" President after the 2016 election. Clinton was thought to be the inevitable President before the 2008 election, but she could not even secure the Presidential nomination of the Democrat Party. There is, of course, a chance that Hillary will be the next President, but there is also a chance that she could lose the nomination to someone more stridently to the Left like Elizabeth Warren. A younger, more dynamic candidate like the photogenic Cory Booker might be 2016's Barack Obama. Even if Clinton secures the nomination, that does not mean a Republican will not beat her. There is a groundswell of support for Rand Paul and Ted Cruz and either might upset Hillary in the general election. The one aspect that is certain is that know one knows now, but that time will tell.

The Tropical Breezes

As events in the Middle East and Washington continue to unfold apace, we honeymooners have other concerns. Was that a marlin or a great white shark that just nudged the boat? Should we have molcajete or ceviche? Should we use SPF 15 or 50? She is a redhead so we had better make that SPF 50. I am sure that the world goes on off these Cabo beaches, but it is hard now to focus on anything beyond the sunshine. If you ever want to be dazzled, you should take a trip to Cabo.

The Disappearing Despot

Gentle readers, please bear with the staff of Despot. The publisher is on his honeymoon. The only assistant to the publisher is on her honeymoon. It is a shame the two could not take their honeymoons together. In all seriousness, although many world-shaking events are transpiring, we really are on our honeymoon together in an area where computer access is scarce. Hoping to resume the usual schedule upon our return to home base. May your days be as blessed as ours have been. Thank you.

Back to Britain

I know George III was regarded as a tyrant by America's forefathers. My question gentle readers is how would those patriots judge our current leader? Barack Hussein Obama seems to relish the role of king. Obama is content to bypass Congress and issue executive orders. He is the President that brought the US numerous czars who were not elected and did not have to be approved by the Senate. Obama and his handmaiden Holder pick and choose what laws they will enforce (as in the Defense of Marriage Act) and what portions of laws to ignore or rewrite unilaterally without the imprimatur of Congress as in portions of the Affordable Care Act that have been delayed. I think British monarchs would have seen a fellow traveler in Obama, a man who would love to rule by decree if only he could.

Open for Business

Crony capitalists and Wall Street wizards have been cleaning up under Barack Hussein Obama. US markets are at all-time highs, but that success is not translating to Main Street. In order to do what Obama claimed to want and "spread the wealth", he should have lowered marginal tax rates and lessened Federal regulation. Instead, in the event of six years of governance, Obama has done just the opposite. He has instituted the most severe regulatory regime in US history. In the last quarter, Obama's government collected more tax revenue than any previous quarter in American history. Despite all that revenue flowing into government coffers, the deficit and national debt have also never been higher because Obama has spent more than any of his predecessors. If you are a moneyed friend of Obama, chances are your wealth has grown under the current regime. If you are a small business person, what Obama has done and is doing is diminishing your chances of becoming a greater success. Obama's rhetoric suggests a hand up but in reality, Obama has put stumbling blocks in front of the type of small business that has heretofore fostered prosperity in America.

The Real Process

The so-called "peace process" that Israel has made numerous concessions to preserve is not aimed at creating real and lasting peace by any party but the Jewish State. For the international interlocutors the process is either not regarded as genuine with any real hope of ending the conflict, or those interlocutors are naive. For the Muslim and Arab World, the peace process is a way to carve Israel up a little at a time in furtherance of their ultimate aim, which is to eliminate the Jewish State completely. Israel has become the proverbial frog who is not aware the water that he was thrust in is about to boil. America has been a driving force behind the process that can never produce peace between Muslim Arab and Jew since before the Camp David Accords. The objective then was to bring peace between Israel and Egypt and a "cold peace" did emerge. The negotiations with Arafat and his successor Abbas and their underlings have been different in aim and scope. Whereas Sadat could deliver Egypt, those commanding the PLO do not even represent the majority of Palestinians. Even if Abbas wants peace, because his rivals in Hamas have a greater natural constituency among the "Palestinian people", there is no way Abbas can deliver. The trap Israel has walked into is that no matter what Abbas signs (even if he is committed to peace- which is doubtful) or how much Israel gives away, it will not alter the determination of those who embrace jihad to drive the Jews into the sea.

Never a Chance

Three young Jews were taken by terrorists in the Biblical heartland. A frantic search ensued in an attempt to rescue the two sixteen year old boys and the nineteen year old. There was some recrimination over whether an initial call to police by one of the abducted boys was dismissed as a prank. Even if the call was initially considered a hoax, the act of attempting to contact the authorities by one of the boys evidently led to their being immediately shot by those holding them. All three are dead, not because of police inaction, or because they were settlers, but because they were JEWS. It is enough in the minds of those who despise us (I am a Jew) that we keep our Covenant with Abraham and follow the Law of Moses and not submit to them and Muhammad that they want to kill us. The lesson that has to emerge from this is that those who took the boys are evil and are motivated by a fanatic mindset that grips much of the Arab and Muslim world and has to be defeated.