THIS. ALL OF THIS:  Heads Up.

STOP, DROP AND THINK:  The Face Of War.

Running around with your hair on fire can kill you. And us.

OPEN THREAD: Monday, Monday.

BRENDAN O’NEILL: The Gaza flotilla: the Woke Man’s Burden.

The flotilla looks less like ‘a protest’ and more like a ‘provocation’, says the Middle East Forum – and one which, courtesy of those frigates and the activists’ call for more navies to join in, could have ‘military consequences’. It’s hard to disagree with this assessment. If the flotilla’s aim were merely to drop off aid to Palestinians, why would it so noisily savour the arrival of warships and dream of their sailing all the way to the shores of Israel-Gaza? We need cool heads. These Israelophobic sailors might want to ‘amp up the pressure’ but Israel should refuse to do so. It should calmly intercept their boats and send the passengers home.

The flotilla and its fevered war dreams expose the ugly truth about Israelophobia. This fashionable rage of the activist class dresses itself up as ‘anti-war’ but it positively pulsates with a warlike loathing for one tiny nation. They imperiously damn Israel as a ‘rogue state’, sounding more George W Bush than Mahatma Gandhi. Some even dream of its erasure. ‘From the river to the sea!’, they cry. Or even ‘We don’t want two states, we want ’48!’ – a call for a return to that apparently blissful era of 1948 before the modern State of Israel was founded. This isn’t peace activism – it’s a moralistic crusade fuelled by a rank Western chauvinism that views Israel as an uncivilised blot on our planet, as the savages of the modern era. A nation supposedly in the grip of ‘genocidal mania’ that only ‘external intervention’ can fix.

The unhinged language, the sheer animus, is indistinguishable from the ‘humanitarian’ calamities of the 2000s, when imperious forces in the West likewise branded states in the Middle East as vectors of human evil that our civilised armies had a duty to encroach on and defeat. Israelophobia is the Woke Man’s Burden, neo-colonial arrogance in the drag of pacifism. The truly progressive cry today is ‘Hands off Israel’. Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and every wanker in the West – back off and leave the Jewish State alone.

Related:

How dare you!

IS ANOTHER TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD IN THE WORKS? CSX railroad replaces CEO after investor pressure and poor performance as Union Pacific merger looms.

CSX railroad announced Monday that it had replaced its CEO less than two months after an investment fund urged it to either find another railroad to merge with to better compete with the proposed transcontinental Union Pacific railroad or fire outgoing CEO Joe Hinrichs.

The outgoing CEO, who came to the railroad in 2022 after a long career with Ford, focused on repairing CSX’s relationship with its workers and labor unions and unifying the team after a bitter contract fight. But Ancora Holdings, which helped spur major changes at Norfolk Southern, said CSX’s operating performance deteriorated significantly under Hinrichs’ leadership. Hinrichs resigned to clear the way for Steve Angel to become CEO effective Sunday.

Angel, 70, also comes from outside the rail industry although earlier in his career he oversaw GE’s locomotive building unit, so he does have that experience. CSX said he has 45 years experience leading large public companies, including most recently as CEO of Linde and Praxair that provide industrial gasses to other companies.

“We are excited to welcome Steve as our new CEO. He is a visionary in creating long-term value and an expert in guiding companies through significant transformation,” the railroad’s board Chairman John Zillmer said.

CSX has been under pressure from Ancora and other investors since Union Pacific announced its $85 billion deal to acquire Norfolk Southern, which is CSX’s rival in the eastern United States. But both [Burlington Northern Santa Fe] and [Canadian Pacific Kansas City] railroads said they aren’t interested in a merger right now.

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Ancora said it continues to buy more CSX shares and hopes to develop a better relationship with the railroad. Ancora holds three seats on Norfolk Southern’s board after running a proxy campaign there to oust the previous CEO at that railroad, so the investment fund had input on the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger.

Earlier: Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern discuss merger to create transcontinental railroad, AP source says.

UNEXPECTEDLY: Jimmy Kimmel’s ratings fall off cliff again after post-suspension viewer bump.

Jimmy Kimmel Live! enjoyed a short-lived ratings bonanza after his triumphant post-suspension return to ABC.

Kimmel’s late night show returned to screens on Tuesday with record-breaking ratings, after he was suspended for five days over remarks he made about Charlie Kirk‘s assassination.

As many as 6.5million people tuned to Kimmel on Tuesday, which was a three times the show’s usual audience and the biggest in over a decade.

But by Thursday, Kimmel averaged 2.3million – a shocking 64 percent drop since the show’s return episode, Fox News reported.

Notably, Kimmel lost 73 percent of the viewers in the coveted demographic of adults aged 25-54, getting just 465,000.

Typically, Kimmel gets about 1.8 million viewers each night on television. The numbers released by ABC do not include viewership from streaming services.

Evergreen: