Latest Analysis and Commentary
by Con Coughlin • October 3, 2023 at 5:00 am
The slow rate of [Ukrainian] progress has also prompted politicians on both sides of the Atlantic to question whether it is worth continuing to support Ukraine's military effort or instead concentrate their efforts on negotiating a peace settlement between the warring countries. Vivek Ramaswamy, a candidate for the Republican Party nomination in the 2024 US presidential election... calling for Ukraine to cede territory to Russia as part of a peace package that would also commit Moscow to end its military alliance with Beijing. Ramaswamy's fundamental argument, which is attracting support in some Republican circles, is that by supporting Ukraine's war effort, the US and its allies risk forcing Moscow to align itself more closely with Beijing, thereby creating a powerful bloc to confront the West. [T]he notion that Western support for Ukraine will force Moscow to forge closer ties with China is also overstated. Chinese President Xi Jinping may have given his tacit backing for Putin's invasion of Ukraine last year, but Beijing regards Moscow as being very much the poor relation in their alliance, and sees Russia as being little more than a gas station to be used to fuel the Chinese economy. If Russia seriously thinks its interests would be better served by developing close ties with China, it should think again. If Putin were to succeed in capturing large swathes of Ukrainian territory through force of arms, China would conclude that it could use similar tactics to achieve its own aims, such as launching an invasion of Taiwan. If Putin is defeated, though, China's Communist rulers will have to think twice before launching an unprovoked military assault. Had it not been for the surrender of the US to Afghanistan in August of 2021, Russia would never have invaded Ukraine. Putin only started slowly sending troops to its border a few weeks later in September. Recently, China has begun sending ships and fighter jets toward Taiwan in the same slowly escalating way, to "normalize" troop movements and avoid raising alarm. The US simply cannot afford another defeat, this time in Ukraine. The surrender of any Ukrainian territory in some "deal" to end the war will be seen by the international community as a victory for Putin and another feckless American cut-and-run. Still another factor that risks undermining Western support for Ukraine is the unreliability of the Biden administration's approach to the conflict. On one level, the White House remains committed to supporting the Ukrainian cause. On another, it appears confused about defining its ultimate objectives in the conflict. As retired US General Jack Keane recently commented in an interview with Fox News, the Biden administration's current track record suggests that it still does not have a strategic goal in the conflict. If that is the case, then in the interests of Western security, the administration needs to agree on an endgame for the Ukraine conflict, one where Russia's humiliating defeat at the hands of Western backed Ukrainian forces becomes the central objective.
Ukraine's counteroffensive to liberate territory occupied by Russia may be taking longer than expected, but the central goal of inflicting a devastating defeat on Moscow remains imperative if other autocratic regimes like China are to be deterred from initiating future acts of bellicosity. Pictured: A Ukrainian tank fires during a training exercise in the Chernigiv region on September 8, 2023. (Photo by Anatolii Stepanov/AFP via Getty Images)
Ukraine's counteroffensive to liberate territory occupied by Russia may be taking longer than expected, but the central goal of inflicting a devastating defeat on Moscow remains imperative if other autocratic regimes like China are to be deterred from initiating future acts of bellicosity. Since the Ukrainians launched their counter-offensive in the summer, their forces have made slow but steady progress in recapturing territory occupied by the Russians after President Vladimir Putin launched his unprovoked invasion last year. The latest military assessment by US officials has concluded that the Ukrainian offensive, particularly in the south of the country, has achieved sufficient momentum to push through the so-called Surovikin Line, the complex network of defensive positions named after the Russian general who devised it.
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by Bassam Tawil • October 2, 2023 at 5:00 am
"Yesterday there was an enforcement activity in the Idna area near Hebron during which four illegal water wells were sealed. The water wells, which were drilled in violation of the interim agreement [with the Palestinians], damage the natural water reserves and pose a pollution threat to the aquifer [the source of water supplied to both Palestinian and Jewish communities]. The enforcement action was carried out in accordance with the jurisdiction authority and established protocols." — Israeli authorities, July 27, 2023. "Additionally, there were approximately 2,500 instances during those years in which Israeli authorities disconnected illegal connections to existing water infrastructure." — NGO Monitor, October 2021. The "illegal connections" included wells and pipes in the West Bank to illegally divert the water elsewhere, thereby stealing water that Israel had intended for both Israelis and Palestinians. In 2018, the Israel Water Authority identified 77 Palestinian illegal well-diggings in the West Bank. During the same year, Israeli authorities arrested 25 Palestinians on suspicion of stealing water and disconnected 1,457 illegal connections to water mains. Some Palestinians also reportedly drilled holes in water mains to divert water. "Without this activity [by the Israeli authorities], the water supply would have been significantly disrupted," the Israeli Water Authority said. The following year, Israeli authorities discovered another 58 illegal water wells and confiscated ten well- drilling machines. The Palestinians' actions are in violation of the "Water Agreement" that is part of the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement ("Oslo II") of September 18, 1995 (Annex 3, Appendix 1, Article 40), which stipulates the manner in which the parties must act in the field of water in the West Bank. This is an international agreement that was not only signed by Israel and the Palestinians, but also witnessed by the US, Russia, the European Union, Norway, Jordan and Egypt. According to the Oslo II accord: "Each side shall take all necessary measures to prevent any harm, pollution, or deterioration of water quality of the water resources." [T]he Israelis and Palestinians agreed in 1995 to establish a Joint Water Committee to deal with all water and sewage issues, including protection of water resources. The Palestinian Authority, however, decided to boycott the committee after the start of the Second Intifada in September 2000. According to a 2017 report from Israel's State Comptroller, the Palestinian Authority prevented the committee from convening for seven years. The report noted that the reason for the Palestinian boycott was to hinder the development of water infrastructure for Israeli communities in the West Bank. Instead, the Palestinian boycott severely hindered the development of water infrastructure for the Palestinians and created a massive blockage of projects, including several waste-treatment facilities. While Israel has fulfilled its obligations according to the "Water Agreement," the Palestinians have continuously breached the accord. Israel made available approximately 70 million cubic meters (MCM) a year of water to the Palestinians in the West Bank before they boycotted the Joint Water Committee, even though the agreement allocates a much smaller quantity of only 23.6 MCM/year for the West Bank. The Palestinians have also failed to treat their sewage, which flows freely into streams flowing through the West Bank and Israel, thereby contaminating both the environment and the Mountain Aquifer for everyone. The claim that Israel is depriving Palestinians of water in the West Bank is, regrettably, another libel designed to slander and vilify Israel. If anyone is depriving Palestinians of water, it is the Palestinians themselves, specifically those who are drilling illegal wells and polluting the environment. The recent sealing of four illegal wells near Hebron was part of an Israeli effort to stop Palestinian thieves from stealing water intended for Palestinians. Those who are using the water issue to smear Israel would do well to open their eyes to the Palestinians' illegal actions, including water theft. Had the Palestinian Authority abided by the "Water Agreement," the Palestinians would be in a far better situation. Were Palestinians to stop stealing water, there would be no shortage of water supplied to any city, village or farm. Yet the Palestinians, who have chosen to violate their agreement with Israel, manage to blame Israel for their own illegal actions.
Those who are using the water issue to smear Israel would do well to open their eyes to the Palestinians' illegal actions, including water theft. Had the Palestinian Authority abided by the "Water Agreement," the Palestinians would be in a far better situation. Were Palestinians to stop stealing water, there would be no shortage of water supplied to any city, village or farm. Pictured: Israeli authorities destroy an illegal water well in Al-Nassariya, near Nablus, on September 8, 2011. (Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images)
Media outlets recently reported that Israeli forces had raided Palestinian farmland near the West Bank city of Hebron and poured concrete into the water sources to stop agricultural irrigation. The reports, however failed to mention that the Israeli move came as a result of illegal drilling, and theft and misuse of water resources by the Palestinians. In response, the Israeli authorities announced: "Yesterday there was an enforcement activity in the Idna area near Hebron during which four illegal water wells were sealed. The water wells, which were drilled in violation of the interim agreement [with the Palestinians], damage the natural water reserves and pose a pollution threat to the aquifer [the source of water supplied to both Palestinian and Jewish communities]. The enforcement action was carried out in accordance with the jurisdiction authority and established protocols."
In October 2021, NGO Monitor reported:
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by Raymond Ibrahim • October 1, 2023 at 5:00 am
Muslims surrounded and murdered a Christian man. — newsintervention.com, August 22, 2023, Pakistan. Around 2 a.m., Muslim Fulani herdsmen launched a raid—the third of its kind on the same Christian majority village where people were sleeping after a long day's work. They slaughtered 21 villagers. — International Christian Concern, August 10, Nigeria. "Nigeria's Middle Belt region that has been rocked by violence with tens of thousands of Christians killed over the past 20 years." — International Christian Concern, August 10, Nigeria. Muslims began yelling "Away with him!" Others grabbed the microphone from the pastor and "started tearing off pages of the Bible and Christian literature." Now, gathered together, the Muslims began stoning him. — Morning Star News, August 1, 2023, Uganda. "Others were saying that Allah has granted to them authority to kill all infidels. Another Muslim sprayed what looked like acid [on Pastor Robert], while another hit him with a thorny object and stepped on the evangelist's back and the stomach." — Eyewitness, Morning Star News, August 23, 2023, Uganda. "[I]nfidels" cannot "preach in this town or come and mislead our people here... We are going to fight in the cause of Allah to kill all of you." — Sheikh Hiisa Mubaraka, Morning Star News, August 23, 2023, Uganda. "There is an ongoing Genocide against 120,000 Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh. The blockade of the Lachin Corridor by the Azerbaijani security forces impeding access to any food, medical supplies, and other essentials should be considered a Genocide under Article II, (c) of the Genocide Convention: 'Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction.'" — Luis Moreno Ocampo, former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, concerning Artsakh, an ancient Christian region under Azerbaijani control, August 4, 2023, Azerbaijan. "Starvation is the invisible Genocide weapon. Without immediate dramatic change, this group of Armenians will be destroyed in a few weeks." — Luis Moreno Ocampo, August 4, 2023, Azerbaijan. "[T]he neighbors told her that they should let her [teenage] daughter marry their son so that she could convert to Islam and be led from the 'delusion of their faith to the true religion,' but if she refuses to convert, they have the right to do whatever they wish to her daughter." — International Christian Concern, August 11, 2023, Egypt.
During a Muslim demonstration against Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, on Sunday, Aug. 27, in Vienna, Austria, a man, armed with two hammers, smashed and destroyed the new glass door of Saint Stephan's Cathedral. Pictured: Saint Stephan's Cathedral. (Photo by Thomas Kronsteiner/Getty Images)
The following are among the murders and abuses inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of August 2023. Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches Pakistan: All hell broke loose on Aug. 18, after some Christians were accused—falsely, it was quickly revealed—of desecrating a Koran in Jaranwala. Thousands of enraged Muslims rampaged against the region's Christians, prompting hundreds to flee their homes. Among other damage, the rioting Muslims set 25 churches aflame, destroyed or damaged 400 Christian homes, and desecrated at least one Christian cemetery. According to the Rev. Deacon Daud Irshad:
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by Amir Taheri • October 1, 2023 at 4:30 am
The disastrous consequences of oligarchs meddling in politics are too well known to need more attention here. But what about the plutocrats' record? The question merits attention, because right now two American plutocrats are engaged in erratic attempts at solving two of the hottest international problems. Elon Musk, the owner of X (Twitter), Tesla and SpaceX, and reputed to be the richest on the man planet, says he has a plan to end the Russian war in Ukraine. For his part, George Soros, now operating through his son Alexander, is busy campaigning for a deal between Tehran and Washington to give President Joe Biden's forthcoming election campaign the boost it badly needs. George Soros has been engaged in his grand plan for bringing the Islamic Republic of Iran into the fold for almost three decades. The scheme reached the peak of its success when the so-called "New York Boys" seized control of the executive branch of government in Tehran under President Hassan Rouhani, a British-educated junior cleric dreaming of leading the Islamic Republic into the "modern world". However, as might have been expected, the Soros scenario ultimately failed because "Supreme Guide" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has bigger dreams for the Islamic Republic. Khamenei believes that the West is heading south to decline while China, Russia and Iran have emerged as leaders for a "New World Order". Now, however, we know that Khamenei's leadership troika exists only in his fantasies. China and Russia treat Iran as an untouchable to be kept at arm's length. Will the plutocrat's peace scenario work? I doubt it. Being anti-American and anti-Israel form the Iranian regime's core identity. In the 1920s, the American plutocrat Armand Hammer orchestrated a similar scenario with the newly-born Soviet Union under Vladimir Lenin. He persuaded Washington to give the Bolsheviks a chance to learn the beauty of getting rich through capitalism and trade. Hammer won the argument and Lenin won the civil war that without the "Great Satan " pumping money into his war machine, he would have lost. The USSR survived for six more decades, challenging the US for world leadership. In the 1930s, other American plutocrats tried to tame Germany's Adolf Hitler in the name of saving the peace in Europe. Almost 20 years ago, a group of British plutocrats assembled at the home of the Kuwaiti Ambassador in London told the guests that the "Palestine problem" would be resolved by pumping £200 million into the West Bank's economy, providing "decent housing and modern shopping malls" for Palestinians. The man orchestrating the miracle was Peter Hain, Minister of State for Africa, the Middle East and South Asia in Prime Minister Tony Blair's government. Well, Hain is gone, along with the £200 million which, god forgive us, may have ended up in the accounts of corrupt Palestinian Authority officials and their own plutocrats in Western banks. If war is too serious a matter to be left to generals, international politics is even more so if left to oligarchs in the east and plutocrats in the west.
The disastrous consequences of oligarchs meddling in politics are too well known to need more attention here. But what about the plutocrats' record?
By now anyone interested in international politics knows who the oligarchs are. They are super-rich individuals who, by taking advantage of special political circumstances, have amassed big fortunes, often undeservedly, as a trampoline for political influence. The breed is most visible in post-Soviet Russia and Ukraine, where their presence extends to the top echelons of power. However, oligarchs can also be found in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. At the other end of the political spectrum, in traditional Western democracies, we have plutocrats who play a similar hand, albeit within slightly stricter legal and political limits. Western plutocrats often owe their fortunes to their innovative genius and business acumen. But they, too, benefit from close ties to the ruling elite through financial support for election campaigns and, in some cases, outright bribery or insider information advantages.
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by Lawrence Kadish • October 1, 2023 at 4:00 am
(Image source: iStock)
It appears the Federal Reserve is playing Russian roulette with our nation's interest rates. JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon has looked at the potential future of Fed actions and is deeply concerned that it could raise rates as high as 7%. A Bloomberg News report observed: "If the key rate climbed to 7%, it would have serious implications for American businesses and consumers. Already, economists put the probability of a US recession over the next 12 months at 60%."
Suggested Plan of Action by U.S. Congress:
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by Drieu Godefridi • September 30, 2023 at 5:00 am
Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine, the most advanced Free World circles have been calling for Belgian F-16s to be delivered to Ukraine, and the Ukrainian pilots to be trained as quickly as possible. The fact is that by giving the Russians control of the skies, they are almost automatically guaranteed to keep their troops in the Donbass. If the overall Western policy is just "not to let Ukraine lose" rather than to defeat an unprovoked attack against a democracy, Russian President Vladimir Putin will be emboldened to continue his aggression, and China will read the weakness as a green light to invade Taiwan... The US cannot afford another display of weakness or surrender. Putin sent his troops to the Ukraine in September of 2021, just a few weeks after the US abandoned Afghanistan. He got the message that "the coast was clear." Unless there is a clear strategy to defeat Russia, anything short of that will look globally like Afghanistan, the sequel; another example of US fecklessness, and a good reason not to be an ally. The environmentalists do not want to hear about the delivery of F-16s to Ukraine -- first because they are pacifists, in the most ideological, surrendering sense of the word, and second because they know what the European environmental movement owes to Russia. The Russian government has massively financed German environmental foundations, and in addition, the Belgian Energy Minister Tinne Van der Straeten (Groen/Ecolo Party), was a 50% partner in a law firm called BLIXT, one of whose main clients was Gazprom -- in other words, the Russian government. These are just two of many examples of European environmentalists effectively becoming a fifth column in Europe of the Russian Federation.... There is also a technical obstacle: the F-35 fighter jets intended to replace Belgium's F-16s will be delivered late, and the country cannot do without fighter jets. Its air force is the last sector in which the Belgian military is credible in the eyes of its partners. According to sources who asked not to be named, the solution Belgium is heading for is the initial delivery of four F-16s to Ukraine, then progressively more when Belgium's F-16s are replaced by F-35s. However, a movement has recently emerged within the Belgian military, which considers that the Belgian interest is that on the one hand the Russians do not sweep away the Ukrainians and on the other hand that the Belgians regain the respect of their NATO allies. Belgium's reputation with its NATO partners is on the line. There needs to a delivery of at least a limited number of Belgian F-16s to Ukraine, and their Ukrainian pilots trained at once.
Belgium's reputation with its NATO partners is on the line. There needs to a delivery of at least a limited number of Belgian F-16s to Ukraine, and their Ukrainian pilots trained at once. Pictured: A Belgian Air Force F-16 at Florennes Air Base, Belgium, on October 5, 2022. (Photo by John Thys/AFP via Getty Images)
Last week, realizing that Belgium was once again being laughed at by its NATO partners, Belgian federal government ministers David Clarinval and Hadja Lahbib put the idea of delivering Belgian F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine back on the table.
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by Majid Rafizadeh • September 29, 2023 at 5:00 am
Even though Iran is a party to the International Convention against the Taking of Hostages, the Islamist regime has long violated it, as it has other commitments, by taking foreign hostages as pawns to extract economic concessions and achieve geopolitical and financial gains. We can now expect the Iranian regime to arrest or abduct more Americans anywhere it can. Collecting hostages is now big business. Other hostile governments will most likely be tempted to abduct Americans, as well. Secret attempts by the Biden administration to reach an interim deal with the mullahs have threatened to add not only an estimated $100 billion into Iran's economy, but also, worse, to catapult an Iranian nuclear menace onto the world. "This exchange operation is in fact one of the most successful and effective negotiation [efforts] ever to happen to the Islamic Republic of Iran. In essence, we released a few Iranian prisoners in exchange for some prisoners whose sentences were about to end, and, on the other hand, we succeeded in releasing billions of dollars of our blocked resources without committing to anything else." — Senior Iranian security source, interview with Fars News, August 12, 2023. After Obama transferred this $1.7 billion to the Iranian regime to release five Iranian-American prisoners, the theocratic establishment became more emboldened than ever. "The Trump administration secured prisoner releases without ransom payments...." — Saeed Ghasseminejad, Iran expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Fox News, September 18, 2023. Increased revenues will also allow the IRGC and Khamenei to crush more easily any domestic protests against their government. The other priorities of Iran's regime are to "export the revolution," and regional military domination. Targeted for this project are Yemen, Syria, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Latin America, Lebanon and Iraq -- and strengthening the regime's militias and terror groups. America and Israel are presumably being fattened up for eventual extermination. That is what $6 billion has bought us. And the "Iran Nuclear Deal," which will enable the Iranian regime legitimately to have as many nuclear weapons as it likes, is not even dead.
We can now expect the Iranian regime to arrest or abduct more Americans anywhere it can. Collecting hostages is now big business. Pictured: Three of the US citizens who were held hostage in Iran, Siamak Namazi (back), Emad Sharqi (L) and Morad Tahbaz (C) disembark in Doha, Qatar on September 18, 2023. (Photo by Karim Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images)
The Iranian regime has lately been collecting hostages: Topher Richwhite and Bridget Thackwray from New Zealand, detained in July 2022, Johan Floderus, a European diplomat from Sweden detained in April 2022, and Bernard Phelan from France detained in October 2022. This escalation in hostage-taking of Europeans by Iran's regime should not come as a surprise: the Belgian government last year proposed and ratified legislation that paved the way to transfer terrorists who have been convicted abroad back to Iran. The so-called treaty between the Belgian government and the Iranian regime was designed to secure the release of Iranian diplomat-terrorist Assadollah Assadi.
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by Bassam Tawil • September 28, 2023 at 5:00 am
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was quoted on September 15 as saying that "normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel.... needs to involve a two-state solution." Most Palestinians, however, take quite a different view of the matter. [A] public opinion poll revealed that a majority of Palestinians are opposed to a normalization agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel, and opposed to the so-called two-state solution. The Saudi two-state solution envisages the establishment of an Iran-backed Arab terror state next to Israel. Israel already has such a terror state next to its border: the Gaza Strip, ruled since 2007 by Iran's proxies, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. On August 25, the American media outlet Axios reported that Blinken told Israel's Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer that the Israeli government is "misreading the situation" if it thinks it will not have to make concessions to the Palestinians as part of any Saudi deal. If anyone is misreading the situation, however, it is Blinken, who thinks that Israeli concessions would convince the Palestinians to accept an agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel. As the results of the PCPSR poll showed, the Palestinian public is not impressed with the proposed concessions. If the Palestinian Authority is currently unable or unwilling to prevent terror groups from attacking Israelis, it is truly delusional to think that it would be more diligent in controlling security in any new areas it received from Israel. Abbas has not been willing to send his security officers to arrest or kill the terrorists based in the cities of Jenin and Nablus. He knows that if he does, his people will condemn him as a "traitor" and "collaborator" with Israel, and quickly dispatch him to "drink tea up there" with the Egypt's murdered President Anwar Sadat, who was assassinated for brokering his country's 1979 peace deal with Israel. Moreover, Abbas will not go against the terrorists as long as they do not physically go against him. Most of all, the idea of transferring more land to the Palestinians is terrible because sends a message to the Palestinian Authority that, after it failed to combat terrorism in land under its control, it will be rewarded with even more land. As the poll illustrates, support for anti-Israel terrorism among the Palestinians has risen from 53% (three months ago) to 58% today. That is why it is unrealistic to expect the Palestinian Authority to take any measures to disarm the terror groups in the West Bank. Unlike Blinken, Palestinian leaders are aware of the massive support for terrorism among their people. Unlike Blinken, Palestinian leaders also know that were it not for Israel's presence in the West Bank, Iran and its terror proxies would have taken complete control of the area a long time ago and ousted Abbas, just as they did in the Gaza Strip in 2007. In addition, the Palestinian Authority, through its "Pay-for-Slay" program, proudly rewards terrorists who murder or wound Jews. In just one year, "Ramallah paid out around NIS 600 million ($187 million) in salaries for Palestinians imprisoned, jailed, or killed by Israel in 2020, according to a senior Palestine Liberation Organization official." So, while Blinken is talking about the need to involve the "two-state solution" in a Saudi-Israeli deal, 67% of Palestinians oppose it. Palestinian officials sound more conciliatory when they speak in English to their American and European counterparts, who after all, are among their major funders. In Arabic, the conversation is quite different. Rather than demanding that Israel make concessions to the Palestinians as part of a Saudi-Israeli deal, Blinken should put pressure on the Palestinians to enforce law and order in their areas, disarm the terror groups, and stop murdering Israelis. If anyone needs to make concessions for peace it is the Palestinian Authority, whose leaders continue to spread antisemitism and falsehoods about Israel and Jews, promote and glorify violence -- and pay salaries to terrorists and their families to go murder Jews.
The Palestinian Authority (PA), through its "Pay-for-Slay" program, proudly rewards terrorists who murder or wound Jews. In just one year, "Ramallah paid out around NIS 600 million ($187 million) in salaries for Palestinians imprisoned, jailed, or killed by Israel in 2020, according to a senior Palestine Liberation Organization official." In 2018, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said: "We will neither reduce nor withhold the allowances of the families of martyrs, prisoners, and released prisoners... if we had one single penny left, we would spend it on the families of the martyrs and the prisoners." (Image source: MEMRI) During the past three decades, Israel has made countless concessions to the Palestinians as part of an effort to advance peace and coexistence. In 1993-95, Israel signed the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians, giving them full security and civilian control over large parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Thousands of PLO members stationed in different Arab countries were allowed to move to the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel released thousands of Palestinian security prisoners, including many who were involved in terrorist attacks against Israelis. The Palestinians, however, were never asked by the US and other international parties to make concessions to Israel. The Israeli concessions did not advance the peace process with the Palestinians. Instead, the concessions were seen by the Palestinians as a sign of weakness and prompted them to increase their terrorist attacks and incitement against Israel.
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by Gordon G. Chang • September 27, 2023 at 1:00 pm
"Learning from Russia, China is likely developing Low Yield and Very Low Yield nuclear weapons.... to which the U.S. is not prepared to respond." — Richard Fisher of the International Assessment and Strategy Center, to Gatestone Institute, September 2023. In short, China is almost certainly detonating nuclear devices and definitely fast building its nuclear arsenal. The Pentagon in a November 2022 report forecast that China would quadruple its warheads from about 400 then to 1,500 by 2035. "For decades, they were quite comfortable with an arsenal of a few hundred nuclear weapons... to act as a deterrent. That expansion... they're undertaking puts us into a new world that we've never lived in before, where you have... three great powers, essentially — with large arsenals of nuclear weapons." — Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall, in testimony referring to China; stripes.com, March 28, 2023. China is already thinking of first strikes with nukes. We do not have to speculate: Chinese officials... [have] threatened them. China's leader Xi Jinping may be preparing to make good on the threats. The simultaneous removal this summer of the top two officers of the Rocket Force, the branch of the Chinese military in charge of almost all of the country's nuclear weapons, and 11 Rocket Force generals overall, suggest that Xi is installing officers who will obey commands to launch nukes. Furthermore, across the other branches of the Chinese military, Xi is apparently removing officers opposed to war, including retired air force General Liu Yazhou, who is thought to have received a death sentence. There are other interpretations for these moves, but all of them are ominous. War, likely to be fought with nuclear weapons, looks increasingly likely. To deter, the U.S. needs to go beyond subcritical testing and detonate a nuclear device. "We do not have the luxury of time as we have not modernized our nuclear forces for nearly four decades and our legacy systems are nearing the end of their already extended lives." America needs to make sure that new systems work and old warheads still function. — Peter Huessy, GeoStrategic Analysis, to Gatestone, September 2023. America's survival depends on its nuclear arsenal. As Huessy points out, disarmament advocates think the U.S. can deter adversaries and enemies with conventional forces only. That, he points out, ignores the reality of the battlefield: "Any use of nuclear weapons in a conflict would render the combat plans of our conventional combat commanders ineffective." Although the U.S. can learn much from computer simulations and other techniques, at some point the U.S. will have to detonate a nuclear device at least to validate three decades of assumptions. The United States, therefore, must resume testing nuclear weapons now.
China is almost certainly detonating nuclear devices and definitely fast building its nuclear arsenal. War, likely to be fought with nuclear weapons, looks increasingly likely. To deter, the U.S. needs to go beyond subcritical testing and detonate a nuclear device. Pictured: An aerial view of the subsidence crater formed by the Huron King underground nuclear test in Nevada on June 24, 1980. (Photo by FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images)
CNN on September 23 reported that, based on satellite imagery it had reviewed, China, Russia and the U.S. all are upgrading nuclear weapons testing facilities. Although the news outlet states "there is no evidence to suggest that Russia, the U.S., or China is preparing for an imminent nuclear test," it is clear that the world's prohibition on nuclear testing cannot last long. The United States should resume nuclear tests now. An American test would not come out of the blue. "There are really a lot of hints that we're seeing that suggest Russia, China, and the United States might resume nuclear testing," Jeffrey Lewis of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies told CNN.
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by Alan M. Dershowitz • September 27, 2023 at 5:00 am
In both the Menendez and Trump cases, prosecutors are engaging in the questionable tactic of seeking to influence the jury before trial. Both show and tells [Menendez's gold bars and Trump's documents] are wrong. Both are intended to prejudice potential jurors and witnesses and to try the case in the court of public opinion before it is subject to the adversarial process to the courts of law. Two wrongs do not make a right -- nor do they cancel each other out. They simply compound the injustices and demonstrate that this Justice Department -- and several others that came before it -- are willing to violate the spirit if not the letter of the law, Justice Department regulations and legal ethics. No one should rush to judgment before all the evidence is seen and heard. Nor should Menendez be compelled to resign his seat in the Senate based on allegations, photographs and the kind of one-sided testimony that is heard by grand jurors. The presumption of innocence means just that: at this point in time, Menendez should be deemed no more guilty than other officeholders who have been accused of wrongdoing. One irony of the Justice Department's publication of prejudicial photographs clearly intended to influence the jury and potential witnesses is the fact that the same Justice Department is seeking to impose a gag order on Trump, in part because of the claim that he will try to influence jurors and witnesses against the government. Both Trump and Menendez have the constitutional right – under the 1st and 6th Amendments – to defend themselves in the court of public opinion. The government, on the other hand, has no constitutional right to try to influence jurors or witnesses. Its only legitimate role is just to seek objective and fair justice. In that regard, the Justice Department is starting off on the wrong foot in both the Menendez and Trump cases.
Regarding the recent indictment of Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), no one should rush to judgment before all the evidence is seen and heard. Nor should Menendez be compelled to resign his Senate seat based on allegations, photographs and the kind of one-sided testimony that is heard by grand jurors. Pictured: Menendez speaks during a press conference at Hudson County Community College in Union City, New Jersey on September 25, 2023. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Many Democrats are claiming that the recent indictment of Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) proves that the current Justice Department provides equal justice to Democrats and Republicans. Although it is necessary to wait for the evidence to emerge before judgment is passed on this most recent indictment, what appears so far may be closer to equal injustice. In both the Menendez and Trump cases, prosecutors are engaging in the questionable tactic of seeking to influence the jury before trial. The photographic display of gold bars and cash in the Menendez case is an image that will remain with everyone who saw it. The same is true of the contrived photographic display by the Justice Department of allegedly classified documents spread on the floor. This "show and tell "was produced by the Justice Department and published in virtually every media outlet in the country.
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by Khaled Abu Toameh • September 26, 2023 at 5:00 am
During the past few days, the Iran-backed Palestinian terror group Hamas has again been encouraging Palestinians living under its rule in the Gaza Strip to march toward the border with Israel and attack Israelis. The latest attacks on Israelis by Hamas, however, appear to be less linked to Israel.... Hamas, instead of directing its grievances toward Qatar [for cutting grants to Hamas], responds by sending young Palestinian men to throw explosive devices, Molotov cocktails, and stones at Israeli soldiers along the border with the Gaza Strip. Apparently, Hamas is hoping that the "Zionist enemy" (Israel) will come to its rescue by putting pressure on Qatar not to cut the financial grant. With many of its leaders sitting in Doha, Hamas must be rather fearful about coming out in public against Qatar. The official said that civil servants, including senior Hamas officials, have not received full salaries because of the reduction in the financial grant. Hamas, in other words, is admitting that the renewed violence is not linked to Jerusalem or the Temple Mount, but to its leaders' desire to obtain more funds from Qatar. The real blackmail, however, is coming from Hamas. First, Hamas is implying that if it doesn't get the funds, it will accuse the Qataris of collaboration with Israel, harming the Gulf state's image in the Arab and Islamic countries. Second, Hamas is openly stating that it will continue to send Palestinians to attack Israeli soldiers near the border if the Qataris do not resume the financial aid. Will the international community call out the Hamas leaders for sending young men to their deaths for the sake of the money being withheld? Based on experience: not likely Far more likely is that we will hear loud and bitter condemnations of Israel for "opening fire" at Palestinian protesters along the border with the Gaza Strip.
Hamas is now sending Palestinians in Gaza to attack Israelis on the border with Israel with explosive devices, Molotov cocktails, and stones, because Hamas is apparently upset that its friends in Qatar have reduced their monthly financial grant. Pictured: A bomb thrown by Hamas terrorists explodes in the Gaza Strip, near the border fence with Israel, during a riot on September 23, 2023. (Photo by Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images)
During the past few days, the Iran-backed Palestinian terror group Hamas has again been encouraging Palestinians living under its rule in the Gaza Strip to march toward the border with Israel and attack Israelis. Similar protests in 2018, also encouraged and sponsored by Hamas, resulted in the death or injury of hundreds of Palestinians. Those anti-Israel protests lasted for a year and ended without any noticeable achievements for Hamas. Israel agreed to ease some restrictions on the Gaza Strip, such as expanding the fishing zone three miles and allowing more raw material to be imported for civilian factories. The latest attacks on Israelis by Hamas, however, appear to be less linked to Israel, which has taken a series of measures over the past two years to boost the economy and improve the living conditions of the Palestinians in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Those measures include issuing work permits in Israel for more than 17,000 Palestinians.
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by Con Coughlin • September 25, 2023 at 5:00 am
Xi has been eyeing the South and East China Seas, coopting the Solomon Islands, building and militarizing his own artificial islands, and threatening not only Taiwan, but neighbours such as Australia, India and Japan. Putin seized and occupied territory in Georgia in 2008, and Ukraine in 2014 (Crimea) and 2023, not to mention his relentless bellicosity towards the Baltic states and eastern Europe. There are mounting concerns... in Western security circles that in return for providing any uplift in military support for Russia, Kim wants Moscow to provide technical assistance for his missile and satellite programmes, which would seriously enhance North Korea's ability to threaten the West with its nuclear arsenal. Any attempt by Russia to help improve North Korea's military strength will also benefit China's Communist rulers: it will provide North Korea with the ability to intensify the threat that all three countries pose to the US and its allies -- and to global security.
Following the recent summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, home to Moscow's space programme, in Russia's far east, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin are clearly emerging as the ringleaders of a new axis of evil comprising China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. Pictured: Putin speaks with Kim at the Vostochny Cosmodrome on September 13, 2023. (Photo by Artem Geodakyan/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
It is more than twenty years since then US President George W. Bush first identified an "axis of evil" of rogue states that threatened global security, and now a new alliance of malign states is taking shape with Russia and China acting as its new lynchpins. Back in 2002, when Bush first articulated his notion of rogue nations in his State of the Union address made in the wake of the September 11 attacks, he identified Iraq, Iran and North Korea as states that, together with their terrorist allies, "constitute an axis of evil...by seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger." At the time, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, whose regime had actively sought to acquire an arsenal of nuclear and biological weapons, was seen as posing the gravest threat to Western democracy, a threat which was finally nullified in 2003 after the US-led coalition succeeded in overthrowing his regime.
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by Uzay Bulut • September 24, 2023 at 5:00 am
After besieging and starving 120,000 Armenians of the South Caucasus Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) since December 2022, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale military offensive against Artsakh on September 19, subjecting the capital Stepanakert and other cities and villages to intensive fire using heavy artillery and drones. "My Facebook feed is full of pictures of missing children since yesterday. Most of them were at schools when the Azerbaijani military attacked so they were separated from their families. The lack of electricity, mobile and internet disruptions complicate the search efforts." — Anush Ghavalyan, journalist in Armenia, on X (formerly Twitter), September 20, 2023. Artsakh has never been part of independent Azerbaijan. Artsakh -- ruled by Armenian monarchs, and even by Persian rulers -- has always preserved its Armenian identity. Today, Azerbaijan is falsely claiming Artsakh as Azeri land, on the pretext that in the 1920s, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, as part of his strategy of divide and conquer, decreed that Artsakh should be part of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic as an autonomous oblast (province) even though Christian Armenia could not be less compatible with Muslim Azerbaijan. "Failure to stand up to Azerbaijan could also result in an escalation that leads not only to the total destruction of the Armenians of Artsakh but also to a wider war in the region as Azerbaijan and its ally Turkey pursue territorial ambitions in southern Armenia and northern Iran." — Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, on X (Twitter), September 19, 2023. The US government also has influence regarding Azerbaijan. President Joe Biden can discourage any such expansionist projects with one strong phone call to Azerbaijan's President Aliyev, by urging him to stop the invasion of Artsakh and Armenia if he does not want serious consequences. Those could include U.S. sanctions on Azeri government officials and an end to U.S. military assistance to Azerbaijan. The latter would be consistent with the FREEDOM Support Act. The US should also send a humanitarian airlift to the starving population of Artsakh -- consistent with America's heralded tradition of aiding at-risk populations. The frightening question is: Is the US internationally regarded as having leadership anymore?
Despite a supposed ceasefire agreement, Armenian civilians in Artsakh, including children, are being killed and wounded by Azerbaijani forces. The lives of approximately 120,000 Armenians are at stake. Entire villages are currently surrounded and isolated by Azerbaijani forces, which have cut off the electrical supply in those areas. Pictured: Russian peacekeepers (L) and Azerbaijani soldiers (R) socialize next to the Russian peacekeepers' base near Shusha, in Artsakh, on September 23, 2023. (Photo by Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images)
After besieging and starving 120,000 Armenians of the South Caucasus Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) since December 2022, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale military offensive against Artsakh on September 19, subjecting the capital Stepanakert and other cities and villages to intensive fire using heavy artillery and drones. Civilians, including children, are being killed and others seriously wounded. Thousands of Armenians who fled their villages and towns due to the Azerbaijani bombardments have become homeless. Entire villages are currently surrounded and isolated by Azerbaijani forces, which have cut off the electrical supply in those areas.
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by Amir Taheri • September 24, 2023 at 4:00 am
Africa today consists of 56 different experiences in nation-building with some remarkable successes and many inevitable failures. In many African countries a new player has entered the game: a younger generation that is better educated, more ambitious and, at the same time, less gullible than its ancestors in the 19th century who looked away while imperial powers carved the golden goose. With a one-size-fits-all scheme being out of the question, maybe the best way to "reset" relations with Africa is on a bilateral basis. As the nation-state is making a comeback even in old Europe, there is no reason why it should not be seen as the best vehicle for redefining Africa's role in reshaping the global system.
(Image source: iStock)
"Reset!" That was the magic word often used during US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's first visit to Africa, with the message that "years of neglect" under the Trump administration were over and that the Biden presidency would see a new golden dawn in US relations with the turbulent continent. At the time, few people remembered that Hillary Clinton had used the "reset" cliché about US-Russia relations during the first Obama administration. But if it took Clinton's reset ten years to prove be a dangerous illusion, Blinken's reset has turned out to be another monumental gaffe within less than two years. To be sure, the Biden administration did the usual diplomatic charade by organizing a US-Africa summit, providing countless photo-ops coupled with fantastic promises. Washington went even further by sending an expeditionary force to Niger to wipe out "terrorist groups" in the Sahel with the help of French and other European Union forces.
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by Majid Rafizadeh • September 23, 2023 at 5:00 am
The Biden administration... is also financing the ruling mullahs of Iran with billions of dollars to put the finishing touches on the country's nuclear program and for delivering more weapons to Russia with which to attack Ukraine. "We're sitting still, and the Chinese, the Russians, Iran, North Korea, and several others, are moving to shore up their relations and threaten us in a lot of different places." — Former US National Security Advisor John Bolton, The Hill, March 12, 2023. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the Biden administration seems to be allowing Iran's ruling mullahs to prosper from the war and emerge as the winners. "I have a question for you – how does Russia pay Iran for this, in your opinion? Is Iran just interested in money? Probably not money at all, but Russian assistance to the Iranian nuclear program. Probably, this is exactly the meaning of their alliance" — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Jerusalem Post, November 4, 2022. "Today, China, Russia, North Korea and Iran continue to invest in technologies to expand their capabilities to hit the United States with nuclear weapons. All four countries have also escalated their threatening rhetoric, indicating their willingness to use nuclear weapons in a military conflict. By expanding their nuclear programs, each has made clear that our nuclear arsenal is no longer a deterrent to their potential use of nuclear weapons." — U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, Fox News, May 4, 2023. Thanks to the Obama and Biden administrations' monumental capitulations to Iran's regime -- and the refusal of both administrations not only to stop Iran's nuclear weapons program but also to prevent anyone else from stopping it -- the Russian-Iranian-Chinese-North Korean alliance now poses a global existential threat.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the Biden administration seems to be allowing Iran's ruling mullahs to prosper from the war and emerge as the winners. Iran has become a major weapons exporter to Russia. Iran's arms exports to Russia are providing the mullahs with a great opportunity to perfect their military systems as well as to profit financially. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on September 15, 2022. (Photo by Alexandr Demyanchuk/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)
Not only is the Biden administration turning a blind eye on the growing alliance between Iran, Russia, China and North Korea, and looking the other way on their evasions of sanctions, it is also financing the ruling mullahs of Iran with billions of dollars to put the finishing touches on the country's nuclear program and for delivering more weapons to Russia with which to attack Ukraine. "We're sitting still, and the Chinese, the Russians, Iran, North Korea, and several others, are moving to shore up their relations and threaten us in a lot of different places," former US National Security Advisor John Bolton recently warned.
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