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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

The ambition of Turkish Aircraft Industries today is to build the first indigenous Turkish fighter jet, which could also be the world's first Muslim fighter aircraft, and it has invited friendly nations Azerbaijan and Pakistan join the effort. Meanwhile Turkey is trying hard to support its assertive regional policy with military might.

There is a problem: With a fleet consisting mostly of ageing F-16s and a per capita income of barely $9,000 Turkey cannot play the role of a major power.

Echoing the neo-Ottoman ambition, Colonel Ümit Yalım (ret.) recently claimed that the sovereignty of Greece's islands in the North Aegean Sea belongs to Turkey.

Erdoğan wants modern F-16s, while the U.S. Congress has a different opinion: Why give Turkey modern fighter jets if we want peace over the Aegean Sea? That leaves Turkey with one option: Make your own fighter aircraft.

Turkey's ailing economy is experiencing high inflation (at 59% year-on-year), and the country's external debt reached nearly $476 billion in March. The international credit insurance company Allianz Trade reported that the stock of Turkey's total external debt due within the next 12 months has risen to about $250 billion.

Erdoğan made one wrong strategic choice -- trying to align with Russia and America -- and left Turkey's top military planners pondering how to minimize the military and operational damage. The Turkish president should be able to understand that he cannot fully benefit from two clashing civilizations at his convenience.

On the 18^th anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the Iran-backed Palestinian terror groups are still talking about the need to step up attacks against Israel until the "liberation of all of Palestine," from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

These groups still see Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip not as a humanitarian gift to allow the Gazans to build the "Singapore of the Middle East," as former Israeli President Shimon Peres put it, but instead as the beginning of the Palestine Liberation Organization's 1974 "Ten Point Plan" (also known as the "phased plan") for the "comprehensive liberation" of all the land stretching "from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea" -- a euphemism for the elimination of Israel. The Plan essentially states that the Palestinians should take whatever land they are given and use it as a launching pad for getting the rest.

Hamas and other Palestinians never saw the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as a sign that Israel seeks to live in peace and coexistence with its Arab neighbors. On the contrary, they saw the withdrawal as an Israeli retreat -- a defeat in the face of a massive wave of terrorism.

The message the Palestinians came away with was not that the Israelis had given them land in the hope of peace, but rather: "We were shooting and they ran away, so let's keep on shooting and they will keep on running away!"

The Palestinian terror groups are trying to drive Jews out of the West Bank through drive-by shootings, stabbings, rockets and car-rammings. They want to turn the West Bank into another launching pad for attacking Israel the same way they did with the Gaza Strip.

To this day, many Palestinians, not only in Hamas, continue to view the Israeli disengagement as a direct result of terrorism. They use the Arabic term indihar -- defeat -- to describe the Israeli withdrawal from the entire Gaza Strip.

Hamas arch-terrorist Mohammed Def recently reminded everyone that as far as his group is concerned, the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip marks the beginning of the first "phase" toward destroying Israel.

For the Palestinians, acquiring the Gaza Strip, was, it seems, merely a taste. In their words, they want the West Bank, Jerusalem and the whole of Israel. They want all "settlers" removed not only from the Gaza Strip, but also from the West Bank, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and all of Israel. In their view, "all of Israel" is just one big settlement.

The Biden administration and other international parties that continue to promote the idea of a "two-state solution" are simply empowering Iran's Palestinian proxies and encouraging them to pursue their "phased plan" to increase terrorism, destroy Israel and replace it with yet another Islamist state.

The Iranian government recently set up a new airport "for terror purposes " in southern Lebanon, only 12 miles from the Israeli border -- presumably to make it easier for Iran's terrorist proxies there, such as Hizballah, to launch aerial attacks against Israel.

If Israel withdraws from the West Bank, the area will, without doubt, fall into the hands of the Iranian regime and its Palestinian proxies.

Those who are promoting the idea of a Palestinian state seek to expel Jews from the West Bank through false promises of peace and coexistence. It is time for decision-makers in Washington and other countries to trust what the Palestinians are saying: that they perceive Israeli concessions not as gestures of peace, but as gestures of surrender.

The ability of the Iranian regime soon to have unlimited nuclear weapons, funded largely by the Biden administration... will doubtless make their hegemonic vision easier to achieve. Not even a shot will need to be fired to persuade its victims to agree to whatever the mullahs wish; the threat will be enough.

No one is stopping them.

Creating an Iran-backed Palestinian terror state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip poses a destabilizing and existential threat by Iran not just to Israel but to the entire region and beyond: to Saudi Arabia despite a thaw that may well be temporary; to the Gulf States, Egypt, North Africa, Europe, Latin America and the United States.

On August 29, 2023, Sheikh Issam Amira, a prominent member of the Palestinian Hizb al-Tahrir party, argued that the "liberation" of Palestine is nothing compared to the potentially great conquests that Islam has in store for the rest of the non-Muslim world — including the United States.

What crime did these non-Muslim cities, nations, and continents commit against Muslims to deserve being targeted for violent conquest?

"The Party of Satan is America, Europe, Russia, and all Western nations, and all infidel [non-Muslim] nations everywhere.... Everyone who opposes Allah and his prophet is to be stricken with disgrace and misery. Not just that, they are to be broken in the here, and sent to the fire in the hereafter." — Sheikh Issam Amira, YouTube, August 29, 2023.

Although [Hizb al-Tahrir] means the "party of liberation," and although it pretends its sole interest is "liberating" Palestinians from Israel, when its members get together there seems to be an additional plan, not just for Jews.

Palestinian cleric Nidhal Siam made clear that, from an Islamic perspective, for Christians as well, liberation and conquest are one and the same.

"Oh Muslims, the anniversary of the conquest [fath/فتح, literally, "opening"] of Constantinople brings tidings of things to come. It brings tidings that Rome will be conquered in the near future, Allah willing." — Nidhal Siam, Jerusalem Post, January 20, 2020.

[The Palestinians] seek sympathy from the international community, despite the fact that until 1964, there reportedly were no Palestinians.

It also might be helpful to recall that until the seventh century and the birth of Muhammad, there were no Muslims – anywhere – let alone Palestinians.

The word Islam means "submission."

"Fight those who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day, nor comply with what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, nor embrace the religion of truth from among those who were given the Scripture, until they pay the tax, willingly submitting, fully humbled." — Qur'an, 9:29 Khattab translation.

Those conquered are given three choices: to convert to Islam; to remain tolerated, second-class citizens, called dhimmis, pay a "protection" tax [jizya], and live according to humiliating rules to remind them of their inferiority, -- such as being allowed to ride a donkey but not a camel or horse. The third choice is to die.

It is also helpful to remember that the Qur'an is not made up of "suggestions; Muslims consider it the word of God, similar to the Ten Commandments. One cannot say, "Oh, Allah didn't really mean that." Yes, Allah did...

In each of these military engagements, Muslims were the aggressors: they invaded non-Muslim territory and, apart from the Battle of Tours, which they lost, they butchered and enslaved the inhabitants, and appropriated their lands — for no other reason than that they were "infidels" — non-Muslims.

Many Palestinians, seemingly without seeing the irony, present themselves as a conquered and oppressed people whose land was stolen, while, in the same breath, they praise former conquests and wish for future ones -- replete with oppression and land-grabbing from other peoples only because they are not Muslim.

True, the Palestinians are oppressed, but by their own leaders, whom the international community keeps funding and supporting; not by Israelis, who of necessity respond to violence against them, but do not initiate it.

Perhaps the lesson, when all is said and done, is that Islamic notions of "justice" are based on a simple dichotomy: Whenever Muslims conquer, slaughter, subjugate or steal land, that is "just;" whenever they encounter the authority of "infidels," that is "unjust."

Hence the hatred for Israel, Rome, Europe, or wherever "infidels" still govern.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has, or has had, ties to 143 school districts in the United States, including 20 near military bases, through its "Confucius Classrooms," according to a recent report, "Little Red Classrooms: China's Infiltration of American K-12 Schools" by Parents Defending Education (PDE), a grassroots organization.

Attention to Confucius Institutes has mainly been centered around colleges and universities, but less so on K-12 education. This means that Chinese state propaganda is probably now pretty much all over American K-12 classrooms.

PDE observed that more than $17 million had been spent by the CCP on Confucius classrooms in the US between the years 2009-2023.

"Three of the nation's top science and technology high schools have ties to Chinese government affiliated programs including Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology has had ties to Tsinghua University High School—the high school affiliated with one of China's top military schools, Tsinghua University..." — Peter Wood, President, National Association of Scholars, Daily Signal, August 15, 2023.

"[W]hat's happening in these schools is that they learn that China is a benevolent institution, the heir of an ancient civilization that means nothing but goodwill to the rest of the world... And the notion that you can take children who have some aptitude for the hard sciences and math and get them to view China as a potential partner and friend... all through their educational careers. We're creating an assembly line for talented young men and women who will be unable to distinguish the American national interest from the Chinese national interest. They're getting blurred together at a young age and that's very difficult to undo once it's done." [Emphasis added.] — Peter Wood, Daily Signal, August 15, 2023.

Wood noted that CCP infiltration of American K-12 schools is "almost everywhere."

"[I]t's concentrated in the feeder schools to elite education, which means mostly West Coast and East Coast, but not exclusively those.... China's... looking for places where buying influence will yield results in the long term." — Peter Wood, Daily Signal, August 15, 2023.

"Programs vetted and managed by China's government have infiltrated 34 states and Washington, D.C., which impacts approximately 170,000 students across 143 school districts. Unfortunately, this investigation discovered 12 school systems in our own state have received money from the CCP. This includes the New York City Department of Education, which received $375,575.00 in CCP-connected funding. Considering China's adversarial relationship with the United States, this is deeply problematic and presents a national security concern for our constituents and state." [Emphasis added.] — Letter from Republican Members of Congress to New York Governor Kathy Hochul, August 21, 2023.

Hochul reportedly has close relations with CCP representatives in New York. She has repeatedly met with Huang Ping, China's New York Consul General, who once described Hochul as "an old friend," an honorific bestowed on those who have "rendered great services to China," as Clive Hamilton and Mareike Ohlberg write in their book, Hidden Hand: How the Chinese Communist Party is Reshaping the World.

These Palestinians are running away because they can no longer tolerate life under the Islamist movement of Hamas. They are not fleeing because of Israel.

"I know I'm risking my life, but I want to leave, dead or alive. At least I will find a dignified life abroad. People want to leave because of the oppression and injustice we see here [in the Gaza Strip]." — Sfouk AlSheik, twitter.com, September 10, 2023.

Since 2007, the Gaza Strip has been controlled by the Iran-backed Hamas terror group, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood organization. Instead of working to improve the living conditions of the two million Palestinians living under its rule, Hamas has since invested millions of dollars in manufacturing weapons and building tunnels from which to attack Israel. Hamas had an opportunity to turn the Gaza Strip into the "Singapore of the Middle East," but its desire to destroy Israel has brought only war and death to the Palestinians. To achieve its goal of murdering Jews and eliminating Israel, Hamas appears ready to sacrifice endless numbers of Palestinians.

Hamas evidently does not care if hundreds of Palestinians are killed and injured in wars instigated by its rocket attacks against Israel. Hamas does not even hesitate to use Palestinians as human shields during its wars with Israel. Members of the terror group have endangered the lives of thousands of their own innocent civilians by firing rockets from residential areas close to schools and hospitals.

"Despite their exposure to the risks of drowning, loss, and death, Palestinians fleeing the Gaza Strip see that Turkey and Europe are their hope and future." — Mahmoud al-Raqab, Palestinian political analyst, knooznet.com, September 10, 2023.

Needless to say, Abbas, in his speech, completely ignored the plight of the young Palestinians fleeing the Gaza Strip. For Abbas, promoting hate against Israel and Jews is more important than addressing the economic and humanitarian crisis he helped create, through his sanctions in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas leaders, for their part, continue to pretend that in the Gaza Strip everything is fine. They are also continuing to incite Palestinians to carry out terror attacks against Israel. Notably, the Hamas leaders are making these statements from their five-star hotels and villas in Qatar and Lebanon.

The international community, meanwhile, continues to ignore the wretched conditions of the Palestinians living under the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, choosing instead to lay all the blame on Israel.

As Palestinian leaders continue to suppress the people of the Gaza Strip, Israel has increased the number of work permits for Gazans. In July, at least 67,769 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip were allowed to cross the Israeli-controlled Erez border crossing -- up to 90% of them for jobs that pay well in Israel. Six per cent of the exits were for patients needing medical treatment in Israel or the West Bank.

It seems that Israel is doing more to help the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip than the Palestinian Authority, Hamas or any Arab country. However, because this news does not fit the anti-Israel agenda of many newspapers and foreign journalists, it is highly unlikely to make it into the mainstream media in the West.

"I was pretty dismayed at the extent of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence in the federal Parliament. I should probably not say any more to stay on the right side of the libel laws... [W]hat are the authorities doing about this? I think that's the real measure of China's influence." — Australian professor Clive Hamilton, National Post, April 15, 2019.

Despite leaked intelligence reports about Chinese interference in Canada's last two federal elections in 2019 and 2021, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has refused to hold a public probe into the matter.

[T]he passivity of Trudeau's Liberal Party is "permitting China to colonize Canada." — Tasha Kheiriddin, Canadian political columnist, National Post, August 22, 2023.

"On housing: Chinese money laundering inflated Canadian property values for decades and helped push home ownership out of reach for today's buyers. On drug addiction: China is the main source country of fentanyl found in Canada, paving the way for thousands of overdose deaths. On the economy: China has targeted a host of Canadian industries for control, from lobsters to lithium." — Tasha Kheiriddin, National Post, August 22, 2023.

"The CCP's basic strategy of overseas influence and interference is to capture elites in politics, business, media, think tanks, universities, and cultural institutions...It deploys a range of techniques including flattery, financial inducement, exploitation of anti-racist and anti-American sentiment, bribery, and honey traps... Key figures in the Liberal Party have long historical ties to the CCP, not least through business connections..." — Clive Hamilton, thehub.ca, June 2, 2023.

"I've often said that Chinese leaders are what I call CEO whisperers, they're very, very skillful when meeting foreigners, particularly senior foreigners. China inspires a kind of excessive affection in people and an excessive sense of wonder and a desire not to apply the usual sort of critical thinking skills, and people are seduced by it." — Former Canadian Ambassador to China David Mulroney, thehub.ca, June 2, 2023.

China has reportedly openly been trying to influence [Canadian PM] Justin Trudeau for the past ten years. One unnamed CSIS source said that the CCP had its eyes on Justin Trudeau well before he became prime minister.

Trudeau, during his first election campaign in 2016, visited the homes of "wealthy Chinese-Canadians for private fundraising events. Some of the hosts had close connections with the CCP and had been actively promoting Beijing's takeover of islands in the South China Sea." — Clive Hamilton, in his book, Hidden Hand: Exposing How the Chinese Communist Party is Reshaping the World.

The influence of the CCP is so pervasive that Canada's Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, "is pulling double duty as an official adviser to the Chinese government" according to a report in the Toronto Sun.

China... is a real threat to Canada's sovereignty. "Recent Chinese actions and announcements are pointing to Beijing's determination to have a military capability in the region that will exceed that of Canada." — Rob Hueber, senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and associate professor of political science at the University of Calgary, Globe and Mail, August 25, 2023.

"What has not received as much attention is a research paper, published in 2021, in which Chinese scientists explain their success in developing Arctic-resilient underwater listening systems. The paper says the listening systems are for peaceful purposes, but the actual ramifications of the HABs [high-altitude balloons], buoys and research systems are inescapable. China is refining its means of monitoring the Canadian North." — Rob Hueber, Globe and Mail, August 25, 2023.

"China will very soon enjoy a major advantage in monitoring Arctic waters, especially under the surface, and it will have confidence that Canada has little ability to see what is going on or do anything about it. Factor in the overwhelming evidence of Beijing's efforts to target and interfere in our political system – and our reluctance or inability to respond to these actions – and the larger threat to Canada's very sovereignty comes starkly into view." — Rob Hueber, Globe and Mail, August 25, 2023.