Latest Analysis and Commentary
by Karys Rhea • April 2, 2025 at 5:00 am
Israel's complete jurisdiction over Area C, which legally includes building permits, zoning, construction, law enforcement and planning, was recognized and agreed to by the Palestinian leadership and the world at large for almost three decades. As stipulated in the agreement, only when direct negotiations determine the permanent fate of the territories that had illegally been occupied by Jordan until 1967, can the Oslo Accords be replaced. Until then, it is the law. First, they fabricated a name for this illegal encampment to make it appear "historic": "Khan al Ahmar." From there, they complained to the media that this destitute group of Arabs were being threatened with supposed "crimes against humanity": forced population transfer and ethnic cleansing. They accompanied their manufactured narrative with images of barefoot Bedouin children, and began pumping money into the settlement, and building these "dispossessed" children a school. Khan al Ahmar is representative of a pattern of tactics that the PA regularly employs when wresting land rights from the State of Israel. First, it identifies a strategic point located far from an existing population center. Second, it illegally seizes the land, invents a name for this "historic" village that never existed, and insists the squatters have been there since the dawn of time, despite historic aerial photographs showing otherwise. Third, it broadcasts any pushback from Israel as "cruel" and "oppressive," and "ethnic cleansing".... Then, it finds another location to invade. As of today, the PA has built over 90,000 illegal structures and aggressively seized more than 23,000 acres of land. [T]he UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has been known to partner with the PA, and it actually plowed over the royal city of Shomron (Sebastia), the seat of the ancient Israelite Kingdom and one of the largest, most important archaeological sites in the area. UNESCO has also literally "reinvented" the Tomb of the Patriarchs -- where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca and Leah are buried -- as the purported tomb of a Muslim sheikh. Attempted legal action against the EU, on the basis of its undermining the Oslo Accords, is met with the claim that its funding for the PA merely amounts to "humanitarian aid" and that the EU has full "diplomatic immunity." Carver, however, argues that this defense is invalid because the Vienna Convention stipulates that diplomats may only be granted immunity if they do not interfere in the internal affairs of a state, which the EU is actively doing by seizing land that is recognized legally as being under Israel's jurisdiction. In claiming immunity by falsely declaring that it is not interfering in Israel's internal affairs, the EU is also disregarding a foundational element of the UN charter: the principle of non-intervention. The Europeans appear to want it both ways, on the one hand paying lip service to the Oslo Accords in order to criticize Israel, while on the other hand actively helping the PA to ignore the terms of the Accords. The chasm between proclaimed intention and actual behavior renders any commitment to peace laughable. The irony of the Europeans condemning Israel for expropriating questionable Palestinian land when the Europeans themselves are helping Palestinians to expropriate Israeli land is lost on the public at large.
Khan al Ahmar is representative of a pattern of tactics that the Palestinian Authority regularly employs when wresting land rights from the State of Israel. First, it identifies a strategic point located far from an existing population center. Second, it illegally seizes the land, invents a name for this "historic" village that never existed, and insists the squatters have been there since the dawn of time, despite historic aerial photographs showing otherwise. Third, it broadcasts any pushback from Israel as "cruel" and "oppressive," and "ethnic cleansing" Pictured: An internationally-funded school building in Khan al Ahmar, with Israeli Highway 1 in the background, photographed in 2015. (Image source: TrickyH/Wikimedia Commons)
Yesterday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced their commitment to "foil what they said was the Palestinian Authority's scheme to seize land across Judea and Samaria." Most of this vast, lawless land-grab, it turns out, has been energized and financed by the European Union (EU). For decades, members of the media, activist groups, academics, international organizations, NGOs, and countless politicians have insisted that Jewish settlements in the West Bank are the primary obstacle to peace between Israelis and Palestinians. These settlements, the assumption goes, represent an illegal and inhumane "occupation," and until they are dismantled and the territory handed over to a Palestinian state, there can be no resolution to the conflict.
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by Alan M. Dershowitz • April 1, 2025 at 5:00 am
Many left-wing university faculty members... are making the absolutist claim that it is always a denial of academic freedom for governments to pressure universities with a cut-off of funding. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to hypothesize the following variation on the current situation: it's the 1950s and 1960s in the Deep South; a formerly segregated university is allowing masked KKK racists to harass Black students, blocking some from attending classes; buildings are occupied by Klansmen demanding a return to segregation; the university is doing nothing to protect the Black students, citing academic freedom and freedom of speech. None of these purported factual distinctions justifies the allegedly principled opposition to the Trump administration's employment of pressure to stop anti-Jewish discrimination at Columbia from those who would praise the employment of similar pressure to prevent discrimination against Blacks, gays or other groups favored by intersectionality. It is double standard bigotry against Jews, plain and simple. The pressure on Columbia may produce positive results — if it keeps its promises — including more academic freedom and free speech for students who were victimized by Columbia's inaction until it was pressured to act by the threat of defunding. That would be a good thing, just as federal pressure on some southern universities that reduced discrimination against Blacks in the 1950s and 1960s was a good thing.
In the 1950s and 1960s, liberals and civil rights advocates applauded the threats of the federal government against universities, to force them to protect black students. But now that similar threats and actions have been taken to protect Jewish students from masked Hamas supporters at Columbia University, many liberals and civil rights advocates are complaining, alleging interference with academic freedom. Pictured: Alabama Governor George Wallace (L) faces General Henry Graham at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, on June 12, 1963, where he attempted to block the enrollment of two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, in defiance of a federal court order. Wallace appointed himself university registrar and blocked the doorway to prevent the black students from registering. President John F. Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard and sent 100 guardsman to escort the students into the university, commanded by Graham, who ordered Wallace to "step aside." (Photo by OFF/AFP via Getty Images)
Many left-wing university faculty members (a redundancy if there ever was one) are rebelling against the Trump administration's threat to cut federal funding to universities that tolerate antisemitic actions against their Jewish students. They condemned the acting president of Columbia for accepting some of the administration's conditions for restoring the $400 million that it threatened to cut, and she was forced to resign. The faculty members are making the absolutist claim that it is always a denial of academic freedom for governments to pressure universities with a cut-off of funding. In making this broad claim, they ignore the lessons of history and the single standard of morality.
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by Bassam Tawil • March 31, 2025 at 5:00 am
Those who are rushing to celebrate the protests in Gaza need to consider that they are most likely nothing but a show by the Iran-backed Hamas to fool the world into thinking that there is an uprising against the terrorist group. After all, this is the same Hamas that kept signaling to everyone, years before its terrorists attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, that it was not interested in another round of fighting. Then it murdered and brutally tortured 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 251. What would Norway or Denmark do if ISIS or Al-Qaeda were on its border, seeking to destroy it? According to some reports, Hamas members have been spotted leading some of Gaza's demonstrations. Last year, Israel tried to encourage anti-Hamas clans to play a role in managing the Gaza Strip -- without success. Regrettably, several clans have, over the past year, issued statements expressing support for Hamas as the "sole representative of the Gaza Strip." The current protests are taking place for one reason only: Hamas is conspicuously losing the war... The protesters are just angry that Israel retaliated so hard. All Hamas would have to do for Israel to stop is to free the 59 remaining hostages, only 24 of whom possibly remain alive – but all of whom are victims of a kidnapping that should not have happened in the first place. Sadly, there is no alternative to the complete removal of Hamas.... [T]here is no difference between Hamas's political wing and its military wing. Hamas's political wing, in fact, requires the military wing, to be able to stay in power. If the West falls for Hamas's latest ploy, the terror group will simply soon be able to take control of the Gaza Strip with a rebranded name. Hamas's primary goal, after all, is to remain in power. It is time to stop projecting Western values and aspirations onto Islamist societies. The protests in the Gaza Strip are not a shift toward peace. Instead, they are a symptom of the Palestinians' failure, once again, to achieve their goal of murdering Jews and eliminating Israel. Make no mistake: Once the Palestinians recover from the war, they will continue their jihad against Israel. Many of the "anti-Hamas" protesters will then reappear, this time complete with masks, weapons and military gear.
The current protests are taking place for one reason only: Hamas is conspicuously losing the war. It is time to stop projecting Western values and aspirations onto Islamist societies. The protests in the Gaza Strip are not a shift toward peace. Instead, they are a symptom of the Palestinians' failure, once again, to achieve their goal of murdering Jews and eliminating Israel. Pictured: An anti-Hamas protest in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, on March 26, 2025. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
The recent anti-Hamas protests in the Gaza Strip are seen by some Western and Arab political analysts as a positive and encouraging development. Those who are rushing to celebrate the protests in Gaza need to consider that they are most likely nothing but a show by the Iran-backed Hamas to fool the world into thinking that there is an uprising against the terrorist group. After all, this is the same Hamas that kept signaling to everyone, years before its terrorists attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, that it was not interested in another round of fighting. Then it murdered and brutally tortured 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 251. One of Hamas's tactics has been to try to protect its terrorists by hiding them among civilians. According to some reports, Hamas members have been spotted leading some of Gaza's demonstrations.
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by Raymond Ibrahim • March 30, 2025 at 5:00 am
Some accounts of the "pure genocide" experienced by Christians at the hands of Muslims. — Nigeria. "We, all Muslims, residents of Paccerakkang, especially Neighbourhood 02 and 03 STRONGLY REJECT the Establishment of a Church and worship activities in our environment forever." — Text printed on banners, majesty.co.id, February 11, 2025, Indonesia. Coptic Christians, for some inexplicable reason, appear to have become the most careless and fire-prone people in the world: more Coptic churches than any other kind seem to keep on "catching fire." — copticsolidarity.org, February 20, 2025, Egypt.
On February 5, a fire broke out in the Church of the Archangel Michael, in a village of Egypt's Qena governorate. Egyptian authorities blame "natural causes," apparently to explain away that church fires in Egypt have become commonplace in recent years. In August 2022 alone, 11 churches supposedly "caught fire." Pictured: The Abu Sefein Coptic Christian church in Giza, Egypt, after a fire tore through it during Sunday mass on August 14, 2022, killing 41 people. (Photo by Islam Safwat/Getty Images)
The following are among the abuses and murders inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of February 2025. The Muslim Slaughter of Christians Democratic Republic of Congo: The beheaded corpses of seventy Christians—men, women, and children—were found inside a church. Earlier, on Feb. 12, Muslim militants of the Allied Democratic Forces, which is affiliated to the Islamic State, rounded up and marched 70 Christians to a Protestant church in Kasanga. There, the Christians were "tied up and decapitated with knives." According to a regional expert, "This was not just an act of terror. It was a targeted massacre of Christians, and it will not stop here... The ADF is part of a growing extremist network that wants to wipe out Christianity in the region. If nothing is done, more attacks will follow."
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by Amir Taheri • March 30, 2025 at 4:00 am
The ultimate goal of this new oligarchy is to privatize government, a concept that is anathema to European intellectuals who regard the Hobbesian state as an earthly version of divinity. To Americans, however, the Leviathan, though accepted as a necessity, has always been regarded as a potential threat to freedoms that their ancestors sought as they fled from European tyrannies. Whether their restoration scheme works or not remains to be seen. But to question its legitimacy is a sign of sour grapes by European gurus who witness their politically correct world crumbling around them.
The Trump-Musk project is aimed at reducing the size of the Leviathan and preventing its use in the service of a one size-fits-all ideology. Whether their restoration scheme works or not remains to be seen. But to question its legitimacy is a sign of sour grapes by European gurus who witness their politically correct world crumbling around them. Pictured: Trump and Musk speak to the media at the White House on March 11, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
"Why is Donald Trump doing what he is doing?" This is the question raised by European intelligentsia these days as they try to recover from the shock of the American presidential election, which they all believed would be won by the Democrat champion Kamala Harris. France's currently fashionable TV philosopher Michel Onfray raises the question in a number of programs, as do op-ed writers in newspapers in London, Brussels and Berlin, and Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis. The answer to the question may be simple: Trump is doing what he is doing because he promised to do those things and has a contract with the 78 million Americans who voted for him. However, a simple answer won't satisfy an intellectual caste that is used to project prestige via convoluted concepts dished out in a jargon designed to impress if not frighten the plebes.
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by Majid Rafizadeh • March 29, 2025 at 5:00 am
Now, with Trump's ultimatum delivered on March 7 to Iran— giving the regime a two-month deadline either to give up its nuclear and missile programs or face severe consequences — Beijing and Moscow have simply been accelerating Tehran's efforts to join the nuclear club and to possesses at least six nuclear bombs before Trump's deadline expires. A meeting between Iranian and Chinese officials in Beijing, followed by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei's outright rejection of Trump's warnings, could signal a dangerous development: Iran has likely received guarantees from China and Russia that they will protect the regime, support its nuclear program, and ensure that it acquires nuclear weapons before the possibly-too-generous deadline Trump has set, no matter the consequences. Iran's bold rejection of Trump's threats may not be based on internal strength but on external guarantees. Beijing and Moscow have likely calculated that if Iran regime joins the nuclear club and possesses nuclear bombs before Trump's deadline expires and he takes direct action, then the West will be forced to accept a nuclear-armed Iran, just as it has had to accept a nuclear North Korea. With Trump's ultimatum in place, these adversaries are racing against the clock to ensure that Iran becomes a nuclear-armed state. If the US and its allies fail to act immediately, the balance of power could shift permanently, and the West could lose the war before realizing it had even begun.
With Trump's ultimatum delivered on March 7 to Iran— giving the regime a two-month deadline either to give up its nuclear and missile programs or face severe consequences — Beijing and Moscow have simply been accelerating Tehran's efforts to join the nuclear club and to possesses at least six nuclear bombs before Trump's deadline expires. Pictured: Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian looks on as a 'Qasem Soleimani' missile is displayed during a military parade in Tehran, on September 21, 2024. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)
Talk surrounding Iran's nuclear ambitions has long focused on the ruling ayatollahs and their determined pursuit of nuclear weapons. The West's primary focus has been mainly on Iran's domestic leadership: the Supreme Leader, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Iran's nuclear scientists. What remains overlooked is the significant role that China, North Korea and Russia have been playing to make sure that Iran achieves nuclear weapons breakout before US President Donald J. Trump's "two-month ultimatum" runs out.
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by Gordon G. Chang • March 28, 2025 at 5:00 am
"Communist China has now taken war to the heavens, to low earth orbit, and very likely, will take war to the moon, Mars, and beyond. The heavens are no longer safe for the democracies." — Richard Fisher, International Assessment and Strategy Center, to Gatestone, March 2025. "Rising powers, notably China and Russia, saw how reliant we were on space—and how poorly defended our systems were. Our access to the strategic high ground is now more threatened than ever before." — Brandon Weichert, author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, to Gatestone, March 2025 China is making fast progress in building space weapons. "The Chinese ISR"—intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance—"capabilities are become very capable," said Gen. Guetlein. "They have gone from what we used to call a 'Kill Chain' to a 'Kill Mesh.'" A Kill Mesh combines ISR satellites with an array of weapons systems. "The recent demonstration of Chinese 'dogfighting' capabilities in space is an indicator that Beijing means to use force on earth. By targeting sensitive U.S. military satellites, the People's Liberation Army can render us deaf, dumb, and blind, long before it strikes." — Brandon Weichert, to Gatestone, March 2025. The Chinese are evidently planning to blind not only America's military but also America's civilian society, which is heavily dependent on space assets. Almost nothing modern in America will work when the Chinese are finished attacking in the heavens.
China is making fast progress in building space weapons, and appears to be working on large combat platforms that can attack satellite targets in multiple orbits. The Chinese are evidently planning to blind not only America's military but also America's civilian society, which is heavily dependent on space assets. Almost nothing modern in America will work when the Chinese are finished attacking in the heavens. Pictured: A Long March 3B rocket, carrying the Beidou-3GEO3 satellite, lifts off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China's Sichuan province on June 23, 2020. (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)
"With our commercial assets, we have observed five different objects in space maneuvering in and out and around each other in synchronicity and in control," the U.S. Space Force's Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Michael Guetlein told the 16th annual McAleese Defense Programs conference in Arlington, Virginia on March 18. "That's what we call dogfighting in space. They are practicing tactics, techniques and procedures to do on-orbit space operations from one satellite to another."
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by Lawrence Kadish • March 28, 2025 at 4:00 am
(Image source: OpenAI)
Eighty years ago this summer, the United States would assure its role as a global superpower for generations to come by harnessing its scientific, industrial and military resources under the code name, "The Manhattan Project," creating a war-winning weapon, the atomic bomb. President Donald Trump now has the means to repeat history by funding a 2025 version of the Manhattan Project that guarantees our access to all the energy we will need to power this century. To place the challenge in context, the president is no fan of wind turbines. Grounded in the economics of business, he appreciates that the energy rate of return for the enormous investment required to build wind turbines makes little sense. He remains focused on some of America's greatest energy resources, domestic fossil fuels, making us not only capable of running our economy but independent of foreign crude and those control that spigot. And yet, there is an energy shortage on our nation's horizon.
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by Lawrence Kadish • March 27, 2025 at 5:00 am
Pictured: An agent of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency hands over to authorities in El Salvador an inmate from a flight of deportees who are members of the designated foreign terrorist organizations Tren de Aragua and MS-13, on March 16, 2025 in Tecoluca, El Salvador. (Photo by El Salvador Government via Getty Images)
The only matter about which there seems no dispute in President Donald J. Trump's administration having officially designated Tren de Aragua and Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, is that they are a threat to public safety. The text of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, written 10 years after the Constitution was ratified, states: §21 Restraint, regulation, and removal
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by Con Coughlin • March 26, 2025 at 5:00 am
"Something's going to happen one way or the other. I hope that Iran — and I've written him a letter, saying, 'I hope you're going to negotiate.' Because if we have to go in militarily, it's going to be a terrible thing — for them." — US President Donald J. Trump, interview with Fox News, March 7, 2025. So long as the Islamic Republic of Iran indulges in its usual tactic of prevarication in the hope that, by engaging in delaying tactics, it can buy more time to achieve its nuclear ambitions, the credibility of the Trump administration taking direct action against Tehran needs to increase. Iran's demand, for example, that it might consider opening negotiations with Washington if the Trump administration first agreed to lift punitive economic sanctions, is a classic exercise in the regime's attempts to play for time.
Iran's refusal to accept US President Donald Trump's demand that it completely dismantle its controversial nuclear programme, which Western intelligence officials are convinced is ultimately designed to build nuclear weapons, raises the very real risk of the US launching direct military action to destroy the programme. Pictured: Trump signs an executive order "reimposing maximum pressure on Iran" in the White House on February 4, 2025. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Iran's refusal to accept US President Donald Trump's demand that it completely dismantle its controversial nuclear programme, which Western intelligence officials are convinced is ultimately designed to build nuclear weapons, raises the very real risk of the US launching direct military action to destroy the programme. Trump's initial offer to negotiate an end to Iran's nuclear programme was contained in a letter he wrote to the ayatollahs on March 7, in which he indicated he was willing to engage in talks concerning Iran's nuclear activities. But the letter also contained an explicit warning that any failure by Tehran to respond positively to his overture could lead to direct military action.
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by Khaled Abu Toameh • March 25, 2025 at 5:00 am
"They [Hamas] need to demilitarize, and then they might be politically involved in Gaza." —US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, interview with Tucker Carlson, March 21, 2025. "I thought we had an acceptable deal. I even thought we had an approval from Hamas. Maybe that's just me getting duped." — Steve Witkoff, about a ceasefire extension he thought he had just finished negotiating, Fox News, March 23, 2023. Duped is putting it mildly. Witkoff, who doubtless has the best intentions, is sadly proving the perfect mark. Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that needs to be designated by the US as a terrorist group. Hamas is Muslim Brotherhood, and Muslim Brotherhood is Hamas. [Hamas's] politicians devise the strategy and set the goals, while its armed wing is entrusted with following them. The political leadership of Hamas ruled that Israel must be eliminated, and the group's military wing has carried out countless terrorist attacks to achieve that goal. The political leaders need the military wing to control the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, as they have been doing since their violent coup there in 2007. Hamas, which has brought death and destruction upon both Israelis and Palestinians, has no right to exist, either as a political or a military entity. Did it ever occur to anyone to allow the political leaders of ISIS or Al-Qaeda to play any role in Syria and Iraq? If Hamas is permitted to continue its political activities in the Gaza Strip, it will comfortably continue its jihad against Israel. The group's political leaders will undoubtedly continue to call – in Arabic -- for the annihilation of Israel and encourage Palestinians to launch terrorist attacks against it. Witkoff's talk about a possible political role for Hamas is dangerous, mainly because it implies that the US continues to view the terror group as a legitimate player in the Palestinian arena. If the US envoy wants to see stability and security in the Middle East, he must insist on the complete and permanent removal of Hamas – all of its "wings." Destroying "much" of Hamas's military capabilities or disarming it is totally worthless.
Hamas, which has brought death and destruction upon both Israelis and Palestinians, has no right to exist, either as a political or a military entity. Did it ever occur to anyone to allow the political leaders of ISIS or Al-Qaeda to play any role in Syria and Iraq? A terrorist in a suit and tie is no different from a terrorist in a military uniform. Pictured: The late Yahya Sinwar, leader of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza, shakes hands with a masked member of Hamas' Izz a-Din al-Qassam Brigades in Gaza City on December 14, 2022. (Photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump's envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, said last week that he does not rule out the possibility that the Iran-backed Palestinian terror group Hamas could be politically active in the Gaza Strip after it disarms. "They [Hamas] need to demilitarize, and then they might be politically involved in Gaza," Witkoff said in an interview with Tucker Carlson that was aired on March 21. Witkoff -- who, thanks to his excruciating lack of familiarity with Arab assumptions apart from real estate deals, is increasingly becoming a major embarrassment to Trump -- appears to draw a distinction between Hamas's political and military leaderships. He also seems naïve enough to believe that Hamas would ever agree to lay down its weapons or halt its terrorist attacks against Israel.
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by Lawrence Kadish • March 25, 2025 at 4:00 am
While China is a potent nuclear power with astronauts in orbit and squadrons of stealth fighters in the air, one merely needs to look at its navy to appreciate what the Communist Chinese leadership's 21st Century plans are: global domination. Pictured: J15 fighter jets on China's Liaoning aircraft carrier during a drill at sea, in April 2018. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
When Britain ruled the seas centuries ago, they were the world's sole superpower, dominating trade routes, creating colonies, applying military power to demand spheres of influence, and using that power to maximize its economy back home. Today's Communist Chinese leadership can probably recite that playbook by heart. While China is a potent nuclear power with astronauts in orbit and squadrons of stealth fighters in the air, one merely needs to look at its navy to appreciate what their 21st Century plans are: global domination.
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by Lawrence A. Franklin • March 24, 2025 at 5:00 am
[Ahmed] Al-Sharaa, on taking power in Syria in December, originally professed to be a "moderate." The Biden administration even lifted a $10 million bounty for his arrest, for previous terrorist activity linked to Al Qaeda, presumably in the hope of moderation actually being delivered. Since that time, however, al-Sharaa and his followers have appeared more as terrorists in suits and ties. The country's new constitution, published on March 14, stipulates that Islamic Sharia jurisprudence is the sole source of judicial decision-making. This constitution also asserts that Syria's president must be a Muslim and that the executive branch has almost dictatorial powers. Moreover, the constitution includes no provision for protecting Syrian ethnic or religious minorities, which include Christians, Alawites, Kurds and Druze. Sunni jihadist government forces are reportedly reveling in the massacre of the Alawites, and Turkey has already set up secret cells throughout Syria "to use as proxies abroad." Christians throughout Syria are afraid that after the Alawites, they will be next. It is also possible that al-Sharaa's HTS will be successful in uniting most of Syria under its control, then initiate a genocidal purge against Christians and the rest of the "infidels." Some of Syria's minorities have been seeking help from nearby Israel. Some Druze community leaders even asked Israel officially to annex their villages. Israel has established a strategic "buffer zone" in areas of Syria adjacent to the countries' shared border, to deter potential jihadist and Turkish attacks, and may yet again turn out to be threatened minorities' greatest protector.
From March 6-9 – unchecked by Ahmed al-Sharaa's professedly "moderate" interim government – his jihadist troops slaughtered an estimated 1,080 Syrians in 72 hours, apparently mostly civilian members of the minority Alawite religion. Pictured: Jihadists loyal to al-Sharaa celebrate on a beach in Latakia on March 9, 2025, following the massacre in the city. (Photo by Omar Haj Kadour/AFP via Getty Images)
In December 2024, after an offensive lasting less than two weeks that swept through much of Syria, a Turkish-backed Sunni militia led by Ahmed al-Sharaa ousted the Assad regime, which had ruled the country for 54 years. From March 6-9 – unchecked by al-Sharaa's professedly "moderate" interim government – his jihadist troops slaughtered an estimated 1,080 Syrians in 72 hours, apparently mostly civilian members of the minority Alawite religion. The Alawite sect, which split off from Shia Islam in the ninth century, is regarded by other Shiites as heretical. To people who practice Sunni Islam -- the religion of al-Sharaa and Turkey -- all non-Sunnis are infidels. Alawites are estimated to be up to 10% of Syria's population, and the deposed Assad family belong to the sect.
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by Gordon G. Chang • March 23, 2025 at 5:00 am
Iran, in short, has a nuclear weapons program because of China. For a long time, the international community looked the other way as the "atomic ayatollahs," in violation of their treaty obligations, worked on building these fearsome devices. President Donald Trump, to his credit, is taking the issue head on. Tehran almost certainly has [a nuclear bomb] by now. The Iranians themselves have made that clear. There is only a "one-week gap from the issuance of the order to the first test" of a nuclear bomb, according to an April 2024 public statement of a senior Iran lawmaker. Diplomats from Russia, Iran, and China met in Beijing this month to support Iran's nuclear weapons program. Tehran, bolstered by Beijing and Moscow, publicly said it had no desire to talk to Trump. There are in fact conversations behind the scenes, but Iran nonetheless would not be as brazen if Beijing were not fully supporting it. If Waltz is as good as his word -- that Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon -- then China, by arming the ayatollahs with nukes, has made sure that the world's next confrontation will be historic.
Diplomats from Russia, Iran and China met in Beijing this month to support Iran's nuclear weapons program. Iran has a nuclear weapons program because of China. China helped Iran possess both missiles and uranium enrichment capability. Pictured: Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi (R), China's Executive Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ma Zhaoxu and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov hold a press conference in Beijing on March 14, 2025. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
"Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon," U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz told ABC News's Martha Raddatz on March 16th. Waltz's demand was in fact more comprehensive. He said that Iran must also hand over, among other things, missiles and uranium enrichment capability. China helped Iran possess both. Beijing has set the stage for the next war in the Middle East. On missiles, there is no doubt where Tehran got its delivery systems. "Most of Iran's liquid-fueled ballistic missiles, including all its longest-range ones, are North Korean missiles with new paint," Bruce Bechtol, author of North Korean Military Proliferation in the Middle East and Africa: Enabling Violence and Instability, told Gatestone. "The missiles are probably why Trump is now dealing with Iran's nukes."
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by Amir Taheri • March 23, 2025 at 4:00 am
In South Sudan, not to mention Gaza, the gunmen in control of what poses as a government need not worry about such basic needs as food, health care, basic schooling and even art and entertainment, because NGOs or UN agencies funded by the US and other Western democracies foot the bill. That leaves the gunmen in control, free to spend whatever resources they can mobilize on buying arms, recruiting fighters and continuing their war. In Houthi-controlled Yemen, which now says it is at war against the US, more than 60 percent of the food needed to keep the population under control alive and able to fire missiles at US ships comes from foreign aid largely funded by Washington. Musk is also right to question the wisdom of financing almost 40 percent of such bodies as the Organization of American States, which has just chosen a noted anti-American as its new secretary-general. As for the United Nations itself, under Secretary General António Guterres, it has become a forum for virtue-signaling anti-American propaganda. The Trump-Musk cost-cutting campaign may provide an opportunity for a thorough review of the usefulness of numerous international organizations that may have gone past their sell-by date or even become threats to peace and stability. One casualty of the 88% cut in the USAID budget may be part of the Iranian opposition to the Islamic regime in Tehran. Musk could keep Voice of America and Radio Liberty, though not as a propaganda tool for this or that faction in Tehran. They could offer Iranians inside Iran a window to the US, along with professional nonpartisan journalism with what is left of high American standards.
As Elon Musk pursues his "draining the swamp" in Washington, D.C., his plan to reduce the size of the US federal government may have a number of unintended consequences. In some cases, a notable one being UNRWA, which has kept Palestinian militant groups alive for decades, US aid may be one reason why people face endless wars. One casualty of the 88% cut in the USAID budget may be part of the Iranian opposition to the Islamic regime in Tehran. Pictured: A worker removes the U.S. Agency for International Development sign on its then headquarters on February 7, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
As Elon Musk pursues his "draining the swamp" in Washington, D.C., his plan to reduce the size of the US federal government may have a number of unintended consequences. To be sure, few people might disagree with ending payments to millions of people who continue drawing their Social Security benefits years after having died and been buried. Even fewer might approve of channeling millions of dollars in aid to NGOs in such emerging economic giants like India and Indonesia, not to mention sinkholes such as Afghanistan or active anti-American states like South Africa. In some cases, a notable one being UNRWA, which has kept Palestinian militant groups alive for decades, US aid may be one reason why people face endless wars.
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