Latest Analysis and Commentary
by Bassam Tawil • September 20, 2024 at 5:00 am
"Before el-Sissi, but also during his tenure, cars, motorcycles, clothes, drugs, medicines, alcoholic beverages, and weapons were smuggled through the Philadelphi Corridor over the years, lots of weapons: improved RPG-29 rockets that killed our soldiers in the Iron Swords War, hidden rocket parts, machine guns, mines, and more." — Nadav Shragai, Israeli author and journalist, Israel Hayom, July 10, 2024. "[E]ven those who trust President el-Sissi now cannot guarantee that a new [former Egyptian President] Mohammed Morsi from the Muslim Brotherhood won't rise to power in the future, as we saw happen in 2012 presidential elections in Egypt. Israel must, therefore, remain in Philadelphi [gateway between Egypt and Gaza].... Foreign monitoring forces have failed in Lebanon over the years, and they also failed at the Rafah crossing from which European Union monitors fled in 2007." — Nadav Shragai, Israel Hayom, July 10, 2024. "Even today the city of Rafah [near the border with Egypt] is full of smugglers who bribe the Egyptian police and run a business sector with a turnover in the billions. The smuggling still continues during wartime, as war materiel and other goods flow from Sinai into Gaza every day. And there is fear that such smuggling is, or will be, accompanied by smuggling in the other direction. Senior Hamas figures are likely to try to escape into Egyptian territory, with hostages, and from there to Iran." — Brig. Gen. (Res.) Amir Avivi, March 4, 2024. "Palestinians desperate to leave Gaza are paying bribes to brokers of up to $10,000 (£7,850) to help them exit the territory through Egypt... Very few Palestinians have been able to leave Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, but those trying to get their names on the list of people permitted to exit daily say they are being asked to pay large 'coordination fees' by a network of brokers and couriers with alleged links to the Egyptian intelligence services.... a network of brokers, based in Cairo, helping Palestinians leave Gaza has operated around the Rafah border for years.... The Guardian has spoken to a number of people who have been told they would have to pay between $5,000 and $10,000 each to leave the strip, with some launching crowdfunding campaigns to raise the money. Others were told they could leave sooner if they paid more." — The Guardian, January 8, 2024. "A company owned by an influential Egyptian businessman and ally of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi is making around $2m a day from Palestinians fleeing Israel's war on Gaza... Hala Consulting and Tourism Services, a firm owned by Sinai tribal leader and business tycoon Ibrahim al-Organi, has been charging Palestinians crossing from Gaza's Rafah to Egypt at least $5,000 per adult and $2,500 for children under 16. It has a monopoly on providing transfer services at the Rafah crossing...." — Middle East Eye, May 1, 2024. Anyone who believes that the Egyptians would act differently if and when Israel withdraws from the border area must be living on another planet. If the IDF leaves, Hamas will swiftly return to the border, and the Egyptians will continue looking the other way.
Anyone who believes that the Egyptians would act differently if and when Israel withdraws from the border area must be living on another planet. If the IDF leaves, Hamas will swiftly return to the border, and the Egyptians will continue looking the other way. Pictured: Egyptian soldiers sit on a tank on the Egyptian side of the Gaza-Egypt border, near Rafah, on July 8, 2013. (Photo by Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images)
Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Badr Abdelatty said on September 18 that his country will never accept any Israeli security presence at the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. "Abdelatty asserted that Egypt maintains complete opposition to any military presence at the [Rafah border] crossing or the Philadelphi Corridor [between Egypt and the Gaza Strip]," according to Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper. The Egyptian minister made his remarks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken following a meeting in Cairo. "These remarks echo previous Egyptian statements asserting its rejection of any Israeli presence in the Philadelphi corridor on the Egypt-Gaza border and the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing, which has been under Israeli control since May," Al-Ahram added. The Egyptians are actually saying that they prefer to have Palestinian terrorists on their border rather than Israel.
Continue Reading Article
by Jonathan S. Tobin • September 19, 2024 at 5:00 am
[O]ne of the key fronts in this war is not in the Middle East. It's in the United States. [T]he political battle over the war in Gaza has been going pretty much the way the terrorists wanted it to. That's reflected in Mashaal's confidence, as well as Hamas's negotiating tactics and its strategy in Gaza. After Oct. 7, the terrorists have been doing nothing but playing for time. And they expected that the time they needed to outlast the Israeli offensive would be provided to them by Israel's closest ally. President Joe Biden's initial response to the Oct. 7 massacre was to join Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in saying that the only proper response to this atrocious crime was for Hamas to be "eliminated." But almost as soon as the words were out of his mouth, Biden began to slowly back away from that position. Over the next several months, as Israel's counter-offensive into Gaza began, the United States played a double game. On the one hand, Washington continued to supply Jerusalem with munitions badly needed by the IDF. Eventually, however, it was reported that the Pentagon slow-walked its delivery to maintain leverage over the Israelis. While the public pressure on Israel was bad, even worse was the duress the administration was employing against Netanyahu behind the scenes as it sought to delay every Israeli effort at finishing off the terrorists. Administration officials were soon parroting the defeatist line about Hamas being an "idea" that could not be defeated, rather than a terrorist force that could be eliminated. Plenty of "ideas" have been militarily defeated, such as Nazism, which didn't survive the defeat of Adolf Hitler's genocidal regime. But to Americans and Israeli liberals, Hamas is regarded as an eternal force. By adopting this position, the opportunity to convince Palestinians to give up their fantasies about Israel's elimination was thrown away and their century-long war on Zionism prolonged. As Mashaal told the Times, Hamas viewed all of this as encouragement for its plan to simply... hold out until U.S. and international pressure — heightened by the anti-Israel bias of the mainstream media — forced Israel to stand down and allow the Islamists to emerge as the victor in the war. The families of the remaining hostages and Netanyahu's political opposition now seek to pressure him to give up the war and sign a ceasefire agreement, even if it means essentially handing Gaza back to Hamas and ensuring a repeat of the horrors of Oct. 7.... Hamas is counting on that sentiment. But above all, Hamas views American pressure on Israel as its ace in the hole. As Mashaal pointed out, the way that the hostage negotiations have been handled by Washington has amounted to American "recognition" of Hamas as a diplomatic partner as opposed to a despised and outlawed terrorist organization. He is right about that. They [Hamas] obviously prefer Harris's stand in favor of an "immediate ceasefire" to former President Donald Trump's comments, which amount to a green light to Israel to "finish the job" of eliminating the terrorists. As the Times article makes clear, Hamas will never budge from its demands that Israel hand back Gaza to them... [T]hey will hold onto many of the hostages, despite the belief among some Israelis that it is Netanyahu's stubbornness or political ambition that is the obstacle to their freedom. [I]t's easy to understand why the terrorist leader is confident that he can outlast the Israelis ... with American help.
The political battle over the war in Gaza has been going pretty much the way the terrorists wanted it to. That's reflected in the confidence of Khaled Mashaal, head of Hamas's "political wing," as well as Hamas's negotiating tactics and its strategy in Gaza. After Oct. 7, the terrorists have been doing nothing but playing for time. And they expected that the time they needed to outlast the Israeli offensive would be provided to them by the United States, Israel's closest ally. Pictured: Mashaal in Amman, Jordan, on September 4, 2016. (Photo by Jordan Pix/ Getty Images)
After nearly a year of suffering and grievous losses, most Israelis and Palestinian Arabs will likely observe the anniversary of the war started by Hamas on Oct. 7 with sorrow. But not everyone. An interview The New York Times conducted with Khaled Mashaal, the head of Hamas's "political wing," in his luxurious living quarters in Doha, Qatar, revealed he thinks the war has gone just fine. As the Times put it, Mashaal thinks that Hamas is "winning the war" and is confident that the genocidal Islamist organization will, despite the battering it has received from the Israel Defense Forces, play a "decisive" role in Gaza in the future.
Continue Reading Article
by Nils A. Haug • September 18, 2024 at 5:00 am
If the demonstrators really cared about Palestinians, as the Muslim Arab journalist Bassam Tawil points out, "they would be speaking out against the repressive measures and human rights violations perpetrated by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.... instead of improving the living conditions of their people, Hamas and PIJ leaders are imposing new taxes and leading comfortable lives in Qatar, Lebanon and other countries. Instead of bringing democracy and freedom of speech to their people, the terror groups are arresting and intimidating journalists, human rights activists and political opponents." "Racial hatred and hysteria seemed to have taken complete hold of otherwise decent people," said an eyewitness. "I saw fashionably dressed women clapping their hands and screaming with glee, while respectable middle-class mothers held up their babies to see the 'fun.'" — Eyewitness to the November 9, 1938 Kristallnacht. Jihadist media efforts, and especially massive donations to universities from Qatar and other oil-rich Islamic countries, have been so successful that many academics and students in Western tertiary educational institutions have been captivated by the narrow ideology of Jew-hate. "The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism." — Zuheir Mohsen, PLO official, Trouw, March 1977. In the jihadist view, Islam is the one true faith and therefore Christians, Jews, Hindus, and all other "disbelievers" are following a false religion and therefore can be righteously killed as apostates. "[T]he Crusaders conquered Eretz Israel, reaching Jerusalem in 1099. Once there, they gathered all the Jews of Jerusalem into the central synagogue and set it afire. Other Jews, who had climbed to the roof of Al-Aksa mosque on the Temple Mount, were caught and beheaded." — 'The First Crusade,' chabad.org
Anti-Semitism should not be minimized nor disparaged. It is not a temporary development. It is an ongoing, unyielding, malignant ideology manifesting itself over millennia. Whenever it finds no opposition, it grows explosively. Pictured: A destroyed Jewish-owned shop in Berlin, Germany in 1938. (Photo by Pigiste/France Presse Voir/AFP via Getty Images)
In a tumultuous geo-political environment where fresh political and military, challenges arise almost unexpectedly, mounting threats to Jews everywhere deserve urgent attention. This view is based not only on daily situations in the West, but on a long and distressing history. Concerningly, a 2023 report indicated that in New York State, "44% of all recorded hate crime incidents and 88% of religious-based hate crimes targeted Jewish victims, the largest share of all such crimes." The report reveals an increase of 89% in these crimes over the last five years. In addition, the academic year of 2024 highlights increased campus unrest, ostensibly over whether Palestinians should be given a state as a reward for terrorism. If the demonstrators really cared about Palestinians, as the Muslim Arab journalist Bassam Tawil points out:
Continue Reading Article
by Robert Williams • September 17, 2024 at 5:00 am
[T]he UK government announced that it is imposing an "immediate" weapons embargo against Israel. The statement followed almost a year of relentless attacks on Israel, not only by Iran's proxies -- Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis -- but by Iran itself, and probably several tons of unverified propaganda by Hamas that Israel is supposedly committing "war crimes." Even South Africa is seeking to extend the deadline for presenting evidence against Israel at the International Court of Justice, for lack of evidence of its allegations of genocide. So far, all evidence points to Israel being "the world's most moral army." Meanwhile, the same cannot be said for the entities attacking it. The UK suspended "around 30 licences for items used in the current conflict in Gaza which go to the IDF, from a total of approximately 350 licences to Israel" allegedly because of Hamas-induced fear that they "might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law." [emphasis added] Hamas, on the other hand, continues to receive Britain's support: Although UNRWA has proven itself to be identical with Hamas, with roughly 10% of its members proven to have been terrorists or with ties to terror groups, and having used its entire Gaza infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, for the purpose of facilitating terror and missile attacks against Israel and its civilians... UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, in his announcement of the weapons embargo to the House of Commons, said, "in July, I told this House that this government's priority in the region would be to advance the cause of peace" -- apparently because nothing spells peace more than emboldening terrorists. The UK government worries about Red Cross access to terrorists who participated in the most gruesome crimes, while the ICRC's blatant lack of interest in the Israeli hostages held by Hamas did not even merit a mention by Lammy. The UK's arms embargo appears to represent nothing so much as pure racist perfidy. Lammy completely ignores the extreme lengths to which Israel has gone to avoid civilian casualties, as well as the huge amounts of humanitarian aid it has facilitated into the Gaza Strip. Spain has also suspended arms export licenses to Israel since October 7. Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said the Gaza war "made us realize the importance of a fair and lasting solution" to the Palestinian conflict with Israel. Fair and lasting, evidently, means siding with terrorists. It is particularly unbecoming of Spain, after 60 years of having combated the terrorist group ETA, to throw the first stone. By contrast, Germany is massively arming Qatar, which, alongside Iran, is the most significant backer of Hamas, and effectively every other Islamic terrorist group. What will be the result of the embargoes? Western leaders claim to want de-escalation, but placing Israel under arms embargo only serves to strengthen and empower Qatar, Iran and Iran's terrorist proxies -- which in turn can lead only to further destabilizing the Middle East, particularly after Iran regime succeeds in acquiring nuclear weapons.
Arming Israel's enemies, whether through Iran or Qatar, while limiting Israel's ability to defend itself, is setting up a disaster that is likely to end up in Europe, on the heads of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Pictured: Starmer (L) and Trudeau at the NATO 75th anniversary summit on July 11, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Stefan Rousseau - Pool/Getty Images)
On September 2, the day that Hersh Goldberg-Polin -- one of the six hostages recently murdered by Hamas -- was buried, the UK government announced that it is imposing an "immediate" weapons embargo against Israel. The statement followed almost a year of relentless attacks on Israel, not only by Iran's proxies -- Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis -- but by Iran itself, and probably several tons of unverified propaganda by Hamas that Israel is supposedly committing "war crimes." Even South Africa is seeking to extend the deadline for presenting evidence against Israel at the International Court of Justice, for lack of evidence of its allegations of genocide. So far, all evidence points to Israel being "the world's most moral army" (here, here, here and here). Meanwhile, the same cannot be said for the entities attacking it.
Continue Reading Article
by Lawrence Kadish • September 16, 2024 at 12:00 pm
We should be honest with each other in discussing space tourism. It has little to do with advancing our shared knowledge of the world around us or bettering the human condition. Pictured: SpaceX's Polaris Dawn Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from Kennedy Space Center on September 10, 2024 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Tourism to foreign lands broadens our personal horizons and builds bridges among nations. Space tourism?
Not so much. While over 600 brave men and women representing their respective nations have undertaken the dangerous task of space exploration since 1961, their challenge ranged from determining whether it was even possible to live in space to creating an orbiting habitat that would allow experimental science to flourish. Placing an American flag on the moon in 1969 was not only an extraordinary achievement for all humankind but a reminder of the technological leadership of a great nation. Space travel remains a dangerous endeavor, yet over the last decade space tourism has come into vogue. It allows the uber-wealthy to claim astronaut wings for no other purpose than to achieve unique bragging rights at their next Hamptons lawn party.
Continue Reading Article
by Daniel Greenfield • September 16, 2024 at 5:00 am
"In its boldest move, Hezbollah sent four drones toward the Karish platform several weeks ago, all of which were intercepted by the Israel Defense Forces," reported The Times of Israel on July 31, 2022. This was exactly what surrendering part of the gas field to Hezbollah was supposed to prevent. "The proposal for this point involves recognizing it as part of Lebanon, with UN forces deployed there as a neutral party for both sides." — The Jerusalem Post, September 8, 2024. United Nations forces are absolutely useless and pull back whenever there's any conflict. (Nor is the UN remotely neutral.) Hezbollah will claim any territory it gets and attack anyway because that is what Islamic terrorists do. Hezbollah is backed by Iran. It's going to attack when Tehran tells it to. As an Islamic terror group, attacking non-Muslims and dominating them is a fundamental religious obligation. So making deals with it won't work. Just like making deals with Hamas doesn't work.
Hezbollah will claim any territory it gets and attack anyway because that is what Islamic terrorists do. Hezbollah is backed by Iran. It's going to attack when Tehran tells it to. As an Islamic terror group, attacking non-Muslims and dominating them is a fundamental religious obligation. So making deals with it won't work. Pictured: Hezbollah terrorists in Baalbek, Lebanon give a Nazi salute on November 12, 2019. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
The appeasement lobby only has one big idea when it comes to Islamic terrorists and any other enemies: - Give them land.
- When the terrorists attack anyway, explain that it's because they didn't get enough land last time.
- Give them more land.
- When the terrorists attack anyway, explain that it's because they didn't get enough land last time.
Israel has been living through this particular "peace process" nightmare for a generation. Now, faced with growing Hezbollah attacks, the Biden administration has one big bright idea. "American officials recently proposed, in a virtual meeting with their Israeli counterparts, a land swap between Lebanon and Israel as part of a comprehensive agreement to end the border conflicts and resolve the land dispute between the two countries, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida reported on Sunday," reported The Jerusalem Post on September 8, 2024.
Continue Reading Article
by Bassam Tawil • September 15, 2024 at 5:00 am
Abandoning the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt would enable Hamas to carry on with its decades-long practice of smuggling weapons into the enclave. It would also allow the new head of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, to escape – along with many of the hostages with whom he is thought to be surrounding himself for protection -- through the tunnels into Egypt's Sinai Desert. The most recent statement from Hamas makes it clear that the terror group wants Israel to leave the Gaza Strip before any hostages are freed. According to some reports, Hamas has stated that it is willing to free the hostages in stages. It undoubtedly wants to hold on to as many hostages as possible as an "insurance policy" that Israel will not resume the war against the terror group and that the terrorist group will be able to have a free hand to attack Israel in the future. This implies that a large number of the hostages remain captive in the hands of the terror group for years. It is important to note that for the past 10 years, Hamas has been holding hostage two Israeli civilians who are believed to be still alive, as well as the remains of two IDF soldiers. Hamas is willing to fight to the last Palestinian. The terror group does not care if tens of thousands of its own people lose their lives as a result of the war it began. Its No. 1 priority is to hold on to power after the war. Hamas is evidently hoping that a ceasefire-hostage deal will help it achieve its goal of retaining control over the Gaza Strip. If the Biden-Harris administration wants to understand the real intentions and aims of Hamas, it just needs to look at what the terror group is saying in Arabic. Hamas and its allies are saying in Arabic that the only deal they would accept is one that results in Israel raising a white flag. If Hamas is permitted to win the war, Iran and its other terror proxies, such as Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Houthis, will gain confidence and feel more empowered. In addition, this will convey to Muslim Jihadis worldwide that Israel and the West are too weak to protect their people and values against Islamist terror organizations. This weakness will lead to more terrorism not only against Israel, but also the US and most Western nations. Instead of applying pressure on Israel to end the war, the Biden-Harris administration needs to demand firmly that the Hamas murderers and rapists totally surrender, disarm, cede control over the Gaza Strip, and release all the hostages unconditionally. All this needs urgently needs to take place before Iran breaks out its nuclear weapons and sets about attacking its oil-rich neighbors, such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, again.
Abandoning the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt would enable Hamas to carry on with its decades-long practice of smuggling weapons into the enclave. It would also allow the new head of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, to escape – along with many of the hostages with whom he is thought to be surrounding himself for protection -- through the tunnels into Egypt's Sinai Desert. Pictured: A large Hamas tunnel between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, beneath the Philadelphi Corridor, discovered by the Israeli military on August 4, 2024. (Photo source: IDF)
The Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist group Hamas has repeated its demand that Israel withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip in order to reach a ceasefire-hostage agreement with Israel. Hamas, in other words, is demanding that Israel lose the war so that the terrorist group can regroup, rearm and prepare for more attacks on Israel like the one it launched on October 7, 2023. In that assault, 1,200 Israelis were murdered, with many raped, tortured and burned alive. Another 240 Israelis were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, where 101 are still being held as hostages, many of them already murdered (see here and here).
Continue Reading Article
by Amir Taheri • September 15, 2024 at 4:00 am
The good news is that although a bloc of ultra-left groups, waving flags of Hamas and masquerading as defenders of Islam, won the largest number of seats, but not a majority, in the National Assembly, its leaders were not intelligent enough to cash their chips and seize a chunk of power in a deal with President Emmanuel Macron. Their obstinacy and the raising of the Hamas flag inside the parliament have provoked an anti-Islam backlash opposed to Houellebecq and Kepel's forecasts. Thus, France isn't going to have an extremist president next year. What has happened is that ultra-nationalist groups have seized the opportunity to portray themselves as the only bulwark against an "aggressive Islam" with the catchword "immigration" that causes "insecurity." It was only a generation ago that France, or at least the opinion-making elite, had a quite different image of Islam. At that time, Islam was seen as a deeply spiritual discipline best explained by mystics such as Ibn al-Arabi and poets such as Roumi. The soft image that French Islamologues created was used by militant Islamists, including the Muslim Brotherhood, the Khomeinists of Iran and Lebanon, remnants of the Algerian Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) and more recently ISIS to cast themselves as "victims" of colonialism, imperialism and even racism and avoid close scrutiny, while they built no-go fiefdoms around Paris and provincial centers to promote ideologies far from Ibn al-Arabi and Roumi; let alone St. Aldebert and Meister Eckhart. Between 1980 and 2020, the French state spent more than $30 billion in its "Islamic" suburbs in the hope of preventing what Macron describes as "separatism." The project, most enthusiastically implemented by ministers such as Bernard Tapie and Jean-Louis Borloo, produced the opposite of what was desired. It helped local qaids (chiefs) to create a larger clientele and tighten their control on the "separatist" suburbs. The first re-reading [of Islam] assumed that French Muslims were owed something and engendered a policy built on guilty feeling that used bribery and apology as tools of an imaginary reconciliation. The latest re-reading plays in the hands of the small minority of radical extremists who divide the world into "them and us." Both re-readings promote the very "separatism" that Macron warns about.
Is France going to have an extremist president in a few months' time? Pictured: The Élysée presidential palace in Paris, France on March 12, 2024. (Photo by Julien de Rosa/AFP via Getty Images)
Is France going to have an extremist president in a few months' time? If we believe the prophecy made by popular novelist Michel Houellebecq in his 2015 novel Submission, the answer must be yes. In the novel, Houellebecq claimed that the French have only seven years, that is until 2025, to prevent Islamic extremists from seizing power in France through a general election with the help of leftist and politically correct groups. In a self-loathing tone, he portrayed a house divided by power-hungry clans, while many Frenchmen saw their nation drifting in uncharted waters with no anchor. Disappointed in a system that seems to have become a self-perpetuating monster with increasingly powerless governments that promise more and deliver less, the average Frenchman in the novel seeks a savior, a strongman who can flush out distant bureaucrats in Paris and Brussels.
Continue Reading Article
by Majid Rafizadeh • September 14, 2024 at 5:00 am
The Biden-Harris administration's lifting of sanctions is what enabled Iran to profit to the tune of an estimated $100 billion, used for waging terror against Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia -- and the US. Just since October, Iran and its terror proxies and militias have attacked US troops in the Middle East more than 160 times, killing three and wounding more than 120... By turning a blind eye to the actions of the Iranian regime's while releasing roughly $100 billion to the treasury of the mullahs, the Biden-Harris administration is responsible for empowering these entities. This week in Gaza, more deaths were reported after Israel took out a Hamas command center embedded in what used to function as a school in a "humanitarian zone." If Hamas cares about the Palestinians and does not want them killed, why does it deliberately put its terrorist command centers in the middle of crowded "humanitarian zones"? "He was murdered by Hamas.... And if you want the hostages home, which we all do, you have to increase the cost to Iran.... Iran is the Great Satan here. Hamas is the junior partner.... They [could not] care less about the Palestinian people." -- US Senator Lindsey Graham, referring to the murdered US-Israeli hostage, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Fox News, September 1, 2024. It is a clear call for the Biden-Harris administration to hold Iran accountable for the remaining hostages, and to target Iran's oil refineries if the hostages are not immediately released. So long as the US government continues to sit on the sidelines, the brutality and savagery of Hamas and their Iranian benefactors will only escalate. It is high time to confront Iran's regime head-on and stop its spread of barbarity before more innocent lives are lost -- above all, before the world's "leading state sponsor of terrorism" produces nuclear weapons.
So long as the US government continues to sit on the sidelines, the brutality and savagery of Hamas and their Iranian benefactors will only escalate. It is high time to confront Iran's regime head-on and stop its spread of barbarity before more innocent lives are lost -- above all, before the world's "leading state sponsor of terrorism" produces nuclear weapons. Pictured: Sayad 4-B missile at a military parade in Tehran, Iran on April 17, 2024. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)
It is almost unimaginable that in the 21st century, such horrors would still take place. The brutal acts of Hamas remind us of the darkest periods in history, such as the atrocities committed by Hitler's Germany. Yet, the Iranian regime and its proxies -- particularly terrorist groups like Hamas -- continue to bring new levels of barbarity into the modern world. The recent recovery of six executed Israeli hostages, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, from a tunnel in Rafah highlights the extent of this cruelty. These hostages, four of whom were scheduled to be released in a draft ceasefire deal, were murdered by Hamas before Israeli Defense Forces could reach them -- a reminder of the inhumanity and savagery of Hamas, emboldened by their Iranian backers.
Continue Reading Article
by Drieu Godefridi • September 13, 2024 at 5:00 am
The French people, the plurality of whom voted "right-wing" in the first round, were astonished to discover, after the second round, a "left-of-center" National Assembly, a parliament that seemingly does not represent the real country. The message seems to be the all-too-familiar Marxist concept of Volksrache ("the people's revenge"): arousing hatreds in order to channel them towards the "enemies of the regime", and, in the end, liquidate them. The murder of a policeman, the burning of a synagogue, the death of a delinquent, a war in the Middle East, elections, no elections: everything is used as a pretext for the hate-filled, agitprop vituperation of the minions of La France Insoumise, who, by stirring up hostilities and resentments, particularly anti-Semitic ones, appear to be whipping up violent -- even terrorist -- militancy, in the tradition of France's 18th-century terreur. France appears to be sliding, slowly but surely, towards a version of chaos -- the ancestral breeding ground for the violence that would be the victory, the horizon and the ultimate goal not only of Mélenchon's phalanx, but of all those trying to take down the West.
France appears to be sliding, slowly but surely, towards a version of chaos -- the ancestral breeding ground for the violence that would be the victory, the horizon and the ultimate goal not only of La France Insoumise leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon's phalanx, but of all those trying to take down the West. Pictured: Mélenchon (C) gives a speech on June 30 while standing on stage next to an Islamist pro-Hamas activist, Rima Hassan (R). (Photo by Victoria Valdivia/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)
Since the results were announced of France's July 2024 legislative elections, President Emmanuel Macron has been unable to build a majority in the National Assembly, which appears more divided than at any time in the history of what the French call "the Fifth Republic". The elections produced three blocs, all of which appear to hate each other: the left, coalescing around Jean-Luc Mélenchon's far-left La France Insoumise ("France Unbowed"), Macron's centrist Renaissance party, and Marine Le Pen's right-wing Rassemblement National (National Rally). Three factors seem to favor France's slide towards an open or latent form of even greater internal conflict. 1. Non-democratic Republic
Continue Reading Article
by Con Coughlin • September 12, 2024 at 5:00 am
The pretence that the UK's new Labour government has moved away from the blatant anti-Semitism that was rife under its former leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has been brutally exposed by the actions of David Lammy, the party's new Foreign Secretary. It was during Corbyn's stint as Labour leader that his party faced constant accusations of anti-Semitism. A damning report produced by the Jewish Labour Movement in 2019 said the party harboured "endemic, institutional anti-Semitism" and that there was "overwhelming evidence that anti-Semitic conduct is pervasive at all levels of the party." Having been a close political ally of two prominent Labour politicians accused of anti-Semitism, it is hardly surprising therefore that two of Lammy's first initiatives since his appointment as Labour's new foreign secretary in July have been aimed at discrediting Israel. His first act was to withdraw the British government's official objection to attempts to persuade the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on war crimes charges. At the same time, Lammy confirmed that the UK was to restore its funding to UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for supporting Palestinian refugees, after support for the organisation was withdrawn by a number of countries -- including the US -- over claims its staffers were directly involved in the October 7 attacks carried out by Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists against Israel. Lammy has now added to his anti-Israel stance by suspending a number of UK arms contracts to Israel, a decision that was announced on the same day that Israel buried the latest group of hostages to be murdered by Hamas terrorists, a decision that was denounced by Netanyahu as "shameful". As a junior minister in Tony Blair's government in 2006, for example, the Harvard-educated Lammy called for the British media to provide a platform for them to air their "poisonous" views. His appeal came shortly after a cell of al-Qaeda terrorists had carried out their worst terrorist attack against the UK with the London bombings in July 2005, murdering 72 innocent commuters and wounding more than 700. While Lammy's anti-Israel policies will undoubtedly appeal to the Labour's Party's hard-Left, they are also likely to place Starmer's government on a collision course with Washington, which has concluded there are no grounds for suspending arms deals with Israel, and that the creation of Palestinian state, as agreed in the Oslo Accords, is contingent on successful peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Lammy's blatant anti-Israel agenda will also place the UK's long-standing strategic alliance with Israel under intense strain. Having worked closely on a number of vital security issues, such as Iran's nuclear programme and the threat posed by Islamist terrorists, the Israeli government will be disinclined to maintain cooperation with the UK's new Labour government so long as Lammy remains foreign secretary.
The pretence that the UK's new Labour government has moved away from the blatant anti-Semitism that was rife under its former leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has been brutally exposed by the actions of David Lammy, the party's new Foreign Secretary. Pictured: Corbyn (L), then Labour Party leader, with Lammy at the Cardinal Heenen centre on June 20, 2019 in Ilford, England. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
The pretence that the UK's new Labour government has moved away from the blatant anti-Semitism that was rife under its former leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has been brutally exposed by the actions of David Lammy, the party's new Foreign Secretary. Prior to his appointment to one of the British government's key positions in Prime Minister Keir Starmer's new administration, Lammy had made his name as a Left-wing firebrand. Having first come to prominence within the Labour movement for his campaigning on racial equality issues, he became closely associated with hard-Left members of the Labour Party, including both Corbyn and former London mayor Ken Livingstone.
Continue Reading Article
by Gordon G. Chang • September 11, 2024 at 5:00 am
[W]hat about similar efforts of the far larger People's Republic of China? Attorney General Merrick Garland mentioned China in passing in remarks on the 4th — he promised to be "relentlessly aggressive" against foreign powers interfering in American elections and undermining democracy — but there were no indictments or other actions by his department, Treasury, or State against the Chinese regime for election-interference offenses. It is clear that China, at this moment, is doing the same things as Russia, only on a larger scale. "China's trolls are conducting one of the world's largest covert online influence operations. Its attack element is the group called 'Spamouflage,' and it is impersonating U.S. voters to denigrate U.S. politicians and push divisive messages ahead of the November 5 election." — Kerry Gershaneck, former U.S. counterintelligence official, to Gatestone, September 2024. The operation, reported Jack Stubbs, Graphika's chief intelligence officer, was attempting "to portray the U.S. as this declining global power with weak political leadership and a failing system of governance." The effort was comprehensive. As Stubbs said, this operation was run by "Chinese state-linked actors." This election cycle, Spamouflage achieved its greatest success on TikTok. That is probably not a coincidence, as the Wall Street Journal "found TikTok pushing thousands of videos with political lies and hyperbole to its users." So, what are federal authorities doing about China now? Said Canfield: "Nothing, zero, zilch, nada."
It is good that the Biden administration is going after Russian attempts to disrupt the United States and surreptitiously influence elections, but what about similar efforts of the far larger People's Republic of China? (Images source: iStock/Getty Images)
The U.S. Department of Justice on September 4 announced it was seizing 32 internet domains "used in Russian government-directed foreign malign influence campaigns colloquially referred to as 'Doppelganger.'" DOJ also announced criminal charges against two Russian media executives. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control at the same time designated 10 individuals and two entities "as part of a coordinated U.S. government response to Moscow's malign influence efforts targeting the 2024 U.S. presidential election." The State Department also took actions against Russian parties for such conduct. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on said on September 4th, "Today's announcement highlights the lengths some foreign governments go to undermine American democratic institutions."
Continue Reading Article
by Bassam Tawil • September 10, 2024 at 5:00 am
More than 30 years ago, these "elites," overwhelmingly on Israel's political "left" (think "peace," as if most people in democracies do not want peace) played a significant role in convincing the Israeli government to sign the Oslo Accord with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), headed by Yasser Arafat. The assumption back then was that if you bring Arafat's PLO from the Arab countries to Gaza and the West Bank and help them create a government and police force, the Palestinians would renounce terrorism and give up their dream of destroying Israel. The Palestinian Authority, established in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1994, had no intention of making peace with Israel, and still has not. Palestinian leaders continue to praise terrorists as "martyrs" and "heroes" and pay monthly salaries to their families. Many Israeli "elites" chose to turn a blind eye to the Palestinian leaders' support for terrorism and incitement of violence and hatred against Israel. Some Israeli peace activists continued to argue that Abbas who, since 2014 has refused to resume peace negotiations with Israel, is somehow a credible peace partner. "He [Arafat] did not negotiate in good faith; indeed, he did not negotiate at all. He just kept saying no to every offer, never making any counterproposals of his own." – Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, quoted by Benny Morris from interviews in late March and early April 2202. The Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip in 2005 to enable the Palestinians to create a Dubai on the Mediterranean, instead enabled Hamas and other terror groups to turn the coastal enclave into a huge base for Jihad (holy war) against Israel. With the help of Iran, the terror groups smuggled weapons into the Gaza Strip from Egypt in tunnels dug under the border, and were taught to manufacture rockets and missiles. The Gazans also built a vast network of tunnels throughout the Gaza Strip, with many extending into Egypt. It turned out the belief of Israeli "elites" that the expulsion of Jews from the Gaza Strip would contribute to peace with the Palestinians was a catastrophic mirage. The Palestinians did not see the "disengagement" as an indication that Israel wants peace. Instead, many Palestinians viewed the withdrawal as an Israeli display of weakness and retreat in the face of rockets and suicide bombings. The thinking among the Palestinians became, "Oh, it's working! So let's do it more!" In a similar way, Iran, Qatar, Hamas and Hezbollah have been gaining more confidence from the current anti-government protests in Israel, especially since the Biden-Harris administration began pressing Israel to make concessions, but never Hamas, Hezbollah, Qatar or Iran. "Continue to exert psychological pressure on the families [of the hostages], both now and during the first phase [of the ceasefire] so that public pressure on the enemy government increases.... Arab forces should serve as a buffer to prevent the enemy [Israel] from entering after the war in Gaza ends, until they [Hamas] have reorganized their ranks and military capabilities." — Hamas document, written in March for the terrorist group's leader Yahya Sinwar, discovered on a computer allegedly belonging to him that was seized by the IDF. It is wrong for Israel's anti-government demonstrators to blame Netanyahu for the deadlock in the hostages-ceasefire negotiations. As the Hamas document shows, it is actually the terror group that is not in a rush to reach a deal. Hamas and the Israeli demonstrators seem to hope that the protests will succeed in overthrowing Netanyahu, so that the Israelis can elect a new prime minister – one who will allow Hamas to rearm, regroup and attack again, and one who will allow on Israel's border a Palestinian state committed to Israel's destruction and free of Jews who might prevent further attacks. Sadly, many demonstrating in Israel today appear unaware that they are being used by Hamas; that they have walked into Hamas's trap: to force out a leader, Netanyahu, who is finally succeeding in defeating Hamas.
Sadly, many demonstrating in Israel today appear unaware that they are being used by Hamas; that they have walked into Hamas's trap: to force out a leader, Netanyahu, who is finally succeeding in defeating Hamas. Pictured: Anti-government demonstrators near the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem, Israel on September 7, 2024.
Israel's self-appointed "elites" governed Israel during the first few decades after its independence in 1948, and, after an unfortunate track record of calculating and assuming things incorrectly when it comes to Israel's policies towards the Palestinians and other Arabs, are evidently dismayed that they have not been voted back into power. These Israeli "elites" are now blocking Israel's streets to try to bring down Israel's duly elected government. They seem to have forgotten their past mistakes and are still pushing for the same failed policies that have resulted in the deaths of thousands of Israelis.
Continue Reading Article
by Robert Williams • September 9, 2024 at 5:00 am
Britain's new leader, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in the tried-and-true way of Communist dictators, has begun his first term by initiating a great purge of British dissidents. British protesters, denounced as "far right thugs," are being put behind bars faster than the prison services can absorb.... The youngest child arrested and charged is just 11 years old. Because the prisons, already overflowing, cannot handle the sudden influx of mass-sentenced wrongthinkers, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced that to make room for the dissidents, it will be freeing early roughly 5,500 criminals... who "will include criminals convicted of violence..." The mass arrests and trials are occurring at the same time as "Police are increasingly letting knife and sex offenders escape prosecution if they say sorry," according to an August 26 report by The Telegraph. Peter Lynch, 61, a grandfather in Rotherham, a place where children have for decades been experiencing rape, other sexual abuse, and torture at the hands of mainly Muslim grooming gangs while police and the city council looked the other way, shouted at police, "you are protecting people who are killing our kids and raping them" and "scum". Judge Richardson told Lynch: "You did not yourself attack any police officer, as far as can be detected, but what you did was encourage by your conduct others to behave violently and you were part of this mob. What a disgraceful example you are as a grandfather"... [and] sentenced him to two years and eight months. Lynch was simply telling the truth: In cities such as Rotherham, Telford, Rochdale, Oxford, Peterborough, Keighley, Newcastle and Birmingham local police and councils knowingly allowed mostly Muslim grooming gangs to rape, abuse, torture and even murder thousands of little children and teenagers for decades because they said that if they stopped the crimes, they might appear "racist". Does the Starmer government really have so much contempt for the British? They are not even allowed to protest the rape of their children. "At least one murder, sex assault or crime of violence is committed every two days by convicted criminals under supervision of the probation service after being released from jail, research has revealed." — The Telegraph, July 1, 2024. "Ideas are more powerful even than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas," said Josef Stalin. Those words appear to have become Starmer's motto... Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle recently made it clear that he thinks everything with which the government disagrees should be banned on social media. There seems to be no awareness of the essential problem: who chooses what is misinformation? Starmer's methods were once exclusively reserved for dictatorships such as China, Russia and North Korea; Western democracies did not used to sentence people to long prison sentences for speech crimes.
Britain's new leader, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in the tried-and-true way of Communist dictators, has begun his first term by initiating a great purge of British dissidents. British protesters, denounced as "far right thugs," are being put behind bars faster than the prison services can absorb... The youngest child arrested and charged is just 11 years old. Pictured: His Majesty's Prison Wandsworth, in London, England, photographed on July 12, 2024. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
Britain's new leader, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in the tried-and-true way of Communist dictators, has begun his first term by initiating a great purge of British dissidents. British protesters, denounced as "far right thugs," are being put behind bars faster than the prison services can absorb. More than 1,000 people who have been arrested and more than 500 charged, are waiting for their court appearances in police holding cells: prisons have run out of space. As in the most expert dictatorship, even children and grandfathers have been arrested by the police for "rioting". The youngest child arrested and charged is just 11 years old.
Continue Reading Article
by Melanie Phillips • September 8, 2024 at 5:00 am
The demonstrators [in Israel] are backed by assorted military and intelligence types in a treasonous attempt to lever Netanyahu out of office by creating division and demoralization while Israel is fighting for its life. Their core claim is that Netanyahu is prolonging the war and condemning the hostages to death solely to appease extremists in his coalition and thus remain in power. Of course, everyone desperately wants the hostages brought back home. But the idea that the ceasefire deal would achieve this is sheer fantasy. Only a few of the hostages would be released in the first phase. Hamas would then use the ceasefire to regroup and rearm, spinning out the continuing negotiation farce to keep the rest of the hostages trapped and thus retain control of the Gaza Strip. It would only ever release all the hostages (if at all) with Israel's total surrender. That's what those calling for an immediate ceasefire deal are actually promoting. The only way to save the hostages is through military pressure. That's one reason why it's imperative for Israel to retain control of the Philadelphi corridor, the area of Gaza that borders Egypt. The importance of this corridor cannot be exaggerated. Israel's capture of it has uncovered deep below its surface an extensive infrastructure of giant tunnels into Egypt — thus revealing the principal route through which Hamas imported its rockets, weapons and ammunition. [Emphasis added] Hamas needs to control the Philadelphi corridor in order to resupply itself. Without that, it will be finished. That's why it's insisting that there will be no deal while Israel remains in control. The vast majority of the military and security officials who belong to the authoritative Israel Defense and Security Forum are adamant that Israel must not cede control of the corridor. The forum's chairman, Brig. Gen. Amir Avivi, said last week that tens of thousands of rockets and thousands of Hamas Nukhbah terrorists were waiting inside the Egyptian Sinai to go into Gaza through Philadelphi. Even if Israel made only a short retreat, these troops and equipment could be brought in within a week. Egypt had made billions of dollars from the smuggling trade into Gaza and wants to continue. Moreover, said Avivi, only 30 out of more than 100 hostages were slated to be released in the first phase of the deal — and Hamas reportedly planned to take the rest of them through the Philadelphi tunnels to Sinai and then to Iran. In a security cabinet row, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant reportedly called Philadelphi "an unnecessary constraint that we've placed on ourselves." Gadi Eizenkot, a former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, said it wasn't strategically important. Former Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Israel could return to the corridor if it deemed it necessary once the hostages were home. Other arguments have included getting Egypt to safeguard Philadelphi against Hamas and using electronic sensors to monitor it. This is all utterly delusional. For two decades, Egypt was complicit in the construction and use of the Philadelphi tunnels; entrusting it with Israel's security would be to put the fox in charge of the henhouse. Israeli reliance on electronic sensors was one of the reasons the October 7 pogrom happened. Despite the thousands of people in the streets, most Israelis get this. In one opinion poll, 79% agreed that Israel needed to control Philadelphi permanently to prevent weapons smuggling from Egypt to Gaza. When asked more emotively whether Israel should control Philadelphi "even at the expense of a hostage deal," more respondents said it should than those who balked at preventing a hostage deal. Gantz, Eizenkot and Gallant are part of a military and security establishment whose morally and intellectually bankrupt "conception" brought about the Oct. 7 catastrophe in the first place. ...America itself bears a significant measure of responsibility for the hostages' fate. The Biden administration forced Israel to proceed in Gaza far more slowly than the IDF judged necessary to defeat Hamas and thus save the hostages. Worse, for three months, the administration stopped Israel from entering Rafah — below which the six hostages were murdered this month. If Israel had been free to proceed at its own pace, those six captives and many others might have been saved. Whatever happens to Netanyahu, the left will almost certainly discover that, for the second time, it has made a terrible strategic error. The first such error was the 1993 Oslo Accord, which gave the Palestinians political power and status — with the Americans even training their security forces — on the assumption that they intended to live in peace alongside Israel. [T]hese same types of people have been doing the work of Hamas for it by promoting Israel's surrender....
The demonstrators in Israel are backed by assorted military and intelligence types in a treasonous attempt to lever Netanyahu out of office by creating division and demoralization while Israel is fighting for its life. Their core claim is that Netanyahu is prolonging the war and condemning the hostages to death solely to appease extremists in his coalition and thus remain in power. Pictured: Anti-government protesters set a fire and use smoke torches on September 7, 2024 in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)
The enormous demonstrations in Israel against Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, might be giving people outside the country the impression that the Israeli public is generally against him because of his conduct of the war and that his days in office are therefore numbered. What's more likely is that the Israeli left is in the process of destroying itself once and for all. Israelis are being increasingly maddened by grief and horror over the unconscionable fate of the hostages trapped in the hellholes of Gaza. This month's cold-blooded murder of six of these captives by Hamas savages has tipped many Israelis over the edge. The demonstrators' demand for an immediate ceasefire deal to release the hostages is not only ludicrous to the point of near derangement, but also poses a direct threat to Israel's security and indeed existence — precisely the outcome that Hamas intends through its diabolical manipulation of the hostages' plight.
Continue Reading Article
|
