Latest Analysis and Commentary
by Majid Rafizadeh • October 12, 2024 at 5:00 am
The only country in the Middle East consistently pressured to make concessions "to avoid escalation" was the victim of October 7, Israel. The rapacity of Iran's regime, which apparently feels free to launch attacks on U.S. troops at will -- especially after enjoying massive amounts of US generosity -- is breathtaking. The Biden-Harris administration also infused the regime with "closer to $60 billion" -- which most likely funded its militias; its terrorist proxy organizations, such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis; its expansionist agenda as far away as Venezuela, and its oppressive domestic policies, to which, for decade, the U.S. has turned a blind eye. When widespread protests take place in Iran, citizens bravely rise up against the regime, only to be brutally crushed -- without so much as a glance from the U.S. Iran, taking its cue from the Biden-Harris administration's road-siding of Israel, proceeded, not surprisingly, to escalate its campaign against it. If there are no serious consequences, why stop? Israel now finds itself fighting for its survival on multiple fronts. Thanks to the seeming lack of support from the Biden administration, Israel alone must fend off Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, the UN, much of Europe, the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, professionally whipped-up Western university campuses and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The dangerous reality that unfolds when a once-reliable ally is abandoned, is that enemies can become increasingly aggressive so long as no one stops them. The message being sent is that allies will be left to fend for themselves, and enemies of freedom and democracy can go ahead and demolish them with impunity. The Free World, once a beacon of security, is left vulnerable, isolated and under siege.
The rapacity of Iran's regime, which apparently feels free to launch attacks on U.S. troops at will -- especially after enjoying massive amounts of US generosity -- is breathtaking. The Free World, once a beacon of security, is left vulnerable, isolated and under siege. Pictured: Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian looks on from the dais, as a Fattah ballistic missile is displayed during at a military parade in Tehran on September 21, 2024. Fattah missiles were used in Iran's October 1, 2024 attack on Israel. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)
An ally, a true friend, is someone upon whom you can depend in times of crisis, especially when under attack. Throughout history, alliances have been formed on the basis of mutual support and protection. Yet, one could strongly argue that no administration in the history of the United States has left its allies in such a vulnerable position as the Biden-Harris administration. Iran, no longer content to merely act through its proxies, has taken direct and aggressive action against America's long-term ally, Israel, by attacking not only Israel but, through its proxies and militias, U.S. troops in the region more than 160 times just since October 2023 -- whenever it deems fit. Iran-backed Hamas terrorists murdered 43 Americans in their October 7, 2023 invasion of Israel. The rapacity of Iran's regime, which apparently feels free to launch attacks on U.S. troops at will -- especially after enjoying massive amounts of US generosity -- is breathtaking.
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by Keya Mukherjee • October 11, 2024 at 5:00 am
Meanwhile, it appears as if Yunus is waiting for the result of the November 5 presidential election in the US. A victory by Kamala Harris could pave the way for him to remain in power indefinitely and complete the process of Islamizing Bangladesh. "New Delhi is getting increasingly concerned that banned militant outfits like Jamaat-e-Islami and even radical organisations like Hizb ut Tahrir may soon enter mainstream politics in Bangladesh, thereby posing security challenges not just for India but for the entire South Asian region..." – The Anandabazar Patrika, September 14, 2024. Yunus is already under pressure to lift the ban imposed on Hizb ut Tahrir by Sheikh Hasina's previous government in 2009. "Delighted to see an old friend of my father and the foundation, Nobel Prize winner @professormuhammadyunus, interim leader of Bangladesh, who stepped in to lead Bangladesh towards a peaceful future based on equity and fairness." — Alexander Soros, Instagram, October 2, 2024.
Bangladesh, a country being promptly being shifted towards Talibanization under Muhammad Yunus -- openly backed by Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, George Soros and the U.S. Democratic Party -- is experiencing a total nightmare. Pictured: Yunus at a press conference in Dhaka on October 4, 2024. (Photo by Munir Uz Zaman/AFP via Getty Images)
Bangladesh, a country being promptly being shifted towards Talibanization under Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus -- openly backed by Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, George Soros and the U.S. Democratic Party -- is experiencing a total nightmare. Bangladesh's former leader, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was forced to flee on August 5, following a coup d'état. Now, Hindus in Bangladesh, who constitute a small minority of the population, are facing repeated threats and intimidation from Yunus's men – a thuggish gang of Islamists and jihadists from hardline Islamist groups such as Hizbut Tahrir and Hefazat-e-Islam. To the utter surprise of Hindus, Yunus's regime has asked them, during Muslim prayer times, to avoid playing musical instruments and refrain from activities that are a part of the Hindu Durga Puja festival celebrations, thereby interrupting the holiday.
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by Guy Millière • October 10, 2024 at 5:00 am
"[Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar wants everyone to be a martyr—except for him." Now he appears to want to have discussions again on the condition that the Israelis will not try to kill him during the negotiations on a deal. — David Greenfield, CEO and executive director of Met Council, August 28, 2024. When Israelis clamor for the release of their hostages, they are, unfortunately, just letting Hamas know what a valuable bargaining chip it has – so the price goes up. For Hamas, if the families of the hostages succeed in getting Netanyahu pushed out of office, so much the better: he will likely be replaced by a "peace" coalition who will grant massive concessions to Hamas and allow it to stay in power. As far as the Biden-Harris administration is concerned, a new Israeli prime minister it hand-picks to replace Netanyahu would presumably agree to US demands to let the Palestinians in Gaza set up a sovereign terrorist state on Israel's border, from which to continue attacking Israel until it is destroyed. A new prime minister installed by the Biden-Harris administration would also agree to Iran having as many nuclear weapons as it likes. Iran, after finishing off Israel, which Iran's former President Ali Akhbar Hashemi Rafsanjani called a "one-bomb country," could then resume trying to take over its oil-rich neighbors, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Biden-Harris administration also appears to want Hamas to stay in power because that is what Hamas's patrons, Iran and Qatar (America's supposed ally) want. Meanwhile, back in Gaza, the Associated Press reports, "Sinwar wants to end the war — but only on his terms." These terms include a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, including the "Philadelphi Corridor" border between Egypt and Gaza. That is where immense cross-border underground tunnels are located, allowing the resumption of unlimited supplies of new weapons to be smuggled to Hamas in Gaza, as well as the ideal gateway for Hamas leader Sinwar to escape to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula -- with the remaining Israeli hostages in tow. For Hamas and Sinwar, the bottom line for is to stay in power to be able to attack Israel "time and again until it is annihilated," as one of its officials, Ghazi Hamad, straightforwardly said. Israel's opposition political leaders, journalists, trade unionists, and many senior security officials all appear to be walking into a trap that Hamas has laid out for them: having Israeli anti-government demonstrators demand new elections to force Netanyahu out and a US puppet -- agreeable to terrorist Palestinian state, Hamas's continued rule in Gaza, and a nuclear-armed Iran -- in. Hamas, remember, never offered to release all the hostages, only a few, alive or dead. Sinwar will undoubtedly try to string out the negotiations as long as he can – refusing to provide hostage names again, and so on. His job will be to keep as many hostages as long as possible, to buy time for Hamas to resupply and regroup. For months, Hamas has rejected any agreement, and blamed Netanyahu. They have, of course, been helped by the Biden-Harris administration, which snubbed Netanyahu at the airport in Washington DC in July as well as at his address to the United States Congress. The snubs evidently only succeeded in giving Hamas the impression that the US was done with Netanyahu, that a Hamas victory was in the bank, and that all Iran and its proxies had to do was sit back and wait. For months, Hamas has rejected every agreement: its leaders apparently think that the pressure on Netanyahu and his government by the Biden-Harris administration would win their war for them. Hamas has now seen that murdering hostages results in even more pressure for Israel to surrender. "We're asked to make concessions? What message does this send Hamas? It says, 'Kill more hostages, murder more hostages! You'll get more concessions! The pressure internationally must be directed at these killers, at Hamas, not at Israel." — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to the protestors demonstrating against him, September 2, 2024. The Biden-Harris administration has, in fact, been funding Israel's anti-government protests since Netanyahu was elected two years ago, to try to oust him. Shortly after the October 7, 2023 invasion by Hamas, the Biden-Harris administration continually pressured Israel to make concessions and withheld or slow-walked weapons shipments, but never applied even the slightest pressure on Hamas, Iran, or the major funder of all Islamic terrorist groups, Qatar. In the meantime, Iran appears to be gearing up to take over Sudan. Such an acquisition would complete the regime's "ring of fire" -- a multi-front war encircling Israel. "Iran is trying to establish an eastern terrorist front against Israel in the West Bank by smuggling weapons from Jordan and financing terrorists." — Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, August 29, 2024. Worse, this week the Biden-Harris administration announced that it is sending Lebanon an additional $157 million – for "humanitarian relief." In Hezbollah-speak, that means funding for more weapons to attack Israel. Does anyone really think that the battered Lebanese people will see a cent? This bounty brings the Biden-Harris administration's prize money for Hezbollah's war machine to $385 million -- all of which will most certainly be diverted to attacking Israel. Vice President Kamala Harris has repeatedly called for a rapid ceasefire in Gaza – meaning the survival of Hamas – and said that a "two-state solution is the only path forward" -- meaning, undoubtedly, a terrorist Palestinian state. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) recently announced that it "needed more time" to find human rights violations in Israel's "most moral army in history." The ICJ seems to be hoping that if they wait long enough, a few violations might turn up. As Israel turns to the existential danger presented by Iran, it will need all the support it can get, both from its own people and other nations. If they are smart, they will give it.
The Biden-Harris administration appears to want Hamas to stay in power because that is what Hamas's patrons, Iran and Qatar (America's supposed ally) want. The Biden-Harris administration has, in fact, been funding Israel's anti-government protests since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was elected two years ago, to try to oust him. Pictured: Netanyahu meets with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on July 25, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images)
September 1. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announce that the bodies of six hostages, who were abducted alive by Hamas on October 7, were recovered from a tunnel in southern Gaza's Rafah. All of them had received recent gunshot wounds to the head. Several Israeli politicians did not incriminate Hamas. Instead, they tried to incriminate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- as many, both inside Israel and outside it, have been trying do since he won election two years ago. Former Prime Minister Yair Lapid said, "Netanyahu and the 'death cabinet' decided not to rescue the abductees... You can't go on like this," and called for a general strike to shut down the economy. In a view that is seriously disputed, he then sent a letter to Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, saying: "Their deaths could have been avoided. It was possible to reach a deal." Yes, a deal could have been reached -- had Israel surrendered."
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by Daniel Greenfield • October 9, 2024 at 5:00 am
"To that end, the United States will provide nearly $157 million in additional assistance to the people of Lebanon... This additional support brings total U.S. assistance to Lebanon over the last year to over $385 million." — Vice President Kamala Harris, X.com, October 5, 2024. $385 million for an Islamic terrorist state. $20 million to Hurricane Helene survivors.
While there's not enough money for hurricane victims in America, Vice President Kamala Harris announced on October 5 that "the United States will provide nearly $157 million in additional assistance to the people of Lebanon... This additional support brings total U.S. assistance to Lebanon over the last year to over $385 million." $20 million to Hurricane Helene survivors. $157 million to Hezbollah. Those Hezbollah votes in Dearborn, Michigan don't come cheap. Pictured: Harris campaigns in Flint, Michigan on October 4, 2024. (Photo by Dominic Gwinn/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
According to Joe Biden, there's just no money for hurricane victims. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas claims that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is running out of money. (And not because it blew through $1.4 billion on illegal aliens, that's dangerous misinformation.) While there's not enough money for hurricane victims in America, after Israel took out Hezbollah Islamic terrorist leaders, Vice President Kamala Harris announced on October 5:
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by Bassam Tawil • October 8, 2024 at 5:00 am
Palestinians have a custom of celebrating in the streets every time Israel is attacked or a Jew is murdered by terrorists. It is hard, if not impossible, to find one senior Palestinian official who is willing to criticize his own people for celebrating terrorist attacks. It is also hard, if not impossible, to find one senior Palestinian official who is willing to condemn the October 7 atrocities and massacres against Israelis. Palestinian leaders have good reason not to speak out: they are afraid of being killed by their own people. Last month, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly, ignored the Hamas attack and instead accused Israel of committing "massacres," "crimes," and "genocide" against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Needless to say, Abbas also ignored the fact that a large number of Palestinians expressed support for the Hamas-led October 7 attack and took to the streets to celebrate the brutal mass-murder of Israeli women, children and the elderly. Palestinian leaders who do not have the courage, or are unwilling, to denounce terrorism will never be able to call on their people to recognize Israel's right to exist, let alone make peace with it. Palestinians who celebrate the murder of their neighbors are not ready for a state, which will undoubtedly be used as a springboard to slaughter more Jews and to try to destroy Israel. There is no excuse for celebrating murder. A society that celebrates murder will never be a partner for peace. True peace will only come when Palestinian leaders values their people's lives more than celebrating the murder of Jews.
Palestinians have a custom of celebrating in the streets every time Israel is attacked or a Jew is murdered by terrorists, and it is hard, if not impossible, to find one senior Palestinian official who is willing to criticize his own people for celebrating terrorist attacks. Pictured: Palestinian Arabs celebrate Iran's ballistic missile attack on Israel and pose, flashing the "V for victory" sign, with a piece of a downed Iranian missile that they moved to the town square of Dura (near Hebron), on October 1, 2024. (Photo by Hazem Bader/AFP via Getty Images)
Palestinians have a custom of celebrating in the streets every time Israel is attacked or a Jew is murdered by terrorists. The latest Palestinian celebrations took place on October 1, 2024, when Iran launched hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel. The celebrations occurred even though some of the missiles fell in Palestinian areas in the West Bank and the only person killed was, ironically, a Palestinian man in the city of Jericho. In one West Bank village, Palestinians erected a monument from the tail of an Iranian missile to celebrate Iran's attack on Israel. Similar celebrations took place in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and in many countries when Iran launched its first direct missile and drone attack against Israel in April. According to a report by Iran's Tehran Times:
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by Jonathan S. Tobin • October 8, 2024 at 4:00 am
Sadly, the complacency about Hamas was shared by most of Israel's leading politicians, including those opposed to Netanyahu like former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, and former prime ministers Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett, all of whom hope to replace Netanyahu at the next election. The truth is that no one except those considered on the "far right" rejected the notion that Hamas could be contained in Gaza and, if necessary, paid off in funds from terror- and Iran-supporting Qatar in order to keep the border quiet. Belief in the idea of a two-state solution to the conflict evaporated in Israel in the wake of the collapse of the 1993-1995 Oslo Accords.... [I]n the United States... public discussion of the war on Hamas continues to center on myths that should have been rejected long ago. [T]he once-dominant Israeli parties on the left were destroyed when the Palestinians—then led by the arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat, head of the PLO—proved they regarded them as merely a stepping stone to the destruction of the Jewish state. Yet none of this seems to have penetrated the consciousness of the American foreign-policy establishment and, in particular, those like Vice President Kamala Harris, who tout advocacy for a two-state solution as part of what she thinks ought to be the world's response to Oct. 7. While there are individual Palestinians who may believe in the idea of peace with Israel, they are isolated and overwhelmingly outnumbered by supporters of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the so-called "moderates" of the Fatah party (whose nearly 89-year-old leader Mahmoud Abbas serves as the head of the Palestinian Authority). They have all made it clear over and over again in their organizational charters, statements and rejection of every effort at a compromise peace plan over the decades that they deny the legitimacy of a Jewish state, no matter where its borders might be drawn. The widespread support among Palestinians for this effort (and for the atrocities that ensued) lays bare the futility and the insanity of any attempt to force Israel to make territorial retreats to accommodate yet another attempt at a Palestinian state. Palestinian political culture is solely predicated on the premise that Zionism and a Jewish state are incompatible with the minimum demands of their national identity.
The widespread support among Palestinians for the October 7, 2023 mass terror attack (and for the atrocities that ensued) lays bare the futility and the insanity of any attempt to force Israel to make territorial retreats to accommodate yet another attempt at a Palestinian state. Palestinian political culture is solely predicated on the premise that Zionism and a Jewish state are incompatible with the minimum demands of their national identity. Pictured: Covered bodies in front of a destroyed house in Kibbutz Be'eri, Israel, photographed on October 11, 2023. (Photo by Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images)
The first anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacres in southern Israel adds yet another sacred date to a calendar already filled with those devoted to mourning tragedies in Jewish history. But the fresh pain from this most recent instance of Jewish suffering is due to more than the fact that it happened only 12 months ago. The war against Islamist terrorists that began that date is ongoing with hostilities against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon. And more than 100 of the hostages taken on Oct. 7 are still unaccounted for or continue to be held captive by Palestinian terrorists.
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by Robert Williams • October 7, 2024 at 5:00 am
"Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations." — United Nations Charter, Article 51. On October 1, 2024, Iran directly attacked Israel for the second time in six months, launching at least 180 ballistic missiles at Israeli towns cities and towns and sending millions of Israelis into bomb shelters. Iran simply did what it has been doing for decades: trying to obliterate Israel. Iran, both alone and through its proxies, has attacked Israel -- a country smaller than New Jersey – for the past year, non-stop, on seven fronts: Gaza, the West Bank, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran itself. Lately, Iran has been eyeing an eighth front from which to fire on Israel: Sudan. If a country is in danger of being attacked by nuclear weapons, within "one or two weeks," as it is, according to the US Department of State, a request for "proportionality" is nonsensical. What Israel's leadership needs to do is ensure that Iran will not be able to attack the Jewish state ever again, either with conventional weapons or nuclear ones. This obligation, elementary for any country, means that Israel needs to incapacitate Iran's nuclear sites and arguably put an end to Iran's theocratic regime. There is no point in having an "accommodation" with Iran. To have peace in the Middle East, the West will need to defeat Iran. Iran, cordially loathed by many of own its trapped citizens, already controls four countries in addition to its own: Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen. The regime has made no secret of its commitment to exporting its Islamic revolution globally -- including to Sudan, the rest of Africa, the Western Hemisphere and the world. As the founder of the 1979 Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, said: "We shall export our revolution to the whole world. Until the cry 'There is no god but Allah' resounds over the whole world, there will be struggle." "Islam says," he also noted: "Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword! People cannot be made obedient except with the sword!" Yet the Biden-Harris administration, together with the other G7 countries, who represent almost the entire West, apparently cannot agree that the world would be better off if "the leading state sponsor of global terrorism" -- on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons -- were stopped in its tracks. The UN resolution also showed those countries' disregard for Western civilization – a civilization which Israel, with no thanks from anyone, is paying the highest price imaginable to protect from tyranny and barbarism. All this, however, concerns more than "just the Jews." If Western countries actively enable autocracy, terrorism and savagery not just by standing passively by but by disabling a country that is fighting these onslaughts -- where does that leave the West when those forces move on to their next targets?
Iran's October 1 missile attack on Israel was an undeniable violation of international law. There should not be the slightest doubt that the moment the Islamic Republic of Iran acquires nuclear weapons, it will try to use them on Israel. U.S. President Joe Biden nonetheless told reporters that he would not support an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear sites, and that if Israel did defend itself against Iranian aggression, it should only do so "proportionally." Pictured: Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian looks on from the dais, as a Fattah ballistic missile is displayed during at a military parade in Tehran on September 21, 2024. Fattah missiles were used in Iran's October 1 attack on Israel. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)
If there is one rule under international law that is unequivocal, it is that a state that has been attacked by another state has the right to defend itself. "Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations," states Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. This is true for every country – except it seems for Israel. When it comes to the world's only Jewish state, apparently, the rules do not apply.
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by Lawrence Kadish • October 7, 2024 at 4:00 am
It is crucial that in a functioning democracy there be an open, wide-ranging, and energetic difference of opinion among those citizens entrusted with the gift of liberty. Freedom of speech and the ballot box are the legacies that have been dearly bought by generations of Americans in uniform. To see these freedoms perverted and attacked by would-be assassins embracing an ideology repugnant to most Americans is a reminder that their actions can only be described as a capital crime against our democracy. Pictured: Former President Donald Trump is taken off a rally stage by Secret Service agents after he was shot by a would-be assassin in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. (Photo by Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images)
As John Wilkes Booth leapt from the murder scene at Ford's Theater, having just mortally wounded one of the greatest presidents who ever graced the Oval Office, he shouted "Sic semper tyrannis" or "Thus always to tyrants." It revealed a level of venomous hatred that altered the course of American history. And so it is today as not one, but two, assassination attempts have been made on former President Donald Trump. While the motive of the first sniper attack remains muddied, the second planned attack left no doubt as to why the gunman was stalking Trump. He wrote it all down before he left to wait in ambush, much of it seemingly lifted from political propaganda: "You are free to assassinate Trump," he wrote, and "DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose." President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have, on several occasions, "accused Trump of being a 'threat to Democracy.'"
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by Geert Wilders • October 6, 2024 at 5:00 am
Pictured: Geert Wilders addresses the Netherlands House of Representatives in The Hague on July 3, 2024. (Photo by Robin van Lonkhuijsen/ANP//AFP via Getty Images)
The hatred of extreme left-wing agitators and parts of the left-liberal elite in politics and the media against our Jewish compatriots and the State of Israel since the barbaric massacre of innocent civilians on October 7, 2023, has directly fueled anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews. It started immediately after October 7 with inflammatory demonstrations of millions of people with false flags and slogans in many European capitals, including many non-Western immigrants, who thereby demonstrated that they do not share any of our values and do not belong here. Then followed the betrayal at universities and in parts of our media and politics. Both nationally and internationally, from the [Netherlands] House of Representatives to the EU and UN, as well as in newspapers and on TV. Every day again. There are now even police officers who refuse to protect Jewish objects and instead of being fired on the spot, their cowardly police chiefs show understanding.
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October 6, 2024 at 4:30 am
Since the tragedy of October 7, 2023, many films, books and other forms of artistic expression have sought to depict the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists and other Palestinian organizations on that day. According to numerous reviews, among the documentaries that have covered the event, Pierre Rehov's documentary, Pogrom(s), stands out for its factual and historical approach to the tragedy. Having made documentaries on Middle Eastern conflicts for over 20 years, and specializing in terrorism, Pierre Rehov has chosen to reconstruct the massacre through the eyes of the first responders, and to call on political analysts and historians to re-establish the true context of this attempted genocide.
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by Amir Taheri • October 6, 2024 at 4:00 am
[O]ne thing is certain: his [Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's] 30-year-long policy of using costly proxies to keep war away from Iran has failed. Now he may be forced into doing his own fighting. Depending on how far this goes, Khamenei's latest move could put the very fate of his regime in the bargain. Those who have turned real or imagined victimhood into the sole criterion for dispensing fake sympathy want Israel to call it a day and settle for a ceasefire even if the "other sides", that is to say the five H groups... don't give up their declared goal of "wiping the Zionist entity" off the map. Even an intervention by a deus ex-machina prop cannot lead the action into a fishtail of uncertainty. Just as a tragedy that does not complete its full course isn't a tragedy, and risks morphing into black comedy, a war that is not allowed to do what a war is designed to do, that is to say create clear winners and losers, would be a carnivalesque waste of blood and treasure. The wise men of the New York Times claim that the revival of the Obama "nuclear deal" with Tehran would do the trick, thus implicitly holding the Iranian mullahs responsible for the current wars. The subtext is: surrender to Tehran so that it orders its five "H" hounds to return to their niches. Since World War II, we have witnessed dozens of wars, big and small; all of which ended when war did what it is supposed to do -- that is to say, decide who won and who lost, thus allowing the emergence of a new status quo capable of offering stability if not everlasting peace. Wrecking the furniture in universities and burning the Israeli and American flags may produce feel-good moments, but are unlikely to pave the way to peace. [M]ay I suggest that Netanyahu put his phone on silent for all those who hope to second-guess him on the course he has adopted, which is to let the current war to determine clear winners and losers?
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's 30-year-long policy of using costly proxies to keep war away from Iran has failed. Now he may be forced into doing his own fighting. Pictured: Khamenei stands with a rifle as he leads Friday prayer at the Imam Khomeini Musalla Mosque on October 4, 2024 in Tehran. (Photo by Iranian Supreme Leader's Press Office via Getty Images)
Although the war, or in fact wars, triggered against Israel by Hamas are far from over, global punditry is already regimented in a cacophonic chorus to tell the protagonists what to do and what not to do. In fact, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's decision to try and save face by firing missiles at Israel could expand rather than shrink a battlefield that covers a large chunk of the Middle East down to Yemen. It is too early to decide whether the ayatollah has walked into a trap set to force him into a direct clash with Israel, something he manifestly tried to avoid. But one thing is certain: his 30-year-long policy of using costly proxies to keep war away from Iran has failed. Now he may be forced into doing his own fighting. Depending on how far this goes, Khamenei's latest move could put the very fate of his regime in the bargain.
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by Majid Rafizadeh • October 5, 2024 at 5:00 am
The permissive environment created for Iran by the Biden administration's foreign policy of not just granting it impunity, but actually funding it through sanctions waivers and direct payments, appears to have financed the Iranian regime into acting with increasing aggression. This week, just as Israel, in of one of the most breathtaking campaigns in military history, sent the terror-master regime of Iran on the defensive, the US administration is calling -- now -- for a ceasefire. "I'm comfortable with them [the Israelis] stopping," President Joe Biden told reporters in on September 30. "We should have a ceasefire now." The Biden administration's shaping of US foreign policy had led the world into a state of unprecedented instability. There are conflicts raging in the Middle East and Eastern Europe; China is threatening the Philippines, Japan and Taiwan, and we all are facing the looming threat of Iranian nuclear weapons. The trajectory of the Biden administration's foreign policy is not hard to see.
The permissive environment created for Iran by the Biden administration's foreign policy of not just granting it impunity, but actually funding it through sanctions waivers and direct payments, appears to have financed the Iranian regime into acting with increasing aggression. Pictured: Sayad 4-B missile at a military parade in Tehran, Iran on April 17, 2024. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)
During the last four years since the Biden-Harris administration assumed office, the world has been marked by escalating global crises. One of the most significant has been the war against Israel, in which, a year ago, on October 7, 2023, Hamas, a proxy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, launched a brutal attack on Israel. The assault consisted of massacres, rapes, torture, beheadings, burnings-alive, kidnapping and other crimes against humanity. Possibly emboldened by the perceived weakness of the US, since its surrender to the Taliban in Afghanistan in August 2021, and its constant appeasement of China, Iran, for the first time, took direct military action on April 13, 2024 by launching hundreds of attack drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles at Israel.
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by Keya Mukherjee • October 4, 2024 at 5:00 am
Islamist and jihadist student protesters under [Muhamad] Yunus's leadership have established an alternative government in the country, reminiscent of Iran's private militia, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Dozens of individuals, including Hindus, are falling victim to mob justice, while the perpetrators of these gruesome crimes enjoy impunity. Notably, Muhammad Yunus is one of the major donors to the Clinton Foundation. According to a cable leaked by Wikileaks, in 2007, Hillary Clinton made frantic efforts and exerted pressure on the Bangladesh Army to appoint her friend Yunus as head of the then military-backed interim government. Since Yunus enjoys the full support of the Biden-Harris administration, as well as Democratic Party leaders such as Barack Obama, and Bill and Hillary Clinton, not one of the rights groups, including Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch, has issued a statement condemning the attacks, rapes and murders in Bangladesh. Hizb ut-Tahrir is an anti-democratic Islamist organization that advocates for the establishment of a caliphate. It is banned in Bangladesh and several other countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States. [W]ill Bangladesh's descent into radicalism continue unchecked, or will the international community finally confront the growing Talibanization threatening the stability of the region?
Bangladesh's interim leader Muhammad Muhammad Yunus is one of the major donors to the Clinton Foundation. According to a cable leaked by Wikileaks, in 2007, Hillary Clinton made frantic efforts and exerted pressure on the Bangladesh Army to appoint her friend Yunus as head of the then military-backed interim government. Pictured: Yunus speaks next to former US President Bill Clinton in New York City on September 24, 2024. (Photo by Leonardo Munoz/AFP via Getty Images)
Days after Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was forced to flee the country amidst protests led by Jamaat-e-Islami, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Hizb ut-Tahrir, Hefazat-e-Islam, and other Islamist forces, all charges against Mufti Jashimuddin Rahmani, the chief of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT)—later rebranded as Ansar Al Islam—were dropped. Rahmani, along with dozens of imprisoned Islamists and jihadists, was released. Shortly after his release, Rahmani appeared in a viral video, calling on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to "free Bengal from Modi's rule and declare its independence."
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by Robert Williams • October 3, 2024 at 5:00 am
What [Biden-Harris administration climate envoy John Kerry] does not mention, of course, is who decides what is "disinformation," or if it is just whatever the current government wants the public to think. Recently, a video of vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz has also been circulating in which he alleged that there is "no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech, and especially around our democracy." Some have implied that Walz does not understand the First Amendment, but his statement, arguably, should not be viewed so much as being about what the First Amendment is, which he as Governor of Minnesota obviously knows, but what some political leaders would like it to be. [Meta founder and CEO Mark] Zuckerberg also noted that he had agreed to kill the Hunter Biden laptop story on his social media platforms after the FBI, treacherously, falsely "warned us about a potential Russian disinformation operation about the Biden family and Burisma in the lead up to the 2020 election." As it turned out, it was 51 former US intelligence officials who deliberately lied in a 2020 letter that the laptop story was Russian disinformation -- lies that signatories such as former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, ex-intelligence heads of the CIA and other analysts and officers still refuse to apologize for, with some of them instead referring to their treacherous behavior as "patriotism." Evidently, according to some of those in power, government disinformation is good -- freedom of speech for the citizenry is bad. In 2022, the Biden-Harris administration's Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy demanded that social media stop certain people from publishing their expertise and views. "We partnered with Google... For example, if you Google 'climate change,' you will, at the top of your search, you will get all kinds of U.N. resources." According to Fleming, the partnership came about after U.N. officials were "shocked to see that when we Googled 'climate change,' we were getting incredibly distorted information right at the top.... We're becoming much more proactive. We own the science, and we think that the world should know it, and the platforms themselves also do." — Melissa Fleming, UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, yahoo.com, October 4, 2022. In 2022, the Biden-Harris administration had attempted to do something similar in the US, when it actually created an Orwellian Ministry of Truth called the "Disinformation Governance Board," under the Department of Homeland Security. The initiative met with so much backlash that it had to be scrapped just three weeks later. No one can tell you that some politicians do not have totalitarian ambitions. They have not even tried to hide it.
Last week, at a World Economic Forum (WEF) panel on climate, former US Secretary of State and Biden-Harris administration climate envoy John Kerry complained that the First Amendment prevents the US government from shutting down what it deems to be "disinformation" on social media, which makes it more difficult to "hammer disinformation out of existence... particularly in democracies," he lamented. Pictured: Kerry delivers a speech during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on January 17, 2023. (Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)
Some politicians in the US are itching to take away your free speech rights and, given the chance, if they get enough votes, they will. How do we know? Because they tell us that they will. Last week, at a World Economic Forum (WEF) panel on climate, former US Secretary of State and Biden-Harris administration climate envoy John Kerry complained that the First Amendment prevents the US government from shutting down what it deems to be "disinformation" on social media, which makes it more difficult to "hammer disinformation out of existence... particularly in democracies," he lamented. What he does not mention of course is who decides what is "disinformation," or if it is just whatever the current government wants the public to think.
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by Bassam Tawil • October 2, 2024 at 5:00 am
"Israel just made all the Middle East happy tonight." — Israeli-Lebanese Christian journalist Jonathan Elkhoury, X, September 27, 2024. "As a Lebanese, this is one of the happiest days in Lebanon's history.... As a human being who holds peace before my eyes, this is the most important day for our region. Nasrallah and Hezbollah have terrorized the Lebanese people since the 1980s.... Every Lebanese and every decent human being should feel joy at the downfall of one of the greatest evils of our time. Now, we have a real chance to look forward... and sitting down with Israelis and the West for genuine negotiations on normalization and peace between our countries—Israel and Lebanon." — Jonathan Elkhoury, X, September 24, 2024. "Honestly, Lebanon should toss Nasrallah into the sea like the U.S. did with Bin Laden—no land deserves that filth. Though, I do feel bad for the fish." — Amjad Taha, United Arab Emirates, to his 571,000 followers on X, September 28, 2024. All the students at US university campuses who have been protesting Israel's war against Iran's terror proxies, such as Hezbollah and Hamas, should hear the voices of these Arabs. These voices demonstrate how many Arabs have also been harmed by terrorism and how they wish for a better future for their children and their people. These voices also show that in the war against Islamist terrorism, a growing number of Arabs consider Israel an ally.
The killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has shown that many Arabs considered him an enemy and arch-terrorist. Nasrallah was responsible for killing not only many Israelis but also many Arabs, especially in Lebanon and Syria. That is probably why the news of Nasrallah's elimination was greeted with jubilation by many Israelis and Arabs. Pictured: Some of the hundreds of Syrians celebrating the killing of Nasrallah in the streets of Idlib, Syria, on September 28, 2024. (Photo by Muhammad Haj Kadour/AFP via Getty Images)
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group in Lebanon who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on September 27, was often described by many in the West as a "formidable enemy" of Israel. Nasrallah's death, however, has shown that many Arabs, including some of his fellow Lebanese citizens, also considered him an enemy and arch-terrorist. The Hezbollah chief was responsible for killing not only a large number of Israelis over the past three decades, but also many Arabs, especially in Lebanon and Syria. That is probably why the news of Nasrallah's elimination was greeted with jubilation by many Israelis and Arabs. Hezbollah has long been an ally of the Ba'ath regime of Syria, ruled by the Assad family. Hezbollah has helped the Ba'ath regime during the Syrian civil war in its fight against the Syrian opposition, backed by the US.
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