Iran's Supreme Guide, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei "used the Islamic concept of 'Taqiyya' to describe the regime's decision to accept the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal with the West. Taqiyya means the permissibility to deny or conceal one's real beliefs to secure a worthy goal." — iranintl.com, May 20, 2023.

"Khamenei's emphasis on "expediency" as the third principle in foreign policy was particularly notable, as he urged flexibility "in necessary instances" and circumventing "tough barriers" to continue a set course." — iranintl.com, May 20, 2023

If it was not clear what "heroic flexibility" meant then, it probably should be clear by now. Reports consistently document that Iran has been cheating since day one.

"[Khamenei] said that when a revolution hits a tough rock on its path, it need not break its head against it; the wisest course would be to try and go around it." — Amir Taheri, "Iran: Heroic Flexibility Returns," June 4, 2023.

" [A]l- Taqiyya is with the tongue only, (not the heart)." — Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti in his book, "al-Durr al-Manthoor Fi al-Tafsir al- Ma'athoor," quoting Ibn Abbas.

Taqiyya is actually all around us. Iran pretends that its nuclear program is just for peaceful purposes. Some Muslims pretend to convert to Christianity (past and present), or a Muslim gunman gains entrance into a church by feigning interest in Christian prayers.

It should not be surprising, therefore, that Khamenei is relying on taqiyya once again. What is surprising is that the Biden Administration is falling for it – after being told it would be used – and allowing itself to be sucker-punched, or pretending to allow it.

In 1994, PLO leader Yasser Arafat, after he signed the Oslo Accord with Israel, justified his actions by saying, "I see this agreement as being no more than the agreement signed between our Prophet Muhammad and the Quraysh in Mecca"— referring to a truce, the Treaty of Hudaibiyah, which Muhammad broke as soon as he had regained power and was able to attack.

Similarly, Khamenei, by referring to taqiyya in Iran's agreement to a nuclear deal with the West, is signaling that Iran is only going along for "expediency" — until it finds itself in a position to realize its nuclear aspirations and renege.

[I]s there a single authority representing the West at these international nuclear talks that knows — let alone cares about — any of this? Or is the fix already in?

The results of the survey indicate that the Israeli public has far greater trust in the Knesset -- by dozens of percentage points -- than it does in Israel's judiciary, from the Supreme Court down to the legal advisors and counselors who answer to the Supreme Court.

As almost always, the different answers are the result of differences built into the questions. The wording of the question posed in the Israel Democracy Institute survey referred to the "level of trust in the Knesset" while the "Direct Polls Trust Index" survey examined trust "in the members of the Knesset you elected."

[T]he purposefully phrased IDI survey was crafted to justify weakening the powers of the legislative branch and granting excessive powers to the judicial branch.

The way [the IDI's] question was worded regarding the public's trust in the Knesset ensured that the results would create the totally false impression that the public does not trust the members of the Knesset and favors the judges of the Supreme Court.

The relevant question, which is more closely reflected in the wording of the Direct Polls survey, is the level of the public's trust in the members of the Knesset chosen by them, and the results show that an absolute majority of the public trusts its elected representatives -- a fact that points to an extremely healthy parliamentary democracy.

These campaigns to undemocratically overturn the result of a free and fair election would surely have caught the eye of George Orwell -- especially as they were all conducted under the rallying cry of "protecting democracy."

India feels a giant demon breathing on her shoulder.

The more China strengthens its military and economic power, the more threatened India feels. The main reason is China's aggressive actions along the China-India border.

Tibet [in 1914] was an independent country that had every right to negotiate border agreements with any bordering countries.

In 1950, China invaded and fully occupied Tibet. Since then, China has been claiming a right to Arunachal Pradesh and denying the Tibet-India agreement. Even though the McMahon Line is the clear boundary between the countries, the dispute between China and India increases as skirmishes flare up. Each time, the region and the world hold their breath.

Itanagar, the capital of Arunachal Pradesh was the site of one of the meetings in March. However, China did not participate in that meeting and also skipped the meeting held in Kashmir on May 22-24.

Day by day, relations between the two world's most populous countries, both nuclear powers, continue to deteriorate, with no signs of peace talks in sight.

Far more significant than scoring space spectaculars, however, is the question of which nation will achieve military dominance in the domain of near-earth space. Chinese international media deceitfully stresses the peaceful, cooperative, and scientific nature of its national space program. However, the ambitious nature of China's space program indicates that Beijing's primary objective is to dominate near earth space.

China's PLA is openly preparing for war, particularly in areas where Beijing's territorial and maritime claims are illegal and hegemonic.

The aggressive nature of China's space program is particularly obvious in its anti-satellite projects.

The proximity of these Chinese anti-satellite vehicles clearly reveals the mission to degrade and/or blind collection and transmission of intelligence data by US systems. Another Chinese anti-satellite project features a satellite with a grappling hook, designed to capture US satellites as an immediate prelude to war.

Beijing is planning to win a war in space as part of its reported overall objective of replacing the US as the dominant power on earth. One assessment estimates that fully 84% of China's space launches are military in nature -- indicating that the CCP may well be determined to emerge as the only remaining superpower.

It will also most likely be in the dimension of space, as well as biowarfare, that mankind will get a tip-off that a major armed conflict is about to breakout between China and the United States. China at present not only has "killer satellites," but also reportedly: "Beijing also has rapidly developed an array of space warfare capabilities, including several types of ground-launched anti-satellite missiles capable of hitting satellites in different orbits; ground-based lasers that can blind or damage orbiting satellites; and small robotic satellites capable of maneuvering and grabbing orbiting satellites."

China will most likely attempt to shut down US intelligence collection, "eyes and ears in the sky," prior to combat operations on earth. The United States, if an impending military clash seems unavoidable, may be forced to "preemptively retaliate" by disabling China's intelligence collection and data transmission space-based assets – if it can.

"[I]f the U.S. military doesn't change course... we're going to lose fast" — Air Force Lt. Gen. S. Clinton Hinote, the deputy chief of staff for strategy, integration and requirements, americanmilitarynews.com, March 11, 2021.

It seems high time that the US increased its defense budget instead of cutting it, prepositioned arms in Taiwan for deterrence, and got serious about acknowledging the Chinese Communist Party, led by President Xi Jinping, not as a "competitor," but as an adversary, and an intractable one at that.

For the 87-year-old Abbas and his Fatah faction, the victory of the Hamas supporters was not only humiliating, but also a reminder that when it comes to dealing with Israel, many Palestinians prefer terrorism over diplomacy.

The Hamas-affiliated students also condemned the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority for conducting security coordination with Israeli security forces in the West Bank. Any form of cooperation with Israel, they argued, is tantamount to treason.

The underlying message the Hamas-affiliated lists sent to the thousands of students at the two campuses was: Vote for us because we explicitly and unreservedly uphold the armed struggle against Israel and promise to continue the Jihad (holy war) to murder Jews and replace Israel with a genocidal Islamist state, free of non-Muslims.

It also would not be a particularly good idea to hold general elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip at a time when a majority of Palestinians are voicing support for an "armed intifada" (uprising) against Israel.

Article 13 of the Hamas covenant urges Muslims to wage Jihad on Israel and reject any peace initiatives: "There is no solution for the Palestinian issue expect through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."

The victory of the Hamas-affiliated lists at the two Palestinian universities in the West Bank should serve as a warning not only to Mahmoud Abbas, but also to the international community, especially the Biden administration, whose representatives continue to promote the delusional and dangerous idea of a "two-state solution" between the Palestinians and Israel.

The university students who voted for Hamas have endorsed Hamas's call for Jihad and terrorism against Israel. They have endorsed Hamas's argument that Israel has no right to exist. They have also endorsed the argument that no Palestinian or Arab leader is entitled to make any concessions to Israel.

The officials in the Biden administration, European Union and United Nations who continue to talk about the need for a "two-state solution" are actually advocating the creation of another Hamas-led state, like ISIS, this time in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. A similar state already exists in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, used a launching pad to fire rockets into Israel.

By voting for Hamas once again, Palestinians... are also sending a warning to Abbas and other Palestinian leaders not to make peace with Israel or work with it in any way, or else they will be treated as traitors -- further proof, as if it were needed, that the Palestinians have yet again chosen violence, terrorism and misery rather than a bright, promising future, a better economy, and prosperity for their young.

[Police constable Zahid Sohail] alleged that the boys were making fun of each other and were calling a puppy "Muhammad Ali."

The families of both boys said they have no puppy.

"'Muhammad Ali' is the brand name of the Naswar [tobacco] he takes. While both boys were talking about the brand, at the same time Zahid Sohail, a policeman, was passing by and heard them. Without knowing the facts, he started beating the children, saying they were committing blasphemy." — Samina Nadeem, the mother of Simon.

[B]oth boys have been sent to jail, and nobody knows their fate.

[G]iven the unconscionable delays that have affected other commitments by the Biden administration to provide Kyiv with advanced weapons, concerns remain about whether the aircraft will actually arrive in time to make a material difference to Ukraine's war effort.

Procrastination and equivocation have been the key watchwords of Biden's response to the Ukraine crisis, with the supposed leader of the free world seemingly incapable of making a decision about how best to provide the Ukrainians with the weaponry they require to defeat their Russian adversaries.

Making the announcement at the recent G7 summit in Japan, US National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden "informed his G7 counterparts" of the decision during the summit, and that the US would also supervise training of Ukrainian pilots.

At the same time, the administration moved swiftly to dampen expectations that the aircraft would be delivered anytime soon and that, when they did materialise, it was unlikely to make a significant difference to Ukraine's war efforts -- not exactly the ringing endorsement of support the Ukrainians were expecting.

The US, while willing to provide training and support, had indicated it does not want to send American warplanes to Ukraine, mainly because of the Biden administration's aversion to upsetting Russian President Vladimir Putin.

All of which suggests that, rather than providing a tangible uplift to Ukraine's war-fighting capabilities, Biden's announcement about sending F-16s to Kyiv could prove to be little more than an empty gesture, one that raises serious doubts about whether the Biden administration really has any genuine interest in Ukraine winning this bloody war.

["Supreme Guide" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] has decided to perform what he calls "heroic flexibility" in foreign policy in the hope of focusing on a slow but steady suppression of dissent at home. In a speech last week, he said he was applying the tactic of "taqiyeh" (dissimulation), a theological concept, to diplomacy.... [H]e said that when a revolution hits a tough rock on its path, it need not break its head against it; the wisest course would be to try and go around it.

It is against that background that Tehran now hails its recent "normalization" with Saudi Arabia, followed by "dispersing the clouds" in relations with the United Arab Emirates, as "a major step towards Islamic solidarity."

This is to be followed by "normalization" with Egypt, partly thanks to mediation by Sultan Haitham bin Tarik of Oman.

More importantly, perhaps, Tehran has quietly "rescheduled" its annual "A World Without America" seminar and the annual "Holocaust as a Hoax" cartoon exhibition.

This was in contrast with previous sermons in which he had urged his diplomats to always raise the banner of revolution and emphasize Iran's role as the leader of a new power bloc seeking to establish a new world order in alliance with Russia and China.

The big enchilada, of course, is whether the "Supreme Guide" will prove flexible enough to accept a new version of the "nuclear deal" (JCPOA) reached with President Barack Obama, which President Donald Trump dumped, and his successor President Joe Biden is determined to bring out of the wastepaper basket. Biden seems determined to get a deal before next year's presidential election to claim success in bringing Iran into the fold where Trump had failed.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered this January that his country carry out "exponential" expansion of its nuclear arsenal and the manufacturing of a more powerful ICBM.

"Today, China, Russia, North Korea and Iran continue to invest in technologies to expand their capabilities to hit the United States with nuclear weapons. All four countries have also escalated their threatening rhetoric, indicating their willingness to use nuclear weapons in a military conflict. By expanding their nuclear programs, each has made clear that our nuclear arsenal is no longer a deterrent to their potential use of nuclear weapons.." — Rep. Mike Turner, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, Fox News, May 4, 2023.

Russia is most likely helping Iran to boost its nuclear program in exchange for the weapons that the Islamic Republic is supplying to Russia for use against Ukraine.

The headline of a report by Iran's state-controlled Afkar News read: "American Soil Is Now Within the Range of Iranian Bombs". The report boasted: "The same type of ballistic missile technology used to launch the satellite could carry nuclear, chemical or even biological weapons to wipe Israel off the map, hit US bases and allies in the region and US facilities, and target NATO even in the far west of Europe...."

"After 9/11, the George W. Bush administration revived missile defense.... In 2009, the Obama administration scrapped this plan. Then it canceled key parts of its own plan, leaving the U.S. and Europe vulnerable to an array of threats and potential nuclear coercion by adversaries." — Rep. Mike Turner, Fox News, May 4, 2023.

"[T]he Biden administration has shown a lack of foresight. In its 2021 Missile Defense Review, President Biden ignored our defense industrial base supply chain issues..." — Rep. Mike Turner, Fox News, May 4, 2023.

Unfortunately, through its failure to take on the Free World's adversaries in a serious, credible way, the Biden Administration has been empowering tyrants and rogues states, at the forefront: North Korea, Russia, China and Iran.

After the Russian invasion of the Ukraine in February 2022, Sweden and Finland abandoned generations of neutrality to apply for membership in the NATO military alliance. However, there is already a gang war going on in Swedish streets, and it has nothing to do with Russia.

[National Police Commissioner Anders] Thornberg estimated that more than 30,000 people are now involved in gang violence in Sweden... According to Thornberg, the situation is "extremely serious," with organized crime infiltrating and corrupting the democratic society, the business world and the public sector.

Some two million immigrants (20% of the population) now live in Sweden, according to David Jones in the Daily Mail, Many come from the most troubled parts of Asia and Africa and have not integrated well into Swedish society. Rival gangs now shoot each other on a regular basis. In Stockholm alone, 52 gangs are vying for control of the burgeoning drug trade, according to a police report, and they are becoming ever more ruthless. Some child gang members even carry explosives in their school thermos flasks. Jones writes:

"Twenty years ago, gun crime was almost non-existent here." — David Jones, the Daily Mail, February 10, 2023.

"Ten to fifteen years ago, it was about shoplifting when we were dealing with 14-year-olds, but now they deal in drugs and handle automatic weapons... Older criminals use children to avoid being caught themselves, and for the children, it is a sign of status to be chosen. It starts as a cool thing for a kid who can't see consequences and ends up getting involved in gang conflicts."— Police officer who asked to remain anonymous, document.no, March 1, 2023.

When available resources are dedicated to investigating shootings and bombings, other crimes such as burglary or theft have become effectively risk-free. This inversion of law enforcement contributes to a growing sense of lawlessness now being felt by many Swedes. What is the point of having laws if they are not enforced, or only used to punish honest citizens?

Since 2010, shoplifting in Sweden has doubled.

More serious crime is also being ignored or de-prioritized by an understaffed police force. In the city of Uppsala, victims of rape complain that they must wait for months to be interviewed.... Most available police resources are now dedicated to combating criminal gangs.

Swedish schools are also becoming increasingly violent, for teachers and pupils alike. Reports about threats and violence at schools have more than doubled since 2012. These reports mainly concern students who have attacked teachers with threats, punches, or strangulation.

In Malmö, Sweden's third-largest city, native Swedes are already a minority. The city is experiencing a kind of "white flight." Many move to smaller towns to find safer environments and schools for their families.

While ownership of rifles for hunting is not uncommon in Sweden, owning guns for self-defence had never, until recently, been a reason to be granted a firearms license.

What is the world's largest transnational criminal organization? At 96.7 million members, it is the Communist Party of China.

Beijing's primary goal is rule — not domination — of Planet Earth and the near parts of the solar system.

This expansive Chinese view has many implications, but one of them is that China's regime does not believe it is bound by the laws of the international community. China's regime, with this mentality, thinks that whatever it does by definition is within its right and therefore not criminal.

There are in China, for instance, over 700 million surveillance cameras in its SkyNet system, about one camera for every two residents. Those devices are being connected to one centrally controlled system as the regime stitches together a nationwide social credit system to monitor every person in the People's Republic.

Taxis and other vehicles also have government-installed cameras. The CCP has thought of everything. As a result, China is fast becoming totalitarian and a total surveillance state.

The Communist Party cannot run such a state and claim it does not know what is going on.

This means the CCP is responsible for the tens of thousands of Americans annually killed by fentanyl.... The result, Vanda Felbab-Brown of the Brookings Institution wrote, is "the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history."

TikTok... which Beijing effectively controls, glamorizes drug use. Yes, the wildly popular app has community guidelines prohibiting videos promoting drug use, but you can find clips with millions of views teaching kids how to take illegal drugs.

The Chinese gangs use burner phones and Chinese banking apps to move vast sums quickly, quietly, and securely through the Chinese state banking system. The Communist Party of China tightly controls all Chinese banks, and no one could transfer sums through their networks without the cooperation of the regime.

"At its core, the People's Republic of China is focused on gaining geopolitical leverage over countries in Central and South America to be used in an eventual conflict with the United States." — Joseph Humire of the Center for a Secure Free Society to Gatestone, May 2023

These are just a few of China's crimes as detailed in Frank Gaffney's new book, The Indictment: Prosecuting the Chinese Communist Party & Friends for Crimes Against America, China, and the World. Unfortunately, American law enforcement prosecutes individuals when it should be prosecuting the Communist Party of China instead.

The "right of return" is not actually a "right," especially if you are the party who started the war and then lost it, as took place in 1948.

The "right of return" is, rather, a demand: that all the Palestinians who fled their homes during the war of 1948 – and all their descendants – be allowed to return to what is currently the State of Israel.

Thousands of wealthy Arabs left their homes in anticipation of a war, thousands more responded to Arab leaders' calls to get out of the way of the advancing Arab armies. A handful were expelled, but most simply fled to avoid being caught in the crossfire as the Arabs waged war in response to the establishment of Israel.

"There is a limit to how far Abbas should go to appease Israel." -- Saudi commentator, mepc.org, 2012.

[A]n extensive letter to Abbas, signed by 78 Palestinian organizations, contained a semi-veiled death threat.

It has now become clear that when Abbas says he supports the two-state solution, he is actually talking about one Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, and another one that would replace Israel.

In Israel, there are currently about seven million Jews and two million Arabs. An influx of untold millions of Palestinians would mean, literally, the end of Israel. This appears to be exactly what Abbas and other Palestinians are hoping to achieve.

In pursuing this hardline push for the "right of return," Abbas desires a two-state solution: two Palestinian states, one in the West Bank and Gaza, and the other in all of Israel.

[Abbas's] time is running out and his people are thoroughly angered and disappointed by his lack of tangible results, either in displacing Israel or in bettering their lives.

Addressing Abbas, the comment reads: "We, the Palestinian people, Mahmoud Abbas, want all of Palestine... 67 and 48, all the land, water, sky, air... and the Jews do not exist with us.... Let history write your name. You admitted that the negotiations with the Zionists were a mistake and a sin... Mr. President. Safed is home and you want to go back to your country...Palestine has tens of millions of owners of the land, and you have been repeating the same mistake for 20 years. The Palestinian people, are tens of millions. We will return. We will expel them [Jews] and displace them. Even their graves, Mr. President, will not remain under our soil... we will kill them."

Erdoğan, as he has always done since coming to power in 2002, did all that he could to use state resources and the media he controls to manipulate the voters both before the May 14 vote and before the second round.

State officials who are bound by the constitution to stay neutral in politics joined Erdoğan's campaign, while blocking every opposition effort.

When a journalist asked Erdoğan "How was this video recorded?" Erdoğan admitted that the video shown was fabricated, but still alleged PKK complicity in the Kılıçdaroğlu campaign.... In fact, the PKK circulated its own, original version; militants dancing and chanting and so on. At the election rally, Erdoğan showed a fabricated version showing Kılıçdaroğlu dancing and chanting with PKK militants.

While Erdoğan will try to maintain a balanced policy between Russia and the West, he will be inclined to favor Russia to the point where he fears that Western sanctions will hammer Turkey's ailing economy.

Putin will keep on drinking his champagne while rooting for his Turkish Trojan Horse in NATO. Turkey's relations with the EU, however, will remain in the deep freeze, where they have been for the past several years, with virtually no chance of reviving Turkey's process for EU membership.

What will happen after [Erdoğan] has left the political stage? The Turks will most likely quickly elect another opportunistic Islamist leader -- another Erdoğan.

You probably know the [National Voter Registration Act] as "Motor Voter." It is the federal requirement that requires state motor vehicle offices to offer voter registration and the ability to update your address.

Sounds convenient? Now, we have data showing one of the side effects of Motor Voter is to put non-citizens onto American voter rolls.

[W]e have collected extensive records of non-citizens asking to be removed from the voter rolls. Sometimes those records reveal how the foreign citizen was registered to vote, and the Motor Voter process represents the vast majority of cases.

Chicago officials provided registration records where some foreign nationals even checked "NO" to the question of whether the person is a United States citizen, and were still registered.

The Pennsylvania State Department admitted that due to what election officials referred to as a "glitch" that they had been accidentally registering foreign nationals to vote for two decades. They have been fighting for over five years to conceal details, including the number of foreign nationals the Commonwealth registered to vote by mistake.

The reports from Maricopa County and Chicago are not an inventory of every non-citizen vote, but only those who informed election officials they were not American citizens. So, the catalog of confessed non-citizens is almost certainly just the tip of the iceberg.

What can be done about non-citizens registering to vote?

Congress can solve the problem by allowing states to validate citizenship effectively. This could be as easy as providing a passport, birth certificate or other evidence of being an American at the time of voter registration.

Another easy fix is for Congress to add citizenship to the National Voter Registration Act's reasonable voter list maintenance requirements for states. Motor Voter does not put the same obligation for states to keep voter rolls free from non-citizens as it does, for example, dead voters.

[He wrote] me: "I'm a graduate student at NYU working on a documentary film." Not "I'm a former graduate student with no current connection to NYU." He was deliberately deceptive and did make false statements.

He apparently believes that because I defend Israel, he is justified in defrauding me.

This, then, is a warning to other people who support Israel to be aware that this fraudulent and pretend "journalist" is out there ready to employ sleazy tactics unworthy of real journalists. No one should ever agree to be interviewed by Novell. And NYU should be aware that its good name is being misused and tarnished by Novell's unethical misrepresentations.

Novell has now tried to shift blame to me, saying that I should have checked him out on Google before agreeing to be interviewed. So I did, and I found nothing that would have alerted me to his fraudulent intentions and action. This is why I am writing this op-ed: so that anyone Novell seeks to interview in the future, will be able to learn about his sordid history.