Latest Analysis and Commentary

The Strategy of Atrocity in the Gaza War

by Michael Hochberg and Leonard Hochberg  •  March 18, 2024 at 5:00 am

  • Hamas is perhaps the first regime in recorded history to fight a war designed to maximize casualties among their own population.

  • Failing to swiftly destroy Hamas and directly punish Hamas's backers in Iran and Qatar will teach sympathizers in other parts of the Muslim world that strategies of atrocity should be added to the playbook of regimes challenging U.S. allies around the world. Even worse would be for Hamas to actually achieve a strategic victory and gain a Palestinian statehood; such an outcome would ensure that atrocity becomes a standard and widely used strategy for at least a generation to come.

  • The laws of war -- primarily a Western innovation -- are being weaponized by the enemies of the West, who do not subscribe to Western culture..... Today, the United States and our allies find ourselves at war with states and non-state entities who do not subscribe to the laws of war.

  • "[T]he Hamas terrorists killed by Israel in the ensuing war, and civilian non-combatants killed in the Gaza Strip while being used as human shields by Hamas. They are all considered "Martyrs" whose families are eligible to receive stipends of 1,400-12,000 shekels [$375-$3200] per month for life." — Itamar Marcus; Founder, Palestinian Media Watch, palwatch.org, January 10, 2024.

  • The popular accusation of disproportionality is, in point of fact, aimed to prevent Western-aligned nations from achieving decisive victories. Even when the allies of the United States have the military capacity to break the will of the enemy, thereby imposing peace on the defeated, they will be forced to resort to fighting forever wars.

  • Why should the Israelis be compelled to allow aid into Gaza, when Hamas continues to hold hostage not just Israelis but also Americans? Under the guise of benevolence and generosity, international organizations promote forever wars.

  • If the type of warfare that we have seen from Hamas is allowed to succeed, and is not met with overwhelming violence and utter defeat, it will become the standard approach for those challenging Western dominance. If, however, we want to live in a world where the laws of war mean something, then the penalties for deliberately flouting them need to be terrible. Otherwise more regimes will be tempted to gain advantage through strategies of atrocity.

  • The US should stop imposing on our allies a doctrine of defeat.

  • Finally, the day after hostilities end, the Israelis must protect the new Gazan government from being undermined by renewed efforts to support terrorism and remilitarization.

  • The only path to peace, other than the destruction of Israel, is through a comprehensive Israeli victory and an unconditional surrender by Hamas in Gaza, and a post-war arrangement ensuring that the Gazans will not be able to commit such atrocities in Israel again.

Hamas is perhaps the first regime in recorded history to fight a war designed to maximize casualties among their own population. Pictured: Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen shows a photo of an Israeli soldier posing next to a Hamas weapons cache that was found at Rantisi Hospital in Gaza, at a press conference at the European Office of the United Nations in Geneva, on November 14, 2023. (Photo by Pierre Albouy/AFP via Getty Images)

"People should either be caressed or crushed. If you do them minor damage they will get their revenge; but if you cripple them there is nothing they can do. If you need to injure someone, do it in such a way that you do not have to fear their vengeance." — Niccolo Machiavelli.

Imagine for a moment the following story in the New York Times:

October 12, 2023, Gaza City. In an outpouring of rage, the population of Gaza has taken to the streets to protest the attacks of October 7, causing the collapse of the Hamas government. Local reports are confused, but it appears that several hundred Hamas officials have been killed by angry mobs of Palestinian citizens. Surviving Hamas leaders are reported to be fleeing Gaza. Unverified videos of what appear to be the gruesome deaths of several senior Hamas officials have been posted on social media.

But that is not the world we live in.

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Biden's 'Trojan Pier' For Gaza

by Daniel Greenfield  •  March 18, 2024 at 4:00 am

  • The temporary pier setup is about bypassing Israel to provide long term access to Gaza... [the pier] is not actually meant to be temporary, but a permanent port for the terrorists.

  • The Pentagon spokesman emphasized, however, that American forces would not be on the ground, would not be in a position to secure the aid deliveries or stop Hamas from taking them.

  • [S]ome of those partner nations could include Hamas allies like Qatar or Turkey. Any armed foreign nation entering Gaza would amount to an invasion of Israeli territory with the ultimate aim of aiding the terrorists living on it.

  • The Trojan pier is not only about bypassing Israel, but also Egypt. The administration's vision is that the new arrangement will allow it to directly move materials into Gaza without having to get permission from either Israel or Egypt. And that's a major victory for the terrorists.

  • Biden's actions are a violation of Israel's sovereignty.

Pictured: US Army mariners construct a "Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore" causeway adjacent to the MV Maj. Bernard F. Fisher off the coast of Bowen, Australia, July 29, 2023. This is the type of floating pier that the US military has been tasked with building on the Gaza shore. (Photo by Sgt. Ashunteia' Smith/U.S. Army via Getty Images)

Five Americans are still being held hostage by Hamas, and Biden has sent no troops to help them, but at the State of the Union address, he promised to send troops to build a pier for Gaza.

The estimated over 1,000 troops will spend as long as 2 months laboring to build a floating pier in a war zone under potential attack to help transfer aid to the Hamas supporters living in Gaza.

Nothing about this plan makes sense.

The media has taken to falsely claiming that the Arab Muslims occupying parts of Gaza are starving. Vice President Kamala Harris attacked Israel, claiming that she had "seen reports of families eating leaves or animal feed." Social media videos however show the locals gorging themselves on shawarma and other foods in preparation for the Islamic period of Ramadan.

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Ukraine: Unintended Consequences

by Amir Taheri  •  March 17, 2024 at 11:00 pm

  • Though Putin remains personally popular to a degree that would make any Western leader green with envy, the war is clearly losing popular backing. Latest polls, some sanctioned by Kremlin-controlled organs, show that the war enjoys no more than 30 to 40 percent approval among Russians. More interestingly, between 50 and 60 percent of Russians oppose a second wave of military call-up, something that the Kremlin's military planners regard as imperative if Russia means to stay in the game.

  • Instead, NATO has found two new members, and not just anyone, because Finland and Sweden built part of their national identity on neutrality. Even worse for Putin, the US-led alliance is seeding up membership procedures for at least four other countries, notably Albania...

  • Being forced to sell its oil at a juicy discount to China is the last thing that Russia might have wanted, had it not been forced to do so because of Western sanctions.

  • What is amazing is that all those involved in this tragedy seem to be unable to read the runes even when plainly explained to them, notably that a war fought half-heartedly, almost as a weekend hobby, could go on without producing a winner and a loser, something without which no war can ever end.

Though Russian President Vladimir Putin remains personally popular to a degree that would make any Western leader green with envy, the war against Ukraine is clearly losing popular backing. Latest polls, some sanctioned by Kremlin-controlled organs, show that the war enjoys no more than 30 to 40 percent approval among Russians. Pictured: Preliminary voting results in the Russian presidential election are displayed on a screen at the Central Election Commission in Moscow on March 17, 2024. (Photo by Stringer/AFP via Getty Images)

Even a year ago, some Russia-watchers believed that President Vladimir Putin might end his war on Ukraine with something like a victory in time before what could be his last re-election campaign.

However, now as Russians go to the polls, no victory is even remotely in sight.

Putin is almost certain to win re-election and secure another six-year term in the Kremlin.

What many would look for is his share of the vote.

In the 2018 election, Putin collected almost 78 percent of the votes. So anything less than that might look like a setback related to the stalled war in Ukraine.

This may look more so because his two main adversaries Nikolay Kharitonov of the truncated Communist Party and Vladislav Davankov of the tiny New People's Party have "if-and-butted" their support for the war.

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Making Lawyers Toxic in Their Communities

by Elizabeth Eastman  •  March 17, 2024 at 5:00 am

  • Making lawyers "toxic in their communities" is a tactic of The 65 Project. The group files ethics complaints against lawyers who represented clients raising challenges to the 2020 election, despite a substantial body of evidence that presidential election results have been frequently challenged throughout our nation's history, including most recently by Democrats in 2000 and 2016.

  • While The 65 Project makes the claim on their website of defending democracy and the rule of law, they do exactly the opposite... by isolating, financially crippling and destroying the careers of those in the legal profession who dared challenge the government-endorsed narrative that the 2020 election was the most secure in our nation's history.

  • The tactics used to make lawyers "toxic" include filing ethics complaints, misrepresenting their legal work in the press, refusing to look at the evidence of election irregularities, demonizing those who raise the claims to keep the evidence from seeing the light of day, and encouraging professional associations to isolate or distance themselves from these lawyers.

  • The 2020 election was fraught with irregularities. It is essential for the continued integrity of our elections and the public's trust in them, to give those who have evidence a platform to present their cases. It is crucial to bring to light the courts' refusals to examine the evidence of election irregularities.... Preserving the integrity of elections calls for the greatest safeguards and vigilance.

(Image source: iStock/Getty Images)

Making lawyers "toxic in their communities" is a tactic of The 65 Project. The group files ethics complaints against lawyers who represented clients raising challenges to the 2020 election, despite a substantial body of evidence that presidential election results have been frequently challenged throughout our nation's history, including most recently by Democrats in 2000 and 2016. Indeed, the election of 1876 famously yielded multiple slates of electors from several southern states, and the dispute took months to resolve by a special commission created by Congress for the task.

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There Goes Latin America: Iran's Regime in America's Backyard

by Majid Rafizadeh  •  March 16, 2024 at 5:00 am

  • The Iranian regime, which... has been calling for "Death to America," now has ballistic missiles which it says can reach the US, and claims to have a hypersonic missile that, according to one report, "Can Destroy US In 40 sec."

  • Venezuela appears to have willingly embraced Iran's overtures.

  • The Iranian regime, in addition to Venezuela, has evidently also been exploring avenues for military cooperation with Nicaragua and Cuba.

  • It is critical to recognize now the gravity of this exponentiating national security threat.

Venezuela, near the US, emerges as a key player in Iran's Latin American ambitions. As a potential launching pad for attacks on the U.S., Venezuela appears to have willingly embraced Iran's overtures. Iran's growing military capabilities, with ballistic missiles and armed drones capable of reaching Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas from Latin American soil, already pose a direct threat to the United States. Pictured: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro wave during a welcoming ceremony for Raisi at Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas, on June 12, 2023. (Photo by Yuri Cortez/AFP via Getty Images)

A threatening development has been brewing largely under the radar of the Biden administration and the mainstream media attention: Iran's calculated expansion into Latin America, from Argentina to Mexico.

With alarming nonchalance, the Biden administration appears to have turned a blind eye to the Iranian regime's concerted efforts to establish a military foothold right in America's backyard. The ramifications of this complacency are profound. The Iranian regime, which, since it began in 1979, has been calling for "Death to America," now has ballistic missiles which it says can reach the US, and claims to have a hypersonic missile that, according to one report, "Can Destroy US In 40 sec."

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Biden Should be Threatening Qatar and the Terrorists, Not Israel

by Bassam Tawil  •  March 15, 2024 at 5:00 am

  • Biden's reported threat to halt or suspend US military supplies to Israel if the IDF enters Rafah is what encourages Hamas to continue fighting and reject every proposal to release the hostages. When Hamas leaders hear that Biden is threatening Israel to prevent the IDF from entering Rafah, they must say to themselves: "Why should we make any concessions to Israel? America doesn't want the Israelis to destroy the four remaining battalions. The US administration is opposed to Israel's plan to eliminate Hamas, so let's wait!"

  • A total defeat means the elimination of all of Hamas's battalions. An Israeli victory will never be complete as long as one, or even half, a Hamas battalion remains intact.

  • Biden is actually sending a message to Hamas and Iran's other terror proxies, including Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Houthis, that America is about to throw Israel under the bus. Cutting off US weapons supplies to Israel is the ultimate fantasy of the terrorists.

  • The administration could show impressive leadership and in fact "bring this to an end as quickly as we can" -- not just for Israel but for all in the region who are seeking peace -- by encouraging Israel to take out the terrorists in Rafah without delay.

  • Instead of pressuring Israel, Biden should be pressuring his friends in Qatar to force their Hamas puppets to hand over the Israeli hostages and surrender. Instead of threatening to cut off weapons supplies to Israel, he should be threatening the leaders of Qatar with the withdrawal of US forces from the country's Al Udeid Air Base and to officially designate Qatar as a State Sponsor of Terrorism (for its funding of Hamas, Hizballah, ISIS, Al Qaeda, Taliban, Al Shabab, Al Nusra Front, among others).

  • This is the way – the only way – to end the war quickly, as well as to send a signal to America's adversaries looking on, that the US is prepared to uphold the values of civilization, not the values of terror.

US President Joe Biden's reported threat to halt or suspend US military supplies to Israel if the IDF enters Rafah is what encourages Hamas to continue fighting and reject every proposal to release the hostages. Pictured: Biden delivers the State of the Union address in the US Capitol on March 7, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

US President Joe Biden will consider conditioning military supplies to Israel if the Israeli army moves forward with a large-scale invasion of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, according to four US officials.

Biden has also told MSNBC that a Rafah operation would cross a "red line," although he balanced that statement with a commitment to support Israel's right to self-defense.

Israeli security sources have revealed that the Iran-backed Hamas terror group has at least four battalions in Rafah. Many of the Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas terrorists and other Palestinians on October 7, 2023, are also believed to be held in Rafah.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have succeeded in destroying most of Hamas's battalions in other areas of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli forces have dismantled 17 of Hamas's 24 combat battalions in the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on February 4.

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TikTok: China's Instrument of War

by Gordon G. Chang  •  March 14, 2024 at 5:00 am

  • If you have TikTok on a device, you are getting what the Communist Party of China (CCP) wants you to see. The Chinese regime has used its algorithm to disseminate pro-Hamas disinformation, Russian narratives about the Ukraine war, and other pro-CCP propaganda. The Party also uses the app to try to destroy America's young, by flooding them with messages promoting illegal drug use, self-harm, and even suicide.

  • The TikTok bill... does not violate the First Amendment.... Congress is not trying to regulate what appears on the app.... it does not regulate the content of what is posted.

  • China's Communist Party this month mobilized TikTok's American users, with deceptive messages, to contact their elected representatives to block the House legislation. Users did so in droves. Imagine if TikTok, in different circumstances, were to push China's other political messages, such as urging the abandonment of, say, Taiwan.

  • China has even weaponized TikTok, turning it into an instrument of war. The CCP wages what it calls "unrestricted warfare" against America.

  • The Communist Party of China has no constitutional right to attack America.

If you have TikTok on a device, you are getting what the Communist Party of China wants you to see. The Chinese regime has used its algorithm to disseminate pro-Hamas disinformation, Russian narratives about the Ukraine war, and other pro-CCP propaganda. The Party also uses the app to try to destroy America's young, by flooding them with messages promoting illegal drug use, self-harm, and even suicide. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Yesterday, March 13, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act" by a vote of 352 to 65, with one member voting present.

It was a victory for the United States.

The bill, H.R. 7521, requires the "qualified divestiture" — as determined by the president — of any company controlled by a foreign adversary, within 180 days. The proposed act specifically mentions TikTok, a wildly popular video-sharing app, and its Chinese parent ByteDance Ltd. as such companies.

The bill also provides that the president may designate social media apps as "subject to the control of a foreign adversary" and therefore covered by the divestiture rule.

If a divestiture does not occur during the 180-day period, the legislation prohibits U.S. app stores and web hosting services from providing a designated app to the public.

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NATO's 'Welfare' States: Treating the U.S. As 'Room Service'

by Pete Hoekstra  •  March 14, 2024 at 4:00 am

  • The NATO alliance today, however, more closely resembles an international welfare program than a true alliance, with most countries failing to meet their defense commitments and instead relying on the generosity of the United States.

  • As the eminent journalist Amir Taheri put it: "others... treat the US as a 'room service' reachable by pressing a button..."

  • All of America's leaders also need to embrace the reality that if our allies are unwilling to do more to keep the world safe and secure, we may need to reassess the relationship we have with them, and cease being "room service." Alliances are only alliances when the costs and benefits run both ways. Anything less, especially from the richest countries in Europe, is not only disrespectful, but an unacceptable breach of contract.

Last month, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg conceded what former US President Donald Trump has been warning about for nearly a decade: America's allies are not paying their fair share –as they had agreed -- for national defense. Pictured: Stoltenberg speaks at a meeting of the North Atlantic Council at the NATO headquarters, in Brussels on February 14, 2024. (Photo by John Thys/AFP via Getty Images)

Last month, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg conceded what former US President Donald Trump has been warning about for nearly a decade: America's allies are not paying their fair share -- as they had agreed -- for national defense. After four years in which Trump held our NATO allies accountable for funding their share of NATO's collective defense, US President Joe Biden has once again allowed many of them to pass significant burdens of NATO spending on to American taxpayers – threatening the security of the NATO alliance in the process.

The very nature of alliances is that they are a two-way street. Americans should rightly expect to realize benefits from U.S. participation in NATO, just as the citizens of other NATO nations can expect to benefit from their country's relationship with the United States.

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A Tribute to Justice Frankfurter, His Legacy Still Speaks to Us

by Lawrence Kadish  •  March 13, 2024 at 3:00 pm

Justice Felix Frankfurter, circa 1930. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images)

This past month marked the 59th anniversary of the passing of one of America's greatest Supreme Court Justices. Given the central role the high court continues to play in our nation's daily life, it is important to once again revisit the insight, commentary, and legacy of the late Felix Frankfurter.

One of his more prescient comments, "Government is itself an art, one of the subtlest of arts. It is neither business, nor technology, nor applied science. It is the art of making men live together in peace and reasonable happiness..." is as relevant today as it was then.

This insight into our democracy from one of the most respected Supreme Court Justices to sit on the high court is a message that is being lost in our current political debate. With the 2024 presidential election cycle already upon us, it is time to revisit Frankfurter's instructions offered during his judicial tenure that spanned from the late 1930s through the early 1960s.

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When the Moon Turns Red: China's Plan to Annex Space

by Gordon G. Chang  •  March 13, 2024 at 5:00 am

  • "Chinese control of the moon would confer control of Cis-Lunar space, the portion of space between the Earth and the moon. Control of Cis-Lunar space would give a country the ability to shoot down or otherwise disable deep-space satellites, which are essential for, among other things, the early warning of ballistic missile attacks." — Richard Fisher of the International Assessment and Strategy Center, to the author, March 2014.

  • The free world should view Chinese and Russian progress with alarm. China's regime, for instance, has made it clear it intends to annex space.

  • Ye Peijian made it clear that Beijing intends to exclude others from the moon, among other places, if it is in a position to do so.

  • The American-led Artemis program also contemplates a base at the south pole. NASA, unfortunately, has been pushing back Artemis timetables.

  • Article II of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty prohibits "national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means," but when has a treaty obligation ever stopped the People's Republic from doing whatever it wants?

China, with Russia's help, wants to build a base on the moon. If the Chinese regime succeeds in building the first facility there, it will try to deny to others the ability to land on the lunar surface. Pictured: A Long March 3B rocket, carrying the Beidou-3GEO3 satellite, lifts off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China's Sichuan province on June 23, 2020. (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)

China, with Russia's help, wants to build a base on the moon.

If the Chinese regime succeeds in building the first facility there, it will try to deny to others the ability to land on the lunar surface. The People's Republic of China in fact intends to annex the near parts of the solar system.

As Richard Fisher of the International Assessment and Strategy Center pointed out to this author, Chinese control of the moon would confer control of Cis-Lunar space, the portion of space between the Earth and the moon. Control of Cis-Lunar space would give a country the ability to shoot down or otherwise disable deep-space satellites, which are essential for, among other things, the early warning of ballistic missile attacks.

Beijing and Moscow understand all this. In 2021, Roscosmos, Russia's space agency and the China National Space Administration agreed to build a shared moon base, to be named the International Lunar Research Station.

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Palestinian Authority Forms United Front With Hamas To Fight Israel

by Daniel Greenfield  •  March 13, 2024 at 4:00 am

  • The goal of all these terrorists coming together was to create a "technocratic government".

  • What is a "technocratic government"? It's a front for the terrorists and composed of nonprofit executives, academics, economists and others who have experience dealing with the international community and extracting foreign aid from them.

  • Hamas will not officially be part of the puppet regime, but will control the puppets.

  • The Palestinian Authority is trying to make it work by providing two sets of mutually contradictory assurances. Western diplomats are being told that the PA can unify the "Palestinian'" people around a state and an end to the conflict. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other fellow terror groups are being assured that the PA remains absolutely committed to waging a war to destroy Israel.

  • The "technocratic government" will provide the Biden administration and other governments with the plausible deniability needed to go on funding terrorists.

  • The Moscow summit revealed that a technocratic government will not end terrorism; it will disguise it, and it will not end the conflict, it will escalate it.

  • A "Palestinian" state, the terrorist groups have already announced, will be a terror state.

While the Biden administration and the EU were working on creating a "Palestinian" state, the real details were being fleshed out in Moscow, where the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and other terrorist groups were meeting at a summit convened by Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov. Pictured: Bogdanov meets representatives of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Moscow on July 10, 2023. (Photo by Natalia Kolesnikova/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

While the Biden administration and the European Union were working on creating a "Palestinian" state, the real details were being fleshed out in Moscow, where the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and other terrorist groups were meeting.

The summit, convened at the Institute of Oriental Studies, once a vehicle for Soviet influence operations in the Third World, brought together Azzam al-Ahmada, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, and Mousa Abu Marzouk, a top Hamas leader, as well as a representative for Islamic Jihad, the PFLP, DFLP and other terror groups.

The goal of all these terrorists coming together was to create a "technocratic government".

What is a "technocratic government"? It's a front for the terrorists and composed of nonprofit executives, academics, economists and others who have experience dealing with the international community and extracting foreign aid from them.

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Palestinians: 'Revitalized' Means Unity with Hamas Terrorists
Would the Biden administration like to stop the war this week?

by Bassam Tawil  •  March 12, 2024 at 5:00 am

  • For [Palestinian] leaders, revamping the Palestinian Authority means forging an alliance with Hamas by inviting the terror group to be part of a new governing body that would rule the Gaza Strip in the post-war era.

  • From Biden's perspective, it is as though Netanyahu and the Israelis are responsible for the devastation in the Middle East since Hamas's October 7 carnage, and not Iran, and Hamas's main sponsor, Qatar, whose "protection money" evidently came "without protection." As such, it would be no surprise if the Biden administration were to welcome a "Palestinian unity" agreement between Abbas's Fatah faction and Hamas – a deal that would be no doubt presented to the world as the US-made revitalization plan; in reality, just a tee-up for the next war.

  • Would the Biden administration like to stop the war this week?

  • All the US would have to do is to inform Qatar that it was cancelling the agreement the Biden administration signed in January — in return for nothing -– to extend for another ten years America's use of Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the forward headquarters of CENTCOM, and move it to a Middle Eastern country that does not, as Qatar does, have record of supporting Islamic State (ISIS/Da'esh), Hezbollah, al Shabab, the Taliban in Afghanistan and al Qaeda as well as Hamas.

  • In addition, the United States could simply tell Qatar that, regrettably, the US has no choice but officially to change Qatar's designation from "major non-NATO ally," which it is not, to State Sponsor of Terrorism, which it is. The US could have the war over and all the hostages -- not just the Americans -- released in a minute.

  • The Biden administration -- or simply concerned citizens -- could also demonstrate with placards advertising Qatar's support for terrorism, a public relations campaign it might not relish.

  • By stationing its forces at Al Udeid Air Base, the US is doing Qatar a monumental favor, not the other way around. Without the US airbase, Qatar is just a rich, extremely vulnerable sandbar, as its rulers are undoubtedly aware.

For Palestinian leaders, revamping the Palestinian Authority means forging an alliance with Hamas by inviting the terror group to be part of a new governing body that would rule the Gaza Strip in the post-war era. Pictured: Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal (R) and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (L) are hosted by Qatar's then Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani at a ceremony in Doha, Qatar on February 6, 2012. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

The US administration believes that the Palestinian Authority (PA) should be "revitalized" before it is handed control over the Gaza Strip after the Iran-backed Hamas terror group is removed from power. The US administration, however, has not clarified what it means when it talks about the "revitalization" of the PA. It can be assumed that it implies implementing -- and enforcing -- comprehensive reforms and ending the rampant financial and administrative corruption in Palestinian governing institutions.

PA leaders, meanwhile, seem to have a different interpretation of the "revitalization" proposal. For these leaders, revamping the PA means forging an alliance with Hamas by inviting the terror group to be part of a new governing body that would rule the Gaza Strip in the post-war era.

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Fani Willis Is Probably Guilty of Perjury: Who Will Prosecute the Prosecutors?

by Alan M. Dershowitz  •  March 11, 2024 at 5:00 am

  • If Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis were prosecuting citizen Fani Willis and her former boyfriend Nathan Wade for perjury, conspiracy and obstruction of justice, she would have an extremely strong case.

  • Based on this and other incriminating evidence, the real issue is not whether this pair should be allowed to continue to prosecute the case against Trump, but instead whether this pair should be investigated, indicted and convicted of serious crimes.

  • The presiding judge in the case has no power to commence a criminal investigation or prosecution. But other law enforcement authorities do. If they fail, they will be damaging the rule of law, the integrity of the US legal system and the waning trust that many Americans already have in equal justice.

If Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis were prosecuting citizen Fani Willis and her former boyfriend Nathan Wade for perjury, conspiracy and obstruction of justice, she would have an extremely strong case. Pictured: Willis takes the stand as a witness in a hearing at the Fulton County Courthouse on February 15, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Alyssa Pointer/Pool/Getty Images)

If Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis were prosecuting citizen Fani Willis and her former boyfriend Nathan Wade for perjury, conspiracy and obstruction of justice, she would have an extremely strong case. The evidence of perjury is overwhelming; many individuals have been convicted on far less evidence.

Recall that Willis and Wade testified under oath to the material fact that Willis did not hire Wade as special prosecutor while they were having a romantic relationship. They both testified that the romantic relationship began after the hiring decision was made. If that was a deliberate lie, it satisfies all the elements of perjury.

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Words of Wisdom from the Edge of a Volcano

by Lawrence Kadish  •  March 11, 2024 at 4:00 am

(Image source: iStock/Getty Images)

As our great nation begins its countdown to the November 5 presidential election, words of wisdom from three great heroes of history of come to mind.

The first, from America's Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, reminds us that:

"Government is itself an art, one of the subtlest of the arts. It is neither business, nor technology, nor applied science. It is the art of making men live together in peace and with reasonable happiness."

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International Law or Antisemitism?

by Bat Ye'or  •  March 10, 2024 at 5:00 am

  • In his study on this subject, David Elber demonstrates that the UN has no possession of territorial sovereignty and therefore cannot decree the allocation of a territory over which it has no sovereignty (on the basis of the universal principle of law nemo dat quod non habet -- no one can give what he does not possess), especially when this decision violates previous treaties endorsed by the UN itself. Resolution 181 only made suggestions to avoid the threat of war from the Arabs.

  • With the Venice Declaration, the European Economic Community demanded the creation of a Palestinian state on the territories liberated by Israel in 1967, which had been illegally occupied and rendered Judenrein [ethnically cleansed of Jews] by Arab countries since 1949. Since that time, the EEC/EU have never ceased to impose the concept of "Palestinian people" instead of Arab refugees, in order to justify its claim to a state that it has been striving to build for decades by monitoring, restricting and harassing Israelis in their own country, recognized by international treaties.

  • For the past 40 years, the EEC/EU, which wants to get rid of Israel at all costs, has invented a false people, the Palestinians, devoid of national particularisms and history, artificially constructed as a look-alike to Israel, even though they claim to follow the Koran, embody jihad against unbelief and adhere to Nazism.

  • UN Resolution 181, falsely called international law, authorizes the delegitimization of the Jewish presence in Jerusalem according to the 2,000-year-old anti-Semitic tradition, and the reduction of the Jewish state to an indefensible parcel that will soon be made to disappear. It has already created Palestinian ministries and ambassadors for a people that is not a people, but which it is determined to create in homage to the Hitler-Husseini alliance that symbolizes the jihad against Israel.

  • Over the last few decades, the EU's alliance with the Palestinian jihad -- a war to Islamize the planet... In its relentless fight against Israel, Europe has sacrificed its own territory and people to Palestinianism. Today, in a strange coincidence, we see the same alliances as in the 1940s: the majority of European countries, united under the government of the Third Reich, allied with Islam and at war with Russia and the Jewish people in a global anti-Semitic tsunami.

In its relentless fight against Israel, Europe has sacrificed its own territory and people to Palestinianism. Pictured: PLO chairman Yasser Arafat shares a laugh with French President Jacques Chirac at the Élysée Palace in Paris, on July 26, 1995. (Photo by Remy de la Mauviniere/AFP via Getty Images)

It is commonplace to hear it proclaimed everywhere and at every turn as a proven truth that the State of Israel is violating international law. Interviewed by Sonia Mabrouk on February 11, Manuel Bompard once again made this accusation, even specifying a date to a violation that dates back 70 years! This accusation, which determines all the European Union's relations with the Jewish state, justifies, for example, discriminatory practices against Israel that are unprecedented and never applied against any other state. Thus, we can read in the Journal officiel (24/11/2016, no. 81) under the heading "Miscellaneous," regulations relating to:

"the indication of origin of goods from territories occupied by Israel since June 1967 published in the Official Journal of the European Union on November 12, 2015.

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