Paris in Flames: Disorder Spreads, France Clings to Its Taboos

by Drieu Godefridi  •  October 23, 2026 at 5:00 am

• These events did not arise in a vacuum. France has long refused to confront three interlocking realities that its political class treats as taboos: mass uncontrolled immigration, the growing presence and separatism of Islam, and the unaffordable costs of the EU's "energy transition."

• What gives these riots their strength is the role played by La France Insoumise (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon's party, which has for years indulged in toxic pro-Islamist tirades with openly antisemitic undertones.

• The party seems to know that it will never come to power. It has therefore decided to fully embrace the politics of revolution and disorder, relying on and openly aligning itself with the most extreme elements of France's Muslim population. In many respects, LFI is an openly Islamist party.

• Not all Muslims, of course, are Islamist. Approximately 60% of young French Muslims, however, believe that Sharia law takes precedence over the laws of the French Republic, according to data from a 2020 official survey, with similar findings reported in subsequent surveys conducted in late 2025.

• Immigration, Islam, and LFI are not the only factors involved. Insane energy costs compound the social and fiscal pressure. Fuel prices are high enough to revive Yellow Vest-style anger. The government has responded with releases from strategic diesel reserves, price caps, and targeted aid -- not the needed structural reform.

• The reality is that the French state appears less capable than ever of putting its disastrous finances in order; there is a looming risk of a snowball effect regarding interest on the debt.

• France has not run a budget surplus since 1974; the structural drivers — high spending, demographic pressures, and refusal to prioritize growth-oriented reforms — remain intact.

• Meanwhile, France remains locked into its taboos. The demented "energy transition" continues despite the visible cost-of-living backlash. Serious discussion of migration selection, remigration, assimilation requirements, or the cultural and security implications of Islam is still heavily constrained by elite consensus and legal or media norms.

On the night of October 17-18, 2026, France saw some of its worst urban violence in years. The physical damage is extensive. Pictured: The city hall of Limoges, France burns after rioters torched it on October 17, 2026. (Photo by Pascal Lachenaud/AFP via Getty Images)

On the night of October 17-18, 2026, France saw some of its worst urban violence in years. What began as largely peaceful demonstrations over the cost of living, high fuel prices, and the state of public services—especially schools—descended into widespread rioting, arson, and looting across multiple cities. The most established media outlets acknowledge "scenes of war." Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez put the number of participants at roughly 550,000 nationwide (the communist union CGT claimed closer to 800,000), with about 110,000 in Paris. Police made approximately 1,800 arrests, including a record of more than 1,200 in the capital. More than 900 police officers were injured.

France's "mostly peaceful protests"

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Europe's Settlement Boycotts Crush the Palestinians

by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  October 22, 2026 at 5:00 am

• The governments said their objective [with the boycotts] is to protect the "two-state solution" and respond to -- presumably meaning prevent -- "settlement expansion." To many Palestinians, of course, all of Israel is one big settlement to be dismantled.

• As European governments increase economic pressure on Israel, Palestinians working in businesses in the settlements lose their jobs.

• "Instead of building economic bridges between Israelis and Palestinians, some are choosing to tear them down. Industry creates jobs, stability and hope, while the boycott creates exactly the opposite." — Avraham Novogrotcki, president of the Manufacturers Association of Israel, Ynet, October 18, 2026.

• For many Palestinians, employment in Israel or Israeli businesses in the West Bank is an important source of income in the Palestinian Authority economy, where opportunities are limited.

• Do the Canadian and European governments imposing restrictions on Israeli settlements intend to offer these Palestinian workers comparable jobs? Have they established programs to help Palestinian businesses absorb thousands of displaced employees? Have they pledged funds to replace the incomes that may disappear as a result of their policies? Not a bit.

• There is a precedent for what can happen when an Israeli factory employing Palestinians closes due to a boycott... In 2016, Reuters reported that approximately 500 Palestinian workers had lost their jobs after the [SodaStream] factory's relocation. Nabil Basharat, a father of seven, said he had worked for SodaStream for six years and become a department manager. "I used to make $2,000 a month or more and today I have nothing," he said at the time.

• Terrorist organizations exploit such grievances by portraying economic hardship as further proof that coexistence and cooperation have failed. The result is greater instability, not progress toward peace.

• The Europeans at the moment have their own problems with hostile minorities. To garner the votes of these "mostly peaceful protesters," many European leaders are apparently content to trample the Palestinians so long as the Jews can be punished for refusing to accept an openly genocidal bloc into their midst, as the Europeans so foolishly have done.

• If European leaders genuinely want to improve Palestinian lives, they should... ask whether their restrictions will create new Palestinian jobs, expand Palestinian access to markets, strengthen independent businesses, or improve workers' rights. They should also explain what assistance will be available if factories close and employees are dismissed. Palestinians should not have to pay for Europe's anti-Israel campaigns and policies with their livelihoods.

There is a precedent for what can happen when an Israeli factory employing Palestinians closes due to a boycott, when in 2015 SodaStream relocated its factory from the Mishor Adumim industrial zone, and approximately 500 Palestinian workers lost their jobs. Pictured: Jewish and Arab employees work side-by-side at the relocated SodaStream factory in Rahat, Israel, on February 18, 2019. (Photo by Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP via Getty Images)

On September 8, 2026, Canada, Britain, France, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden announced their intention to introduce national restrictions on trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, support European-level measures, or consider similar action. The governments said their objective is to protect the "two-state solution" and respond to -- presumably meaning prevent -- "settlement expansion." To many Palestinians, of course, all of Israel is one big settlement to be dismantled.

Some restrictions are already in force. Ireland's prohibition on importing designated settlement goods took effect on September 15, followed by a Dutch ban on the import, purchase and sale of such goods on September 20. Other countries have announced plans or are considering additional restrictions.

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Will Human Rights Watch Regain Lost Respect?
To do so, it must tell top officials to stop embracing the UN's top antisemite

by Gerald M. Steinberg  •  October 22, 2026 at 4:00 am

• [Former Human Rights Watch director Kenneth] Roth filled the NGO with anti-Israel activists. As a result, the principles of universal human rights were widely discredited and reduced to empty slogans. All Israeli responses to mass terror were automatically distorted and demonized as alleged war crimes – no defensive action was considered legitimate.

• [O]ne core staffer from the Roth era remains very active – associate EU director Claudio Francavilla, who has carried on the rabid anti-Israel rhetoric.

• Since the October 7, 2023, Hamas atrocities, Francavilla published dozens of posts and replies invoking the false claim of Israel supposedly committing "genocide," when Hamas openly declares its goal of eradicating Israel -- actual genocidal intent.

• If HRW's board members and funders are serious about reclaiming the once-respected NGO's lost credibility and restoring the universal principles on which it was founded, the very visible antisemitic vitriol and hypocrisy from its associate director in the EU must end.

(Photo by Emma da Silva/AFP via Getty Images)

For three decades, Human Rights Watch (HRW) – under executive director Ken Roth – was transformed from a respected rights group into a leading anti-Israel advocacy organization. Reflecting a deeply personal obsession with portraying Israel as the world's worst violator of human rights, Roth filled the NGO with anti-Israel activists. As a result, the principles of universal human rights were widely discredited and reduced to empty slogans. All Israeli responses to mass terror were automatically distorted and demonized as alleged war crimes – no defensive action was considered legitimate.

Of late, HRW's board of directors appears to have moved toward reclaiming some credibility. Roth and many of his hard-core anti-Israel allies are no longer with HRW, and its gratuitous Israel-bashing has decreased, including repetition of the "Gaza genocide" lie.

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No Way! China Wants to Visit U.S. Nuclear Weapons Labs

by Gordon G. Chang  •  October 21, 2026 at 5:00 am

• Whatever the number [of nuclear weapons], everyone agrees that the Chinese regime is rapidly building its arsenal.

• [The risks] are especially real because China has almost certainly detonated fissile material secretly—and then sought to deceive the international community.

• Beijing says it stopped testing nuclear weapons in 1996, but it has almost certainly been conducting secret detonations.

• "After consultations with Director [John] Ratcliffe and his team, they have confirmed to me that the CIA assesses that both Russia and China have conducted super-critical nuclear weapons tests in excess of the U.S. zero-yield standard." — US Senator Tom Cotton, Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, X, November 3, 2025.

• Until China comes clean on its detonations of fissile material, there is no point in talking. Beijing is brazenly lying and therefore refusing to engage with America in good faith.

China's proposal to the Trump administration of reciprocal visits to nuclear sites looks suspect, and talks should not proceed until Beijing is ready to engage the United States meaningfully. Pictured: An entrance gate at Los Alamos National Lab Technical Area 18, photographed on June 14, 1999, in New Mexico. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

China's officials this year proposed to the Trump administration reciprocal visits to nuclear sites.

Specifically, the Chinese discussed visits to U.S. Department of Energy national labs. The U.S., a source told CNN, "would be open to discussing visits to nuclear testing sites."

Unfortunately, China's initiative looks suspect, and talks should not proceed until Beijing is ready to engage the United States meaningfully.

Washington has already begun "informal and preliminary" discussions with Beijing. President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping reportedly did not discuss the visits during their talks in Washington last month, but "further lower-level discussions" are expected before the two leaders meet again next month on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in China's Shenzhen.

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The Fusion Energy That Will Define America's Next Century

by Lawrence Kadish  •  October 21, 2026 at 4:00 am

As we start to pursue our second 250^th era, this would be a good time to recognize that energy security is national security. Securing energy abundance through nuclear fusion will be a strategic precondition for global leadership in the coming decades. (Image source: OpenAI)

The fireworks have faded. The paradegoers have gone home. The red, white and blue bunting will be taken down by the end of the month.

The 250^th anniversary of our nation's founding has come and gone. What now?

This historic milestone should not be viewed as a celebration to conclude by July 5^th but as the opening of a national conversation about what America intends to become in the decades and centuries to come. But make no mistake: that future will be determined, in part, by energy.

Every American era has been an energy story. Water wheels powered the first mills of the young republic. Coal fueled the railroads and factories of the Gilded Age. Oil powered America's twentieth-century dominance. Electrification transformed daily life for millions of Americans, and our reliable energy grid became the invisible force behind our nation's extraordinary quality of life.

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The Damage Weak Leaders Can Do To Their Own Countries

by Nils A. Haug  •  October 20, 2026 at 5:00 am

• Why are France and other parts of Europe going up in flames? No one tried to stop the marauders when they could. Many people, apparently, would rather be conquered by rapists, stabbers, car-rammers and beheaders than be called a racist.

• There also seems to be a slight confusion about who are actually the racists here: the Westerners who incomprehensibly seem not to appreciate being raped, stabbed, car-rammed or beheaded, or the rioters and those who told them exactly which homes and businesses to smash, loot and burn. By a miraculous coincidence, it seems, not one Muslim shop in Marseille was damaged.

• As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointed out this week, the Jews have lived on that land for more than 3,000 years. Part of it is actually called Judea. How can you "occupy" land if you are its indigenous people?

• If anyone is committing ethnic cleansing or genocide -- not just of Israelis, but of all Jews -- it is the Palestinians. Hamas states it quite plainly in its original covenant:

• "The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him." – Hamas Covenant, Article 7, 1988.

• At the same time, the UK refuses to proscribe a real terrorist group backed by Iran, the Houthis, who are causing immeasurable havoc in the Red Sea.

• The incongruity of the UK's actions of rewarding terrorists while punishing a democracy is a sad reversal of what should be taking place -- for the future of the UK as well. Britain is already seen as no longer belonging to its own people. Now these weak leaders would presumably like to extend the same courtesy to Israel...

• Hamas leaders have been repeatedly promising to attack Israel "time and again" until it is annihilated -- and Europe as well. Why are Europe's leaders racing to help them achieve that goal?

• The twelve Western nations promoting these proposals, except for Poland and possibly Iceland, are plagued by social discord from unmitigated migration, particularly from Muslim nations.

• Muslim claims need to be countered by reality: All of Israel, especially its heartland of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), belongs to the Jewish people whether by historical right, legal right (the Balfour Declaration), or by continual habitation for more than 3,000 years. Have Muslims been there for 3,000 years? Until the 7th century, Islam did not even exist. By every rubric, Jews are the rightful occupants and legitimate owners of all of Israel's land, not simply bits of it.

• Other nations have no legal or moral right to interfere in Israel's internal affairs or to tell Israel what to do.... It is no secret that most Western nations -- and probably all of the Muslim world -- would be delighted if Netanyahu ceased to be in a leadership role after the elections. Anyone else would doubtless be more malleable about making sure that Israel could be destroyed.

• Netanyahu has overcome all foes critically threatening Israel's survival these past years. He is a formidable opponent to those seeking Israel's downfall – which is why they want him gone. Why, then, should the Israelis also want him gone?

• No sanctions or criticism will ever persuade Israel -- especially after the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023 -- that it is in Israel's best interests to have a bellicose Palestinian state in its very midst. Every fruit-fly in Israel understands that a Palestinian state would just be a base from which to try to destroy it.

• Western leaders, instead of vainly seeking to impose on Israel a Palestinian state that is Israel's sworn enemy, might perhaps consider if such a state on their own border is something they might welcome.

• "We will not be a doormat trampled by an anti-Semitic government, in a country conquered by radical Islam, trying to save itself from economic and social decline by attacking Jews and the State of Israel." — Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, September 8, 2026.

Britain, Canada, and France's proposed "solution" of an Islamic state within Israel's borders – ostensibly in the name of their own "fundamental national interest" -- read re-election by the newcomer voting bloc -- would undoubtedly lead to another disaster like October 7, 2023. Pictured: UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the UN General Assembly on September 22, 2026. (Photo by Toby Melville/WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Why are France and other parts of Europe going up in flames? No one tried to stop the marauders when they could. Many people, apparently, would rather be conquered by rapists, stabbers, car-rammers and beheaders than be called a racist.

There also seems to be a slight confusion about who are actually the racists here: the Westerners who incomprehensibly seem not to appreciate being raped, stabbed, car-rammed or beheaded, or the rioters and those who told them exactly which homes and businesses to smash, loot and burn. By a miraculous coincidence, it seems, not one Muslim shop in Marseille was damaged.

"If you think tough men are dangerous," Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson said, "wait until you see what weak men are capable of."

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The Palestinian Authority's Dangerous Pursuit of Unity with Hamas

by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  October 19, 2026 at 8:30 am

• Why is Fatah treating Hamas as a legitimate political partner before the group has demonstrated a willingness to abandon terrorism, surrender its weapons, and relinquish its independent military forces?

• The question is particularly urgent as the international community seeks to establish a different future for the Gaza Strip, one that would prevent Hamas from restoring its military capabilities and ensure that the territory is no longer controlled by an armed organization.

• What happens when Hamas refuses to surrender its weapons and accept the authority if a single Palestinian government?

• The issue... is whether the terrorist organization Hamas should be permitted to retain the weapons and military infrastructure that enable it to impose its will on Palestinians and launch more attacks against Israel, not to mention its own civilians.

• A general commitment to national dialogue does not establish that Hamas is prepared to disarm, dismantle its military infrastructure, or accept the binding authority of a unified government.

• Hamas's own account of the Cairo meetings... emphasized the need for elections, which Hamas would no doubt win, and a unified strategy combining political and "field action" against Israel.

• The phrase "field action" requires clarification. Does "field action" mean peaceful political activity, or does it leave room for armed operations by factions that retain their own weapons and military chains of command?

• The Palestinians do not need another agreement filled with general declarations whose meaning each faction can interpret according to its own interests. They need clear, verifiable commitments that establish who exercises authority, who controls weapons, and who is responsible for security.

• A government cannot exercise sovereignty if another organization retains the power to undermine its decisions by force.

• The Palestinians... do not need another agreement that allows Hamas, an armed Islamist group committed to the destruction of Israel, to retain its weapons while acquiring renewed political legitimacy.

• The Trump Administration's 20-point Gaza initiative and the Board of Peace have placed questions of security, demilitarization, and Gaza's future governance at the center of the debate. Fatah's negotiations with Hamas should be judged against those objectives, not simply by whether Palestinian factions can reach another "unity" agreement.

Why is the Palestinian Authority's ruling Fatah faction treating Hamas as a legitimate political partner before the group has demonstrated a willingness to abandon terrorism, surrender its weapons, and relinquish its independent military forces? Pictured: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (R) and the late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza City, on April 5, 2007. (Photo by Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images)

More than three years after the October 7 massacre, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his ruling Fatah faction are still pursuing reconciliation with Hamas, the Iran-backed terrorist group that led the assault on Israel.

Instead of making Hamas's disarmament and the dismantling of its military infrastructure prerequisites for Palestinian political unity, Fatah officials are traveling to Cairo to negotiate ways of incorporating the terrorist group into a unified Palestinian political system.

The latest round of talks, sponsored by Egypt, once again raises a fundamental question: Why is Fatah treating Hamas as a legitimate political partner before the group has demonstrated a willingness to abandon terrorism, surrender its weapons, and relinquish its independent military forces?

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Kushner Had the Abraham Accords. Boulos Has the Photo Ops. Where Is the Peace?

by Robert Williams  •  October 19, 2026 at 5:00 am

• Six years later, despite regional wars, those relationships [of the Abraham Accords] endure. The Abraham Accords produced something more valuable than a ceremony: a measurable change in relations between states. That is the standard by which presidential advisers should be judged.

• Consider Sudan. Its war between Abdel Fattah al-Burhan's regime-aligned Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and Hemedti's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed and displaced civilians on a staggering scale.

• Washington sanctioned both commanders, accused the RSF of genocide and the SAF of committing war crimes, and determined that the regime's forces had used chemical weapons. [Senior Advisor to the President for Arab and African Affairs Massad] Boulos has promoted a 90-day humanitarian ceasefire; no durable ceasefire has emerged.

• Does Boulos have a strategy to prevent Sudan's Red Sea coastline from becoming another arena of Iranian influence? The United States cannot afford an approach that treats every armed faction as an equally acceptable partner simply because each controls territory. Diplomacy must distinguish between temporary contacts and legitimizing forces that threaten long-term security.

• The reported American proposal [in Libya] envisages a power-sharing arrangement between the Haftar and Dbeibah families, alongside the unification of state institutions and opportunities for American investment in Libya's energy sector.

• Washington, however, must confront a more fundamental question: How can a genuine national unity government emerge in Libya when one of the negotiating parties operates within a political environment deeply entangled with armed militias, Muslim Brotherhood-linked networks and hardline Islamist factions?

• [T]he underlying problem remains: Who would actually exercise power inside a supposedly unified Libyan government?

• Would Washington be helping establish a sovereign state with a unified national army, accountable institutions and civilian authority? Or would it be legitimizing an arrangement in which entrenched political families divide state resources while armed factions and Islamist networks retain influence behind the scenes?

• How... can [President Trump's] own representatives pursue deals that risk preserving the influence of armed Islamist networks while the president promises to confront them?

• In Sudan, Yemen and Libya, American national security is too important for strategic ambiguity masquerading as balance.

• Trump does not need an envoy whose chief asset is proximity to presidential power. He needs results consistent with his stated strategy: stronger allies, weaker terrorist networks, less Iranian influence and durable peace.

• Kushner had the Abraham Accords. What will Boulos leave behind? The photograph should document a victory — not substitute for one.

Jared Kushner had the Abraham Accords. What will Massad Boulos (Senior Advisor to the President for Arab and African Affairs) leave behind? The photograph should document a victory — not substitute for one. Pictured: Boulos gives a statement as he arrives to attend the Sudan Conference in Berlin, Germany on April 15, 2026. (Photo by Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images)

Two Trump family advisers received extraordinary access to presidential power. One helped change the Middle East. What has the other changed?

On September 15, 2020, US President Donald J. Trump hosted the signing of the Abraham Accords. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain normalized relations with Israel; Morocco followed. Jared Kushner helped translate a strategic opening into diplomatic recognition, trade and security cooperation. Six years later, despite regional wars, those relationships endure. The Abraham Accords produced something more valuable than a ceremony: a measurable change in relations between states. That is the standard by which presidential advisers should be judged.

Kushner had a recognizable professional identity long before marrying Ivanka Trump in 2009. He was active in real estate and had acquired The New York Observer in 2006. He was not a trained diplomat, but his public record was identifiable.

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Syria Is Rebuilding an Army Before It Rebuilds Syria

by Pierre Rehov  •  October 18, 2026 at 5:00 am

• Al-Sharaa, it appears, is directing most of the state's resources, foreign aid included, toward a large standing army and new weapons systems, while concealing the scale of the effort.

• Western governments and al-Sharaa do not attach the same meaning to the word "stability."

• Middle Eastern alignments rarely outlive the enemy that produced them... Iran and its militias spent years fighting the insurgency that carried him to power. None of that says what a stronger Syrian state will do in ten years.

• In September 2025, al-Sharaa told reporters that a security deal with Israel, modeled on the 1974 disengagement agreement, was a "necessity."

• A year after he declared this supposed "necessity," al-Sharaa announced at the UN that the Golan Heights "will remain Syrian" – possibly so that Syrians will once again be able to shoot down at Israeli farmers on the plain below. Al-Sharaa added the complaint that "Israel is launching attacks against Syria. There have been 500 air strikes, more than 1,200 incursions, and 300 detentions. This is at odds with the orientation we're seeing at global level."

• Al-Sharaa, however, forgot to mention why. Ever since al-Sharaa overthrew the Assad regime, Christians, Druze, Alawites and other minorities have been victims of attacks that are reportedly "genocidal" – all while al-Sharaa's plan for the radical Islamization of Syria surges ahead.

• The Trump administration's removal of Syria from the list of state sponsors of terrorism seems to have been based on wishes rather than any kind of facts on the ground. Perhaps the administration still hopes -- although, after its run-in with Iran, it really should have learned better -- that rewarding good behavior before it takes place will somehow magically cause it to spring into being simply does not work. Gifts in good faith, especially to supposedly former terrorists, can simply get pocketed in expectation of the next ones.

• At this point, al-Sharaa's demand [that Golan Heights "will remain Syrian"] is tantamount to expecting the United States to return its southwest to Mexico.

• Israel, evidently motivated by survival, treats its northern frontier as a question of capabilities rather than of declared intentions....

• The wager is that investment and honors will pull al-Sharaa toward moderation. It may pay off, but its beneficiary, al-Sharaa, is using part of the proceeds to build an armed power of his own.

• Israeli security sources concede that a chance to lock in border arrangements was missed when al-Sharaa was weak and newly installed, and now assess that a confrontation is a matter of time.

• A channel to Damascus has bought Washington influence that isolation never could, but it should not buy amnesia: al-Sharaa's past is documented, his diplomacy is real, and the army now taking shape belongs to the same man.

• Whether Ahmed al-Sharaa has changed since the world knew him as al-Jolani will occupy biographers. Israel's planners have stopped asking. They are counting his brigades.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, it appears, is directing most of the state's resources, foreign aid included, toward a large standing army and new weapons systems, while concealing the scale of the effort. Pictured: Al-Sharaa is greeted at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus on December 8, 2024. (Photo by Abdulaziz Ketaz/AFP via Getty Images)

Ahmed al-Sharaa inherited a country in ruins. War halved the size of Syria's economy and left nine people out of ten below the poverty line. According to serious Israeli sources, the priority in Damascus has little to do with reconstruction.

Al-Sharaa, it appears, is directing most of the state's resources, foreign aid included, toward a large standing army and new weapons systems, while concealing the scale of the effort. His forces are not yet rated as capable, but they have held brigade-level exercises, are being organized into brigades with divisions to follow, and are seeking air defenses able to restrict the Israeli Air Force. This is the army Israel gutted in December 2024, when 480 strikes in two days destroyed an estimated 80 percent of Assad's strategic arsenal. It is being rebuilt with money meant to rebuild the country.

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Iran: A Cluster of Problems

by Amir Taheri  •  October 18, 2026 at 4:00 am

• In a different context [from nuclear weapons], the "Iran problem" has been defined as "exporting terrorism" with cases concerning over 30 countries –from Kuwait to Argentina, and passing by Turkey, Switzerland and many members of the European Union. To that must be added financial aid, arms and political support that Tehran has given to almost all Palestinian groups fighting Israel not to mention guerrilla outfits in Latin America.

• The mistake the outside world made was to ignore that transformation [the 1979 Islamic revolution] and continue with the assumption that they were dealing with a normal nation-state with regular interests, aspirations and ambitions of normal nation-states.

• [M]aintaining the status quo became the unadmitted priority of all players.

• That means keeping Iran on the wrong train it boarded in 1979 instead of helping it to get off at the first stop.

• [Iran] cannot change the environment around it while it is incapable of changing itself to suit that environment. It cannot wage war in a meaningful way but is also unable to seek peace.

(Image source: iStock/Getty Images)

"What is the Iran problem that analysts and policymakers often talk about?" This was the question fired at me at a recent brain-storming session with a number of political commentators in London.

The short answer is that, depending on who is looking, Iran is made of a cluster of problems.
To some, like successive US administrations, the core of the problem is the current regime's pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Never mind that for the past quarter of a century US intelligence services have regularly reported that Iran wasn't doing so, every US president presented "tackling the Iranian nuclear problem" as a priority. Under President Barack Obama that "problem" consumed almost all the four years of John Kerry as Secretary of State.

The US wasn't alone in that context. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw visited Tehran five times to "solve" the "nuclear problem." All German and most French foreign ministers did the same.

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Islam's Welcoming Not-for-Profit Organizations

by Majid Rafizadeh  •  October 17, 2026 at 5:00 am

• A Muslim's duty, we were taught in the Middle East, is to promote and establish Islamic government. Failing to do so means one's religion and duty to Allah remain incomplete. Everyone must perform jihad (holy war; struggle in the cause of Islam) to impose Allah's law on the world's population. Everyone is a mujahid (fighter, from the word jihad). The promised end is one Islamic ruler under whom Allah's sovereignty is complete on Earth.

• We were also taught that when, in an election, the choice is between a Muslim and a non-Muslim candidate, a Muslim must always vote for the Muslim. Voting for a non-Muslim is voting against Allah. Character does not matter. Ability does not matter. All that matters is religion.

• In Islam, you cannot be a passive religious observer. The core of Muslim identity, we were taught, requires active struggle for the political project. The founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, put it: "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 [jihad]."

• This doctrinal demand makes it hard to believe the claims of Islamist nonprofit organizations that they are purely charitable and apolitical. American taxpayers lavishly subsidize them through the Internal Revenue Service's 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status for charitable organizations.

• According to the report, when the conduct of these groups was measured against IRS guidance on the ban against political campaign intervention by charities, the conduct detailed in the report closely tracks the agency's examples of prohibited activity. These activities include endorsing candidates, seeking campaign donations, circulating campaign materials, giving platforms to candidates without comparable access for opponents, and releasing scorecards or voting records timed to election seasons.

• Americans are effectively underwriting institutions that instruct congregants on how God requires them to vote and then handing the microphone to favored candidates.

• [T]he IRS possesses the legal tools, the evidence, and its own training materials, yet appears to lack the will to act.

• The report's author, Mahyar Entezari, emphasized that every episode rests on video, audio, newsletters, convention materials, social media posts, and published accounts, but that "no organization has faced any consequence."

• [US Representative Chip] stated it is absurd that groups with links to terrorism continue to receive tax benefits that effectively have American taxpayers subsidizing threats against themselves.

• The MEF has urged the IRS and Treasury Department to scrutinize every organization named in the report, apply available taxes and revocation remedies, and review groups still soliciting deductible contributions.

• The report points out that the IRS and Treasury Department have the statutes, the guidance, and the evidence before them. The question is whether they will enforce the law and act on anything.

The most concrete illustration of tax-exempt Islamist groups stepping directly into US electoral contests involves the 2026 Michigan Democratic Party primary for the US Senate. Abdul El-Sayed prevailed on August 4 by roughly 13,800 votes — a margin under one percent. In the preceding weeks, imams at several tax-exempt Michigan mosques urged support for him from the pulpit, and two of them brought the candidate onto the pulpit during services. Pictured: El-Sayed speaks with reporters in Port Huron, Michigan on October 6, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images)

Growing up in Islamic societies in Iran and Syria, all of us could see that there is not even an iota of chance that any Islamist organization or mosque could exist as truly non-political or apolitical.

In schools and at university, we were taught that Islam differs fundamentally from other religions and spiritual practices. Whereas Christianity and Judaism allow for private faith and a separation between religion and state, Islam does not. From its inception in the seventh century, Islam was political. It was not a private spiritual matter. It was about creating a universal government run by Allah. Everything in society must be ordered by Sharia — what they call Allah's law or God's law.

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'Do Not Provoke Us!': The Extremist Persecution of Christians, June 2026

by Raymond Ibrahim  •  October 16, 2026 at 5:00 am

• "Witnesses said Ahmad confronted Siddique and objected to his drinking water from the same cooler because he was a Christian.... Ahmad... grabbed Siddique from behind and slit his throat." — Morning Star News, June 24, 2026, Pakistan.

• "Sadique's murder is another example of how Muslims in Pakistan look down on Christians and treat them as 'Achhoot,' or untouchables. Christians in Pakistan are often forced into the back-breaking work of making thousands of bricks a day. A system of greed keeps their families trapped in these horrible conditions for generations." — International Christian Concern, July 20, 2026, Pakistan.

• Ahmed Yetrib, a Muslim who converted to Catholicism, reported receiving death threats on social media, partly because he was sharing his reasons for converting. — Tribune Chrétienne, June 20, 2026, Belgium.

• "[T]he court sentenced him in January, without ever allowing his defense to see his case file. He was convicted under Article 98(f) of the Egyptian Penal Code, which penalizes 'extremist thoughts....'" — International Christian Concern, June 19, 2026, Egypt.

• "We reject [the construction of the church] so that nearby residents also know that if a rule is violated, then there must be an evil plan...." — Morning Star News, June 23, 2026, Indonesia.

On June 30, Ahmed Yetrib, a Belgian Muslim who converted to Catholicism, reported receiving death threats on social media, partly because he was sharing his reasons for converting. His ordeal began in 2018, when he was baptized, at which point his entire family ostracized him. Pictured: Charleroi, Belgium, where Yetrib was working as a teacher when the threats began. (Image source: iStock/Getty Images)

The following are among the murders and abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of June 2026.

The Muslim Slaughter of Christians

Democratic Republic of Congo: Islamic terrorists slaughtered hundreds of Christians in separate attacks. Then, on June 3, and again on June 24, Muslim militants beheaded a total of 14 Christians.

Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP) claimed the slayings, which took place in the village of Mungbere.

In attacks on June 11 and June 13 in Beni Territory, 11 other Christians were shot and killed, and one was beheaded in Mayangose on June 20. Also, in early June, the Muslim terrorists burned down 80 Christian homes in separate attacks in Haut-Uélé. According to the report:

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No Elections, No Reform: The Palestinian Authority's Endless Excuses Are the Smallest Part of the Problem

by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  October 15, 2026 at 5:00 am

• [H]olding elections under the current circumstances will almost certainly strengthen Hamas....

• On the other hand, Abbas's decision cannot be mistaken for a genuine effort to reform anything in Palestinian politics.

• While elections can be important, they can also be bogus, faked, or even harmful, as one can see in Russia, Turkey or Iran.

• Elections do not mean there is a democracy, especially if they take place before any reforms. Elections are needed after the institutions of democracy -- freedom of speech and of the press, the separation of powers, freedom of religion or from religion, due process, equal justice under the law -- meaning accountability for everyone, property rights, rights for women, children and laborers, an independent judiciary, and so on -- have been set in place and are smoothly functioning. Only then can there be elections that mean anything.

• What is really needed to help the Palestinian people, now being held hostage by corrupt and self-serving leaders in all of their parties, is not just elections but reforms, all of them, and serious international accountability, starting with shutting down funding for slow or nonexistent compliance.

• So far, the international community has been funding leaders who mistreat their own people first, then their neighbors and everyone else second. For the sake of the Palestinians, this has to stop.

• Will [Western governments] condition financial assistance on measurable reforms?... Will they impose consequences on Palestinian leaders who obstruct reform? Or will they issue statements of regret, continue providing financial support, and wait for Abbas to pretend he is finally instituting reforms by announcing yet another -- presumably fake -- election date?

• Western governments should also avoid the mistaken assumption that an election announcement, by itself, represents progress.

• The test of reform is not the number of "presidential decrees" Abbas issues promising elections. It is whether Palestinians acquire institutions that can hold their leaders accountable.

• A recent poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that 83% of the Palestinians believe corruption exists within Palestinian Authority institutions.

• The poll also showed that Hamas leaders are more popular than Abbas and that 79% of Palestinians want him to resign.

• The Palestinian political system offers no credible, nationally competitive third alternative to Fatah and Hamas.... Hamas remains an armed terrorist organization, while Fatah has presided over a system marked by authoritarianism, patronage, and corruption.

• Western governments have too often treated elections as the principal answer to Palestinian political dysfunction. They are not. Palestinians need new leaders, new faces, and new political ideas. They need pragmatic, realistic, and accountable representatives who prioritize the welfare of their own people over factional interests and revolutionary slogans. They also need an overhaul of an education system that should prepare young Palestinians for peaceful coexistence, critical thinking, and economic opportunity rather than perpetuate hatred and glorify violence. They need independent institutions, financial transparency, effective anti-corruption mechanisms, and a free press capable of scrutinizing those in power.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has done it again. On October 10, he announced that elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), originally scheduled for November 2026, will be postponed until September 11, 2027. Pictured: The PLC building in Ramallah on January 28, 2006, three days after its last election. (Photo by Zharan Hammad/Getty Images)

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has done it again. On October 10, he announced that elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), originally scheduled for November 2026, will be postponed until September 11, 2027. No date had been set for a presidential election.

The decision came as no surprise to Palestinians familiar with Abbas's record. It was not the first time that the Palestinian leader had announced elections, raised expectations, and then postponed the vote.

The postponement of the elections presents a contradiction. On one hand, holding elections under the current circumstances would almost certainly strengthen Hamas, the Iran-backed Islamist terrorist organization that won the 2006 PLC elections and violently seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007.

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Putin's 'Ceasefire' Trap

by Pierre Rehov  •  October 14, 2026 at 5:00 am

• Wars of attrition are won by whoever can keep paying for them, and Vladimir Putin has spent more than four and a half years betting that Ukraine's Western partners would tire before Russia's treasury did. In three days, Washington gave that bet its best return in months. On October 9, President Donald Trump announced a deal for diesel fuel with the Kremlin. The next day, he suggested that Ukrainians find themselves a new president.

• The Kremlin secured sanctions relief and an open quarrel between Washington and Kyiv without making a single verifiable commitment.

• On October 10, Trump told reporters that Zelensky had "better damn well stop." He said so during a week in which Russia had carried out more than 200 strikes on Ukraine's power generation and transmission facilities and 17 more on gas and oil sites, while its attacks killed more than 150 Ukrainians. It was Russia's third major attack wave on Ukraine in four days.

• A truce confined to refineries would shield Russia's principal vulnerability and leave Ukraine's electric grid open to further attacks as winter sets in. That suits Putin, who, according to sources familiar with his thinking, wants no energy truce before winter and is counting on Ukrainian suffering blackouts in the winter cold to extract concessions his army has failed to win.

• An arrangement that protects Russian revenue while Ukrainians freeze in the dark would hand the Kremlin a victory dressed up as American diplomacy.

• On October 11, Zelensky offered to hold elections if Russia accepted a 60-day ceasefire, thereby shifting the burden of proof onto Moscow. Moscow answered within a day. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the offer, repeating that Russia does not want a ceasefire...

• Turning... against the country being invaded, while Russia faces no comparable demand -- or apparently any demands whatsoever -- reassures Putin that prolonging the war buys American restraints on Ukraine and the pathway to a Russian victory.

• Trump claims that Zelensky "could have made many deals." In fact he could not -- at least not any that could assure Ukraine a shred of security, which is all he has ever asked for. If Russia gets to keep parts of eastern Ukraine, it would provide a fast track to Kiev, as well as tipping off other predators that invasions work. To Communist Chinese President Xi Jinping, half of Taiwan probably looks a lot better than no Taiwan.

• Trump prides himself on recognizing a bad deal. This one supplies Putin with fresh revenue for a war he refuses to end and shields the Russian refineries that have become his weakest point, while the Ukrainian power grid remains a target as win ter approaches and Ukraine's skies still remain open. Until Russia stops striking Ukrainian homes, hospitals, and the electric power grid, every American concession amounts to an advance payment on a war that only Putin wants.

A truce confined to refineries would shield Russia's principal vulnerability and leave Ukraine's electric grid open to further attacks as winter sets in. That suits Putin, who, according to sources familiar with his thinking, wants no energy truce before winter and is counting on Ukrainian suffering blackouts in the winter cold to extract concessions his army has failed to win. Pictured: Smoke rises from Gazprom Neft's oil refinery on the outskirts of Moscow on June 18, 2026. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

Wars of attrition are won by whoever can keep paying for them, and Vladimir Putin has spent more than four and a half years betting that Ukraine's Western partners would tire before Russia's treasury did. In three days, Washington gave that bet its best return in months.

On October 9, President Donald Trump announced a deal for diesel fuel with the Kremlin. The next day, he suggested that Ukrainians find themselves a new president. On October 11, he proclaimed an "ENERGY CEASEFIRE" that Kyiv had not been told about and that Moscow declined to confirm; within hours, Russian strikes hit the CHP-5 power plant in Ukraine's Kharkiv.

The Kremlin secured sanctions relief and an open quarrel between Washington and Kyiv without making a single verifiable commitment.

The real horror in Trump's jackpot to Putin, which will certainly be used toward further attacks on Ukraine, is that this bonanza will satisfy America's diesel fuel usage for only nine days.

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France, West, Under Fire: 'Their Goal is to Dismantle Us'

by Guy Millière  •  October 13, 2026 at 6:00 am

• The founder and leader of France Unbowed, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, is a Trotskyist who, already in his youth, embraced the concept of "permanent revolution".

• Mélenchon, over the years, has made no secret of his desire for a radical transformation of France. He supports the Islamization of the country and advocates a "great replacement" of the native French population with a new demographic from the Muslim world that would constitute what he calls the "new France."

• With antisemitism widespread among young Muslims living in France's 751 "no-go zones" — suburban enclaves where police no longer venture and where Muslim gangs and radical imams hold sway — Mélenchon, like other representatives of his party, now publicly makes antisemitic remarks.

• High school students seeking better educational conditions have no reason to wave Palestinian flags or shout "Free Palestine", "We are children of Gaza," or write "October 7. Day of Celebration" on walls.

• The rioters express support for not only the Palestinian cause but also for Islamic terrorism.

• The French government has basically appeared impotent and weak.

• The only leaders who pointed out that the events were primarily an Islamist and leftist insurrection were those from Marine Le Pen's National Rally party and a few other right-leaning politicians. MEP Marion Maréchal stated that an "Islamist spirit of revenge" is at work. Revenge for what? For the French welcoming Islamists into their country and showering the immigrants with benefits?

• Meanwhile, France's riots have been spreading across Europe to Belgium, Greece, Italy, Ireland and Austria. Behind France's riots, according to investigative journalist Asra Nomani, are "Communists, unions and a global propaganda network."

• "From France to the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Greece and India, adults with deep pockets are tapping France's school protests and turning a domestic education dispute into a platform for broader political and ideological confrontation." — Asra Nomani, Fox News, October 9, 2026.

• "The communist Red and the Islamist Greens have nothing in common but a common enemy, the Judeo-Christian, capitalist, free West, led by the U.S. Their goal is to dismantle us." — Mike Gonzalez, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, quoted by Asra Nomani, Fox News, October 9, 2026.

The founder and leader of France Unbowed, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, is a Trotskyist who, already in his youth, embraced the concept of "permanent revolution". Over the years he has made no secret of his desire for a radical transformation of France. He supports the Islamization of the country and advocates a "great replacement" of the native French population with a new demographic from the Muslim world that would constitute what he calls the "new France." Pictures: Mélenchon speaks at a campaign rally in Cournon d'Auvergne, France, on October 11, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Pachoud/AFP via Getty Images)

The recent riots in France have mainly been described as a revolt of high school students, stemming from deteriorating conditions, overcrowding and understaffing in French high schools (lycées). That presentation is largely inaccurate. Although students were incited by a few agitators to voice grievances, political leaders, primarily from the political left, immediately stepped in to urge them to go further and resort to violence.

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