Latest Analysis and Commentary
by Bassam Tawil • May 28, 2024 at 5:00 am
[Other groups that] participated in the October 7 massacre.... include Palestinian Islamic Jihad -- and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of the Fatah faction headed by none other than the president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Mahmoud Abbas. The involvement of terrorists from Abbas's Fatah faction in the October 7 slaughter and terrorist attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians, however, may surprise some people. Many in the West consider Fatah, which dominates the PA, to be a "moderate" party that wants to live in peace and harmony with Israel. This rumor may have come about because we have been told many times by Palestinian officials that Fatah's armed wing, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, was dismantled (at least in the West Bank). Earlier this month, Abu Mohammed, the official spokesman for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, revealed that the group's fighters participated in the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israeli communities near the border with the Gaza Strip. In another recent video, Fatah claimed responsibility for a "sniper operation" against Israeli soldiers in Jabalya refugee camp, a stronghold of Hamas and PIJ in the Gaza Strip. The Fatah terrorists said that they used a Hamas-manufactured rifle called Al-Ghoul to target the Israeli soldiers. The video is clear evidence that Abbas's Fatah loyalists have been working in coordination with Hamas. That Fatah participated in the October 7 massacre and other terrorist attacks shows that there is really little if no distinction between Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah, and Hamas. It also demonstrates why, after Hamas is removed from power, the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority absolutely cannot be trusted to rule the Gaza Strip. Both Fatah and Hamas continue to engage in terrorism and are outspokenly proud of their attacks on Jews. Fatah and Hamas seem, in fact, to be competing to prove to the Palestinians who is carrying out more terrorist attacks against Israel. So long as Abbas and Fatah are producing and arming terrorists, all plans by the Biden administration to "revitalize" the Palestinian Authority are worthless. If the Biden administration is sincere about reforming the PA, it ought to begin by insisting that Abbas disband his own terrorist organization and stop endorsing terrorists and compensating them with monthly payments. Until then, handing over the Gaza Strip to Abbas and his Fatah terrorists would be a monstrous mistake.
Pictured: A terrorist from Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades brags about the atrocities he and his comrades committed in Kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7, 2023. (Image source: Palestinian Media Watch)
The war in the Gaza Strip, which erupted after Hamas massacred 1,200 Israelis on October 7, 2023, is not limited to Israel and the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group. Other terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip are involved in the fighting against Israeli troops. Those groups also participated in the October 7 massacre. They include Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) -- and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of the Fatah faction headed by none other than the president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Mahmoud Abbas. It should come as no surprise that PIJ took part in the October 7 massacre, as well as countless other terrorist attacks on Israel. Like Hamas, PIJ is an Iran-backed Islamist terrorist organization that aims to destroy Israel. Similar to Hamas, over the past few decades, PIJ has carried out thousands of terrorist assaults against Israelis, including shootings, suicide bombings, firing rockets into Israel, as well as stabbings and car-rammings.
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by Caroline Glick • May 28, 2024 at 4:00 am
Far from starving or deliberately killing civilians, Israel is doing more to protect the lives of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip than any military has done to protect the lives of civilians in war zones in human history. The ICC's goal in propagating this slander against the Jewish state is to criminalize the State of Israel and pave the way for its annihilation by denying it the right to self-defense. [I]t is also illegal. The ICC has no jurisdiction over Israel. Israel is not a signatory of the Rome Treaty, which founded the ICC, and set out its powers and jurisdiction. To get around that fact, the ICC illegally accepted "Palestine" as a signatory to the treaty. The PA was established in 1994 by force of the bilateral agreements the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) signed with Israel during the 1990s. Those agreements —popularly known as the "Oslo Accords"— bar the PA from seeking membership as a sovereign state in international bodies, including the ICC. Unlike the libelous accusations Khan raised against Israel's elected leaders, Khan's provision of material support for Hamas's war of genocide is an actual war crime. First, the United States should indict Hamas's terror masters, including senior leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohamed Deif, Ismail Haniyeh, and other top Hamas terrorists for the murder, rape, kidnapping and torture of U.S. citizens on and since Oct. 7. Not only should these war criminals not get a free pass for their actions, they should be held criminally liable by real courts, as opposed to the ICC's kangaroo court.... Second, Khan and his associates should be charged with extortion of U.S. elected officials.... [O]n May 3, the ICC issued a statement that Khan posted on his X account, threatening action against anyone acting against them. As Netanyahu explained, the ICC's move against Israel won't daunt him as he leads the country in this difficult war for national survival. But actions taken against Israel by the ICC and similarly corrupt international bodies form noxious precedents that can be used in the future against free nations fighting genocidal terror armies and regimes. If permitted to proceed unpunished for its crimes, the ICC will gain in power and stature. And just as it is using its power against the lone Jewish state today, so it will use it against the United States tomorrow.
The goal of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in propagating its slander against Israel is to criminalize the only Jewish state and pave the way for its annihilation by denying it the right to self-defense. While it's true that ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan's move to issue arrest warrants against Israel's leaders is a shameful, nakedly political disgrace, it is also illegal. The ICC has no jurisdiction over Israel. Israel is not a signatory of the Rome Treaty, which founded the ICC, and set out its powers and jurisdiction. Pictured: Khan in Bogota, Colombia on April 25, 2024. (Photo by Luis Acosta/AFP via Getty Images)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's initial response to International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Karim Khan's announcement that he intends to issue international arrest warrants against Israel's leaders was brief and to the point: "The international arrest warrants won't deter me. This is a political, biased decision. It is a disgrace and a shame. We will continue on until victory."
Netanyahu's response was correct, but too narrow. True, Khan's accusation that Israel under Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is deliberately starving Gazans and intentionally targeting civilians for death is a blood libel. Far from starving or deliberately killing civilians, Israel is doing more to protect the lives of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip than any military has done to protect the lives of civilians in war zones in human history.
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May 27, 2024 at 1:00 pm
(Image source: iStock/Getty Images)
On this Memorial Day observance that pays homage to those who have died defending our freedoms, a national poll, commissioned by Gatestone Foundation Trustee Lawrence Kadish of Old Westbury, Long Island, reveals that China has emerged as the nation considered the biggest national security threat to the United States. An overwhelming majority of Americans questioned believed that China will seek to dominate the remaining 21st Century at the expense of the United States. Vladimir Putin's Russia ranks second as America's biggest threat to our national security, with a little more than half of Americans questioned concerned that Putin is capable of launching a nuclear strike on the United States. The result underscores the poll's finding that a significant majority of Americans are concerned that we have entered a second chapter of the Cold War between the two countries that has considerable consequences for our nation's future.
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by Uzay Bulut • May 27, 2024 at 5:00 am
Turks earning the minimum wage cannot afford their rents, and have difficulty paying utility bills. Many people cannot even afford to buy food, while Erdogan's government has chosen to spend its resources on aggressive wars and cooperation with terrorist groups and regimes in the region such as Hamas, Islamic State (ISIS), the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda-affiliated groups in Syria, and the Islamic Republic of Iran. "In 2012, the Turkish government reportedly donated $300 million to Hamas as the group set up shop in Turkey. A Turkish nongovernmental organization with ties to the government, the Foundation for Human Rights (IHH) [which also organized the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla], has transferred cash payments to its branch in the Gaza Strip since 2010. Hamas uses these payments to fund terrorism... The court explicitly ruled that the Turkish bank Kuveyt Turk Bank 'helped finance the Hamas.'" — Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, November 29, 2023. Meanwhile, according to a 2023 report, a staggering 98% of the population in Turkey is struggling to meet their basic needs, with 83.75 million people unable to achieve the minimum income required for a decent standard of living. Erdogan's government nevertheless flows its resources to almost every terrorist group in the region to pursue Muslim Brotherhood-style Islamist ideological and territorial goals, impose sharia law, to harm or destroy "infidel" nations, and to establish its Islamist dominance throughout the world. Any future financial cooperation between the West and Turkey should depend on the Turkish government's human rights record towards the Turkish people and requiring that Turkey end its relationships with all these terrorist groups and regimes that have cost the lives of thousands of innocent people in the region.
Turks earning the minimum wage cannot afford their rents, and have difficulty paying utility bills. Many people cannot even afford to buy food, while President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government has chosen to spend its resources on aggressive wars and cooperation with terrorist groups and regimes in the region such as Hamas, Islamic State, the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda-affiliated groups in Syria, and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Pictured: Erdogan (then serving as prime minister) poses beside Hamas leaders Khaled Mashaal (center) and Ismail Haniyeh (left) during a meeting in Ankara, Turkey on June 18, 2013. (Image source: Turkish Prime Minister Press Office/Yasin Bulbul/AFP via Getty Images)
Since 2002, Turkey has been ruled by the Islamist government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a vocal supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), a movement that seeks to establish a worldwide Islamic caliphate based on Islamic sharia law. For 22 years, Erdogan's policies have not only impoverished Turkey's people by ruining the country's economy, but also have brought wars, violence, and bloodshed to the wider region. Most recently, on April 20, as a sign of his utmost support for Hamas terror group, Erdogan received Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas Political Bureau, at the Dolmabahçe Presidential Palace in Istanbul. The first signs of a possible nationwide defeat of Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) became visible, however, on March 31.
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May 27, 2024 at 4:00 am
Gatestone Institute wishes to thank all the brave men and women of America's armed forces who sacrificed their lives -- and all of you who continue every day to defend our freedom -- so that we may sleep soundly in our beds at night. We are in your debt. — The Editors.
Pictured: An honor guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, in Arlington National Cemetery. (Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images)
by Raymond Ibrahim • May 26, 2024 at 6:00 am
On April 26, a Muslim man named Muhammad Shehroz, led a 4-year-old Christian boy, Moosa Masih to a field where he brutally sodomized and then sought to strangle the child to death. — britishasianchristians.org, May 3, 2024, Pakistan. Even though it is illegal in Pakistan to marry underage girls, the authorities refused to act on the Christian family's pleas to recover their daughter, due to a birth certificate that had obviously been forged, which claimed she was 18. A court subsequently ruled that, being of age, Ameen had willingly converted to Islam and married a Muslim man. — britishasianchristians.org, April 28, 2024, Pakistan. "On April 5th, members of the jirga [Pakistani conflict resolution team] forcibly arrived at my residence and coerced me to accompany them to the police station. They threatened to abduct my daughters if I dared to resist," said the father of Kainat Pervaiz, a 16-year-old Christian girl who was abducted and raped. They coerced him to drop the case in exchange for 50,000 rupees (USD $180) and the proposed marriage of his daughter to her rapist as a form of "compensation." — britishasianchristians.org, April 28, 2024, Pakistan. [A] massive riot broke out in an asylum shelter after some Muslims noticed a resident wearing a cross necklace. — medforth.biz, April 13, 2024, Germany.
On April 15, a 16-year-old Muslim stabbed Orthodox Christian bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and four other Christians at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Sydney, Australia. The bishop lost an eye in the attack. Pictured: A police officer outside Christ The Good Shepherd Church on April 16, 2024. (Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)
The following are among the abuses and murders inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of April 2024. The Muslim Slaughter of Christians Uganda: On Apr. 10, a Muslim man murdered his mother for refusing to leave the Christian faith. Two months earlier, Sulaina Nabirye, a 50-year-old widow, had put her faith in Christ. Immediately, her 31-year-old son, Arajabu Mukiibi, began to pressure her to return to Islam, according to a relative (name withheld for security reasons): "During the month of Ramadan, she complained of her son pressuring her to stop attending church and revert back to Islam, since he was studying to become an imam at Bugembe Mosque. When she refused to convert back to Islam, he stopped visiting her at her house and threatened to chase or even kill her."
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by Majid Rafizadeh • May 25, 2024 at 5:00 am
It seems urgent for the long-term survival of the United States and the Free World – where people enjoy unprecedented freedom of speech, property rights, economic opportunity, religious freedom and other civil liberties – not to accept assaults on these hard-won achievements either at home or abroad. Adversaries have become increasingly empowered, and allies may well be losing confidence in the West's leadership. This week it was announced that three countries in Europe, Ireland, Norway and Spain – all of which have long, unfortunate histories of antisemitism – plan to recognizing a Palestinian State that will be terrorist. US President Joe Biden assured Russia in 2022 that a "minor incursion" into Ukraine would be all right. Predators do not "do" minor. The Biden administration handed over Afghanistan to a terrorist group, the Taliban; now it looks as if the Biden administration and these three racist countries in Europe are determined to hand Gaza to another terrorist group, Iran's proxy, Hamas, which openly says it is more committed than ever to destroying its free, democratic neighbor, Israel. Israel is trying to protect its citizens and maintain its sovereignty in the face of relentless aggression, while battling not only Hamas but also two illegitimate antisemitic courts (the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice), the antisemitic United Nations, antisemitic European countries, well-funded antisemitic demonstrations in the West, and the Biden administration... [which] for years has been trying to force out Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The US would doubtless prefer an Israeli prime minister who would allow Hamas to remain in control of Gaza and reconstitute its military capabilities; who would allow the creation of a terrorist Palestinian state bordering Israel, and who would stand aside as genocidal Iran obtains nuclear weapons. In addition, the Communist Chinese regime, seeing the Biden administration reward aggression, past, present, and presumably future, is encircling the Philippines and Taiwan and sending tens of thousands of young men of military age in packs across America's southern border, and more than 5,000 over its northern one. One can only wonder which of the likely leaders of the Free World will permit -- or put a stop to -- these staggering negative trends of geopolitical deterioration in the future.
One can only wonder which of the likely leaders of the Free World will permit -- or put a stop to -- these staggering negative trends of geopolitical deterioration in the future. (Image source: iStock/Getty Images)
In the last few years, we have witnessed a world that has become significantly less safe and secure. American and Western policy failures and strategic missteps appear to have emboldened adversaries and undermined allies. A lack of decisive action and coherent strategy has created power vacuums which have been exploited by hostile actors and resulted in increased instability and threats in the West to both national and global security. It seems urgent for the long-term survival of the United States and the Free World – where people enjoy unprecedented freedom of speech, property rights, economic opportunity, religious freedom and other civil liberties – not to accept assaults on these hard-won achievements either at home or abroad.
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by Bassam Tawil • May 24, 2024 at 5:00 am
Ireland, Norway and Spain should have advised the Palestinians that if they wanted anything from Israel, they should sit down and negotiate with the Israelis, and not try to impose any solution on them with the help of the international community. They also should have told them that there will be no peace negotiations with Israel unless the Palestinians repudiate and renounce terrorism and recognize Israel's right to exist. Apparently, Ireland, Norway and Spain do not even realize that they just strengthened the terrorists in their own countries. When Muslims demonstrated in Hamburg last month and demanded that shariah law and a Caliphate replace democracy in Germany, politicians said they should be jailed and stripped of their citizenship. Perhaps a few countries might also recognize a State of Catalonia? [W]hen [Palestinians] talk about "liberating" the land, what they really mean is that they want to murder all Jews or expel them from Israel, and replace it with an Iran-backed Palestinian terror state. The timing of the recognition of a Palestinian state, just months after Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, sent a message to the terrorists -- which should be transposed to the Europeans in their own countries -- that the more people they slaughter, including the Gazans Hamas kills as human shields, the more support they will have from the Europeans and the rest of the international community. Ireland, Norway, and Spain are letting it be known that the international community is willing to overlook, submit to, or even condone terrorism. This attitude will not promote any peace process between Israel and the Palestinians -- or among anyone trying to transform other countries. Instead, it encourages those who want to fundamentally remake countries in the West. Finally, who in his right mind imagines that the Middle East would be secure and peaceful with a Palestinian state adjacent to Israel? Such a state will simply serve as a springboard for more attacks against Israel. The Palestinians openly stated as much in their ratified 1974 "10-Point Program," known as the "phased plan," in which any land acquired will be used to get the rest. Basically, as Hamas openly states in its charter, its aim to eliminate the only homeland of the Jewish people and murder as many Jews as possible. It appears that the Europeans wish to finish the task that Hitler started -- the secret reason they are assisting the Palestinians in achieving this goal.
In the past few days, Hamas and other terrorist groups have been rejoicing over the decision by Ireland, Norway and Spain to recognize a Palestinian state. Germany, not to be left out, said it would "detain Benjamin Netanyahu if he were to set foot on German soil and if the International Criminal Court (ICC) issues an arrest warrant..." Pictured: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (R) and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere on April 22, 2024 in Hanover, Germany. (Photo by Ronny Hartmann/AFP via Getty Images)
In the past few days, Hamas and other terrorist groups have been rejoicing over the decision by Ireland, Norway and Spain to recognize a Palestinian state. The terrorists are so delighted that they have released several statements praising the three countries and stating that the Palestinians view the recognition as a direct result of their terrorist attacks against Israel. Germany, not to be left out, said it would "detain Benjamin Netanyahu if he were to set foot on German soil and if the International Criminal Court (ICC) issues an arrest warrant..." The recognition of a Palestinian state, even if it is merely a symbolic action that has no bearing on the reality on the ground, sends two messages to the Palestinians. First, that terrorism against Jews is justified and worthwhile because the world, instead of punishing you, will reward you for your crimes.
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by Nils A. Haug • May 23, 2024 at 5:00 am
[I]n 2023, the ANC, on behalf of the South African government, brought charges of genocide against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). This case seems to be another fatuous endeavour by the ANC for prominence.... [T]he ANC has effectively "turned its back on Western values, and expressed its support for countries and organisations that subscribe to terror as a measure and method of governance." Warren Goldstein, Chief Rabbi of South Africa, citizen.co.za, November 15, 2023 [E]verything Western, regarded as colonialist or imperialist, must be destroyed and recreated according to atheist, socialist, dogma... in pursuit of a revolutionary version of pseudo-egalitarian social justice. The historic ties of these African countries to the totalitarian countries of Russia, Cuba, and China and to revolutionary movements such as Hamas are as strong as ever. Through BRICS and other forums aligned with anti-Western actors, these African countries oppose the West with impunity and reject any pretence of joining the West's sphere of nations with their liberal democratic traditions. Anglo-American nations blissfully ignore Africa's strong connection to despotic regimes and persist in their simplistic approach towards these countries by showering them with financial incentives and arranging unproductive conferences.... African countries gladly accept the offered funds while remaining aligned to totalitarian regimes. Financial enticements by the West for the purposes of gaining favour are made in vain: these leaders remain, at their core, Marxist revolutionaries imposing extreme socialist policies on their populace, unfortunately leading to the demise of hitherto prosperous and productive economies. Until a positive regime change occurs, no improvement in the lives of the average citizen can be expected. The people get poorer by the day.... The dim prospects of the poor, which led to the protest and resulted in millions of dollars in damage to the economy, have not improved. Realistic hope turns to despair for southern Africa's political and economic future, particularly South Africa, which is fast approaching a failed state. A 2023 Harvard Kennedy Business School study describes the cause as "collapsing state capacity and spatial exclusion" -- which translates as state inefficiency and the exclusion of whites from certain aspects of the economy. The same can be said of Zimbabwe (very much a failed state), Namibia, and others. This is the complex world of southern African politics, whose leaders present lip service to the Western ideals of democracy while accepting generous global hand-outs – usually offered, unfortunately, with no demands for accountability.
In 2023, the African National Congress (ANC), on behalf of the South African government, brought charges of genocide against Israel in the International Court of Justice. This case seems to be another fatuous endeavour by the ANC for prominence. Pictured: Basem Naim (L), a Hamas leader who is a former Gaza health minister and Khaled Al-Qaddumi, Hamas' representative in Iran, speak during a press conference in Cape Town, South Africa on November 29. (Photo by Rodger Bosch/AFP via Getty Images)
In South Africa, the most important benefactor of the African National Congress party (ANC) since independence in 1994, providing military support for years, was the former Soviet Union. Despite exhibiting a veneer of democracy, the ANC and their associates, remain fervently Communist-Socialist, adopt Marxist-Leninist socialist dogma as their political worldview and hold Russian President Vladimir Putin in high regard. In the three decades since the neo-Marxist ANC commenced its rule, however, South Africa, as a country rich in natural resources and with a hitherto first class private business sector, has been experiencing a depressing nearly 40% unofficial unemployment rate, with daily electric power "load-shedding" nationally, a compromised water supply, and endemic corruption at every level of government -- generally to the benefit of a politically connected elite.
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by Joshua Marks • May 22, 2024 at 5:00 am
Close to three-fourths of the humanitarian aid transported from a new floating pier built by the U.S. military off the Gaza coast was stolen on Saturday en route to a U.N. warehouse. Pictured: Palestinian men loot a truck carrying international humanitarian aid from the US-built floating pier near Nuseirat in the Gaza Strip on May 18, 2024. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
Close to three-fourths of the humanitarian aid transported from a new $320 million floating pier built by the U.S. military off the Gaza coast was stolen on Saturday en route to a U.N. warehouse, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Eleven trucks "were cleaned out by Palestinians" on the journey to the World Food Programme warehouse in Deir El Balah in the central Strip, with only five truckloads making it to the destination. "They've not seen trucks for a while," a U.N. official told Reuters. "They just basically mounted on the trucks and helped themselves to some of the food parcels." According to the United Nations, no aid was delivered to the warehouse from the U.S. military's pier on Sunday and Monday. The United Nations said that 10 truckloads of food aid from the pier arrived at the warehouse on Friday, its first day of operation. It was transported by U.N. contractors.
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by Bassam Tawil • May 20, 2024 at 5:00 am
[The Palestinians] seem confident that if the Biden administration is rewarding them for malign behavior, it is clearly working, so why not keep it up? The Palestinians are hoping to scare the Americans and prevent them from cooperating with Israel on the future of the Gaza Strip after the war. The Biden administration did not, it seems, even demand that, in return for the humanitarian aid, the hostages be released or that the terrorists stop launching rockets into Israel. Apparently, the Biden administration did not even request assurances that the aid would not be seized and diverted by the terrorists. Hamas has earned at least $500 million from the aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war in October 2023, according Ehud Yaari, an Israeli expert on Arab and Palestinian affairs. [The Palestinians] consider the presence of US troops in the region as another form of "occupation" and an unwelcome intervention in the internal affairs of the Arabs in the Middle East. As long as supplies are getting into the Gaza Strip, Hamas will not stop fighting or free the hostages. Because of the Gaza pier, the Biden administration has made it immensely harder to free the hostages and end the war.
Because of the Gaza pier, the Biden administration has made it immensely harder to free the hostages and end the war. Pictured: National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby displays a photo of trucks transporting aid to Gaza across the pier, at the White House in Washington, DC, on May 17, 2024. (Photo by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
More than $300 million has been spent by the Biden administration to construct a floating pier on the coast of the Gaza Strip to aid the local Palestinian population. Rather than expressing gratitude to the US, the Palestinians have publicly denounced the Biden administration and warned Arabs and Palestinians not to cooperate with the project. They seem confident that if the Biden administration is rewarding them for malign behavior, it is clearly working, so why not keep it up? The Palestinians are hoping to scare the Americans and prevent them from cooperating with Israel on the future of the Gaza Strip after the war. The US move coincides with the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group is continuing to hold hostage more than 120 Israelis who were abducted from Israel on October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched its cross-border invasion from the Gaza Strip.
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by Robert Williams • May 19, 2024 at 5:00 am
"We are watching the demonstrations, and we like what we see, but it should not end with this.... These protestors are our people and will support Iran in an Iran-U.S. confrontation; Iran can repeat in the U.S. what it did in Lebanon but on a grander scale because the 'Hizbullah -style' groups in the U.S. are 'much larger' than in Lebanon.... America is the Great Satan and our enemy, but we have hope in these areas." — Foad Izadi, Teheran University, who studied at University of Houston and Louisiana State University, Ofogh TV (Iran), April 26, 2024. [Hezbollah's Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim] Qassem – who appeared almost taken aback at the eagerness of students on US campuses to join Hamas in its call for the genocide of Jews – was hopeful about the ability of America's students to help Hezbollah destroy Israel by turning the U.S. against its ally. "We found evidence that the government of Iran really controlled everything about the [Alavi] foundation," Adam Kaufmann, investigations chief at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, November 22, 2009. The Alavi Foundation, according to its website, has indeed funded many of the universities where protests were taking place. The universities include those of the Ivy league, such as Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Rutgers, as well as UCLA and many others. In 2016, Harvard employed Ali Akbar Alikhani – who had warned about "the Jewish threat" -- from Tehran University's Faculty of World Studies, which is reportedly closely tied to the Iranian ruling regime, as a visiting scholar at Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern studies.... Hooshang Amirahmadi, the founder of the American Iranian Council (AIC), has admitted that the lobbying organization was created by the Islamic Republic of Iran to work for its interests in the US. Amirahmadi has had and continues to enjoy a successful academic career at Rutgers University.... Some faculty members at Rutgers recently called for the genocide of Jews. In addition, at least five US universities -- Virginia Tech University, the University of Washington, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Clarkson University, and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette -- have allegedly been cooperating with Iranian entities that are sanctioned by the US and the European Union, including the Iranian Aerospace Research Institute, Iran University of Science and Technology, and the Sharif University of Technology. Iran can only be rejoicing at the moral and educational collapse they have helped create on American university campuses, which are grooming America's future teachers, judges and political leaders. Now, however, these campuses appear to be incubating America's future terrorists and creating a national security threat.
Iran can only be rejoicing at the moral and educational collapse they have helped create on American university campuses, which are grooming America's future teachers, judges and political leaders. Now, however, these campuses appear to be incubating America's future terrorists and creating a national security threat. Pictured: Pro-Hamas and anti-Israel protesters outside of Columbia University on April 24, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
"Iran, you make us proud" and "Yemen, Yemen make us proud, turn another ship around," were among the chants by the pro-Hamas college students and the paid activists who organized them on U.S. campuses. They declared a "student intifada," conducted a Hamas-inspired "Day of Rage," bowed down to Allah and called for "Death to Israel" and "Death to America." Meanwhile, Iran and the mouthpieces of its Islamist regime were paying extremely close attention. According to Tehran University Professor Foad Izadi, who is American-educated and considered one of Iran's main experts on the U.S. and a mouthpiece for the Iranian regime:
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by Amir Taheri • May 19, 2024 at 4:00 am
They introduce themselves as university students, young scholars who are supposedly training to become the nation's political guides and mentors. However, you soon found out that their understanding of political issues, including the current war in Gaza, is a reflection more of street politics than academic methods. In other words, the street, and its politique de la rue in French, have invaded the university or at least part of it that wears the label of "humanities", a witches' brew of once academic subjects corrupted by ideology. The crisis in Western universities is further complicated by the advent of wokeism, a corrupted secular version of the seminarian's sympathy for the innocent scapegoat, a sympathy extended to all real or imagined victims of injustice. While the seminary is chiefly interested in the text, faculty ought to be equally interested in the context. In many "humanities" departments in Western universities, however, the text comes from propagandist pamphlets written by polemicist professors, while the context is regarded as a mere diversion from the truth. Shakespeare said it best: "Now confusion has made its masterpiece!"
The street's way of doing politics, tagging slogans on the walls, distributing leaflets, burning tires and garbage dumpsters, and setting flags and effigies of figures you don't like on fire has replaced the traditional, admittedly tiresome, debates, discussions, essay writings, and what in the 1960s protests were called "teach-ins". Pictured: Anti-Israel protesters in Paris on May 11, 2024. (Photo by Anna Kurth/AFP via Getty Images)
If you visit Paris these days, you may run into solemn-looking youths distributing a tract that's says: "Palestine is fighting for all of us!" or tagging this message on the walls: "Stop Genocide in Palestine!" They introduce themselves as university students, young scholars who are supposedly training to become the nation's political guides and mentors. However, you soon found out that their understanding of political issues, including the current war in Gaza, is a reflection more of street politics than academic methods. In other words, the street, and its politique de la rue in French, have invaded the university or at least part of it that wears the label of "humanities", a witches' brew of once academic subjects corrupted by ideology.
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by Majid Rafizadeh • May 18, 2024 at 5:00 am
Worse, abandoning Israel sends a troubling message to U.S. allies worldwide: in times of crisis, do not rely on American support. The Biden administration has eroded trust and damaged U.S. credibility on the global stage even further than it already had done after surrendering Afghanistan and allowing China to kill more than a million Americans with Covid-19, or poisoning to death more than 80,000 Americans each year with fentanyl, or permitting China to commit massive espionage and intellectual property theft with no consequences at all. Biden's decision has projected an image of weakness rather than leadership, further tarnishing America's reputation as a steadfast defender of the free world. Instead, the Biden administration is seen globally as siding with terrorists -- the Taliban in Afghanistan, the terror-funding Qataris, the genocidal Communist government of China, and the annual winner of the world's top, largest, leading "state sponsor of terrorism," Iran. Such a milestone shift in U.S. foreign policy displays a concerning departure from longstanding principles of backing the Free World. Overall, the development is deeply detrimental to U.S. interests. It threatens the stability of international relations, and for the perception of America's role as a leading global power, it is nothing short of devastating.
The Biden administration's abandonment of Israel sends a troubling message to U.S. allies worldwide: in times of crisis, do not rely on American support. Pictured: U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House on April 24, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
In an unprecedented move in US governance, the Biden administration has embarked on a policy that departs from its longstanding support for Israel. Instead, there is a discernible tilt towards policies that favor the adversaries of the United States, notably Iran and its proxies such as Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as China and Russia. This strategic realignment marks a significant shift in US foreign policy and has generated a substantial risk both domestically and internationally.
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by Bassam Tawil • May 17, 2024 at 5:00 am
The Israeli government, according to reports, is being pressured by the Biden administration to send the money to the PA. This addled and dangerous proposal amounts to expecting the Jews to support the same people who are murdering them. The Biden administration has also been launching a legal and diplomatic offensive to discredit, isolate, and penalize Israel for trying to defend itself against terrorist attacks. Meanwhile, the PA, instead of acknowledging that it is terrified to go back to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, is trying to pressure Israel into accepting the creation of a Palestinian state and releasing the tax revenues. Unbelievably, the PA and the Biden administration apparently want Israel to grant Palestinians a state that will be ruled by the same murders, rapists and kidnappers who invaded Israel on October 7, 2023. Abbas might one day return to the Gaza Strip – but only when he sees that Hamas has lost all military might and is no longer in control. Meanwhile, he feels safe and secure being in the West Bank, where Israel is in charge of overall security and is fighting against Hamas and other Iran-backed terrorist proxies. He knows that without Israel's security presence in the West Bank, Hamas would have killed him and toppled the PA long ago. Allowing Hamas to win its war against Israel would delight two countries deeply committed to supporting terrorism. The first is Qatar, an oil-field protected by a US air base, and a country with which President Joe Biden's brother, James, according to court testimony, might reportedly have had business dealings The second country is Iran, repeatedly designated as the "leading state sponsor of terrorism" and currently racing toward nuclear weapons capability. The Iranian regime – which presently controls four Middle East capitals in addition to its own -- Sanaa, Damascus, Beirut and Baghdad -- wishes to take over the Middle East, as well as oil-and-mineral-rich Sudan. Iran's rulers would undoubtedly not only pave the way for more October 7-style atrocities against Israel, but also other neighbors -- Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt and Bahrain -- especially if Iran obtains nuclear weapons. Abbas, fearful of being called a traitor, is reluctant to take action against the terrorists. It might mean his death. Additionally, he is most likely not pursuing the terrorists because they do not directly threaten him or the PA. If a Palestinian leader does not even have the bravery to condemn the unimaginable Hamas atrocities of October 7, how can one expect him to confront terrorism emanating from his Palestinian Authority? The Gaza Strip needs moderate and pragmatic leaders who will embark on a process of deradicalizing and reeducating Gazans to lead peaceful, prosperous and constructive lives, freed of subjugation by their leaders, who will finally prepare their people for peace in the region. At the moment, unfortunately, among the Palestinians, no such leaders exist.
Unbelievably, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Biden administration apparently want Israel to grant Palestinians a state that will be ruled by the same murders, rapists and kidnappers who invaded Israel on October 7, 2023. Pictured: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with PA President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on February 7, 2024. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Those who believe that the Palestinian Authority (PA) should replace the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group in the Gaza Strip are either gullible, badly uninformed , or living in delusions. The PA can presumably handle civilian issues in the Gaza Strip and pay salaries to civil servants, but it cannot – and will never – take on Hamas directly. The Israel-Hamas war began more than seven months ago, and it appears that the terrorist organization's military capabilities have not yet been totally neutralized. It could realistically take months, if not years, to destroy the military infrastructure that, over the past two decades, Qatar, Iran, Hamas, and various other terrorist organizations have erected in the Gaza Strip.
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