Latest Analysis and Commentary
by Grégoire Canlorbe • March 14, 2025 at 5:00 am
"[T]hanks to Hatzalah, we obtained 50 hours of raw material from ambulance teams. These first responders documented everything. Every horror, every burned-out car, every bullet-ridden body, from the moment the attack began." — Igal Hecht, director of The Killing Roads, a documentary that investigates Gaza's jihadi pogrom against Israel on October 7, 2023. "The average Canadian gets his information from a publicly funded broadcaster that pumps out anti-Israel propaganda daily, much like the BBC. These journalists take Hamas press releases as gospel and issue weak retractions only after the damage has been done. We've seen it repeatedly, from The New York Times parroting Hamas casualty figures to the BBC recently producing outright propaganda films." — Igal Hecht. "If this unchecked immigration and tolerance for Islamist extremism continue, Canada will follow the path of the UK, France, and the Netherlands. In 10-15 years, we shall see the same no-go zones, the same normalization of antisemitism, and the same erosion of Western values. That is the trajectory unless people wake up." — Igal Hecht. "The Sunni states are waking up to a simple truth: the main obstacle to peace is not Israel. Rather, it is the so-called Palestinians and their genocidal fantasies, like a perpetual cancer. Remove that factor from the equation, and Israel and the Arab world can thrive together. More Arab leaders are starting to see that. Hopefully, the rest of the world will, too." — Igal Hecht. "Easter and Christmas in Israel serve as testaments to the reality that Christian minorities here can observe their holiest days without fear. This is something that is virtually impossible anywhere else in the Middle East." — Igal Hecht.
"[T]hanks to Hatzalah, we obtained 50 hours of raw material from ambulance teams. These first responders documented everything. Every horror, every burned-out car, every bullet-ridden body, from the moment the attack began." — Igal Hecht. Pictured: A rescue team from United Hatzalah evacuates a wounded person near the city of Sderot, Israel on October 7, 2023. (Photo by Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images)
In 1999, Igal Hecht, an Israeli based in Toronto, Canada, created Chutzpa Productions Inc. His award-winning films have been described as controversial and thought provoking. They have dealt with human rights issues as well as pop culture. Throughout his 20-year career, Hecht has been involved in the production of more than 50 documentary films and more than 20 television series. His work has been screened internationally on Netflix, Amazon Prime, BBC, Documentary Channel, CBC, YES-TV (Canada) and HBO Europe, among other outlets. Grégoire Canlorbe: The Killing Roads investigates Gaza's jihadi pogrom against Israel on October 7, 2023. How did you gather the testimonies? Igal Hecht: When October 7th unfolded, I began collecting and archiving every piece of footage that emerged—raw, unfiltered, and often horrifying. As the days passed and the scale of the atrocities became undeniable, it became clear that a film was needed.
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by Daniel Greenfield • March 13, 2025 at 5:00 am
President Donald Trump is saying all the right things, on the other hand, his team is going in and saying all the wrong things. After Trump's common sense approach, Steve Witkoff, the "envoy" responsible for foisting the disastrous Biden ceasefire on us, would water them down and dismiss the president's proposals. Now White House Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs, Adam Boehler... said... "Hamas suggested that they would release all hostages, lay down their weapons, and no longer be part of the politics of Gaza and that the US and its allies would ensure there was no military infrastructure remaining in Gaza. In exchange, there would be a five to ten-year truce, and the US and other countries would help rebuild Gaza." Hamas is not going to "disarm." A 10-15 year truce is a period of time during which Hamas rearms and prepares for another October 7 attack, as they have told us over and over again they will do. And Hamas, not Israel or the U.S., will decide when the truce actually lapses. Much like Hamas announced the previous two-year ceasefire was over by attacking on Oct 7. This proposed deal leaves Hamas in Gaza, and has the U.S. rebuild Gaza for 10-15 years. In short, it's the worst deal imaginable for America and for Israel.
President Donald Trump is saying all the right things. On the other hand, his team is going in and saying all the wrong things. Adam Boehler, the White House Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs, is pushing the same nonsense that got us to October 7, 2023. His proposed deal leaves Hamas in Gaza, and has the U.S. rebuild Gaza for 10-15 years.
In short, it's the worst deal imaginable for America and for Israel. Pictured: Boehler speaks at the State Department in Washington, DC, on March 6, 2025. (Photo by Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
The Trump administration's Gaza policy is completely divided. On the one hand, President Donald Trump is saying all the right things. On the other hand, his team is going in and saying all the wrong things. After Trump's common sense approach, Steve Witkoff, the "envoy" responsible for foisting the disastrous Biden ceasefire on us, would water them down and dismiss the president's proposals. Now White House Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs, Adam Boehler, who appeared to be a credible figure, decided to directly meet up with Hamas and came out with exactly the sort of thing John Kerry or Jimmy Carter would have come away with. Boehler said that Hamas is not interested in returning to war:
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by Lawrence Kadish • March 12, 2025 at 5:00 am
President Donald Trump needs to take a page from Roosevelt's legacy of leadership and authorize a similar "Manhattan Project" to ensure that America owns fusion power and the future that comes with it. Pictured: The HL-2M nuclear fusion tokamak, at a research laboratory in Chengdu, China. (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)
Tariffs, Ukraine, DOGE, the budget, NATO, the Middle East; the headlines are dominated by daily issues that demand our attention, but they also serve to distract us from the strategic issues that will determine who will be the dominant superpower during the remaining years of 21st Century. So, it should come as no surprise that China is currently investing billions of dollars to create unlimited power by seeking to conquer the challenging technology of fusion power. Media reports suggest that Beijing is investing anywhere between $1 billion and $1.5 billion annually into fusion research. One Washington energy insider told the press, "...What's more important than the number, it's actually how fast they're doing this." Equally telling is one report, which observed that China's patents on crucial aspects of fusion technology are more than any other country, including our own.
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by Robert Williams • March 11, 2025 at 5:00 am
Perhaps the climate hoax is actually not about saving the environment? What is it, then? Some environmental problems of pollution are clearly caused by man; the effect of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), as in certain hairsprays for instance, on the ozone layer over the Antarctica. CFCs thin, or make a "hole," in the planet's ozone layer that protects the people from harmful ultraviolet rays. There is also the very real man-made problem of insoluble trash in the oceans. Generally, however, the problems of pollution are separate from those of climate change. Whatever can reasonably be done to curb man-made pollution should, of course, be advanced, but sometimes climate change and pollution overlap – seen by many, apparently, as an invitation to muddle and conflate them. Climate change is largely caused by solar flares. So far, at least, there is not a blessed thing anyone can do about them. Many industries offer grants for papers that support the efficacy of their products that relate to climate change. Solar flares, regrettably, do not offer grants. [Former Special Presidential Envoy for Climate] Kerry and his family flew on 48 trips and emitted more than 300 metric tons of carbon dioxide in just the 18 months between January 2021 and July 2022. Private jets "are 10 times more carbon intensive than airliners on average, and 50 times more polluting than trains," according to a 2021 report. Kerry justified his polluting by declaring, unfortunately without a trace of irony, that private jets were the "only choice for somebody like me." The answer was supplied as early as 2015 by Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change: "This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution." That would mean the destruction of capitalism and the world economy, however long that takes. When the global elites arrived in Davos, Switzerland, in 2023 to discuss the urgent need to declare climate emergencies, they did so using more than 150 private jets. Any journalists or commentators who dare to question or oppose the climate change orthodoxy are immediately shunned as "climate deniers" and met in the legacy media with an instant end to their careers. "What is, in my view, even more dangerous, is the quasi-scientific form that their many times refuted forecasts have taken upon themselves." — Former Czech President Vaclav Klaus, The New American, December 22, 2009. Klaus stressed that environmentalism disguises itself as science. Under this disguise, it attempts to force its precepts on humanity. When it comes to global warming or climate change, that process is made easier: the topic is scientifically complex, which makes it hard for most people to refute the climate scammers. "For the last 16 years, temperatures have been going down and the carbon dioxide has been going up and the crops have got greener and grow quicker. We've done plenty to smash up the planet, but there's been no global warming caused by man.... I still say it's poppycock! If you believe it, fine. But I don't and there's thousands like me." — David Bellamy, English botanist and former BBC broadcaster, The Daily Mail, January 22, 2013. It is no wonder that the climate change scam won the day. Few people have been willing to risk their livelihoods to fight against the manipulation. Meanwhile, at the latest UN Climate Conference, COP29, which took place in Baku, Azerbaijan in November 2024, the agenda to destroy the world's economy and the West by forcing wealth redistribution made new strides.... [Developing countries] apparently demanded $1.3 trillion annually. In the words of energy expert Alex Epstein: "The basic idea here is what they call 'climate reparations,' which is the idea that the US and others have ruined the world with fossil fuels, and so we have to pay a trillion dollars a year to make up for it, which, by the way, if the US paid that, that's $7,700 per household per year." Notably, China retained its status as a "developing country" at the COP29, thereby exposing the enormous extent of the climate hoax. According to the International Energy Agency, "China's total CO2 emissions exceeded those of the advanced economies combined in 2020, and in 2023 were 15% higher." In addition, while China continues to build more coal-fired power plants than the rest of the entire world combined, the West continues on the path of deindustrialization in the name of the climate. Thankfully, President Donald Trump, once again, has withdrawn the US from the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. As the past has shown, however, such a withdrawal holds no future guarantees. Trump also withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement during his first term, but President Joe Biden then brought the US back the first chance he got. For this reason, it is crucial that the current US administration do all it can to publish the truth about the climate scam and work towards ending it across the board.
At the latest UN Climate Conference, COP29, in November 2024, developing countries apparently demanded payments of $1.3 trillion annually from developed countries. Notably, China retained its status as a "developing country" at the COP29, thereby exposing the enormous extent of the climate hoax. According to the International Energy Agency, "China's total CO2 emissions exceeded those of the advanced economies combined in 2020, and in 2023 were 15% higher." In addition, while China continues to build more coal-fired power plants than the rest of the entire world combined, the West continues on the path of deindustrialization in the name of the climate. Pictured: A steel mill with a coal-fired generator in Hebei, China. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
At the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos this January, Klaus Schwab's wife, Hilde Schwab, opened the annual meeting with the assertion that Antarctica is melting. "Antarctica, which holds 91% of the world's glaciers, faces catastrophic ice loss, contributing to rising sea levels," she claimed. That statement is simply not true. According to a recent study, Antarctica gained 661 billion tons of ice during 2009-2019. "The Antarctic continent," in fact, "has not warmed in the last seven decades." A December 2024 study, in addition, concluded that "iceberg calving, the detachment of ice blocks from ice sheets and glaciers... a primary process in mass loss from ice shelf systems in Antarctica and a major source of uncertainty in future projections of sea level rise" is not necessarily a consequence of climate change, not even when we're talking about "extreme calving events".
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by Khaled Abu Toameh • March 10, 2025 at 5:00 am
As part of the deception, according to the IDF report, Hamas was working to convince Israel that it was interested in calm and was working for economic prosperity. The IDF investigation concluded that Hamas had planned the October 7 attack for more than 10 years. Today, everyone knows that the talk about a long-term truce was nothing but a smokescreen to conceal Hamas's real intention of launching its October 7 attack against Israel. Hamas anyway is not known for honoring ceasefire agreements.... On July 26, 2014, Hamas announced a 24-hour humanitarian ceasefire at 14.00. Hamas violated its own ceasefire a short time later. For Hamas, a hudna is a temporary break from war -- it does not indicate a desire to end it and achieve peace. While Hamas was talking, for ten years before October 7, 2023, about its desire to reach a long-term truce, it was busy preparing for the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. It is plainly uninformed to believe that Hamas would ever lay down its weapons and agree to end its jihad (holy war) against Israel. The Trump administration is advised to listen to what Hamas leaders say in Arabic to their own people, and not what they tell US officials during secret meetings in Qatar. Earlier this month, for instance, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri, speaking in Arabic, reassured his people that his group rejects demands by Israel and the US to disarm... A ceasefire deal will allow Hamas to remain in power and prepare more massacres against Israel. The only solution for the current crisis is for Hamas to disarm, cede control over the Gaza Strip and leave the Palestinian arena.
For Hamas, a hudna is a temporary break from war -- it does not indicate a desire to end it and achieve peace. While Hamas was talking, for ten years before October 7, 2023, about its desire to reach a long-term truce, it was busy preparing for the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. It is plainly uninformed to believe that Hamas would ever lay down its weapons and agree to end its jihad (holy war) against Israel. A ceasefire deal will allow Hamas to remain in power and prepare more massacres against Israel. Pictured: Hamas terrorists in Gaza City on January 25, 2025. (Photo by Abood Abusalama/Middle East Images via AFP)
Adam Boehler, the US Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, stated on March 9 that he did not rule out the possibility of reaching a long-term truce between Israel and the Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. He also did not rule out the possibility that Hamas would agree to lay down its weapons, saying: "I think there's an answer here, and I think the answer is that Hamas lays down their arms. We exchange prisoners, and they [Hamas] go into a long-term truce, where they don't fight, they're not part of any political party, and that gives us lots of cooling-off time."
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by Nils A. Haug • March 9, 2025 at 5:00 am
The concept of Zionism has received adverse publicity in the press of late, especially thanks to slogans by supposedly pro-Palestinian activists in the West vilifying Jews. These supposedly pro-Palestinian activists are actually just antisemites; they have never proposed a thing that would make Palestinian lives better. Anyhow these activists call Jews "Zionists" to avoid having themselves labelled as Jew-haters. Due to a fundamental clash of irreconcilable ethical religious principles – that of Torah versus Islamic Sharia – it appears that only Israel's overwhelming military strength, command of technology and will to protect its country from tyranny can deter the nation's Islamist enemies. While combating a hostile local media that support what Netanyahu terms the "deep state", health issues, personal slights, legal charges -- many seemingly politically fabricated in the midst of an existential war by antagonistic state jurists determined to assert their control over elected politicians -- Netanyahu presses on, not only on a mission to save Israel from fundamentalist terrorism, but ultimately, by extension, the West itself. There does not appear to be anyone else in Israel who could have done a better job against the almost inestimable odds than those Netanyahu has been forced to overcome since October 7, 2023. The words describing the crucial role of Queen Esther of ancient Persia apply equally to Israel's statesman, Netanyahu: "Who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?"
There does not appear to be anyone else in Israel who could have done a better job against the almost inestimable odds than those Netanyahu has been forced to overcome since October 7, 2023. Pictured: US President Donald Trump meets with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on February 4, 2025. (Photo by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
Great statesmen are generally recognized as such only after dire events faced by the nation have settled, and his strategy is seen to have succeeded. Once the threat to the nation has passed and fresh democratic elections eventually arrive, the statesman is often replaced as leader and a new prime minister or president is appointed to lead the nation into a better future – a future created through the efforts, wisdom and courage of his predecessor. This is what transpired with that great British leader, Winston Churchill.
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by Amir Taheri • March 9, 2025 at 4:00 am
Ukraine could have had an implicit security guarantee because, as Trump noted, if American companies and citizens are present on Ukrainian soil, Russia might think twice before pursuing its bombing campaign. The US would have benefited, too, by recovering at least part of the $54-$60 billion "gift" -- routinely cited by the media in Europe as opposed to the Trump figure of $350 billion -- that President Joe Biden granted Zelensky to continue fighting. The Europeans made a big mistake by hastily over-reacting to an ill-prepared meeting. The European leaders should have taken a deep breath and refrained from seeking kudos by casting the continent's oldest and strongest ally as a potential adversary. Nor should they have spread pipe-dreams about a European army and military industry that could replace in a jiffy what the US provided for eight decades. In all its history, the US has never been on the side of those who start wars.
In the meeting where Zelensky was roasted, there was no scripted and agreed agenda. To complicate matters, Zelensky, cast as a war-leader, seemed to have no clue about what to do in a tight-spot and rose to the bait cast by Vance. Had the meeting had a clear agenda and been organized in a professional manner, both sides might have benefited from the agreement that Trump had suggested. Pictured: US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House on February 28, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
"The US has reversed its alliances to side with Russia against Europe!" This is the idea that many commentators in Britain, France and Germany have been hammering in for the past week. The Washington Post went even further: "For Europe, this is a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency moment. The United States, which has guaranteed European security against Russia for 80 years, appears to have switched sides under President Donald Trump." Apparently sharing that analysis, the European Union organized two summits that included Great Britain as an ad hoc member. France devoted a six-hour long parliamentary debate to the subject, with Prime Minister François Bayrou and leaders of half a dozen parties advertising their rhetorical talents with florid, virtue-signaling but substance-free speeches.
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by Majid Rafizadeh • March 8, 2025 at 5:00 am
Iran has also been installing more advanced centrifuges, increasing its capacity to enrich uranium faster than ever. The Iranian regime appears to believe that nuclear weapons will give it leverage to silence opposition at home and deter any foreign intervention that could threaten its rule. A nuclear-armed Iran poses an existential threat not only to the "Little Satan," Israel, and the "Great Satan," the US, but to all the oil-rich Gulf countries in the Middle East. The task is not just about protecting Israel, Europe and the US; it is about preventing.... the mother of all arms-races throughout the Middle East. The least the West can do is help to prevent one of the most dangerous regimes on Earth from obtaining weapons of mass destruction – before it proceeds to a nuclear breakout.
Iran is moving at an alarming speed to develop nuclear weapons and advancing its uranium enrichment at an unprecedented rate. The latest report from the International Atomic Energy Agency provides a chilling confirmation of Iran's intentions. Pictured: A Fattah hypersonic ballistic missile is displayed during the annual military parade in Tehran, on September 22, 2023. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
Iran is moving at an alarming speed to develop nuclear weapons and advancing its uranium enrichment at an unprecedented rate. The latest report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) provides a chilling confirmation of Iran's intentions. According to the IAEA, Iran's stockpile of uranium enriched to 60% purity — just a short step away from weapons-grade material — has increased by 92.5 kilograms since November. This brings its total stockpile of highly enriched uranium to approximately 275 kilograms, an amount sufficient to produce at least six nuclear bombs if further enriched to 90%. Iran has also been installing more advanced centrifuges, increasing its capacity to enrich uranium faster than ever.
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by Alan M. Dershowitz • March 7, 2025 at 5:00 am
[Barnard's] radical "studies" departments are propaganda mills that teach students what to think rather than how to think. Consider, for example, the "Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies Department". Its website calls for students to "smash the white supremacist hetero-patriarchy." In other words, this women's studies department has little to do with scholarship, teaching or learning. It has everything to do with advocacy. That is true of many other specialized studies departments at Barnard. Signs at these protests call for "war" and "intifada". Nor is the war limited to Israel. It is directed against Americans as well. The protests involve masked students, faculty and non-students who occupy buildings, prevent Jewish students from attending classes and threaten to close down the college unless it divests from Israel and takes other bigoted actions. The college administration, instead of disciplining students who break the rules and the law, negotiated with them. Cutting off funding from Barnard will not hurt students who want a real education, because Barnard students can enroll in courses at Columbia, which is affiliated with Barnard. It will put an end to the propaganda "courses", and "studies" "programs" in which Barnard seems to specialize. It is imperative that freedom of speech, protected by the First Amendment, not be compromised by the government. Barnard is a private institution not bound by that amendment. Moreover, those activities that would cause a shutdown of federal funding are not covered by freedom of speech. They consist largely of physical actions, such as trespassing, blocking access, harassment and other forms of intimidation. Pure protests consisting of speech should not be a basis for defunding.
Barnard College has become the incubator for anti-American, anti-Israel and anti-semitic protests. Signs at these protests call for "war" and "intifada". Nor is the war limited to Israel. It is directed against Americans as well. The protests involve masked students, faculty and non-students who occupy buildings, prevent Jewish students from attending classes and threaten to close down the college unless it divests from Israel and takes other bigoted actions. Pictured: Anti-Israel protesters outside Barnard College in New York on February 27, 2025. (Photo by Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)
President Donald Trump has pledged to cut federal funding to schools that do not protect Jewish students from anti-semitic harassment and violence. The best place to begin this process is Barnard College in New York City. Cutting funding to major research universities threatens cutbacks on grants for medical and other important scientific research. Barnard College, on the other hand, is not a university. It does not have a medical school. Its faculty does little or no research that would affect Americans on a day-to-day basis. Cutting off federal aid to Barnard would have few negative impacts on issues that legitimately concern Americans, especially if it focuses on discriminatory actions and does not interfere with protected free speech
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by Khaled Abu Toameh • March 6, 2025 at 5:00 am
The establishment of a new government in the Gaza Strip while Hamas maintains its military capabilities there unfortunately will not work. Hamas's presence during reconstruction will only result in the emergence of the Lebanon model: Hezbollah, another Iranian proxy terror group, simply created a terrorist state-within-a-state. Worse, having a new government that would oversee reconstruction and humanitarian efforts in the Gaza Strip while Hamas is still there would exempt the Palestinian terrorist group from its responsibilities towards Gaza's residents. The new government would not be able to stop Hamas from rearming, regrouping, and preparing more attacks against Israel -- as Hamas has unremittingly vowed to do. The new government would be busy rebuilding homes and skyscrapers and delivering humanitarian aid, while Hamas and the other terror groups would have all the time in the world to rebuild tunnels and manufacture weapons. Hamas never cared about the well-being of the Palestinians under its rule in the Gaza Strip. The terrorist group could have built schools, universities, and hospitals. Instead, it chose to invest millions of dollars in building a vast network of tunnels to attack Israel, smuggle and hide weapons, and torture Israeli hostages. The reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and the resumption of humanitarian aid should be conditioned on the removal of Hamas from power and disarming of all of Gaza's terror groups. Hamas should be completely excluded from any plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip because all it cares about is pursuing its Jihad (holy war) to destroy Israel and murder as many Jews as possible.
As Arab and Western leaders continue to discuss plans to rebuild the Gaza Strip, the Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist group Hamas has again rejected laying down its weapons. It is clear that the terrorist group is determined to hold on to its weapons and its power, even if that entails depriving Gazans of reconstruction and further humanitarian aid. Hamas must not only be removed from power; it must disappear altogether. Pictured: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (R) welcomes Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Cairo on March 4, 2025, photographed from a large screen at the Arab League summit. (Photo by Khaled Desouki/AFP via Getty Images)
As Arab and Western leaders continue to discuss plans to rebuild the Gaza Strip, the Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist group Hamas has again rejected laying down its weapons. For Hamas, preserving its weapons and military wing, Izz a-Din al-Qassam, is apparently more important than the reconstruction of thousands of homes and buildings destroyed during the Hamas-Israel war, which erupted after the terrorist group's October 7, 2023, bloodthirsty attack on Israel. "Disarming Hamas is a red line," senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri was quoted as saying on March 4. He added that his group will not accept exchanging its weapons for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and the resumption of humanitarian aid. Abu Zuhri described the talk about Hamas's disarmament as "nonsense" and stressed that weapons are a red line for Hamas and all terror factions in the Gaza Strip. "The weapons are not subject to bargaining and are not up for discussion or negotiation," he said.
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by Drieu Godefridi • March 5, 2025 at 5:00 am
The true analogy [of Trump's deal with Zelenskyy] is with the assistance granted by the United States to the United Kingdom during World War II: the Lend-Lease Act of 1941. Under Lend-Lease, the US provided Britain with goods and services... over the course of the war.... Adjusted for inflation to today's dollars (as of February 2025), this amount equates to roughly $550 billion. What, however, happens once the debt is repaid? Without a lasting strategic framework, financial leverage alone might not be enough to guarantee long-term security. The case of Hong Kong is a sobering precedent: the West was deeply invested in the city's economy, but when communist China asserted control, international businesses largely packed up and left rather than confront Beijing. At the moment, Trump's unconventional proposal is probably the best offer for Ukraine -- and the only realistic one. It gives the US "skin in the game," enables Trump to have leverage when he approaches Russia, and prevents Putin, at least for a while, from retaking that part of the former Soviet Union. Russia already has hundreds of miles of peaceful borders with NATO countries, including the Baltic states, and did not kick up a fuss when Finland joined NATO last year. The only country where joining NATO ostensibly appears to be a problem is Ukraine. Perhaps this exception should be regarded as a flashing red light, warning that Putin still might have his eye on Ukraine for its minerals, agricultural land and outlet on the Black Sea. Trump has been a supporter of NATO but not as its guarantor. His worldview at the moment is that he rejects war, except as a last resort. To him, it seems, America's true rival in the 21st century is not Europe, or Russia, and certainly not the amorphous, inconsistent entity known as the BRICs. It is China.
At the moment, President Donald Trump's unconventional proposal is probably the best offer for Ukraine -- and the only realistic one. It gives the US "skin in the game," enables Trump to have leverage when he approaches Russia, and prevents Putin, at least for a while, from retaking that part of the former Soviet Union. Pictured: Trump greets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as he arrives at the White House on February 28, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky finally agreed to the "Golden Parachute" US President Donald J. Trump offered him as a first step to have Russian President Vladimir Putin negotiate a ceasefire to the war he began three years ago, the meeting on February 28 between Trump and Zelensky -- as the world, to its shock, saw on television -- collapsed. Trump seems to have been anticipating a signing ceremony; Zelensky seems to have been anticipating receiving assurances of greater security. Trump's ultimate message apparently was: a Trump final offer is a Trump final offer. Trump was gracious enough to offer Zelensky the opportunity to return if he changed his mind -- as his did on March 4. Trump also in the did not preclude the possibility that the US would consider coming to Europe's military assistance should it be needed at some future time.
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by Con Coughlin • March 5, 2025 at 4:00 am
Trump did not rule out considering US assistance to a European military force should that eventuality become necessary. Trump clearly believes that it is important for him to take a tough line with Zelensky, to demonstrate to Moscow that he is acting as an "honest broker" to end the war and bring Putin to the table for a serious negotiation. If the US leader is seen to be too accommodating to Ukraine, then this will simply confirm Putin's long-held suspicion that the US and its allies -- including Ukraine -- are working to undermine the Russian state. Such a move should send a clear signal to Moscow that, despite the very public spat between Zelensky and Trump in the Oval Office, the Trump administration remains committed to Ukraine remaining a free and sovereign state that is not constantly subjected to acts of Russian aggression. Certainly, any deal that does not send a clear message to Moscow that the US will not tolerate any further provocative acts by Moscow will simply be seen as Washington punishing the victim in the Ukraine conflict -- Zelensky -- while rewarding the aggressor -- Putin.
It should presumably be a relief, especially for Ukraine, that Zelensky reached out to repair relations with Trump and demonstrate that he is serious about negotiating a deal to end the conflict with Russia. Pictured: Zelensky at the European leaders' summit on March 2, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Toby Melville/WPA Pool/Getty Images)
After the unedifying spectacle of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's meeting at the White House with US President Donald J. Trump, the Ukrainian leader agreed to sign the vital minerals deal with the Trump administration as an important step to ending three years of bloodshed. One of the main purposes of Zelensky's visit to the White House -- his first since Trump began his second term as president -- was to sign a deal allowing the US greater access to Ukraine's rare earth minerals, which the Trump administration believes is an important first step in its efforts to end the Ukraine conflict. Under the terms of a preliminary agreement reached between Kyiv and the Trump administration prior to Zelensky's arrival in Washington, the two countries had agreed to set up a joint "investment fund" to finance Ukraine's reconstruction once hostilities with Russia had ended.
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by Nils A. Haug • March 4, 2025 at 5:00 am
It turns out that while the South African soldiers were fighting for their lives in what might now be considered a "suicide mission", their military leaders were busy playing golf thousands of kilometers away. Unfortunately, the ineptitude of South Africa's top military echelon and ministers of defense is only a symptom of abysmal political rule by the ANC, governing the country for the last 30 years. It seems that almost every decision they make is a catastrophe. Added to this systemic incompetence is wide-spread corruption among politicians. It is so bad that many ANC ministers have periodically been accused, charged, or faced allegations of it. White farmers are murdered at a rate four times the national average – one every five days. In 2019, for instance, more than 1,000 individual farmers were attacked. Some political parties allege that farm killings "can justifiably be viewed as genocide" and have accused the police of suppressing official figures that indicate a "drastic increase" in farm assaults and murders. In criticizing Trump publicly, it is not exactly clear which planet Ramaphosa and the ANC believe they live on. Adopting that attitude, as the world witnessed last week during the US president's meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, might be self-destructive and highly detrimental to the people of South Africa. South Africa's defiant attitude escalated further when the ANC indicated an intention to increase its nuclear power capacity and permit Iran and Russia to tender for the project – in blatant violation of US law.
It turns out that while the South African soldiers were in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, fighting for their lives in what might now be considered a "suicide mission", their military leaders were busy playing golf thousands of kilometers away. Unfortunately, the ineptitude of South Africa's top military echelon and ministers of defense is only a symptom of abysmal political rule by the ANC, governing the country for the last 30 years. It seems that almost every decision they make is a catastrophe. Pictured: A partially-destroyed armored personnel carrier of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Congo, on the main road linking Goma to Sake, on January 25, 2025, following a battle in which three South African soldiers were killed and 18 wounded. (Photo by Jospin Mwish/AFP via Getty Images)
"Nearly 3,000 people have been killed in Goma in recent days" reported Vivian van de Perre, Deputy Head of the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in central Africa. Goma is the capital and largest city of the DRC's North Kivu Province. In the final week of January, 17 South African National Defence Force (SANDF) soldiers in the Congo were killed, and many more wounded, in battle with the rebel group M23 (which is backed by Rwanda), when the M23 captured Goma from DRC government's forces. It is believed that "M23 seeks to set up an administration to govern Goma as it has in other areas under its control in the eastern DRC."
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by Khaled Abu Toameh • March 3, 2025 at 5:00 am
The Jordanians and Lebanese, for their part, have not forgotten how Palestinians sparked civil wars in their countries in the 70s and 80s. [The Arab countries'] refusal to take in Palestinian prisoners probably arises from the fact that these countries actually do not care about the Palestinians and even consider them an ungrateful people and troublemakers. Many Arabs also seem to have lost faith in the Palestinians' ability to implement reform and end rampant financial and administrative corruption in their governing bodies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "The Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization. Help us modern-minded, secular, liberal Muslims marginalize their influence by declaring what they are: a terrorist organization." — Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, in testimony before the US House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, July 11, 2018. "In point of fact, nothing would be more pro-Muslim than the marginalization of the Muslim Brotherhood and its direct affiliates. Making the Muslim Brotherhood radioactive would allow the light to shine upon the most potent antagonists in Muslim communities: those who reject political Islamist groups and believe in liberty and the separation of mosque and state." — Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, in testimony before the US House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, July 11, 2018. "Call on American Muslim leaders to take a position on the Muslim Brotherhood and its overarching theo-political ideology. I ask my fellow Muslims: Will they be the side of freedom, liberty, and modernity, or will they be on the side of tyranny of the Muslim Brotherhood, Turkey's AKP, the Iranian Khomeinists, or Pakistan's Jamaat e-Islami?" — Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, in testimony before the US House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, July 11, 2018. "Develop foreign policy mechanisms to disincentivize Qatari and Turkish Government facilitation of the Brotherhood and ultimately think about suspending Turkey from NATO." — Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, in testimony before the US House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, July 11, 2018. "And please stop engaging Muslim Brotherhood legacy groups in government, media, and NGOs, and recognize their Islamist terrorist sympathies." — Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, in testimony before the US House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, July 11, 2018. Such a designation would also make it far more difficult for the countries that support the Muslim Brotherhood, especially Turkey and Qatar, to keep on doing so. The Muslim Brotherhood has already been declared a terrorist organization by the governments of Austria, Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Most of the Arab countries are refusing to receive Palestinians released from Israeli prison, many of whom belong to the Iran-backed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist groups, as part of the US-brokered Israel-Hamas ceasefire-hostage deal. The Jordanians and Lebanese, for their part, have not forgotten how Palestinians sparked civil wars in their countries in the 70s and 80s. Pictured: Crowds of celebrating Palestinians, some waving Hamas and Hezbollah flags, great Palestinian terrorists who were set free by Israel in exchange for Hamas releasing Israeli hostages, on January 20, 2025, in Beitunia, on the outskirts of Ramallah. (Photo by Zain Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images)
Most of the Arab countries are refusing to receive Palestinians released from Israeli prison as part of the US-brokered Israel-Hamas ceasefire-hostage deal. In the past few weeks, Israel released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners -- many of whom were imprisoned for acts of terrorism -- in return for Israeli hostages who kidnapped to the Gaza Strip during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel. At least 1,200 Israelis were murdered and thousands wounded on that day. Another 251 were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists and "ordinary" Palestinians.
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by Raymond Ibrahim • March 2, 2025 at 5:00 am
"Typically, kidnapped girls in Pakistan, some as young as 10, are abducted, forced to convert to Islam and raped under cover of Islamic 'marriages' and are then pressured to record false statements in favor of the kidnappers, rights advocates say. Judges routinely ignore documentary evidence related to the children's ages, handing them back to kidnappers as their 'legal wives.' — Morning Star News, February 7, 2025, Pakistan. In just the three weeks between Christmas 2024 and these attacks of Jan. 15, at least 128 Christians have been slaughtered in the North Kivu region alone. — Congo. "Paki establishment has created a nation where the rights of minorities are trampled upon with alarming regularity. By empowering hardline groups and allowing them free rein, the Army has nurtured a culture of extremism that targets Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis, and other minorities with brutal precision.... Police rarely act to protect victims, while legal loopholes and vague religious laws, such as the infamous blasphemy law, are weaponized against them. These tools of oppression serve not only to silence dissent but also to provide cover for the perpetrators of violence. In the case of minority girls, the judicial system often works to retain victims against their will, legitimizing forced conversions and marriages under the pretext of religious freedom. This legal framework is no accident—it is the product of an establishment that has long relied on radical Islamists as a tool of power. These alliances have turned Pakistan into a hotbed of extremism, destabilizing not just its internal fabric but the entire region. The unchecked violence against minorities is not an aberration but the inevitable outcome of decades of Army-sponsored radicalization." — News Intervention, January 7, 2025, Pakistan. "There is also a new emphasis on targeting Coptic women who suffer physical or mental health problems, which make them doubly vulnerable. This enables the abductors to create confusion regarding the circumstances of a disappeared Coptic girl, creating a narrative of a love story utilizing existing relationships and communications, despite orchestrating the entire situation..." — Coptic Solidarity, January 29, 2025, Egypt. Court documents make clear that these sentencings revolve around religion. — Iran. According to multiple sources, non-Muslim students, many of whom are Christian, are being "subjected to a variety of tactics designed to induce conversion." — Malaysia. "Somalia's constitution establishes Islam as the state religion and prohibits the propagation of any other religion, according to the U.S. State Department. It also requires that laws comply with sharia (Islamic law) principles, with no exceptions in application for non-Muslims. The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to mainstream schools of Islamic jurisprudence. An Islamic extremist group in Somalia, Al Shabaab, is allied with Al Qaeda and adheres to the teaching." — Morning Star News, February 7, 2025. "Christians in Indonesia say they are routinely pressured to make extra payments known as 'grease' to local officials or residents in order to obtain construction permits in the 83.3-percent Muslim country. When Muslim residents opposed to the St. Anthony church construction demonstrated in the street, one Catholic commented on social media, 'Those who demonstrate do it because there was no grease available.'" — Morning Star News, February 8, 2025. According to an Indonesian attorney speaking on condition of anonymity, this "grease" is "a kind of bribery paid to protestors to keep them from blocking church construction, though not legally acknowledged even when it is paid in full view of police."
During the church funeral of Lucien Haddad, a Christian man who was "murdered by roving gangs of jihadists plaguing minorities" in Latakia, Syria, other Muslims connected with the ruling regime forced the congregation to recite the Koran's Fatiha chapter — which refers to Christians as "those who are astray" — before mourners could proceed with the Lord's Prayer. Pictured: Jihadist gunmen deploy outside the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of St George in Latakia on December 25, 2024. (Photo by Aaref Watad/AFP via Getty Images)
The following are among the abuses and murders inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of January 2025. The Muslim Abduction, Rape, and Forced Conversion of Christian Girls
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