Latest Analysis and Commentary
by Majid Rafizadeh • July 5, 2025 at 5:00 am
Now comes the more difficult and longer-term task: making sure Iran's regime does not rise again.... Iran is still a revolutionary Islamist state that sees the US as the great Satan, sees Israel as a cancer, and believes that its divine mission is to conquer and export its Islamist revolution to the West. Khamenei's declaration was that of a theocrat who thinks that Trump's Western talk of "you often get more with HONEY than you do with VINEGAR" is laughable, pathetic and that of a "loser." In Khamenei's view, if Trump were not weak or stupid or both, Trump would have killed him. Khamenei no doubt believes that Allah is on his side; that Allah, not Trump, saved him; and that his regime is therefore invincible. Anyone who knows this part of the world understands that Khamenei will not thank Trump. Khamenei clearly does not see Trump's reprieve as mercy. Khamenei doubtless sees his survival as a confirmation that Allah protected him, and that it is infidel America that is worthy of contempt and being eliminated. The Iranian regime has a long history of attacking and killing Americans, starting with having kidnapped the members of the US embassy and held them for more than a year. There is also the possibility that other countries might be eager to sell Iran nuclear components -- for "peaceful purposes," of course. There appears to be a dangerous tendency in the West — especially among liberal elites and international bureaucrats — to celebrate ceasefires as solutions. A ceasefire with a regime such as Iran is not a solution or "peace." It is a pause, a breathing space, to regroup, re-arm and resume plotting. This must be the end of the Iranian regime. Not a pause. Not another "negotiation." The end. Would the US have let the Nazi Party remain in power after World War II? Anything less, really, is a betrayal of the American people, the amazing Israelis, the extraordinary American pilots, and the West.
Pictured: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vows in November 2023: "Death to America will happen. In the new order I am talking about, America will no longer have any important role." (Image source: MEMRI) Thanks to the courageous and unapologetic leadership of US President Donald J. Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, severe and long-overdue blows were dealt to the Iranian regime. The United States and Israel reminded the world that tyranny can be confronted. Now comes the more difficult and longer-term task: making sure Iran's regime does not rise again. That means crippling sanctions, backed by military readiness. That means exposing and dismantling Iran's war machine, propaganda machine and foreign influence operations in Europe, America and Latin America, and preferably the regime itself. Iran is still a revolutionary Islamist state that sees the US as the great Satan, sees Israel as a cancer, and believes that its divine mission is to conquer and export its Islamist revolution to the West.
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by Robert Williams • July 4, 2025 at 5:00 am
"Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of prisoners might be at risk of executions." — Mahmood Amiry Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based Iran Human Rights Organization, June 26, 2025. Iran... has reportedly executed 1,700 people in 2025 alone -- and it is not even August. US President Donald J. Trump deserves every credit for bombing the Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan uranium enrichment plants. However, forcing Israel to terminate its "Operation Rising Lion," just as it was finally giving the Iranian people a glimpse of hope for freedom in the course of destroying Iran's nuclear program and its key institutions of oppression, was a terrible move. It left Iranians abandoned to a gruesome fate under a regime that had been likely weeks away from facing total destruction. Why? For another 46 years of "fake talks"? The Trump administration cannot thank Qatar enough for "helping" to negotiate every transition. Qatar is doubtless delighted to help, to make sure that none of its well-funded clients gets hurt. Qatar does not want regime change in Iran. Qatar has also promised Trump more than a trillion dollars in investments in the US. By rescuing Iran's regime, is Trump signaling to the people of Iran that actual peace in the Middle East might be just a dream; that more than 90 million Iranian people are seemingly not worthy of the same freedom that other nations have and that they should suffer unspeakable persecution forever? Throughout the war, most Western leaders aside from Trump, from their comfortable clubs, called for "ceasefires" and "de-escalation", while Israel was fighting for its existence -- and theirs. Would they have preferred to wait for the ballistic missiles Iran was launching at Israel to be nuclear-tipped? Iran's mullahs are not going to put their country back in shape: they are going put their nuclear weapons program, war machine and private militia, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), back in shape. The mullahs must be congratulating themselves on how much better it is to be America's enemy than its friend. Trump's newfound generosity towards the Islamic Republic of Iran -- whatever happened to "maximum pressure"? -- will only allow it to strengthen its hold on power, rebuild its terrorist proxies, establish additional terrorist sleeper cells in the West, continue arming Venezuela, all while the Iranian people will see neither freedom nor prosperity. In addition, it will guarantee further war later on, not only in the Middle East, but also in the West.
US President Donald J. Trump deserves every credit for bombing the Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan uranium enrichment plants. However, forcing Israel to terminate its "Operation Rising Lion," just as it was finally giving the Iranian people a glimpse of hope for freedom in the course of destroying Iran's nuclear program and its key institutions of oppression, was a terrible move. Pictured: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (L) and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Dan Caine watch a video of a bombing test of the GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) used in the attack on the Iranian Fordow nuclear installation at the Pentagon on June 26, 2025. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The day after Israel began to strike Iran on June 13, the Islamic Republic ratcheted up its crackdown on the captive Iranian people The only activity at which Iran's regime seems to excel is brutally attacking its innocent, unarmed population. Since then, at least 1,295 people have been arrested on security-related charges, including "espionage for Israel," according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. In addition, it noted, "at least 301 individuals were detained nationwide for sharing content, expressing opinions, or participating on social media." The Iranian regime also began to round up its Jewish citizens and other minorities. They interrogated at least 35 Jews over their ties with Israeli relatives, while security forces raided at least 19 homes of the minority Baha'i community. Fox News reported that "in the past 48 hours, the Iranian Regime has executed more of its own civilians than were killed in the entire Twelve-Day War with Israel."
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July 4, 2025 at 4:00 am
With countless thanks to our forefathers and all those who sacrifice so much each day to preserve the precious values in the US Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. If we do not protect them, they will be taken away. We have so much to be thankful for. Wishing everyone a most Joyous Fourth of July! — All of us at Gatestone.
(Image source: Architect of the Capitol/Flickr)
by Khaled Abu Toameh • July 3, 2025 at 5:00 am
Allowing Qatar to be part of an Arab consortium that would replace Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip is essentially placing the alpha-fox in charge of the henhouse. Al-Jazeera, Qatar's flagship media network, operates around the clock as a propaganda outlet in the service of Hamas. After America's attack on Iran's nuclear sites on June 22, journalists and those who shape public opinion in Qatar condemned the US and President Donald J. Trump. Al-Jazeera presenters and columnists for Qatar's government newspapers took to social media to slam the US and Trump, calling him a "brazen liar", "the leader of a modern crusade", and a "war criminal"... "... Israel must be destroyed and eliminated and must disappear. This should be a strategic Arab doctrine. [Operation] Al-Aqsa Flood showed us that the Israelis have no connection to the land...." — Qatari General (ret.) Mubarak Al-Khayreen, X.com, June 22, 2025. In 2017, [Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates] severed ties with Qatar and imposed a sea, land and air blockade on it. They accused Qatar of supporting various terrorist groups and extremist movements, including the Muslim Brotherhood, and demanded the closure of Al-Jazeera. Qatar has never abandoned its goal of promoting the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates, including Hamas. Anyone who watches Al-Jazeera (in Arabic) can see that the Gulf state and its media outlets are fully mobilized in favor of Islamist Jihadis engaged in terrorism against Israel and the West. Qatar cannot be allowed to play any role in the administration of the Gaza Strip.
Allowing Qatar to be part of an Arab consortium that would replace Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip is essentially placing the alpha-fox in charge of the henhouse. Pictured: Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal meets with Qatar's then Crown Prince (today's Emir) Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani at the Royal Palace in Amman, Jordan on January 29, 2012. (Photo by Khalil Mazraawi/AFP via Getty Images)
According to a recent report, the Trump administration is floating the idea of having four Arab states administer the Gaza Strip as part of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Iran-backed Palestinian terror group Hamas. On June 26, the Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom reported: "Gaza hostilities will conclude within two weeks, ending conditions will encompass four Arab nations (including Egypt and the United Arab Emirates) to administer the Gaza Strip, replacing the murderous Hamas terrorist organization."
Although the newspaper did not name the two other Arab countries that would take part in administering the Gaza Strip, there is speculation in the Arab world that one of them is Qatar, which has expressed readiness to help rebuild Gaza after the Hamas-Israel war ends.
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by Lawrence Kadish • July 3, 2025 at 4:00 am
(Illustrative image by iStock/Getty Images)
For the second time is as many weeks, we have witnessed unspeakable violence in our nation. Last weekend, residents of the small community of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho lined a highway to honor two firefighters shot to death in an ambush. These professionals were responding to a blaze that police believe was deliberately set for the specific purpose of luring, then murdering, firefighters. Bruce Mattare, a commissioner for Coeur d'Alene's Kootenai County, told CNN: "The people we lost were absolutely top-notch professionals. It's unheard of for something like this to happen in this community. People are still trying to process exactly what happened."
Aren't we all. Police still have not suggested a motive for the deadly ambush but, at the end of the day, it does not matter. The murders of first responders are incomprehensible on any level.
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by Lawrence Kadish • July 2, 2025 at 5:00 am
Qatar's job, if it is part of a consortium controlling the Gaza Strip, will be to make sure that the jihad against Israel continues. If Egypt is in any way involved in securing the Gaza Strip, it is certain there will be renewed smuggling of weapons and terrorists into Israel through and under the Rafah Crossing. The weapons-and-terrorists industry has always been far too profitable and far too successful at attacking Israel just to give up. Trump's original plan to make Gaza an American Riviera, together with Israel -- or Israeli sovereignty by itself -- is a far more dependable way to guarantee security. It is, in fact, the only way to ensure that Israel can either defend itself, or has a US shield nearby to deter aggression -- the same way the US stations the forward HQ of Central Command and Air Forces Central Command at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, to protect its survival.
If a consortium of Arab countries controls the Gaza Strip, one of those countries is bound to be Qatar. One of Qatar's main reasons for existing is to make sure that radical Islamic organizations stay active and well-funded. It is hard to think of an Islamist terrorist group that has not been a large beneficiary of Qatar -- from ISIS, to al-Qaeda, to the Taliban, not to mention Hamas. Pictured: U.S. President Donald Trump and Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad al Thani, after a state dinner in Doha, Qatar, on May 14, 2025. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
There were rumors this week that a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas might ultimately include a consortium of Arab countries taking charge of the Gaza Strip. Unfortunately, hardly anything could be more dangerous than that for the stability of the region. A consortium of Arab countries governing the tiny strip of land next to Israel is, in fact, is a sure-fire recipe for a monstrous conflict just around the corner. This plan will make all the breathtaking achievements of US President Donald J. Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the great US Air Force and the Israel Defense Forces be for naught.
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by Robert Williams • July 1, 2025 at 5:00 am
Iran sees al‑Burhan's regime as a strategic opportunity to extend its influence along the Red Sea. Al‑Burhan has opened the door for Iranian operatives, drones and advanced weaponry to flow into Sudan, transforming the country's tragic internal conflict into yet another front in Tehran's regional confrontation with the West and its allies. Every day that al‑Burhan remains in power, Iran grows more entrenched in Sudan, using the country as a potential staging ground to threaten Israel and international shipping routes, particularly those critical lanes through the Red Sea. The Trump administration, drawing on the president's history of unconventional diplomacy and deal-making, could play a pivotal role in this process. The Abraham Accords demonstrated the ability to broker agreements that shift regional dynamics through pragmatic, incentive-based negotiations. [N]one of these initiatives is possible while al‑Burhan remains in power. His regime has become a conduit for Iranian ambitions and a shield for Muslim Brotherhood-linked gunmen. So long as he rules, efforts to rebuild Sudan's economy, restore its sovereignty, and protect regional security will fail. Now is the moment for decisive action and Trump's unparalleled negotiating skills.
Sudan's General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has opened the door for Iranian operatives, drones and advanced weaponry to flow into Sudan, transforming the country's tragic internal conflict into yet another front in Tehran's regional confrontation with the West and its allies. Pictured: Al-Burhan in Gedaref State, Sudan, on April 10, 2024. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
Sudan's General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan's continued hold on power represents a serious threat not only to Sudan's stability but to regional security and global interests. For years, al-Burhan has cultivated an image of pragmatism and order, while in practice he has forged deep ties with the Muslim Brotherhood — an Islamist movement whose ideological and logistical networks have directly supported violent groups like Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen. These groups have been responsible for a wave of bloodshed, terrorism, and instability across the Middle East, undermining regional security and threatening international trade corridors.
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by Khaled Abu Toameh • June 30, 2025 at 5:00 am
"The conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerrilla wins if he does not lose." — Henry Kissinger, Foreign Affairs, January 1969. Iran's regime may have lost its nuclear sites, but it has not lost its appetite to kill Jews and wipe Israel off the map. Would the Allied forces have left the Nazi Party as the rulers of Germany after World War II? Ideally, such a campaign should be spearheaded by the Iranian people themselves with the backing of Western countries, including the US, and Arabs and Muslims who oppose the Iranian regime and view it as a direct threat to their national security. These countries include Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states in addition to the recognized governments of countries home to Iran's current and former proxies: Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. They will cooperate once they see that the US is serious about standing against, not appeasing, those who threaten the security and stability of the Arab countries. With China, Russia, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran and its proxies, Trump may be underestimating the intensity of their desires. With an enriched Iran, freely selling its oil to China, the temptation to rebuild a war machine might be hard to resist. The weakening or removal of the Iranian regime can only facilitate the mission of obliterating Hamas and PIJ in Gaza, and freeing all the Israeli hostages they hold. It is time for the Trump administration and its Western allies to understand that there can be no genuine deals or compromises with either Sunni or Shiite jihadists who consider America and Israel as the big and small "Satans." If the US and the West do not want to be directly involved in bringing about regime change in Iran, they should at least encourage and back any opposition individuals or groups working to topple Iran's Islamist regime. Reinstating economic sanctions on Iran could help accelerate the downfall of the mullahs and their terror proxies. That is the only way to bring peace and stability to the Middle East and prevent further violence and bloodshed. When your enemies say they want to eliminate you, you have every right to eliminate them first.
Iran's regime may have lost its nuclear sites, but it has not lost its appetite to kill Jews and wipe Israel off the map. Would the Allied forces have left the Nazi Party as the rulers of Germany after World War II? Pictured: A funeral procession, featuring banners memorializing senior officers from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who were killed in Israeli strikes, in Tehran's Enqelab Square on June 28, 2025. (Photo by Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)
The United States and Israel have, according to reliable sources, "obliterated" or "severely damaged" Iran's nuclear installations, but so long as the regime and its terror proxies continue to exist, the mission remains unaccomplished. "The conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerrilla wins if he does not lose," Henry Kissinger observed in 1969. The continuing rule of Iran and its terror proxies remains a major threat to security and stability in the Middle East. Let us not forget that their main goal is to destroy not only Israel (the "Little Satan"), but also the US (the "Great Satan").
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by Lawrence Kadish • June 29, 2025 at 5:00 am
Iran's regime has not only been committed for nearly half a century to "Death to Israel" and – as "a policy," according to Iran's Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei -- to "Death to America." To implement this policy, the regime has also been committed to acquiring nuclear weapons and the intercontinental ballistic missiles to fire them across the Atlantic. Pictured: Khamenei gives a speech on November 1, 2023, televised on Iran's Channel 1. (Image source: MEMRI)
The Iranian regime, by violating US President Donald J. Trump's ceasefire after only four hours, did the world a great favor. It should now be clear, if it was not, before, that Iran's government -- called by the US Department of State, the "world's leading state sponsor of terrorism for the 39th year running," -- does not look as if it will suddenly agree to become the compete opposite of itself. As big-hearted as it is for Trump -- who deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for bringing an end to the war with Iran in just 12 days, and the US operation in just 37 hours -- to agree to talks with Iran's ruling mullahs, in Shiite Islam, unfortunately, whenever Islam might appear under threat, dissimulation, taqiyya, is recommended.
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by Amir Taheri • June 29, 2025 at 4:00 am
[A] war must end with an acknowledged winner. [N]o victor could self-anoint and wear the garland unless the adversary acknowledges defeat. This time it was, again, the United States to remove the cup of victory from their lips. The do-gooders who imposed the fishtail outcome forgot that the duty of a war is to change an unstable status quo and replace it by a new one acceptable to protagonists by clearly designating a victor and a vanquished. The do-gooders and peddlers of ceasefire turn war into a knife that remains in the wound, to be turned again and again. In other words, in some cases, ceasefire could be an enemy of peace. Normally, that should cast Israel as the clear winner in the 12-day war. And, yet, as in previous cases described above, Israel is once again not only left with un-cashable chips but described as the loser.... "We defeated both the Great Satan and its Zionist agent," says one-star [Iranian] general Ibrahim Jabbari. "But we should not let things and there. We should keep our boot on Netanyahu's neck until he is suffocated." Once again in Middle Eastern history, a hasty ceasefire motivated by short-term political calculations is set to prolong a decades-long war, each phase of which is deadlier than the previous one.
By any military standards, Israel scored a major win in the 12-day war that Trump halted. And, yet, Israel is once again not only left with un-cashable chips but described as the loser by Iran and, more surprisingly, by some so-called experts in the US and Europe. Pictured: Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei delivers an address, aired on IRINN TV on June 26, 2025, saying "I should congratulate the people. First, I would like to congratulate them on the victory over the fake Zionist regime. With all its clamor and pretension, the Zionist regime was almost annihilated and crushed under the blows of the Islamic Republic." (Image source: MEMRI)
According to an adage, the history of any war is written by the victor. This is because the loser is either dead or too wounded to have the energy to write or, in some cases, hopeful of turning the victor into friend. But for that adage to apply, a war must end with an acknowledged winner. And that poses another problem: no victor could self-anoint and wear the garland unless the adversary acknowledges defeat. This is the conundrum that Israelis have experienced ever since they fought to put their tiny country on the map. This time it was, again, the United States to remove the cup of victory from their lips.
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by Majid Rafizadeh • June 28, 2025 at 5:00 am
What Israel, along with the United States, has done in the past two years far surpasses anything the self-proclaimed defenders of freedom in Brussels or Berlin have done in the past 80 years. As European leaders lecture Israel about ceasefires, "de-escalation", "proportionality" and "restraint" from the comfort of their distant homes and elegant dinners, Israel has dismantled, destabilized, and struck a crippling blow to four terrorist regimes and organizations, the Iran and its proxies as well as Syria's Assad regime — all while under constant attack. It is a miracle of military strategy, intelligence precision and moral clarity. The world owes this tiny, demonized nation, its defense forces, Netanyahu and Trump a massive debt of gratitude as well as a Nobel Peace Prize. The West has been feeding a lot of crocodiles for far too long. Giving the Iranian regime sanctions relief, nuclear deals, and diplomatic back channels, the so-called liberal world order enabled the rise of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its lavishly funded war machine. Israel has been doing the dirty work that Western powers refused to do -- all of them. Israel has not just been fighting for its own people — it is fighting to prevent World War III. If Iran were to acquire nuclear weapons, no capital in the free world would be safe. Iran's ruling ayatollahs do not just hate Jews. They hate Christians and all "unbelievers" in Allah. They hate the West. They hate freedom. There is no reason to think they would not have used a nuclear bomb. Just look at what their barrages of ballistic missiles without nuclear warheads did to one tiny nation, the size of New Jersey. Israel did not stop there. Israel, with Trump delivering the difficult final blow, launched the most daring, comprehensive, and devastating strikes inside Iranian territory in modern history. Israel's operation alone, called "Rising Lion," targeted more than 100 strategic sites tied to Iran's nuclear weapons program. That program, costing the Iranian people $2-3 trillion, and decades in the making, took a fatal hit in less than 37 hours. This was not just a series of airstrikes -- it was a message to every tyrant: if you aim to annihilate Israel, if you chant "Death to America," if you fund terror across the globe, there will be consequences. Thanks to Trump and Netanyahu, the world now knows what real leadership looks like. [W]ill the West finally grow a spine and stand with Israel?... At the very least, if they are too scared to lead, they should fully support the small country that led unapologetically. Let Israel lead. Let Israel strike. Let Israel save the world from the nightmare that the rest allowed to fester. Peace is not achieved through weakness, funding the enemy, legitimizing terror organizations or tolerating genocidal regimes. Peace comes from defeating them. The democracies of the world -- the peace lovers, the free thinkers, the believers in Western civilization -- owe Israel not just thanks, but allegiance. In just two years, this tiny nation has done more to safeguard global security than the entire EU, the UN, and most of the free world combined -- which were busy condemning it and protesting against it.
What the international community and Western powers lacked the spine to do, tiny Israel, under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's steady leadership and US President Donald Trump's historic decision, put an end to the charade and finally delivered the blows to Iran's nuclear weapons program that needed to be dealt. Pictured: Trump shakes hands with Netanyahu at the White House in Washington, DC, on April 7, 2025. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
For decades, when it came to confronting the Islamic Republic of Iran, the so-called "international community," particularly the Western powers that pride themselves on being defenders of democracy and human rights, chose cowardice over conviction. Instead of drawing a red line then sticking to it, they drew circles. Instead of acting, they offered concession after concession. They fed the beast and even funded its industry of death. They threw Israel under the bus again and again to placate tyrants. They talked about diplomacy while Iran built centrifuges, enriched uranium, and spread terror throughout Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and even inside Iran. This year alone, 2025, Iran's regime has already conducted 1,700 executions – and it is only June.
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by Robert Williams • June 27, 2025 at 5:00 am
The system that many global elites and governments are planning for us is the totalitarian Communist system of China: The government and the globalist elites -- while they continue flying on their private jets between their various mansions -- will decide your means of transport, how much energy you are allowed to consume to heat your home, drive your car, and even how much you will be allowed to eat and drink -- not to mention going on holiday or other "leisure." Oh, and you will not be allowed to complain about it, because that would be "hate speech."
The system that many global elites and governments are planning for us is the totalitarian Communist system of China: The government and the globalist elites -- while they continue flying on their private jets between their various mansions -- will decide your means of transport, how much energy you are allowed to consume to heat your home, drive your car, and even how much you will be allowed to eat and drink -- not to mention going on holiday or other "leisure." Oh, and you will not be allowed to complain about it, because that would be "hate speech." (Image source: iStock)
In 2013, Sir David Attenborough, the renowned nature expert and one of the greatest filmmakers ever, famously declared humanity a pestilence. "We are a plague on the Earth," he postulated. "It's coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so." His recommendation was that the world needed a smaller population. "It's not just climate change; it's sheer space, places to grow food for this enormous horde [of people]." The idea that humanity itself is the problem has only been reinforced by a mainstream media that can tend to overheat (such as here and here). Humanity requires the growing of food and livestock; it needs energy to make necessary consumer goods and cars, and to heat homes, which must be built in the first place. The World Economic Forum (WEF), however, would prefer you to "own nothing and be happy." Whatever you need, it added reassuringly, can be delivered by drone.
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by Drieu Godefridi • June 26, 2025 at 5:00 am
Europol reports indicate that Europe is now home to tens of thousands of radicalized individuals. The attacks in Paris (2015) and Brussels (2016) demonstrate the feasibility of complex operations by small groups. Will people who criticize Islam be dragged through the courts by a desperate regime, while those who outspokenly fantasize about murdering Jews are granted a blank check? Is quoting Islamic law "inflammatory"? The answer is completely arbitrary. The European Court of Human Rights often upholds convictions if statements about Islam are deemed to disrupt "religious peace" or "target Muslims". This subjective determination reflects a legal trend in Europe to prioritize "social cohesion" over freedom of speech, unlike the U.S. First Amendment. "Whomsoever God has cursed, and with whom He is wroth, and made some of them apes and swine, and worshippers of idols — they are worse situated, and have gone further astray from the right way." — Qur'an 5:65. "And He brought down those of the People of the Book who supported them from their fortresses and cast terror in their hearts; some you slew, some you made captive. And He bequeathed upon you their lands, their habitations, and their possessions, and a land you never trod. God is powerful over everything." — Qur'an 33:26. In such a cultural context, in this atmosphere of hatred, can it not be considered legitimate or even desirable, from that perspective, to participate in collective action against Jews? Let us never forget that the vast majority of Muslims in Europe are peaceful and take no part in terrorist activity. But even if only 0.01% of Europe's Muslims were to take up the cause and seek revenge for the supposed "genocide" committed by "the Jews", this would still represent thousands of potential "jihadists".
Europol reports indicate that Europe is now home to tens of thousands of radicalized individuals. The attacks in Paris (2015) and Brussels (2016) demonstrate the feasibility of complex operations by small groups. Pictured: Rescue teams evacuate wounded people outside the Maalbeek metro station in Brussels on March 22, 2016, after jihadi terrorists exploded a bomb there. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
Europe in 2025 has been facing rising tensions linked to Islamist radicalization, These have been fueled by conflicts in the Middle East, jihadist propaganda on social networks and gaps in security coordination among countries.
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by Rahul Mishra • June 25, 2025 at 5:00 am
Just as China has been attempting to redraw maritime boundaries in the South China Sea —renaming reefs, building artificial islands and militarizing waters in defiance of international rulings — it is now exporting a similar playbook to land borders. These moves are about more than maps. They are about creating a norm of impunity, where might makes right and ambiguity is weaponized. Over the past two decades, China has transformed contested reefs, shoals and rocks into militarily fortified islands, backed by creative "historical" narratives, domestic law, and a selective reading of international norms. The region is now a textbook case of how intangible symbolic acts, when repeated enough to become normalized, can evolve into tangible material dominance. In 2020 alone, China, in the same way it has renamed places in Arunachal Pradesh, renamed more than 80 features in the South China Sea. These were not acts of housekeeping, but of strategic myth-making, designed to weave a narrative of historical ownership and administrative control. Each new name is backed by maps, public pronouncements and military deployments. Over time, this creates "facts on the ground" — realities that others must deal with, regardless of legality. Finally, China employs narrative warfare, by leveraging state media and diplomatic messaging to delegitimize counter-claims and cast China as the aggrieved party. China's renaming campaign is a test of whether the world will allow international borders to be changed -- not by war, but by quiet, obdurate manipulation. The question is not about words. It is about the survival of an international rules-based order that is being eroded by passively doing nothing to confront unyielding infiltration. If the international community does not push back against China's provocations -- which may seem minor -- it risks enabling a model of complete surrender that bypasses diplomacy, multilateralism and international law.
Just as China has been attempting to redraw maritime boundaries in the South China Sea —renaming reefs, building artificial islands and militarizing waters in defiance of international rulings — it is now exporting a similar playbook to land borders. These moves are about more than maps. They are about creating a norm of impunity, where might makes right and ambiguity is weaponized. Pictured: A Philippine Coast Guard ship faces off against a China Coast Guard ship at Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea on August 26, 2024. (Photo by Jam Sta Rosa/AFP via Getty Images)
In May 2025, China announced a new list of renamed places in Arunachal Pradesh, India's northeastern state that Beijing insists on calling "Zangnan." It is the fifth such list since 2017, and not just symbolic. These cartographic aggressions of renaming places seem to be part of a long-running strategy to undermine territorial norms and chip away at international boundaries using lawfare, infrastructure and semantics (the branch of linguistics concerned with meaning). In geopolitics, names matter. They signal claims, establish narratives and lay the groundwork for future confrontations. China's repeated renaming of places it does not control represents not only a challenge to India, it is an affront to the principles of the rules-based international order that the US and the West designed after World War II.
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by Lawrence Kadish • June 24, 2025 at 1:00 pm
Trump's decision to use military force to destroy Iran's nuclear weapons program is a historic turning point for world peace and the legacy of a president who has used Teddy Roosevelt's "big stick" to push the world back from the brink of a Middle East nightmare that would have engulfed us all. Pictured: A B-2 bomber escorted by two F-22 fighters over Washington, DC, July 4, 2019. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
The media world is flooded with analysis and commentary regarding the joint American-Israeli strikes on Iran's nuclear weapons infrastructure, but little is being said regarding what the future would hold if Teheran's radical Islamic regime had been able to move ahead to create an atomic bomb. Much the way Hitler's book, Mein Kampf, left nothing to the imagination were he to secure power, as far back as 2005, then Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was unequivocal when he called for Israel to be wiped off the map. The Qatar's state-owned Al Jazeera TV network reported on the Iranian's leader address before hundreds of students: "'As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map,' said Ahmadinejad, referring to Iran's revolutionary leader Ayat Allah Khomeini."
And how does one "wipe Israel off the map?" The obvious and only answer is with nuclear weapons.
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