Latest Analysis and Commentary
Israel Acted for All of Us
Special Thanks to President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Great IDF
by Amin Sharifi • June 18, 2025 at 5:00 am
Often lost in the media frenzy is the fact that Iran, unprovoked, initiated hostilities against Israel. The seeming dispute was not about territory, policy or any disagreement that states normally have. It was about ideology. Since its establishment nearly five decades ago, the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies have waged a war against Israel and the United States, calling for their destruction. From their point of view, neither country, as "unbelievers," has a right to exist. Full stop. No other issue, domestic or foreign, was as consistent, prioritized or systematically pursued as Tehran's hostility toward Israel, the country blocking its way to destroying the United States. To that end, Iran spent decades preparing "forward bases" across the Middle East and in South America, especially Venezuela. Then US President Barack Obama's JCPOA "nuclear deal" failed to address the fundamental nuclear threat from Iran, and focused on temporary technical limits while ignoring the regime's long-term ambitions. Obama actually agreed to a "sunset clause" that would have allowed Iran legitimately to have as many nuclear weapons as could get, starting in October 2025. The Biden administration unfortunately repeated Obama's errors., perhaps under the illusion that if it were nice to Iran, Iran would be nice back. Instead, Iran seized on its good luck to escalate its uranium enrichment to 60% by April 2021 and to 83.7%, near weapons-grade, in 2023. In his first term, President Donald Trump wisely pulled the U.S. out of Obama's deal – which, it turned out, had not only been fraudulent but totally illegitimate. Does the world really want a terrorist state to have nuclear weapons? If you look at the damage Iran has been doing without nuclear weapons, imagine the damage it could do with them. A nuclear-armed, ideology-driven Islamist regime threatens everyone. Right now, Israel is on the front line doing what others --whose lives and countries Israel is saving -- criticize it for doing. Israel's actions are not about starting a war; they are about stopping a war that has been underway for 46 years, before the theocratic tyranny that initiated it can enlarge it further. Netanyahu and Trump's resolve is not only creating the opportunity for a new, golden age for the Middle East but possibly also providing a deterrent -- remember deterrence? -- to other enemies of the West that have expressed wishes for its demise. Trump's Churchillian defense of the Free World will place him at the forefront of history. Both he and Netanyahu -- as well as the extraordinary Israeli military -- deserve the Nobel Peace Prize for rescuing the world from one of the most toxic regimes since the Third Reich and the Soviet Union. Failure by the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award them the prize would tell us more about them than about one of the greatest triumphs for freedom of all time.
Often lost in the media frenzy is the fact that Iran, unprovoked, initiated hostilities against Israel. The seeming dispute was not about territory, policy or any disagreement that states normally have. It was about ideology. Since its establishment nearly five decades ago, the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies have waged a war against Israel and the United States, calling for their destruction. From their point of view, neither country, as "unbelievers," has a right to exist. Full stop. Pictured: People watch the Shahran oil depot burn, in the outskirts of Tehran, following an Israeli airstrike on the facility, on June 15, 2025. (Photo by Stringer/Getty Images)
Often lost in the media frenzy is the fact that Iran, unprovoked, initiated hostilities against Israel. The seeming dispute was not about territory, policy or any disagreement that states normally have. It was about ideology. Since its establishment nearly five decades ago, the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies have waged a war against Israel and the United States, calling for their destruction. From their point of view, neither country, as "unbelievers," has a right to exist. Full stop. For nearly five decades, Iran's theocratic regime, while denying the Holocaust, has been funding terror groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Houthis, and for over 30 years has had a nuclear weapons program.
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by Lawrence Kadish • June 18, 2025 at 4:00 am
Pictured: A makeshift memorial for Minnesota State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman at the Minnesota State Capitol building on June 16, 2025 in St. Paul. (Photo by Steven Garcia/Getty Images)
Let us speak clearly and as one. The people of the United States view as repugnant and hateful any attempt to assassinate our elected officials, regardless of their political affiliation, race, color, creed or opinions. It is more than simply destructive to our democracy. Assassinations have the means to infect our national "body politic" with a poison that can be fatal. Consider the destructive forces that have been unleashed over the course of our nation's history. President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated as the Union restored America as one. James A. Garfield was murdered by a disgruntled office-seeker. President William McKinley was shot at point-blank range by an anarchist. And President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while he sat in a motorcade in Dallas. His brother Robert would die in a Los Angeles hotel as he launched his presidential bid.
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by Khaled Abu Toameh • June 17, 2025 at 5:00 am
If US President Donald J. Trump wants actual long-term peace in the Middle East, like it or not, there is no alternative other than allowing the departure of Iran's theocratic terrorist dictators and liberating the Iranian people – just as, after World War II, the US liberated Germany and Japan to enable the election of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in Germany and the highly successful democracy in Japan. More negotiations are just the usual stalling tactic of the Iranian regime. Interminably negotiating some "deal" -- which, based on their track record, Iran will cheat on, no matter how vigilant its guardians are -- just allows Iran's regime a 24-karat opportunity to resupply, regroup and terrorize the region again. The last thing Trump needs is "help" from Russian President Vladimir Putin. The US urgently needs to spearhead not another porous, fake "nuclear deal" but real security, stability and freedom -- not only for millions of Muslims, Christians and Jews, but also for the great people of Iran who have been forced to suffer under vicious psychopathic despots long enough. For real peace, Trump needs to be the Churchill of our time. Let Israel finish the job. It is for us.
For real peace, President Donald Trump needs to be the Churchill of our time. Let Israel finish the job. It is for us. Pictured: Trump bids farewell to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, after a meeting on April 7, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The Israel-Iran war erupted as Palestinians were marking the 18th anniversary of the Hamas coup against the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the Gaza Strip. On June 14, 2007, the Iran-backed terror group staged a violent coup that lasted for a few days and resulted in the death of hundreds of PA loyalists, some of whom were lynched in public squares, while others were thrown from the top floors of high-rise buildings. Human Rights Watch reported on June 12, 2007: "In internal Palestinian fighting over the last three days, both [the PA's ruling] Fatah faction and Hamas military forces have summarily executed captives, killed people not involved in hostilities, and engaged in gun battles with one another inside and near Palestinian hospitals...
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by Gordon G. Chang • June 16, 2025 at 5:00 am
"There were some very, very relieved people in the Gulf as the sun rose this morning.... The Saudis know that China had armed their enemy Iran with nukes and lesser weapons and fully backed the Houthis, who have been waging war on the Kingdom for years." — Jonathan Bass, Chief Executive Officer, Argent LNG, to Gatestone Institute, June 13, 2025. "The Chinese state is only as strong as its main energy provider, and that main energy provider, which so far has not been able to counter Israeli strikes, is unlikely to survive this war in its current form." — Brandon Weichert, author of The Shadow War: Iran's Quest for Supremacy, to Gatestone Institute, June 13, 2025. "With the loss of Syria and Hezbollah, Iran no longer has a command and control center in Damascus, only a two hour drive from Beirut. That means China can no longer manipulate events there." — Jonathan Bass, to Gatestone Institute, June 13, 2025. China has a Trump problem in the wider region as well. With the exception of Iran, almost everybody, including Iran's partner Qatar, seems to love the American president. Trump took the Gulf by storm in his three-nation — Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates — trip in May.
Narratives will change as the fighting between Iran and Israel continues, but one conclusion is already evident: China, Iran's long-time backer, is a victim of the fighting. That is a quick reversal of fortunes. Only last year, the Chinese looked ascendant in the region. Pictured: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (C), Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov (L) and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazeem Gharibabadi meet on March 14, 2025 in Beijing. (Photo by Getty Images)
Israeli air and drone strikes during the early hours of June 13th crippled Iran -- and severely set back Tehran's regional ambitions. The Israel Defense Forces hit nuclear weapons development facilities and ballistic missile sites, and killed senior military officers, including Major General Mohammad Bagheri, the armed forces chief of staff, and Major General Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Iranian media announced the death of Ali Shamkhani, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's top adviser. Tehran said that Israel's action was a "declaration of war." This war is continuing, and Iran has struck back with ballistic missile and drone attacks. Narratives will change as the fighting continues, but one conclusion is already evident: China, Iran's long-time backer, is a victim of the fighting. That is a quick reversal of fortunes. Only last year, the Chinese looked ascendant in the region.
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by Raymond Ibrahim • June 15, 2025 at 5:00 am
In the opening days of April, Muslim Fulani terrorists slaughtered more than 60 Christians in Plateau State, in what Plateau Gov. Caleb Mutfwang termed an ongoing "genocide." According to a local source, "More than 1,000 Christians were displaced during the attacks, and 383 three houses were destroyed by these bandits." — Morning Star News, April 8, 2025, Nigeria. "Eyewitnesses said the attack lasted more than an hour, leaving 103 households destroyed and the entire village displaced. Frustration mounted as residents reported a delayed military response and accused security forces of bias, disarming local Christian youth but not Fulani attackers." — Morning Star News, April 14, 2025, Nigeria. On Good Friday, Apr. 18, a Muslim judge sentenced a Christian to death for "blasphemy".... Among these critics was the Rev. Ghazala Shafique, a Karachi-based rights activist: "The court has convicted a Christian for allegedly carrying out the alleged blasphemous act, but what about those people who burned our churches and homes and are now roaming freely on bail? Why didn't the police and prosecution investigate those cases with the same zeal that they have shown in Masih's case?" — Morning Star News, April 22, 2025, Pakistan. On Apr. 30, a Muslim judge sentenced Sabry Kamel, a 79-year-old Christian man to life in prison on the charge that he molested a five-year-old Muslim child at the school where the accused volunteered. He did so, critics allege, on very little evidence and merely to placate an angry Muslim mob that was growing outside the court house and calling for the instant execution of the elderly Christian.... Essam Mehanna, the complainant's lawyer... stated: 'The case was flimsy and would have collapsed were it not for the mob shouting outside the courthouse.' Several legal experts and independent attorneys—both Copts and Muslims—who reviewed the case files expressed shock at what they described as a wholly unjustified ruling." — Coptic Solidarity, April 30, 2025, Egypt.
According to an April 6 report, Zimnako Salah, a 45-year-old Muslim man, "planted fake bombs across four churches in Arizona, California, and Colorado and worked separately to construct a real one:" Michele Beckwith, US Attorney for the Eastern District of California, said, "Planting a hoax bomb at the Roseville church was not an isolated incident or a prank for this defendant... His actions were designed to threaten and intimidate the congregation because he disagreed with their religious beliefs." Pictured: Saint Clare Catholic Church, in Roseville California. (Image source: Always dreamin/Wikimedia Commons)
The following are among the abuses and murders inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of April 2025. The Muslim Slaughter of Christians Nigeria: In the opening days of April, Muslim Fulani terrorists slaughtered more than 60 Christians in Plateau State, in what Plateau Gov. Caleb Mutfwang termed an ongoing "genocide." According to a local source: "More than 1,000 Christians were displaced during the attacks, and 383 three houses were destroyed by these bandits. These attacks began on Wednesday, April 2, at about 3 p.m., when these armed Muslim Fulani herdsmen invaded our communities in large numbers; they came on motorcycles and attacked us."
On Apr. 7, Muslim Fulani slaughtered another three Christians in Central Nigeria, where 19 had been slaughtered the previous month. According to Joseph Chudu Yonkpa, a youth leader from the area,
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by Amir Taheri • June 15, 2025 at 4:00 am
What became the United States was the fruit of a rebellion against a system in which concentration of power contained the threat of tyranny. George Shultz, one of the wisest American politicians of the last century, noted that no political battle in the US is ever won or lost forever. The American system is designed to slow down decision-making to avoid both tyranny and anarchy. The ideal government in that model is one that doesn't do anything, thus allowing individuals who make up the society to shape their lives in a framework of laws that guarantees freedom. [O]nce the revolutionary mood ebbs, reality strikes back with people who wish to light the chimney without setting their home on fire.
While President Donald Trump prepares for G7 and NATO summits this month, political circles and media in Europe are busy trying to cut him down to size before the two events. Pictured: Trump and other heads of state deliberate at the G7 summit on June 9, 2018 in Charlevoix, Canada. (Photo by Jesco Denzel /Bundesregierung via Getty Images)
While President Donald Trump prepares for G7 and NATO summits this month, political circles and media in Europe are busy trying to cut him down to size before the two events. "Trump will come empty-handed," says one commentator. "None of the things he announced with fanfare has been achieved." Other commentators use such phrases as "deflated balloon" and "bogged down in the mess he created." At first sight, it looks certain that he has not scored big on any of the dramatic goals he announced. His tariff campaign is stalled in a maze of zigzags. His peace-making gambit in Ukraine has led to him humiliating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and labelling Russian President Vladimir Putin as "quite mad". Worse still, scores of US judges have lined up to block some of his dramatic measures, including the crackdown on illegal immigration.
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by Majid Rafizadeh • June 14, 2025 at 5:00 am
These empty threats [to Hamas in January and Iran in March], more than anything, seem to have reinforced Iran's belief that it could stall, maneuver, and harden its position while the U.S. scrambled, desperate for a leverage it appeared to have dropped. The U.S. appeared afraid of escalation. The U.S. seemed to want a deal more than Iran did. Iran's negotiators dragged their feet, demanded more concessions, and eventually made it unmistakably clear that they would not halt uranium enrichment. Khamenei, in a rare address, explicitly stated that uranium enrichment was Iran's "sovereign right" and "not subject to foreign dictates." Instead of walking away, Trump did something that most likely stunned even Iran's most skeptical officials -- he reached out to Russia. He asked Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iran's closest global ally, to help mediate a deal. After drawing red lines and watching them crumble, after declaring enrichment a non-negotiable issue, the U.S. turned to Russia -- the same Russia that Iran is arming in the Ukraine conflict -- for help. For Iran, this was not just weakness. It was a full display of incompetence. In Tehran's calculus, this moment confirmed everything it had suspected: that the U.S. was willing to crawl, plead and negotiate on its knees to get Iran to... sign a piece of paper! They saw Trump's pivot to Putin as a validation of their strategy -- stall, resist, and wait for Washington to blink. Meanwhile, Israel had been sounding the alarm for years. Its intelligence services repeatedly uncovered secret Iranian sites, hidden stockpiles and covert operations.... Time had run out.
Pictured: Smoke rises from a location In Tehran, Iran that was targeted in Israel's wave of strikes, on the morning of June 13, 2025. (Photo by SAN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
The Islamic Republic of Iran was no longer hiding its ambitions or disguising its defiance. It was openly confronting the United States, discarding every red line and ultimatum Washington drew in the sand. At the center of the regime's defiance lay one uncompromising reality: Iran would not stop enriching uranium. U.S. President Donald J. Trump made it clear: if Iran wanted a deal, enrichment had to stop. Period. Iran repeatedly came back with "no." Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his top nuclear negotiators declared again and again that enrichment was off the table. In fact, they escalated it. Iran's leaders mistook Trump's preference not to use crushing military force for a lack of resolve to stop them.
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by Nils A. Haug • June 13, 2025 at 5:00 am
The ANC's National Democratic Revolution strategy compels dominating the Judiciary; it reads: "judicial independence to be undermined, in part by vesting most appointments to the bench in an ANC-dominated Judicial Service Commission." It was therefore not unexpected that the Constitutional Court might rule in support of the slogan, "Kill the Boer". Sadly, what Ramaphosa actually intends, despite his grand terminology, is that there will be a redistribution of wealth and asset ownership in the form of either expropriation without compensation and/or a mandatory transfer of equity in businesses held by minorities to the black majority. NDR policies allow for this, and in fact the ANC Constitution mandates such actions.... A partial solution might be, as suggested by the commentator Rob Hersov, is that the US and other Western nations should bypass the ANC and instead support the Democratic Alliance (DA) -- the official opposition at one stage (now part of the coalition) and the 2nd largest political party. The DA is a centralist-conservative entity which runs the Western Cape Province – a state thriving in every way. Perhaps when it becomes known how successful the Western Cape under the DA has become, particularly with US and other outside investment, then demand for structural changes elsewhere might arise. In the interim, ominous dark clouds hang over the future of beautiful South Africa and its vibrant and amazing people.
Pictured: US President Donald Trump meets with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the White House in Washington, DC, on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
There was a moment with a glimmer of hope for beleaguered South Africa. That moment appeared on May 21, 2025, with a meeting at the White House between US President Donald J. Trump and his South African counterpart, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. The purpose of the meeting was to 'reset' the relationship between them after violently racist and anti-Western policies adopted by the largest political party in South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC), which heads a coalition government, were criticised by President Trump.
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by Bassam Tawil • June 12, 2025 at 5:00 am
In all his speeches in Arabic since October 7, 2023, Abbas has very carefully avoided condemning the attack and the murder of a large number of Israelis and foreign nationals. The official Palestinian news agency Wafa, which regularly reports on Abbas's meetings, statements, and diplomatic events, also did not report about the letter, including Abbas's alleged condemnation of the October 7 massacres against Israel. If Abbas actually did condemn October 7 in his letter, he did so only to appease France and encourage it to recognize a Palestinian state. The Palestinian public knows absolutely nothing about the letter or Abbas's supposed "condemnation." If France really wanted a condemnation of the October 7 atrocities, they should have asked Abbas to issue a statement in Arabic to his own people, and not send a letter (in French) to French President Emmanuel Macron. Such a statement should have been issued by Abbas's office in Ramallah, not the Élysée Palace in Paris. Macron and his government are.... are apparently trying to show the world that Abbas deserves a Palestinian state because he has purportedly "condemned" the Hamas-led massacres. Unfortunately, however, this is the same Abbas, however, who still pays salaries to families of convicted terrorists who murder Jews, and who consistently glorifies terrorists by calling them heroes and martyrs. France and the European Union are actually planning to reward the Islamist jihadists who slaughtered hundreds of Jews by giving them a terrorist state funded and armed by Iran's mullahs. This conference, to recognize a genocidal terrorist state, is evidently Macron's way of appeasing the Muslim jihadists who are now rioting on the streets of French cities. The same holds true for other European leaders: they are willing to sacrifice Jews to placate their Muslim communities.
France and the European Union are actually planning to reward the Islamist jihadists who slaughtered hundreds of Jews by giving them a terrorist state funded and armed by Iran's mullahs. Pictured: French President Emmanuel Macron meets with Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas during the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York on September 25, 2024. (Photo by Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images)
France claimed this month that Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas had condemned the invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023 by Hamas, the Iran-backed terrorist group. During the attack, Hamas terrorists and other Palestinians murdered 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals, wounded thousands. They kidnapped another 251 people to the Gaza Strip, where 52 – dead and alive – remain in captivity. Paris said in a statement that the purported condemnation was included in a letter Abbas sent to France on the eve of a United Nations conference in New York, scheduled for this month, to push for recognizing the establishment of a Palestinian state. The conference is to be co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia. In his letter, Abbas also reportedly called on Hamas to immediately release all Israeli hostages it had kidnapped on October 7, 2023. He also reportedly pledged to hold general elections and reform the Palestinian Authority.
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by Con Coughlin • June 11, 2025 at 5:00 am
The findings of the International Atomic Energy Agency report, which are being discussed at this week's IAEA meeting in Vienna this week, should certainly leave the Trump administration in no doubt about the extent of the duplicity that has long characterised Tehran's dealings with the IAEA over its nuclear ambitions. The findings should also persuade Trump to adopt a more robust approach in his dealings with Iran. This is not warmongering; this is peace-mongering – to prevent Iran from creating even greater devastation later. Rather than persisting with his efforts to appease the ayatollahs, the publication of new damning evidence about Iran's clandestine nuclear weapons programme should persuade Trump that he has no serious option other than to confront Tehran over its deceitful nuclear activities, as well as its ballistic missile programme, also able to conventionally blackmail Iran's oil-rich Sunni neighbours, Europe and eventually possibly the US itself.
The findings of the International Atomic Energy Agency report, which are being discussed at this week's IAEA meeting in Vienna this week, should certainly leave the Trump administration in no doubt about the extent of the duplicity that has long characterised Tehran's dealings with the IAEA over its nuclear ambitions. Pictured: IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi speaks at a press conference at the agency's headquarters in Vienna, Austria on June 9, 2025. (Photo by Joe Klamar/AFP via Getty Images)
Amid concerns that US President Donald J. Trump is backtracking on his pledge to confront Iran over its controversial nuclear programme, new evidence pointing to Iran's clandestine attempts to develop nuclear weapons should persuade the Trump administration to make the Iran threat one of its top priorities. The latest evidence that Tehran has spent the past few decades developing nuclear weapons has come in the form of a bombshell report published by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN-sponsored body responsible for monitoring Iran's nuclear activities. The IAEA has previously identified a number of glaring inconsistencies in Iran's official declarations about its nuclear programme, which have resulted in the imposition of Western sanctions.
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by Grégoire Canlorbe • June 10, 2025 at 5:00 am
The networks organizing the EU's migration policy wrap themselves in a humanitarian ambiguity that conceals their financial sources. [A] fractured Christianity, devastated by wars and the hatreds they develop and nurture, has always been an easy prey to jihadist aggressions.... This was particularly the case with the Islamization of the Byzantine Empire.... In the Eurabian context, the hatred and delegitimization of Israel provide a spiritual and theological weapon for the European trends of Islamophilia and anti-Semitism to abandon Judeo-Christianity and rally to Islam. The current war aims to replace Israel with Palestine, an entity that has never had historical existence and a creature forged by Christian anti-Semitism from the 1970s. As for the Muslims, the word and notion of Palestine is absent from the Quran; their war against Israel is based on the jihadi ideology, which requires that Islamic law rule the planet. None of the sacred Arab and Muslim texts mentions a geographical location in the biblical Hebrew territories, nor any historical episode that would justify a connection with land in today's Israel. Europe never condemned the military invasions by five Arab States that seized and colonized Jewish lands, according to both the Balfour and San Remo Declarations. There, their millenary old Jewish population were killed or expelled, their houses pillaged, their synagogues burned. Europe felt no need to provide help. It is true that just three years before, it was busy deporting Jews to the extermination camps spread over its territory. [T]he 1923 Lausanne Treaty.... legitimized a sovereign State for the Jewish people in their historic homeland with secure borders from Gaza to the Jordan River.... Those decisions ratified by the League of Nations are endorsed by its successor, the UN, and cannot be nullified. In Islam, Jews and Christians are cut from the same cloth. What is done to Jews is done to Christians as well, and vice versa.... This is the great lesson given to us by the knowledge of dhimmitude and, for this reason, forbidden. Yet we can see by our own eyes Europe collapsing....
"The networks organizing the EU's migration policy wrap themselves in a humanitarian ambiguity that conceals their financial sources." Pictured: Hundreds of illegal migrants wait to receive registration papers from the Red Cross on the Italian island of Lampedusa, on September 17, 2023. (Photo by Zakaria Abdelkafi/AFP via Getty Images)
Bat Ye'or is an Egyptian-born British author and historian, who has focused on the history of religious minorities in the Muslim world and on the geopolitics of the European Union. She is known for introducing the West to the concept of dhimmitude [see below] and the concept of Eurabia. Canlorbe: Could you start by reminding us of the motivations of the networks that orchestrate the EU's migration policy and its anti-Israeli stance? Bat Ye'or: The motivations of the networks in these two areas — the EU's migration policy and anti-Zionism — are different but converge in their cumulative harmful effectiveness. This cumulative effect results from the deliberate policy of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to link their relations with EU countries at every level to a European anti-Israeli policy.
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by Khaled Abu Toameh • June 9, 2025 at 5:00 am
Like most senior Hamas leaders, [Khalil] al-Hayya and his family members live outside the Gaza Strip, having fled the Gaza Strip before the October 7 attack on Israel. These Hamas leaders are leading safe, often resplendent lives in Qatar, Lebanon, Algeria, Turkey and other comfortable countries. Hamas, [these Palestinians] say, has decided to sacrifice tens of thousands of Palestinians to please its patrons in Qatar and Iran. "Khalil al-Hayya's statement of sacrificing Gaza isn't a slip of the tongue – it's the mask coming off. When he says Gaza 'offered itself as a sacrifice,' what he means is that the people of Gaza were handed over...to foreign capitals and thrones... Gaza wasn't 'offered'- it was 'traded.' Traded for relevance in Tehran, applause in Doha, and invitations to summits where men in suits congratulate themselves for their loyalty [to Iran and Qatar] while entire neighborhoods [in the Gaza Strip] are flattened. What al-Hayya revealed – with disturbing pride – is that Hamas has never seen Gaza as a society to build or protect, but as a tool to elevate themselves in the eyes of unelected monarchs and ideological overlords.... to secure long-term contracts of power and protection from the patrons they truly serve..... [f]or the Qatari ruling elite who fund the fire from a safe distance, then host the [Hamas] arsonists as statesmen. Hamas offers Gaza as a sacrifice ... because they know that a Gaza in ruins keeps them relevant, funded, and feared." — Hamza Howidy, a Gaza-born peace and human rights advocate, X, June 6, 2025. "[O]ur lives have been stolen. People in Gaza... are furious. They're asking: how dare he (Khalil al-Hayya) speak in our name while he lives safely abroad with his family in Qatar? His words echo something even more horrifying once said by the late Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh: 'We need the blood of children and women to awaken the spirit of revolution within us.' What kind of ideology is this? What twisted logic allows men living in comfort to turn the suffering of an entire people into a slogan? I can't describe how infuriated I feel right now. I want to smash my head against the wall." — "Alaa from Gaza," X, June 5, 2025 [Emphasis in the original].
"Khalil al-Hayya's statement of sacrificing Gaza isn't a slip of the tongue – it's the mask coming off. When he says Gaza 'offered itself as a sacrifice,' what he means is that the people of Gaza were handed over... Traded for relevance in Tehran, applause in Doha..." — Hamza Howidy, a Gaza-born peace and human rights advocate. Pictured: Al-Hayya speaks on Al Jazeera, in June 2025. (Image source: X.com/Osint613)
On the eve of the Islamic feast of Eid al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice), Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya -- in charge of the negotiations to release the hostages and reach a ceasefire agreement with Israel -- delivered a speech in which he said: "Gaza has offered itself as a sacrifice for the Muslim ummah [nation] and deserves its full support in return." Al-Hayya's statement triggered a wave of angry reactions and condemnations from many Palestinians, especially those from the Gaza Strip who have been facing death and destruction since October 7, 2023, when Hamas and thousands of "ordinary" Palestinians invaded Israel and murdered 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals. Another 251 people were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, where 55 – dead and alive – remain in captivity.
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by Amin Sharifi • June 8, 2025 at 5:00 am
Iran's ruling elite, bluntly, believes that both its survival and its mission depend on acquiring nuclear weapons. They saw what happened to Libya and Ukraine when their leaders gave up their nuclear weapons, and understood that this was not the way to go. The regime's goal is the bomb. Iran's Supreme Leader is not just a political figure, but is considered divine, with a legitimacy given not by man but by Allah. "And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may terrify the enemy of Allah and your enemy and others besides them whom you do not know [but] whom Allah knows. And whatever you spend in the cause of Allah will be fully repaid to you, and you will not be wronged." — Qur'an 8:60 (Sahih International Translation). This verse is used by the IRGC not just as a call for defense, but as a religious endorsement of nuclear armament. In this view, nuclear weapons are not only permitted, but also necessary. They are both a shield against the regime's many enemies and a divine tool for the end-times struggle they believe is coming. Iran's leadership sees deception not as dishonorable, but as strategic. The Islamic doctrine of taqiyya, or religiously sanctioned deception, allows lying to infidels in the name of survival or victory. The regime's lack of response to Soleimani's killing revealed something essential: the mullahs understand only strength. Iran's nuclear program must be completely and permanently dismantled. Even if ideology were not part of the equation, Iran's corruption, mismanagement and incompetence would still make it unfit to operate any nuclear facility. Senior officials are appointed through favoritism, cronyism or family ties. Industry is collapsing. Accountability is nonexistent. The day we wake up to hear that Iran is about to use its nuclear bomb will be the day the world changes forever.
Iran's nuclear program must be completely and permanently dismantled. Even if ideology were not part of the equation, Iran's corruption, mismanagement and incompetence would still make it unfit to operate any nuclear facility. Senior officials are appointed through favoritism, cronyism or family ties. Industry is collapsing. Accountability is nonexistent. Pictured: The Isfahan uranium enrichment facility in Isfahan, Iran. (Photo by Getty Images)
Iran's ruling elite, bluntly, believes that both its survival and its mission depend on acquiring nuclear weapons. They saw what happened to Libya and Ukraine when their leaders gave up their nuclear weapons, and understood that this was not the way to go. To Iran's rulers, their nuclear program is not just a policy objective to protect the continuation of their regime, but the centerpiece of Iran's ideology and propaganda. Despite having some of the world's richest oil and gas reserves, the regime has accepted crushing sanctions and economic ruin, all under the excuse of pursuing nuclear power. The regime's goal is the bomb.
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by Amir Taheri • June 8, 2025 at 4:00 am
For Obama, giving the final nod [on the JCPOA Iran deal] was even made easier because the "accord" that Chatham House described as historic was a "non-paper agreement" which meant no one needed to sign anything; waving the shadow of the fountain pen was enough. The mullahs knew that the "agreement" drafted by Obama would have no impact on their ambitious plans to extend their theo-ideological empire as far as they could, and as long as they didn't hit something hard on the way. They also knew that Obama couldn't and wouldn't end sanctions imposed by the United Nations, the United States and the European Union. Tehran has succeeded to reduce the whole issue to one of the degree of enrichment of uranium that Iran would be allowed to retain. As long as Trump doesn't cite real issues, such as Iran's centrifuges, exporting revolution, promoting terrorism, seizing hostages, funding what is left of terrorist groups across the world, sending drones to Russia and cut-price oil to China, the mullahs will play the game around enriching the uranium they don't need.
Will they, won't they? This is the question that those interested in current talks between Tehran and Washington on Iran's nuclear program are darting around in the hope of getting a straight answer. Pictured: A combination of photos showing President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff (L) and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi. (Photos by Evelyn Hockstein and Amer Hilabi/AFP via Getty Images)
Will they, won't they? This is the question that those interested in current talks between Tehran and Washington on Iran's nuclear program are darting around in the hope of getting a straight answer. Public statements from both sides offer no clear answer. President Donald Trump seems confident that an accord that reflects his wishes is well on the way to conclusion. He is even musing about a golden age of prosperity that awaits Iranians once the accord is signed. Confident that his new diplomacy, let's call it diplo-business, will deliver what eight US presidents, including Trump in his first term, failed to do. "They [the Iranians] are negotiating intelligently," Trump says. You might say: we've been there, done that and bought the T-shirt! And you won't be wrong.
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by Majid Rafizadeh • June 7, 2025 at 5:00 am
Uh oh. US President Donald J, Trump has reportedly fired a "slew of pro-Israel officials in America First 'course correction,'" and that "Trump is looking for an Iran dove to take over as Middle East chief at National Security Council, while pushing for nuclear deal," according to Middle East Eye. Iran uses it centrifuges to enrich uranium to high levels. Highly enriched uranium is needed only for nuclear weapons. No highly enriched uranium, no nuclear bombs. Even one uranium-enrichment centrifuge in Iran's possession is a nuclear weapon waiting to happen. If the US Congress could please pass a bill as soon as possible preventing the US from allowing centrifuges in Iran, it would be an enormous benefit to US and global security. Meanwhile, America's enemies -- Russia, China, North Korea and Venezuela -- are waiting to see if the US actually has any real backbone before deciding if it is safe for them to go on offense again. This is not warmongering — it is the last resort when diplomacy fails and survival is on the line. Israel and the US have every right to defend themselves – and the region – against a regime that openly seeks their extermination. Unfortunately, Trump has repeatedly given Iran reason to bet on that. First, Trump told Hamas in January that they had to deliver all the hostages or "all hell will break out." When Hamas did nothing of the kind, Trump's dramatic response was -- nothing. Even better, Trump seemed to "throw Israel under the bus." How perfect! Then, on March 7, Trump sent Khamenei a letter saying that Iran had two months to dismantle its nuclear program... Hmm. It is now June and Iran has been enriching more uranium than ever. No wonder Iran's regime assumes it is holding a royal straight flush. Iran's regime saw what happened to Libya's Muammar Qaddafi when he gave up his nuclear arsenal. Iran's regime saw what happened when Ukraine, thanks to the Budapest Memorandum of 1994 – signed by Ukraine, Russia and the US – gave up its nuclear arsenal. The lesson they surely learned was: No nukes, no power. Iran will not voluntarily give up what it must see as its insurance policy for ruling Iran forever.
Iran uses it centrifuges to enrich uranium to high levels. Highly enriched uranium is needed only for nuclear weapons. No highly enriched uranium, no nuclear bombs. Even one uranium-enrichment centrifuge in Iran's possession is a nuclear weapon waiting to happen. Pictured: Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian looks on as a 'Qasem Soleimani' missile is displayed during a military parade in Tehran, on September 21, 2024. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)
Uh oh. US President Donald J, Trump has reportedly fired a "slew of pro-Israel officials in America First 'course correction,'" and that "Trump is looking for an Iran dove to take over as Middle East chief at National Security Council, while pushing for nuclear deal," according to Middle East Eye. The threat posed by Iran's nuclear ambitions, however, is no longer a distant concern — it is a rapidly escalating crisis with the most severe and immediate implications for Israel, the oil-rich Sunni Arab Gulf States, and North and South America. Trump appears to be scurrying to back down from "or there will be "all hell to pay," and is possibly on the verge of letting Iran keep its uranium-enrichment centrifuges. Not an option.
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