Latest Analysis and Commentary
by Con Coughlin • March 26, 2025 at 5:00 am
"Something's going to happen one way or the other. I hope that Iran — and I've written him a letter, saying, 'I hope you're going to negotiate.' Because if we have to go in militarily, it's going to be a terrible thing — for them." — US President Donald J. Trump, interview with Fox News, March 7, 2025. So long as the Islamic Republic of Iran indulges in its usual tactic of prevarication in the hope that, by engaging in delaying tactics, it can buy more time to achieve its nuclear ambitions, the credibility of the Trump administration taking direct action against Tehran needs to increase. Iran's demand, for example, that it might consider opening negotiations with Washington if the Trump administration first agreed to lift punitive economic sanctions, is a classic exercise in the regime's attempts to play for time.
Iran's refusal to accept US President Donald Trump's demand that it completely dismantle its controversial nuclear programme, which Western intelligence officials are convinced is ultimately designed to build nuclear weapons, raises the very real risk of the US launching direct military action to destroy the programme. Pictured: Trump signs an executive order "reimposing maximum pressure on Iran" in the White House on February 4, 2025. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Iran's refusal to accept US President Donald Trump's demand that it completely dismantle its controversial nuclear programme, which Western intelligence officials are convinced is ultimately designed to build nuclear weapons, raises the very real risk of the US launching direct military action to destroy the programme. Trump's initial offer to negotiate an end to Iran's nuclear programme was contained in a letter he wrote to the ayatollahs on March 7, in which he indicated he was willing to engage in talks concerning Iran's nuclear activities. But the letter also contained an explicit warning that any failure by Tehran to respond positively to his overture could lead to direct military action.
Continue Reading Article
by Khaled Abu Toameh • March 25, 2025 at 5:00 am
"They [Hamas] need to demilitarize, and then they might be politically involved in Gaza." —US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, interview with Tucker Carlson, March 21, 2025. "I thought we had an acceptable deal. I even thought we had an approval from Hamas. Maybe that's just me getting duped." — Steve Witkoff, about a ceasefire extension he thought he had just finished negotiating, Fox News, March 23, 2023. Duped is putting it mildly. Witkoff, who doubtless has the best intentions, is sadly proving the perfect mark. Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that needs to be designated by the US as a terrorist group. Hamas is Muslim Brotherhood, and Muslim Brotherhood is Hamas. [Hamas's] politicians devise the strategy and set the goals, while its armed wing is entrusted with following them. The political leadership of Hamas ruled that Israel must be eliminated, and the group's military wing has carried out countless terrorist attacks to achieve that goal. The political leaders need the military wing to control the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, as they have been doing since their violent coup there in 2007. Hamas, which has brought death and destruction upon both Israelis and Palestinians, has no right to exist, either as a political or a military entity. Did it ever occur to anyone to allow the political leaders of ISIS or Al-Qaeda to play any role in Syria and Iraq? If Hamas is permitted to continue its political activities in the Gaza Strip, it will comfortably continue its jihad against Israel. The group's political leaders will undoubtedly continue to call – in Arabic -- for the annihilation of Israel and encourage Palestinians to launch terrorist attacks against it. Witkoff's talk about a possible political role for Hamas is dangerous, mainly because it implies that the US continues to view the terror group as a legitimate player in the Palestinian arena. If the US envoy wants to see stability and security in the Middle East, he must insist on the complete and permanent removal of Hamas – all of its "wings." Destroying "much" of Hamas's military capabilities or disarming it is totally worthless.
Hamas, which has brought death and destruction upon both Israelis and Palestinians, has no right to exist, either as a political or a military entity. Did it ever occur to anyone to allow the political leaders of ISIS or Al-Qaeda to play any role in Syria and Iraq? A terrorist in a suit and tie is no different from a terrorist in a military uniform. Pictured: The late Yahya Sinwar, leader of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza, shakes hands with a masked member of Hamas' Izz a-Din al-Qassam Brigades in Gaza City on December 14, 2022. (Photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump's envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, said last week that he does not rule out the possibility that the Iran-backed Palestinian terror group Hamas could be politically active in the Gaza Strip after it disarms. "They [Hamas] need to demilitarize, and then they might be politically involved in Gaza," Witkoff said in an interview with Tucker Carlson that was aired on March 21. Witkoff -- who, thanks to his excruciating lack of familiarity with Arab assumptions apart from real estate deals, is increasingly becoming a major embarrassment to Trump -- appears to draw a distinction between Hamas's political and military leaderships. He also seems naïve enough to believe that Hamas would ever agree to lay down its weapons or halt its terrorist attacks against Israel.
Continue Reading Article
by Lawrence Kadish • March 25, 2025 at 4:00 am
While China is a potent nuclear power with astronauts in orbit and squadrons of stealth fighters in the air, one merely needs to look at its navy to appreciate what the Communist Chinese leadership's 21st Century plans are: global domination. Pictured: J15 fighter jets on China's Liaoning aircraft carrier during a drill at sea, in April 2018. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
When Britain ruled the seas centuries ago, they were the world's sole superpower, dominating trade routes, creating colonies, applying military power to demand spheres of influence, and using that power to maximize its economy back home. Today's Communist Chinese leadership can probably recite that playbook by heart. While China is a potent nuclear power with astronauts in orbit and squadrons of stealth fighters in the air, one merely needs to look at its navy to appreciate what their 21st Century plans are: global domination.
Continue Reading Article
by Lawrence A. Franklin • March 24, 2025 at 5:00 am
[Ahmed] Al-Sharaa, on taking power in Syria in December, originally professed to be a "moderate." The Biden administration even lifted a $10 million bounty for his arrest, for previous terrorist activity linked to Al Qaeda, presumably in the hope of moderation actually being delivered. Since that time, however, al-Sharaa and his followers have appeared more as terrorists in suits and ties. The country's new constitution, published on March 14, stipulates that Islamic Sharia jurisprudence is the sole source of judicial decision-making. This constitution also asserts that Syria's president must be a Muslim and that the executive branch has almost dictatorial powers. Moreover, the constitution includes no provision for protecting Syrian ethnic or religious minorities, which include Christians, Alawites, Kurds and Druze. Sunni jihadist government forces are reportedly reveling in the massacre of the Alawites, and Turkey has already set up secret cells throughout Syria "to use as proxies abroad." Christians throughout Syria are afraid that after the Alawites, they will be next. It is also possible that al-Sharaa's HTS will be successful in uniting most of Syria under its control, then initiate a genocidal purge against Christians and the rest of the "infidels." Some of Syria's minorities have been seeking help from nearby Israel. Some Druze community leaders even asked Israel officially to annex their villages. Israel has established a strategic "buffer zone" in areas of Syria adjacent to the countries' shared border, to deter potential jihadist and Turkish attacks, and may yet again turn out to be threatened minorities' greatest protector.
From March 6-9 – unchecked by Ahmed al-Sharaa's professedly "moderate" interim government – his jihadist troops slaughtered an estimated 1,080 Syrians in 72 hours, apparently mostly civilian members of the minority Alawite religion. Pictured: Jihadists loyal to al-Sharaa celebrate on a beach in Latakia on March 9, 2025, following the massacre in the city. (Photo by Omar Haj Kadour/AFP via Getty Images)
In December 2024, after an offensive lasting less than two weeks that swept through much of Syria, a Turkish-backed Sunni militia led by Ahmed al-Sharaa ousted the Assad regime, which had ruled the country for 54 years. From March 6-9 – unchecked by al-Sharaa's professedly "moderate" interim government – his jihadist troops slaughtered an estimated 1,080 Syrians in 72 hours, apparently mostly civilian members of the minority Alawite religion. The Alawite sect, which split off from Shia Islam in the ninth century, is regarded by other Shiites as heretical. To people who practice Sunni Islam -- the religion of al-Sharaa and Turkey -- all non-Sunnis are infidels. Alawites are estimated to be up to 10% of Syria's population, and the deposed Assad family belong to the sect.
Continue Reading Article
by Gordon G. Chang • March 23, 2025 at 5:00 am
Iran, in short, has a nuclear weapons program because of China. For a long time, the international community looked the other way as the "atomic ayatollahs," in violation of their treaty obligations, worked on building these fearsome devices. President Donald Trump, to his credit, is taking the issue head on. Tehran almost certainly has [a nuclear bomb] by now. The Iranians themselves have made that clear. There is only a "one-week gap from the issuance of the order to the first test" of a nuclear bomb, according to an April 2024 public statement of a senior Iran lawmaker. Diplomats from Russia, Iran, and China met in Beijing this month to support Iran's nuclear weapons program. Tehran, bolstered by Beijing and Moscow, publicly said it had no desire to talk to Trump. There are in fact conversations behind the scenes, but Iran nonetheless would not be as brazen if Beijing were not fully supporting it. If Waltz is as good as his word -- that Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon -- then China, by arming the ayatollahs with nukes, has made sure that the world's next confrontation will be historic.
Diplomats from Russia, Iran and China met in Beijing this month to support Iran's nuclear weapons program. Iran has a nuclear weapons program because of China. China helped Iran possess both missiles and uranium enrichment capability. Pictured: Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi (R), China's Executive Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ma Zhaoxu and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov hold a press conference in Beijing on March 14, 2025. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
"Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon," U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz told ABC News's Martha Raddatz on March 16th. Waltz's demand was in fact more comprehensive. He said that Iran must also hand over, among other things, missiles and uranium enrichment capability. China helped Iran possess both. Beijing has set the stage for the next war in the Middle East. On missiles, there is no doubt where Tehran got its delivery systems. "Most of Iran's liquid-fueled ballistic missiles, including all its longest-range ones, are North Korean missiles with new paint," Bruce Bechtol, author of North Korean Military Proliferation in the Middle East and Africa: Enabling Violence and Instability, told Gatestone. "The missiles are probably why Trump is now dealing with Iran's nukes."
Continue Reading Article
by Amir Taheri • March 23, 2025 at 4:00 am
In South Sudan, not to mention Gaza, the gunmen in control of what poses as a government need not worry about such basic needs as food, health care, basic schooling and even art and entertainment, because NGOs or UN agencies funded by the US and other Western democracies foot the bill. That leaves the gunmen in control, free to spend whatever resources they can mobilize on buying arms, recruiting fighters and continuing their war. In Houthi-controlled Yemen, which now says it is at war against the US, more than 60 percent of the food needed to keep the population under control alive and able to fire missiles at US ships comes from foreign aid largely funded by Washington. Musk is also right to question the wisdom of financing almost 40 percent of such bodies as the Organization of American States, which has just chosen a noted anti-American as its new secretary-general. As for the United Nations itself, under Secretary General António Guterres, it has become a forum for virtue-signaling anti-American propaganda. The Trump-Musk cost-cutting campaign may provide an opportunity for a thorough review of the usefulness of numerous international organizations that may have gone past their sell-by date or even become threats to peace and stability. One casualty of the 88% cut in the USAID budget may be part of the Iranian opposition to the Islamic regime in Tehran. Musk could keep Voice of America and Radio Liberty, though not as a propaganda tool for this or that faction in Tehran. They could offer Iranians inside Iran a window to the US, along with professional nonpartisan journalism with what is left of high American standards.
As Elon Musk pursues his "draining the swamp" in Washington, D.C., his plan to reduce the size of the US federal government may have a number of unintended consequences. In some cases, a notable one being UNRWA, which has kept Palestinian militant groups alive for decades, US aid may be one reason why people face endless wars. One casualty of the 88% cut in the USAID budget may be part of the Iranian opposition to the Islamic regime in Tehran. Pictured: A worker removes the U.S. Agency for International Development sign on its then headquarters on February 7, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
As Elon Musk pursues his "draining the swamp" in Washington, D.C., his plan to reduce the size of the US federal government may have a number of unintended consequences. To be sure, few people might disagree with ending payments to millions of people who continue drawing their Social Security benefits years after having died and been buried. Even fewer might approve of channeling millions of dollars in aid to NGOs in such emerging economic giants like India and Indonesia, not to mention sinkholes such as Afghanistan or active anti-American states like South Africa. In some cases, a notable one being UNRWA, which has kept Palestinian militant groups alive for decades, US aid may be one reason why people face endless wars.
Continue Reading Article
by Majid Rafizadeh • March 22, 2025 at 5:00 am
It is high time for Europe -- while posing as the pinnacle of virtue -- to stop hiding behind US and Israeli actions. The EU needs to cut off trade, impose severe sanctions, and isolate Iran completely. Anything less is complicity. Even as Iran deepens its military alliance with Russia by supplying drones and missiles that are used to create scorched earth in Ukraine's cities, the EU has refused to sever its financial connections to Tehran. Iranian-made Shahed drones have devastated Ukrainian infrastructure, yet European businesses are still trading with the very country producing them. This is not just hypocrisy — it is an active betrayal of Europe's own security interests. The EU would do well to take the following steps immediately: Sever all economic ties with Iran. No more trade, no more investment, no more financial engagement. Every euro that flows into Iran is a euro that strengthens a regime that threatens European, as well as global, stability. Impose the harshest possible sanctions. Target Iran's energy sector, its financial institutions, and its military industries. The EU needs to make it clear that Iran's actions will face an unbearable economic cost. Trigger the snapback sanctions. If European leaders are too weak to act themselves, at least support those who are preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power, devouring the region and "revolutionizing" the West. The EU needs to openly declare its backing of any Israeli military operation against Iran's nuclear facilities.
The European Union has spent years enriching Iran by choosing economic gain over security, morality, and strategic interests, making a calculated choice to prioritize money over principles, over the safety of its own citizens, and over the security of its allies. Iran is supplying weapons that kill Ukrainians, is on the brink of acquiring nuclear weapons and has been taking Europeans hostage with no consequences. Pictured: An innocent Swedish citizen who was held hostage in Iran, Johan Floderus (R), is greeted by Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson after his release, at Arlanda Airport near Stockholm, on June 15, 2024. (Photo by Tom Samuelsson/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images)
The European Union has spent years enriching Iran by choosing economic gain over security, morality, and strategic interests. While the Iranian regime continues to fuel war, repression and terrorism, the EU has clung to its trade partnerships and business deals, while refusing to take meaningful action against a regime that actively threatens the continent's stability as well as that of the globe. The EU is not being naive — it is making a calculated choice to prioritize money over principles, over the safety of its own citizens, and over the security of its allies. This really needs to end. Iran is supplying weapons that kill Ukrainians, is on the brink of acquiring nuclear weapons and has been taking Europeans hostage with no consequences. The EU nevertheless continues to do business with Iran. The EU provides the regime with the economic resources it needs to expand its influence and finance its nuclear program, military operations and terror proxies.
Continue Reading Article
by Uzay Bulut • March 21, 2025 at 5:00 am
"Politics steadily worsens in Bangladesh. The economy is in free fall, law and order is in a cul-de-sac. The rule of law is under organised assault, with detained politicians, cultural activists and journalists unable to come by bail in court.... Bangladesh's crisis is existential. All the values instrumental to its emergence 50-plus years ago are systematically being jettisoned by a regime that lacks constitutional legitimacy." — Syed Badrul Ahsan, veteran Bangladeshi journalist and commentator, December 6, 2024. Some of the major groups, which were previously banned but, under Bangladesh's new leadership of Muhammad Yunus, now encouraged, include: Hizb ut-Tahrir, Tawhidi Janata, Hefazat-e-Islam, Jamaat-e-Islami, and the Ansarullah Bangla Team. Since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ouster in August 2024, the government under Yunus has freed convicted Islamic terrorists, downplayed mass violence against minorities (mainly Hindus), and let jihadist mobs take over the streets. More than 2,200 cases of violence against Hindus in Bangladesh were reported for 2024 alone. These radical Islamic organizations share the same main goal: a global Islamic Caliphate. If this Islamic takeover succeeds in Bangladesh, the country will become another Islamic terror state — like Afghanistan under the Taliban and Syria under its new terrorist leader, Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa.
On March 7, thousands of members of Bangladesh's banned Islamist militant group, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, defying police barricades, marched through the streets of Dhaka to demand that the country's secular democracy be replaced by an Islamic caliphate. The mob at the march turned violent — complete with stone-throwers who clashed with police. Pictured: Hizb ut-Tahrir members at the "March For Khilafah" in Dhaka, on March 7, 2025.(Photo by Munir Uz Zaman/AFP via Getty Images)
On March 7, thousands of members of Bangladesh's banned Islamist militant group, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, defying police barricades, marched through the streets of Dhaka to demand that the country's secular democracy be replaced by an Islamic caliphate. Demonstrators chanting "Khilafat, Khilafat" - a direct call for Islamic rule -- gathered for the "March for Khilafat" procession outside the Baitul Mukarram Mosque after Friday prayers. The mob at the march turned violent — complete with stone-throwers who clashed with police. The police, in turn, fired back with tear gas and stun grenades. Hizb ut-Tahrir, which has been banned in Bangladesh since 2009 for posing a threat to national security, organized this rally in defiance of a government ban on public gatherings. Notes veteran Bangladeshi journalist and commentator Syed Badrul Ahsan:
Continue Reading Article
by Khaled Abu Toameh • March 20, 2025 at 5:00 am
Hamas leaders have also repeatedly made it clear that their terror group has no intention of laying down its weapons. Hamas leaders -- based in luxury hotels and villas in Qatar, Lebanon and Egypt -- appear in no rush to end the war. Many of them had fled the Gaza Strip together with their families during the past few years in search of a better life in Arab and Islamic countries. From their safe homes and offices, the Hamas leaders continue to issue fiery statements about their group's refusal to make concessions to end the conflict. "They are not the ones searching for food in the rubble. They are not the ones watching their children die. They sit in safety while others pay the price.... the suffering of Gaza has never been their concern, only their weapon." — Hamza Howidy, Palestinian human rights and peace activist, X, March 18, 2025. "Enough martyrs and death. Damn those who voted for you [in the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary election]." — Ranem El Ali, Palestinian journalist and author, X, March 18, 2025. If the Palestinians living there want to end the war, they must revolt against Hamas and provide Israel with information about the whereabouts of the hostages. Sadly, most Palestinians seem unwilling to do so, either out of fear of Hamas or because they simply identify with the terror group and its goal of destroying Israel.
If the Palestinians living in Gaza want to end the war, they must revolt against Hamas and provide Israel with information about the whereabouts of the hostages. Sadly, most Palestinians seem unwilling to do so, either out of fear of Hamas or because they simply identify with the terror group and its goal of destroying Israel. Pictured: Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists share a moment of friendship before a crowd of supporters in the Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on November 28, 2023. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
Palestinians are again paying a heavy price as a result of Hamas's refusal to release the remaining 59 Israeli hostages (almost half of whom are believed to be dead) held in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023. On that day, thousands of Hamas terrorists and ordinary Palestinians invaded Israel, murdering 1,200 Israelis and wounding thousands others. Another 251 Israelis – alive and dead – were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip. Since then, Hamas could have avoided much of the death and destruction it brought on the Palestinians by simply releasing all the hostages, laying down its weapons and relinquishing control of the Gaza Strip. Hamas, however, chose to drag the two million Palestinians of the Gaza Strip into a war that has claimed the lives of thousands and destroyed large parts of the coastal strip.
Continue Reading Article
by Drieu Godefridi • March 19, 2025 at 5:30 am
By giving himself the right to spend an extra €500 billion over 12 years on infrastructure and climate change, and additional to that, spend "whatever it takes" for the German military -- €40 billion more per year being the best available estimate -- [Friedrich] Merz [the likely next chancellor] is assuming considerable power, the likes of which no German chancellor has had since 1945. As the allocation of these resources is formulated in broad and vague terms, the chancellor will have immense power in the allocation of funds. In addition, the German military will be financed to the tune of €120 billion per year, giving it the potential to become the strongest force in Europe -- France spends roughly €55 billion a year. Here again, the power of Germany and its chancellor is growing considerably. It certainly seems as if Das Rheingold is emerging from the deep.
Pictured: Friedrich Merz, the likely next chancellor of Germany, speaks in the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) prior to the vote on a constitutional amendment, on March 18, 2025 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
In the opera Das Rheingold by Richard Wagner, the Rhine Gold is a magical treasure guarded by the Rhine Maidens (Rheinmädchen). This gold can be forged into a ring that gives its holder unlimited power. By arrogating to himself the power to put Germany into debt in a way that no chancellor has done since 1945, Friedrich Merz, the likely next chancellor, will be taking on an unrivalled power: that of dominating Europe.
Continue Reading Article
by Daniel Greenfield • March 18, 2025 at 5:00 am
Government and other institutions stopped being merit-based or democratic, and came to reflect the tribal coalition politics that had come to define the Democratic Party's urban machines. Tammany Hall's old corrupt apportionment of government offices based on political favors was smoothly supplemented with racial and ethnic coalition quotas in major cities. The old corrupt system that traded votes for jobs, bloc votes for political influence, was layered over with the language of civil rights and academic verbiage to make handing out jobs based on quotas seem progressive rather than the worst kind of machine politics progressives once decried. Graft became diversity. Networks of community groups swapping votes for money and jobs stopped being criminal and was celebrated as a step forward for those same machines. Even while lecturing us about "systemic racism," wokeness created an actual systemic racism. Americans have already seen that the alternative to government tribal neutrality is tribal warfare.
In a complete inversion of civil rights, from race-neutral to race-conscious, government and other institutions stopped being merit-based or democratic, and came to reflect the tribal coalition politics that had come to define the Democratic Party's urban machines. Tribalized blocs were embedded not only in elected government but within the bureaucracies. The shakedown politics of Jesse Jackson's PUSH movement and imitators like Al Sharpton began the process of embedding the same system within major corporations. Pictured: Sharpton with then First Lady Hillary Clinton in New York on January 17, 2000. (Photo by Henny Ray Abrams/AFP via Getty Images)
The great objective of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) was to tribalize our institutions, recruiting government and corporate employees into affinity groups based on their race, sex, sexuality and other factors, and then defining institutional goals around the "right" tribal mix through selective hiring and promotions. The complete inversion of civil rights, from race-neutral to race-conscious, also transformed the intended purpose of government and all lesser institutions, from tribal neutrality to tribal partisanship, and it was impossible to achieve this without tribalizing government. Government and other institutions stopped being merit-based or democratic, and came to reflect the tribal coalition politics that had come to define the Democratic Party's urban machines. Tammany Hall's old corrupt apportionment of government offices based on political favors was smoothly supplemented with racial and ethnic coalition quotas in major cities.
Continue Reading Article
by Khaled Abu Toameh • March 17, 2025 at 5:00 am
The truth, however, is that most of the Arab countries have always refused to receive Palestinians. Most Arabs view the Palestinians as ungrateful. Qatar has funded every Islamist extremist group from the Muslim Brotherhood to the Taliban to Al Qaeda, both with donations and through its broadcasting empire Al Jazeera. Qatar was the only Arab country that provided direct financial aid to the Hamas-rulers of the Gaza Strip over the past two decades. The Qataris did not do so out of love for the Palestinians, but to ensure that Hamas remains in power, in order to eliminate Israel and replace it with an Islamic state. October 7, 2023 was the result. Now Qatar is negotiating to preserve its client, Hamas. The Arab plan, notably, also does not call on Hamas to lay down its weapons. Do the Arab leaders really believe that Western donors would rush to invest tens of billions of dollars in the Gaza Strip while terrorists belonging to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other groups continue to roam the streets? The latest Arab plan does not even include a commitment from the Arab regimes to contribute to the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. Instead, it states that the sources of funding would come from the United Nations, international financial institutions, and donor countries, as well as foreign direct investments and private sector contributions. For Hamas, holding onto its weapons is far more important than rebuilding the Gaza Strip. For the Arab countries, the new plan just another attempt to avoid responsibility towards their Palestinian brothers and shift the blame onto Israel. "The reality is that the Arab emergency summit was also about demonizing Israel and throwing the Gaza hot potato into its court. A closer look at the summit's final statement reveals its true purpose: attacking Israel rather than addressing Gaza's future... Until Hamas is removed, every so-called 'peace plan' will be nothing more than another chapter in an endless cycle of destruction." — Dalia Ziada, Egyptian political analyst, March 12, 2025.
The latest Arab plan does not even include a commitment from the Arab regimes to contribute to the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. The plan, notably, also does not call on Hamas to lay down its weapons. Do the Arab leaders really believe that Western donors would rush to invest tens of billions of dollars in the Gaza Strip while terrorists belonging to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other groups continue to roam the streets? Pictured: Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty (R) meets with Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Cairo, Egypt on March 3, 2025. (Photo by Khaled Desouki/AFP via Getty Images)
The Arab countries have finally come up with a plan for the Gaza Strip that aims to address the humanitarian crisis, restore essential services and rebuild. The $53 billion plan, announced in early March after an extraordinary meeting of the Arab League in the Egyptian capital of Cairo, did not come out of a genuine desire to help the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but as a counterproposal to US President Donald Trump's vision of relocating the residents of Gaza and turning it into the Rivera of the Middle East. If the Arab leaders really wanted to assist the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, they would have held a meeting immediately after the Hamas-Israel war, which erupted on October 7, 2023, when the Iran-backed Islamist group and thousands of ordinary Palestinians invaded Israel, slaughtering 1,200 Israelis and wounding thousands. Another 251 Israelis were kidnapped into the Gaza Strip, where 59 – alive and dead – are still being held as hostages.
Continue Reading Article
by Lawrence Kadish • March 16, 2025 at 5:00 am
(Image source iStock/Getty Images)
As Jack and his beanstalk can tell you, there are no magic beans. Unfortunately, those who believe cryptocurrency is their ticket to enormous wealth or financial security will soon find out that they, too, have no magic beans. What they may have is Monopoly money. With that in mind, it needs to be said that recent actions to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve opens the door to potentially serious issues. Equally chilling is the vulnerability of cryptocurrency to hackers. Media reports reveal that North Korean hackers recently stole $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency from Bybit, described as the world's second-largest crypto exchange. One can probably assume those hackers were operating under instructions from their government.
Continue Reading Article
by Amir Taheri • March 16, 2025 at 4:00 am
In the past two weeks... Macron has been all over the place with the alacrity of a butterfly. He has assumed that the 80-year alliance between European and American democracies is over, that NATO is dead, that Russia is determined to conquer Europe and that war -- if not World War III -- is inevitable. Talleyrand might have invited Macron to wait and see if the Oval Office show doesn't have a sequel that might twist the plot in another direction, now that Zelensky has opened a new dialogue with the new US administration. [Talleyrand] would have asked the French president to wait and see whether or not Trump attends the planned NATO summit to be held in The Hague, Netherlands, on June 24-25. Foch would have advised Macron not to assume that the US will sit back and watch as Russian President Vladimir Putin's army of North Koreans, Uzbeks, Chechens and Kazakhs, backed by Iranian drones, march into the Champs Élysée. Foch could have quipped that you can't push back a foe just by big-talk. If you really wish to pin Putin's back to the floor, then end his control of Ukrainian skies. That means giving Ukrainians some of the warplanes that EU member states own. Should Europe regard Russia as an eternal mortal foe or consider turning it into a tolerable neighbor -- if not a friend -- in a few years' time?
In the past two weeks, France's President Emmanuel Macron has been all over the place with the alacrity of a butterfly. He has assumed that the 80-year alliance between European and American democracies is over, that NATO is dead, that Russia is determined to conquer Europe and that war -- if not World War III -- is inevitable. Pictured: Macron meets with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky at the EU headquarters in Brussels on March 6, 2025. (Photo by Ludovic Marin/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
As France's President Emmanuel Macron casts himself as Europe's new leader in a joust against US President Donald Trump, he might do well to have a look at two great Frenchmen who advised against haste and hubris. The first is that paragon of diplomacy, Talleyrand, who managed to survive four regimes, including one created by a bloody revolution and another that set Europe on fire before drowning it in blood. One day, Talleyrand was called in by an angry Napoleon, who ordered him immediately to draft a declaration of war on Austria in reaction to "insults from Vienna". The diplomat did so but, as he later recalled, kept the war declaration under his pillow until the following day, when the Emperor ordered him to forget about it as France wasn't ready for war. Prudence was the better part of valor.
Continue Reading Article
by Majid Rafizadeh • March 15, 2025 at 5:00 am
The Islamic Republic of Iran is not a normal state, or even a conventional dictatorship. It is an ideological entity that derives its very identity from opposition to the United States, Israel and the West. From the moment the Islamic Republic was born out of the 1979 revolution, its core identity was forged in opposition to the United States and Israel. These were not just foreign policy stances but central tenets of the regime's existence. The regime refers to the United States as the "Great Satan" and Israel as the "Little Satan," righteously positioning itself as the force of divine justice against these supposed embodiments of evil. For the Iranian mullahs, hostility toward America and Israel is not just rhetoric; it is the fundamental pillar of their legitimacy. If the regime were to abandon its enmity toward the U.S. and Israel, it would lose the entire justification upon which it has built its power. Every negotiation with Iran has followed the same pattern: the Iranian regime makes promises, secures financial and political gains, and then, once it has strengthened its position, resumes its belligerent actions. The Islamic Republic views nuclear weapons as the ultimate guarantor of its survival... Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has explicitly stated that Gaddafi's fate proves why Iran should never surrender its nuclear weapons. As with North Korea, negotiations may temporarily slow Iran's nuclear weapons development; they can never stop it. The regime will agree to talks only when it needs to buy time — whether to rebuild its economy under the cover of diplomacy, to lull the West into complacency, or to wait out an unfavorable political climate, such as a Trump. Always, the regime's goal remains the same: acquiring nuclear weapons to solidify its regional dominance and deter any attempt to remove the regime from power. Regrettably, the only way to neutralize the Iranian threat is through strength. The regime in Tehran understands only force. Until the West recognizes this reality, it will continue to be bamboozled while the Iranian regime buys time to advance its ambitions unchecked.
Like it or not, the nature of the Iranian regime is inseparable from its ideological foundations. The Islamic Republic of Iran is not a normal state, or even a conventional dictatorship. It is an ideological entity that derives its very identity from opposition to the United States, Israel and the West. Pictured: Iran's "Supreme Leader" Ali Khamenei meets with President Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran on August 27, 2024. (Image source: khamenei.ir)
For more than four decades, many Western politicians have entertained the hope that negotiations with the Islamist regime in Iran might lead to a change in its behavior and attitude toward the West. Time and again, diplomatic overtures, economic incentives and concessions have been extended to Tehran in the hope that engagement could moderate its policies. Yet, every attempt at diplomacy has failed. Unfortunately, it will continue to fail. Like it or not, the nature of the Iranian regime is inseparable from its ideological foundations. The Islamic Republic of Iran is not a normal state, or even a conventional dictatorship. It is an ideological entity that derives its very identity from opposition to the United States, Israel and the West.
Continue Reading Article
|
