You will continue receiving memos written long before Hamas attacked Israel and Biden responded. Prior to what has happened, I tried to send one memo each day but, of late, I have not done so in order to stay current. The memos you will be receiving were current when written but are not when received yet they still are, I believe, worthy of reading.
I truly believe Biden is sincere in what he has been saying as well as his personal expressions and feelings regarding Israel and Hamas .
However, I remain afflicted about his abilities to do what he must/should or even understands how to do what he must to project he is a strong and clear eyed leader of a once proud nation.
When Biden failed to mention Iran yesterday and, then today, said he hopes Israel fights according to the laws of war I lose faith. When I think about his nastiness towards Republicans, his many lies, his purposeful failure to protect our borders, alleged corruption, and you know the rest, I find my desire to be confident shaken.
Does Biden understand this time Hamas must be destroyed, that Israel has no choice because they cannot allow Hamas to become the victor as in the past ,when Israel was forced to yield/relent?
The shadow of the Afghanistan tragedy does not disappear.
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The U.S. Money Trail With Iran Is Worse Than You Think
BY ARYNNE WEXLER
It all becomes even more egregious when inspected within the context of the Biden administration’s foreign and domestic policies.
Many of the articles surrounding the atrocities of the Hamas attacks this past weekend have referenced the recent $6 billion “deal,” in which the U.S. gave this money to Iran in exchange for five Americans. It already seemed like the worst trade in history.
But it’s more nefarious than simply unleashing $6 billion to Iran, a known terrorist state and the most existential threat to the free world. In reality, this one detail hyperlinked quickly in most articles is part of a larger spider web of hidden details.
In a recent article, senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and former National Security Council official, Richard Goldberg, traces the money trail. He confirms: It is so much worse than we think.
Goldberg lays out the numbers. The $6 billion you’ve seen in every (other) headline is only the money being transferred from our friends in Qatar. But this is separate from the $10 billion of assets being transferred from Iraq, which Goldberg says will continue on “a rolling basis.” Then there are the reports that Iran will be allowed to access $7 billion in fiat currency by trading drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund. He also says Japan is scheduled to transfer $3 billion to Iran.
“Money is fungible,” and even the funds that have not yet been unfrozen are likely being treated as good credit in Iran’s ledger.
The revelations do not end there. U.S. officials have also quietly acknowledged they’ve uncapped Iranian oil exports to China. These export levels, previously held around 775,000 barrels per day under Trump’s sanctions, are now estimated to be between 1.4 and 2.2 million barrels per day. Modest estimates value this relief at $25 billion annually.
The total? $50 billion.
It’s giving a thug a loaded machine gun and expecting him not to shoot.
Less than a decade ago, the spokesman of the Izzuddin Al-Qassam Brigades publicly thanked Iran for providing the “weapons, money, and other equipment” used in attacks. Although there has been no public “thank you” to Iran from Hamas in relation to the surprise attack on Israel this past weekend, it is clear that Iran did help plan the attack. It is unlikely they stopped there. But of course, the Biden administration is hesitant to confirm this — with Republicans already alleging the White House’s ties to the attacks, they would like to avoid any evidence that confirms what most of the world suspects.
This is peeling back what is only the first layer of deception in the Biden administration’s policies.
Top U.S. Officials Directly Supporting Iran’s Interests
We know Iran has already ejected international nuclear inspectors and are on their way to building a facility that is believed to be so deep underground that it would be impenetrable to any air strikes. Iran did not even have to stop their production of high-enriched uranium. They’re merely producing it at a slower rate. But the Biden administration chose to pick up the Obama era’s decision to un-restrain Iran based on a pinky promise.
Most recently, we learned top officials were influencing the U.S. government in favor of Iranian nuclear power. A series of recently leaked emails have focused on Ariane Tabatabai, the chief of staff to the secretary of defense for special operations. Messages show her involvement with the Iran Experts Initiative (IEI), a direct Iranian government initiative to allegedly “improve the country’s image abroad.”
It would seem the mandate of improving the country’s “image” included influencing the U.S. government to give Tehran more flexibility in expanding uranium enrichment. That’s very different from the fruit and art exchanges you might have expected. But it does clarify the quiet suspension of the Biden administration’s lead Iran negotiator Robert Malley, which was previously unexplained. We’ve also come to learn of other aides who were directly corresponding with the Iranian government from their U.S. government posts, such as Ali Vaez and Dina Esfandiary.
Iran has never hidden its motivations. Even in the past, Iranian lawmakers proudly chanted “Death to America” and posted it on the news. They have always told us exactly who they are, and we still made a deal with the devil.
Meanwhile, Iran recently launched yet another imaging satellite, which is assumed to be part of their ballistic missile program. (Nuclear warheads don’t fly themselves — they are placed on ballistic missiles that carry them to their targets.) This goes against UN Security Council resolutions that are set to expire on Oct. 18.
Biden Admin Trades Energy Independence for Unstable Middle East
It all becomes even more egregious when inspected within the context of the Biden administration’s foreign and domestic policies.
We’re stopping oil production in America while allowing Iran to export more, all under the facade of “green energy.” The administration has given the green light to increase oil production in the country that is the greatest existential threat to the free world. Meanwhile, Biden has choked American oil production with the fewest number of offshore oil and gas leases “in history.” This is after Biden canceled all remaining leases in Alaska. But since these leases are for 2024 to 2029, he’s pushed off Americans truly feeling this at the pump until, quite conveniently, after the election.
Squeezing the American wallet is far from the most dire consequence of this policy. Biden has drained the Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) to multi-decade lows. Despite claims that they would be replenishing the reserves, the administration has not only yet to refill the reserves, they even pulled an offer at the end of this summer because of “market conditions.” Namely, oil is already too expensive, and we are drained of our most important backup resource.
In parallel, the Biden admin has been actively working to cut the legs off a Saudi-Israel deal. After all, why would we want to encourage stability in the Middle East?
Israel and Saudi Arabia have quietly been building diplomatic relations since the Abraham Accords, exchanging leaders and experts on various issues — and all without touching the Palestinian topic. In fact, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in an interview with Fox News several weeks ago, refused to make demands from Israel on the Palestinian issue and simply stated his expectation was merely that Israel “improved the lives of Palestinians.” But now the Biden administration has thrown a wet blanket on the entire deal, insisting on numerous concessions to Palestinians.
Israel is likely to carry out the dirty work of an actual operation to stop Iranian nuclear aspirations. Saudi Arabia was there to get the Arab world in line for when they do. We can presume the only reason the U.S. was brought to the table was to serve as the brass backup.
The talks well underway came to an impasse as “close sources” began leaking frustrations from both the Saudi and Israeli sides. While these countries were working on a historic deal to prevent a nuclear Iran, Biden was playing hardball.
The surety and necessity of a large military response from Israel in Gaza has eliminated the chances of the Saudis being able to shake hands with Israel for a while. Iran will continue enriching uranium.
Again, this one specific money trail doesn’t even begin to cover the extent of insanity — it is only a small detail within the wider web of the Biden administration’s policies. To add an even more baffling layer to the mix, Iran is a country that beats and jails women if their hair shows too much from under their hijabs, and in which homosexual activity can lead to the death penalty. Biden’s submission to Iran is directly at odds with the “values” the political left claims to champion.
At this point, America has not simply left the world stage — it is funding terror.
The extent of this hidden money trail has yet to be fully realized. It isn’t only Gaza. It’s Lebanon. It’s Syria. It’s Iraq. It’s Afghanistan. It will be Paris and London. It is likely pouring over the U.S. southern border.
And it’s coming to a neighborhood near you.
Arynne Wexler is a blue state refugee enjoying her freedom in South Florida. Her commentary can be found across social media platforms @NonLibTake.
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It is my understanding the U.S has finally allowed several "big boy block buster bombs" to be loaded on Boeing planes a few days ago with Israel as the recipient.
And:
From one of my dearest buddies and fellow memo reader: It amazes me that some people, including members of Congress, can support Hamas. Are these morons really Americans ? ( Sorry, I don't mean to give morons a bad name. )
JB
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Understanding the Hamas War on Israel
Middle East Forum Webinar
The following text is a transcript of the Middle East Forum's October 9 hour-long roundtable discussion featuring Daniel Pipes, MEF's president; Jonathan Spyer, the director of research; and Nave Dromi, the director of MEF-Israel. Gregg Roman, MEF's director, moderated.
Introduction: Hamas managed to pull off a surprise attack on Israel, leading to many casualties and political consequences. What does this mean for Israel's domestic debate? For the rapprochement with Saudi Arabia? For the Palestinian Authority? Will it lead to fundamental changes in Israel's security establishment? Will Hamas survive? How will Hezbollah respond? And what about Israel's Muslim citizens?
To make sense of this complex, fast-moving scene, the Middle East Forum hosted a roundtable discussion for a full hour on Monday. Participants include Daniel Pipes, MEF's president; Jonathan Spyer, the director of research; and Nave Dromi, the director of MEF-Israel. Gregg Roman, MEF's director, moderated.
To read the rest of this transcript, please click here.
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This from a long and very dear friend and fellow memo reader.
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Why the Iran Deal Matters
It was the first in a series of hugely consequential lies that will shape our country as much as the Middle East
BY LEE SMITH
How did we get here?
The current state of affairs began when Joe Biden’s former boss Barack Obama legalized a terror state’s nuclear weapons program.
Despite what its publicists claimed, the purpose of the deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was never to stop Iran from getting the bomb. Rather, the tens of billions of dollars that Obama paid the clerical regime, which included planeloads of cash, was to facilitate construction of the nuclear weapons program under the protective umbrella of an international agreement backed by the United States. Even a cursory glance at the agreement’s clauses restricting Iranian nuclear and other activities reveals the truth—they are called “sunset clauses” because they were designed to expire. And once they expired, Iran’s industrial-size nuclear weapons program would be entirely legal under the continuing protection of the United States.
No, no, say JCPOA advocates and defenders—the Iran deal was constructed to prevent Iran from ever getting a bomb. And at the time that Obama proposed his plan, it seemed inconceivable that the president would mislead Americans about something as serious as legalizing the nuclear weapons program of a terror state that has been killing Americans since its inception in 1979. Surely, Obama had some more conventional idea of arms control in mind. His critics must be conspiracy theorists, projecting their own pyromania onto the righteous president, probably because they were racists, or Zionists, or both. The Iranian emigres and Saudi analysts who expressed their shock at the idea of giving Iran the bomb must have their own local axes to grind.
Nearly a decade after the selling of the Iran deal, it’s much easier now for Americans to see that it was the origin point in a series of hugely consequential lies that have shaped our country at home as surely as they have shaped the lives of people in the Middle East.
They lied about Obama’s successor being a Russian spy to delegitimize the government and divide the country, in the hope of removing an elected president from office.
They lied about an “insurrection” on Jan. 6, 2021, to justify designating one half of the country as domestic terrorists, in order to put their political opponents in jail.
They’ve lied about so many things because they’re certain that their communications infrastructure—where intelligence officers direct big tech and censor what was once America’s independent press—will shape the “information space” on their behalf, effectively controlling what we see, hear, and read.
They first built their echo chamber to sell the idea that the Iran deal would stop Iran from getting a bomb; now the echo chamber is everywhere—a high-tech version of how the press is run in countries like Egypt, or Iran.
Obama wanted to give Iran the bomb in the context of a larger realignment of U.S. interests with those of the Islamic Republic. If you’ve seen any of the videos on social media of Hamas operatives dragging Jews out of their homes and shooting them, you can see what that means. Obama admired Hamas’ Iranian patron Qassem Soleimani, who ran Iran’s expeditionary unit, the Quds Force, until the Trump administration killed him. Obama told Gulf Arab U.S. allies they should get their own Quds Force, but they didn’t, which is partly why Obama downgraded relations with America’s traditional Arab allies and moved Iran into the top slot. Obama wanted Iran’s hard men and their terror assets to manage U.S. regional interests, so that the United States could leave the Middle East and “pivot” to Asia—though as it turned out, China and its friends in Washington had their own ideas about American dominance there.
But there was also an important domestic reason to get Iran the bomb, which was to normalize pathology. If you treat a nation-state that embodies Jew-hatred as an ally and arm it with a bomb, you are legitimizing Jew-hatred, which is perhaps the dominant form that psychopathy takes in modern global politics. To believe that Jews secretly rule the world, that the invisible hand of the “elders of Zion” tilts the world like gravity in favor of the Jews, and that mankind’s dignity can only be restored if the Jews are disempowered, or eliminated, is a pathological belief—one that is shared by billions of people around the globe, as well as by a stunning assortment of psychopaths with designs on power.
Obama rejected that characterization, acknowledging that the regime was anti-Semitic. But antis-Semitism, as Obama told a journalist, “doesn’t preclude you from being rational about the need to keep your economy afloat; it doesn’t preclude you from making strategic decisions about how you stay in power.”
That’s just your average high-stakes undergraduate bull session answer, in which the winning move is to rationalize Jew hatred through the backdoor: You can be an anti-Semite and still be rational. But then Obama went a step further, and suggested that maybe antisemitism could itself be rational. He talked about the Iranians using “anti-Semitic rhetoric as an organizing tool.”
The latter part of Obama’s answer was incredibly revealing. Of course, anti-Semites don’t see anti-Semitism as an “organizing tool”—meaning, as a rational device to achieve a rational end. Antisemitism is many things—a conspiracy theory, a passion—but rationality is not one of its characteristics.
The Iran deal was more than a foreign policy blunder, or a bad deal. It was the device that Obama consciously used to transform America.
The anti-Semites you come across on social media aren’t trying to win followers or “organize people”; they just hate Jews. They are proud of their beliefs, and eager to tell the whole world. No, the kind of person who sees antisemitism as an “organizing tool” is someone who would use it that way. In other words, Obama’s comment was revealing because he wasn’t speaking about the Iranian regime. He was talking about himself.
It’s hard to look into another’s heart to discern their true feelings about others. But we know that Obama believes antisemitism to be a useful organizing tool, because he said so himself.
The Iran deal was more than a foreign policy blunder, or a bad deal. It was the device that Obama consciously used to transform America. It unleashed the Iranians and their terror assets abroad; at home it sidelined the Jews, pushing them out of the places they had carved out for themselves in American life and relegating them to second-class status in the Democratic Party—where, in order to belong, they would now have to pledge allegiance to the idea of gifting nuclear weapons to a country that pledged to exterminate them.
In turn, the reason that Obama had to push out the Jews is because they are one of the touchstones of American exceptionalism. Like Israel, like the Jews, America is a nation built since its founding on the idea of a covenant with God. Just as Christians have no evidence that Jesus is real or that God acts in history without the historical reality of the Jews, America grounds its unique self-conception in history through Israel. Like the Jews, we are one of a kind, with a unique, God-given destiny.
Obama’s transformation of America was to remake it in his own image, by junking the idea that America is exceptional and dissolving the country’s borders with the rest of the world. America is not unique. It is as sinful as any other nation, Obama was effectively arguing, and possibly worse. What better way to make that point than by throwing Israel overboard, and replacing it with Iran—a country that preaches God’s retribution against America.
Now that the Israel part of Obama’s dream has been achieved, we should all be prepared for the other shoe to drop. The violence Obama unleashed in Israel will be coming to these shores now.
Lee Smith is the author of The Permanent Coup: How Enemies Foreign and Domestic Targeted the American President (2020).
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Why we should quit funding this organization that constantly supports radical Muslim murderers.
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My view why there can be no 2 state solution.
a) Palestinians have sworn to eliminate Israel. Only a fool would negotiate with those sworn to kill you.
Turn the other cheek and lose your head.
b) Palestinians have made bad leadership choices and are weak. This is how Hamas was able to come into Gaza and rule.
Israel does not need to negotiate with a people whose future leaders are neither likely to be democratic and thus, who cannot be trusted.
Sharon walked away from Gaza because he did not want to control the Palestinians and Hamas took over and look at the results?
When Palestinians were given Gaza it was a thriving area with industrial plants, farms, mostly self sustaining and a basically thriving Israeli community.
The Palestinians are capable and industrious but they purposely destroyed what they inherited because it was built by Israelis.
Sound familiar? That is what Biden did to most everything Trump created that worked and wrecked the thriving domestic economy he inherited.
c) Finally, BIBI, as I understand it, worked with the potential successor ruler of Jordan allowing Palestinians to come into Jordan and expand that nation along with the large number of Palestinians already living there.
The critical issue is what Golda said: ' When Palestinians love their children as Israel loves their's peace can come to the region.'
Meanwhile, Biden has allowed China, to begin creating a Gaza out of Cuba and we will pay heavily one day.
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Hamas atrocities explode the two-state myth
The United States may finally be prepared to let Israel defeat the Islamist terror group. But that shouldn’t lead to a push for a Palestinian state after that is accomplished.
JONATHAN S. TOBIN JNS)
At last. After 17 years of Western diplomatic pressure from the United States to limit its responses to Hamas terrorism, it appears that Washington may be finally prepared to let Israel strike a decisive blow against the Islamist group in Gaza. The scale—the death toll now exceeds 1,200 murdered—and the depravity of the atrocities committed during the Oct. 7 assault seem to have convinced both the Biden administration as well as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that a maintenance of the status quo with Hamas isn’t an adequate response.
But it hasn’t taken long for the people who have been influencing and steering America’s Middle East policies for the last generation and whose mistakes paved the way for this slaughter to be back preaching their familiar sermons about the need for Palestinian statehood. That such people are still being taken seriously—let alone touted as foreign-policy “wise men”—is mind-boggling, especially when few in Washington seem to recognize that the Hamas state in Gaza is proof that their formulations are wrong. It’s not just that the beliefs of these Islamists are incompatible with a two-state solution, something that even liberals now concede. Rather, it is that the two-state solution is incompatible with any vision of peace.
Giving Israel room to act
Biden’s remarks delivered at the White House on Oct. 10, in which he compared Hamas to ISIS and cited the horrific crimes committed by Hamas, were not merely passionate but seemed to be a green light for Israel to “respond.” Just how far the Americans will go along with a ground invasion of Gaza or at what point Biden will seek to halt Israel’s efforts to end the threat from the terrorists remains to be seen. But for the moment, Biden’s sentiments offer Netanyahu and his new unity government the room they need to act.
What exactly a ground assault on Gaza would mean is far from clear. Indeed, a press briefing by the prime minister’s office conducted on Oct. 11 merely promised that when Israel was done, Hamas would be left with “zero military capability and zero motivation to attack again.” That may fall short of the demands being voiced by many Israelis for a campaign that will end with Hamas finished, but Netanyahu is clearly keeping his options open.
For now, the focus of Israel’s supporters should be on making sure that Biden sticks to his promise to have Israel’s back. The rhetoric of support for Israel and recognition that Hamas cannot be granted a pass for its barbarism is loud, and for the most part, bipartisan. But the indications of the outlines of a post-war debate about what the next step for U.S. foreign policy ought to be are already being made clear. The desire on the part of the foreign-policy establishment for a return to an American strategy rooted in the patent nostrum of a two-state solution is already being heard.
While Biden has avoided mention of two states in the current context, others have not.
Keeping Hamas alive
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who has been a particular favorite of Biden as he acted as a cheerleader for the Israeli protest movement that was aimed at toppling Netanyahu, has lost no time in weighing in to urge that Washington oppose an operation against Hamas inside Gaza and to return to efforts to pressure Jerusalem to make concessions to the supposedly “more moderate” Palestinian Authority.
Just as pointed was a piece by Richard Haas, the quintessential establishment thinker, former Bush administration staffer and president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, as well as an MSNBC talking head.
Haas sounded the traditional voice of caution that has always argued against doing something about Hamas, claiming that it “can’t be eliminated because it represents an ideology as much as an organization.” Sounding a theme that has been frequently deployed to deprecate counter-terrorism efforts elsewhere, he argued that killing terrorists merely creates new ones. “Efforts to destroy it risk building support for it,” he said.
That is a spineless argument that will fall on deaf ears in Israel as well as with decent people everywhere, as the shocking details of cold-blooded murders of men, women and children; decapitations of babies; rapes and kidnappings have created a consensus that those who ordered and committed these crimes must not go unpunished. The “ideology” of which Haas speaks is one that is grounded in the glorification of this inhuman behavior and the murder of Jews. Just like that of the similar beliefs of the Nazis, it, too, can and must be eliminated.
Going further, he claimed that the aftermath of the fighting must provide Palestinians with exactly the sort of political benefit that Hamas was hoping for. While he acknowledged that Israel would need to use its military to some limited extent, the only real answer is for it to produce “a credible Israeli plan for bringing about a viable Palestinian state.”
The Palestinian state already exists
The first thing that needs to be said about that is to remind the world about an obvious fact that is generally ignored. It is that there is already an independent Palestinian state in Gaza.
Do we really need to point out that Israel withdrew every soldier, settler and settlement from Gaza in the summer of 2005? It did not, as the George W. Bush administration and many in Israel hoped, become an incubator for peace. Instead, it became an independent Palestinian state in all but name. Hamas has ruled Gaza since mid-2007 in a coup after winning an election the prior year. It then transformed it into a terror base from which it has launched rockets and missiles against Israeli villages, towns and cities, a war crime in which it seeks to indiscriminately target civilians as well as cross-border assaults.
The “wise men” like Friedman and Haas claim that while Hamas are bad guys, they are merely extremists who give Palestinian nationalism a bad name. But this is untrue. While the “moderates” of Fatah that run the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria—where it autonomously governs the Arabs who live there—are, in theory, committed to coexistence with Israel, in many ways they are as radical as their Hamas rivals.
It is true that there is close cooperation between the Israeli security forces and the P.A. But that is more for the sake of keeping Abbas alive and his kleptocracy in power than for maintaining peace. Without Israel’s help, the corrupt P.A. leader—87 years old and serving the 19th year of the four-year term to which he was elected in 2005—would have been knocked off by Hamas long ago.
Is the P.A. different?
Abbas, an inveterate Holocaust denier as well as someone who denies the facts about Jewish history in the land of Israel, regularly spews antisemitism with as much vitriol as the Islamists in Gaza or Hamas’s theocratic funders in Iran. That’s also true of the P.A.’s official media and schools, which have been fomenting antisemitism and hatred for Jews among Palestinian children since it took over the territories after the 1993 Oslo Accords.
Abbas and his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, have funded terrorism with a “pay for slay” plan by which those who injure or murder Jews are rewarded with salaries and/or pensions for their families. Just as important, they have also repeatedly rejected Israeli offers of statehood and independence because it would have required them to recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state and effectively end their futile century-old war on Zionism.
They have always said “no” to peace because Palestinian national identity—whether expressed through the ideology of Fatah or that of Hamas—remains inextricably linked with efforts to eradicate the Jewish state rather than a desire to build their own nation. When Palestinians speak of the “occupation,” they don’t refer to Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria or Jerusalem, but to pre-1967 Israel. Hamas is merely more explicit about that goal than the P.A.
The reason why the P.A. has repeatedly refused to hold another election is rooted in their justified fears that Hamas would defeat them and take control of the West Bank as well as Gaza.
For 16 years, Hamas has shown the world what a Palestinian state where (unlike in Judea and Samaria), the Israel Defense Forces could no longer operate would look like. And since unlike Abbas, they don’t rely on the Israelis to maintain control over their people, they don’t have to sometimes pretend to be more reasonable than they actually are.
Much like the routine terrorism that is rewarded with their “pay for slay” system, the barbarism of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks is a pure expression of the “ideology” that Haas thinks can’t be eliminated. And far from condemning these unspeakable crimes, the P.A. has predictably endorsed them. That took the form of a statement by Abbas in which he defended the attacks by saying that “Palestinians had a right to defend themselves against the terrorism of the settlers and occupation forces.” On P.A. TV, his Fatah Party urged Palestinians to “land more blows on Israel,” and to join with Hamas to join the terror, and to “strike the sons of apes and pigs” and “slaughter everyone Israeli.”
Were Abbas’s kingdom to be granted full sovereignty and independence, it would not just soon fall to Hamas as Gaza did. It would also behave in much the same manner as Hamas’s terrorist state. Many Palestinians may, like their Israeli neighbors, long for peace. But those among them that preach endless war are very much in the mainstream while advocates for peace are in the minority.
They won’t admit defeat
Peace between Jews and Palestinian Arabs requires the latter to do something they have stubbornly refused to do: admit defeat in their long war to turn the clock back not just to 1967 or 1948, but to 1917 and the Balfour Declaration. Perhaps a complete defeat of Hamas in Gaza will move them closer to that recognition, but as long as the West’s policy is aimed at allowing them to ignore reality, that won’t happen. Until there is a sea change in the political culture of the Palestinians, Israel will have no choice but to continue with an anomalous policy in which it seeks to avoid interference in internal Arab affairs but continues to protect its security by maintaining control over Judea and Samaria. It’s little wonder that the Western suggestions about replicating former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Gaza experiment in the West Bank has always struck most Israelis as not just ill-advised but insane.
Oct. 7 provided even more proof not just of the insanity of calls for Israeli territorial withdrawals, but why a two-state solution is a formula for enabling the shedding of Jewish blood rather than advancing the cause of peace. Anyone prepared to look at the truth soberly and without the false preconceptions that have guided the peace processors since 1993 can now see that calls for two states are incompatible with Israel’s existence or peace. It’s time to realize that … and to stop taking those who continue to peddle such terrible and dangerous ideas seriously.
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Poor judgement and weakness invite dangerous challenges.
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Biden Faces an Iran Reckoning
Tehran looms behind Hamas’s atrocities and Hezbollah’s next move.
The Editorial Board
President Biden on Tuesday showed appropriate outrage at the wanton slaughter by Hamas this weekend, and his pledge of support for Israel is welcome. But there was a crucial word missing from his remarks at the White House: Iran. Tehran is Hamas’s terror master, and its assault on Israel exposes the failure of his Iran strategy.
The Journal has reported that Iran gave the approval for Hamas’s bloody assault at an Oct. 2 meeting in Beirut. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has denied it, and the U.S. is saying it has no “specific evidence” of Iran’s assent. But Iran has long been the chief benefactor of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, as well as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Shiite militias in Iraq and Yemen. All have praised the Hamas assault, as has Mr. Khamenei.
This is what Iran sends Hamas guns and money to do. Hamas killed at least 22 Americans in the attack at last count, and others are now captives. Mr. Biden has a duty to get them home and avenge those deaths.
It’s implausible that Hamas would have struck without Iran’s approval, knowing Israel’s response would be devastating. One question is whether the massacres were part of a deliberate strategy to court such a response. An Israeli ground assault could be the excuse for Hezbollah to open a second front in Israel’s north.
Hezbollah receives an estimated $700 million a year from Iran, and its missile stockpile runs to 100,000 or more with greater accuracy than rockets fired from Gaza. They could target most of Israel. A Hezbollah attack would also require Iran’s approval.
Mr. Biden on Tuesday warned unnamed countries not to take advantage of the war in Gaza, and his deployment of a carrier strike group to the Eastern Mediterranean is a useful show of support for Israel. But the question is whether Iran will believe this attempt at deterrence after Mr. Biden’s behavior over the past three years.
It’s worth recalling how hard Mr. Biden has tried to accommodate the mullahs in Tehran. Upon taking office, his Administration ended Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign. It relaxed enforcement of sanctions on Iran’s oil sales, which has been worth tens of billions. It also dispatched Iranian sympathizer, Robert Malley, to renegotiate the 2015 nuclear deal. (Mr. Malley has since been sidelined for unexplained reasons that may be related to security concerns.)
Iran has refused these entreaties. The latest “understanding,” before the Hamas invasion, was that Iran would slow or stall its uranium enrichment for a bomb while the U.S. would let Iran have billions of dollars held by Iraq and South Korea. This included the $6 billion that was part of the trade for five Americans held as hostages by Iran.
Mr. Biden has also failed to respond aggressively when Iran’s proxies have attacked Americans. Under questioning from Sen. Tom Cotton, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Iran or its proxies have launched 83 attacks on Americans since Mr. Biden took office, but the U.S. has responded militarily only four times.
One goal of all this seems to have been to avoid any confrontation with Iran through the 2024 election. But Iran has clearly interpreted it as a sign of U.S. weakness. The Hamas assault should finally convince Mr. Biden that Iran has no intention of abiding by his timetable. It will order its proxies to strike when it serves its purposes and sees a vulnerability.
Iran’s current purpose may be to blow up the emerging rapprochement between Israel and Saudi Arabia—at a moment when the U.S. is also assisting Ukraine against Russia. Iran is run by a revolutionary regime that wants to destroy Israel and dominate the region. It wants a “Shiite crescent” of power from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean.
The question now is whether Mr. Biden will adapt to this reality and drop his appeasement strategy. He can start by blocking the transfer of the $6 billion and return to maximum pressure. He may also soon face a decision on whether to assist Israel militarily if Hezbollah opens a second front in the north.
Israel can defeat both adversaries, but at great cost. If Israel’s new unity government, which was announced Wednesday, requests U.S. help from the air or otherwise, Mr. Biden would be wise to grant it. Iran and the world will detect further American weakness if he won’t help a steadfast ally. Sen. Lindsey Graham has proposed that the U.S. bomb Iranian oil facilities, and Iran has to know that its military sites, nuclear program and oil fields aren’t off-limits if it escalates its war against Israel.
The history of another Democratic President is instructive. For three years, Jimmy Carter sought detente with the Soviet Union. But the Soviets sensed weakness and promoted revolution around the world. When they invaded Afghanistan, Mr. Carter recognized reality and began a defense buildup that laid the groundwork for the Reagan rearmament.
President Biden now faces a similar reckoning with Iran. For three years he has tried to appease Tehran into taming its revolutionary ambitions. That hope has exploded with the Iran-backed slaughter of more than 1,000 Israelis and Americans. Can Mr. Biden make a Carter-like pivot back to reality? His legacy may depend on it.
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We must be prepared for the consequences of Biden's purposefully porous borders.
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Report: Hamas calls for global Jihad, invasion of Israel, attack Jews worldwide on Oct. 13
Elizabeth Lawrence
A leader and founding member of Hamas, Khalid Mashal, reportedly called for a global Jihad on Tuesday, asking Muslims around the world to target the people of Israel on Friday, Oct. 13.
Video of Mashal’s reported call to violence was posted on YouTube and remains up on the platform as of Wednesday at 10 a.m.
According to a translation and analysis of the video by author Brother Rachid, Mashal referred to his proposed day of anger as “the Friday of Al-Aqsa flood,” which will “send a message of rage to Zionists and to America.”
“The most important thing: He asked all Muslims around the world to carry Jihad by their souls; to fight and be martyrs for Al-Aqsa. He wants Muslims to fight against the Jews, starting with Muslims who live in the countries surrounding Israel: Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt (but also other countries), to go to the borders and try to enter, each by his own means,” Rachid explained. “He said: This is the time for Jihad to be applied on the ground rather than just in theory. He asked the Mujahedeen to go in long caravans to spell their blood on the land of Palestine.”
Khalid Mashal the leader and founding member of Hamas gave a speech today asking Muslims all around the world to do the following:⁰⁰1. To show anger, especially next Friday, in Muslim countries and Also among Muslim diaspora around the world; he called it “the Friday of Al-Aqsa…
“Funds are important but today we are asking for your blood and souls [to be sacrificed for Palestine],” Mashal concluded, according to Rachid.
The call for global Jihad comes after Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and wounding thousands more. The terrorists also took the elderly, women and children as hostages. It is unclear how many people were taken.
Support for Hamas terrorists was heard around the world, including Australia, where a crowd of mostly Muslim pro-Palestine protestors gathered near the Sydney Opera House in Australia Monday night, chanting “Gas the Jews.”
According to The Daily Mail, local police allowed Monday night’s pro-Palestinian protestors outside of the Sydney Opera House to chant violence against the Jews and burn the Star of David; however, local police arrested a pro-Israeli protestor for attempting to raise an Israeli flag.
This was a breaking news story. The details were periodically updated as more information became available.
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