Latest Analysis and Commentary
by Pierre Rehov • August 30, 2026 at 5:00 am
An institution built around one person, such as the US President Donald J. Trump, carries the expiration date of that person's term in office. The states that join it do not. The real plan, as can be seen from Saudi Arabia's recent moves, seems to be to avoid joining the Abraham Accords, and instead position themselves in Gaza, right on the border of Israel, to be able to attack it after Trump leaves office. No one will have his determination to make sure that any agreements are enforced. Early on, Saudi Arabia came up with a "poison pill": the kingdom conditioned joining the Abraham Accords on the creation of a Palestinian state. Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman has since reached an agreement with the US that reportedly allows Saudi Arabia to develop domestic uranium enrichment capabilities under safeguards that fall short of the stringent standards previously demanded by Washington, rather than importing nuclear fuel as other Gulf countries do. The uranium enrichment would, of course, be supposedly "for peaceful purposes." However, these enrichment centrifuges could also be used to make nuclear weapons -- the same kind Iran is not allowed to have. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright signed the nuclear framework before Trump, to his great credit, the next day presented his own "poison pill": first, Saudi Arabia would have to normalize its relations with Israel and join the Abraham Accords. This requirement seems to have been, revealingly, a dealbreaker. Instead, Saudi Arabia organized the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement with Turkey, which has a vast military, and Pakistan, which has nuclear weapons. Based on the Middle East's frequent schoolyard excuse that "it all started when he hit me back," the three countries could, for instance, provoke or attack on Israel, then when Israel responds for its own self-defense, claim that all three of them had been attacked and "forced" to retaliate: Turkey with its conventional military, Pakistan with a nuclear weapon, and Saudi Arabia by financing the expedition. [T]he most senior levels of the Israeli security establishment that concluded that Turkey is still financing Hamas. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan holds a seat on the Gaza Executive Board, the body charged with implementing the disarmament of Hamas. When the White House named the executive board for the Board of Peace in January, its members included Fidan, senior Qatari official Ali Al-Thawadi and Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated publicly that the composition had never been coordinated with Israel and ran contrary to its policy. The Board of Peace itself, 28 countries operating under UN Security Council Resolution 2803, released an interim report to the UNSC that identified Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United States as the four mediating states. The 15-point roadmap that now governs Hamas's disarmament was drafted by those four "guarantors"... What, though, will they actually be guaranteeing? A former senior Shin Bet officer with three decades in the service has argued that the parties actually driving developments inside the board are Qatar and Turkey, assisted by Egypt. The arrangement amounts to the Muslim Brotherhood supervising the supposed disarming of its own Palestinian branch, Hamas. Turkey has been strengthening its hold on Syria and positioning its military there, potentially for a pincer attack on Israel: from Syria on Israel's east and Gaza on Israel's west. Senior Israeli officials trace the Iranian money reaching Hamas and Hezbollah along a route running through Istanbul with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's implicit permission. Money often settles what communiqués leave open. Eight governments -- among them Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco -- signed the founding donors' declaration behind roughly $17 billion in reconstruction pledges... Whoever pays the contractors, the suppliers and eventually the policemen, will decide who governs the streets they patrol. The political alignment already exists on paper. On August 3, Qatar, Egypt and Turkey published a declaration in their capacity as mediating countries, condemning Israeli operations in Gaza and calling on the international community to compel Israel to stop. Trump's term of office ends in January 2029. He personally chairs the Board of Peace and will pass on that position to whoever succeeds him. Every month of delay moves the supposed complete disarmament of Hamas closer to Trump's successor, and to the states that will still be seated at the table when he or she arrives. [T]he US State Department informed Congress that Turkey has not met the statutory conditions... which require Ankara to give up its Russian-made S-400 surface-to-air missiles. Although Turkey tested the S-400 following its delivery and has not returned it to Russia, the Turkish government claims that the system is in storage — presumably until it is taken out of storage. Erdogan has made no secret of his intentions regarding Israel, as well as Syria, Cyprus and Greece. As recently as March 30, 2025, he stated, "May Allah, for the sake of his name ... destroy and devastate Zionist Israel" He also reportedly prayed for "mercy upon the martyrs" of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and a "speedy recovery" for their wounded terrorists. Previously, Erdogan stated, "Jerusalem is our city," and "Patience brings victory," and that "We are determined to not give up on our rights on Jerusalem." This is the country to which Trump wants to supply stealth fighter jets? The Saudi nuclear file runs on an identical clock. The draft nuclear cooperation agreement reported to Congress does not contain a Saudi commitment to forgo enrichment and reprocessing, a commitment Washington spent two decades calling the gold standard for nuclear nonproliferation. The Agreement refers instead to additional "safeguards" in the most sensitive areas of cooperation, which is diplomatic phrasing for enrichment centrifuges on Saudi soil. Even if the S-400 batteries have been shipped off from Turkey to another country, and Hamas offices in Istanbul are shuttered and independently verified as closed, no F-35 stealth fighter jets should be supplied to Turkey. After all, the S-400 missile batteries could always find their way back. In addition, no uranium enrichment centrifuges should be allowed in Saudi Arabia, even if a binding Saudi renunciation of enrichment and reprocessing were written into the operative text, not a side letter. As we have seen with Iran, no one but Trump can be counted on to enforce international commitments. Not one dollar for Gaza reconstruction should be disbursed through channels controlled by governments that Israel has identified as financing Hamas, the organization the money is meant to displace. What Turkey and Saudi Arabia want from Washington is hardware, and those F-35s will still be flying and those centrifuges will still be spinning, long after the people that vouched for them have left office.
An institution built around one person, such as the US President Donald J. Trump, carries the expiration date of that person's term in office. The states that join it do not. Nothing better explains the conduct of Turkey, Qatar, Egypt and Saudi Arabia over the past eight months — and nothing in current American policy appears to be taking the countless danger signals from them seriously. Pictured: Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman shakes hands with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, on June 22, 2022. (Photo by Adem Altan/AFP via Getty Images)
An institution built around one person, such as the US President Donald J. Trump, carries the expiration date of that person's term in office. The states that join it do not. Nothing better explains the conduct of Turkey, Qatar, Egypt and Saudi Arabia over the past eight months — and nothing in current American policy appears to be taking the countless danger signals from them seriously. The real plan, as can be seen from Saudi Arabia's recent moves, seems to be to avoid joining the Abraham Accords, and instead position themselves in Gaza, right on the border of Israel, to be able to attack it after Trump leaves office. No one will have his determination to make sure that any agreements are enforced.
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by Amir Taheri • August 30, 2026 at 4:00 am
After the crushing failure of European revolutions in 1848, many communist leaders... sought refuge in the US to escape European police. Though some morphed into capitalists, they gave local politics a leftist accent that is still there. The gospel of American neo-communists is riddled with contradictions. They want to defund the police and virtually abolish the armed forces, while all communist systems so far did the opposite by creating a police state backed by a huge military machine. They also talk of collective ownership of "the means of production and exchange." Yet those "means" are owned by 58 percent of Americans who hold stocks and won't be happy to be dispossessed in the name of "collective control." And that's not to mention countless Americans who own small- and medium-sized businesses.
(Image source: OpenAI)
"A specter is haunting America; the specter of communism!" Until recently this re-writing of the opening of The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels might have sounded like a sour joke. Now, however, we have in the United States politicians who describe themselves alternately as the Democratic Socialists of America or straight communists. Their morale boosted by the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City and the nomination of Abdul El-Sayed as a candidate for a Senate seat from Michigan in the upcoming elections, they openly talk of seizing control of the Democrat Party and reshaping it as an instrument for creating an "egalitarian" system in the US. One of their stars, US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is even putting out teasers about a possible presidential run in the 2028 elections.
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by Majid Rafizadeh • August 29, 2026 at 5:00 am
"The only way to save the country... is building an atomic bomb and firing it, no other way is left for us. We should create a tsunami whose waves hit the American coasts." — Iranian cleric Mohammad Bagher Kharrazi, secretary-general of Iran's proxy, Hezbollah, and closely tied to Iran's current Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei The real question needs to be: What happens after Trump leaves office? The regime's character — Islamist, anti-Western, anti-American and expansionist — has not changed. If Western powers are truly serious, they must work to completely eliminate Iran's present regime. Recent developments show the danger of permitting recovery. Iran's army is claiming that weapons systems damaged in the 2026 war have already been "rebuilt" -- either domestically or after having been imported, and with a shift toward offensive capabilities. Satellite imagery and intelligence assessments reveal rapid reconstruction of missile bases, tunnel entrances, production facilities, and infrastructure — faster than many anticipated. Israeli officials have expressed surprise at the speed of recovery in ballistic missile capabilities. Leaving these arsenals in place would simply make further military efforts more dangerous both for US bases and allies in the Gulf. Any rebuilding of Iran's military infrastructure must be disrupted; leaders driving this belligerency need to be removed from power. Economic isolation also remains critical, as US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has laid out, complete with universally enforced secondary sanctions. The European Union should close remaining diplomatic and commercial channels that provide legitimacy or revenue. The West should not have to wait for Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon -- when it would be impossible to stop, which is why the regime wants one -- before taking Iran's threats seriously. The war with the Iranian regime -- to contradict those who claim it was a war of choice – is anything but that. Iran, China and Russia have been trying to take down Western civilization for decades. Only Trump had the vision and the determination to take on these threats. For both US and international security, it is obligatory for the world's leading superpower, the United States of America, to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and to protect countless lives. Iran's regime must not be allowed to rebuild its military or remain in power. Every available measure needs to be pursued until the Islamic Republic of Iran is totally dismantled. For decades, half-measures have failed. The alternative is for the West's nuclear-capable adversaries -- whose "only solution" will assuredly put the world at risk -- to succeed in their mission.
In the ideology of Iran's ruling establishment, nuclear weapons are still openly contemplated not just as a deterrent but as instruments of mass destruction. If an extremist regime acquires a nuclear weapon, the question is: What happens afterwards? The regime's character — Islamist, anti-Western, anti-American and expansionist — has not changed. If Western powers are truly serious, they must work to completely eliminate Iran's present regime. Pictured: Crowds gather for the funeral procession of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in Mashhad, on July 9, 2026. (Photo by Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)
For anyone who has ever harbored doubts—and for those who still do—that Iran's regime stands against humanity, peace, and the basic norms of civilization, the latest remarks from hard-line Iranian cleric Mohammad Bagher Kharrazi -- secretary-general of Iran's proxy, Hezbollah, and closely tied to the current Supreme Leader -- should be impossible to ignore. "The only way to save the country... is building an atomic bomb and firing it," Kharrazi recently declared, "no other way is left for us.... We should create a tsunami whose waves hit the American coasts". In the ideology of Iran's ruling establishment, nuclear weapons are still openly contemplated not just as a deterrent but as instruments of mass destruction. If an extremist regime acquires a nuclear weapon, the question is: What happens afterwards?
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by Con Coughlin • August 28, 2026 at 5:00 am
Turkey's continued financial support for Hamas and its provision of safe haven to Hamas terrorists only adds to Israel's view of Turkey as a hostile actor, an attitude that is not helped by Erdogan's constant use of anti-Israel rhetoric in political campaigning and official communications. In June, for example, Turkey's interior minister called for the "liberation of Jerusalem." Israel's intelligence establishment, though, presented the US with evidence that Erdogan has other ambitions, which include expanding and solidifying Turkey's military presence at Syrian bases previously used by the Assad regime's Iranian and Russian allies. In addition, Erdogan has stated that "Jerusalem is ours," and as recently as March 30, 2025, "May the Lord make Zionist Israel destroyed and devastated." Erdogan published a 758-page document that outlines his long-term phased plan to take over "Israel, the Middle East and the Free world." Amichai Chikli, Israel's Minister of Diaspora Affairs, said, "Ahmed al-Sharaa's military is Erdoğan's military. Al-Sharaa's ideology is Erdoğan's ideology. Erdoğan and al-Sharaa's ideology is Al Qaeda and ISIS ideology," and cited what he described as their barbaric treatment of non-Muslim minorities in the region. [I]t is vital that Erdogan not be allowed to pursue his expansionist aims in Syria and certainly not to have F-35 stealth fighter jets.
Israel has become increasingly concerned about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's attempts to expand his influence in neighbouring Syria, where he played a key role in helping the country's Islamist president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, to overthrow the Assad regime and seize power in December 2024. Pictured: Al-Sharaa shakes hands with Erdogan during a press conference in Ankara, Turkey on February 4, 2025. (Photo by Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images)
Amid deepening tensions between Turkey and Israel over Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's attempts to extend his influence over Syria, Israel's decision to strike a Syrian air base on the outskirts of Idlib is designed to send a clear signal to the Turkish leader to rein in his ambitions. Since the overthrow of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, Syria has increasingly become the focus of the deepening hostility between Israel and Turkey. In particular, Israel has become increasingly concerned about Erdogan's attempts to expand his influence in neighbouring Syria, where he played a key role in helping the country's new Islamist president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, to overthrow the Assad regime and seize power in December 2024.
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by Khaled Abu Toameh • August 27, 2026 at 5:00 am
Hussein al-Sheikh, vice president of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and deputy chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), revealed this week that Hamas... has reached an understanding with the US permitting figures affiliated with the terrorist organization to participate [in the upcoming November 29 PA elections] through a "new political framework." If this account is accurate, the scheme amounts to a dangerous exercise in deception. Changing Hamas's name does not change Hamas. Pretending that Hamas-affiliated election candidates are somehow different from Hamas because they are running under another banner is a scam. Perhaps they could call themselves the "Palestinian Peace Movement," or the "Palestinian Party for Democracy and Transparency"? Hamas does not recognize Israel's right to exist. It has never accepted the PLO as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people." It rejects the Oslo Accords. Its ideology remains centered on "resistance" and the claimed "liberation" of Palestine — which in fact has never existed — wishfully from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Most importantly, Hamas has still not demonstrated that it is prepared to surrender its weapons and cease functioning as an armed organization. Hamas will promise anything if doing so helps it survive and return to political legitimacy. Hamas has proved itself adept at telling outsiders what they want to hear while pursuing its long-term objectives. The same danger applies to elections Why, after October 7, should anyone, let alone the Trump administration, be searching for formulas to facilitate Hamas's return to Palestinian political life? Why, nearly three years after October 7, 2023, does a terrorist organization such as Hamas continue to be treated by various international and regional parties as some kind of indispensable political actor? Hamas officials continue to participate in negotiations and meetings through regional mediators, while discussions increasingly seem aimed not at removing Hamas from Palestinian political life but at finding ways to accommodate it. There can be no loophole called "Hamas-affiliated independents." There can be no cosmetic rebranding and no supposedly "new political framework" designed to disguise the identity of candidates who continue to embrace Hamas and its jihadist ideology. Stop the deception. Stop searching for ways to sneak Hamas back into Palestinian political life through the back door. It is not good for either their election or America's.
Changing Hamas's name does not change Hamas. Pretending that Hamas-affiliated election candidates are somehow different from Hamas because they are running under another banner is a scam. If candidates are affiliated with Hamas, support Hamas or subscribe to its extremist ideology, what difference does the name of their electoral list make? Pictured: The Palestinian Legislative Council building in Ramallah on January 28, 2006, three days after its last election. (Photo by Zharan Hammad/Getty Images)
If reports about an agreement between the United States and Hamas concerning the terrorist group's participation in the upcoming Palestinian Authority elections are true, the arrangement is not only outrageous, it is a fraud. Hussein al-Sheikh, vice president of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and deputy chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), revealed this week that Hamas would not participate in the November 28 parliamentary elections under its own name or in its current form. According to al-Sheikh, Hamas has reached an understanding with the US permitting figures affiliated with the terrorist organization to participate through a "new political framework." If this account is accurate, the scheme amounts to a dangerous exercise in deception.
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by Robert Williams • August 25, 2026 at 5:00 am
"Europe should wake up. If they remain silent it will be destroyed from within. It is almost already destroyed. If Europe does not wake up and prosecute these people... these people are not only Hamas. These people are against freedom, against democracy, against secularism, they are against the basic principles of the country they live in." – A Gazan living in Belgium, Channel 12 News, July 2026. After the report was issued, Belgian federal MP Sam van Rooy... requested a city council emergency session, but could not find enough votes to get one. No meeting was held; no other party found it necessary. This indifference to the security of the local Christian and Jewish communities, the city and country at large, is particularly jarring after documentation exposed that Hamas was planning an October 7-style mass attack against Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe, scheduled to coincide with the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023 atrocities. Perhaps one might argue that the Belgian government, which has shown itself to be extremely anti-Israel, does not care that Hamas raises funds in the country: the victims are "only" Israelis and Jews. So far. "Germany and other European countries are now increasingly being viewed as operational areas for possible attacks." —German Federal Prosecutor General Jens Rommel, Jerusalem Post, June 16, 2026 In 2024, Belgium received half of all Palestinian asylum applications submitted in the entire EU. In that year alone, 3,281 Palestinians were granted formal refugee status by Belgium. "This is not a Jewish problem, but a European problem." – Ralph Pais, vice-chair of the Jewish Information and Documentation Center, Antwerp, Belgium, September 11, 2025. Twice already, Hamas has thanked Belgium for its support. Perhaps Belgium and other countries that align with and harbor terrorist groups should be viewed as security threats to Europe?
Twice already, Hamas has thanked Belgium for its support. Perhaps Belgium and other countries that align with and harbor terrorist groups should be viewed as security threats to Europe? Pictured: An anti-Israel protest in Brussels, on October 2, 2025. (Photo by Emile Windal/Belga/AFP via Getty Images)
At the heart of the European Union, Belgium exemplifies better than perhaps any other Western European country the extent to which political elites seem to almost relish the degree to which Europe is being Islamized. In July 2026, Israel's Channel 12 News aired a report warning that Hamas terrorists, including high-ranking members of the organization's Al-Qassam Brigades, now live in Antwerp -- some of whom, according to local Gazans opposed to Hamas, are receiving Belgian citizenship. "Little Gaza," as the neighborhood in northern Antwerp is called in the report, has a large population of Gazans from Khan Younis, a major Hamas stronghold. Hamas-linked residents there traffic in illegal narcotics, run shops and restaurants, and send the proceeds to Hamas in Gaza, according to the interviewed Gazans, who only dared speak anonymously out of fear of revenge from local Hamas supporters.
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by Khaled Abu Toameh • August 24, 2026 at 5:00 am
Why should Egypt be searching for a formula that would facilitate Hamas's return to Palestinian politics? Should Egypt and the rest of the international community not instead be demanding that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad surrender their weapons, dismantle their military structures, and disappear from Palestinian political life? This new Palestinian "unity" alliance being planned would mean that instead of producing new and moderate Palestinian leaders, the election could result in a parliament in which Hamas, PIJ, and other rejectionist groups become major political power brokers and representatives of the Palestinians. Is this really what Washington and its Western allies want? Are Western governments once again entertaining the fantasy that Islamist terrorist organizations can be transformed into legitimate political parties? Hamas members can remove their military uniforms and put on suits. PIJ operatives can replace their rifles with election posters. They can talk about democracy, elections, and political partnership. None of that necessarily changes what they plan. A "Western-driven disaster" could be developing in which accountability for Hamas is replaced by efforts to rescue the organization politically. "Hamas must never again be trusted with Palestinian politics. It should face the kind of post-defeat reckoning that Nazi Germany faced after World War Two or that the Baathist regimes of Iraq and Syria faced after their collapse. Why would a defeated terror organization that inflicted immense damage on its own people, its neighbors, and the entire region be offered an exit strategy or a political off-ramp? What possible campaign promise could Hamas present that makes it worthy of consideration in Palestinian elections? More war and jihad (holy war)? More governance failures? More corruption and theft of aid? Hamas is a spent force, a used and discarded object, a wrecked entity that cannot be repaired or repurposed." — Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Palestinian-American analyst from Gaza, X. August 21, 2026. "Western governments, elites, and observers continue to display remarkable naivete about the Middle East, Arab political culture, and ideologically driven movements. Democracy is not simply voting at a booth. It is the creation of a democratic tradition, a free society, an open media environment, and a civic ethos that is not driven by ideology, religion, or extremism. The United States, under a Republican administration twenty years ago, made a grave mistake by insisting on elections that included Hamas. Will the Trump administration repeat the same error once again?" — Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, X, August 21, 2026. The problem with the Western approach then was the assumption that participation in elections would moderate Hamas. Instead, Hamas used elections to gain legitimacy and power while retaining its weapons, ideology, and terrorist infrastructure. There is no reason to believe that things would be different now. Hamas and PIJ might even accept cleverly-worded conditions to enable them to participate. They might go as far as saying they accept a Palestinian state alongside Israel. They will say whatever is necessary to get through the political door. The real questions should be simpler: Will Hamas, PIJ and other Palestinian terrorist organizations recognize Israel's right to exist? Will they renounce terrorism? Will they surrender all their weapons? Will they dismantle their military wings? Will they abandon jihad as a means of eliminating Israel? Unless the answer to all these questions is unequivocally yes, terrorists should have no role in elections, government, or Palestinian decision-making. After October 7, 2023, the international community should be discussing how to remove Hamas and PIJ from Palestinian political and military life – not how to help them have seats in parliament.
Why should Egypt be searching for a formula that would facilitate Hamas's return to Palestinian politics? Should Egypt and the rest of the international community not instead be demanding that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad surrender their weapons, dismantle their military structures, and disappear from Palestinian political life? Pictured: Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists congratulate each other on their murderous atrocities, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on November 28, 2023. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
A new Palestinian political alliance now taking shape should serve as a warning to the United States, Europe, and anyone hoping to see a moderate and peaceful Palestinian leadership emerge after the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led massacre in Israel. Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Mohammed Dahlan's "Reformist Current" in Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), and other Palestinian factions have been discussing the formation of a broad joint list to contest the elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council of the Palestinian Authority (PA), scheduled for November 28, 2026. This new list is being marketed as Palestinian "national unity." It would be more accurate to describe it as an attempt to bring terrorist organizations back into Palestinian political life through the ballot box.
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by Guy Millière • August 23, 2026 at 5:00 am
[T]he terrifying fact [is] that Europe's erasure as a civilization is underway. Economically, Europe is in ghastly shape. For nearly five decades, the European Union's economic growth and productivity rates have lagged behind those of the United States. European Union countries have established welfare states that have steadily expanded since 1980 and stifle economic growth. The European Union has also proliferated stifling regulations that place a heavy encumbrance on businesses. Restrictions on gas and electricity production, combined with a drive for a rapid and extremely costly transition to "renewable energy", have resulted in natural gas prices in Europe that are now three to five times higher than in the US, and electricity prices that are 2 to 4 times higher than in the US. To survive, many European companies have relocated production outside Europe. International investment is turning away from Europe. Nine of the world's top ten tech companies are American; the tenth is Taiwanese. Although heatwaves have been affecting Europe for more than two decades, the continent remains resistant to air conditioning, viewing it as an expensive luxury (AC consumes costly electricity).... In 2003, a heatwave in Europe killed more than 20,000 people. Almost nothing was done to prevent a recurrence, so in 2026, another heatwave has already claimed 25,000 lives. Pessimism about the future — fueled by the questionable narrative berating "man-made global warming" and the hyped-up fear that the planet may become uninhabitable — is on the rise in Europe. Most new immigrants in Europe come from the Muslim world and appear to have no interest whatever in assimilating or becoming more westernized. Many are emphatically discouraged from doing either by the leaders of their communities, for instance, by "honor killings...." There appears to be a growing demand among immigrants, in fact, to make Europe more like the Third World countries they abandoned. The proportion of Muslims in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden has been increasing decade after decade – with consequences that anyone even slightly versed in history could have expected. Warnings have gone unheeded. Political parties defending Western civilization and values — while asserting their opposition to the Islamization of Europe and "civilizational erasure" — are gaining electoral momentum. Meanwhile, political leaders across major European nations and at the helm of the EU appear determined to prevent those parties from governing. The "offense" of those political parties disfavored by Europe's "elites" consists of defending the values of the West, fighting the Islamization of Europe, and opposing the erasure of European civilization. These political parties are consequently subjected to exclusionary maneuvers and are relentlessly harassed by rival political leaders who not only seem to disagree but are also dragging the continent into a free fall and a possible cultural death.
Europe's erasure as a civilization is underway. Europe is on a path toward rapid, widespread decline — potentially irreversible. It is already extremely late in the day. Unless drastic actions are taken to reverse firmly entrenched trends, European civilization, simply demographically, will soon be part of the past. (Image source: iStock)
On February 14, 2026, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a laudatory speech about Europe and its legacy at the Munich Security Conference. He noted, however, that Europe is weakening. "We don't want our allies to be weak," he said. His remarks initially were well received by the European political leaders and journalists in the room; not for long. Several journalists soon mentioned that, while Rubio appeared friendlier toward Europe than US Vice President J.D. Vance's had been a year earlier, he was still "arrogant" in presuming that Europe needed advice on how to be stronger. Some recalled that the Trump administration's November 2025 National Security Strategy had warned that Europe faces the "prospect of civilizational erasure" — a claim they described as an "insult" to Europe.
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by Amir Taheri • August 23, 2026 at 4:00 am
The real issue, however, is the decline in the status and authority of what was once seen as the world's highest diplomatic position. The unwritten rule was that the UN secretary-general must be seen as an institution above the interests of member states. That unwritten rule was more or less observed when Dag Hammarskjöld, a Swedish diplomat, succeeded [UN Secretary-General Trygve] Li. Regardless of who gets the job, the real issue is what the job is for? What can the secretary-general do when veto-holding nations, such as Russia and the US, start wars, or, like China, threaten to do so? If the job is to be part of the décor, as was the case with Annan, any photogenic multilingual man or woman would do. And if managerial skills are needed to run a sprawling and costly gravy train, one must look beyond diplomats to a new, younger generation of business leaders.
(Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
As António Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general, will soon start clearing his desk and prepare for retirement, assessments of his tenure vary between "passable" and "mediocre". There are those who appreciate his passionate defense of the Palestinians and critical stance on the Israel-US war against Iran. Then there are those who castigate him for precisely those controversial positions. The real issue, however, is the decline in the status and authority of what was once seen as the world's highest diplomatic position. The post was created when the post-World War order was edging towards the Cold War with the idea that a diplomatic buffer between the two emerging blocs could absorb shocks and prevent another armed conflict. One key idea was to make war, unless specially sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council, practically impossible. The US-led intervention in the Korean Peninsula was the first war sanctioned by the UNSC.
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by Majid Rafizadeh • August 22, 2026 at 5:00 am
What, then, must accompany economic pressure? First, the military option must remain explicitly on the table -- and be exercised, preferably before the regime uses President Donald Trump's ceasefires to organize attacks that are even more lethal. Recent reports indicate that Iran has been rapidly restoring its ballistic missile production and infrastructure after earlier strikes. Satellite imagery and intelligence assessments show reopened underground facilities, repaired access roads, and renewed manufacturing at a pace that has surprised observers. Economic measures must be paired with persistently removing the regime's ability to rebuild its war machine. The Trump administration, as distasteful as they might find the task, must urgently see to it that the regime is changed. Only adding military strikes to economic strangulation — and arming and training dissidents among the Iranian people — will create regime change. Anything less just leaves the threat intact — louder, more entrenched and more dangerous for the region and the United States sooner than you think.
Recent reports indicate that Iran has been rapidly restoring its ballistic missile production and infrastructure after earlier strikes. Satellite imagery and intelligence assessments show reopened underground facilities, repaired access roads, and renewed manufacturing at a pace that has surprised observers. Pictured: Iranian-made Zolfaghar missiles are displayed at Azadi Square in Tehran on August 2, 2026. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)
The main focus in confronting Iran's regime and its sponsorship of terrorism has shifted toward economic sanctions and a naval blockade of Iranian ports. This pressure, driving oil exports to multi-year lows and squeezing the regime's primary source of hard currency, constrains the resources available for ballistic missiles, proxies, and internal repression. Yet it is a dangerous delusion to believe that sanctions and blockade by themselves will change the regime's fundamentalist and Islamist ideology or force a fundamental shift in its behavior. The Iranian regime's only objective is to stay in power beyond the Trump Administration. Iran's ruling elite lives in relative comfort, insulated by corruption and control of state resources. They divert public wealth into personal and institutional networks — real estate, front companies, and overseas holdings — while ordinary Iranians bear the brunt of inflation, shortages, and mismanagement.
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by Peter Huessy • August 21, 2026 at 5:00 am
Who doesn't like free stuff? Capitalism, however, is not the villain. Without capital (funding), there would be no economy, free or state-run. The issue, therefore, is not between capitalism and socialism. It is between free enterprise and economic liberty on the one hand and a state-run, often totalitarian, market on the other. North Korea and Cuba also use capital. Both are, in a way, state capitalisms: the state has all the money; the citizens are the oppressed serfs. The state provides for them, to an extent, but is careful to do so as stingily as possible. The socialist or communist state's first concern will not be delivering services; it will be cutting costs. As the money that comes in becomes scarcer -- who is making money, the state? The first casualty invariably ends up being quality. Yes, there is free healthcare -- if you can wait months for an operation, and if you qualify for it under the state's cost-cutting rationing. Are you too old or too sick, or too medically compromised in some other way, and is someone younger and healthier more worthy of receiving the care than you? Yes, you receive free housing, but who will guarantee that there will be sufficient heat in the winter, clean running water, that the garbage will be collected, that there will be no vermin, or that the elevator will work. Under communism, land belongs only to the state. The price is immaterial. Ask the "kulaks," peasant farmers in Ukraine whose land and grain were stolen by Stalin's Soviet Union during the Holodomor in 1932-33, with the result that five million people in Ukraine starved to death. The DSA candidates do not describe themselves as communists. What does that mean, however, when many of the DSA's official policies are the essence of communism? Unlike the DSA, communist leaders from Lenin to Mao to Castro did not aspire to abolish the police, the military or the border patrol. If anything, these totalitarian rulers expanded the police, the prisons, and the military. They were more than happy to put millions in prison or the gulags while widening the powers of the police and security forces... What is being overlooked at the moment is that the current communist rulers from Cuba to China would love the DSA to abolish the police and border patrol in America, empty the prisons, open the borders, and shut down oil and gas production. Those moves would thoroughly cripple the United States and significantly weaken its ability to defend itself -- both internally and externally. No self-respecting communist government would ever adopt such crazy policies.
Commentator Ryan Mauro notes that New York City's DSA Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Alexander Soros — son and heir of "chaos" funder George Soros — both admire Slavoj Žižek, whose In Defence of Lost Causes calls for the return of the French Revolution's guillotine and what he calls "emancipatory terror." The goal, it seems, is the destruction of the West, to be replaced with Stalinist communism. Pictured: US Senator Bernie Sanders (R) speaks to the crowd at a rally for Mamdani (L) in New York City on April 12, 2026. (Photo by Jason Alpert-Wisnia/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)
The country is debating whether the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is the new face of the Democrat Party. There are two impediments, however, to accurately discussing what the DSA is all about. The first is that Americans are learning about DSA through the lens of the dominant media -- what Rush Limbaugh often called "the drive-by media." Largely missing is a balanced media source despite the almost universal use of the term "mainstream media" to describe the current collection of highly partisan and slanted journalists from whom most Americans get their news. While "mainstream" implies balanced and informative, most of the dominant media of today are neither.
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by Bassam Tawil • August 20, 2026 at 5:00 am
The survey, conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) in the West Bank and Gaza Strip between August 5 and 8, 2026, reveals that... the fundamental political attitudes that have plagued Palestinian society for decades remain largely intact. Hamas remains a major political force; convicted terrorists and Hamas leaders remain popular candidates for the Palestinian Authority (PA) presidency; overwhelming majorities oppose the unconditional disarmament of Hamas; and Iran, Hezbollah, and the Houthis in Yemen continue to enjoy remarkably high approval ratings. Asked who is most suitable to succeed PA President Mahmoud Abbas, 39% chose imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti... An Israeli court convicted him in 2004 of five counts of murder stemming from three terrorist attacks. Barghouti was sentenced to five consecutive life terms plus 40 years. Yet this is the man whom a majority of likely Palestinian voters would like to see as their next president. The second-place candidate is the head of Hamas. The PA parliamentary elections are scheduled for November 28, 2026, with presidential elections expected in early 2027. The PSR poll offers a warning of what those elections could produce. Hamas could still win another Palestinian Authority election (as it did in 2006). An overwhelming 72% say Hamas should not disarm before Israel completely withdraws from the Gaza Strip. US envoy Jared Kushner recently met Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya and other Hamas officials in Cairo as part of US efforts to advance President Donald J. Trump's Gaza peace plan. Whatever the administration's intentions, such meetings provide Hamas with something it has sought for years: international legitimacy. When representatives of the world's leading superpower sit directly with Hamas leaders, Hamas can present the encounter to Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims as evidence that its strategy has succeeded. The message is that terrorism pays. If you carry out attacks, take hostages, retain your weapons and survive long enough – eventually the Americans will negotiate with you. These figures are difficult to reconcile with claims that Palestinian society is undergoing a transformation toward moderation. What exactly are these elections expected to accomplish? Elections are not automatically synonymous with democracy, moderation, or peace. The PA held a parliamentary election in 2006. Hamas participated and won. A year later, Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip. Now the Palestinians may be heading toward another election in which Hamas could again emerge as the largest faction.... Why, then, should the international community rush toward elections that could legitimize extremists and terrorists rather than marginalize them? Before elections, Palestinians need real political reform. The Palestinian Authority needs accountable institutions, independent courts, freedom of expression, an end to corruption, and, most importantly, a political culture that does not glorify terrorists or treat armed groups as legitimate alternatives to government.
Asked who is most suitable to succeed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, 39% of Palestinians surveyed chose imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti. Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya came second with 16%, followed by former Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan with 15%. Pictured: A poster of Barghouti in prisoner's uniform, in a campaign office in Ramallah on March 3, 2021. (Photo by Abbas Momani/AFP via Getty Images)
Nearly three years after Hamas's October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel and following the devastating war in the Gaza Strip, one might have expected a fundamental change in Palestinian public opinion. Palestinians might have turned away from Hamas, terrorism, and the Iran-backed "Axis of Resistance." Palestinians also might have demanded new leaders committed to democracy, reform, an end to corruption, and peaceful coexistence. The latest Palestinian public opinion poll, however, presents a disturbing picture.
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by Drieu Godefridi • August 19, 2026 at 5:00 am
Large infrastructure booms have often developed in this uneven way. Railways, electricity and telecommunications networks all passed through phases of enthusiasm, overbuilding, financial stress and consolidation. The failures were real, but the underlying networks continued to expand. China has been investing heavily for years in nuclear fusion technology -- a resource the United States would do well urgently to adopt as a 21st-century "Manhattan Project" if it wants to make sure that China does not ultimately win the AI race for global preeminence. Nuclear fusion energy produces a massive supply of clean, inexpensive energy, and the United States is blessed with three large bodies of water around it for an unlimited supply. Without significant government investment in developing nuclear fusion, by relying only on private firms to supply their own electricity and nuclear fission reactors, the West seriously risks being left behind. The sooner the US government prioritizes developing nuclear fusion, the sooner it will be commercially available -- preferably before China dominates the market first. These other solutions are slow and costly. A committed rush is needed toward developing the energy of the future: fusion. Now take a break and ask yourself how many times you've used AI today, and the tools that themselves use AI. The question no longer makes sense: AI is everywhere, permanent; it has already expanded the possibilities of our world. Corrections will come, capital will be reallocated, and some business models will fail; that is the ordinary price of progress. What will not reverse is the deeper shift already under way: the permanent embedding of advanced computation into the productive core of life.
(Image source: iStock/Getty Images)
Warnings about an artificial-intelligence crash have become increasingly common. Financing is becoming harder to obtain, the argument runs, and companies are questioning whether AI projects produce enough value, whether electricity supplies are sufficient, and if cheaper Chinese systems could undermine the revenues of American technology leaders. Put together, these pressures are said to threaten the vast investments now rolling out in data center construction, AI chip and memory manufacturing, and power generation. Some of these concerns are real. There seem to be four separate main questions: Can the projects still be financed? Do businesses still want the technology? Can enough electricity be supplied? And will low-cost competitors destroy the economics of the market?
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by Lawrence Kadish • August 19, 2026 at 4:00 am
(Image source: Google Gemini)
America is in an artificial intelligence arms race with China but we are continuing to miss a crucial technology required to secure the win. AI demands a level of electricity that no other technology in history has ever required. Training a single AI model can consume as much power as thousands of homes use in a year, and the data centers being built to run AI on a global scale are being sized in gigawatts, not megawatts. It is staggering. Every proposed fix to this problem — more efficient computer chips, smarter cooling of data centers, building nuclear fission reactors — does not solve the underlying arithmetic of supply and demand. Only fusion power offers a path that matches the scale and safety to feed AI's enormous appetite for electricity.
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by Gordon G. Chang • August 18, 2026 at 5:00 am
"Beijing's real intention is to create a rationale for the presence of the People's Liberation Army Navy in the Arctic. The goal for China's Communist Party is to create its own Arctic Bastion so that Chinese navy ballistic missile submarines can threaten the U.S. from the northern hemisphere." — James Fanell, a former U.S. Navy captain who served as director of Intelligence and Information Operations at the U.S. Pacific Fleet, to Gatestone Institute, August 12, 2026. The U.S. Navy, by the way, has no base in Alaska, America's window on the Arctic. China, warned EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas this year, could militarize Arctic shipping lanes. In fact, China, with partner Russia, has been working hard to militarize the top of the world. "The U.S. and its allies expect Beijing will be able to send armed submarines to the North Pole within a few years." — Wall Street Journal, December 29, 2025.
This month, China's Sea Legend Shipping launched the first regular container service through the Arctic, along what it calls the Ice Silk Road. "Beijing's real intention is to create a rationale for the presence of the People's Liberation Army Navy in the Arctic. The goal for China's Communist Party is to create its own Arctic Bastion so that Chinese navy ballistic missile submarines can threaten the U.S. from the northern hemisphere," according to James Fanell, a former U.S. Navy captain. Pictured: A banner reading "Warmly Congratulate the first annual voyage of the China-Europe Arctic Container Route at Ningbo-Zhoushan Port in 2026," is displayed on a container belonging to Sea Legend on August 15, 2026, in Ningbo, China. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
This month, China's Sea Legend Shipping launched the first regular container service through the Arctic, along what it calls the "Ice Silk Road." The route, dubbed "China-Europe Arctic Express," connects Ningbo, on China's east coast, with England's Felixstowe. The Chinese-run shipper plans eight voyages this summer season from this month to early October. Sea Legend, which will use Russia's Northern Sea Route, promises to cut in half the current 40-day sailing time. The passage, the Financial Times stated, "bypasses shipping chokepoints." Sea Legend ships will not go anywhere near the Suez Canal at the top of the Red Sea or the Red Sea's southern exit, the now-dangerous Bab el-Mandab strait, where the Iran-backed Houthi militia has been targeting vessels. The Northern Sea Route hugs Russia's coast.
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