Latest Analysis and Commentary
by Nils A. Haug • November 20, 2024 at 5:00 am
The reason for the axis's actions appears to be a desire for a new world order with themselves at the helm. They seem to believe that through their combined effort, America's unipolar global leadership in the political, economic and military spheres can be upended. [T]he driving forces underlying this developing clash of major powers have many facets, one of which appears to be religion, always a convenient pretext as so much can never be proven. [I]n autocratic or totalitarian regimes comes the imperative to forcefully assert the regime's idea of religion, of its "truth," often upon an unwilling populace. Associated with such systems is the intention of ultimately establishing global compliance with their beliefs, which sometimes appear to be a "religion" of state supremacy. Standing in Iran's path is the Jewish state of Israel, whose inhabitants inconveniently refuse to vacate it. To many Islamists, continual jihad appears to go hand-in-hand with the need for acquiring land. "Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day," the Quran commands Muslims in Surah 9:29. To this effect, the February 2024 issue of the Urdu-language al-Qaeda publication Nawa-i-Ghazwa-e-Hind indicates, "Allah has declared Jihad as the path for the enforcement of religion." In plain words, jihad is required to forcibly establish Islam as the one "true" faith – a global religion. Hamas's primary concern, however, does not appear to be an independent state for Palestinians -- as it identifies with the Muslim Brotherhood -- but a Sharia-based global Islamic Caliphate through jihad. For Hamas, as for the Muslim Brotherhood, a Palestinian state would be merely the first-step in a wider agenda. The Muslim Brotherhood is the catalyst movement behind the modern global jihadist movement, and should rightly be designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Its founder, Hassan al-Banna, said, "it is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its law on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet." Hassan Nasrallah espoused the same idea: "We won't stop until every country on Earth is ruled by the law of Allah and the people of Islam, like our prophet promised." The West, meanwhile, due to a variety of weak and compromised political decisions, has tried to prevent Israel from acting alone in direct conflict with jihadists, whether Hamas, Hezbollah or Iran itself. All the same, the nation of Israel, despite nearly 4,000 years of unremitting challenges to its existence, appears to be enduring just fine.
Driven by disparate ideologies, a new axis of hegemonic dictatorships includes Russia, with imperialist aims over vast regions, Slavic and otherwise; China, with a desire for world domination; Iran, striving for a global Islamist Caliphate; and North Korea, apparently intent on seizing the Korean peninsula, for a start. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia on October 23, 2024. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
The volatile world political order currently reflects a clash between an axis of hegemonic dictatorships flexing their increasing military prowess, and an alliance of Western nations, including Israel, the West's sole democratic partner in the Middle East. Driven by disparate ideologies, the axis includes Russia, with imperialist aims over vast regions, Slavic and otherwise; China, with a desire for world domination; Iran, striving for a global Islamist Caliphate; and, to a lesser degree, North Korea, apparently intent on seizing the Korean peninsula, for a start. The reason for the axis's actions appears to be a desire for a new world order with themselves at the helm. They seem to believe that through their combined effort, America's unipolar global leadership in the political, economic and military spheres can be upended.
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by Lawrence Kadish • November 19, 2024 at 4:00 pm
Chinese hackers recently sought to target the mobile phones of then-presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and intercepted data meant for our law enforcement agencies. (Image source: iStock)
It's an old saying repeated by military strategists who consistently warn, "Don't prepare to fight the last war..." Their inference is that, while there are lessons to be learned from studying the last conflict, the next one may well be profoundly different than what you previously endured, catching a nation totally unprepared. For America, the "next one" may already be upon us. It is not the scenario we anticipated, namely enemy aircraft coming over the pole to attack with nuclear weapons, or a catastrophic exchange of ICBMs. Even the lessons gained from the current Russian war on Ukraine may not be fully applicable to America's defense of the homeland. Consider the current assault as revealed in media reports. Chinese hackers sought to target the mobile phones of then-presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and intercepted data meant for our law enforcement agencies.
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by Robert Williams • November 19, 2024 at 5:00 am
Mainstream Britain might finally be waking up to the fact that it elected a totalitarian government that increasingly seems to behave like the Chinese Communist Party. Since 2014, British police have reportedly recorded more than 250,000 non-crime hate incidents in England and Wales. The non-crime incidents, logged in a system, can even show up, when employers ask for a copy of a prospective employee's criminal record. Daily Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson... was visited by police earlier this November, informing her that she was accused of a "non-crime hate incident." A tweet she had posted more than a year ago, the police told her, was "stirring up racial hatred." She asked who accused her and why, but the police told her she could not be told what her offending tweet was, nor the "victim's" name. She is now under investigation for spreading material allegedly "likely or intended to cause racial hatred". There are lots of things... the mainstream British media has ignored for decades: Mass migration from the Muslim world; rampant violence and terrorism; Muslim grooming gangs, raping, torturing, sometimes killing, hundreds of thousands of British children and young women, while the police covered up their crimes. "As a Rotherham grooming gang survivor, I want people to know about the religious extremism which inspired my abusers. Grooming gangs are not like paedophile rings; instead, they operate almost exactly like terrorist networks, with all the same strategies. As a teenager, I was taken to various houses and flats above takeaways in the north of England, to be beaten, tortured and raped over 100 times." — Ella Hill, survivor of abuse by Rotherham grooming gangs, The Independent, March 18, 2018. Hundreds of people were handed prison sentences for up to several years, for social media posts about the brutal murder of three little girls in Southport this summer. They were jailed for criticizing mass migration and Islamization, but the government said they were stirring up racial hatred. Now, it turns out that the murderer of the three girls, who still has not gone on trial, was in fact an Islamist terrorist, a fact that Starmer's government covered up and lied about. Will the British mainstream media fight to see that the many -- who were jailed for speaking their minds about these murders on social media -- are now freed? Tommy Robinson was severely punished by British authorities for making documentaries about the grooming gang scandals. A few weeks ago, he was imprisoned, again, for refusing to be silenced, and moved to one of Britain's most notorious prisons, which houses some of the most murderous Islamist terrorists. Nobody in mainstream British media seems the least bit concerned about his safety. Meanwhile, actual crimes in the UK continue to soar. Police do not even bother to properly investigate crimes, such as burglaries, whereas Allison Pearson's lone non-crime tweet is being investigated by three of Britain's largest police forces.... According to the Criminal Bar Association, "the backlog of criminal cases is on track to reach 80,000 by March 2025." Niyak Ghorbani, an Iranian podcaster.... has probably been arrested more times for exposing terrorism in the UK than he was for protesting the Islamic regime while he still lived in Iran. Most recently, the police informed a man that saying "God bless you" is a crime, if it causes "distress" to someone who has a different belief – such as Muslims.
Mainstream Britain might finally be waking up to the fact that it elected a totalitarian government that increasingly seems to behave like the Chinese Communist Party. Children as young as nine are currently being investigated by the police for non-crime hate incidents. (Photo by iStock/Getty Images)
Mainstream Britain might finally be waking up to the fact that it elected a totalitarian government that increasingly seems to behave like the Chinese Communist Party. Children as young as nine are currently being investigated by the police for non-crime hate incidents. According to the Daily Mail: "A nine-year-old child is among the youngsters being probed by police over hate incidents... Officers recorded incidents against the child, who called a fellow primary school pupil a 'retard', and against two schoolgirls who said another student smelled 'like fish'. The youngsters were among multiple cases of children being recorded as having committed non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs), The Times discovered through freedom of information requests to police forces."
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by Bassam Tawil • November 18, 2024 at 5:00 am
According to Israeli intelligence, more than 450 terrorists belonging to terrorist organizations in Gaza, mainly Hamas, are also employed by UNRWA. "By not firing them, the UN Secretary-General and UNRWA's Commissioner General are brazenly demonstrating their determination to continue employing members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad even after having been presented with incriminating evidence to this effect. It is time for donor governments to wake up and stop funneling their taxpayers' money to members of designated terrorist organizations." – www.idf.il, August 5, 2024 UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini recently told the UN General Assembly that his agency provides tolerant, respectful and anti-extremist education in Gaza. However, IMPACT-se's new report unveils institutional teaching material taught in five UNRWA schools in Gaza, where Hamas commanders have been exposed masquerading as school principals. A poem taught to seventh-graders... calls on knights, symbolizing Arab leaders, to liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem "from the fist of unbelief, from Satan's aides – revenge to the Jews." What is disturbing is that the UN chief and other donor countries refuse to see what many Palestinians already see, namely that UNRWA has long been playing a significant role in inciting hatred against Israel and raising another generation of Palestinian children on the glorification of violence and terrorism. It is time for this agency, as well as the entire UN, to be dismantled and removed, or at least, as suggested years ago, to have nations pay only for what they want and to get what they pay for. It is also time for the Palestinian "refugees" to move on with their lives and stop relying on Western taxpayers' money.
According to Israeli intelligence, more than 450 terrorists belonging to terrorist organizations in Gaza, mainly Hamas, are also employed by UNRWA. Several terrorists who participated in the October 7 atrocities were officially employed by UNRWA. Pictured: Israeli soldiers inspect the entrance to a Hamas terror tunnel directly outside an UNRWA compound in Gaza City, on February 8, 2024. (Photo by Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)
Since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel, in which terrorists from Gaza murdered 1,200 Israelis, there has been increased evidence of the role the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) plays in supporting and funding Palestinian terrorism. In early November, Israel passed a new law that will ban UNRWA's operations in Israel, and prevent Israeli officials from cooperating with the agency. Given UNRWA's longtime support for Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the ban will benefit not only Israel, but also those Palestinians who are not affiliated with the Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist group.
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by Con Coughlin • November 17, 2024 at 5:00 am
The October 7, 2023 attacks carried out against Israel by Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists.... was the direct result of Tehran's ability to fund the terrorist movement to the tune of $100 million a year, an operation that would not have been possible without Biden's lenient attitude towards the ayatollahs. Trump may come to see as well that, unfortunately, due to the deep-seated commitment of Iran's regime in exporting its brand of Islam, as enshrined in its constitution, there can be no real long-term peace in the Middle East without regime change, especially if Iran has nuclear weapons -- not to mention the global arms race that would follow such an event. Not only would many of Iran's neighbours be relieved, but its captive citizens could then be free to choose leaders better aligned with their aspirations. A liberated Iran might even join the Abraham Accords....
After the success Donald Trump enjoyed negotiating the Abraham Accords towards the end of his first term in office, which saw a number of leading Arab states normalise relations with Israel, it is widely expected that his new administration will want to pursue a similar policy of ending hostilities in the Middle East. Pictured from left to right: Bahrain Foreign Minister Abdullatif al-Zayani, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump, and UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan participate in the signing of the Abraham Accords in Washington, DC on September 15, 2020. (Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Now that Donald Trump has secured his remarkable victory in the US presidential election, supporting regime change in Iran could soon emerge as one of his new administration's top priorities after he takes office in January. Trump's no-nonsense approach to confronting the ayatollahs' malign influence in the region was one of the defining characteristics during his first term in the White House. One of his more laudable foreign policy initiatives was to withdraw from the flawed nuclear deal with Iran agreed by former President Barack Obama in 2015. Denouncing the agreement as being "defective at its core", Trump declared in 2018 that his administration was unilaterally withdrawing from the deal while at the same time imposing a policy of "maximum pressure" against Tehran.
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by Amir Taheri • November 17, 2024 at 4:00 am
The real question, therefore, is what could Trump II do to restore America's prestige across the globe and reassert itself as the indispensable power that it still is? The answer is: plenty. In fact, Trump, even if he doesn't do anything, will repair some of the damage that the past three administrations shaped by Barack Obama have done to US standing and credibility as a world power. In those 12 years of Obama and Biden, US leaders went around the world to apologize for imaginary injustices done by Americans to various segments of mankind, mused about "leading from behind" and presented the United States as a room service that doesn't even ask you to sign the bill let alone offer a tip. Under the three Obama administrations, with Trump I as a brief interlude, the US saw Russia attack and occupy parts of Georgia and annex Crimea and eventually invade Ukraine, and the US did nothing. Obama drew a red line against the use of chemical weapons to kill Syrian people, but when Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russia, did so, went into purdah. To divert attention from the Middle East, Obama conjured the "pivot to Asia" slogan, while letting China grab a bigger chunk of the world, including US markets, in the name of free trade. Also remember that regardless of what experts or even Trump himself say, the 47th president is likely to be as unpredictable as the 45th one, a feature that helped him in foreign policy last time and may do so again.
What could Donald Trump do in his second term to restore America's prestige across the globe and reassert itself as the indispensable power that it still is? The answer is: plenty. Trump, even if he doesn't do anything, will repair some of the damage that the past three administrations shaped by Barack Obama have done to US standing and credibility as a world power. Pictured: Trump in Palm Beach, Florida, on November 14, 2024. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
What will Donald Trump's foreign policy look like in his second term? This is the question currently making the buzz in the commentariat around the world. Western European pundits claim that Trump will abandon the Ukrainian lamb to the Russian wolf or, at least, force the European shepherd to foot the bill for keeping it half alive. Indian oped-writers hope that Trump will cut China down to size, thus elevating India as Asia's new indispensable giant. Progressive Davos collectivists warn that unless checked, Trump will go through the globalist ideology like a bull in a china shop. In the past few days, I have run into even more interesting speculations regarding Trump II foreign policy -- from Iran and Israel.
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by Majid Rafizadeh • November 16, 2024 at 5:00 am
Iran launched from its own soil hundreds of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and attack drones at Israel, a country smaller than the state of New Jersey -- a demonstration of the regime's fundamentalist commitment to destroying the Jewish state. President-elect Donald J. Trump at present seems averse to regime change in Iran. Unfortunately -- due to the regime's commitment to "wipe Israel off the map" and, as stated in its constitution, to export its version of Islam across the world -- there does not appear to be the possibility for a real long-term peace in the Middle East without regime change. Anything short of that simply invites the regime to wait Trump out, as well as whoever succeeds him. Not enough can be said to warn nations of the dangers that can arise from a lack of robust leadership, the perils of underestimating the ambitions of adversarial states, and the paralysis of being unable to confront an adversary for fear of escalation. The adversary, not the leader of Free World, is supposed to fear "escalation." The repercussions of allowing Iran... to operate without meaningful deterrence, simply underscores the need for a "Golden Age" -- especially a new regime in Iran more aligned with the dreams of so many of its citizens -- and not a moment too soon.
Never underestimate the power of an administration's single term or the harm that policies – whether constructive or poorly-informed -- can have on the international stage. As President Joe Biden's administration approaches the end of its term, it is hard not to see the global volatility, emboldened adversaries, and fractured alliances. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Never underestimate the power of an administration's single term or the harm that policies – whether constructive or poorly-informed -- can have on the international stage. As President Joe Biden's administration approaches the end of its term, it is hard not to see the global volatility, emboldened adversaries, and fractured alliances. Those are lessons to be learned about the costs of weakness in leadership and the consequences of strategic missteps in foreign policy.
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by Alan M. Dershowitz and Andrew Stein • November 15, 2024 at 5:00 am
There is no moral or legal equivalence between non-violent mischief — such as tearing down flags and shouting racial insults — and committing life-threatening assaults upon people based on their religion and ethnicity. The anti-Israel rioters were hunting down Jews... Muslim extremists have a long history of hurling spears in response to non-violent insults. Recall the numerous deadly attacks — shootings, stabbings, bombings and lethal fatwas—against those who allegedly insulted the prophet by picturing him or authoring books about him. There was also violence against those who burned Korans or otherwise demeaned Islam. Even cartoons provoked deadly responses. The law in no Western nation grants the victims of non-violent insults the right to respond by violence. If a Jew were to physically assault the many Muslims who have repeatedly demeaned Judaism or its nation-state during recent protests, they would be appropriately punished, as some have been. [W]e are likely to see more anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish pogroms in other parts of the world as antisemitism moves from the fringes to the mainstream. Protestors – both pro- and anti-Israel – have the right to express their views verbally and even symbolically, but they have no right to attack individuals or groups based on religion, ethnicity or national origin. Those who engaged in physical assaults – and many were caught on video – must be prosecuted and, if convicted, imprisoned or deported. A clear line must be drawn between lawful, even if immoral, protests, and criminal violence.... It is a bright-line distinction that many in the media are deliberately trying to blur. The U.S. has a stake in stopping this violence: the call to "globalize the intifada" is not limited to Europe. Those who advocate globalization are inciting violence against Americans of Jewish heritage. The incitement may be too general to be denied First Amendment protection against criminal punishment, but the single standard demands that universities apply the same standard to calls for intifada than they would to calls for lynching of blacks or assaulting of gays. The real difference is that no university student or faculty member would ever call for the latter, and if they did, they would be disciplined or expelled. Yet today it is entirely acceptable, indeed expected, that radical students will call for the lynching and assaulting of Jews and Israelis. That, after all, is what an intifada entails.
We are likely to see more anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish pogroms in other parts of the world as antisemitism moves from the fringes to the mainstream. Unless something proactive is done, it's coming to a theater – or stadium – near you. Pictured: Police officers chase rioters who attacked Jews and Israelis in Amsterdam on November 7, 2024. (Photo by Wahaj Bani Moufleh/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
On university campuses throughout the world, there have been chants demanding that the violent intifada – which killed thousands of Israeli children, women and other civilians – be "globalized." Last week, we witnessed the first significant manifestation of that demand in Amsterdam, where large groups of predominantly Arab and Muslim rioters physically attacked Israelis and Jews who had been cheering for an Israeli soccer team. Although some of the media tried to blame the attacks on Israelis, the evidence strongly suggests that this pogrom was planned well in advance and would have taken place even if there had been no provocation by Israeli fans.
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by Uzay Bulut • November 14, 2024 at 8:00 am
"Hindus targeted in #Bangladesh again. This time in Chittagong. Is administration led by Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus unable or unwilling to help Hindus?" — India Today, November 7, 2024. Since the collapse of Sheikh Hasina's Awami League government in August, the world has witnessed the full Islamization and Talibanization of Bangladesh. "Ever since the Bangladesh prime minister was forced to flee... images, videos and accounts are streaming in of atrocities against the Hindu minority in Bangladesh, whose numbers have dangerously depleted over decades almost to the point of extinction...." — Sreemoy Talukdar, firstpost.com, August 8, 2024. "One viral video clip shows radical Islamist lunatics inspecting the genitals of a murdered man, possibly lynched to death, and expressing satisfaction that he was a Hindu." — Sreemoy Talukdar, firstpost.com, August 8, 2024. In many instances, members of Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh's largest Islamist party, are behind these attacks and rights violations. Jamaat-e-Islami was banned by the Awami League government on August 1. Four days later, PM Hasina was forced to resign and her government collapsed. Jamaat-e-Islami has now gained strength under Bangladesh's Islamist interim government, led by Muhammad Yunus. Islamist radicals are the ones who brought Yunus to power. The influence of the Hizb-ut Tahrir -- another in Islamist organization that aspires to re-establish the Islamic Caliphate and globally implement Sharia law -- also keeps increasing. "The interim government led by Mohammad Yunus has largely failed to stop the violence against the minorities and has made matters worse by lifting bans on radical Islamist groups and releasing terror suspects from jail that rule the roost on the streets of Bangladesh." — Raja Muneeb, firstpost.com, September 5, 2024. If a power such as the US sits back, does nothing and watches as the Talibanization of Bangladesh unfold -- as the Biden administration has done -- it is likely that the chaos will not remain within the borders of Bangladesh. India will not allow another Islamist state on its borders to wipe out Hindus, Christians and secular Muslims in Bangladesh. India might justifiably decide that its security is threatened enough.
Since the collapse of Sheikh Hasina's Awami League government in August, the world has witnessed the full Islamization and Talibanization of Bangladesh. On November 5, the Hindu community came under attack from the police and military in Chittagong, the second-largest city in Bangladesh. Pictured: Members of Bangladesh's religious minorities protest the attacks, looting, vandalism and arson targeting temples across the country, in Dhaka, on September 27, 2024. (Photo by Mehedi Hasan/Middle East Images via AFP)
Islamist violence against minorities, including Hindus and Christians, has been ongoing since the violent removal of Bangladesh's secular Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on August 5. Non-Muslims in the country are facing heightened risk amid the country's ongoing political and social crises. On November 5, the Hindu community came under attack from the police and military in Chittagong, the second-largest city in Bangladesh. Videos posted by news website OpIndia show policemen and soldiers hunting down Hindus. Videos also show law enforcement authorities deliberately destroying closed-circuit cameras. Many accounts on Twitter have also reported on the attacks: Amy Mek posted: "[T]he world remains silent, passively witnessing a Hindu genocide in Bangladesh. "Trump has already issued a warning to Bangladesh, urging them to halt these attacks on Hindus—a reminder that strong leadership is needed to address this crisis."
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by Drieu Godefridi • November 13, 2024 at 5:00 am
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen... postponed publication of [Mario] Draghi's report until the day after her reappointment -- yet another illustration of the intractably anti-democratic nature of the unelected, untransparent, unaccountable and unable-to-be-removed European institutions. The remedies proposed by Draghi are... a "targeted" industrial policy, tax cuts here and administrative simplification there. And extra EU spending of "only" €800 billion ($857 billion) a year! European businesses are regressing because they are being slashed by taxes, tormented by a thousand constantly changing regulations, and are paying between two and ten times more for energy than their global competitors -- fatal for 100% of European industry... [F]orcing businesses and families to opt for more expensive energy sources... does not create any "opportunities", apart from... "windfall effects" for the recipients of public subsidies. They only create a further worsening of the overall economic situation. [I]n another report published recently under the aegis of the same European Commission, it was acknowledged that the EU's starry-eyed energy transition objectives -- "zero carbon" by 2050 -- would require a whopping €1.5 trillion a year for 20 years. Whatever the verbal packaging, this bagatelle has a cost that will put a strain on European businesses and impoverish European households. If we stick to the findings of Draghi's report, however, getting the EU out of its rut is possible, but presupposes the following measures: 1) a drastic reduction in the overall tax burden on businesses (and households), 2) a drastic simplification of European law, which ultimately paralyses and kills initiative, 3) abandoning the authoritarian energy transition in favor of voluntary diversification of the energy mix, and 4) giving innovative entrepreneurs enticing incentives: fighting not their national neighbors but their global competitors. Draghi's report proposes an initiative which, while not new, should be implemented without delay: the creation of a European legal vehicle enabling European entrepreneurs to tackle the entire European market head-on, such as introducing a new EU-wide statute for innovative ventures... This simple measure, coupled with administrative simplification, would be consistent with the founding spirit of the European Economic Community, which is the EU common market. On the whole, Draghi's report seems worth more for the accuracy of its findings than for the practicality of its recommendations.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen postponed publication of Mario Draghi's report until the day after her reappointment -- yet another illustration of the intractably anti-democratic nature of the unelected, untransparent, unaccountable and unable-to-be-removed European institutions. Pictured: Draghi and von der Leyen hold a press conference to promote Draghi's report on the future of European competitiveness at EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium on September 9, 2024. (Photo by Nicolas Tucat/AFP via Getty Images)
"The future of European competitiveness," a report by former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi published by the European Commission on September 9 "to save the European economy," has been unanimously welcomed by the European media, as likely to propel the European Union out of the nasty rut it has been in for 20 years. Let us humbly offer a dissenting opinion: it does not seem that Draghi's report, even if implemented -- which is doubtful -- will solve anything on a European macroeconomic scale. The problem seems that Draghi refuses to take leave of the Germano-environmentalist myth of a zero-carbon Europe.
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by Nils A. Haug • November 12, 2024 at 7:00 am
Fortunately for Israel, former US President Donald J. Trump was just re-elected to serve a second term. Within hours, Hamas indicated that now might be a good time to talk about peace. Qatar, perhaps concerned that its days of double-dealing might be coming to an end, announced it would be "stalling" its role as a mediator between the US and Hamas. The landslide victory of Trump in the US election this week appears finally to be restoring deterrence. Israel's society is politically and ideologically split. On one side are Israelis who understandably want their relatives back, and have been hoping for a ceasefire. Sadly, they are probably unaware that Iran, Qatar and Hamas, are loath to relinquish the only bargaining chip they have, and will undoubtedly drag out releasing even one hostage as long as they can. [A]fter 13 months of futile ceasefire negotiations, many Israelis appear to have trouble realizing that if Hamas and its backers, Iran and Qatar, so wished, the hostages would be home by now. If the priority of Israeli progressives were to rescue the hostages, they would demand that Hamas release them. "The slogan for freeing the hostages," wrote British journalist Douglas Murray, "... should never have been 'Being them home.' It should be 'Give them back.' Now." Murray has also noted that for years, the Biden administration has put all its efforts into trying to oust Netanyahu when it would probably have been better off putting all its efforts into ousting the Iranian regime. Israel's progressives would also have called on the international community to pressure Iran and Qatar, rather than hector their own prime minister. Sadly, these Israelis, some of them in desperation to see their loved ones again, are playing into the hands of Hamas. Its leaders must be delighted to see a divided Israel turn against itself. Painfully, Israeli activists are doing damage to both their country and the hostages. Among Israel's most vocal protestors are prominent Israeli politicians, backed -- and some funded -- by the Biden administration. The US appears to desire someone more malleable in Israel's number-one spot: a person, one assumes, willing to do whatever the US dictates. The Biden administration's goal appears to be establishment of a terrorist Palestinian state on Israel's border. In addition, Iran will soon be able to produce nuclear weapons with which to bomb Israel to oblivion. This monumentally destabilizing objective was proposed by the Obama administration in its illegitimate 2015 "Iran nuclear deal," officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. (JCPOA)... As American journalist Daniel Greenfield points out: "The appeasement lobby only has one big idea when it comes to Islamic terrorists and any other enemies: 1. Give them land..." Evidence shows that, unfortunately, this strategy does not work. The failure of the Oslo Accords only emphasizes that fact. The "ceiling" of each offer becomes the "floor" of the next one, as each concession is pocketed in the expectation of more. Meanwhile, in the USA, President-elect Donald J. Trump is already creating seismic global changes within days, long before his inauguration on January 20, 2025.
Fortunately for Israel, former US President Donald J. Trump was just re-elected to serve a second term. Trump is already creating seismic global changes within days, long before his inauguration on January 20, 2025. Pictured from left to right: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then US President Donald Trump, Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani and UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan at the signing ceremony of the Abraham Accords at the White House on September 15, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Israel, under the heroic but much criticized statesman, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – a leader praised by historian Andrew Roberts as "The Churchill of the Middle East" – appears to have brought threats from Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, under control and can now focus Israel's attention and military forces on other fronts. Incomprehensibly, at this crucial period in Israel's existence, the chaotic domestic political situation has been cooking up unnecessary problems for the nation's security. Internal turmoil in Israel just serves to stimulate the hope for victory in its enemies, and less hope for the quick release of Israeli and other hostages Hamas is holding. "Hamas," wrote JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin, "views the unrest inside the Jewish state as an asset."
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by Lawrence Kadish • November 11, 2024 at 2:00 pm
(Image source: iStock)
As the world discovered when the United States deployed the power of atomic energy to end World War II, the nation that has the means to harness this incredible force in any of its many forms has the means of dictating terms to the rest of the globe. So it should come as no surprise that China is devoting financial, technological, and educational resources to harness what is commonly called, "controlled fusion." Or, to be specific, to place the enormous energy that powers the Sun inside a reactor that, in turn, could replace virtually every fossil fuel facility on the planet, running on a virtually inexhaustible supply of "clean" fuel. From subduing the political power of those enemy nations seeking to use their oil and gas reserves to bully America, to addressing climate change concerns, controlled fusion could be as powerful an advance as fire and the wheel. The Chinese fully recognize the implications of owning this kind of strategic achievement.
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by Daniel Greenfield • November 11, 2024 at 5:00 am
Americans had the opportunity to elect Kamala Harris. And we had failed to live up to her. [A]s Michelle Obama told us, we were not good enough for her. Perhaps one day we will be. And Harris, along with Hillary Clinton, can wait in the wings, sipping chardonnay and listening to selections from Oprah Winfrey's book club until we show that we are ready for them to finally come and save us from ourselves. Decades may pass. Even centuries. But surely one day Americans will finally be ready for a completely inept president. Herds of angry liberals wander the aisles of organic supermarkets and wonder how millions of people could have ever put their selfish economic interests ahead of a presidential DEI hire. America's selfish founders put their desire for cheaper tea ahead of the glory of being ruled by a mad king who talked to trees, and their unworthy descendants want cheaper eggs and beef more than they want to listen to a woman of the right race who speaks in word salads. It cannot be that Harris failed. DEI hires can never fail, only be failed. Nothing is ever their fault, only that of the systemic racism of the electoral college, the legacy of oppression in Berkeley and the unfair double standard of being expected to state coherent policy positions. Or to put it more succinctly, Harris and [Nikole Hannah Jones of the revisionist "1619 Project"] are awesome and America sucks. It would have been kinder for Democrats, Republicans and squishes of no particular political denomination not to reward Harris or ten thousand other DEI hires who fill academia, politics and corporations with positions they are unqualified for to avoid appearing bigoted. Bigotry is not only refusing to hire people because of their race, but also hiring people because of their race. Biden made no secret of choosing Harris because he had promised to pick a black woman. Americans refused to hire Harris to run the country just because she was a black woman. Whites, blacks and Latinos of all ages and sexes did the right non-bigoted thing by Harris. But nothing in Harris's life had led her to expect to be judged on merit rather than on her identity.
Americans had the opportunity to elect Kamala Harris. And we had failed to live up to her. As Michelle Obama told us, we were not good enough for her. Pictured: Harris gives her concession speech at Howard University in Washington, DC, on November 6, 2024. (Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
"Is America ready for that? Are they ready for a woman of color to be President of the United States?" Kamala Harris asked a month before dropping out of the 2020 primaries. Five years later, the consensus is not that Harris wasn't ready, but America still wasn't. "Kamala Harris didn't lose, America did. As a nation, we collectively failed her," John Pavlovitz, a liberal Christian blogger, damned. "This election was not an indictment of Kamala Harris. It was an indictment of America," Cosmopolitan columnist Jill Filipovic argued. Americans had the opportunity to elect Harris. And we had failed to live up to her. "By every measure, she has demonstrated that she's ready," Michelle Obama had warned at a Harris election rally. "The real question is, as a country, are we ready for this moment?" We were not ready.
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by Khaled Abu Toameh • November 10, 2024 at 5:00 am
Hamas should not be permitted to play any role in the Gaza Strip after the war. This would allow the terror group to rearm and regroup and prepare for another October 7-style attack on Israel. By negotiating with Hamas about the future of the Gaza Strip, Abbas is legitimizing the Iran-backed terror group and sending a message to the Palestinians and the rest of the world that he sees no problem with dealing with murderers and terrorists who committed the most horrific crimes... As we have seen most recently in the Chinese Communist Party, Iran and Afghanistan, negotiating with terrorists and their equivalents simply does not work. Ever since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, thousands of Palestinians have been killed in wars they initiated with Israel. With the help of Europe, Qatar and Iran, Hamas transformed the Gaza Strip, home to two million Palestinians, into one of the largest bases for Islamist terrorism in the Middle East. The assumption that Hamas would voluntarily give up its control of the Gaza Strip because of any unity agreement with Abbas is just laughable. The Biden administration chose to turn a blind eye to Abbas's efforts to legitimize Hamas. The US offered it a lifeline. A terror group committed to the elimination of Israel should have no role in any Palestinian government -- not in the West Bank and certainly not in the Gaza Strip. Such a group should be completely destroyed militarily and politically, and not invited to join any Palestinian government. As long as Iran's regime remains in place, torturing both its own people and others... there regrettably will be no peace. That is the only way to secure a truly peaceful future, not only for Israelis but for Palestinians and the Free World.
By negotiating with Hamas about the future of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is legitimizing the Iran-backed terror group and sending a message to the Palestinians and the rest of the world that he sees no problem with dealing with murderers and terrorists who committed the most horrific crimes. Pictured: Abbas hugs Russian President Vladimir Putin at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia on October 23, 2024. (Photo by Maxim Shipenkov/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
More than a year after the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, the Palestinian Authority (PA) continues to view the Iran-backed Islamist movement as a legitimate partner. Last week, representatives of the PA's ruling Fatah faction (headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas) and Hamas held talks in the Egyptian capital of Cairo to discuss establishing a joint administration to rule the Gaza Strip. An Egyptian source confirmed that the Fatah-Hamas discussions aim at to create a committee to manage the affairs of the Gaza Strip, in addition to pursuing efforts to reach a ceasefire there. Another Egyptian security source was quoted as saying that the talks "aim to unify the Palestinian ranks and alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people." According to the source, the Fatah and Hamas negotiators "showed more flexibility and positivity towards establishing a committee to manage the affairs of the Gaza Strip."
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by Amir Taheri • November 10, 2024 at 4:00 am
[T]he esteemed writers did at least four things that one does not expect from people of letters. The first was casting anathema on publishers, book clubs, cultural associations, art festivals and, inevitably, hundreds or perhaps thousands of writers, poets, composers, cineastes, dramatists, painters and other artists associated with them, simply because they happen to be Israelis. Annie Ernaux the French winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, also a signatory, explained her move as opposition to "institutions that have never recognized the undoubted rights of the Palestinian people" without saying what those rights were and why are they undoubted, or whether they include raids like the one on October 7, 2023. The second move not expected from the literati... is to preach blanket censorship based on guilt by association. This is all the more surprising because most signatories are from the "Western world," where refusing guilt by association is a fundamental principle of the law. Thirdly, a writer always provides even the character he most dislikes the chance to make his case before he is stamped with a final judgment of banishment. [W]all-building, now done by the United States, Turkey, Iran, Hungary, Poland and Estonia, doesn't amount to Apartheid. In any case, as Israelis built walls to keep Hamas away, Hamas built tunnels to go and pay them a visit. The Palestinian cause may be a noble one. So, as a writer, show us what it is and why it is noble. A writer isn't a labelling machine or a virtue-signaling device. However, neither Walker nor Corbyn wondered why so many Palestinians in Gaza were still in refugee camps, although Hamas had ruled Gaza for more than a decade after the Israeli withdrawal. Virtue-signalers do no service to Palestinians by using and abusing their undoubted sufferings to vent historic, cultural and pseudo-religious hatred against Jews. If they are sincere in supporting the Palestinians they should call for transforming a "cause", that in Hamas's version means the annihilation of Israel -- a cause that has produced nothing but grief for eight decades -- into a "project" to shape a better future for Palestinians beyond eternal refugee camps.
Pictured: Pro-Hamas demonstrators in front of United Nations headquarters in New York on October 9, 2023, two days after the Hamas invasion of Israel. (Photo by Adam Gray/AFP via Getty Images)
"Think twice! No, think thrice before you put a word on paper!" This was the advice that the great Persian poet Muhammad Iqbal, a son of India, advised his disciples in the last century. "In using words let caution be your guide." That thought found an echo in the writings of Sayyed Kazem Assar, an Iranian theological scholar. He wrote: "I have sat down to put pen on paper and words are jostling one another to assume existence. But do I know which one I should let in and what each will do? " He called that the Abraham moment when, knife in hand, the prophet was prepared to sacrifice his son but yet was not sure whether he was doing the right thing. Won't an unexpected event prevent him from doing what cannot be undone? Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard had a similar feeling, which he named anxiety, about thoughts and words that once given life could go anywhere and do anything, at times replacing thought.
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