Toward President Trump's 'MIGA!': Making Iran Great Again - Lawrence Kadish

 

by Lawrence Kadish

Iran's regime has been suppressing, poisoning, arresting, raping, torturing and executing its own citizens in record numbers. In 2025 alone, Iran's regime has already executed 1,700 people -- and it is not even July. 

Iran's regime has not only been committed for nearly half a century to "Death to Israel" and – as "a policy," according to Iran's Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei -- to "Death to America." To implement this policy, the regime has also been committed to acquiring nuclear weapons and the intercontinental ballistic missiles to fire them across the Atlantic. Pictured: Khamenei gives a speech on November 1, 2023, televised on Iran's Channel 1. (Image source: MEMRI)

The Iranian regime, by violating US President Donald J. Trump's ceasefire after only four hours, did the world a great favor. It should now be clear, if it was not, before, that Iran's government -- called by the US Department of State, the "world's leading state sponsor of terrorism for the 39th year running," -- does not look as if it will suddenly agree to become the compete opposite of itself.

As big-hearted as it is for Trump -- who deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for bringing an end to the war with Iran in just 12 days, and the US operation in just 37 hours -- to agree to talks with Iran's ruling mullahs, in Shiite Islam, unfortunately, whenever Islam might appear under threat, dissimulation, taqiyya, is recommended.

The Iranian regime would doubtless be delighted to negotiate forever. It is a perfect way to run out the clock, especially by claiming at each near-breaking point to be "this close" to a solution. The regime has skillfully been orchestrating this kind of "diplomacy" for 46 years.

If Trump thinks that Iran's mullahs will actually comply with any agreement they make -- such as to stop trying to obtain nuclear weapons; to stop their policy of "Death to Israel" and "Death to America;" or stop arming terrorist proxies in neighboring countries; or stop having their Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) brutalize their own citizens, or actually permitting "anywhere-anytime" nuclear inspections by Israel and the US – he could be in for a shock.

Trump, in fact, appears to know as much. He has already said that "a nuclear deal would not be necessary" -- meaning, it seems, that he realizes he will not get one. Any "handshake" agreement, of course, would most certainly be reversed at the end of his term, if not sooner, and only serve as a green light for the mullahs to wait him out, get rich and rearmed, and then, as soon as the coast is clear, get back to doing what they really want: "Death to Israel" and "Death to America."

As the Iranian author Amir Taheri (and, full disclosure: chairman of Gatestone Europe) notes today:

"This time it was, again, the United States to remove the cup of victory from their lips.

"The do-gooders who imposed the fishtail outcome forgot that the duty of a war is to change an unstable status quo and replace it by a new one acceptable to protagonists, by clearly designating a victor and a vanquished....

"The do-gooders and peddlers of ceasefire turn war into a knife that remains in the wound, to be turned again and again.

"In other words, in some cases, ceasefire could be an enemy of peace."

Iran's regime has not only been committed for nearly half a century to "Death to Israel" and – as "a policy," according to Iran's Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei -- to "Death to America." To implement this policy, the regime has also been committed to acquiring nuclear weapons and the intercontinental ballistic missiles to fire them across the Atlantic. Who do you suppose is there?

Iran already has ballistic missiles that carry a one-ton warhead, which have devastated entire city blocks. It is currently on the way to producing missiles tipped with a two-ton warhead, which might efficiently destroy even larger areas. In addition, Iran's regime has been suppressing, poisoning, arresting, raping, torturing and executing its own citizens in record numbers. In 2025 alone, Iran's regime has already executed 1,700 people -- and it is not even July.

"Those who are prepared to treat their own people badly," wrote the Russian dissident Natan Sharansky in A Case for Democracy, co-authored with Ron Dermer, now Israel's Minister for Strategic Affairs, "are likely to treat others even worse."

The question regarding Iran, then, is what to do with it?

The good news is that the Iranian regime is not the same as the Iranian people. In 2009, 2011 and 2012, the Iranian people came out onto the streets begging then US President Barack Obama to help them overturn their brutal regime. Instead, Obama ignored them and effectively underwrote the mullahs' war machine (here, here and here).

Last week, there were hopes that the regime's dissidents might finally take over. On June 23, in a precision airstrike, Israel blew the entrance gate off Tehran's horrific Evin Prison, where most political prisoners are held, presumably to encourage dissidents to take to the streets again to spark a change, the same way the former trade union leader Lech Walesa did to free Poland from the Soviet Union in 1989.

Regrettably, as in Venezuela, civilians in Iran are forbidden to have guns – clearly to keep them defenseless -- the reason for the United States' Second Amendment.

"Iran," The Telegraph reported last week, is "'hiding thousands of centrifuges' to build nuclear bomb," adding: "The IRGC is growing in power, influence and control, according to one well placed Iranian source."

The Economist backed that up with a report headlined, "Fierce hardliners are grabbing power in Iran."

In recent days, Iranian authorities have reportedly arrested more than 700 people accused of ties with Israel – with who knows what kind of unimaginable "trial." Three of those have already been sentenced to death for "espionage." This is the regime that Trump will leave in place?

Secular thugs might be preferable to religious thugs, but still seem less than an ideal solution. The West brilliantly defeated Lenin and Stalin, only to come up with -- Vladimir Putin, a KGB graduate and mass-murderer?

Sadly, the idea of "nation-building" has become only slightly less popular than a diagnosis of cancer, yet if one looks at the thumping successes of Germany and Japan after World War II, what is clear is that nation-building can work – just not if it is done atrociously, which is true of anything. Just because all surgeries do not necessarily end well, does not mean that one should never undergo surgery. One just wants to make sure that any plan is as carefully thought-through beforehand as Trump's assault on Iran's nuclear installations was, and that it would be administered by no-nonsense people who are, for a change, genuinely competent.

In their book, Sharansky and Dermer stated that many countries can be categorized as "countries of freedom" or "countries of fear." The biggest mistake that the West made, the authors suggested, was to assume that elections are the same thing as democracy. They are not. Elections, Sharansky and Dermer insisted, must come after other institutions of democracy are solidly in place and running smoothly, not before then. These institutions include property rights; equal justice under the law; separation of religion and state; freedom of religion and from religion; a free judiciary separate from the government; freedom of the press, and -- above all -- freedom of speech. A country is free, the book maintains, only when a citizen can stand in the town square and criticize the government without fear of retribution.

At present, since operatives were able to quietly work inside Iran to bring down its two-trillion-dollar nuclear weapons program, why could operatives not also quietly work to guide the Iranian people who wish to have a free government toward a new free, peaceful and prosperous way of life?

It is a transition that admittedly cannot be done in a week – it took four years before the Germans could elect Chancellor Konrad Adenauer – but that transition was not necessarily going to happen all by itself. It was cautiously nursed into place.

The West seems to have condemned itself to look only for quick fixes, possibly so politicians can get the quick-fix credit they need to run for reelection. So many problems are unaddressed, for instance the crisis in mental health, because politicians cannot see a quick credit in fixing it.

What seems to be missing to "Make Iran Great Again: MIGA!" -- as with the failure of every previous US administration to confront Iran's nuclear threat, as Trump so brilliantly did last week -- is the political will.

Perhaps, in order not to create more North Koreas, Russias or failed states, a bit of help in Iran would go a long way to making not just Iran "Great Again," but the complete Middle East.

Lawrence Kadish serves on the Board of Governors of Gatestone Institute.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21707/making-iran-great-again

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‘Let It Burn’: Young Iranians defy censorship, call for end of Islamic Republic regime - Alex Winston

 

by Alex Winston

Iranians rejoiced when the attack on the Islamic regime began. The question was never, "Why did this war start?" but rather: "Why did it stop?"

 

Iranians have called for the end of the Islamic regime inside Iran, asking why they have been abandoned by the US and Israel since the ceasefire between the Jewish state and the Islamic Republic.

(photo credit: Image created by AI) 

As the ceasefire between Israel and Iran continues to hold, inside Tehran, beyond the headlines and official narratives, ordinary Iranians are continuing the struggle over the future identity of their country. It is also a struggle for them to speak the truth.

In a message sent clandestinely to The Jerusalem Post over the weekend, a trusted source still operating inside the Iranian capital laid bare a version of events starkly at odds with the regime’s narrative of victory over Israel, and with the Western media’s framing of the 12-day war.

“The people of Iran were not upset when the attack on the regime began. On the contrary, they rejoiced as regime leaders were eliminated one by one. Their question was never, ‘Why did this war start?’ but rather: ‘Why did it stop? Why didn’t it continue? Why were we abandoned?’”

These words come from Iranians still living under the very shadow of the Islamic Republic regime, people who have spent decades under surveillance, silence and fear, rather than dissidents-in-exile speaking from the safety of the US, or armchair critics abroad. Now, as the regime faces unprecedented attacks, these voices have found cracks in the edifice and are attempting to rally the populace into action.

The fear now, the Post’s source warned, is that international powers will once again leave the Iranian people to suffer alone.

Flags are displayed as supporters of Iran's exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi and pro-Israel demonstrators gather outside the Iranian embassy during a protest in London, Britain, June 22, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/CARLOS JASSO)

“There is a sense of abandonment. A deep fear that a deal may have been struck with the regime. That, as always, the Iranian people have been left alone.”

But perhaps the most powerful testimony received came in a video, which captures a young Iranian woman speaking defiantly and directly into the camera with clarity and rage.

“Israel didn’t drag women on the ground, strip them naked, and leave them to die,” the woman tells her audience. “Israel didn’t rape your daughter in the alley while she ate Mihan ice cream. Israel didn’t amputate your brother’s limbs so [Iran’s former Defense and Armed Forces Logistics Minister Ali] Shamkhani could trade Bitcoin in his penthouse. Israel didn’t force a mother to put her one-month-old baby in a freezer,” the irate woman said.

“Israel didn’t bomb the [indecipherable name] bridge, killing all those passengers and children. Israel didn’t massacre people in Bandar Abbas [the April 2025 port explosion]. And yet, no apology, not even a whisper, from these broken TV voices. Let’s say it again: [The regime] did this.”

The woman then contrasts the rhetoric of the regime with the realities experienced by ordinary Iranians, challenging the official narrative of who their enemy truly is.

“Your enemy is the one who made you chant ‘Death to Israel’ for 40 years under whips and guns. Your enemy is the one who shot protesters from rooftops, targeting hearts, heads, eyes, and children,” she said.

“Admit it: These monsters were so vile that even now, with bare hands, we can’t escape their shadow.”

Iran maintains illusion of regime popularity, control after war with Israel

The video, which has circulated among younger Iranian dissidents, is a stark contrast to the regime’s official message that hundreds of thousands of mourners turned out to celebrate those killed in the conflict, including some of Iran’s highest military officers and nuclear scientists.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian praised the Iranian people over the weekend for their unity during the funeral procession for the “martyrs of Israeli aggression,” as regime mouthpiece IRNA reported, adding that the president stated it is the “honor of his life to serve such a noble and freedom-seeking people.”

However, the unity Pezeshkian has witnessed goes against reports of hundreds being arrested throughout Iran post-conflict, and the words related to the Post by the source in Tehran and the young woman on the video.

“I’m not saying Israel loves us or sheds tears for our suffering,” she continued. “But by chance, its interests aligned with Iranians’, and it struck. And it struck hard. This ‘patient father’ of a regime finally got what it deserved. We must accept it, painful as it is. Freedom isn’t free.

“Yes, innocents died, and that too is the Islamic Republic’s fault. It’s harsh. It’s agonizing. But what choice do we have? I’ll say it once: This 46-year nightmare must end. And frankly, it couldn’t have ended faster or cleaner.”

She ends her brief video appearance with a powerful message of hostility to the regime and a call for the Iranian people to fight back.

“You say our country is ruined? I say it was ruined 46 years ago. Like it or not, this is happening. We can’t stop it. But we can do one thing: Seize this moment. Use it to end the Islamic Republic.”

“Let it burn. Because if even one of these b****es survives, they’ll redirect their rage from Israel to you. So unite. Fight. Now. That’s the truth.”

According to the Post’s source, “that voice is real. It is the voice of Iran’s people, not what you hear in the media. Not the BBC, not [London-based Persian news outlet] Manoto, not Iran International. None of them can convey that feeling.”

These are the demands and hopes of an oppressed people, rather than those seeking war with Israel. After nearly half a century of hate and indoctrination, half a century in which they have been denied peace, the Iranian people can still think for themselves and speak for themselves. And theirs is the real voice of Iran.

Alex Winston

Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-859380

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When Ceasefire Prolongs War - Amir Taheri

 

by Amir Taheri

The do-gooders who imposed the fishtail outcome forgot that the duty of a war is to change an unstable status quo and replace it by a new one acceptable to protagonists by clearly designating a victor and a vanquished.

 

• [A] war must end with an acknowledged winner.

• [N]o victor could self-anoint and wear the garland unless the adversary acknowledges defeat.

• This time it was, again, the United States to remove the cup of victory from their lips.

• The do-gooders who imposed the fishtail outcome forgot that the duty of a war is to change an unstable status quo and replace it by a new one acceptable to protagonists by clearly designating a victor and a vanquished.

• The do-gooders and peddlers of ceasefire turn war into a knife that remains in the wound, to be turned again and again.

• In other words, in some cases, ceasefire could be an enemy of peace.

• Normally, that should cast Israel as the clear winner in the 12-day war. And, yet, as in previous cases described above, Israel is once again not only left with un-cashable chips but described as the loser....

• "We defeated both the Great Satan and its Zionist agent," says one-star [Iranian] general Ibrahim Jabbari. "But we should not let things and there. We should keep our boot on Netanyahu's neck until he is suffocated."

• Once again in Middle Eastern history, a hasty ceasefire motivated by short-term political calculations is set to prolong a decades-long war, each phase of which is deadlier than the previous one.

By any military standards, Israel scored a major win in the 12-day war that Trump halted. And, yet, Israel is once again not only left with un-cashable chips but described as the loser by Iran and, more surprisingly, by some so-called experts in the US and Europe. Pictured: Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei delivers an address, aired on IRINN TV on June 26, 2025, saying "I should congratulate the people. First, I would like to congratulate them on the victory over the fake Zionist regime. With all its clamor and pretension, the Zionist regime was almost annihilated and crushed under the blows of the Islamic Republic." (Image source: MEMRI)

According to an adage, the history of any war is written by the victor. This is because the loser is either dead or too wounded to have the energy to write or, in some cases, hopeful of turning the victor into friend.

But for that adage to apply, a war must end with an acknowledged winner. And that poses another problem: no victor could self-anoint and wear the garland unless the adversary acknowledges defeat.

This is the conundrum that Israelis have experienced ever since they fought to put their tiny country on the map.

This time it was, again, the United States to remove the cup of victory from their lips.

The do-gooders who imposed the fishtail outcome forgot that the duty of a war is to change an unstable status quo and replace it by a new one acceptable to protagonists, by clearly designating a victor and a vanquished. They say war is the continuation of politics by other means. In this case, however, the do-gooders turned war into a snake and rope version of diplomacy.

Some of the outside do-gooders benefited from their intervention by winning elections or even being granted the rather comical Nobel Peace Prize.

Since 1947, scores of new nations have appeared on the map, and dozens of wars have been won and lost, creating new status quos and ensuring long periods of peace and stability. In all those cases, war -- regarded by Aristotle as the noblest of human endeavors -- was allowed to determine who won and who lost. The function of war is to cut the Gordian knot with a blow and allow things to resume their movement.

The do-gooders and peddlers of ceasefire turn war into a knife that remains in the wound, to be turned again and again.

In other words, in some cases, ceasefire could be an enemy of peace.

This may happen again with the ceasefire ordered by US President Donald Trump to Israel and Iran, thus putting a temporary halt to a war that started almost half a century ago, when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic, declared "the elimination of the Zionist entity" as his number-one priority.

By any military standards, Israel scored a major win in the 12-day war that Trump halted. It gained full control of Iranian skies within 48 hours, a fact that later enabled US B-2 bombers to destroy Iran's key nuclear installations within a few hours, without facing any resistance.

The Israelis also decapitated Iran's military hierarchy, dominated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and wiped out the headquarters of the Quds Force, which had orchestrated Iran's operations in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and Yemen for decades.

According to Iranian estimates, Israel destroyed or seriously damaged the Islamic Republic's military and nuclear sites by attacking over 600 targets, inflicting damage estimated at over $1.8 trillion. In a classical cakewalk version of a military conduct, Israelis were able to attack targets in 20 of Iran's 31 provinces without losing a single warplane or pilot.

According to Fatemeh Mohajerani, spokeswoman for Iran's President Massoud Pezeshkian, Israeli attacks claimed over 600 lives, including 54 women and children. Twenty-three of those killed were one- or two-star generals, while a further 300 were military personnel, including NCOs. Iranian nuclear scientists and managers killed numbered 46. Iranian wounded numbered 4,746. On the Israeli side, the number of killed in Iranian attacks is put at over 30, of which only one was an 18-year-old conscript. Israelis wounded numbered 3,238.

Normally, that should cast Israel as the clear winner in the 12-day war. And, yet, as in previous cases described above, Israel is once again not only left with un-cashable chips but described as the loser by Iran and, more surprisingly, by some so-called experts in the US and Europe.

To complicate matters further, Trump has cast himself as the victor who ended the war by "wiping out Iran's nuclear program forever" and imposing a ceasefire within 24 hours of the US airstrikes.

Iran has tried to outbid Trump by advancing its own claim of victory. "We broke the horns of the American bull and rubbed its nose in dust," says Muhamad-Reza Aref, a presidential assistant in Tehran.

Tehran's propaganda makes much of the fact that the war lasted 12 days. "Arabs led by Egypt collapsed after just six days of war against the Zionists in 1967," says an editorial in the IRGC's Tasnim news site. "The Islamic Republic, however, resisted the attack by Zionists and their American backer for 12 days, and forced them to beg for a ceasefire."

The official media in Tehran quote The New York Times, CNN and other American and European networks casting doubt on Trump's claim of victory, let alone Israel's.

A range of Western dignitaries are paraded in the media to back Iran's victory claim, among them John Mearsheimer, David Attenborough, Noam Chomsky, and Jeffrey Sachs.

Iran's claim of victory has encouraged some Khomeinist ideologues to urge preparation for another round of war.

"We defeated both the Great Satan and its Zionist agent," says one-star general Ibrahim Jabbari. "But we should not let things end there. We should keep our boot on Netanyahu's neck until he is suffocated."

Once again in Middle Eastern history, a hasty ceasefire motivated by short-term political calculations is set to prolong a decades-long war, each phase of which is deadlier than the previous one.

Gatestone Institute would like to thank the author for his kind permission to reprint this article in slightly different form from Asharq Al-Awsat. He graciously serves as Chairman of Gatestone Europe.

 

Amir Taheri was the executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979. He has worked at or written for innumerable publications, published eleven books, and has been a columnist for Asharq Al-Awsat since 1987.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21706/when-ceasefire-prolongs-war

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NATO members agree to Trump demand to up NATO defense spending but for some paying seems long shot - Eric J. Lyman

 

by Eric J. Lyman

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to meet the new NATO target of 5% of a country's Gross Domestic Product on national security by the 2035 deadline.

 

Barely five months into Donald Trump’s second term, members of NATO have agreed to an ambitious spending surge of spending 5% of their economic output on defense. But agreeing is one thing –paying for it is something else.

The pressure is already showing, especially in Italy, where Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto said that NATO had surpassed its relevance.

“NATO no longer has a reason to exist. The Atlantic Ocean was once the center of the world. Now the entire world is at the center. We should have relationships across the whole world, he said ahead of the NATO summit that concluded last week in the Netherlands, where Trump successfully pushed NATO allies to increase their investment in defense spending from 2% to 5% of Gross Domestic Product.

Grosetto represents one of NATO’s worst under-performers when it comes to military spending and is one of its most indebted countries. But governments across the 32-nation NATO bloc are strapped for cash. Italy’s total public debt is equal to 137% of its economy. France is nearly as bad off at 112%, while Greece is the weakest (164%).

Those aren’t just budget constraints, they’re fiscal brick walls.

“We have been living beyond our means for decades,” Veronika Grimm, an economist with Germany’s University of Nuremberg and a member of the German Council of Economic Experts, told Just the News. “Social spending will continue to rise and will be difficult to curb because of demographic trends. Increasing defense spending means something else must be reduced.”

Aside from military spending, NATO countries spend large parts of their budgets on health care, pensions, and education.

Until recently, the 2% goal, agreed to in 2014, was itself seen as a stretch. When Trump won his first term in 2016, only five of 28 member states were meeting it. By last year, when Trump won again, at least 18 of the 32 nations in the expanded NATO had reached the threshold and the alliance's average stood at 2.2 percent, according to data from SIPRI, a Swedish think tank, a response to global trends.

“For the second year in a row, military expenditure increased in all five of the world’s geographical regions, reflecting heightened geopolitical tensions across the globe,” SIPRI said in a statement. “The decade-long growth in global spending can be partly attributed to spending increases in Europe.”

But as of this year, no country meets the 5% target agreed to by 2035 and only a few are even close: Poland (4.1 %), Estonia and the U.S. (both at 3.4 %), and Latvia (3.25%). All but the U.S. are on Europe’s Russia-facing eastern flank. But several that are farther from Russia still remain below the old target, including Canada (1.3%), Italy (1.5 %), and Spain (1.3 %).

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to meet the new NATO target of 5% of the country's GDP on national security by 2035. Trump has been critical of Spain, which he calls "notorious" for its low spending, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Reaching the 5-% target would nearly triple total NATO-wide defense spending from less than $1 trillion today (about equal to the total GPD of The Netherlands, which hosted the summit where the target was agreed to) to around $2.8 trillion (around France’s current GDP), based on the higher target and countries anticipated economic growth. It would account for what is being hailed as “the largest peacetime military spending increase in modern history.”

The agreement does allow some wiggle room: spending on cyber-security, R&D, and other military-adjacent priorities count toward the target, a shift from previous rules that focused exclusively on traditional military spending.

It also calls on countries to finalize blueprints for reaching the target by next year and a NATO-wide review in 2029 before the target date in 2035.

Oana Lungescu, a distinguished fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London and a former NATO spokesperson, said that while the financial challenges are steep the political consensus is clear – at least for now.

“They have all said they would do it,” he said. “There will be lots of questions about how long it will take them to get there. These are the hard questions for heads of state and government, for all societies … [but] our prosperity, our way of life, depends on our security.”

Eric J. Lyman

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/diplomacy/nato

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Senate advances Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ to a final vote as early as Monday - John Solomon

 

by John Solomon

In a 51 to 49 vote, all but two Republicans voted to advance the signature legislation of Trump's second tenure.

 

The Senate voted late Saturday to advance President Donald Trump's Big Beautiful Bill, pushing the tax and spending measure toward a final vote as early as Monday.    

All but two Republicans voted to advance the centerpiece legislation in a 51 to 49 tally as both chambers of Congress scrambled to get the legislation completed by July 4 .

The vote faced hours of delay as Republicans ironed out last-minute details and negotiated support. 

The two Republicans who voted against advancing the package were Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who opposed raising the debt limit and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who opposed Medicaid reforms

 

John Solomon

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/congress/senate-advances-trumps-big-beautiful-bill-final-vote-early-monday

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Netanyahu: Success in Iran opened new opportunities to rescue the hostages - Jerusalem Post Staff

 

by Jerusalem Post Staff

He also said that Israel's recent military success opened up broader regional opportunities, stressing the importance of Shin Bet’s role in these efforts.

 

PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu visits the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, where a ballistic missile fired from Iran hit and caused extensive damage, last week.

(photo credit: Itai Ron/Pool/Reuters)

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that rescuing the hostages is the primary goal of the war over defeating Hamas, during a visit to a Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) facility in southern Israel on Sunday.

He also said that Israel's recent military success opened up broader regional opportunities, stressing the importance of Shin Bet’s role in these efforts.

“We removed an immediate threat to our existence, two lethal threats to our existence," Netanyahu said, referring to both the Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile threats.

"I want to inform you that, as you surely know, many opportunities have now opened up following this victory. First and foremost, to rescue the hostages."

"Of course, we will also need to solve the Gaza issue and defeat Hamas, but I estimate that we will achieve both of these missions. Beyond that, broad regional opportunities are opening up, in many of which, in fact, almost all of them, you will take part in," he told Shin Bet members.

"I want to thank you on behalf of the people of Israel for your part in ensuring the eternal existence of Israel," he concluded.

Hostage Families Forum reacts to Netanyahu's statement

The Hostage Families Forum released a statement later on Sunday reacting to Netanyahu's statement.

We welcome the fact that after 20 months, the return of the abductees has been set as a priority by Netanyahu, the organization said.

"This is a very important statement that should lead to a one-time deal to return all 50 abductees and end the fighting in Gaza," the forum continued.

"It is important to emphasize that what is needed is release, not rescue" of the hostages, the statement continued. "A difference that may mean the difference between rescue and loss," they added.

"An absolute majority of the public understands that the only way to release everyone is through a comprehensive agreement and an end to the fighting, without rescue operations that endanger both the abductees and IDF soldiers," the forum added.

"So far, Netanyahu has chosen not to make the necessary decision despite the will of the people; a decision that prioritizes ethical, state, and operational considerations over any personal or political considerations," the forum argued.

"Only the removal of this obstacle will lead to a comprehensive agreement that has been waiting for the prime minister for months. This is the only thing separating Israel from a comprehensive victory and the beginning of national reconstruction," the forum continued.

"Return the kidnapped; stop the fighting," the forum concluded.

Acting Shin Bet head commends agents for success against Iran

The Shin Bet's acting chief "S" said, “The Iranian effort met the Shin Bet iron wall that left the Iranians with zero successes in realizing their intentions.”

“The covert campaign led by Shin Bet has resulted in numbers: Every day during the campaign, Shin Bet thwarted, on average, two significant attacks. This figure adds to about 770 thwarted significant attacks since the beginning of the year."

"This is a good opportunity to praise our colleagues in the IDF and the Mossad for their exceptional offensive activity that has led to unprecedented achievements. At the same time, I would like to praise and thank the thousands of Shin Bet employees who worked tirelessly to deny our enemies any success within the country," he concluded.

Jerusalem Post Staff

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-859407

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Hamas increased torture against dissident Gazans while world focused on Israel, Iran war - report - Jerusalem Post Staff

 

by Jerusalem Post Staff

This is part of an "escalating wave of bloodshed unleashed by Hamas against the ordinary Gazans it purports to represent," the Telegraph reported.

 

Hamas terrorists seen in Khan Yunis, February 20, 2025

(photo credit: ABED RAHIM KHATIB/FLASH90)

 

The following contains sensitive material; reader discretion is advised.

Some Gazan activists believe that Hamas has been taking advantage of Israel's conflict with Iran to increase its campaign of intimidation while the world is focusing elsewhere, the Telegraph reported on Sunday.

A lot of this violence is carried out by Hamas’s “Arrow” unit (“Wahdat Sahm”).

Ahmed al-Masri, one of the organizers behind the anti-Hamas protests in the north of the enclave in April and May, stood bearing a banner saying "Hamas does not represent us," in video footage seen by the Telegraph.

In the video, al-Masri attempted to spur on other Gazans, "fanning the flames of dissent while many of the people around him nervously averted their faces to avoid being identified on camera."

Hamas terrorists seen before a hostage release in Gaza City, February 1, 2025 (credit: Ali Hassan/Flash90)

However, earlier this week, pictures of al-Masri on a stretcher with a "frightened and helpless look in his eyes," and his "legs a bloodied mess," emerged, the Telegraph noted.

Al-Masri was abducted by Hamas terrorists in Beit Lahiya and was brutally tortured, multiple sources told The Telegraph.

His feet had been "deliberately broken with large stones and iron crowbars," and he was "shot in the legs," the sources added.

"They shot two people in front of him, then they shot him in the feet. They broke his feet with large stones and crowbars and threw him out in the sun for an hour. Then they brought an ambulance and took him to the hospital, where they beat him on his feet inside the ambulance," a source told the Telegraph.

"He’s in an extremely bad way," one of al-Masri's friends said. “We are trying to do our best for him, but people are terrified of speaking out in case they’re next."

This is part of an "escalating wave of bloodshed unleashed by Hamas against the ordinary Gazans it purports to represent," The Telegraph added.

Hamas is facing an unprecedented squeeze on its military and economic strength, and is "turning to ever crueller methods to keep control of an increasingly desperate population," the report continued.

"After the protests of the last few months, they began executing and arresting people in order to intimidate the population and to terrorise. I think it’s working. After a certain point, the protests disappeared," former Palestinian affairs correspondent for The Jerusalem Post Khaled Abu Toameh told The Telegraph.

Reports of Hamas torture, executions have multiplied over recent weeks

Reports of Hamas terrorists dragging civilians out of aid lines, torturing them in basements, or executing them in broad daylight have multiplied over recent weeks, according to the Telegraph.

This included masked figures using a long metal pole to smash a blindfolded man's kneecaps, which was published on Hamas-affiliated social media, the report claims, adding that his "agonised screams and pleas for mercy are too visceral to properly describe."

Another video showed a blindfolded man being interrogated for allegedly collaborating with the Palestinian Authority, which is a capital crime under Hamas's rule. It is likely that the man was later executed, The Telegraph added.

Another protest organizer, Mohammed Abu Saeed, who helped arrange protests in Khan Yunis was also killed, the report confirmed.

According to witnesses cited by the Telegraph, Abu Saeed was shot "so many times in the feet that one had to be amputated," adding that Hamas gunmen allegedly opened fire on his funeral procession, killing an unspecified number of his family members.

Hamas has been attempting to entrap Gazan civilians into saying incriminating statements by approaching them with fake social media accounts, an activist who refused to be named told the Telegraph.

Jerusalem Post Staff

Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-859400

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Florida’s Victorious Operation Dragon Eye - Michael A. Letts

 

by Michael A. Letts

Operation Dragon Eye rescued 60 missing kids in just two weeks—proving what happens when law enforcement puts mission over politics and predators in handcuffs.

 

Law enforcement is alive and well, everyone.

As people continue to criticize the police and insist they’re the problem, a recent operation has proven just how effective they can be—especially when it comes to the safety of children and the arrest of criminals who would stoop low enough to exploit them.

I’m talking about Operation Dragon Eye, which was recently carried out across Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco counties in Florida. The two-week multi-agency operation resulted in the recovery of over 60 “critically missing” children, aged 9-17. What’s more, eight people have been arrested on various charges, including human trafficking, child endangerment, and narcotics possession.

During a press conference earlier this week, Attorney General James Uthmeier noted, “This is what it’s all about. This is why we do the job.”

Absolutely. We do this to keep people safe—especially children. It still angers me to no end that there are adults out there who would attempt to exploit these poor, young children just to make a buck. But these particular eight are paying the price now. That’s for sure.

Uthmeier noted that this is the “largest child rescue operation, not just in Florida’s history, but in United States history.”

And that’s significant. And to think Florida police played a vital role, working alongside other agencies to not only track and arrest the suspects but also ensure the safety of these young kids. Bravo.

Chief Anthony Holloway also discussed the effects of Operation Dragon Eye. “This shows everyone that here, not just in Florida, but in the Tampa Bay area, we are serious about recovering our children and making sure we bring them back home safely. To the suspects who are out there: we’re coming to get you.”

Absolutely. I know this is just a small victory in an operation that no doubt affects hundreds of thousands of kids. But it’s inspiring to see law enforcement so dedicated to bringing down criminals who would take advantage of them and allow these children to return safely home to their families.

Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw put it best. “Each recovery and arrest is more than a statistic. It’s a reminder of our shared commitment to protecting the most vulnerable among us.”

What’s really great is how multiple agencies collaborated so effectively. Taylor Hatch, secretary of the Department of Children and Families, noted, “As you might imagine, an operation of this magnitude requires strong coordination at every level.”

I’ll bet. But the sheer professionalism and dedication to getting the job done right—and quickly, remember, it was a mere two-week operation—is really something. Hatch noted how a team was able to provide “critical information, helped shape recovery protocols, and deployed child protective investigators, criminal justice coordinators, and human trafficking specialists to support this mission in real time.”

Honestly, I want to see more police getting the spotlight for doing their job—and doing it well. More police working alongside fellow agencies—foregoing opinion in favor of duty—to save innocent lives and stop criminals.

There is an opportunity to do even more good here. With that, my organization, InVest USA, is actually working on Broken Arrow Children’s Ranch. We provide therapy for sex-trafficked children while helping locate their families or place them in new homes. It’s located at Treasure Trove Park in Cave City, Kentucky, and we truly believe it is destined to heal the most vulnerable—our children. If you want to learn more about it, please visit the Invest USA website.

For that matter, I hope Gov. Ron DeSantis continues to push for more progress like this. Operation Dragon Eye was a huge success, but we must build on it to shut down similar operations.

Kudos to every officer who took part in Operation Dragon Eye. You’re the real heroes here. And, at last, some people have finally quelled their opinions of these officers in favor of showing them appreciation for their efforts. Obviously there’s still progress to be made—some folks never change—but this is definitely a step in the right direction.

It’s time to make our country safe again. Keep going, team!

***

Michael Letts is the Founder, President, and CEO of InVest USA, a national grassroots non-profit organization that is helping hundreds of communities provide thousands of bulletproof vests for their police forces through educational, public relations, sponsorship, and fundraising programs. He also has more than 30 years of law enforcement experience, hence his pro-police stance for his brothers and sisters in blue. Those interested in learning more about Letts can visit his official website. 

Michael A. Letts

Source: https://amgreatness.com/2025/06/29/floridas-victorious-operation-dragon-eye/

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Shin Bet busts major Hamas cell, arrests 60 in Hebron - JNS Staff

 

by JNS Staff

More than 60 terrorists were arrested, with the Israel Security Agency calling the terror network, "one of the largest uncovered in recent years." The network had planned attacks "in the immediate future," according to the ISA.

 

Israeli troops search for a Palestinian terrorist who injured four people in a car-ramming attack near Hebron in Judea, Dec. 7, 2024. Credit: IDF.

 

The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) on Sunday announced a major operation against a Hamas network in the Judean city of Hebron, describing it as “one of the largest uncovered in recent years.”

According to the Shin Bet, the network had planned to carry out attacks “in the immediate future.” The operation was conducted in cooperation with the Israel Defense Forces and Israel Police.

More than 60 terrorists were arrested during the operation, and 22 weapons were confiscated.

The Shin Bet has uncovered a complex Hamas terror network in Hebron that was actively planning imminent attacks.

More than 60 operatives were arrested, organized into around 10 separate cells, all of which were planning terror attacks. Most of them are released terrorists. They… pic.twitter.com/rjmwirNyQg

— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) June 29, 2025

The Shin Bet also reported on Sunday that investigators had solved a deadly shooting that took place 15 years ago at the Bani Na’im junction near Hebron, in which four Israelis were murdered. No further details were provided in the statement.

Separately, the Israel Police announced on Sunday the arrest of five relatives of the terrorist who carried out the 2023 attack at the Eli gas station in Samaria.

The five, from the village of Urif, were arrested “on suspicion of incitement and supporting terrorism.”

The arrests followed the distribution online of a video in which the family members praised the deadly Eli attack, in which four Israelis were murdered and four others wounded by two Hamas-affiliated Palestinian gunmen. Both perpetrators were killed.

In the video, the relatives waved Hamas flags and expressed support for the terrorist organization.

The suspects were transferred for questioning by the central unit of the Judea and Samaria District.

JNS Staff

Source: https://www.jns.org/shin-bet-busts-major-hamas-cell-arrests-60-in-hebron/

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Minuting the minutiae - Roger Kimball

 

by Roger Kimball

The Supreme Court's 6–3 ruling in Trump v. Casa clipped the wings of activist judges, curbing their power to block presidential actions with sweeping injunctions.

 

For most mortals, most of the time, the deliberations and periodic eructations of the Supreme Court can seem like so many bulletins from the Office of Circumlocution.

Every now and then, however, the Court’s declarations mesmerize the public’s attention.

So it was on Friday, June 27, the last day of the Court’s term. Four cases were up for its scrutiny. One case, a congressional redistricting case in Louisiana, was pushed off to the fall term. (Often described as a “voting rights case,” the real issue is whether redrawing the map to create black-majority districts is permissible.)

Many Americans were happy about the 6–3 decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, which held that parents in Maryland may opt to keep their children out of primary-school classes that feature “LGBTQ+” storybooks.

The same people who applauded that decision were happy about the 6–3 decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, which upheld a Texas law requiring age verification to protect minors from accessing porn sites on the internet.

But the case that really galvanized the public was Trump v. Casa, in which the Court finally began to deal with the outrageous spectacle, unknown until the twentieth century, of district court judges issuing universal injunctions or restraining orders in order to stymie executive—i.e., presidential—actions that they dislike.

I last visited this topic in April when a judge appointed by Barack Obama ordered that Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an illegal alien whom the Trump administration had deported, be returned to the United States “by no later than 11:59 p.m. on Monday, April 7, 2025.” Garcia was eventually returned and now sits in a Tennessee jail, awaiting trial and/or redeportation.

The fate of Kilmar Garcia, while dramatic, is incidental to the larger question, put crisply by Justice Samuel Alito in a dissenting opinion when SCOTUS, 5–4, agreed with a lower court judge that Donald Trump had to disburse $2 billion in foreign-aid reimbursements. “Does a single district court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever) 2 billion taxpayer dollars?” Alito asked. “The answer to that question should be an emphatic ‘No,’ but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned.”

So were many of us. Can it be possible that each of the 670-odd district court judges across the nation could contravene the executive orders of the president of the United States?

Trump v. Casa basically says, “No, they cannot.” The Court tabled the big background question about so-called “birthright citizenship.” My own view about that, consonant with the view expressed by scholars such as John Eastman and Michael Anton, is that the Fourteenth Amendment does not automatically grant citizenship to (for example) children of illegal aliens who happen to be born inside the boundaries of the United States.

That, to be sure, is the common understanding of the first clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. “All persons born or naturalized in the United States,” that bit of the Amendment reads, “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof [my emphasis], are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

Two separate requirements for citizenship are articulated by that sentence: 1) birth or naturalization in a particular place, i.e., the United States, and 2) being subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.

What does that mean? I think John Eastman is right: “As an original matter, mere birth on U.S. soil alone was insufficient to confer citizenship as a matter of constitutional right. Rather, birth, together with being a person subject to the complete and exclusive jurisdiction of the United States (i.e., not owing allegiance to another sovereign), was the constitutional mandate.”

In my amateur’s view, the Fourteenth Amendment is a good candidate for being the most wildly inflated and misused bit of the Constitution. Busy legal hermeneuts, eager to find support for various liberal causes, have seized on phrases like “due process” and “equal protection” and pumped them full of progressive aspiration. But the amendment cannot be properly understood apart from its historical context. Adopted in 1868 during the frothy and unsettled post-Civil War period, it was one of three amendments meant to address the afterlife of slavery, which officially ended in 1865 but whose legacy continued to fester.

Michael Anton is correct, I believe, in noting that “The purpose of the 14th Amendment was to settle forever the question of the citizenship status of freed slaves and of other free blacks then living in America.” It was not, he goes on to argue, a mandate for birthright citizenship. As a practical matter, Anton continues, birthright citizenship is “a magnet for illegal immigration, an ongoing problem that worsens many of our other problems. The longer we continue the practice, the more illegal immigration we will get, with all its ensuing effects.”

President Trump cut to the chase in his remarks following the Court’s decision Friday. “Some of the cases we’re talking about would be ending birthright citizenship,” Trump noted. “That was meant for the babies of slaves. It wasn’t meant for people trying to scam the system.”

As I say, the Court did not address this large issue. But it did, in a 6–3 decision written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, decide whether “federal courts have equitable authority to issue universal injunctions.” In brief, the answer (with various qualifications) is “No, they do not.”

These were the words that brought a smile to Stephen Miller’s face:

Universal injunctions likely exceed the equitable authority that Congress has given to federal courts. The Court grants the government’s applications for a partial stay of the injunctions entered below, but only to the extent that the injunctions are broader than necessary to provide complete relief to each plaintiff with standing to sue.

That is the crux of the Court’s decision. It is tantamount to clipping the wings and the hubris of district court judges. It amounts to a great victory for the Trump administration, which is why there was such ebullience in the joint press conference held by the president and attorney general on Friday.

But quite apart from the substance of the decision, there was also some entertaining rhetorical crosstalk. I noted above that all three decisions were decided 6–3. I did not mention that the split was in each case along party—or, if “party” is too low a word for the judiciary, along ideological lines. On one side were the conservatives—Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, and Chief Justice John Roberts. On the other hand were the progressive justices: Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and—the latest addition to the Court—Ketanji Brown Jackson.

In Federalist 78, Alexander Hamilton famously said that the judiciary was “the least dangerous” branch because, lacking the power of the sword (which belongs to the executive) and Congress’s power of the purse, it wielded “merely judgment.”

Thomas Jefferson, early on, worried that Hamilton underestimated the encroaching, power-seeking ambition concealed within that judicial prerogative. “The opinion,” he wrote in 1804, “which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves in their own sphere of action but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch.”

Justice Jackson, in her dissent, furnished a vivid example of the sort of thing Jefferson had in mind. Usually, judicial dissents are temperate affairs. They can be strongly worded, as is Justice Alito’s dissent, quoted above. But they generally seek to preserve the formality and decorum of the Court.

Justice Jackson’s dissent is an exception. She begins by decrying what she calls “the Court’s decision to permit the Executive to violate the Constitution with respect to anyone who has not yet sued is an existential threat to the rule of law.” She then says that “the Executive’s bid to vanquish so-called ‘universal injunctions’ is, at bottom, a request for this Court’s permission to engage in unlawful behavior.” Really? Hasn’t she gotten things exactly backwards? Isn’t it the preening district court judges, seeking to intrude upon the authority of the executive, who are acting unlawfully? Justice Jackson concludes by lamenting that “the majority is so caught up in the minutiae of the government’s self-serving, finger-pointing arguments” that they have lost the plot.

This was not Justice Jackson’s first unusual constitutional exposition. Last year, she expressed her concern that the First Amendment might be “hamstringing the government.” Since “hamstringing” the government by protecting free speech is precisely what the First Amendment was intended to accomplish, there was abundant ridicule that greeted her pronouncement.

In the present case, Justice Barrett’s acerbic response to her more impassioned colleague is as rhetorically sharp as it is persuasive. Jackson, writes Barrett,

…chooses a startling line of attack that is tethered neither to these sources [e.g., the Judiciary Act of 1789, which established the jurisdiction of federal courts] nor, frankly, to any doctrine whatsoever. Waving away attention to the limits on judicial power as a ‘mind-numbingly technical query,’ … she offers a vision of the judicial role that would make even the most ardent defender of judicial supremacy blush.

Justice Barrett’s response is full of such intellectually precise remonstrances. Perhaps my favorite is this: “We will not dwell on JUSTICE JACKSON’s argument, which is at odds with more than two centuries’ worth of precedent, not to mention the Constitution itself. We observe only this: JUSTICE JACKSON decries an imperial Executive while embracing an imperial Judiciary.”

There you have it. You see what Thomas Jefferson was worried about. 

Roger Kimball is editor and publisher of The New Criterion and the president and publisher of Encounter Books. He is the author and editor of many books, including The Fortunes of Permanence: Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia (St. Augustine's Press), The Rape of the Masters (Encounter), Lives of the Mind: The Use and Abuse of Intelligence from Hegel to Wodehouse (Ivan R. Dee), and Art's Prospect: The Challenge of Tradition in an Age of Celebrity (Ivan R. Dee). Most recently, he edited and contributed to Where Next? Western Civilization at the Crossroads (Encounter) and contributed to Against the Great Reset: Eighteen Theses Contra the New World Order (Bombardier).

Source: https://amgreatness.com/2025/06/29/minuting-the-minutiae/

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