The key players in the Russia collusion hoax, and why they're sweating now - Jonathan Turley

 

by Jonathan Turley

Former CIA Director Brennan and other top officials reportedly 'lawyering up' as declassified documents contradict previous testimony

The release of declassified material has shed new light on the creation of the Russian collusion investigation and many of the names are crushingly familiar. Indeed, Congress is moving to "round up the usual suspects" in light of the new revelations. It is the story of the real Russian conspiracy: how high-ranking officials in the Obama Administration seeded this false claim with the help of an eager, unquestioning press corps.

OBAMA-ERA OFFICIALS MUM ON ALLEGATIONS OF 'MANUFACTURED' INTELLIGENCE LAUNCHING TRUMP-RUSSIA PROBE

Not surprisingly, the media, which spent years repeating the false Russian collusion claims, is doing a full-court press to kill the story. Yet, many of these key figures are retaining counsel in anticipation of the unfolding investigation. Many previously secured contracts with MSNBC or CNN, or book deals, where they doubled down on the false claims detailed in these new documents. Here are just a few of the usual suspects:

John Brennan, Former CIA Director; NBC News Senior National Security and Intelligence Analyst, appears on "Meet the Press" in Washington, D.C., Sunday, April 15, 2018.  (William B. Plowman/NBC/NBC Newswire/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

John Brennan, former CIA director

Brennan is arguably the most at risk in the new disclosures, which appear to contradict his prior testimony before Congress. On May 23, 2017, Brennan testified that the infamous Steele dossier "wasn’t part of the corpus of intelligence information that we had. It was not in any way used as a basis for the Intelligence Community Assessment that was done."

However, the new material shows that Brennan was the key figure insisting on the inclusion of the Steele dossier in an intelligence assessment, suggesting that the Russians did influence the election in favor of Trump.

Brennan not only intervened to include the dossier but overruled the CIA’s two most senior Russia experts, who said it "did not meet even the most basic tradecraft standards." One analyst recounted how "[Brennan] refused to remove it, and when confronted with the dossier’s main flaws, responded, ‘Yes, but doesn’t it ring true?’"

Notably, it was Brennan who briefed Obama in 2016 about Hillary Clinton's plan to create a Russian conspiracy "to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service." Months later, it would be Brennan who actively incorporated the dossier secretly funded by Clinton's campaign.

Then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan (L-R) testify before the Senate (Select) Intelligence Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill January 10, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

James Clapper, former Director of National Intelligence

James Clapper, former DNI under Obama, is expecting the worst and said that he has "lawyered up."  Clapper was in the briefing in July 2016 when Obama was told that Clinton was planning to create a Russian conspiracy narrative. In November 2016, Clapper received an assessment from the intelligence community that Russia was "probably not trying … to influence the election by using cyber means." He also received talking points from staff on Dec. 7, 2016, "Foreign adversaries did not use cyberattacks on election infrastructure to alter the US Presidential election outcome."

On Dec. 9, 2016, another report stated that "Russian and criminal actors did not impact recent U.S. election results by conducting malicious cyber activities against election infrastructure." That Presidential Daily Brief was scheduled to be published on Dec. 9, but CDNI Clapper’s office stopped its publication "based on some new guidance."

Clapper later joined Obama with Brennan, Susan Rice, John Kerry, Loretta Lynch, Andrew McCabe and others, in a meeting where a new assessment was ordered that would detail the "tools Moscow used and actions it took to influence the 2016 election." Brennan then reportedly handpicked the analysts who seemed to flip the earlier assessments without any credible intelligence. 

In a 2018 interview with the Harvard Gazette, Clapper continued to spread the false narrative, referring to the high-confidence judgment that "Putin directly ordered the hacking and election interference." He added, "I think they [Russians] actually influenced the outcome." 

Clapper later added to his tarnished legacy by signing the letter with more than 50 former intelligence officials dismissing the Hunter Biden laptop story before the 2020 presidential election as having the [hall]marks of "Russian disinformation."

James Comey (BBC/YouTube)

James Comey, former FBI director

James Comey would use this contrived intelligence to green-light the investigations that overwhelmed the first Trump term. The FBI was aware early that the Steele dossier was an unreliable political hit job funded by the Clinton campaign. Moreover, the CIA told the FBI that Trump associate Carter Page was a U.S. intelligence asset, not a Russian spy. The FBI ignored such countervailing intelligence, violated protocols, and lied to a federal court to maintain the Russian investigation. 

In an interview with Fox's Bret Baier, Comey was asked about the lack of evidence of "Russian collusion." Comey dismissed the question by saying "collusion's not a word that I'm familiar with." Putting aside the lunacy of that statement, Comey then says the question is whether Americans were "in cahoots with the foreign intelligence activities." It appears "cahoots" is a word he is familiar with. He then denied knowing, in April 2018, that the Clinton campaign had funded the report. Comey routinely seems unfamiliar with terms or facts that contradicted his investigating Trump, even years later.

Comey repeatedly testified to a lack of memory on key decisions made in the Russian investigation. However, documents show that it was Comey who pushed back on a planned statement by Clapper, stating that they had not determined the dossier to be reliable.

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Andrew McCabe, former acting FBI director

Andrew McCabe, now a CNN contributor, was fired after career Justice Department officials found that the former acting FBI director not only lied to investigators but deserved to be fired. That recommendation was reportedly embraced by the career officials in the inspector general’s office. He was accused of lying four times, including twice under oath.  

Not surprisingly, McCabe makes appearances in the new disclosures. He is not only present at critical meetings, but it also appears that McCabe was allegedly responsible for blocking congressional investigators from interviewing the FBI analysts who supported Brennan and drafters of the controversial ICA. Congress alleged that at least 30 FBI employees associated with the dossier were walled off by McCabe.

These and other names are not new. As the media was spreading the false narrative of Russian collusion, many of these figures knew that there was no evidence of such collusion. They said nothing.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION

Instead, after Obama ordered a new assessment effectively flipping the conclusions of the earlier assessment, anonymous sources leaked the false narrative to the media, which eagerly ran with the story.

While leaks of the false narrative were rampant, none of the actual facts were leaked to the media. In the meantime, figures like then Rep. Adam Schiff, now a Democratic senator from California, continued to claim, even after Special Counsel Robert Mueller rejected evidence of collusion, that he had secret evidence to the contrary in the House Intelligence Committee. Schiff never revealed that evidence, and the public now knows that the intelligence community rejected the collusion claims from the outset.

The public is now learning about the real Russian conspiracy and its key players. It was the most infamous -- and successful -- political hit job in history. The same media that pushed the false claims are now, again, imposing a news blackout as they did with the Hunter Biden laptop. The problem is that the truth, like water, tends to find a way out. That trickle just turned into a flood for the architects of the Russian collusion hoax.

 

Jonathan Turley is a Fox News Media contributor and the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of "The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage" (Simon & Schuster, June 18, 2024).

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/jonathan-turley-key-players-russia-collusion-hoax-why-theyre-sweating-now

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

How Gabbard’s Revelations Complete the Case Against Comey and Brennan - John D. O'Connor

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

'Bring the Head of Trump': Iran Must Be Stopped - Majid Rafizadeh

 

by Majid Rafizadeh

Where are the so-called champions of human rights in the West, who constantly criticize Israel and the U.S. but cannot seem to say a word about an Islamic regime putting a bounty on the head of an American president?

 

• Shortly after the fatwa was announced, Mansour Emami, the state-appointed head of Iran's official Islamic Propagation Organization... announced that a reward of 100 billion tomans (approximately $1.14 million) would be paid to anyone who "brings the head of Trump."

• On top of that, reports from inside Iran reveal that the regime and its supporters have reportedly raised more than $40 million in a crowdfunding campaign to murder Trump.

• What has the response been from the international community? Silence. Where are the liberal voices, the pro-Iran "diplomacy-first" crowd, the think tank elites who have spent years telling us that we should appease Tehran and give them billions of dollars for "peace"? Where are the so-called champions of human rights in the West, who constantly criticize Israel and the U.S. but cannot seem to say a word about an Islamic regime putting a bounty on the head of an American president?

• In the minds of Iran's clerics, a fatwa is binding, a direct command from a "representative of God" on earth. When a fatwa calls for killing a person, it is a divine order for murder, complete with the promise of heavenly reward for the murderer.

• When Shirazi issued his fatwa, he did not just target Trump. He declared Trump a mohareb — an enemy of God. In the ideology of Iran's theocratic regime, this label also carries the death penalty. The person who kills Trump, in their eyes, is not just a hitman; he is a holy warrior. A martyr. A man destined for paradise, where virgins and heavenly blessings await him. It is this worldview that is now driving Iran's strategy; the danger is not just to Trump, but to every nation in the free world and to everyone who practices any religion other than Shia Islam.

• It is time for Americans to stop pretending that diplomacy will solve everything. It will not.

• Every American should support policies that will eventually lead to the fall of Iran's murderous government: it does not hesitate to kill its neighbors or even its own people... and continuing to use military force when necessary to protect American lives and interests.

• Under no circumstances should the US reward Iran with concessions. In Iran, that is seen only as weakness. It sends a message to every terrorist and tyrant in the world that the United States can be pushed to offer bribes, which are then used to build their war machines.

• If we allow such aggression go unanswered—if we allow a sitting president to be hunted with no consequences — we are only begging for more attacks.

Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, one of the most powerful clerics in Iran's theocratic system, has issued an official fatwa — a religious decree — calling for the murder of President Donald J. Trump. What makes the fatwa even more outrageous is that the regime is not just issuing threats—it has been raising money, publicly -- to pay for Trump's murder. Pictured: Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei gives a speech explaining the meaning of "Death to America," on November 1, 2023, televised on Iran's Channel 1. (Image source: MEMRI)

Iran's regime has crossed a line that no sovereign state has ever crossed before: it openly called for the assassination of a sitting president of the United States.

Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, one of the most powerful clerics in Iran's theocratic system, has issued an official fatwa — a religious decree — calling for the murder of President Donald J. Trump. It did not come from some fringe radical hiding in a cave. It came directly from the top of Iran's religious and political hierarchy. This is equivalent to a declaration of war. What makes the fatwa even more outrageous is that the regime is not just issuing threats—it has been raising money, publicly -- to pay for Trump's murder. It is not a joke. It is a direct, state-sanctioned call to eliminate America's leader.

Shortly after the fatwa was announced, Mansour Emami, the state-appointed head of Iran's official Islamic Propagation Organization in West Azerbaijan Province, announced that a reward of 100 billion tomans (approximately $1.14 million) would be paid to anyone who "brings the head of Trump." A religious cleric with an official government position, not a rogue agent, was offering a million-dollar bounty to behead the U.S. president.

On top of that, reports from inside Iran reveal that the regime and its supporters have reportedly raised more than $40 million in a crowdfunding campaign to murder Trump. This is the kind of behavior you would expect from ISIS or al-Qaeda, not from a government that has embassies, diplomats, and sits at the negotiating table with the United Nations and other world powers.

What has the response been from the international community? Silence. Where are the liberal voices, the pro-Iran "diplomacy-first" crowd, the think tank elites who have spent years telling us that we should appease Tehran and give them billions of dollars for "peace"? Where are the so-called champions of human rights in the West, who constantly criticize Israel and the U.S. but cannot seem to say a word about an Islamic regime putting a bounty on the head of an American president? If any Western nation, let alone the United States, had done something even remotely similar, the global media and the complicit United Nations would have gone into meltdown. Because the call comes from Iran — the pet regime of the academic left, the darling of anti-American ideologues — it gets a pass?

A fatwa is not just a statement or opinion. A fatwa is a religious edict issued by an Islamic authority that carries "spiritual" and legal obligation within Islamic law. In the minds of Iran's clerics, a fatwa is binding, a direct command from a "representative of God" on earth. When a fatwa calls for killing a person, it is a divine order for murder, complete with the promise of heavenly reward for the murderer.

That is exactly what happened in 1989, when Iran's then Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa for the murder of author Salman Rushdie, for allegedly blaspheming Islam in his novel The Satanic Verses -- a work of fiction. Western commentators at the time scoffed at the order, called it "symbolic." Then what happened? After decades, the fatwa was acted upon. In 2022, Rushdie was stabbed multiple times on a stage in New York by a young Muslim man who was radicalized online and motivated by the decree to kill.

The same dynamic is now unfolding against Trump. When Shirazi issued his fatwa, he did not just target Trump. He declared Trump a mohareb — an enemy of God. In the ideology of Iran's theocratic regime, this label also carries the death penalty. The person who kills Trump, in their eyes, is not just a hitman; he is a holy warrior. A martyr. A man destined for paradise, where virgins and heavenly blessings await him. It is this worldview that is now driving Iran's strategy; the danger is not just to Trump, but to every nation in the free world and to everyone who practices any religion other than Shia Islam.

What makes this situation even more grotesque is that Trump actually spared the life of Iran's top leader. Just before Shirazi's fatwa, Trump publicly revealed that, during Israeli and American airstrikes in Iran, he had precise intelligence on the exact location of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Trump could have authorized a strike that would have killed Iran's ruler and decapitated the regime. But he did not. He later said, "I saved him [Khamenei] from a very ugly and ignominious death." That was not the action of a warmonger, but of a strong, careful leader who knows the power of mercy. How did Iran respond? By offering $40 million for Trump's head.

This should alarm every American. Make no mistake—this fatwa extends beyond Trump himself. The same regime has plotted to assassinate former Trump officials has been killing Americans for decades, including the 1983 bombings in Beirut and the attacks on 9/11. The Department of Justice and U.S. intelligence agencies have already foiled Iranian plots on U.S. soil. Nevertheless, we are dealing with a regime that has the will, the money, and the operational capability to carry out these threats.

It is time for Americans to stop pretending that diplomacy will solve everything. It will not. We are not dealing with a "normal" government here. This is a theocratic death cult with oil money and ballistic missiles. Yet, some in Washington still want to negotiate with this regime, sign new nuclear deals, release frozen Iranian funds, and ease sanctions. Are we insane? How do you negotiate with a regime that since its inception has vowed "Death to America" – as an outspoken official "policy" -- and that is openly raising money to kill your president?

The time for adolescent wishes for a one-sided "peace" is over. If Iran's regime has declared war on the United States, then we had better treat it as such. Every American should support policies that will eventually lead to the fall of Iran's murderous government: it does not hesitate to kill its neighbors or even its own people. Such policies might include maintaining and expanding primary and especially secondary sanctions; isolating Iran diplomatically, building a coalition with allies such as Israel and Gulf states – and continuing to use military force when necessary to protect American lives and interests.

We must also support the Iranian people who risk everything to rise up against this tyranny. The young men and women who chant "Death to the dictator!" in the streets of Tehran are our natural allies. We should be funding them, broadcasting their voices, and helping them organize against the regime.

Under no circumstances should the US reward Iran with concessions. In Iran, that is seen only as weakness. It sends a message to every terrorist and tyrant in the world that the United States can be pushed to offer bribes, which are then used to build their war machines.

Iran's regime is not a victim of Western aggression. It is not "misunderstood." It is a violent, expansionist, apocalyptic regime that openly wants to destroy America and dominate the Middle East, then the rest of the world:

"We shall export our revolution to the whole world. Until the cry 'There is no god but Allah' resounds over the whole world, there will be struggle," Khomeini, the founder of the 1979 Islamic revolution, declared.

The regime funds terrorists, murders dissidents, persecutes religious minorities, and now, is calling for the murder of the American president. It is important to respond with strength.

This confrontation is not just about Trump. It is about the future of America's security and the survival of Western civilization. The Iranian regime has made its intentions clear: it wants to eliminate the symbol of American strength, leadership and freedom – on its way to eliminating America. Why else has it infiltrated South America and Cuba? If we allow such aggression go unanswered—if we allow a sitting president to be hunted with no consequences — we are only begging for more attacks.

• Follow Majid Rafizadeh on X (formerly Twitter) 

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a political scientist, Harvard-educated analyst, and board member of Harvard International Review. He has authored several books on the US foreign policy. He can be reached at dr.rafizadeh@post.harvard.edu

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21774/iran-must-be-stopped

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Yasser Abu Shabab claims Gaza militia captured territory from Hamas now untouched by war - WSJ - Jerusalem Post Staff

 

by Jerusalem Post Staff

Yasser Abu Shabab said Hamas should trade the remaining hostages as a way to safely leave Gaza to Qatar as they weren't wanted in the Palestinian enclave.

 

Gaza militia leader Yasser Abu Shabab with the backdrop of the Gaza Strip.

(photo credit: SECTION 27A COPYRIGHT ACT, Reuters/Ronen Zvulun, Ebrahim Hajjaj/File Photo)

 

Yasser Abu Shabab, the leader of Popular Forces, a militia group in Gaza, claimed to have “secured” several kilometers of land in the Strip and is now governing that space, in an opinion article published by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday.

The Popular Forces reportedly took over land belonging to the Tarabin Bedouin tribe, of which Shabab is a member, he wrote while asserting that the militia’s “primary goal is to separate Palestinians who have nothing to do with Hamas from the fire of war.”

Shabab claimed that “the war is already over” for those living in the territory in eastern Rafah.

“For the past seven weeks, our neighborhood has become the only area in Gaza governed by a Palestinian administration not affiliated with Hamas since 2007,” he claimed. “Our armed patrols have successfully kept Hamas and other militant groups out. As a result, life here no longer feels like life in Gaza.”

He claimed that those living in the captured territory had access to shelter, food, water, and basic medical supplies “without fear of Hamas stealing aid or being caught in the crossfire with the Israeli military.”

Palestinians collect aid supplies from the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 9, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/Hatem Khaled)

Shabab claimed that capturing the territory had had a massive impact on the lives of the Palestinian civilians in the enclave, asserting that they will no longer be “used as human shields by Hamas” or deal with “chaotic aid lines, (nor) evacuation orders.”

Aspirations for Gaza

“While there is still much to improve, people now sleep at night without fear of death,” Shabab wrote, adding his territory could become “the new norm.”

He claimed that families had contacted him hoping to relocate to the zone, and that in the coming months, a third of Gaza’s population could be moved outside of Hamas’s control.

To make his aspirations a reality, he wrote in the Wall Street Journal that his militia would need “financial support to prevent Hamas’s return, humanitarian aid to meet the population’s immediate needs for food and shelter, and safe corridors so people can move around.”

Hamas's brutality

“The vast majority of Gazans reject Hamas,” he claimed. “They don’t want it to remain in power after the war ends. But though they hate Hamas, they still fear it. Since protests began earlier this year calling for the group’s removal, demonstrators have been killed, tortured, or forced into hiding.”

Shabab added that his brother, Fathi Abu Shabab, and cousin, Ibrahim Abu Shabab, were murdered by Hamas in their homes despite not partaking in the protests. He claimed 52 civilians under the group’s care were murdered by the terror group.

Despite Hamas killing his loved ones, Shabab wrote, “I am not intimidated by them. I won’t surrender.”

The return of the hostages

“What has prevented most Gazans from expressing their true anger at Hamas is the lack of a viable alternative,” Shabab claimed. “Hamas still controls aid access and dominates institutions like the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA. Hamas still turns aid centers into hubs for its own operations. In some areas, the only thing preventing people from fleeing is the presence of Israeli troops, which might withdraw as part of a ceasefire.”

On the topic of hostages, which he did not describe as “prisoners” in contrast to Hamas, Shabab wrote, “When the rebuilding has begun, Hamas can negotiate with Israel for the release of hostages in exchange for safe passage out of Gaza. Let them go to Qatar, Turkey, or wherever their enablers will have them. We don’t want them among us.”

Shabab called on the US and Arab states to recognize the Popular Forces and support an independent Palestinian administration.

“From eastern Rafah—where families now sleep safely under civil protection—I can see Gaza’s future,” he concluded. “The question is: Will the world help build it with us, free from the ideologies of violence and terror?”

Jerusalem Post Staff

Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-862236

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

‘A moral mistake, a diplomatic error and a political danger’ - Yossi Lempkowicz

 

by Yossi Lempkowicz

CRIF on Macron’s Palestinian state notice: Three months ago, he conditioned recognition on the release of the hostages and the surrender of Hamas.

 

French President Emmanuel Macron addressing the annual CRIF gala dinner in Paris, Feb. 20, 2019. Credit: European Jewish Press.

 

President Emmanuel Macron‘s announcement that France will recognize a Palestinian state without preconditions “is a moral mistake, a diplomatic error and a political danger,” said CRIF, the representative body of French Jewish institutions.

On Thursday, Macron wrote on social media: “Faithful to its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognize the State of Palestine. I will make the solemn announcement at the United Nations General Assembly in September.’’

In a statement released on Friday, CRIF noted that three months ago, the French president announced that he was considering recognizing a Palestinian state, subject to the release of the hostages still being held in Gaza and the surrender of Hamas.

“Today, none of these conditions have been met,” CRIF stressed.

“The announcement of recognition of the Palestinian state in September is therefore in total opposition to the president of the republic’s own previous declarations,” it added.

Most Popular

France to recognize Palestinian state, drawing Israeli, US reproachJuly 24, 2025

One-month visas to replace automatic documents for UN aid agency, Israel says July 24, 2025

The worldwide frenzy against IsraelJuly 24, 2025

CRIF also pointed out that 78% of French people are opposed to unconditional recognition, according to a poll IFOP (the Institut français d’opinion publique) conducted in June.

“Whatever the intentions of the president of the Republic, this recognition will be brandished by Hamas as a symbolic victory and a reward for the terrorism of October 7, which claimed more than 1,200 victims, including 50 French citizens,” CRIF said.

“By granting the Palestinians at the beginning of the process what they must obtain at the end, this premature recognition will encourage the Palestinian side to make no further compromises, thereby encouraging the failure of future negotiations.”

CRIF said that in France, the premature recognition of the Palestinian state will galvanize the extreme-left anti-Israel La France insoumise (France Unbowed, LFI) Party, “which has made Gaza an election slogan, and all the antisemitic agitators who twist the Palestinian cause to justify attacking French Jews.”

“Demanding that the minimum conditions for its recognition be met does not mean rejecting a Palestinian state, it means promoting a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians when the time comes,” CRIF said.

‘Oct. 7 cannot be the founding myth of a nation’

Caroline Yadan, a member of the French National Assembly who represents French citizens abroad, including in Israel, said Macron’s decision “deeply upsets me.”

“In my view, it is a political, moral and historical mistake. Last June, the president himself laid down clear and essential conditions for any recognition of a Palestinian state: the release of all hostages, the complete demilitarization of Hamas, the exclusion of Hamas from any form of governance, an in-depth reform of the Palestinian Authority, mutual recognition between Israel and Palestine, and respect for Israel’s fundamental right to live in peace and security,” she wrote on X.

She continued, “Of course, what is happening in Gaza is a tragedy. It deeply upsets us. All human lives are equal, and no one can be satisfied with the chaos and suffering that is taking place there. Our common objective must remain the search for a lasting political horizon, based on a two-state solution, living side by side in security and dignity. But none of these conditions has yet been met.

“To ignore them is to give in to emotion, impatience and even a form of resignation. Above all, it sends a dramatic signal: that of legitimizing an Islamist terrorist organization, Hamas, which did not fail to congratulate the president of the republic,” said Yadan, who is a member of Macron’s Renaissance Party.

“It means ignoring the rockets that continue to be fired daily into Israel, in deafening silence. To recognize a Palestinian state less than two years after the greatest antisemitic massacre since the Shoah, while the desire to repeat this abomination remains intact, is to accept the invasion of a sovereign state as a legitimate means to an end.

“The day of the pogrom on October 7, during which terror expressed itself without limit, cannot be erected as the founding myth of any nation. Peace cannot be decreed. It cannot be built on the ruins of pain, or on the erasure of principles. It is not the result of a unilateral gesture, but of a difficult path that requires lucidity, courage and justice—for both peoples,” Yadan said.

Originally published by the European Jewish Press.

Yossi Lempkowicz

Source: https://www.jns.org/a-moral-mistake-a-diplomatic-error-and-a-political-danger/

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Iran's axis 'can be stopped here,' general of Yemen's anti-Houthi forces tells 'Post' - Jonathan Spyer

 

by Jonathan Spyer

BEHIND THE LINES: Read about the Southern Transitional Council, based out of Aden in south Yemen, leading the fight against Houthi terrorists, primarily based in the north of the country.

 

MEMBERS OF Houthi security forces patrol the site of a demonstration, attended by predominantly Houthi-supporting protesters, in solidarity with Palestinians, in Sanaa, Yemen, on July 11.

(photo credit: KHALED ABDULLAH/REUTERS)

 

ADEN, Yemen – “We just need a green light, and we’ll drive back the Houthis – and Habrish too,” Maj.-Gen. Salah al Hassan tells me, as we sit in his office in Aden, southern Yemen. “Habrish” is Amr Bin Habrish, deputy governor of Hadramout Province, who is widely suspected of collaboration. 

The Houthis need no introduction. We are in the headquarters of the Yemeni Southern Transitional Council, or STC. I have come here to look into the question that the general has sought to answer – namely, whether there are potential ground partners available to the West in Yemen, to help undertake the urgent task of pushing back the Ansar Allah (“Partisans of God,” the Houthis’ official name) from the Red Sea coast area.

The importance and the urgency of this question require little explanation. Of the pro-Iran forces mobilized by Tehran to take part in the regional war against Israel under way since October 2023, the Houthis are unique in that they have not yet suffered any serious setback, and have not yet blinked.

Across a regional landscape where the main strategic lesson of recent months has been the relative weakness and vulnerability of Iran and its allies, the Houthis stand out in their durability.

Aden, under the de facto control of the STC, is ramshackle and poverty-stricken. The apartment buildings built by the British to house imperial officials and their families have long since fallen into decay. The Soviet-supported People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY, now South Yemen) appears to have left little architectural memory. 

South Yemen political delegation in the United States. (credit: STC)

Here and there, one may see faded Soviet-style murals. Like similar displays in Syria and Egypt, these seem to be the work of North Korean artists, and depict heroic Arab fighters of oddly East Asian appearance. The British fought a doomed colonial counter-insurgency here, in the late 1960s. The Soviets are long gone, too. 

BUT THE thing that brought them both to South Yemen – the crucial strategic waterway that runs past the Bab el Mandeb Strait between the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and then on to the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean – remains. Today, new forces are fighting over it.

The Houthis’ campaign against international shipping on the Gulf of Aden/Red Sea route recommenced this month, with the targeting and sinking of two Greek owned, Liberian-flagged vessels.

This is despite a supposed ceasefire concluded with the US regarding this front on May 6. Ansar Allah’s launching of ballistic missiles and drones at Israel is ongoing. Large-scale US and Israeli counterattacks from air and sea on the Hodeidah and Salif ports and the airport at Sanaa have so far failed to deter them.

What more might be done?

GEN. MOHSEN DERAI, Yemen’s defense minister, told us that he and the government he serves were “shocked” at the US decision to conclude a ceasefire with the Houthis in May.

Speaking in his office in Aden, the defense minister said that on the one hand, he had regretted that no ground operation had taken place to take advantage of the US air activity.

But on the other hand, he was relieved, “because the US was going to abandon us…. When the Americans decided to begin those operations against the Houthis, they didn’t coordinate with us and didn’t notify us, and when they decided to cease, they also didn’t coordinate with or notify us.”

“We had a strategic plan we had devised together with STC leader Aidarus al-Zoubaidi, which was supposed to involve the US, UK, UAE, and Saudi Arabia… a coordinated effort to bring down the Houthis.”

Darei’s words are notable given reporting at the time in April by The Wall Street Journal, suggesting that a ground operation had been in preparation.

Such an operation to push north into Hodaidah Province – taking the ports of Hodeidah and Salif, and the Ras Issa oil terminal – would with one stroke deprive the Houthis of a massive part of their revenue, their ability to bring in weaponry and goods, and much of the infrastructure used for attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. But it didn’t take place.

THE ISSUE, in part at least, is one of will. In 2019, an agreement brokered in Stockholm prevented a military offensive by the internationally recognized government of Yemen and the STC on the crucial Houthi-held port of Hodeidah. Now in 2025, the enemies of the Houthis have hesitated again.

But there are other complicating factors. The CIA estimates that anti-Houthi forces number around 300,000 fighters, which is only a little less than the number commanded by their enemies. But the anti-Houthi camp remains bitterly divided. The internationally recognized government of which Defense Minister Da’eri is a part wants to reunite the country after the destruction of the Houthis.

Who is the Southern Transitional Council, and what is their goal?

The separatist Southern Transitional Council favors recreating a separate state in South Yemen, with Aden as its capital. In our talks with STC officials, this issue was paramount.

The Southern Transitional Council emerged in 2017, following a successful defense of the southern provinces against the Houthis, and the clashes with Saudi-linked forces.

Led by Zoubaidi, the STC was backed from the outset by the United Arab Emirates. Today, it constitutes probably the dominant military force in South Yemen, with its associated militias holding the main fronts against the Houthis in Daleh, Abiran/Shabwa, and Lahej.

The STC aligned decisively with the US-led coalition following the commencement of attacks on international shipping in November 2023. In interviews, Zoubaidi noted that air action against the Houthis would not be enough. “What we need,” he said at that time, “is military equipment, capacity building, and training for ground forces, as well as intel sharing.”

These requests were echoed by STC fighters and commanders when we visited the Daleh and Shabwa fronts in the course of our visit. The situation on the frontlines is one of “no war, no peace,” as one commander at Daleh described it. There are near daily exchanges of fire, involving small arms and mortars, and regular attempts by the Houthis at incursion. The Daleh front is the most active.

STANDING ON a mountain facing the Houthi lines in Daleh, Gen. Abdallah, the local STC commander, outlined the tactical situation facing his forces near the city of al-Fakhr: “What’s happening is skirmishes, sometimes sniper fire, drones. Sometimes the enemy tries to infiltrate behind our lines, but he doesn’t succeed.

“We and the US are in the same boat – against Iran,” Abdallah said. “And the Houthis are an arm of Iran. The Iranian project succeeded in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, but it can be stopped here, in this area. If you want to ensure maritime security at Bab el Mandeb and the Red Sea, you need to support us.”

The central issue facing both the STC and the various other forces aligned with the internationally recognized government, appears to be a chronic lack of equipment. The list of their needs, as related to us in Aden, included: drones for reconnaissance (they appear to lack any capacity in this area), night vision equipment, light and heavy machine guns, and medium range artillery.

Political and military will, and manpower, are not lacking in southern Yemen. But the STC’s regional patrons, and their Western allies, at the moment appear to see no reason to convert their allies on the ground in Yemen into a force that could pose a genuine challenge to the Houthis. 

The result is that, for now, the Iran-supported militia looks set to remain free to commit piracy and murder on the Gulf of Aden-Red Sea route whenever it chooses to do so. Its opponents will continue to hold the line against them with the meager resources available to them. 

But real change is likely to come only when the Western and regional enemies of the Houthis decide that the situation is intolerable, and begin to build and equip a force capable, with air support from outside, of pushing the Iran-supported militia back from the coast – hopefully soon.

Jonathan Spyer

Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-862148

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

COGAT says hundreds of trucks awaiting pick up on Gazan side by UN, aid orgs - Jerusalem Post Staff

 

by Jerusalem Post Staff

UN's World Food Program claimed that 90,000 people are suffering from malnutrition, and nine people have died from it within the past week.

 

Aid awaiting pick up at Gaza border, July 26, 2025.

(photo credit: COGAT)

 

Approximately 90 food trucks were unloaded at aid crossings, and over 100 were collected by the UN and international organizations from the Gaza side and distributed in Gaza; however, hundreds of trucks still await pickup, the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said on Saturday. 

The UN's World Food Program claimed that "one in three people in the Gaza Strip has gone days without eating", citing information provided by Hamas-controlled Gaza's Ministry of Health.

A Saturday statement from the organization said that 90,000 people are suffering from malnutrition, and nine people have died from it within the past week. 

The IDF acknowledged on Friday that while there is no starvation in Gaza, food security is at a dangerous, sensitive point and that it is working hard to keep food security balanced.

The military noted that there were sensitive periods for food security during the 21-month war. However, when each period of food insecurity arose in Gaza, the IDF worked hard with humanitarian organizations and NGOs to address the issue.

Palestinians carry aid supplies in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, June 16, 2025; illustrative. (credit: REUTERS/DAWOUD ABU ALKAS)

The statement comes after Israel’s announcement that it will allow humanitarian aid to be air-dropped into the Gaza Strip by foreign countries, with officials expecting the United Arab Emirates and Jordan to take on the task.

Jordan and the UAE are waiting for military approval

According to military sources cited by the BBC, Jordan’s and the UAE’s militaries are still waiting for the IDF’s approval to begin airdropping humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

Other nations also called for Israel to lift restrictions on the humanitarian aid flow into the Gaza Strip, with Germany, France, and the UK leading the efforts.

"Withholding essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable," read a statement from these countries.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated that the news of foreign aid airdrops arrived at a very late stage in the war, but that the UK "will do everything we can to get aid in via this route."

At this time, the IDF is attempting to persuade the UN and other aid organizations to dispatch approximately 900 aid trucks to distribution points. The military has already approved the aid trucks, and they are waiting on the other side on the Gaza side of the border. 

Yonah Jeremy Bob and Corinne Baum contributed to this report.

Jerusalem Post Staff

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-862243

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Advocates raise alarm about growing Nazi apologism and Jew-hatred in alternative media - Steven Richards

 

by Steven Richards

Normalizing hate speech? The "Combat Antisemitism Movement" says one of the the latest viral podcast discussions containing suggestions of killing Jews as a part of a broader shift tolerating anti-Semitism in alternative media.

 

The viral spread of a recent podcast episode featuring Nazi apologia and a defense of the Holocaust highlights a disturbing trend in American alternative media of growing antisemitism, Holocaust denial or minimization, and pro-Nazi commentary, advocates say. 

"How do we take the Jews down?” one host on the self-described “Men’s podcast” Fresh and Fit asked, speaking to fellow panelists in an episode that garnered widespread social media attention in recent days. 

"We gotta kill the motherf*****s,” another guest chimed in. “My bad ya’ll,” she added. 

In the episode of the show, which has since been removed from streaming platforms, co-hosts Myron Gaines and Walter Weekes, who go by the monikers "Fit" and "Fresh," respectively, centered on a conversation about the Nazi regime, the causes of the Holocaust, and “taking down” the Jews. 

Defending Hitler, blaming Jews for Holocaust: "They started it"

The hosts and guests justified Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party’s "Final Solution" to murder Jews in the Holocaust. The participants also rebranded common anti-Semitic tropes, such as blaming the Jewish people for the Nazi’s hatred, according to a clip of the episode posted to social media earlier this week. 

“What do you guys think about Hitler?” Gaines asked the guests. 

The “Jewish [people] did something to the Germans that made them act a certain way, but nobody wants to talk about it,” one guest answered. “They started it. Like Germans wanted to take them out, all of them out.” 

She continued, “The Holocaust was the only way he can take out a huge population, like, a huge amount of Jews all in one sitting,” though later admitting that their chosen solution was particularly “gruesome.”

The Fresh and Fit show is considered part of the “manosphere”—pro-masculinty and anti-feminist websites that promote fringe theories of dating. For example, Myron Gaines, whose birth name is Amrou Fudl, wrote in his 2023 book “Why Women Deserve Less” that the historical relationship between men and women has been based on prostitution; “All men are Johns” and “All women are whores.”

Not the first controversy for the podcasters

The episode in question aired on Rumble, a video platform that promotes free speech for content creators, but that episode was removed from the platform for violating its terms of use, a Rumble spokesperson confirmed to Just the News. 

The platform prohibits “transmitting any message” that “is abusive, inciting violence, harassing, harmful, hateful, anti-semitic, racist or threatening.” The duos' other current content is still available on Rumble.

The duo was kicked off of the YouTube monetized "Partner Program" in 2023. The Sun reported that the duo said that they didn't know why YouTube made its decision, but "they suspect it has something to do with their controversial topics."

Their content created up to 2024 appears to still be distributed on Apple, and on Spotify.

"Surge of Jew-hatred" not spontaneous, critic says

Sacha Roytman, Chief Executive Director of the Combat Antisemitism Movement, argues that the “surge of Jew-hatred in alternative media spaces is not spontaneous” and that it can inspire violence if not checked. 

“It draws on centuries-old antisemitic tropes, now repackaged and broadcast to millions. What we’re seeing today is not just hateful ignorance — it is dangerous incitement fueled by misinformation, conspiracy theories, and a disturbing appetite for scapegoating Jews,” he said. 

“You don’t need a podcast host laughing as guests urge the murder of Jews to understand that this isn’t fringe rhetoric. It’s a call for violence,” Roytman continued. 

“When influential media figures legitimize conspiratorial or revisionist narratives about Jewish power or the Holocaust, they embolden a growing ecosystem of hate. The very history some now choose to deny shows us exactly where this path leads. We must confront it before more damage is done.”

While a particularly egregious example from a fringe podcast, this sample appears to fall in line with a growing trend, especially in right-wing alternative media, but also among leftists, exemplified by the widespread anti-Israel and pro-Hamas campus protests and escalating violent attacks motivated by antisemitism. 

“I think a lot of this, in my opinion, has to do with the education system and the fact that it’s failed the students in the United States,” Jewish-American Natalie Sanandaji, Public Affairs Officer for the Combat Antisemitism Movement, told Just the News. 

Sanandaji, who was in Israel during the October 7 attack and told The New York Post she narrowly escaped death at the Nova Music Festival, described her public school experience growing up in New York and lamented how little the history classes covered the Holocaust and the growing antisemitism in inter-war Germany.

“I remember feeling so confused and I remember raising my hand to ask my teacher… ‘Are we not gonna talk about where it started?” Sanandaji recounted. 

“The fact that it started with propaganda, the fact that it didn't start with the final solution, like, there were so many things leading up to it that if students learned these things, they would realize that history is repeating itself right now,” she said. 

Conservative figures bringing controversial notions to the fore

Another recent example comes from Candace Owens, who became popular through her affiliation with conservative media outlet The Daily Wire where she adopted the branding of a black conservative who had the courage to walk away from the Democratic Party. But, since splitting with the company, Owens has increasingly focused on Jews and the modern State of Israel. 

In one instance, Owens downplayed the gruesome human experiments by Nazi scientist Josef Mengele, who was described by the U.S. Department of Justice as the “most notorious Nazi criminal” whose whereabouts remained unknown after the Second World War. 

Some of her views appear somewhat disconnected from perceived reality or are unsupported by history. She has accused Israel of being behind the John F. Kennedy assassination. She previously described Holocaust education as “indoctrination” in an episode of her show titled “Literally Hitler: Why can’t we talk about him?” 

Sometimes, conservatives draw ire not for what they say, but for allowing fringe views to be expressed on their shows, an action sometimes called "platforming."

Tucker Carlson, a former television commentator on CNN, MSNBC and most famously, Fox News, has also faced criticism for hosting a fringe historian who minimized the Holocaust while painting British Prime Minister Winston Churchill as the “chief villain” in the war. 

The contrarian historian, Darryl Cooper—who posts publicly under the username MartyrMade—told Carlson's audience that the murder of millions of Jews in the concentration camps during the war was not intentional, but rather an unintended consequence of a state unprepared for war. “They went in with no plan for that and they just threw these people into camps. And millions of people ended up dead there,” Cooper said in an interview last year. 

Cooper also called Churchill the “chief villain” of World War II and said he was “primarily responsible for that war becoming what it did, becoming something other than an invasion of Poland.” He even credited Churchill’s standing in politics to the support of Zionists—those who supported the formation of an independent Jewish country in the Middle East. “You read stories about Churchill going bankrupt and needing money, getting bailed out by people who shared his interests in terms of Zionism,” he said. 

Carlson has been criticized not for adopting these questionable views, but for allowing them to be heard and for not refuting such claims on air. The New York Times reported that Carlson called Cooper "the most important popular historian working in the United States today.” 

Critic equates fringe views as responsible for hatred

Sanandaji said comments like these, and what she called the one-sided criticisms of the modern state of Israel, "perpetuates this idea that it’s okay to hate the Jews.”

She continued, “If you want to talk about conflicts, if you want to talk about people dying, I think it's so important to talk about both sides.” 

Unlike the Fresh and Fit podcast, Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson have a much wider reach, and ostensibly, greater influence. Owens has nearly 2.5 million subscribers on YouTube and Carlson’s X account, where he streams his show, has 16.5 million followers. Carlson is also a successful writer, whose 2018 book "Ship of Fools" is highly rated on Amazon, with an 82% five-star rating from almost 10,000 reviewers.

“These people have a big platform, and with…great power comes great responsibility,” Sanandaji added. “These words don’t just fall on deaf ears.”  

Steven Richards

Source: https://justthenews.com/nation/extremism/advocates-raise-alarm-about-growing-nazi-apologism-and-jew-hatred-alternative

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter