The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.
From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."
“Anti-Israel bias leads to antisemitic violence,” Gil Hoffman, executive director of media watchdog HonestReporting, told JNS. “Bias kills.”
The
BBC logo on the side of The Forum building in Norwich, Norfolk, in the
U.K., on Dec. 18, 2019. Credit: Sebastiandoe5 via Wikimedia Commons.
A leaked internal memo that exposed “a deep and pervasive bias” within the BBC, including two years of false and misleading coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, was published in full by The Telegraph on Thursday.
The report, written by Michael Prescott, a
journalist and former adviser to the BBC’s Editorial Standards
Committee, had “regular and detailed access to evidence of the BBC’s
journalistic failures and groupthink,” Danny Cohen, former director of
BBC Television, wrote of the report prior to its publication on Nov. 4.
Cohen described
the 19-page dossier as a “devastating document,” providing “an
insider’s account of serious and widespread failings of impartiality,
systemic bias and activist journalism spanning years of BBC news
coverage.”
Prescott’s “memo to the BBC’s Board
exposes in forensic detail a deep and pervasive bias in the BBC newsroom
and the chronic failure of the BBC’s most senior management to deal
with it,” Cohen wrote.
Among its disclosures, the report reveals that BBC Arabic
repeatedly featured antisemitic figures as on-air contributors,
including Samer Elzaenen, who “called on social media for Jews to be
burnt as ‘Hitler did.’” He appeared on BBC Arabic 244 times between
November 2023 and April 2025, according to the memo.
Another frequent contributor, Ahmad
Alagha, “who described Jews as ‘devils’ and Israelis as less than
human,” appeared 522 times on BBC Arabic news programs during the same
period, per the report.
“The rot is not confined to BBC Arabic,”
Cohen wrote, noting the report revealed that the network’s flagship
current affairs program Newsnight “highlighted claims that thousands of babies were on the brink of starvation in Gaza, that it already knew to be false.”
“That the BBC has helped to push Hamas
lies around the world and fuelled antisemitism at home cannot now be in
doubt,” Cohen wrote.
In response to the release of the report,
Kurt Schwartz, CEO of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East
Reporting and Analysis, stated that the group “has repeatedly warned
that BBC Arabic’s content violates the BBC’s own editorial standards and
undermines its global credibility.”
“This leaked dossier confirms
what CAMERA’s Arabic- and English-language monitoring teams have
consistently shown: a pattern of systemic bias, factual distortion, and
ethical negligence that damages the BBC’s reputation and fuels
antisemitism worldwide,” Schwartz stated.
HonestReporting, an organization that monitors and exposes anti-Israel bias in the media, wrote: “BBC bias wasn’t a mistake—it was policy.”
Gil Hoffman, executive director of
HonestReporting, told JNS that, “Throughout the war, the BBC was
spreading lies for Hamas unchallenged both in Arabic and in English”
under the leadership of Tim Davie, the BBC’s director general.
Davie “should have already been fired when
he was physically present at the Glastonbury musical festival, as a
singer there kept on shouting ‘death death to the IDF’ and he didn’t
stop it from being broadcast,” he said.
Hoffman told JNS that he is doubtful the BBC will make changes after the report’s publication.
“I worry that, like many other critical
reports of the BBC and its biased coverage of Israel, lessons will not
be learned,” he said. “And it’s dangerous. Anti-Israel bias leads to
antisemitic violence.”
Rep. Barry Loudermilk says he fears that the FBI withheld vital intelligence, creating fateful security holes before Capitol riot.
Numerous confidential informants
alerted the FBI prior to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot that there was the strong
possibility of “armed” conflict at the U.S. Capitol, but that
intelligence was not disbursed aggressively enough to force a change in
security that fateful day, the first congressman to review those source
reports tells Just the News.
Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., the chairman of the House Judiciary
subcommittee investigating Jan. 6 law enforcement failures, said he was
floored to see the specificity of threats and the consistency in
warnings that multiple confidential human sources provided the FBI and
that the intelligence was serious enough that it should have prompted
more security and possibly even a cancellation of President Donald
Trump’s speech that day on the Ellipse.
Loudermilk said the intelligence reports came weeks and days in
advance of the Capitol riot from about two dozen informants embedded in
radical groups around the country and that many of those informants came
to the Capitol to keep assisting the FBI.
“I was surprised that we found this significant intelligence that was
derived from these people embedded in these organizations,” he said
Friday night in an expansive interview on the "Just the News, No Noise"
television show. “There is no way that at least the Washington Field
Office or the FBI headquarters was not aware that there were elements,
not the entire crowd. There were elements of people coming to
Washington, DC with the intent of attacking the Capitol of the United
States.”
The Georgia lawmaker credited current FBI Director Kash Patel and
Attorney General Pam Bondi for giving him access to the intelligence
reports of the informants and said that it opened a whole new avenue of
inquiry into whether some elements inside the FBI withheld intelligence
that could have helped Capitol Police better prepare or repel the
violence that occurred that day.
“We’re really having a hard time finding really any tangible reports
that were sent to the Capitol Police or other agencies. And so my
question is, what did they know? When did they know it, and what did
they do with the information?” he said.
“I can tell you unequivocally, they had to know that there was
something not only bad going to happen, but the reports coming from
these confidential human sources, not just one, but multiple sources
from multiple organizations across multiple field offices across the
nation, were reporting the same thing,” he added.
Loudermilk said the informants made clear to their FBI handlers “that
not only was there going to be violence in Washington, DC, at the
Capitol on January 6, most of the reports were it was going to be a
whole lot worse than what actually it turned out to be."
Pressed further, Loudermilk said he was waiting to have documents
further declassified but confirmed multiple informants told the FBI that
groups were planning an armed attack on the Capitol, lawmakers or law
enforcement during the certification of the 2020 election results that
cleared the way for Joe Biden to become the 46th president.
“There were elements, not every group that was there, but there were
certain groups that were planning on an armed attack of the Capitol, and
even against law enforcement if they got in the way,” he disclosed.
“And it's not just isolated. It was, again, from several different
places across the United States, and reported to several different field
offices.
FBI had as many as 26 confidential informants embedded in Jan. 6 crowd
“One of my concerns about this, and I'm just going to speak from my
own self, and one of the, one of the things that I think we need to run
down is if they would have passed along this level of intelligence, if
they would have shared that level of intelligence, would it had changed
the security posture to the extent where President Trump would not have
come out and given his speech at the ellipse,” Loudermilk added.
It was revealed last year by the DOJ’s internal watchdog that the FBI
had as many as 26 confidential informants in the crowd on Jan. 6 and
that some had been passing on warnings to agents about potential
violence by right-leaning groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.
Also warned about Antifa
But Loudermilk revealed for the first time Friday night that one of
the groups that were being flagged by the FBI informants was the
far-left anarchist group Antifa, which was recently designated a
domestic terror group by Trump.
“The answer is yes, there was concerns that Antifa would be embedded
within the crowds there,” he said. “There were several references,
again, not just isolated to one, but several different field offices,
different organizations that were reporting that they had heard that
Antifa would be embedded within the crowd.”
FBI officials confirmed to Just the News that their
informant did warn of armed conflict and even Antifa, that the reports
have now been shared with Congress and that efforts are underway to
declassify them, so the public could see the long-hidden warnings.
Just the News has previously reported that Capitol Police
intelligence analysts did not receive intelligence warnings of major
violence and were led to believe by intelligence partners that Jan. 6
would look like prior peaceful Trump rallies. That assessment led
Capitol Police to have a smaller security footprint and for top
lieutenants to reject then-Capitol Police Chief Steve Sund’s request
days ahead of the event for the National Guard to be deployed for extra
security.
Loudermilk released last year videotape of then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., admitting she should not have opposed the deployment of the National Guard.
Loudermilk said the intelligence and informants he has now read four
years later warranted a far more aggressive security plan than was
deployed.
“There should have been even more security put in place. The National
Guard should have been at the Capitol the first time Chief of Police,
Steven Sund requested it, just based on that information,” he said.
Since the revelation last year of the presence of FBI informants in
the Jan. 6 crowd, some have questioned whether their presence had a
nefarious intent. Loudermilk said the evidence he has seen leads him to
the opposite conclusion, that the informants did a good job warning the
FBI, but those warnings fell on deaf ears.
“They are all reporting the same thing, and it's just not prior to
January 6. Some of them are reporting during January 6 and post
reporting,” he said. “And so that's what I found enlightening. They
continue to report what was going on which, which increases their
credibility, in my opinion, that they were trying to do the right
thing.”
We mock the credulity of ancient peoples who believed in myriad deities, to whom they did not hesitate to offer human sacrifices — even children... We feel only contempt for such myths. Yet today, the European Union is sacrificing 500 million citizens on the altar of a faceless green god.
Today, China is responsible
for nearly 12 billion tons of CO₂ emissions — five times Europe's
current emissions and one-third of the global total.
Europe's misguided decarbonization has handed its prosperity to
China on a silver platter. Moreover, it has done so through the European
Union. Many people despise the EU without really knowing why. Now they
do.
We mock the credulity of ancient peoples who believed in myriad
deities, to whom they did not hesitate to offer human sacrifices — even
children... We feel only contempt for such myths. Yet today, the
European Union is sacrificing 500 million citizens on the altar of a
faceless green god.
Not a single European will die from "global warming." But
millions could die from not being able to heat their homes during the
winter.
Crucially, however, China has also been investing billions in
nuclear-fusion energy – to provide limitless clean, cheap energy for the
unimaginable amounts of electricity that will be required for global
dominance in artificial intelligence...
The lifespan of a wind turbine is short. By 2030, around 14,000
of them will need to be replaced in Europe. How fortunate! Simply do not
replace them. The issue is easy: the semi-public companies managing
these turbines have set aside nothing at all — not a single cent — for
their replacement. All that is needed is to dismantle and remove them.
Think of it: our landscapes will no longer be dotted with these useless
eyesores. Then we can all write them off as a bet that was lost.
Europe's misguided decarbonization has handed its prosperity
to China on a silver platter. Under the pretext of "saving the planet,"
Europeans have dismantled their factories, outsourced their jobs and
increased their energy costs. No better example illustrates the sham of
decarbonization than the case of wind farms. Not a single wind turbine
is profitable without massive public subsidies, which Europeans pay for
every month through their exorbitant energy bills. Pictured: Wind
turbines in Villar de los Navarros, Zaragoza province in Spain on April
5, 2022. (Photo by Cesar Manso/AFP via Getty Images)
In 1992, global carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions stood at 22.3 billion metric tons. By 2024, they had reached a record high of 37.4 billion tons— an increase of nearly 68%.
Europe, by comparison, emitted
4 billion tons in 1992. By 2023, this figure had fallen to around 2.5
billion tons, a reduction of approximately 40% — on a global scale, a
derisory amount.
China, for its part, emitted only 2.5 billion tons of CO₂ in 1992. Today, China is responsible for nearly 12 billion tons of CO₂ emissions — five times Europe's current emissions and one-third of the global total.
While Europe flagellates itself in a supposedly virtuous asceticism,
aiming to eliminate carbon from the continent ("net-zero"), the rest of
the world, led by China, is burning coal at full throttle, propelling
global emissions to unprecedented heights.
Industrial collapse
Worse still, this European decarbonization has been accompanied by an accelerating industrial collapse. In 1992, manufacturing represented 20% of the European Union's GDP; today, it accounts
for barely 14%, and the trend is downward. Globally, Europe once
produced nearly 30% of global manufacturing; it now represents only 15%,
overtaken by China, which dominates with more than 30%.
Europe's misguided decarbonization has handed its prosperity to China
on a silver platter. Moreover, it has done so through the European
Union. Many people despise the EU without really knowing why. Now they
do.
Decarbonization is a pure myth — a fiction skillfully designed by Malthusian ideologues to keep Europeans in servitude (see Robert Zurbin, Merchants of Despair: Radical Environmentalists, Criminal Pseudo-Scientists, and the Fatal Cult of Antihumanism).
Under the pretext of "saving the planet," Europeans have dismantled
their factories, outsourced their jobs, increased their energy costs,
and subjected their economies to the tutelage of an authoritarian,
arbitrary Brussels bureaucracy — as ignorant as it is malevolent and
complicit with Beijing.
Murder by energy
When an American pays $100 to heat his home, a European pays between $300 and $500. When an American spends $100 to light his home, a European spends $200 — despite the average gross income in the United States being twice that of Europe and the average net income 2.5 times higher.
In Germany, 10,000 industrial jobs are being lostevery month. The chemical industry, once the pride of the port of Antwerp, Belgium, is in rapid and massive decline.
Chemicals in Antwerp are not a minor detail; they are a fundamental and
structuring element of its prosperity. Antwerp politicians who attempt
to balance public finances while adhering to the myth of decarbonization
are deluding themselves. One can have either decarbonization or
prosperity — not both. A choice must be made -- now.
"But Global Warming!"
Environmentalists from all parties have turned Europe into a vast,
unproductive, and dependent wind farm. But, say the well-trained
creatures, "What about global warming? Won't we all perish in torrents
of lava and a deluge of floods if we stop building wind turbines, and
fail to sacrifice our last factories on the altar of decarbonization?"
Even America's premier climate alarmist, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, last week dismissed , in his words, the "doomsday view" that climate change would "decimate civilization," and, according to Time, called for:
"a recalibration of priorities—including more funding for
global health and a narrower focus on key technologies that can make a
difference on climate. Paired with a move to cut funding for efforts to craft climate policy earlier this year, [Gates'] memo was perceived as an indication of a dramatic pivot."
Since the beginning of the industrial era, a slight warming has indeed been observed
— +1.2°C, not exactly the Apocalypse. Humanity will adapt, as it has
always done — to ice ages, droughts, and floods. This will be all the
easier now that we have at our disposal rapidly advancing technological
tools: artificial intelligence, precision agriculture, and large-scale
desalination.
Humans are preparing to colonize the Moon and Mars — where the
average temperature is -63°C. But we are told we could not adapt to a
1.5-degree increase on Earth? What a grim joke.
We mock the credulity of ancient peoples who believed in myriad
deities, to whom they did not hesitate to offer human sacrifices — even
children. We condemn the Mayan rites — decapitations, immolations, the
extraction of still-beating hearts — to appease Chaac, god of rain and
storms, who demanded blood to make it rain; Quetzalcóatl, because blood
nourished the cosmic serpent, and so on. We feel only contempt for such
myths. Yet today, the European Union is sacrificing 500 million citizens
on the altar of a faceless green god.
Not a single European will die from "global warming." But millions
could die from not being able to heat their homes during the winter.
What Europe needs
Europe needs a policy of strength — economic, military, geopolitical.
It must destroy the myth of decarbonization and reaffirm its true
goals: the well-being of individuals and families, economic growth, and
technological progress. Relocate industry, free up fossil and nuclear
energy, and invest massively in research. Only a sovereign, industrious,
and assertive Europe will regain its prosperity.
The Chinese Communist Party, for years, has been opening two coal-fired plants a week. In just the first half of 2025, China expanded these coal-fired plants more than in the last nine years. Crucially, however, China has also been investing billions in nuclear-fusion energy
– to provide limitless clean, cheap energy for the unimaginable amounts
of electricity that will be required for global dominance in artificial
intelligence.
Europe and the UK would be well-advised to stop listening to charming
little scoundrels like Boris Johnson, that ephemeral former British
prime minister who now profits from his "moral commitment" to the totalitarian absurdity of the "net-zero society," cashing in with the highest-bidding regimes and lobbies.
Decarbonization is a myth. There is no "decarbonization." Only Europe
— alone, like an old drunkard lost in its fantasies — is hanging
itself.
No better example illustrates the sham of decarbonization than the
case of wind farms. Not a single wind turbine is profitable without
massive public subsidies, which Europeans pay for every month through
their exorbitant energy bills.
The real problem, though, rarely mentioned, lies in the replacement
of these sad monsters. The lifespan of a wind turbine is short. By 2030,
around 14,000 of them will need to be replaced
in Europe. How fortunate! Simply do not replace them. The issue is
easy: the semi-public companies managing these turbines have set aside
nothing at all — not a single cent — for their replacement. All that is
needed is to dismantle and remove them. Think of it: our landscapes will
no longer be dotted with these useless eyesores. Then we can all write
them off as a bet that was lost.
Drieu Godefridi is a jurist (University Saint-Louis,
University of Louvain), philosopher (University Saint-Louis, University
of Louvain) and PhD in legal theory (Paris IV-Sorbonne). He is an
entrepreneur, CEO of a European private education group and director of
PAN Medias Group. He is the author of The Green Reich (2020).
Supporting Israel isn’t a betrayal of America First—it’s a strategic necessity for defending Western values and national security.
If you are a politically active conservative, you are more than
likely well aware of the recent kerfuffle caused by Tucker Carlson’s interview
of Nick Fuentes and the ensuing national dialogue regarding Israel,
including antisemitism and America’s support for Israel. In my opinion,
it is a net positive that the MAGA movement is working through these
issues now, long before we get to the 2026 and 2028 elections, but I
also believe that the dialogue has veered into unhealthy, illogical false dilemmas, such as “Are you America First or Israel First?”
I am here to trash that false dilemma.
As a patriot and a 22-year veteran of the U.S. Army, I am staunchly
and unequivocally “America First,” and it is precisely because I am
“America First” that I wholly support current U.S. policies regarding
Israel. Further, as an active and semi-popular user
of X, it often angers me when my X feed gets overwhelmed with
misinformed MAGA Americans who believe support for Israel is essentially
going against the USA. I am willing to consider that such people are
not necessarily antisemitic, but instead lack the experience and
knowledge to know just how important Israel is to the USA. For the
moment, I will grant such people grace and assume they do not
understand.
But understand what, you may ask?
Well, we are all products of our own experiences, so I want to talk
about my formative experiences that have left me utterly and totally
certain that support for Israel is solidly in America’s best interests.
I have had two full and totally different careers: first as a U.S.
Army officer and second as a corporate lawyer. Those two careers have
led me to extensively travel in, do business in, and live for extended
periods in the Middle East and in other Central Asian, Islamic nations
such as Afghanistan. I am not talking merely about the experiences that
all American veterans had in Iraq and Afghanistan (although those were
incredibly formative experiences for me as well). I have also traveled
and lived across the entire region long-term, both in military and
civilian capacities. I have worked closely with many Arab men in Kuwait
and elsewhere in the region. I have made deep friendships with those who
I worked most closely with, including such cultural experiences like
sitting in a huge tent
in the middle of the desert late at night during Ramadan, feasting on
rice, goat, and fish while drinking endless cups of hot chai tea, and
playing weird card games where you have to stick clothespins on your
ears if you lose. I have seen firsthand how Muslim society works in the
Arab and Central Asian worlds, and I know the ideas and policies that
define the region—with one (and only one) exception: Israel.
Here are thirteen key things I learned:
America’s support for Gulf Cooperation Council
(GCC) states is now and always has been based on oil. This is the only
thing America genuinely has in common with these nations. Were it not
for oil, we would have very little to do with those states. This is true
even though the USA is so rich in oil that it does not need Gulf oil, but our European allies do need it, so we defend the GCC.
Islamic nations consist of two classes of Muslims: jihadists and
people who do not openly support jihad butmake no effort to oppose it.
Islam’s historic, consistent, guiding principle is to transform the
entire globe into a single Islamic state, and using deception (“taqiyya”)
and force to accomplish this goal is not only accepted but desired. I
am fully aware of the prevalence of Islamic apologists who point out
that “jihad” simply translates from Arabic as “striving” and how jihad
is really unthreatening, “inner jihad,” or one’s internal struggles to remain holy. Yet despite these apologias, “Jihad of the Sword”
is an undeniable, doctrinal component of jihad, taught by
Mohammed—i.e., the type of jihad that involves physically conquering
infidels and forcing them to become Muslims. The entire history of
Islam, literally since its inception, is a history of conquering other lands to force their inhabitants to become Muslims, pay jizya, or die. Given 9/11, ISIS, October 7,
and the countless other modern actions, big and small, where violence
was the tool in spreading Islam, it is foolhardy to think anything has
changed since the Ridda Wars.
In Muslim Arab countries, it is possible to become friends with
highly educated, highly rational people who are some of the smartest
humans you will ever meet. Yet, sadly, when the subject of Israel and/or
Judaism comes up, they suddenly lapse into astonishingly irrational
beings, asserting wildly antisemitic tropes straight out of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”
Their hate is utterly irrational and—quite frankly—extremely disturbing
to behold. I fear too many Americans have latched onto this ancient,
highly flawed, and deeply evil way of thinking.
Islam is anathema to Western standards of freedom. Women are openly abused and treated as chattel property, freedom of religion is suppressed, non-adherents to Islam
are either discriminated against or murdered, freedom of speech is
actively opposed if it goes against the words of Mohammed, and poor “Third Country Nationals”
(impoverished Muslims from states such as Bangladesh) are imported for
menial labor and literally treated as slaves. Islamic nations have views
on personal liberty that are completely and utterly opposed to Western
civilization. In the very worst Muslim nations like Afghanistan, female slavery and young boy pedophilia are not only rampant but are also considered virtuous. Islamic society is wholly incompatible with Western society.
Every country but one (guess which one) in that region is a
totalitarian state. While countries like Jordan and Egypt may masquerade
as having some semblance of Western democratic concepts, in reality,
every nation but one in that region offers only totalitarian, tyrannical
governance where the citizenry is at the mercy of the tribal lords who
rule as familial dictators. Whatever “freedom” may exist in Muslim
nations is transitory, not guaranteed, and easily taken away.
While the Middle East is a sea of tyranny and despotism, one nation
and one nation alone in the region stands against such tyranny: Israel.
Israel is the only nation in the region that truly functions as a democracy and guarantees personal liberty.
While groypers and their ilk take offense to the idea of the “Judeo-Christian Tradition,” the irrefutable fact is that Israel is the only
nation in that region that shares Western values of democracy,
self-governance, a rule of law that does not force a religion on anyone,
and guaranteed personal liberties. Israel is an egalitarian society—the
only such nation in the Middle East. Don’t believe me? Roughly 20%
of Israel’s citizens are “Palestinian” with full rights of citizenship.
Israel shares our American values of governance and liberty, and no
other country in the region does. (And oh, by the way, the next time
someone decries the Judeo-Christian tradition, you may want to remind
them of the Old Testament.)
Israel is a tremendous military ally to the USA. While some Nick
Fuentes acolytes complain that they did not send troops to Iraq (as if
that were even remotely possible given geopolitical conditions in the
21st century), Israel is a staunch ally when it comes to sharing
military intelligence and technology. The only country that rivals the
USA in terms of military tech is Israel, and we and they share military technology
to each other’s mutual advantage. The only intelligence service that
rivals the CIA and the U.K.’s MI6 is Mossad, and the intelligence we
share with each other is greatly beneficial to both nations.
Israel is a nation built on a slender strip of arid sand and dirt, with extremely limited natural resources. Since its inception in its modern form, Israel has been surrounded by Muslim states with a singular purpose of destroying Israel and all of its Jewish inhabitants. Yet, despite these limitations, the citizens of Israel made the desert bloom and built an economic and military powerhouse out of nothing. We Americans who understand our own pioneering history can see the similarity to our own nation and cannot help but admire it.
I am a Silicon Valley corporate lawyer now. I do mergers and
acquisitions and equity financings for technology companies. I have been
on the other side of many deals involving Israeli companies, and I
promise you that Israel has a technology industry that is second only to
the USA’s Silicon Valley, and when it comes to cybersecurity,
arguably better than Silicon Valley. The U.S. and world economies
depend greatly on the innovation and products of the Israeli people.
Right now, even if you are a wildly antisemitic Daryl Cooper
fan reading this, the only reason you can do so safely without
divulging your bank account and other deeply personal information is
thanks to Israel.
Israelis love Americans and America. What other country has a neighborhood called “Trump Heights?”
“Gaza genocide” is a nonsense myth. Hamas has as its officially stated purpose the destruction of Israel and the murder of all its Jewish citizens. October 7
was one of the worst atrocities in modern history. In the face of a
recalcitrant, murderous enemy singularly committed to the destruction of
the USA and all its American citizens, how would we respond? Be honest.
Israel had repeatedly—for decades—offered peace and compromises, and Hamas and Gaza’s citizens rejected all of that in favor of death and destruction. Israel’s response in Gaza was EXACTLY what the USA would have done when faced with a similar situation.
If you are a proponent of the USA or Western Civilization more broadly, jihad is coming for you and me.
There are literally millions of people on this planet who would gladly
see you, me, and our nation destroyed if it meant we would all submit to
Islam. Israel sits on the front lines of that fight every single day
and has done so since 1948. It is not an exaggeration to state that, to a
certain extent, Israel has fought jihad so you and I do not have to.
So what does all of this mean?
It means Israel is a nation wholly and completely compatible with the founding liberty and governance principles of the USA.
It means that the pioneers of Israel had the same moral fiber and fortitude as the American settlers.
It means that when we talk about defending “Western Civilization,” part of that is defending Israel.
It means no other foreign nation loves the USA as much as Israel.
It means Israel is an economic and technological powerhouse that the world economy depends upon.
It means that Israel is on the front line of the battle against jihad, more so than any other nation.
It means that the oil upon which Europe depends is only there thanks
to Israel’s defense against jihad (because absent Israel’s regional
influence, 8th-century savages would rule the oil and cut it off).
It means that the Israeli Defense Forces and Mossad are reliable,
powerful partners of the US military and intelligence communities, and
the only reason we can do things like destroy Iran’s quest for a Twelfth Imam ruling over a nuclear wasteland is thanks to Israel.
Most of all, it means that to be “America First,” one must
necessarily support Israel, because Israel’s continued existence in the
face of forces that seek its absolute destruction benefits America in
every way imaginable.
Because I am a fierce advocate of “America First,” I support Israel,
and I believe no thinking person can honestly say they are “America
First” unless they also support all of the benefits Israel provides
America.
Israel, of course, frequently acts in its own self-interest, as do
all nations at all times in history. That self-interest sometimes
clashes with the best interests of the USA. I do not deny this reality,
and this sentiment is a frequent rebuttal to the points I make above.
However, the key to any alliance is that each ally’s self-interest
includes a high degree of mutual self-interest, and such is the case
with the United States of America and Israel.
So, do you want to criticize Israel? Fine, there is plenty to
criticize. But please don’t pretend that support for Israel is
anti-American, because support for Israel is abundantly “America First.”
***
Cynical Publius is the nom de plume of a retired U.S. Army
colonel and veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, who became a practicing
corporate law attorney after military retirement. You can follow Cynical
Publius on X at @CynicalPublius.
Linda McMahon, the U.S. secretary of education, stated that it was “another transformative commitment from an Ivy League institution to end divisive DEl policies.”
The Cornell University campus in Ithaca, N.Y., on Dec. 12, 2008. Credit: Jenn Vargas/Flickr via Creative Commons.
Cornell University announced on Friday
that it had reached a settlement with the Trump administration following
a Jew-hatred probe, and an investigation about its admissions policies.
Under the settlement, under which Cornell
“expressly denies liability with respect to the subject matter of the
investigations,” the private Ithaca, N.Y., school will pay a $30 million
fine to the federal government and commits to invest another $30
million in “research programs that will directly benefit U.S. farmers.”
Grants, which the federal government
withheld from the school, are restored “effective as of the date of
termination of each restored grant,” per the agreement.
“The Trump administration has secured
another transformative commitment from an Ivy League institution to end
divisive diversity, equity and inclusion policies,” stated
Linda McMahon, the U.S. secretary of education. “Thanks to this deal
with Cornell and the ongoing work of the Department of Justice,
Department of Health and Human Services and the team at the Education
Department, U.S. universities are refocusing their attention on merit,
rigor and truth-seeking—not ideology.”
“These reforms are a huge win in the fight
to restore excellence to American higher education and make our schools
the greatest in the world,” McMahon said.
Under the agreement, the university will
“continue to conduct annual surveys to evaluate the campus climate for
Cornell students, including the climate for students with shared Jewish
ancestry.”
Among the questions to be surveyed are
whether students “feel welcome at Cornell” and “whether they feel safe
reporting antisemitism at Cornell,” as well as whether they think that
changes that the school has made since Oct. 7, 2023, have helped the
school community. (JNS sought comment from Cornell.)
The school also agreed to report its
foreign funding in a timely manner and, as needed, hire legal experts to
advise the school on “sanctions enforcement, anti-money laundering and
prevention of terrorist financing.”
University president Michael Kotlikoff stated
that “since April of this year, Cornell has been subject to more than
$250 million in federal funding interruptions, which have disrupted the
research of faculty and students across all campuses.” The agreement
with the federal government will “immediately restore and continue the
university’s research funding,” he stated.
Cornell’s “decades-long research
partnership” with the federal government is “critical to advancing the
university’s core mission and to our continuing contributions to the
nation’s health, welfare and economic and military strength,” Kotlikoff
said. “This agreement revives that partnership, while affirming the
university’s commitment to the principles of academic freedom,
independence and institutional autonomy that, from our founding, have
been integral to our excellence.”
Baker Laboratory at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., on Feb. 9, 2009. Credit: Jenn Vargas/Flickr via Creative Commons.
The agreement “explicitly recognizes
Cornell’s right to independently establish our policies and procedures,
choose whom to hire and admit, and determine what we teach, without
intrusive government monitoring or approvals,” according to the school
president.
“Cornell has not been found in violation
of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in any of the investigations
or compliance reviews of the university’s programs pending at the
Department of Justice, Department of Education or Department of Health
and Human Services,” he said. “The government has agreed to close all of
these investigations and reviews.”
“Pursuant to the terms of this agreement,
the university will invest $30 million over three years in research to
strengthen U.S. agriculture and help build even more successful and
productive farms,” he wrote. “Cornell will also pay an additional $30
million over three years directly to the United States government as a
condition for ending pending claims that have been brought against the
university.”
The first sum, which Cornell will invest
over three years, is to fund programs that will help farmers “through
lower costs of production and enhanced efficiency, including but not
limited to programs that incorporate artificial intelligence and
robotics, such as digital agriculture and future farming technologies,”
per the agreement.
“These additional resources demonstrate
Cornell’s and the United States’ longstanding commitment to assist
America’s farmers,” it stated.
BEHIND THE LINES: Although the IDF has greatly weakened Hezbollah, the Iranian terror proxy is replenishing and recruiting to combat disarmament efforts.
UN PEACEKEEPERS (UNIFIL) are seen in southern Lebanon from the Israeli side of the border, earlier this week.(photo credit: AYAL MARGOLIN/FLASH90)
On Monday, two Hezbollah operatives
were killed in southern Lebanon by Israeli drone strikes in two
separate incidents. The strikes took place in the border town of Ait
a-Shaab and in Nabatiya. These killings were the latest acts in Israel’s
ongoing campaign to prevent Hezbollah from rearming and reorganizing
south of the Litani River.
Over
300 Hezbollah members have been killed by Israel in this ongoing
campaign since a ceasefire between Israel and the organization was
officially declared in November 2024. Israel’s operations against
Hezbollah reflect the complexity of the current moment in both Lebanon
and the broader region.
The
Iran-led regional alliance has been significantly weakened by two years
of war with Israel. Yet the various components of the Iran-led Axis of
Resistance, and the Tehran regime itself, remain stronger than their domestic opponents. As a result, they are now repairing their losses.
For Hezbollah in Lebanon, this means replenishing
weapons supplies, and recruiting and training new fighters. It is also
threatening civil strife to deter any inclination that the Lebanese
authorities might have to disarm the organization. Hezbollah, it
appears, is making steady progress in these areas.
The IDF has made considerable progress in fight against Hezbollah
ISRAEL’S
MILITARY achievement against in 2023-2024 was very considerable.
According to Israel’s figures, the organization lost around 5,000
fighters who were killed, with another 7,000 wounded. Some 80% of its
mid- and long-range missile capacity was destroyed. The organization
also lost its top political and military leadership. A
Hezbollah supporter holds a Palestinian flag and a cutout image of late
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah at a ceremony held by Hezbollah to
commemorate the first anniversary of Nasrallah's killing by Israel, on
the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon, September 27, 2025. (credit:
REUTERS/MOHAMED AZAKIR)In June, US officials
sought to build on Israel’s military successes by initiating a process
that would permanently remove Hezbollah as an armed force on the
Lebanese scene. Financial inducements and potential penalties were the
chosen tools to incentivize Lebanon’s government to act against the Iranian-supported terrorist organization.
The
government of President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam,
unlike previous Lebanese administrations, is not dependent on Hezbollah
and its allies for its political survival. In the 2022 elections, the
terrorist group and its partners won only 61 seats in Lebanon’s
128-member parliament. As a result, they have five seats in the
24-member cabinet. This is short of the blocking third necessary to veto
decisions.
Thus,
there is nothing to prevent the government from ordering the Lebanese
Armed Forces (LAF) to move ahead with Hezbollah’s disarmament. In June,
US officials presented a timeline for the process, which stipulates that
it should be completed by the end of the year.
The
urgently needed investment in Lebanon from the Gulf states is dependent
on the process’s successful completion by year’s end. In August, the
cabinet duly voted to disarm Hezbollah by the end of 2025.
Yet
despite the stated policy of the government, the comprehensive
disarmament of the Shi’ite Islamist terrorist group is not happening,
and almost certainly will not happen. Only in the area south of the
Litani, where Hezbollah’s capacities were largely destroyed in the last
months of 2024, has progress been made.
Nothing
has been done north of the Litani, or in Hezbollah’s heartland in the
Bekaa Valley, or in south Beirut. The Lebanese Armed Forces show no sign
of proceeding in these areas, despite their being included in the plan
that the army presented to the government.
Hezbollah is rebuilding
In
the meantime, Hezbollah is rebuilding. Predictions that the fall of the
Assad regime in Syria would conclusively cut off Iran’s land bridge to
Hezbollah and the Mediterranean have turned out to be overly
optimistic.
The
networks responsible for smuggling weapons across Syria were not
directly connected to the fallen regime. Rather, these were professional
smuggling networks, emerging mainly from the Sunni Arab section of the
Syrian population. They have neither disappeared nor gone out of
business with Assad’s fall.
The
new Syrian government, meanwhile, still has not firmly established its
authority over the entire country. The result is that Iran-linked
networks are still moving weaponry from Iraq, across Syria, and into
Lebanon. The materials in question are forming a significant part of
Hezbollah’s slow reconstruction, which in its heartland is being
challenged only by Israel, and only from the air.
THE
REASONS for the Lebanese government’s failure to make any serious
attempt to disarm Hezbollah are clear, and the failure was predicted by
many analysts. There are two related elements underlying this stance.
The
first is the fear that there would be a civil war if the government
insisted on disarming Hezbollah. Hezbollah itself has threatened this
possibility. In August, as the government was moving forward with its
formal demand for disarmament, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said
that Lebanon “will have no life if you stand on the other side and try
to confront us and eliminate us.” This was understood in Lebanon as a
lightly veiled threat of civil war.
There
remains in Lebanon, among every section of the population, with the
exception of Hezbollah and its allies, a profound fear of a return to
the devastating days of the 1975-1990 civil war. Hezbollah is keen to
preserve its internal political legitimacy, and has no desire to turn
its guns on its fellow Lebanese. However, if directly confronted, it
will not hesitate to do so.
The
last time a Lebanese government attempted to challenge the organization
directly was in 2008. At that time, the government attempted far less
than a general disarmament of Hezbollah; it was merely seeking to assert
control over security at Beirut’s airport. Hezbollah’s response was to
take over West Beirut, brushing aside government-associated forces.
There
is no reason at all to assume that it would now peacefully acquiesce to
giving up its weapons. The government dreads the prospect of civil
strife, and Hezbollah knows this. Therefore, Hezbollah also knows that
the government is bluffing.
The
second reason for the government’s failure to implement its own
decision is that it is unsure that it could actually enforce these
measures. Although the Lebanese Armed Forces does not release official
figures regarding the sectarian makeup of the army, some sources suggest
that Lebanese Shi’ites may account for as much as 50% of LAF’s
manpower.
Even
if the precise figure is lower, it is obvious that a force containing a
large percentage of Shi’ite soldiers could not be relied upon to
perform a mission that would require, at the very least, a credible
threat of force against fellow Shi’ites. Once again, the government
realizes this, and as does Hezbollah. Hence, Hezbollah is aware that the
government’s declarations are essentially void of content.
What
this means is that if Israel wants to prevent Hezbollah from rebuilding
and rearming, it will have to ensure this itself. As of now, Israel
appears to be achieving this objective largely via the combination of
good intelligence and air power.
There
may come a time when the choice facing Israel will be whether to
escalate the current levels of action against Hezbollah or accept the
organization’s steady reconstruction.
In
any case, hopes that the government of Lebanon might defang Hezbollah
as part of its assertion of sovereignty should be dismissed. There is no
Lebanese partner for this mission.
"In other words, take from the BIG, BAD Insurance Companies, give it to the people, and terminate, per Dollar spent, the worst Healthcare anywhere in the World, ObamaCare. Unrelated, we must still terminate the Filibuster!" Trump says
While the government shutdown
continues, President Trump on Sunday urged Senate Republicans to send
the Obamacare subsidy money directly to taxpayers rather than to the
insurance companies.
"I am recommending to Senate Republicans that the Hundreds of
Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance
Companies in order to save the bad Healthcare provided by ObamaCare, BE
SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH
BETTER, HEALTHCARE, and have money left over," Trump wrote on Truth
Social.
"In other words, take from the BIG, BAD Insurance Companies, give it
to the people, and terminate, per Dollar spent, the worst Healthcare
anywhere in the World, ObamaCare. Unrelated, we must still terminate the
Filibuster!" he added.
Senate Democrats are advocating for a one-year extension of the
Obamacare premium subsides that they put in place during the pandemic
when former President Biden was in office.
Trump and Senate Republicans have argued that Democrats should
support the temporary funding bill that would reopen the government and
negotiate healthcare issues separately.
Trump has said the Senate GOP should eliminate the 60-vote threshold to pass legislation in order to reopen the government.
Students from NYU, Columbia, Barnard and Baruch reveal disturbing campus incidents in exclusive interview
FOX EXCLUSIVE: A number of students revealed the "extremist" viewpoints
held by some university professors that "play a role" in fostering an
antisemitic environment on campus, condoning anti-Israel protests and
maintaining a bias message that is "not exactly something that should be
promoted" at their respective schools.
Jewish
students from NYU, Columbia, Barnard College and Baruch College sat down
with Fox News Digital during an exclusive interview and exposed the
"disturbing things" that have been said by professors at some of the top
schools in New York City and in the U.S.
"I’ve
had many peers share very disturbing things that professors have said
in class, whether it’s in courses specifically related to Middle Eastern
politics or in classes that should be completely absolved of anything
happening in the Middle East," TJ Katz of Columbia explained.
"We've had professors yell at students, not support students," Mera Skoblo of NYU told Fox.
Jewish
students from several top New York City universities told Fox News
Digital that some professors are promoting extremist, antisemitic and
anti-Israel rhetoric in classrooms, creating a hostile environment for
Jewish students.(Indy Scholtens/Getty Images)
"Just
the presence of these professors on campus, you know, a lot of them on
their offices have signs saying things like, hands off our students, and
they have free Palestine signs on their doorways," Eliana Birman of
Barnard explained.
"I had professors that were antisemitic,"
Aidan Herlinger of Baruch told Fox. "I know students that have had
professors that are antisemitic, we are put in positions where we can’t
do anything about it, because it could cost us our grade."
"We need to extricate extremists from the classroom, do departmental audits," Shoshana Aufzien of Barnard added.
Anti-Israel protesters wave Palestinian flags in Washington Square Park in New York City on Friday, May 3, 2024.(Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)
Columbia University has been one of the most notorious campuses that has faced anti-Israel riots and demonstrations. Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, hundreds of students and non-students have been arrested as a result of riots.
NYU
faced similar, though less intense, protests on its NYC campus,
including a Dec. 12, 2024, demonstration outside the university’s
library where protesters called for an "intifada revolution" saying that "Tel Aviv is stolen land."
Skoblo outlined her fears as a Jewish student on campus, saying that "a lot of us are scared."
A pro-Gaza ceasefire tent encampment at Columbia University on April 28, 2024.(Getty Images)
"The
past two years on college campuses across New York City have been
difficult for Jewish students," Skoblo told Fox. "Some of us hide our
identities. We've been screamed at. We've been blocked out of our own
library during finals week."
"How are we supposed to study when we hear chanting that shouts towards our destruction, makes us feel unsafe and unheard," Skoblo added.
When
asked if faculty influenced or pressured students to adopt a specific
stance in the Middle Eastern conflict, Aiden Herlinger from Baruch
College said, "I think the professors definitely play a role."
While
the students explained that antisemitism has existed on college
campuses for some time, students noted that the recent rise in tensions
and anti-Israel rhetoric that came after Oct. 7, 2023, could be
attributable to professors indoctrinating or influencing students to
participate in demonstrations, some of which turned violent and led to
expulsions, suspensions and arrests.
Police
arrested more than 100 students at New York University who were
protesting in support of students at Columbia University and to oppose
Israel's attacks on Gaza.(Fatih Aktas/Anadolu via Getty Images)
As
for the consequences these professors may face for being accused by
their own students of indoctrinating, Herlinger said there will likely
be none.
"[Professors
are] not going to face any consequences, especially in a school like
Baruch that's a public school, and it's funded by the New York State
government, and New York City government," Herlinger added.
Fox News Digital reached out to the schools for comment.
Preston Mizell is a writer with Fox News. Story tips can be sent to
Preston.Mizell@fox.com and on X @MizellPreston Fox News' Tessa Hoyos
contributed to this report.
The world’s largest such fund drew Washington’s ire when it divested from Caterpillar this summer for its business dealings with the Israeli military.
A Caterpillar D9 Bulldozer. Credit: Alf van Beem via Wikimedia Commons.
The Norwegian parliament halted its
sovereign wealth fund’s “ethical divestment” from Caterpillar over the
construction firm’s ties to the Israel Defense Forces. The fund, the
largest of its kind, holds $2.1 trillion in assets.
“The world has changed since the ethical
guidelines were first adopted” in 2004, Jens Stoltenberg, Oslo’s finance
minister, told parliament, as legislators voted 85 to 17 to pause the
boycott on Tuesday.
“Divestment recommendations will be placed
on a temporary hold for a year while the fund’s guidelines are
reviewed,” Stoltenberg said.
The decision drew fierce responses from
anti-Israel critics, as Stoltenberg said the move was necessary to
“protect” the fund, which includes the seven most valuable global
companies that account for 16% of the fund’s stock holdings.
Norway has come under pressure from the
U.S. government, as Washington is eager to protect American companies
and thwart the sovereign wealth fund’s further boycott of Israeli
entities.
The U.S. State Department said in August
that it was “very troubled” by the fund’s decision to divest from
Caterpillar and five Israeli banks, adding that it was “based on
illegitimate claims.”
The fund accused Israel of using
Caterpillar bulldozers “to commit extensive and systematic violations of
international humanitarian law.”
The fund had already divested last year
from Bezeq, Israel’s largest telecommunication company, saying that the
company violated its ethical standards by servicing Israeli communities
in Judea and Samaria.
Two months prior, the fund’s ethics
council put new rules into effect targeting companies doing business in
Judea and Samaria and those providing weapons to Israel.
At the end of 2024, the fund had invested $2.18 billion in 65 Israeli companies, representing a small fraction of its holdings.
