China nakedly threatens U.S. troops - Monica Showalter

 

by Monica Showalter

Where does that emboldening come from, Joe?

To get a sense of Joe Biden's "experienced leadership" in foreign affairs, consider how China is suddenly talking

According to American Military News (hat tip: Trending Politics):

Chinese state media threatened on Thursday that China will attack U.S. troops who attempt to defend Taiwan if China starts war with the island nation. The U.S. has said that China is readying for an attack on Taiwan.

China’s Global Times wrote, “It is credible that the PLA will heavily attack US troops who come to Taiwan’s rescue. Such credibility is increasingly overwhelming the deterrence that US troops may have.”

China conducts near-daily warplane flights around Taiwan, who governs itself as an independent nation, but which China claims as its own territory. China also conducted live bombing drills on islands in the South China Sea last week as another measure to intimidate and pressure Taiwan. The U.S. has continued its freedom of navigation flights and warship transits in the region to ensure free passage for all nations in the disputed territory.

“If Washington supports the Taiwan authority’s path of seeking secession and encourages the Taiwan authority to rely on it, then reunification by force will definitely happen. The more the U.S. and the island of Taiwan collude, the sooner reunification by force will come,” the Global Times added.

It sounds like they are spoiling for a fight. The American Military Times notes that bluster like this is not uncommon from China but they've never directly threatened to attack U.S. troops as they are now. Anyone got confidence that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, the man who botched Afghanistan, and who telephoned up his Chinese counterparts to warn them about that awful warmonger Trump and how he'd stop him, would know what he is doing on this front? Based on this report, he was sidling up to jackals ready to attack. He couldn't scare a fly now.

 The belligerance comes at a bad time, when Vladimir Putin has been rattling his sabres against Ukraine, probably does intend to invade in 2022, and has otherwise been aligning with China in military exercises. Some experts have been warning for years that the U.S. should be doing all in its power to separate China from Russia and play them off against one another instead of letting them pair up with each pursuing their imperial ambitions from west to east. What's Joe been doing?

Old foreign policy pro Joe Biden doesn't seem to have been doing this and the results now speak for themselves. What a nasty start to what looks like a newly emboldened China's long war against the West.

 

Monica Showalter

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/12/china_nakedly_threatens_us_troops.html

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Titleist bans “Let’s Go Brandon” personalization of its golf balls - Eric Utter

 

by Eric Utter

“F Trump” and “Kill Trump” are OK, but “Let’s Go Brandon” isn't?

Don’t try to personalize your Titleist golf ball with the popular phrase “Let’s Go Brandon.” The golf equipment company bans customers from doing so on its website, alleging that the saying is “inconsistent” with its “values or brand identity.” When one tries to customize a golf ball with that message, one receives a notification stating: “Sorry, one or more of the words you have chosen cannot be used. Please see our Terms and Conditions to learn more about what we will imprint.”

Titleist’s Terms and Conditions reads: "Acushnet Company [the parent company of Titleist] reserves the right to reject orders for imprints on our products that may, in our sole discretion, be inconsistent with our company values or brand identity, including, but not limited to logos, designs and/or personalizations that are negative in nature, advocate violence or illegal activity, or are slurs, hateful, threatening, libelous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene or pornographic."

As Fox News noted, "It is unclear which of those categories the phrase 'Let’s Go Brandon' violated." The outlet added, "Certain political and vulgar messages that Fox News Digital tested on the website did not receive the same error message, including 'F Trump,' 'ACAB,' 'Antifa,' 'Kill Cops,' 'Impeach Trump,' and 'Kill Trump.'"

“Let’s Go” is an upbeat exhortation. “Brandon” is a common name. Whether apart or together, they/it are certainly not “threatening,” “libelous,” “vulgar,” “obscene,” or “pornographic.”

“Let’s Go Brandon” is not a slur, which means an insinuation or allegation. Nor is it defamatory, the definition of which is “damaging the good reputation of someone.” Neither does it advocate violence or illegal activity.

Is it hateful? Not on its face. Its symbolic or figurative meaning could conceivably be construed as such, but even that is relatively mild compared to so much else in our coarse modern society. And it is as nothing compared to what was directed at Trump (by individuals, groups and corporations) every day of his presidency, no obfuscation, restraint, or decorousness needed.

So “F Trump” and “Kill Trump” are not “inconsistent” with Acushnet’s “company values or brand identity” but “Let’s Go Brandon” is? “F Trump” and “Kill Trump” are not “negative in nature” but “Let’s Go Brandon” is? That is the result when a company’s only value and brand identity is appeasing the woke mob to maximize profit, every other consideration be damned.

I wonder if one could personalize a Titleist product on its website with “Titleist Sucks!?”

Sadly, like many other corporations these days, the Acushnet Company appears to have no rationality, no integrity, no soul, and, ironically, no balls.

 

Eric Utter

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/12/titleist_bans_lets_go_brandon_personalization_of_its_golf_balls.html

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'For every missile Iran launches through proxies, Israel will target Tehran' - Boaz Bismuth

 

by Boaz Bismuth

"Iran is governed by a radical Islamic regime that wants to obtain nuclear weapons in order to use them, that is their goal. There's no point in talking to people who want to push you into the sea," former Jerusalem mayor Likud MK Nir Barkat tells the Israeli-American Council conference in Florida.

 

Likud MK Nir Barkat | File photo: Yehoshua Yosef

"If Iran gives an order to launch missiles [into Israel] from Lebanon, we must attack Tehran," former Jerusalem mayor and current Likud MK Nir Barkat told Israel Hayom's Editor-in-Chief Boaz Bismuth, at the Israeli-American Council conference in Florida on Saturday. 

Barkat, who is currently in the United States on a public diplomacy tour, stressed that "when we talk about the Iranian threat, we are all one people – the opposition and the coalition in Israel as well as the US. Iran is governed by a radical Islamic regime that wants to obtain nuclear weapons in order to use them, that is their goal. There's no point in talking to people who want to push you into the sea."

Barkat added, "We also need to be aware of the existing threat. There are about 250,000 missiles around our borders. We need to tell the Iranian regime that for every missile fired at Israel from one of its proxies, our target will be Tehran. We need to be prepared for the first war with Iran, and the only way to prevent a war is to prepare for it seriously. The Iranians need to understand that we will attack forcefully. I want them to be afraid before they press the button to attack Israel."

In the last few months, Barkat led the efforts to prevent the reopening of the United States' Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem. He garnered the support of 200 members of Congress who sent a letter to President Joe Biden opposing the move. In addition, 36 senators submitted a bill to block the reopening.

"Opening the consulate would divide Jerusalem, and that is why we will never let that happen," Barkat said.

With regard to internal Israeli politics, the lawmaker said, "When we [Likud] return to power, we will promote Israel much faster, because the [current] government has no vision. There are elements from the Left, the Right, Arabs, they have completely different angles. We need a government with a clear vision to promote the Golan, the Negev, the Galilee and Judea and Samaria."

When asked about the polls that predict his victory in the Likud leadership race after Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu, Barkat said, "I am part of the Likud, and we are a democratic party in a democratic state. For me, the day Netanyahu decides to leave, primaries will open and I will run and win."

Barkat was also asked whether Netanyahu constitutes an asset or a burden for the Likud now, to which he replied, "I said before that we are a democratic party and we are a democratic state, so the people who need to determine assets or burdens are the Likudniks and the people of Israel – they will decide. They are the ones who decide at every election, as they did last time, and whatever they decide, we will accept."

 

Boaz Bismuth

Source: https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/12/12/for-every-missile-iran-launches-through-proxies-israel-will-target-tehran/

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2nd-Temple-period synagogue found where Gospel’s Mary Magdalene was born - Rossella Tercatin

 

by Rossella Tercatin

The building is the second synagogue from the time uncovered in Migdal, a prominent Jewish settlement that was also the main base of Flavius Josephus, historian and anti-Roman rebel commander.

 

Magdala stone exhibited for the first time in Israel at Yigal Allon Center

(photo credit: EINAT AMBAR ARMON/ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY)

A 2,000-year-old synagogue was discovered in the ancient Jewish settlement of Migdal in Galilee, the second synagogue from the Second Temple Period uncovered in the town, also known as Magdala. The location is prominently featured both in the Jewish-Roman historian Flavius Josephus’ writings, and as the birthplace of Mary Magdalene in the Gospels.

 

“The discovery of a second synagogue in this Galilean settlement casts light on the social and religious lives of the Jews in the area in this period, and reflects a need for a dedicated building for Torah reading and study and for social gatherings,” said Dina Avshalom-Gorni, one of the directors of the excavations. “We can imagine Mary Magdalene and her family coming to the synagogue here, along with other residents of Migdal, to participate in religious and communal events.”

 

According to the Gospels, Mary Magdalene – also known as Mary from Magdala – was one of the women who traveled with Jesus and witnessed his crucifixion and resurrection.

 

In the first century CE, Migdal was also the main base of Yosef ben Matityahu (Flavius Josephus), who served as commander of the rebellion against the Romans in Galilee before he surrendered to them and eventually obtained Roman citizenship.

 

Ancient synagogue uncovered in Migdal, Galilee. (credit: COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF HAIFA)

 

The first synagogue was uncovered in the Migdal in 2009, when an excavation by the Israel Antiquities Authority unearthed Jewish ritual baths (mikvaot), streets, a marketplace and industrial facilities. A unique artifact stood in the middle of the synagogue’s main hall: a large stone portraying the Second Temple of Jerusalem, with a carved seven-branched menorah on one of its sides. It represented a crucial discovery because the depiction was engraved in the stone when the temple was still standing.

 

“The fact that we have found two synagogues shows that the Jews of the Second Temple period were looking for a place for religious, and perhaps also social, gatherings,” said Zinman Institute head Prof. Adi Erlich. “The stone bearing a relief of the Menorah from the other synagogue at Migdal, suggests that the local Jews saw Jerusalem as their religious center, and their local activities took place under this centrality.”

 

The newly discovered synagogue was shaped as a square and built in basalt and limestone. It featured a main hall and two other rooms. The main hall was coated in white plaster and featured a stone bench along the walls, also coated in plaster. One of the smaller rooms presented a stone shelf. According to the experts it might have been used to store Torah scrolls.

 

“The synagogue we are excavating now is close to the residential street, whereas the one excavated in 2009 was surrounded by an industrial area,” Erlich also said. “Thus the local synagogues were constructed within the social fabric of the settlement.”

 

The excavation was initiated as a salvage excavation prior to construction works at the Migdal intersection. According to Israeli law, all development projects need to be accompanied by such an excavation.

 

Rossella Tercatin

Source: https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/2nd-temple-period-synagogue-found-where-gospels-mary-magdalene-was-born-688519

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Iran: Exporting Oil or Revolution? - Amir Taheri

 

by Amir Taheri

His [Khamenei's] recipe is simple: Live from one day to another but, even if you can't export oil, make sure that you can continue exporting revolution.

• This may be an exaggeration, but the Kayhan editorial says that without the "Resistance Front" there would be no Iran and, of course, no Iraq, no Syria, no Lebanon, and no Yemen. Control of the four Arab countries is vital for protecting the Islamic Revolution.

• In that context, Tehran has been pumping cash and weapons into regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua and, until recently, Zimbabwe. It has also been in alliance with anti-war groups in Europe and North America while funding numerous non-Muslim politicians and celebrities across the Middle East.

• Non-Shiite Palestinian outfits such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad have also been on the payroll of the "Resistance Front" for decades.

• [W]e now know that the "Supreme Guide" is ready to take bread away from Iranians so that he can continue fattening Bashar al-Assad, Hassan Nasrallah and scores of other "for sale" personalities across the world.

• To be able to do that, Khamenei is counting on US President Joe Biden to ease some of the sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump.

• Zarif estimated that Tehran needed a minimum of $60 billion a year to pay its military and security personnel, keep the "Resistance Front" afloat and continue "exporting" revolution.

• Khamenei demands that the P5+1 deposit $3 billion a month in a German bank and another $1 billion monthly in a French bank from Iran's frozen assets, while allowing the Islamic Republic to increase oil exports to 2.5 million barrels a day.

• His [Khamenei's] recipe is simple: Live from one day to another but, even if you can't export oil, make sure that you can continue exporting revolution. The Khomeinist system can survive without exporting oil, but can't do so if it stops exporting revolution.

We now know that the Iran's "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenei is ready to take bread away from Iranians so that he can continue fattening Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Lebanese Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and scores of other "for sale" personalities across the world. Pictured: Khamenei meets with Nasrallah, head of Lebanon's Hezbollah terrorist organization. (Image source: khamenei.ir)

"The greatest achievement of Imam Khomeini's Islamic Revolution!"

This is how the daily Kayhan in Tehran, believed to reflect the views of "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenei, describes what it labels a "Resistance Front" led by Iran.

The paper's editorial does not say why it needs to raise the controversial issue at this time. One possible reason may be a behind-the-scenes debate about the need for reviewing a policy that has cost Iran billions of dollars over the past decades.

With Tehran facing a serious liquidity problem, the administration of then President Hassan Rouhani proposed to cut the "resistance" budget by around 10 percent in the next Iranian year starting March 2022. Such a cut would have affected the various members of the "front", that is to say, the Assad regime in Damascus, the Houthi faction in Yemen, the Lebanese branch of Hezbollah, Hashd al-Shaabi and other Shiite militias in Iraq, plus the Afghan Hazara Fatimiyoun fighters, at a time that, according to Kayhan, they are all under pressure.

The editorial indicates that the debate has ended with the victory of those opposed to reducing the cash flow to Tehran's regional "allies".

"Creating and maintaining the Resistance Front is the best investment that the Islamic Republic has made," the paper asserts.

The new administration of President Ebrahim Raisi has rearranged the budget to prevent any cuts in "resistance funding" which is handled by the Quds Force, led by Major-General Ismail Qaani.

There is little doubt that the ultimate decision-maker, as in most other cases, was the "Supreme Guide", who believes that the survival of his regime depends on the survival of the network that the late General Qassem Soleimani created.

The editorial quotes Khamenei as saying: "The Quds Force isn't just a military, security, intelligence, diplomatic, economic, or public service force, but all of them at once."

In other words, the Quds Force is an intra-national government for "Resistance Front" countries that is to say Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and, to be sure, Iran itself.

The paper revives the old idea of creating what it calls an "institution" to supervise the governance of the countries concerned under Iranian leadership. It mentions the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as possible models.

It was in that spirit that the late Gen. Soleimani deployed units of his Iraqi militia to the Iranian province of Khuzestan during a massive flooding crisis that could have led to anti-regime revolts. The Quds Force has also been training an unknown number of Lebanese Hezbollah fighters in speaking Persian for possible deployment, when and if needed, to protect the regime against revolts inside Iran.

Researcher Reza Mohammedi suggests that Khamenei regards Hezbollah as his Praetorian Guard, ready to kill and die for him even if he is abandoned by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Baseej militia.

This may be an exaggeration, but the Kayhan editorial says that without the "Resistance Front" there would be no Iran and, of course, no Iraq, no Syria, no Lebanon, and no Yemen. Control of the four Arab countries is vital for protecting the Islamic Revolution.

It also boasts that "no one has quit the Resistance Front or joined the other side."

It does not say what "the other side" is. The American "Great Satan" and the Israeli "Little Satan" are obvious targets. But the editorial quotes the late Khomeini as airing much bigger ambitions: "We must create a global party of the mustadhafin [dispossessed] and offer a third way to all mankind between East and West."

It is on that basis that the Islamic Republic has forged alliances with numerous non-Muslim groups in all continents, mostly on the left.

In that context, Tehran has been pumping cash and weapons into regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua and, until recently, Zimbabwe. It has also been in alliance with anti-war groups in Europe and North America while funding numerous non-Muslim politicians and celebrities across the Middle East.

Non-Shiite Palestinian outfits such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad have also been on the payroll of the "Resistance Front" for decades.

With the Islamic Republic facing its worst financial crisis, one might have thought that the budget cut suggested by Rouhani for "exporting revolution" would have sailed through without opposition.

However, we now know that the" Supreme Guide" is ready to take bread away from Iranians so that he can continue fattening Bashar al-Assad, Hassan Nasrallah and scores of other "for sale" personalities across the world.

To be able to do that, Khamenei is counting on US President Joe Biden to ease some of the sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump.

A 35-page proposal presented by Iranian negotiators earlier this month at Vienna talks with the P5+1 group spells out Tehran's need for cash in some detail.

This is based on a formula initially suggested by then Iranian Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif in talks with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian almost three years ago. Zarif estimated that Tehran needed a minimum of $60 billion a year to pay its military and security personnel, keep the "Resistance Front" afloat and continue "exporting revolution".

At the time, Khamenei dismissed the formula as a trick by Zarif's "New York Boys" to weaken the "Resistance Front". He has now adopted it as core policy in the Vienna talks while the Raisi team multiplies signs that more concessions may be offered later.

Khamenei demands that the P5+1 deposit $3 billion a month in a German bank and another $1 billion monthly in a French bank from Iran's frozen assets, while allowing the Islamic Republic to increase oil exports to 2.5 million barrels a day. Depending on the price of crude oil, all that could provide Khamenei with around $80 billion a year of extra revenue, higher than that envisaged by the Zarif-Le Drian formula.

The big concession that Khamenei's formula offers is to make the arrangement subject to mutually agreed time limits. That could give the P5+1 the power to turn off the cash faucet at the end of an agreed time frame.

Khamenei has often talked of "heroic flexibility", his catchphrase for beating the retreat if and when necessary. Thus, his regime has survived on the edge of the precipice for decades. His recipe is simple: Live from one day to another but, even if you can't export oil, make sure that you can continue exporting revolution. The Khomeinist system can survive without exporting oil, but can't do so if it stops exporting revolution.

Thus the P5+1, knowingly or out of ignorance, are barking up the wrong tree when they seek a deal on how much oil Tehran can export and how much uranium it can enrich.

This article was originally published by Asharq al-Awsat

 

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

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18025/iran-exporting-revolution

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Threat against US Chabad: I want to blind, blow heads off rabbis - Israel National News

 

by Israel National News

Texas man arrested after threatening New York Chabad headquarters, girlfriend attacks law enforcement.

 

Christopher Brown and Rebekah Jones                                                                Texas Police

Christopher Stephen Brown, 37, a resident of the northwestern Texas city of Amarillo, was arrested on suspicion of threatening to murder three senior Chabad hasidim in New York and also threatening their families, the North Texas federal prosecutor's office said.

Brown's partner, 28-year-old Rebekah Jones, was also arrested after attacking federal agents who came to arrest Christopher.

The chief federal prosecutor said that "the defendant has explicitly threatened to harm rabbis as well as ordinary citizens and law enforcement personnel. These threats are a violation of the law for all intents and purposes and together with local law enforcement agencies we will continue to take action against those behind them."

The indictment states that ten days ago, Brown approached the Chabad hasidic headquarters in Crown Heights through the organization's website, writing that he wanted to "murder all the Jews." He added a link to a YouTube video in which he documented himself threatening to execute hasidic leaders.

Brown stated that he wanted to "blind all the rabbis and blow their heads off."

The hasidic movement turned to the New York Police Department, which involved the FBI, and federal agents raided Brown's home and found the computer and camera from which the threats were sent.

He is being charged with threatening to murder and the prosecution is seeking a prison sentence of five years.

 

Israel National News

Source: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/318496

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Defense Min. Benny Gantz presents Iran attack timeline to US officials - Yaakov Katz

 

by Yaakov Katz

A senior diplomatic source said on Friday that the Americans did not voice opposition to the Israeli preparations when presented with the date by Gantz.

 

MIAMI - Defense Minister Benny Gantz updated the Americans on Thursday that he has set a deadline for when the IDF will need to complete preparations for an attack against Iran. 

A senior diplomatic source said on Friday that the Americans did not voice opposition to the Israeli preparations when presented with the date by Gantz. 

 

“There was no veto,” the source said. 

 

The IDF has intensified planning for an attack against Iran. Last week, American sources revealed that Austin and Gantz were expected to discuss joint military preparations and a report on Kan said that the IDF was planning a massive aerial drill mocking a strike against Iran this coming summer. 

 

Gantz met on Thursday with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The conversations focused mostly on Iran and its continued pursuit of a nuclear capability but some of the US officials also brought up Israeli settlement activity and their concern that building in the West Bank will block a future two-state solution. 

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin welcomes Israel's Defense Minister Benny Gantz during an enhanced honor cordon arrival ceremony at the Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, US, December 9, 2021. (credit: REUTERS/KEN CEDENO)

On Friday Gantz addressed the Israel American Council summit in Miami and said that Iran is a great threat to Israel but first and foremost to the world. 

 

“This is why the international community, with US leadership, must stand together and act forcefully against Iran’s hegemonic aspirations and nuclear program and restore stability for the sake of global peace,” he said. 

 

Gantz later said that the consultations in Washington were “excellent” and included discussions about ways to ensure Israel’s qualitative military edge in the Middle East. 

Gantz said that he spoke with the Americans about ways to keep the pressure on Iran with the aim of keeping them away from a nuclear capability and to take advantage of Iranian vulnerabilities - particularly economic - that could be used to persuade them to suspend nuclear activity. 

 

The defense minister said that his impression from the meetings in Washington was that the fate of the negotiations in Vienna would be determined in the coming weeks. 

 

“I think that in the coming weeks we will know where we stand,” he said.

 

Yaakov Katz

Source: https://www.jpost.com/international/defense-min-benny-gantz-presents-iran-attack-timeline-to-us-officials-688489

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The Generals’ Belated Awakening - Caroline Glick

 

by Caroline Glick

Evidence is growing that members of the IDF General Staff and the Mossad are beginning to realize that the U.S. doesn’t share Israel’s goal of preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power.

Something is changing in Israel’s military brass’ assessment of the Iranian nuclear threat.

Evidence is growing that members of the IDF General Staff and the Mossad are beginning to realize that the U.S. doesn’t share Israel’s goal of preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power. Last week for instance, Michael Makovsky, the head of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, (JINSA) a Washington-based group that cultivates ties between Israeli and U.S. generals published an article in the New York Post where he described their rude awakening.

Makovsky wrote, “Recent meetings with senior defense officials from our closest Middle East ally, Israel, were the most pessimistic I can recall. They perceive America as checked out, adrift, pusillanimous, unfeared and desperate to avoid military confrontation, and Iran as emboldened and nearing the nuclear weapons threshold.”

Makovsky said that all his interlocutors raised the same three points: The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan showed that the Biden administration is comfortable betraying U.S. allies. The administration’s decision not to respond to the October 20 Iranian attack on its airbase in Tanf, Syria showed the U.S. is willing to allow Iran to attack it with impunity. And the administration’s willingness to be humiliated by the Iranians at the nuclear talks in Vienna shows that the only thing the administration wants is to reach a deal – any deal — with Iran.

By Makovsky’s telling, the Israelis are divided on what the Iranians want and they still haven’t completely given up hope that the Americans will come through, somehow. He ended his article by arguing that the U.S. should provide Israel with the equipment and weapons platforms it requires to successfully strike Iran’s nuclear installations without the U.S. But it was clear from his description of the Israeli security brass’ disposition that their faith the U.S. will actually follow through on its pledge to block Iran from becoming a nuclear power has waned significantly. It is beginning to dawn on them that in the fight against Iran, Israel is alone.

While Israel’s security establishment’s frustration with the Biden administration, and their apparent, grudging acceptance of reality are understandable, there is something deeply unsettling about both.

Where have the generals been for the past thirteen years?

Since former president Barack Obama entered office in January 2009, the U.S. has had two policies for contending with Iran’s nuclear program. The first is the Obama-Biden policy. The second is the Donald Trump policy.

The Obama-Biden policy is to engage in diplomacy with Iran that will enable Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, with the backing of the UN Security Council. And then to call the outcome “peace,”

Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran — the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — which Biden now seeks desperately to reinstate in some fashion, guaranteed that Iran would be a nuclear threshold state by 2030 at the latest. As Makovsky’s general friends indicated, from Biden’s diplomatic machinations it’s clear that as far as Biden and his team are concerned, any deal is fine with them – even one that gives Iran international approval of its nuclear weapons program and lifts all sanctions on Iran immediately.

Trump’s policy towards Iran’s nuclear program was a welcome respite from the Obama-Biden policy. Trump’s policy did not involve abandoning America’s Middle East allies. It involved empowering them. Trump’s policy was to create the diplomatic, economic and military conditions that would enable Israel to successfully attack Iran’s nuclear installations.

For all the differences between them, the Obama-Biden policy on the one hand and the Trump policy on the other shared a common denominator: Both ruled out a U.S. military strike on Iran’s nuclear installations.

This common reality was never hard to see. Anyone willing to really listen to what the Americans were saying and watch what they were doing could have figured out that the U.S. had no intention of attacking Iran’s nuclear installations. The only party that could possibly be expected to attack Iran’s nuclear sites – if it were to be done at all – was Israel.

Those who were unwilling to look reality in the face have clung to certain popular, but incorrect narratives. The most popular one, which several of Makovsky’s friends shared with him is the utterly false claim that Obama’s 2015 deal slowed down Iran’s nuclear progress, and therefore was a positive development. Today, leading Israeli military leaders in the dominant America-centric clique and their colleagues on the political left argue that the 2015 deal served to slow Iran’s nuclear advance and that Biden’s plan to reinstate the deal will do the same. This is a good thing they say, because it buys Israel time to develop the military means to attack Iran’s nuclear sites.

Unfortunately, this position is based on ignoring, rather than accepting reality. As U.S. strategic expert Dr. David Wurmser explained recently to Israel Hayom, the Iranians did not slow their uranium enrichment because they agreed to the JCPOA. Wurmser, who served in both the Bush and Trump national security councils, explained that the Iranians timed the agreement to align with their nuclear schedule. In 2014-2015, the Iranians began work on advanced centrifuges capable of enriching uranium to military levels of purity. In the course of the negotiations on the nuclear deal, the Iranians insisted that they be permitted under the deal to continue their nuclear research and development on the advanced centrifuges. Obama and his team accepted their demand. In 2016 and 2017, reports emerged that Iran had successfully acquired the capacity to use advanced centrifuges. 

As Wurmser explains, Iran began using their advanced centrifuges to enrich uranium to 60 percent purity as soon as they were ready. The popular claim that Trump’s decision to abandon the JCPOA in 2018 precipitated Iran’s actions is nothing more than a delusion. Iran would have done so regardless of Trump’s actions. The real leap in Iran’s uranium enrichment came after Biden’s inauguration. His arrival gave the Iranians confidence that they would face no opposition from Washington as they sprinted to the nuclear finish line.

The one person who understood and acted on the basis of reality from the outset of the Obama administration was then prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu saw that Iran was galloping ahead as quickly as it could with its nuclear program and that the U.S. had no intention of using force to block its advance. When the chorus began chanting in unison that the JCPOA slowed Iran’s nuclear progress, Netanyahu rightly rejected their contention as absurd.  

Recognizing that the Americans would not attack Iran’s nuclear installations, Netanyahu worked to develop, expand and use Israel’s diplomatic, military, intelligence, cyber and sabotage capabilities to harm Iran’s nuclear program. Netanyahu was willing for Israel to go it alone and also eagerly sought out and cooperated with anyone who was willing to work with Israel to oppose Iran.

Among other things, Netanyahu pushed economic sanctions on Iran to prevent the ayatollahs from having the economic means to fund their nuclear program. Sanctions also work to destabilize their regime and delegitimize its nuclear program in the eyes of the impoverished Iranian people.

To undermine Obama and Biden’s ability to sell their pro-Iranian policy to Congress as non-proliferation, or peace, Netanyahu worked in the diplomatic arena to highlight the danger Iran’s nuclear program poses to Israel, the Middle East, global security and U.S. security.

Netanyahu’s most powerful and trenchant opponents at home were Israel’s national security brass. Led by IDF chiefs of General Staff Gaby Ashkenazy, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, and Mossad directors Meir Dagan and Tamir Pardo, Israel’s security leadership embraced a policy based not on reality, but on faith. Despite all evidence to the contrary, the generals insisted the U.S. would come through in the end and attack Iran’s nuclear installations.

True, they acknowledged, Israel is the only country that Iran threatens to annihilate. But they insisted that since Iran’s nuclear program threatens the entire region as well as Europe and the U.S., taking out Iran’s nuclear installations is America’s responsibility, not Israel’s. And even as Obama acknowledged that at the end of the JCPOA in 2030, Iran’s breakout time to independent nuclear capabilities would be “zero,” the generals insisted that America could be trusted when it promised that it would not permit Iran to become a nuclear power.

Given their aspirational, rather than reality-based policy assessment of U.S. intentions, Israel’s security leaders argued that Israel’s job is to cooperate with the Americans and under no circumstance should it publicly dispute anything the Americans say. Israel’s security leaders said that through proper coordination, when the day arrived to strike Iran, they would be able to convince Washington to do the right thing.

Operating on this assessment, the heads of Israel’s national security establishment opposed Netanyahu’s diplomatic campaign against the nuclear deal and harshly criticized him for his actions in this arena. They supported Obama against Netanyahu and praised the deal.

In 2010, Ashkenazy and Dagan refused Netanyahu’s direct order to prepare Israel’s forces to attack Iran’s nuclear installations. If that weren’t bad enough, Dagan divulged Netanyahu’s order to his U.S. counterpart then CIA chief Leon Panetta.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has expressed no clear policy on Iran, although his refusal to meet Robert Malley, Biden’s envoy to the negotiations when he travelled to Israel two weeks ago indicated that Bennett is aligned with Netanyahu’s position. At any rate, with paltry support in the public and in in his own government, Bennett is not the primary decision-maker on Iran. That power today rests with Defense Minister Benny Gantz. Gants is the most prominent and powerful member of the America-dependent camp. And even as the Biden administration remains fixated on reaching a deal – any deal – with the mullahs –Gantz flew to Washington this week to coordinate. To neutralize growing concern in Israel’s security establishment, the administration decided to put pull out a few stoppers.

Ahead of Gantz’s arrival in Washington, a senior administration official told Reuters that Gantz would speak with his counterpart Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about holding a joint U.S.-Israel training exercise to practice attacking Iran’s nuclear installations. While comforting, it is hard to credence the statement for several reasons. First, if the U.S. was really planning to attack Iran’s nuclear installations with Israel, senior officials wouldn’t call Reuters to divulge this highly classified state of affairs.

Second, while the unnamed official was revealing ostensibly top-secret operational plans to Reuters, Malley was in the Persian Gulf telling America’s allies that the U.S. is dead set on cutting a deal.

Finally, Malley’s boss Secretary of State Tony Blinken pointedly refuses to even pay lip service to the notion of attacking Iran’s nuclear installations militarily.

Obviously, Israel’s credulous generals would rather believe Reuters than Malley. But reality isn’t really concerned with their preferences. If Iran is to be prevented from becoming a nuclear-armed state, the generals’ belated awakening must proceed at top speed. Not only must they recognize that Netanyahu was right all along. They must adopt his policy of working across the board to weaken Iran’s regime and block its path to the bomb.

Originally published in Israel Hayom.

 

Caroline Glick

Source: https://carolineglick.com/the-generals-belated-awakening/

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Jussie Smollett's Subway sandwich was key to case, ex-Chicago police superintendent says - Brie Stimson

 

by Brie Stimson

Smollett was convicted on five of six counts

Actor Jussie Smollett was found guilty of lying to police last week after he claimed he was the victim of a hate crime in 2019 and, of all things, a Subway sandwich was a key piece of evidence in the case against him, the former Chicago police superintendent said, according to reports. 

Ex-Superintendent Eddie Johnson told NewsNationNow's "Morning in America" that Smollett left his home around 2 a.m. on the day he claimed to be attacked to buy the sandwich. 

"OK, that’s fine," Johnson said, adding that morning was one of the coldest in Chicago that year and hardly anyone was on the street. "He comes back and gets attacked in a hate crime, supposed hate crime, and during all this scuffle – they poured bleach on him and all of this – when he got up and went into his apartment building he still had that Subway sandwich with him. That doesn’t happen."

Actor Jussie Smollett, center, leaves the Leighton Criminal Courthouse with unidentified siblings, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021, in Chicago, following a verdict in his trial. Smollett was convicted Thursday on five of six charges he staged an anti-gay, racist attack on himself nearly three years ago and then lied to Chicago police about it.  (Associated Press)

Smollett's interview with police inside his apartment after the claimed attack was caught on body camera footage. 

Johnson said victims usually abandon whatever they have with them when they’re attacked "because they’re afraid."

"This guy had the sandwich in his hand, never been touched. So that was a real tip and a clue to us that something was amiss." 

"This guy had the sandwich in his hand, never been touched. So that was a real tip and a clue to us that something was amiss." 

— Eddie Johnson, former Chicago police superintendent

Then-Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson speaks at a news conference in Chicago, Nov. 7, 2019. (Associated Press)

JUSSIE SMOLLETT VERDICT: ‘BEING A CELEBRITY BACKFIRED,’ SAYS LEGAL EXPERT 

Johnson added that Smollett was suspiciously "nonchalant" about removing a noose the supposed attackers had placed around his neck once he got back to his apartment, the video showed, which he said also gave him pause. 

Actor Jussie Smollett, second from right, along with his mother Janet, returns to the Leighton Criminal Courthouse, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021, in Chicago, after the jury reached a verdict in his trial.  (Associated Press)

"I don’t think there are many Black people in America that would have a noose around their neck, and wouldn’t immediately take it off," Johnson, who is Black, told the Chicago station. 

Smollett had claimed that he was attacked by two men in 2019 because he is Black and gay. The two purported attackers have since said they were paid by Smollett to stage the attack. 

Jussie Smollett's intact Subway sandwich caught the attention of investigators, a former Chicago police superintendent says. (iStock)

He was found guilty of telling a police officer he was a hate crime victim, telling an officer he was a battery victim, telling a detective he was a hate crime victim, telling a detective he was a battery victim and then telling a detective again he was battery victim. He was not found guilty on a sixth charge of telling a second detective he was an aggravated battery victim.

In this courtroom sketch, special prosecutor Dan Webb, left, cross-examines actor Jussie Smollett Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021, in Chicago. (Associated Press)

Prosecutors said he even staged a rehearsal with the hired attackers beforehand.

Smollett maintains his innocence and his lawyer said he plans to appeal his conviction, saying the team is confident he will eventually be cleared of all charges.   

Fox News' Stephanie Nolasco contributed to this report.

 

Brie Stimson

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/jussie-smollett-subway-sandwich-chicago-police-superintendent

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Two positive developments pertaining to January 6 - David Zukerman

 

by David Zukerman

"pre-trial inmates related to January 6 are treated more harshly than other inmates in the D.C. jail, even though they have yet to be convicted of any crime."

More than eleven months have elapsed since the events at the Capitol, January 6, 2021 — and many people arrested in connection with that physical intrusion into the Capitol building are still held in pre-trial confinement.  Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has published a report on her visit to the D.C. jail, with Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Texas) on November 4.

The Greene Report points out that the tour was hastily arranged by the office of the mayor after previous attempts by the representatives to visit the January 6 detainees — held for months without trial — had been denied.

On November 4, Representatives Greene and Gohmert were invited to join the tour of members of the D.C. City Council, a tour scheduled after the U.S. Marshals' Service found that the jail did not meet minimum standards for confinement and had arranged for the transfer of 400 detainees to a prison in Pennsylvania.  The finding by the Marshals' Service is appended to the Greene Report.  And even on the evening of November 4, after visiting other areas of the facility, it took a threat of seeking a court order before Reps. Gohmert and Greene ware permitted into the area of the jail, where some 40 January 6 detainees were confined, restricted to their cells for 19 hours a day, one detainee held since last February 4.

The following is taken from the Conclusion to the Greene Report: "pre-trial inmates related to January 6 are treated more harshly than other inmates in the D.C. jail, even though they have yet to be convicted of any crime."  The Greene Report suggested that four members, Reps. Gaetz and Gosar, in addition to Ms. Greene and Mr. Gohmert, have expressed interest in the well-being of the January 6 detainees. Where, one wonders, are the other members of the House Republican Conference?  And where are the social organizations concerned about the treatment of prison inmates?  Ms. Greene noted in her conclusion that there is a "two-track justice system in the United States, but it is based on politics, not race."  One cannot help but believe that if the detainees were members of Antifa and BLM, The New York Times would be screaming from the top of its building at 62 Eighth Avenue for the immediate release of leftist radicals held for nearly a year in pre-trial confinement.  Although with respect to the January 6 detainees, one cannot dismiss the thought that such indefinite and harsh pre-trial confinement for Trump supporters is what the Times had in mind when it suggested, in an August 2016 editorial, that after Hillary Clinton wins the presidential election, "The toxic effects of Trumpism will have to be addressed."

The New York Times, to no one's surprise, ignored the Greene Report.  The paper did print news that Mark Meadows, former chief of staff to President Trump, was suing to quash the subpoena issued to him by the House Select Committee on January 6, 2021.  But the Times account, December 9, by Luke Broadwater gave no information whatsoever as to the substance of the complaint.

As to the substance of the complaint brought by Mr. Meadows, against Speaker Pelosi, the individual members of her puppet panel, and the committee as a whole, well, the complaint expresses what, I believe, all House GOP members, save two, should have protested when the speaker refused the House Republican leader's nominees to the panel.  And, as it happens, Pelosi's refusal to permit House minority leader Kevin McCarthy's nominees to sit on the select committee provided Mr. Meadows with the grounds to challenge the committee's existence.

The Meadows complaint alleges that the subpoenas issued against him, and Verizon, his cell phone carrier, are invalid because Pelosi violated the terms of House Resolution 503, which provided, among other things, that the minority members would be appointed in consultation with the minority leader.  The complaint cited a judicial opinion holding that Congress cannot violate its own rules.  The Meadows complaint also points out that the select committee itself has no legislative purpose; rather, it is acting more like an investigative law enforcement body, and a partisan one at that.  House committees must have a legislative purpose.  The resolution establishing the select committee prejudges the people who invaded the Capitol on January 6 as "domestic terrorists."  Isn't this "Queen of Hearts" justice?

Media reports that I have seen online make more of the executive privilege issue raised in the complaint, but I see a more essential decision throwing out the committee and its subpoenas — as a landmark case — on the nature of our tripartite government. A correct decision, holding that a congressional committee cannot function absent legitimate legislative purpose and must abide by the terms of the resolution authorizing its existence, would be a dagger in the heart of the unconstitutional attempt to transform congressional committees into inquisitorial bodies, which could only lead to tyrannical government.

Why didn't Republican congressmen raise a hue and cry once Pelosi turned the inquisitorial corner?  I can't say.  They don't return my emails or phone calls.  Maybe I should lie and say I'm with The New York Times or The Washington Post?

The Meadows complaint seeks injunctive relief.  If granted, and it should be, that would mean the subpoena against him (and all others served by this irregular, unconstitutional select committee?) would be quashed, with the select committee itself left to...what?  Utter incantations against Trump and Trumpism?  Mr. Meadows also seeks reasonable costs and attorneys' fees — and he richly deserves such compensation, even if the sums would be derived from the taxpayers, as the committee members are sued only in their official capacities.  (But if, as alleged, they acted in an ultra vires manner, they ought to pay costs and fees out of their personal pockets — or, if permissible, their PACs?)

Seems to this observer that all individuals plagued by the Pelosi puppet panel should join the Meadows lawsuit against Pelosi —and, finally, the House GOP conference ousting the vice chair of the Pelosi cabal, plus the member who plans to resign with the expiration of his current term — if for no other reason than to deny Pelosi the change to yell, "But Meadows is a liar!  I did appoint minority members to my select committee!"

By the way, she can't get around the fact that while her select panel has a vice chair, it lacks a ranking member — and House Res. 503 also called for a ranking member.  How do you like them apples, Ms. Cheney?

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.

 

David Zukerman

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/12/two_positive_developments_pertaining_to_january_6.html

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