Thanks to the Policies of the Obama and Biden Administrations, the New Axis of Evil – Russia, China, North Korea, Iran – Posing a Worldwide Existential Threat - Majid Rafizadeh

 

by Majid Rafizadeh

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the Biden administration seems to be allowing Iran's ruling mullahs to prosper from the war and emerge as the winners.

 

• The Biden administration... is also financing the ruling mullahs of Iran with billions of dollars to put the finishing touches on the country's nuclear program and for delivering more weapons to Russia with which to attack Ukraine.

• "We're sitting still, and the Chinese, the Russians, Iran, North Korea, and several others, are moving to shore up their relations and threaten us in a lot of different places." — Former US National Security Advisor John Bolton, The Hill, March 12, 2023.

• Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the Biden administration seems to be allowing Iran's ruling mullahs to prosper from the war and emerge as the winners.

• "I have a question for you – how does Russia pay Iran for this, in your opinion? Is Iran just interested in money? Probably not money at all, but Russian assistance to the Iranian nuclear program. Probably, this is exactly the meaning of their alliance" — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Jerusalem Post, November 4, 2022.

• "Today, China, Russia, North Korea and Iran continue to invest in technologies to expand their capabilities to hit the United States with nuclear weapons. All four countries have also escalated their threatening rhetoric, indicating their willingness to use nuclear weapons in a military conflict. By expanding their nuclear programs, each has made clear that our nuclear arsenal is no longer a deterrent to their potential use of nuclear weapons." — U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, Fox News, May 4, 2023.

• Thanks to the Obama and Biden administrations' monumental capitulations to Iran's regime -- and the refusal of both administrations not only to stop Iran's nuclear weapons program but also to prevent anyone else from stopping it -- the Russian-Iranian-Chinese-North Korean alliance now poses a global existential threat.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the Biden administration seems to be allowing Iran's ruling mullahs to prosper from the war and emerge as the winners. Iran has become a major weapons exporter to Russia. Iran's arms exports to Russia are providing the mullahs with a great opportunity to perfect their military systems as well as to profit financially. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on September 15, 2022. (Photo by Alexandr Demyanchuk/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)

Not only is the Biden administration turning a blind eye on the growing alliance between Iran, Russia, China and North Korea, and looking the other way on their evasions of sanctions, it is also financing the ruling mullahs of Iran with billions of dollars to put the finishing touches on the country's nuclear program and for delivering more weapons to Russia with which to attack Ukraine.

"We're sitting still, and the Chinese, the Russians, Iran, North Korea, and several others, are moving to shore up their relations and threaten us in a lot of different places," former US National Security Advisor John Bolton recently warned.

"It's an indication that the Saudis and others are trying to hedge their bets with China and Russia, because they don't think the United States has the resolve and the fortitude necessary to do what they need to do to protect the world against Iran and its intentions. The Chinese have a strategy they've been following. We kind of wander around from day to day."

Iran is currently producing more oil and selling it at levels close to the pre-sanctions era to countries such as China, which desperately needs more oil. China, North Korea and Russia have also been upgrading and expanding their nuclear arsenals. The Iranian regime, now that it is aligned with Putin's Russia and the Chinese Communist Party, would probably be delighted to conquer the US and Israel.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the Biden administration seems to be allowing Iran's ruling mullahs to prosper from the war and emerge as the winners. Iran has become a major weapons exporter to Russia – and not limited to exporting just drones. Iran's arms exports to Russia are providing the mullahs with a great opportunity to perfect their military systems as well as to profit financially.

The Iranian regime, of course, needs something more in return from Russia than just putting the finishing touches on its nuclear weapons program. Militarily speaking, Russia is moving to provide advanced military equipment to Iran's regime, such as air defense systems, helicopters and fighter jets. This can only make the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism -- which chants "Death to America," "Death to Israel," and freely murders its own citizens – an even stronger expansionist state.

David Barnea, director of Israel's Mossad, warned on September 11, 2023:

"I have a feeling that more deals will be interdicted soon. We are concerned that the Russians will meet Iran's demands to supply it with weapons and raw materials that will put Israel at risk."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also previously warned:

"I have a question for you – how does Russia pay Iran for this, in your opinion? Is Iran just interested in money? Probably not money at all, but Russian assistance to the Iranian nuclear program. Probably, this is exactly the meaning of their alliance."

If Russia succeeds in helping Iran acquire nuclear bombs, this is an existential threat not only to Israel, but also to the US and its allies.

After all, one of the core pillars of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been to destroy both the United States ("the Great Satan") the Jewish state ("the Little Satan").

"YOU WILL NOT SEE NEXT 25 YEARS," Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wrote in 2015 to the "Zionist regime." "GOD WILLING, THERE WILL BE NOTHING AS ZIONIST REGIME BY NEXT 25 YEARS." It is also one of the religious prophecies of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, as well as his successor, Khamenei, that Israel will be "eradicated."

When it comes to the United States, the Iranian regime has made its intentions clear as well. In November 2022, Khamenei vowed: "Death to America will happen. In the new order I am talking about America will no longer have any important role."

The headline of a report from 2019 by Iran's state-controlled Afkar News read: "American Soil Is Now Within the Range of Iranian Bombs". The report boasted:

"The same type of ballistic missile technology used to launch the satellite could carry nuclear, chemical or even biological weapons to wipe Israel off the map, hit US bases and allies in the region and US facilities, and target NATO even in the far west of Europe...."

U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, warned on May 4, 2023:

"Today, China, Russia, North Korea and Iran continue to invest in technologies to expand their capabilities to hit the United States with nuclear weapons. All four countries have also escalated their threatening rhetoric, indicating their willingness to use nuclear weapons in a military conflict. By expanding their nuclear programs, each has made clear that our nuclear arsenal is no longer a deterrent to their potential use of nuclear weapons. If deterrence is dead, then the concept of mutually assured destruction is obsolete and comprehensive missile defense must be revisited as an essential capability to protect our citizens."

Thanks to the Obama and Biden administrations' monumental capitulations to Iran's regime -- and the refusal of both administrations not only to stop Iran's nuclear weapons program but also to prevent anyone else from stopping it -- the Russian-Iranian-Chinese-North Korean alliance now poses a global existential threat.

• Follow Majid Rafizadeh on Twitter

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19982/axis-of-evil-russia-china-north-korea-iran

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McCarthy pledges to remove Ukraine funding from Pentagon spending package - Ben Whedon

 

by Ben Whedon

Conservatives on both Tuesday and Tuesday, tanked procedural votes to allow debate on the measure.

 

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Friday vowed to remove funding for Ukraine from a Pentagon spending package amid a conservative rebellion.

The package, which has twice failed to clear a procedural vote due to internal Republican opposition, includes $300 million in funds for Kyiv to continue its fight against the Russian military.

McCarthy, in the face of that opposition, told reporters Friday that "[i]t would be out and voted on by itself."

Conservatives, on both Tuesday and Tuesday, tanked procedural votes to allow debate on the measure, with the second vote derailing the chamber's legislative agenda and prompting House Republicans to send lawmakers home for weekend.

Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Thursday, a close ally of the House speaker, broke ranks with him to vote against the measure's advancement.

McCarthy's announcement follows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to Washington to secure support for a much larger, $24 billion, allocation of funds to bolster Ukraine's defense.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/mccarthy-pledges-remove-ukraine-funding-pentagon-spending-package

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Russian military chief killed in Black Sea Storm Shadow strike, Ukraine claims - Jerusalem Post Staff, Reuters

 

by Jerusalem Post Staff, Reuters

Friday's attack on the Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Crimea is also rumoured to have killed Admiral Viktor Sokolov, commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

 

Image of a 41 Sqaudron (the RAF's test and evaluation Sqn) Tornado GR4, preparing to test fire four Storm Shadow missiles over the Atlantic Ocean

(photo credit: ROBERT SULLIVAN/VIA FLICKR)

Ukraine’s Storm Shadow strike on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Crimea on Friday killed a Russian commander and injured several other high-ranking Russian officials, Ukraine claimed according to media reports from Saturday.

“The details of the attack will be revealed as soon as possible and the result is dozens of dead and wounded occupants, including senior fleet commanders,” the Ukrainian army said, according to the Telegraph.

“Among the wounded is the commander of the group, Colonel-General [Alexander] Romanchuk, in a very serious condition. The chief of staff, Lieutenant General [Oleg] Tsekov, is unconscious,” Lt.-Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, told Voice of America.

Budanov claimed that nine others had been killed in the strike, and 16 injured. Rumors online have suggested that Admiral Viktor Sokolov, commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, is among the dead. However, Budanov did not confirm the reports. 

The Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev confirmed that there were no civilian casualties or damage to civilian infrastructure, according to Reuters.

Smoke rises from the shipyard that was reportedly hit by Ukrainian missile attack in Sevastopol, Crimea, in this still image from video taken September 13, 2023. (credit: REUTERS TV via REUTERS)

The future of Crimea

Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine's Security Council said there were two options for the future of Russia's Black Sea fleet - voluntary or forced "self-neutralization."

If it did not choose the voluntary option, it "will be sliced up like a salami," he said on X.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Crimea "will definitely be demilitarized and liberated." Moscow says it will never give up the peninsula.

Russian-installed authorities said air defenses downed another missile on Friday near the town of Bakhchysarai.

Separately, Oleg Kryuchkov, an aide to Crimea head Sergei Aksyonov, said internet service providers on the peninsula were under an "unprecedented cyberattack," leading to interruptions in service.

Jerusalem Post Staff, Reuters

Source: https://www.jpost.com/international/article-760259

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IDF, Lebanese army clash at Israel's northern border - Joanie Margulies

 

by Joanie Margulies

Israeli forces fired stun grenades at Lebanese heavy machinery that crossed the border into Israel on Saturday afternoon.

 

IDF (Israel Defense Force) Artillery Corps seen firing into Lebanon, near the Israeli border with Lebanon, on August 6, 2021.

(photo credit: BASEL AWIDAT/FLASH90)

Clashes broke out Saturday afternoon between the IDF and the Lebanese army near the Israel-Lebanon border after a heavy-duty vehicle illegally crossed into Israel, as per local reports.

Armed forces fired "protest dispersion" tools such as stun grenades at a tractor that crossed from the Lebanese border into Israel in the Mount Dov area after surveillance identified the vehicle.

A statement released by the IDF spokesman stated that the tool's tip crossed the 'Blue Line' from Lebanon into the Mount Dov area by about two meters, leading to multiple grenades being fired from Lebanon toward where the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was stationed.

The IDF returned fire and the vessel returned to Lebanese territory shortly thereafter, Israeli media reported. According to the IDF, neither Lebanese soldiers nor Hezbollah fighters crossed over the border.

Later on Saturday, the Lebanese Armed Forces said it fired tear gas at Israeli forces following the launch of stun grenades at the heavy machinery.

IDF Artillery Corps firing shells during a military drill near the border with Lebanon, in northern Israel, August 28, 2023 (credit: AYAL MARGOLIN/FLASH90)

Down south, Gaza residents protest via flotilla

Simultaneously, a demonstration was held on the shores of the Gaza Strip as protesters staged a flotilla calling for an end to Israel's blockade of the strip for Yom Kippur and the High Holy days.

This protest follows continued reports of similar uprisings at the Gaza border.

Friday, the IDF struck three Hamas military outposts in the Gaza Strip on Friday afternoon after fires broke out along the Gaza border by what security forces said were incendiary balloons, not seen launched from the Gaza Strip in over two years. 

The strikes were carried out using an unmanned aerial vehicle, the military said. A military tank also struck another Hamas post where shots were previously fired at Israeli forces along the border.

Other action on the northern border

On Thursday, IDF tanks unusually attacked two temporary structures in the Golan Heights that were used by the Syrian army, violating the 1974 separation of forces agreement between Israel and Syria's Ein Altaniya area.

"The IDF considers the Syrian regime responsible for everything that happens in its territory and will not allow attempts to violate the separation agreement," the IDF spokesperson said.

The move also follows a recorded incident of Hezbollah tents built on Israeli territory on the Lebanese border, in which the IDF decided not to destroy them immediately. However, the army decided to act quickly and thwart a possible attack during a particularly tense time for the nation at all borders.

Joanie Margulies

Source: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-760236

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Palestinians: Israeli Concessions Are a Sign of Weakness - Bassam Tawil

 

by Bassam Tawil

To this day, many Palestinians, not only in Hamas, continue to view the Israeli disengagement as a direct result of terrorism. They use the Arabic term indihar -- defeat -- to describe the Israeli withdrawal from the entire Gaza Strip.

 

• On the 18^th anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the Iran-backed Palestinian terror groups are still talking about the need to step up attacks against Israel until the "liberation of all of Palestine," from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

• These groups still see Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip not as a humanitarian gift to allow the Gazans to build the "Singapore of the Middle East," as former Israeli President Shimon Peres put it, but instead as the beginning of the Palestine Liberation Organization's 1974 "Ten Point Plan" (also known as the "phased plan") for the "comprehensive liberation" of all the land stretching "from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea" -- a euphemism for the elimination of Israel. The Plan essentially states that the Palestinians should take whatever land they are given and use it as a launching pad for getting the rest.

• Hamas and other Palestinians never saw the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as a sign that Israel seeks to live in peace and coexistence with its Arab neighbors. On the contrary, they saw the withdrawal as an Israeli retreat -- a defeat in the face of a massive wave of terrorism.

• The message the Palestinians came away with was not that the Israelis had given them land in the hope of peace, but rather: "We were shooting and they ran away, so let's keep on shooting and they will keep on running away!"

• The Palestinian terror groups are trying to drive Jews out of the West Bank through drive-by shootings, stabbings, rockets and car-rammings. They want to turn the West Bank into another launching pad for attacking Israel the same way they did with the Gaza Strip.

• To this day, many Palestinians, not only in Hamas, continue to view the Israeli disengagement as a direct result of terrorism. They use the Arabic term indihar -- defeat -- to describe the Israeli withdrawal from the entire Gaza Strip.

• Hamas arch-terrorist Mohammed Def recently reminded everyone that as far as his group is concerned, the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip marks the beginning of the first "phase" toward destroying Israel.

• For the Palestinians, acquiring the Gaza Strip, was, it seems, merely a taste. In their words, they want the West Bank, Jerusalem and the whole of Israel. They want all "settlers" removed not only from the Gaza Strip, but also from the West Bank, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and all of Israel. In their view, "all of Israel" is just one big settlement.

• The Biden administration and other international parties that continue to promote the idea of a "two-state solution" are simply empowering Iran's Palestinian proxies and encouraging them to pursue their "phased plan" to increase terrorism, destroy Israel and replace it with yet another Islamist state.

• The Iranian government recently set up a new airport "for terror purposes " in southern Lebanon, only 12 miles from the Israeli border -- presumably to make it easier for Iran's terrorist proxies there, such as Hizballah, to launch aerial attacks against Israel.

• If Israel withdraws from the West Bank, the area will, without doubt, fall into the hands of the Iranian regime and its Palestinian proxies.

• Those who are promoting the idea of a Palestinian state seek to expel Jews from the West Bank through false promises of peace and coexistence. It is time for decision-makers in Washington and other countries to trust what the Palestinians are saying: that they perceive Israeli concessions not as gestures of peace, but as gestures of surrender.

• The ability of the Iranian regime soon to have unlimited nuclear weapons, funded largely by the Biden administration... will doubtless make their hegemonic vision easier to achieve. Not even a shot will need to be fired to persuade its victims to agree to whatever the mullahs wish; the threat will be enough.

• No one is stopping them.

• Creating an Iran-backed Palestinian terror state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip poses a destabilizing and existential threat by Iran not just to Israel but to the entire region and beyond: to Saudi Arabia despite a thaw that may well be temporary; to the Gulf States, Egypt, North Africa, Europe, Latin America and the United States.

On the 18^th anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the Iran-backed Palestinian terror groups are still talking about the need to step up attacks against Israel until the "liberation of all of Palestine," from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Pictured: Gunmen from the Hamas Qassam Brigades at a rally in Gaza City on December 14, 2022. (Photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images)

On the 18^th anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the Iran-backed Palestinian terror groups are still talking about the need to step up attacks against Israel until the "liberation of all of Palestine," from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

These groups still see Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip not as a humanitarian gift to allow the Gazans to build the "Singapore of the Middle East," as former Israeli President Shimon Peres put it, but instead as the beginning of the Palestine Liberation Organization's 1974 "Ten Point Plan" (also known as the "phased plan") for the "comprehensive liberation" of all the land stretching "from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea" -- a euphemism for the elimination of Israel. The Plan essentially states that the Palestinians should take whatever land they are given and use it as a launching pad for getting the rest.

The Plan in brief:

• Through the "armed struggle" (i.e. terrorism), to establish an "independent combatant national authority" over any territory that is "liberated" from Israeli rule. (Point 2)
• To continue the struggle against Israel, using the territory of the national authority as a base of operations. (Point 4)
• To provoke an all-out war in which Israel's Arab neighbors destroy it entirely ("the liberation of all Palestinian territory"). (Point 8)

Israel's unconditional "disengagement" from the entire Gaza Strip in 2005 resulted in the unilateral dismantling of 21 Jewish settlements, the evacuation of more than 9,000 settlers and the removal of the Israeli army. The purpose of the disengagement was to improve Israel's security and to receive international recognition of Israel's concessions for peace in the absence of negotiations with the Palestinians, to allow them self-government and enable them independence to prosper. Several Western millionaires had even bought greenhouses for $14 million from the Jews leaving the Gaza Strip, to give to the Gazans to give them a running start. Within days of the handover, the greenhouses were torn down and looted clean.

Israel had good intentions when it announced its plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians, however, did not share Israel's vision for prosperity in the Gaza Strip. Instead, they chose to turn the coastal enclave into a regional base for terror groups seeking to murder Jews and destroy Israel.

Two years after the Israeli handover, the Palestinian terror group Hamas took over the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority by force. Since then, tens of thousands of rockets and mortar shells have been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel, terrorizing and destabilizing the lives of hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens.

Hamas and other Palestinians never saw the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as a sign that Israel seeks to live in peace and coexistence with its Arab neighbors. On the contrary, they saw the withdrawal as an Israeli retreat -- a defeat in the face of a massive wave of terrorism.

The message the Palestinians came away with was not that the Israelis had given them land in the hope of peace, but rather: "We were shooting and they ran away, so let's keep on shooting and they will keep on running away!"

The Palestinian terror groups are trying to drive Jews out of the West Bank through drive-by shootings, stabbings, rockets and car-rammings. They want to turn the West Bank into another launching pad for attacking Israel the same way they did with the Gaza Strip.

To this day, many Palestinians, not only in Hamas, continue to view the Israeli disengagement as a direct result of terrorism. They use the Arabic term indihar -- defeat -- to describe the Israeli withdrawal from the entire Gaza Strip. In their view, the withdrawal was a sign of Israel's weakness and fatigue. Many Palestinians still are convinced that Israel fled the Gaza Strip in response to their waves of terror attacks.

That is why, to this day, Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups, at the behest of mullahs of Iran, continue to fire rockets into Israel. The thinking among many Palestinians still goes: If suicide bombings and rockets drove Israel out of the Gaza Strip, then the attacks will continue to expel Jews from the rest of Israel.

Felesteen News, a Hamas-affiliated website, marking the 18^th anniversary of the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, wrote on September 12, 2023:

"Following the Israeli defeat at that time, joy filled the hearts of the Palestinian people, and victory celebrations began to grow louder. Some of the Palestinians described the defeat as a 'miniature model of the liberation of Palestine' or 'one of the images of victory by the Palestinian resistance.'"

Ahmed Bahr, a senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, said in a statement marking the anniversary of the Israeli withdrawal that the "Israelis suffered a humiliating defeat" because of the attacks of the Palestinian terror groups, including attacks from terrorists tunnels built to enable attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians. The Israeli city of Tel Aviv, the Hamas official said, will meet the same fate as the former Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. "Tel Aviv will fall together with all the [Israeli] leaders," Bahr vowed.

Here is how, just last year, Safa, another Hamas-affiliated news website, described the Israeli pullout:

"Seventeen years after its defeat in the Gaza Strip, Israel's attempt to escape death in the face of resistance strikes did not succeed. Today, Israel is living in a more complex reality. After the resistance rockets began to strike Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, their range now covers the entirety of Palestine."

Some Palestinian terror groups, buoyed by their perceived victory, are now talking about the need to copy the "Gaza Strip model" in the West Bank. If terrorism drove Israelis out of the Gaza Strip, they are saying, then it will also drive them out of the West Bank, then Jerusalem and then every inch of Israel.

Referring to the nearly 500,000 Jews currently living in the West Bank, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said on September 12, 2023:

"The settlements in the West Bank are about to disappear. The dismantling of these settlements is only a matter of time, and Jerusalem remains the compass of resistance and the title of the battle [with Israel]."

Hamas arch-terrorist Mohammed Def recently reminded everyone that as far as his group is concerned, the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip marks the beginning of the first "phase" toward destroying Israel:

"The defeat of [Israel] in the Gaza Strip sets the stage for its defeat in the West Bank and heralds the liberation of [the Israeli cities of] Jaffa, Haifa, Jerusalem and the rest of the country [Israel], God willing. Resistance was and will remain the only option and path to victory and liberation."

These statements by the Palestinians show that they are remain as determined as ever to murder Jews and wipe Israel off the map. For the Palestinians, acquiring the Gaza Strip, was, it seems, merely a taste. In their words, they want the West Bank, Jerusalem and the whole of Israel. They want all "settlers" removed not only from the Gaza Strip, but also from the West Bank, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and all of Israel. In their view, "all of Israel" is just one big settlement.

With the backing of Iran, the Palestinian terror groups are now working to increase terror attacks against Israelis in the West Bank.

The Biden administration and other international parties that continue to promote the idea of a "two-state solution" are simply empowering Iran's Palestinian proxies and encouraging them to pursue their "phased plan" to increase terrorism, destroy Israel and replace it with yet another Islamist state.

The Iranian government recently set up a new airport "for terror purposes " in southern Lebanon, only 12 miles from the Israeli border -- presumably to make it easier for Iran's terrorist proxies there, such as Hizballah, to launch aerial attacks against Israel.

The Palestinians' rhetoric and actions since the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip have clearly proven again and again that the conflict with Israel is not about borders and settlements, but about the refusal to allow Israel to exist.

If Israel withdraws from the West Bank, the area will, without doubt, fall into the hands of the Iranian regime and its Palestinian proxies. Were it not for Israel's presence there, the West Bank, a long time ago, would have turned into another base for Palestinian terrorism.

Those who are promoting the idea of a Palestinian state seek to expel Jews from the West Bank through false promises of peace and coexistence. It is time for decision-makers in Washington and other countries to trust what the Palestinians are saying: that they perceive Israeli concessions not as gestures of peace, but as gestures of surrender.

The ability of the Iranian regime soon to have unlimited nuclear weapons, funded largely by the Biden administration -- despite the mullahs' denial that such ambitions even exist -- will doubtless make their hegemonic vision easier to achieve. Not even a shot will need to be fired to persuade its victims to agree to whatever the mullahs wish; the threat will be enough.

No one is stopping them.

The Biden administration has reportedly concluded a secret deal with Iran, most likely to lower its nuclear threats before the November 2024 presidential election in exchange for billions of dollars and the lifting of sanctions -- which will enable the mullahs to acquire even more billions. Presumably this windfall will not be used for girls' education or women's human rights but for its nuclear weapons program, stepped-up terrorism and crushing its own people even further.

Creating an Iran-backed Palestinian terror state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip poses a destabilizing and existential threat by Iran not just to Israel but to the entire region and beyond: to Saudi Arabia despite a thaw that may well be temporary; to the Gulf States, Egypt, North Africa, Europe (here and here), Latin America and the United States (here, here and here ).

Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19981/palestinians-israeli-concessions

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'Six or seven' Muslim nations to make peace with Israel after Saudis - FM - Jerusalem Post Staff

 

by Jerusalem Post Staff

Eli Cohen: "It's important to restate what the prime minister said, peace with Saudi Arabia is also peace between Jews and the Muslim world."

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 78th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City, New York, US, September 22, 2023

(photo credit: REUTERS/BRENDAN MCDERMID)

Six or seven Muslim nations will join Saudi Arabia in making peace with Israel following the conclusion of the long-sought normalization deal with the Saudis, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen revealed in an interview with KAN News on Friday afternoon.

Speaking directly after Netanyahu's speech at the UN General Assembly in which he heralded the dawn of a "new Middle East," Cohen said that "it's important to restate what the prime minister said, peace with Saudi Arabia is also peace between Jews and the Muslim world.

"Six or seven nations from Africa and Asia will join the peace deal with the Saudis," Cohen said. 

"I'm telling you, I have met with several officials from Muslim nations with which Israel does not share formal ties."

שר החוץ אלי כהן: "נפגשתי עם מדינות מוסלמיות משמעותיות שאין לנו קשרים איתן. עוד 7-6 מדינות מאפריקה ואסיה יצטרפו לשלום עם סעודיה"@SuleimanMas1 ו-@shemeshmicha , שליחי כאן חדשות עם פמליית רה"מ לאמריקה pic.twitter.com/1Ll0ic3Ao8

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) September 22, 2023

 

Cohen causes diplomatic debacle with Libya

Last month, Cohen caused a diplomatic crisis by leaking his conversation with his Libyan counterpart Najla Mangoush. She was fired for holding that meeting, forced to flee her country, and is now under investigation.

After reports of the meeting broke, Libyans began rioting in the streets before Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibeh said Libya "completely rejects" any notion of Israeli normalization.

"I'm not talking about [Libya]," Cohen remarked. "We will wait [with announcements], but more countries will join our peace circle, you will see." 

 

Jerusalem Post Staff

Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-760182

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Elon Musk accuses media of ignoring the border crisis because they were 'instructed not to cover it' - Alexander Hall

 

by Alexander Hall

Officials estimated about 4,000 Venezuelan migrants were moving into Eagle Pass, Texas, Wednesday

 

 

Billionaire and X, formerly known as Twitter, owner Elon Musk on Thursday accused news outlets of ignoring the crisis along the southern border because they were "instructed" not to cover it. 

FOX News national correspondent Bill Melugin posted on social media how local news networks are covering the migrant crisis more than other national news networks. 

"Watching the TVs at gym in Eagle Pass. Every single local news station in the San Antonio market, both English & Spanish, are leading their shows and have much of their A blocks centered on the border crisis and the mass illegal crossing in Eagle Pass today," he wrote. "National networks were MIA at the bridge today, other than @FoxNews."

 

Watching the TVs at gym in Eagle Pass. Every single local news station in the San Antonio market, both English & Spanish, are leading their shows and have much of their A blocks centered on the border crisis and the mass illegal crossing in Eagle Pass today. National networks… pic.twitter.com/9z5Oucm9W2

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) September 21, 2023

PERUVIAN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS' ALLEGED MURDER VICTIM IS US CITIZEN, SHERIFF CONFIRMS

Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk shredded major news outlets for ignoring the crisis at America's Southern Border. (Musk photo by ALAIN JOCARD/AFP via Getty Images, border wall photo by VERONICA G. CARDENAS/AFP via Getty Images)

Musk responded to Melugin's post by writing, "This gets no coverage because the media NPCs are instructed not to cover it." 

NPC stands for "non-player characters," meaning scripted characters in video games that are programmed with specific behavior rather than directly controlled by a human being. The term is used online for someone who doesn't think for themselves.

 

This gets no coverage because the media NPCs are instructed not to cover it

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 21, 2023

 

 

Thousands of predominantly Venezuelan adult illegal immigrants moved into Texas and gathered under a nearby bridge on Wednesday.

Texas troopers told FOX News that their initial count of the number of migrants moving across the water into Eagle Pass on Wednesday was about 4,000. The migrants gathered under the bridge and were waiting to be processed by Border Patrol, in the hope of being released into the U.S. 

Concern about the border has reached a fever pitch in recent weeks as even some Democrats are warning that the crisis has gotten out of control, while other liberal figures still reject those claims. 

Immigrants wait to be processed by the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing the border from Mexico, with the U.S.-Mexico border barrier in the background, on August 6, 2022 in Yuma, Arizona.  ((Photo by Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images))

GOP GOVERNORS CALL ON BIDEN TO PROVIDE ‘HONEST, ACCURATE’ DATA ON MIGRANT CRISIS AS NUMBERS SURGE

Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams made an ominous warning about the immigration crisis at a town hall meeting earlier this month. 

"I don't see an ending to this. I don't see an ending to this. This issue will destroy New York City. Destroy New York City," he said. 

MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan responded by ridiculing the mayor in a social media post, referring to him as a "Trump knock-off."

Video

 

Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., similarly faced mockery after telling migrants, "We don’t have capacity, so we have to also message properly that we’re at our limit, if you’re going to leave your country, go somewhere else." 

For more Culture, Media, Education, Opinion, and channel coverage, visit foxnews.com/media

Adam Shaw and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.

 

Alexander Hall is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to Alexander.hall@fox.com.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/media/elon-musk-accuses-media-ignoring-border-crisis-instructed-cover

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Thousands of troops live in 'substandard' barracks, exposed to sewage, toxic water, diseases: GAO - Madeleine Hubbard

 

by Madeleine Hubbard

Should we ask servicemen and women to risk their lives on the battlefield while they may be risk simply living in U.S. barracks? The GAO report comes as the military is already facing concerns about morale, recruitment and "woke" ideology amid serious security threats.

 

Thousands of U.S. service members live in barracks that are in "substandard conditions," including exposed sewage and non-existent heating, as officials raise concerns about potentially serious safety and health risks that could impact military "readiness," according to a new government report published this week by the Government Accountability Office. The GAO is a congressional agency that examines how taxpayer dollars are spent and provides Congress and federal agencies with "objective, non-partisan, fact-based information."

According to the report, high-ranking service members at all 10 facilities visited by the GAO said the "poor living conditions contributed to reduced productivity at work, had negative effects on training, or negatively affected perceptions about serving in the military."

Additionally, officials at all 10 sample barracks said the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems were "broken, malfunctioning, or non-existent," according to the report, titled, "Military Barracks: Poor Living Conditions Undermine Quality of Life and Readiness."

All of the barracks inspected were located in the U.S., including four installations in the Washington, D.C. area and other installations across the continental United States including Fort Carson, Colorado (Army); Joint Base San Antonio, Texas (Air Force); Naval Base Coronado and Naval Base San Diego, California (Navy); and Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego and Camp Pendleton, California (Marine Corps).

GAO military barracks report 9.21.23.pdf

Service members at half of the inspected barracks said there were issues with water quality. For example, in one discussion group the accountability office held, service members said tap water in their barracks was often brown and did not look safe to drink.

In another example, an installation visited by the watchdog had recently closed barracks after legionella bacteria, which causes potentially fatal Legionnaires' disease, was found in the building plumbing systems. GAO officials also said that only barracks with health care patients undergo water testing that could reveal legionella. They do not test water in other buildings "because they are not required to."

Officials at three of the 10 barracks told the watchdog that "service members are generally responsible for pest control, or for removing hazardous material from barracks, such as mold and sewage. Further, officials at one installation told us service members are responsible for cleaning biological waste that may remain in a barracks room after a suicide," the report said.

As of 2019, about 40% of active-duty service members were satisfied with military housing on base, including barracks, according to a survey cited in the report. The military manages nearly 9,000 barracks worldwide, and last fiscal year nearly 280,000 service members lived in barracks.

The government office made 31 recommendations to the Defense Department, most of which deal with updating standards and keeping better track of facilities. The Defense Department agreed with 23 of the recommendations and partially agreed with eight, and all recommendations are still open and will be updated when the agency takes actions in response to the recommendations.

Poor and potentially dangerous barrack conditions have plagued servicemen and women for  years.

The Defense Department said in a 2022 report that it found in 2019 that an estimated 175,000 people across two dozen military locations  where drinking water contained concentrations of what the Environmental Protection Agency calls "forever chemicals" that exceeded the EPA's advised exposure levels. The actual number of soldiers and their families who live on bases and were exposed to the toxic chemicals may be more than 640,000, according to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit health organization.

One of the most well-known examples of service members being exposed to chemicals in the drinking water occurred in U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina from the 1950s through the 1980s. Officials at the base initially denied any water problems, despite being warned otherwise by officials who conducted laboratory tests.

The Department of Health and Human Services estimated that as many as one million people may have been exposed to the toxic water chemicals from Camp Lejeune, and attorneys estimated last year that as many as half a million claims may be filed, according to Reuters. Thousands veterans have said their Veterans Affairs claims regarding Camp Lejeune have been wrongly denied, according to Military.com.

The latest report comes as the military is already facing concerns about morale, recruitment and "woke" ideology amid serious security threats.

The Camp Lejeune Claims Center, a public-interest group that assists veterans and their families in getting legal and medical help, says that more than "1,100 individual Camp Lejeune federal lawsuits have been filed, though as of September 2023, none have reached a conclusion. In addition, more than 90,000 administrative claims have been submitted." 

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Madeleine Hubbard

Source: https://justthenews.com/accountability/whistleblowers/thousands-troops-live-substandard-barracks-including-exposed-sewage

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Our Self-Induced Catastrophe at the Border - Victor Davis Hanson

 

by Victor Davis Hanson

The American people must override the corrupt entities who profit from the border's human misery and chaos

Since early 2021 we have witnessed somewhere between 7 and 8 million illegal entries across the now nonexistent U.S. southern border.

The more the border vanished, the more federal immigration law was rendered inert, and the more Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas spun fantasies that the “border is secure.” He is now written off as a veritable “Baghdad Bob” propagandist.

But how and why did the Biden administration destroy immigration law as we knew it?

The Trump administration’s initial efforts to close the border had been continually obstructed in the Congress, sabotaged by the administrative state, and stymied in the courts. Nonetheless, it had finally secured the border by early 2020.

Yet almost all its successful initiatives were immediately overturned in 2021.

The wall was abruptly stopped, its projected trajectory cancelled. The Obama-era disastrous “catch-and release” policy of immigration non-enforcement was resurrected.

Prior successful pressure on Mexico’s President Andrés Obrador to stop the deliberate export of his own citizens northward ceased.

Federal border patrol officers were forced to stand down.

New federal subsidies were granted to entice and then support illegal arrivals.

No one in the Democratic Party objected to the destruction of the border or the subversion of immigration law.

However, things changed somewhat once swamped southern border states began to bus or fly a few thousand of their illegal immigrants northward to sanctuary city jurisdictions—especially to New York, Chicago, and even Martha’s Vineyard.

The sanctuary-city “humanists” there who had greenlighted illegal immigration into the southern states suddenly shrieked. They were irate after experiencing the concrete consequences of their own prior abstract border agendas. After all, their nihilism was always supposed to fall upon distant and ridiculed others.

New York mayor Eric Adams went from celebrating a few dozen illegal immigrants bused into Manhattan, to blasting his own party by allowing tens of thousands to swamp his now bankrupt city.

But why did the Biden administration deliberately unleash the largest influx across the southern border in U.S. history?

The ethnic chauvinists and Democratic Party elites needed new constituents, given their increasingly unpopular agendas.

They feared that the more legal Latino immigrants assimilated and integrated into American society, the less happy they became with leftwing radical abortion, racial, transgender, crime, and green fixations.

Democratic grandees had always bragged that illegal immigration would create what they called “The New Democratic Majority” in “Demography is Destiny” fashion. Now they slander critics as “racists” who object to leftwing efforts to use illegal immigration to turn southwestern red states blue.

Mexico now cannot survive as a modern state without some $60 billion in annual remittances sent by its expatriates in America. But many illegal immigrants rely on American state and federal entitlements to free up cash to send home.

Mexico also encourages its own abject poor and often indigenous people from southern Mexico to head north as a safety-valve of sorts. The government sees these mass exoduses northward as preferable to the oppressed marching on Mexico City to address grievances of poverty and racism.

The criminal cartels now de facto run Mexico. An open border allows them to ship fentanyl northward, earn billions in profits—and kill nearly 100,000 Americans a year. Illegal immigrants pay cartels additional billions to facilitate their border crossings.

Do not forget American corporate employers. Record labor nonparticipation followed the Covid lockdown. In reaction to the dearth of American workers, the hospitality, meat packing, social service, health-care, and farming industries were desperate to hire new—and far cheaper—labor.

Human rights activists insist that the borders themselves are nineteenth-century relics. And the global poor and oppressed thus have a human right to enter the affluent West by any means necessary.

Many in the tony suburbs and in universities do not live anywhere near the border. So they pontificate on the assurance that thousands of unaudited illegal immigrants will never enter their own enclaves or campuses.

The result is elite bottled piety—but not firsthand experience with the natural consequences of millions chaotically fleeing one of the poorest countries in the world to pour into the wealthiest. Without background checks, vaccinations and health audits, legality, high-school diplomas, English-facility, skill sets, or capital, the result is an abject catastrophe.

Polls continue to show that the American people support measured, diverse, legal, and meritocratic immigration as much as they oppose mass illegal immigration into their country and the subsequent loss of American sovereignty on the border.

They understand what the Biden administration does not: no nation is history has survived once its borders were destroyed, once its citizenship was rendered no different from mere residence, and once its neighbors with impunity undermined its sovereignty.

Ending illegal immigration now depends solely on the American people overriding the corrupt special interests and leaders who profit from the current chaos and human misery.

 

Victor Davis Hanson

Source: https://amgreatness.com/2023/09/21/our-self-induced-catastrophe-at-the-border/

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