The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.
From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."
What are we to conclude about these contradictory wars and American attitudes toward them? The more democratic and defensive the power, the more Americans support it—but only up to a point.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, Americans overwhelmingly supported Ukraine—as they did with Israel after October 7.
No wonder: Ukraine was surprise attacked by Russia, and Israel was by Hamas.
It seemed an easy binary of good versus evil: both the attacked
Ukraine and Israel are pro-Western. Both their attackers, anti-Western
Russia and Hamas, are not.
Now everything is bifurcating. And the politics of the wars in America reflect incoherence.
Both Ukraine and Israel are portrayed in the media as supposedly bogging down in their counteroffensives.
More pro-Israel Republicans are troubled by Ukraine’s strategy, or lack thereof, in an increasing Somme-like stalemate.
Yet more pro-Ukrainian Democrats are turning away from Israel as it
dismantles Gaza in the messy, bloody slog against Hamas. The left claims
either Israel cannot or should not defeat Hamas, or at least at the
present cost.
So the left pushes Israel to a ceasefire with Hamas.
It blasts Israeli “disproportionate” responses.
It demands that Israel avoid collateral damage.
It pressures it to form a wartime bipartisan government.
It lobbies to cut it off from American resupply.
It is terrified that Israel will expand the war by responding to aggression from Hezbollah and Iran.
Yet on Ukraine, the left oddly pivots to the very opposite agenda.
It believes Ukraine should not be forced to make peace with Russian
“fascists.” It must become disproportionate to “win” the war.
President Zelensky deserves a pass, despite cancelling elections while suspending political parties.
America must step up its resupply to Kyiv with more and far deadlier weapons.
Ukraine has a perfect right to hit targets inside Russia.
Russian threats to widen the war should be considered empty and thus ignored. America should hate Russia far more than Hamas.
By contrast, conservatives are less supportive of Ukraine’s offensives, if more than ever allied with Israel.
In their realist views, Ukraine is a smaller power, vastly
outnumbered by a richer, better-armed Russia. Thus, it should negotiate
while it can, rather than eventually losing everything.
Israel, however, is, in their view, defeating Hamas. If allowed to
finish the job, it can soon win the war in Gaza and still handle
Hezbollah and deter Iran.
Furthermore, the right is wary that Russia is a nuclear power. The
Ukraine war is unfortunately creating a new, potent anti-American axis
of Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea and drawing in former U.S.
allies like Turkey and Qatar.
Yet, in Israel’s case, the U.S. is far more powerful than Hamas’s patron, Iran, and can easily deter it should Tehran intervene.
As of now, none of Hamas’s allies have nuclear weapons. Israel, however, does, unlike Ukraine.
Many conservatives further point out that Israel is a long-time U.S. democratic ally.
Ukraine’s elections are currently suspended while the country remains under martial law.
In realist terms, the old idea of Russian triangulation still makes
some sense. Russia should be no friendlier to China than to the U.S.,
and China is no more aligned with Russia than with America.
Hamas, by contrast, is a terrorist clique, as are Hezbollah and all
of Iran’s terrorist appendages. Their hatred of the U.S. is
long-standing, immutable, and transcends the Gaza war.
How about the public’s views in general?
With over $35 trillion in debt, still smarting over the humiliating
withdrawal from Kabul, and the military short 40,000 recruits, the
public does not wish to get heavily involved in either war, even as
polls still show radically differing left/right attitudes toward both.
Americans once overwhelmingly supported vast aid for Ukraine. Now they decidedly believe the U.S. is providing too much to Kyiv.
They still poll strong support for Israel over Hamas, but less so for
Israel’s ongoing destruction of Hamas given the collateral damage that
follows.
Given there are few Russian-Americans, there are almost no
demonstrations on behalf of Moscow’s war. But there are plenty of
protests for Hamas since there are lots of Middle-Eastern Americans and
visitors within the U.S.
What are we to conclude about these contradictory wars and American attitudes toward them?
The more democratic and defensive the power, the more Americans support it—but only up to a point.
Even more, they demand quick victory—and lose interest when the wars stagnate, costs increase, and protests grow.
When Ukraine and Israel began costly counteroffensives, the former
losing thousands and the latter killing thousands, the American public
began to be less invested in either war.
Final lessons?
Israel should do all it can to destroy Hamas as quickly as possible and end the war.
Ukraine does not have the wherewithal to defeat Russia. It should
cease costly offensives against Russia’s fortified lines and seek to
negotiate.
Or, put another way, fickle Americans sympathize with those who are
attacked. But their continuing support seems contingent on whether the
victim can remain sympathetic—and win decisively to end the war rapidly.
"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism." — Zuheir Mohsen, PLO official, Trouw, March 31, 1977.
Curiously, like President Joe
Biden and his top national security officials, the ambassador [Martin
Indyk] ignores a crucial element: radical Islam does not tolerate the
existence of a sovereign non-Islamic entity (such as Israel) on land
that once was conquered by Muslims (dar al-Islam, "abode of Islam"). As most Palestinians have been creditably straightforward about, there is no place for an Israeli state.
"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a
Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against
the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no
difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only
for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence
of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we
posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose
Zionism." — Zuheir Mohsen, PLO official, Trouw, March 31, 1977.
Tangible land for intangible peace and billions of dollars will
not change them -- just buy them bigger weapons. Only re-education can
hope to do that, if it would work...
"What is a 'technocratic government'? It's a front for the
terrorists and composed of nonprofit executives, academics, economists
and others... and extracting foreign aid from them. Hamas will not
officially be part of the puppet regime, but will control the
puppets.... [B]ut while Qatar is helping assemble a new 'technocratic'
front for the terrorists, the Moscow summit made it clear that the real
agenda of the new government would be terror against Israel and the
U.S." — Daniel Greenfield, Gatestone Institute, March 13, 2024.
"The 'technocratic government' will provide the Biden
administration and other governments with the plausible deniability
needed to go on funding terrorists. The Moscow summit revealed that a
technocratic government will not end terrorism; it will disguise it, and
it will not end the conflict, it will escalate it." — Daniel
Greenfield, Gatestone Institute, March 13, 2024.
How can Israeli Jews believe that the recognition of a
Palestinian state by the United States and other countries... will bring
peace? These countries have no means of enforcing any commitments
undertaken by "Palestine" in a potential peace treaty, and even less
will to do so.
Recognition of "Palestine" as a state, even if it were supposedly
"demilitarized," would enable it to enter into military alliances and
"defense agreements" with whomever they chose -- China, Russia, Iran,
all of them? Why would such a state not be used as a base, as in the
PLO's 1974 "Ten Point Plan" of phases, from which to try to take "the
rest"?
Equally alarmingly, the US has reportedly asked Qatar, Hamas's
main patron since 2007, to operate a supposedly temporary pier in Gaza,
currently being planned, to deliver supposedly "humanitarian aid"... one
has to ask: What else will come in with the humanitarian aid? With
Qatar in charge, "demilitarization" will likely last less than a week.
Those who want to recognize or impose a Palestinian state, knowingly or unconsciously, aim at Israel's destruction.
Peace will come when the Jews, the Americans and the Europeans
support those fighting to preserve civilization, not to preserve
terrorism.
Can the US and European states recognize "Palestine" as a
peace-loving "state" while its government, the Palestinian Authority,
continues to finance terrorism? Land for peace, and billions of dollars,
will not change Islam. Tangible land for intangible peace and billions
of dollars will not change Palestinians -- just buy them bigger weapons.
Only re-education can hope to do that, if it would work. Those who want
to recognize or impose a Palestinian state, knowingly or unconsciously,
aim at Israel's destruction. (Image source: iStock/Getty Images)
Just in time for Easter, another resurrection was recently proposed by Martin Indyk, twice US ambassador to Israel, in the journal Foreign Affairs:
"[The] allegedly dead two-state solution...resurrected by
U.S. President Joe Biden and his top national security officials...is
the only way to create lasting peace among the Israelis, the
Palestinians, and the Arab countries of the Middle East".
"And how an unimaginable war could bring about the only imaginable peace".
Curiously, like President Joe Biden and his top national security
officials, the ambassador ignores a crucial element: radical Islam does
not tolerate the existence of a sovereign non-Islamic entity (such as
Israel) on land that once was conquered by Muslims (dar al-Islam, "abode of Islam"). As most Palestinians have been creditably straightforward about, there is no place for an Israeli state.
Palestinian Islamists and the Islamic Republic of Iran are engaged in
a jihadist-religious-nationalist-military-territorial-diplomatic
conflict with Israel's Jews, however much the West may refuse to see it.
They fight against the Jews to prove that the Koran's "divine promise" to the Jews is still unborn, and that Jews should leave Israel and return from where they came.
"O my people, enter the Holy Land which God has
prescribed for you, and turn not back in your traces, to turn about
losers." (Quran 5:21)
"And We bequeathed upon the people that were abased all the east and
the west of the land We had blessed; and perfectly was fulfilled the
most fair word of thy Lord upon the Children of Israel, for that they
endured patiently; and We destroyed utterly the works of Pharaoh and his
people, and what they had been building." (Quran 7:137).
"And We said to the Children of Israel after him, 'Dwell in the land;
and when the promise of the world to come comes to pass, We shall bring
you a rabble.'" (Quran 17:104).
Land for peace, and billions of dollars, will not change Islam.
The fight against the Jews starts with verses such as:
"Fight those who believe not in God and the Last Day...
-- those who have been given the Book -- until they pay the tribute out
of hand and have been humbled." (Quran 9: 29).
Jews, especially those who live in Israel, do not pay the jizya tribute and are not humbled.
On September 28, 2011, the UN Security Council examined the
application of "Palestine". One of the criteria is that only "peace
loving states, willing to accept obligations of the Charter, who are
able and willing to carry out these obligations", can be admitted.
Today, this criterion is still not fulfilled, to say the least.
Unfortunately, "Palestine" has not exactly shown itself to be a
"peace-loving nation", and the Palestinians are not a "people". As PLO
executive committee member Zuheir Mohsen stated in a 1977 interview with
the Dutch newspaper Trouw:
"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a
Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against
the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no
difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only
for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence
of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we
posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose
Zionism.
"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with
defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a
Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and
Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine,
we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."
The Palestinians are Arabs. Their leaders seek to destroy the Jewish
State. They would have hard time renouncing their aim of displacing
Israel, of changing an education of hatred, and accepting the
obligations contained in the Charter of the United Nations. They would
be called traitors, and that is a death sentence as it was for Egyptian
President Anwar Sadat who, in 1979, signed a peace agreement with Israel
Can the US and European states recognize "Palestine" as a
peace-loving "state" while its government, the Palestinian Authority,
continues to finance terrorism by paying salaries to imprisoned
terrorists and their families, with US funds in violation of the Taylor Force Act, which in the US, became the "law of the land"?
"Palestine" is not able to be a "peace loving" entity. The stated desire to amend the PLO Charter has proven nothing but a charade. The "new" charter, never ratified, continues to mandate the "liberation of all of Palestine".
According to the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs:
"There are those who would have you believe that the
Charter was amended in April 1996 (when it was actually referred to a
committee from which it never reemerged) and again in 1998 when Arafat
wrote to President Clinton that the Executive Committee had excised the
offending articles. But if the Charter had actually been amended in
1996, why was Arafat writing to the President in 1998?"
The original charter, still dispositive in the original Arabic, states:
"Palestine, with the boundaries it had during the British Mandate, is an indivisible territorial unit." (Article 2).
"The Palestinian Arab people possess the legal right to their
homeland...after achieving the liberation of their country...
entirely..." (Article 3).
"Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine." (Article 9)
"Commando action constitutes the nucleus of the Palestinian popular liberation war." (Article 10).
How does this show that the Palestinian Authority is capable of living in peace with the Jewish State?
Since the Oslo Accord of 1993, which supposedly disavowed terrorism,
until now, terrorist attacks, officially promoted, have been taking
place in Israel on an almost daily basis. On Palestinian Authority TV,
on February 14, 2005, PA President Mahmoud Abbas called
for the release of all Palestinian prisoners. He stated that they did
what "we, the Palestinian Authority, ordered them to do.... He [the
prisoner] will tell me that I ordered him to do what he did and I am
responsible for him".
On Al-Arabiya television, then Fatah and PA official Mohammed Dahlan stated on June 16, 2007:
"Forty percent of the Martyrs in this Intifada belonged
to the Palestinian Security Forces... and Hamas destroyed the
Palestinian Authority which served to defend half of the Hamas leaders
and its military wing...".
To "revitalize" the Palestinian Authority, US President Joe Biden and
his advisers are expected to force the Fatah, the PLO and officials of
the Palestinian Authority to relinquish their power and be replaced by
so-called "technocrats." Palestinian "technocrats," however, have also
been educated to hate and fight Jews. Tangible land for intangible peace
and billions of dollars will not change them -- just buy them bigger
weapons. Only re-education can hope to do that, if it would work, as it
did with denazification and in post-World War II Japan. Dollars will not
buy the hearts of those who follow the Islamist way.
What might work is if Palestinians feel that the world around them is
rushing ahead, but that they, instead, have mistakenly insisted on
being left behind: now, the train is pulling out of the station, they
had better jump aboard fast.
Unfortunately, no Biden "revitalization" through "technocrats" can work. As the journalist Daniel Greenfield explains:
"What is a 'technocratic government'? It's a front for
the terrorists and composed of nonprofit executives, academics,
economists and others who have experience dealing with the international
community and extracting foreign aid from them.
"Hamas will not officially be part of the puppet regime, but will control the puppets....
"That's what the Biden administration and the EU want to hear, but
while Qatar is helping assemble a new 'technocratic' front for the
terrorists, the Moscow summit made it clear that the real agenda of the
new government would be terror against Israel and the U.S....
"The Palestinian Authority is trying to make it work by providing two
sets of mutually contradictory assurances. Western diplomats are being
told that the PA can unify the 'Palestinian' people around a state and
an end to the conflict. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other fellow terror
groups are being assured that the PA remains absolutely committed to
waging a war to destroy Israel.
"The 'technocratic government' will provide the Biden administration
and other governments with the plausible deniability needed to go on
funding terrorists.
"The Moscow summit revealed that a technocratic government will not
end terrorism; it will disguise it, and it will not end the conflict, it
will escalate it."
How can Israeli Jews trust Palestinian leaders who have blood on their hands, who pay people to murder Jews -- "Pay for Slay"
is essentially a jobs program -- and a population of men, women,
children, and even "technocrats," who have been educated for years to
murder Israelis, to die as martyrs, and bring their families to
Paradise?
How can Israelis believe again that some "peace agreement" will bring peace?
Muslim jurists doctrinally consider it uncomplicated to conclude a peace treaty with the enemy:
"By their very nature, treaties must be of a temporary
duration, for in Muslim legal theory the normal relations between Muslim
and non-Muslim territories are war and not peace... The holy war cannot
possibly be suspended for more than ten years". If this was unfeasible,
the truce could be renewed for another ten years." (Majid Khadduri,War and Peace in the Law of Islam, John Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1955, p. 220).
In 1994, then Palestinian President Yasser Arafat referred
to the Islamic Prophet Muhammad and to the Treaty of Hudaybiyya, signed
in 628 CE between Muhammad and the ruling Quraish tribe of Mecca. The
treaty was to be in force for a period of ten years. Less than two years
later, after the balance of power in the area changed, Mohammad
gathered an army, attacked the Quraish, and conquered Mecca.
Arafat, stated on April 18, 1998, on the Egyptian television station Orbit:
"I suggest we maintain quiet. We respect the agreements the way that Muhammad... respected the agreements which he signed..."
How can Israeli Jews believe that the recognition of a Palestinian
state by the United States and other countries, such as France, Spain,
Ireland, Slovenia, Great Britain and so on, will bring peace? These
countries have no means of enforcing any commitments undertaken by
"Palestine" in a potential peace treaty, and even less will to do so.
How can anyone believe that giving more power, even short of
sovereignty, to a "revitalized" Palestinian Authority, will not lead to
more war? Israel will still have to protect its security, both during
and after any transition, so the cries of "occupation" will persist. Let
us remember that these cries of "occupation" came into even wider use after Israel completely withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, with not one Jew left in sight.
Recognition of "Palestine" as a state, even if it were supposedly
"demilitarized," would enable it to enter into military alliances and
"defense agreements" with whomever they chose -- China, Russia, Iran,
all of them? Why would such a state not be used as a base, as in the
PLO's 1974 "Ten Point Plan"
of phases, from which to try to take "the rest"? Why would such a state
not open the gates of its undefined territory to all the so-called
diaspora of 14 million "Palestinians," Muslims and others who would like
to join the fight against Israel?
Equally alarmingly, the US has reportedly asked
Qatar, Hamas's main patron since 2007, to operate a supposedly
temporary pier in Gaza, currently being planned, to deliver supposedly
"humanitarian aid." Apart from evidence that Hamas is stealing the humanitarian aid, and either hoarding (here and here) it or selling it
to Gazans on the black market at prices few can afford, one has to ask:
What else will come in with the humanitarian aid? With Qatar in charge,
"demilitarization" will likely last less than a week.
Those who want to recognize or impose a Palestinian state, knowingly or unconsciously, aim at Israel's destruction.
Peace will come when the Jews, the Americans and the Europeans
support those fighting to preserve civilization, not to preserve
terrorism.
Some of the most famous names in conservative movement sign on to coalition, pledge.
In the hotel
where Abraham Lincoln kicked off his Civil War presidency, and Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. refined his most famous speech, dozens of
organizations gathered this week with a common goal: to forge a historic
coalition that would catapult conservatives to the forefront of early
voting and election lawfare and expand their movement to Hispanics,
Asians, union workers, and African-Americans fleeing the Democratic
Party.
The meeting Wednesday at the Willard Intercontinental, organized by
America First Works, a 501 c4 aligned with the America First Policy
Institute and its founder, former Trump White House adviser Brooke
Rollins, kicked off with a simple tool that decades ago united
conservatives: a signed pledge.
The original Reagan-era pledge, crafted by anti-tax activist Grover
Norquist, committed candidates starting in 1986 to never raising taxes.
The new "United We Win" pledge committes groups with diverse interests
to coalesce around a common goal to "reclaim our nation's narrative" and
"win the argument" heading into November, "leaving no stone unturned"
and "saving America."
The 402-word pledge, obtained by Just the News, was signed on its first day by dozens of prominent conservatives, including:
Faith and Freedom Coalition founder Ralph Reed, whose legendary evangelical-voter outreach dates to President Ronald Reagan;
Job Creators Network President Alfredo Ortiz, who helped lead the blitz for the 2017 Trump tax cuts;
Marc Little, a black pastor, the son of one of the NFL's most famous running backs, and the head of CURE America Action;
Rebecca Weber, the CEO of the Association of Mature American
Citizens (AMAC), is America's most prominent conservative senior citizen
organization;
Official from Turning Point Action, a group founded by activist Charlie Kirk.
Moms for America's Kimberly Fletcher, one of the most influential parents' rights groups in the nation;
Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of Tea Party Patriots Action, one of
the largest grassroots organizing groups from the Tea Party Movement;
Kevin McGary and Troy Rollings of the Frederick Douglass Foundation;
Several Hispanic outreach leaders, including Bob Unanue, CEO of Goya
Foods and chairman of AFPI's Hispanic Leadership Coalition; Bienvenido
USA's Abraham Enrique; Hispanic Impact Panel's Mario Bramnick; and Jesus
Marquez of the American Christian Caucus;
Former Michigan GOP gubernatorial nominee and TV host Tudor Dixon, who now runs a group called America Back to Basics Action.
The signatories and their organizations pledged to "work
together as never before" and "harness our collective resources, wisdom,
and energy to educate like never before, to grow our coalition with
unwavering dedication, and to advance conservative solutions that will
steer our country back toward prosperity, security, and freedom."
"Our mission is clear: reclaim our nation's narrative, win the
argument, hold our elected officials accountable, and begin the work of
healing and rebuilding. ... Each member organization promises to
contribute fully towards our shared goal. We will combine our energies,
budgets, and abilities, leaving no stone unturned, no resource untapped,
and no citizen unengaged," the pledge states.
The pledge also highlights the critical moment the 2024 election
represents due to policies in the Biden administration that have led to
persistent inflation, border insecurity, rising crime rates and global
instability.
"We stand at a crossroads, witnessing the erosion of the American
dream at the hands of radical left policies that have led to an
affordability crisis with prices up 18.6 percent in just three years, a
border crisis jeopardizing our communities, and a government that seems
disconnected from its people's hardships," the pledge also reads. "The
statistics are alarming – rising costs of living, skyrocketing debt, and
the endangerment of American lives have brought us to a crucial point.
This is a crisis of faith in the American promise."
Former GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin, who serves as the chairman of AFPI's
Pathway to 2025 and as a board member for AFW, said: "With the stakes as
high as they are in 2024, conservatives must rally an unprecedented
coalition of unity, effort, and collaboration. The America First
movement is committed like never before to demonstrate historic strength
to meet this moment and save our country."
Rollins, the president and CEO of AFPI, also said: "Upon leaving the
White House in January 2021, many told me the America First movement was
done. But I knew we had only just begun. Today's unprecedented day-long
meeting and strategy session with more than 50 of the top conservative
organizations committed to saving America was one of the most inspiring
things I have ever participated in."
[Pre-order a copy of David Horowitz’s next book, America Betrayed, by clicking here. Orders will begin shipping on May 7th.]
It used to be a Bidenite mantra: we may disagree with the Israelis on
some policies, but we would never make our military aid contingent on
Israel submitting to our demands. But that was then, and this is now,
when the Bidenites are furiously signaling to voters in Michigan and a
few other states with large Arab and Muslim populations, that don’t
worry, we hear you, and you can see us getting tougher on Israel by the
minute. Confirmation of this came on March 28, when the chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, addressing the Defense Writers’ Group, for the
first time openly admitted that some weaponry requested by Israel was
not being provided. Presumably that was done to pressure Israel not to
invade Rafah, or not to go to war with Hezbollah, or possibly both.
Biden is now doing what he said he would never do: harm Israel’s
capacity to wage war. More on this appalling development can be found
here: “US refused to give Israel some weapons for Gaza war, general
says,” Reuters, March 28, 2024:
The United States’ top general said on Thursday that
Israel had not received every weapon that it had asked for, in part
because US President Joe Biden’s administration was not willing to
provide at least some of them.
Washington gives $3.8 billion in annual military assistance to
Israel, its longtime ally. The United States has been rushing air
defenses and munitions to Israel, but some Democrats and Arab American
groups have criticized the Biden administration’s steadfast support of
Israel, which they say provides it with a sense of impunity.
“Although we’ve been supporting them with capability, they’ve not
received everything they’ve asked for,” said General Charles Q. Brown,
the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“Some of that is because they’ve asked for stuff that we either don’t
have the capacity to provide or are not willing to provide, not right
now,” Brown added while speaking at an event hosted by the Defense
Writers Group.
The Israeli offensive prompted opposition from within Biden’s
Democratic Party, leading thousands to vote “uncommitted” for him in
recent party presidential primaries.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Defense Minister Yoav
Gallant in Washington earlier this week, and the Pentagon said that
security assistance for Israel had been discussed.
There are several ways to look at this announcement, none of them good.
One is that the Bidenites are not really withholding anything of
importance, but want to give the appearance of doing so, in order to win
back support from Muslim and so-called progressive voters. It seems
unlikely that that will do the trick; nothing short of the Biden
administration demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza is
likely to win them back. Even that may not be enough.
Much more likely is that some weapons are indeed being withheld from a
loyal ally, just as that ally is in the middle of a war that it did not
want and did not cause. This is the fourth war for the Jewish state’s
survival, after those of 1948, 1967, and 1973. Withholding of weapons
requested by Israel has obvious consequences. Israel now must feel it
cannot fully count on Washington’s military support, just as it can no
longer count on its diplomatic support — that is, the use of the
American veto — at the UN Security Council. This means Israel will not
only ramp up its domestic manufacture of weapons that until now it has
bought from the Americans, but will also be more willing to consider
other weapons it never thought it might have to employ, including
tactical nuclear weapons. Imagine, for example, that the IDF is still
fighting Hamas in Gaza, and at the same time Hezbollah has attacked the
northern Galilee, launching ten thousand missiles every day (Hezbollah
has 150,000 rockets and missiles), hitting Tel Aviv, Dimona, ten of
Israel’s military airfields, while the Houthis are still firing on ships
in the Red Sea to prevent Israel’s shipping of goods to and from Asia.
At that point, might the state of Israel decide that it needs, by way of
a demonstration meant to frighten Iran and all of Israel’s
Iranian-backed enemies — Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad,
PFLP, and others — to drop a nuclear weapon in the Iranian desert?
Have the Bidenites considered how its other allies must be
reconsidering their reliance on American weaponry, if even such a close
ally as Israel can be denied weapons that the IDF says it needs? If you
were Taiwan, for example, wouldn’t you be wondering whether you can
continue to rely on American assurances of military support should China
try to invade?
It’s hard to know what weapons the Americans are withholding from
Israel’s wish list, but I suspect they might have decided not to
resupply the IDF with the bunker-buster bombs that it had delivered
early in the conflict. According to reports, the US has supplied 100
BLU-109 penetrating bombs to help the Israeli military destroy the
deepest tunnels that have been dug, some 50 meters underground in the
500-mile network of terror tunnels that Hamas built under Gaza. But the
destruction of those tunnels also leads to the collapse of many
buildings just above. Perhaps the Bidenites want to discourage the IDF’s
continued use of bunker-busters. It won’t discourage the Israelis —
they are determined to destroy those tunnels, whatever the cost — but it
will make that task much more difficult.
[Pre-order a copy of Daniel Greenfield’s first book, Domestic Enemies, by clicking here. Orders will begin shipping on April 30th.]
“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why
the commitment made has not been fulfilled,” Hunter Biden threatened in
a WhatsApp message to a CEFC associate.
If his demands were not met, the future president’s son warned, “I
will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every
person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will
regret not following my direction.”
Hunter would later claim that Joe Biden wasn’t actually there and he had been drunk or high.
Whatever the truth, next month a CEFC affiliate sent $5 million,
half of the $10 million Hunter had demanded, to a joint company set up
by Hunter and a CEFC figure, $400,000 was then transferred to a shell
company, $150,000 was diverted to a company controlled by Joe Biden’s
brother James, $50,000 of which was diverted to a personal checking
account and $40,000 of which was sent as a personal check to Joe Biden
for a “loan repayment.”
But one unanswered question is why CEFC China Energy would have been
intimidated by Biden’s threats at all. In July 2017, Joe Biden was out
of the White House and while he was a potential presidential candidate,
that was still years away.
Why did CEFC feel nervous enough to cut the Bidens a very sizable check in 2017?
The answer may lie with a March 2017 deal in which CEFC had tried to
acquire a stake in the Cowen Group: a somewhat obscure investment bank
based out of New York City. The deal would have had to win the approval
of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) and under the
Trump administration, China’s investments were not winning approval.
CEFC’s 19.9% stake in the Cowen Group came at the same time as CFIUS
was scrutinizing attempted Chinese purchases of MoneyGram, Genworth
Financial and Lattice Semiconductor. These various deals fell apart or,
as in CEFC’s case, were shut down by CFIUS. By August, CEFC had cut
their check to the Bidens, but by September were forced to refile their
proposal, and by November had announced that CFIUS process was just too
onerous to continue.
The timeline raises the distinct possibility that CEFC was protecting
its Cowen Group investment while trying to avoid any problems during
the CFIUS process. While CFIUS is led by the heads of departments such
as the Treasury Department and the Department of Defense, CEFC might
have reasonably believed that the former VP could cause problems.
Or it may have been working on a Plan B to wait and refile under a future Biden administration.
But an underlying question is what did CEFC, a Chinese energy
company, want with a New York investment bank? The answer may be that
some Chinese companies looking to expand into the United States had
found it easier to buy into existing American investment companies.
The huge investments in Morgan Stanley and Blackstone by the China
Investment Corporation, the Communist country’s largest sovereign wealth
fund, helped open the door to a generation of deals. Canyon Bridge
Capital Partners, a Chinese backed fund, had struggled and failed to
acquire Lattice, a tech company with potential military applications.
What was CEFC after? The Bidens were looking for energy investments in the U.S. for CEFC. A year earlier, CEFC had tried to buy
into Putin’s Rosneft and into the Czech Republic. CEFC’s ties to the
Communist regime would have made a deal for any major asset of strategic
importance in the energy sector a challenging matter to get past CFIUS
review, but by acquiring a stake in an existing American financial
institution, CEFC may have hoped to bypass it.
Cowen would have served as a front group for CEFC and its backers in the Communist system.
Two years before Hunter’s late night rant and the $5 million check,
the “Made in China 2025” strategy to build up the Communist
dictatorship’s domestic industries through “mergers, equity investment
and venture capital investment overseas” had already been announced.
This would and indeed did bypass CFIUS on some occasions especially
when the companies involved were more obscure. And a former VP and even
his addict son could however have blown the whistle and spoiled the
first step of a potential process for buying a strategic asset.
The Cowen Group deal did not evade CFIUS scrutiny and the prolonged
review process scuttled the deal, but by then the Bidens had gotten paid
and that was what mattered.
What was China getting from the Bidens? Among other things it may have been silence.
Hunter Biden and his business partners might have understood CEFC’s
plans and while they were between presidencies, they had more than
enough connections in D.C. to make the Cowen deal and whatever goals it
was meant to achieve into enough of an issue that would have doomed it.
Once Hunter had sent his WhatsApp message, his Chinese business
partners would have seen it as a threat from Joe Biden, and would have intended the money as a bribe for the future president.
While CEFC was raiding America, it believed it was paying off the former vice president.
Earlier in 2017, Biden business partners had tried to solicit Joe
Biden to attend a CEFC meeting because the “B family” needed a “top
person at same level as chairman, who would like to access China or
money”. That was followed by a warning, “Don’t mention Joe being
involved, it’s only when u are face to face, I know u know that but they
are paranoid.” While Biden never showed up to that meeting, his name kept showing up in business dealings involving CEFC later that year.
A year after the infamous “sitting here with my father” message, the New York Times finally ran a
story discussing Hunter’s CEFC dealings. Joe Biden then left a message
for his son, “I thought the article released online, it’s going to be
printed tomorrow in the Times, was good.”
“I think you’re clear,” he added.
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is
an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and
Islamic terrorism.
We’ve seen the invasion of our border. Are we going to stop the invasion of our voter rolls?
[Pre-order a copy of David Horowitz’s next book, America Betrayed, by clicking here. Orders will begin shipping on May 7th.]
The southern border crisis has reached new heights under President Biden. Now, viral footage
shows migrants rushing the National Guard and cutting down border
fencing. The data backs up the images Americans are seeing on TV.
Arrests for illegal border crossings from Mexico have reached an all-time high.
I could just as easily be describing our border in 2015 or even a
decade before. Some of these foreigners will get drivers licenses and,
therefore mistakenly get added to American voter rolls. We have
researched this issue for years, and there is hard data to back it up.
We already have government records from states across the country
that reveal aliens have been registering and voting in American
elections. Yes, you read that right: foreigners are casting ballots in
American elections. It is not a myth or Bigfoot. It is happening.
The number one source for alien registration is the DMV registration
system. The overwhelming majority of foreigners who end up registered to
vote come through the DMV. The second most prevalent is student visas.
Illegal border crossers comprise a smaller percentage of aliens to get
registered. Data support these conclusions.
For over a decade, the Public Interest Legal Foundation has been harvesting records
from election offices in Texas, California, North Carolina, Arizona,
Michigan, Pennsylvania, and many more states that reveal the extent of
the problem of aliens getting registered to vote and why it is
happening.
The National Voter Registration Act, more commonly known as Motor
Voter, is the federal law that requires states to offer voter
registration at local drivers license agencies.
As aliens go to get drivers licenses, they will be asked if they
would like to register to vote. If they say yes, all that they need to
do is fill out the voter registration form and check the box “yes” I am a
United States citizen.
After the form is filled out, election officials are required to
register the individual to vote in federal elections. States are not
allowed to ask for citizenship verification such as a birth certificate,
passport, or naturalization documents. Only an honor system prevents
aliens from registering to vote.
The process can be as simple as an alien checking the wrong box or
signing the wrong form handed to them by a state employee – sometimes in
a different language.
Sometimes aliens get registered because of mistakes by election officials. For instance, Pennsylvania admitted
that due to what election officials referred to as “glitch” they had
been accidentally registering aliens to vote for two decades. They have
been fighting for over five years to conceal details including the number of aliens the Commonwealth registered to vote by mistake.
Additionally, some of the voter registration forms disclosed to the
Public Interest Legal Foundation show that aliens have marked “no” I am
not a U.S. citizen and were still registered to vote by election
officials. These types of errors should never happen.
What can be done about aliens registering to vote?
Unfortunately, as evidenced by a U.S. Senate hearing
earlier this month, the Left has no problem with aliens voting. Not a
single Democrat invited witness agreed that only citizens should vote in
federal elections.
Congress can solve the problem by allowing states to validate
citizenship effectively. This could be as easy as providing a passport,
birth certificate, or other evidence of being an American. Another easy
fix is for Congress to add citizenship to Motor Voter’s reasonable list
maintenance requirements for states. Motor Voter does not put the same
obligation for states to keep voter rolls free from foreigners as it
does from deceased individuals.
With a record number of aliens entering the country, we must take
action to ensure they are not registering and voting this November.
We’ve seen the invasion at the southern border. We have to stop the invasion of our voter rolls.
J. Christian Adams is a current commissioner on the
United States Commission for Civil Rights, a former Justice Department
Voting Section attorney and the President of the Public Interest Legal
Foundation.
IDF Military Intelligence Directorate head: Israel is facing "complex days" ahead amid increasing threats of strikes by Iran.
Israeli soldiers operate near Shifa Hospital, in Gaza, March 29, 2024(photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
The IDF announced on Thursday it had decided to temporarily halt
leave for combat units, moments before the head of the IDF's Military
Intelligence Directorate, Aharon Haliva, warned Israel is facing
"complex days" ahead amid increasing threats of strikes by Iran.
Speaking
after, it was revealed that IDF Intelligence Analysis Chief Brig. Gen.
Amit Saar would resign from his role due to a cancer diagnosis. Haliva
also warned that he was "not sure that the worst is behind us."
"In accordance with the assessment of the situation in the IDF, it has been decided to temporarily stop leave of combat units," the military said in a statement.
It added, "The IDF is at war, and the deployment of forces is constantly being reviewed according to needs."
Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)
commander reported to have been killed in an airstrike in Damascus on
April 1, 2024. (credit: FARS MEDIA CORPORATION/CREATIVE COMMONS
ATTRIBUTION 4.0 INTERNATIONAL / TINYURL.COM/MWSAPNJV)
On Wednesday, the IDF announced it would call up reservists to bolster its Air Force's air defense array.
New developments come amid Iranian threats
The
decisions come amid heightened tensions in Israel and increasing
threats by Iran in the wake of the alleged Israeli strike in Syria,
which killed senior Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi.
On Thursday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi spoke of the “heavy price” Israel would pay for the attack.
Later
on Thursday, IDF Spokesperson R.-Amd. Daniel Hagari wrote a calming
message on X. "The Home Front Command's directives remain unchanged.
There is no need to buy generators, store food, and withdraw money from
ATMs."
In addition, Hagari said the military would update the public immediately should any changes to its directives ensue.
הנחיות פיקוד העורף נותרו ללא שינוי. אין צורך לקנות גנרטורים, לאגור מזון ולהוציא כסף מכספומטים. כמו שנהגנו עד היום, אנחנו נעדכן מיד בכל שינוי במידה ויהיה באופן רשמי ומסודר.
— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי - Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) April 4, 2024
In a statement made to the press later on Thursday, Hagari appeared
to warn Iran, stating that the Israeli military "strengthened the
preparedness of our combat units...the planes are ready to strike.
"The Israeli military is prepared for all scenarios," Hagari reassured.
Britain and America are making the Jewish state their scapegoat.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with then-British Prime
Minister David Cameron at Cameron's office at 10 Downing Street in
London on Sept. 10, 2015. Source: Avi Ohayon/GPO/Flash90
As Israel battles for survival against Iran and its proxies, it is being subjected to a virtual auto-da-fé by its supposed allies.
On Sunday night, Israel made a major and
tragic error. It killed seven aid workers when it fired three precision
missiles in succession at a three-car convoy belonging to the
humanitarian agency World Central Kitchen (WCK) that was on its way to
deliver supplies to Gaza civilians.
Although an IDF inquiry has yet to explain
what happened, the Israelis have acknowledged a terrible mistake caused
by “misidentification.” Bad things happen in war and this was a
dreadful tragedy.
But the malice of the response is
astonishing. Israel is being accused of having deliberately targeted the
aid convoy, which allegedly proves that Israel has no concerns about
civilian deaths, no heart and no conscience.
WCK’s response has gone far beyond justifiable anger and horror, defaming Israel with baseless and incendiary charges.
The organization’s chief executive, Erin
Gore, accused Israel of a “targeted attack” designed to deter aid
agencies working in Gaza and of using food “as a weapon of war.” WCK’s
founder, José Andrés, accused Israel of targeting his workers
“systematically, car by car.”
But that wasn’t because the IDF wanted to
kill humanitarian workers with whom it had previously worked closely to
deliver aid to Gaza. It was because the three cars were all
“misidentified” in the same awful error.
In the fog of war, “friendly fire” fiascos
are unfortunately all too common. Yet this was not acknowledged in the
world’s response.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said America
was “outraged.” President Joe Biden said he was “heartbroken” and that
Israel “has not done enough” to protect civilians.
Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said
“far too many aid workers and ordinary civilians have lost their lives
in Gaza, and the situation is increasingly intolerable.” The U.K.
Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron, said the aid workers’ deaths were
“completely unacceptable.”
This is hypocrisy and selective amnesia.
Both the U.S. and the U.K. have caused similar tragic errors in wartime
in which many more than seven lives were lost.
In an incident in 2011, during the NATO
intervention in Libya about which then-Prime Minister Cameron was
extremely gung-ho, 13 civilians including ambulance workers were wiped
out.
In 2006, U.S. troops in Iraq mistakenly
killed aid workers in Mosul. In 2008, they killed dozens at an Afghan
wedding party, including the bride.
Both the Biden administration and the
British government have seized on the aid convoy tragedy to buttress
their claims that Israel is killing “too many civilians” in Gaza and
thwarting supplies of aid.
But these are lies. Even if Hamas’s
implausible casualty figures are to be believed, Israel is killing
around 1.3 civilians for every combatant—a vastly smaller proportion of
civilians killed in warfare than has been achieved by any other army in
the world.
As for the aid, figures issued every few
days by COGAT, Israel’s coordinator of civilian affairs in Gaza, show
hundreds of aid trucks being admitted.
None of this has made any difference to
those intent on vilifying Israel. Britain has been especially vicious.
Cameron, now backed by several parliamentarians, has been threatening to
block arms sales to Israel.
Alicia Kearns, who chairs the House of
Commons select committee on foreign affairs, has suggested that
intelligence-sharing with Israel might be “scaled back” if the
government’s legal advisers decide that it has broken international
humanitarian law.
What world are these politicians living
in? Britain receives priceless assistance from Israeli intelligence and
military cooperation and buys more arms from Israel than it sells to
Israel.
Now, no fewer than 600 senior British
lawyers and former judges have joined this witch-hunt with a shocking
letter to Sunak that not only parrots malicious anti-Israel propaganda
but is constructed around one astonishing, incendiary and demonstrable
falsehood.
It states that the International Court of
Justice ruling two months ago in a case brought against Israel by South
Africa “concluded that there was a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza.”
This is untrue. The court said nothing of
the kind. Referring only to the “rights of the Palestinians in Gaza to
be protected from acts of genocide” and the “right of South Africa to
seek Israel’s compliance” with the Genocide Convention, the ICJ said,
“At least some of the rights claimed by South Africa and for which it is
seeking protection are plausible.”
The court attached the word “plausible” only
to Palestinian and South African rights. Yet even though the letter
quoted the ruling accurately on its second page, the British
lawyers—among them some of the most distinguished in
Britain—nevertheless grossly misrepresented it to commit the blood libel
of suggesting that Israel might be committing genocide.
This wasn’t their only blood libel. They
repeated claims of “imminent famine” and the “deliberate infliction of
starvation.” But there has been no famine and no starvation in Gaza.
There are areas where supplies are scarce because Hamas has been
stealing them. But many videos on social media show well-stocked food
markets and shwarma stalls.
The lawyers also repeated the Hamas claim
that more than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, of whom 70%
were women and children. But these figures fail to include even one of
the 13,000 combatants Israel estimates it has killed, while
statisticians have dismissed the Hamas figures as implausible and simply
fabricated.
The lawyers claimed that Israel has been
deliberately firing upon “starving” Palestinians queuing for food, and
cited as one example an incident in February when 118 civilians were
killed and 760 were injured around a food truck.
But that disaster was caused by people
being trampled in a stampede, a conclusion now reportedly corroborated
by testimonials from captured Hamas terrorists who have said the
disaster was the result not of IDF fire but of overcrowding.
The U.S. and the U.K. have already
abandoned Israel at the U.N. Security Council over its resolution last
month calling for an immediate ceasefire, which would entail surrender
to Hamas.
Britain and America behave in this malevolent way towards no other country on earth.
Israel is on the front line of the battle
against Iran and radical Islam, which have declared war on the West.
Israel is doing the West’s dirty work for it—and suffering grievous
losses as a result—because America, Britain and the rest of the West
aren’t prepared to fight to defend their civilization.
America and Britain refuse to face up to
the Islamic war against the free world of which the Palestinian Arabs
are the shock troops and whose cause is a key strategy to render the
West powerless in the face of the Islamic jihad.
Instead, America and Britain have largely
bought into the Palestinian cause. As a result, they are turning on
Israel and making it their scapegoat. In so doing, they are tapping into
profound prejudices about supposedly diabolical Jewish power and Jewish
bloodlust, thus pouring petrol onto the flames of the Jew-hatred now
consuming the West.
It seems as if the world has now turned
against the Jewish nation and wants it gone. Yet there are many decent
people who very clearly see what is happening and are horrified. And the
Gulf states and countless other Muslims who recognize Islamist Nazism
for what it is and what it means for them are silently cheering Israel
on.
The Jewish people has been through
persecution, enslavement, pogroms, inquisitions and genocide at
different times and at the hands of disparate groups and states. It has
suffered from varying mutations of antisemitism—the desire to wipe out
the Jews as a religion, a race and a nation. It has, however, never been
subjected to a concerted global onslaught like this.
Melanie Phillips, a British journalist, broadcaster and author, writes a weekly column for JNS. Currently a columnist for The Times of London, her personal and political memoir, Guardian Angel, has been published by Bombardier, which also published her first novel, The Legacy, in 2018. To access her work, go to: melaniephillips.substack.com.
Tehran is threatening retaliation for the death of a top Quds Force commander in an alleged Israeli strike in Damascus.
An Israeli Air Force F-15 fighter jet at the Tel Nof base. Jan. 1, 2024. Photo by Moshe Shai/Flash90.
Israel is bolstering its air defense
system as Tehran vows to retaliate for Monday’s killing of a top Quds
Force commander in Syria.
“Following an IDF situational assessment,
it was decided to increase manpower and draft reserve soldiers to the
IDF Aerial Defense Array,” the army announced on Wednesday night.
במסגרת הערכת מצב שנעשתה בצה״ל הוחלט על עיבוי וגיוס אנשי מילואים למערך ההגנה האווירית
According to Israeli assessments reported by Channel 12,
Iran could attempt to attack Israel through one of its terror proxies,
whether it be Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen or militia
forces in Syria.
Israeli military formations will be
boosted and deployments shifted in preparation for a possible attack,
according to the report.
Also amid the Iranian threat, the IDF on Thursday took the unusual step of canceling leave for all IDF combat units.
“In accordance with the situational
assessment, it has been decided that leave will be temporarily paused
for all IDF combat units. The IDF is at war and the deployment of forces
is under continuous assessment according to requirements,” the army
said in a statement.
בהתאם להערכת המצב בצה״ל הוחלט על השהיית יציאות זמנית של היחידות הלוחמות. צה״ל נמצא במלחמה וסוגיית פריסת הכוחות נבחנת כל העת בהתאם לצורך
On Thursday, there were GPS disruptions in
central Israel, including Waze and Google Maps giving wrong locations
and the Gett taxi and Wolt delivery apps not working.
“The disruptions are an effective tool to
confuse a weapon that [uses] GPS [to navigate],” the former head of the
national cyber system, Yigal Ona, told Ynet.
“Like any strong medicine, it has side
effects, and in the meantime I suggest going back to the maps once in a
while. It can be managed. It’s not an attack—it’s a defense,” said Ona.
“We need to be prepared and ready for
every scenario and every threat, against enemies both near and far. We
know how to protect the citizens of Israel and we know how to attack our
enemies, and we are committed to preparation both in the IDF, both in
the security system and in the civilian space,” Israeli Defense Minister
Yoav Gallant said late Wednesday night.
Also on Wednesday, Iranian Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatened Israel in a Hebrew-language tweet,
writing, “With God’s help we will make the Zionists repent of their
crime of aggression against the Iranian consulate in Damascus.”
בעזרת השם נגרום לציונים להתחרט על פשע התוקפנות שלהם נגד הקונסוליה האיראנית בדמשק
Seven members of Iran’s Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps, including its leader in Syria and Lebanon,
Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, were killed in Monday’s attack in Damascus, which targeted a building adjacent to the Iranian embassy.
Brig. Gen. Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, a deputy commander in the Quds Force, was also among those killed.
Israel has not officially taken responsibility for the attack, but four Israeli officials told The New York Times that the Jewish state had carried out the strike.
Expert also claims 'Tehran and Damascus have been targeting the Hashemite Kingdom for years'
One of the U.S.'s closest Mideast allies, Jordan,
has been hit by demonstrations that, according to some analysts, have
spilled over into a serious threat to the Hashemite Kingdom with open
declarations of support for the Hamas terrorist organization.
Jordan’s
government has been one of the most vocal opponents of Israel’s war to
root out Hamas terrorists from Gaza after the jihadi movement
slaughtered 1,200 people on Oct. 7, including many Americans.
Jordan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi declared
in November that "Hamas is an idea and ideas do not die." Jordan’s
Queen Rania cast doubt in a CNN interview on whether Hamas really
committed atrocities on Oct. 7.
Veteran
experts on Jordan view King Abdullah II and his inner circle as
contributing, directly and indirectly, to the unrest that could
potentially dislodge his regime.
Jordanians chant slogans during a pro-Palestinian demonstration near the Israeli Embassy in Amman, Jordan, on March 28, 2024.(Khalil Mazraawi/AFP via Getty Images)
The
former Israeli ambassador to Jordan, Jacob Rosen, told Fox News
Digital that "Jordan is walking on a very tight rope. The authorities
let the Muslim Brotherhood under whatever cover they operate to voice
out their message, but they disperse any demonstrations [that]] may go
‘wrong’ or to turn against the government itself."
Rosen, who
speaks fluent Arabic and is a leading expert on the Hashemite Kingdom,
added that Jordan "operates for some years a military hospital in Gaza,
which has no choice but to be in contact with whoever is in control
there. There is also a sizable contingent of Gazans in Jordan (at least
300,000), which has to be considered."
"Parallel to that, the
minister of foreign affairs, Ayman Safadi, has a free hand with
anti-Israeli rhetoric accusing Israel of genocide and warning
against ethnic cleansing. But in any case, Jordan cannot condemn Hamas
directly but let some publicists or ex-ministers to do that."
Last
week, protesters chanted, "We are your men, Sinwar." Yehya Sinwar is
the Hamas mastermind behind the Oct. 7 attack and is believed to be
hiding in Gaza’s vast underground tunnel system.
Jordanians chant slogans during a pro-Palestinian demonstration near the Israeli Embassy in Amman, Jordan, on March 28, 2024.(Khalil Mazraawi/AFP via Getty Images)
Walid
Phares, an expert in foreign policy, told Fox News Digital, "What is
happening in Jordan now, while it appears as chaotic, is in fact tightly
organized by Hamas, the larger Muslim Brotherhood network and the Iran
regime. The protests against the Israeli Embassy and spillover in
Amman's streets are the result of tightly coordinated moves by the Iran
and Ikhwan networks, with the real target being the Hashemite Kingdom
itself."
The term "Ikhwan" is an Arabic word that refers to the
Muslim Brotherhood. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt
have classified the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist
organization.
Indeed, just this week, the former Jordanian minister of information, Samih
Al-Maaytah, said on the Saudi Arabian TV network Al Arabiya, "The Hamas
leaders in Qatar have incited the Jordanian public, and they are
inciting the tribes, inciting people to take to the streets and to chant
new [anti-Jordanian] slogans. They are trying to say to Jordan, ‘We own
the Jordanian public.'" The U.S.-based Middle East Media Research
Institute first located and translated Al-Maaytah’s comments.
It
was also reported in Israeli media that Al-Maaytah told another Saudi
channel, AlHadath, that Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal was sowing discord
among Palestinian clans in the kingdom. Al-Maaytah suggested that
Meshaal be stripped of his Jordanian citizenship as well as those
stoking conflict.
Phares, the author of "Iran: An Imperialist
Republic and U.S. Policy," said, "Some in Israel and the U.S. assert
that the queen and foreign minister ‘contributed’ in encouraging
demonstrations against Israel. But an examination of the domestic
situation in Jordan shows that the royal government had to show that
they are in solidarity with the Palestinian people as a way to avert an
intifada waged by Hamas, precisely. Jordanians argue that had the U.S.
administration not been so attached to the Iran deal, Hamas wouldn't
have been encouraged to attack Israel, and Arab allies would have acted
differently and earlier."
Iranian
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, right, meets with the chair of the Hamas
political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, third left, in Tehran, Iran, on March
26, 2024.(Iranian Leader Press Office/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
He
continued, "Hence, we know that Tehran and Damascus have been targeting
the Hashemite Kingdom for years, and now it looks like they've
unleashed their supporters against the regime."
The
fragility of Jordan’s kingdom has made it a target for past efforts to
oust the king. The nation does not have an oil and gas industry. The
unemployment rate is more than 20% and the kingdom has made no real
effort to heighten awareness about the need for peace with Israel’s
population following the 1994 peace accord between the Jewish state and
Amman.
Phares said that "Almost half of the Jordanian population
is of Palestinian descent, and an attempt by Yasser Arafat and the PLO
(Palestine Liberation Organization), backed by the Assad regime [in
Syria], to take over the country was averted by the loyal Jordanian
armed forces."
"The more Israel closed in on Hamas the more the
Islamists of Jordan closed in on the Jordanian government," he
continued. "Obviously, the best gate for Iran and the Brotherhood –
read, Hamas – to ignite an intifada in the kingdom is a series of
violent protests against the Israeli Embassy to appear in sync with the
protests everywhere else. But the second stage is in the form of clashes
with Jordanian security forces. This old Bolshevik and later jihadi
tactic aims at putting large segments of society against their own armed
forces, which I believe is the ultimate goal of the Iran axis. It is
about taking out Jordan as a Western ally and spread chaos, leading to
sending militias across the borders."
Jordan's
King Abdullah II shakes hands with President Biden at the White House
in February. The leaders discussed the war between Israel and Hamas as
well as how to achieve peace in the region.(AP/File)
President Biden met with Abdullah
in February at the White House, where the leaders discussed the war in
Gaza. King Abdullah said, "We cannot afford an Israeli attack on Rafah,"
adding that "It is certain to produce another humanitarian
catastrophe." The last vestiges of Hamas’ battalions are in the city of
Rafah in the Gaza Strip. Hamas is also holding more than 100 hostages
who are believed to be in Rafah.
Biden thanked Jordan at the
meeting for its humanitarian aid to Gaza, stating, "We're grateful to
our partners and allies like the king who work with us every single day
to advance security and stability across the region and beyond. It's
difficult times like these when the bonds between nations are more
important than ever."
Biden said at the meeting with the king that a Palestinian state could lead to stability and peace with Israel’s Arab neighbors.
"That effort was underway before the Oct. 7 attacks," Biden said, adding, "It's even more urgent today."
People march in solidarity with the Palestinians in front of Al-Husseini Mosque in Amman, Jordan, on Dec. 8, 2023.(Laith Al-jnaidi/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The mood in Israel, however, largely contradicts Biden’s optimism, as most Israelis see the two-state solution as a kind of dead-man-walking idea after more than 70 years of failed attempts.
An
unnamed Jordanian official condemned the protests by saying, "Hamas is
inciting and trying to ignite unrest inside the kingdom. We will not
allow it to achieve its goal."
The growing Iranian threat to
Jordan’s government further surfaced when a security official from the
pro-Iran regime militia said about intervention in the Hashemite
Kingdom: "The ‘Islamic Resistance in Iraq’ is ready to meet the needs of
12,000 fighters ... so that we can stand united in defending our
brothers in Palestine."
Police
take position during a protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza near
the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan, on Dec. 31, 2023.(Reuters/Alaa Al Sukhni)
The
security situation for Jordan appears to be raising alarm bells within
the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank (known as Judea and Samaria
in Israel).
"The President of the PA, Mahmoud Abbas, spoke with
King Abdullah II on Tuesday and reiterated during the call Palestine’s
stand in solidarity with the Kingdom of Jordan, headed by King Abdullah
II," according to the Palestinian WAFA news agency. WAFA also wrote,
"President Abbas stressed the complete rejection of all attempts to
tamper with Jordan's security and stability or attempts to exploit the
suffering of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip to tamper with the
Jordanian arena, affirming the rejection of any external interference
in the internal Jordanian affairs."
The external interference is an apparent reference to the pro-Iranian regime proxies in Iraq.
A
Jordanian government spokesperson had "No comment" when asked by Fox
News Digital about the recent unrest in Amman, anti-Israel rhetoric from
the government, and whether Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood should be
designated as terrorist organizations.
Benjamin Weinthal reports on Israel, Iran, Syria, Turkey and Europe. You can follow Benjamin on Twitter @BenWeinthal.
